Section 24

1. If your families be little churches, God will come to you, and dwell with you in them; for he has said concerning the church, This is my rest for ever, here will I dwell. It is a very desirable thing to have the gracious presence of God with us in our families, that presence which is promised where two or three are gathered together in his name. This was it that David was so desirous of, (Ps. ci. 2.) O when wilt thou come unto me ! His palace, his court, would be as a prison, as a dungeon to him, if God did not come to him, and dwell with him in it; and cannot your hearts witness to this desire, you who have houses of your own, would you not have Ood come to you, and dwell with you in them? Invite him, then, beg his presence, court his stay. Nay, he invites himself to your houses by the offers of his favour and grace; Behold, he stands at your door and hnocks: it is the voice of your beloved, open to him, and bid him welcome: meet him with your " Hosannas, blessed is he that cometh." He comes peaceably, he brings a blessing with him, a blessing which he will cause to rest upon the habitations of the righteous, Ezek. xliv. 30. He will command a blessing, which shall amount to no less than life for evermore, Ps. cxxxiii. 3. This presence and blessing of God will make your relations comfortable, your affairs successful, your enjoyments sweet; and behold, by it all things are made clean to you. This will make your family comforts double comforts, and your family crosses but half crosses; it will turn a tent into a temple, a cottage into a palace. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, arc the houses in which God dwells.

Now the way to have God's presence with you in your houses, is to furnish them for his entertainment. Thusthegood Shunammite invited the prophet Elisha to the chamber she had prepared for him, by accommodating him there with a bed and a table, a stool and a candlestick, 2 Kings iv. 10. Would you furnish your houses for the presence of God, it is not expected that you furnish them as his tabernacle was of old furnished, with blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, but set up and keep up for him a throne and an altar, that from the altar you and yours may give glory to him, and from the throne he may give law to you and yours ; and then you may be sure of his presence and blessing, and may solace yourselves from day to day in the comfort of it God will be with you in a way of mercy while you are with him in a way of duty; If you seek him he will be found of you. The secret of God shall be in your tabernacle, as it was in Job's, {ch, xxix. 4.) as it is with the righteous, Ps. xxv. 14. Prov. iii. 32,33.

2. If you make your houses little churches, God will make them little sanctuaries; nay, he will himself be to you as a little sanctuary, Ezek. xi. 16. The way to be safe in your houses, is to keep up religion

2q and the fear of God in your houses; so shall you dwell on high, and the place of your defence shall be the munition of rocks, Isa. xxxiii. 16. The law looks upon a man's house as his castle, religion makes it truly so. If God's grace be the " glory in the midst" of the house, his providence will make a wall of fire round about it, Zech. ii. 5. Satan found it to his confusion, that God made a hedge about pious Job, about his house, and about all that he had on every side, so that he could not find one gap by which to break in upon him. Job i. 10. Every dwelling place of mount Sion shall be protected as the tabernacle was in the wilderness, for God has promised to create upon it a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, which shall be a defence upon all the glory, Isa. iv. 5. If wc thus dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our life, by making our houses At« houses, we shall be hid in his pavilion, in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide us, Ps. xxvii. 4, 5.

Wherever we encamp, under the banner of Christ, the angels of God will encamp round about us, and pitch their tents where we pitch ours; and we little think how much we owe to the ministration of the good angels, that we and ours are preserved from the malice of evil angels, who are continually seeking to do mischief to good people. There are terrors that fly by night and by day, which they only who abide under the shadow of the Almighty can promise themselves to be safe from, Ps. xci. 1,5. Would you insure your houses by the best policy of insurance, turn them into churches, and then they shall be taken under the special protection of him who keeps Israel, and neither slumbers nor sleeps; and if any damage come to them, it shall be made up in grace and glory. The way of duty is without doubt the way of safety.

Praying families are kept from more mischiefs than they themselves are aware of. They are not always sensible of the distinction which a kind Providence makes between them and others; though God is pleased sometimes to make it remarkable, as in the story which is credibly related of a certain village in the Canton of Bern in Switzerland, consisting of ninety houses, which in the year 1584, were all destroyed by an earthquake, except one house, in which the good man and his family were at that time together praying. That promise is sure to all the seed of faithful Abraham, Fear not, I am thy shield. Gen. xv. 1. Wisdom herself has past her word for it, (Prov. i. 33.) Whoso hearkeneth to me, wherever he dwells, he shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from all real evil itself, and from the amazing, tormenting/ear of evil. Nothing can hurt, nothing needs frighten, those whom God protects.

3. If you have not a church in your house, it is to be feared that Satan will have a seat there. If religion do not rule in your families, sin and wickedness

A SERMON ON FAMILY REUGION.

(3.) Keep ap family discipline, that so yoo may have a complete church in yoor house, though in little. Reason teaches us that every man should bear rule in his own house, Esth. i. 22. And since that as well as other power is of God, it ought to be employed for God ; and they who so rule must be just, ruling in his fear. Joshua looked further than the acts of religious worship, when he made that pious resolution. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord, Josh. xxiv. 16. For we do not serve him in sincerity and truth, (which is the service he there speaks of, o. 14.) if we and ours serve him only on our knees, and do not take care to serve him in all the instances of a religious conversation. Those only who have clean hands, and a pure heart, are accounted the generation of them that seek God, Ps. jLxiv. 4, 6. And without this those who pretend to seek God daily, do but mock him, Isa. Iviii. 2.

The authority God has given you over your children and servants is principally designed for this end, that you jnay thereby engage them for God and godliness. If you use it only to oblige them to do your will, and so to serve your pride; and to do your business, and so to serve your worldliness; you do not answer the great end of your being invested with it; you must use it for God's honour, by it to engage them, as far as you can, to do the will of God, and mind the business of religion. Holy David not only blessed his household, but took care to keep good order in it, as appears by that plan of his family discipline, which we have in the 101st Psalm, a psalm which Mr. Fox tells us that blessed martyr Bishop Ridley often read to his family, as the rule by which he resolved to govern it

You are made keepers of the vineyard, be faithful to your trust, and carefully watch over those who are under your charge, knowing you must give account.

[1.] Countenance every thing that is good and praise-worthy in your children and servants. It is as much your duty to commend and encourage those in your family who do well, as to reprove and admonish those who do amiss; and if you take delight only in blaming that which is culpable, and are backward to praise that which is laudable, you give occasion to suspect something of an ill nature, not becoming a good man, much less a good Christian. It should be a trouble to us when we have a reproof to give, but a pleasure to us to say, with the apostle, (1 Cor. xi. 2.) Now I praise I'ou,

Most people will be easier led than driven, and we all love to be spoken fair to: when you see any thing that is hopeful and promising in your inferiors, any thing of a towardly and tractable disposition, much more any thing of a pious affection to the things of God, you should contrive to encourage it. Smile upon them when you see them set their faces heavenwards, and take the first opporinnity to let fk« know you observe it, and are well pleased wilkk, and do not despise the day of small things. Thb will quicken them to continue and abound ia tint which is good, it will hearten them against the &-Acuities they see in their way ; and, perhaps, wkj turn the wavering, trembling scale the right waj, and effectually determine their resolations to ckafe to the Lord. When you see them forward to coae to family worship, attentive to the word, devout ii prayer, industrious to get knowledge, afraid of ai, and careful to do their duty, let them have the pniie of it, for yon have the comfort of it, and God nmt have all the glory. Draw them with the cords of a man, hold them with the bands of love; so shall your rebukes, when they are necessary, be the moit acceptable and effectual. The great Sbepheni gathers the lambs in his arms, and carries them ii his bosom, and gently leads them; and ao shook! you.

[2.] Discountenance every thing that is evil ii your children and servants. Use your authority for the preventing of sin, and the suppressing of errtj root of bitterness, lest it spring up, and trouble yov, and thereby many be defiled. Frown upon ercfj thing that brings sin into your families, and intnh duces any ill words, or ill practices. Pride asd passion, strife and contention, idleness and intoi-perance, lying and slandering, these are sins wUd you must not connive at, nor suffer to go witbonti rebuke. If you return to the Almighty, this amoif other things is required of you, that you put mni iniquity, all iniquity, these and other the likeimqui-ties,/ar from your tabernacle. Job xxii. 2S. Make it to appear, that in the government of your families you are more jealous for God's hononr, than for ywr own authority and interest; and show yonrael Tes more displeased at that which is an offence to God, than at that which is only an affront or damage to yourselves.

You must indeed be careful not to provoke yoar children to wrath, lest they be discouraged; and as to your servants, it is your duty to '* forbear, or moderate, threatening:" yet you mast also, with holy zeal and resolution, and the meekness of wisdom, keep good order in your families, and set no wicked thing before their eyes, but witness against it. A little leaven Itaveneth the whole lump. Be afraid of having wicked servants in your houses, lest yoor children learn their way, and get a snare to thdr souls. Drive away with an angry countenance all that evil communication which corrupt good manners, that your houses may be habitations of righteousness, and sin may never find shelter in them.

I come now, II. To offer some motives to persoade you thus to turn your families into little churches. And O that I could find out acceptable words, with which to reason with you, so as to prevail! Stt

A SERMON ON FAMILY RELIGION.

593 me a little, and I will show you what is to be said on God's behalf y which is worth your consideration.

1. If your families be little churches, God will come to you, and dwell with you in them; for he has said concerning the church, This is my rest for ever, here will I dwell. It is a very desirable thing to have the gracious presence of God with us in our families, that presence which is promised where two or three Eire gathered together in his name. This was it that David was so desirous of, (Ps. ci. 2.) O when wilt thou come unto me ! His palace, his court, would be as a prison, as a dungeon to him, if God did not come to him, and dwell with him in it; and cannot your hearts witness to this desire, you who have houses of your own, would you not have Ood come to you, and dwell with you in them? Invite him, then, beg his presence, court his stay. Nay, he invites himself to your houses by the offers of his favour and grace; Behold he stands at your door ami knocks: it is the voice of your beloved, open to him, and bid him welcome: meet him with your '* Hosannas, blessed is he that cometh." He comes peaceably, he brings a blessing with him, a blessing which he will cause to rest upon the habitations of the righteous, Ezek. xliv. 30. He will command a blessing, which shall amount to no less than life for evermore, Ps. cxxxiii. 3. This presence and blessing of God will make your relations comfortable, your affairs successful, your enjoyments sweet; and behold, by it all things are made clean to you. This will make your family comforts double comforts, and your family crosses but half crosses; it will turn a tent into a temple, a cottage into a palace. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, are the houses in which God dwells.

Now the way to have God's presence with yon in your houses, is to furnish them for his entertainment. Thus the good Shunammite invited the prophet Elisha to the chamber she had prepared for him, by accommodating him there with a bed and a table, a stool and a candlestick, 2 Kings iv. 10. Would yon furnish your houses for the presence of God, it is not expected that you furnish them as his tabernacle was of old furnished, with blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, but set up and keep up for him a throne and an altar, that from the altar you and yours may give glory to him, and from the throne he may give law to you and yours; and then you may be sure of his presence and blessing, and may solace yourselves from day to day in the comfort of it. God will be with you in a way of mercy while you are with him in a way of duty; If you seek him he will be found of you. The secret of God shall be in your tabernacle, as it was in Job's, (rA. xxix. 4.) as it is with the righteous, Ps. xxv. 14. Prov. iii. 32,33.

2q and the fear of God in your houses; so shall you dwell on high, and the place of your defence shall be the munition of rocks, Isa. xxxiii. 16. The law looks upon a man's house as his castle, religion makes it truly so. If God's grace be the " glory in the midst" of the house, his providence will make a wall of (ire round about it, Zech. ii. 5. Satan found it to his confusion, that God made a hedge about pious Job, about his house, and about all that he had on every side, so that he could not find one gap by which to break in upon him. Job i. 10. Every dwelling place of mount Sion shall be protected as the tabernacle was in the wilderness, for God has promised to create upon it a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, which shall be a defence upon all the glory, Isa. iv. 5. If we thus dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our life, by making our houses At> houses, we shall be hid in his pavilion, in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide us, Ps. xxvii. 4, 5.

3. If you have not a church in your house, it is to be feared that Satan will have a seat there. If religion do not rule in your families, sin and wickedness

A SERMON ON FAMILY RELIGION.

will rule there. / know where thou dwe Uesty (says Christ to the anel of the charch of Pergamos, Rev. ii. 13.) even where Satan** seat is; that was his affliction : bat there are many whose sin it is; by their irrelig;ion and immorality they allow Satan a seat in their houses, and that seat a throne. They are very willing that the strong man armed should keep his palace there, and that his goods should be at peace; and the surest way to prevent this, is by setting up a church in the house. It is commonly said, that where God has a church, the devil will have his chapel: but it may more truly be said in this case, where God has not a church, the devil will have his chapel. If the unclean spirit find the house in this sense empty, empty of good, though it be swept and garnished, he taheth to himself seven other spirits mare wicked than himse/f\ and they enter in and dwelt there.

Terrible stories have been told of houses haunted by the devil, and of the fear people have had of dwelling in such houses; verily those houses in which rioting and drunkenness reign, in which swearing and cursing are the language of the house, or in which the more spiritual wickednesses of pride, malice, covetousness, and deceit have the ascendancy, may truly be said to be haunted by the devil, and they are most uncomfortable houses for any man to live in; they are holds of foul spirits, and cages of unclean and hateful birds, even as Babylon the great will be when it is fallen. Rev. xviii. 2.

Now the way to keep sin out of the house, is to keep up religion in the house, which will be the most effectual antidote against Satan's poison. When Abraham thought concerning Abimelech's house. Surely the fear of God is not in this place, he concluded no less but they will slay me for my wife*s sake. Gen. xx. 11. Where no fear of God is, no reading, no praying, no devotion, what can one expect but all that is bad ? Where there is impiety there will be immorality ; they who restrain prayer, cast off fear. Job xv. 4. But if religious worship have its place in the house, it may be hoped that vice will not have a place there. There is much of truth in that saying of good Mr. Dod, " Either praying will make a man give over sinning, or sinning will make a man give over praying.'' There remains some hope concerning those who are otherwise bad, as long as tlicy keep up prayer. Though there be a struggle between Christ and Belial in your houses, and the insults of sin and Satan are daring and threatening, yet as long as religion keeps the field, and the weapons of its warfare are made use of, we may hope the enemy will lose ground.

