THE Morning-Exercise, OR Some Short NOTES taken out of the MORNING-SERMONS which divers Reverend Ministers OF THE GOSPEL, in the CITY of LONDON Preached in GILES in the Fields, during the month of May 1655. By THO. CASE, Minister of Gods Word. London, Printed by T.R. and E.M. for Robert Gibbs in Chancery-lane near Serjeants inn. 1655. TO THE Right Honourable, the LADY ALICIA DUDDELEY; Grace and Peace be multiplied from our Lord Jesus Christ. Madam, THese Notes being taken from the Pulpit to my hand, I could not well withstand the importunity of some friends, who desired my consent for the printing of them; I must confess the conceptions so far as they are mine; were sudden and indigested, and I have had scarce time by means of continual diversions, to correct material mistakes; much less to enlarge or perfect the Notes; however if they may be of use to any that may have leisure to cast an eye upon them, it shall abundantly preponderate the censure which their defects may justly incur. Whatever they are, I shall confidently promise a gracious acceptance with your honour, who were pleased to encourage them in the Pulpit, with your Christian attention. They are yours by many engagements; not only upon myself, but the whole parish on whom your munificence hath laid so many and deep obligations. Your transcendent bounty at the re-building of the Church-Edifice; the Rich Vessels of plate, wherewith your ladyship hath furnished the Lords Table. Your purchase of the reversi●… of an house, for the successive ministry of this place, and in the interim your charge, inbuying off a considerable part of the rent, during the present owners life. These with many other public exhibitions of your pious charity, will stand as so many monuments of your goodness to posterity, and render your name Honourabl● to after-generations. Your countenance vouchsafed to my person and ministry, since my call to this place, with the many renewed expressions of your undeserved favour, oblige me to the best service within my capacity. And because I despair of opportunity suitable to mine own wishes, and your merit; I have made bold to close with this slender advantage of testifying to the world my deep sense of your multiplied respects to this place, and the ministry of the Gospel. And that the Father of mercies, will return all your love with a rich recompense of reward both of grace and glory, shall be the earnest prayer, Madam, Of your most Humble Servant in the Gospel of Christ, THO. CASE. To the READER. Good Reader, WE live in such an age, wherein many have cast off not only the traditions of men, and ceremonies of an human imposition, ( that were well) but the very Ordinances of the great God, those solemn duties, wherein we profess our dependence upon God, and subjection to him; and which were appointed, not only for the more solemn acting of the graces of his Spirit, but the preserving of them in life and vigour; so that the Lord is robbed of the respect and homage due to him, and their own souls, of the comfort and profit which otherwise they might receive in the conscionable use of the instituted means of grace: a growing evil, that cannot be sufficiently lamented and withstood. One great occasion of this mischief is, our own perfunctory and formal use of Ordinances, we bring a reproach upon the holy ways of the Lord, while we do no more thrive under them; a careless professor that often heareth of the glorious things that are spoken of the means of grace, but feeleth nothing, doth but put a temptation of atheism upon himself, and of scandal upon others; to us they are successless, and then presently to others useless. Surely, we need much quickening, that we may not receive this grace of God in vain; this is the design of the Reverend author in these discourses, which are now put into thy hands, which being very useful for common good, I do judge it a mercy that they are printed, and accordingly desire the Lord to bless them to thy use. Thine in the service of the Gospel, THO. MANTON. A SERMON preached at St. GILES in the Fields, April 29. 1655. In reference to the Morning-EXERCISE. JAMES 1.19. Be swift to hear. THe dependency of the words is briefly thus. The Apostle having in the eighteen verse spoken of the Gospel as the instrument and medium which God is pleased to use in the great work of regeneration; Of his own Will he begot us by the Word of truth; doth in this verse upon that very ground press Christians to constancy and diligence in attending upon the ministry of the Word; Wherefore my beloved Brethren, let every man be swift to hear, &c. q.d. In as much as God hath put such a wonderful honour and dignity upon the Word, as to make it the immortal seed, whereby he begets sons and daughters to himself; do ye honour it also by a constant and conscientious attendance upon the Word, &c. Let every man be swift to hear. And from hence observe, It is a duty which God enjoins unto, and expects from every man and woman, For the fuller opening of the text. See Mr. Manton on the place. that sits under a Gospel-Ministery, to be swift to hear. Now swiftness implieth three things. 1. A free and a willing Spirit. 2. Frequency and constancy in the work. 3. An high estimate and valuation of it in our judgement, the appreciative faculty. First, swiftness in hearing implieth willingness and readiness of spirit, that we should attend upon that Ordinance of God, without murmur or reluctancy; that we should hear, not by compulsion, or fear of punishment, but out of an inate love to the Word, and promptitude of spirit; what we do freely, and from an inward natural principle we do swiftly; we are carried, as it were, upon the wing of desire and connatural impulse. No offering pleaseth God so well as the free-will-offering. Accept, Ps. 119.108 I beseech thee the free-will-offering of my mouth, and teach me thy judgements. When we are ready to hear, God is ready to teach. Christians should give themselves up to God, and to the ministry of the Gospel, as, 2 Cor. 8.5. 2ly, Swiftness implieth frequency and constancy in hearing. That we should take all occasions, and lay hold upon every opportunity of getting knowledge. Delay is a sign of unwillingness. Christians should decline no opportunity of being acquainted with the Will of God. Rom. 12.2 Proving what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect Will of God. Praying, that they might be silled with the knowledge of his Will, Col. 1.9. in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. The living creatures in Ezekiels vision, Ezek. 1.6. had every one of them four faces and four wings with their faces, expecting the commands of the Spirit, and with their wings ready for execution. Such should be the disposition of Christians. It is not safe disputing of commands, or to take time to consider, whether we should obey or no. Rev. 2.29. He that hath an ear to hear let him he are; the Organ was created for that very end; and we should count that an obligation to the duty, with our Lord. Psal. 40.6. Mine ears hast thou opened, or digged. We should take all opportunities of hearing, because God hath given us our hearing to that very purpose; He that made the ear, shall not he be heard? Thirdly, swiftness denoteth the esteem and valuation we should put upon the Word. We should rate every opportunity of increasing our knowledge at an high price; and with holy Job, esteem the words of Gods mouth more then our necessary food. Job 23.12 We should choose rather to lose a meales meat then a Gospel-opportunity. Grounds or Reasons of the Point. First, The bare Command of God is sufficient. He that liveth or allows himself, in a voluntary neglect of hearing, liveth in a course of rebellion. He liveth in as great a sin, as he that liveth in theft or adultery: He that said, Thou shalt not commit adultery, said also, Be swift to hear; Jam, 10.11 and he that hath an ear to hear let him hear. Secondly, but God doth not impose the duty by his bare authority; but he persuades it upon our advantage, as in the context. 1. For the working of grace, Faith cometh by bearing. Rom. 10.17. where it is wanting; ver. 18. Of his own Will he begot us by the Word of truth. Therefore be swift to hear. 2. For the increasing of grace where it is begun, Eph. 4.12. for the perfectiug of the Saints, for the edifying of the body of Christ; as in the increase of the number of be lievers, so of their graces also. 3. For letting in of comfort and joy into the hearts of the children of Promise; Comfort cometh by hearing as well as faith; Rom. 15 4 That you through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now( as one saith) who would neglect a way wherein all the Saints of God have found so much good? Mr. Manton in loc. In a word, blessedness is bound up in hearing, Prov. 8.34. and Matth. 