And thus I have at length dispatched the First General, What it is to stir up ourselves in religion; having showed both by what Acts, and to what Pitch of religion we should stir' up ourselves. I am to show,

 

 II. What Need there is of stirring up ourselves to and in religion. And here I shall not speak to the particular cases of the unconverted, and of weak, or backsliding Christians, distinctly; but shall speak promiscuously to them as they fall in my way.

 

Do you ask then what Need there is of stirring up ourselves I answer: It will appear there is Need enough, if we consider these two things:-1. Those that fall short of religion, or carefully maintain not that religion they have, will 1 e lost at last. 2. Those that stir not up themselves are never likely to attain religion, or to maintain that little they have.

 

 1. Those that fall short of religion, of true and sound religion, or that carefully-maintain not that religion they have, will be lost at last. without religion we cannot be saved: without regeneration, which is the beginning of religion,-or without sanctification, which is our progress in religion,-or without perseverance in religion,-we cannot be saved. (John 3: 3; Heb. 12: 14; Rev. 2: 1O.)

 

 (1.) As to sinners that live and die in their sins, there is as much hope of the salvation of the Devil as of them. You that serve the Devil, and continue to live under the power of the Devil, you shall never come to heaven, unless the Devil himself be admitted to meet you there: as you have lived with the Devil here, so he and you must be together in the same place for ever; and whatever your hopes and talks are of being saved by CHRIST, it cannot be. I must. tell you, you that come not to CHRIST, and will be none of his disciples, you shall have no more benefit by the blood of CHRIST than the Devils shall have, and that is none at all. without sound Christianity you have no part in CHRIST, and without a part in CHRIST you can have no salvation.

 

 (2.) Yea, and those that are come so far on, as to profess Christianity, if they die here, will be also certainly lost. Those that are come out from the drunkards, and adulterers, and scoffers, and total slighters of CHRIST, and have visibly joined themselves to the disciples of CHRIST, and joined in prayer, and hearing, and sacraments with them; how much soever they have of external religion, if CHRIST and Christianity be not rooted in their hearts, even these also, after all their hopes and profession, will be lost at last.

 

 (3.) Yea, and those that have sincere religion, if they look not diligently to it, will lose all the religion they have. They will certainly fall and perish, if they neglect the means of their perseverance. And those that are but children in religion, or are fallen into decay, can never be secure, but they also will be lost in the end.

 

 2. Those that stir not up themselves, are never likely to attain to religion, or to prosper in it, or to maintain that little which any of them have.

 

 All this will be made evident,-(1.) From the distance we are at, the most of us, from sound and prosperous religion. (2.) From the difficulty of recovering those that are fallen. (3.) From the difficulty of holding on for those that stand.

 

 (1.) From the great distance we are at, some of us, from sound and prosperous religion. There is as great a dis tance betwixt unconverted sinners and saints, as betwixt heaven and earth, betwixt life and death.” We know that we are passed from death to life;” (1 John 3: 14;) that is, from being sinners to saints: there is as much difference betwixt the state of these, as betwixt the living and the dead.

 

 And betwixt backsliders and the prosperous is as much distance, as betwixt a dying man and a healthful. The distance betwixt backsliders and the prosperous is greater, and more hardly reconciled, than of those that are but children: as you know a man that has had a good trade and a good stock, but is broken and fallen to decay; there is less hope of his recovering than there is of the rising of a young beginner, how small so ever his stock be.

 

 That you may more fully understand how great a distance is betwixt what you are, and what you should be or might have been, I shall advise you to make this threefold comparison.

 

 First, Compare yourselves with some of those that are of your own standing; yea, with some that came in to CHRIST many years since you. O how far are you left behind some of your company! Yea, how much have some younger Christians got the start of you! What fruitful, what lively, what experienced Christians are there, who never had half the time that you have had! Whilst they are become tall as the cedars in Lebanon, do not you continue as poor shrubs that prosper not

 

 Secondly, Compare yourselves with yourselves; what you are now, with what you were in your former time. Are you as good as ever you were As holy as ever you were Or is there not a fall, and a great fall, from what you once had attained to Is not the sun gone many degrees back with you Is not much of your light, and your life, and your heat lost Where be your eyes, if you do not see what losers you are Where be your senses, if you do not feel your own decays Sure it is a sad sign that you have lost all your Christianity, if you have not so much left as to make you sensible how much you have lost. O that I could see you smiting on your thighs as once EPHRAIM did;-or smiting on your breast, as the poor Publican, and saying, “LORD, be merciful to me a sinner;”-LORD, be merciful to me a backslider; LORD, pardon me; LORD, receive me; LORD, recover me and help me, that I utterly lose not that which I have wrought.

 

 Thirdly, Compare yourselves with that copy which I have set before you, with that pitch of religion which I have pointed out unto you. Are you hungry and thirsty after the highest degree of religion Have you panting hearts, and longing hearts Can you say, “My soul is athirst for GO D, mine heart cries out for the living GOD O for more, Of GOD, for more of the holy image of GOD, more of the life of GOD, more of the power of his grace!” Have you not even lost your appetites; and doth not even desire fail with you What relish have you of religion in your hearts Is wisdom entered into your hearts, and is the knowledge of GOD pleasant to your souls Do you taste the sweetness of religion Can you say with the Psalmist, “ How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD! Sweeter than the honey or the honeycomb; thy testimonies are my delight.” A day in thy courts, an hour in my closet, my retirements with the LORD, these are the great pleasures of my life, the very joy of mine heart. Can you say so Do you find it so LORD, how short most fall here! We have tasted so much of the sweetness of this earth, that we have lost our taste of GOD; the world is become too sweet; our gains, and our pleasures, these carnal things, put our mouths out of relish of things spiritual!

 

 I might lead you through all the particulars; by comparing yourselves wherewith, you might easily perceive how very great the distance is from that holy, heavenly, tender, fruitful frame which we should be in. And surely, such a great distance from it makes it evident how much need we have to stir up ourselves.

 

 Do not think that a little amendment will serve your turns, or that a little more care and pains will suffice to recover you. Know that you have a great way to go, and if ever you do recover, it must cost you much; many an importunate prayer, great watchfulness, much labor, yea, many sorrows of heart for your neglects, many a sigh, and many a tear: and therefore much need is there that you awaken your sleepy hearts to it. Fall upon your knees, fall upon your knees! Bemoan yourselves; be ashamed of yourselves; and then stir up yourselves to aim at a recovery.

 

 (2.) From the difficulty of recovering them that are fallen. It is with the consumption of the heart as with the consumption of the body; there are three degrees of it. In the first degree, it is hard to be discerned, and easily cured. If this disease be but taken in the beginning, a little matter might do the cure; but in our first declinings it is not easy to discern them: consumption comes not as fevers with any violence, but we waste and waste by degrees; it doth not make men sick at first, but they consume away insensibly. If you would but understand in time, and seek a remedy in time, how much misery might be prevented!

 

 The second degree is easy to be discerned, but hard to be cured. The farther it grows upon us, the more plain our case is, but the more difficult is our recovery. There is a consumption of the vitals of religion upon too many; and some are very far gone: there need not be much pains taken to give you the symptoms by which you may know it; their backslidings are manifest even to every eye. The paleness of our faces, the shortness of our breath, the wasting of our strength, the inability to labor, and the listlessness thereto, discover how it is with us. O what weak and listless souls are some of us! Our flesh and our bodies are strong and healthful; but how weak are our hearts, how short-breathed, how quickly tired with every duty And how pale and wan doth our outward man appear; our very vitals are perished and gone. Such as are so far gone, though their recovery be possible, yet are hard to be recovered.

 

 A third degree is plain to be discovered, never to be cured: and then the consumption is ordinarily past cure, when men are past feeling. It is one thing to be without feeling in those that never had any sense of God; and another to be past feeling in those that once had tenderness of heart,-those that have been chilling, and cooling, and hardening so long, till God gives them over to a reprobate mind.

 

 You that are fallen into this disease, consider these things, how difficult your case is, unless it be in the very beginning, and how it will be growing on to be harder and harder, if you prevent it not with speed. Consider this, and then say, if it be not time to look about you, and to go hastily to the physician. Take heed! Will you yet linger on as you have done Will you be quiet, take your ease, and take no effectual care to recover Tremble to think how suddenly you may be given up to a total and final apostasy!

