Chapter V. · Part 7

2. There is also sobriety in the affections when they are moderate. The objects of this world which come under the affections, are either sinful and unlawful or in themselves lawful and allowable. Now sobriety towards the first kind is simple abstinence, towards the second moderation. The rule of the first is, “Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the mind” (1 Pet. ii. 11), and, as it was said in another sense, “Touch not, taste not, handle not.” “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,” Eph. v. 11. As a man who would be clean should not touch pitch, and he who would not be burnt should not carry coals in his bosom, so ought the child of God, who walked formerly in the lusts of ignorance, after the custom of this world, to abstain from all appearance of evil (1 Thess. v. 22.), not only from sin itself, but from all the occasions of it, and inducements unto it, all that which hath any appearance of evil. There is no measure of moderation here, a man must not think to give his lusts part, and Christ part.

No, he must have all or none. Ye should have no quarters with sin, ye should be out of speaking terms with it. The least motion of the affections and heart that way, is insobriety, and inordinate affections. 3. But sobriety in things lawful is moderation, when the spirit is kept within bounds, Col. iii. 1, 2. And the rule of this is that which Paul prescribes, 1 Cor. vii. 29, “Use the world as not abusing it,” knowing that the fashion of the world doth pass away. Love this world as if ye loved it not. Every thing hath too much of the heart, and Jesus Christ would have his royal palace his peculiar place here. He may have suitable affections to God’s dispensations in this world, (for the Christian wants none of his senses,) yet he ought not to be “greatly moved,” as David speaks, Psal. lxii. 2. Now we consider this in three things, (1) In seeking of any thing; (2) In enjoying of any thing; (3) In losing or wanting any thing. That rule of Paul’s may be applied to all the three, he should seek the world as if he sought it not.

He should enjoy the world as if he enjoyed it not. He should want or lose the world as if he lost it not. This sobriety makes him want, in abundance, and abound, in want,—to have nothing, and yet possess all things. All our time and pains and affections are spent out upon these, and turn about on these three points. Desire, attended with care and anxiety, goes out to fetch in any thing that the mind fancies. When the soul hath gotten its desire, it delights and rejoices in it, and when it is frustrated, disappointed, or crossed, it grieves and torments itself. If ye find a Christian sober in these, you find his pulse beat well. (1) Ye should then seek the world or any thing, as if ye sought it not. We are given to idolize the creatures, and dig broken cisterns, and forsake the fountain of living waters, to seek the creature as if it were God, and the strength of affections uses to be spent on it. Men have big and large apprehensions of the things of this world, and are like foolish children amazed with pictures and dreams.

Fancy busks(506) up and adorns the object with all things suitable, and thus the poor soul is put in expectation of some thing, and stretcheth out itself, to the utmost of its ability, to purchase that, which being had will not satisfy. The world promises fair to deluded minds that know no better. But the child of God must be sober here. He ought to have a low estimation of all created things, and conclude all under vanity and vexation of spirit, Luke x. 41, 42. Sobriety so seeks, that it can want, because it seeks a better thing that it cannot miss. But the poor worldling seeks this world as his only thing, and if he want it, what hath he more? He must have it, or else he hath nothing. The child of God should seek as a rich man that is satisfied, and needs no more, so that he cares not whether he obtain or not. The worldlings seek it as their portion, their heart and affections are on it, but he seeks it not as his portion, but as an accessory to his inheritance, Matt, vi.

33. Again we observe, (2.) That the good man uses the world, and enjoys it, as if he enjoyed it not. When riches increase, he sets not his heart on them. He is dead to the world, and crucified to it. It is but an unpleasant thing to him, and he to it. He can be refreshed with his meat more than another, because he sees God and his love in it, yet he hath it not as his portion. He is not excessive in gladness for any dispensation cast in the balance, one kind of dispensation or another. That which would make another man think he was half in heaven, or half in hell, it will not add much moment and weight to such a spirit. It is but like the casting in of a feather in a great balance, that will scarcely incline it to either side. (3) He loses or wants(507) the world, as if he lost it not. That which would break another man’s heart, sobriety will make him go light under, and not be much disquieted for any thing. Why, what is the matter of it? Can it trouble his peace or access to God? Can his portion be removed? What, then, should ail him, for the light of God’s countenance is more recompense than all the world? Proceed we now to apply this in some uses.

Use I. It discovers unto the most part of men how little they are advanced in Christianity. Many are insober in the use of the world, and what must their affections be? The works of darkness, that become not the children of God nor the children of the day, are yet common in the visible church. Insobriety in many is palpable, and written on their forehead. That beastly sin of drunkenness abounds in many congregations. But II. We would even convince the Lord’s own children of great short coming in this duty. Although your carriage before men might pass free of censure of insobriety, yet O! how many things will God put such a construction on! There are many saints that cannot walk soberly in the use of this world. They spend their time upon it, and this is insobriety. Scarce can prayer and communion with God get an hour in the day from their calling, and when ye have to spend, insobriety is written upon many passages of your behaviour. Your meat, and drink, and clothing, should declare that ye are waiting for a better inheritance.

But O! how are your affections wedded unto this present world! The current and stream of many of your thoughts go this way, what shall I eat or drink, or what shall I put on for clothing? And ye spend your spirits in projecting, and in following out your projects. There are some evident demonstrations of insobriety in the affections. For, (1) Most of your thoughts run upon temporal things and certainly if your hearts were not in this world, your minds would follow your hearts. Christians, too many amongst you spend whole days, and never any object enters into your minds but one thing of the world after another. Your minds are highways for the travellers of this world to come through. It may be ye will steal an hour, or half an hour for prayer, but the rest of your conversation is not in heaven, but void of God. According as every hour furnishes new opportunities, so are your minds here, Phil. iii. 20. And meditation upon spiritual things, that is the nerves and sinews of religion, that is a rare thing.

