Batteries upon the Kingdom of the Devil.  
SEASONABLE DISCOURSES UPON Some Common, but woeful, INSTANCES, WHEREIN Men gratify the Grand Enemy of their SALVATION.  
By Mr. Cotton madder, Author of The late Memorable Providences relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions; and of Early Piety exemplified.  
LONDON, Printed for Nath. Hiller, at the Princes-Armes in Leaden-Hall-Street, over-against St. Mary Axe. 1695.   

TO My Worthy Nephew Mr. Cotton madder.  
Dear Sir,  
HEre you have by the Press returned to you those Sermons of yours, which you some Years ago prepared for the public. Such were the Hazards and Deaths which they were in, that I believe their thus coming forth was lately altogether unexpected by you, and is now a great surprisal to you. For surely you had no reason but to give them up as for ever lost in this World,( as I have in brief given an account in an Epistle to the Reader prefixed) however you might relieve yourself with this Faith, that your good Will and Labour therein was with the Lord. Possibly that sentence of Death which they were under might be some discouragement to you, and occasion some sad Thoughts. He who then helped you to receive it with a Gracious Submission to him, without whom not a Sparrow lights on the ground, and who numbers the very Hairs of our Heads, and hath a sovereign Right( which may neither be controlled nor questioned) to dispose of us, and all ours, as pleaseth Him, now lets you see it was not in vain to commit them unto Him. Whatever the Workings of your Heart were under that disappointment, I am persuaded you will now receive them as a return unto, and a token of the acceptance of those Prayers which you followed them withal when you first took up a purpose to Publish them, and did accordingly commit them unto Him who hath so Faithfully, so marvelously preserved them, and hath now at last, through so many Deaths, brought them forth unto Light. Now God, who is able to make all Grace abound towards you, and doth minister Seed to the sour, and preserve it when perishing, increase his Gifts and Grace in you, and multiply your Seed sown and the Fruits thereof, to your Comfort, the Good of many, and the Glory of his own Grace. So prayeth,  
( Dear cousin) Your Affectionate uncle Nath. madder. London, Dec. 15. 1693.   

TO THE READER.  
IT hath been observed concerning some Persons designed by God for Eminent Usefulness in their day, that great Dangers and great Deliverances have befallen them in their beginning times. Somewhat such alike Fate hath attended these Sermons. They have been in Perils on the Sea, in Perils by Robbers, in Perils among Papists and public Enemies, in Perils in a strange Land, yea in Deaths often. But there hath been a wakeful Eye, and a mighty Hand of Providence over them all along. They were by the Author designed and prepared for the public, and to that end written out for the Press, and sent some Years ago for Old England from New, in a Vessel which fell into the Hands of a French Privateer, by whom both Ship and Passengers were carried into France. But a Person there who had some acquaintance with the Privateer, obtained of him these and other Papers which were of no value to him, who was then Possessor of them. That Person sent them to a Correspondent he had in London; who occasionally giving a Worthy Acquaintance of mine a view of them, he presently discerned what these Discourses were, and for what designed, and by him they were shown to me. At first sight I knew the Hand in which they were written, and on further Perusal could not but perceive on them very discernible impresses of the Spirit of their Author, of whom the nearness of my Relation forbids me to say any thing, only this I must testify, that these Sermons are assuredly his true and genuine Issue.  
The forementioned Wakefulness of the Eye of Providence over them in all the Hazards and Deaths which they have passed through, and at last, in his own time, so bringing them forth unto the public, may give a ground of hope that God hath designed them for further Usefulness and Service.  
The Subjects treated on are weighty, of general concernment, and never out of season; although perhaps in some of them the Author might have an eye more especially to the present circumstances of many in that place where they were first meditated and uttered. The Holy Ghost himself took occasion to indite many parts of Holy Scripture from some present Occurrences in a small part of Gods People: And these hath he preserved and consecrated to the use of the whole Church all the World over unto the end of time. Nor is it a new thing for Holy Men of God, not immediately inspired, to publish to the World those Labours of theirs to which they were first stirred up by some emergencies among that People where they were set. A great Divine tells us, That the Case of those to whom he ministered was one thing by which he was much influenced in pitching on the Subjects which he Preached on. Dr. Owens Preface to Spiritual-mindedness. Such a communication of Gifts, and the Fruits of them, is one sweet and happy improvement of the Communion of Saints.  
The manner of this Authors treating on these Subjects is such, as that it is apparent he did endeavour to approve himself to God therein; and therefore I doubt not, but as others of his Labours have, so these will commend themselves to every Mans Conscience in the sight of God, especially of those who are Spiritual, and by reason of use have their Senses exercised to discern between Good and Evil. The Blessing of God go along with them.  
Nath. madder.   

THE CONTENTS.  

I. SAcred Exorcisms: Or, The Case and Cure of Persons Possessed by the Devil. page. 1.  
II. The Dumb Devil cast out: Or, The Horrible Sin of a Prayerless Life Discovered. p. 43.  
III. The Stage-Player unmasked: Or, The Signs and Woes of a Wretched Hypocrite. p. 67.  
IV. The Door of Hope: Or, An Antidote against the Sin of Despair, in them that have been most guilty of other Sins. p. 95.  
V. Honey at the End of the Rod: Or, Help for the Internal Distempers, with which External Afflictions are usually accompanied. p. 117.  
VI. The Golden kerb: Or, Sober Checks given to Rash Passions. p. 143.  
VII. An Appendix: Describing, The Great Ambition of a Good Christian. p. 173.    

THE Righteousness of God through Faith upon all without difference who believe. In Two Sermons on Rom. 3.22. By Nath. madder, Preacher of the Gospel. 1694.  
THE Conquests and Triumphs of Grace: Being a brief Narrative of the Success which the Gospel hath had among the Indians in New-England. By Matthew Mayhen. 1695.  
Both Printed for Nath. Hiller at the Princes Arms in Leaden-Hall-Street over against St. Mary Axe.   

Sacred Exorcisms: OR, The Case and Cure of the Possessed by the Devil.  ACTS v. 3. 
Why hath Satan filled thine Heart?  
THE sinful Children of Men, express their Disobedience to the First and the Great Commandment of the Law, by their not serving of, their not seeking to, their not hoping on, and their not rejoicing in the Eternal God. But there is a further, and a viler step of Impiety, which a woeful part of Mankind, precipitate themselves unto; and that is, An harkening to the Temptations of the Devil, rather than to the Proposals of the mo●● Holy Lord. A sad Instance of this we have in that wretched Ananias, whom the words now red were spoken unto.  
In the 28th Chapter of Jeremiah, we red concerning one Ananias, an ungodly Minister, whom God punished with a sudden Death for his Iniquity; and in the 5th Chapter of the Acts now before us, we also red of one Ananias, as it seems, an ungodly Minister too, whom God likewise punished with a sudden Death for his Iniquity. The Primitive Christians in Jerusalem had erected a Bank among them, for the relief of their Poor, Distressed, Afflicted Brethren. In the places of the most Prosperity, and of the best Regulation, the Poor that live upon Charity usually make about a Thirtieth part of the People; but among the Primitive Christians, which the Lord chiefly choose among The Poor of this World, we may imagine a greater proportion of Needy ones. For the Comfort of these Godly Poor, many Gentlemen of good Estates, not only gave their Revenues, but even sold their Fee Simples, as far as they thought it proper for them, and made a Stock which the Apostles became Trustees for the well-disposing of.  
One Ananias, with his Wife, pretending to follow this Example, yet secretly detained part of the Price which they had received for an House or Farm, on this occasion alienated.  
Our Text is the terrible Expostulation of the Apostle towards this deceitful Man: Why hath Satan filled thine Heart? There are two things implyed in it. First, That he had been carried, yea, and buried on to a most horrible Sin, by the Temptations of the Devil. And next, That it was his own Act and Fault, which gave the Devil this Advantage over him; there was his own Consent and Folly in harkening to the Temptations.  
I am not yet ready to give you the Doctrine which you are waiting for; we must first compare our Context▪ and from thence fetch two remarkable Consequences of this unhappy Mans being thus Filled by the Devil.  
One Consequence of it was, A prodigious Wickedness. 'Tis charged upon Ananias, that he lied unto the Holy Spirit. I cannot find how to bring him in guilty of sacrilege, tho' more than a Jury of Interpreters have brought in that Verdict also against him: But we find him guilty of grievous Dissimulation and hypocrisy. He seemed as if he had been very liberal, and no less forward and sincere in foregoing his Possessions for the public Use, than the best of them all; but he did not really do, what he openly declared and professed for the doing of. Indeed, the Man was afraid lest he should himself come to want before he dyed; he durst not rely upon the Faithfulness of God, which always provides well for the Charitable Man, so he kept back part of the Price. However thought he, I'll make a show, they shall never take me for a Niggard! This is called, A lying to the Holy Spirit, because it was a going to put a Trick upon those Persons that had an extraordinary Measure and Power of the Holy Spirit in them: For besides the committing of this Knavery in a Church-Assembly, wherein there is a special Presence of the Holy Spirit, it was before the Apostles, which had the Holy Spirit in them, to a Miracle. Vain Man, hadst thou forgotten the story of Gehazi? That like him, thou shouldst not fear a discovery by the Holy Spirit of God!  
Another Consequence of it was, An horrendous Misery. 'Tis reported of Ananias here, That hearing these words, he fell down and gave up the ghost. At the beginning of the Jewish-Church, a double dealing with God was immediately followed with a deadly Revenge; of which Nadab and Abihu was an Instance; thus at the beginning of the Christian Church, in such a case we see not unlike Judgments executed. The Apostle Peter had newly wrought a Miracle of Beneficence, behold, he now works a Miracle of Severity, to testify the Exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember the old Pagan Porphyrius exclaimed against Peter, as a bloody, cruel Man, for this transaction; but he might have remembered, it was not the Apostle, it was the Almighty, that killed this Malefactor; and some have an hope, if it be not a fond one, that he repented while he was expiring; yea, that the Troubles and Sorrows of his Repentance were the things that smothered him. Here is only this further Mystery to be wondered at, That Peter himself had but a few Weeks before been guilty of as monstrous Lying, as this poor Creature here; but upon his weeping bitterly, the Lord forgave him, even so far as to employ him in passing a dreadful sentence upon one that thus transgressed. O the sovereignty of Grace! Lord! how unsearchable are tby Judgments!  
Our Doctrine will now of its own accord fall into our hands: 'Tis this, That when Men permit Satan, with his Temptations, to fill their Hearts, they are in the high road unto all manner of Wickedness and Misery.  
There are Three Propositions that now lie before us.  

PROP. I.  
There is a Devil, whose employment it is to tempt the poor Children of Men.  
Let us a little examine every Article in this Proposition. We say then, There is a Devil. Would you know what a Devil is? We have a description of him in Eph. 6.12. A spiritual wickedness, in high places. That is, a wicked Spirit, lodged in the Atmosphere above and about the Earth which we walk upon. A Devil is properly a Fallen Angel; and so he must be a Rational Spirit, full of enmity against God and Man. There was a vast company of Angels, whereof the Apostle tells us, in judas 6. They kept not their first estate( namely that of Holiness and Happiness) but left their own habitation( which was in the Heavenly Regions) and God has reserved them for everlasting chains under darkness. This Hellish crew of wicked Spirits, is called, the Devil and Satan, in the singular number; and it is worth inquiring, why? For answer to that. It is not because they are one in point of Individuation. Alas, there are incredibly many Legions of them: We red in Luke 8.30. of above Twelve Thousand which could be spared at once to keep Garrison in one single Man. But the Devils are all as one upon these two accounts; both of which the 12th Chapter of Matthew gives us Instructions about: They are one for their agreement; they all espouse one Design, and follow one Business; they don't fall out among themselves: And then also, they are one for their Government; there is a Monarchy among them; and they are all united under one Prince, the Commands and Orders of which Grand signior they all yield the most exact Obedience to. This is the Devil! But what is the employment of these wicked Spirits here? Why, for that we say, Temptation is the employment of the Devil. There are three famous Names by which this tiger is distinguished: and there is a reference to Temptation in them all. He is called, the Satan, and the Tempter, and the Devil. Before he sets upon us, then he is a Satan; that is, a malicious and a malignant Adversary; he hates us infinitely, and longs to see us miserable. After he sets upon us, then he is a Devil; that is, a clamorous Accuser; he will traduce us, and reproach us, at the Courts in the invisible World, where the Lord gives out his Commissions about our Concernments here. But while he is at work with us, all that while he is our Tempter. To tempt a Man is properly to persuade him, and seduce him to some evil thing. We all owe a continual Allegiance unto God, and it is as well our Interest as our Duty to aclowledge him in all our ways. Now the Devil by his Temptations is evermore soliciting us to deny unto our God something of the Homage and Honour that is due unto him, and leave the Paths wherein we shall find rest unto our souls. He has a Natural Propensity and Inclination to this Devilish work; and inveterate Custom of more than Five Thousand Years, has doubtless increased that Habit in him. If you ask how the Devil becomes our Tempter? I must Answer, Sometimes tis more immediately; he has inexplicable ways of applying himself unto our Souls, and of pressing and pushing them unto many sinful exorbitancies. But sometimes 'tis more mediately: The Men of the World, and the Things of the World, are the Tools with which he operates upon us; by these he throws the Sparks of Hell upon our Lusts, until he has made them flamme and rage into the worst of all abominations. If you ask, why the Devil becomes our Tempter? I must Answer, 'Tis partly out of Malice at God. He would fain be in the Throne of God, and he cannot endure that God should have any Subjects or Children in the World. And partly, 'tis out of Envy at Man. He cannot brook it, that Man should be Saved, and he be Damned; that Man should be crwoned, and he be Chained; that Man should be in the Bosom of God, and he lie in the bottom of Hell for ever. 'Tis this that puts him upon tempting, and vexing and plaguing of us all.   

PROP. II.  
The Temptations of the Devil sometimes prevail so far as to fill the Hearts of the Men whom they are used upon. Many Men are so conquered by the Temptations of the Devil, that they let him into their Hearts, and their Hearts then become as full of the Devil as ever they can hold. There are two or three things, in regard of which the Devil sometimes fills the Heart of a miserable Sinner.  
First, The Devil blinds the Heart of a Sinner, and so he fills the Heart of him. We red concerning them that are full of the Devil in 2 Cor. 4.4. The God of this world hath blinded the minds of them. The Devil is called, The prince of darkness; and it is an Hellish darkness which he clouds the Mind of a Sinner with. The Devil so blinds the Mind of many a Man with his Temptations, that he can't see the way wherein he should go; he calls evil good, and good evil; and he is plunged into damnable delusions. The Devil perverts the understanding of many a Man, and makes him either to see nothing, or to think amiss of all sacred things. The Sinner having his eyes put out, the Devil now makes the Man to grinned for him in all manner of Iniquity. When once the Devil has thus muffled and hood-winked a poor Sinner, he fills him with all confusion; and he brags, Now the Man is mine for ever! The Devil does what he will with a Sinner, when once he has made a dark Dungeon of his wretched Soul.  
Secondly, The Devil gains the Heart of a Sinner, and so likewise he fills the Heart of him. This Victory of the Devil over a Sinner has two degrees to the completing of it. First, The Devil enters the Heart of the Sinner. When an hideous Man once became full of the Devil, 'tis said in Luke 22.3. Then Satan entred into him. The Devil does besiege the Soul of a woeful Man with his Temptations; at last the poor Man delivers up the Keys of the Castle, and even lets the Devil enter with all his Forces there. The Devil gets all the Faculties of the Soul in his possession; so that after this, he has the Intellect of the Man to argue for him, the Memory of the Man to be his Treasury, and all the Affections of the Man to side with his Parties, his Intents. As that sorry King said once to the Syrian, I am thine, and all that I have: So the Sinner overcome with Temptations, at length says to the Devil, Here, take my Heart, it is thine, and all that I have. When 'tis come to this pass, then; Secondly, The Devil commands the Heart of the Sinner. 'Tis said about such as are full of the Devil, in 2 Tim. 2.26. They are in the snare of the Devil, taken captive by him at his will. With his Temptations the Devil so far prevails against a woeful Sinner, that he has the poor Man in a toil; the Devil can drag him hither and thither, and even do what he will with him. The Devil becomes the absolute Commander of his undone Soul: If the Devil say, Come, he comes; if the Devil say, Go, he goes; if the Devil say. Do this, he does it, and he cannot for his life do otherwise. Temptations prove to the Sinner like a Spiders web; the Devil even rolls up the silly Fly in his cursed Cobwebs; and though he flutters and struggles a little, yet he sucks out the Heart-blood of him when ever he pleases. Thus 'tis when the Devil fills the Hearts of Men. But that we may make a full conclusion of this Proposition, take this one Conclusion to perfect what we have begun to say.  
'Tis our harkening to the Temptations of the Devil, that gives him opportunity thus to blind, and gain, and fill our Hearts. He cannot so come at us, as to fill us, unless by our compliances with his Temptations we open the doors of our Souls unto him. We find in Gen. 3.2. our Mother did first parley with the Devil, before he could prevail upon her; but when once he had so far prevailed as to make her yield, she was then quickly full of him. 'Tis our yielding to the Devil that procures his filling of us. The Devil could not throw our Saviour, although he had him on the Battlement or the Gallery of the Temple; he said, Cast thyself down. Thus the Devil must have a Mans own consent before he can fill the Man. And every time we harken to a Temptation of his, we do somewhat permit his filling of us.   

PROP. III.  
When once the Temptations of the Devil have prevailed so far as to fill the Hearts of Men. they go on to all wickedness and misery. And this will be evident from these Considerations.  
First, When Satan fills the Hearts of Men, there is a desperate and an horrible madness in them. A Natural madness is often caused by the Influence of the Devil upon the Children of Men. It was a common Sentiment among the Jews of old, That madness was oftentimes produced by the Energy of Evil Spirits; especially, if the madness were Jine Febri. Some Devil 'tis which raises the poisonous Fires in poor Men, to such an heat and height as causes a madness in them. Hence twas said concerning a mad Man, in Matth. 17.15, 18. He is lunatic; that is, one distracted at certain times of the Moon; and it follows, Jesus rebuked the Devil. Be sure there is a Spiritual Madness which the Devil causes in the Hearts which he has made himself owner of. When a Sinner has once resigned himself unto the Devil, it may be said of him, as in Eccl. 9.3. Madness is in his heart; and then he will stick at nothing, though it should prove never so deadly to him. What was blasphemously said of our Saviour, may very righteously be said of a Sinner, in John 10.20. He hath a Devil, and is mad. But when once a Man is mad, what is there ●o hinder him from the utmost wickedness and misery? The more unreasonable any thing is, 'tis the more agreeable to a Sinner that is acted by the Devil; he has upon him that Plague. To be smitten with Madness and Blindness, and astonishment of Heart.  
Secondly, When Satan fills the Hearts of Men, he will have ways to reconcile them unto the most formidable Impieties in the World. There are certain pretended Arguments that the Devil has to persuade all manner of Sins withal; and when once he is got into the Heart of a Man, he can give a strange Force and Strength to those vain Pretences. The Devil will persuade the Heart of such a Man, that Sin is a very Pleasurable thing. He so vitiates the taste of him, that he thinks, as in Prov. 9.17. Stolen waters are sweet. He now finds that sweetness in unlawful things, which 'tis impossible to restrain his Appetites unto: It merely bewitches him, and he becomes like that poor Man, who being  told that he must leave his Drinking, or lose his Eye-sight; replied, Then farewell these poor Eyes of mine. The Devil will also persuade the Heart of such a Man, that Sin is a very necessary thing. He urges upon him that which he pressed upon our Saviour, in Matth. 4.3. It is for Bread; you'll starve, you'll die, if you do it not. He now imagines that without the doing of unlawful things, he is utterly undone in the World; and if he can say once, The thing is needful, he will never trouble himself, whether it be sinful or no. In the mean time, there is but one thing to withhold the Sinner from the worst Abominations in the World; and this one thing does the Devil keep a cruel muzzle upon. When a Sinner is rushing on to his own ruin, his Conscience, that stands in his way, as the Angel did with a drawn Sword, in Balaams of old; that stands and cries, and pleads, O do not this abominable thing! But when the Devil is in a Mans Heart, he claps a strange Extinguisher upon that Candle of the Lord. The Devil has a way now to bribe the Conscience of a Sinner. As we red of some in Tit. 1.15. Their Conscience is defiled; so the Devil will often debauch the Conscience of a Man at such a rate, that Conscience will even turn Advocate for unlawful things; the Man will now commit the most unparallelled villainies, and yet say, I verily thought that I ought to do many such things: Or at least, the Devil has a way to sear the Conscience of a Sinner, We red in 1 Tim. 4.2. about a Conscience seared with an hot iron. Thus the Devil will cauterise the Conscience of a Man, till he may cut it, and wound it, with all manner of Guilt, and yet never be touched with any Remorse at all. Behold, whether you do not now see a Sinner galloping apace towards the farthest wickedness and misery! And what is there to stop his furious careers?  
Thirdly, When Satan fills the Hearts of Men, he inspires them with a desperate Enmity against the most probable Instruments of their eternal good. The Devil makes Men very impatient of Reproof; and when he is got into the Hearts of them, one had as good meet a Bear bereaved of her whelps, as go to control them in their evil ways. The Almighty God has his Officers in the World, whose Work 'tis to keep Sinners from the Destruction which they would bring upon themselves; 'tis to pull them as brands o●● of the fire. But alas, these Fire-brands of Hell will only black and burn those that shall faithfully go to meddle with them. The only way to save a self-destroying Sinner, is, to tell him the Truth. But if you dare to do that, you shall soon complain, like Paul in Gal. 4.16. Am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth? When the Devil has hurled a poor Sinner into the horrible pits of Sin, he presently makes a mere Dog of him; so that like a Dog, he'll snap and snarl at any one that shall go to pull him out; and there is no Remedy but he must perish there.  
Hence 'tis that a Zealous Minister of God is usually an extreme and odious Eye-sore to such a Sinner: Of a Faithful Minister he'll say, as Ahab of that Prophet, in 1 Kings 22.8. As for that man, I hate him: And he could be content if all the Servants of the Lord were served as once Fourscore of them were by the Arian Persecutors, There have been dreadful and bloody Storms in all Ages raised against the true Ministers of God; but they have all proceeded from the efficacy of the Devil on the Hearts of evil Men. If more than Twenty Hundred Holy Men of God should all be silenced in one day, these would be admirably pleased with it, and wish, That the mouths of them all were in like manner stopped. Why, what's the matter? 'Tis because these Ministers would save Men from the Paths of the Destroyer; these Ministers would bring Men to a Saving Acquaintance and Communion with the Blessed God. They might indeed beg, as the Apostle did, Forgive us this wrong! But when People have the Devil in them, the Pastors never shall be forgiven so great an Injury; the Witnesses of the Lord Jesus must, as in Rev. 11.11. Torment them which dwell on the Earth. Yea, the more Eminent any Minister shall be, for his Desire and Power, to do good unto all, the more shall such a Minister be maligned, reproached, reviled in the World. There was once a Prophet very remarkable for his undaunted and unwearied Pains to make all his Neighbours Happy; but the compliments bestowed still upon that Minister of God, were those in 1 King. 18.17. Thou art he which troubles Israel; said they, we owe all our Troubles to the Counsels of that Man; 'tis he that has caused all our uncomfortable Revolutions. It were well for us, if he, and all such, were hanged out of the way. Never shall any Man do much good for the Souls of his Neighbours, but the World will treat him as they did the excellent Athanasius of old; they will spit the basest and blackest Venom upon him; and when they can do nothing else, they ll writ Libels, wherein, Omne scelus viro sancto objicitur, to render him not capable of being any further serviceable. Especially, there are some sorts of Sectaries more peculiarly acted by the Devil, in storming at the Ministers of God. When the Devil got into nabuchadnezzar, he was, I conceive, taken with a Lycanthropy, a Disease which gives a Man the Temper and Motion of a Wolf. Why when the Devil gets into some heretics, he makes Wolves of them, and they fall a barking presently, and this, as is proper, chiefly at the Shepherds of the Flock; the best Name they can find for them, is Dogs, and Priests, and Hirelings. These are things that push on the wickedness and misery of a poor Sinner into a depth beyond all recovery; who shall fetch them back, if their Ministers be made incapable?  
Fourthly, When Satan fills the Hearts of Men, he makes them rush upon such hardy ventures as they must be utterly and for ever spoiled with. The Devil will make Sinners very venturesome, when once he becomes a Commander over them. The Devil is their Driver; and what can the event now be, but this; They shall be suddenly broken to pieces, and there shall be no Remedy! We red of certain Swine which had the Devil in them, in Matth. 8.32. Behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters. The Devil does enchant poor Sinners by the delicious but poisonous Cups of Sin, into such Swine as those; so he'll run them over the most amazing Precipice in the World, and they shall throw themselves into a deep, without fear of choking there. I'll tell you who was one of them Swine; 'twas Pharaoh, bloody Pharaoh. Who would have imagined that Pharaoh could have been so fool-hardy as to venture into the read Sea after all the plagues and signs of his approaching ruin? But having the Devil in him, he ventures in till the Sea covered him, and he sank as led in the mighty waters. The obdurate Pharaohs of this World have many and many a time seen, that the great God brings the Seas, yea an whole Ocean of Judgments upon them that hinder this Instituted Worship in their Territories; and yet they still venture upon this destructive Policy, till one after another they all perish in the waters; but now the Devil knows the Reason of it. In Rev 20.8. we red of a greater venture yet, that shall be made near the last of the latter dayes, by an odd Race of ungodly Men; and what emboldens it? Why the Devil shall deceive the Nations into an expedition that shall bring Fire from Heaven upon them all.  
The greatest venture ever made by a Mortal Creature, is in persecuting the People of God. The Church of God is truly called, A burdensome ston; it always breaks the Backs of them that will be heaving at it: And that ston yet lies, and lives, and grows, and God will yet make a glorious Mountain of it. The Lord Christ has  told us, in Matth. 21.44. Whosoever shall fall on this ston, shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grinned him to powder. 'Tis an allusion to the capital Punishment of Stoning, used among the Jews of old: They first gave the Malefactor a thrust, which made him fall with his Loins upon a great ston; and then they cast that great ston upon the Man himself: If this dispatched him not, the Executioners threw more Stones upon him. This then is the Assertion of our Saviour, If Men will go to afflict, abuse and oppress the People of God, the Great God will ston them to Death for it; and there will need no other ston, but the cause and the cry of that oppressed People to do their business for them. And yet a vast party of poor Mankind are making this desperate venture every day; the whole World is full of Persecution, wherever you can find any Objects for old Cains Club to be used upon. 'Tis now from the Malice of the Devil that all Persecution does arise; 'tis the Devil that makes Men so venturesome as to wrong the Church of God. It is said in Rev. 2.10. The devil shall cast some of you into prison, and ye shall have tribulation ten dayes; referring perhaps to Trajans Persecution. 'Tis the Devil that makes Men to imprison, and smite, and kill their more pious Neighbours.  
What shall I say more? Can there be a greater venture, than for a vile Man to challenge and combat the Infinite God himself? Said the Lord in Ezek. 22.14. Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the dayes that I shall deal with thee? Tis the most outrageous frenzy that ever was, for a silly Worm to enter into a Battle against the Omnipotent God; for a sorry Potsherd of the Earth, to make his Batteries upon that God who overturns the mountains in his anger, and makes the very pillars of heaven to tremble. But the Devil every day causes this Ph●ensie in the Children of Men; wretched B●la●s and Thorns, when the Devil is in them, will run such a venture as to commence a Battle against that God who is a devouring Fire. Doubtlesss the Devil knew Jesus to be the Son of God, and yet the daring wretch would make an assault upon that Glorious One. Why, such a venturesome Disposition does the Devil cause in the Souls that belong unto him, that they will fly upon the Almighty God himself; it may be said of them as in Job 15.25, 26. He stretches out his hand against God, he strengtheners himself against the Almighty, he runs upon the thick bosses of his buckler. All the Attributes of God are turned upon irreclaimable Sinners, like so many pointed sharpened Bosses of a Buckler; but when they are acted by the Devil, they will push upon these terrible Bosses. They do like the mad Caligula; when the God of Heaven thunders in Heaven, they go with little squibbing Rockets to thunder back again upon him. The Prophet w●ll compares them unto an Horse rushing into the battle. Though they are fairly warned that if they go on in their Sins, the Great God will make them feel the force of his Iron Fiery Arms, what care they? They'll go on in the rage of Sin, mocking at Fear, and they'll play with Sin just before the Canons roaring mouth. What is there now to keep a Sinner from the utmost wickedness and misery? Alas, what won't Men do when the Devil's in them?  
Lastly, When Satan fills the Hearts of Men, he keeps them from all good Impressions by the means of Grace upon them.  
The Devil will, if he can, cause Men to live without any means of Grace at all; he will get them to dwell in the region of the shadow of death; even in those places where they perish for the lack of Vision. We find, that when the Devil was got into Cain, in Gen. 4.16. He went out from the presence of the Lord: So the Devil causes Men to go away from the House, away from the Institutions, and away from the Ordinances of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Silver-Trumpets of the Lord Jesus were to sound in the other Hemisphere of our World, the Devil got a forlorn crew over hither into America, in hopes that the Gospel never would come at them here; and he still gets incredible multitudes and myriad of People elsewhere to live like our Indians, without the Gospel of our Salvation among them.  
But where the Devil cannot make Men so barbarous as to live altogether without the means of Grace, he will cause them so to attend upon those means, as to find no profit by them. We are  told of some in Mark 4.15. When they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and takes away the Word that was sown in their hearts. Thus, the Devil will entice people to stay away from the House of God, upon very trivolous Pretences and Excuses: There shall be a Lecture in a Town, and not one seventh part of the Inhabitants be present at it, that they may hear the words whereby they may be saved; perhaps, if it be but a little could, then they'll keep at home when they should be hearing the Word of Life, and they have got, they think, a Scripture too for doing so; That God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice. 'Tis possible they'll promise in the mean time to red a Chapter in Job; and if they do, I wish it may be the Fourteenth Chapter there. But if they come and sit among the People of God, how do they behave themselves? Their Minds are wandering with a very deadly fickleness; they are Buying, Selling, traveling, or perhaps plunging themselves into cursed Adulteries, with a Fancy roving to the ends of the Earth. Why, the Devil has carried them out a Hunting with him. And it is well if their Eyes been't sleeping too; many will even set themselves to sleep in that place, whereof a true Child of Jacob would say, How dreadful is this place! 'Tis the House of God, and the Gate of Heaven! Why, 'tis the Devil that rocks the Cradle for them. Yea, 'tis usual for the Devil to make Men carp, and cavil, and quarrel at what is delivered in the House of God, when they should be thereby rather converted from their evil ways. They'll rail, or scoff, or like Stephens Hearers, they will gnash their Teeth at the Heralds of Heaven; but, alas, they will not mend at the Dispensations of the Gospel.  
We have seen some under a Bodily molestation by Evil Spirits, to stop their Ears, and roar and faint when any good thing was to be uttered in the Room, that so they might be sure to hear nothing of it. Why, Evil Spirits make Men continually do what is equivalent thereunto; even to deprive themselves of all benefit by the means of Grace; and what will then become of them? What wickedness or misery can they be refrained from?   