 

But why is the cure so difficult 

 

 I answer, First, Because (as it has been said) in the beginning it is so hard to be discerned. Who will look after cure, that thinks he ails nothing This consumption invades by such insensible degrees, that it is not perceived till it will scarcely admit of a cure. This fretteth out the heart as a moth fretteth a garment. When the moth first breeds, there it lies undiscovered, till, by insensible degrees, it eats up the strength of the garment. If the moth seized upon any garment as fire doth, you would shake it off suddenly; but because it consumes by slow degrees, therefore it is let alone till it has done its work. Friends, is there not a consumption upon you Is not the moth gotten in” I hope not into my soul.” Why there is the misery of it! You will not know that you consume, till ye be utterly consumed.

 

 Secondly, From the indisposition and unwillingness of the heart to seek after a cure. Such indisposition there is to this work, that I am afraid, by all I can say, I shall not be able to prevail with you to make trial what may be done. You acknowledge we have all need enough of this warning; but when you have heard all, your hearts so hang back from the work, that all that can be said will quickly be forgotten. If you would take the warning, and stir up your hearts, and set to work, there is hope you might be recovered; but I tell you again, especially those that are far gone, I fear your unwilling hearts will not let you come to any purpose.

 

 Thirdly, From that opposition that is made against our recovery. [1.] There is a stirring Devil that opposes it. [2.] There are stirring lusts that oppose our recovery.

 

 [1.] There is a stirring Devil that opposes your recovery. The Devil is a Destroyer, and that is his name, (Rev. 9: 11.) It is he that has brought you into this case, that has destroyed that little grace you had, and is thereby attempting to destroy your souls. The Devil is an Adversary, and a busy adversary, walking up and down, seeking to do you a mischief; it is he that has brought you down to this low pass, and he will do all he can to hinder you from ever rising again. The Devil is with you where so ever you are; he watches you wherever you go. If you go into your closets to pray, the Devil watches you there, and does what he can to distract and hinder your prayers. When you come to hear, the Devil watches you in the congregation, and strives to catch away every word that might do you good. All these words which I am speaking, to you for your recovery, if the Devil can help it, shall none of them stick upon your hearts. Now, having to do with such a busy and stirring Devil, you had need the more to bestir yourselves, that he do not irrecoverably undo you. Resist the Devil: “ Be sober, be vigilant.” 

 

 Is he so watchful' to hinder you, and do you mischief Does he lie at the catch to steal away this awakening word from you You had need lie at the catch also: catch at every word the LORD speaks to you concerning this matter; lay hold upon them, lay them up in your hearts, and never let them slip till they have done the work, and your souls be recovered.

 

 [2.] There are stirring lusts within you that oppose your recovery. Your lusts are your disease, and your disease resists your remedy. There is a body of sin within you

 

though the power of sin be broken, yet there is much of it still remaining. Though the Egyptians be drowned, or sin as a throne be subdued, yet the Canaanite, or sin as a thorn, is still in the land. Though Christians have not an enemy to which they are in bondage, yet they have an enemy that is still fighting against their souls: sin has no longer dominion over them, (Rom. 6: 14,) yet it still r lakes war upon them. This sin is called” a body of sin, “ (Rom. 6: 6,) and of this body there are many members; every lust of our heart is a member of our body of sin. Our evil nature is this body, and there our numerous lusts meet as in their common root, and thence they spring. Now these lusts are they that hinder and spoil us. These are they that have tempted you off from GOD, and tempted you off from your integrity, and turned you to iniquity, and hitherto hindered your returning. Do not think to lay all the blame upon the Devil, and so to excuse yourselves; no, your own hearts have joined with the Devil; you have been accessary to your own ruin. Some men when they have run themselves out of their estates by riot and drunkenness, will think to lay all the blame upon their evil company: “ O this evil company have been my bane.” Sure enough they have; and therefore let every wise man be warned, and shun them as the Devil.

 

 This Paragraph applies to those” Christians, “ whom the Author, in p. 624, has designated as “weak, “-not yet” sanctified wholly.” (I Thess. 5:23.) EDITOR.

 

 But yet, let not evil company bear all the blame; it is that evil heart of your, your own heart's lust, that betrays thee into thy evil company. What could evil company have done, hadst you not had an evil heart to go after them How long might they have enticed thee, and never prevailed, if you hadst not been drawn aside by your own heart's lust and enticed They are those devils within you, those lusts that war in your members, that have given the Devil those advantages against you. It is men's lusts that bring their souls down, and eat up all their religion and as I said before of the Devil, so here of lust, that which has brought them down will hinder their rising.

 

 Do you not find it thus in your experiences One lust or other is perpetually rising up to hinder any good that is going in your hearts, and bringing it to nothing. O how many good motions are quenched, good hopes frustrated, good beginnings discouraged;-how are your duties spoiled, your peace broken, your comforts LORD ’and lost;-and all by the malign influences of the body of sin, and the impetuousness of your lusts, its members! Hence are those outcries that we sometimes hear from the tender-hearted;” Woe is me that I am constrained to dwell in Mesech Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me”-Hear, LORD! cut down, cast out these sons of the bondwoman, that they be no longer a plague or a snare unto me!

 

 And now you see another ground why you have great need to bestir yourselves, because of these stirring lusts that hinder you.-How often must I tell you this Whatever faith in CHRIST you have, whatever profession of CHRIST you have made, whatever security you think you have for your salvation, yet if these Jonahs be not cast overboard, you will be drowned in perdition and destruction. Your lusts will never leave enticing and tempting you from one sin to another, from one degree of apostasy to another, till they have damned your souls. If you let them alone, they will become such a rope about your neck as will drag you to the pit.-How near have they brought you to it already! Are not some of you even become as dying men 

 

 Have not your souls and your hopes one foot in the grave And if you die thus daily, what can you expect but to be buried in the flames See what your lusts have already done, and tremble to think what they are still doing. You die outright if you save them alive. And will you not yet stir Have they eaten up your hearts, and drunk up your spirits, and left such leanness upon your souls Have they withered your branches, and rotted your fruit, and are these worms still gnawing at your root How can you but cry out, “ LORD, what am I come to LORD, whither am I falling Save, LORD, or I perish. Arise, O my soul, cut off the limbs, and smite through the loins of the old man; nothing but his death can secure my life!”

 

 Or do the sleepers begin to awake O that it might be so! LORD, awake them!

 

 (3.) From the difficulty of holding on, and getting forward in the way, for those that stand. It is hard to keep our way, and much more to make speed in it; and so hard, that unless we bestir ourselves to purpose, we shall never come on. The way of religion is an up-hill way.” The way of life is above to the wise, to depart from hell beneath.” The mark we are making toward, stands upon a bill, “ the holy hill of Sion: “ there the city of GOD is situate, “Jerusalem which is above;” our way to it is all rising ground; and, if we put not ourselves hard to it, we shall never get up.

 

 Sinners are all running downward, and therefore it is that they run so fast. The whole herd of sinners are like that herd of swine of the Gadarenes, running headlong down, and never likely to stop till they be choked and drowned in the lake of fire and brimstone.

 

 Christians, you are all bound for heaven; travelers to the holy hill. Your progress in holiness is your climbing up the hill; you are getting up the Jacob's ladder which reaches the his-top. Every holy day you live, every holy duty you perform, every degree of grace that is added to you, is your getting up so many rounds higher upon that holy ladder: and this is what you have to do, to be ,*, works of grace.

 

 And this is the reason of our slow motion; he that goes up the hill takes the more time, and the shorter steps; yea, and as one foot goes up, the other slides back.

 

And hence is it, that there is so much need of the goad and the spur, to prick us on. Down hill there is more need of the bridle. We need not be driven down to the lower valleys which we have left; we are too apt to be running back: it is to hasten our motion upward, that we so much need the rod and the spur.

 

 And yet we need a bridle too; viz to restrain our intemperate affections How very few self-bridling Christians are among us! When do we hear such words as, a I am afraid I am making too much haste to be rich: I am afraid I allow myself too much liberty for the pleasing my flesh” Or if such a word be now and then let fall, yet how little is, it hearkened to Though we sometimes fear we run too fast this way, yet on we run, and do not lay a due restraint upon ourselves: or if we do a little check our motions earthward, yet do we effectually restrain them It is not enough that you say, “ My heart needs a bridle;” you must make use of the bridle: when you have stopped your hearts in their carnal course, then you have done something.

 

 When you have considered and tried the difficulty of preventing your motions downwards, and of speeding your way upwards, then you will see farther what Need you have to bestir yourselves.

 

 Lay all together: Is it certain that those that fall short of religion, or fall off from the religion they have, will be lost at last Is there such a distance betwixt what we are, and what we should be Is it so hard to raise those that are fallen Is it so hard to discern the soul-consumption, till it be almost past cure Is there such an indisposition consuming souls, and inchan opposition made by stirring lusts, against their obtaining their cure Is it so hard for those that stand to get on their way Then certainly every one of us had need to look to ourselves. 

