Holy Confidence Well Improved, BY NEHEMIAH and the JEWS: Whose Faith and Spirit were considered and applied to the SOCIETIES for Reformation of Manners; in a SERMON at Salters-hall in London, on Monday August 16, 1697. And now at their Request made public.  
By Matthew Sylvester.  
Cui sapit ipse Deus, solus sapit ille. Quid haeres?  
Ad res difficiles dum vocat, ipse praeit.  
London, Printed by J. Derby, for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and three Crowns in Cheapside. 1697.   

TO THE READER.  
Candid Reader;  
AS Divine Providence hath exceeded all our Expectations and Deserts by the Vouchsafement of a most Grateful Peace in these Parts of Christendom: and as the same Providence hath greatly used and prospered the Agency and Conduct of our most Gracious and Illustrious Sovereign King WILLIAM III. in this great Acquest, to his Immortal Honour and Renown; in all which God seems to be upon his way to bring great Things to pass: so what can more concern us, and become us, than to meet this Providence, and his Majesty, in that Spirit and Course which may best correspond with those great Obligations and Designs which are hereby laid upon us, and set before us? Sad and portentous would it be, and a Presage of dreadful Judgements in reversion, if a delivered Generation from all the Calamities of desolating and expensive Wars, should yet continue to wage War with Heaven, by uncontrolled Immoralities, Debaucheries, Profaneness, etc. God knows yet how to distress us more and more, either by Wars, or by other Judgements of equally dismal Consequence thereto, to us. What signifies our Peace with Men, if we have none with Heaven? The Lord of Hosts can neither need nor want fit Instruments and Engines of Distress to plague us with, when he once finds that neither Peace nor War will bring us to that dutiful and needful Reformation, which he so evidently doth attempt to fright and court us to. Fain would I hope that this Design of Reformation is on foot; and that such a Spirit is kindled amongst us as will invigorate all fit Endeavours to bring this thing to pass, and that too, under Divine Countenance and Patronage. And my Hopes are the more strong and free, in that I find so many of different Communions, as to external Discipline and Worship, to be so evidently one in this important matter. I think I have seen all the Sermons preached before the Societies for Reformation of Manners hitherto: and I have read them with great Pleasure, and to my no small Satisfaction. I find them all breathing the same true Christian Spirit; and I must tell my Brethren, whether Conformists or Dissenters, that I cannot but esteem and reverence that Judgement and Savour which I have discerned in their so excellent and pertinent Sermons. I strongly hope that the nearer we all come to God and Christ by Faith and Holiness, the more of Peace and Love we shall experience amongst ourselves. And the more evident we shall render it to all Men, that we can differ in our Sentiments about the Modes of Discipline and Worship, and yet most dearly love each other. I do not hate nor censure those of my Brethren whom I differ from, so many of whom I find so very much beyond myself in Parts and Learning, and Practical Christianity. I reverence all proportionably to their discerned Excellencies. Christ hath his valuable and useful Instruments in each Communion. O that we could but love and treat each other as Christ himself doth and will love and treat us all! Why should I hate or slight any below on Earth, whom I expect and am well satisfied that I shall love and live withal in Heaven above? I neither do, nor can expect much Good from any inordinate Heats or Bigotry, wherever fixed and practised; as knowing well who hath declared, that the Wrath of Man works not the Righteousness of God. Sound Faith, orderly Lives, peaceable Principles and Behaviour, cordial Affections, with all fit Civilities of Conversation, and a perfect Abhorrence of all Countenance to the Works of Darkness; may these, Candid Reader, be ever dear to thee, and to thine, in and for the sake and Universal Interest of tke Great Lord of Holiness, Peace, and Glory.  
London, Sept. 27. 1697. Matthew Sylvester.   

Holy Confidence Well Improved.  NEHEM. II. 20. 
Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of Heaven he will prosper us; therefore we his Servants will arise and build.  

§. 1. GREAT Erterprises require several things to make them in their appearances like themselves; and more particularly such things as these. 1. Good Warrant, that they may be justifiable. 2. True Conduct, that they may be orderly. 3. Noble Spirits, whereby they may work their way through all the Difficulties and Oppositions which in all likelihood will attend them: for as the Enterprise will deserve the Spirit, so should the Excellence of the Spirit be conspicuous in the Enterprise, which is to be managed by that Spirit. 4. Right Ends; seeing all Actions and Undertake are specified, and so either ennobled or debased by their Ends. For it is a sort of profanation of any Undertaking that looks well, and appears worthy in the matter of it, to be prostituted to any Designs or Ends inferior to the Person and his Work. 5. Thorough Diligence, Watchfulness, and Confidence. Diligence respects Difficulty, and is opposed to Weariness; and he that grows weary is not likely to attain his end. Watchfulness relates to, and connotes surprising Danger; and good Beginnings may be baffled by unthought-of Hindrances. Confidence spirits Courage; and great things are encountered bravely where Success may be in prospect, through peculiar Help. 6. Clear and impartial Proceed all the way. Irregular steps are most dishonourable things. Means and Motions ought to be answerable to their Ends, and evidently worthy of them. No truly sinful Steps can here be justified; for whatever God calls us to, he neither needs Lies nor Wickedness, nor any thing forbidden, as in its own nature unworthy and unwarrantable (no more do we) to bring such things to pass, as God engages us to pursue. And therefore, 7. All must be done with evident and great regard to God, and to the Public Good. To God; (as to his Name, Will, Interest, and Glory) there must be solemn and sober Addresses to him, and great Submissions to his Providence and Pleasure. There must be continual Dependence upon him; mighty, but well-grounded Expectations from him; judicious and well-tempered Zeal for him; and (in a word) uniform Faithfulness and Devotedness to him, and to the Public Good; as of him, by his Order; under him, as to his Conduct and Government; and to him, as to his Glory, as to just Representations of him to ourselves and others, wherein we may expect him to appear; and as to all sit Testimonies of our Respects to him. To all which I may add, 8. There must be Self-denial in all fit Instances and Engagements. As to the Public Good, it ought to be dearer to us than our own personal Concerns. For this indeed, if it be deliberately, vigorously, and successfully promoted, one way or other, the Benefit and Honour will be greatly ours. Defectiveness in any of these things will hazard, and may frustrate and defeat the most glorious Undertake, and dreadfully expose the Undertakers.  
§. 2. I did not seek to be God's Mouth to you, and yours to him, this day: yet did not I much withstand your Offer, because my Heart is in your worthy Work. For I well know, (and so doth God himself) that you might have chosen far better Heads and Hearts than mine, for your Instruction and Encouragement, as from the Mouth of God. But as you have chosen the Mouth, so God has sent the Message, if I mistake him not, and far be it from me to talk deceitfully for him. The Lord enable me to speak as from his Mouth, and as it becomes the Oracles of God, that I may appear before and to you, (as once a Prophet long since did, viz.) As the Lord's Messenger in the Lord's Message to you, saying, The Lord is with you, Haggai 1.13. For all our Accomplishments, Assistances, Encouragements and Successes, must be derived alone from him.  