APPLICATION.  

I. Let us pity the forlorn Estate of those, whose Hearts the Devil is every day filling of. Since they are in the road unto all manner of wickedness and misery, let us count them subjects for all manner of compassion with us. Who could without yearning and bleeding Bowels, have seen the Man that had an unclean Spirit in him, and that, as in Mark 5.5. Was always crying, and cutting himself with stones? Alas, alas, that is the case of the biggest part of Mankind by far; the Devil fills the Hearts of them, and they cause the Lord Jesus to be always complaining over them, They sin against me, and wrong their own souls! Look, O look with a mou●nful Eye upon the state of our Brethren abroad in the World. It is upon computation affirmed, that near two thirds of the World are perfect Pagans unto this very day; it may be said of them, as the Scripture speaks, They serve dumb Idols as they are lead; and it is the Devil that is their leader. Besides these, there is Mahomet, that monstrous Devil of the East, who has covered about a fifth part of the World with his infatuated followers; he has made mere idiots and Harpies of many Millions ever since the Wo-Trumpets have begun to sound. About a sixth part of the World is called Christendom; and of that, what a large part is enveloped in the thick darkness of Popery, whereof the Apostle tells us, 'Tis through the working of Satan; and therein men believe a lie, that they may all be damned. What a thing is this? Lord, what is the depth of thy Judgments upon a desolate World! O where is our pity for the vast shoals of poor Souls, whereof the Devil has thus made a Prey? But let us then show our sincere pity by our ardent Prayer, for the hastening of that glorious day, wherein the Dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, shall be bound, and wherein Gods way shall be known upon the Earth, and Salvation among all people.  
But what pity, what Heart-breaking pity should we then have upon our own Relations, whose Hearts we see the Devil sadly filling of! We may lament over many of our profane carnal careless Friends, That the Devil still has them in his clutches. And shall we not pity those Lambs of ours, which we see the devouring Lions of Hell apace carrying away? But let our pity here also inflame our Prayer. We red of a poor Woman that cried unto our Lord Jesus, in Matth. 15.22. Have mercy on me, O Lord, my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. So let us go and pray for our unregenerate Friends, Lord have mercy on this poor Friend of mine, for they have a Devil filling of him. Do thus with most undeniable Supplications.   

II. Let us make some trials, whether Satan with his Temptations have indeed filled our Hearts, or no? There are multitudes, multitudes of doleful Creatures in the World, who upon a strict Examination will be found as full of the Devil, as ever they can hold. Let us proceed unto that Examination then, which may discover the people that are in the high road unto all wickedness and misery.  
Only 'tis a Caution to be first entred, for the comfort of some discouraged persons, We must not think the Devil is filling of us, merely because we feel him vexing of us. 'Tis often so, that those Men who have least of the Devil dwelling in them, have most of the Devil striking at them. 'Tis possible, some of you are hurried by prodigious Injections of the Devil, and haunted with suggestions that are fraught with Atheism and Blasphemy, and horrible Unbelief. Such Hellish Thoughts as those are called Muscae Infernales, by one of the Ancients; and beelzeebub the God o● Flies does hideously Fly-blow the Minds of many persons by such Hell-Flies as these. But let no Christian conclude his Heart full of the Devil, because the Devil does infest and molest his Heart with such horrible Thoughts. The design of the Devil is to affright you into an hard and harsh Opinion of yourselves, and set your Souls all on alight fire with amazements, by hurling at you these Fiery Darts. A good Man will be di●turbed at Atheism and Blasphemy in the Mouths of other Men; so said he in Psal. 44.15, 16. My confusion is continually before me, for t●e voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth. But much more, when he finds Atheism and Blasphemy roaring in his own poor Heart, it throws him into a terrible consternation; so the Devil makes a sport of him. In this case 'tis often with good Men, as it was with Josephs Brethren; an horrible Thought is laid in their Soul, as the Cup was in the Sack of old; the Devil then charges them with it, and such is the tenderness of their Conscience, that they own, 'Tis indeed so, I have been an Atheist, and a Blasphemer before the Lord. Thus the Devil attains his ends! But be assured, ye tempted Souls, the Devils being so very busy with you, is no sign that he is filling of you. Such Annoyances of Satan are incident unto the best of Men. We find in 2 Cor. 12.7. an holy Paul himself most miserable buffeted by the Devil. An holy Job, we see in Job 2.9. followed with such a motion of the Devil as that, Curse God and die. Yea, no less an one than our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ, was urged once to say, That the Devil is God. Know it, ye troubled Souls, these Insinuations of the Devil into your Hearts, will never be laid unto your charge, if you do not embrace and cherish them. These Weeds of Hell don't grow in your Hearts; 'tis the Devil that has thrown them over the Wall; if you don't harbour them, and humour them, you shall not be condemned for them. In short, One of the ancients well distinguished between the barkings of the Devil, and the bitings of the Devil; when the Devil only presses us to wicked things, hitherto the Dog only barks; he bites not until we hearty ent●rtai● what he offers unto us. Be comforte●●h●●; you are yet clear of the great Transgression.  
But let us now pass to the Real Characters of them that have the D●vil indeed filling of their Hearts.  
The ancient Sadducees looked upon Devils to be no other than certain evil Qualities or Distempers in the Children of Men. 'Twas their error, and it is easy to show whence it arose. As for us, when we see many evil Dispositions in sinful Men, we do not say, those things are Devils; but we may take it for granted, the Devils by filling of their Hearts have caused those Dispositions.  
In general, When one is a person of an evil Spirit, it is an evil Spirit that has filled him with it. Particularly, ●d▪  
First, The Devil has ●●●l'd the Heart, when Lust is always glowing in it, and heating of it. It is not alone in Matth. 10.1. that the Devils are called unclean Spirits. When Men are given to uncleanness, they always invite the Devil to a lodging with them. Uncleanness reigns most in those places and those persons, that have most of the Devil in them; and hence a large part of the Devil-worship used among the Pagans, has, like that of Baal-Peor, had abominable Incentives and Practices of uncleanness in it. There are those that love to have lascivious imaginations rolling in their Minds; that employ divers of their Senses to excite and provoke such imaginations, and that prosecute them with such Actions as to use the Apostles expression, 'tis a shane to speak of. bawdy Talks, Books and Pictures are common things among many that would, it may be, keep clear of more outrageous Whoredoms. And besides, the grosser Filthinesses which cannot but wound the Consciences of all that are not beyond all measure hardened in Impiety, there are the cursed self pollutions which are counted light and small matters by many People, though the Word of God has condemned them as those effeminacies which keep Men out from the Kingdom of Heaven for ever. Why, the Devil who is an unclean Spirit has possession of the Hearts that are thus defiled. These are the Goats that must one day burn with the Devil and his Angels: why, 'tis from the Devil and his Angels that they do already burn. The Fire of Lust is the very Fire of Hell; the Devil has laid a pan of hellfire in the Soul of the profane Adulterer; the Heart of such a Wretch is in the Scripture compared unto an Oven; and the Devil has filled that Oven with a Fire fetched from the very bottom of Hell. Here are some of those to whom we may say, W●y hath Satan filled thine heart?  
Secondly, The Devil has fil●ed the Heart, when 'tis puffed up with pride. We red in 1 Tim. 3.6. He that is lifted up with pride, fal●s into the condemnation of the devil. The Devil is a proud Spirit; it was his Pride that was h●s fall at first; and when he would give us a fall he does first by Pride give us a lift. It is an usual thing for Men to have an high Opinion of their own Excellencies; they do with a tickled Fancy behold their own Gifts, their own Attainments, their own Performances, and all their privileges; 'tis possible their very Attire becomes their Glory; and so according to the Apo●●l●s expression, They glory in their shane; th●y quickly come to take offence if all their Neighbours do not now aclowledge them as more eminent than themselves; they grow discontented with such an estate and station as God has placed them in; and they look with a strange disdain upon those whom they reckon their inferiors: Yea, 'tis well if they don't arrogate some excellency to themselves, which they never were owners of; if they don't ascribe to themselves those things which they never had, which they never did, which they ought never to pretend unto. But who is it that has thus inflamed the Hearts of Men! Truly the Devil is that Leviathan who is King over the Children of Pride; and his ruling of them is by his filling of them. When the Devil is in the Bodies of Men, he often swells them with a Tympany that is much discoursed of by the writers of those matters. Thus he does when he is in the Hearts of Men; he swells them with a very Diabolical Tympany. When you see a silly little Frogg swelling towards the dimensions of an ox, you may be sure 'tis from some inflation of the Devil in him. Here are more to whom we may say, Why hath Satan filled thy heart?  
Thirdly, The Devil has filled the Heart, when Drink has filled the Head. It is said in Ephes. 5.18. Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the spirit. It seems they that have the spirit of strong liquours intoxicating of them, cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit of God: But this argues that another Spirit, a wicked Spirit, must then be filling of them; the spirits of strong Drinks, afford a sort of Pabulum or Nourishment unto the Devil in the Souls of Men. There are many who drive a trade of Drinking to excess, even till they have disguised themselves. Many are never well until they feel they have drunk themselves up to some ridiculous elevations. I should wrong the very Dogs and Swine, if I should say, that these Miscreants made B●uits of themselves; no, the Bruits don't care to be drunk: The Rider, in the well-known Story, could not make his Horse drink an Health, after the Beast counted himself to have drunk enough. But I must rather say of them, they turn themselves into Devils; or at least, they turn the Devils into themselves; the Devil goes down with every unlawful Cup, which they are pouring in. You may observe it among the Barbarous Nations of the World, which the Devil is yet a God unto, the 'vice of Drunkenness must be Epidemical among them, and where the more liquid ways of Intoxication can't be had, they have the methods of a Dry Drunkenness to serve instead thereof. Why? the Devil knows that by Drunkenness he shall keep a sure and a fast hold of miserable Men. We find in the Gospel, that when the Devil was in poor Creatures, he threw them into the Fire, and into the Water. 'Tis frequently the condition of drunken Wretches, notwithstanding that lying Proverb, A d●unken Man gets no harm. Sometimes they are thrown into the Fire, and there they are bur●ed. Several such Instances have we lately seen; their Sin lay in the abuse of Drinks that would burn, and they have themselves burnt with a vengeance for it. Sometimes they are thrown into the Water, and there they are drowned; and one of them, not very long ago, so remarkably, as that it was in the Hold of a Vessel too; a most proper Disaster! For a drunken Man is but an Old English word for a drowned Man. The Devil sees that if he can make Men drunk, he can do what he will with them; they will then stick at nothing that he shall urge them to; as in the memorable History recited by Lonicerus.  
We have a Drink that has been called Kill-Devil; but old Mr. Wilson truly said, it might rather be called, Kill Men for the Devil. It is indeed a thing that every day does fill Men with the Devil. Behold more to whom we may say, Why hath Satan filled thine Heart?  
Fourthly, The Devil has filled the Heart, when falsehood is filling of it. It is the word of Truth in John 8.44. The Devil is a liar, and the Father of it. Even so, The Devil is a liar, and the filler of such. There are those that will tell a lie for the sake of some secular trivial advantage; perhaps in Buying and Selling they will multiply Lies to serve their little Bargains. This renders Men like our Ananias here; when the Man was catched in a Cheat, says the Apostle, Man, Satan has been filling that false Heart of thine. There are those will belie their Neighbours; that will defame, reproach, and either make or spread very false Reports about the Country. 'Tis a Diabolism which they are herein guilty of. This is to be just like the Devil, who uses to slander the Children of Men before the Lord. We red in the Scripture, about, A City full of lies; and you may be sure it was then, A City full of Devils too. When the People of God were honestly employed about the Church-work, which the King had hitherto countenanced, a company of ill-advised Men sent home their lying Address●s, Petitions and Letters against them to obstruct them in it; their words were, Thy Servants, the Men on this side the water, inform, That they are building a rebellious and a bad City; and if the City be built, it will endamage the Revenue of the Kings. Who do you suppose inspired those false libelers? Doubtless, it must be that Spirit who is called, The accuser of the Brethren.  
Moreover, There are those that are very false in their Promises; they'll promise you to do a Work▪ or pay a Debt, most certainly within such a time; but no heed is to be given unto any thing they say; 'tis affirmed, that some Church-Members are very scandalous for this Iniquity. Indeed! But let them for all their high Profession, hear who their Leader is. In this thing they follow the Devil, who made once a large promise to our Saviour, All this will I do for thee; but never was a syllable of it like to be performed. These People serve their Neighbours just as the Devils do the Witches, in the promises that they make unto them, Who do you think fills them all the while?  
Finally, There are those that are very false in their pretences too; they'll speak very fair, and be your most Humble Servants; but at the same time the Rule you must have in treating with them, is, When they speak fair, believ● them not, for there are seven abominations in their Hearts; and for that very cause we may add, There are seven Devils in those Hearts of these. A Judas comes and cringes, and kisses, and compliments, and ●t is hail Master! and the bottom of all is, to betray that Master; but we are  told first, The Devil entered into the Heart of him. I have then shown you the visage of more People, to whom we may say, Why hath Satan filled thy Heart?  
Fifthly, When the Mouth is full of the Devil, the Heart cannot but be so too. It is said in Matth. 12.34. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Would we understand what the Heart is filled with? it will be seen at the Mouth. A fur and a filth upon the Tongue will discover the inward Fevers of the Soul. We red concerning, A Tongue set on fire of Hell. There are Tongues that are full of Railing, full of Cursing, full of Ribaldry and Obscenity: Why, 'tis the Devil that sets Fire to those outrageous Tongues; but it their Hearts had not first been full of the Devil, there would not be so much Hell belched out of their Mouths. There are Tongues that will tear and rend the Blessed Name of God, with whole volleys of cruel Oaths; 'tis because they are charged full of the Devil, that they go off at such a furious rate. And the same Tongues usually have the Name of the Devil into all affairs; if any thing be amiss, they say, What? the Devil ails it? I Answer them, 'Tis the Devil that ails you, the thing is otherwise well enough: If any thing vex them, they wish, The Devil take it! I Answer them, The Devil has taken you already, or you had never spoken so. Here are yet others to whom we say, Why hath Satan filled thine heart?  
Sixthly, When the Man is full of mischief, you may be sure the Heart is full of the Devil. It was a smart speech of the Apostle to a Man that would have hindered another from turning unto God, in Acts 13.10. O full of all mischief, thou child of the devil. Truly such a Child of the Devil must needs be full of the Devil. There are those that have an extreme delight in doing mischief to those that are about them; those that love to sow discords, to make brangles, to multiply disorders; it is a sport unto them to embroil human Affairs; but these Fools are the Tools of the Devil in such things as these. Above all, there are those that stab and wound the Souls of their unhappy Neighbours; that poison the Souls of their Neighbours with Prejudices against the Truths, and the Ways, and the Servants of the Living God; that entice the Souls of their Neighbours into those companies and practices, which will infallibly undo them for ever. These Agents of the Devil can't be empty of him. The Devil is the chief Tempter of the World; all you little Tempters are but his under-Officers; and it is he that fills you and fits you for that piece of mischief. But some there are that advance to such a measure of mischief, as to attempt no less than the very murder of themselves. When persons fall into discontent, and are not able to bear the sorrows or terrors of their Souls; or when they have provoked God by some extraordinary Impieties and Iniquities, it is no rare thing for them to fall thus far into the Devils hands. Self-murder is a prodigious piece of self-mischief; and it is therewith, a sort of Revenge upon the Almighty God himself. None but an Heart full of the Devil will attempt such a nefandous wickedness: Indeed you may see much of the Devil in it, by the assistance which the Devil himself gives to many unnatural self-executions; one would think it impossible to kill a Man by such means as many wretched Creatures kill themselves withal; but when once they have begun, the Devil, who is the Angel of Death, immediately makes them uncapable to desist. Behold, those monsters to whom it might be said, Why hath Satan filled thine heart?  
Lastly, Malignity, especially when accompanied with apostasy, proclaims that the Devil has filled the Heart of a miserable Sinner. The apostle acquaints us in Eph. 4.26, 27. that if we do but let a little anger lie in our Hearts, we give place to the Devil; we give the Devil a lodging there. What then is done by those that have hatred and malice continually broiling in their Hearts? 'Tis the crime of many; and they bestow the mo●t of their hatred and malice upon those things that have most of God appearing in them. They can't endure Holiness, nor those Principles, nor those Ministers, that would promote much of Holiness in the World. This is not because the Devil is a stranger to the Hearts of those evil Men. Said the Devil once unto our Lord. What have I to do with thee, thou ●●●y one! The Devil is in the Hearts of M●n, when they can't bear what has a stamp of Holiness upon it; but make their clamours and outcries thereupon immediately. A Man that made some Figure once, passing a Censure upon an Holy Person, had so little Grace and Wit, as to say, That Man is so like to God, that I cannot endure him. There spoken now a Devil incarnate. Alas, there are Men that can't endure what has much of God and Holiness attending of it; a Government that shall be all for Holiness, a Ministry that shall be all for Holiness, is a terrible eye-sore to these evil Men. Why, 'tis a black Mark of the Devil in the heart, which those people wear upon them. But it is more dreadfully symptomatical, if these have heretofore been better affencted and inclined. The Devil is the first and chief Apostate in the World; and it's his being in their Hearts that renders others herein like unto him. It is a description of such Apostates in Matth. 12.45. The unclean spirit goes and takes with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. Many a Man that once had his Heart so swept, as that he could weep at a Sermon, and he had a great kindne●s for the Churches of God; this Man loses all the savours of Heaven that once were upon the Soul of him; he comes to despise and reproach the Scriptures; to sit and flout and scoff in the most serious Ordinances, to entertain a desperate antipathy against what is holy, and just, and good. Now the Devil is gone into the Heart of that Man, with seven more of his crew, to dwell there for ever. Go toll the passing Bell for the Soul of that Man; there is hardly any hope of his recovery.  
If any one of all these Characters be found upon any of us, let them take the warning, which thereupon belongs unto them: Let them know, that they are going on to all manner of wickedness and misery. Stop, Sinner, stop; O make a stand. What can you think will become of you, if you permit the Devil to fill you any more? It must at last come to that in Matth. 25.41. Depart into everlasting fire with him. But,   

III. Let us take some Counsels to prevent Satan from filling of our Hearts by his Temptations.  
We may not permit the Devil to fill us: But what shall we do to prevent his doing so?  
There are these Directions to be followed.  
First, Our flying from the Devil, will prevent his filling of us. That is to say, let us get ●ut of our Natural, Unconverted, Unrenewed Estate, by turning to God in Christ. While Men are unregenerate, they are▪ ●as in Act. 26.18. under the p●wer of Satan. The Devil is an Absolute Lord over the Hearts of them that are not born again; he Rules and Reigns like a Bloody Tyrant, in those poor Hearts, without all control. Come then, s●ake off the yokes of that H●llish Tyrant, by entering into Covenant with God in Christ; and say sincerely, as in Is●. 26.13. O Lord our God, other Lords besides t●ee have had d●minion over us; but we will now make mention of t●y Name alone. Though you cannot Repent, you cannot Believe, of yourselves; yet make some essay to Repent and Believe, in hopes that the Pity of the Most High may help you to go through with it. And when once you have in that way sincerely given up yourselves to God in Christ, the Devil will no more have such an Interest in you as formerly; you will be none of his.  
O that you might all thus get clear of the Devils Command! It is a thing that should not be delayed at all. The Devil presses no Temptation more fervently and forcibly than this; Delay till to morrow; To Repent and Believe hereafter will be time enough. Tis by this prccrastination that the Devil keeps poor Sinners in his unmerci●ul hands for ever. Sinners, you are to th●s day, The captives of the mighty, and the prey of the terrible ones; the worst Patroon in Algier is an easy Ma●●er in comparison of that horrible one which you are continu●lly serving of. Some of you know the Troubles of a Slavery to wicked Frenchmen or Spaniards; and I suppose, would be loth to be in it again: But you are in a more dismal Vassalage, till you are brought home to God. May all young People be particularly admonished against all delays of turning to the Lord. It will be an easier thing for you now to shake off the Chains of the Devil upon you, than it will be afterwards. We red of one, from whom it was an hard thing to get the Devil out; and what was the Reason of it? We red in Mark 9.21. How long ago is it since this came unto him? And he said, of a child. Alas, there is not one unreg●nerate Child in this Assembly, but it may be said, Satan has filled the Heart of that Child. But if you would now turn from all Sin, while you are Children, it will be unspeakably less troublesone to get out of the Devils clutches, than it can be afterwards. Let all young People then cry to God immediately, that he would bestow a Regeneration on them. David rescues Lambs from the Lion. And yet let not the oldest among us all despair of his deliverance, if he now cry to Heaven for it. One that had been seized by a wild Beast, cried out, Help, help, I am yet alive! Are you yet alive? It is not then too lat● for you to be saved from the Jaws of the D●vil, which is carrying of your Souls away.  
Secondly, Our fighting with the Devil will prevent his filling of us. This has the Apostle said unto us in Jam. 4.7. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. When the Devil follows us, with any of his Temptations, reject them as the Pious Joseph did, How shall I do this wickedness, and sin against God?  
The way to encounter any Temptations of the Devil, is to oppose the Word of God unto them. The Advice proper for us, is that in Eph. 6.17. Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Behold, a Sword for us to combat and conquer all the Devils in Hell withal; I may say of that Sword, as David of Goliahs, There is none like it. When the Devil assaulted our Saviour with his Temptations, he replied upon him. It is written! It is written! Thus, when the Devil with his Temptations, would get into our Hearts, let us tell him what is written in the Commandments, the Promises, the threatenings of the Blessed God. Belshazzar was not more frighted at the Hand-writing on the Wall, than the Devil is at what is written in the Word of God, when 'tis laid before him. I remember, Athanasius, I think 'tis, reports, that in his time, the Devils in some that were possessed, could not bear to hear that Scripture in Psal. 68.1. Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered. Why, the whole Bible is of a like efficacy to drive the Devil from us. Learn to fence with a Text of Scripture, against all the Passes which the Devil is making at us; he'll not be able to close in with us, while we keep the Point of this two edged Sword upon him. This is that strong Sword of the Lord, which will plague Leviathan the cro●ked Serpent, and slay the Dragon that is in the Sea.  
Thirdly, We must keep our Hearts, if we would not have the Devil to fill our Hearts. We have this among the Oracles of Wisdom, in Prov. 4.23. Keep thy heart with all diligence. It is by watchfulness that we best secure our Hearts from the Invasions and encroachments of a busy Devil. We should always be suspicious, lest the Devil be circumventing of us with some of his Temptations; and we should always be as jealous about our own Hearts, as Job was about the Hearts of his unwary Children.  
We should keep a constant guard upon ourselves; and be among those blessed ones, of whom 'tis said, They fear always. 'Twas said in Matth. 26.41, Watch, that ye enter not into temptation. Even so, to be watchful, will keep Temptation from entering into us. I pray then, keep always awake. 'Tis possible, that some of you are in circumstances peculiarly exposing of you to Temptations. You have laid aside something of that intimate Communion with God, which you have heretofore been used unto; you are grown formal, sleighty, weary in your Devotions; you are plunged over Head and Ears into the delights, or hurries, or troubles of the World; I must now cry to you, as 'twas cried unto samson of old, The Philistines ar● upon thee, awake. The Devil will quickly fill that Heart of thine▪ if thou dost not awake, so as to keep it with more caref●lness and exactness.  
I'll mention to you the most likely contrivance and expedient for the keeping of our Hea●ts; 'tis that in Phil. 4.7. The peace of God s●alt k●●p your hearts▪ through Christ Jesus. The Greek word allu●es unto a Garrison. Be sure to maintain your Peace with God, and renew it presently, upon the least eclipse or breaking of it. Let there al●o be always living in your Souls a sense of the Love of G●d in Christ Jesus, and see that Love, f●●l that Love, live upon that Love; this will be such a Garrison in your Hearts, that no Devil will find room for his Temptation● there; this Garrison will Gloriously defend you from the Incursions of the Devil.  
L●●●●y, If our Hearts were full of what is contrary ●o the Devil, it would hinder him f●●●●●ll●●g of th●m.  
As now, let the Heart be full of Heaven, and it won't be full of Satan. It is an express●on in Eph. 3.19. Be filled with all the fullness of G●d Let us be filled with many Thoughts on God▪ and for God; be filled with apprehens●ons of God, and with resolutions for God; be fi●●ed with Meditations about the fullness and Gl●ry and Bea●ty that is in the Almighty God. An heart so ta●●n up with God▪ can't afford any c●●n●r for the D●vil to be f●lling of. The des●cription of Barnabas will now b●long unto us▪ in Acts 11.24. A good man and full of the H●●y Spirit. It is not the Evil spirit, but the H●●y Spirit which fills the Heart o●●●ch a Man; he becomes a temple to the H●●y Spirit of God, and if the Devil dare to molest his Heart with vile Temptations, this Holy Spirit soon drives him out of do●rs again.  
Finally, Would we have an Heart not full of Satan? Then be sure that we have an Heart full of Prayer When we have never so well armed our ●●lv●s against the D●vil▪ and his Temptations, yet w● are after all to be as in Eph. 6.18. Praying always with all prayer. He that would be little in Temptation▪ let him be much in Supplication. The D●vil is not able to stay where much Prayer is going up unto God continually. In the House of a Famous French Minister, after the Devil had made never so much disturbance, yet when they were going to Prayer, he would say, Now you are going to Prayer, I must be gone! Truly, we make our Hearts too hot for the Devil, if Prayer be always abounding with us. When the Soldiers of Gideon made a shout, the Medianitish Armies fled before it. All the Armies of Hell will fall and run at the voice of our fervent Prayers. Those two things are joined in Jam. 4.7, 8. Resist the Devil; Draw nigh to God. No posture are we so like to beat the Devil in, as by being on our Knees. If the Devils Tempting don't make us leave Praying, our Praying will shortly make him leave Tempting. They that went unto the Lord Jesus of old, had the Devil fetched out of their Friends; let us go to the Lord Jesus, that the Devil may not get into our Hearts. By our Prayers, let us resign and commit ourselves to the conduct of God, and call in his help against all the annoyances of the wicked one. Although the Devil do strive never so much to fill our Hearts, we shall by experience find what the Psalmist said. 〈◇〉. Psalm 56.9. When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back; this I know, inasmuch as God is for me.     

