A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE HONOURABLE House of COMMONS: At their public Fast, Holden in Margaret's Westminster. Febr. 24. 16 46./ 47.  
By JOHN LIGHTFOOT Staffordiens. A Member of the Assembly of Divines.  
LONDON, Printed by S. I. for Andrew Crook, and are to be sold at his Shop at the sign of the Green Dragon in Paul's churchyard, 1647.   

Die Mercurii 24. Febr. 1646.  
ORdered by the Commons Assembled in Parliament, that Master Leigh do from this House give thanks unto Master Lightfoot, for the great pains he took in his Sermon he Preached on this Day at Margaret's Westminster before the House of Commons: And that he do desire him to Print his Sermon, wherein he is to have the like privilege in Printing of it, as others in the like kind usually have had.  
Hen. else. Cler. Parl. D. Com.   

TO THE honourable House of COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT.  
VEstrum est imperare, nostrum obsequi: Your Commands wraped up in your Desires I have desired to obey, both to the Pulpit and the press. Not that I can tender any thing either to your ears or eyes, which may be worth your acceptance, but that I cannot but most readily tender obedience when you command, and labour to serve you, when you call for my service. The subject of that hour's Discourse that I had then before you, and of this book, which is the same, was very well worthy your eyes and ears, if the managing of it had but fallen into a skilful hand; [For what more needful duty to be urged or to be practised, than Heart-communication.] But according to my poverty I was then ready to offer, and you were pleased to accept; and I hope for the like acceptance now. I humbly recommended the words then spoken to your hearts, and so I do now the same written: and as I desire to present them now written to your hands, so do I myself, and all I am or can at your feet; as  
Your poor humble devoted 
 Servant, J. L.   

A SERMON PREACHED Before the Honourable House of Commons, at their Monthly Fast, FEBRUARY 24. 1647.  PSAL. 4. vers. 4. Commune with your own Hearts. 
WHen I communed with mine own Heart concerning what subject to discourse upon before this Honourable and great Audience at this time, me thought this Text when it came to hand would be very suitable, both for the auditory, and for the Occasion, and for the age wherein we live, and for all the age that we have to live.  
First, for this Honourable auditory; for how fitting is it, that they that spend so much time in needful Conferences among themselves about the affairs of Church and State, should be minded sometimes of spending some time in the as needful conferences with their own hearts, about the State and affairs of their own souls?  
Secondly, for this solemn occasion; for how impossible is it, that we should either deal with God, or with these weighty things that we have in hand, as we ought to do, unless we commune with our own Hearts, concerning ourselves, and concerning God, and concerning these things; with whom, and about which we have to deal?  
Thirdly, for this age wherein welive: for how proper an answer and a check is this Text for all the inquisitiveness and censoriousness, that so much raveth and rageth amongst us in these times: To answer inquisitive, by sending men to inquire after their own hearts; and to check censoriousness, by minding men to examine their own selves.  
And lastly, for our whole age that we have to live: for while we carry our Hearts about us, we should carry this duty with us, I am sure we carry the Obligation upon us, of Communing with our own Hearts.  
Thus doth the Text suit to us, to our present occasion, and to our present times: The business is, if our heart would but as well and truly suit to the Text, and then a perfect harmony and unison were made. Now the Lord so tune my tongue to your hearts, and your hearts to the Text, and all of us to the duty that the Text holdeth out, that I may speak a word in season, you receive it seasonably, and all of us practise it all the season of our lives, that I may have cause to bless God that I met with such an Audience, you have cause to bless God that you met with such a Text, and all of us find cause to acknowledge that God hath been amongst us at this time of a truth. And so in his name let us fall to work.  
THis psalm by the tenor of it, doth seem to be made upon the Rebellion of Sheba the Son of Bichri, as the psalm preceding is plain by the Title of it, to have been made upon the rebellion of Absalon, which instantly preceded that rebellion. The story of both you have in the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth Chapters of the second of Samuel, and some references to both, you have in divers passages of this psalm, as it goes along. In the first Verse David speaks to God, who had enlarged him before, in his former troubles, caused by his own son, to relieve him now in his present distress caused by the son of Bichri. In the second Verse he speaketh to {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the men of arms, and the men of dignity; that they would no longer despise the glory of his Kingdom which God hath chosen, nor follow after a Kingdom of vanity and falsehood, as was Absaloms' and Sheba's. In the 4. Verse, he speaks against the Cause and Occasion of the present conspiracy; namely, the anger between the men of Israel, and the men of Judah, mentioned, 2 Sam. 19 43. where the words of the men of Israel are fierce, but the words of the men of Judah were fiercer. This anger he seeketh to calm, by that calm admonition in the beginning of the Verse, Be angry, but sin not: for so might the word be very fitly rendered, and so it is rendered by the LXX, by the Arabic and others; and as may be well supposed by the Apostle, Eph. 4. 26. And in the seventh Verse he speaketh out his own comfort and confidence, collected & taken up, upon the observation of a special providence: That since the time that corn, and Wine, and oil had increased to him, and been abundantly sent him in by Nahash, Machir, and Barzillai, as it is recorded, 2 Sam. 17. 27, 28. The Lord had put gladness into his heart; for now he perceived that the Lord and his own people begun to look after him in his distress.  
If we thus apply the psalm unto this occasion, than we know to what persons to apply the Text, namely to persons, now in great divisions and differences among themselves: to persons in fiery contestation and in heat of blood about the man that should govern, and the manner of government, even to persons so parallel to the temper, or distemper rather of our present generation, that I would we could as aptly take out the lesson of the Text, as we and those persons do resemble one another; and as the Text doth fitly suit both with them and us. But I shall not be curious in this parallel and application, since the Text so properly fitteth all persons, and the lesson in it suiteth all occasions. For there is none among men, not no occasions that a man can be about, to whom and when it may not be proper and pertinent to read this lesson, Commune with your own heart. In the original it is literally or Syllabically thus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Say in your heart: and so it is closely followed by the Greek; and so it is taken by the Chaldee: The Greek reads it with some difference of the Mood indeed, and with one word added to the Clause, but to such a sense as this, for it readeth thus, What you say in your hearts: The Caldee renders the Text, and the words following it thus largely, Say your Prayers with your mouth, and your Petitions in your heart, and pray upon your beds, and remember the day of death evermore.  
But I shall not trouble you with such varieties of glosses and interpretations which I might do copiously; I shall spare that labour, since the words themselves do speak their own sense, and our English hath very well and properly construed and interpreted them, Speak with, or, Commune with your own hearts.  