§. 3. It looks not a little hopefully upon us, that so many worthy Persons (rather of different Names than of contrary Spirits and Designs) have so concentred their Hearts and Purposes, in a Matter so full of God, and so evidently for him, as this appears to be, in my most serious and impartial Thoughts. The World, I hope, will hereby see, that our Hearts are one in God and Christ, and for their Glory and the public Good, though we have some different Sentiments about Eccentricals: And I will (and I dare be free to) say, that those excellent, learned, and serious Persons, both of the Clergy and Laity of the Conformists, who have concerned themselves in this Affair, have hereby showed their Readiness to strengthen each others hands for God, and are now resolved to run down (if possible) those Immoralities, Blasphemies, and Debaucheries, which give such bold and fatal Strokes at our public Welfare and Renown. Whereupon I must and do profess, that as thereby they have been most commendably exemplary to ourselves and others, so have they most deservedly entitled and endeared themselves to our best Affections and Respects. How much more lovely is it in the sight of God and Man, to see Conformists and Nonconformists vigorously to engage themselves to cast out all the Rubbish of Profaneness, and practical Disorders, (which is disowned by the Laws of God and Man, and has been frequently discountenanced in these Kingdoms, by public Acts and Edicts) than by their Tongues and Pens to dispute and write each other into such dangerous, unaccountable, and unwarrantable Distances, Jealousies and Discords! And I am pleased to see in this Affair such eminent Proofs, that in the Church of England there are more excellent and worthy Persons, than straitlaced and censorious Spirits may possibly imagine. To cleanse, to build, to fortify for God, under the Calls, and in the Prospects of our present Day; and under such Countenance as our present Government and Laws afford us; O! what more worthy of our Thoughts and Pains? what more delightful to the views of serious Christians? and what more awful and accountable to the Enemies of God and Christ, of serious Religion, and of the public Good?  
§. 4. As to the chosen Text, it will not appear so very foreign in its Sense and Import to the Design and Business of this Day, as the hasty Reader, or rash Hearer, may possibly imagine at the first view, if a few things be well considered: viz. that,  
First, The Transgressions of this People had brought them to their terrible and disgraceful Desolations and Dispersions; Nehem. 1.7. ch. 9 26— 37. Of this Jeremy gives us a very great account in his so mournful Lamentations. See also 2 Chron. 7.19, 22. And indeed the Sacred Scriptures abound with lively and copious Representations and Assurances of this thing.  
Secondly, Till they were penitent, and concernedly intent upon the Reformation-work, their Deliverance and Restoration were not reasonably to be expected by them. Levit. 26.40— 42. Ezek. 43.11. Deliverances and Salvations must we not look for to the Dishonour of the God thereof, nor to the Disadvantage of that holy Kingdom and Design, which the Son of God hath been, and is endeavouring to promote and finish.  
Thirdly, They all grow sensible hereof: Neh. 1.6— 11. & 9.32— 35. No Sins now unlamented, and no Reformation now declined by them. A wicked, slothful, and hardhearted People, are not receptive of what they seem to covet: but when they lie down in Tears and Shame before their God, and cloth themselves with Resolutions to do no more so foolishly, but to walk more worthy of that Divine Presence which they so much affect and need; then their very Temper and Deportment most comfortably presages their Mercies and desired Salvations to be near them.  
Fourthly, Their present Work and Aim is to prepare for the Memorials and the Residence of their God amongst them: Neh. 2.17. & 13.14. Psal. 122.1— 9 Dan. 9.15— 9 They had now known the Import of a present and departed God to them. They knew and felt, that when God's Temple is demolished, Jerusalem's Walls and Houses could not stand; for God's Departure is impregnated with great Woes to them that lose him. The Sheekinah always bears its own Charges; and where 'tis welcome, it makes Blessings of all kinds and sizes to be plentiful.  
Fifthly, Walls, Temple, City, and the People's Habitations there, must be designed (as they well knew) for something else; 1 Kings 6.12— 14. They could not be insensible, of whom they were themselves; of what a God they had to do with; and to what purposes he and they were to come and dwell together there; yea, or in what Frame and Course they and their God were to converse and keep together. Hence Zerubbabel builds the Temple: Ezra endeavours to reform the People; and Nehemiah builds Jerusalem's Walls and Gates to secure all within. For who can possibly suppose that Temple, City, and People, should be thus provided for, and so industriously secured without just reference to their God? Surely it had been much below Nehemiah's excellent Sense and Spirit, to mind a People, and to slight their God; Jer. 3.14.— 18. A Man would think, that the Seventy had their eye upon this thing by their thus rendering the Text: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. We are his pure Servants: Perfectly separated from Gentile Vanities, and entirely consecrated and consigned to our God: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we will build, as it becomes such Servants, i. e. pure Votaries to our God: so far are we from thinking or designing any thing abstractedly from him. And the Arabic Version represents them as sensible hereof, that God would therefore prosper them, his Servants, that they might arise and build.  
§. 5. In the Text therefore are observable these things to be considered. 1. The confident Persons, Nehemiah and his People. 2. Their grounded Confidence; The God of Heaven will prosper us. Wherein we see what they conceived concerning him: That he is God; the God of Heaven; their God; for they call themselves his Servants. This they were sure and sensible of; they thence inferred the Certainty of their Success. 3. The Resolution grounded thereupon; We will arise and build. 4. The Influence of their professed Faith on this their purpose; therefore we will, etc. 5. The free Profession of all this; Then answered I, and said to them. And here consider by whom it was made. 'Tis a discouraged and scorned Seed in humane view, though ordered and encouraged by their God. To whom? To Sanballat, Tobijah, Geshim, those contemptuous Scorners. What they professed; where; when; and why. 6. The Usefulness of this Text to us.   

I. The Confident Persons.  
First; Nehemiah, whose Name imports Comfort from God unto his Servants; whose eminent Accomplishments for this Work have their evidencing Instances in abundance; whose Heart was greatly set upon his Brethren and Work; and whose Countenance and Encouragement was wonderful from God and Providence. Indeed Zerubbabel the Son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the Son of Jozadack, (the Prophets at Jerusalem helping them) they set about the Temple to prepare God's House for him, that so the Presence and Residence of his Name might be fixed and kept amongst them: Ezra 5.2. Then Ezra sets upon the reforming the People by solemn Prayer, and proper Counsel and Persuasion; Ezra 9, & 10. And after all, Nehemiah sets upon the building of the City-Walls and Gates, for the security of God's House, City, and Servants; and to prevent the Reproaches of the Heathen; Nehem. 2.17. All these improve their Season and Advantages from the Indulgence of Authority, and from the Counsel and Encouragement of God's Prophets with them; and all the Remnant of the People in their respective places fall in with them to promote this Work of God, when thus accommodated for it, and encouraged to it; Haggai 1.12— 14. But then, not only Nehemiah, but also,  
Secondly; His People with him, were accomplished for this great Undertaking; Haggai 1.14.  
1. As to Nehemiah, their Leader, and the great Promoter of this blessed Work, he was hearty and concerned; sensible of God's Judgements, and the People's Sins; acquainted and affected with their doleful Case and State; devotional and serious with God for his good hand upon them in what they undertook; more devoted to the Interest of Religion, and of the public Welfare, than to his own Honour or Inrichment: Valiant and vigilant to go through with what was now incumbent on him: Prudent and circumspect in managing Things and Persons to the best advantage: Frequent in pertinent Consultations about emergent Difficulties and Dangers: Generous in his Contributions towards the promoting of this great Affair: and every way provident for Unanimity and Reformation: Much set upon it, that the House be fit for God, that the People suit God's Presence there, and that all be duly guarded.  