If your affections were not more upon this world than upon Christ Jesus, would not our Saviour be uppermost in your thoughts? Would not Christ interrupt your thoughts of the world? Would not heaven come in the midst of your business, and get a spare look and ejaculation? The world uses to interrupt your thoughts of God, and the mind is given to wander in prayer. But put you upon something temporal, ye can fix your heart as long as you please, and never wander. David was not so. He awaked, and was still with God. He meditates upon him in the night watches. He remembers him day and night, (Psal. lxiii. 8) and this made him a lively Christian. But, (2) If ye be seeking any thing, ye seek it so, as insobriety is stamped upon it. Your seeking of the world is prejudicial to your seeking of God, and takes away much time for prayer. Ye will be so eager in the pursuit of a momentary passing vanity, as ever ye were in the seeking of God, Col.

iii. 1, 2. Care and anxiety comes in to be your provision, and ye put not prayer in the place of it, to make your requests known unto God. Ye seek it as if it were your portion and inheritance, surely this is insobriety. (3) Look upon your affections toward present enjoyments, and are ye sober? Ye can delight in these things, and take the sweetness of them, but the consolations of God are a small thing to you. Any thing adds to your joy and lifts you up. Albeit ye be not in good terms with God, yet ye can take your pleasure in the world. Ye see not a worm and moth in your pleasures, ye are not afraid to fill your belly with honey. Some think themselves made up when they get such a lot. But saints, are ye sober when such a thing changes your condition? O but the children of God look upon this world as David did in his fretting condition, (Psal. xxxviii.) and in his prosperous condition, Psal. xxx. Ye sit down and say, “My mountain stands strong, and I shall never be moved.”

Ye have more delight in your outward lot than ever ye had in Jesus Christ. But, (4) When any outward thing goes cross to your mind, then your insobriety appears. The taking(508) of a sad and cross dispensation will evidence how ye sought the world. The taking away of a friend or idol, will declare ye idolized it. As the saints have too longing desires for the things of this world, and look upon them as the paradise of God, not as Paul did, who thought the world a dead thing, so remove any thing that ye enjoy, and your joy is taken from you. Give you something for which you pray, your sorrow is away, and ye can no more mourn for sin; and take something away, and your joy is gone, ye cannot delight in God. Ye vex and disquiet yourselves in vain, and are weighed down with it. Are ye not then under the feet of this present world, when it tramples upon you? Are ye not servants unto it, when your condition altereth and changeth according to the nod of outward things? Ye may know what puts you up and down that commands you, and this is not sobriety. Ye are drunk with the creature. The child of God should be like mount Zion, that can never be moved. Therefore,

III. We would exhort all the saints to study more sobriety in this world. We need no more exhortation than what Paul gives, 1 Cor. vii. 29. It is a strange language, saints, “Set not your affections upon the things of this earth, but on the things which are above,” Col. iii. 1, 2. “Love not the world, nor the things of the world,” &c., 1 John ii. 15-17. Ye ought to study such a walk abstracted from this world, that ye might be as strangers at home, as sojourners in your own country. The child of God should sit down in his own family among his children, as if he were abroad, and he ought to be abroad, as if he were at home. Wherefore your life is called a pilgrimage, and ye strangers. Engage not much your heart to any thing of this world. Take but a standing drink and be gone, ye may not lay down your staff and burden, that his may bear you right. (1) Consider that insobriety is idolatry. Insobriety puts the creature in God’s place, and sobriety puts all things in their own place.

When a man’s heart or affections are set on any thing, that is his idol and his master, and Christ says, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon,” (Matt. vi. 24) these two masters. Sure the worldling thinks not that he serves his riches, yet Christ puts that construction upon his loving them well, Christ calls any thing that is a man’s master his god. Now, any thing that the heart goes after is a man’s master. That which commands a man’s affections commands the whole man, for the affections are the man’s master, and they command the man. If ye knew this, ye would be afraid of spending your hearts upon vanity; ye put that vanity in the place of Jesus Christ, and so your heart is a temple of idols, and the great gospel promise (Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26) hath not gotten place in you. The due place of the creature is to be subservient to the Lord its Maker, to be only the footstool, that he may have the throne. True insobriety puts the creature upon the throne, and worships it.

(2) Insobriety or love to the world hinders the love of God, as much as is added to the one, is taken from the other, 1 John ii. 15. If the love of the world have one gram weight of allowance more than Christ speaks of, that is incompatible with the love of the Father. The creature will suffer a parting of affection, and will be content with a share, like the harlot and false mother that would be content with the divided child; but God must have all or none, and will not share with the creature. Ye may find it by experience when your hearts have been much set upon any thing in this world, Christ Jesus has not been so pleasant to you, ye have not so much delight in him. Affection must run in the channel, or it is but weak, if once ye divide the streams. The love of the world makes the heart carnal, it is the defilement of the whole soul, and a weight that easily besets us, that it cannot mount up in a cloud of divine affection to Jesus.

Can the needle go to two contrary points both at once? Can it move to the north and the south at the same time? Such an opposition is there between the Father, and the things of the world. If then ye turn your face on the creature, ye must turn your back upon God. Think not, Christians, to keep love entire to God, and to set your affections on the world. Solomon’s backsliding had this false principle, he thought to retain his integrity, and his wisdom should abide with him, though he would try folly and madness, Eccles. vii. 23. But did he not grow more foolish? Did he retain his wisdom? Many have come down from their excellence by this presumption. (3) Insobriety is the world’s sin. It is the sin of the days of your ignorance, when ye walked after the lusts of the Gentiles, and it is a shame for a child of God to be so. This duty(509) is opposed to their former walking, verses 3d and 4th. There should be a great distance between you and the world, that ye may seem men of diverse countries.

Though ye dwell in one city or in one house, ye ought so to walk as men may think it strange, as it may be, a wonder in the world. O but few Christians give the worldly men occasion to speak of them for holiness, few give them any ground for wondering at and mocking their conversation! Your conversation is so like theirs, that they need not think any thing in it strange. Is it not a shame, saints, to be like pagans? Christ uses such an argument with his disciples to dissuade them from carnal carefulness, Matt. vi. 32. Sobriety is a work of the day becoming a child of light, as Paul observes, 1 Thess. v. 4-9, importing as much as if it were a shame for the Christian to be found much in love with the world, as it is for a man to be drunk at nine in the morning and staggering in the streets. There ought to be as great a difference between you and the world, as there is between day and night, light and darkness.