 

 Thus much for the Second General.-Our next inquiry is, 3: What it is to take hold of God’ In answer to this, I say three things: 1. Our great happiness is in this, that the LORD is in us. 2. Our happiness is in this, that the LORD is among us. 3. Our taking hold of God is our continuing the presence of GOD with us, and our preventing his departure.

 

 1. Our great happiness is in this, that the LORD is in us. GOD is then in us, (1.) When the fear Of GOD is within us. (2.) When the face of God is upon us.

 

(1.) When the fear of GOD is within us;-when the SPIRIT of the LORD, the image and holiness of the LORD, are within us;-which come all to one. That promise, “ I will put my fear into their hearts, “ (Jer. xxxii. 4O,) is the same as those, “ I will put my SPIRIT within you;” 11 A new heart will I give you;” (Jer. xxxi. and Ezek. xxxvi;) or as, “ The Kingdom of God is within you: “ (Luke 17: 21) when God takes up his habitation, and sets up his throne in the hearts of his people; undertakes the government of them by his Word and Spirit; subdues them to himself; reigns in righteousness in their souls; and makes them his willing people:-when the grace of God bears rule in their hearts. It is not Gon's being in their mouths, or the grace of God in their lips; but his being in their hearts, his dwelling and living in their hearts, the real and inward sanctification of them by his HOLY SPIRIT that dwells in them. This is the being of God in his people, and this is the happiness of his people. When GOD is within us, the Devil is cast out, sin is thrown down, the kingdom of SATAN is destroyed. It is people's misery to have the Devil in them, to have sin bear rule; and therefore it is blessedness to have these tyrants cast out, and the kingdom of God set up.

 

 (2.) When the face of God is upon us; when we live in his fear, and also in the light of his countenance; when he shines and smiles upon our hearts; when he loves his saints, and shows them his love; when he reveals his good-will to them, and lets them know that they are accepted with him; when he is their friend, and lets them have the countenance of their friend towards them; when he is their father, and causes them to feel the bowels, the compassions, and kindnesses of their father, and hereby makes them to joy in his love, and to rejoice in hope of the glory of God:-this is blessedness indeed, these are blessed ones, whose GOD is thus the Lo RD. a Blessed are the people who are in such a case: blessed are the people whose God is the LORD.” (Ps. cxliv. 15.)-You need not complain whatever you want. If you have no bread in your houses, no money in your purses, no health in your bodies, no- rest in your bones, yet have the LORD God in your hearts; it is enough; you are blessed. Sinners, ye need not boast and lift up your heads so high You have money in your purses, you have friends in your houses, you have health in your bodies, you have marrow in your bones; and yet miserable are you all! God is not in you; and that, to him that knows what it is, is misery enough to blast all your comforts. The Devil is where God is not; sin bears rule where GOD is not; and this is the upshot of your boasting, and blessing and comforting of yourselves! This is all you can say, “ Matters of this world go well with me; I can live a plentiful and merry life; the sun shines on my tabernacle; I have the wind on my side; I am on the warm side of the hedge; I prosper, I flourish in the earth; all things go well with me: I have but this one thing to trouble me,-my soul is in the hands of the Devil.” This, if we knew it, is misery enough: and this is happiness enough for the saints, that God is in them of a truth.

 

 2. Our happiness is, that the LORD is among us; that we have the visible tokens of his presence; that the ark of his presence is among Its; that we have his statutes, his ordinances; his worship among us; that the doors of his house are open, and the glory of the LORD fills his house; that the ordinances are among us, and are not as a miscarrying womb or dry breasts, but are fruitful to the propagation of a holy seed, bringing forth abundance of children to the LORD, and nursing up those that are fat and flourishing.

 

 This must needs be a happy time, and all this is the fruit of the presence of the LORD among his people, when the glory of the LORD fills the house, and the offspring of the LORD are numerous and prosperous; when the golden candlesticks are set up, and the Son of Man walks in the midst of his candlesticks; when there is not only here and there a flourishing believer, but when there are flourishing churches, flourishing companies of believers; when there are not only a throng of people crowding the doors of the LORD's house, but a throng of saints walking in the name of the LORD Blessed are the people that are in such a case, “ by the presence of the LORD among them.

 

 Yea, and every degree towards such a state, is so far a degree of happiness. When the LORD gives his prophets, and teachers, and ordinances, and any success to the propagating of holiness; this is a token and a fruit of the presence of God with them. It is a mercy for people to enjoy their civil advantages, fruitful times and seasons for the good things of the earth, plenty of bread, free and flourishing trades, and freedom from oppression. These are mercies; but these may be where the LORD is not as to his gracious presence: it is encouragement for religion, the plentiful raining down of manna, the bread that comes from heaven, and our thriving by our bread; it is this that evidences the LORD is among us.

 

 3. Our taking hold of GOD is our continuing this presence of the LORD with us, and preventing his departure. Here I shall show three things. (1.) GOD may depart from a people with whom he Math been present. (2.) It is ill with that people from whom God departeth. (3.) This is to take hold of GOD, to prevent his departure. (1.) God may depart from his people with whom he has been present: and that, First, From particular Persons; from whom lie may then be said to depart, [l.] When he hides his face from them. [2.] When he suspends the influences of his grace. [3.] When lie loosens the reins of government. [4.] When he denies them the benefit of his protection. [5.] When lie turns away his heart from them, and rejects them.

 

 [1.] When he hides his face from them, and withdraws the light of his countenance. Thus he withdrew from DAVID. (Ps. 30: 7.) GOD's people may forget GOD., may grow secure and careless; and the LORD will not countenance the best of them in their sins: if they forget GOD, he finds a way to remind them of him, by conveying himself out of their sight: the LORD’s upon his face, and the darkness upon their own spirits, make them remember the light which they once had.

 

 [2.] When he suspends the influences of his grace, and withholds his SPIRIT from them. This was the case of DAVID, when he prayed, “ Renew a right spirit within me.” (Ps. li. 10.) Then those dews and showers of his grace, which are necessary to the holding our souls in a flourishing state, are restrained; and hereupon the grace we have received, withers and decays.-O friends, is it not winter with many of our souls Have not the influences from above evidently failed us We have wasted out our summer, and driven the LORD to a distance; and now our good things die away within us the cold has withered our fruit, and the sun doth not revive it: the LORD GOD is sadly withdrawn and gone far off from our souls. If Christians would be so wise as to keep themselves near to the LORD, and so to keep the LORD near to them, it would be ever spring and summer with them, and they should know winter no more. O let us hold ourselves under the divine influences! Take heed how you put the LORD far from you; take heed of wandering from the LORD, lest he punish your wanderings from him, by removing himself from you.

 

 [3.] When he loosens the reins of government; and leaves them to themselves and their own foolish hearts; takes off his bridle from them, and lets them run their own course; suffers their lusts to rule them, and lets them alone to walk in their/ own counsels. Thus he withdrew from Israel, “ I gave them up to their own hearts' lusts.” (Ps. lxxxi. 12.) This is a worse case than the former. It goes ill with those souls, where the gracious influences of GOD are suspended: that field or that garden is in poor case that wants the sun and the showers; but when it wants the care or the eye of the husbandman too, what good can be expected from it When grace is restrained, and sin is not restrained, to what a pass will such souls quickly grow God's government is upheld in men, by the upholding of conscience in its vigilancy, in its tenderness, in its authority. When conscience is tender and watchful, and they hold themselves under its inspection and government, their case so long is hopeful. As long as God's government is kept up, as long as conscience is kept tender and wakeful, though they cannot now see his face, yet they are still diligent in seeking his face; though the LORD seems to cast them off, yet they will not cast him -off; so long, though their case be bad at present, yet it may be safe at last. But when - GOD hides his face, withholds the sensible influences of his grace, and loosens •the reins of government, leaves men to themselves, and they follow their own hearts, then whither will they run

 

 Whatever befall you, pray that God will still keep you under government; and look -to yourselves that you do not throw off his government. Keep your consciences tender, and hold yourselves under the government of them. O how many rebukes has the LORD given to backsliders How many charges to remember and repent

 

 Do these rebukes stick Do they work upon you Have they set you upon repenting or recovering What have you done, since the LORD has been particularly dealing with you in this matter Are there any of you that have done nothing but sleep on and continue as you were O Sirs, let me tell such of you, that it is to be feared the LORD is departed from you, that he has loosened the reins of government, and has left you to yourselves to grow worse and worse, harder and harder, till you be utterly consumed.