2. As to the People: They had a mind to work, Neh. 4.6. They strengthened their Hands for the Work, Neh. 2.18. Their Eyes were up to God, Neh. 4.9. They were receptive of Instructions, and attentive to the Law, Neh. 8.3. and they adhered to God and to their Superiors, Neh. 10.29.   

II. The Confidence of these Persons.  
1. More generally; that what they were about was according to God's Heart: that it was pleasing to him: that Nehemiah and his People were thus concerned about a Temple and People worthy of him, and about their Preservation in that State; that it was according to his Order; that it was according to God's Promise; that it was for his sake, that he might dwell among them, be glorified by them, and appear glorious, and look like himself in every eye, to the effectual rescuing of his City, Temple, Name, and Servants, from the Reproaches of the contemptuous Heathen. For how dreadfully did it look, to see a People, peculiarly God's, to be without God, and God himself to be without his Temple, and without those reverend Adorations and Addresses from his People, and without those practical Regards to him, which might distinguish them from others, and show to all with what a holy God they had to do? They were also confident that God had spirited them for this thing; Haggai 1.14. and that his Presence was their Countenance and Patronage. They had his Prophets to encourage them; they had fit Leaders to influence them, and their own Spirits were prompt and resolute to and in all those Endeavours and Attendances, and Pursuits, which were now so conspicuous amongst them. They were well satisfied that God would show himself to be the God of Heaven, and prosper them, answerably to their relation to this God; and that God himself would treat them as the Servants of the God of Heaven. It was evident that he fixed amongst them his Intercessors for them continually to mind him of them: And that he had poured out the Spirit of Prayer upon them. They had no doubt about God's Name, about their Relation to him, their Interest in him, their Call from him, their Concern for him, their being countenanced by his Providence; nor about the genuine Reference and Subserviency of what they now resolve upon, unto God's Glory, and to the Propagation and Renown of their Religion.  
But more particularly, 1. The Matter of their Confidence was, that God would prosper them: i. e. first, they should complete their Temple, City, Walls and Gates. That then their God would keep his Residence, as before, amongst them. That God would countenance, promote, accept their Reformation, according to his Grant and Order, both in Church and State. That he would in and from his Holy Temple be their Glory, Guard, and Joy. That he would there accept their Suits and Offerings; give them such Answers and Returns as they should truly need; and thereby greaten both Himself and Them in public view, to the astonishment of all about them. That consequently no Enemies Attempts upon them to defeat their Work and Purpose should be prosperous. And that all this should end in the Appearance of the Lord of Glory, in his Gospel-living Temple. O! had the City, Temple, Walls, and Gates, been built, and no God there; or had the material Buildings bounded and terminated their Desires, their Building had been vain, and they themselves unfit for the Patronage, Presence, and Protection of the God of Heaven; neither had their Prosperousness in their present Enterprise been really a Blessing to them. Buildings and People without God and Godliness, without Devotion and Religion, how mean would the Design and the Success have been? How thin the Possession? How dishonourable and reproachful the Success?  
Secondly, The Ground of this their Confidence, that they should be prosperous; was, 1st. God's Eminence, as the God of Heaven. Heaven is God's Throne and Residence; and it represents him as above all, and over all; and able to accomplish and dispense what he thinks sit. 2dly. God's Relation unto them. How many encouraging Relations to this People doth God own, whilst he calls them, his Portion, Children, Subjects, Heritage, and Jewels? 3dly. God's Presence with them: Witness his Spirit, Prophets, Providences, etc. 4thly. God's own Concern and Interest in this their present Work: for he designed them to be the People of his Presence, Choice and Joy, and accordingly by special Favours to signalise them as such. And, 5thly. His ancient Promise to them. And, O! what Holds are these for Faith and Hope? How will they animate and invigorate our Prayers and Confidence, our Diligence and Resolution, when we are called out to act for God   

III. Their Resolution hereupon.  
1. We will arise and build, Neh. 2.17, 20. They fix their Purposes. They thought it not enough to mourn, fast, pray, profess, or seriously to represent their Case to God: Nor would they hesitate or desist. God needs not us, but we need him. Yet if there be any Abilities, Accommodations, Opportunities, Warrant and Encouragements, our ordered Province is to be minded by us, and our determined and appointed Work resolved upon: For Resolution is to issue into Action. This turns and fixes the bent and bias of our Souls and Motions. Man is fit for nothing, till Resolution sets him out: Men unresolved are unstable; James 1.8.  
2. This we will do, as we are God's Servants, and because we are so; Neh. 1.10, 11. Ezra 5.9— 11. All must be done by order from on high, in conscience of it, and according to it. They did not look upon their present Purpose and Employment as an arbitrary thing; as if it were left with them whether to build or no; or to build as they list. God's Will and Favour were the great Enforcements of this Purpose. Humour and Will did not here thwart or baffle Conscience; but all lay prostrate at the foot of Conscience, as that respected God's Authority and Order; and all was commanded and directed by that regent Principle. Men do not otherwise act as Servants.  
3. Their high and awful Thoughts of God gave Life and Spirit to this their worthy Resolution; and well it might; for where God is, all must be prosperous: Nothing can stand against him, or before him, to defeat his Purposes and Counsels. Rom. 8.31. Numb. 14.9. They saw whose Patronage, Help and Presence they might rely upon. This made them fixed and fearless, and unwearied till their Work was done.   

iv The Influence of their Confidence upon their Purpose.  
1. This made their Resolution to be rational: Therefore we will build. Rational Resolution will be constant. 'Tis no small satisfaction to know upon what Ground we stand; or what we enterprise, and why. What! such a God so great! so wise! so good! so true, and faithful! We his Servants! and such Success in prospect! What are Enemies, Difficulties, Cost or Pains hereto!  
2. This fixed their Purposes at once. The Cogency hereof could not but preserve an equal Tenor; for God is evermore the same. He never can deny himself, 2. Tim. 2.13. They had here the same cogent Arguments and Motives to urge their continuance in their Work, which they had to prompt them to begin it. Clear Apprehensions of God's Immutability will greatly establish the Resolutions of his Servants.  
3. This sweetened all their Pains and Dangers, and set their speedy, joyful End and Issue in their clear and constant Prospect; for all their Enemies that opposed this thing, did but expose themselves thereby. None can be prosperous, they knew, that hardened themselves against the God of Heaven; nor can that Work miscarry, nor that Hope prove abortive, which God espouses, and attends with a propitious Eye.   

V The fit and free Profession of all this.  
1. The Professors were a despised and discouraged Seed, under Correction for their Crimes. God had let lose their Enemies upon them, and suffered them to lay all waste before them; and the Spirit of Enmity against them in their Enemies was not yet extinct; Ezra 5.12. Neh. 2.17, 19 & 4.1— 4, 8, 11. & 9.36, 37. Jeremy's Lamentations afford us a sad Mirror of their dreadful and deplorable Condition.  
2. The things professed by them were all distasteful to their Heathen Enemies: Their Faith, that their God was in Heaven, where Pagan's Gods are not: Their Relation to this God, that they were his Servants, and therefore owed no Service to their Pagan Gods: Their Resolution, that they would arise and build for God; for they'd admit no Rival nor Peerage with their God in this Concern: which made this good Man briskly tell his Enemies, that they had no Memorial, Right, nor Portion in Jerusalem. As for God's Grandeur in Jerusalem, and his Residence and Worship in his Temple there, this they knew would eclipse all their Pagan Glories. And then their gathering to their own Land could not be pleasing to their insulting Enemies. And, lastly, Their professed Confidence in this God, and their expectation of Success from him, seemed to import, yea, plainly spoke it, that they took their Adversaries to be as nothing in God's hands; Neh. 4.14.  