13.16. Occasional, blessedness blessedness in the opportnnity of blessedness. They that neglect hearing neglect their own happiness and salvation; and how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation? Heb. 2.3. Use. First, for information. It discovereth the ignorance of such as live in the habitual neglect of this great Gospel duty; that can allow themselves in omissions therof; And think themselves ne're the worse. Surely they are ignorant 1. Of God, they know not God, his infiniteness, his Immensity, his sovereignty, his inconcevable perfections. It is not the work of a few days to know God. We may truly say here, Ars long a vita brevis. Life is short, but the work is great. Indeed it is not the work of time, but of eternity. There are such endless and boundless perfections in God, as that there shall be fresh visions in God, to feast the eye of Saints and Angels to all eternity; still they shall discover new excellencies and perfections in the divine Nature. Hence the Prophet, Then shall we know, Hos. 6.3. if we follow on to know the Lord. It is not a work to be done by a few feeble sluggish essays, but requires a constant and vigorous pursuit of the soul. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord. They know not God, that think it is an easy matter to know God. 2. They are ignorant of their own hearts; they know not themselves: their want of knowledge, their weakness in grace, the discomposure of their own spirits, their estrangement from God; and the like. A true and deep sense of these would awaken them to constancy and diligence in attending on the Ordinances. None want the Ordinances so much, as they that see not the want of them. 3. They knew not the latitude and perfection of the Word; the breadth, and length, and depth of the Law. Ps. 19.96 Thy Law is exceeding broad. They that have taken the dimensions of the Word, or rather have seen how impossible it is to take them, ( as the Apostle speaks of the love of Christ, Phil. 3.19) that know the compass of the Word which passeth knowledge, that know how boundless and how bottomless a depth of divine wisdom it is, surely they will be swift to improve every opportunity of Scripture-knowledge. Fourthly, they are ignorant of the sweetness that is in Christ; surely if they had tasted how good the Lord is, as new-born babes they would desire the sincere milk of the Word, Pet. 2.2, 3 that they might grow thereby. USE, EXHORT. In reference to the Morning-Exercise, which is to begin shortly in this place. Be swift to hear. Take heed of neglecting the opportunities, which Providence doth so graciously present unto you. Say not in your hearts, Is it not enough that we have the Word preached unto us twice every Lords day? we need not, we cannot spare so much time from our particular callings, every morning for a month together. Brethren, I hope this Exercise will be so managed, that it will be no prejudice to your civil affairs. The * Beginning at seven. earlinesse and * And ending at eight, half an hour spent in opening Scripture, and half an hour in prayer. brevity will much prevent that inconvenience, I know there be cases and persons, to whom a constant attendance may be an impossibility. As to those, we know who hath said, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice. But where an hour may be gained either by fore-providence, or after-industry, certainly it cannot be better improved, then for such a soul-advantage. Therefore I beseech you consider, 1. It is a blessed opportunity to begin your dayes work with God. The very Heathens could say, A Jove principium; and 〈◇〉; We should begin with God. It is good to dedicate the first-fruits of the day to God; in whom we live, move, and have our being. 2. It is the Ministers duty to be ready to preach in season & out of season; that is, 2 Tim. 4.1, 2. on ordinary and extraordinary seasons of preaching the Gospel, on the Lords day, and on our days, & therfore surely it is the peoples duty to hear in season and out of season. That Command which enjoins preaching, doth of necessity imply hearing also; that Command which opens our mouths, must also open your ears. If the Preacher be in his place, and you not in yours, it will be but an uncomfortable account for you in the day of Christ, when the servant shall say as his Lord did, I would have gathered you, but you would not; I would have preached, but they would not hear. We would have healed Babyloa, Tu vis errare, tu vis perire, ego nolo. Aug. but she would not be henled: Thou wouldest err, and thou wouldest perish, but I would not. 3. Consider, this is a special season and opportunity of time-redemption. The duty enjoined, Eph. 5.15. The metaphor calls for it; the argument calls for it. The metaphor calls for it, it being taken from Merchants, who observe their markets, and buy while the Faire lasts: Or else from men who having mortgaged their lands and estates, would gladly redeem, that is, buy them back again into their possession. Christians, you have lost many seasons of hearing, you have mortgaged many an hour to Satan, and to the world, and to your lusts. God now gives you an opportunity of Redemption. This is, as it were, your spiritual Faire or Mart, that will last for a month together; Oh now redeem the time, buy in some of your lost houres. The Argument calls for it; The dayes are evil, evil with sin, and evil with sorrow; evil in Church, and evil in State; evil abroad, and evil at home; evil with al sorts of men amongst us, from the highest orb to the lowest cell, so evil, that it is not safe to say how evil; so that never did this Argument speak with a louder voice in the ears of any people, since the Apostles time, then it doth in our ears. This Exercise was set up while Leicester was besieged, an evil time as we then thought: alas! the whole land now is besieged with fears and dangers round about; we are a very mogul missabih, as once Pashur, Fear round about: Jer. 20.3. and our divisions render us unable to help ourselves. England is another Ishmael, every mans hand is against us, and our hand against every man. There is a storm upon the vessel, and the Ministers cry out unto us, as the Ship-master to Jonas; What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, Jonah 1.6. call upon thy God, &c. If evil dayes be an argument to time-redemption; surely it is time for us to redeem the time. Know you not yet that England is destroyed. Surely it is tantùm non destroyed? Be swift to hear. Now God seems to be coming towards us of this place. God cometh in the midst of us in an extraordinary manner, as Moses told the people, Exod. 19.10, 11. Oh prepare to meet thy God, O Sion: if you will not prepare to meet him coming towards you in a way of mercy and peace, how soon and how justly may ye be summoned to meet him in a way of judgement and wrath? Fifthly, that may led to another sad consideration. You little know how soon Gospel-seasons may be removed. Amos 8.11, 12. God threatens a famine, not of bread or of water, but of hearing the Word of God; and the sad prognostics of such a famine are upon us; scarcity of it in many places already, the Church-doores are shut up, and there is not so much as a chapter red in a whole Sabbath, in hundreds of Churches in England and Wales. Among ourselves is found the highest contempt of the Gospel, and the Gospel-Ministery, that ever was among a people: 2 Cor. 36.16. which is the sin without remedy. A sin without remedy, because it is a sin against remedy. If such times should be hasting upon us, yet God deals with us in spirituals, as once for Egypt in temporals; he gives us yeares of plenty, before he bring upon us the black yeares of famine. Now therefore who is that wise Joseph, who will lay up in these yeares of plenty before the days of famine come? Oh be swift to hear, treasure up spiritual corn now, Mat. 13.52. that you may in times of want be like the good Scribe instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven, bringing out of your treasures things both new and old. Sixthly, to be sure, loathing is a fore-runner of losing the Gospel; when the Israelites began to loathe the Manna, which fell every morning round about their tents; it continued not long. And it is observed that a little before the French Massacre, Protestants were cloyed with the Word. Formerly people would have run far and near to have enjoyed such opportunities; if now you be afraid of it, or despise it, it will be a sad presage that judgement is not far off. Seventhly, let the zeal and forwardness of other places provoke you. Oh, how have I seen the Congregations within the City thronged? how is this Morning-Exercise sued for and begged for, by Ministers and their well-affected people, with greatest importunity, as great Charters are wont to be begged and sued for to Princes by their subjects! And I bless God to see it: Oh let not this remain as a blot upon Giles in the fields, that this Ark was brought home to your doors, and you said, as it were, it should not come into your habitation; that this Morning-Exercise was brought into this place, and the pews were empty; the inhabitants of this Parish did not regard it. The Apostle useth the same argument in another case upon the Corinthians, 2 Cor. 8.8. Oh let not the zeal and affection of other people rise up in judgement against this end of the town and condemn you. Eighthly, you will do as much for your bodies, and outward man, and more too. Were rare sights to be seen here every morning, for a month or two together, or were some rich doles to be distributed, there would be such throngs of people, that the walls and windows would not contain them. Christians, here are the visions of God to be seen; here are the unsearchable riches of Christ to be