 

[4.] When lie denies the benefit of his protection. Here note two things: First, The LORD is the protector of his people: Secondly, GOD then departs from them, when he casts them out of his protection.-First, The LORD is the protector of his people, the keeper of Israel.” The LORD is thy keeper; the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand; the LORD shall preserve thee from all evil; the LORD shall preserve thy soul.” (Ps. cxxi. 5, 7.) He is not only the keeper of-their substance, o1 their flocks, and of their herds, and of their houses; but he preserves the souls of his saints. (Ps. xcvii. 1O.) It is true, every man is to be his own keeper, the keeper of his own soul; we abuse and forfeit the protection of God, if we grow careless, and neglect the keeping of ourselves.” Commit the keeping of your souls to him in well-doing.” (1 Pet. 4: 19.) Dost you say, “ The LORD is the keeper of my soul, and I will leave it to him, and will not trust in myself, in my own keeping” You say well that you wilt not trust thy soul in thy own keeping; but dost you hereupon neglect the keeping of thy soul Wilt you not do what you canst to keep thyself, but wilt grow careless of thin own heart, and leave the whole care upon him Thon herein forfeitest GOD'S protection: the same word that promises, “ The LORD shall preserve thy soul, “ requires thee to keep dune own soul: “Keep your heart with diligence.” (Proz. 4: 23.) We must be every one of us our own keepers, r God will not; but here is our great security, when we have 4 done all, that it is the LORD that is our keeper.

 

 Secondly, Then GOD departs from a people when he casts them out of his protection; when he says concerning any person, as he said concerning his vineyard, 111 will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up, and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down; and I will lay it waste, it shall not be pruned nor digged, but briars and thorns shall come up; I will also command the LORD’s that they rain no rain upon it.” (Isa. 5: 5, 6.) It is one thing for the Tempter to be suffered to break over the hedge, another to have the hedge removed. GOD had his hedge still about Job, though he suffered the Devil to leap over it; and this hedge limited him how far he should go, and no farther: but when the wall is removed, and the hedge broken down, and the enemy is let alone to make what waste he will, then the LORD is gone from the vineyard. Look diligently if there be any such among you, about whom the LORD has broken down his hedge, whom he has given up to the world and the Devil, and in whom these enemies have eaten up after their good, and made their souls a mere waste; in whom religion and righteousness, faith and love, hope and prayer, and all sense of GOD, are devoured of the world, and those briars and thorns of pride and lust, of envy and intemperance, are sprung up in their stead.

 

 [5.] When he turns away his heart from them, and rejects them.” The LORD has rejected thee, “ said SAMUEL to SAUL; and afterwards. “The LORD is departed from me, “ said SAUL to SAMUEL. GOD deals with particular persons that will not be reclaimed, as with backsliding Israel, concerning whom he said, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart could not be towards this people; cast them out of my sight, and let then go forth.” (Jer. 15: 1.) GOD had sent Prophet upon Prophet to reclaim and recover them from their apostasies: but when they would not be reclaimed, then this fatal word comes at length, “ Cast them out of my sight; my mind is no longer towards them.”-You that have been backsliders, that have declined from Con to the world, GOD has sent many a word Do these rebukes stick Do they work upon you Have they set you upon repenting or recovering What have you done, since the LORD has been particularly dealing with you in this matter Are there any of you that have done nothing but sleep on and continue as you were O Sirs, let me tell such of yen, that it is to be feared the LORD is departed from you, that he has loosened the reins of government, and has left you to yourselves to grow worse and worse, harder and harder, till you be utterly consumed.

 

 [4.] When lie denies the benefit of his protection. Here note two things: First, The LORD is the protector of his people: Secondly, GOD then departs from them, when he casts them out of his protection.-First, The LORD is the protector of his people, the keeper of Israel.” The LORD is thy keeper; the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand; the Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; the LORD shall preserve thy soul.” (Ps. cxxi. 5, 7.) He is not only the keeper of their substance, of their flocks, and of their herds, and of their houses; but he preserves the souls of his saints. (Ps. xcvii. 10.) It is true, every man is to be his own keeper, the keeper of his own soul; we abuse and forfeit the protection of God, if we grow careless, and neglect the keeping of ourselves.” Commit the keeping of your souls to him in well-doing.” (1 Pet. 4: 19.) Dost you say, “ The LORD is the keeper of my soul, and I will leave it to him, and will not trust in myself, in my own keeping” You say well that you wilt not trust thy soul in thy own keeping; but dost you hereupon neglect the keeping of thy soul Wilt you not do what you canst to keep thyself, but wilt grow careless of your own heart, and leave the whole care upon him You herein forfeitest Go D's protection: the same word that promises, “ The LORD shall preserve thy soul, “ requires thee to keep your own soul: “Keep your heart with diligence.” (Pro 2. 4: 23.) We must be every one of us our own keepers, or Con will not; but here is our great security, when we have done all, that it is the LORD that is our keeper.

 

 Secondly, Then GOD departs from a people when he casts them out of his protection; when he says concerning any person, as he said concerning his vineyard, “I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up, and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down; and I will lay it waste, it shall not be pruned nor digged, but briars and thorns shall come up; I will also command the LORD’s that they rain no rain upon it.” (Isa. 5: 5, 6.) It is one thing for the Tempter to be suffered to break over the hedge, another to have the hedge removed. GOD had his hedge still about Job, though he suffered the Devil to leap over it; and this hedge limited him how far he should go, and no farther: but when the wall is removed, and the hedge broken down, and the enemy is let alone to make what waste he will, then the LORD is gone from the vineyard. Look diligently if there be any such among you, about whom the LORD has broken down his hedge, whom he has given up to the world and the Devil, and in whom these enemies has eaten up all their good, and made their souls a mere waste; in whom religion and righteousness, faith and love, hope and prayer, and all sense of GOD, are devoured of the world, and those briars and thorns of pride and lust, of envy and intemperance, are sprung up in their stead.

 

 [5.] When he turns away his heart from them, and rejects them.” The LORD has rejected thee, “ said SAMUEL to SAUL; and afterwards, “The LORD is departed from me, “ said SAUL to SAMUEL. GOD deals with particular persons that will not be reclaimed, as with backsliding Israel, concerning whom he said, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart could not be towards this people; cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.” (Jer. 15: 1.) GOD had sent Prophet upon Prophet to reclaim and recover them from their apostasies: but when they would not be reclaimed, then this fatal word comes at length, “ Cast them out of my sight; my mind is no longer towards them.”-You that have been backsliders, that have declined from GOD to the world, GOD hash sent many a word to you to recover you, and now lie is giving you solemn warning again: what will you now do Shall this word be lost, and take no effect upon you Will you yet continue to sleep on, and refuse to be awakened O take heed! O awaken! Who knows, if ye yet refuse, but GOD may forthwith speak such a dreadful word as this concerning you, “ I have no mind to this backsliding soul; I will give him a bill of divorce, and send him away.” If you should ask as they did there, “ Whither will he send us” Why, any whither! ”Let them go whither they will: send this man to the world which he has loved; send him to the Devil whom he has followed; let him be gone from me, I have no mind to him; this backsliding wretch, he has more mind to the world, to his money, to his trade, to his oxen, than he hash to his GOD; and I have no more mind to him, than -lie hatlr to me. Since lie has so much mind to the world, and to the service of the Devil, let the world take him, let the Devil take him: give him a bill of divorce, and send him away. What, false to his GOD, to his conscience, to his religion, to his covenant What, an apostate, an idolater One that has been so, that will be so I have called him back, and threatened hint back, and cried unto him,’ Though then hast played the harlot these many years, yet return to me.' But none of my words will move him; he goes on his old way: Away with such a wretch; I have no mind any longer to him; cast him-out of my sight!”

 

 Secondly, GOD may depart from the Congregations of his people: and then he departs from these,

 

 [I.] When he shuts up his house, and writes upon the door, “ The glory is departed;” when he causes their visions to fail, and his ordinances to cease from among them; when preaching, and praying, and all his worship, fail; when, though the candlesticks continue, yet there are few candles left, and those that are not quite put out are put under a bushel; when Pastors and Teachers, which were burning and shining lights, are removed into a corner.

 

 [2.1 When he pulls down his house; when not only the candles are carried away, but the candlesticks are broken in pieces; when he scatters his congregations; when the societies of the saints are broken in pieces, and those that went to the house of GOD in companies, have neither house to go into, nor company to go together;-then is the LORD departed.