3. This they professed, when most opposed and scorned; Then answered I them. Something of parallel hereto we find in Dan. 3.16— 18. & 6.6— 10. They acted now, as under the Sense and Power of what we have upon Record in Isa. 8.12— 14. & 41.10— 16. & 51.12, 13. & 40.25— 31.  
4. They had great Purposes and Reaches in their eyes in this Profession; 1 Pet. 3.14— 16. & Ezra 5.11, 12. This their Profession seems to be animated by that Spirit of Love, of Power, and of a sound Mind, which we find mentioned in 2 Tim. 1.7. And it looked well and providently every way. 1st. Toward God himself; As the God that they would sanctify, and had so profound a Reverence to: this spoke them tender of his Honour, and hearty devoted to the glorifying of his Name. For they hereby were solicitous that all should know, that the God of Heaven, and of Israel, had no Equal. 2dly. It reflected greatly on God's Enemies: For did they know the God which they confronted by hindering the Builders and the Building, they would rather roll themselves in Dust, than engage their Tongues or Hands against that Being which so infinitely transcends them. 3dly. It looked greatly at the once captive, but now returning Jews. It ministered to their continual Encouragement, that the God of Heaven was even riding in the heights of Heaven, to bring them to, and fix them in their own Land and City, and to enable them to complete their undertaken Work. 4thly. It looked greatly at this great Professor, Nehemiah himself: for his Profession made it clear how much he valued himself, and promised to his People and himself from his Relation to this God, and from the Conduct, Government, and Kindness of this God to him, whom he had chosen to carry on this Work. 5thly. It looked greatly at their approaching Privileges and instant Mercies; This is our God, who is the God of Heaven. And O the sparklings of his heavenly Glory, which we shall see to our great Benefit and Pleasure in the great Glories of his rebuilt Temple, and repaired Walls and City! 6thly. This looked greatly at their present Work; for it was their own concocting and digesting of all those Ministries to their Courage and Endeavours, of which their Sense of God was as the Life and Strength. Their Hearts would saint, their Hands grow feeble, their Thoughts would be confounded, their Expectations would be baffled, and their Spirits stripped of Courage; were not all these revived upon them by this great Name, which they so pertinently and prudently professed. 7thly. This looked greatly at their own endangered Frame. Their Enemies were many, they themselves but few. Their Enemies were crafty, busy, and malignant, whereby they were but as Sheep amongst the Wolves. But when they set this God against their Enemies, they readily could conclude, that all their Enemies would be found Liars, as to God and them. And, 8thly. It looked as greatly at that Reformation which must be vigorously carried on in order to their getting, keeping, pleasing, and honouring their God. They knew that the refining of men's Spirits, and the reforming of their Lives, were as removing Mountains, and as raising Persons from the Dead. It is no easy Enterprise to oppose Sinners against their Interests, and against their strong Corruptions; and to bring Men off from all their darling Lusts and Follies. But when they knew that the God of Heaven could make them strong and prosperous; whatever might appear exceeding difficult, could not be thought impossible.   

VI The Doctrinal Import of this to us.  
Doct. 1. That which the God of Heaven will prosper in their hands, his Servants should resolve on and promote. Be the thing enterprised never so difficult, costly, or unlikely to succeed in humane thought or view, yet if God order it, and expect it from us, as we are his Servants; and if he intimates his purpose to succeed us, we must not be discouraged or remiss. This great and glorious Undertaking to repair the Temple, City, Walls, and to reform the People, how intricate and perplexing was it found when once engaged in by Zerubbabel, Joshua, Ezra, Nehemiah, and all the Remnant of the People? Contemptuous Scorners despised them, and reproached them: Pretenders offer to work with them, with the greater Subtlety and Secrecy, to confound and hinder them: The People of the Land disturb them, and hire Counsellors to frustrate this their purpose: These (in confederacy with others) misrepresent them to the King: and they provoke him to reverse his Order issued out to build; and they accordingly prevail. And thus the Work was made to cease by Force and Power; Ezra 4. When they obtained a new Commission from the God of Heaven (or rather the Revival of a former Order) by Haggai and Zechariah, God's Prophets; this also was enquired into, censured, and informed against by Tatnai, and Shethar-Boznai: but yet the Elders kept up their Spirit, Purpose, and Profession; and they went on boldly in their Work. After this they had mercenary Persons, who by Prophecies and crafty Insinuations of instant Enemies and Dangers, endeavoured to obstruct their Progress; and all this under great pretence of Friendship, though they designed hereby to influence these Builders and Reformers into a Distrust of God, a contracting a Dishonour to themselves, and turning scandalous to the People: Yet notwithstanding this, the Wall was finished. And (if some say true) a Counter-Temple and Religion at Samaria was advised to, to divide them: which was accordingly accomplished, as Josephus tells us, Jud. Antiq. lib. 11. cap. 8. And Manasseh (who was Grandchild to Eliashib the High Priest, and Son-in-law to Sanballat) was made their Priest, by the Solicitation of Sanballat, that so Manasseh might not put away Sanballat's Daughter, his Wife, as the Elders of the Jews required. See Bishop usher's Annal. ad Ann. 4381. ex Josepho. Hence all revolted thither who would not quit their strange Wives. From all this 'tis most evident, that these, in conscience of their Duty to God, and of their Encouragements from God, went on to build; and that they looked upon all their Enemies and Affronts but as the Trial of their Faith and Courage. And this, in the Doctrine of it, reaches us, who have this day discerned our Duty, and espoused it; and who here present ourselves before the Lord, to bewail the Demolishments of our Walls and Temple, and our Reproaches consequent thereupon; to consider and confess our Sins, whose Sinfulness is so visible in these our Desolations; to profess our concurrent solemn Resolutions, to set upon Reparation-work; to entreat God's Blessing upon our purposed and commenced Reformations; and to make known to all, our Relation to God, our Confidence in him, our Zeal for him, our Dependence on him, and our great Expectations from him: and to testify to all, in whom, in what, and to what purposes we (though differing in Sentiments as to some smaller things of ritual Consideration and Concern) do now unite as Brethren, to love, encourage, and assist each other, as one in God and Christ, to run down Immoralities, and to reduce Men to that visibly orderly Behaviour which may conciliate to our Religion (our Christianity) its just and genuine Reputation; and to make us Protestants more exemplary, and less scandalous even in the eyes of Rome itself. And shall we be discouraged by any thing, from attempting to rescue our professed Religion from the Reproaches of the Pagan, Antichristian, Papal World? What can be more of God than what is for him? And what can be more for God than what is of him? And when can we expect his Presence, Patronage, Countenance, and our Success from him, if not when we become all Spirit and Vigour against what he hath so frequently and solemnly remonstrated unto; and for what he hath told us, that he has prepared a Hell; and upon what he hath left upon Record, the History of so many executed (and those so very tremendous) Judgements? By which 'tis evident what he hath most espoused, and doth so evidently set his Heart upon. No Man (I hope) of a greater Latitude and Candour for free Thoughts, and Searches, and Expressions, than myself, when I see them attended with fit Modesty and Self-suspition, and a true evident Concern for serious Deal with God, and for practical Christian Godliness, in those who differ from me in doubtful and inferior things. God himself knows how far I am distrustful of my own Judgement, the Weakness whereof doth cost me many a serious, sad, self-humbling Thought, in both my Solitudes and in Conversation. Yet other men's Passions and discouraging Reflections upon me, will never make my Judgement better, though they fill my Heart with Grief, and force me to lament myself, and to refer them to themselves, and to their Judge and mine. But yet I see no reason that boldfaced Atheism, Infidelity, Antiscripturism, and the daring ridiculing of the Eternal Word and Son of God, should escape their deserved Censures, so far as liable thereunto by the Laws of God and Man. For of such things I hear from others, though I have met with none myself. I would not have every Objection, modestly and discreetly offered, and closely urged in its full Strength in order to its fit Resolution, to be accounted culpable. Modest Inquiries and Proposals are vastly different from industrious designed Propagations of Errors, and from scurrilous and blasphemous Reflections upon the Godhead of the Lord of Glory. So far as I can find, too much in Sacred Writ is attributed and ascribed to Christ by God himself; too much is arrogated, claimed, and assumed by Christ unto himself; too much has been predicted of him by the Prophets; yea, and too much has been asserted, received, expected, and attested by his Apostles and Disciples in their day, to leave it possible for me to think him a mere Creature, or any thing less than the Eternal Word and Son of God. To which I will take liberty to add, that how the Universal Government and Judgement should be safely committed to and left with a mere Creature, or with one that could not judge the World without a Prompter, quite exceeds my Understanding. But as to Blasphemies, Profanations of Holy Days and Institutions, abusing those who minister therein; Debaucheries, Intemperance, carnal Pollutions, exposing Sacred Words and Things to Scorn, unseasonable haunting of Publick-houses; yea, all things tending to debauch Youth, or others, these God would have rebuked and exposed to Punishment and Shame.  