It is not every speaking in the heart that the Psalmist here engageth to; For the fool speaks in heart, and saith in his heart, there is no God, psalm 14. 1. The Epicure speaks in his heart, and saith, I shall never be moved, psalm 10. 6. The Atheist speaks in his heart and saith, Tush, God hath forgotten, he will never see it, psalm 10. 11. And these persons to whom David speaketh, if we hit the occasion of the psalm aright, were ready enough to say in their heart, we will none of David, and nothing to do with the son of Jesse: But the Text enjoineth such a conference in the heart, as that the matters betwixt a man and his own heart, may be debated to the very utmost, that the heart may be so put to it in communing with it, as that it might speak its very bottom. Nor shall I trouble you with the divers acceptations of the word Heart, when it is used to signify the spiritual part of man, or when it is taken in a spiritual sense; else I might show you that sometimes it is taken for the whole frame of the soul; sometimes for the one faculty, the Understanding; sometimes for the other faculty, the Will; and sometimes for that which I may call a middle faculty, the Conscience; but your own hearts will readily tell you upon the reading of the Text, that the word Heart in it doth mean the last mentioned, the Conscience, and that communing with a man's own heart, is nothing else, but searching and trying of a man's own Conscience. And you will easily see, that the words hold out this needful and useful Lesson to us: That it is a duty of most special concernment, 
Doct.  for every one of us to hold serious Communication and clear Intelligence and Acquaintance with his own heart. I may well repeat it, for it had need to be inculcated again and again; And as that golden saying, Brethren let us love one another, is reported to have been ever in the mouth of John the Evangelist, so had this as golden a saying, Brethren Commune with your own hearts, as much need to be ever in the mouth of the Ministers; and this truth ever in the hearts of the people.  
That it is a Duty of most special concernment for every one of us, to hold serious Communication, and clear Intelligence and Acquaintance with his own heart.  
This must be the subject of my Discourse; and for the proving and clearing of this position, you see there lie before me these four things. 1. To show you that Communication and Intelligence may be had and held with a man's own heart; this de posse. 2. That such a Communication and Intelligence must be; this de jnre. 3. That this Communication and Intelligence with a man's own heart is to be clear and serious; this de fieri. And fourthly, that such a serious & clear Communication and Intelligence with a man's own heart is of special concernment; this de facto. I shall not be very large in these particulars, because it is but to prove four things, that I suppose are already granted. I shall apply myself the rather to be more copious in application.  
First, that it is possible for a man to hold a Conference and Communication with his own heart, I should not need to prove it, if you would but put it to proof within your own selves. And as he ingeniously proved that there is motion against one that denied it, by rising out of his chair, and walking up and down; So your hearts without me would make this assertion clear, if you would but seriously and soundly put them to it, that they and you might confer together, I doubt not but many in this great Congregation have done this already, and have had many a holy and solemn Discourse with their own hearts, and conclude the truth of this matter by their own experience as soon as I name it. But as for such as have not had this practice, nor cannot conclude this by experience, that never hear nor feel their Conscience speakword to them: should there come over them some dreadful judgement, or should there come before them some horrid apparitions, or should there come unto them a sure message of an instant death as there did to Ezekiah; then if they will but turn their face a little to the Wall, retire their thoughts a▪ little to their hearts, they may chance hear their hearts speak something to them, which it may be they will like but ill, and there it may be they would feel by experience that there is something in them that would have talked with them heretofore if they would have talked with it.  
But for the better clearing of this to you at this time, [at one time or other all must have experience of the truth of it in a better manner or a worse] give me leave a little to recall you a little, first, to the viewing of some places of Scripture; and then to the viewing of yourselves within: or to the consideration of the Frame and fabric of your own souls.  
First, you may see this asserted even by the experience of him in his own particular that gives this lesson here to all in general, in Psal. 77. verse 6. I common with my own heart, and my spirit maketh diligent search. Here David and his heart are talking together; and see what his heart saith unto him in Psal. 16. 7. My reins instruct me in the night season. For that the heart and reins do signify the same thing, when they are taken in a spiritual sense, and that they so taken, do signify the Conscience, is a matter so copiously evident in Scripture that I need not to use any instances to prove it.  
And so in John 8. 9 when our Saviour bids, whosoever is without sin cast the first stone at the woman taken in adultery, it is said of the company present, that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they were convicted of their own conscience: The word in the Greek doth properly signify a conviction by argument. There was something within them that over-argued them, and talked and disputed them clean away. And so in Rom. 2. 15. the consciences of the very Heathens spoke as it were within them, and gave in evidence either for them or against them, their thoughts either accusing or excusing, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, inter se invicem, as the vulgar Latin, as in a discourse among themselves.  
But in the second place, consider and study yourselves a little within, and you shall find that the Lord hath made every one of our souls of such a Frame and fabric, as that there is an echo in them: the soul able to propose questions to itself, and to give itself an answer, Like Sisera's mother in the fifth of judges and the nine and twentieth she asketh, why stay the wheels of my son's chariot? And her wise Ladies answered her, nay she answered herself.  
To this purpose may I apply that phrase in Deut. 4 39 Know therefore this day {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and make a return or an answer to thine own heart. And to this purpose I cannot but apply that gloss of the Chaldee Paraphrast upon Gen. 2. 7. the latter part of that verse. And God made man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and that in man became a speaking spirit. Most true in every parcel. That that God breathed into man became a spirit, or a spiritual substance, and it became a speaking spirit, enabling men to talk and speak one to another: and it became a speaking spirit within him, able also to speak and confer with it own self.  
There are three parts of the soul as I may so express it, of distinct and several notion and consideration, as there are three things in the sun, light, heat, and motion: so in the soul, the understanding, the will, and the conscience. The Conscience lies as it were in the midst of the other two, as the centre of the soul, or the midst of the heart, as Prov. 4. 21. whither there is conflux of whatsoever is good or evil in either of the other faculties.  
Now either of those have its discourse with itself, and conscience if it act aright, hath its conference with them both.  
1. The intellective Faculty of the soul, or the Understanding, doth in a manner talk to the will when it offers it good or evil things to its choice or refusal, and it doth in manner talk to itself in every reflex it exerciseth, when it doth not only attain to the knowledge of things, but is also able to say to itself I know, I know them, as 1 Ioh. 2. 3. Hereby we know that we know him.  
2. The Elective faculty of the soul or the Will, doth confer and debate with, and within itself upon every Election or refusal, when it doth either entertain or lay aside, what is presented to it by the understanding, choosing, or refusing, upon such a discourse and argumentation with itself as this; I choose it because it is good, and I refuse it because it is evil.  
But 3. the Participle faculty of the soul, as I may so call it, or the conscience, as it is lodged between the two other, so it receives something from both, and returns something to both: From the Intellective faculty it receives knowledge and memory, and it is told by them that such and such things ought to be done, or they ought not to be done: And then it makes an answer back to them by conviction, and says, I have done such things, or I have not done them. From the other faculty, or the Will, it receives movedness and affecting: and when that faculty of the soul is moved or affected with the grievous or fearful case of another; the conscience answers, why this case is mine own, and makes a return to the affections by compunction, and says alas, what have I done in thus doing?  
And thus doth the soul hold a debate, conference, and communication within, and with it own self: And thus in the first place is that particular somewhat cleared, de posse, that it is possible for a man to confer and commune with his own heart.  
Secondly, That this is not only a possibility, but a duty, not only a may be, but a must be, the Text is enough to prove if we had no more to prove it: For the Holy Ghost doth here command the thing, & where the Holy Ghost commands, it creates a duty.  
But we find this also enjoined again, and again in other places of Scripture, though under other terms and expressions. As 1 Cor. 11. 28. Let a man examine himself, and so let him care, &c. And 2 Cor. 13. 5. Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith, &c. And that in Lam. 3. 40. Let us search and and try our ways, &c. And that in Zeph. 2. 1. As it is rendered by some {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Excutite vosmet iterumque excutite, as some express it, fan yourselves, and again fan yourselves; and divers other places that speak not indeed the very same Language with the Text, yet speak the very same sense, and command the same thing, as a duty for every one of us, to commune with our own hearts.  