 

 [3.] When, though his house stands, and his ordinances are continued, though there be preaching and praying still, yet the Spirit of the LORD is departed; when he doth not continue to bless his house, and bless his ordinances to his people; even this is a departure, and a grievous departure of the LORD from his people,-when he continues not among them to bless them. O how many congregations are there from whom the LORD is already thus departed! Though he gives his word., yet lie doth not bless his word; though the sowers come forth to sow, yet how is the seed rotten under the clods, how little is there that comes up! Though the planters plant, how few young plants do we see come up! O we fade, we fade, we wither as the grass upon the house-top; our life, our strength, our beauty, is fallen and withered! The beauty of love, the beauty of humility, the beauty of holiness, how is all marred! Surely this is the token of the LORD's departure from us.

 

 Thus you have seen how the LORD departs from his people. Observe also,

 

(2.) It is ill with a people when the LORD departs from them: “ Woe unto them, “ says the LORD, “when I depart from them.” (Hos. 9: 12.)

 

 It is woeful unto them, particularly, that have something of religion in them. When their pastors, their pastures, and waters fail, even they also are like to pine for want. There are none to whom the famine is so tedious as to hungry souls; the living child will cry for bread, when those that are dead never feel their want. And it will not be woeful only to their sense, so that they will mourn, and lament, and be pierced to the heart, to see such a day; but to some amongst then it will be a worse woe than that.

 

 While some mourn for want of the word, others will pine away for want. Professors, there be some among you that have languished and grown into decay in the fullness of all things; by all the ordinances of the Gospel you have had, by all the manna that has fallen among you, by all our preaching to you, and praying over you, we can hardly keep life in you; the little good that remains is weak and even ready to vanish away: but what then will become of you in the day of famine, when your manna shall cease, and your waters fail O tremble to hear this word spoken concerning you, “You shall not mourn nor weep;”-you will not lay it to heart, but ye shall pine away for your iniquities. If in such a day of plenty you are such pining souls, what can you expect but to pine to death in days of want.

 

 (3.) Our taking hold of God is our continuing the Loa n among us, and our preventing his departure. This was the sin of those described in the text, that they did not lay hold of GOD, that is, they took no course to continue the LORD amongst them: God was going from them, and they let him go, and looked not after him: they were too willing to part with GOD. And this is the case of backsliders in heart, they are too well content that God and they part; their heart is withdrawn from God, and they matter it not though GOD withdraws from them.

 

 Our laying hold on God imports these three things which are necessary to our continuing him with us.

 

 [1.] Our letting go our idols or false gods. GOD never departs till there be another god taken in with him; and GOD will never continue unless these gods be cast away.

 

 They are estranged from me by their idols;” (Ezek. 14: 5;)-they are grown strangers to me, and I must be a stranger to them; they have taken in other b.) is besides me: “Repent, “ says God, “ and turn yourselves from your idols: “ (ver. 6:)-if you would have me stay, let then go their way. There is a setting up of idols in the congregation, a setting up of stocks and stones to worship. And there is a setting up of idols in the heart. These men have set up their idols in their hearts.” (Ezek.,iv. 3.) Those that have no such idols as Israel had, those that abhor image-worship, or worshipping of the sun and the host of heaven, those that would tremble to see an idol set up in the house of God, may yet have a heart full of idols. One of the chief of our idols is the world; and our great heart-idolatry is covetousness, or the love of the world. (Col. 3: 5.) If God be provoked to depart from us, it is to be suspected that this is the idol that drives him away: our hearts are gone after the world, and thereupon it is that the LORD God is so far from our hearts. Would you lay hold on God Put away your idols; cast this world out of your hearts. It is vain to pray, “ LORD, leave us not: “ God will never regard your confessions nor your prayers, till your idols be cast out.

 

 Whenever we suffer, or are likely to suffer, it is our worldliness that has undone us; the gains of this world, or the pleasures of this world, have been taken into our hearts, and thereupon it is that God leaves us to sink and go to ruin as we do.. Cease from your idolatry: away with your earthly-mindedness and fleshliness: your hands are full of dirt and ashes; empty them of these, or you can never lay hold on GOD!

 

 We cry out against the wickedness of our age, against the atheism, the adulteries, the oaths, and prodigious profaneness, that are among us; and these and such like evils we look on as the reason why God is so angry with us. But besides these wickednesses of the openly profane, there are other iniquities to be found even among us; and this for one, the iniquity of our covetousness, which has thus provoked the LORD against us. ”For the iniquity of his covetousness I was wroth and smote him; I hid me and was wroth, and yet he went on forwardly in the way of his heart.” (Isa. lvii. 17.)-Here note three things: l. That” covetousness” is “iniquity: “covetous ones are wicked ones, however they may look like holy ones; whatever of God or religion appears, yet their covetousness, where it is predominant, marks them out for wicked ones.

 

 Art you a professor of religion Dost you hear Dost you pray', Dost you join thyself to those that fear GOD And art you yet a worldling You art but a wicked man, whatever thy profession be. 2. The iniquity of our covetousness will make God to withdraw, and hide his face from us. 111 hid me and was wroth.” 3. Covetous men, how dear soever their covetousness costs them, yet they will go on their way.” He went on forwardly, “ that is, perversely or obstinately in his way. He would not be turned back, he would not desist from following his worldly heart, how angry soever GOD was with him for it. O this disease of a worldly heart, when it is rooted, hardly admits of a cure! Beloved, GoD has prescribed for you many remedies, and GOD has given you many warnings, and your souls have suffered great loss by it. O the impoverishment that has fallen upon your inward man, by your eager pursuit of the advantages of your outward man; and yet for all this, who will take warning How little abatement is there to be seen of the zeal of our hearts after earthly things! O it is an evil disease, and a tough disease, that will hardly be purged away. There are some humors of the body that are so tough, that where they abound they can hardly be purged away; but there is no humor of the body so tough, and hard to be removed, as this disease of the soul.

 

 Yet unless you mean to part with God, yea, and to part with him for ever, you must let this idol go. And the like may be said of any other of our idols, any other sins you have set up in your hearts. There can be no taking hold of God, but you must let all your idols go; either these must be parted with, or GOD and you must part. You that are proud professors, that pride must be laid in the dust; you that are for your credit and reputation, you that are given to appetite, whose god is your belly or your throats, you must come off from all that your hearts are thus set upon, or else, as there is a breach between God and your souls begun, so it will grow wider and wider, till it becomes too great to be ever made up.

 

 What, will ye love this world to the death Will you love your pleasures, and your ease, and your lusts to the death Will you sell all that you have, all your religion, all the hopes and the comforts that you have had in it Will you sell your GOD, and your souls, for these vile things The young man in the Gospel foolishly refused to sell what he had in the world for CHRIST; and will you not refuse to sell CHRIST, and all your hopes as to the other world, for the trash you have here Do you not see, do none of you see, how dear they have cost you, and how low they have brought you as to the state of your inward man, already And will you hold on still; and never give over till you have lost all, and all hopes of ever recovering what you have lost O be, yet advised,; and go no farther; “Cast ye away, cast ye away your idols, and yet return to the Lo RD, and he will return to you.”

 

 [2.] Laying hold on GOD implies our laying hold on the covenant of GOD. We have no other hold on GOD but his covenant with us; we had need keep the covenant of God inviolable, for there is all the hold we have either for this life, or the life to come. And this is the hold that we find the people of Israel insisted upon, “Behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people: “ (Isa.lxiv. 9;) that is, thy covenant-people. See, we beseech thee, or remember, O LORD, what has passed betwixt thee and us; you hast said, “ I will be your GOD, and ye shall be my people.”

 

 Our only hope is the covenant of God; and this is necessary to our laying hold on the covenant of God, viz., to repent of our covenant-breaking, and to renew our covenant with him, and return to our obedience. It is a vain pleading from the covenant of God, or from the faithfulness of God to his people, if they have been false in the covenant, and will not repent: our engaging fidelity to God for the future, and our being faithful to our engagement; this is our only way to take hold on the covenant of GOD.

 

 You that are backsliders; that have been unfaithful to GOD, you have broken the covenant of your peace; and as to yourselves, you have hereby taken the most effectual course to make void the covenant of GOD; you have loosened the ALn1GHTY from his bond to you; GOD is far from you, and may never look upon you more, but may depart from you for ever, and leave you to perish in your revoltings: and though GOD be gracious, and abideth faithful, yet unless you will come into new bonds with him, and so lay hold on his old bond to you, you can expect nothing but that he leave you, and forsake you for ever.