dispensed. Oh evidence to yourselves and others, that you believe you have immortal souls, more worth then ten thousand worlds. seventhly, the body verily may be a gainer as well as your souls; these morningvisits may be physic to your bodies, as well as food to your souls. Tenthly, however let me admonish you of this, that a single voluntary omission may prove greatly prejudicial to your spiritual good. Observe that passage in the Gospel-story: John 23.24. Luke 25. But Thomas one of the twelve was not with them when Jesus came, what the cause of his absence was, we read not; sure I am this single absence was like to have cost him dear, even his faith: they tell him, ver. 25. We have seen the Lord: but hear what a peremptory reply he makes, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nailes, Verse 25. and put my finger into the print of his nailes, and thrust my hands into his side. I will not believe. Had Christ taken him at his word, Thomas might have for ever bewailed his absence from the meeting of the disciples in eternal flames. Eleventhly, in the next place let me tell you thus much. God hath been pleased to make use of this morning-Exercise, for great advantage and good to many souls, since the first erecting of it. In times of fears, many that have come trembling and dismayed with evil tidings, have dismissed with comfort and encouragement; their hands have been strengthened, and their hearts have been encouraged in the Lord. Many that have been dubious and staggering about their way, have been settled and resolved: some have drawn their first spiritual breath in this air, others have been preserved and secured, in the sad Apostasy from anabaptism, antinomianism, Antiscripturisme, atheism, Rantisme of these times, and that which hath been the cause and source of them all, boundless liberty for every Congregation to hold, and hold forth what they will, without giving an account to any. I say, God hath made use of it for the stay of Apostasy, and the cementery of many Christians, in the truth and unity of the Gospel. Who knows what work God hath for this Morning-Exercise in this place? Only withdraw not yourselves out of Christs road, as I shewed you in the coherence of the words, vers. 18. God honours the Word with his blessing, do you honout it with your attendance. Twelfthly and lastly, say not, We may have future opportunities, what need of such present importunity? Nay, my brethren, but death may quickly cut off hat reckoning; your life may yet end, before the end of the Morning-Exercise. Oh lay in for eternity: In this your day know the things of your peace, before they be hide from your eyes: while ye have the light come to the light, our dayes are swift, as swift as an Eagle; Oh be you swift to hear. I should now come to give you some Rules or Cautions about this service. But of this in the next. MAY 1. 1655. The first Morning-Exercise. Jam. 1.19. Be swift to hear. Doctr. It is the duty of Christians to be swift to hear. The last Lords day in the afternoon I opened the Doctrine, and laid you down the grounds of the duty; and in the Use of Exhortation, gave you certain Motives to press this necessary duty upon you. I being to begin this morning-work; shall now prosecute the same Exhortation, and now by Gods assistance give you Some Rules and Cautions for guiding you in your attendance upon this service, There being but half an hour allowed for the Word of Exhortation. as the shortness of the time will permit; that I may not be injurious to your affairs in your particular Callings. In the first place, 1. Rule or Caution. Gal. 4.18. come constantly; you know who said, It is good to be zealously affencted always in a good thing. It is good, and there is a blessing in it; Blessed is the man that heareth me,( saith the wisdom of God) watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. Brethren, is not your heavenly Fathers blessing worth the coming for every morning? When torpor and sluggishness would detain you in your beds, or dispensable occasions divert you, Oh remember, blessings are dispensing in your Fathers house, run in, and cry, bless me, even me also, Oh my Faeher. But secondly, you that cannot come yourselves, sand your servants and children; that they may get a share in the blessing, and that their souls may bless you in the time to come; yea, and bless the Lord that ever the Morning-Exercise came among you: behold, they may be dismissed in due time, to minister unto you in their places. And let not the labouring man think it is an hour lost, that is spent in this service, if it may be borrowed without irreparable prejudice, either to others or yourselves: behold, the Word and Prayer shall sweeten and sanctify the whole dayes travail, and the hour you have lent to the Lord, will he pay again with advantage. Thirdly, come not to this Morning-work, without some liftings up of your hearts to God before, for his presence and blessing; if thou hast not time to make a long prayer, yet make a short prayer, sand up some lively ejaculation, Dicuntur fratres in Egyptocrebras ejaculationes emittere. some warmebreathings to God, for his presence with the Minister and people, his blessing on the Ordinance for thyself and others. Pray over that Promise, Exod. 20.24. In all places where I record my Name, I will meet thee and bless thee. Oh say with Mary, Behold, the servant of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy Word; not the Ordinance only, Lord, but thy Presence in the Ordinance; The Word, and thy bleffing on the Word; Oh meet me, and bless me for Christs sake. If Christians would pray more, before they come to the Word, they would thrive better; you receive not, because you ask not; the Promise is liberal, Ps. 81.10. Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it: Alas, we come to Ordinances, with our mouths shut: God may bespeak us, as once the Apostle his Corinthians; 2 Cor. 6.11, 12. Ye are not straightened in me, but ye are straightened in yourselves. You do not find God when ye come, because ye do not seek him before you come: Christians, is not God worth the seeking? Seek the Lord, and seek his strength, and seek his face continually. God faith unto you, Seek ye my face; let your heart echo back again to God; Thy face, Ps. 27.8. Lord, will I seek. Fourthly, come to this Morning-Exercise, without respect of persons. The usual question is,( I do not like it,) Who preacheth to morrow morning? And that is not all, but if the man svit not the fancy, the wantonness of some riseth to that boldness, that they fear not to despise both him and the Ordinance. Tush, I would not go over the threshold to hear such a man; Brethren, this ought not so to be, we should come for the Ordinance-sake, and not for the mans sake. In this sense, Jam, 2.1. we should not have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. It is to be feared, the delicacy of these times is a fore-runner of famine; and they that for wantonness do now cry, Whom shall we hear to day? may ere long cry to for want, Oh where shall we hear, whither shall we go to bear a faithful Minister? Brethren, let me freely, speak unto you. I am afraid, that the most of those dislikes, which you entertain against some Ministers of the Gospel; your heads, hearts and consciences, witnessing to their fidelity,) are but the groundless prejudices, and sinful distempers of your own hearts. samson, when he had got his great victory, threw away his jaw-bone, but when slain almost with thirst, God sends him to his jaw-bone again; ye are not now full, and Provender, as we say, pricks you; if a spiritual drought come, you would be glad of the worst of your despised Ministers. In the mean time, let me tell you, He is a sorry Minister indeed,( if I say faithful,) by whom you may not get something worth your pains in hearing, were your heart in a mortified gracious frame. I have heard some eminent Christians aclowledge, that after some disputes whether they should hear such and such a man, because of some private jealousies upon their spirits, yet determined by this consideration: I go for the Ordinance sake, not for the mans sake; God hath made it the most seasonable Word, that ever they heard. The stories themselves would be too long. And therefore, Christians, look to your own hearts; and if the Minister want quickness in preaching, do thou make it up in the lively actings of thine own grace, lest otherwise it appears, it is parts that act thee, and not spirituality and soundness of matter. In the next place, Observe God( therefore) in the variety of the gifts and graces of his Ministers: and learn to admire the manifold Wisdom of God. Corinth hath bequeathed her wantonness to London, we are puffed up for one against another: 1 Cor. 4 6. for one Minister of the Gospel against another; we cannot commend one, but we must despise another. But we should remember, that the Spirit is the fountain of all their gifts and graces, how different soever; it is the excellencies of these stars, that though one star differ from another in glory, yet God made them all; and he calls them all by their names. The H. Ghost is called the seven Spirits of God, Rev. 1.4. for his manifold and sundry operations, so that you cannot easily despise the gifts of any that ars sincere, but