Doct. 2. High Thoughts of God should evermore attend great Undertake for him. It is in his Name, for his Sake, to his Praise, and by his Order, that we go forth to serve him comfortably any way. Where then is our Confidence and Courage? Where is the Strength and Cogency of our Motives, if God be meanly thought on by us? He that misrepresents his God to himself, dispirits all that is to move him to his Work; and dilutes every thing that is derived from God. We are not self-sufficient; our Difficulties, Adversaries, and Perplexities, will be found manifold and mighty. Perfidiousness will be frequent. We ourselves shall faint and be discouraged, if our due Sense of God do not animate our Endeavours. Whence otherwise can we derive our Conduct, Courage, Strength, Protection or Success? How can we think or hope to fetch down Gigantic Wickedness, or to stem the Tide of rampant Immorality and Profaneness, (which hath so many subtle, potent, and malignant Patrons and Abettors of it, who through long Custom are hardened therein) but by our dependence upon that God whose Name we reverence and adore? And how shall we preserve our Bow in strength, and invigorate our Purposes and Courage, to oppose Debauchery and Immorality, but by our actuated Thoughts of our exalted God in our own Spirits; and by our setting off his Eminence against all the formidable Aspects of Sin's Votaries and Champions; and against the discouraging Prospects of that Cost and Danger whereto our espoused Enterprise may expose us?  
Doct. 3. Great Expectations from God will give great Life and Spirit to noble Actions and Erterprises for God. High Hopes will make our Spirits truly Heroic, and inspire and fortify the bravest Resolutions for generous and great Actions and Acquests. God eyed as for us, near us, and before us, as with his Euge and Reward, will make us fearless and unmoveable, and greatly eager in the pursuit of what concerns his Laws and Glory. Certain Acceptance and Success must needs have cogent Influences upon considerate Souls. Lively Hopes make thorough Work: God will prosper, and therefore we will build. The God we hope to live with, and whom now we serve, hath neither Heart nor Heaven (we know) for Immorality. He is the God, and Heaven the State, and Holiness the Frame and Course; and Christ the Patron; the Law of God the Rule; his Promises the Encouragement; his Presence, Providence, and Spirit, the Promoters and Countenancers of all due Order, and of all beautiful Conversation: And Satan is the Enemy, and Hell the Sink and End of all that is against this. He therefore that expects the Patronage and Kindness of his God, and that understands wherein these must consist and fix, here and hereafter, will hearty endeavour the extirpation of all things irreceptive of God's Countenance and Reward. They that make God their All, that have placed their Hearts in Heaven, and know the stated Laws of Expectation: They that have well considered the Repugnancy of Sin unto, and its Inconsistence with the holy Nature, Will, and Interest of God; with the true Health, the great Beauty and genuine Pleasure of humane Souls; with the due Grandeur and Designs of Divine Government; (which is indeed the Illustration of Divine Excellencies in the true Constitution and Conduct of what relates unto the Sons of Men, suitably to their Author, Make, Capacity, and End) these, as they expect Success in what is of and for this God, so will they engage and act accordingly.  
Doct. 4. What we believe, expect, and purpose, with respect to God, should be as freely owned and professed by us, as others testify their Scorns and Enmity against God. Acts 24.14. 1 Pet. 3.15. Great Erterprises ought to be seconded with brisk and bold Profession when the case requires it. Ezra 5.11, 12. Thus in the Text, Then answered I them, etc. See Dan. 3.16— 18. Mind here what was professed: 1st. That their God was the God of Heaven; but so was not the God of their Enemies. 2dly. That they were the Servants of this God; and thus were their Enemy's Gods disclaimed. 3dly. That they were resolved to build for God: And thus the Oppositions of their idolatrous Enemies were (in the sober Sense of God) confronted by them. 4thly. That the God of Heaven would prosper them. Thus were their Enemies, and their Gods despised by them, as too impotent to help or hinder them. 5thly. All this was boldly owned by them when most despised and derided by their Enemies; and those too some of the greatest of them. And thus their Scorn and Rage were represented to their faces as most despicable things, because of the Patronage of the highest Being. What may justify your Work, will equally justify your Confidence and Profession. Shall we not be as bold for God as others are against him? Where lie the odds? Deut. 33.26— 29. Zech. 4.6, 7.  
Doct. 5. Our Purposes and Practices ought to agree with our Relations, Stations, and Professions; Tit. 1.16. Nehem. 5.9. This great Reformer gives the Answer, makes the Profession, reforms the People, incourages the Work, addresses to and eyes his God, rebukes the Immoralities of his Followers, brings them to observe, and own, and praise their God, in the Advances of their Work. And he acts answerably to his Station, as a Magistrate; to his Circumstances, as a rich Man; to his Relation, as God's Servant; to his Obligations, as the Survivor of a long Captivity; as attended with gracious Providences, and as his Prince's Favourite, to the best Advantage both of Church and State.   

VII. Practical Reflections on the whole.  
1. See hence who are the fittest Persons to appear and act for God: Those that are hearty Servants: Those that have great Thoughts of God: And those that most depend of God for their Conduct, Protection, and Success.  
2. See hence what such are most intent upon: Psal. 137.5, 6. Hag. 1. 2— 8. Neh. 2 3. Building for God, and for his People; doing what may distinguish, credit, and secure Jerusalem, and God's Worship, Truth, and People there: and indeed nothing but what may well become the Patronage, Presence, and Encouragements of the God of Heaven. Numb. 25.11— 13.  