 

 This therefore you have to do for recovery First, To acknowledge your unfaithfulness to the LORD.’ “LORD, I confess I am a backslider, and herein am become false to thee: I have covenanted to love thee, and to serve thee, with all mine heart, and with all my might. But woe is me, you hast but half a heart from me. Mire heart is divided. O how much of it has this world carried away from GOD! Instead of serving thee with my might, I have been an idle servant; the LORD forgive me, my business has of late lain another way than about GOD and my soul; I have been serving my pride, and my covetousness; this world has too much of me, insomuch that many a time, when I do any thing in the service of GOD, I do it but by halves; my strength has gone out for the world, and woe is me, there has been but little left for GOD but my weakness and weariness. Yea, and though I find the sad fruit of this my neglect in those wastes that are grown upon me, -though I see myself become a poor, withered, decayed thing, yet I am not much troubled at it, but am still going on in the same busy life for this earth, and in the same neglect of GOD. O I have been an unfaithful servant, and an unfaithful steward of the manifold graces of GOD: I have so wasted my talents, that I have almost nothing left.” Thus confess unto GOD your covenant-breakings.

 

 Secondly, Renew your covenant, and return to your fidelity. To repent, and not return, is but a mock repentance; to confess, and not amend, is but a mock confession.

 

Remember that word, “If you wilt return, I will bring thee again, and you shalt stand before me, “ (Jcr. 15: 19.) You that confess your' backslidings, will you return

 

 You see how it has been and is with you; shall it be better for the future Are your hearts set upon reviving the work of GOD, and recovering out of your earthly, lazy way

 

Will you promise to the LORD, that through his grace, and the help of his good SPIRIT, you will henceforth set your hearts to be more faithful to him, to follow the LORD fully, to stick faster to your religion, to be true to GOD, and to your conscience, and to the covenant of your GOD. O that there were such a heart in you all! This do, and then though you be gone back from him, yet he will bring you again; though you be fallen so low, yet he will raise you up, and you shall stand before him.

 

 Thirdly, Then trust upon the covenant of GOD; return to be faithful to him, and he will not leave you; nor cast you off, for your former unfaithfulness. This is the way to take hold of the covenant of GOD; and your taking hold of the covenant will be your taking hold of GOD. After such forsakings and such declinings, there is reason enough to be afraid lest the Lord cast off such unfaithful ones; and there is no hope but he will do so, if you thus return not; he will then be lost to you for ever; he will go farther and farther off from you; he will be gracious to you no more, nor accept you, nor any of your service, nor of your prayers for yourselves, no, nor of the prayers of any others for you; but will say concerning you as once, pray not for this people for their good: when they fast,I will not hear their cry, and when they offer an oblation I will not accept them.” (Jer. 14: 11, 12.)

 

 I tell you again, you that are in this case, and will not see it, nor confess your unfaithfulness, but will satisfy yourselves, and think you are well enough, or at least excuse yourselves, and say, your case is made worse than' it is; or if you do confess, “ I am a backslider, “ yet will not renew your covenant, but hold at the same pass; look for nothing else but this, that the soul of the LORD will be utterly loosened f oni you, and lie will say concerning you, “Give them a bill of divorce, and send them away: let them alone; let them pine away in their iniquities, till they be past recovery or redemption.”

 

 [3.] Our recovering our communion with GOD. Our communion with GOD stands much in these things:

 

 First, In our mutual acquaintance; GOD's with us, and out's with him. GOD is acquainted with his people, and he requires then to come into his. acquaintance: “Acquaint thyself with GOD.” (Job 22:21.) Acquaintance stands in our knowledge of GOD, we cannot be said to be acquainted with them we know not; and in such experimental knowledge as is got by converse together,-we cannot say we are acquainted with every one we know; converse or walking together is necessary to our being acquainted. The nearer and more intimate our acquaintance with GOD is, and of the longer continuance, the more hold we have of GOD. GOD will not easily lose his acquaintance; and those that are acquainted with GOD have tasted so much of the sweetness of walking with him, that they will take the more heed how they lose that acquaintance. When persons are intimately acquainted by their friendly converse together, this acquaintance knits their hearts together, as DAVID'S to JONATHAN, so that they will not easily be separated. Hast you used thyself to intimate converse with GOD, and thereby got experimental acquaintance with him Your heart will hereby be knit to the LORD, and the LORD's heart knit together with your. Acquaintance cannot bear strangeness; it is grievous to us when our acquaintance become strangers to us. Do you suffer your hearts to be estranged from the LORD Can you forget GOD, and keep at a distance from him Can you lose your intimacy in heaven Are your delightful thoughts of GOD restrained, and is not this grievous to you It is a shrewd sign that God and you were never well acquainted. you that are the friends of GOD, keep your acquaintance; take heed of wanderings, take heed of distances and estrangements; get the experimental delights that arise from your intimacy with him, and that will hold you near him. And you that have lost your acquaintance, O recover and revive your old intimacy in heaven.

 

 Secondly, In mutual acceptance. This is a special part of our communion with GOD, our complacency in GOD, and his complacency in us. Acquaintance take pleasure in one another; their company is grateful and acceptable.-1. GOD is accepted of his saints. They have a hearty liking to him, and are glad of his presence. They have all the intimations of his love and kindnesses to them. Not only such a word as this is spoken to their heart, I I love thee, mine heart is towards thee, you art mine, my delight is in thee;' (O how acceptable, O how pleasant are such words!) but they have also the manifestations of the will and counsels of GOD to them; they accept his commands; they love that the LORD should tell' them of their duty; (“ His statutes are my delight;” Ps. cxix. 77;) and they accept his rebukes and corrections, and his punishments of them for their sins, (Lev. 26:. 41,) knowing that he corrects them in love, that they cannot do without his chastisements, and that the very rebukes of his countenance are sometimes as necessary for them, and as beneficial to them, as the light of his countenance.-2. They are accepted with GOD. He accepts their persons: “ He has made us accepted in the Beloved.” (Eph. 1: 6.) He accepts their approaches to him: “In mine holy mountain of the height of Israel, there will I accept them; I will accept you with your sweet savor.” (Esek. 20: 4O, 41.)-Offer your offerings, lift up your voices, pour forth your prayers; they shall be a sweet savor, a savor of rest to me. -Now whilst GOD finds rest in a people, he will not depart. “This is my rest, here will I dwell for ever.” (Ps. cxxxii. 14.) Acceptance with GOD, and rejection from GOD, are so contrary, that whilst we have the one we need not fear the other: whilst GOD is accepted with its, we may be sure we are accepted with him: whilst GOD's Way', please us, our ways will please the LORD; ”When a man's ways please the LORD, he will make his enemies be at peace with him: “ (Pro r. 16: 7:) and so long we may be secure that our friend will not become our enemy, but will live in love, and continue his abode with us.

 

 Thirdly, In mutual correspondence; in frequent and friendly intercourses. God will be sending down to his saints tokens of his love; and his saints will be sending up presents to the LORD, tokens of their love to him. There is a JACOB'S ladder betwixt heaven and earth; this ladder is CHRIST, by which there is constant coming and going: there are spiritual blessings; the blessings of grace, the blessings of peace, that are sent down from God to his saints and there are spiritual duties; holy affections, holy desires, holy prayers and praises, which by the hand of CHRIST are sent up before the LORD. It is the very life of Christians to be either receiving or sending up to heaven: they must hear often from GOD, or they cannot live; “I will hearken to what the LORD God will speak.” (Ps. lxxxv. 8.) And whilst they live, GOD shall hear often from them; there are messengers and messages that pass daily betwixt GOD and them: they are often sending up, and the best present they have is their hearts;” I lift my soul to thee.” (Ps. 25: 1.) They will be sending up their desires to the LORD, and their sighs after him: If they have nothing better, they will be sending up their tears, and their sorrows, and their complaints to the LORD: “All my desire is before thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee: “ (Ps. xxxviii. 9.) If it be well with them, then their praises are sent up; if they want any thing, then up go their desires to the LORD for supply; if they ail any thing, whatever it be, they pour it out into the bosom of their friend. Some messengers or other are daily sent up; and whatever the messenger be, if it be a prayer, or a sigh, or a tear, this is still the message, “ Tell him, that I am either sick of love,-or sick for love, for a heart to love the LORD.”-Such intercourses there are betwixt God and his saints; and these- are a special part of their communion with GOD, and a special security against distances and estrangements betwixt the LORD and them. And it is to be observed, that whenever there’s a parting betwixt GOD and souls, there is a failing of these friendly intercourses. Declining souls, how seldom do they look upwards! 

 

 They are so busy below, that they have no leisure, and they grow so carnally-minded, that they have no will, to have much to do with GOD; they restrain prayer, and restrain holy meditations; the LORD seldom hears from them, and when he does, it is so coldly and so dully, that lie can take no pleasure in it. It is a sign that there is a breach betwixt the LORD and you, when you are fallen into a neglect of spiritual duties. Do your affections heaven-ward flag Does the fervor of your desires fail Are your prayers shortened and straitened Are you seldom, and remiss, and flat, in your retirements with God Can you not say, at least, My sighs and complaints are daily before him, and my groanings are not hid from him What a danger is there that God and your souls may utterly part, if you have thus lost your correspondence with him!