by interpretation you judge the Spirit, and despise the Spirit: as it is said of the poor, Prov. 17.5. This you may observe,( and it would help you) that the meanest of the faithful Ministers of the Gospel hath some excellency above his brethren; as in the natural body, every member hath an usefulness, an honour proper to itself, 1 Cor. 12.25. that so there might be no schism in the body: and many times God is pleased to use the meaner gift for the greater service, because he delights to honour sincerity above parts. Come then Christians, 1 Cor. 15.10. to the word, with your expectations upon God, and not upon the Preacher. You may easily over-expect the creature, you can never over-expect God. Sixthly, look to your aims, and come to get your hearts warmed every morning, by the fire of the Sanctuary: labour to hear, and pray your hearts into aspiritual and an heavenly frame, that you may walk with God all the day long. Bring your hearts to God every morning, and desire him to wind them up for you, and then to keep his hand upon the main spring all the day long, or else it will quickly run down again. Seventhly, If God please to kindle any fire upon your hearts, take heed of letting it go out. Quench not the Spirit; quench not good motions, by letting out your hearts inordinately to the things of the world. If God work a good frame in thee, take heed of any thing that may discompose it. Little sins first distemper, and then great sins come in and destroy. Pro. 4.23. Of all keeping keep thy heart. Take heed, when ye have begun in the Spirit, that you do not end in the flesh. Keep this upon your hearts as an antidote against temptation. I have been with God this morning, and how shall I do this great wickedness, and profane my approaches to God? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? People are prove to conceive themselves discharged, when they have been in duty; not much better then the Slut in the Proverbs; Prov. 7.14.— 18. I have peace-offerings with me, this day I have paid my vows, come let us take our fill of love, &c. But remember this an harlotry logic, to put duty into the premises, and sin into the conclusion; The Scripture teacheth otherwise. Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ, 2 Tim. 2.19. depart from iniquity. And if you call on the Father, 1 Pet. 1.17 &c. pass the time of your pilgrimage in fear. If ye pray, look to your conversation; Holy duties are engagement to an holy life. Prayer is an implicit vow. Say therefore, when you come from duties, public or private; Thy vows are upon me, Ps. 56.12. I will render praises unto thee. In the eight place, Let not the Morning-Exercise pay the score of family or closetduties. It is unworthy of a Christian spirit, to think to save charges by attendance upon public Ordinancer. Remember that under the Law, Numb. 28 10, 15. the Sabbathssacrifice was not to discharge the morning-sacrifice. This is the burnt-offering of every-Sabbath, besides the continual burnt-rffering, and his meat-offering; and so, v. 15, &c. You are fitter for your family-duties, and closet-devotion, when you have warmed your hearts in communion with God in his public worship, when you come home therfore, pray over what you have heard, and what you have prayed in the public Assemblies. seventhly, Put every duty into practise as you hear them; live your Sermon, that day. Tenthly and lastly, Account the morning-services your privilege as well as your duty. Look upon it not as your burden, but as your blessing; what would some poor Christians give for one of these opportunities? Many Kings and righteous persons, as our Saviour saith, have desired to hear the things which you hear, and have not heard them, &c. Surely the worst day in the week, is better to you then many Sabbaths, to many Churches of Jesus Christ. If once our advantages come to be our burdens, God can quickly unburden us; as he threatens, Jer. 23. from the 33, to the end. Account the Word your privilege, your honour, & let your improvement witness your prising of it; Study spiritual growth. 1 Pet. 2.2. As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby. Labour to get knowledge answerable to the means, and grace answerable to your knowledge. And so much for this time and this Text. A Concluding SERMON at the end of the Morning-Exercise, AT GILES in the FIELDS, On Wednesday, May 30. 1655. JER. 35.15. I have sent also unto you all my servants the Prophets, rising up early, and sending them, saying, Return ye now every man from his evil way, &c. THe words, they are a conviction of the infidelity and stubbornness of the Jews. Jonadabs sons obeied their fathers command, not to drink wine, &c. verse 14. The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine are performed, for unto this day they drink none, but obey their fathers commandment; Notwithstanding, saith God, I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking, but ye harkened not unto me. In the words you have these two parts. First, Gods carriage and dealing towards the Jews. Secondly, their carriage towards God: Gods dealing with them, I have sent unto you all my servants the Prophets, &c. Their dealing with God in the close of the verse; but ye have not inclined your care, nor harkened unto me. In the former part, Gods dealing with them, you have these eight particulars. 1. Here's the means used, I have sent. 2. Here's the persons employed, the Prophets, who are here described by their adjunct, my servants. 3. Their number, all my servants the Prophets. 4. Their diligence, they rose early. 5. Their importunity, I sent them. Sending them, what's that? that is, sending them time after time, morning after morning, using all importunity. 6. Their message, and that is Reformation, consisting of two parts: 1. Ceasing from evil. And 2. Mending their ways; return ye every man from his evil ways and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them. 7. Here is the authority by which they came; I sent them, saith God. 8. Here you have the motive upon which God doth woe and invite them to Reformation: and that's no worse then their own good: that you might dwell in the land. The second part, namely their carriage towards God; 'tis very short, and very sad; but you have not harkened, nor obeied. Many Observations might be raised from the words; But I shall put them altogether into one Observation, and 'tis this, viz. Doctr. That God takes it very ill, and it is a high provocation to his Majesty, when he vouchsafes the choicest and most precious means for a peoples Reformation and salvation, and yet under all those means they remain obstinate and irreformed. 'Tis that you have complained frequently all along the Prophets in the very words of the Text. The same, though in other language, which God makes, Isa. 5. I did thus and thus to my vineyard, and what could I have done more? wherefore when I looked for grapes, it brought forth wild grapes. God took it very ill after all the cost, care and pains he had been at in his vineyard, his expectations were disappointed. 'Tis that which made Jesus Christ groan and weep over Jerusalem; O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thee, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings? but ye would not. I would, but you would not. God takes it very ill, and 'tis a high provocation to his majesty, and well it may, if you consider these grounds. In such earriage of a people towards God, thus behaving himself towards them, there is 1. Thetenders & offers of grace and reconciliation neglected. 2. His love despised; there was never such overtcres made to the Apostate-Angels; neither hath he dealt so with every Nation, &c. here is love despised. 3. Here is Gods importunity gain-said; God doth entreat, God doth beseech, and God doth wait time after time and man proudly stands out. 4. The Patience of God abused. 5. virtually, the blood of Christ is trampled upon. And 6. The Spirit resisted, which is the aggravation of all disobedience against the Word, Acts 7.51. Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye have always resisted the Holy Ghost. For the Use. Is not this the very case of England? may not God speak this text over England, for near a hundred yeares together, I have sent unto you all my servants the Prophets, rising up early and sending them? And is not this the case of this very place? were it only in reference to this month, where the Morning-Exercise hath been among you: had God never sent a Prophet to you before, never dealt with you about your reformation and reconciliation before, will not the dispensations and dealings of God towards you, even in this month, be able to justify God, and to leave you without excuse? Christians, this day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears on Gods part; For, First, God hath sent; and whom hath he sent? he hath not sent gifted brethren among you, he hath not sent loose and debauched men of wretched principles, to speak to you the vision of their hearts; of whom God complains, Jer. 23.21. I have not sent these Prophets, yet they ran, I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied; But God hath sent to you his servants the Prophets; Prophets by calling, men set apart for the work of the Gospel by ministerial ordination; he hath sent to you Ministers that have approved themselves to be the servants of God, that have served the designs and interests of Christ faithfully in their places. And thirdly, God hath sent all his servants, i.e. in great number,( if we take in the next day, * The Fast at the concluding of the mnethly-Exercile. which we hope to enjoy) above thirty Ministers God hath sent among you this month. Fourthly, Consider their diligence, rising up early, you have been invited out of your beds into Gods presence; the first breath you have breathed in the morning, hath been in Gods Sanctnary. Fifthly, they have used great importunity, Sending, he hath sent them, they have doubled their pains, trod upon the heels one of another, every man hath drawn out his bowels among you, spent their spirits, they have preached as if they should never preach again. And Sixthly, what hath their message been? it hath been to Reformation, that you would now turn to God; their Texts and Sermons have been nothing else but Exhortations, Motives and means to Reformation, for the rolling away, and removing hindrances and obstructions out of your way. To this end, let me help your memories by way of a summary rehearsal of their morning-labours among you, which is the chiefest desigue of this concluding Exercise. The first was but a preparatory to all the rest, The first morning. it was but like the voice of John Baptist in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord, only some brief directions how you should hear, and how you should artend upon the Morning-Exercise, that it might be of use and advantage to your souls. The second he comes, The second morning. and from Isa. 22.12. In that day did the Lord God of hostes call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth. He gave you this observation. Doct. That the time of Gods incensed anger should be the time of the sinners humiliation. Such is his abundant mercy, that he calls men to repentance before he break in upon them by his judgements. He shoots off his warning pieces, before he gives fire to his murdering pieces. In that day the Lord did call; how doth he call? he calls outwardly, inwardly. Outwardly, he calls by his Word; every Sermon is a call, every chapter is a call, every verse is a call. He calls by his mercies, all your mercies are so many calls to obedience. He calls by his judgments, even the Rod hath a voice; and where the rod hath a voice, we should have an ear. Hear the rod. He calls inwardly, by the stirrings and impulses of his own Spirit, and therefore the duty was urged upon you by these heart melting Arguments. 1. Warning neglected will make vengeance most furious. 2. Slighting of judgement, is the greatest judgement that can befall a people. 3. It argues horrible pride. 4 Desperate security. And, 5. 'Tis attended upon with such anger and wrath, as the tongue of an Angel is not able to speak, nor the heart of man able to conceive; Because I have called and you would not harken, you shall call, and I will not haerken, &c. Prov. 1.24. The third comes, The third morning. and sets forth to you( as it were) the nature and the condition of such a people, as neglect Gods Call, from Jer. 5.4. I said, Surely these are poor, they are foolish; for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgments of their God. And from thence he gives you this sad Observation, viz. Doctr. That rebels are a poor and beggarly generation. Let them be never so great and honourable, they are poor civilly, and poor spiritually; they are poor civilly. 1. They are poor antecedently, for the most part the lowest of people are the worst of people. It was the rabble rout that was gathered together against Iesus Christ, in Psal. 2. 2. Poor concomitantly; usually they think their poverty will bear them out in any wickedness. 3. They are poor consequently. Poverty is their judgement. Many time; God doth blast their estates, and sends a worm to eat out the bottom of their gourds. God doth punish rebellion with beggary many times, and blast mens estates to chastise the pride of their hearts. And then they are poor spiritually, poor in their Intellectuals; ignorance is the poverty of the understanding: wicked men are not worth one dram of saving knowledge; they are poor in grace, they think themselves rich, that they abound in goods, and want nothing, and know not that they are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, Rev. 3.17. 'Tis rebellion only that makes men soule-poor, spiritually-poor, irremedilesly-poor, everlastingly poor. 4. The fourth morning. The fourth( as if there had been in consultation with the former, how to methodise their discourses) He prescribes a cure to the former evil, and shows the way how a Christian may become rich, and that is by getting interest in Christ. And from Phil. 1.21. To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain; he gives you these two Observations. Doctr. 1. That Christ is the life of a Believer. 2. That to whom Christ is life, death will be gain. Christ is the life of a believer, Naturally, Spiritually, Eternally; all this by virtue of union with him, and from thence he infers, 1. The preciousaesse of a Christian; Christ is his life. 2. The duty of Christians, to be willing to venture their lives for Christ: since Christ is their life. 3. The happiness of a believer, he hath a Christ in him. Christ in you the hope of glory, Col. 1.27. 4. The woeful condition of all out of Christ; without Christ, and without life, and without hope in the world, Eph. 2.12. The fifth morning another servant of God comes, The fifth morning. and he shows you the danger of neglecting Gospelgrace; and from Acts 17.30. Those times of ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men every where to repent; gave these three excellent Observations. Doct. 1. Times of Paganism were times of ignorance. 2. 'Tis a misery to be brought up in such times and places. 3. Times of the Gospel are times wherein God bespeaks every man, every where to repent. The 1. Use was, to reprove those Preachers, who in Gospel-times cry down repentance and sorrow of heart: there is abundance of such preaching and Preachers, the Lord deliver us from them. Secondly, such people as are not engaged by Gospeldispensations to Gospel-repentance. But much more they in the third place, that encourage themselves to live in sin, because they live in Gospel-times; this is sad. The second Use, the Use of Exhortation from three Motives: scilicet, 1. The expectation of God. 2. The uncertainty of the Spirits motions: And 3. The danger of delay; calls you earnestly and pathetically to repentance. The sixth, The sixth morning. he holds out Christ unto you, as sealed to the Office of a mediator by God the Father, from John 6.27. Him hath God the Father sealed: Sealed by his baptism, sealed by his Doctrine, sealed by his Miracles, sealed by his Resurrection, but above all sealed by his glorious Unction. The first Use was, to make them tremble that neglect and refuse Christ; for they neglect a sealed Saviour, they neglect him whom the Father hath sealed. The second Use was, to show the necessity of getting Christ; since neither Saints nor Angels were sealed, but only the Lord Jesus; O close with Christ, take him upon Gods terms, Him, him hath God the Father sealed. The third Use spake infinite comfort to them that do close with Christ, 'tis a sealed Redeemer, that you have taken and made choice of, and such as have taken Christ whom the Father hath sealed, may urge the Father with his Seal, and the Son with his Office: Lord, thou hast sealed Christ: Blessed Jesus, thou art sealed to the Office of a mediator; O sweet Lord, do thy Office, subdue my corruptions, sanctify my heart, and so forth. And thus, such as these may look beyond wrath, and beyond the grave, and beyond justice, with infinite comfort, even as many as take this sealed Saviour upon Gods conditions. The seventh, The seventh morning. as the former shewed you a Saviour under seal, so he doth show you( a sad sight) a sinner under bondage, Acts 8.23. I perceive that thou art in the gull of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity; and thence he gives you this sad truth. Doctr. That sins are the souls bonds. 1. Bonds tie things together, so do sins; one sin doth link in with another; sin doth tie the sinner and the curse together, binding over the guilty creature to hell, and the wrath of God for ever. 2. Bonds gull the body, so sins gull the conscience. 3. A man cannot fly from his bonds, no, nor a sinner from his guilt. 4. Bonds strangle the body, and sin strangles the soul; 'tis a destroyer. Therefore upon these considerations he persuades you, 1. To hate sin. 2. To destroy sin. 3. To get out of those bonds of sin, as you tender your own souls. The course and means was, 1. To get into Christ; If the Son make you free, you shall be free indeed. 2. To give up yourselves to his service. The eighth comes, The eighth morning. as it were a wooing for Jesus Christ, and from Isa. 62.5. As a young man marrieth a Virgin, so shall thy sons mary thee: and as the Bridegroom rejoiceth over the Bride. so shall thy God rejoice over thee: He gave you this excellent Morning-cordial. Doctr. That God stands related and affencted to his Church, as a Bridegroom to the Bride. He opened it in these particulars. 