4. A church in the house will make it very comfortable to yourselves. Nothing more agreeable to a gracious soul than constant communion with a gracious God; it is the one thing it desires, to dwell in the house of the Lord; here it is as in its element, it is its rest for ever. If, therefore, our liouses be houses of the Lord, we shall for tint reason love home, reckoning oar daily devotioti the sweetest of our daily delights, and our family worship the most valuable of our family comforts. Tlus will sanctify to us all the conveniences of our boosei, and reconcile us to the inconveniences of it. What are Solomon's gardens, and orchards, and pools of water, and other delights of the sons of men, (Eccl. ii. 5, 6, 8.) in comparison with these delights of tho children of God?

Family religion will help to make oar family relations comfortable to us, by promoting love, preventing quarrels, and extinguishing heats that may at any time happen. A family living in the fear of God, and joining daily in religious worship, tmly enjoys itself; Behold how good and how pleasant m thing it is for brethren tlios to dwell together ; it is not only like ointment and perfume which rejoice the heart, but like the holy ointment, the holy perfume, wherewith Aaron the .saint of the Lord was consecrated ; not only like the common dew to the grass, but like the dew which descends apon the mountains of Sion, the holy mountains, Ps. cxxxiii. 1—3. The communion of saints in that which is the work of saints, is without doubt the most pleasant communion here on earth, and the liveliest representation, and surest pledge, of those everlasting joys which are the happiness of the spirits of just men made perfect, and the hopes of holy sonls in this imperfect state.

Family religion will make the affairs of the family successful; and though they may not in every thiof issue to our mind, yet we may by faith foresee that they will at last issue to our good. If this beaoty of the Lord our God be upon us and oar families, it will prosper the work of our hands unto as, yea, the work of eur hands it will establish ; or however, it will establish our hearts in that comfort which makes every thing that occurs easy, Ps. xc. 17 ; cxii. 8.

We cannot suppose our mountain to stand so strong but that it will be moved; trouble in the flesh we must expect, and aflliction in that from which we promise ourselves most comfort; and when the Divine Providence makes our houses houses of mourning, then it will be comfortable to have them houses of prayer, and to have had them so before. When sickness, and sorrow, and death come Into our families, (and sooner or later they will come,) it is good that they should find the wheels of prayer going, and the family ac«;ustomed to seek God; for if we are then to begin this good work when distress forces us to it, we shall drive heavily in it. They who pray constantly when they are well, may pray comfortably when they arc sick.

5. A church in the house will be a good legacy, nay, it will be a good inheritance, to be left toyonr -children after you. Reason directs os to consult the f welfare of posterity, and to lay up in stoiv a g«oi

A SERMON ON FAMILY REUGION.

505 foundation for those who shall come after us to build upon ; and we cannot do this better than by keeping up religion in our houses. A family altar will be the best entail; your children will for this rise up, and call you blessed, and it may be hoped they will be praising God for you, and praising God like you, here on earth, when you are praising him in heaven.

Yon will hereby leave your children the benefit of many prayers put up to heaven for them, which will be kept (as it were) upon tlie file there, to be answered to their comfort, when you are silent in the dust. It is true of prayer, what we say of winter, ** It never rots in the skies." The seed of Jacob know they do not seek in vain, though perhaps they live not to see their prayers answered. Some good Christians, who have made conscience of praying daily with and for their children, have been encouraged to hope that the children of so many prayers should not miscarry at last: and thus encouraged, Joseph's dying word has been the language of many a dying Christian's faith, / die, but God will surely visit you. Gen. 1. 24. I have heard of a hopeful son, who said he valued his interest in his pious father's prayer far more than his interest in his estate, though a considerable one.

You will likewise hereby leave your children a lod example, which you may hope they will follow when they come into houses of their own. The usage and practice of your families is commonly transmitted from one generation to another; bad customs arc many times thus entailed. They who burnt incense to the queen of heaven, learnt it of their fathers, Jer. xliv. 17. And a vain conversation was thus received by tradition, 1 Pet i. 18. And why may not good customs be in like manner handed down to posterity ? Thus we should make known the ways of God to our children, that they may arise and declare them to their children, (Ps. Ixxviii. 6.) and religion may become an heir-loom in our families. Let your children be able to say, when they are . tempted to sit loose to religion. That it was the way of their family, the good old way, in which their fathers walked, and in which they themselves were educated and trained up; and with this they may answer him who reproaches them. Let family worship, besides all its other pleas for itself, be able in your houses to plead prescription. And though to the acceptableness of the service, it is requisite that it be done from a higher and better principle than purely to keep up the custom of the family, yet better so than not at all: and the form of godliness may by the grace of God at length prove the happy vehicle of its power; and dry bones, whilst unburied, may be made to live. Thus a good man leaves an inheritance to his children ; and the generation of the vpright shall be blessed.

6. A church in the house will contribute very much to the prosperity of the church of God in the nation.

Family religion, if that prevail, will put a face of religion upon the land, and very much advance the beauty and peace of our English Jerusalem. This is that which I hope we are all hearty well-wishers to; setting aside the consideration of parties, and separate interests, and burying all names of distinction in the grave of Christian charity, we earnestly desire to see true catholic Christianity, and serious godliness in the power of it, prevailing and flourishing in our land; to see knowledge filling the land, as the waters cover the sea ; to see holiness and love giving law, and triumphing over sin and strife : we would see cause to call your city, A city of righteousness, a faithful city, its walls salvation, and its gates praise. Now all this would be eflected, if family religion were generally set up and kept up.

When the wall was to be built about Jerusalem, it was presently done by this expedient, every one undertook to repair over against his own house. See Neh. iii. 10, &c. And if ever the decayed walls of the gospel Jerusalem be built up, it must be by the same method. Every one must sweep before his own door, and then the street will be clean. If there were a church in every house, there would be such a church in our land as would make it a praise throughout the whole earth. We cannot better serve our country than by keeping up religion in our families.

Let families be well catechised, and then the public preaching of the word will be the more profitable, and the more successful. For want of this, when we speak ever so plainly of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, to the most we do but speak parables. The booh of the Lord is delivered to them who are not catechised, saying. Read this, and they say. We are not learned; learned enough in other things, but not in the one thing needful, Isa. xxix. 12. But our work is easy with those who from their childhood have known the Holy Scriptures.

If every family were a praying family, public prayers would be the better joined in, more intelligently, and more affectionately; for the more we are used to prayer, the more expert we shall be in that holy and divine art of ^* entering into the holiest *' in that duty. And public reproofs and admonitions would be as a nail in a sure place, if masters of families would second them with their family discipline, and so clench those nails.

Religious families are blessings to the neighbourhood they live in, at least by their prayers. A good man thus becomes a public good, and it is his ambition to be so. Though he see his children's children, he has small joy of that if he do not see peace upon Israel, Ps. cxxviii. 5, 6. And therefore postponing all his own interests, and satisfactions, he sets himself to seek the good of Jerusalem all the days of his life. Happy were we if we had many such. That which now remains, is to address myself

A SERMON ON FAMILY REUGION.

to you upon Uie whole matter by way of exhortation ; and I pray you let my counsel be acceptable to you ; and while I endeavour to give every one his portion, let your consciences assist me herein, and take to yourselves that which belongs to you.

III. The Application.

1. Let those masters of families who have hitherto lived in the neglect of family religion be persuaded now to set it up, and henceforward to lAake conscience of it. I know it is hard to persuade people to begin even a good work that they have not been used to; yet, if God by his grace apply this word, who can tell but some may be wrought upon to comply with the design of it? We have no ill design in urging you to this part of your duty: we aim not at the advantage of a party, but purely at the prosperity of your families. We are sure we have reason on our side, and if you will but suffer that to rule you, we shall gain our point; and you will all go home firmly resolved, as Joshua was, that whatever others do themselves, and whatever they say of you, You and your hornet will serve the Lord. God put it into, and keep it in, the imagination of the thought of your heart, and establish your way therein before him!

Proceed in the right method; first set up Christ upon the throne in your hearts, and tlien set up a church for Christ in your house. Let Christ dwell in your hearts by faith, and then let him dwell in your houses; you do not begin at the right end of your work, if you do not first give your owu selves unto the Lord ; God had respect first to Abel, and then to his offering. Let the fear and love of God rule in your hearts, and have a commanding sway and empire there, and then set up an altar for God in your tents; for you cannot do that acceptably till you have first consecrated yourselves as spiritual priests to God, to serve at that altar.

And when your hearts, like Lydia% are opened to Christ, let your house, like hers, be opened to him too, Acts xvi. 14, 15. Let there be churches in all your houses; let those who have the stateliest, richest, and best furnished houses, reckon a church in them to be their best ornament: let those who have houses of the greatest care and business, reckon family religion their best employment; and not neglect the one thing needful, while they are careful and cumbered about many things: nor let those who have close and mean habitations be discouraged ; the ark of God long dwelt in curtains. Your dwelling is not so strait, but you may find room for a church in it. Church work is often chargeable, but you may do this church work cheap: you need not make silver shrines, as they did for Diana, nor lavish gold out of the bag, as idolaters did in the service of their gods, (Isa. xlvi. 6.) no. An tdtmr tf earth shall you make to your God (Exod. xx.24.)aid he will accept it. Church work is accustomed to be slow work, but you may do this quickly. Pit on resolution, and you may set up this tabernacle to-night, before to-morrow.

Would you keep up your authority in yoar famflj? You cannot do it better than by keeping aprdigioB in your family. If ever a master of a family loob great, truly great, it is when he is going before kii house in the service of God, and presiding among them in holy things. Then he shows himself woitbj of double honour, when he teaches them the good knowledge of the Lord, and is their month to God in prayer, blessing them in the name of God.

Would you have your family relations comfortable, your affairs successful, and give an eyidence of your professed subjection to the gospel of Christ! Would you live in God's fear, and die in his favov, and escape that curse which is entailed upon pny- | erless families ? Let religion in the power of ithavt its due place, that is, the uppermost place in yoor houses. I

Many objections your own corrupt hearts will , make against building these churches, but they wiH ' all appear frivolous and triflingto a pious mind, that is stedfastly resolved for God and godliness: yoo will never go on in your way to heaven, if you wifl be frightened by lions in the street. Whatever ii the difficulty you dread, the discouragement yon apprehend, in it, I am confident it is not insoper-able, it is not unanswerable, ^ut he thai observes the wind shall not sow, and he that regaris the elovdsMl not reap.

Be not loth to begin a new custom, if it be a good custom, especially if it be a duty, (as certainly this is,) which, while you continue in the neglect of, you live in sin; for omissions are sins, and must come into judgment. It may be, that yon have beea convinced that you ought to worship God in your families, and that it is a good thing to do so; but you have put it ofi* to some more convenient season. Will you now at last take occasion from this sermoB to begin it ? And do not defer so good a work anj longer. The present season is without doubt the most convenient season. Begin this day; let thii be the day of your laying the foundation of the Lord's temple in your house; and then consider, from this day and upward—as God by the pnipbiC reasons with the people who neglected to build tbo temple. Hag. ii. 18, 19. take notice—whether God do not from this day remarkably bless you in all that you have and do.

Plead not your own weakness and inability to perform family worship ; make use of the helps that arc provided for you; do as well as you can wbca you cannot do so well as you wonld, and God wiff accept of you. You willingly write what is need-

A SERMON ON FAMILY RELIGION.

697 sary for the carr}'ing on of your trade, though you cannot write so fine a hand as some others can; and will you not be as wise in the work of your Christian calling, to do your best, though it be far short of the best, rather than not do it at all ? To him who has but one talent, and trades with that, more shall be given ; but from him who buries it, it shall betaken away. Be at some pains to make the Scriptures familiar to you, especially David's Psalms, and then you cannot be to seek for a variety of apt expressions proper to be used in prayer, for they will be always at your right hand. Take mth you those words, words which the Holy Ghost teaches, for you cannot find more acceptable words.

And now shall I prevail with you in this matter? I am loth to leave you unresolved, or but almost persuaded ; I beg of you, for God's sake, for Christ's sake, for your own precious souls' sake, and for the children's sake of your own bodies, that you will live no longer in the neglect of so great, and necessary, and comfortable a duty as this of family worship is. When we press upon you the more inward duties of faith and love, and the fear of God, it cannot be so evident that we succeed in our errand as it may be in this. It is certain that you get no good by this sermon—^but it is wholly lost upon you —if after you have heard it, or read it, you continue in the neglect of family religion; and if still you **cast off fear, and restrain prayer before God." Your families will be witnesses against you that this work was undone; and this sermon will witness against you, that it was not for want of being called to do it, but for want of a heart to do it when you were called. But I hope better things of you, my brethren, and things that accompany salvation, though I thus speak.

2. Let those who have kept up family worship formerly, but of late have left it off, be persuaded to revive it. This, perhaps, is the case of some of you; yoo remember the kindness of your youth, and the love of your espousals ; time was when you sought God daily, and delighted to know his ways, as families who did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinances of your God ; but now it is otherwise. The altar of the Lord is broken down and neglected, the daily sacrifice is ceased ; and God has kept an ac-coont how many days it has ceased, whether you have or no, (Dan. viii. 13,14.) Now God comes into your bouses seeking fruit, but he finds none, or next to none: you are so eager in your worldly pursuits, that you have neither hearts nor time for religious exercises. You began at first frequently to omit the service, and a small matter served for au excuse to put it by, and so by degrees it came to nothing.

O that those who have thus left their first love, would now remember whence they are fallen, and repent, and do their first works! Inquire bow this good

I" work came to be neglected; was it not because your love to God cooled, and the love of the world prevailed ? Have you not found a manifest decay in the prosperity of your souls since you let fall this good work? Has not sin got ground in your hearts and in your houses? And though, when you dropt your family worship, you promised yourselves that you would make it up in secret worship, because you were not willing to allow yourselves time for both, yet have you not declined in that also ? Are you not grown less frequent, and less fervent, in your closet devotions too? Where is now the blessedness you have formerly spoken of? I beseech you to lay out yourselves to retrieve it in time. Say as that penitent adulteress, (Hos. ii. 7.) / will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than now. Cleanse the sanctuary, and put away the strange god. Is money the god, or the belly the god, that has gained possession of thy heart and house ? Whatever it is, cast it out. Repair the altar of the Lord, and begin again the daily sacrifice and oblation. Light the lamps again, and burn the incense. Rear up the tabernacle of David which is fallen down, lengthen its cords, and strengthen its stakes, and resolve it shall never be ncglccte'-l again as it has been. Perhaps you and your families have been manifestly under the rebukes of Providence, since you left off your duty,—and Jacob was, while he neglected to pay his vow ; I beseech you, hear at length the voice of the rod, and of him who has appointed it, for it reminds you of your forgotten vows, saying. Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there. Gen. xxxv. 1. Let the place thou dwellest in ever be a Bethel,, so shall God dwell with thee tiiere.