 

 Fourthly, In often reckoning. By this our communion with GOD, and our friendship with him, are maintained. Often reckoning keeps long friends: whilst we keep our account clear and fair, so long there is the less danger of a breach: we run upon score daily; we go upon score for mercies received from God, and we go upon score for sins committed against GOD; and where there is such scoring, there must be often reckoning.1. Our score of mercies should be answered in our praises and more abundant duties: and a reckoning must be kept both of what we have received and what we have returned; of what the LORD has done for our souls, and what our souls have done the more for his name. Thus we should reckon for these: “ O my soul, the LORD has done great things for thee; lie path brought thee from darkness to light, and path saved thy life from death: when you Overt going on in thy sins, running with the multitude either after thy covetousness or after thy companions, in the lusts and in the lewdness of your heart, when you Overt making all the haste that you couldst down to hell, there grace met thee; and whilst it let others run on, it singled thee out, and brought thee back out of that death's road, and has brought thee into the way of life, and of a dead sinner has made thee this living soul. O what a wonder of mercy was there! And since, how many a kindness has it showed thee How often has the same grace met thee in the house of GOD, and taught thee, and instructed thee, and quickened thee, and comforted thee How often has grace met thee in your own house, met thee-in secret, met thee upon thy knees, and enlarged your heart, and helped thee to pour out thy soul before the LORD, and poured in upon thee such a sense of the kindness of GOD to thee, as has delighted, and even ravished your heart.' And what multitudes of other instances have there been of the renewed kindnesses of the LORD to thee O to what a reckoning do thy mercies rise! Hast you kept the account by thee If you hast, what has been returned in answer of the loving-kindness of the LORD As it was said concerning MORDECAI who had saved the King's life,’ What honor and dignity hash been done to MORDEC AI for this' (Esther 6: 3.) Canst not you say, The LORD has saved my life from death, and done for me these great things; what honor have I done to the LORD for all this And if upon thy reckoning it be found that there has been nothing done, or but little done, then you wilt see that there must be more done, or GOD will be angry.

 

 Our score of sins should be reckoned up, in order to the getting them crossed by faith in the blood of CHRIST. Thus therefore you shouldst go on; “O my soul, you seest what GOD has done for thee; but what is it that you hast done against the GOD of thy mercy Hast you not grown secure Hast you not grown wanton Hast you not been lifted up in the pride of your heart Remember thy forwardness and quarrellings, thy backbitings and talebearings; halt you no lies, no false and fraudulent dealing, to put down upon thy account Dost you not use to come before the LORD with such a hollow heart, and such hollow duties, as if you meanedst to mock him to the face Art you not either a backslider, or a loiterer If you hast not lost ground, at least, hast you not lost time Hast you no slothfulness, and negligence, and non-proficiency, to write down against thyself Hast you not somewhat against thyself for thy covetousness, and overeagerness about the world Hast you no wrongs of thy conscience to be remembered Dost you not find much of these, and many more evils, for which you art run in score with thy GOD And what has there hitherto been done for the crossing out of the score Surely if you goest on thus, you art likely to hear of him in another way than you wouldst, or, it may be, not to hear from him at all.

 

 Beloved, the keeping good reckoning betwixt the LORD and us being so necessary to the continuing of his presence and favor with us, I shall give you some short directions concerning it.

 

 1. Let every one especially look to his own personal reckoning. We must reckon for our people also;-how great things GOD has done for our nation and his churches amongst us; and how great have been the sins of our people. What have our princes and our priests, what have our magistrates and our ministers done What have the sins of our congregations, of our neighbors, of our families been We are each a member of the same body, concerned in all these; and therefore must keep a public reckoning. But our special reckoning, which we must most insist upon, must be our own personal reckoning. Concerning our mercies we must say as the Psalmist, ~~ Come, and I will tell what the LORD has done for my soul.” (Ps. lxvi. 16.) For our sins, we must say to ourselves, what ISRAEL was rebuked for not saying, There is no man that repented nor said, What have I done” (Jer. viii. 6.) 

 

 We may some of us be telling too much what others have done; the sins of princes and great ones, the faults of our neighbors and acquaintance, may be too much in our mouths; though they be not so much as they should be upon our hearts, yet our tongues will run and catch up every evil report, and be spreading it abroad, making it bur ordinary talk, raking up all the evil news we can hear in town or country, as if we were the very sinks to gather in all the filth of the places we live in, and then casting back the stink of it in our discourses. This is a wicked practice, which I have more than once warned you of; and O that it were amended! But while we vainly talk, what this man or that woman has done, and how foolishly, how proudly, or how forwardly, they have behaved themselves; O how seldom is it that we mind our own reckoning, “LORD, what have I done O my soul, what hast thou, done, “ Here our chief business lies, to mind and make our own personal reckoning.” Let every man prove his own work, “ says the Apostle. (Gal. 6: 4.) Let every man search his own heart; let every man take an account of his own ways and goings.

 

 2. Do not under-reckon. Do not carelessly or deceitfully skip over any of your faults; make a plain and perfect account; deal faithfully betwixt GOD and your souls. Be not like the unjust steward: when there is fifty or a hundred owing, do not take your bill and write down but twenty: do not say to yourselves, as the LORD to the Church in Pergamos, “I have a few things against thee -, “ (Rev. 2: 14;) a few small faults I have. GOD may have many things, and great things, against your and if you will reckon truly, you may find many and great things against yourselves,

 

 3. Level your accounts.-(1.) As to the mercies that you have received: the way to level them is to see to it, that ye walk worthy of all the mercies of GOD, and that you receive none of the grace of GOD in vain. Let it not suffice you that you live better lives than sinners, that have received no such mercies as you have. “I thank GOD I am not as this publican, “ no, nor as this Pharisee;--shall shat suffice you You may be as neither of these, and yet GOD may have much against you. You ought to live up to all the light you have received, to all the love you have tasted of, to the experiences you have had of the manifold kindnesses of the LORD. There are some of you that GOD Math done more for, and bestowed more upon, more knowledge, more helps, more grace, than upon multitudes of weaker Christians: your life must be as much above the ordinary rank,-your care, and your zeal, and your diligence, and your faithfulness, must be as much above the lower sort of Christians,-as you have been set above them in what you have received. Some of you must say,-The LORD has been abundantly gracious to me; he has not done by every Christian as he has done by me; his grace has abounded; his kindnesses have abounded; O how deeply has my soul tasted how gracious the LORD is! 

 

 And what should you hereupon say further This you should say, -What shall I render How shall I live Study, O my soul, to walk worthy of all this grace. O let me have my conversation in heaven; let my conversation be in all things as becomes the Gospel: let me be holy, harmless, lively, fruitful, that I may show forth the virtues of him that has called me out of darkness into his marvelous light. GOD has been marvelously gracious to me; he has showed me marvelous loving-kindness; “He that is mighty has done for me great things;” help, LORD, help me, O my GOD, that as you hast made me such an instance of thy great mercy, he may become an instrument of thy greater praise. (2.) As to your sins; the way to level the reckoning for them, is by getting the scores to be crossed, and having them all blotted out. Get them crossed, first, by Repentance, “Repent ye,-that your sins may be blotted out.” (Acts 3: 19.) Whatever sins you find upon your account, there they must stand against you, till by repentance they

 

are blotted out. Set about repentance, every one of you.

 

 Have you lived an earthly and worldly life O repent that you have. Have you been proud, or self-conceited, or self-willed, or of a forward and contentious spirit O let your souls and all that is within you say,-It repents me, I am grieved at the heart, that ever I have been such a wretch. Have you, under all your professions of CHRIST, lived a carnal, careless, heedless, unprofitable life What should you say O it repents me that I have been Ito more spiritual, and diligent, and useful in my generation! Repent and reform, repent and amend: let it grieve you at the heart, that you have lost so much time, that you have lived to so little purpose, that you have been such barren vines, such fruitless fig-trees, in the vineyard of the LORD: and now let your root spring forth, let your branches shoot up, let your buds and blossoms appear, and grow up to more fruitfulness: this is repentance, and nothing short of this. Amend your ways, and come you to a better life, a more holy and heavenly life that is the way to have all your former sinfulness and unfruitfulness blotted out. 