Since the true light hath shined, to discover a more excellent happiness than the world can give, and since it hath concluded all under vanity, ye are not answerable to your holy calling to have it in any higher estimation. Consider also, (4) That the world is not your portion. Your life consists not in what you enjoy, your inheritance is above, reserved in the heavens for you. Therefore be sober. If ye believed this, that one day ye shall put on white robes, and be clothed with immortality, would ye so pursue after the world? It is the world’s portion, and let them who know no better seek it as their god, and love it as their inheritance; but fie upon believers, that have a hope laid up in heaven, and fixed as an anchor within the vail. Should ye cause your portion to be evil spoken of, by your groping so much after this present world? If ye walked right ye should torment the world, and oblige them to be convinced that ye seek a city to come, and that ye despise all their enjoyments.

But, (5) Insobriety becomes not a reasonable soul and is very unbeseeming a Christian, even so is it to every man. Are ye not better, says Christ, than many sparrows? Is not the life more than meat? Matt. vi. 25, Luke xii. 23, 24. So we may say, Is not the soul better than the perishing creature? O it is the disgrace and debasement of an immortal spirit to be put under the feet of a piece of clay, to be subjected to vanity, and to the poor perishing things of the world. If a man but knew himself, and his natural prerogative above the creatures, let be(510) his Christian privileges, he would despise the world, and think all that is in it not a satisfying portion for his spirit. He would count it a great disparagement to lodge upon this side of infiniteness and divine fulness. Would ye not think it a base thing to see a king’s son sitting down among beggars, and puddling in the filth of the city? God made man to have lordship and pre-eminence over the creatures, and his spirit shall outlive all these things he sees, and looks to, and what a dishonour must it be to spend an immortal spirit on vanity, to have no eye beyond the span of time?

As Christ said, “What hath a man gained, if he lose his own soul?” What gain ye in this world, though all things should befall you according to your contentment, what gain ye, since ye prostitute an immortal soul unto the service of the world, and have made it, to the prince of the world and all things, a servant and slave?

Sermon XXI.

1 Pet. iv. 7.—“And watch unto prayer.”

“Watch.” A Christian should watch. A Christian is a watchman by office. This duty of watchfulness is frequently commanded and commended in scripture, Matt. xxiv. 42, Mark xiii. 33, 1 Cor. xvi. 13, Eph. vi. 18, 1 Pet. v. 8, Col. iv. 2; Luke xii. 37. David did wait as they that did watch for the morning light. The ministers of the gospel are styled watchmen in scripture and every Christian should be to himself as a minister is to his flock, he should watch over himself. This imports the Christian’s condition in this world, and expresses his exercise in it. Watching is a military posture, and insinuates the Christian’s case in this world. He is compassed about with enemies, and therefore he must be a soldier, 2 Tim. ii. 3. “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” The Christian hath a warfare to accomplish in this world, and therefore the church here is militant, and in heaven triumphant, 1 Tim. i. 18. Every Christian should war a good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience.

What is the reason that when Christ triumphed upon the cross, and conquered all his enemies, and is ascended on high, that he hath not made all believers conquerors? Is the man that sits with Christ in heavenly places, (Eph. ii. 6) and he who was dead with Christ, and also risen with him, is he yet a soldier, when Christ hath overcome, and gotten the crown? And the believer, hath he not the victory that Christ obtained? Why then is he put to fight any more? Hath not Christ completely done it? Yes indeed, Christ hath overcome by his own strength, (Col. ii. 15) and is now on high, yet he will have the poor pieces of contemptible clay to overcome the Archangel,(511) the immortal spirits. It was not so much for the prince Gabriel,(512) the messenger of the covenant, the King of saints, to overcome his own creature, but he hath drawn out a battle and warfare to all his followers, that, in the strength of their victory in him already past, they may be made more than conquerors, and that there may be a perpetual song of triumph and victory in heaven, he hath made the saints strong, and hath made the strong weak.

He hath set the poor with princes, and the kings on the dunghill. The Christian’s heart and grace are like a besieged city, that is blocked up upon every hand, there are enemies without, and false friends within. Its party is great principalities and powers, &c. (Eph. vi. 12) and these go about continually to spy a breach. In the city, what strength can do, what policy can do, will not be wanting. All things of the world besiege the heart, and every sense is a port to let the enemy in. All a man’s negotiation and trading in the world, is as dangerous as the proclaiming a public market in a town, for the country, while the enemy is about it. There is a desperate wicked heart within, that hath deceived many thousands, and would surrender the city upon any occasion. Here are fleshly lusts which war against the soul, (1 Pet. ii. 11) temptation to sin, and to unbelief. There is a heart within that can conceive and bring forth sin, and needs no temptation, a heart within that can seduce temptation itself, but it follows the tempter and when to all that a foreign power is added, Oh then, who can stand?

Christ himself was tempted, but Satan found nothing in him, and had nothing in him, but when Satan comes he finds all in us, and we are like powder to conceive flame. We can even tempt ourselves, as well as be tempted by another. The Christian keeps a house that the enemy surrounds, and if he sleep he will enter, he is here a pilgrim, and is not yet come home, yet he hath a foul and dangerous way to go through. He is like a servant that his lord hath left, and given provision to, and is to come home when he pleases, Mark xiii. 33, Matt. xxiv. 32. If his master find him sleeping, woe to him. This is his case. What then should his exercise and posture be? He should be a watchman. (1) Watching is opposed to security and sleeping, Matt. xxiv. 42, Mark xii. 33. He must keep his eyes open, or else he is gone, (1 Pet. v. 8) be vigilant, lest the devil attack him. The sluggard’s destruction comes as an armed man, because of his “little sleep” and slumber, Prov.

vi. 10, and Prov. xx. 13. Security is the Christian’s night, when he ceases from his labour, and the adversary does with him according to his pleasure. But the Christian is in a better condition when he is wrestling with temptation, and getting sore blows. When he is at peace and dwells securely, as the people of Laish, he troubles himself with nothing, but dreams over his days, but that is a decaying condition. (2) To watch, is to observe all things, 1 Sam. iv. 13, Luke vi. 7. This is a special point of the watchman’s duty, to let nothing pass by without observation, whatever object would come in, to ask at it from whence, and whither. The heart is a highway side that all things travel through. If the Christian then be not exact in this to know what comes in, and what is its errand, he may be surprised or he know. He should observe all the motions of the enemy, and be well acquainted with all the subtleties of temptations. He must know his own spirit, or his thoughts, he should also observe all the Lord’s motions and dealings with his spirit.