3. Let those who are remiss and negligent in their family worship be awakened to more zeal and constancy. Some of you perhaps have a church in your house, but it is not a flourishing church; it is like the church of Laodicea, neither cold nor hot; or like the church of Sardis, in which the things that remain are ready to die ; so that it hath little more than a name to live. Something of this work of the Lord is done for fashion sake, but it is done deceitfully: yon have in your flock a male, but you vow and sacrifice unto the Lord a corrupt thing; you grow "customary" in your accustomed services,and bring the torn and the blind, the lame and the sick, for sacrifice ; and you offer that to your God which you would scorn to offer to your governor; and though it is but little you do for the church in your house, you think that too much, and say. Behold what a weariness is it! You put it off with a small and inconsiderable scantling of your day, and that the dregs and refuse of it. You can spare no time at all for it in the morning, nor any in the evenitig, till you are half asleep. It is thrust into a comer, and almost lost in a crowd of worldly business and carnal conversation. When it is done, it is done so slightly, in so much haste, and with so little rever-

A SERMON ON FAMILY RELIGION.

ence, that it makes no impression upon yourselves or your families. The Bible lies ready, but you have no time to read; your servants are otherwise employed, and you think it is no matter for calling them in ; you yourselves can take up with a '* word or two of prayer," or rest in a lifeless, heartless tale of words. Thus it is every day, and perhaps little better on the Lord's day; no repetition, no catechising, no singing of psalms, or none to any purpose.

Is it thus with any of your families ? Is this the present state of the church in your house? My brethren. These things ought not to he so. It is not enough that you do that which is good, but you must do it well. God and religion have in effect no place in your hearts or houses, if they have not the innermost and uppermost place. Christ will come no whither to be an underling; he is not a guest to be set behind the door. What comfort, what benefit can you promise to yourselves from such trifling services as these; from an empty form of godliness without the power of it ?

I beseech you, sirs, make a business of your family religion, and not a by-business. Let it be your pleasure and delight, and not a task and drudgery. Contrive your affairs so that the most convenient time may be allotted both morning and evening for your family worship, so that you may not be unfit for it, or disturbed and straitened in it; herein wisdom is profitable to direct. Address yourselves to it with reverence and seriousness, and a solemn pause; that those who join with you may see and say, that God is with you of a truth, and may be struck thereby into a like holy awe. You need not be long in the service, but you ought to be lively in it; not slothful in this business, because it is the business for God and your souls, but fervent in spirit serving the Lord,

4. Let those who have a church in their house, be very careful to adorn and beautify it in their conversation. If you pray in your families, and read the Scriptures, and sing psalms, and yet are passionate and froward with your relations, quarrelsome and contentious with your neighbours, unjust and deceitful in your dealings, intemperate and given to tippling, or allow yourselves in any other sinful way, you pull down with one hand what you build up with the other. Your prayers will be an abomination to God, and to good men too, if they be thus polluted. Be not deceived God is not moched.

See that you be universal in your religion, that it may appear that you are sincere in it Show that you believe a reality in it, by acting always under the commanding power and influence of it. Be not Christians upon your knees, and Jews in your shops. While you seem saints in your devotions, prove not yourselves sinners in your conversations. Having begun the day in the fear of God, be in that fear all the day long. Let the example you set your families be throughout good, and by it teach them to read and pray, for that is but half their i by it teach them to be meek and bumble, s temperate, loving and peaceable, just and so shall you adorn the doctrine of God our and those who will not be won by the word won by your conversation. Your family w an honour to yon, see to it that neither you i be in any thing a disgrace to it.

5. Let those who are setting out in the i up a church in their house at first, and not Plead not youth and bashfulness ; if you h fidence enough to rule a family, I hope 3 confidence enough to pray with a family. The time is not come, the time that the Lor* should be built, as they did who dwelt in tkt houses, while God's house lay waste. Hag It ought to be built immediately; and th you put it off, the more difficulty there will 1 doing of it, and the more danger that it w be done.

Now you are beginning the world, (as yot is it not your wisdom as well as duty to be| God ? Can you begin better 'i or can you e prosper if you do not begin thus ? The full heads are of care about setting up house, anc! up shop, and settling in both, the more d< have of daily prayer, that by it you may ca care on God, and fetch in wisdom and directi on high.

6. In all your removals be sure you t: '' church in your house" along with you. A often removed his tent, but wherever he pit there the first thing he did was to build an ai is observable concerning Aquila and Prise whose pious family my text speaks, that wl Paul wrote his epistle to the Romans they y Rome ; for he sends salutations to them thith there it is said they had a church in theii Rom. xvi. 5. But now, when he wrote this e| the Corinthians they were at Ephesus, for th should seem this epistle bore date, and here h salutations from them; and at Ephesus al: had a church in their house. As wherever ourselves we must take our religion with wherever we take our families, or part of th must take our family religion with us; foi places we need divine protection, and exp divine goodness. / ttnll therefore that me every where.

When you are in your city-houses, let 1 business of them crowd out your family re nor let the diversions of your country-houses pose your minds to these serious exercises, care and that pleasure are unseasonable and i nate, which leave you not both heart and t attend the service of the church in your boux

Let me here be an advocate also for those Ca

A SERMON ON FAMILY RELIGION.

whose masters are often absent from them, for their health or pleasure, especially on the Lord's day, or long absent upon business. And let me beg these absent masters to consider, with whom they leave those few sheep in the wilderness, (1 Sam. xvii. 28.) and whether they do not leave them neglected and exposed. Perhaps there is not a just cause for your absence so much, nor can you give a good answer to that question. What dost thou here, Elijah ? But if there be a just cause, you ought to take care that the church in your house be not neglected when yon are abroad, but that the work be done when you are not at home to do it

7. Let inferior relatives help to promote religion in the families where they are. If family worship be not kept up in the houses where you live, let so much the more be done in your closets for God and your souls: if it be, yet think not that will excuse joa from secret worship. All is little enough to keep up the life of religion in your hearts, and help ^oa forward toward heaven.

Let the children of praying parents, and the servants of praying masters, account it a great privilege to live in houses that have churches in them, find be careful to improve that privilege. Be you also ready to every good work ; make the religious exercises of your family easy and pleasant to those who perform them, by shovring yourselves forward to attend on them, and careful to attend to them; for your backwardness and carelessness will be their greatest discouragement. Let your lives also be a credit to good education, and make it appear to all with whom you converse, that you are every way the better for living in religious families.

8. Let solitary people, who are not engaged in families, have churches in their chambers, churches in their closets. When every man repaired the wall of Jerusalem over against his own house, we read of one that repaired over against his chamber, Nch. iii. 30. Those who live alone, out of the way of family worship, ought to take so much the more time for their secret worship, and, if possible, add the more solemnity to it. You have not families to read the Scriptures to, read them so much the more to yourselves. You have not children and servants to catechise, nor parents or masters to be catechised by; catechise yourselves then, that you may hold fast the form of sound words, which you have received. Exhort one another ; so we read it, (Heb. iii. 13.) trapaKCLkiiTi tavrnQ — exhort yourselves, so it might as well be read. Yon are not made keepers of the vineyards, and therefore the greater is your shame if your own vineyard you do not keep. When you are alone, yet you are not alone, for the Father is with you, to observe what you do, and to own and accept yon, if you do well.

9. Let those who are to choose a settlement, consult the welfare of their souls in the choice. If a church in the house be so necessary, so comfortable, then be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers, who will have no inclination for the church in the house, nor assist in the support of it, but instead of building this house, pluck it down with their hands, Prov. xiv. 1. Let apprenticeships and other services be chosen by this rule, that " that is best for us which is best for our souls ;*' and therefore it is our interest to go with those, and be with those, with whom God is, Zech. viii. 23. When Lot was to choose a habitation, he was determined therein purely by secular advantages, (Gen. xiii. 11, 13.) and God justly corrected his sensual choice, for he never had a quiet day in the Sodom he chose, till he was fired out of it. The Jewish writers tell of one of their devout rabbins, who being courted to dwell in a place which was otherwise well accommodated, but had no synagogue near, he utterly refused to accept the invitation, and gave that text for his reason, (Ps. cxix. 72.) The law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver,

10. Let religious families keep up friendship and fellowship with each other, and as they have opportunity assist one another in doing good. The communion of churches has always been accounted their beauty, strength, and comfort, and so is the communion of these domestic churches. We find here, and in other of St. Paul's epistles, kind salutations sent to and from the houses that had churches in them. Religious families should greet one another, visit one another, love one another, pray for one another, and as becomes households of faith, do all the good they can one to another; forasmuch as they all meet daily at the same throne of grace, and hope to meet shortly at the same throne of glory, to be no more, as they are now, divided in Jacob, and scattered in Israel.

Lastly, Let those houses that have churches in them, flourishing churches, have comfort in them. Is religion in the power of it uppermost in your houses? And are you and yours sening the Lord, serving him daily? Go on and prosper, for the Lord is with you while you be with him. See your houses under the protection and blessing of heaven, and be assured that all things shall work together for good to you. Make it to appear by your holy cheerfulness that you find God a good master. Wisdom's ways pleasantness, and her paths peace; and that you see no reason to envy those who spend their days in carnal mirth, for you are acquainted with better pleasures than any they can pretend to.

Are your houses on earth God's houses? Are they dedicated to him, and employed for him ? Be of good comfort, his house in heaven shall be yours shortly: In my Fathers house there are many mansions ; and there is one, you may be sure, for each of you, who thus by a patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, honour, and immortality.

A SERMON

PREACHED TO THE

SOCIETIES FOR REFORMATION OF MANNERS,

AT SALTERS HALL, ON MONDAY, JUNE 30, 1712.

Psalm vii. 9.

O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end ; but establish the just.

In all your religious assemblies, it is as much the business of your ministers, who preside in them, to pray with you, as to preach to you; to be your month to God, as to be God's mouth to you. He is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee* is as natural an inference as, be is a prophet, and he shall teach thee: and in these two the apostles themselves summed up the business of their apostolical office. We will give ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word:^ and those, who herein obtain mercy of the Lord to be faithful, are their most genuine sons and successors. And it is as much your business in your attendance on religious assemblies, seriously to join in the errands they go upon to the throne of God*s grace, as dutifully to receive the messages they bring from the throne of God's government; always remembering that God speaks to us, and we to him, by his Son.

In this religious assembly of the Societies for the Reformation of Manners, we having now, by solemn prayer, committed them and their pious undertaking to God, having humbly begged the continuance of his presence with them, and his favour to them, to carry them on and succeed them in it, and make it a means of great good to our land, I look upon it that the work of the day is more than half done; for I am sure God's grace can do wonders without any services of ours; but the best of our services can do nothing without his grace; which we have as necessary and constant a dependence upon for all the good that is to be done by us, and all the good effect

» Gen. XX. 7.

b Acts vi. 4.

of it upon others, as we have upon the providence of God, for the actions of the natural life ; and that grace must be fetched in by prayer. If, therefore, the God of Israel grant us the things we have now requested of him, our point is gained; year work goes on successfully.

And, therefore, I see not how I can better befriend the Societies, nor do more to serve their pious design, in what remains of my work at this time, than by doing what I can to engage the continuance of the prayers of all who hear me this day, for the prosperity of them and it; and that is what I aim at in the choice of this text.

The undertaking is bold and great, and one in which the spirit of a truly Christian hero appears, as much as in anything,—a catholic spirit; the spirit of one who seeks the things of Christ more than bis own things. It has a direct tendency to the advancing of the honour of God, and of his kingdom among men, and the interests of that holy re Ugion which we make a profession of, and the weakening of the devil's kingdom ; it aims at the good of the souls of men, and the welfare of the public: and, therefore,iISf(en of Israel, help f help, by your prayers f to forward this good work. From this part of the service I am sure there is none can excuse, can exempt, themselves; you are all therefore, in this way, summoned " to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty;" it is at your peril if you disobey the summons.

I hope I speak to a praying people; who make conscience of prayer, who make a business of prayer, who dare not live without prayer, (for those who do, live without God in the world,) who would not live without prayer, for it is their delight to approach unto God. I hope I speak to those who pray for the e Acts Xxl. 'iS.

H 2 Cor. 4. II.

A REFORMATION SERMON.

601 peace of Jerosalem, preferring it before their chief Joj; you are not Israelites indeed, if you are not of the generation of them that seek God, and wrestle with him ; if you do not seek him, and wrestle with bim for the welfare and prosperity of Israel: let me therefore press it upon you with .all earnestness, to take this concern of the *' reformation of manners'' into your daily prayers—alone, and in your families. —as those who have sincerely espoused this righteous cause, have laid it near your hearts, and who keep it there, and have an entire dependance upon the almighty grace of God to make it successful.

My text is a prayer, and will be of use to direct us herein ; it puts words into our mouths ; not many, to burthen our memories, but very proper and suited to our purpose, for we are here taught to pray against all sin, and for all saints.

1. We are here taught to pray against all sin, to pray it down; to pray it, if possible, out of the world: O lei the wickedness of the wicked come to an end! And in praying against the sin, we pray for the sinners ; for whatever makes against the disease, makes for the patient.

Observe with what a pathetic strain of devotion the Psalmist breathes out this petition, and teaches OS to do so; Oh ! let it come to an end ! when shall it once he 1 In prayer, as there should be a fixedness of thought, and a firmness of faith, so there should be a flame and fervour of pious and devout affections. Cold desires do but beg denials; and lifeless wishes are fruitless ones; but it is the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man that avails muck. When Jacob wrestles with God he commences **• Israel, a prince with God." The original word Kj here used to express the emphasis laid upon this request, is sometimes translated now; O that the wickedness of the wickedness might speedily come to an end; the sooner the better. Sometimes it is translated obsecro —/ pray thee, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; this is that for which I would be very importunate; O that I might have my request, and that God would grant me this thing which I long for!

Some of the critics read it, Evil shall consume the wicked; and so it ifl a prediction of the gradual and final destruction of all impenitent sinners: they who will not be reclaimed shall be consumed; Evil shall slay the wicked.* Their sin will be their ruin, if they repent not. The man of sin, that wicked one, shall be consumed ; ' and we are to pray for the hastening of the day when God will do this, as the day of the revelation of his righteous judgment.