The Dumb-Devil cast out: OR, The Horrible Sin of a Prayerless Life Discovered.  PSAL. liii. 4. 
They have not called upon God.  
'TIS an Observation which has been sometimes made for the encouragement of serious Devotions, That either Praying will make Men leave Sinning, or Sinning will make Men leave Praying. That there is an excess of Sinning among us, is a thing for which we have both God and Man testifying against us; 'tis that which particularly awakens the Messengers of Heaven to cry aloud, and not spare, but lift up our voice like a trumpet. And a defect of Praying among us, is doubtless to be assigned as one cause of our multiplied abominations; 'tis not only itself an inexcusable Fault, but also 'tis the original of those many other Crimes which we are exposed unto the Vengeance of Heaven by. A witness is then to be born against the Prayerless Lives of too many in this place; and this Text is therefore now red unto you, that you may see the Holy Spirit of God stigmatizing all Prayerless People as, The workers of iniquity.  
The Psalm, in which we find our Text, is a second Edition of the Fourteenth Psalm, with some little Variations and Alterations which do but assist the Exposition of them both. David probably found a new occasion to revive some of his former Thoughts, and the Inspired Compiler of the Psalms, had such a reverence for the Inspired Composer of them, as not t● lose the lea●t F●agment of his Holy Writings. Moreover, the ●●●ject handled in these two Psalms, is of so much lmportance, and yet so little Regarded or Credited in the World, that a Repetition of it is far from inconvenient; it is the horrible disorder and corruption of Mankind, by Original Sin, that is here treated of; and we know, not only that the old Pagans were obstinately insensible of this depravation, but also, that among pretended Christians, the ancient Pelagians, and the Modern Arminians, have most venomously opposed the True Faith about it, while themselves have given an Instance to confirm what they have opposed.  
Our Cont●xt contains the description of a Fool; now from the Language of Solomon, who in his Preachi●g and Writing made a great Imiitation of his Fat●er, we may learn, that by a Fool is meant a Sinner; for every Sinner is indeed a most notorious and egregious Fool. A word of the same kindred with what is used here, signifies, A carcase; indeed a Sinner is a dead Man, and he has but the Carcase of a Man that is without Religion. The Apostle Paul in his famous Commentary upon this Portion of Scripture, has very justly applied the Characters here given, unto all the Children of Men in their Natural Estate. But a more special reference may herein be had unto the bloody Persecutors of the Church; perhaps the Courtiers of that bloody Tyrant Saul; or, if some Expressions in the Psalm agree not so well to such a time, there are who think that the Persecution by nabuchadnezzar is in the Fourteenth Psalm pointed at; and the Persecution of Antioc●us, in this fifty third.  
The great Article in the description of such woeful Sinners is, their Atheism; 'tis possible, they dare not say with their Mouths, There is no God: human Society would not endure an Assertion so criminal and odious; and the most brutish Atheist will, as Calvin relates of one in a sudden distress, cry out, O God, help me! Nor can they think with their Hearts, There is no God: No, 'tis engraven there with indelible Impressions; I cannot find that all Histories report of more than twenty persons that pretended unto perfect Atheism; yea, I suppose I may affirm, There never was a Man, who had a firm and long persuasion, that there was no God, without vehement suspicions to the contrary. But they say in their Hearts, There is no God; it is but a Practical Atheism, that they are guilty of; and this Verse gives us two demonstrations of it; they are both injurious to Men, and impious to God.  
1. They eat up the People of God as they eat bread. They destroy the People of God with open mouth; and they do it with as little remorse, they do it with as much fury and as much delight, as they can eat a meal when they are hungry. Such cannibals do the People of God often meet withal!  
2. They have not called upon God. They live without Prayer from day to day. Prayer is first a matter of mere form, and it quickly becomes a matter of pure scorn to such ungodly wretches.  
You may behold in this Verse; First, A question by way of Complaint: Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread? It is the note of one, that the Psalmist here does not so much quaerere as queri; not so much inquire as complain. A wicked folly is here supposed in all the Persecutors of the Church. But wherein does that appear? Why, Secondly, We have an Answer hereunto, They have not called upon God. q. d. This puts it out of doubt, that they are the workers of iniquity which have no knowledge in them. In the former mention of this passage, the Name of Jehovah was used, which represents God as the Author of Being; in this 'tis the Name of Elohim, which represents God as the Author of judgement. It intimates that they who call not upon God, forget either that they had their Being, or shall have their judgement from him.  

The Doctrine which lies before us, is, That it is a wicked Folly to live without calling upon the Name of God.  
Some so render the Clauses here; When they eat Bread, they call not upon the Lord; and it is truly a wicked folly to eat after such a Beastly fashion: But that comprehends not all that is to be considered here. Take two Propositions.  

PROP. I.  
A true Prayer is a calling upon God in Christ, for Mercy to be in his time, and way, and measure bestowed upon us.  
First, For the Object of Prayer, it is, God in Christ. It is a vile, a detestable, an execrable Idolatry to pray unto any other besides the Eternal God. For to pray, is to repair unto the first cause, for help in our difficulties. An Holy Daniel, with his three worthy Companions, bravely choose to undergo very terrible Deaths, rather than to commit that Iniquity. It is an Oracle which the chief Devil of Hell once trembled at, in Matth. 4.10. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. None but the Hearer of Prayer can without infinite absurdity be made the Object of Prayer. The Hearer of Prayer must needs be an Omnipresent one; he must be able to perceive millions of persons in millions of places, at once pouring out their Groans unto him. And the Hearer of Prayer must needs be an Omnipotent one; he must be able to gratify and accomplish the vast wishes of Immortal Souls, which enlarge themselves like the very Heavens. Now none besides the Lord our God, is thus Omnipresent and Omnipotent; it is his Title in Psal. 65.2. O thou that hearest prayer. But the great God may not be addressed by sinful Men, but in, and by, and through Jesus Christ; our Blessed Jesus has  told us in John 14.6. I am the way, none comes to the Father, but by me. 'Tis through a Mediator that God will be conversed withal; and let Popery teach what it will, There is but one Mediator for us, even the Man Christ Jesus. As Joseph said unto those in Gen. 43.5. You shall not see my face, except your brother be with you; so does our God say unto us, You shall not seek my face unless you bring your Saviour with you. When we pray, it must be with an Eye to the satisfaction of the Lord Jesus Christ. As Jonah said in his Prayer, in Jon. 2.4. I will look toward thy holy temple; thus in our Prayers, we must exercise a dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Antitype of the Temple, for our acceptance with the Father. And when we pray, it must be with an eye to the intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ; that is, the Incense which we must have our Prayers perfumed withal, that they may not be ungrateful unto God; as we red in Rev. 8.4. The smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the Saints, ascended up before God, out of the Angels hands.  
Secondly, For the Nature of Prayer, 'tis a calling upon God. A Desire is that in which begins the Formation of a Prayer; but the business of Prayer is to present our Desire before the Almighty God; the Apostle calls Prayer, in Phil. 4.6. A making known of our requests unto God. Sometimes Prayer only forms these Requests into Thoughts; thus that Invitation to Prayer, in Lam. 3.41. Let us lift up our hearts unto God in the heavens. There are in it the secret outgoings of the Will unto God for his Blessing, and perhaps unutterable groans. Sometimes Prayer also forms the Requests into Words; as we are advised in Hos. 14.1. Take to yourselves words. The arrows are shot up to Heaven by the Bow of the Tongue. But in what manner does a Right Prayer present our Desires unto God? It is with a calling upon him. Prayer is thus deciphered in Acts 7.59 'tis, A Calling. And the Almighty God is therein called upon. This is a term used for Prayer, I think, more than twenty times in the Book of God. And hence also, Prayer is denominated very frequently, A crying to the Lord; thus we red about, The cry of the Righteous; and it is said in Psal. 34.6. This poor man cried unto the Lord. This is the difference between right Prayer, and what cometh short of it. In False Prayers Men compliment, but in Right ones, they clamour. A Call is an earnest Request; a Call is a Request with much fervency, with some agony, and coming from a sense of deep distress. When a Man truly prays, he does not sport in it, or scoff in it; but according to that in Jam. 5.17. He prays in Prayer. There is a striving in Prayer, there is a wrestling in Prayer, there is a labouring Prayer, where Prayer is duly made. Indeed the Call of a Right Prayer is not so much in the Voice of it, as in the Grace of it. We red not that Moses audibly uttered a syllable, when yet the Lord said in Exod. 14.15. Wherefore criest thou unto me? Warm and strong Affections make a cry in that thing which is worthy to be called, A Prayer; 'tis a thing beyond mere Lip-labour or Lung-labour; 'tis not the mere saying of Prayers, that is of any account with that God, who if he be not served in Spirit, counts himself not served in Truth.  
Thirdly, For the matter of Prayer, it is, Mercy to be obtained as the Lord shall please. What is to be the Petition of our Prayers? In short, it is that in Psal. 51.1. Have mercy upon me, O God. And the particular Mercies which our Prayers must insist upon, are those which the Word of God recommends unto us. We are  told in 1 John 5.14. If we ask any thing according to the will of God, he heareth us. Our Prayers must be always answerable to the revealed Will of God; the Will of Gods Precept hath set the bounds of our Prayers, and said, Hitherto shall ye go, and no further. Of every command there, it should be our Prayer, Lord, help me to keep it; of every Promise, Lord, give me to find it; of every threatening, Lord, give me to shun it: In short, The Lords Prayer is to be the Directory of all our Prayers. But our Prayers must also be with a submission to the secret Will of God; the time, and way, and measure of Mercies, it must be left unto the Will of Gods purpose to order that. Our Language in our Prayer should be, Let God have mercy on me when he will; it is not for me to know the time: Our Language is to be, Let God have mercy on me, how he will: his way is always best: It is to be, Let God proportion his mercy to me, according to his pleasure; I may not limit the holy one of Israel. This is a true Prayer. But now,   

PROP. II.  
It is a wicked folly to live without such Prayer unto the Eternal God. Now to evince this, let these things be pondered.  
First, To live without Prayer is a piece of cursed Atheism; no easier a Name than that is to be put upon it. He that lives without Prayer, denies or disputes the very Being of a God. Thus we find concerning the Atheist, in Psal. 14.1. He hath said in his heart, there is no God; and it quickly follows, They call not upon the Lord. If we grant this, That God is, the next thing to be granted, is, He is diligently to be sought unto. The Apostle in Heb. 11.6. makes those two Principles to stand as immovable and inseparable as the very Pillars of Heaven. To live without Prayer, is to live as if there were no Soul, no Hell, no God. It is said in Psal. 10.4. The wicked will not seek after God; God is not in all his thoughts: Or, as it may be rendered, All his thoughts are, that there is no God. He that withholds this piece of Natural Worship from God, even says, I will have no God at all. But what a wicked Folly is this? 'Tis an Impiety beyond what the blackest and the fiercest of all the Devils in Hell ever yet arrived unto. All the Works both of Creation and Providence, are every one of them the Heralds of a Deity; the Atheist has every motion in the Universe, together with the consent of Nations, to cry out upon him; and there is nothing in the World, but what serves to confounded that Leviathan.  
Secondly, To live without Prayer is to disobey and contradict the Command of the Great God. The God of Heaven is the governor of the World; he is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Most High Monarch over all; and he has required this Homage from all the Children of Men, That we pray unto him. 'Tis the Edict of Heaven in 1 Thess. 5.17. Pray without ceasing. This is indeed a main thing required in the First Commandment of the Law; when 'tis said, Thou shalt have the Lord for thy God, a main thing therein intended is, Thou shalt make thy Prayers unto the God of Heaven. 'Tis a thing which the Command of God has, without exception or exemption, enjoined upon all the World. As for good Men; our Lord said unto his Disciples, in Matth. 6.9. Pray ye. As for ill Men too; 'twas said unto such an one, in Acts 8.22. Pray to God. Now 'tis a wicked Folly to rebel against the Voice of God. All his Commandments are holy, and just, and good; and it is a madness for us to dare his Righteous and his Terrible Vengeance, by speaking like those Miscreants of old, As for the word spoken to us in the Name of the Lord, we will not harken thereunto.  
Thirdly, What Man alive is there, who has not manifold occasions of calling upon the Lord? Poor Man is a depending sort of thing; he cannot subsist of and from, as he may not for himself. He cannot make a shift without God, and therefore 'tis a wicked Folly for him to live without Prayer unto God. It was the insolent speech of Pilate, in John 19.10. Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I have power over thee? But the Glorious God may speak after that rate unto every one of us: What? Speakest thou not unto me? Shall not I have a Prayer from thee, when I have such power over thee? Knowest thou not, that in me thou livest, thou movest, thou hast thy Being. Knowest thou not that thou art every moment in danger of my Damning thee for thy Disobedience? Truly every Soul of us, has many Sins to be pardonned, many wants to be supplied, many woes to be deprecated; we are strangely stupid and sottish, 'tis a dumb Devil that has possession of us, if we go not unto God by Prayer in such unhappy circumstances.  
Fourthly, There is no Godly Man that can live without Prayer, unto the God that made him. says the Psalmist, in Psal. 32.6. Every one that is godly shall pray unto thee. A Godly Man is always a praying Man. A Man does do soone● begin to have a real impression of Godliness upon him, but it may be said of him, as it was of Repenting Paul, Behold he prays! All Godly Men have a true fear of God; they are loth to provoke, loth to offend, unwilling to incense his Eternal Majesty. Hence it may be said of them, as in Psal. 145.18, 19. They call upon him in truth, for they fear him. Again, all Godly Men have a true Faith in God; they realize unto themselves that fullness, and that kindness, which is in the Lord: Hence it may be said by them, as in Psal. 116.10. I have believed, therefore have I spoken; i.e. I have prayed. Moreover, all Godly Men have a true love to God; a communion with him is the pleasure of their Souls; they are never so well as when they are in his company. Hence they can say after David, in Psal. 116.1, 2. I have loved the Lord, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. Once more, All Godly Men have the Spirit of God, he has renewed them, he has sanctified them, he has possessed them as Temples for himself. Now 'tis said of him in Zech. 12.10. He is a Spirit of supplication; there is an abiding inclination to supplication, in all that are acted and filled by the Spirit of God. Well then, you that live without Prayer, are but so many ungodly ones; you are altogether without the Fear, and without the Faith, and without the Love, and without the Spirit of God; by consequ●nce then, 'tis a wicked Folly that has dominion over you,  
Fifthly, Very great and good things are to be obtained by our Prayers unto the Lord our God. It is the Promise of God in Matth. 7.7. Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find. One of the ancients ingeniously compared Prayer unto a Golden Chain, one end of which is tied unto the Tongue of Man, the other unto the Ear of God; by this Chain we may effectually pull down from Heaven all the Blessings that we are justly desirous of. Let us trade much in the Ship of Prayer, and in the Covenant of God we shall find settled an Insuring Office to secure us our Adventures. It has been said, Est quaedam Omnipotentia precum. I pray, what is there that can't be done by Prayer? Fir●t for great things; why Prayer! it hath 〈…〉 th● very Ch●riots of the Sun in the ●●●●●ament, the Prayer of Joshua did it. Prayer, it hath managed the Corks on the Bottles of Heaven; the Prayer of Elijah did it. Prayer, it hath made the dead themselves alive again; the Prayer of Elisha did it. Prayer, it hath ●●zzled the M●u●●s o● ravenous Li●ns; thus did the Prayer of Daniel. Prayer, it hath made the Fire unable to burn; so did the Prayer of the three Worthies. Prayer, it hath made the strongest Bars of Prison-doors to fly before it; while the praying Saints were knocking at the Doors of Heaven for Peters liberty, Peter came knocking at the Door of the House in which they were assembled. About the successses of Prayer, I may say l●ke the Apostle, The time would fail me to mention t●em. It as it were obtains a victory over the Almighty God himself; you know what the Prayer of Jacob, and what the Prayer of Moses did. Such are the great things that may be done by Prayer; but let me also tell you a few of the good things that may be thereby acquired; I may indeed say of Prayer, as the Apostle says of Piety, 'Tis profitable for all things. It is, as Paul speaks in Heh. 10.22. A drawing near to God; it maintains a very near Communion between God and us; but what said the Psalmist, It is good for me to draw near unto God. In short, It is a Golden Key to unlock all the Treasures of an all-sufficient God. It was a sweet speech once of a person in distress, I have no Friend, but I have a Prayer, and as long as I have a praying Heart, I am sure that my God will have an helping hand. Particularly, would you have your Souls to be blessed in very dead? What says the Psalmist, in Psal. 69.32. Your heart shall live that seek God. A praying Soul will be a thriving Soul; it will have its Graces kept in a continual exercise. There is an iceland in the Mediterranean Sea, whereof they say, The Sun will be sure to shine upon it, at least once every day throughout the year. This is the happiness of a praying Soul; the light of Gods countenance will be upon it every day. And a praying Soul will be a joyful Soul; it will never want an Hearts case in its Afflictions. A Soul that being melted with grief is poured out unto the Lord, is in a ready way to be no more sad. A Famous Man being driven to his Kne●s by his Perplexities, had that cheering Message brought from Heaven to him, Thou art a Man greatly beloved. In brief, A praying Soul shall be a saved Soul; we are assured in Rom. 10.3. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Yet further, would you have your Bodies, your Estates, and all your Affairs under the perpetual Blessings of Heaven? Why, 'tis the proffer of our God unto us, in Psal. 91.15. He shall call upon me, and I will deliver him, and honour him, with long life will I satisfy him. The Steward of Abraham thought that Prayer would not hinder, but procure a prosperous Journey for him. When Saul perceived how much David kept Prayer i'going, he said, Thou shalt do great things. Finally, would you have rich Ble●sings to be showered from on high upon your Families? Truly you cannot lay up a better portion for your Children than a stock of Prayers; and a praying Man has before now been able to say, This day have I obtained mercy for myself, and all of mine. Yea, by being much in Prayer, we may like Noah, like Job, like Daniel, we may ourselves be public Blessings; we may be the gapmen of the places in which we live; we may deliver Islands, and be the Saviours of our Country. But what a wicked Folly must it be for us to deprive ourselves of such inestimable benefits!  
Lastly, The neglect of Prayer is that which will plunge the Souls of Men into intolerable and interminable Miseries. Know it for certain, That without Prayer you cannot be made partakers of those Divine Favours, without which, It had been good for you that you had never been born. God has indeed engaged all manner of Salvations for his chosen ones; but he has added in Ezek. 36.37. I will yet for this be enquired of to do it. We must inquire of God, and entreat of God, or we may not hope for any thing that is truly comfortable. Yea, without Prayer 'tis impossible but we should perish among them that are without God, and without Christ, and without Hope in the World. A Man may pray after a sort, and yet be damned after all: Our Lord said unto his Disciples in Matth. 5.20. Except your righteousness exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; and yet the Scribes and Pharisees had their formal Prayers every day. But what will then become of them that never or seldom do pray at all? Hear, ye Prayerless ones, and be amazed at what I am going to red from the Infallible Word of the everliving God concerning you; in Psal. 9.17. They that forget God shall be turned into Hell. I am sure, the Great God is horribly forgotten by all that follow him not with daily and Serious Prayers; now 'tis no less than Hell itself, and all the burning Brimstone, and smoking Torment of that formidable Pit, that belongs to such miserable ones. Now consider of this, ye that forget God, lest he tear you to pieces, and there be none to deliver you. 'Tis true, there will a day come, when the most Prayerless Monster upon Earth, shall pray with an incredible anguish of Soul. They that spend all their dayes like swine, and never give a look or a cry to God all their dayes, yet when the sharp Knife of Everlasting Vengeance is at last laid unto their Throats, they will then pierce the Clouds with Groans unto the Lord. Those abominable Miscreants that now dare call upon the Devil to take them, and upon God Almighty to damn them, will one day pray for Salvation, in the Groans of a deadly wounded man. But what a confusion shall all their Prayers then meet withal! When they come to a dying Hour, and their trembling Souls are upon their quivering Lips, draging away into an astonishing Eternity; or, when they appear before the judgement-seat of God, and stand quaking there in expectation of their Eternal judgement; they will doubtless then pray hard, like the Foolish Virgins, Lord, Lord, open the doors of thy mercy to us! But what will all those despairing Prayers avail? God will answer those Prayers only in fiery Thunders, and furious Reb●k●s, and reply upon them, No, 'tis all too late: Go, depart from me, ye prayerless workers of iniquity. And now, judge, I pray you; is it not a mo●● wicked Folly for a Man to put himself into a condition thus deplorable!    

APPLICATION.  
All these Considerations do but put Stings into the Reproof that now belongs unto all that make no Conscience of calling upon God. But in dispensing of Reproofs we shall not cut, unless like Nathan of old we oome to so much particularity, as to say, Thou art the Man! Let us therefore descend unto the several sorts of Prayer, which many People among us are to be reproved for the omission of. The Apostle bids us in Eph. 6.18. Pray with all pra●●r. But alas, there are those who practise no Prayer at all, and multitudes there are, who in some Prayer are notoriously deficient.  
First, It is matter of reprehension, that secret Prayer is not regarded by many of us. It is the Command of our Lord, in Matth. 6.6. Pray in thy closet; and it was his own custom accordingly, To depart into a solitary place, that he might be praying there. But O how many of us are there that are Baptized, and professing People, and yet go from day to day, without any secret Prayers before the Lord. Many there are that make no stick at sinning in secret, though the Eye of the Great God be upon all their cursed Effeminacies there; but as to Praying in secret, they do nothing at it. Hear this, ye giddy young people that know yourselves guilty here: The God of Heaven hath often enough seen your secret pranks; but O when did he hear any of your secret Prayers un●o him? There are some hundreds of persons in this Congregation; if the Angels of God that are probably now thronged in amongst us, were now to make a public discovery, Who of all the Hearers is come to the Meeting, without a●● secret Prayer this Morning before they came? Ar● there not some scores that might be pointed out? Let me tell you then, that you are wor●● than Balaam himself; of whom we are  told in Numb. 23.3. He went alone to seek the Lord. You have secret Sins to be confessed; but where are your secret Prayers, to bewail them all? Have you not your Temptations and Vexations that are also secret? Why, by these your secret prayers are called for. It may prove a perilous and a pernicious thing, to omit but one secret prayer; it was bitterly bewailed by Origen of old, that the day whereon he fell into the soul scandal that cost him such an Ocean of Tears and shane, was a day wherein secret Prayer had been passed over with him. says our Lord, Pray to thy Father which is in secret: It seems they who duly pray in secret may call God their Father; did the Lord often see you, like Nathanael, under the Fig three, he would say of you, as in John 1.47. Behold, an Israelite indeed! But alas, he rarely sees you there. The secret Prayers of Jacob in the Field, preserved all that belonged unto him; the secret prayers of Nehemiah carried on all his weighty Businesses at the Court; the secret Prayers of Hannath begged of God but for one Son, and he gave her six times as much as she asked of him; the secret prayers of Jeremiah prevented his falling as a Sacrifice to unreasonable Men; and the secret prayers of Peter in the Belcony, fetched into his holy Soul, as much of Heaven as ever he could hold. But these are things which you are mere strangers unto: O that you were sensible of the wicked Folly in your being so!  
Secondly, 'Tis matter of reprehension, that private Prayer is not attended by many of us. The Apostle says to Masters of Families in Col. 4.2. Continue in prayer; alluding to the continual offering under the Law of old. But how many Masters do rob God of this Daily Sacrifice? They do not bring it both Morning and Evening to him. They pretend they have no time to pray with their Families; but they can find a time to eat, sleep and smoke with them; and they ponder not, What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? They pretend they want utterance and confidence to pray with their Families; but would they pled this, if th●y were like Daniel, to suffer Death for leaving undone that which Daniel did? They forget the Word of the Lord Jesus, Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed. And the Prayerless Masters of Vessels as well as of Houses, are deeply concerned in this Admonition. Vain Men, how little are you like Joshua, who resolved in chap 24.15. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Were there much Prayer constantly going in your Houses, God would bless them, as he did the House of Obed-edom, when the Ark was there. If you, and the two or three in your Family, would agree on Earth in Prayer to God in Heaven, you might have any thing to be done for you. But now, thy Prayerless Family is no better than a Pagan Family: and that fearful Thunderbolt of Death now falls upon it, in Jer. 10.25. O Lord, pour o●● thy fury on the Families that call not on thy Name. It seems, the Lord Jesus Christ is not the Advocate, but the A●cuser of such a Family; and the Prayerless House must look to have none other than the flying Roll of Curses entering thereinto. Thy Family is the very Suburbs of Hell; ● Man had better live in a prison, in a Dungeon, than in such a Family! Such Families bring in a Deluge of Disorder upon the Town and Land, and set Fire to the Dwellings in which they live. And Man, what will become of thy poor Children and Servants in another World? Will they not with bitte● execrations cry out upon thee. O why did you never teach me to pray by your Example? 'Tis your Pra●erless House that has plunged me into this fiery Hell for ever. I beseech you then, that this wicked Folly be repented of!  
Thirdly, 'Tis matter of lamentation, that solemn prayer is no more usual with us. Not only do many very contentedly absent themselves from the whole, or at least▪ from a part of the public prayers, but also Prayer with Fasting is of too little improvement with us. We may make that confession in Dan. 9.13. All this evil is come upon us▪ yet have we not made our prayer before the Lord our God. How backward have we been to Fasting under our complicated Iniquities and Calamities? and when we do Fast, is it with such a Fast as the Lord has chosen? Do not we Fast with our Ornaments upon us? Or without any Affliction in our Abstinence? And how little Fasting is there of Christians in retirements before the Lord? Nehemiah would not undertake a weighty matter, before he had spent a whole day in a retired Fellowship with God. But how common is it for us to change our Conditions, to begin our Voyages, to approach our Sacraments, and do many more such important things, without such preparations? This is utterly a fault among us.  
Fourthly, It were well if we were more frequent and more serious in our Ejaculatory Prayers. These are a sort of prayers which our Blessed Jesus was much used unto; and we red of a great Man in Neh. 2.4. that he would not answer a Question of any Concernment, without such a prayer. Indeed, there are profane Ejaculations proceeding from the mouths of many; with very frothy frames, they lard all their Discourses with an, O Lord, and O Lord, bless me! A common Swearer is but the Elder Brother of them who thus take the Name of God in vain. But instead thereof, we should be often sending up our Ejaculatory Prayers, both Hosannahs and Hallelujahs, both Petitions and Thanksgivings, from our affencted Souls unto the Lord. A besieged City have before now tied their Letters unto Arrows, and shot them over the Heads of their Adversaries, into the Hands of their Auxiliaries. Thus, when we are besieged and beset never so much with the encumbrances of the World, yet we should be often in a Day lifting up our Hearts unto God who dwelleth in the Heavens. But how few are there that thus keep in their Souls a continual Feast? As we are walking the Streets with our Minds quiter empty of all other things, how rarely have we any devout Ejaculations in them, for a Blessing on themselves, or on them that are before our Eyes? Yea, when the Hearers of our Lord heard him preach about the Bread of Life, they presently annexed an Ejaculation thereunto, Lord, Give us this Bread; but how few Ejaculations has any among us made, since the Sermon this day began? This is also one of our miscarriages. Now let us take the Reproofs of God; let our Prayers become very vigorous; let us be much in the Mount, with our Hands up-lifted there: O tremble at being found among the workers of iniquity, that have no knowledge in them.    

The Stage-player unmasked: OR, The Signs and Woes of a Wretched Hypocrite.  MAT. xxiv. 51. 
— appoint him his portion with the Hypocrites.  
IT is a bitter Complaint, which the World has too much given occasion for, Totus Mundus exercet Histrionem; the World is full of Hypocrites; those Dust-heaps may in every corner be met withal. Be sure, there cannot be a full testimony born against the Sins of this Time and Place, if that comprehensive Sin of hypocrisy, should escape our severest reprehensions; nor can a fuller testimony against that Sin, be any where found in the whole Book of God, than in the words now red unto us.  
Our Blessed Saviour is here discoursing on the dangerous condition wherein the World shall be, just before his coming to the judgement of it. Altho' there are now revealed those things about the day and hour of our Lords, which even our Lord himself, as he was Man, was not before his Exaltation so exactly acquainted with; yet the most of Mankind will be sleepy and secure, towards this great Evening of the World, and be surprised by the coming of the Lord. Our Lord therefore with several Parables inculcates the Duty of Watchfulness upon us all; and one of those Parables is full of those warnings that Church Officers are peculiarly concerned in.  
Just before the coming of our Lord, his Church, and especially that part of his Church which he may choose to give the more special signals of his coming in, shall be oppressed with a crew of bigoted Clergy men, who have divers Remarkables in their Character.  
'Tis one thing in their Character, That they shall begin to smite their Fellow-servants. If there be a Faithful or Painful Minister, that would labour to promote serious Godliness in the Nation, they ll be sure to persecute him. They'll pretend unto the Power of the keys, and by a strange abuse of those keys, they will not only shut the Doors of employment and Preferment upon any Minister that shall be a Friend unto real H liness, but also they will knock those heavy Church-Keyes about the Head of every such Reformer. They shall begin to smite,] that is, they shall silence, they shall molest, they shall get one Law after another forged for the Trouble of good Men; and they shall be in a fair way towards hammering of their keys into Swords, and rendering it a capital thing to do any service for God; but they shall be wonderfully hindered from carrying the business on so far; they only begin. And it is another thing that herewithal goes to make up them Character, They shall eat and drink with the drinken It seems, a common Drunkard shall find more favour with them, than a pious Christian; they'll censure the most gracious Men alive, that would be found by our Lord Jesus in the punctual and regular observation of those Orders which he has left for his House to be governed with, until he return unto us; but if a Man be a Drunkard, a Swearer, a Gamester, a Whoremaster, then they'll cry, O he is one of us! and by no means must such an one be discouraged.  
But, Qui diu toleratur, subito tollitur: Our Context informs us, that God will bring a sudden Revolution upon these unhappy Creatures; and it shall be such a Revolution, as will give them their Portion with the Hypocrites; or, as Luke expresses it, with the unbelievers; that is, it will unchurch them: All their cry was, The Church, the Church, but they shall be now cast out of any Interest in the Church of God. When you see such a Revolution, you may take it for granted, that whatever the end of the World may be, the end of this World is not a thousand years off.  
My Text represents unto us, the punishment of the wickedest Offenders in the Church of God; it is, to have a portion with the Hypocrites. But why, with Hypocrites? 'Tis partly, because that wicked Church-Officers are of all Men the greatest Hypocrites. Our Lord elsewhere elegantly calls them, Wolves in sheeps-clothing. But it is also because the portion of Hypocrites is of all the worst that any Man can be damned unto. Behold, how Hypocrites are here accounted as Free-holders to the Vengeance of God; other Transgressors are but as it were Tenants or Inmates with them. 'Tis intimated, that Hypocrites are to have the deepest share, the largest room, in those Revenges which God has to execute upon ungodly Men.  
The Text is full of Doctrines; but there is only this one that must be the Subject of our present Contemplations.  