3. See hence what actuated Thoughts of God, and of fit Confidence in him, and of great Expectations from him, will make Men do: viz. these will fix their Purposes, fire their Zeal for orderly Behaviour, spirit their Diligence, embolden their Looks and Speeches, and make God's Servants keep their ground, and to mind their hits and helps.  
4. See hence how a few Men of Place and Figure, by their exemplary Wisdom, Zeal and Diligence, may influence the Body of a People. They may be as their Eye, their Heart, their Hand, and Mouth. We see how Nehemiah could speak as in the Name of all, and for them; and draw the rest after him.  
5. See hence what it is to appear and act for God, and for the Good of his Jerusalem, from Principles of Conscience and Religion. Self is here laid aside, and melted down into the Interest and Order of the Public, even of Jerusalem. It is not well with such in their own Thoughts, unless and until Public Affairs go prosperously on. Psal. 137.5, 6.  
6. See hence what a true Estimate of God's City, and of his Temple-presence there, will prompt and reconcile his Servants to: Nothing is thought too great, too good, too much, as to Diligence, Cost, Hazard, Watchfulness, and Adventures, to set all right towards God and Man; to reform men's Lives and Manners, that thus God and his People may delightfully dwell together. This speaks the God of Heaven, well known, and greatly valued by his People.   

VIII. A word of Exhortation to Reformers, and that to these few things.  
1. To Considerateness. Luke 14.28— 32. and that in several respects: 1st. As to your God. For 'tis for him that you arise and build: bis you are; for him you enterprise your present Work; under his Eye you are at work; to him you are accountable; according to his Order you must act; on him you must attend and bear yourselves; to him you must resort; and from himself must you receive your fit Reward. Think then with what a God you have to do; whose Presence you desire and prepare for; whose Work you are about; and to whose Will and Service you would reduce this dissolute, profane, debauched, immoral Generation. 2dly. As to yourselves. Consider well from what Principles you act; what you have in your Eye as your great Design and Scope; by what Rule you intent to walk; and than what Life and Strength is put into your so generous, weighty and warrantable Resolution. 3dly. As to your enterprised Work before you: Ruins here call for Lamentation; Breaches for Reparation; Rubbish for Rejection; Dangers for Watchfulness; long, tedious, and much Work, for Patience; Scoffs and Conflicts for great Resolution; different Humours, Stations, Circumstances, and Degrees and Kind's of Crimes, for much Wisdom and Discretion; subtle Countermines, Evasions and Excuses, for serious, prudent, deep and clear Discoveries and Thoughts; and all your Procedures and Successes, for Observations and Acknowledgements. And seeing so many Eyes may be fixed upon you, what strict Self-discipline and exemplary Blamelessness ought you to have? And I need not tell you, what necessity is incumbent on you for solemn frequent Prayer to God, for your Conduct, Safety, Encouragement, and Success from him in this Concern. Here then consider well what you may ask and urge; and how you may obtain and use what such Addresses may bring in.  
2. To Confidence in God. That you shall not be Losers, nor deserted by him in this thing. Hag. 1.13. The God of Heaven will help you. The Son of God will speak and plead for you. The Spirit of God will cherish and inflame what he implants and kindles in you. For all the Immoralities which you are labouring to suppress, are grievous to him, and a great hindrance to his Work. God's Providence will not neglect you. You have (caeteris paribus) the Prospect and Assurance of your Great Master's Euge and Reward. True Peace of Conscience will attend you in these your resolute and regular Purposes and Engagements for your God. The very Consciences of the Dissolute are against themselves for you; and their future Tongues and State will justify your Zeal and Faithfulness at Death, or in the day of Judgement. God will be every way your Friend; and they that know his Name may cheerfully and safely trust him in his way. Set but your God before you always, and you need not be moved. O let not these encouraging Consolations be neglected, unconcocted, indigested, or accounted small! Your solemn Thoughts must help your Confidence; your Confidence must six your Purpose, and quicken you to and in your Work. Did we but make more reckoning of God, as the God of Heaven, and as our God, he would more gloriously show himself for us. There would be more Experience of him undoubtedly, were there more regular and actuated Expectation from him; Isa. 26.3, 4.  
3. To Resolution for God. Acts 11.23. Neh. 6.11. And let those Words of Truth and Soberness be well considered, which you find in Jam. 1.5— 11. Fixed and strong Resolution is as the Root and Life of generous and great Actions. I verily persuade myself, that I speak to Principles when I speak to you. I am (I hope) both a Stranger and an Enemy to Flattery. So far as I can understand, this glorious and hopeful Project was no sooner contrived, espoused, and set on foot by Gentlemen of the Church of England, as to their stated Communion, and such in Faithfluness to their own Judgement, than it was readily complied with by others called Dissenters: but we are all one in Christ, and Members each of other. And being now concentred in this great Purpose and Concern, I hope we shall go on, both hand in hand, and heart in heart; and make it evident to all, that our different Sentiments in some other Matters will not extinguish or abate reciprocal Affections and Respects, nor make any Breaches or Encroachments upon any fit Civilities of Conversation; nor upon any Articles of mutual Helpfulness as to the Public Good, or our Civil Concerns with one another. Such large and noble Souls are lovely things indeed, both in the sight of God and Man, as can make all yield to weighty things, and make us candidly and respectfully to converse and act together, to stem that Tide of Wickedness and Profaneness which threatens so apparently to ruin the Welfare and Renown of Church and State. See Hos. 4.1— 3. Jer. 7.8— 16. & 5.5, 27— 29. Ezek. 22. Bold Sinners, and an angry God; great Crimes attended with notorious Impenitencies, and growthful Judgements, are dreadful things when found together; Leu. 26.26— 28. Isa. 1.2— 6. Let then your Fear of God, and your Pity to the Land, and to the Souls of Men, excite and fix you.  
4. To your mutual strengthening of each others Hands in this great Work and Purpose; Heb. 10.24. You have great Encouragements from God and Christ, from Heaven and Earth, from the Laws of God and Man, and from the public Professions of Transgressor's, who stand up at the Creed; who cry, Incline our Hearts to keep this Law; and that in solemn Assemblies; and who do not deny that God, that Christ, that Gospel, which testify and protest against the very Crimes which they so shamelessly commit and perpetrate. None so deserving of Rebukes and Punishments from God, as they that sin against the very Letter of those Laws which they profess to be Divine, and which are no way controverted amongst themselves. Set but their professed Principles against those their Practices, which contradict such Principles; show but the Inconsistencies of these men's Principles and Practices with one another; and then urge them closely, to show to all which of these two must be deserted and denied by them. We may put Spirit thus into each other, and God will own and patronise us all.  
5. To discourage all those Principles and Doctrines (as far as regularly you can) which minister to these Immoralities. Rev. 2.14. Tit. 1.9— 16. 1 Tim. 6.3. Judas 3, 4. He that shall teach, There is no God, no Providence, no future Judgement, and consequently neither Heaven nor Hell: He that shall propagate such Doctrines as these, that Souls are mortal; that Christ is not the Son of God; that Man is but a finer sort of Brute, etc. he ought to be stopped in such Careers. For if these be true, and credited accordingly, than all Religion and Morality comes down at once. All then must be lawful that may be safely done, as to humane Vices and Injuriousness.  