It concerns him also to know what is his enemy or friend. Therefore the Christian should get upon the watch tower of the word, and look through the prospect(513) of faith round about him, that he may know what his spiritual condition is. But, (3) The watchman gives warning while it is seasonable, and the enemy far off. He raises the alarm, and all must be in readiness. So ought ye to be. Come to Jesus Christ with all ye observe, inform the Captain of your salvation whose soldiers you are. It is best dealing with temptation far off, and resisting the first motions of sin, for when it comes near hand, it gets many friends within, and it is the watchman’s part not to give his judgment of what he sees, but to report only. Do not ye sit down to pass the sentence on any thing, whether it be good or evil, sin or not, but come unto Jesus, and let him speak, for oftentimes we reason according to flesh and blood. (4) There must be no interruption in this watching.

He must give diligent heed to it, Mark xiii. 33, 1 Thess. v. 6. It is a very laborious exercise for a Christian to watch, all his senses will be exercised by it. He must look up, and that steadfastly, he must stand, and when he hath done all, to stand. When he hath overcome he must yet watch, lest he enter into temptation. He is in greater hazard after victory than before, Ezra vi. 13. He must watch when he is come out of one temptation lest he enter into another. The greatest disadvantage that armies have gotten hath been after some victory, when they were secure. Therefore we ought to give all diligence, and love not sleep, lest we come into poverty.

From what hath been said, (1) We see how few are in a warlike posture against Satan. Many serve under Satan’s colours, and the strong man keeps the house. They watch not against him, but for him, they fight for him, and not against him. Do not many Christians, in profession, even watch for their sin, how to encompass what they would be at? Many wait on all advantages to get their own heart’s desires, they watch against God’s word, to hold out conviction. These are the children of darkness, in whom the devil reigns. We also observe from this, (2) That even the children of God are seldom found watching. There is much woful security among them and this is the universal complaint, who of you walks as if you were among enemies? Ye walk as if ye were in a peaceable city without gates, as the people of Laish, who dwelt securely. Ye have no friend in all the world, and yet what unspeakable negligence and sleeping is there among you? The flesh is so weak, that ye cannot watch but one hour for Christ. And O! but the intermission of one hour’s watching hath brought down many strong ones. This made a breach upon David that could hardly be made up for ever again. From the words, (3) We observe, that prayer is a part of a good Christian’s exercise. We may be ashamed to speak or hear of this duty. It is true, indeed, our religion is all compendized in this duty. Yet this duty is so little in practice, that our religion must be but little. We would, then, speak somewhat of prayer, and observe,

1. That it is the distinguishing character of a Christian in scripture. The child of God, and the man that calls upon God’s name, is all one and the same thing. The wicked man’s name is one that calls not upon God, nor seeks him, but the godly call upon their Maker, Acts ix. 11, 1 Cor. i. 2. All the saints in scripture have been praying men. The wicked, or natural man, is not an indigent man, he wants nothing, and therefore seeks nothing from God, but the Christian is one who hath nothing in himself, a beggar by birth, one that is cast out into the open field, and he is still seeking to make up his losses. Praying and wanting goes hand in hand together. Prayer then is the first breathing of the new man. What sign of life would ye know him by? Motion is an infallible sign of life and this is the motion of the new creature. Prayer is the stirring of the soul, and going out of itself for bread, it is the sucking of the breasts of consolation.

Grace turns a man’s face God-ward and Christ-ward. 2. Prayer is the pouring out of an indigent man’s heart in God’s bosom. It is the emptying of the soul, and the landing of it on God’s lee shore, Psal. cii. 2, 1 Sam. i. 10, Psal. cxlii. 2, &c. When a pious heart is overwhelmed and sore disquieted, it prays. Prayer emptieth the vessel, and brings the soul above the water again. It is a present ease in the time of trouble. Care and anxiety of spirit plunge the soul over the ears, but prayer brings it again unto dry land, Phil. iv. 6. Care burns and drowns a man’s requests, but prayer makes them known to God in every circumstance of life. Therefore prayer is called a “making known our requests unto God,” and “the lifting up of our souls unto God,” Psal. xxv. 1, 2. But, 3. Prayer is the provision of a soul, for it is sufficient to do that which carefulness and thoughtfulness undertake to do, and effectuate not, Phil. iv. 6. Prayer does all a man’s business.

He lives by prayer, as Paul lived by Christ living in him, &c. Gal. ii. 20. He lived the natural life of a Christian by faith. So David says, “I gave myself unto prayer,” he opposes this unto all that his enemies do against him. Not only doth it ease the spirit of the present burden, but prayer does all his business, because it puts it over into a better hand, viz., the hand of him who cares for us, 1 Pet. v. 6. It is like a child who is under his father’s tutory,(514) and he does nothing himself, but all is done for him, and he needs to do no more but ask, and have, to seek, and find, to knock, and it shall be opened unto him. Prayer hath the promise of all spiritual and valuable blessings, and the promise is true. 4. Prayer speaks a life of indigence and dependence in the creature, and also speaks out the attributes of God, for the supply of all our need, sovereignty, bounty, and good will in God. It is the travelling of the poor creature between his own emptiness and God’s all sufficient fulness.