1. As a Bridegroom loves his Bride, so doth Christ love his Church. 2. As a Bridegroom affords his presence to his Bride, so doth Christ delight to be in the company of his Church. 3. As a Bridegroom counsels his Bride, so Christ counsels his Church, he is the counsellor. 4. As a Bridegroom doth protect his Bride, so doth Christ protect his Church. 5. As a Bridegroom provides for his Bride, so doth Christ provide for his Church and people. 6. As the husband pays all the wifes debts, so doth Christ pay all the debts his people owe to the Law, and to divine Justice. 7. As the husband covers all the infirmities of his yoke-fellow, so Christ covers the infirmities of his Church. O Christians, who would not accept such a match as this? of what infinite concernment is it, for a poor guilty soul to accept of the tenders and offers of the Son of God, when he comes thus a wooing in the Gospel? The ninth course fell upon that day which was the Fast-day; that day wherein we desired to humble our souls in reference to the many fires of late broken out in the City, and he whom Providence sent that day, helped you, as it were, to draw water to quench the fire of Gods wrath: indeed his pathetical discourse drew a great deal of water from many eyes, and from John 4.23, 24. God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. He raised this point. Doctr. That that worship which is acceptable to the God of spirits, is a spiritual worship. He shewed wherein this worship did consist. 1. In making conscience of spiritual sins as well as corporal. 2. In getting, preserving and acting spiritual graces. 3. In acting all the faculties of the soul upon God. 4. In acting the externals,( the very outwards) of Religion in a spiritual manner. It was an excellent discourse, and deserved the press as well as the Pulpit, the Lord impress it upon your hearts. The tenth he comes, and from Mat. 16.26. What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? he pointed to you the preciousness of your immortal heaven-born souls, and gave you this doctrine. Doctr. That the gain of the world cannot countervail the loss of a soul. witness, 1. God that made it. 2. witness the impress of the soul, 'tis stamp't with the image of God. 3. The immortality of it, it is immortal, it cannot die. 4. witness the price paid for it, O the soul cost the precious blood of Jesus Christ. He that loseth his soul, he loseth God, he loseth Angels, Saints, and he loseth Heaven and Glory for ever. He that is thus lost is lost intolerably, lost unreasonably, lost irrecoverably. Therefore before you mortgage your souls to the devil, you were desired to sit down and consider what your souls are worth, and then, if you can; bestow them upon the devil; and if you can be so vile as to part with such precious souls for a base lust, The eleventh discovered to you your dreadful condition, and from Isa. 29.9. Surely they are drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. He tells you, Doct. That you are under a sore spiritual blast of divine vengeance. That the greatest & worst of all plagues are spiritual, inward, soul-plagues. Men may wallow in outward delights and comforts, and thinkall is well, because they do not hear from God in thundering and lightning, while in the mean time wrath is upon their heads, their souls, their consciences; and themselves at the next door to final reprobation; O fear and tremble. The twelfth lays you in, as it were, a motive from your future condition, that it might waken you to a serious consideration of your present estate, from Gen. 5.24. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him, &c. and raised this truth. Doct. That there is a future estate for man. And therfore exhorts you; First, to live as those that expect a future estate. Secondly, to meditate much upon that uture estate. And thirdly, to prepare for it, that when you go hence, and be no more seen, you may be with God as Enoch was. The thirteenth comes, and taking his text from Hosea 5.15. In their affliction they will seek me early, leaves this precious truth among you. Doctr. That times of affliction are times of Prayer and Supplication. And therefore counseled you, that the seasonableness of the work might cause you to close with it. The times are times of affliction; Oh that every one of you would make them times of prayer and supplication. In their afflictions they will seek me early; afflictions upon the Nation, afflictions upon your selves: O be not weary of this duty of prayer and supplication. It was the day of Humiliation, to the Conclusion of the Morning-Exercise. To morrow is a praying day: O come as the sons and daughters of God, to wrestle with God, and with the Israelites, to draw water, and poure it out before the Lord. The fourteenth, he lays in a motive( as it were) to this duty, fetched from 1 Pet. 3.12. The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. As Moses and Joshua said, behold, he might say, I have set life and death before you; rest not in a wicked condition; the frowns of a King are as the Messengers of death; surely the frowns of God areas the Harbingers of hell. The fifteenth doth, as it were make use of this doctrine, and from Lev. 19.2. Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy; gives you this note: Doctr. That holinesse is Gods perfection. Holinesse is that perfection whereby God doth act suitably to his nature, and agreeably to his will. God is the Pattern of holinesse, he is the Rule of holinesse, he is the highest cause of holinesse. The holinesse of the creature doth consist in an universal hatred of sin, a delight in the things that are holy, and in a conformity to Gods Will. He told you, hence it was the best policy to be holy, because thereby you shall be sure to be of the strongest side, to be of Gods side. What will become of all unholy ones in the day of Christ? surely, God will not know them because they have not his image upon them; You shall be holy, for I am holy. Without holinesse no man shall see the Lord. If you would have God like you, you must be like God, be holy as he is holy, study holinesse. The sixteenth he tells you, as if it had been a studied context, That hearing of God will not serve to make you holy, unless you see him. The sight of God in Gospeldiscoveries, is that which will make you admire God, and abhor yourselves, from Job 42.5. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee: Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes; Rest not in a general report of God, but labour for an experimental knowledge and discovery of him; Pray that you may see him in his glory, while you hear of him in his Word; that so you may be able also to say, I have heard of thee often by the hearing of the ear. but now mine eye seeth thee: Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. The seventeenth, Messenger or Prophet of the Lord, he cries from the words of our Saviour, Luke 8.18. Take heed how you hear. Take heed before hearing, take heed in hearing, take heed after hearing. Take heed before hearing to preparation, take heed in hearing to attention, take heed after hearing to practise, to obedience; Be you doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own souls. Take heed what you hear, and take heed how you hear. Take heed what you hear, lest the Preacher deceive you; and take heed how you hear, lest you deceive your selves. The eighteen took his text from Acts 10.36. Preaching peace by Jesus Christ: and gives you these observations. 1. That the ministry of the Gospel is a ministry of peace, preaching peace, &c. 2. That the peace which the Gospel preacheth, is by Christ. 'Tis of Christ in a fourfold respect. 1. 'Tis of Christs purchase. 2. Of Christs applying. 3. Of Christs continuing. 4. Of Christs publishing. And therefore, 1. Certainly all christless men, are peacelesse men; they that are without Christ are without peace; that's dreadful. Secondly, it was to encourage poor sinners to come to God thorough Christ; they are wrath, but he is peace; and therefare concludes in the third place, that they, and they only, and all they are happy that accept of Christ upon Gods terms, because that Christ is their peace, and their reconciliation with the Father; Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, Rom. 5. The nineteenth comes as it were with a Use of Consolation upon the former text; doth Christ preach peace? then Isa. 40.1. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, tell her that her sin is pardonned, &c. and gives you this comfortable doctrine from thence: Doctr. That pardon of sin is the ground of all solid comfort. So, Mark 9.2. Son, be of good comfort, thy sins are forgiven thee. Pardon of sin, O itis a comfortable condition, 'tis a rich mercy, it cost Christ his blood; 'tis a distinguishing mercy. And remember it was told you in the Use of Examination, that pardoning grace always goes along with healing grace: wherever sin is pardonned, corruption is mortified; and therefore let no man presume of an interest in pardon, that lives in sin; Whom Christ justifieth, he doth also sanctisie, 1 Cor. 6.11. The twentieth Messenger from God, taught you spiritual Providence, from Prov. 10.5. He that gathereth in Summer is a wise son; but he that sleepeth in harvest, is a son that causeth shane: from thence he gave you this doctrine. Doctr. That it is a special part of mans wisdom, to improve the seasons of spiritua plenty. Now you have the seasons of plenty. What are they? the season of life, and the season of health, the season of Sabbaths, and the season of Ordinances. And therefore that which he did earnestly call for, was; First, to bewail your former folly, that you have made no better use of spiritual seasons of plenty. Secondly, to beg wisdom of God. And thirdly, be sure, now to make this your wisdom, that in these seasons of plenty, you would lay up good food, and not sticks, straws, pebbles and dirt: but 1. Lay in Scripture-truthes against times of error. 