But it is rather to be taken as we read it; it is a prayer, not that the wicked may come to an end, but that their wickedness may; that that may be consumed ; let it not only be restrained and curbed, and

• Pa xzxiv. 31.

driven into comers, but let it be utterly abolished, that we may not see it, or hear it, or hear of it, any more. God is calling to mankind from heaven by his word, O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end. O that sinners would cease to do evil and learn to do well! Let the wicked forsake his wny and the unrighteous man his thoughts. He says to the fools, Deal not foolishly; let him thai stole ^ steal no more. This is the burthen of every song, Ttini ye, turn ye. Now we must, by our prayers, concur vrith him herein ; as those who are of God's mind ; Amen, so be it; O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, God commands that men forsake their sins; we pray, that he would by his grace turn them from it, as those who are of his mind, and say in sincerity, Thy will he done.

2. We are here taught to pray for all saints, for all good people; But establish the just. Lord, let not those who are filthy be filthy still, but let those who are holy be holy still; let the bad be made good, and the good be kept so, and made better; let the same grace that first made them just, and wrought righteousness in them, secure and carry on that good work in their souls; as the same word of power that first made the world still upholds it.

The conversion of sinners, and the confirmation and edification of saints, are the two great things ministers are to aim at in their praying and preaching; io bring souls to Christ, which will effectually bring their wickedness to an end ; and then to build them up in him, which vrill be an effectual establishment of the just

Or, by the '' just" here, we may understand those who are not only just themselves, but, like Phineas, execute judgment and justice upon daring criminals, for the staying of the plague. Lord, establish them in their good purposes, and strengthen their hands.

This is the prayer which we at a distance in the country have many a time put up to God for you here, and those in other places, who have ^et their hands to this good work. St. Paul, in his epistles, often tells his friends what it was which he asked of God for them, making mention of them always in his prayers, that they might know what to ask for themselves, and might be encouraged to hope for all that grace from God, which one who'had so great an interest at the throne of grace, as Paul had, prayed for, for them; this is that which we desire of God for you, that God would spirit you for your work, by establishing your hearts; and that he would succeed you in it, by bringing the wickedness of the wicked to an end. And we desire that all praying people would frequently put up this prayer to God for you.

It is easy to gather from these words,

f 2TheaB. U.S.

A REFORMATION SERMON.

That it is, and ought to be, the desire and prayer of ail good people, that God by his grace would put an end to the wickedness of the wicked, and establish the just.

Now, 1. This supposes that there are two contrary contesting interests in the world, visibly appearing in most places; that of the wicked, and that of the just; the children of God, who bear his image, and do his will, and the children of the devil, in whom he works, and who are led captive by him, as all the children of disobedience are. This is a distinction which is as old as Cain and Abel, and will last as long as heaven and hell.

Look abroad into the world, and you will see persons of very different characters, the reverse to each other; one would wonder how those of the same nature, education, and conversation, should be so unlike one another. When Solomon is observing, that in the course of providence there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked, yet at the same time he industriously and very particularly shows, that notwithstanding that, there is a vast difference between them, in the temper of their minds, and the tenor of their lives ; for one is clean, and the other unclean; one sacrifices, and the other sacrifices not; one swears, and the other fears an oath.s Some make conscience of what they say and do are in care to do right, and afraid of doing amiss ; while others live at large, and walk at all adventures. Some are sober and temperate, and keep their appetites in subjection to religion and right reason, while others run to an excess of riot, and wallow in all manner of uncleanness. Some are honest and just in their dealings, while others are false and deceitful, and there is no confidence to be put in them. Some speak the language of Canaan, others the language of Ashdod. Some take time every day to call upon God, and converse with him, and sanctify the Lord's day to his honour, while others cast off fear, and restrain prayer, and make no difference between sabbath time and other time. Now which of these two will we recommend ourselves to, herd ourselves with, and cast in our lot among? Which of these will we take for our people, will we associate with of choice, and will we study to conform ourselves to ? As our choice is, so will our doom be; and to them whom we take for our people, death will gather us, which if we duly consider, it will be our prayer. Gather not my soul with sinners,**

Abundance of wicked people there are in this world: it is therefore said to lie in wickedness; the whole world does so.' It is strange, it is sad, it is very sad, it is very strange, that among men, who are reasonable creatures, and depending upon their Creator, that there should be so many wicked, who act in a constant contradiction to the right reason of p Ecc. ix. 2. h Ps. zxvi. 9. i 1 John v. 19. k laa. i. 13.

man, and a constant rebellion against the rigktfil authority of God: but as says the proverb of fke | ancients, so says the observation and experience of the moderns. Wickedness proceedeth from the wiekei; for do men gather grapes of thorns ? or do they expect good things in the life, from an evil treasaie ii the heart ? No; though some men's sins are lo artfully concealed and disguised, that it must be left to the day to declare them; and it is only the heart-searching God who can say. It it tntici Vjf, it is hypocrisy, even the solemn meeting ;^ and to him ^ judgment of such sins must be left; yet there are others whose sins are open beforehand, going befwe to judgment ;^ of which any one may say, as the angel to the prophet. This is wickedness ;"* and wickedness of this kind we may and must in our places witness against. Do I need to tell you what that wickedness of the wicked is, which we must endeavour in our places to put a stop to ? Your own hearts will tell you ; some of the instances of it eveo (he heathen were convinced of by natural conscience. You know it is wickedness for men to profane the holy name of God, and by their ludicrous or passionate appeals to him, to make him altogether such a one as themselves; or to abuse themselves, their own bodies, and the gifts of God's providence, aod by their drunkenness and uncleanness to nake themselves altogether such as the beasts, and non vile. Do I need to tell you who the just are? Yoor own hearts tell you. They are not those of this or that dividing name or party: no, far be it froo as to monopolize the character; for in every matin, and under every denomination of Christians, those who fear God, and work righteousness are aeeefttd of him,'' and must be so of us. The just are they who live in the fear of God, and make conscieoce of rendering what is due to him, to themselves, to all with whom they have to do: these are they whose establishment we should seek.

2. This directs us which of these two interests to espouse, and side with, and make our own; asthoie who are convinced which is in the rifjht, and which in the wrong, which will make as happy, and which will ruin us ; particularly we are directed which of these to serve with our prayers. If we would he found on the Lord's side, in the day of inquiry, we must by our prayers act in concert with the just, and in communion with them, and help to establish them ; and in contradiction to the wicked, and tbdi wickedness, which we must do all we can to biisf to an end.

For the opening of this I shall endeavour toshov, I. What it is we are directed in the text to de»R and pray for. II. Why it is, and ought to be, the desire and prayer of all good Christians. And then make the application.

11 Tim. v. 24.

m Zech. V. 8.

• Actsz.3&.

A REFORMATION SERMON.

e03

I. That which we are to desire and pray for, is in short this, That wickedness, that root of bitterness, may be rooted out of this world, and that righteousness, that plant of renown, may be planted and rooted in it This I say we must desire and pray for; it is not enough in word and tongue to pray for it, but we must sincerely and in heart desire it; nor is it enough in heart to desire it, but we must by prayer offer up our desires to God, in the name of Christ, for the plentiful effusions and powerful operations of that gce upon the minds and spirits of men, which are necessary to the effecting of these good works, and the attaining of these good ends ;* that that gce may be sufficient.

1. We must desire and pray, that God by his grace would bring the wickedness of the wicked to an end, to a full end ; that, by his Spirit, he would counter-work and overrule that evil spirit, which works and rules in the children of disobedience.

This charity must begin at home; we must in the first place pray, that God by his grace would bring the wickedness that is in our own wicked hearts to an end ; that our corruptions may be mortified and subdued, and the power of our inordinate appetites and passions crushed and broken, and that we may be kept from every evil work and way.

But though it must begin at home, it must not end there; we must pray that the wickedness of other wicked people may come to an end, in the places where we live, in the city, in the nation, all the world over.

It must be our heart's desire and prayer,

(1.) That wicked principles may be exploded and abandoned, and that men may be set right in their judgments concerning good and evil, right and wrong, God and themselves, this world and the other; that the beast may be wounded in the head, and that will be a deadly wound f that a blow may be given to the root of wickedness, by rectifying the mistakes of the understanding; that salt may be cast into the springs, and so the waters may be healed ; for this is God's way of gaining the will and affections, by opening the understanding; and it is the regular way, it is coming in by the door. Till the peccant humours in the blood be purged out, in vain is application made to the external eruptions of the disease. Those who are bad, are so upon some bad principles, with Which the god of this world has blinded their minds, and till those are conquered and laid aside, the wickedness of the heart and life will not be brought to an end.

O that men may be made to see the folly and falsehood of those atheistical notions and schemes, by which their fear of God, and their dread of sin, and the fatal consequences of it, are abated, and by degrees worn off, that they may no longer, as they have o Rev. xiii;^ p Ps. xiv. 1. q Ps. zciv. 7. r- Pa. x. 11, 13.

done, call good evil, and evil good, put darkness for light, and light for darkness. O that sinners may be convinced of the absurdity of that with which they support themselves in their sinful ways, and are encouraged to say, They shall have peace thovgh they go oTiy and that they may see their mistake before it is too late to have it rectified ! O that God's grace would open men's eyes before the flames of hell do it! That the fallacy of that which pretends to wit may be discovered, and made contemptible by that which is real wisdom. The word of God, which is a discemer of the thoughts and intents of the heart, has intimated to us what the principles are that sinners go upon; they say in their heart. There is no God; P or, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it ;'' He hideth his face, and he will not require it,' Nay, they have the impudence to say. Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord;* or, Why doth he yet find fault, for who hath resisted his will ? ' O that men might be beaten off from these strong holds, and that the hail might sweep away this refuge of lies; and these high thoughts might be captivated and brought into obedience to the power of divine truth. These corrupt principles are commonly concealed, and those who are fond of them are ashamed to own them; I wish the sinners yon deal with, could be brought to discover them, and to confess what the tempter suggested to them, when he drew them into his snares ; that some course might be taken to inform them better; to give them right thoughts of the differences between good and evil, of the holiness and justice of God, the strictness of his law, and to convince them, that for all these things God will bring them into judgment." O that men were brought to shake off the loose thoughts they have of the Scriptures, the low thoughts they have of religion and godliness, and the slight thoughts they have of sin, and to receive the truth in the light and love of it.

O that popery, which is so great a friend to sin, might be known to be, what really it is, a mystery of iniquity, sin in disguise, which when it is revealed and set in a true light, is soon consumed by the breath of Christ's mouth, his word, and Spirit, and the brightness of the coming* of his truth into the soul. Idolatry was always an inlet to immorality and all impiety; and, therefore, it is necessary to the reformation of manners, that the principles upon which we reformed from popery, be closely and faithfully adhered to, by which the honour of Christ, the authority of the Scriptures, and the strictness of the divine law, are supported. These will help to reform the manners of the nation; and in return thereof, the more the manners of the nation are reformed, the better fortified it will be against popery; for the mystery of faith is best held in a pure con-

Mai. ii. 17. t Rom. ix. 19. » Eccl. xi. 9. ▼ 2 TheRS. ii. a

A REFORMATION SERMON.

science ;" our enemies know, tbat profaneness paves the way to popery.

(2.) We must desire and pray, that wicked persons may be converted and changed, by the grace of God. Has God given us his grace, and have we experienced the benefit of it ? O let us be earnest with him to give it to those who are yet in sin ; that thus the wickedness of the wicked might be brought to an end, by the teaching of transgressors the ways of God, and the conversion of sinners unto him; '^ that the public preaching of the word may be effectual for this purpose, and mighty through God for the turning of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; that in the chariot of the everlasting gospel, the great Redeemer may ride forth conquering and to conquer.

O let us be humbly earnest with God in prayer, that the eyes of the blind may be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; that wandering sheep may be sought and saved, and prodigal sons brought to themselves first, and then to their father's house; that God would translate those into the kingdom of his dear Son, who have been long subjects in the kingdom of darkness. O that they who are Satan's slaves may be the Lord's freemen, and that God would bring their souls out of prison. O that the sea might fly, and Jordan might be driven back, and the rock turned into a fountain of waters at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob.y O that the Ethiopian might be made to change his skin, and the leopard his spots, and tbat they might yet at last be brought to do good, who have been accustomed to do evil.'

We must not despair concerning the worst; for while there is life, there is hope, and room for prayer: the repentance of Manaieh, and the conversion of Paul, tell us that nothing is too hard for the almighty grace of God to do. The Corinthians were many of them as bad as the worst, and as vile as the vilest; such were some of you, and yet ye are washed, and sanctified, and justified.* Let us, therefore, apply ourselves to Christ, for those who have been long under the power of sin and Satan, as the father of the possessed child in the gospel. If thou canst do any thing, have compassion upon thenty and help them^^ O snatch them as brands out of everlasting burnings! O that drunkards and harlots might be made sober and chaste ; that those who so passionately curse and swear, may be brought as affectionately to pray and praise; that sabbath breakers might be sabbath sanctifiers. O that Satan may be dispossessed of his strong holds, that the prey may be taken from that mighty one, and the unlawful captive may be delivered; that Christ's throne may be set up where the usurper's seat has long been: With men, this is impossible but with God all things are w 1 Tim. ili. 0. y Ps. cxiv. 3,7, 8.

X Ps. li. 13. « Jer. xiii. 23.

possible, even this. Nay, the worse any are, the more earnestly we should desire and pray for their conversion, not only because otherwise their ruin will be the greater, but because there will be so much the greater joy in heaven for their repentance, more for one of them than for ninety-nine just persons who comparatively need no repentance.^ How earnest should we be herein, did we consider that the converting of a soul from sin is the saving of a aonl from death.*

Those whom you reprove and inform against for their wickedness, it should be with a strong desire for tlyeir conversion, and that the trouble yon give them may contribute to it; that the uneasiness yon put them to, may make them weary and heavy laden under the burthen of sin, and willing to get clear of it by coming to Christ. O that the punishing of than might prevent their perishing, and that when they are holden in the cords of affliction, their ear may be open to discipline: let yonr prayers always accompany'your endeavours to reclaim and refoni them, that while you are making tbem examples of your justice, God by his grace may make then monuments of his mercy. When you prosecute then, pray that God would pardon them: Father, fergm them, and qualify them for forgiveness. And if God forgive them, and let them know that he has forgiren them by a saving change wrought in them, they will not only forgive you this wrong, bat will thank yon, and thank God for you, as David for Abigail, and for the seasonable stop you gave them, when they were hastening apace to their own ruin.