It acknowledges that he hath nothing, and that God hath all things he can desire to make him happy. Prayer is an act of homage and subjection to our Creator, and it is also an act of love and reverence, for prayer looks upon God, as a Lord, a Father, and a Master. 5. Prayer is the pulse of a Christian, and here ye may find him. If he be vigorous and frequent here, he is well, a decay in this is a woful symptom of a dangerous and dwining(515) condition. This is the fountain of the spirit of life, and the Spirit’s breath. For the Spirit helps our infirmities with groans which cannot be uttered, (Rom. viii. 26, 27) and according as the Spirit of God dwells in a man, in so far is he a good Christian. If, then, ye would ask how ye should walk here, and thrive in true Christianity, we would only say this, pray fervently and without ceasing. Pray and prosper, and daily be strong, and the Lord shall be with you. He will never fail nor forsake you.

Again, consider, 6. That prayer is not so much a duty as a privilege, and if saints knew this, prayer would not so often be a burden unto them. Is there any privilege like this? For prayer is an admission into the secrets of God, it is an emptying of the heart into his bosom. It is a great part of our correspondence with heaven. It is a swift messenger sent thither, that never comes back with ill news. It never returns empty, but accomplishes its intent. Prayer is as it were speaking with God face to face, as a man speaks to his friend, and is it not an honourable privilege, that believers are admitted to him, and may boldly come to him under all their necessities, and have such a sympathizing friend as Jesus? What is wonderful in scripture is, that God hath put that honour upon prayer to be instrumental in obtaining the greatest blessings. Did not the Lord, at the prayer of Moses, dry up the Red sea? Did he not, at the prayer of Elias, withhold and give rain?

Did not the prayer of Joshua make the sun to stand still, till he had vanquished his enemies? Wherefore was all this? Could he not have done it unasked? Certainly, but the Lord would put that honour and respect upon prayer in all ages, that it might be a demonstration to all ages and generations, how ready and propense(516) God was to hear prayer. Nay, to speak with reverence, God will submit his own omnipotence to prayer. Command, ask of me, and command me, says the high and holy One, Isa. xlv. 11. O but “the effectual fervent prayer” of the righteous avails much, 1 James v. 16. It does a man’s business, and upon less expenses; it gives a reward in the hand, and the hope of the things sought. Withal, prayer is like Jacob’s getting that within doors, without much toil, which careful Esau goes about all the fields for, and toils all day to obtain. Prayer is the most compendious way of remedy of all things else. It always makes up losses either of the same kind, or better; for if the loss be temporal, if the want be bodily, prayer makes it up with access unto God. It pays in gold. If it give not the same coin, yet it is better.

We have spoken something of prayer for this end, that your hearts may fall in love with it. It is the property of a sincere upright man, that he calls always upon God, whereas the hypocrite will not always do it. Count, then, yourselves as much Christians as ye find of the spirit of prayer and supplication in you; for those that call not on God, their portion is very terrible. God will pour out his wrath upon them. God’s face is set against such as do not pray. And I believe the multitude of this visible kirk have this brand upon their face, they call not upon God. God hath taken this character to himself, “the hearer of prayer,” and those who mock at it, their judgment hasteneth, their damnation slumbereth not.

Sermon XXII.

1 Pet. iv. 7.—“Be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.”

We now come to consider the coherence and connexion these duties have one to another. _First_, Prayer is the principal part of the Christian’s employment, and sobriety and watchfulness are subordinate to it. “Be sober, and watch unto prayer.” (1.) Prayer is such a tender thing that there is necessity of dieting the spirit unto it. That prayer may be in good health, a man must keep a diet and be sober, sobriety conduces so much to its well-being, and insobriety makes prayer fail. Prayer respects a wholesome Christian at his best estate. (2.) Because prayer that is well in itself must have much divine affection in it, that may be the wings of it to rise upon, the oil that may keep the flame, James v. 16. Now insobriety is the moth of divine affection. The love of this world eats out the love of God and spiritual things; as much as the one goes up the other goes down, like the contrary points, 1 John ii. 15. Vehement desires would be a cloud of incense to carry the petition up unto heaven; but the love of this world scatters it, pours water upon the heart, and makes it neither to conceive heat nor flame.

To be carnally minded is death, both here and hereafter, Rom. viii. 5-7. It is death to duties, it kills the spiritual life of the soul. Insobriety is carnal-mindedness, and minding of the flesh, so that a man hath no more taste of Jesus Christ than the white of an egg. It quite distempers his taste, and makes that only savoury which is like itself, and all other things bitter. But, (3.) Prayer must have hope in it. For how shall a man pray if he hope not to come speed? If he maintain not a lively hope, he will cool in his petitions. Insobriety is not consistent with hope to the end, 1 Pet. i. 17. He that would hope to the end must lift up his garments that hang side, and take a lick(517) of every thing by the way; he must not let them hang down, but gird up his affections with the girdle of truth and sobriety. We observe, (4.) That prayer must come out of a pure heart, and God must be worshipped in spirit and in truth, John iv.

23, 24; 2 Tim. ii. 22. Insobriety makes an unclean heart; the lusts of the flesh, and the love of the world defile the spirit, and makes it to send forth impure streams. (5.) There cannot be lodging for the Spirit where there is much love to the world. This grieves the Spirit, and makes him depart from us, and so a man is best to express his own groans, or to have none at all, which is worse. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty, and the Spirit must have a clean house; ye must touch no unclean thing, if you would have God to receive you into the holy adoption of his children. (6.) Prayer cannot thrive where faith is not in a good condition. For faith purifies the heart which sends out prayer, 1 Tim. i. 6; Acts xv. 9; 2 Tim. ii. 22; and O! but insobriety makes an ill conscience; and faith and a good conscience scarce sail in one bottom.(518) Both fall and stand together. How then can the soul look that Holy One in the face whose eyes are pure, and cannot look upon iniquity but with abhorrence?

how can it look upon his holiness, when it hath been going a-whoring after the world, and forsaking the fountain of living waters? In a word, the heart that is not dead to this present world, will neither pray much nor well; for the heart is otherwise taken up, hath not many wants to spread before God, nor room for spiritual things. The creature gives him no leave to come to God. O but communion with God is a tender thing, and subject to many alterations and changes of weather! A little more mirth than is needful will indispose us for prayer. A little more sadness than is within bounds will also indispose us for this duty. Carefulness and anxiety cannot pray. Therefore it concerns all the saints to keep their hearts with all diligence, to keep themselves unspotted from the world. If ye would keep yourselves in speaking terms with God, ye must not entertain the creature too much. Any excess in your affections will divert the current of them, that they shall not run towards God. And next, ye see a solid reason why ye are so little in prayer, and keep not a praying temper, because ye are too liberal and lavish of your affections upon the world.