DOCTRINE. The Portion of Hypocrites, is a very miserable Portion.  
By the portion of Men is meant, that condition which the Great God, in a way of recompense, allots unto them. 'Tis a Phrase frequently occurring in both Old and New Testament; and it carries both condition and recompense in the signification of it. The God of Heaven will take a time to fulfil that frequently repeated, and solemnly confirmed, Word of his, in Rev. 22.12. I come quickly[ 'Tis the last Advice we have had from Heaven!] and my reward is with me; to give every man according as his work shall be. But when this Time does come, the Portion of the Hypocrite will be found extremely miserable.  
We may spend these Propositions upon this aweful Truth.  

PROP. I.  
An Hypocrite is one who does pretend Religion, and but pretend it. hypocrisy is properly a counterfeit of Religion. The Greek word for an Hypocrite, signifies a Stage-player. As a Stage-player will act the part of a King, though he be indeed a Beggar; so an Hypocrite acts the part of a Saint, while he is but a Sinner still. The word comes from a Theme, that signifies to compare; and a diminutive Particle is prefixed unto it; so that hypocrisy is a thing that may be compared unto true Religion; it has a likeness and a shadow of Religion; but it comes very short of the reality; the resemblance is a dull, a faint, an empty thing. Accordingly, the Hebrew word for an Hypocrite comes from a Root that signifies, to tinge, or die a thing of another Colour than what is Natural. Thus an Hypocrite, is one that appears not in his own colours; there are false colours that his Religion is disguised and concealed with Particularly,  
First, In the Religion of an Hypocrite his Graces want an Ingredient, essential to the Graces of true Religion. The utmost attaimment of an Hypocrite, is that in Acts 26.28. Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. As for the Hypocrite, his Faith is but Almost that which is, The Faith of Gods Elect. His Repentance is but Almost that which is, The Repentance not to be repented of. His Holiness is but Almost that which is, The holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. They say concerning the Devils, that in Apparitions of them, there never is a complete and perfect shape; there is always a blemish upon it, by which, as by a cloven Foot, it may be distinguished. This may be said about the Devil of hypocrisy; it has a shape of Religion, but there are no complete and perfect Graces in it: Some chief Ingredient is lacking in them. Our Lord said once to a notable Hypocrit● ●n Matth. 10.21. One thing thou lackest. Here lies the miscarriage of an Hypocrite! He may have so much Faith as to call the Lord Jesus Christ, The Saviour of the World. But alas, One thing thou lackest; he does not utterly renounce all his own Righteousness, and his own Strength, and his own Will, and cordially receive the Lord Jesus Christ in every one of all his Offices. He may have so much Repentance, as to  shed whole Bottles of Tears for his many Sins; but, one thing thou lackest; he has one beloved Sin, one Herodias, that he must be spared in; there is one Right Eye, one Right Hand, one Darling Lust, that he can't endure the Mortification of. He may have so much Holiness, as like him in the Gospel, to do many things; but, one thing thou lackest: Some one Command of God there is, which he has an irreconcilable prejudice unto; it cannot be said of him, He counts the precept concerning all things to be right, and he hates every false way.  
Secondly, In the Religion of an Hypocrite, his Duties want a Principle. necessary to the Duties of true Religion. The Hypocrites case is that in Matth. 25.3. They took their lamps, and took no oil with them. One of the Jewish rabbis describes to us the fashion of the Lamps which that Scripture alludes unto. They were certain Staves or Canes, to be carried in their hands, having Vessels at the top, into which they put both a great Wiek, and an oil to feed it. Now 'tis the Hypocrites guise, he may make a marvelous blaze of performances; but he has not an oil within to supply and nourish that short-lived blaze. Tell me so much as one external thing done by a Believer, which may not also( I don't say as well) be done by an Hypocrite. As how does the Believer hear the Word of God, on Sabbath-days, and Lecture-days? Why, we red of some, who are hearers of the Word, and yet they deceive their own selves. Does the Word of God cause a Reformation in the Conversation of a Believer? We red, of them that have escaped the pollutions of the World, through the knowledge of the Lord, and yet the Dogs return to their vomit, the Swine return to their quagmire; they are Dogs and Swine still! Does the Believer pray much, fast oft, and give Alms li●●rally? We red of a false Pharisee that could say as much, I Fast twice in the week, and give Tithes of all that I possess. In a Word, can a Believer suffer in the cause of God? We red of some that can give their Bodies to be burned, and yet have in them no Charity or Sincerity. A Paul and an Alexander may be fellow-sufferers. What is then the difference? Briefly, dost aliquid intus, It lies in the Principle of all these Duties. hypocrisy don't arrive to this one thing, The doing of any thing purely out of respect unto the blessed God. What is done by the Hypocrite, either he does it out of Custom; he is a Christian for the same cause that another is a Jew, or a Turk, or a Papist; and he goes to Church( as he calls it) upon the very same account with his Dog that follows him. Or else, he does it out of terror; all his Resolutions for God, are like the vows that Pharaoh made, when the Thunders of Heaven rumbled over him: The fear of Death or shane is the cause of all his Goodness. Or lastly, He does it out of design. He undertakes no good thing without some Earthly bias upon his undertaking. It is with him, as in Matth 6.2. he does, to be seen of men. An Hypocrite is a Man-pleaser. 'Tis to serve some Secular Interest, that he does list himself among the People of God; he would quickly desert them, if danger appeared; as Rats and Mice, they say, will run out of a falling Hoase. There is this failing in the most splendid and glorious Actions of an Hypocrite, Have ye done it unto me, even unto me, saith the Lord.  
Thirdly, The Hypocrite is not secretly, that which he openly seems to be. Our Lord has notably touched upon this quality of the Hypocrite, in Matth. 23.23, 28. He makes clean the out-side of the platter: He is like one of the sepulchers, which the Jews whited and painted every Spring; but within, he is full of hypocrisy and iniquity. If the Hypocrite can approve himself World-ward, he is enough; to approve himself God-ward, is not the most solicitous of his cares. He will keep some guard upon his Words and Walks, but at the same time it may be said, How long shall thy vain thoughts l●dge within thee? He takes little pains to cleanse his Heart of such proud, revengeful, envious and lascivious thoughts, as render that Heart of his a noisome dunghill before the Lord. It is the description of an Hypocrite, in Job 36.13. he is an hyyocrite in heart. Indeed that is the property of an Hypocrite, God shall have any thing but the heart of him. You may see it especially in his Religious Exercises; he will be much in such Exercises, but he has not his Heart prepared for, nor his Heart affencted in, those Exercises. He will do good Works every day, but is not studious to have good frames in the doing of them. God may say, This people draw near me with their mouth, but have removed their heart far from me. To instance in one Sacred Exercise; there is that of Prayer. An Hypocrites Prayer, 'tis more by Art than by Heart; he is very nice about the Expressions on his Tongue, but wholly regardless about the Impressions on his Heart, when he stands before the Lord. And hence also the Hypocrite is very forward upon public Exercises, but about private ones, he is as remiss as can be; he is very large and full, as to what is to be done at a Meeting; but follow him home to his Closet, and you shall find small or no Communion with the Almighty there. But now,   

PROP. II.  
Very miserable will be the portion of such an Hypocrite. Indeed, some hypocrisy there is in the best Men alive: hypocrisy is a corruption, whereof we may speak, as in Prov. 20.9. Who can say, I have made my heart clean? But for a Man to have so much hypocrisy, to be so much under the power and reign of hypocrisy, as may denominate him an Hypocrite before the Lord; O 'tis impossible to declare the miseries that such a Man thereby plunges his own woeful Soul into! I remember that when the Queen of Israel presented her self before the Prophet in a disguise, the good Man that heard of her coming, said in 1 King. 14.6. Come thou wife of Jeroboam, why feignest thou thyself to be another? I am sent unto thee with heavy tidings. If there be any Hypocrite now among us[ and it is well if there been ' t!] sitting under the disguise of a fair Profession, I must in like sort say unto him, Come, thou dissembler, I am sent unto thee with heavy tidings from the Lord. For,  
First, The portion of the Hypocrite is, To be cut asunder. Perhaps he esteems himself safe, and says with Agag, The bitterness of Death is past; but God comes upon him, and like Agag, in 1 Sam. 15.33. he is hewn to pieces before the Lord. Forlorn Creature! He made a division between God and the World, a division between God and a Lust; something he gave to God, but something the World and a Lust laid claim unto; and now God will make a division upon him for ever. It was of old the manner to handle some that were counted enormous Transgressors at such a rate, as cutting them asunder: It is reckoned among the usual Torments, in Heb. 11.37. They were sawn asunder. It was of old, and it still is, the usage, for Traitors to be thus dealt withal. The Hypocrite is a Traitor to the Kingdom of Heaven; he takes an Oath of Allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ, and is listed under the Banner, and for the Service of that Holy Lord; but he is indeed one of the Devils Party all the while. Now, the Great God will proceed against the Hypocrite, as guilty of an High Treason against his Eternal Majesty. But this is not all that is in the cutting asunder of the Hypocrite referred unto. Sacrifices did use to be thus handled in the former Ages; thus, besides what is recorded concerning the like act of Abrahams, we find in Jer. 34.18. They cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof, in their Sacrifices at the making of their Covenants; the scope of which Rite was, q. d. Discindantur ejus membra, & fiat sicut pecus istuct, qui juramentum violaverit. Why, the Hypocrite is one that has made a Covenant with God; but it may be said of such a Man, His heart was not right with God, neither was he steadfast in his covenant. Hence what follows but this? The Righteous and Jealous God will make a Sacrifice of this wretched Hypocrite; he shall become a Sacrifice to the burning and furious Indignation of the Omnipotent God. He has broken his Covenant; and now the vindictive Justice of God will break him asunder for it; or as it is expressed in Psal. 50.22. I will tear you to pieces, and there shall be none to deliver you. But when shall the Hypocrite thus be cut asunder? It shall be at least when he comes to die, and leave the World. The sharp scythe of Death will one day cut asunder the Hypocrite, so that the Body and the Spirit of the Man shall never have one comfortable hour together any more. The Curse which was denounced upon Simeon and Levi, those two Companions in hypocrisy, that will God execute upon the Spirit and the Body of an Hypocrite, I will divide and scatter them. Before the Hypocrite is ware of it, an Officer will come from God, that shall say unto him, as in Luke 12.20. Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. So, when the Body of the Hypocrite shall have snakes and worms in a could Grave crawling about it, then shall the Spirit of him in an hot Hell be under the gnaws of the worm, the snake, which never dyes. But this is not all; it shall be further done, In the day wherein God will judge the world by Jesus Christ. God will then cut the Hypocrite asunder from that Body which heretofore he seemingly belonged unto. Before the Day of judgement shall expire, we are  told in Matth. 25.32. All Nations shall be gathered together, and he shall separate them one from another, as a Shepherd divides his Sheep from the Goats. God will then separate the Hypocrite from all that Society which he crowded once into. Christ, and Saints, and Angels, will then hiss him away with one Voice, Depart from us, we know thee not.  
Secondly. The portion of the Hypocrite is, Weeping and gnashing of Teeth. It is more than once, that the Oracles of God have pronounced this Doom upon the Hypocrite; we have it particularly in Mat. 8.12. There shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth. It is the same that the Prophet long before sentenced such people unto; in Isa. 65.14. Ye shall cry for sorrow of Heart, and shall howl for vexation of Spirit.  
There is an Intolerable, and an Interminable Sorrow which the Hypocrite shall be cast into; this is meant, by the Weeping appointed for him. Here he wept now and then under the Ordinances of God; he seemed as if he were much concerned in them; and perhaps, he could cry when he would, as your worst Hypocrites often can? all this was in Jest, and his Tears were like those which they report of the Crocodile. But God will at last make him weep with more Earnest and Horrid Agonies. The Sorrow which will torture the Soul of the Hypocrite, will be for and in his Exclusion from the Blessed presence of God for ever. It was the Resolve of David, in Psal. 101.7. He that worketh Deceit, shall not dwell within my House; he that telleth Lies, shall not tarry in my sight. They that go to Heaven, are always in the House, and in the sight of our David; but our David, our Jesus will Banish all Deceitful Hypocrites from that House and sight of His for ever; it is an Inscription upon the Golden Gates of Heaven, Let never any Hypocrite enter here! Surely, the Hypocrite must weep no less than Tears of Blood when he sees the Gates of Heaven shut upon him. When Esau lost a Blessing for which he had wrought and hoped considerably, it's said, He cried with a great and exceeding bitter Cry. What a Cry will it cause in the Hypocrite, when he shall see himself shut out from a Blessed Heaven, after so many Works, and so many Hopes, for the obtaining of it! We red concerning Hypocrites, in Mat. 25.10, 11, 12. The Door was shut, and they came saying, Lord, Lord, open to us! But He answered, I know you not. Such a Cry, will the Hypocrite make, when he perceives an Admission into Heaven is denied unto him; Lord, Lord! Open to me! and, Lord, Lord! is this all that my Religion has obtained for me! and, Lord, Lord! Whither art thou now sending of my desolate Soul! But what further, what rueful weeping will the Hypocrite fall into, when he finds the Devils and the Damned now his Companions for Eternity! When he lies Roaring in the fiery bottom of Hell, and crying out, I am Tormented in this flamme! When he feels the Wrath of God, like a Stream of Burning Brimstone. Running through his Heart; When he is bleeding and breaking in the Winepress of Gods Anger, and is chained up in the place of Dragons; and for him then to think, Here must I lye, till the very Heavens be no more! Alas, what Weeping mo●… he endure, throughout a Night that shall never have a Morning!  
But this is not all; there is also a dismal Vexation which the Hypocrite shall be cruciated with; here is the Gnashing of Teeth reserved for him. A Fever or Ague begins with a Gnashing of the Teeth; it is a terrible Fever that the Soul of the Hypocrite shall fall into. His Diappointment, will be such as will make him gnash his Teeth for Vexation of Soul; it may therefore be said of him, as in Psal. 112.10. He shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his Teeth. There are especially two vexing Losses, which will make the very Teeth of the Hypocrite chatter in the Head of him. He shall first, find that he has lost all his Works, and he will gnash his Teeth at such a Loss. 'Tis a thousand to one, but the Hypocrite loses even in this World, what of this World he had been labouring for. Judas had played the Hypocrite for a little Money; but, I pray, what had he got when he came to cast up his Accounts? Methinks, I see how he gnashed his Teeth, when he threw down his Money, and said, Here take it again: I have made but a cursed Bargain of it! The Hypocrite has been squinting at some secular Advantage in all he did; but it is said in Job 8.14. The Hypocrites Trust shall be as a Spiders Web. He as it were, unbowell'd himself, to get an easy Lodging here; but all on the sudden, there comes a mischievous besom, that sweeps down all the Riches, and all the Honours, and all the Pleasures which he had been spinning for. But be sure, the Hypocrite loses all his Labours for another World. His Faith is nothing in the account of God, because it is not such as that in 1 Tim. 1.5. A Faith unfeigned. His Love, is of no account with God, because it is not such as that in Rom. 12.9. A Love without Dissimulation. All his Laborious Devotions, they are all thrown away; they are the Sacrifices, that are Abomination to the Lord. The Infamous Jehu, was a Great Hypocrite; wherefore, though he did many things that God commanded him, yet the Lord said, I will for those very things be Avenged on him. After the Hypocrite has been much and long industrious about the Things of God, he will find a mean Tekel written upon it all; the Just God will make him know, 'Tis all weighed in the balances and found wanting! And how will it now make him gnash his Teeth to think, All the Hours that I spent in the pretended Service of God, I shall never be one jot the better for them! But he shall then likewise find, that he has lost all his Hopes; and he will yet more gnash his Teeth at such a Loss as that. It is an amazing Enquiry, in Job 27.8. What is the Hope of the Hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God takes away his Soul? 'Tis possible the Hypocrite has gained some Honour, and some Figure, by his Devotions; yea, 'tis possible, that he has gained some confident Hope of Everlasting Blessed ness. But O! what becomes of that Hope, when God summons the poor Man before His Dreadful Tribunal? We are  told in Job 20.5. The Joy of the Hypocrite is but for a moment. Why? because, The Hope of the Hypocrite is but for a moment. When the Hypocrite is thrown down into the fiery dismal Vault below, that horrible Fire-light will give him a true sight of himself. One of the first Shrieks that he will make, at his going down, will be, O I hoped for better things than so! It is said, They that go down to the Pit cannot Hope. All the Hope that the Hypocrite had of his Acceptance with God, will be extinguished, when God shall clap him up into the Dungeons of the Devouring Pit. The Hypocrite is that Foolish Builder, whom in Mat. 7.26. we find mention of; he had built a fair House of a fine Hope; only 'twas on the Sand; the Storms of Divine Wrath will shortly overset that House, that Hope. Now, if as the Wise man speaks, Hope Deferred makes the Heart sick what will Hope Frustrated? and this, an Hope of Heaven, of Glory too? O how he will gnash his Teeth to see all his Hopes thus at once exterminated!  
Thirdly, and Summarily. The worst of Punishments must be the Portion of the Hypocrite. when one would speak of the Hottest and Lowest place in Hell, when one would speak of the furthest Pulls on the Racks with which undone Sinners are Tormented there, we are to call it, The Portion of the Hypocrite. It is said in Job 36.13, 14. The Hppocrites heap up Wrath; and their Life is among the Unlcean. It is not a common Wrath; no, there are vast Heaps and Loads and Weights and Mountains of Wrath, which the Hypocrite has to welter under! He is, Among the Unclean; it refers to the Destruction that came upon the Sodomites of old. God often leaves the Hypocrite unto a Course of some Uncleanness; it may be that he has been an old Professor, but an old Hypocrite all the while; nevertheless, even in his old Age, he follows a Trade of Lechery that could hardly be imagined. However, God will deal with an Hypocrite, as with another Sodomite; he may expect an Horrible Tempest of Judgments to rain down from Heaven upon him; and be sure, he cannot escape the Vengeance of Eternal Fire. Yea, unto Hypocrites our Lord has given that aweful Warning in Mat. 11.24. It shall be more tolerable for the Land of Sodom, than for thee! hypocrisy is indeed a Crime of a Deep Dy A Portion with Hypocrites, here i● called in Luke 12.46. A Portion with Unbelievers An Hypocrite is a sort of an Infidel; we say, Simulata Sanctitas, est Duplex Iniquitas; it is a wicked thing for a Man to be an Enemy unto the God that made him; but for him at the same time to profess a Friendship for the Lord, this is a Double Wickedness; a Double one did I say? nay, 'tis more then a triple one; there is Atheism, there is Unbelief, there is Prodigious Idolatry in hypocrisy; 'tis a Big bellied Sin. And no wonder then, that it brings forth such astonishing Plagues unto them that are guilty of it. No wonder that our Lord in one Chapter, namely, in the Twenty Third of Matthew, pronounces no less than Seven or Eight Woes together, upon these woeful Creatures! How fast he Repeats a Wo to you Hypocrites! and again, Wo to you Hypocrites! Had I like one of the Three Angels in the Revelation, a Wo-Trumpet in my Hand, the Woes of the Hypocrite are those which it might chiefly and justly be filled withal. Well then,    

APPLICATION.  

I. Let us all examine ourselves, whether we are like to be found among those Hypocrites, whose portion is very miserable.  
Do but consider this one thing, How easy 'tis to be an Hypocrite. There are self condemned Hypocrites; those to whom it may be said, as it was to Shimei, T●ou knowest the wickedness which thy own heart is privy to. But then, there are self dec●ived Hypocrites; those over whose Graves it ●●y at la t be written, A deceived Heart was that which turned them aside. An Hypocrite may not only deceive Neighbours, deceive Churches, deceive Ministers, but also deceive himself: We red of one who seems to be Religious, and yet, as in Jam. 1.26. He deceives his own Soul. I'll tell you the Name of the most crafty and bloody deceiver in the World, and I'll tell you, where you shall find him too. You need not stir from the place where you now sit, that you may find that Impostor, which has already cheated a million of Hypocrites of their very Lives; in one word, It is the heart of man. 'Tis this Heart of ours, whereof we are  told in Jer. 17.9. The heart is deceitful above all things; who can know it? I remember, that once reciting unto a Sick Person the Terms of the Gospel, and enquiring whether he did not think himself sincere in his consent unto them, he made me this discreet Answer, O Sir, I should think so, if it were not for the Seventeenth of Jeremiah, and the Ninth. Why, this I would say, were it not for the Seventeenth of Jeremiah and the Ninth, it were not so needful for us to be afraid of our own hypocrisy. But now, Blessed is the man that feareth always. When our Lord had no more than twelve Disciples in his Family, one of them was an Hypocrite. How many Hypocrites may we then reasonably think there are in this whole Congregation! Certainly it becomes every one of us to search, Lord, is it I? Lord, is it I? It was a terrible Expression used by the Famous Chrysostom, unto a vast Assembly; harken, said he, here are divers Thousands of you, yet I doubt whether above One Hundred of you ever get safe to Heaven at last. God forbid that there should be room for any such uncharitable computation upon this Assembly. But this I say, 'tis well if many of us do not by our hypocrisy miscarry for ever.  
Shall I mention a few sorts of Men that have more peculiar cause to be suspicious of themselves?  
First, It is gross hypocrisy for a Man to pretend Religion, and intend something else; perhaps Knavery and villainy. It was a Devilish hypocrisy in Jezabel, to seem concerned for the Name of God, but really to pursue a covetous and malicious humour of her own. Thus Herod, will by all means worship our Lord; but his aim was to murder him. Thus Judas must by all means have the Poor well provided for; whereas, This he said not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a Thief. Such was the hypocrisy of Saul; he pretends for the Battles of the Lord, when the business was to destroy a Godly Neighbour: In a mighty Zeal for Israel, he must clear the Church of all the Gibeonites that were now got into it. Such a Zeal for the Church had he, that no Dissenters can be spared; but the bottom of the business might be their Lands, which lay near to his, might thus fall into his hands. Thus Absalom declares for Church-work, but Rebellion and Sedition lay at the bottom of all. 'Tis frequent for Men to cry up Diana, because of the Shrines. How many follow our Lord, because of the Loaves? Men will be Ministers to get a Living, and Church-Members to get an Office among their Neighbours. This was the hypocrisy of the Pharisees in Matth. 23.14. Ye devour widows houses, and for a pretence make long prayer. Their way was this; they pray d every day in the Synagogue; and they spent an Hour before Prayer, and an Hour after Prayer, in Meditation. Hence all People which now saw them spend so many Hours every Day in Prayer, concluded, These are brave Men; we can't better dispose of our Estates, than to put them into the hands of such Men as these! and so they got by the Trick. This now is pure hypocrisy.  
Secondly, It looks Hypocritically for Men to have a scrupulous tenderness about a thing of no consequence, and make no Conscience of the things that are most considerable. To strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel, is a certain mark in the Throat, by which an Hypocrite may be known. 'Tis true, that very good Men may be strict about very small things; and if we should see any of them to be more nice than wise, we may not call them, old Hypocrites; no, we should even deny ourselves of any thing but an opportunity to serve God, rather than disturb some of their little Fancies. But if one that seems very strict, perhaps about a Trifle, about which they have no Scripture, no Command of God, shall yet at the same time allow himself in cursed Immoralities; I would not have you call him so; but this I say, Let that man call himself an hypocrite. It was a rebuk dispensed by our Lord, in Matth. 23 23. Wo to you hypocrites, for ye pay tithes of mint, and anise, and cummin; and have omitted the weightier matters of the law judgement, mercy and faith; by Faith is meant fidelity to their Promises. Thus 'twere an Hypocritical thing for a Man to scruple taking a Lawful Interest for his Money, and yet make no Conscience of unconscionable Cheating, Fraudulence or Oppression otherwise. Thus also, are there any People that will be mighty fierce perhaps against an Innocent Fashion taken up among the People of God, and yet will be notorious Promise-breakers, and Revilers, and Slanderers; and can, it may be, indulge themselves in loathsome Sensualities? I make no stick to tell you, They are stark nought. The Jews forsooth, were scrupulous of entering the Judgment-Hall, because they had eaten the Passover the Night before, and the approach of the Sabbath called them now to prepare for the repetition of it, so that they must by no means be defiled; and yet these Miscreants were now committing the most execrable Cruelty and Bloodiness in the World! So there are those that w●ll bow at the Name of Jesus, and yet swear by that Holy Name There are those that will be all on fire upon some disputable thing in the Congregational or the Presbyterian Di●cipline, and yet can be drunk every now and then. What is this, but a most vile hypocrisy?  
Third●y, It is a shrowd sign of hypocrisy when Men are impatient at just and fit Reproofs bestowed upon them There are those who cannot stomach the public Reproofs of the Ministry; but like Stephens Hearers, they'll gnash their Teeth upon the ambassadors of God; yea, they'll strive rather to report them with an equal Impenitence and Absurdity. As now, our Lord reproved the Jews for that in Matth. 23.5. They make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments. It may be proved, that our Lord himself wore those Phy●acteries, and those Borders, though with a becoming Modesty. However, he taxes their Pride, and their Excess, and their hypocrisy in them things: Now, suppose that instead of reforming the Vices which he reproved, they should only have reproached him with such impertinent clamours, Why, does not he wear such things himself? 'Twould be a most ridiculous hypocrisy, so to divert from the Fault which notice had been taken of. And the private Reproofs of a Neighbourhood, are unsufferably distasted, though they have been sufficiently deserved by very many. If one would go to recover them out of an evil thing, I'll tell you how they must be treated; even as 'tis expressed in 2 Sam. 23.6, 7. They can't be taken with hands; but the man that shall touch them, must be fenced with iron. You must be wonderfully guarded; they'll not aclowledge any of their own offences, but instead of it, they'll ripp up as many of yours as can be devised. And if after all, they'll seem to thank you for advising them, they'll yet bear you a grudge and a spleen that will vent itself upon the first occasion. This now is a Brand of a most rotten Hypocrite.  
Fourthly, 'Tis an hundred to one, but hypocrisy towards Men, is accompanied with hypocrisy towards God. Our Carriage towards God and Men holds a very near correspondence. There are monstrous Flatterers in the World; they'll speak you fair, and be your humble Servants, and gladly do you the utmost Service; but they'll immediately behind your Back, do you all the mischief that can be contrived. Solomon has given you a Rule about them, in Prov. 26.25. He dissembles; when he speaks fair, believe him not; for there are seven abominations in his heart. Why, 'tis extremely probable that such People do but flatter the Great God himself. All their Piety is but Flattery; all the good they speak or do, is but from the Teeth outwards. And it is well if they don't flatter themselves too, till their iniquity be found hateful. These, and such as these, are they to whom it may be said, as in Acts 8.21. Thy heart is not right in the sight of God. But then,   

II. Let us all endeavour that we may not be found among those Hypocrites that must have a miserable portion at the last. You may observe, that the same Sinner who is in the Writings of David and Solomon called a Fool, is in the Book of Job called an Hypocrite. So then, if we would not be found Fools at last, or if we would not fall into all those Miseries which Fools must suffer because of their iniquities: O then look to it, that we be not Hypocrites before the Lord.  
When our Lord once had a bigger Auditory than this to Preach unto, and as 'tis reported, There were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, he thus began his Holy Sermon in Luke 12.1. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy. The leaven of the Pharisees is elsewhere expounded, The doctrine of the Pharisees. We should therefore in the first place, beware of corrupt Opinions, which may have a tendency like leaven, to swell and sour our Hearts within us, and so to make us Hypocrites. All corrupt Opinions are formally hypocrisy; they seem Truths when they are not so; but some such are effectively hypocrisy, they have a tendency to make Men hypocrites. If you think, as the Pharisees did, that the Law of God reaches no further than the Behaviours of our outward Man: If you think, as the Pharisees did, that a sober Life will save us, without a through Regeneration in our Souls; we shall be but hypocrites like the Pharisees. Thus, if it be your Opinion, that you have a Free-will of your own to spiritual good; that without a special work of Gods Grace upon your Souls, you can come up to the Terms of the Gospel; this Opinion will never carry a Man beyond hypocrisy. A disputing Arm●nian may perhaps be a true Child of God; he does not, he dares not act upon his own Assertions; but it may be demonstrated. That a practical Arminian cannot go beyond an hypocrite. But waving that, as our Saviour began his, thus let me conclude my Sermon, Beware of hypocrisy.  
To prosecute this, I only recommend these two things unto you.  
First, Zealous Prayers When the Apostle had found a Man, whose heart was not right, said he, in Acts 8.22. Pray to God. O cry mightily to Heaven, that you may not be left unto the delusions of hypocrisy. It was the Apostles course for his People, in Phil. 1.10. I pray that ye may be sincere. Let that be our course for ourselves; that none of you may be any Hypocrite. Pray much, pray hard, and pray Davids Prayer, Lord, make my heart sound in thy statutes. And,  
Secondly, Severe trials. Follow that method in 2 Cor. 13.5. Examine yourselves, prove your own Souls; and be very exact, curious, and jealous in the scrutiny. This is a thing which hypocrisy has usually a great antipathy unto; an Hypocrite can't endure the Touchstone, If you love to have your Hearts well ransacked for you, and if you are willing and ready to have the searchers come aboard you, to see what your loading and your clearing is, this will be an happy Token of your sincerity; and if you are often and strictly searching of your own Souls, lest you should have in you any undiscerned way of wickedness; this will be the way to prevent hypocrisy.  
I am sensible, that I have now delivered a Sermon, that will cause divers Persons to be inquisitive,   

How shall I know whether I been't an Hypocrite?  
One Token I have already given you; that is, Would you fain be tried?  
I would further add these two Notes.  
One is this; No Hypocrite can be humbly thankful for Afflictions, because he finds them to bring him nearer to God. The Hypocrite can't feelingly say, as in Psal. 119.71. It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I may learn thy statutes. Can you hearty bless God that he has crost you, scourged you, bereaved you, and thereby prevented your wandering from him? This I say, Hereby we know that we are passed from Death to Life.  
Another is this: No Hypocrite can live as under the Eye of the Great God. The Hypocrite can t really say, as in Psal. 16.8. I have set the Lord always before me. Do you realize the Omnipresence of God? and you so awed by that Omnipresence, as that you dare not live in those commissions, or those omissions, which none but the Infinite God could charge you for? Then I again say. Child, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee.     