(3.) We must desire and pray, tbat wicked practices may be prevented and restrained ; that tfaoagh the root of bitterness be not plucked up, yet that it may not spring up to trouble us, and thereby many should be defiled; and that whatever may lie kid, yet there may not appear any fornicator or profane person among us, as Esau.* Let as pray, that if the stream be not turned, yet it may be checked and dammed up, and may not become an over-flowing deluge; that though the Hon be not turned into a lamb, yet he may be chained up and kept within grates; that though the unclean spirit be not cast out, yet he may be silenced, and not suffered to speak, not suffered to tear. Est aiiquid prodirt tewis, si non datnr ultra — To this degree he may pre-ceed, but not beyond. O that God by his grace woald restrain tife remainder of the wickedness of the wicked, would set bounds to the breaking out of it as he does to the waves of the sea, hitherto skaB it comcn and no further ; that though Balaam be still the same he was, yet he may not be suffered to curse Israel; that though Sennacherib has sdU an inveterate rage against God, yet he may be made to feel that God has a hook in his nose, and a bridle

• 1 Cor. vi. 10, II. 4 James v. 20.

b Mark ix. 22.

e Luke XT. T. • Heb.xii.15,16.

A REFORMATION SERMON.

eo6 in his jaws.' And O that the magistrate who bears the sword might be, as the Scripture calls him. An heir of rettraini,^ a terror to evil doers, and that the proper means used for the suppression of vice and profaneness, may attain the end; so that though sin has blossomed and budded, yet it may not rise up into a rod of wickedness, to oppress the lot of the righteous.''

We should desire and pray, that thus far at least ; the wickedness of the wicked may come to an end, that it may not be committed openly, and that the infection may not spread.

[1.] O let not wickedness be committed publicly and openly, and in the face of the sun, as it were by licence, and with allowance. Let those who will not be persuaded to hate sin, and who cannot blush for it, yet be compelled to forbear it before men; and since they will be as the horse and the mule that have no understanding, let them be held in, as they are, with bit and bridle.^ Let those who will not by fair reasoning be made ashamed of the sin they have committed, by a due correction be made afraid to commit it again; and if they will not tremble at the wrath of God revealed from heaven against them, let them be afraid of the civil powers, which bear not the sword in vain.'' Let all iniquity be made at least to hide her head, and stop ber mouth,' that if men will not be wrought upon, by ministers' preaching, to break off their sins, yet by the magistrates' acting they may be driven into corners, and if they do things that arc not right, they may do them secretly, and so the nation may not bear the guilt and blame of it."*

If the laws of God and religion prevail not to be obeyed and submitted to, yet let them not be impudently affronted and bid defiance to. If the wicked will still do wickedly, and will not be made to understand," yet let them not pass without rebuke, and a testimony borne against their wicked ways; let them not be able to make their sin fashionable, nor to bring it into reputation; but let it be made to appear, as it is, odious and scandalous, and that which all wise and good men have a dislike of. If the idols of iniquity be not driven out of the world, and quite abolished, yet let them be cast to the moles and to the bats.** If men will be drunk, let them be drunk in the night,p and let the works of darkness know and keep their place, but let those who are of the day be sober, and walk honestly, and as becomes them. O that the wickedness of the wicked might thus far at least come to an end, that they may not dare to declare it as Sodom,** so as to vex the righteous souls of those about them from day to day, with their filthy conversation.^ Let the sin be the ruin of the sinner, as certainly it will be, if it be f ItA. Kxxvii. 28, 39. i Ps. xxxiU % m 2 Kings xvii. 9.

f Judg. xviii. 7. Marg. b Ezek. vii. 10,11. k Rom. xiii. 4. l Ps. cvii. 42.

a Dan. xii. 10. o ba. ii. 20.

not repented of; but let it not, by going bare-faced and undisturbed, be the reproach of the nation. Let not the fathers of our country be such as Eli was to his family, whose sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not;' but let it ever be said, to the honour of our land, to the honour of your city, that though there be found those who boldly bend their tongues like their bow for lies, yet there are found those likewise who are valiant for the truth in the earth.' And though there are honisfour horns, that attempt to scatter Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem, io run down all that is sacred and just, yet there are those who lift up the head against them, there are four carpenters who come to break these horns, and to cast them out;** that the horns of the wicked being cut off (though their heads be not) the horns of the righteous may be exalted.*

[2.] O let not the wickedness of the wicked be propagated, so as to infect others. Let this plague die with those who are dying of it, because they will die; but O let the contagion be kept from spreading. Though multitudes drop into the pit daily, yet let not the bills of this mortality rise; though things are bad let them not grow worse. If the sinners themselves will not be persuaded to leave, yet let not those about them be persuaded to leam their pernicious ways. They have erred, but let their error remain with themselves, and let not others be tainted with it, nor carried away by it. O let not this leprosy overspread the whole body; let it never be said,4hatyrom the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, there is no soundness, nothing but wounds and bruises.

We know that sinners are enticing: the wise man supposes this. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. They who have the plague are willing to infect others. The devil was no sooner an apostate himself, but he became a tempter to man; and they who are of that wicked one thus do his lusts. Those who are bad, I fear are more industrious to debauch others, and to make them as bad as themselves, than those who are good are to invite others to the ways of religion and virtue, and to make them as good as themselves.

We know also by sad experience, that sin is an enticing thing; it has its baits with which it allures the unthinking and unstable into the net; and there is in the corrupt nature of man a proneness to follow bad examines, and to go into the measures of those who take their measures from the world and the flesh; and to follow them straightway, without any consideration, as an ox goes to the slaughter." We should therefore earnestly desire and pray, as we are taught to do every day, that God would not lead either us or others into temptation, but out of it,

P 1 Thess. V. 7. • 1 Sam. iii. 13.

» Ps. Ixxv

q Isa. iii. 0. t Jer. ix. 3. 10.

r 2 Pet. ii. 7, 8.9.

u Zech. i. 19. 71. Prov. vii. 22.

A REFORMATION SERMON.

and would deliver us and them from eyil. O pray that the tongue of the tempters may be tied, and they may be ashamed to do the devil's work, and that the force of the temptation may be broken ; pray that the ear of the tempted may be stopped, and that they may be enabled, with the shield of faith, to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. Let us stand with our censer, like Aaron, between the living and the dead, between the sick and the sound, and endeavour, by our intercessions, to stay the plague. Let us desire and pray, that in wicked families the entail of sin may be cut off, that there may not rise up in the fathers' stead an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of the Lord, the thing Moses dreaded. Numb, xxxii. 14. But that the son, when he sees all his father's sins, may consider, and not do like him," nor tread in his steps, that so the next generation, at least, may be better than this. Pray, that in wicked places, where there are many sinners, there may be no more ; that men may be so wise for themselves, as well as just to the cause of virtue and serious godliness, as not to make friendship, or keep company, with the vicious and profane, lest they learn their way, and get a snare to their souls.

O let us be earnest with God in prayer, that he would give more, and yet more, of that grace which is necessary in order to the putting of this full stop to the course of sin. Pray for grace for those who do not yet desire it, or pray for it for themselves ; it might do well, when we are alone with €k>d, to be particular herein ; Lord give grace to such a sinner, who is very provoking both to God and good men, preventing grace, restraining grace, renewing grace, victorious grace. Let Saul become Paul, that it may appear, that that pattern of divine mercy, which was of old set forth to them which should afterwards believe,^ may yet be copied out again, in answer to prayer, as that was in answer to Stephen's prayer; God's arm is not shortened that it cannot save the greatest sinner, nor is his ear heavy, that it cannot hear the weakest prayer, that is offered up in faith, the prayer of the destitute.

2. We must desire and pray, that God by his grace would establish the just; that religion and godliness may get ground, as vice andprofaneness lose ground. Let us pray,

(I.) That the just may be established in their integrity, and may ever retain it. It is the duty of the watchmen to warn not only the wicked, that they go not a step further in their wicked ways, but the righteous also, that they turn not a step back from their righteous ways, that they do not so much as look back,' and our desire and prayer must be accordingly, as those who are afraid, lest a promise being left us of entering into rest, not only we ours Ezek. xviiL 14. i 1 Tim. i. 16. > Exek. iii. 19,21. » Heb. iv. L selves, but any others of us, should so much as to come short.* O that good people may be esta> blished in their good principles and good resolo-tions, and may faithfully adhere to them ; tiiat die righteous may still hold on their way, and those who have clean hands may be stronger and stronger. O that, though the stream be strong, the righteous may be enabled to swim against it, and may never be carried down by it; but that, like Job, in difficult, trying times, they may still hold fast their integrity ; may keep themselves pure in times of common iniquity, and may, like fish, be fresh in salt water; as Noah, in the old world. Nay, we shoald desire and pray, that the just may be like springs of water, which, by antiperistasis, are wannest when the air is coldest; that the worse others are, the better they may be; that the more others profane the name of God, the more they may abound in praising it; the more loose others are in their conversation, the more circumspect they may be; as Noah and Lot, who were both better in the midst of temptation, than when they were out of the way of it.

We should especially be earnest with God in prayer for young people, who are setting out in the world, that by the grace of God they may be preserved from the corruption that is in the world throaj lust; that that may not be a spark to the tinder of the corruption that is in their hearts. Commit them to the conduct and custody of the divine grace. JTeep, hohj Fathei\ keep throngh thy name ikote tiuit we commit unto thee keep them from the evil of this present worlds keep them to the end.^ Those who have been blest with a good education, who have begun well, and promise fair, and are norabered among the just, O that they may be confirmed in the choice they have made, and may always abide by it; that when they come to the turning time of life, such a right turn may be given to their thoughts, as that they may be stedfastly resolved for heaven, as their end, and Christ and holiness as their way. Satan and his agents have a particular spite at such, and are industrious to draw them aside: O let us help them by our prayers, that they may be fortified against the temptations the world is full of, and may never lose the things they have wrought, the things they have gained; but may obtain a full reward.' That the holy seed may be the substance of oar land,** and never the shame of it, by mingling themselves with the people of these abominations; that they may appear to be a seed which the Lord has blessed in answer to prayer, and which we shall bless him for; that the branches of the families of God's people may continue branches of righteousness.

(2.) That they may be established in their comfort and hope. In troublesome, threatening times b John xvii. 11.

e 2 John 8.

4 ka TiI3L

A REFORMATION SERMON.

007 men are apt to be shaken in mind, and to fear e cause and interest of religion should be sonk in down; when they see how iniquity abounds, 10W cold the love of many is, how bold the s' for hell are grown, and how bashful the ates for Christ and his gospel are, they are to give up all for gone; ready to say, when iee the ungodly prosper in the world, that they cleansed their hearts and hands in vain.* We therefore, need to pray for them, that they may ablished in the belief of the promise, that the of hell shall never prevail against the church, lay encourage themselves and one another with d may never cast away their confidence in it. t the just may be established in the assurance I, that God will plead his own cause, will own vn interests, will do his own work, and will be *i\ in his own strength. Though his truths be ed and ridiculed, yet they are great, and shall il. Though his name be profaned, yet he has ed it, and will glorify it yet again ; he will ify his law, and make it honourable,' though ilify it, and make it contemptible. These are ue sayings of God,

Lord, give to the just to believe in the Lord God, that so they may be established,^ and not -aid of evil tidings, nor despair of their cause, »r so much as distrust it; for it is not the cause •arty that they espouse and embark in, but that tholic Christianity, pure religion, and unde-)efore God and the Father, which we are sare ceep its ground, and carry the day; it is the !om of God among men, which cannot be de-;d. O that the just may rejoice and glory in that this may keep their resolutions firm, and hopes flourishing, in the worst of times ; that nay rejoice in God, and glory in him, and their icing set upon this rock, they may have a new put into their mouths.

I That they may be established in their under-g to do what they can to bring the wickedness e wicked to an end ; Lord, by thy grace, ^then their hands in their opposition to the in-s of sin and Satan in the world. O that they t>e confirmed in the principles they go upon in, and may not be shaken by any doubts or jsies, concerning the equity and goodness of luse they are engaged in, but may be abund-satisfied in their own minds, that in bearing testimony against, and giving a check to, im-lity and profaneness, in their places, they are ; a good work, and if they sincerely aim at the ir of God in it, he will graciously accept it, as iir done to him.

hat they may not be shaken by any discourage-s they meet with, any difficulties they find in

Pi Ixxiil. 12,13. f Isa. xlii. 21. n 2 Chron. xx. 9a b Job xvii. 8. i Ezra x. 2.

their way, but that their seal and resolution may be rather the more animated thereby ; that they may not be driven off from it, or made to drive on heavily in it, either by the heat of those who own themselves enemies to it, or by the coldness of those who yet own themselves friends to it; pray for them, that God by his grace would help them over these discouragements, that when upright men cannot but be astonished at this," astonished that so good a work should be so much opposed and so little furthered, yet they may not sit down astonished, as Ezra, in a like case, despairing to bring any thing to pass; but that the innocent may stir up himself so much the more against the hypocrite, because, as Ezra was then told. There is yet hope in Israel concerning this thing ;' the case is bad, but not desperate.

We ought to pray for magistrates, for the Queen, and all in authority, for the judges, and the justices of peace in the several counties and corporations that they may be established in a holy zeal against ▼ice and profaneness, and a resolution to do the utmost they can in their places to suppress it; that God would give them his judgment and his righteousness,*' that, according to the trust reposed in them, they may be for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them who do well.' We are doing our own work when we are praying for kings and all in authority, for if they be established in their duty, we shall live quiet and peaceable lives under them in all godliness and honesty ;°* the restraint of the vicious will be the repose of the virtuous, and a defence of their virtues.

We ought to pray for ministers, for all the ministers of the word of God, that they may be full of power, by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, may have both wisdom and courage to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin;" that they may set their face as a flint, in a holy zeal against profaneness; and that the Spirit of God may work with them, and by them, to convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment® Pray that ministers may be established, and their hands strengthened, in their work, though they are sometimes tempted to say, *' We have laboured in vain."