2. Lay in Scripture-directions against times of darkness. 3. Lay in Scripture-comforts against times of sorrow. And all these the rather, because The one and twentieth he told you that, 1. 'Tis possible for people that live under the Ordinances of God, to bring forth nothing but briars and thorns. 2. That the end of these that bring forth nothing but briars and thorns, is to be hurned. Both these dreadful truths he gave you from Heb. 6.8. How nearly are Christians concerned to look to their fruit, and to bring forth good fruit? what's good fruit? That is good fruit, 1. That's answerable to your standing in the vineyard: O let not a plant( it may be, of half a years standing, shane you that are of twenty, thirty, forty years standing in the Gospel. 2. Bring forth fruit answerable to the cost and pains God hath been at with you. Let not that ground think to escape with the same fruit, upon whom God bestows much cost and much pains, as that which hath had none of these precious influences. 3. Bring forth fruit suitable to your former barrenness, Rom. 6.19. As ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity, unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness, to holinesse. Give God the same measure you have given the devil, give God the same measure you have given the flesh, give God the same measure you have given the world; O be as fruitful for God as ever you have been for the devil. If you mean to bring forth briars and thorns, that is,( in English) if you mean to be drunkards, unclean persons, Sabbath-breakers, swearers, reproachers of God and his Ordinances, &c. still, and to live as you list; if you will still bring forth briars and thorns, quit your station; all ye profane wretches, get you into the wilderness, that's the place forbriars & thorns. Wo be to them that are planted in the garden of God, and yet bring forth briars and thorns: better you you were born in the desert, then in the garden of God; of all places Christ will not endure a thorn there; therefore his counsel was, 1. If ever you would be fruitful, get into Christ. 2. Lay your hearts open to the influences of heaven, ( A very smart and spiritual expression) that is, open your hearts to the Word, and to the motions of the Spirit of God. 3. Take heed of wicked company, and take heed of secret lusts; secret lusts will choke the Word, and you will become unfruitful. 4. Pray that God would make you fruitful, that having your fruit unto holinesse, you may have your end in everlasting life. The two and twentieth, from Ezek. 18 31. Make you a new heart and a new spirit, for why will you die, O house of Israel? insisted excellently upon these four points. 1. The necessity of a new heart, there's no life without it; Make you a new heart, for why will you die? 2. Our impotency, our disability to make ourselves a new heart; and yet notwithstanding in the 3. Place, he shewed the equity of God, requiring it at our hand; for though you have lost your power to obey, yet God hath not lost his power and authority to command; 'tis equal with God to require you should make yourselves new hearts. 4. It is, though ye cannot, yet it is just with God to condemn you for not having new hearts, though it be not in your power to make you new hearts; because once he gave us power, and we desperately sinned it away, &c. Therefore he discovered isom hence, 1. The danger of resting in moral honesty; he gave encouragement enough to men to be civil and morally honest; but he faithfully discharged his office in cautionng you to take heed of resting in moral honesty. 2. He warned you from resting in formality. 3. From taking up with outward reformation, from gross sins only: are there not many that think themselves Saints, berause they are no drunkards and swearers, and yet have not one spark of grace? 4. He cautioned you to take heed of resting in a general Profession at large, namely, as you are Christians and Protestants, &c. all these were good he told you, but all these fall short of a new heart; they are not the thing that God calls for; therefore he pressed you to the getting of a new heart, 1. By deep conviction. 2. By waiting upon the Word of God. 3. By constant supplication for the accomplishment of that promise, Ezek. 36.26. I will take away the heart of ston, and a new heart will I give unto you. Blessed be God, that which is in the command impossible on your side, God hath undertaken it by promise: make you a new heart; O, saith the convinced soul, Lord, I cannot; then saith God, I will take away the heart of ston, and give an heart of flesh. If the command finds work, the promise finds strength; if the command dishearten you, let the promise encourage you; faithful is he that hath promised, who also will do it. I will give you a new heart: go, and press God with his promise. The three and twentieth preached upon the parable of Dives and Lazarus, Luke 16. last, I pray thee, father Abraham, sand Lazarus to warn my brethren &c. No, saith Abraham, they have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them, for if they hear not them; they will not be persuaded, though one rose from the dead; He shewed you most excellently what a vain and foolish thing it is to fancy some other way for conversion, and for turning of men to God, then that which God himself hath already established; No, saith God, If they will not believe Moses and the Prophets, they will not hear, though one rise from the dead; and he gave clear evidences of it; truly the first might serve instead of all, it was this: no way that can be thought of will do men good for reformation and conversion, unless God set in with it,( mark the foundation upon which he builds his inference) now is it likely and probable God should set in with ways of mens invention, when they despise the ways of his own ordination? Suppose one should come from hell all in flames, and tell you what the damned suffer there: is it probable this should do you good, when God tells you the same thing in the Word, and you will not believe him? Its a most convincing argument, men that despise Ministers, and Word, and Sacraments, and the institutions of God, will never believe a report of a doubtful authority; You have a more sure word of prophecy, 2 Pet. 1.19 whereunto you do well that you take heed, &c. despise it not, lest you provoke God to take away the means you have; and then wo unto you that ever you were born. The next preached to you concerning heart-purity, from Mat. 5.8. Blessed are the pure in heart. &c. He shewed you the nature of heart-purity. It keeps the soul unspotted from the world. He shewed the frame of it towards sin. 1. 'Tis burdened under sin. 2. It resolves aguinst all sin. 3. It makes out for power against sin, as well as for pardon; thatis an infallible evidence. 4. A pure heart is continually renewing repentance. 5. A pure heart is full of self-abhorrency. The blessedness of it he shewed from this, that such they shall see God: and this is enough; for certainly the vision of God is the very heaven of heaven; take this away, and heaven would be heaven no longer: therefore the pure in heart are blessed: you were directed to the pursuit of this purity of heart, by six take heeds. 1. Take heed of selfopinion, for that will destroy you. 2. Take heed of resting in good thoughts of others, others think well of you, therefore you think well of yourselves; take heed of a name to live when you are dead, Rev. 3.1. 3. Take heed of comparing yourselves with men worse then yourselves, because thou seest another worse then thyself, art thou therefore good? Oh sad mistake! 4. Take heed of resting in a form of godliness. 5. Take heed of the cares of the world, they are very inconsistent with heart-purity. 6. Take heed of neglecting your spiritual watch. Give up yourselves to the study of the Word, if you would get purity of heart; 1. 'Tis a sin-discovering Word. 2. 'Tis a directing Word, it leads to holinesse. 3. 'Tis a soul-converting Word. And 4ly, it conforms the soul to the likeness of God, We all behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, &c. The tweuty fifth and the last, his voice methinks yet sounds in your ears, it was but yesterday-morning: crying from 2 Cor. 13.5. Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith: prove your own selves: know you not that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobates? The doctrine was; Doctr. That self-examination is a most necessary and most excellent duty. A duty which the profane, and the sceptical Libertiue, can pled for in opposition to Ecclesiastical examination; when Christs officers desire, you give an account of your faith; for their satisfaction in what they do, when you come to claim a share in this Ordinance, then they can cry, We must examine ourselves; they say to the Ministers and Officers of the Church, as the devils cried to Jefus, What have we to do with thee? so Ministers, what have we to do with you? we must ezamine ourselves, let us alone, when in the mean time( did you mark it) as you were told lately, they do not examine themselves; so he told you more, they cannot, they dare not examine themselves: there is never a drunkard, whoremaster, nor ignorant person in the world, that dares examine himself; they dare not, they cannot examine themselves; And how will these men and women be able to appear in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ? how will they be able to stand before the Tribunal of Christ, that cannot stand before the ministry of the Gospel? how will they be able to endure fire examination, that cannot endure Church-examination? nay, they cannot endure self-examination, as lame and partial as their consciences are, therefore try your faith, examine, 1. Whether you have the principles of faith in your hearts? 2. Whether you have the power of faith in your consciences? 3. Whether you have the practise of faith in your lives? As Christ said to his disciples, Mat. 5.47. What singular thing do you do? so say we to you, You say you have faith; what doth your faith do more then the common faith, that goes up and down the world, that faith men swear by at every word? what doth your faith do more then the presumptuous boldness, and ungrounded security of the world? what doth your faith do more then those vain hopes of mercy men take up upon trust? what doth your faith do more then those loose and unwarrantable applications of Christ, wherein men rest and perish? what doth your faith do more then counterfeit comforts, and counterfeit revelations that are abroad? more then the general persuasions of ignorant people that God loves them? more then gifts, and more then formality? examine what sincerity is in your hearts, doth your faith work by love? what faithfulness to Christ and to his interest? do you make Christ your pattern as well as your Saviour? O examine; a little faith well tried, how comfortable might it be to you in the Sacrament? how comfortable will it be in persecution? O what a comfort will a well-tried faith be to you upon your deathbeds? and therefore consider, 1. If you will not examine your faith, God will examinc it. 2. The devil will try it; Peter, Peter, Satan hath desired to winnow thee, &c. What a stir did the devil keep about Peters faith there, to shake and undermine it? 3. To be deceived in point of faith, of all other deceits in the world is most dangerous; O take heed that your faith be not knocked off in the midst of the sea, as Pharaohs wheels were: many a mans faith is knocked off, in the midst of the indictments of the Law, and Satans accusations: O that's a dreadful thing to lose your faith when you come to die; for faith to leave you when you should have most use of your faith; to have faith to get, when you should have faith to use. 4. If you live and die in this estate you are reprobated, reprobate now, that is, in regard of your present estate, but if you live and die in a mistake of your faith, you are reprobate in regard of your everlasting condition; He that believes not shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him. O examine your faith; this was a word of comfort, that if you have the grace of faith, then all the privileges of faith are yours, then God is yours, Christ yours, heaven yours, and glory yours. And now consider, God hath sent( as I said before) his Prophets, his servants; all of them in great numbers, rising up early and sending them, time after time, and morning after morning; yea, take notice of the verse before my text, God in sending his Prophets, he doth speak himself to you; 'tis exceeding observable in the fourteenth verse; I have spoken to you, rising early, and speaking, &c. God in sending his servants the Prophets to you, he speaks to you himself, thatis much to be laid to heart, that God in all his servants the Prophets, morning after morning, for twenty six mornings together, I say, that God hath spoken to you himself; He that heareth you, heareth me, and he that heareth me, heareth him that sent me. And upon what terms have they invited you? only your own good; Amend your doings, and go not after other gods, and you shall dwell in the land which I have given you; 'tis for your present comfort, and for your future happiness, that God doth thus wooe and beseech you to be reconciled. Thus graciously hath God fulfilled the former part of the text, in sending all his servants the Prophets, rising up early and sending them, calling you to reform upon no worse terms, then your present comfort, and your future glory; Now if you shall ungraciously fulfil the second part of the text; But ye have nor inclined your ear, nor harkened to me; O what will become of you, if there be found those( and it may be they are not here, to whom this Word most properly belongs) I say, if there be found those that have not so much as lent God an ear, given him the hearing; God hath risen early in his Prophets, but they have been sleeping in their beds, in their bed of nature, and in their bed of security; God hath sent his Prophet, and they have thought scorn to set their foot over the threshold; God hath opened his mouth, but they would not open their ear: What will you do in the latter end? O what will become of such a generation of sleepers; that have neglected the call of God? I speak of them that might have come and would not; I do not speak of them that would have come and cannot. Secondly, among them that have come, if there be found such, who though possibly have inelined their ear; given God the hearing, yet they have not harkened: if there be found among you idle hearers, forgetful hearers, as soon as ever you are out of the Church, the Word is out of your heads, and you never think of it more; if there be found untrembling hearers, that hear indeed, but tremble not; that hear, but bless themselves in their hearts, Deut. 29.19. saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst, &c. If there be found among you unbelieving hearers, that hear, but do not mix the word with faith, If there be found among you disobedient hearers, that received not the truth in the love of the truth; but harden their hearts, and stiffen their necks, like an iron sinew, that say( in the language of their hearts, though it may be not with their mouths) As for the Word of the Lord that thou hast spoken, Jer. 44.16. we will not harken unto thee. What may you expect, but that God should execute the fiereenesse of his wrath, that here he threatens in the very next verse to my text: But this people hath not harkened unto me; therefore thus saith the Lord God of Hostes, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, all the evil that I have pronounced against them: because I have spoken to them, but they have not heard, and I have called unto them, but they have not answered? How may all that refuse to hear, or hearing refuse to obey, and refuse to put their neck under the yoke of Christ, how may they expect God should fulfil upon them all the judgements and curses written in this book, from the first of Genesis, to the end of the Revelations? therefore be wise, O ye Kings, be instructed, Ps. 2.10. ye Judges of the earth; kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, &c. O kiss Christ with a kiss of repentance, with a kiss of saith, with a kiss of subjection: make peace, come in, submit; if briars and thorns will stand it out in battle, God will throw them into the fire & burn them up: Isa. 27.4. but if they will make peace, let them take hold of Gods strength, take hold of Jesus Christ: He is the arm of the Lord, Isa. 53.1. and they shall make peace with him. As for you that hear and tremble at the Word, here is comfort for you; look here in this Scripture, now red in your ears; God promiseth a recompense of reward to Jonadabs sons for obeying the voice of their father. O how great goodness hath God laid up for them that fear before him! what a great reward may they expect that hear and obey the voice of God in the ministry of the Gospel! This is the comfort God hath sent me to you this morning wirhal, Isa. 66.2. To this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. The Lord give every one of you such a heart that God may look towards you. Amen. FINIS. A CAUTION to the Reader. REader, It was not my purpose to print the Sermons which the Reverend Brethren preached this month: no, nor all the distinct Heads of their Sermons: my design was only( so far as I could do it in an hour, the time I allotted myself for this work) to bring their several texts, with the main subject matter of their larger discourses, to the remembrance of my people, that all might not perish with the hearing: therfore in this cursory running over their excellent labours, I hope I have done them no wrong; if I may do thee good, is all intended, by him that desires to be an helper to thy faith, THO. CASE.