Christians, how can ye pray, when your affections are upon the things of the earth? Will ye seek heavenly things, or care much for communion with God, when a present world is so much in your eye? Prayer must be wersh(519) and unsavoury when the world is sweet; and religion turns a compliment, when your hearts are here. Prayer is a special point of your conversation in heaven, and the love of this world keeps your hearts beneath heaven. Your treasure is here, and your hearts can be nowhere else willingly. Ye must then be mortified to the world before ye can pray aright. But we would likewise consider,

_Secondly_, That sobriety is a great furtherance to watching, and therefore they are usually joined together, 1 Pet. v. 8; 1. Thess. v. 6-9. This is clear. For if a man be not sober, but drink too much of the creature’s sweetness, or bitterness, till he lose his feet, he cannot watch, and the enemy will make invasion when he sleeps. Sobriety is the mother of security. A surfeit of any thing indisposes the body for any action. When the mind goes without the bounds of moderation, and stretches its Christian liberty beyond the bounds of edification, it cannot hold waking, a little sleep and slumber overtakes, till poverty and destruction come like an armed man. (2.) When a man hath drunk to excess of the creature and hath his heart engaged to it, he is in an incapacity to discern a friend from an enemy; whatever comes in with his predominant or idol will get fair quarters; though it may be, it will betray him. The love of the world when it stands centry at a man’s heart, will keep out true friends.

It will hold out Jesus Christ and spiritual things, all that seems to come in contrary terms with itself, and will let in the enemy that will destroy the soul. (3.) Insobriety entangles a man with the snares of the world, and so he cannot be a good soldier of Jesus. I think the conjunction here is expressed more fully, 2 Tim. ii. 2-4. The good soldier of Jesus Christ that wars a good warfare, must not entangle himself with the affairs of this life. He must be sober in the use of all things, or else he cannot be faithful to his master; he will be about his own business when he should be watching. He will not only labour to please the Captain of his salvation, Jesus, but he has many other things to please besides: and if any of his too kind friends come to speak with him, he will leave his duty and go apart with them, the watchman’s office will take him up nothing beside. But the insober man cannot give himself wholly to it.

Because his idols cry upon him, he will prefer his pleasures before his credit and honesty. Therefore, as ye would not expose your souls and all ye have, to the will of temptation, be sober. The devil hath gotten his will of a man that he can force to lie down with the creature, and sleep in its bosom. If once Satan can gild up the world in your eyes, and represent it amiable, and cause high and big apprehensions of it, O, ye are in the greatest hazard from the world of being overcome wholly by it! That was the temptation Satan sought to prevail with Christ by, but he found nothing in him. If the devil hath taken thee up to a mountain to see the glory of the world, and make you fancy a pleasant life here-away,(520) take heed of it, for ye will drink drunk,(521) and forget yourselves, and will not discern between good and evil.

_Thirdly_. Prayer must be watched unto. We must not only pray, but continue “instant in prayer,” Rom. xii. 12. We must “continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving,” Col. iv. 2. It is a strange expression, and familiar in scripture, Eph. vi. 18. O what a strange word is it! It is either very needless, or else imports the unspeakable necessity of prayer. “Praying always,” what needed more? But we must pray with all manner of “prayer and supplication in the Spirit;” and more yet, “watching thereunto;” and to express the superlative degree of the necessity of prayer, he adds “with all perseverance.” Since the words at the first view do speak infinitely more than we practise, let many a Christian express their own practice and set it down beside this verse, and blush and be ashamed. The most part of you behoved to speak thus, I pray sometimes morning and evening, when I have nothing to do. And is this praying always, and watching thereunto with all perseverance? To watch unto prayer we conceive speaks these things.

I. To observe all opportunities, occasions, and advantages of prayer,—to be glad of getting any occasion to sit down and pray. It is to seek out occasions and to be waiting for them. Too many use to excuse themselves easily that their other employments take them up, and they think on this account they may omit prayer with a good conscience, as ministers, busied about their calling, and at their book, think it no omission that they pray not often. But alas, is this watching unto prayer? Ye should be as men lying in wait upon some good opportunity to take hold of it. Prayer would hinder no business of that kind, but much further it. Prayer would be the compendious way of it. Ye used not to be challenged when ye get not a commodity(522) to pray; but do ye seek opportunity when it is not offered? Do ye look after a retiring place, and withdraw from company, when ye cannot pray with company? This were indeed watching unto prayer. But watching unto prayer will make men sometimes uncivil (so to speak, that which it may be would be called uncivility). It will be a very pressing necessity that will draw away the time of prayer, no compliment should hinder you to go to it. If ye got a corner alone, that would invite a man that watches unto prayer. He even seeks it when he finds it not offering itself. The watcher unto prayer will steal much of his time from others, and other employments, and he will not spend time unnecessarily.

II. To watch unto prayer is to accept willingly of all occasions and opportunities offered. O! if such a man find a corner, but it will be seasonable and sweet unto him. If he have nothing to do, and knows not how to pass his time, then he conceives he is called to prayer, and to keep communion with God. But how many opportunities have ye, and what advantage make ye of them? Ye have time and place convenient, all the day or much of it, and yet ye content yourselves with an ordinary set diet. Sure this is not watching. Watching unto prayer would make all emergent occasions welcome, ye would not have any impulse of the Spirit and motion to pray, but ye would follow it, and be led by the Spirit to your duty. Ye would not hear of any rare passage of providence, or any of God’s dispensations towards yourselves, and other saints, but you would think it a good call to pray and make the right use and improvement of it.