We ought to pray for masters of families, that their endeavours may be blessed in the education of their children and servants, and they may be established in Joshua's resolution, that they and their houses will serve the Lord ; pray that they may be reformers in their own families, may prevail to drive out the foolishness that is bound up in the heart of those under their charge, and to principle them with an antipathy to that which is evil, betimes, and then the work of magistrates and ministers would be very easy.

k Piw Ixxii. 1. 11 Pet ii. 14. « 1 Tim. ii. %

■ Mic. iii. S. o John ivi. 9i

A REFORMATION SERMON.

And for all who in their places are striving against sin, let us strive in our prayers, that they may be established in their resolution not to draw back their hand, wherewith they have stretched out the spear against those vices that are the common enemies of our Israel, (as is said of Joshua in his battle with the men of Ai,) till they have utterly destroyed p and suppressed them, or at least done their utmost toward it; that having an eye lo him, who, in striving against sin endured the contradiction of sinners against himself, they may not be weary, nor faint in their minds.<i And, in order to this establishment of the just, and the progress and success of that righteous cause wherein they are engaged, the great thing, and indeed the one thing needful, we have to ask of God, is, that the Spirit may be poured out upon us from on high, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and might, of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, and then the wilderness shall become a fruitful field; ' then the work will go on and prosper, till there shall be no more occasion for it. And there is no petition we can present at the throne of grace with more hope of speeding than this, " for the pouring out of the Spirit;" for if earthly parents, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto their children, how much more shall our heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him /'

II. I come next to show why it is, and ought to be, the desire and prayer of all good people, that the wickedness of the wicked may come to an end, and the just may be established in their opposition to it.

1. All good people have a holy concern for the name and honour of God, and the Lord Jesus, and for the reputation of that holy religion which we make profession of; and therefore they cannot but desire, that that may come to an end, by which God is dishonoured, his name is profaned, the Lord Jesus crucified afresh, and religion wounded in the house of her friends. All the children of God having his glor}' in their eyes, as their highest end, have it upon their hearts as their chief care, and it is dearer to them than any interests of their own; nothing grieves them so much as the injury done to the honour of God, by the wickedness of the wicked, and the great occasion thereby given his enemies to blaspheme. Horror takes hold of their hearts, and rivers of tears run down their eyes, because of this.' Every good man should be able to say, as David, 77<e reproaches of them tliat reproached thee are fallen upon me,^ I take them as cast upon myself, and therefore the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, has made me forget myself, and all interests and concerns of my own, that I might be wholly swallowed up with the resentments of the dishonour to God, and that worthy name by which I am called.

P Josh. viii. S6. r laa. xxxii. \b.

q Heb. xii. 3. ■ Luke xi. 13.

Let that therefore come to an end, let it be wholly extirpated, which is such a daring affront to God'i majesty, such an impudent contempt of his sovereignty, such a direct contradiction to his truth, and such an open violation of his law; which grieves the Spirit of his grace, and bids defiance to his strivings; which supports the kingdom of Satan, that kingdom of darkness and malignity, and is in constant opposition to that kingdom of light, holiness, and love, which the Lord Jesus came to set ap in the world. Will not all those then who rightly understand the thing, and lay it to heart, earnestly pray that that may come to an end, which has all this mischief in it; and that those may be established, who are doing what they can to bring it to an end. And we may come the more boldly to the throne of grace on this errand, because we can plead God's interest in the case ; Lord, thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, and, therefore, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, that thy kingdom may be advanced, thy power submitted to, and that glory given to thee, which thou hast by it been robbed of. How may we wrestle with God, and hope to speed, when our prayer is. Arise, O God, plead thine om cause, * and our plea is. Lord, what wilt thou do viK» thy great name V

2. All good people have a tender love to the soiib of men, and a true desire of their welfare here and for ever, and, therefore, they cannot but desire tod pray that that may come to an end, which is the only thing that ruins souls. Brethren, I hope yoa are convinced of the worth of souls ; yon know what they were made for, and in whose image they were made; what they were bought for, and with what price they were bought; what service for God they are capable of doing, what happiness in God they are capable of enjoying. You have made your conviction of this to appear by the concern you have for your own souls, and will you not make it further to appear by your concern for the souls of others? Shall it not be your desire, and care, and prayer, that none of those may perish for whom Christ died.' Did Christ shed his blood for them, and shall we think much to drop a tear over them ?

When you a see a poor sinner running to an excess of riot, think with yourselves. Here is a precioD» soul, more worth than all the world, alienated from its rightful Lord, and sold for a mess of pottage, for the gratifications of a base lust, into the hands of its sworn enemy, and made a prey to the roarinf lion. Here is one made a cage of unclean and filtby birds, who is capable of being made a temple of the Holy Ghost; a drudge to Satan, who might bate been a servant of God; an instrument of unrighteousness, who might have been a vessel of honour: O that the opposing interest may be overtamed ia t Ps. cxix 53, 136. T Ps. Ixxiv. *a. V Josh. vii. 9.

n Ps. bdx. 9. X 1 Cor. viii. 11.

A REFORMAllON SERMON.

609 this soal, and that he may come whose right it is, and it may be given him.^ Here is a miserable creature running headlong into everlasting burnings, upon the brink of ruin, and not aware of the danger: O that the grace of God would snatch this brand out of the burning, for it is yet capable of being made use of in the building. Though it is spoken of but with a " peradventure that God will give them repentance," yet that is encouragement to pray for it, and we should be earnest for it, because it is the only way of their being recovered out of the snare of the devil.' If you saw any of those about you that you have the least concern for, thus destroying tlieir own bodies, you would interpose, and do what you could to prevent it; and are not their souls of unspeakably more value than their bodies ? Is not eternal death more dreadful than temporal death ? If, therefore, you can do nothing else toward their recovery, pray for them ; O pray that their sins may come to an end before their lives do.

3. All good people have a great value for the grace of God, and are convinced of the sovereignty and power, the necessity and efficacy, of that gprace; and therefore, they pray for that grace, both for the reformation of sinners, and for the establishment of the just. They know how much they are themselves indebted to that grace, what favours, what wonders have been done for them by it; that it is purely by that grace that they are what they are that is good ; and it is that grace that made them to differ from the wicked ; that begun the good work in them, and carries it on. They know there is a fulness of grace in Christ, enough for all, though ever so many, enough for each, though ever so bad; and, therefore, they are still for having recourse to that grace, and fetching it in for themselves and others. They know that nothing can be done without it, not a good thought started or pursued, not a good word spoken, or a good work done, by themselves, or any other; and therefore whatever good they wish may be effected, either upon sinners or saints, they depend upon that grace for it, and its powerful influences.

They know also that this grace is promised to the church, this clean water to cleanse it from all its filthiness, and from all its idols,* yet God will for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them : we must ask, and then we shall receive. Having therefore such an esteem for God's grace to do the work, and for the duty of prayer to obtain that grace, this is their petition, this is their request, Lord, bring thou the wickedness of the wicked to an end. After all the pains we have taken to prophesy upon the dead and dry bones, they are dead and dry still, and therefore we look upwards: Come, O breath,^ and breathe upon these slain, and then they shall live. They know that the filth of Zion and

I Exek. «x1. 27.

t 2 Tim. ii. 25,26. 2 R

• Ezek. xxxTi. 25. 37.

Jerusalem can never be washed away, unless God himself do it by the spirit of judgment, and the spirit of burning ;^ and therefore to him they apply themselves : Lord, take the work into thy own hands; be thou exalted in thy own strength, the strength of thy own grace, and thou shalt have the glory.

4. All good people are hearty well-wishers to the land of their nativity, and are in care for the prosperity of it, because it is a Christian nation, it is their own, and in the peace thereof they shall have peace, and in the setting up and keeping up of religion among them they have joy and satisfaction, and, therefore, they seek the good of Jerusalem for their brethren and companions' sake,** as well as because of the house of the Lord their God, and the interests of it.

It cannot but geve them to see this pleasant land polluted, and all its beauty sullied and stained by the filthiness of its inhabitants, so that it is become odious in the eyes of him who cannot endure to look upon iniquity; to see a land, that God has dealt favourably with, exposed to his judgments, and ready to be made as like to Sodom and Gomorrah in ruin, as it has been in sin; Shall not God visit for these things, which are to be found among us ? Shall not his soul be avenged on such a nation as this ? Do we not see how fast the measure of the nation's sin fills? how near fall it is, and how ready to overflow in a delage of wrath ? Do we not see our plenty forfeited by the abuse of it? Nay, the word of God, and the means of grace, which are more than our necessary food, forfeited by the contempt cast on them; the blessings of the government forfeited by the ineffi-cacy of the endeavours used by it to suppress pro-faneness; and the honours and advantages of our religion ready to be taken from us by the sworn enemies of it abroad, becaase they have been so tamely yielded to the destroyers of its powers and vitals at home?

And is it not the concern of all good people then to stand in the gap, to turn away the wrath of God, and by their prayers to empty the measure, which so many are filling by their sins ? to be earnest with God to bring that to an end, which, otherwise, will bring our nation to an end, and deprive it of all its glory, and to establish and strengthen those whose piety and zeal is the strength and stability of our times ? When there was a general corruption of manners, transgressions were multiplied, truth failed, and there was no judgment; it was such a presage of destruction coming, that God wondered there was no intercessor f but I trust there are and will be many intercessors that cry day and night to God, not only against the threatened calamities, but against the threatening iniquities, the provoking cause of b Czek. xzxvii. 9. e laa. iv. 4. A Pa. cxxii. 8. 0. e Isa. lix. 16.

A REFORMATION SERMON.

I them, that those may be brought to an end ; for as queen Esther pleaded with herself, How can we endure to see the evil that shall come vpon our people, and the destruction of our kindred?

III. And now that which remains is, to make application of what has been said; it is what we are all concerned in, and therefore should each of us apply to ourselves.

I. Let us address oursolves by earnest prayer and supplication to God, for his grace, to promote and advance the reformation of manners in our land, and particularly in this city, the reformation of which would have a good influence upon the nation. You will all say, it is a desirable thing that the manners of the nation should be reformed, now that which I am pressing you to contribute towards it, is, that which I am sure no one can except against in others, no, nor plead that they are excused and exempted from themselves. It will be no expense to you, the poorest of the flock of Christ may do as much in this part of the service as the rich. It will not expose you to any hazard—to weep in secret for the wickedness of the wicked, and to pray against it; and I hope we shall not again see the day when it will be penal to pray publicly against it: nor will it expose you to any blame or censure, as some of your endeavours for reformation perhaps may: in this I am sure you can never be charged with going out of your sphere, or meddling with that which does not belong to you. So that the most timorous, the most cautious, may thus help forward this good work; all who have any interest at the throne of grace, (and miserable is the case of those who have not,) all who know how to pray, (and those who do not are concerned to learn,) are this day in God's name summoned to this part of the service. The daughters of my people, though we cannot expect they should^-do Deborah's part against this Sisera, this common enemy—lead the forces into the field against him; (yet, blessed be God, we have a Deborah, that by her pious proclamation does that;) though we cannot expect they should do JaeFs part, who laid her hand to the workman's hammer, to nail this Sisera to the earth ; yet we expect and require that they do the part of Anna the prophetess, who served God with fastings and prayers night and day,^ and let them make this the matter of their daily prayers; that in such a day of distress, such an hour of temptation as this, they do the part of Esther and her maids.' And when there are daughters of Belial, daughters of Moab, who contribute to the debauching of the nation, let the daughters of Israel, the daughters of Sarah, be glad that they can any way contribute to the reforming of it. Let masters of families take this matter into their family prayeis, that they may bring down a blessing not f Luke ii. 37.

f Eftt. iv.!«.

h Exod. xvii. 11..

only on their own houses, but on the houses of tketr neighbours, and thus may be themselves blessings ts the places where they live.

Let me recommend it especially to my brethren in the ministry, whose business it is to give themselves to prayer; let them lead those they pray with to the throne of grace on this errand : O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the just. We are as Moses upon the mount, it is onr work to lift up our prayers against Amalek with the rod of God in our hand, whilst others in the valley are doing Joshua's work. Ours is the safer and easier province; it is a shame for us then if we be wanting in our work, and it may be of ill consequence, for when Moses lifted up his hands, and kept them steady, Israel prevailed. If we continue instant and constant in prayer, the attempts for refonnation, it may be hoped, will be the more soceessful; bat when Moses let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.^ If we grow cold and remiss in prayer, the work is in danger of going back and losing ground. We pray for the success of our own endeavours, for tbe conversion of sinners, and the confirmation of saints; I hope we dare not omit it; and should we not pray also for their success, who, in a diifereBt way, are pursuing the same design ?

Let those who are engaged in the societiet for reformation, look upon themselves as bound to farther their own undertaking by their prayers, for otheit must strive, together with you, in their prayeis ts God for you.* Your associating in this good woit obliges you in this way, as well as in other instaneei, to give mutual assistance, and to strengthen tbe hands one of another. You cannot but find whtl need you have of the continual supply of the grace of God, to furnish you for this good work, aiid to fortify you against the temptations and ditficaltks you meet with in it; let that therefore drive you to the throne of grace, for grace sufficient. You lack wisdom for it, that wisdom which in the critical cases that often occur is profitable to direct; jon must therefore ask it of God in Christ's name, and you may expect, that if you sincerely aim at his glory in it, he will give it you, will give libeially, and will not upbraid ;i will give a mouth and wisdom, such as all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay or resist Let your prayers go before all your undertakings in this work, and aceon-pany your consultations about it; and let year prayers follow what you do,.that it may answer tk end, the reformation of the offenders themsves jfos convict, and the deterring of others from doing the like. You would prosper the better in this good work, if you had it more upon your hearts in prsycr; and it would be a token for good that you ^I carry your point; for when God stekt to dutroy ^ i

Rom. XV. 30.

k Jam. L &.

A REFORMATION SERMON.

611 the nations that come against Jerusalem, as a preface and introduction to it, he pours out a spirit of prayer and supplication.^

To stir you up all to be earnest with God in prayer for the success of all pious designs, to suppress profaneness and debauchery, consider,

(1.) How much depends upon the carrying on of this good work. If there were a general reformation of manners in our land, what a happy turn would it give to all our affairs! what a blessed change would it produce ! what a beauty would it put upon the nation, upon this city, and render them amiable in the eyes of God and all good men ! What a security would it be against the judgments that threaten as, and what a preparative for the blessings we wait for! How would the Lord then delight to do us good, and to dwell among us!

Nay, though the desired reformation should not be effected, yet while it is endeavoured, it turns to us for a testimony, and helps to save the gilt of the sin of sinners from being national. The reigns of the reforming kings of Judah were blessed of God though none of them made a complete reformation.