The Door of Hope: OR, An Antidote against the Sin of Despair, in them that have been most guilty of other Sins.  EZEK. xxxvii. 2. 
Behold, they say, our Hope is lost. 〈◇〉  
IT is mentioned as the Special Design which calls for the Study and Labour of Gospel-Ministers, in Luke 3.4, 5. To prepare the way of the Lord, that every Valley may be filled, and every Mountain may be brought low. When the Lord is endeavouring the Conversion of sinful Fallen Men, he finds divers unhappy Obstacles lying in His way; and His way is particularly incommoded by both Mountains and valleys obstructing the Efficacies of His Word upon their Souls. There are the Mountains of Presumption, on which dark Mountains not a few unwary men stumble and perish for evermore. Those Mountains, I hope, are brought low among you. But there are also the valleys of Despair, which endanger the Souls of Men; many are those that lye in these dead●y shading valleys, there pining away in their Iniquities. To Fill those valleys with Counsels and Comforts fetch d from the Field of the Scriptures, must be the Attempt of our Discourse at this time; and the Text now rea●… will do us good Service in it.  
Ezekiel is by one of the Ancients well called, A Beholder of great things. Truly, 'tis a great thing which in this Chapter he is Beholding of. This Hieroglyphical Prophet, for so likewwise have Learned Men styled him, in the Beginning of this Chapter, Beholds the Restitution of Israel, exhibited under the Hieroglyphic of a Resurrection from the Dead. Israel was once Restored from the Babylonish Captivity; Israel shall yet be more wonderfully, and gloriously Restored from the Roman Captivity; both of these Retorations to that Body politic afford a Type of what our Natural Bodies will have experience of, at the Resurrection of the Just. But Spiritual Mysteries are also couched in this Admirable prophesy. All the Articles of it are fulfilled in the Conversion of a Sinner unto God. In that marvelous Work, a Dead Soul comes to be Raised, Shaped, Clothed, and Quickened; therein also the Mystical Body of Christ is completed, just according to the measures that are taken here. And therefore observing only that Aspect of my Text, you may discern in it the Circumstances of unconverted or unrenewed Men; they are desperate Circumstances. We have two things before us:  
First, Their Condition. Their Bones are dried; they lye in a Grave of Sin and Wretchedness, and they may sigh, I am Free among the Dead. They cannot stir, they cannot mind, they cannot speak, they are full of all Corruption and Rottenness, and consumed by the Worms of Guilt in the sepulchres of Unbelief.  
Secondly, Their Conclusion; Which is to be reckoned not only among the Effects, but also among the Causes of their sad Condition. They say, Our hope is lost; a dismal Despair siezes on their Spirits; which as it Afflicts them, so likewise it Restrains them. It seems mentioned as the Grave ston, which helps to keep them in the Grave of their Calamities. Whence the Doctrine before us, is,  

DOCTRINE. A sinful and woeful Despair is one of the unhappy En●anglements, which Lo●t men often lie under the power of.  
The Lost Souls of Men come to be yet more Lost, by their Apprehensions that their Hopes are Lost. Their being without Hope is that which more than any thing bushes them beyond Help.  

PROP. I.  
All Men by Nature are Lost Men; or, to continue the Figure in our text, All Men are Dead Men. We must Reflect upon this, because here lies the Pinch in the Despair which we are to treat about. The Souls of Men by sin are plunged into all the Miseries of Death. All Unconverted Men may say, Our Bones are Dried; they may say, Our Souls are Dead. When Lazarus had been Four Days in the Belly of the Earth, his Body was not in a more forlorn estate than is the Soul of every Unconverted Man. His Case is that in Eph. 2.1. Dead in Trespasses and Sins. For, First, A Sentence of Death is Passed upon all Adam's Children by the judgement of God. Man had no sooner ●●●ned, but from the Mouth of God, there came that fearful Doom upon him, in Gen. 2.17. Thou shalt surely die. He now stands obliged in most indissoluble and indispensible Bonds, to suffer all the Plagues which the Justice and Vengeance of the Almighty God may inflict upon him. And then, That Sentence of Death, is in a dreadful measure already executed upon every Man that is not brought home to God. 'Tis said in John 3.36. He that Believeth not, but the Wrath of God Abiding on him. The Devil, who is the Angel of Death, has the Sinner in his cruel Hands; the Executioners of Gods terrible Wrath, are cutting and mangling of him every day. They serve him, as the Philistines did poor samson; they bind him, they blind him, and they make him grinned for them, in the House of Death. He is become the Captive of the Mighty, and the Prey of the Terrible Ones. Moreover, This undone Man is utterly unable to Help himself out of this undone State. And there is a concurrence of two things to this Lamentable Incapacity of the Ungodly Man. First, The Man has no Price to pay. He cannot Buy off the Punishment that Sin has devoted him unto: Suppose he could now begin to live a sinless Life, yet that would not across the old Score; the Debts of Satisfaction owing to the Holy God for the many former Transgressions and Violations of his Holy Law, would not thus be canceled. The Law calls for no less than an Innocent Nature, and an uninterrupted Obedience, which none of us all, after our First sin, can pretend unto; it says in Gal. 3.10. Cursed is he that continues not. But besides, the Man cannot but be sinning, and sinning every day. And what has he, wherewith to make amends for the Wrongs done to that God, who is of purer Eyes than to behold Evil and who cannot look upon Iniquity? The Sinner has Nothing to pay; and hence in Rev. 3.17. he is called, A poor and a naked Man. The Infinite God makes this Demand, Let my stained Glory be Repaired, or thou shalt lye in the Fiery Prison of my Wrath for ever. But the Man has nothing to offer by way of Reparation unto God; though he should spend all his Dayes in Tears and Prayers, and the most prodigious Mortifications, what would they signify? 'Tis confessed in Ps. 130.3. O Lord, If thou shouldst mark Iniquity, Lord, who should stand? Secondly, The Man has also no Power to Employ. He cannot shake off the Slavery which he is by Sin Engaged in. Hence he is in Rom. 5.6. said to be, without strength. The Call of the Lord Redeemer unto him is, Look to me and be saved; but alas! he is without strength. The Call is Come to me and have Rest; but alas! he is without strength. It was an humbling Expostulation used unto them, in John 5.44. How can ye believe? 'Tis to be used unto every Natural Man; How canst thou escape the Drudgeries of thy Hellish Task masters? How canst thou avoid the violent Oppressors of thy Soul? How canst thou come to love and serve God? The Answer, is, It cannot be done, except the Son make him free.   

PROP. II.  
There is a sinful and woeful despair which lost M●n are liable unto. Because they see no help for their Souls in themselves, they are apt to think, there is no hope for their Souls any where else. They rashly conclude, There is no hope that ever we shall come to live in the favour and the fellowship of God. All hopes of having their Souls brought into the glorious liberty of the Children of God, seem Romantick and Ridiculous things unto them. 'Tis said of all unconverted Men, in Eph. 2.12. they are without Christ, and having no hope. 'Tis true of all unregenerate Men, that they have no ground of hope to be saved from the perdition which they have plunged themselves into, while they remain unregenerate. 'Tis said of the Lord Jesus Christ, in 1 Tim. 1.1. He is our hope. The Unregenerate Man knows of no Interest that he has in the Mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ; and therefore he hath no hope. But of some Unregenerate it is further true, that they have no sense of hope to be saved. And these are of two sorts. There are some on the one side hopeless, because they are thoughtless. They can't be said to have any hope of beholding the Face of God in Righteousness, and being satisfied with his likeness; or any hope of rising at the last Day to be for ever with the Lord. For they never thought of such things as these. 'Tis said of the stupid wicked Man in Psal. 10.4. God is not in all his thoughts; and hence, Life is not in all his hopes. But on the other side, there are some hopeless, because they count themselves helpless. They have such an exquisite sense of the Difficulties which their Sins have reduced them into, that they cannot imagine their case capable of any redress, any relief. They conceive the Terms between God and them come to such a pass, that they must perish without any remedy or escaping. This is true despair. The sinful and woeful despair of Men is properly this, 'Tis a disconsolate imagination of something in the Purpose or the Power of God which makes their Salvation to be a thing improbable, if not impossible. Two things are very distinguishing in this Despair. First, 'Tis with reference to God that Salvation is herein despaired of; otherwise. 'tis not a sinful and woeful despair. When the Psalmist was tempted unto despair, he said in Psal 3.2 Many there be which say of my soul, there is no help f r him in God. The despairing Man affirms to hims lf, either that God cannot, or at least that God will not▪ rescue him from the destruction. which is a terror to him. Either he says with Cain My sin cannot be forgiven; or with Job, God counts me for his enemy. And then, The po●ture of the Soul, in this despair, is not now secure and easy, but very fearful; 'tis according to that in Heb. 10.27. There remains a certain fearful expectation of judgement, and fiery devouring indignation. When Hezekiah was in despair of his recovery from Sickness, I reckoned( said he) from day even to night, thou wilt make an end of me. Even so, the Man in despair keeps reckoning from day to night, that he is a cast-away, and that Snares, Fire and Brimstone, and an horrible Tempest, are just ready to fall upon him: He keeps reckoning, I may be in Hell before to morrow! Amazing Frights, intolerable Agonies and Anguishes, are hence caused in the Mans awakened Soul; they procure the wounded spirit, which who can bear?   

PROP. III.  
And this despair is an unhappy entanglement unto the Soul that is under the efficacy of it; it extremely prejudices the Conversion of the Sinner unto God. And this upon two accounts.  
First, By despair all Action is diverted. All Mankind is governed by that Proverb, As good sit still, as rise up and fall down. No Man will act without an end. What is the end of our Conversion? 'Tis the end of our Faith, the salvation of the Soul When this end is wholly despaired of, 'tis even against the Principles of common Reason, that a Man should be at any pains to turn unto the Lord, or that he should go to work out his own Salvation. 'Tis intimated in Jer. 2.25. Thou saidst, there is no hope. No; for I have loved strangers, and after them I will go. q. d. We have so long and so far departed from God, that we despair of any Reconciliation with him; wherefore we will even go on as we have done all this while. Ah, that dull word, There is no hope! it cuts the sinews of all endeavours in the World. Thus, let a despairing Person be called upon to believe, he replies, No, there is no hope I shall ever be accepted. Let him be called upon to repent, he replies, No, there is no hope I shall ever be pardonned. Let him be urged to attend the means of Grace, he rejoins, No, there is no hope I should ever get any good by them. And the issue is, After idols he will go.  
Secondly, By despair God himself is provoked. 'Tis a thing wherein Men add sin to sin. 'Tis the property, especially of all gross and great Sins, to render Conversion harder than it was before. The more Men sin against God, the wider distance do they make between him and them. Now despair is one of the most scarlet and crimson, and bloody abominations in the World. It is a most roaring Sin; and there are multiplied Blasphemies in the Bowels of it. It was a nefandous Blasphemy of Spira, My Sin is greater than the Mercy of God. Most hideous! But this is the Language of Despair. 'Twas said of those despairing People in Psal. 78.19. They spake against God, they said, can God? harken you that say, Can God pity such a Sinner as I am! You that say, Can God find in his Heart to save me, after all that I have been, and done amiss? You speak against God in saying so; 'tis horrible Blasphemy! Austin said of Cain, His Despair was a greater Sin than his Murder. Truly, 'tis not easy to commit a greater Sin.   

The First USE.  
Now, let not a sinful and woeful Despair of Salvation entangle any of our Souls. I am to address this Exhortation even to the oldest and the vilest Sinners among us all; and unto you I say, let not any despair of success hinder you from repairing to the Lord Jesus Christ with your labouring and heavy laden Souls. Qui nile sperare potest, desperet nihil. Be your case never so bad, however, do not say, our hope is lost; but rather hear that Voice of God concerning your Salvation, in Ezra 10.2. You have trespassed; yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. I would essay,  

I. To lay some Considerations before despairing Soul●.  
Consider. 1. Your Salvation is a thing which the Glory of the Great God will be much furthered and advanced by. You think it an hard thing for God to save you; but God will think it a good thing, and for his own Honour and Interest. Perhaps you despair of Mercy, because you have been a more than ordinary Sinner. But, O consider, a more than ordinary glory will come to God, if such an one as you be saved after all. What is the grand aim of God in the Justification of the Ungodly? 'Tis to get himself a great Name; 'tis as we are  told in Rom. 5.8. To commend his love unto us. O 'twill commend the love of God exceedingly, for the worst of Sinners to be made partakers of it. An extraordinary Sinner in this Country being Fifty Years old, and being brought home to God a few Weeks before he dyed, had these for some of his last words All Heaven rings at this! A great and an old Sinner coming to glory! It is a strange but a sweet expression in Psal. 25.11. For thy Names sake O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. What a word is that! You say, God won't pardon my iniquity, for it is great, But the hope of the Psalmist argues another way; The Lord will pardon it, for it is great. Great Sinners procure great Praises un o our God, when they have experience of his Mercy. The greater the all, the greater the Cure. A very triumphant shout of Grace! Grace! will follow on the saving of such a Soul as thine! O go pled this with the God of Heaven!  
Consider. 2. The Gospel invitation makes your Salvation among the things that may be hoped for. God has done the Acts of one desiring your Salvation; he has done just as one willing that you should all com● unto Repentance. Why should you have any doubt of your being excluded from his Mercy? The Lord Jesus Christ is come into the World, one mighty to save, one able to save unto the uttermost. And who are concerned in it? We are  told in 1 Tim. 1.15. it was the chief of Sinners. It may be thou hast been even a Ring-leader in wickedness, yet such as you did the Lord Jesus appear to save. He does invite every one of you to come unto himself; he says in Isa. 55.1. Ho every one that chirsteth, come. He says in John 7.37. If any man thirst, let him come. You say, I don't thirst. To that I Answer, Are you willing to come? Then you thirst. You may come; 'tis said in Rev. 22.17. Whosoever will, let him come. Behold, the Great King this day holds out the Golden sceptre to every one of you all; you may all draw near and live. What can be more full than that in Joh. 6.37. Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. What? Is thy Name excepted there? Did the Lord Jesus ever say, I except John such an one? Or, I except Mary such an one? Truly, no. Immortal Souls, the loud Call of the Lord Jesus from the lofty Battlements of Heaven, is that in Isa. 45.22. Look unto me, and be saved. And we have a Commission from our Glorious Royal Master to tell you, That you are all concerned in it. The Man in thy Clothes, Thou art the Man whom this belongs unto. God says, You may be saved; why will you say, I mayn't. Impudent Potsherd, give not the lie to God.  
Consider. 3. As guilty, as ruined, and as hopeless Persons, as any of you, have been already saved by the Lord. And what should make your Salvation then such a despaired thing? Abraham himself was once an Idolater, and yet I suppose you would be glad to be in Abrahams Bosom. There was one who had been a dishonest, a debauched Woman, a mere Harlot; yet was it said of her, in Luke 7.47. Her sins, which are many, are forgiven. And why may it not come to be said of you? Suppose you had been even a Witch, one that had with your very Blood signed a Covenant with the Devil! yet were it possible for you to be saved. What was Menasseh of old? Such a desolate Creature in this Country once was judged to die a true Penitent; and the Scripture that proved her Comfort was that in Zech. 13.1. There is a fountain set open for sin and for uncleanness. The most bloody Crimes have in that open Fountain been washed away. Turn to 1 Cor. 6.9, 10, 11. one says, Hell itself can't afford a blacker Catalogue of Offenders: Yet of them, 'tis added, You are justified, you are sanctified. What shall I say more? Some of those very Men that murdered the Son of God himself, even those were saved by him whom they had pierced. Never despair after this! Let me a●sure you, those very Sins which cause you to despair, there are Saints now singing before God in Heaven, that once were defiled by those very Sins.  
Consider. 4. However you may make a trial. There can be no hurt in trying, whether you can turn and live▪ or no There is at least, a, who knoweth? There is a, w●● c●n tell? of Salvation for you. You may say like the Lepers, in 2 King. 7.4. If we sit still we die; now therefore let us go forth, if they save us alive, we shall live. Be sure, if you do nothing towards your own Salvation, you die. But if you try to seek the Face of God, if you try to take the Grace of Christ, you may be saved alive. The Command, Repent and believe the gospel, is to you: Now do like the Man that had the withered hand: Our Lord said, Stretch it out; he tried it, and he did it. Never despair, but make a trial of what the Lord may do for you. Cast yourselves at his Feet, and resolve, If I perish, I will perish here. Never, I am persuaded, never any Soul miscarried, that made such Applications. I would study,   

II. To solve some Objections of Despairing Souls.  
Despair is a very unreasonable thing; yet the despairing will pretend some Reasons for it.  

The First Reason of Despair.  
I have sinned under great Aggravations, I have sinned against Light, against Love, against Vows, and for a long while; and may I be pardonned?  
ANSWER.  
Thus do you say. But what says the Lord? in Isa. 1.18. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be read like crimson, they shall be as wool. A poor Malefactor once going to his Execution, had that Pathetical Expression in his Mouth, O, God is a great forgiver! God is a great forgiver! Souls, you may find him so after all your aggravated Sins. Though you have sinned against your own knowledge, yet it is the Character of our God, in Exod 34.6. He forgives iniquity, transgression and sin Tho' you have sinned against Gods Mercy, yet it is the Attribute of our God, in Mic. 7.18. He delights in pardoning of iniquity. Perhaps you have been ready to sin; but this we may be sure of in Neh. 9.17. he is a God ready to pardon, a God of Pardons, even full of them. Have you broken your Vows? Then renew them, and return to God, who then says in Isa. 55.7. He will have mercy, and abundantly pardon It may be you have maintained a long War with God; yet now at last lay down the Arms of Rebellion; the Lord says, To day, after so long a time; 'tis not yet altogether too late. You that are grown old, and gray, and horrible ripe in your evil ways, hear now that charm in Jer. 3.1. Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, yet return again to me, saith the Lord. In the Primitive Times there was one Victorius, a very Old Man, converted unto Christianity; the Church would not receive him for some time; for thought they, Old Men use not so to be converted unto God; but he did evidence the reality of his Conversion so, that then they sang Hymns upon it in the Christian Assemblies, and it was every where shouted, Victorius is become a Christian! Truly Father, such an Acclamation may yet be made of you. God grant that it may be so.   

The second Reason of Despair.  
I have played the Hypocrite before God. I have lived a stranger to God, under an high profession of his Name, Yea, I have eat and drank unworthily at the Table of the Lord. And is there any hope for such an one as I?  
ANSWER.  
Yes, if you now seriously bewail, and forsake your own hypocrisy; and if you now come to a more through closure with Jesus Christ. Some eminent Ministers have been first converted by their own Sermons. 'Twas said unto one in Acts 8.21, 22. Thy heart is not right: repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray to God. To you is the charge given.   

The third Reason of Despair.  
I fear the Spirit of God has done striving with me, so hard is this heart of mine become; and then I am past hope for ever.  
ANSWER.  
And are you indeed afraid of this? Are you concerned about it? That is a certain sign that the Good Spirit is yet striving with you. 'Tis in some degree a soft Heart, that feelingly complains of an hard Heart. The Blessed Spirit of God is at work upon you in those very Troubles which you are now exercised with.   

The fourth Reason of Despair.  
I have long laboured in vain; I have prayed long, and begged long, for some glimpse of Gods good Will unto me; but he has hitherto denied me; and is not this a sign that I am a Reprobate?  
ANSWER.  
No But if you can follow God in the dark, 'tis a sign that you are one of his Children, one of his Chosen. Can you continue crying for the Favour of God, though he seem to call you, a Dog? He will then quickly say, O Soul, great is thy Faith! Well, hold on, pray still, beg still. Say like him in Luke 5.5. We have toiled all night, and have caught nothing; nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net again. Who knows what the next pull may bring?   

The fifth Reason of Despair. I doubt I have committed the unpardonable Sin; and then all my hope is lost for evermore.  
ANSWER.  
This is a Temptation which usually persons at their first Conversion are troubled with. But are you indeed fearful of this? Then you are not guilty of it. Moreover, have you any value for the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? Or, would you be sorry to see the People, or the Servants of the Lord Jesus, ruined? Are you not implacably set against all the Interest of God? Then be of good cheer; you have been kept from the great transgression.  
Well then, let not the clogs of this Despair any more ob●truct your Conversion unto God. But I should seek,    

III. To give some Directions to despairing Souls. To such, I would only say,  
First, Do not mistake, and you need not despair; especially have right Thoughts about a closure with Jesus Christ. It is not to be supposed, that we may not lay hold on Christ by Faith, till we find such and such remarkable degrees of Humiliati●n in us. Those Books which tell us we presume if we believe, before we have arrived unto certain high strains of Contrition in us, will not bring us to sincere Conversion, but sorrowful Desperation. Would you have an Heart that may mourn and bleed for Sin? To close with the Lord Jesus Christ, is the way to get such an Heart. We are not to tarry from Jesus Christ until our Hearts are good; but we must carry what Hearts we have unto the Lord Jesus, for the mending and changing of them.  
Secondly, Though you despair never so much, yet use no indirect courses in it.  
In Despair some will, with a sort of Sorcery, go to comfort or condemn themselves. It was a great Impiety in one under Despair, to throw a Glass on the Ground, and say, As sure as that breaks, I am damned! though God with infinite Compassion prevented the breaking of it. It is as bad for Persons to let the Bible fall open of itself, resolving that the first word they see, shall settle their Opinion of themselves. An ordinary, but an ungodly practise! The Old Heathen used this piece of Witchcraft on the Books of their Homer and Virgil. 'Tis a thing as impious as perilous to abuse the Sacred Bible so.  
In Despair, others with self-murder go to destroy themselves. But unto all that are hurried hereunto, I do, as Paul to the Jaylor, cry with a loud voice, Do thyself no harm. Deceived Soul, as yet thou hast a Door of Hope, thou mayst yet become an Holy and an Happy Soul, and a Companion of the Angels for evermore. But if thou art a self-murderer, there is no hope; such wicked Rebels and Fighters against God, go down to the pit, in a manner so impenitent, that commonly we cannot hope for them. You then that are haunted with solicitations hereunto, hear the charge of God; go presently, and reveal your Case to some Godly and Able Friend. Neither take nor keep the Devils Counsel; for you have yet an accepted time, yet a day of Salvation.  
These things may be spoken, that you may not despair. But let no Pillows be thereby sown under the Arms of them, whom the Lord says, there is no peace unto. Let every Man despair of ever seeing the Kingdom of God, unless he be born again. Let every Man despair of escaping the Worm which dieth not, and the Fire which never shall be quenched, if he do not pluck out his Right-Eye, and cut off his Right-Hand before the Lord. red that Scripture, take that warning in Deut. 29.19, 20. If a man bless himself in his heart, and say, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart: The Lord will not spare, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man. O consider of it.    

The Second USE.  
Nor let any despair of Deliverance discourage the People of God in their low Estate.  
The People of God are sometimes in a Babylon of Oppression and Confusion; there is a Mystical Babylon in the World. Here the People of God sometimes lie under such disadvantages, that they say, Our Bones are dyed, out Hope is lost. Yet be of good courage; for, Thus saith the Lord God. Behold▪ O my people, I will open your graves. The People of God are delivered at a time when there could be least expectation of it. It will be when we ourselves are at the lowest ebb of Distress; when we are come, Nullam sperare salutem; when Isaac is on the Altar bound; when we have none shut up or left. Then, then it is that God appears to save. 'Tis said in Psal. 12.5. For the oppress●on of the poor, for the sighing of the needy▪ now will I arise▪ saith the Lord; I will set him in safety. 'Twas thus when the Reformation began. All Christendom was then covered with an Hell of Ignorance and Barbarity. At that time, what was done for the Church of God, in England particularly, made a Foreigner say of it, The past Ages despaired of it, the present Age does admire it▪ the future Ages will be astonished at it. Such things are done by God for his People when they say of themselves, We are brought very low! And it will be when our Enemies are at the highest flood of Insolence and Wickedness. When Pharaoh said, I will pursue them into the wilderness, I will overtake them, I will divide the spoil, my lust shall be satisfied upon them, then was the Leviathan soon given for meat unto the people inhabiting the wilderness. When the Scarlet Whore brags, I shall see no sorrow, then 'tis that all her plagues come at once. 'Twas said in Nah. 1.11. While they be folden together as thorns, and while they are d●unken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry. Mark, when ill Men have so closely and aptly laid their matters, that like folded thorns they may prick all about them, and yet never fear to be taken asunder; when they have their Drunken Cabals, and are further drunk with Confidence and Security, then it is that the consuming Wrath of God falls upon them. The surly Captains that cried, Come down, thou Man of God, come down quickly! instead thereof, they felt the Fire of God come down upon them. Thus, when Men are come to say, Come down Churches! or come down Sermons! or come down Ministers, come down quickly; then the Great God will quickly bring his Fiery Thundering Plagues upon them. Such Men, did they make a right use of their Bibles, they could not but be terrified by that Word of God, in Jer. 5.28. Among my people are found wicked men; they set a trap, they catch men: As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit, therefore they are become great, and waxed rich. It follows, Saith the Lord, shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Well then,  
In the worst of Times and Things, let the thought of this encourage Faith and Prayer, and let Patience also upon this account have its perfect work: Leave all Vengeance to the Lord. Let us wait on the Lord, and keep his way. Let us wait on the Lord, and be of good courage: Wait, I say, on the Lord.     