This duty lay upon Adam in his innocency, and so should have continued upon him in that estate, had he continued in it. For God turned him into the Garden with a natural Law written in his heart, and a positive Law uttered in his ears: This positive Law directed him only as concerning eating or not eating: but what must he be directed by, as concerning his general conversation beside? why Adam Commune with thine own heart, and that will tell thee.  
This duty lay also upon him when he was fallen: and so doth it upon every one of us, though under the same fall with him. For though the purity, integrity, activity, and vigilancy of our Consciences be utterly gone by our fall and sin; yet is not Conscience itself utterly gone. It is so essential a part of the soul, that a soul cannot be a soul without it; and it is so inseparable a part of man, that even death itself cannot divorce him and his Conscience. So that though we have not such a Conscience as Adam had before his fall; yet have we a Conscience; and though we cannot have recourse to it, upon the same terms that he might have had to his, namely, as to a certain rule; yet may we, and ought we to have recourse to it upon other terms; namely, as being a witness, judge, and Moniter in the midst of us.  
I might show how the nearness of our hearts unto us doth challenge this duty; and how the dearness of our hearts unto us should claim it and enforce it: but I will conclude this, as Paul to Agrippa: Honourable and Christian auditory, do you believe that this is a duty? I know you believe it: and I would that I and all that hear me this day, could as readily comply with the duty, as we cannot but readily confess it, if we will but commune with our own hearts about it.  
Thirdly, the practice of this duty, or the communication with our hearts is to be serious, & the intelligence and acquaintance we hold with them to be clear; as the woman's scrutiny for her groat in the Parable to search and sift every corner of the heart, according to that of Solomon, Prov. 20. 27. The Spirit of man is the Candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.  
You may observe two Arguments used, Gen. 44. the one by Joseph, and the other by his Steward, to impress it upon the sons of Jacob, that a serious and true search would be made for that silver bowl that they had stolen: the one taken from the Cup itself: Is not this the Cup in which my Master drinketh, and for which he will make a very trying search. And the other 
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Experiende expertetur,  from Joseph himself: Know ye not that a man of my authority could make a very trying search. Two such kind of Topikes may I take up for the proof of the thing in hand, that the conference with our own heart ought to be with all seriousness▪ The one taken from the matter of that Conference, and the other from the temper of our hearts.  
1. The matter whereof we should or can commune with our hearts is most serious, and sancta sanctè, it must be most seriously done: As the two men that went to Emmaus, communed sadly, because they communed of a very sad matter, Luke 24. 17.  
The only matters that a man can or doth commune with his own Conscience about, are the matters and concernments of the soul: For as the Conscience lodgeth in the very centre of the soul, as I showed before, so there are the proper and the most close transactions of the soul managed. It is the centre, as was said before, whither if there be any good in the soul it flows thither; and what evil there is in the soul, it hath its Conflux thither also.  
The understanding in its actings by knowledge and memory; and the will in its actings by affections and desires, practiseth upon and about things of an extrinsical and foreign Cognizance, as well upon things of a man's own concernment, but the Conscience meddleth only with one's own concernment, and that concernment of the soul. As natural affection in the proper sense, or affection of a relative nature, moves not, nor acts not, unless the thing presented to it be of its own interest: As a Father or Mother, seeing the misery or miscarriage of other men's children, their affections may be moved with it, but natural relative affections, stir not till the story comes home to their own Children. So is it with Conscience, the knowledge knoweth natural, politic, foreign, alien things, and the memory retains them: so the affections are taken up with foreign, alien, natural politic matters, and are moved with them: but the conscience moves not, unless the concernment come home to a man's own soul, and the matter reach thither.  
As I might exemplify in Achan, if his Conscience had been awake to have done its part, his carnal reason and knowledge told him, the Wedge of Gold, and the Babylonish Garment, would be a rich prize, and mend his estate very well: then his Will and Affections answer, I would I had them, and they consent and put on to compass them. Here are extrinsic businesses only in agitation with these faculties about wealth and growing rich: But then a good Conscience if it had been there would have stepped in and answered: I but how will this comply with the good of my soul? And so might I instance in other things, as in men's desiring riches, honours, pleesures; their carnal Understandings and wills, like Haman and Zeresh, cast and conspire, and consent together to compass what they desire, and it will be so brave for their port, so contentive to their persons, so beneficial to their posterity: These are fine things, and easily swallowed, but they are but outside things, there is not a word yet of the consequent and concernment to the soul: that conscience must take into consideration, or the consideration of that is quite laid aside: That is proper for conscience only to act about, and to take to conscience and consultation.  
And thus it appeareth that our conference with our own hearts had need to be serious, because the things that we can confer with them a bout, only are of a most serious and weighty nature: viz. the things of the soul only.  
And secondly, the needfulness of such a serious conference, will appear also upon the consideration of the deceitfulness of our own hearts. Talk close and home, and have clear intelligence with them, or else they will deceive us, they will tell us a thousand lies. As he in Story, who hearing a man talk to himself as he walked along the high way, and questioning whom he talked withal, was answered, I talk to myself; why then saith he, Cave ne cum malo loquaris, take heed thou talk not with one that is nought. You may resolve upon this, whensoever you come to Commune with your own heart, that you have to deal with a very Cheat and a Jesuit, a Proteus, a juggler; that if you put it not home to it, will not tell you one true Story amongst a thousand: I speak this by the sad experience of a base, false, cozening, and deceitful heart of mine own: and I believe other men's hearts are of the same mettle. O wretched heart thou hast deceived me, and I have been deceived, thou hast been too strong for me, and hast prevailed. But I speak this also upon the Warrant of him that knoweth all hearts, even the Spirit of God, that discerneth the things of the Spirit, Jer. 17. 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? Ah sad Climax, deceitful, and deceitful above all things, wicked, and desperately wicked, and so bad of both, that who can know it? Such another miserable gradation ye have expressed concerning the very same subject in Gen. 6. 5. The frame of the thoughts of man's heart was wholly evil, was only evil, and was evil continually.  
There is a mutual or reciprocal cozenage betwixt a man and his own heart, mentioned in Scripture: Sometimes a man deceives his own heart, as James 1. 26. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart. Sometimes a man's heart deceives him, Esa. 44. 20. A deceived heart hath turned him aside that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not ally in my right hand: And thus Manasseh against Ephraim, and Ephraim against Manasseh, and both against Judah. Sometimes the man cozens his heart▪ and sometimes his heart cozens him, and always both these cozenings help to undo the poor soul.  
Sometimes a man cozens his Conscience with carnal reasonings, as Achan did his, I shall be enriched, and I shall not be discovered: and as the rich man in the gospel did his, My purse is full, and my barns are full, therefore soul take thine case: And so many and many man undoes his own soul by cozening his conscience with the bribery of carnal reasoning, I am yet in health, I may yet repent time enough, I shall not see evil, and the like, &c.  
And on the other hand, the conscience is as ready to cozen a man, and to tell him Peace, peace, when there is no peace.  