But if the work should now be let fall, if the forces that have for many years past been drawn into the field, and have acted successfully against ▼ice and profaneness, should now be withdrawn, you not only lose all the points you have gained, but, it is to be feared, all iniquity will take encouragement to be so much the more daring; as when the dam which stopped the current for a while is broken through, tbe stream runs so much more violently. We are therefore concerned to prey the more earnestly, that the wheels of this good work may be kept a-going, and that though it should not get ground, it may not lose ground. A good man said long since, ''He feared the sins of the land more than the French.'' If iniquity were subdued, how soon would all our other enemies be subdued! Would you therefore help to save a sinful nation from ruin, be intercessors for it now, that the unclean spirit that has met with a rebuke for some time may not recover possession ; for if he do, it is to be feared it will be with seven other more wicked than himself, then will oar last state be worse than the first.

(2.) Consider, what difficulties yet lie in the way of this good work, which nothing less than the power of almighty grace can help us over, and that grace must be obtained by prayer. I doubt you find the work goes on heavily, and meets with many rubs, many things retard it, and clog its wheels; and perhaps the reason is, because it wants praying hands to help it forward. Our complaint is the same with Hezekiah's, This day is a day of rebuke

1 Z«ch. x\\. 9,10. m Itt. XXXvii. 3, 4. a 2 Chron. xx. 12. o Neh ii 4. p Neh. iv. 8,9.

2x2 and blasphemy, for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth; we must therefore take the course he then took, lift up our prayers for the remnant that is left, the little remnant." We may plead, as Jehoshaphat did, Lord, we have no might against this great company that fights against us, these troops, these legions of iniquities that invade our land, neither know we what to do, but our eyes are up unto thee,^ and on thee do we depend.

When you meet with any difficulties in this work, follow the example of Nehemiah,that great reformer, who did such eminent service to the church of God in his day, and was famous for this, that upon every occasion he had recourse to God by prayer, made himself easy, and carried his point by lifting up an ejaculation to heaven. When he was waiting at table, afraid to ask what he hoped to have, and the king bid him speak his mind, he prayed to the God of heaven,^ spoke to God in the silent language of the heart before he ventured to speak to the king. When the enemies of the work he was about, ridiculed it, as a foolish attempt, and made a jest of these feeble Jews, he appealed to God, went and told him of the contempt put upon them: Hear, O our God, for we are despised. When he set a watch against them, he first made his prayer to God, and then set a watch.e When, to drive him off from his undertaking, it was suggested to him, that the government would take umbrage at it, and he would be taken up as a disaffected person, that thereby his hands might be weakened, he addressed himself to prayer immediately. Now therefore O God, strengthen my hands.^ And if we thus, like Nehemiah, look up to God by prayer for strength and grace to do our work, we may, in faith, like him, look up to God for his gracious acceptance of us in it; Remember me, O my God, for good:^ for what is done by divine assistance, will be owned and favoured; what comes from God will come to him.

Let me now briefly tell you what further we must do in our prayers for reformation.

[1.] We must sadly lament the wickedness of the wicked, which we pray for the removal of; we must complain of it to God, as those who do indeed lay it to heart, and look upon it vrith inward trouble. Can we each of us say, as David, / beheld the transgressors and was grieved? Do as Joseph did then, concerning his brethren, bring to your father, your heavenly Father, their evil report* It will better become us to weep in secret for the sins of sinners, than openly to exclaim against them. The character of those who are marked for preservation, and whom the destroying angel must not touch, is, that they sigh and cry for the abominations that are found among us,' that is the spirit of a Christian; not

• Gen. xxxvii. 2.

r Neh. xiii. 14.22,29.31. t Ezek. ix. 4.

A REFORMATION SERMON.

that they are satirical in their invectives against tliem, so far a Pharisee may go. We are then fit to pray against sin when we truly bewail it.

[2.] We must bless God for what is done towards the bringing of the wickedness of the wicked to an end in our land. We have reason to be thankful to God for the national testimonies that are borne against vice and profaneness, that it does not go without a check ; that good and wholesome laws are made against drunkenness, swearing, and sabbath-breaking ; that the Queen's proclamation against immorality is read in all our courts of justice; that here, in this great city, and in some other places, societies arc formed, and yet kept up, for the assistance of the magistrates in turning the edge of the sword of justice against the most notorious delinquents. This standard the spirit of the Lord has lifted up against the enemy who was coming in upon us like a flood," this banner God has given to them that fear him, to be displayed because of the truth / a banner for them to triumph in, and list themselves under.

[3.] Wc must in these prayers for grace to reform our land, act faith upon the mediation of Christ, and the promise of God, and make them our plea. Let us take our encouragement in these prayers from this, that Jesus Christ ever lives to make intercession for the same thing; that he came into the world to destroy the works 'of the devil;* was manifested to take away sin : and we are sure that he will gain his point, and that him the Father heareth always. And through him we have precious promises to plead, on which we are caused to hope, that God will remove the iniquity of the land in one day ;* that the Redeemer shall come to Zion and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob ;^ and shall sit as a refiner. So that we shall not pray in vain, for faithful is he that has promised, who also will do it.

2. Let us follow our prayers with our serious and sincere endeavours; and let us act as those who are in good earnest, when we pray that God would bring the wickedness of the wicked to an end, and establish the just. When I press you thus to pray for it, it is not as if I thought there were nothing else to be done, and that prayers and tears were all the weapons that the cause of reformation would admit of,—as if no means were to be used, but we must sit down, and leave it to God to do all; or as if I thought the case so deplorable, that it were to no purpose to attempt any thing for the relief of it; I do not come upon this errand to you to-day, as Luther's friend did to him, with his Ahi in cellam et die. Miserere mei Domine — Away to thy closet and say. Lord, have mercy on me; bidding him content himself with praying for reformation, for it

laa. lix. 19. r Ps Ix. 4. w i John ill. 8. > Zech. lii. 9.

would be in vain for him to think of doing any thiof toward it No, my brethren, both God's promiief and our prayers are intended to quicken and encourage, not to supersede or slacken, our endeavours. When in answer to prayer yon do, like David, hear the sound of a going upon the tops of the mulberry trees, and you perceive that God goes before you, that God is with you of a truth, then yoi must bestir yourselves; then up and be doing.'

(I.) You, especially, who are engaged in these societies for reformation, now you have this day set me upon your watch-tower, you must give me leave to be your monitor in God's name, as one who desires to be found faithful, and that you he found so toa Be mindful of the obligations you laid upon yourselves when you entered into these societies, in t sense of your duty to God, as well as in love to yoor country, to do all you could in your places for the suppression of vice and profaneness. You have not discharged yourselves from these obligations, make conscience, therefore, of fulfilling them; you hti« opened your mouth unto the Lord, and you cannot go back; go forward, then; go on, and prosper. Though the endeavours of your societies should prove unsuccessful, yet let not the title of them be insignificant, and an empty name. You are called '* Societies for Reformation of Manners," and therefore are concerned to inquire, what you are doinf towards it ? Your warfare, I am sure, is not accooi-plished, for the Canaanites are yet in our land, and are as snares to us, and as thorns in our eyes.* The exorbitant power of vice and profaneness is not reduced. The house of Saul, though we hope it grows weaker and weaker, yet is still in being, and its forces thereatening; and therefore you most resolve, with meekness and fear, vigorously to cany on this holy war, and to act offensively, not for the destruction, but for the salvation, and spiritual benefit, of those you appear against.

I understand you have societies of two sorts, that have different provinces assigned them. Some made up of persons of a lower rank, who are as the hands and feet of this body; others of a higher rank, who are to them (as Moses said to Jethro) instead of eyes; and both these have need of, and are serviceable to one another. Shall I speak particularly to each ?

[I.] You who have engaged yourselves in tk more active part of this undertaking, be active is it; not as lords over your brethren, but as servasts to God and the government, in a good work, htt those of you who grow remiss, and indifferent, be excited by the good example of those who yet retain their zeal; and let their care and ooonge ii this matter flourish again ; and return with a dooMs vigour to the relief of those who have long boioe

a J<Mb. xxiiL IX

A REFORMATION SERMON.

613 the burthen and heat of the day, that yoa may itrengthen the hands which you have weakened. Complain not that the drudgery lies upon you, for in such good work as this, nothing is to be called inidgcry; but rather say, Ifthu he to he vile, I will Ve yet more vile.** Be not frightened with winds and clouds from sowing and reaping; nor excuse yourselves with a sluggard's fancy of A lion in the way A lion in the streets. The God whom you serve is able to protect you, and to bear you out, however you may be threatened, and abundantly to recompense you, whatever charge you are at, and whatever damage you may sustain. You know whom you have trusted, even one who will be faithful to yon while you are so to him; and though you may be losers for him, you shall not be losers by him, in the end.

[2.] You who have undertaken the directive part, I beseech you do your part. What you also contribute toward the necessary charges of this work, continue to do it, increase it if there be occasion, do it liberally, do it cheerfully and without grudging; how can you bestow what you have better, than in thus honouring God with it? And what a pity it is that such a good cause as this should be starved! And there is another thing which may be justly expected from you, gentlemen, and that is, that yon be forward to appear in person, when there is occasion, for the keeping up of the reputation of this pious undertaking. The figure you make in the world, gives you an opportunity to do it, your education and conversation enable you to do it with a good grace; and these are talents which put you into a capacity of serving God and your generation, and which must be accounted for. A frown from you may daunt a daring transgressor, and put him out of countenance, more than a reproof or an information from an inferior person. A smile from you may hearten an honest reprover, and keep him in countenance when he is insulted, as Lot was, with Who made thee a judge? It will be your honour, gentlemen, to patronize those who are busy in this service, and to stand by them, while there are those who censure them, and run them down as over-busy. Be ready to give your advice before-hand to the most regular, prudent, and inoffensive methods for carrying on this work; and what is done conscientiously and zealously, appear in the defence of it, and think not to excuse yourselves, by saying it might have been done with more caution and discretion in some little circumstance or other, which it is an easy thing for those who seek an excuse, and have a mind to be critical, to spy out; but that will no more justify you in an inglorious retreat from them, than it would justify David in the orders he gave to desert Uriah the Hittite, to say. Why went bEccl.xi. 4.

e Neh. iii. 5.

he io near the wall? 1 know nothing can excuse your drawing back, unless you be conscious to yourselves of the beam in your own eye ; and if that be the reason that you are ashamed to appear, it is your own fault, and you cannot but be ashamed of your reason. But I hope better things of you, gentlemen, that your hearts condemn you not, and then yon may have confidence in this cause of God, and shall have confidence in the day of God. Be bold, therefore, and act like yourselves, like men of honour: let it not be said of you, as it was of the nobles of Tekoa,' that they put not their necks to the work of the Lord; nay, we ask yon not to put your necks to it, only to show your faces in it. Honour God thus with your honour, and you shall find him true to his word, that those who honour him he will honour while those that despise and desert him shall be lightly esteemed.

(2.) We are all obliged in our places to do our utmost for the carrying on of this work, something more than by our prayers.

[1.] Let us do what we can to bring the wickedness of the wicked to an end. Let our conversation in every thing be such as becomes the gospel of Christ, strict, and universally conscientious, that they who will not be won either by the word of the ministers, or the rod of the magistrates, may be won by that.' We must study to be not only blameless and harmless, and without rebuke, but exemplary in every thing that is virtuous and praise-worthy. Let our light shine before men, that they may be brought to glorify that name of God, which they have reproached and dishonoured. Let those who are masters of families keep up religion there, and put away iniquity far from their tabernacles. In all our conversation, let us witness against sin, and drive it away (if we cannot use any other means) by an angry countenance. It is our duty to tell our neighbours of their faults, between us and them alone, in any wise to rebuke them, and not to suffer sin upon them, lest we bear sin for them, and make ourselves sharers in their guilt Let us do what we can to make sinners ashamed of their sin; were they brought to that, it would be an ingenuous and prevailing principle of their reformation. Let us have no fellowship with the works of darkness, but reprove them. Let us have as little fellowship as possible with the workers of those works, and so reprove them.

[2.] Let us do what we can to establish the just, to confirm those who are good in their goodness. Let those who fear the Lord speak often one to another for their mutual instruction, quickening, and encouragement ; for the sharpening of one another's countenance, and the strengthening of one another's hands. Those who are not themselves engaged with

A REFORMATION SERMON.

the societies for reformation, yet should do what they can to establish them ; if they have not your hand, let them have your good word; speak well of them as it comes in your way: the city ought to be made sensible of its obligation to them; were it so, what an establishment would it be to them! As occasion offers, let them have your help, and be ready to say. We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.

To conclude, it will, I hope, be some encouragement to you—to be on the Lord's side, and to assist, by your prayers and endeavours, for the bringing of the wickedness of the wicked to an end, and the establishing of the just—if I tell you from the word of God, what will be, at least, the issue of this struggle between Jacob and Esau, between the pious and the profane. You may assure yourselves, brethren, the cause of religion and serious piety is the cause of God, and it will, in the end, be a victorious cause: it will be so in the day of decision; when the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, mc sinners in the congregation of the righteous.* Tk Lord Jesus will then, and not till then, gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity. Then will the wickedness of the wickrd come to a perpetual end, when into the New Jeni-salem there shall not enter any unclean thing; and then shall the just be for ever established, wbei they shall shine as the sun in the firmament of o«r Father; when he who is holy shall be holy still, shall be for ever holy. Then shall the great Rf. deemer have put down all the opposing rule, principality, and power of sin and Satan, which are now so daring, so threatening, which we are sometimes ready to fear will bear down all before them, aod carry the day. It shall aU be crushed and sank; and the kingdom shall be delivered up to God. even the Father, that that God whom sinners dot despise and make light of, may be '' all in all "to eternity.

POPERY, A SPIRITUAL TYRANNY;

SHOWED IN

A SERMON

PREACHED ON THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER, 1712.

Isaiah li. 23.

Which have said to thy soul. Bow down, that we may go over.