III. To watch unto prayer is to observe all the impediments of prayer, all the enemies of that precious thing prayer, that ye ought to keep as the apple of your eye. Whatever ye find by experience prejudicial unto prayer, mark that. What indisposes the spirit and makes it carnal, mark that. What fills you with confusion and astonishment, and what hinders the liberty of your delighting in God, and rejoicing in his promises, mark that; and set yourselves against these. O but many Christians find liberal discoursing, and much mirth, prejudicial to the Spirit’s temper, and yet who watches against it?

IV. Watch over your hearts that ye may keep a praying temper, and be still in speaking terms with God. And if ye would still keep a praying temper, 1. Be frequent and often in the meditation of God. Keep yourselves in his presence, as before him, that ye may walk under the sight of his eye, Psal. cxix. 168; Psal. cxxxix. 1-7. Stealing out of God’s sight makes the heart bold to sin. The temper of the heart is but like the heat of iron, that keeps not when it is out of the fire, or like the melting of wax. If ye be out of God’s sight your hearts will close. But, 2. Let no object come through your mind without examination of it. Let not your heart be a highway for all. If a good motion enter, entertain it, and let it not die out. Give it up to God, that he may cherish it. 3. Repel not any motion of the Spirit, but entertain it. There are three things ye would watch over, as, (1.) Yourselves, your own hearts, Prov.

iv. 23, &c. ye must keep your heart, and it keeps all. (2.) Watch over your duty, Luke viii. 18. (3.) The time of Christ’s coming, his second coming to judgment, Matt. xxiv. 42; Mark xiii. 33. So did David wait and watch till the Lord should return, Psal. cxxx. 5, 6. So did Job wait all the days of his appointed time, till his change came. Now, Christians, where are ye? Is not your practice your shame? It is one among a thousand professors that can be noted for much praying. Who among you can get this commendation that the Holy Ghost gives to Anna, she served God with fasting and prayer night and day? Your morning and evening are the limits of your duty, and it is almost an heresy to go beyond that. Is there any tender well-doing Christian in scripture, but he prayed much? This made David so exemplary, and hath not Jesus Christ gone before you, (Heb. v. 7.) to lead the way? O! but Christ’s praying so often in the days of his flesh, and making supplication with strong cries, is a crying witness against the sloth of Christians in this generation.

Both people and pastor, how should ye be ashamed? Hath Jesus prayed so long and often, and should not the poor followers, indigent beggars, be all in supplication? The Christian should name himself as David did, “I gave myself to prayer.” Many a man sits down to his employment and prays not much, because he hath gifts and abilities. But so did not Christ, who was able to save, yet he prayed and went about the Father’s work with dependence upon him. And O that ministers would seek all from heaven immediately, and people seek it from heaven also! Think ye that the Spirit will take twice a-day for praying always, and set times for watching thereunto? No, no, we think there is little of this practised in this generation.

Now we come to the reason that is added in the text, “the end of all things is at hand;” that is, the day of the Lord is at hand. Christ Jesus, who was once here offered for sins, shall again appear without sin, unto salvation, unto them who look and wait for his appearance; and he shall put an end to all these things, either to themselves, by consuming them, or to the use of them. All that ye now dote upon is perishing, and it is not far hence that ye shall see the world in a flame, and all that ye spend your spirits on; and Jesus Christ shall bring salvation to his own saints, therefore be sober and watch. But how is it that the end is said to be at hand? Are not many generations passed since this word was spoken? It is almost two thousand years since, and yet Peter spake of it, and Christ spake of this day, as at hand. Sure it must be nearer us now than it was then. The day of the Lord is at hand: I.

Because if we would count years as God doth, we would call the world but of one week’s standing, for God counts a thousand years as but one day, 2 Pet. iii. 8, 9. The world thinks he is slack concerning his promise, and asks, “Where is the promise of his coming?” But believers, think not ye so, reckon years according to the duration of the Ancient of days, and by faith see the Lord’s day at your hand, as it were to-morrow still. But, II. It is not without special reason that the New Testament speaks of all the time from Christ’s coming to the end, as the last time, as it were but one age or generation immediately preceding the great day, as if the day of judgment were to be, or this generation of the earth would pass. It is of great use to us, because the Lord would have believers in the last age of the world come to some great pitch of mortification and deadness to the world, and hope of immortality, than has been come to before.

He would have them be as men waiting for the Bridegroom, and this their exercise,—every one in his generation standing with his loins girded, and his shoes put on ready for the journey, and his lamp in his hand, Luke xii. 37; Mark xiii.; Matt. xxv. He would have all walking as if the day of judgment were to-morrow, as if the King of saints were now entering into the city, and all believers should go out to meet him as their King bringing salvation.

This then is the posture of the world, all things are near run, the fashion of this world passes away, 1 Cor. vii. 29: and the same exhortation is here pressed. This then, I say, is the state all things ye see are in, it is their old age. The creation now is an old rotten house, that is all dropping through, and leaning to the one side. The creature is now subject to vanity and groaning, Rom. viii. 21, 22. The day is not far hence, that this habitable world must be consumed, and O! but many a man’s god and idol will then be burnt to ashes. 2 Pet. iii. 10-12, “The heavens shall pass away with a great noise,” &c. God hath suffered men to live long in this world, that they might come to repentance, and he hath kept it so long for the elect’s sake. If it had not been for them, the world should not be unburied till six hours at night;(523) but when he hath gathered in all the election, then shall an end be put to all the administrations of kingdoms, all governments, all nations.

Think ye that God had so much respect to the world, or to the kings of it? No, he would put an end to all the kingdoms of the world, and never let them make their testament, if the elect were completed. If Christ were completed, there would be no marrying or giving in marriage, no more food and raiment, no more laws and government, all your fair lands and buildings must go to the fire. Now ask the question that Peter asks, “Seeing all things shall be dissolved, what manner of conversation ought ye to have?” And here it is answered, “Be sober, and watch unto prayer.” Ask at Paul, and he will tell you, (1 Cor. vii. 29, 30, 31.) “The time is short,” what remains then, but that he that marries be as they who marry not, they that weep as they that wept not, &c. So then here is the duty of those who look for Christ’s second coming; Christ hath left it with you till he come again, and put an end to all things: “be ye sober and vigilant.”