Sometimes it deceives a man with half answers, as Ananias and Saphira would have done Peter, with half the money: and makes a man ta'en up with conviction only, which the wickedest man under heaven may have, and makes him to think that he hath sorrow enough for his evil actions, when he hath only remembrance of them.  
Sometimes it deceives a man with false answers, as Jacob deceived his Father with kid's flesh instead of Venison; and makes a man believe he hath compunction enough for his evil actions, when he hath only some gripes of self love, or a fear of punishment, as was Ahab's humiliation.  
Sometimes it deceives him with silence, and he thinks all is well, because it tells him nothing ill: as the fool is counted wise when he is silent; and the Atheist thinks God like himself when he holds his peace, Psal. 50. 21. so many a poor deceived soul thinks his conscience a good conscience, and himself in a good case, because he hears no otherwise from his conscience, for it is silent, and says nothing at all to him.  
Thus as it is in the Italian proverb, 
Con arte e conjuganno si vive il mezzo anno,  
Con juganno e con arte si vive l' altra parte.  With deceit and cozenage men live half the year, and with cozenage and deceit they live the other half: one part of our lives we deceive our own hearts, and another part of our lives, our hearts deceive us: And thus our lives go on in a mist and cloud of delusion, we deceiving, and deceived, and all because we hold not communication with our own hearts close enough, and put them not to it home, as Ahab did Micaiah, to tell us the truth and nothing else, in the name of the Lord: And thus we see very good reason why the communication with our hearts should be serious, and the intelligence we hold with them clear.  
Fourthly, That this is a duty of special concernment, is even proved already ere we are aware, in the things that have been spoken, but give me leave to add one or two things more: As,  
1. That this is a duty of so great concernment, that it is naturally the first duty of all other of the Second Table: For as to know God, is properly and methodically the first duty of the first and great commandment, so is this as properly and methodically the first duty of the Second: for as it is impossible to love God as we should, unless we first know him; so it is impossible we should love our neighbour as ourselves, unless we first know ourselves.  
2. It is a sine quânon, a duty or a matter, without which we can neither hear any condition as we should, nor perform any duty as we ought. As a golden thread was to be twisted with every twine and thread of the Ephod and breastplate, or it was not rightly made; so if this action of communing with our own hearts be not entwisted with every one of our actions, we can neither undergo any thing, nor perform any thing is becomes us to do.  
First, How is it possible for a man either to bear prosperity, or endure adversity unless he seriously talk with his own heart about his own deservings, and about these conditions: This was the way of David that gives the counsel in the Text: when great prosperity and happiness accrues unto him, in the promise that the Lord makes to him and to his house, he sits down and talks with his own heart about his deserving of no such thing, Who am I, or what is my father's house? 2 Sam. 7. 15. And on the other hand, when great adversity lights upon him, and he is fallen into perplexity, the way he takes, is to sit down, and amongst other things to have serious conference with his own soul about the bearing of such a thing; Why ●rt thou cast down o my soul, and why art thou so disquieted within me? Psal. 43. 5.  
Secondly, As impossible is it to do any duty aright, and as we ought to do, unless the practice of this duty go before it or along with it. Be they the spiritual duties we owe to God, or the external duties we owe to his Worship, or the conscientious duties we owe to our own hearts, we cannot possibly perform them aright, unless this salt be with the Sacrifice, unless we commune with our own hearts about them.  
1. As for the spiritual duties we owe to God: as to serve him with an upright heart, 1 Chron. 28. 9 To walk before him with an humble heart, Mic. 6. 8. To offer to him a contrite heart. Psal. 51. 17. To draw near to him with a true heart, Heb. 10. 22. To receive his word with a good heart, Luk. 3. 15. and one for all, To love him with all our heart, Deut. 6. 5. How is it possible we should rightly do these things, if we have not acquaintance with our own heart? what difference is there betwixt serving a strange God, and serving the true God with a strange heart? Naball and Abihu are punished for offering strange fire to the true God, as well as Ahaz and Manasseh for offering true fire to afalse God. Let me use the stile of the Apostle, How can men believe in him of whom they have not heard; so how can men serve him aright and heartily, with a heart they do not know?  
2. As for the external duties that we owe to God's Worship, as our hearts are to go along with them, or else our performing of them is nothing, so are we to commune with our own hearts upon them and in them, or else we shall never bring our hearts unto them: It was very pertinently written over the Temple door at Delphos, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Know thyself, for certainly no Temple duty can be well performed without such a knowledge.  
Canst thou pray without acquaintance with thine own heart: the very Hebrew word that signifieth Praying, tells thee no, for the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is commonly used to signify to pray, doth properly signify, To judge a man's self. Thinkest thou, thou canst receive the Sacrament aright without the exercise of this duty? the Apostle tells thee nay, but let a man first examine himself, and then let him eat, 1 Cor. 11. 28.  
The like might I say of singing of psalms which must be done with the Spirit; 1 Cor. 14. 15, Of believing, which must be done with the heart; Rom. 10. 10. Of repenting, of trembling at the Word, and of other such duties, how is it possible they should be done by us as they should, if we have no acquaintance and communication with our own hearts how they stand to them and in them?  
And lastly, as for the duties we owe to our own hearts, as washing them; Jer. 4. 14. Watching them; Pro. 4. 23. Humbling them; Lev. 26. 4. and the like: Who can do them, but he that confers and is in acquaintance with his ownheart? wash my heart? why, I never asked it, not ever took notice how soiled and polluted it was: Watch it? Why I never observed, nor it never told me of any danger it was in, nor what need it had to be watched and looked after; nor can I go about to humble it, for it and I were never so well acquainted, as I to know how hard, how proud, how unhumbled it is. Must not these be answers of him that holds not intelligence with his own heart? And must not this want of intelligence needs spoil the offices that a man oweth to it? And thus you see in the fourth place, the great concernment of this duty of heart communication: And thus, though thus rudely and unskillfully, have I somewhat cleared the truth of the Doctrine in clearing these four particulars. And now shall I crave leave in three particulars more to make use of it, and to bring it home to ourselves by application.  
First, By way of just reproof of those that neglect and forget so special a duty, and of so special concernment.  
Secondly, By way of exhortation and persuasion to every one to set seriously to the practice of this duty.  
And thirdly By recommending to you some Quaeres and Interrogatories to propose to your hearts to practise this duty with them upon.  
First then, since it is thus, that communing with a man's own heart is so special, and so important a duty, it shows 
●se 1.  that they justly deserve to be reproved that neglect this duty and hold no acquaintance with their own hearts at all: And because I will be sure to aim this reproof aright, I shall in the first place begin with myself, and mine own heart, for there is a subject that I know, and am sure deserves reproving. It may be I shall find some Company in this Congregation, that will join with me in this matter, and that will find my case theirs, and that will make my words to be their own. There is a pathetical Story of Origen, that when he had fallen into a foul apostasy, and after some recovery from it, came into a Congregation, and was desired to preach; he took the Bible and opened it accidentally at the fiftieth psalm, and his eye fell first to read these words in the sixteenth and seventeenth verses of it; But unto the Wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes, or that thou shouldest take my Covenant in thy mouth, seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee? upon reading the words he remembered his own fall, and in stead of preaching he fell a-weeping, and wept so bitterly, that he caused all the Congregation to weep with him.  