 

 Get your sins crossed, secondly, by Faith in the blood of CHRIST. It is not your own tears that will wash away your sins; it is only the blood of CHRIST: your iniquities must not only be purged, but be pardoned too; whatever repentance may do towards it, it is the blood of CHRIST, and faith in his blood, that must both get them purged and pardoned. Do not only say, -If I have done iniquity, I hope I shall do so no more; I hope through the grace of GOD I shall never live as I have lived:-but besides this you must get your pardon for what you have done. Now this is your way to level your accounts concerning your sins, to repent of and amend all your evils, and to sue out your pardon through faith in the blood of CHRIST.

 

 And now you see what it is to lay hold on GOD;-to continue his presence with us, by casting away our idols; by laying hold on his covenant; by recovering communion, getting into a holy acquaintance with GOD, living so that you will both accept of God, and be accepted with him, maintaining a constant intercourse betwixt the LORD and your souls, letting him hear often from you, and listening and longing to hear as often from him, keeping even reckonings betwixt the LORD and you, keeping a reckoning -of your mercies, and a reckoning of your sins, leveling your accounts, walking worthy of your mercies, and getting the scores of your sins crossed, washed away by repentance, and pardoned by the blood of CHRIST. This is what you have to do, if you would take hold of God, and continue his presence with you.

 

 Is the LORD within you I hope he is in many of you. Would you that he should abide and continue with you I know you would, You that are Christians, I know ye would all say, Woe tome if the LORD depart from me. I know it is the desire of every sincere heart among you, Let the LORD dwell in me, and walk in me, as he has said he will; let CHRIST dwell in mine heart by faith; LORD, leave me not; “take not thy HOLY SPIRIT from me;” if all the friends I have in the world forsake me, if mine house must go, and mine estate go, and my health go, and my life go, yet let not the LORD depart from me; let the LORD still dwell in my soul, dwell in me as my teacher and instructer, dwell in me as my governor and my guide, dwell in me as my portion and treasure, dwell in me as my refuge and protector; let but tile LORD GOD continue with me, and influence me by his grace, and quicken me by his SPIRIT, and guide me by his counsels, and hold me by his right hand, and lift up the light of his countenance upon me, and so long mine heart shall be glad, and my glory shall rejoice, my flesh also shall rest in hope,-in this hope, that he will show me the path of life; I shall behold his face in righteousness, and -when I awake, I shall be satisfied with his likeness. Is this your mind Is this your desire Now you know what you have to do that it may be so.

 

 IV. Stirring Religion will take hold of God. What might have been said on this is in great part prevented by what has been said already; yet something I shall add, and show, FIRST, What is meant by Stirring Religion. SECONDLY, That Stirring Religion will continue the Presence of God with us. FIRST, What is meant by Stirring Religion.

 

 1. Negatively. Not headiness in religion; not a hot, a mistaken zeal about the lower and more uncertain things of religion; not such a spirit of fire as was in those disciples, who would needs call for fire from heaven to destroy those that were not followers of them not a stirring up of strife and contention, a making breaches and divisions, and propagating our own opinions by censuring and judging those that are not in every thing, according to our own size:-this headiness, and fierceness, and hot censoriousness, this is not the Stirring Religion I mean.

 

 2. Positively. An active, lively, zealous pursuing of that which is religion indeed, or the substance of sincere Christianity. Some vain ones there are, who, upon the hearing this headiness and fierceness, this hot and mistaken zeal, blemished and decried, will turn the edge of such reproofs against godly zeal, and all fervor and activity for GOD; and every one that goes beyond the drowsy multitude of professors, is cried out against, as one of these heady high-minded ones. Such is the craft of the Devil, that if he cannot blow up coals of wild fire, which under the pretence of kindling will devour all serious godliness; lie will on the other hand quench and cool that genuine fervency of spirit wherein we ought to serve the LORD: if he cannot make men heady, he will do what he can to make them heartless, and cold, and lukewarm, in all the matters of GOD.-Take heed of both these extremes, of being heady or fierce on the one hand, and of being cold or lukewarm on the other. Of heady ones, God would have us take heed and turn away from them; and as for lukewarm ones, he will spue them out of his mouth.

 

 The Stirring Religion I mean is a lively activity of soul for God, and for advancement in real godliness. A stirring spirit is opposite to a sleepy, slothful, careless spirit, which is nothing moved by all that the Scripture speaks, when it presses us to be ”fervent in spirit, serving the LORD, “ (Roan. 12: 11,)”to be zealous and amend,“ (Rev, 3: 1-J,)”to contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints, “ (Jude 3,)” to strive to enter in at the strait gate, “ (Luke 13: 24,) to fight, to wrestle, to run, to make haste, to be fruitful in good works,-and the like. After all these pressing and quickening words, there are a sort of slow bellies, sleepy, lazy professors, who will but creep on when God would have them run; who will lie down and loiter out their time, when They should be fervent in spirit; who will be idle when they should work, and silent when they should speak; who let their lazy hearts alone to their own slow and easy pace, and so are overgrown with rust, and suffer their religion to be even strangled and choked up by their flesh, which they so much indulge. This stirring religion is the opposite to such a sleepy heartless religion: it is a blowing up of the coals which GOD path kindled in us; as TIMOTHY is exhorted, “Stir up the gift of God.” (2 Tina. 1: 6.) The word is, Blow up the coals; so Christians are to stir up the grace of GOD within them.

 

 I need say the less here, because I have told you so much already. It is our being awakened, and vigorously following after that savory, solid, fruitful religion, in which I have already instructed you.

 

 Whatever holy principles we have received from the Word of GOD; whatever holy dispositions have been wrought into our hearts by the SPIRIT of GOD, such as faith, the fear of GOD, or love to the LORD JESUS; these must be all set on work and held to their works; that so the knowledge of GOD may bring forth the life of GOD; that the habit of faith may bring forth the life of faith; that the love of CHRIST and the fear of the LORD may constrain us to walk on in the law of our GOD; that the light that is set up within us may break forth and make our paths to shine; and not only so, but that the holy fire, which is kindled and blown up in our hearts, may bring forth a zeal of GOD in our lives; that we may be Christians, and Christians in earnest; busy for God, busy for our souls, striving against sin, and striving for mastery, fighting against sin, and fighting for the victory; ready to every good work, and fruitful in good works, doing what we can to rouse up this sleepy world, to raise up the tabernacle of DAVID that is fallen; helping on and building up one another in our most holy faith, laying out our strength in following the LORD, and laying hold every one on the skirts of his brother, and leading them on with us; living in love, and all the fruits of Christian love, and hereby adorning our holy profession, and walking worthy of the LORD unto all pleasing;-this is that which I mean by Stirring Religion.

 

 SECONDLY, Stirring Religion will continue the Presence of GOD with us: for,

 

1. It will work out and drive away whatever offends or would provoke GOD to depart. GOD will never depart without cause: it must be a great matter that must part such dear friends as GOD and the souls of his saints: GOD will never depart from his people till there be some sin entertained, and loved, and allowed, that bids him depart. Every sin says to the LORD, as those wicked ones, who said unto GOD, “Depart from us;” (Job 21: 14;) but though every sin says thus, yet GOD will not hearken to its voice unless it be a sin that is suffered to command in the heart or life. Sin says to the LORD, Depart, GOD shall not rule here; and if you be of the mind that that sin shall stay with thee notwithstanding, if you art willing to entertain such a traitor, if you hadst rather venture the displeasing God, than have thy sin cast out; this the LORD will not bear. GOD says concerning every sin, “If ye love me, let these go their way;” let this pride go, let this covetousness, let this forwardness go. If you say, O with all mine heart, LORD; I would be glad with all my soul to be rid of them; O that I might never be proud, or forward, or carnal, or earthly minded any more; I know it is an offence to the LORD, and it is a grief of mind to me;-if you sagest thus, and say truly, and wilt stand to thy word, GOD will not depart from thee.

 

 GOD will not depart for unallowed and resisted sins. If whilst thy sin says to the LORD, “ Depart from me, “ thy soul says to thy sin, “ Depart you rather;”-GOD will hearken to the voice of thy soul, rather than to the voice of thy sin. Thy sin says to the LORD, “ Depart: “ but if thy soul say, “LORD, let me be loosed from my sins, but stay You with me;” God will not depart from thee. But every allowed sin, every loved lust, and corruption that you wilt not hear of parting with, provokes God to depart. If you art of a proud heart, and art resolved to maintain thy pride; if you art of a covetous earthly heart and life, and wilt not hear of desisting from thy covetousness; if you art carnal, and foolish, and forward, and wilt continue so;-then GOD will not stay with such a soul. What, love your pleasure more than GOD “Even take them for me, “ says the LORD; ”I will be no more a God to them.”