Honey at the end of the Rod: OR, Help for the Internal Distempers with which External Afflictions are usually accompanied.  HEB. xii. 5. 
My Son, Despise not thou the Chastening of the Lord, nor Faint when thou art Rebuked of Him.  
THE World has never yet seen the Day, since the Sin and Fall of our unhappy Father, wherein any Man alive had not cause to say, like him in Lam. 3.1. I am the Man that hath seen Affliction. But the World is now plunged into that Age, wherein perilous Times do put some special Accents, both of Bitterness and Frequency, upon that Affliction which Mankind is exposed unto. And that little part of the World, unto which we belong, encounters with such complicated Judgments of Heaven, as render Affliction yet further considerable among ourselves. 'Tis no little Affliction, that Sword▪ and Plague, and Fire, at once coming upon a poor People must needs be the occasion of. Hence 'tis, that some Afflicted Persons are mourning over their sickly Bodies, and making the Complaint of Job, Wearisome Nights are appointed unto me, my Skin is broken and become loathsome. Some Afflicted Persons are mourning over their broken Estates, and sighing the Complaint of Naomi, I am become Empty. And not a few, are weeping over their departed Friends from Day to Day. One wrings her Hands, like the Distressed Widow that came to Elisha, saying, They Servant my Husband is Dead. Another laments his being in the condition of Ezekiel, having lest the Desire of his Eyes with a stroke. Here you shall hear the Moans of an Orphan, saying like David, My Father and my Mother do forsake me. And there you shall see bereaved Parents, in the posture of Rachel, weeping for their children▪ and refusing to be comforted for their children▪ because they are not. But, behold in these Words a counsel proper for all these Children of Affliction. It is in this very Text intimated unto us. That the God of Heaven has in the Scripture of Truth made provision for the direction of them that shall be in affliction, and that our miscarriage in affliction proceeds from our not remembering and regarding of this all profitable Word. I know not whether there be any one thing of a greater Figure in a Christian Conversation, than the right bearing of affliction; and the Text now before us▪ will assist us to discourse upon that blessed Skill.  
One of the best Preachers and Writers that ever lived▪ is under the Inspiration of the Almighty here making some Use of the Doctrine delivered by him in the former part of his Epistle to the Christianised▪ but Apostatising Hebrewes; and indeed, that was the usual Method of his Holy Sermons. The Apostolical Exhortation in our Context, is, unto a patient perseverance under all the afflictions which our profession of Christianity may be attended with; and several, weighty▪ pungent Arguments▪ do in our Context press that Exhortation. One of those Arguments is contained in the Verse now red unto us; 'Tis drawn, from the Gracious Design of God, in all those afflictions which he doth exercise us with. All the afflictions that we are squeeze d withal, whether we consider them on our part, or on Gods part, they carry in them very charming Characters. On our part, our afflictions come as witnesses; they are to witness our being those Children, whose Nurture the Great God is very careful of. On Gods part, our afflictions come as chastisements; they are to chastise us into that holiness, and fruitfulness, which the God of Heaven is well-pleased with. All of this is insinuated unto us in our Text; which is, My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when rebuked of him. Before I give you those Remarks, which I am to make upon this Golden Sentence, you must let me mind you of those that are here made by the Apostle Paul himself. The Text is a Quotation of what fell from the Pen of Solomon Hundreds of Years before, in Prov. 3.11. My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction The Apostle observes, That it is an Exhortation, which may also be rendered, a Consolation; there is indeed Comfort as well as Counsel contained in it. He again observes, That it speaks; no part of the Bible is to be a dumb or a dead Letter to us; there is a Voice in every Line of it. He also observes, That it speaks to us; The Oracles of the Bible, though they were at first more immediately directed unto these or those, that are now dead and gone, yet we should count our selves as intimately concerned therein, as if we were by Name Addressed in them. He likewise observes, That it speaks to us, as to Children. It is in the Quality of a Father that our God afflicts us from time to time; and it becomes us to maintain the Frames and Hopes of Children under such Fatherly Dispensations. He furthermore observes, That our Afflictions are both Chastenings and Rebukes of God upon us; they are Chastenings, which implies Corrections with Instructions to our Souls; they are also Rebukes, which implies Convictions o● what is a●iss in us; in short, they are but parts of the Liberal Education which our Heavenly Father bestows upon us. I may safely tell you, that all these ●re Notes which the Apostle Paul himself would have made upon this Text, if he had been to have gi●en you a Sermon upon it; for I find the● lying plainly before us here. 'Tis therefore no ill husbandry of the Hour now running▪ to take notice of those Observations; but there is one more which the Apostle would leave us to Raise. 'Tis, That there are two Distempers which we should under all Afflictions be concern d for the avoiding of; that in all our Afflictions we should keep up a Temper, both in our Courage and in our Patience; that in our Afflictions, there is a despising, which is an Excess, or an Error on the Right Hand, and there is a desponding, which is a Defect, or an Error on the Left Hand, very Religiously to be watched against. In fine, This is the Observation which we have to insist upon,  
That on the one side a despising of, on the other side, a desponding at, Afflictions, is an Evil which 'tis our Duty carefully to avoid.  
Behold now incumbent on us a double Duty, with reference to those Afflictions which in an evil World we meet withal.  

I. It must be our study to avoid the despising of Afflictions We must not slight them, contemn them, disregard them, or treat them as if we were not concerned in them; but a positive Respect un●o them, is also required of us.  
First. It is our Duty to be affectionately sensible of the Blows, which by Afflictions are given to us: A quick sense usually accompanies the Grace of God in the Heart of Man. A stupid, and a sottish Temper under Afflictions, is very contrary to the Expectations of the Lord our God; a Stoical Apathy is no Christian virtue; but it is mentioned as a great provocation, in Jer 5.3. O Lord, Thou hast strike them, but they have not grieved. Our God has bestowed Affections upon us, and He expects that they should be suitably moved by such Afflictions as He shall visit us withal. We must not receive the blows of God, like a Stock fish, without any feeling of them; but every afflicted Man should with some sensible Passions feel, This is a sore Chastening and rebuk upon me. It was brought in as a sad Indictment against that insensible People, in Isa. 42.25. The fire burned him, yet he laid it not to heart. For Afflictions to come and burn us out of our Enjoyments, and yet for us to keep Hearts untouched with a sense of what has befallen us, is to despise the Chastening of the Lord. It is to put off Humanity itself; and, I pray, what Rule have we in Divinity for doing so? We should have our pensive Resentments of our Afflictions, whether we look upon them as natural or as penal Evils. There never was a stouter Hero than David, who yet melted into Tears when he saw the Frowns of God upon him. When one was taken with a Distemper, that had some resemblance to the Small Pox, it was said of her, in Numb. 12.14. If her Father had spit in her Face, should she not be ashamed? Thus ought we to entertain our Afflictions, as things that are to humble us, and abase us before the Lord. There is a comfortable Order of our Conditions and Circumstances, which God himself has implanted into us the desires of; this Order is invaded and disturbed by all of our Afflictions; and it is a Sin for us now to stupefy our just Apprehensions hereof, by saying, Well, It can't be helped; and, There's an end on't; or by using the Cauteries which were the Common Reliefs of the Ancient Heathen, in their Distresses; this is, as one says, to have in our Souls a Calm, like that of the Dead Sea; 'tis indeed a Calm with a Curse.  
Secondly. It is our Duty to be awfully sensible of the Hand from which Afflictions come unto us. We must not reckon our Affliction to be mere casual Events, or the Effects of Injustice and Injury from our Neighbours; but we are to think, as in Amos 3.6. Shall there be Evil in the City, and the Lord hath not done it? No, There shall not be so much as an House in all the Town robbed or burned, but there shall be a doing of the Lord about it. In our Afflictions, we must look beyond Second Causes, and believe the Providence of the Great God about them all, and say with ourselves, I have to do with God in all of these Calamities. Many in their Afflictions only look downward; but we are to cast our Eyes another way, and look upward, that we may see the Original of all our Troubles; and we are to think, like him in Job 5 ● Affliction comes not forth of the Dust, neither d ●h Trouble spring out of the Ground. It may be that Affliction has laid our delights in the Dust, and in the ground▪ yet we must not think the Affliction proceeds from so low a cause. In all our losses, it becomes us to say with him of old, The Lord has taken away; and in all the wrongs that have been done unto us, we should say with him, ●Tis God has bidden it. Though the Arrows of Affliction that are shot at us, do seem to come never so much at a venture, yet we must persuade ourselves that the Hand of God has the directing of them. Afflicted Men do often say, 'twas their Fortune to meet with such or such a disaster; thy Fortune, Man; for shane, take no● the Name of that Idol into thy Mouth. We may not ascribe unto a blind chance any of those Afflictions which our affairs are crippled with. Although the Hand of God in our Afflictions be wrapped up in a Cloud, yet should the sight of our Souls penetrate unto it; and God should not be concealed from us by the crowd of immediate Agent, which are the Instruments of our Vexations.  
Thirdly, It is our Duty to be Piously sensible of the end for which Afflictions come upon us. We must imagine that our Afflictions are managed by the alwise God, with some aim at our amendment and improvement; and we should often ask, like her of old, Why am I thus? 'Tis the Command in Mic. 6.9. Hear the rod. We are to think that there is a loud call and voice of God in every Rod with which he does afflict us; we should labour to know, and labour to do those things about which our Afflictions are the Monitors of our God unto us. In all Afflictions we should seriously request, like him in Job 10.3. show me wherefore thou contendest with me. We should inquire what Sin our Afflictions come to correct us for? and we should presently set upon a through Repentance of that evil way; we should presently ston that Achan which has been the Troubler of us; and we should presently cast over the Wall the Head of that Sheba which has caused the Armies of Heaven to beleagure us. We should inquire what good our Afflictions come to excite us to? And we should presently set upon the expressing of that Grace and the performing of that work, which we find ourselves now under a new obligation to; we should presently bring forth such Fruits as all our prunings and purgings are designed for. If our Afflictions produce not such things as these upon us, they are but like stripes bestowed upon the hid of a wild Asses Colt. Never was there a sadder or a blacker brand upon a miserable Man, than that in 2 Chron. 28.22. In the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord. And there never was a more doleful sight in the World, than that of a Thief on the across continuing his malignity against the Son of God. Would you hear what is meet for us under our Afflictions? I ll tell you then, in the best words that can be spoken; I mean those in Job 34.31. Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have born chastisement, I will not offend any more. If we do not thus behave ourselves under our Affliction, we despise the chastening of the Lord. But this is not all our Duty; pars superest.   

II. It must also be our study to avoid the desponding at Afflictions. Our Souls must not suffer any dissolution by them; nor must we suffer ourselves to be thereby relaxed into the disorders of Impatience. But more positively and particularly.  
First, It is our Duty to undergo Afflictions with a submissive Contentation of Soul. We must keep our Souls from those Deliquia ac Deliria, those wretched swoonings which Afflictions may dispose us unto. But how? 'Tis said in Luke 21.19. In your patience possess ye your souls. There is a sinful Patience, which renders the Soul a Galley-slave, there is a Brutal Patience which renders the Soul an Issachar, under all Afflictions; and there is a Moral Bravery which Pagans have sometimes born their Trials with. But our Lord says, You must have[ your] Patience; 'tis a Christian Patience, which we are to be studious of. Under Afflictions, we have these Two comprehensive Things to do, for the contenting of us; both of them intimated in Psal. 39.9.  
1. Under Afflictions we are to suppress all Tumultuous Discomposures in ourselves; there is an Holy Silence which we are now to command ourselves into. Our God says to us, as to the disconsolate Parent in Jer. 31.16. Refrain thy Voice from weeping, and thine Eyes from Tears. Be not immoderate in any of thy Lamentations. There are Discomposures of Tongue which are now to be restrained. In our Afflictions we must beware of hasty Wishes; we may not now fly out into the Distemper of Elijah, when he was even tired with his Troubles, and said, It is enough; now▪ O Lord, take away my Life. Nor may we now fall into the Distemper of Job, when he saw that he was not enough pitied by his Neighbours, May their Soul be in my Souls s●ead In our Afflictions we must beware of hasty Censures too We may not now Fret at God, like those di●tressed ones whom the Prophet compares to Wi●d Bulls in a Net, filled with the Fury of the Lord. Nor may we now Rail at Man, like the Raging Israelites in the Wilderness, crying out upon Moses, as the author of all the Destruction that came upon them. There are likewise Discomposures of Heart, which are now to be Restrained. says the Apostle, I would have you without Distraction; there are Cares and Griefs which wonderfully distracted the Souls of them[ like an Army in a Rout] that across Accidents come tumbling in upon. We must not suffer our Souls to be distracted or divided into incohaerent Motions as may unfit us for Communion with the Lord our God. We must not like David once upon the loss of a Son, lay the Reins upon the Nccks of the Wild-Beasts that are within us; but we must come to such a Quietness and Settlement of our Souls, as the sorrowful Hannah had, when she had poured out her Soul unto the Lord. And then, under our Afflictions we must fetch all our Peace from our Converse with the Blessed God in all His Attributes; we must quell our own unruliness by remembering, Yn God that has done all that I feel. 'Tis the Sight of God that must alloy all the Madness and Foaming which we now find ourselves prove unto; thus Moses in Heb. 11.27. Endured, as seeing him who is In●isible. We should keep our Souls in Order, by having our Eyes upon the Sovereignty of God. We must confess, as in Job 9.12. None may say to Him, What dost thou? And for this Reason, we should have no secret Clamours in our Souls, when he goes to meddle with any of our Darlings; we must have no Meum and Tuum in our Transactions with God, but let Him take all, because as David said once of his Riches, Lord, All of this is Thine alone. We should likewise keep our Souls in Order, by having our Eyes upon the Righteousness of God. We must confess, as in Neh. 9.33. Thou art Just in all that is brought upon us, for thou hast done Right, but we have done wickedly: and for this Reason we should be free from all Murmurings at what comes upon us. In the worst of our Difficulties, we should call to mind, My own Doings have procured these things unto me! and say, Why should any Man alive complain of the punishment of his Iniquities? We should moreover, Eye the Wisdom of God, for the Calming our Souls. We must confess with him in Psal. 119.175. Thou in Faithfulness hast Affiicted me. And therefore we should persuade ourselves, that the Faithful God is but fulfilling of his Covenant in all the Inconveniencies that may befall us; that He can bring forth Meat out of the Eater, and that we now know not what He does, but we may hereafter. We should furthermore Eye the Goodness of God for the composing of our Spirits in our saddest Hours. We are to confess with him in Psal. 119.71. It is good for me, that I have been afflicted. And hence, we should humbly conceive that we shall not be losers by any of our Mishaps; but that our God will try us and prove us, to do us good in the latter end: And we should impute all to love, think, 'Tis because God loves me, that he does rebuk and chasten me. Finally, We should Eye the fullness of God, for the rectifying of what wild Thoughts we may have about our Miseries. We should hear the God of Heaven saying to us, as in Gen. 17.1. I am the All-sufficient God. And hence, we should in the absence and withdrawing of all other things, yet satisfy ourselves by this, God is my portion still, and He is All, and infinitely more than All.  
Secondly. 'Tis our Duty to undergo Afflictions with a believing Expectation of Soul. When we are never so much disquieted, yet are we to lay that Charge upon ourselves, in Psal. 43.5. O my Soul, hope in God, for I shall yet praise him. An Affliction, though it bear never so hard upon us, yet it should not kill our hope in God for the good issue of it. In the midst of all our Lamentations we should still be of that Principle, in Lam. 3.26. It is good that a man should hope, and quietly wait for the salvation of God. An hopeless Despair in Affliction, is the fainting of the Soul: An afflicted Man should still keep alive Two Expectations. One thing to be expected by him, is that in Psal. 126.5. They that sow in Tears shall reap in Joy. We should expect, That the Clouds will one Day blow over, and that we shall one Day be at rest from the Loads that now lye upon us: And suppose we, Non si male nunc, & olim sic erit;— but, that as it is said, The Lord will not always chide. Another thing to be expected is, that in 2 Cor. 4.17. Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. We should expect, That we shall be Gainers by all our Sorrows; and we should say of ourselves, as one of the Martyrs did, My God is now scouring of me, that He may set me among His Vessels of Honour, on an High Shelf in Heaven for ever; and we should say to ourselves, as another of the Martyrs did, Hold out, O my Faith and Patience, hold out a little more, and Heaven will quickly make amends for all.  
Thirdly, 'Tis our Duty to undergo Afflictions with a Gracious Resolution of Soul. We should not by Affliction be discouraged in Devotion, but say with a Noble Zeal, as he in Job 13.15. Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. Whatever Afflictions overtake us, we should still cleave, as Barnabas expressed it, with full purpose of Heart unto the Lord; and we should be able still to say like them, in Psal. 41.17, 18. All this is come upon us, yet have we not forgotten thee, O Lord. We should be resolved for the Service of God, though the Wrath of Man should molest us in it. Cain's Club should not make us at all abate of our sacrificing to the Lord: Though the Persecutors keep roaring like so many Lions and Leopards upon us, yet should we resolve like him. At f●● me an● 〈…〉 the Lord. And we should be resolved ●or t●● Service of God▪ though the R●● o● G●● himself should be never s● severely la●●●ing of u● Tho our Inwa ● Man should b● never so much harassed with the terrors of God▪ yet should we resolve. I wil● fea the Lord▪ and obey Hi● V●ice▪ though I must wa●k in da●kne●s▪ and goody 〈…〉 Though our Outward Man should be never ●o much distressed by the stroke of God upon us, yet we should resolve, I wi●● be moved by none o● these thing: from Endeavours to finish m Course with joy. We should resolve. That for us to Live it sha●● be Christ, although our Lives are never so much embittered by pining and paining Sicknesses. We should resolve, That we will be rich in good Works, though it be our portion to be the Poor of this World. We should resolve, That we will do all we can to Honour the Name of God, though our Name should have never so much Reproach cast upon it. And we should resolve, That whatever Crosses we have in our Children or our Servants▪ yet we will be dutiful Servants and Children to the Lord our God.  
Thus we Faint not when Rebuked of Him.   

APPLICATION.  
And now, Let the Afflicted in this Assembly, attend unto the Exhortation that speaks unto us all. Christians, You have been suffe●ing a thousand other things; I pray, now suffer a Word of Exhortation.  
I. Be not faulty in despising of your Afflictions; but so bear them as to be the better for them. You have been smitten with multiplied Impressions from the Hand of God upon you; but O let it not be said of you, as in Jer. 2.30. In vain have I smitten them, they have received no correction. The Errand of all your Afflictions is to bring you unto greater measures of Holiness and Righteousness than you have been heretofore used unto. Despise not these Messengers of Heaven, so as to sand them away without their Errand.  


Consider, First.  
If your are not the better for your Afflictions, 'tis a sign that you are very bad indeed! There is an obstinate Stupidity, in that Soul, which Afflictions will not awaken to Repentance. 'Tis from the Hardness of our Hearts, that we should need any Afflictions to reduce us from our Evil Ways; that the sweet Invitations of the Gospel will not operate so far upon us as to bring us home to our God; that He must use Briars and Thorns upon us, before we can be taught what an evil and a bitter thing it is to forsake the Lord. But for a Man to go on in sin, after that Affliction has been employed upon him, this truly is a more abominable Hardness. We may say of such doleful unreclaimable Creatures, as in Zech. 7.12. They have made their Hearts, as an Adamant ston, and there is great Wrath upon them. We red concerning the Word of God, That it is an Hammer which breaks the Rocks to pieces. But what an Heart hast thou, to make light of Words, yea, and of Wounds too▪ proceeding from the Eternal God; verily The Nether millstone has no such Impenetrable Hardness in it. What a Monster of a Man, was Hiel the Builder of jericho! of whom we red, in 1 King. 16.34. That when he begun his Wickedness, God killed one of his Children; but he went on, and then God killed another of his Children; yet he gave not over, till at last the Most High God had cut off all his Family. harken to this, You that continue in your Sins, albeit one Affliction after another has been plaguing of you; You are like that wicked Hiel, the Prodigies of the World. Yea, Let me go on to say, There is a Devilish Obstinacy in the Soul, whom Afflictions do not good unto. It has been said, Perseverare in peccato est Diabolicum; But what a Degree of Devillism then is it for a Man to persevere in his Impieties after he has been Afflicted for them? 'Tis the Malignity of the Devils in Hell; the foul Fiends of Darkness, are Tormented for their Enmity to God, and yet they go about with horrible fiery Chains of Guilt upon them, Confirmed in that Cursed Enmity. You that will continue in Rebellion against God, notwithstanding all your Afflictions from Him, I pray, whom do you take for your Father in this your Obdurateness? May it not be said, as in John 8.44. Ye are of your Father, the Devil: for it? What a Devil was that Roman Emperour, who as often as God Thundered over his Head, would with his Fire-works Thunder back again? Why, All your Impenitency under Affliction, is but a Thundering back upon the omnipotent God, when he is threatening to destroy you by the terrible Thunder of his Power. O consider of it! And   

Consider, Secondly,  
If you are not the better for you past Afflictions, the Almighty God has yet more and worse, than those to inflict upon you. You must not think that God has already spent all his Arrows. Even in this Life there are sorer Plagues which God may have reserved for you, if you make light of what you have already felt; He will heat the Furnace of his Vengeance yet seven times hotter for you. This is what he says in Lev. 26.23, 24. If ye will not be reformed by these things. I will punish you yet seven times more for your sins. Says the Lord, If Rods won't cure that Sinner, I'll try what Scorpions will do upon him. First, the Man has had Losses by Sea; if he remain as worldly and woeful a Creature as he was before, then says God, I'll burn his House for him; if he remain still the same, then says God, I'll go feed the Worms with the dearest Friends he has in the World; if he remain still what he was, then says God, I'll kill him, I'll never suffer any Ground of mine to be cumbered by such a Wretch as he. Just as Pharaoh, so is many a Sinner, follow d with Plague after Plague; but if nothing do obtain, then as it was said of old. The wrath of the Lord arises, till there is no remedy. And there are the Plagues of another World in ●●ore, to be then heaped upon them that made light of what they endured here. 'Tis po●sible that God may give you a respite from his Judgments; as a Parent that has tried all means for the recovery of a prodigal Son, at length gives him over to his full Swinge in all manner of Baseness; thus does God often say over a desperate Sinner, as in Isa. 1.5. Why should you be strike any more! ye will revolt more and more. But this is only a dismal Presage of a final ruin at hand, for such a forlorn Soul. The next News will be, In Hell he lifts up his Eyes, and crys out, I am tormented here! But you that are groaning under Afflictions, take this Warning of the Lord; If you do not now turn to him that smites you, all those Afflictions are but like the Irons and Hardships of a Prison upon a wretched Malefactor, going before a far more terrible Execution: Your present Miseries are but the Beginnings of Sorrows. Behold, ye Despisers, and wonder, and be reduced.    

II. And on the other hand, Be not guilty of desponding at your Afflictions; but bear them with such a Patience as will be proper for you. 〈◇〉 none of your Exercises drive you into the fumes of Discontent; but according to that in Jam. 1.4. Let patience have its perfect work. Oh be not so faint in any of your Afflictions, as to fall out with God, or to discover the feebleness of your Minds, by your inability to encounter them. One that was tortured with grinding pains, gave that account of himself to them that asked him, How he did, I Groan, but I do not Grumble. You may mourn in your Afflictions; but O do not murmur; I beseech you, not a word of that! Let me set before you a few Things, that may serve as Cordials, to keep you from fainting in your Afflictions.  

Consider, First;  
All your Afflictions are indeed your Advantages. 'Tis a sweet Promise that you have to feed upon, in Rom. 8.28. All things shall work together for good, unto them that love God. Be your Afflictions never so many, and never so heavy, what are they? They are but Visitations; thus the Oracles of God have called them; they are the Friendly Visits of God unto your Souls. 'Tis a dark Time with you; but what says the Psalmist, in Psalm 112.4. Unto the upright there ariseth Light in Darkness These troublesone Afflictions of yours, they are to promote your Knowledge; they are but the day and spittle to open those Eyes, that Sin has blinded. Certain bitter Herbs are good for the Eyesight, They are also to promote your virtue; they are but the Physic, of which I may say, Hereby Iniquity is purged, and their Fruit is to t●●● away Sin; they do but keep you near the Fire, that you may be the better in Tune for the Work of God. It was a pitiful Outcry made by Good old Jacob, when he partend with his Children, in Gen. 42.36. All these things are against me. But, Good Sir, you had perished, if it had not been for those very Things; and it came afterwards to be acknowledged, in Gen. 50.20. God meant it unto Good. The Rod of God, which now afflicts you, 'twill be like Aarons Rod; you'l find upon it, those precious Blossoms, which will one Day cause you to say, I would not for a World have been without that Affliction!   

Consider, Secondly.  
Notwithstanding all your Afflictions, you have enough to make you completely happy and blessed for ever. Though you may want this and that Fine Thing in the World, yet you may say, as in Psal. 116.7. Return to thy Rest, O my Soul; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with thee. O pause a little. Has not God given you his Grace? Don't you find your Hearts Touched with sincere Inclinations to what is Holy and Just and Good? Well then, you have the True Riches; one Drachm of Grace is worth all the Riches in the World. Again, Has not God given you his Christ? Have not you felt your Souls closing with him, as your Prince and your Saviour? Well then, you have him, in whom all fullness dwells. One Christ will weigh down Ten Worlds. In a word, Is not God ●●urs? As the Courtier said unto his Companion, Don't complain of any hard hap, so long as thou hast Caesar for thy Friend. So let me say, Never complain of Affliction, while God is yours. If you can say, The Lord is my portion, then, be your Afflictions what they will, you may also say, I have a goodly Heritage.   

Consider, Thirdly.  
Though your Afflictions have never such Aggravations in them, yet they might have been infinitely worse than they are. I beseech you, to make a Comparison.  
Compare your Afflictions with your Deservings. You must own before the Lord, as in Ezr. 9.13. Lord, Thou hast punished us less than our Iniquities deserve. Though your Afflictions have bereaved you of this and that pleasant Thing, yet you have a thousand such Things left about you still; you have not lost All; although we are all unworthy to have any thing at all. A pious Mother, having one of her two Children suddenly drowned, presently took up the surviving one, and said, Blessed be God that has left me This! Why, if any thing be left, it is more than we are worthy of. But suppose, All gone; What shall we say then? Why, Then I say, yet, Man, Thou art out of Hell. Thou art wo●●thy to be broken in the place of Dragons, worthy to have all the Scalding led that is in the Cup of Gods horrible. Vengeance poured all down into thy sinful Bowels for ever; and shall a little flay bite now set thee a Roaring before the Lord?  
Again, Compare your Afflictions with those of other and Better Men. You may see Thousands in the World, that never sinned against God, so much as you; and yet, I believe, you would be loathe to change places with them. I'll repeat an ancient Proposal unto you that cry out of your Afflictions, I cannot bear them; That which I propound is, That all the Afflictions of Mankind might be brought and laid in one Common Heap, and that you may only come and have your equal Share with the rest in the World: Would this please you? Alas! This would make you much more calamitous than you are. 'Tis a Passage in Jam. 5.11. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and seen the end of the Lord. Some think, that a Couple of Examples are there offered unto us; q. d. You have indeed heard, how patient Job was; but you have seen a more perfect Copy than him, for you to writ after; you have seen how patient the Lord Jesus was, and what a patient End he made at Jerusalem a few Years ago. So let me say; What are you better than Job? And yet what one Affliction have you, that Job had not experience of? Tell me one, if you can. But, behold, a greater than Job! Was not the Lord Jesus perfectly Holy and Harmless and Undefiled! and yet what amazing Afflictions did besal him! Was there any Dolour omitted in them, that the Fury of Heaven, or Earth, or Hell could put into his Cup? O then, do not sink under that little Splinter of a across, that is now laid upon you.   

Consider, Fourthly.  
The manifold Evil of giving way to our unruly and unquiet Spirit, in our Afflictions, is enough to fright us into Moderation. 'Tis said, in Prov. 4.10. If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. So indeed it is; but I have a worse thing also to say of it; namely this, Thy Sin is great. It argues a fearful deal of Corruption in us, when Affliction on us is not born with much Resignation of Soul. You find in judas 15. in that one Verse, there is Ungodliness at least four times over-charged upon sinful Men; and, What is the Description of these ungodly ones? It follows, These are Murmurers, Complainers. Truly, there is a world of ungodliness in our Murmurings and Complainings under our Afflictions. When the Israelites had been murmuring and complaining under the Fatigues of the Wilderness, it is added in Num. 17.10. Aarons Rod was kept for a Token against the Rebels. Why, there is a cursed Rebellion that murmuring and complaining which our Afflicted Spirits do often faint into. 'Tis below a Christian. I remember, Plutarch reports of a certain People, who if they saw a Man over-much dejected with any Affliction, condemned him to wear the Habit of a Woman all his Days; because that such an one did, as it were, unman himself. Even so, They that are unable to bear Affliction, do, in a sort, unchristianize themselves; 'tis not fit you should wear the Badge of a Christian, till you know what it is to lie still, when the Heavenly Chirurgeon is lancing of you. In short, By this Faintness you undo all your Prayers. I suppose, you do not use the Lords-prayer, as the Form of your Devotions; yet you must make it the Rule of them. But, as Father Latymer speaking of Peter's denying his Lord, had this Note upon it, Peter forgot his Pater Noster; for that was, Hallowed be thy Name, and Thy Kingdom come: So may it be said now to us, You forget your Prayer; your Prayer is, Thy Will be done; and yet, when you see that Will done, you faint under it, as if you were yourselves undone. I know not what your other Afflictions are, but this I affirm, Your fainting under those Afflictions, is a greater Affliction itself, than any of the rest. It is that horrible Plague whereof we red in Prov. 18.14. The spirit of a man shall sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear? Cheer up then, my Afflicted Neighbours; be of a good Heart; be faithful, and not fainting in all your Afflictions; and receive that Advice from God this Day, in Deut. 8.5. Thou shalt consider in thy Heart, that as a Man chastens his Son, so the Lord thy God chastens thee.      