The forepart of the story is too much mine own case. I would you would make the latter part of it somewhat yours. I profess I cannot read the words of my Text, but like Pharaoh's Butler after a long forgetfulness, I must confess my fault of that forgetfulness to day; and I cannot speak what I have said upon this Text, but that I must subscribe to the woman of Tekoas words in her speech to David, that I speak these things as one guilty myself. Is any one here whose heart hath been a stranger to him, as my heart hath been; and is any one's heart here as my heart is, desirous to be sensible, & to be humbled for this our strangeness, come give me thine hand, and let us join hand in hand, and heart to heart to give glory to God by Confession, and to take shame to ourselves in a just reproof, for that we have so much neglected so great a duty, and for that we have so greatly forgotten so near a concernment.  
Behold beloved among yourselves, and regard, and wonder marvellously; for I can tell you a sad story in your ears, which ye will not believe though it be told you. I have lived these forty years, and somewhat more, and carried my heart in my bosom all this while, and yet my heart and I are as great strangers and as utterly unacquainted, as if we had never come near one another: And is there none in this Congregation that can say the like?  
He spoke very good sense and much piety in it that complained that he had lived so many years above threescore, and had been a Student in the Scripture all his time, and yet could never attain to take out that Leston in the first Verse of the nine and thirtieth psalm, That he should not offend with his tongue. But it is to speak a thing of monstrousness and amazement to say that a man should live so long a time as I have done, nay as some do, to threescore, to fourscore years, and yet never to get into acquaintance, and to communication with their own hearts: who could believe such a report? and yet how common is this amongst men?  
I remember it was a wonder to me before I knew this City, to hear of Families living so near together all their lives, as but one Chimney back between them, and yet their doors opening into several streets, and the persons of those Families never knowing one another, or who they were. And me thought that passage of martial was a strange one when I first met with it, Quisquam est tam prope tam proculque nobis; and that observation of the Jews remarkable, that sometime two Verses in Scripture be joined as close together for place as close can be, and yet as distant for sense and matter as distant may be: and that relation of Seneca wondrous, if I miss not my Author, that a man through sickness did forget his own name: and that of the naturalists as wondrous, that there is a Beast, that as he is eating his meat, if he but once turn his head from it, he forgets it. But now a sad experience within mine own self hath lessened these wonders, and doth make a thousand of such strangenesses as these seem nothing; for I and my heart were borne together, grew up together, have lived together, have lain together, have always been together, and yet have had so little acquaintance together, as that we never talked together, nor conversed together; nay I know not my heart, I have forgotten my heart. Ah my bowels, my bowels, that I could be grieved at the very heart▪ that my poor heart and I have been so unacquainted. And is not the same case yours too? I appeal to our own hearts, if they will but speak, and I beseech you put them to it. How inquisitive ever were we after their estate, or how it goes with them, amongst all the inquisition that we make after other things. We are fall'n into an Athenian age, as Act. 17. 21. spending our time in nothing more than in telling, or in hearing news, or some new thing: How go things here, how there, how in one place, how in another: But who is there that is inquisitive, How are things with my toore heart? we are ever and anon lighting upon one or other of our acquaintance: and take a turn with them in the Hall, or turn aside with them in the street, and inquire, What news? how do things go? But who turns aside with his own heart into a private retiredness, or falls into Discourse with that, and inquires, Ah poor heart, how go things with thee? We stick not to tell how much money we spend in new Books, and how much time we spend in reading them; but it it is a shame to tell how little time we spend, and how little pains we take in reading over and perusing our own hearts.  
As it is sometimes used in your House Honourable and Honored, to put a question whether a question shall be put, so I beseech you apply the Text, Commune with your own hearts, whether you have communed with your own hearts: you spend much time day after day worthily and piously in conferring and communing among yourselves about the things of Church and State; but wh●● time do you spend either day or night in conferring or communing with your Consciences about the affairs of your souls? You Ladies and Gentlewomen, that bestow so much time in visiting and conferring with your glasses and your friends, what time do you bestow in visiting and conferring with your own hearts and souls?  
You that spend so much time in conversing and conferring with others about the matters of your Callings and employments, what time have you taken up, or do you employ, in conversing with yourselves about the matters of your nearest concernment?  
I am the bolder to ask this question, because my Text leads me to speak to your hearts, and it is a question that you must once answer.  
Weigh but in the balance of a serious consideration, what time you have spent otherwise, and what time you have spen in this, and for many scores or hundreds of hours or day that you owe to your hearts in this duty, can you write fifty? or go to the heap of your whole life, and where there should have been twenty measures employed about this business, can you find ten? Or where there should have been fifty vessels full of this duty, can you find twenty?  
It was a senseless and a sensual will that the Epicure made, that bequeathed to his Player, to his Cook, to his Jester, and to such as fed and forwarded his carnal Delights, Talents and Pounds, but Philosopho obolum, a half penny only to him that would have taught him wisdom. Is not the distribution of our time and converse much after the same proportion? Days and years bestowed upon the affairs of the world and worldliness, months and weeks spent and laid out in converse with friends and strangers, but scarce a minute in converse with a man's own heart.  
There are four things especially that cause this strange and senseless strangeness and unacquaintance betwixt a man and himself, and they are these:  
1 idleness; when men will not take the pains to put their heart to it to discourse with them. Heart-communication is not an easy work, and few there be that for idleness will undertake it.  
2 carelessness of their own souls: And so they are not careful to discuss with them the things that concern them.  
3. Worldliness; which takes up all the time and thoughts that should be laid out upon the heart: As Hos. 4. 11. and as it was with him, 1 Kings 20. 40.  
And 4 readiness to be deceived; Decipi vult populus, men love leasing, as Verse 2. of this psalm: and as by our fall, Et bonum perdidimus & voluntatem, we not only lost good, but also the will to it: So in our first deception by Satan; we had not only a deceit put upon us, but a deceiveableness, nay a readiness to be deceived put into us.  
And thus, as Tempora quaedam surripiuntur, quaedam cripiuntur, quaedam excidant: so it is with the care of, & converse with our own hearts. What the palmerworm of idleness leaves, the Locust of carelessness eateth: and what the Locust leaveth, the cankerworm of worldliness devours: and what that cankerworm leaveth, the Caterpillar of readiness to be deceived hath consumed: and thus hath all converse and communication with our own hearts been eaten up.  
It is recorded of Jobs friends, that when they came to him, and knew him not, he was so changed, that they wept and rent their garments, Job 2. 12. I would this might be the conclusion of this first Use or Application, or the fruit of all that I have spoken hitherto: Look upon your own hearts, do you know them? when had you and they any talk together? how much of your time have you spent in communication with them? Have you not been strangers? have you not been unacquainted? have you not forgotten them? Be humbled, bemoan, be affected that you have been such strangers, and lay your hands upon your hearts, and resolve to be so no more.  