6. To walk prudently and blamelessly yourselves in all things. Phil. 2.14, 15. Neh. 5.9. it is but reasonable for you to expect all sorts of Eyes upon you. They whom you prosecute for their Immoralities, will thereby be awakened and irritated to their severer Observations of you. And should they (which I hope they never will, and beg of God and you they never may) ever find you guilty of the same Sins, or of equivalent Crimes to what you proceed against them for, you may conclude that your Miscarriages will be told in Gath, with all imaginable Aggravations, to your Reproach, and to their Joy▪ and God himself will justly make you base before the People; in that as God and others expected other things from you, so may you look for such Returns upon you from his displeased and incensed (because more reproached) Majesty, as shall abundantly demonstrate, that with him there is no respect of Persons; and that your Profession of God and Christ, and your Endeavours to suppress Sin in others, shall not commute for your dishonouring of God, and for your being scandalous unto others, by your own personal Transgressions. Nor is your personal Blamelessness, as to Immoralities, sufficient for you in this matter, but you must also see that all your Diligence, Zeal and Courage, have their due Conduct, and be every way (as far as in you lies) accountable to God and Man. Bear with me in this faithful Freedom with you: This Caution is not given you from Accusation or Suspicion of any one amongst you. All that is possible doth not come to pass; but you are Men, and in the World and Body.   

IX. A word to the Immoral and Profane.  
Can I entreat you seriously to read Deut. 27.9— 26. and there and then consider the Sins there doomed to a solemn public Curse; the God who hates those Sins, and who will execute the Curse wherever he sees those Sins committed; the Motive offered and urged there; and God's insisting upon universal Obedience to his Laws, with the Encouragements which he affords thereto, in Deut. 28.1— 13. Can I obtain of you to lay to heart that peremptory Word, with the historical occasion of it, in Levit. 24. 10— 16. Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his Sin: and he that blasphemeth the Name of the Lord shall die. Can I prevail with you to pause upon God's published Resolution, not to hold him guiltless (not to free him from his Wrath) who taketh his Name in vain, Exod. 20.7. I might then hope that your Reverence towards God, and your Self-love and Care might keep you orderly and safe. Uncleanness, Intemperance, Rudeness and Profaneness, are such debasing and unworthy things, as that serious Thoughts could not but move you to abhor them. Are not your Tongues, your Souls and Bodies, his, who made and bought them? Were they created and redeemed; Are they protected, maintained, accommodated, and encouraged, to be alienated from their Proprietor, and to be profaned and abused before him? Can any thing be pleaded for your Sins which may be justified at your own Tribunal? Or can the Gain and Pleasure of your Crimes compensate what you are sure to lose, and to bring upon yourselves thereby? If there be no God, no future State, how came you by your Being's, and by all your suitable Provisions for their universal Welfare? But if there be a God, and a future State, hath he made that and you to be eternally his own Reproach? Or do you think God made his Laws in vain? Or that Heaven can bear or suit with your present Frame and Course? Or that God needs or fears you, so as to save you, with a Lie in his own Mouth, or to confront him in the Heavenly State; or to let you provoke him whilst you live here, and then to change you, and to save you when you die? Your Reformation will be your Credit and Safety, and our great Ease and Joy.  
It can be no way pleasing to the sober Mind, or to Men of Peace, intent upon their own Interest, Quietness and Safety here, to minister to Contentions, or to irritate your Passions, by thwarting and exposing you to public Censures, or by reproving you, though in secret; were they not conscious to themselves of these things, of God's strict Observations both of them and you; of the accurate Laws by which he will judge us all; of the Solemnity and Impartiality of that Judgement; of the Importance of the future State to all; of the terrible Reviews and Censures which your and their awakened Consciences, (by the so sensible Approaches and Instancy of Eternity on a Deathbed, wherein we can look for nothing but the Severities of Divine Revenges) will make upon all Follies and Neglects: Of those most intimate and sharp Resentments which our Great Judge cannot but have of all your notorious and aggravated Crimes, which have so boldly and provokingly confronted him in the whole Constitution and Procedures of his Government and Designs: Of some possibility of reclaiming you, and of reducing you to God and Christ: and of the notice which God and Christ will take of them, as they behave themselves in this Affair towards you. They do believe the Articles of the Christian Faith. They know those Rules of holy and orderly Deportment towards God, themselves, and others, by which they must be governed and judged. They are very apprehensive of their Sacramental Vows and Ties to be true to God and Christ, and you. They have seen the tragical and dismal Conclusions of debauched and immoral Lives. They clearly do discern the dreadful Influences of such Lives upon the public Peace and Welfare. They are not ignorant of those most rueful Desolations of Persons, Families, Churches, Kingdoms and Societies, which dissolute Spirits and Practices have produced and multiplied. And they are well satisfied that the Prevention or Removal of God's Judgements, and the procuring and continuance of his blessing Presence with us, can never rationally be expected but in the way of universal penitent Reformation, and evident Return to God. And they would be glad to know but in what Frame and Mirror you would behold and face yourselves. Do but reflect upon what you are: And can you think it orderly and accountable (even to your own impartial selves) that Men should brutify themselves? That rational Souls should prostitute their so noble Faculties and Powers to the so sordid and mean Interests and Satisfactions of intemperate Flesh? Shall that lie wallowing in the Mire, with the Self-defiling Brute, which might so gratefully and commendably exert and illustrate its own Authorities and Vigours in the due Management of its so very useful Body? Lust and Intemperance are a great profanation of that so curiously contrived and compacted Mansion which is consigned to the Soul to live in, and to improve, to its own true and great Advantage. And for the Tongue, which is the Soul's Orator and Interpreter, to represent its Excellence and Sense of things to all; must that be used to viler Purposes, even to proclaim your Transformation into a devilish Frame and Nature? Doth it become a Creature to blaspheme and curse its God, to imprecate his Anger, to contend with the Author of itself, and to show more Enmity and less Reverence to him, than Pagan's will or dare to do unto their false Gods? What need of Oaths and Blasphemies in humane Conversation! Such things are no ways fitly expressive of noble Extraction, of genteel Education, of improved Parts, of exquisite Learning, or of endearing Principles and Dispositions; nor yet of considerable Usefulness and Figure in Church or State.  
Do but reflect upon whose you are. You are God's own, as to Property, Obligation, and Accountableness, whether you will or no: Nor can you divest him of his Right to use you as he pleases; though you may possibly spoil your Title, and implead all Claims unto his Favour and Rewards. And now, must that be used against him which is more His than Yours? Or can you think yourselves to be of such Ability and Figure, as to hector, curse, or flatter him out of his own Throne and Rights? Can you implead his righteous Sentence, or prevent its execution, when doomed by him to Hell?  