The Golden kerb: OR, Sober Checks given to Rash Passions.  2 SAM. xix. 29. 
I have said, Thou and Ziba divide the Land.  
AND I must endeavour to persuade you, as I do myself believe, That he said very well: I am sorry to see what hard Thoughts are commonly taken up, concerning the Holy David, for passing such a Sentence as has now been red unto us. You know, That when David was flying before the General Sedition and Rebellion of the People under wicked Absalom, one Ziba, a crafty Person, that had the sense to foresee the Issue of that Insurrection, addresses himself to David, with a false Accusation against his Landlord Mephibosheth, as if he had been a Well-willer to the Conspiracy. David then being in an Hasty Passion, and being biased by a Kindness received at such a Season, and not imagining that Ziba would impose upon him with a lie, that might easily have been detected, rashly ordered this Calumniator to be made Owner of the Land, whereof he had been but a Tenant heretofore. But at the Return of David, Honest Mephibosheth having opportunity to vindicate himself, David gives the Sentence now recited; and it is commonly supposed, That herein David still renews and confirms at least, part of the Sentence, which he had before so rashly uttered. Not only have the most of Christian Expositors cried out upon David, for his extreme and cruel Harshness, in giving away unto a false Loon, half the Land of Innocent Mephibosheth; but also the Jewish Expositors make hard Reflections upon David for his Action here; and they make this Remark upon it, I have said, Thou and Ziba divide the Land; At the same Instant the Providence of God said, Then let Rehoboam and Jeroboam divide the Kingdom. Whereas, in my Opinion, we have hitherto done more Injury and Injustice to David, than ever he did unto Mephibosheth. David, if I do not mistake, does here only and fully Revoke a piece of Rashness, which he had before fallen into. And I thus advance towards the Proof of my Exposition.  
First, 'Tis uncharitable to suppose, David would wrong Mephibosheth. To take away the Livings of so blameless and righteous a Person, because a base Fellow had belied him, would have been a most abominable thing. The Wisdom of a David would not have permitted him to be baffled and befooled by such a palpable Cheat as would now have been put upon him; especially when a Thousand Men of Benjamin, were now at his Elbow to give him a true Information: He had a little before been called, One like an Angel of God, to discern Good and Bad; whereas now, it must have been said, There are few Mortals but what would have had more Discretion in them. Nor would the Justice of a David allowed a judgement so unreasonable as well as arbitrary; it was after said, He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and turned not aside, all the dayes of his life, but only in the matter of Urijah; whereas we must now have looked for one Exception more, And in the matter of abused Mephibosheth. Besides all this, The kindness of David for the Father of Mephibosheth, his old and his dear Friend Jonathan, was inconsistent with such a piece of barbarous Cruelty; a love beyond that of a Woman, to the Father, would not so easily sour into a wrath beyond that of an Enemy to the Son; and this the rather, because the very Beard and Garb of the disconsolate Mephibosheth, was enough to proclaim his Innocency. I add,  
Secondly, As he would not, so he did not commit so great a Wrong. And methinks, the Holy Spirit of God, seems to invite us unto such an Apprehension; by the dislocation of the Story. For, I pray, mark it; In the Twenty third Verse, you have David at Jordan; and again, at the Thirty first Verse you have David at Jordan; and yet in the Story of Mephibosheth, which lies between those Two Verses, you have David at Jerusalem. Now, whence this dislocation! how comes the Story of Mephibosheth to be thus anticipated? There was doubtless a reason for it; and it might be this. In the preceding Paragraph, you have Shimei and Ziba( a very proper Couple!) both meeting of David at Jordan. There you find that Shimei, a bawling, railing, bloody Traitor, upon his confession obtains the pardon of his Crimes. Well, immediately upon this, the Discourse between David and Mephibosheth, though it happened some time after, is introduced here. Which may sufficiently suggest unto us. If David could be so easily reconciled unto a cursed Shimei, certainly, he could not be inexorable to an harmless Mephibosheth; he that would not hear Abishai pre●sing for a revenge upon a Shimei, would hear a just Mephibosheth making a just Apology for himself.  
But after all, The Hinge of all will turn upon the true and right Notion of the Bargain heretofore made, about the Lands of Mephibosheth. You shall red, I'l show you, the Original Covenant about those famous Lands; 'tis in 2 Sam 9.10,— The King called to Ziba, Sauls servant, and said unto him, I have given to thy Masters son all that pertained to Saul, and all his House. Thou therefore shalt till the Land for him, and thou shalt bring in the Fruits, that thy Masters son may have food to eat. But Mephibosheth thy Masters son, shall eat Bread always at my Table. And Mephibosheth had a young son, whose name was Mica. Upon the whole, I thus understand the Contract. Ziba was not Proprietor of these Lands; but was a Tenant, or, more properly, a bailiff, or a Steward of them. Ziba was to Till the Lands; but how were the Profits to be disposed of? Why thus; One half of the Ioncomes was for the maintenance of Mephibosheth at the Court; it was to bear his Court-Expences. For, when David invited Mephibosheth to Court, it was not that he might there live upon Alms; but it was out of respect and friendship to him, as the like was done to Barzillai afterwards; and perhaps, there was a Reason of State in it, which there is no need of mentioning. He was to live in Port, as a Person of Quality, with his Retinue there; and half the Revenue of his Lands was to maintain it. But which way went the other half? The Product of the other half was divided between Mica and Ziba himself; in short, Ziba has a Moiety for the maintenance of Mica, and hires a Moiety for the maintenance of Mephibosheth; and upon that Score, 'tis said, All that dwelled in Ziba's House, were servants to Mephibosheth. Well then, when David now says, I have said, Thou and Ziba divide the Land; he does but unsay what he had rashly said when Ziba's lie surprised him; and orders things to be according to the first settlement and contrivance of them; 'tis q. d. I now recall the rash words I spoken about your Lands, Mephibosheth; you need be at no further care; you know what I said in our first Act of Settlement; I would have that stand for the present; you shall enjoy all that I had rashly taken from you. If any now object, that our David went not far enough, in making Reparations to Mephibosheth; why did not he take Ziba, and hang him! Tis Answer enough, That it was now no time for that; and what was done afterwards, who can tell?  
You see how far my concernment for the Honour of David has transported me; and it will be more David's wrong than mine, if you don't embrace my Interpretation. But it is now time for me to tell you, what it is that I am driving at; it is, this all-concerning  

DOCTRINE. That Hasty Passions do sometimes put, even Good Men upon those Rash Things, which they should always be ready to Ret●act.  
There are more than three times three Sins, which Men violate the Third Commandment of our God withal. But among them, that of Rashness deserves to be marked with a very particular Brand. Inconsiderateness is a direct contradiction of the Frame which that Commandment would have us always to uphold. The Commandment requires us always to maintain such a Reverence of God, as to act with a careful regard unto that Rule, and that End, which God ha● given us. When Men cast off the sense of G●d, and of his Word, and of his Praise, and suffer themselves to be hurried by their hasty Passions into rash things, they take the Name of the Lord in vain.  

PROP. I.  
There are hasty Passions oftentimes raging in Men, yea, in the be●t of Men. 'Tis a Division of man, made by one that had much of a man in him; You are to look upon man as consisting of two parts, namely, The Man, and, The Beast. Besides those Noble Capacities, of knowing, and thinking, and choosing, which make us men; we have those Appetites▪ because of which that Saint once complained, in Psal. 73.22. I have been as a beast before God Our Passions were in their first Creation, most useful things, and were no more damage to us, than Wheels are to a Coach, or than Wings are to a bide. And the new Creat●on ●f ●hem, does by degrees reduce them to t●●t excellent order; so that they are to move neither out of their place, nor out of their place. But alas! Original Sin, is a sort of leprosy, which the whole Soul is distempered with; 'tis a woeful Disorder with which it has depraved all our Faculties. In which Disorder the share that our Passions have, is remarkable and very lamentable. Adam that once had an Empire over the Beasts of the Field, upon his Fall, comes into a slavery unto as bad Beasts in his own miserable Soul. Hence 'tis that our Passions are now become hasty, furious, boisterous, and very much ungovernable. They are 〈◇〉, the Beasts of our Souls, and very wi●d ones indeed they are! Our Passions are the Motions of our Souls towards the Objects of them. Now these are become, what we may call, as in Rom. 1.26. Vile Affections. Temerity is now become a Property of our Passions: They move not with such leisure, and in such measure, as were conveni●nt. They are under no Command; but are worthy of the Name, which the Philosopher put upon them, Unnurtur d Dogs. These Dogs do often worry the Children of God themselves; a Great Luther who removed the foulest Abominations out of the Church, yet could not hinder these Dogs from infecting of his own Heart.   

PROP. II.  
There ar● many Rash Things, which our Hasty Passions do precipitate us unto the doing of. Where the Passions Reign, those Tyrants make mad work of it; we then become Servi Servorum, the Curse of Cham is come upon us, and we must have many a silly Thing required and exacted of us. We red in Luke 10.30. A certain man fell among thieves, who stripped him, and wounded him, and left him half dead. There hath been given a my●tical Exposition of that Parable; now they that give a my●tical sense of it, make our Passions to be the Thieves which do so much mischief to our Souls.  
Rash Things are Things that we have no good reason for; and the chief mischief that our Passions do unto us, is this; They push us on to the most unreasonable things. We are advised in Psal. 32.9. Be ye not as the horse, or the mule, which have no understanding. But when our Passion is in the Saddle, it throws the Bridle of Reason off, and away we are driven with switch and spur in our Sides, till tis well if we do not break our Necks over some deadly Precipice.  
The Passions ought always to be under the Direction of the Understanding; a Man should have his Passions as the Poets Fable their Aeolus to have the Winds; he should have them so at command, that they should blow just when, and how hard, and how long, his Rational Soul shall give permission for them: But when these Usurpers get into the Throne, what absurd, and sordid, and preposterous Effects are then to be expected? When Hagar is the only Mistress in the House, and Sarah turned out of doors, there is like to be fine Work, I assure you. If Reason might be heard, all would go well; but Passion makes usually an horrible Storm, which drowns all Rational Proposals We are  told, in Eccl. 9.10. The words of wise men are heard in quiet; but wise things can't be heard for the din and noise of outrageous Passions, and so, none but rash things will be done under their discomposed Government. We say truly, Perit judicium cum res transit in affectum. When Passion is up, judgement is degraded, perverted, nullified. Said the Wise man, in Eccl. 10.16. Wo to thee, O Land, when thy King is a Child. Much more may we say. Wo to thee, O man, when thy King is thy Lust; when childish, yea, brutish Pass●on Ruleth over thee. Our Lord has warned us, That when the blind led the blind, they both fall into a ditch. Passion is a blind sort of a thing, and it makes blind all that fall under the conduct and frenzy of it; now some rash thing or other is the ditch, which it quickly causes us to fall into. There are at least a dozen Passions which we are born into the World withal; and what a world of rash things, do you think, are like to be done by a Man that shall be Hag ridden with so many Enchantments at once upon him?   

PROP. III.  
Men should be ready to retract the rash things which their ●asty Passions have caused in them. The most witty, if not the most learned and holy Writer of all the Ancients, thought it no dishonour unto him, to writ a Book of Retractations Retractations are things that no wise and good Men will be averse unto, when they have done any rash things that have made them nec●●●ary. Now there are three things implied in the Retractati●ns that we are to make of the rash things produced by our hasty Passions.  
First, It is our Duty to examine what rash things our hasty Passions have been the occasion of. Our Passions would not let us beforehand weigh what rash things we do; but after we have done them, we should then view them, and scan them over again, for our humiliation before the Lord. We are  told, in Jer. 8.6. Men should say, What have I done? When we have done a rash thing, we should cast it into the Scales, not only of Reason, but of Scripture too, and with sorrow say, O what have I done! When David had once done a rash thing, 'tis added, His heart smote him. There are certain smitings of Heart, with which we are to reflect upon the rash Actions of our Lives.  
Secondly, It is our Duty to bear the Reproofs which are given us for the rash things which have been the efforts of our hasty Passions. A rash Fault will become as bad as one more deliberate and voluntary, if we cannot patiently bear to be reproved for it. If one come, and justly give that Admonition to us, You have done a rash thing, pray, think of it; we should thankfully reply, out of Psal. 141.5. Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness; and let him reprove me, it shall be an excellent oil. So should we say, Pray smite me, reprove me, if I have done any rash thing; you'l deal better by me, than if you invited me to a Feast where the most excellent oil should be poured on me. When a Great Man once met with a Check ●or a rash thing, said he, Blessed be the Lord, which hath sent thee this Day to meet me, and blessed be thy Advice, and blessed be thou! In like manner, we should bless God for any Stops that a Reproof may lay upon the ●ash things that we are too prove unto.  
Thirdly, Our Duty is to mend the Errors that are found in the rash things which have proceeded from our hasty Passions. There are many rash mistakes, which we heedlessly run into; now, we should readily correct those mistakes; as far as we can, we should unsay and undo those mistakes. It was a most rash thing that was done by Ahashuerus, when he issued out a Proclamation for the Desolation of the only People that God had in the World; but he did well in harkening to that Request, in Est. 8.5. Let it be written to reverse the Letters. We should as far, and soon, and much as we can, reverse every rash thing; and what wrong steps we have taken, we should go back, if it be not too late. What said Asaph, when a rash thing had been uttered by him; I have been foolish and ignorant! We should presently redress the Folly and Ignorance in the rash things that we fall into.    

APPPLICATION.  

I. What if we should now retract some Expositions of some Remarkables in the Bible, which have been perhaps too rashly and hastily taken up! It will hold some correspondence with our late Vindication of David, as well as prove a fit Inference from the Doctrine which we are insisting on, if we entertain ourselves with such a Contemplation as we go along. There has a deal of wrong been very commonly done, as well to the Sacred Bible itself, as to several renowned Persons in the Bible, by the rash and hasty Commentaries that have been made thereupon. 'Twill scarce be a Digression, and if it were one, it would be a profitable, it should be an acceptable one, to touch upon a few notable Examples. 'Tis a mo●t rash and hasty Observation that has been made upon the whole Old Testament, by Thousands of Learned Men; We have in our Hands a Greek Translation of of the Old Testament, which( they report) was made by Seventy Two Interpreters; there are in the New Te●tament several Quotations out of the Old, which we now find more agreeable to our present Septuagint than to the Hebrew Original. Hence many Exquisite and Accurate Critics imagine the Hebrew Original to be corrupted, and go to reform it by the present Septuagint. This now is a great wrong most rashly and hastily done to the Oracles of God. It was for more glorious Ends, than that of agreeing with a fallacious and erroneous Translation, that the Holy Spirit of God cited Things from the Old Testament in other Words than they were first written in. It may be proved, that some of the Primitive Christians, hundreds of Years after the writing of the New Testament, did alter the Septuagint, in many of those places which the New Testament quotes out of the Old, and put in the Words of the New Testament which were not there before it. It is easy to assign the cause of their doing so; and for the Proof of it, I need only bring Psal. 40.6. There in the Hebrew it is, My Ears hast thou bored: In the Septuagint it now is, A Body hast thou prepared for me. Well, so 'tis in the New Testament, even in Heb. 10.5. Some Divines will now make no bones to tell you, The Apostle took his Words out of the Seventy, and the Seventy did not red the Original as we do in our Days. But this is a vile wrong, most rashly and has●ily done to these Holy Pages; no, Twas the Spirit of God that made that Paraphrase by the apostle on the Psalmist; and you shall find in Jerom's Works, and even in Je●om's Days, that the Seventy did not so red the Words as now they do; the New Testament by no means did comform to the Seventy; but somebody did more lat●ly Reform the Seventy by the New Testament.  
Having thus taken off an Aspersion that has been rashly and hastily cast upon the whole Bible, why mayn't we see whether no particular Persons in the Bible have been wronged with rash and hasty Glosses upon them. I know not whether we do not some wrong to Laban, abeut the time that he bestowed his Two Daughters upon his Kinsman; though, I confess, in the thing he were hard enough; if the matter be exactly pondered, I suppose, we shall find, that Jacob first married, and then served; and that his Nuptials were celebrated before he had been Two Months at his Uncles House; which is, you know, contrary to the vulgar Opinion of it. We have commonly condemned Zipporah, as if in Exod. 4.25. she had with a sufficient profaneness and Impudence called Moses, A bloody Husband; whereas indeed, we have been too rash and hasty in it: She only called her Child, One espoused by Blood( that is, by Circumcision) to the Holy God; An Expression most proper to the occasion! I know not what Thoughts many have had concerning Joseph, when the● find him speak, in Gen. 44.5. of Divining by a Cup; whereas, if we be not rash and hasty, we shall find no mean Translators thus to red the words, Is it not that in which my Lord drinketh, and for which he would make a through search. I hope, 'tis also a rash and hasty thing, to charge the Hebrew Midwives with Telling a lie to pharaoh; no, I rather think, They truly acknowledged a miraculous Work of God, for their distressed Nation. I would also try whether nothing might be said for the clearing of Jephta from the murder of his Daughter, but it will be too long for the present Exercise. We have commonly condemned Naaman, as if in 2 King. 5.18. he had asked a liberty still to bear a part in the idolatrous Worship of Rimmon; whereas, 'tis possible, we have been too rash and hasty in thinking so; an Excellent Writer long since, has made it evident, that the Words refer not unto his future, but his former Actions, and he laments it, that he had heretofore so often bowed before that accursed Idol; upon which C●nfession, the Prophet gives him Absolution. I have heard a Jew reproach the Martyr Stephen, for saying in Act. 7.16. A Sepulchre Abraham bought for a sum of m●ney of the Sons of Emmor: Whereas, the Sepulchre bought by Abraham, was of Ephren the Hittite at Hebron. But if we be not rash and hasty, the Text may be so Translated as to admit this Paraphrase. Jacob and our Fathers died, and were removed to Sychem, and were laid in sepulchers, both in that which Abraham bought for money, and also in that which was bought of the Sons of Emmor, the Father of Sychem. I ll give but one glance more. How often has Paul been charged with a rash and hasty Speech, for saying to the High-Priest, God shall smite thee! And this may seem argued from his adding in Act. 23.5. I wist not, that he was the High priest. Whereas, it may be, 'twas a rash and hasty Charge which is now laid upon him. That very Ananias, that High-priest, if History deceive me not, came to a most miserable End, in the Destruction of Jerusalem afterwards; and so Paul did only denounce a sober, solemn, Divine prophesy upon that wicked Hypocrite. Besides, 'tis likely that Paul not only knew the Dignity of this Dignified Clergyman, from the Seat and Garb which he saw him in, but also he had been brought up at the same college with him. His meaning therefore must now be this I do not aclowledge t●is man for any High-priest at all; I declare his Priesthood wholly antiquated and abolished by the Lord Jesus, for whom I am a witness here; or, if there be an High-priest at all, I know this man too well to count him worthy of the Title.  
You see for how many Good People I have now made myself an Advocate. There are many Learned Persons in this Assembly, to whom( since I am their Debtor!) these can be no ungrateful Intimations; and I would give you many more of them, if other Matters were not by other People now called for. Wherefore,   

II. Why should not all ungodly Sinners retract the lewd things which they have been rashly and hastily doing all their Days! We count it a rash thing in David, for him to give away another Mans Lands unto a lying Ziba; but what a rash thing then is it, for Men to give away their own Souls unto a lying Devil, at his first asking for them! And yet we may say to every unconverted Sinner among us, Thou art the man! This rash and hasty Thing hast thou a thousand times over been guilty of. Every time that a Sinner does a thing which his Conscience does rebuk him for, he bids the Devil take that poor, forlorn, undone Soul of his; and why is it? It is because he believes the lies which the Devil tells him, about The Pleasures of Sin for a Season here. The unconverted Sinner is not only called a Fool, in this Book of Wisdom, above an Hundred and Thirty Times over, if I have not miscounted them; but it is also said of him, in Eccl. 9.3. Madness is in his Heart. Alas! the poor Sinner is mad, and they are none but rash and impertinent, and extravagant Things, which he is continually doing of. Sinner, What rash Bargains hast thou been driving? Was it not a rash Thing in our First Father, to sell his Innocence and his Paradise for an Apple? 'Tis a rash Thing, which thou repeatest every Day. Is it not a rash Thing for thee, to squander away thy precious Time in foolish and hurtful Things, when all the Angels in Heaven can't fetch back one Minute of it? Is it not a rash Thing for thee to spend all thy Life only in building and filling a little Nest, which the Cudgels of Death will quickly break to pieces, and then to have an Immortal Soul wholly unprovided for? And what rash Ventures art thou making too! Was it not a rash Thing in the Celebrated Philosopher, to walk so far into a burning Mountain, till it swallowed him up? 'Tis a rash Thing which thou art every Day exposed with. Is it not a rash Thing to rush upon that Go●, who is a consuming Fire unto them that r●bel against him? Is it not a rash Thing to slight all the threatenings of God, and all the Judgments of God, and provoke the jealousy of the Omnipotent God, by thy impenitent Unbelief? Is it not a rash Thing to remain where the horrible Cannon-bullets of the Divine Vengeance are flying, roaring, striking round about thee? who ever hardened himself against God, and prospered? O repent of this prodigious Rashness When Sinners come to repentance, that repentance is thus described, in Isa 32.4. The Heart of the Rash shall understand. What is Repentance, but an after mind, and a better mind, than what the Sinner was once carried away withal? Pray change your Minds, Sinners; and you that have been so rash, now by repentance grow wise again. When a Sinner is converted, it is said of him, in Luke 15.17. He comes to himself. Sinners, you have all this while been acting besides yourselves; you have been doing of none but rash things which you have not so much as a colour of Reason for. May you now come to see your own Rashness, and with Consideration change the dangerous Ways you are in. The God of Heaven is this Day giving unto you that Call in Hag. 1.5. Thus saith the Lord, consider your ways. The God of Heaven is this Day, making over you that sigh, in Deut. 32.29. O that they were wise, that they would consider their latter end! Pray, do you answer that Call, answer that Sigh, by labouring that you may be able to say, as in Psal. 119.59. I thought on my ways, and I turned my feet!   

III. But then at last, let us all take heed of those rash things which by our hasty Passions we may all be betrayed into. We all of us have our hasty Passions; even the best Elias among us all, may be very sensibly subject thereunto; and we had need be careful that we be not thereby ensnared in such rash things, as will be for ever to be repented of. Methinks the Town-Clerk of Ephesus gave a most wholesome word at a Towns-meeting once, in Acts 19.36. Ye ought to do nothing rashly. In the pursuance of such an Exhortation, let me set before you a few Cautions. And they may be such as these  
First, Beware of rash Jealousies. By rash Jealousies, I mean, especially, all ungrounded suspicions of God, and of his Free-Grace, and of his Good Will unto us. It is a frequent thing for persons to be jealous that their Names are not written in the Book of Life; and so think they, 'tis in vain for me to do any thing at working out my own Salvation. And it is as frequent for Persons to be jealous, that they have sinned beyond the reach of Mercy, and that so there is no hope of Mercy for them. But it is a rash thing for any to imagine so; and the God of Heaven takes these rash thoughts very unkindly from us. He says in Isa. 55.8. My thoughts are not your thoughts. I do boldly, and yet not rashly, affirm it, that for ought any of you know, you may( even the blackest and oldest Sinner among you all) be predestinated for a glorious place among the Angels of God for ever. If any of you are under Fears that you have committed the unpardonable Sin, I may tell you that you are yet free from the great Transgression. I do further, and not rashly, affirm it, that there is not the wickedest Creature in all this Congregation, which would not be unspeakably welcome unto the Lord Jesus Christ upon their Humble Addresses: Go, in Gods Name, go after all your multiplied Iniquities, carry a distressed and a perishing Soul to the Lord Jesus Christ, He will not cast you out! Some of you are haunted with such Thoughts as have a monstrous Blasphemy and Atheism in them; it will be a rash thing for you now to think, That God has cast you off. No, I can assure you, that such Injections do rarely trouble the Minds of any but such as are already the true Children of God. They are Darts which the Devil would poison and inflame your Hearts withal: But unless he perceive a person to be one that will be troubled for the Sins of Thoughts, he will not give these molestations to them. Now, that is the Character of them that are born again.  
In a word, you that have heretofore experienced a regenerating work of God upon your Souls; pray, do you beware of rash Jealousies about yourselves. It was a rash word of her, My God has forgotten me, and forsaken me. It was a rash word of him, I shall one day perish by the hands of my enemy. The Saints have spoken such rash words, but they have been forced afterwards to say, as in Psal. 77.10. This is my infirmity; 'twas rashly spoken of me. For you to make nothing of all that God has done in bringing of you home unto himself, you are not well ware how displeasing this may be to the Holy Spirit of God.  
Secondly, Beware of rash Promises. A rash Promise made unto Man lays an unhappy snare for the Maker of it. It is the badge of a good Man in Psal. 15.4. He swears to his own hurt, and changeth not. We rashly promise many a thing; and, if it be a lawful thing, it may be for our hurt if we keep it, but it will be much more for our hurt if we break it; if it be a wicked thing we must break it, and not keep it; but then we must own with shane the hurt we did in making it. The rash Promise which Israel made unto the Gibeonites, was an occasion of much Temptation afterwards unto them. You will do well never to make a Promise unto a Neighbour without a reserve; and never to promise but when you are both willing and able to perform. A rash Promise to do a thing may be very pernicious to us, and so may a rash Promise not to do a thing. A Church-Member once being admonished, that he would repent of a miscarriage which he would not own, rashly replied, No, I'll burn before I'll turn. And the House of this Man was quickly after burned, himself perishing in the Flames. This, as to Man. But a rash Promise made unto God, yet further entangles, as well as defiles and pollutes the Soul that makes it. What says the Wise Man in Eccl. 5.2, 5. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: Better it is that thou shouldst not vow, than vow and not pay. It is a rash thing for a Man to vow a thing beyond his own reach; such a rashness there often is in the Popish Vows of Continency. It is much more a rash thing for a Man to vow a thing against Gods Law. There was an execrable rashness in the Vow of those Miscreants, who vowed the Death of the Apostle Paul; and so there was in the Vow of Herod, who swore( I suppose by his own Head) what he thought bound him to cut off the Head of John, though one of the ancients has found a way, you know, to have brought him off. In short, it is a rash thing to vow any thing that shall not be commanded by God, or acceptable and serviceable to him. We should therefore look narrowly into all the circumstances of our Vows, before we venture upon them. I suppose 'tis the want of this that has given cause for that Observation, That a Nation or People hardly ever made a Vow, or Covenant, or Engagement against any one thing, but they afterwards did that very thing. You may, if you please, apply the Observation!  
Thirdly, Beware of rash Prejudices. How often do profane Men take up a Prejudice against the Truths and Ways, and People of God! They know that all the Religion they have themselves, is but hypocrisy; and so they clamour that there is nothing but hypocrisy in the Religion of other Men. Perhaps they have seen one Church-Member prove a Beast, or a Knave; and then they cry out, They are all so! This now is a piece of most Brutal Rashness. To cure so Rash a Prejudice, I shall only say what was heretofore said in that very case in John 1.46. Come and see. We should be in like manner wary how we take up a rash Prejudice against this or that particular Person in the World; we should not be ready to censure a Man, as a stranger to the fear of God, because we can't readily comprehend something that the Man says, or does, or meets withal. Our Saviour forbids this rash judging in Matth. 7.1. Judge not. It was a rash thing in the Disciples, when they saw a Blind Man, to say, Who is the Sinner now! And Jobs Friends had like to have paid for a rash thing, when they imputed hard things to him, because God inflicted hard things on him. This wariness is peculiarly to guard us from a rash Prejudice against any Man who may otherwise be an Instrument of much good unto us; a Magistrate, a Minister, or the like. It was the Complaint of the Prophet in Jer. 20.50. I heard the defaming of many, Report, say they, and we will report it. There is no Servant of the public, but he is traduced with false Reports carried up and down the Country; and these Reports beget rash Prejudices in the Spirits of the People against the best Friends they have in the World; it is impossible to express the fatal Mischief and frenzy of these Prejudices; but we should not be so rash as to be thus easily imposed upon.  
Fourthly, Beware of Rash Conjectures. 'Tis an usual thing that Men go to shape some Conjecture upon the cause of this or that Calamity that comes upon a place; but there is oftentimes a World of Rashness in their Conjectures. Unless we see the Sins committed, which the Word of God plainly and clearly threatens those Judgments of Heaven for, we should not be very positive in saying, The Judgments are come for such or such a cause. What a rash thing was it in them of old, who counted that the original of all the Calamities which came upon them, in Jer. 44.18. Since we left off to burn incense unto the Queen of Heaven, we have wanted all things. An Assembly of Lutherans once fell into such an astonishing and infatuated Rashness, when they ascribed the horrid Calamities which wasted Germany, unto this, That the Worship of Images was growing so much out of fashion. It is not safe, but rash to say, that the Judgments which are the consequents of these and those Transactions, do come as the Punishments of those Transactions, unless the Word of God evidently declare the Transactions to be Transgressions before the Lord. Because that since such a Year we have had many a Blast upon us, and since such a Day we have had sore Inconveniencies, that is not enough to make us conclude, that what was done such a Year, or such a Day, is the cause of all the controversy. Thus also, we may make some conjecture upon the fulfilments of the Prophesies in the Book of God; we may with an humble and modest enquiry guess whereabouts we are upon the Line ●f Time. Our Saviour was provoked at them of old, because they flouted at such endeavours, in Matth. 16.3. Ye hypocrites, can ye not discern the signs of the times? i. e. that the seventy weeks in which the Messiah was to come, are almost expired? But we should not be rash in such Conjectures; we should have better bottoms and epochs to build upon, than they that allotted so much upon Sixty Six a while ago; we may otherwise plunge ourselves into great unhappinesses.  
Fifthly, Beware of Rash Enterprizes. It was a rash Expedition that the Ephraimites made out of Egypt into Canaan, before the full time of their Deliverance was come. We do rash things when we do not go to God for his Direction in them: Thus we red in Isa. 30.1. Wo to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, which take counsel, but not of me. When we have any weighty thing to do, we should have God for our counsellor, by searching what his Word enjoins upon us, and by begging that our Heart and Way may be disposed by his invisible Influences. While Israel was under its Theocracy, even till the days of Solomon, God sent his Angels audibly to instruct from the Urim and Thummim, what course to steer when they consulted him. When we don't remember duly to consult God, before our great undertakings, he does with woeful, bitter, deadly disappointments, make us to find, That we have gone rashly to work. I pray, let us ask ourselves, whether we have ourselves never found it so! And thus for particular Persons to dispose of themselves in Marriage, or to do any thing that their comfort and welfare depends much upon; without much Prayer with Fasting over it, is to be inexcusably rash. And as it is rashness to enterprise any considerable thing, without consulting our God, so 'tis for us to do it without consulting our Strength. Says our Lord in Luke 14.26. W●ich of you intending to build, sits not down first, and counts the cost! Why, 'tis none but a rash Man.[ Canis ●estinans] that won't compare his undertaking with his ability, before he ll enter thereupon  
Sixthly, Beware of Rash Dissatisfactions. 'Tis no rare thing for Men to grow dissatisfied at some of the circumstances that God has placed them in; but it is an easy thing to be rash in those dissatisfactions. What a rash thing was it in the renowned Elias, in 1 King. 19.4. He sat down under a Juniper-tree, and requested for himself, that he might die, and said, Now, O Lord, take away my life. But, good Sir, what if God had granted this rash Request of yours, had not you been a loser by it? Why, 'tis an old saying, That many an eminent Man sits under Elias's Juniper three. Men that are in public places, had need look to their own Spirits, lest by some distaste and leaven in them. they provoke the God of Heaven to deprive them of all their precious opportunities to serve their Generation. When Moses had a most unworthy and unthankful People under him, it is said in Psal. 106.32. It went ill with Moses for their sakes; because they provoked his spirit, so that he spoken unadvisedly with his lips. A Person that moves in any large sphere of serviceableness, will certainly find a perverse and froward World, requited him very basely for it; but let him not now be carried away with such a discontent, as to resolve, I will not be an healer to such a People; I'll do no more for them; they shall sink or swim for all me. Sir, this may be such an unadvisedness as the Holy God may chastise, by throwing of you by among those that he will never use for the good of his People any more. And thus also, it becomes particular Persons to keep under their dissatisfactions at whatever estate God may see needful for them. Our Lord said in John 13.7. What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. You can't say, when things go too fast, or too slow, an Imprisonment has ere now been the way to an Advancement. On the other side, when the discontents of Persons drive them to rash Wishes and rash Speeches, 'tis well if the God that hears them all, say not Amen unto them. I have heard an angry Father say, He cared not whether he ever saw such a Child again; and God has taken care that accordingly he never did. So will a weary Mother say, She hopes this is the last Child she shall ever have; and God has taken care that she has had none perfect or living after it.  
Lastly, Beware of Rash Zeal. We red of some in Rom. 10.2. They have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. Such a Zeal there is in many that rashly burns like Wild-fire, and seeks to devour those very things that are holy, and just, and good. And there is a more pardonable Zeal in others, that will furiously exclaim against, perhaps a true Child of God, and this because of some Innocent, and it may be Laudable thing, which his Conscience has cause to be well satisfied withal. Moreover, 'tis but a rash Zeal for a Man to revile an Opinion, which for ought he does yet infallibly know, may be a Glorious Truth of God. It is not impossible that many things may be quickly understood and entertained as blessed Mysteries about the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, which yet from the time that the Kingdom of Antichrist has been in play, to this very day, the multitudes of good Men have with a Rash Zeal, bestowed shameful, railing, and odious Characters upon. Let us beware of all this Rashness. And in opposition thereunto, let me recommend these two things.  
First, Let nothing be done too suddenly. Let us be Men of Thoughts. It was the practise of an Holy Man, which Preached many scores of Sermons in this very Pulpit long ago, That if any important Question were asked him, he would not give an Answer thereunto, before he had made a pause which had some secret and silent Ejaculations in it. O did we but keep our pauses well, there would be a general Harmony in our Lives! The Jews Report, that old Adam used to say, A Man would never do amiss, if he saw from the beginning to the end. And it was once the Mode of no rash Person, when he saw any Man in hast upon any thing, to say, Pray stay a little, and we shall have done the sooner!  
Secondly, Let nothing be done too Angrily. Be assured, nothing is done so well in Anger, but what may be done better out of it. The Roman Emperour, if he were Angry, would say, or do nothing till he had repeated, over all the Letters of the Alphabet. When a Man is Angry he's merely frantic. If your Anger be up, even make a stop; say nothing, do nothing, till at least you have gone over the Lords Prayer, or some such way cooled the Fever. All will be Rash while the Anger holds. I need only add that Oracle in Prov. 13.10. With the well-advised is wisdom.     