And that is the second way that I would apply myself and 
Use 2.  the Text to you, and that is by way of exhortation, to incite you, and by supplication to entreat you, to apply yourselves seriously unto this duty held out in the Text. It is strange that we should need to be exhorted or entreated to such a thing as this, to be acquainted with our own hearts, as that is strange in 2 Cor. 5. 20. that men should need beseeching to be reconciled to God: but it is so true, that we need beseeching and entreating, that by what shall I beseech and entreat it so as that I may prevail in my entreaty. I beseech you by the Lord, by the Bowels of mercy to your own selves, by your hearts, by your souls, by any thing, by all things most dear unto you, be no more strangers to your own hearts; vindica te tibi, acquaint yourselves with yourselves; and as Abraham to Lot, let not us fall out, for we are brethren: so be not foreigners to your own hearts, for they are your own. By what may I move you, or what words or Arguments may I take up to persuade you.  
Think but of these two or three particulars, for I shall spare to mention more.  
1. How sad a thing it is for a man to carry a conscience within him, that is altogether dumb and can say nothing, or that when it speaks, tells him lies and nothing else: you grieve for this in your children, be affected with this in your own souls.  
2. Your hearts by disusance of conferring with them may even be utterly lost to you, as if you had no heart at all. I have read of some that have come to such a pass, as namely those in Hos. 7. 11. Ephraim is like a silly Dove without a heart.  
3. Time will come when your hearts will speak, and shall speak the truth to you, though you will not put them to it to do so now: as Hab. 2. 3. At an appointed time it shall speak and it shall not lie: It may be in this life by terrors, certainly after death by a gnawing worm, the dumbest, stupidest, and most senseless conscience that is now upon earth, shall be put to it to speak and to speak out to him, that had the least care or thought to put it to speak as the Text enjoins. Thou wilt not strain thine heart to speak to thee, and to tell thee the truth now: but God will wrack it, and shall make it speak and not be silent, and How will thine heart endure then, when the Lord shall come to deal thus with thee? as Ezek. 22. 14. Men will not make their hearts to hear, nor to give them a faithful answer, but as Esay 26. 11. They will not see, but they shall see: They will not hear, but they shall hear: they will not answer according to truth, but a time shall come when they shall answer. Put them to it betimes, yourselves by a conscienscious communication, lest God put them to it by a wracking horror.  
I shall not go about to give rules how a man and his heart should come to talk, and how they should talk together, I would I could learn the lesson myself; only give me leave to mention some things to you which cannot choose but be very conducible to such a purpose.  
As 1. use retiredness: This thing this verse teacheth, when it directs to commune with our own hearts upon our beds. And this Isaac practised, when for his Meditation he went into the solitariness of the fields, Gen. 24. 63. As when Moses was alone in the wilderness, and there studying on God, God comes to him, and talks with him, Exod. 3. So when we get alone purposely to study our hearts, it is a great deal more probable that our hearts will come to us, that we may entertain discourse with them, then in the crowd of company and employments. Set some time apart out of your public or particular occasions, to deal with your hearts, and to talk with them, as David after the public business is done, turns home to visit and to bless his own house, 2 Sam. 6. 20.  
2 Put on resoluteness to put your hearts to it, and to hear even the worst that they can speak to you: as Eli to hear the word of the Lord from Samuel, be it what it would be it never so bitter. Men are naturally and generally unwilling that their heart should tell them all it knows, and what it ought. And as it was a very strange, and a very sad prayer, that is made by the Prophet Hosea for the women of Ephraim, Hos. 9 14. Give them, O Lord, what wilt thou give? Give them a miscarrying womb, and dry breasts: A miserable thing to women as may be, yet such a Petition for them as there could not be a fitter in their present posture; for the children borne were but borne to the slaughter.  
So it is a very sad & doleful condition to a man as possibly can be, to have his conscience dull & dumb, or to be telling him nothing but what is false: and yet there are thousands that account this the best posture and condition, that their conscience can be in, and they cannot find in their hearts, and they will not take the pains to have it in any other temper, nor would they have it speak any other ways to them: Ah but let a righteous and a wakeful conscience smite me, and not suffer me to sin, but tell me of it: this balm in the end will not break my head, and I shall rejoice at last in such strokes.  
3. Take opportunity by any wakening of Conscience, that puts it to speak, to keep it waking and speaking; If any piercing Sermon, or Fright, or cross, or some such thing, do rouse your heart at any time, and set it a talking and telling you the truth, do like benhadad's servants by Ahab, catch at the opportunity, ply it and keep it speaking, and let it not grow dumb again: If you let it alone never so little, like the Disciple in Matth. 6. 40, 4●. it will be asleep and speechless in a trice again. I have known him that hath had sometime very fair and familiar society and communication with his own heart, and they have discoursed seriously and truly one to another, have asked questions, and given answers without deceiving; when something or other hath come between, and interrupted a while this friendly converse, and my beloved was gone my heart got out of the way, and neither it, nor a word from it to be found again.  
4. When your hearts and you are talking together, do it as if you were talking together at God's dreadful tribunal: as if you were, and as you must once be, debating the case there. Charge it as Paul doth Timothy, 2 Tim. 4. 1. as before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, that it speak the truth, and that there be no dissembling betwixt you. Before them must you once debate the matter to the very bottom, do it as before them continually.  
And now for conclusion of all, and for our third application I shall crave leave to leave some few proposals and Interrogatories 
use 3.  with you for your own heart; that as Elijah before his departure out of the world, left a Letter behind him for Joram the King of Judah to ruminate upon when Elijah was gone, 2 Chron. 21. 12 So before we part, I beseech you take from me something along with you, to commune and confer with your hearts about, when you and I see not each other, and when you are alone.  
I shall do herein by you as an Israelite did by the Priest, when he would have him to inquire something for him of the Lord by Urim and Thummim: I shall put my questions into your hands, and shall leave you to go to the Oracle of your own hearts, and to take their answer.  
Some general things I would propose to all of you in general, and some particulars to some particulars. I might to all in general desire you to question with your own hearts, you that have been preserved in these sad times, and you that have been Spectators of the sad judgements that have been upon us, what betterings you have had by all these judgements, and what thankfulness you have showed for your preservation.  
But the first question that I would desire every one that heareth me this day, to propose to his own heart is but this; Heart how dost thou? A few words, but a very serious question. You know this is the first question, and the first-salute that we use one to another, Sir how do you? I would you would as constantly practise it with your own hearts, Heart how dost thou do? how is it with thee for thy spiritual estate? Get but a true answer from your heart upon this quaere, and then you will see that I have some cause & reason why I propose this question: I know what the answer of most hearts will be, before the quaere is proposed, namely, that it will be either like Elisha's about Benhadad, No danger of death, though he died presently; or like the Pharisees in the Gospel, Lord, I thank him, I am not as other men's hearts are. Tell that heart I believe it not, tell it you believe it not: examine it further, press it like Ahab to Mioaiah again; leave it not, like Dalilah, till you have its utmost: Get a right, and direct, and real answer to this question, and then answer me whether it were not worth the asking. This is but the very same quaere in substance that the Apostle proposeth, 2 Cor. 13. 5. Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith.  
Secondly, propose this question to every one of your hearts; heart what wilt thou do? or, Heart what dost think will become of thee and me? As that dying Roman once said, Animula vagulae blandula, &c. Ah poor, wretched, miserable soul, whither art thou and I a going, & what will become of thee, when thou & I shall part? This very thing doth Moses propose to Israel, though in other terms, Deut. 32. 29. Oh that they would consider their latter end. And oh that you would propose it constantly to your hearts to consider and debate upon. Would you but dispute these two questions every one with his own heart, and put his Conscience to it to give its clear opinion in these matters, or to speak the very truth, what it thinks concerning your present and future estate, I should think I had gained exceeding much by this discourse that I have made, and that I have spent this hour exceeding happily.  