The haughtiness and insolence of the prond oppressors of God's church and people, are here described, as the ground of the controversy God had with them, and of the kind designs he had concerning his oppressed people. Jerusalem was afflicted,* her sons fainted -^ go, says God to the prophet, and encourage them, lay up cordials in store for them, against this time of need ; tell them the Lord Jehovah, the God of all power and grace, is their Lord and their God ; tell tlicm he owns them for his people still, and will undoubtedly plead their cause ; tell them he will take, nay, he has taken, the cup of trembling, that bitter cup, out of their hands, which during their captivity they have been daily drinking of, and they shall no more drink it again,* shall know no more of the hardships and terrors they have so long suffered ; nay, tell them withal, that though they must forgive their enemies and oppressors, and not meditate revenge, yet God will reckon with them; tell them that the cup of trembling shall be put into the hands of them who have afflicted them,** who have trampled upon them, and tyrannized over them, who said to their souls. Bow down, that we may go over: so the text comes in. The Babylonians, their cruel task-masters in their captivity, shall be called to an account for the violence done to Sion ;* and Babylon's destruction by the Persians, shall be more terrible than Jerusalem's was by the Babylonians.'

Now observe here for encouragement, 1. That there is a people in the world who are God's own people. Such there have been, are, and

will be to the end of time; they are his by choice, his by covenant, called out of the world, and distinguished from it, such as approve themselves obedient subjects, and faithful friends and well-wishers to his kingdom among men. To them he still says, as here to Israel, (let them take the comfort of it,) / am thy Lord, the LORD, and thy God. They have taken the Lord for their Lord, to rule and govern them, and he will be their God, to make them happy. All that he is in himself, and in his promises, is made over to them, and settled on them. God himself shall be with them, and be their God. Let this people then be our people, and this God our God.

2. There is a cause depending between the people of God and their enemies, and has been so ever since the enmity was put between the seed of the woman, and the seed of the serpent.^ The children of God, who are bom after the spirit, have been hated, and envied, and persecuted by the children of this world, the children of the wicked one, who are bom after the flesh.'' And we are not to think it strange; the servant is not better than his Lord, nor can expect better treatment.

3. While this cause is depending, the people of God may have a cup of trembling put into their hands; may be in great frights and confusions, and ready to give up all for gone ; fearing continually every day, because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy ;* as it is described here-before in this chapter. Providence gives them some cause to fear, and then their fears prevail more than there is cause for, so far as to bear down their faith and hope in God ; and it is " their infirmity," perhaps too much the inflrmity of some at this day. When Zion said. The Lard has forsaken me, my God has forgotten me ;^ My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God she drank r Gen. 111. 15. h Gal. iv. 20. * la. li. 13.

k Iia. xlix. 14. 1 Iia. xl. 27.

POPERY, A SPIRITUAL TYRANNY.

deeper than she need of the cup of trembling. When the Lord roan like a lion, it becomes the children to tremble*" before him. But when the enemies roar in the sanctuary of God, we should take sanctuary in God, by a holy trust and triumph in him ; and not conclude our case desperate, though it be very sad." We some of us remember what a cup of trembling was in our hands before the Revolution ; what black and dismal apprehensions we then had of things, how ready we were to say, Our bones are dried, our hope i* lost, we are cut off for our parts ;° but cannot forget how much better God was to us than our fears, and are therefore very unworthy and ungrateful, if again we distrust him, and despair of relief from him.

4. God will plead his people's cause in due time, their just but injured cause, and take the cup of trembling out of their hands; and will put into their hands a cup of salvation, and with it a cup of blessing. God always espouses the cause of his church and people ; and in the proper time he will plead it with jealousy. His cause is theirs, and they plead for his truths, ordinances, and laws, and reckon the reproaches cast on him to fall on them ; and therefore their cause shall be his, and he will plead for their rights and liberties; those of the human nature, which they are entitled to as children of men, and much more those of the divine nature, which they are entitled to as God's children. The clouds they are under shall blow over; and they shall not always drink of the cup of trembling, though they cannot be sure they shall no more drink of it again, till they come to heaven.

5. Sometimes God is pleased when he takes the cup of trembling out of the hands of his oppressed people, to put it into the hands of their oppressors that afflicted them ; that they may themselves know what it is to be terrified, who have taken a pride and pleasure in terrifying others. When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled.^ Thxxthe wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous,^ when the righteous is delivered out of trouble and the wicked cometh in his stead,' And the Lord is righteous in it.— Nee lex est justior ulla — nor is there any law more just; he who leadeth into captivity, shall go into captivity/ and Babylon's doom is. Reward her even as she rewarded you}

This was fulfilled in the glorious deliverances which we this day celebrate the memorial of. What a cup of trembling was put into the hands of our popish adversaries, when the Gunpowder Treason was discovered, and those who made the pit, and digged it, fell into the ditch which they made," and it proved an occasion of putting an edge both upon the laws and upon the spirits of the nation against popery. And no less upon the Revolution, when the m Hos. \\. 10. n Ps. Uxiv. 3, 4. o Esek. xxxvii. II. p ba. xxxiii. i. q ProT. xxi. 18. r prov. xi. a ■ Rev. xiii. 10.

enemies of our peace and holy religion, who soagk our ruin, were seized with a panic fear, and melted before our great deliverer, as wax before the fire, both counsels and armies did so ; The speech of the trusty was removed, and the understanding of the aged, the strength of the mighty weakened, and the kesnrttf the chief of the people of the earth ;' then,—as it was foretold upon a much greater Revolution, the empire becoming Christian,—the great men, and the mighty men, hid themselves.* Thus when God took off Pharaoh's chariot wheels, put his book into Sennacherib's nose, made Belshazzar's knees smite one against another by the hand-writing on the wall, and smote Herod by an angel's hand, be made them drink the cup of trembling, who had been the oppressors of his people, and made himself a terror to them who had made themselves the terror of the misty, of the godly, in the land of ibe living.

6. The reason why God thus terrifies and brinp down his church's enemies, and lays their power in the dust, is, because when they had power tbey abused it, and abused the people of God with it ; who being conquered and taken captive, tamely yielded to them all their temporal interests, they laid their body as the ground, and as the street to them that went over ; (as it follows here in the latter part of the verse ;) whatever was theirs jure belli—hf the right of war, let them take it. But this did not satisfy these proud tyrants; they grew upon their concessions, as Benhadad upon Ahab's,*" and they demand the submission of the soul too; they ktne said to thy soul. Bow down, that we may go over ; they have ridiculed their religion, and so have gricifed their spirits; they have attempted to force them from their religion, and to bring them to worship the golden image which they have set up. Now tiiis comes in here,

(1.) To justify God's quarrel with the oppressors of his people, for he will be justified in every thing he says and does. If God bring down the mighty men of Babylon, and put a cop of trembling into their hands, all the world shall be made to sec, tod say, that he is righteous in contending with them. For,

[1.] They have usurped his authority, and have assumed to themselves that power over his people which belongs to him only, as Pharaoh did, who would not let God's people go, that they might serve him. God is the Sovereign of the heart, it is bis prerogative to command the conscience; he has said. All souls are mine; and he is jealous of all invasions made upon his sovereignty, by those who are vexatious to his people, in the matters of their God, as Darius's edict was to Daniel.^

[2.] They have wronged his people's liberties, and have been injurious to them in their most sacred int Rev. xviii. 6. w Rev. vi. 15.

POPERY, A SPIRITUAL TYRANNY.

ei7 terests. God sends his people into captivity, for their good, and the temporal afflictions they are tinder are sanctified to them ; but if the enemies say to their souls, Bow down, — Now will I arise, saith the Lord ; this affects a tender part indeed. If the rod of the wicked on the lot of the righteous, force them to put forth their hands unto iniquity,' it shall rest no longer there, but be returned on the oppressors. He who touches the souls of God's people, touches the apple of his eye,* and it were better they were thrown into the sea with a millstone about their neck, than that they should thus offend one of these little ones."* When the Philistines took the ark prisoner, and that glory fell into the enemies' hands, then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep,' and put a cup of trembling into their hand.

(2.) It serves also to magnify the mercy of God's delivering his people from them. Let them see what kind of enemies they were, out of whose hands God had saved them, that they might welcome the salvation with so much the greater enlargements in joy and thankfulness, and improve it for so much the stronger engagements to duty and obedience. This is that which God expects from us upon such days as this, when we are celebrating the memorial of the great deliverances God has wrought for our land, both in our own age, and in the days of our fathers.

To be delivered from those who said to their souls. Sow down that tee may go over, must needs be valued as an inestimable mercy, by those who had any hon-oar for their God, or love for their own souls.

[1.] Such as had a concern for God's glory, and a true desire to approve themselves faithful to him, and to his kingdom and interest, could not but magnify such a deliverance as this; for when these proud oppressors bore sway, and carried all before them, God's oppressed ones were more grieved for the dishonour done to God, than for any damage done to themselves; this was their great petition. Arise, O Lord, plead thine own causey whatever becomes of ours ; and whatever disgrace we may lie under, O do not disgrace the throne of thy glory,* And this was their great plea. What wilt thou do unto thy great name J As for our little names, it is no matter, though they be written in the dust, and buried there; but let not thy name suffer, which is, and ought to be, above every name. When, therefore, God humbles the proud invaders of his right, and asserts his own dominion, this is the burthen of their praising songs. We give thee thanhs, O Lord God Almighty, not so much because thou hast given us our liberty, as because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned, though the nations were angry."

[2.] Such as had a concern for souls, their own and others, and were in care about them, and tender of

• Pi. cxxv. 3 a Zecb. ii. 8.

e Ps. IxxTiil. 61. 65.

b Matt.xviii.6. d Pa. Ixxiv. 3-2.

their interests, and would not have them wronged, would greatly rejoice in a deliverance which set them at liberty from serving the lusts of men, which is perfect slavery, to keep a feast to (he Lord, and to receive his law, (as Israel, when they were brought out of Egypt,) which is perfect freedom. The more the soul is concerned in any redemption, the nearer related it is to the great redemption wrought out for us by the Lord Jesus, and consequently the more to be va Kied are the deliverances that we are this day called to give thanks for; and that is what I desire to make myself and you sensible of, and God by his grace make us so! Doct, It is an unspeakable mercy, and must so be accounted, to be delivered from those who usurp a dominion, and exercise a tyranny, over the souls and consciences of men. The adversary and enemy that the text speaks of is Babylon; Babylon in the New Testament is Rome; that is, it is the papacy, and the papal kingdom. There are many things said of Babylon in the Old Testament, which are plainly referred to in those predictions, which-we have in the Revelations, of the rise, reign, and ruin of that usurped power; and this of Babylon's saying to the soul. Sow down, seems to be alluded to, in that article of the trading of the New-Testament Babylon, where her merchandise i said to be in slaves and souls of men; ^ it is put last, as that which all the other particulars had a tendency to. And that by the souls of men there, is not meant in general only the persons of men, as we trade in negroes, but the souls taken strictly, as the seats of reason and conscience, is plain,—^because' they are there distinguished from slaves, or as it is in the margin, bodies; nay, and that they may not be confounded, it is in the original put in a different case; cat outfiarttv km ^/vxoq av Opwirw-^ it is the merchandise of bodies, but it is the soul they aim at.

We are this day giving God thanks for the deliverance of our land from popery ; its Grst deliverance at the Reformation, when popish errors and delusions were discovered, disowned, and protested against, popish powers shaken off and broken, and popish idolatries and superstitions rooted up and purged out; its many deliverances since, from the restless attempts of those inveterate hereditary enemies of our peace, to bring us back into Egypt again ; particularly, its deliverance from that base and barbarous design of blowing up the parliament house with gunpowder this day, 107 years ago; a deliverance never to be forgotten by a people who to this day reap the blessed fruits of it, inasmuch as we should to this day have been groaning under the dismal fatal consequences of the plot, if it had taken effect. How deep the design was laid, and how

f Josh. vii. 9. b Rev. xviii. 13.

POPERY, A SPIRITUAL TYRANNY.

high the hopes of our enemies grounded upon it were raised, and how near to be put in execution, when the discovery of it was its effectual defeat, we have heard with our ears, and our fathers have told us; and a more full account of some particulars, relative to that happy deliverance, was published but last week, by an unknown but very judicious pen, entitled, *^ A Memorial to Protestants on the Fifth of November," and dated Oct 26, 1712.

We are likewise to call to mind Umt glorious deliverance of our land from another more dangerous attempt upon our religion, when that, with our civil liberties, lay ready to be sacrificed to a popish and arbitrary government; but God interposed, and our extremity was his opportunity to appear so much the more glorious for us: this was the Lord's doing, it was then, and ought still to be, marvellous in our eyes, for it was done, not by might or power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts.* To that happy revolution we owe all that liberty and quietness we have enjoyed these twenty-four years past, all the blessings of the present reign, and the provision that is made for the preserving of that good thing which is committed to us, and the transmitting of it to posterity, by the entail of the crown upon the illustrious house of Hanover: besides all the advantages, which not only foreign churches, but foreign nations, gained by the check it gave to the growing, threatening greatness of the French king.

Now what is it that is the ground of our rejoicingin these great deliverances ? It is the preservation of our religion, the protestant religion, owned and professed among us; it is the keeping out of popery, which at the Reformation was driven out, and which our popish enemies, both at home and abroad, have been very industrious to bring in, and to re-establish among us by force and violence.

It is proper, therefore, upon this occasion, to Inquire what that thing called popery is; that mischievous, dangerous thing, from which we are delivered; what evil there is in it, and what harm it would do us, if it should get the mastery; that we may see what reason we have to be thankful, to be greatly thankful, to God for our deliverance from it; and still to dread all its assaults upon us, and to pray against it: and this among many other bad things we have to charge it with, that if the pope and Romish clergy might have their will, they would say to our souls. Bow down that we may go over.

If popery had carried its point in these and other attempts, we have reason to hope that many in our land would have borne their testimony against it, even to the death, and by the grace of God would have overcome it" for themselves, and it would have been their honour (and the honour of our religion) to die martyrs J or live confeisors in so good a cause.

What multitudes of the most precious and Taluabk lives, besides liberties, families and estates, mak inevitably have been sacrificed to that Moloch, if it had been set up, is easy to imagine; for the spiiitof popery is a spirit of inhuman cruelty to all who oppose it, as appears not only by the martyrologiei of former times, but by the late and present bloody and barbarous persecution of the poor French pro-testants, many of whom died martyrs, and raanj still live confessors in prisons, in the galleys, and in foreign countries; and there are, of them, ministers, aged ministers, in the extremes of poverty; monuments of the tender mercies of the wicked, which are cruelty, that we may see what we were saved from when we were saved from popery. Yd this effect of the prevalence of popery, though veij dreadful, is capable of a more pleasing aspect—^fnn the crown of glory and life, which they are as sure of who are faithful unto death in the service of Christ, as if it were already upon their heads.

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