Do but reflect upon where you are; even in that World and Body, wherein you have not long to stay; but you have much to do and be, in order to your everlasting Misery or Happiness. This World is but a Pilgrim-state. Your Flesh is as the Grass or Shadow. Your carnal Pleasures are but Dotages, Dreams, and Snares. Your Blasphemies, Curse, Oaths, and rants of Speech; your swelling Words of Vanity are but Self-cruelty and Reproach, and the hastening and enflaming of that Divine Vengeance, which, when inflicted on you, will convince you to the purpose, of how unfit a Match you are for an incensed and engaged God against you. Your bold Affronts to God and Christ, speak you either ignorant of, or unacquainted with, and inconsiderate about yourselves and Them. Nor can I think on any thing whereto you can ascribe your present Peace, but to your contracted and judicial Stupidness; which is, I think, the greatest Plague on this side Hell. Hardheartedness and Fearlessness are productive of Carelessness and Presumption. These ripen Souls apace for Hell; and they will be found as the drying of the Stubble for the Flames of the infernal Pit, wherein the Terrors of Revenges will surprise and scorch such Sinners most severely. And shall this present State, and Scantling of probationary time only be spent in what is most like to shorten it, to ruin you, to strike profanely at both Majesty and Mercy, and to prevent your own Salvation, by making it unbecoming God and Christ to save you from eternal Wrath? And shall others fear or love you more than they love God and Christ? And must they tamely give up all God's Rights, lest you should thereby be displeased and stopped (though regularly) in your attempted Rapes upon all that is Orderly and Sacred? You know your time is short; that it is given you by God, purchased by Christ, and filled with what may help you to a better State. And is this the best Improvement of what you are entrusted with so kindly, to curse and swear, to profane Holy Time and Things, and to drench yourselves in such prodigious Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit, who are to perfect Holiness in the fear of God? O tell us seriously, or ask yourselves in your sober Thoughts; to whom, to what, are you thus most attempered? Think you that there is so little difference betwixt God and Satan, Heaven and Hell, as that the Spirit and Practice of the one can be congenial with the other? Think therefore most composedly upon Who it is that instigates and prompts you to all your Dissoluteness and Profaneness, and why he burries you hereto, and animates those Principles in you, whereby he governs you for himself. Doth Satan love your God, your Souls, your Happiness? When you have by him filled your measure up, and at length find yourselves in Hell; will that malignant and proud Enemy in Hell, (the Devil I mean) forget or pardon all your Reflections upon him? or will he overlook any thing done by you in time disserviceable to himself? He knows you never can be his, unless you cast off holy Speeches, Purposes and Practices, and yield yourselves to be his obedient Servants, and to become his Volunteers. Are others than your Enemies because they would rescue you from him? And lastly, spend some solemn and close Thoughts on this, viz. What you are like to think of your own self-ruined selves. When God is your fixed Enemy: when Christ hath sentenced you to Hell: when Angels have bound you up, and have thrown you thither: when all this World is burnt and gone: when you have seen Christ's Family carried up with himself to Glory, and find yourselves, after an awful Trial, shut out for ever, and given up to the absolute Pleasure of your insulting Enemy: when Conscience, Passions, and Revenges are let lose to fix tormentingly, and to centre on your desperate and remediless selves: and when your free Thoughts are to range in the Discoveries of all those Springs of Misery, of which once you took so little notice here. When these things are upon you in their eternal Strength and Fullness, can you then face, or have Converses with your profane, debauched, intemperate, wilful, deserted and distracted selves, delightfully? Or can you think that Christ will fetch those Souls to Heaven, that always practically and presumptuously told him how little they esteemed Heaven or Him? and how much they preferred Satan and his Ways thereto? I have no personal Prejudice against any of you. I highly value your Learning, Parts and Ingenuities, and Usefulness, and all things valuable in you. And O that your speedy and effectual Reformation might prevent all things disgraceful and afflicting to you!   
FINIS.   

Books printed for Tho. Parkhurst, at the Bible and three Crowns in Cheapside.  
A Body of Practical Divinity, containing 176 Sermons on the Assemblies lesser Catechism. By Tho. Watson, formerly Minister of St. Stephens Walbrook, London. Fol.  
Sermons and Discourses on several Divine Subjects, by the late Reverend and Learned David Clarkson, B. D. and some time Fellow of Clare-hall, Cambridge. Fol.  
Mr. Pool's Annotations upon the Holy Bible, in two Volumes, Fol. The third Edition, with an Addition of a Concordance, and Contents to each Chapter. By Mr. Sam. Clark.  
Theological Discourses, in 8 Letters, and 3 Sermons on the Sacred Trinity: Part the 1st. 4to. Theological Discourses and Sermons on several Occasions: Part the 2d. 4to. Both by John Wallis, D.D. Professor of Geometry in Oxford.  
Mediocria: Or the Middle-way between Protestant and Papist, in a Paper of Justification. The 2d Edition, with Additions of a Letter to Mr. Williams. 4to.  
Peaceable Disquisitions, in some Animadversions on a Discourse writ against Dr. Owen's Book of the Holy Spirit. 4to.  
Pacification touching the Doctrinal Dissent among our United Brethren.  
The Righteousness of God revealed in the Gospel: Or, an impartial Enquiry into the Genuine Doctrine of St. Paul, in the great, but much controverted Article of Justification. To which are prefixed the Epistles of the Right Reverend the Bishops of Worcester and Chester. These four by Mr. John Humphrey.  
The glorious Reward of faithful Ministers declared and improved, in a Sermon upon occasion of the Funeral of that excellent Minister of Jesus Christ, Henry Newcomb, A. M. late Pastor of a Congregation at Manchester. By John Chorlton. 4to.  
A Funeral Sermon on the Death of that pious Gentlewoman Mrs. Judith Hammond, late Wife of the Reverend Mr. George Hammond, Minister of the Gospel in London. By Mr. John whither.  
A Sermon preached at St. Mildred Poultry, Jan. 3. 1696/ 7. by John Lord Bishop of Chichester, and late Rector of the said Church, upon his leaving the said Parish.  
The Fountain of Life opened: Or, a Display of Christ in his Essential and Mediatorial Glory, containing 42 Sermons on various Texts. 4to.  
Pneumatologia: Or, a Treatise of the Soul of Man, 4to. Both by Mr. John Flavel, late Minister of the Gospel in Dartmouth.  
Discourses upon the rich Man and Lazarus. By Tim. Cruso. 8vo.  
The Swearers Doom: Or, a Discourse setting forth the great Sinfulness and Danger of vain and rash Swearing: By John Rost, A.M. Rector of Ofswel and Gittisham in Devon.  
Scripture-Light about the Gospel-Ordinance of Baptism, in a Letter to some scrupulous Friends, by a sincere Lover of the Christian Community. 12mo.  
The Church-Catechism enlarged and explained, in at 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 Method; with the Scripture 〈…〉  
The 〈◊〉 and faithful Servant set forth, in a 〈…〉 Oak in Essex, 〈…〉 before the funeral of Mr. 〈…〉 some time Minister of the Gospel 〈◊〉 with 〈…〉 account fo his Life and 〈◊〉. By Henry 〈…〉  
A Paraphrase of 〈…〉 with Notes, Doctrinal and 〈…〉 for the Use of religious 〈…〉 calling of the 〈…〉 Reverend Mr. 〈…〉 corrected. 8vo.  
〈◊〉 our Righteousness: Or the Justification of Believers by the Righteousness of Christ 〈…〉 and applied in several Sermons. By 〈…〉 and Minister of the Gospel. 1 〈◊〉.  
〈…〉 the Families with 〈…〉 and 〈◊〉 8vo.  
〈◊〉 Golden Suffers: 〈…〉 Christian Reprovers and Reformers characterized, cautioned and encouraged a Sermon preached to the Societies for Reformation of Manners in London. 〈…〉.  
〈◊〉 God's Being, and of the Scriptures Divine 〈…〉 20 Directions for the profitable 〈◊〉 of them. By D. Burgess. 8vo.  
A most 〈◊〉 explanation of the 〈◊〉 shorter 〈…〉 amended. By 〈…〉  
An 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 Henry, Minister of 〈…〉 in Shropshire who died June 29, 1696. fifty fifth Year of his Age. Recommended by Dr. Bates.