And now Honourable, and most Honoured, give me leave to level the last things I have to speak at your hearts only, and to leave my closing up of all that I would say, closed up in your bosoms. I would fain commend something to the serious conference of yourselves and your own hearts, when they and you are together alone; and they are but these three things; What hath been done for you, what hath been done before you, and what you have to do.  
I would first have desired you to debate seriously with your own hearts, What the Lord hath done for you. But here my labour is happily prevented, and the work is better done to my hands, than my hands can do it. I shall only add this, that if you should write such a Book as the Prophet Esay did, Esay 8. 1, 2. A great Roll of a Book, and yet nothing written in it but this word, Maher-shalal-hash-baz over and over again, from beginning to end: so a great Book, and nothing in it but this written, what God hath done for the Parliament of England, it would fill a great Volume to write what he hath done: and when you have written what you can, you can never write enough.  
But secondly, I shall desire you seriously to commune with your own hearts, of What London hath done for you. London the mirror and wonder of Love, zeal, Constancy, and Bounty to you and your cause: London, the ark that hath kept you safe, in this deluge of blood that hath over-flowed the Nation: London, your Ophir and Indies that hath supplied you with masses of Money and Plate in all your wants: London, your bank and stock of men and hearts: London, your so much, that you had not been what you are, if it had not been for London: London, that under a Parliament hath preserved a Nation: and London, that under God hath preserved a Parliament. Was it ever seen, or could it ever be related, that any City under heaven ever did, as London hath done in love and kindness to your Cause and you? What one among you can look into his own heart, but he must needs find London written there?  
And now your friend Lazarus is sick; your faithful, constant and loving London complains she is not well: She finds and feels some sore diseases breeding in her bowels, that are like to undo her: She comes to you to crave your help, and powers her complaints into your bosom. Might I not say, as the Jews once to Christ, You deserve to do for her? But I shall only say, Commune with your own hairs what London hath done for you, and I need say no more.  
If any one shall think that I am now besides the mark, and speak of a matter that I have nothing to do withal, I shall produce my warrant to speak what I do, and refer to a proof and testimony of what I speak.  
My first Warrant is your gratitude, that is so ready to be thankful to those that have showed you kindness, that you will not take it unthankfully from those that do mind you who have showed it.  
My second is, the obligation, that you and I, and all the Nation stand in to London, who hath been to us all such a stay, and Wall, and sanctuary in our troubles, as she hath been, that for London's sake who can hold his peace?  
But thirdly for my Scripture warrant for this, I shall desire you to turn to a Sam. 24. where the Servants of David do account it a duty as it seems, for they practise it accordingly, to tell David of the kindness that Jabesh Giliad had showed to Saul, though he knew it before.  
And as for the proof of what I have spoken, I shall desire, whosoever thinks I am besides my mark, but to turn to his own heart, and there lay down a leaf, till his heart and he do meet alone, and then to read and study impartially. What London hath done for the Parliament of England, and then let him judge of what I say.  
I know your gratitude will be ready to say still with David, in 2 Sam. 9 Is there yet any of the kindred of Jonathan, that hath showed us kindness, that we may show them the kindness of the Lord again?  
Why yes, I beseech you in the third place, Commune with your own hearts what the ministory of England hath done for you. My Warrant for the moving of this unto you, besides your gratitude, I may show from divers of your own Orders, and expressions. For in how many of your addresses and desires to the City or country for the raising of moneys, men, or Horses, have you still laid much upon the hands and fidelity of the Ministers, to promote the work, and to stir up their several Congregations to it? And I beseech you now Commune with your own hearts, how they have discharged that trust and performed your Injunctions: And in your thoughts take up an account how they have behaved themselves in that matter, and whether they have not been exceeding faithful.  
Have not these Trumpets, and these poor Pitchers had their share, and a good share too, in bringing down the walls of Jericho, and the camp of Midian? Have not they, like that Story in Ezekiel 37. if I may so express it, prophesied you up an Army. The witness of these things is in the whole kingdom, and a witness of them is in your own bosoms, and there I leave the consideration of them to be laid to heart.  
But now where is this ministry of England, that have been so faithful, so useful to the cause in hand, and so forward to forward it upon all occasions? how are these real sons of Zion now brought low, despised, oppressed, and trod under foot in many places of the Land? Their ministry by many scandalled for Antichristian, their persons vilified, sometimes violenced and endangered, their subsistence impaired, their quiet interrupted, their families impoverished; the function of the ministry how nearly undone? Now I beseech you commune with your own hearts what the ministry of England hath done for you, and what others have done to it; and than consider what you have to do.  
A second thing that I would humbly recommend to the serious and sad debate and communication of your hearts, is, What hath been done before you.  
And here I cannot but take up a little of the stile and manner of expression that is used by Paul, when he was to plead his case before Agrippa, Acts 26. 2. I think myself happy, most noble Senate, that since my Lot is fallen to speak unto you from this place, that my Lot hath fallen upon such a day, as that it is now but fourteen days to the time that you have appointed to humble yourselves before God for some of the mainest things that I am to speak about. I know that they that are resolved to debate of these matters to the full, betwixt themselves and their own hearts, and betwixt themselves and GOD on that day, will patiently give me leave at this time, as by way of a preparation Sermon, to speak the more freely concerning those things that you are resolved that Day to be humbled for.  
I say again therefore, I beseech you seriously Commune with your own Hearts what hath been done before you.  
I shall tell you one of the saddest stories that I am persuaded is to be found in any Record, or in any experience upon the earth, and that is about the violation of our Covenant.  
It is not yet four years since we entered into as solemn a Covenant as ever did Nation; and will it be believed in the next Generation [if our guilt upon it do not make it too evident] Or would it be believed in any remote parts of the world [but that the fame of it is blown through all Nations] that in so short a time, after so solemn an Obligation, and the Parliament that brought on the Covenant sitting, the Covenant should be so forgot, as we dolefully see daily that it is.  
I would I might say only that it is forgot: for if it were forgot only, there might be some more excuse, but it is set up as a sign to be spoken against, nay a Sword is gone through the very soul of it, in such a kind of violation as I think no story can parallel. I shall instance only in two things:  
1. We vowed against Error, heresy and schism, and swore to the God of Truth and Peace, to the utmost of our power to extirpate them, and to root them out; these Stones, and Walls, and Pillars were witnesses of our solemn engagement. And now if the Lord should come to inquire what we have done according to this Vow and Covenant, I am amazed to think what the Lord would find amongst us; Would he not find ten schisms now for one then; twenty Heresies now for one at that time; and forty errors now for one when we swore against them? Was there ever more palpable walking contrary to God, or more desperate crossing of a Covenant? If we had sworn, to the utmost of our Power, to have promoted and advanced error, heresy, and schism, could these than have grown and come forward more, than now they have done, though we swore against them?  