APPENDIX. The Great Ambition of a Good Christian.  EPH. iii. 19. 
— That ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.  
THE greatest Blessedness that any Rational Creature can arrive unto, is expressed in these Words. Words very fit to drop from the Pen of a Man that had been already in the Third Heaven among the Angels of God.  
The Christianised Ephesians had once too much dived into the Depths of Satan, by their unlawful Arts. At their Conversion, such was their Self-denial, that they burned the Manuscripts from which they had their cursed Skill, though according to Luke's Computation, the value thereof was near Sixteen Hundred Pound Sterling. Behold them well-requited here; they are favoured with an Inspired Epistle, wherein the deep things of God are set before them. The chief things of the ancient mountains, the precious things of the everlasting Hills, the great Mysteries of Election and Redemption, and Free grace, are handled in this Epistle, truly so as not in any other. Paul himself appeals to this Epistle, as not the least Evidence of his claim to extraordinary Revelation.  
The Excellent Apostle was now Prisoner at Rome. That was no doubt a sore Exercise unto his Children, his People at Ephesus. To comfort them under it, like a watchful Pastor, yea, like a tender Father, he sends them word, Though I cannot preach to you, yet I do pray for you. Our Context here tells us for what he prayed. A Father for his Children, a Pastor for his People, cannot make a better Prayer.  
The Prayers of such a Man as Paul, sure they are very remarkable, very imitable Prayers. There are, I think, Seven of those Supplications, beside what are in the Salutations, occurring in his Writings: Of them, This is one. It is a Prayer made up of Petition and Thanksgiving. In the Petition we have the Object and the Matter of the Prayer. The Matter of the Prayer has Four great Things contained in it: The Fourth and the greatest of which is that which falls under our Discourse at this Time. You may observe Three Blessings petitioned for; Spiritual Blessings in Heavenly Matters. In those Three Blessings, the Interests, the Efficacies of all the Three Persons in the Trinity, towards Believers, are distinctly wished for. The Prayer is for the strengthening Influence of God the Spirit; for the in-dwelling Presence of God the Son; for the revealed Love of God the Father. But the last Blessing of all, takes in the whole Godhead for the Basis of it. This is the Highest Prayer that no less than an Apostle full of God could make for any Persons,— That ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. The Doctrine before us is, To be filled with all the fullness of God is an attaimment much to be desired.  
Two Propositions are to be insisted on, for the Illustration of this Truth.  

PROP. I.  
To be filled with all the fullness of God, is a thing very far attainable. This Apostle joins this thing with such things as all Saints do attain in some measure, to some experience of. The only thing to be now inquired, is,  
What is that fullness of God, which we are to labour for? Or, When may a Man be said to be filled with all the fullness of God?  
This filling, truly it is a thing better felt than spoken: But what shall then be said about the fullness itself, of which it is? It is one of the unutterable things, yea, it is one of the unfathomable things, which we are concerned in. We may say, as in 1 Cor. 2.9. Eye hath not seen it, nor Ear heard it. But that we may attempt a little at it;— The fullness of God, is that Communication from God, wherewith he gives at once Employment, and Satisfaction unto the Souls of Men. A Man is then filled with the fullness of God, when he is viewing of, and acting on, the fullness in God. The Man thus filled, is both filled by God, and also filled with God. God is the Author by which, God is the Object from which, the Powers of the Soul are filled, when a Man is filled with all the fullness of God. The Vacuities, the Disorders caused in the Soul, by Sin, Original, or Actual, are by this Filling rectified. When the fullness of God is filling of a Man, then the Graces of God are bestowed on him, the Glories of God are affecting of him. Both of these go together; together therefore let us handle them.  
O that our God may keep these things in the Imagination of the Thoughts of our Hearts for ever. Not accurate Scholarship, but experimental Christianity alone will help us to conceive of these things. To particularise,— thus let us think, thus let us do and live.  

1. A Man that is filled with all the fullness of God, is filled with a continual Apprehension about God. How does God fill a Man? It is by causing that Man to aclowledge him as the God who fills the World. It is the Demand of the great God, in Jer. 23.24. Do not I fill Heaven and Earth? saith the Lord. Truly, The Lord fills the Heart of a Man, by enabling the Man to discern that fullness of His which fills Heaven and Earth.  
A Man that is full of God, beholds God in every place. The Man goes not into any corner, but he says within himself, The Eye of the Omnipresent God is now upon me. When the Man is trying to do a good thing, he thus encourages himself, God sees me, and will reward me, if I do it: When the Man is tempted to do a bad thing, he thus antidotes himself, God sees me, and will destroy me, if I do it. That Man subscribes to this Article in David's Confession of Faith, Psal. 139.7. I can go no whither from the presence of the Lord.  
Again, A Man that is full of God, beholds God in every thing. He sees the Face of God in every Work of God. This Man sticks not in any Creatures, stays not at Second Causes; with a spiritualized Soul, he soars up to God in all.  
The filled Man sees God in all the Works of Creation. He looks upon the whole World, as the Building, the Temple of God; Praesentemque docet quaelibet herba Deum. He sees God in every thing, from the Sun in the Firmament, to the ston in the Pavement. He looks upon every thing in the World, with such a Sense of it, The Finger of God is here; this is a thing subsisting not of itself, or for itself, but in God, and for God. He disputes like Paul at Athens, in Acts 17.24, 28. God made the World, and all things therein; In Him we have our Being.  
The filled Man sees God in all the Works of Providence too. Nothing happens in the World, but he says of it, This comes from that God whose Kingdom ruleth over all. He ascribes nothing to Casualty, nothing to Fatality, and but little to human Industry. He accounts not of God as an Idle Spectator or Supervisor of Things here below: He is fully of that Belief, in Mat. 10.29. Not a Sparrow falls to the ground without God. And nothing happens to himself, but he says of it, This is by the ordering of that God who performeth all things for me. He looks upon his Enjoyments as the Smiles of God. He doth not say, By my Wisdom, by my traffic, have I gotten Gold and Silver. No; but he says, as in Psal. 11.13. This is the Lords doing. He says of all his Mercies, as Jacob said of his Children, These are the things that God hath graciously given me. He looks upon his Afflictions as the Rods of God. He doth not say, My Affliction comes out of the Dust, my Trouble springs out of the Ground. No; but he says, as he in Amos 3.6. Shall there be Evil in the City, and the Lord hath not done it? Yea, though the Hand of Man, though the Rage of Man be never so much in his Troubles, still he says, It is God that bad Shimei curse; It is God that sent the Chaldeans to spoil. In short, This Man hath not many waking Hours without some Thoughts on God.  
2. A Man that is filled with all the fullness of God, is filled with a gracious Resemblance of God. In the Blessed God, there is a fullness of all Perfections. A good Man in his measure, hath something of that fullness imprinted on himself; the Glory of God shines upon him, and he receives a little of his Image, he reflects a little of that Brightness. A Man filled with God,— that Man, according to the poor Capacity of a Man, comes to be all that which God is. To be filled with God,— We have a Paraphrase upon it, in Eph. 5.1. Be followers of God as dear Children. A Man full of God, is a Man following of God. This Godly Man is a God-like Man. He sees that God is an Holy God; hereupon he resolves with himself, If God have no pleasure in wickedness, If God be of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity, I will always be an Hater of Sin too. He sees that God is a Righteous God; hereupon again he resolves with himself, Since Gods Judgments always be Righteous, my Carriages never shall be Injurious. He sees that God is a Merciful God; hereupon this Man too endeavours evermore to be giving and forgiving, as like his Heavenly Father, as he can. We are advised in 1 Pet. 1.16. to be holy as God is holy. We are advised in Mat. 5.48. to be perfect as God is perfect. This it is to be filled with God. To be full of Grace is to be full of God. It is glanced at in 2 Pet. 1.4. You are made partakers of the Divine Nature. The Man filled with the fullness of God is filled with the Nature of God. God forbid we should use the Gibberish of the Blasphemous Familist; or talk of being Godded with God. But thus, A godly Man has a New Nature in him, a New Temper in him. It is Divine for the Original which it is a Copy of. When a Man is full of God, then he loves where God loves, he hates as God hates. 'Tis the Nature of the Man, 'tis his Temper so to do; the Holiness, the Righteousness, the Goodness of God are copied out upon him.  
3. A Man that is filled with all the fullness of God, is filled with a dutiful compliance with God. When the Actions of Man answer to the Attributes of God, then God fills that Man. Where God fills Man, there Man owns Him. The sovereignty of God,— Let this fill a Man, with Acts of Self-denial, and Resignation. When David was full of God, he could say, in Psal. 39.9. I opened not my mouth because thou didst it. The Justice of God,— Let this fill a Man with Acts of Repentance and Humiliation. When Daniel was full of God, he said in Dan. 9.8. O Lord, unto us belongs confusion of face,— because we have sinned. The Power of God,— Let this fill a Man with Acts of dependence. When Jehoshaphat was full of God, he said, in 2 Chron. 20.12. O our God, we know not what to do; but our Eyes are upon thee. And the Kindness of God,— Let this fill a Man with Love, with Praise, with all manner of Thankfulness. The Psalmist was full of God, when he cried out in Psal. 116.12. What shall I render to the Lord for all his Benefits! There are incommunicable, as well as communicable Attributes in the most High God. We cannot partake of the former as of the latter; but we should however Answer to both. Let every Attribute of God leave blessed Impressions of Reverence and Obedience in us; then are we filled with God. The pious Romans were thus filled; of whom we red, in Rom. 15.14. Ye ●re full of all goodness.  
4. A Man that is filled with all the fullness of God, is filled with an humble Admiration at God. When God fills a Man, the Man sees that in God which calls for all his wonderments for his endless Hallelujahs. In Psal. 71.8. we red of a mouth filled with Gods praise. A Man is full of God, when his Praise is full of God, when his Mind is full of Praise. There is a particular way of praising God, which only Men that are filled with his fullness are used unto. Absolute Praises, abstracted Praises; with such Praises we should admire and adore the Almighty God. Sometimes the kindness of God fills our Praises; we bless him, we thank him for his Favours unto ourselves. This is well; but this is not enough, the fullness of God should also fill our Praises; then, then it fills our Souls. In such an high strain the Doxologies of the Apostles often run. We have also an illustrious Instance of such Praises in Psal. 145. throughout; it is entitled Davids Praise: The Psalmist therein praiseth God, not for any benefit proper to himself, but for the greatness of the Excellencies that are in God. O that now the most feeble among us may be as David! We should be filled with Admirations at the infinite Glory which is in that God whose Name is exalted above all Blessing and Praise. 'Tis said of one that knew how to praise God aright, in Psal. 89.24. In my Name shall his Horn be exalted. There is an exalted Horn which a good Man should be desirous of. But what is that? For my part I think the meaning of it may be fetched from 1 Chron. 25.5. where we red of words to lift up the Horn. With Horns or Cornets, did they of old use to sound out the Praises of God. Our Horn is to be exalted. How so? Thus our Praise is to be exalted; it is to sound higher and higher than at the common rate. We should exalt our Horn, and our Praise in the Name of God; fill it with a big sound of his ever glorious Name, though we may have perhaps but small Notes of our own Comforts or Delights, of which to compose our Songs. Though our own circumstances be never so bad or hard, yet we should in the very Belly of Hell be with many Praises adoring the unsearchable Glories which belong to God; our Souls in a praising Admiration should spread themselves upon all the fullness of God: So, O so, we shall be filled with it.  
5. A Man that is filled with all the fullness of God, is filled with an unspeakable contentation in God. A Delight in God fills the Soul that is filled with the fullness of God. When God fills a Man, that Man counts himself to have enough in God. One God weighs down Ten Worlds in the resentments of this Man. He doth rejoice in the Lord; I say again, he doth rejoice in the Lord; and no earthly wants, no particular woes can hinder him from doing so. There is a blessed intercourse between God and Man, in this case. God says, as it was said to Abraham, in Gen. 15.1. I am thy exceeding great reward. Well, now Man says, as it was said by David, in Psal. 16.6. The Lord is my inheritance, and I have a goodly heritage. A Man that is full of God, sees that God is his portion; and this causes his triumphing rejoicing Soul to say, I am full, I am full, this is all my Salvation, and all my Desire. When a Man is gloriously refreshed with the All-sufficiency of God, then he is filled with all the fullness of God. The Favour of God, the Fellowship of God, fills that Man with sweet, quiet, joyful frames, in the absence of all other things. When David had lost all he had in the World, yet it is said in 1 Sam. 30.6. He encouraged himself in the Lord his God. There was a Man full of God! Such a Man, if he lose the good Will of other Men, he counts that Abrahams privilege to be the Friend of God, is better than Pilates ambition to be the Friend of Caesar; he comforts himself in this, God is my Friend still, and his loving kindness is better than Life. If he lose his Estate, he counts that he hath only spilled a Cup of Water, while he hath a Fountain of Living Water at his Door; he says, When I have no Bags, or Lands, or Ships, yet will I joy in the God of my Salvation. To say no more, if he lose the dearest of his Relations, yet he finds, he feels that in one God, which abundantly fills up the room of all.  
6. A Man that is filled with all the fullness of God, is filled with a perpetual dedication to God. God fills the Souls when God fills the Aims of Men. It was the mean Character of Israel in Hos. 10.1. He is an empty vine, he brings forth fruit unto himself. But where you see a Man bringing forth Fruit to God, you may say, There is a full Man, a Man full of God. Such a Man hath his glances at inferior ends, but all those ends are swallowed up in God. When God fills a Man, that Man can't with any Patience think that any but God should have his time, his strength, his all. He dedicates unto God all that he doth. He is driving a Trade for God in all. For this it is that he eats, he drinks, he sleeps, and the rest; he thinks with himself, I will not do these things as a Beast, only to gratify a Natural Appetite; but I will do them that I may be supported in the Service of God. For this he labours, for this he visits too; yea, for this he performs and attends the Worship of God. He is able to say, This is that God may be glorified! The Rule he goes by is that in 1 Cor. 10.30. Do all to the glory of God. And he dedicates unto God all that he hath. All the Powers of his Mind, all the Members of his Body, he gives unto God in a Covenant never to be forgotten. He devotes unto God all his Credit, all his Estate, all his Interest; as we red of David in Psal 30.1. that the very 〈◇〉 lived in, passed under a Dedication unto God. Finally, It is the unwearied study of this Man, how to promote the glory of God in the World; he is always contriving, O what, what shall I do for my dear God! This it is to be full of him. A Soul fixed on God, is a Soul filled with God.   

II. To be filled with all the fullness of God is an attaimment very much desirable. Here is a Prayer for a Paul! The Apostle had no sooner mentioned this, but he adds, Now unto him that is able to do above all that we ask or think, be glory. Truly we cannot ask or think an higher thing than this, O that I may be filled with all the fullness of God! Two things are to be said of this being thus filled.  
First, It is Holiness, and therefore it is desirable. Holiness is desirable; every Man should desire it. The Psalmist could say, in Psal. 16.3. The holy are the excellent, in whom is all my delight. It becomes us to say, Holiness is excellence, of which is all my desire. Well, but what is Holiness? It lies not principally in Parties, in Garments, or in the Rites of a Superstitious Pharisee. No, but for a Man to be filled with all the fullness of God, for a Man to have God possessing of him, to have God influencing of him; this is true Holiness. Such a Man may truly be called, A man of God; he is a very Holy Man. The Tabernacle of old was a very holy place. Why? we red in Exod. 40.34. The glory of the Lord filled it. Thus the Christian becomes a very holy Man, when the fullness of the Lord filleth him.  
Secondly, It is Happiness, and therefore again it is desirable. Happiness is desirable; every Man doth desire it. The unanimous voice of all Mankind is that in Psal. 4.6. Who will show us good? Who will? Why, God will; nothing else can. Do we ask after good? Behold, all the poor things of Earth, and of Time, proclaim aloud unto us, Good is not in me! Good is not in me! There is vanity in them, there is vexation in them, but no good: Where then is good? 'Tis determined in Psal. 73.28. It is good for me to draw near unto God. The Man that is filled with God, is filled with good. To be full of Riches, to be full of Honours, to be full of Children, will not make a Man happy. The Spirit of Man will starve and die if it have no other fullness to be nourished by. O but to be full of God;— this is no less than Heaven itself. It is the description of Heaven itself in 1 Cor. 15.28. that God is all in all there. The Soul of Man was framed for none but God, is suited by none but God. For a Man to take his leave of all inferior things, and to be wholly taken up with God instead of all,— this is the Heaven of Heaven itself. 'Tis impossible that a Man full of God ever should be miserable.    

USE. I.  
O pity, and the Lord pity! those many People that seek and choose a fullness, but not of God. The Blessed God utters a wonderful Indignation at this thing, in Jer. 2.13. My people have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. Alas, this lamentable Complaint is to be made of multitudes in the World. All the fullness of God, they have it not, they prise it not; they go to some empty cisterns, that from thence they may fill themselves. Be astonished, O ye heavens at this, and be horribly amazed, saith the Lord.  
There is a twofold fullness which is by many preferred before all the fullness of God. O foolish people and unwise that they are, who thus despise the Lord! There is,  
First, The fullness of Mammon, which many dote upon. The Lord said unto them in Deut. 6.11. that he would give them Houses full of all good things. Many persons think that better than to have Hearts full of all good things. A full Purse, a full House, a full Barn; this the most of Men are for. But who is for a full Soul? We are  told in Psal. 17.14. The men of the world, God fills them with his treasures. The World is full of Men that care to be filled no otherwise than so. A vast deal of Wealth, and as little of God as needs must; this will very well serve their turn. We may speak to these Men in the Language that one of the ancients has, They have Incarnated their own Souls. woeful Men; they make their Souls to be content with no other fullness than what their Flesh calleth for. These persons are much to be pitied and reproved. Thy Soul will one day be stripped of all this fullness; and what shall then become of that naked, shiftless, perishing Soul? Methinks that voice of God may fall as a Thunder-bolt of Death upon the Heart of such a Man, in Luk. 12.20. Thy soul shall be required of thee, then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? It was once the moan of Naomi, I was full, but I am become empty. This, this, will be the shriek of thy friendless, helpless, ill provided Soul at its departure hence, I am empty, I am undone for evermore. They that thus contemn the fullness of God must at last endure the vengeance of God. These are the very persons of whom the Lord hath sworn in his wrath, they shall never enter into my rest.  
Secondly, There is the fullness of Satan, which many are notorious for. It was an expostulation used with a liar, in Acts 5.3. Why hath Satan filled thy heart? This may be said unto the Drunkard, the Swearer, the Gamester, the Persecutor, the Reviler, the Sabbath-breaker, the Unclean person, and the rest, Thou art not filled with God, but Satan hath filled thy forlorn doleful heart. We red in Rom. 1.29. of them that are full of envy. We red in Mic. 6.12. of them that are full of violence. We red in Matth. 23.28. of them that are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. O sad sights! It is a dismal thing to see a Man under Bodily possession by the Devil; but these Men are under a Spiritual possession by the Devil, which is worse by far. They are filled by the Spirit which works in the children of disobedien●e. These persons are yet more to be pitied and rebuked. Man, thy Soul is not full of God, it will then be full of Sin; but when Sin is come unto the full, how swift, how sore will destruction be? We red of some that shall be filled with the fury of the Lord; it will be the case of them that are not filled with the fullness of the Lord. They shall be as Ovens, as Irons, whom our God shall fill as a consuming fire. To be filled with the fullness of God is the substance of Heaven. Well, to be filled with the fullness of God is the essence of Hell too. 'Tis the warning of God in Psal. 75.8. In the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is read; it is full of mixture; the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall drink. God preserve us all from being filled with scalding Draughts of those fiery venomous Dregs for ever.   

USE. II.  
Let it now be the endeavour of us all, That we may be filled with all the fullness of God. The best Men living need to be thus called upon. In respect of our fitness for Heaven, we are all too much deficient. The fullness of God must have a little more hold of us, and all will be well. Let what is lacking in our Faith, in our Hope, in our Love, be perfected; then we shall be ready for our Change. A little more of God, and then perhaps we shall be meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light.  
But especially these two Thoughts may awaken us in the pursuit of this great thing.  
First, Let a Man be full of God, and that's the way for him to be full of Joy. God is Light, God is Life: When God comes into any Soul, he most effectually saith, Peace be unto this Soul. The Man that has much of God in him, cannot be without much of Peace and Joy. We red in Psal. 16.11. about fullness of joy. Whence is a fullness of joy to be derived, but from a fullness of God? Truly he that dwells in the high and holy place, doth also dwell in the Spirit of this Man, strongly reviving, strangely refreshing of him. Such Raptures of Joy do sometimes fill the Soul of such a Man, that he is ready to swoon and faint under them; he is forced to cry out, Lord, It is enough! O stay thy hand, I can bear no more! Now I know that God is my only God, and that he will bless me for evermore. No doubt some in this Assembly have had such Transports of Joy, when under the plenitude of the Almighty. But I have a better, a greater thing than this yet to say.  
Secondly, Let a Man be full of God, and that's the way for him to be full of use. He will certainly be a most useful Man. It is the method of God, first to fill a Man, and then to use that Man. There is an Ecclesiastical History which tells us of a Minister, whom God used for the Conversion of very many Souls; and it gives us this Character of him;— it is in Acts 11.24. He was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith; and so by his means, much people was added unto the Lord. Let God be in a Man, and God will be with him. God will direct that Man, God will prosper that Man, who is full of him. Though Dominion, as they say, is not founded in Grace; yet the more of Grace, and the more of God there is in a Man, the more fit he is to discharge all relations, to sustain all capacities. The Man that is full of God, is as a lighted lantern; God shines in him, and through him, upon all that are about him; one shall hardly come into the company of that Man, but carry something of God away. This Man has the Blessing of Abraham, He is made a Blessing.  
Now, that we may obtain this fullness, all the Ordinances of God are profitable. Ply them all. They are all the Golden Pipes by which this fullness is conveyed. But I shall particularly offer only Two Rules.  
I. Let our Lives be filled with much Prayer to God, and our Souls will be filled with all the fullness of God. It is the Promise of God in Psal. 81.10. Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. Frequent and fervent Prayers will marvelously dispose us to receive the fullness of him, who fills only the hungry with good things. Then be much in Prayer; and especially, be much in two sorts of Prayers, in Extraordinary Prayers, and in Ejaculatory Prayers; let a Man have the former often in a Year, let a Man have the latter often in a Day; it will then soon be said, There is much of God in that Man. The Soul praying unto God, is the Soul panting after God. It shall be filled with him.  
II. Let us be full of Christ, and we shall be full of God. We have a Saviour, in whom is the fullness of the Godhead Bodily. The Man Jesus is more full of God, than all the Angels in Heaven are. We are informed in Col. 1.19. It pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. What shall be done that we who have been full of Sin, and full of Hell, may come to be full of God? It is the Lord Jesus by whom we must be filled. It is said in Eph. 2.1.[ for so I would red it, He fills all in all.] And you hath he filled, who were dead in trespasses and sins. O let us acquaint ourselves much with Jesus Christ. Study Christ Jesus, follow Christ Jesus, implore Christ Jesus; do those three things and Christ Jesus will dispense an incredible fullness of God unto you; you shall throughout all Eternity say, as in Joh. 1.16. Of his fullness have all we received.    
FINIS.