2. And so in the second place we entered into as solemn an engagement for Reformation in matters of Religion, and this was the joyful sound that stirred up the hearts of the people, and this was their hopes: five or six years ago it was proclaimed, and betwixt three and four years ago it was Covenanted; and our hearts danced within us for the hopes we had in this particular. But what hath been done? I looked, saith God, for Grapes, and behold sour Grapes, and nothing else. When Reformation was first spoken of, we had Order and Ordinances, but now how is the one lost and the other slighted? We had then Sacraments, full Congregations, a followed ministry, and frequented Churches; but now Sacraments laid aside, Congregations scattered, the ministry cried down, Churches empty, Church doors shut up, equestres Samnitum in ipso Samnio: If you look for a Reformation upon our Covenanting for Reformation, how little to be found, and how much clean contrary: go to the Isles of Chittim, and from thence pass over to Keder in the East, search all the Stories that are to be found, and inquire in all Nations under the whole Heavens, whether the like things have been done in any Times, in any Nation, and yet have these things been done before your eyes.  
Give me leave to relate unto you a Story out of the Turkish history, and to apply it:  
Uladislaus the King of Hungary, having made a League with Amurath the great Turk, and solemnly Covenanted and Sealed to Articles thereof in the Name of Christ, was afterward persuaded to break it, and to go to war against Amurath. Being in the heat of the fatal battle at Varna, the Turk draws out the Articles of the League out of his bosom, and spreads them towards the Crucifix which he saw in the Christians Banner, with these words; Now Christ, if thou be a God, as they say thou art, revenge the wrong done unto thy Name by these thy Christians, who made this League in thy Name, and now have thus broke it.  
And accordingly was this wretched Covenant-breach avenged with the death of Uladislaus, and almost all his army.  
Should Christ spread our Covenant before us, upon the same accusing terms as he spread his before Christ, what could we answer? Or if Satan should spread our Covenant before God against us, as Hezekiah did the Assyrians Letter, what could we say for ourselves in so horrid and so plain a case? If the Lord should implead us, and speak such bitter things as these against us, you have suffered the Solemnest Covenant to be thus broken that ever was sworn unto by men: The horridest Heresies and Errors have grown amongst you, that ever did among a Nation; as glorious a Church as was under Heaven, is thus near ruined before your eyes: And the gloriousest Gospel that shone upon earth is almost destroyed, and you look on? How could we answer, or hold up our faces before the Lord: But how must Iniquity lay her hand upon her mouth, and not be able to speak a word?  
I go not about to charge the guilt of these things upon your Consciences, far be that from you, far is that from me; I only desire to press the thoughts of these things upon your hearts, that you may seriously be moved, and seriously affected with the consideration of so high and of so dangerous import, and may sadly Commune with your own hearts what you have to do.  
3. This is the third thing that I would humbly leave with you, and recommend unto you to ruminate upon; and to debate with your own hearts, Not that I think to offer you any thing as your Direction; I am the least able for that of any that speak unto you, but that I would mind you a little of those things that you have to do withal.  
You have in your transacting three things of the nicest and tenderest handling and meddling with, that can come to hands of mortal men: and those are, the work of God, the life of souls, and complaints of poor and oppressed ones. Who is sufficient for any of these things? and yet all these things do now lie upon your hands.  
1. You are to do, and are in doing the work of God; that is, to build his House, to maintain his Truth, and to execute his Justice, for so let me style it: things of the highest Honour and Concernment that can be entrusted in the hands of men: you had need to be truly sensible, and clearly and conscientiously to apprehend how great this work is that you are about, and to discourse, and debate with your hearts again and again, how great a task there lies upon you.  
2. How many thousands, nay millions of souls, and their eternal Estate now lies upon your hands, of the souls of the present and the future Generations? Onus ipsis Angelis formidandum. Oh how it does concern you most intimately to consider of it, and lay it to heart.  
I shall humbly recommend to your hearts to debate and to determine upon one Question, that I may name no more, which I cannot, I dare not go about to determine. And that is this: there are now many, and many Congregations in this our Land, that either for want of means, or through unquietness of Sectaries, or Malignants, want Pastors and have done long; and this want still increaseth in the kingdom daily: And so in divers places of the kingdom people run Riot, and do what seems good in their own eyes, for want of Ministers, and of Execution of Justice among them. Now at whose hands the blood of these souls, who in this case cannot but be in miserable danger, will be required; when Ministers were in those places, when Justices were in their places, we know then to whom the charge of those souls belonged; but now I beseech you seriously to Commune with your own hearts, where the blood and life of those souls lies chargeable now.  
3. You have to do with the Complaints of poor and oppressed ones; things of as dangerous an edge, if put up to heaven against any person, as any other whatsoever.  
There is a great cry in Egypt, complaining in every Angle of the kingdom; some for want of pay, some for want of Justice, too many through the Pressures of Publicans through the kingdom, the unjust Exactors of your just Taxations, that lay on burdens of their own, and either for their own advantage or revenge, multiply Pressures, and create Complaints in every quarter.  
Honourable and Honoured, these three things are those things that you have to deal withal: and upon the import of those three things, give me leave to represent these two particulars to you.  
1. That these things will admit of no delaying; nor doing the work that concerns them any negligence: For 1. the Church by delays may be ruined, Truth may be quite lost, souls may be undone and perish, sins are growing high and complaints loud. Now Lord come before Lazarus die. 2. A little, and a little delay still, may chance at last to cause a Decree to pass in the Court of Heaven, that there shall be no healing at all: So did delay in the matter of Reformation, in the second of Judges. There Christ at Bochin tells the people, that whereas he had undertaken to Conquer Canaan for them, and had done hitherto, and had waited hitherto, that they would expel the Canaanites, and settle Reformation, and they had not done it, he would now henceforward Conquer no more for them.  
2. These things will not admit the work that concerneth them to be done by halves. The work of the LORD must be perfect, and Christ's floor throughly purged. God abhors Monsters in Sacrifices in the levitical Law, and so doth he in matters of Reformation; all excess or defect, beyond or short of his Will suits not with his work. A Word is enough to the Wise. I leave all to the serious Communication of you with your own hearts; and you and your hearts, and all that hath been said to the blessing of our good God. And I shall only crave leave to relate and apply one story more, and so have I done.  
It is reported of a poor Macedonian, that having his Cause pleading at the bar before King PHILIP, the King in the mean while sitting in a sleepy Posture upon the Beneh; and at last passing a sleepy Sentence against the man, and casting him in his Cause, the poor man cries out, I appeal, I appeal. This wakes the King, and makes him to start up: appeal? says he, To whom canst thou appeal beyond me? Am not I the King? The poor man answered; I appeal from King PHILIP asleep to King PHILIP awake.  
If there be any heart here that is moved or raised any whit against me for any thing that I have thus freely spoken, I first appeal to the knower of all hearts, before whom I stand, who knoweth with what heart I have spoken it.  
But again I appeal from that heart asleep, as it lies muffled in Pride or peevishness, or selfishness, or self-interest, or any other distemper or Passion; to that heart, when it shall be awaked, either by Grace, or by Justice, or by the summons of Death, or by the sound of the last trump, when that heart and mine must both appear before the tribunal of him that knows all hearts.  
Now to that great Judge, the King eternal, immortal, Invisible, the only Wise GOD, be Honour, and glory for ever and ever. AMEN.  
FINIS.