But consider what strength this reason hath to enforce this exercise, and how suitable this duty is to them who look for Christ’s second coming. 1. In relation to sobriety it hath a twofold force; for, (1.) It is all the absurdity of the world, that ye should so eagerly pursue perishing vanities; that ye should fall in love with the old decrepit world that is groaning under vanity, and very near consumption. The day is coming that the soul shall see all these things destroyed to ashes, and what will it then think of this idol? This is the thing I lost my soul for, and it is gone. And O how tormenting a thing will it be to the conscience! How have I been put by heaven for a thing of nought, for a vanity! Be sober, for the world cannot be a portion to an immortal spirit. Your spirit is immortal, and will continue after these things are gone, and it will outlive this world. Your goods and good name, your pleasures and profits, your lands and rents, all will have an end, and your spirit shall continue after them.

Why then will ye choose that for your portion that will take wings and flee from you, or you will leave it? When ye see all burnt up, where then will your god and your portion be? (2.) Christian believers, ye have another portion; for Christ, who comes to put an end to these things, shall appear in glory, and ye shall appear with him in glory. He shall come with salvation to you, Heb. ix. 28; Col. iii. 4. Your life shall appear with him. Your inheritance is above. That sweet Saviour that came unto this world for saving lost sinners, shall come again, and will not think himself complete without you, and till he have all his members at his right hand. And therefore, saints, be sober. While ye are in this world, ye need not any other thing in the interim but the hope of eternal life, to keep your hearts, and hold them up. O but ye will think yourselves well come to it ere it be long. Ye may laugh at the poor, blind, demented(524) worldlings, who are standing in slippery places, and like children catching a shadow, or labouring to comprehend the wind in their fists.

They are but dreaming that they eat and drink, and behold when the great day of awakening comes at the resurrection, they find their souls empty, though while they lived they blessed their own souls, and men blessed them also. Your inheritance is above, and what need ye more that have such a hope? May ye not purify yourselves as he is pure, and purge your hearts from all corruptions, and use this world as strangers, in your passage through it, that owns nothing as their own? Ye have no propriety(525) here, and therefore ye may the better live as strangers. But, 2. In relation to watching; Christ Jesus is coming, and is near, therefore watch. This Christ himself presses earnestly: Be as men that wait for the coming of their Lord, since he is not far off. Therefore, Christians, ye ought to be upon your feet, and not sit down with the creature. Ye should entertain this hope of his coming, and comfort yourselves by it, and be kept at your duty by it. I may say, there is nothing that is less known among Christians.

Christ and his apostles often pressed it, as it seems he would have it the one ever running duty, through all generations. Ye ought then to be ready for Christ’s coming, and not be found sleeping. 3. In relation to prayer; for if the end of all things is at hand, and Christ will soon come again, then the Spirit’s exercise, and the bride’s should be, “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.” Pray Christ back again, and say, Why tarry his chariot wheels? Pray him back with salvation, and hasten his return by prayer. He hath left such a dependent condition, left such an employment for us, as speaks dependence and necessity. This is the time of promises, and we ought to pray for their accomplishment. In heaven there will be no prayer, for prayer shall be swallowed up in praise, faith in vision, and hope in possession. But prayer is a duty suitable to the time, and to the Christian’s minority, to his banishment and sojourning. Dream not of an eternity here-away. Learn wisdom to number your days, and apply your hearts to religious wisdom; and if ye die thus, ye may rejoice that so many of the number are passed, and cannot return again.

FOOTNOTES

1 Baillie’s Letters and Journals, vol. iii. pp. 286-288, MSS in Bib. Col. Glas.

2 “A Letter from Head Quarters in Scotland”

“SIR, We came hither on Saturday last, April 19th. The ministers and townsmen generally staid at home, and did not quit their habitations as formerly. These ministers that are here are those that have deserted from the proceedings beyond the water, yet they are equally dissatisfied with us. And though they preach against us in the pulpit to our forces, yet we permit them without disturbance, as willing to gain them by love. My Lord General sent to them to give us a friendly Christian meeting, to discourse of those things, which they rail against us for, that (if possible) all misunderstandings between us may be taken away, which accordingly they gave us on Wednesday last. There was no bitterness nor passion vented on either side, with all moderation and tenderness. My Lord General the Major-Gen. Lambert, for the most part maintained the discourse, and on their part, Mr. James Guthrie, and Mr. Patrick Gelaspy. We know not what satisfaction they have received. Sure I am, there was no such weight in their arguments, that might in the least discourage us from what we have undertaken, the chiefest thing on which they insisted being our invasion into Scotland”—Sev. Proc. in Parl. May 1, to 8 Cromwelliana, p. 102. See also Durham’s Comment on Revel. Life of the Author, p. xi.

3 Nicoll’s Diary, pp. 68, 94.

4 Along with Dr. John Owen, Joseph Caryl, John Oxenbridge, and Cuthbert Sydenham officiated as chaplains in the army of Cromwell in Scotland. Orme’s Memoirs of Dr. Owen, p. 128. Neal’s History of the Puritans, vol. iv. p. 490, Lond. 1822.

5 Memoirs of Dr. Owen, p. 127.

6 See note, p. 512.

7 Annals of Scotland, vol. iv. p. 208.

8 Baillie’s Letters, vol. iii. p. 200. MSS in Bib. Col. Glas.

9 Memorials of English Affairs from the beginning of the Reign of Charles I. to the Restoration, pp. 444-446, Lond. 1682.

10 Hist. of Eng. vol. vi. pp. 180, Lond. 1825.

11 Memoirs of Dr. Owen, p. 126.

12 Thurlow’s State Papers, vol. i. p. 189.

13 Thurlow’s State Papers, vol. i. pp. 139, 160.

14 Orme’s Life and Times of Richard Baxter, vol. i. pp. 140, 141.

15 P. 520.

16 “At Cathcart Kirk, 19th Oct., 1652

“Mr. Robert Baylie renewed his protestation given in be him the last daye, against Mr. Hew Binnen moderating of the Presbyterie, in his own name and in the name of so many as would adhere to that protestation; and that upon the additional reason that Mr. Hew Binnen of his own accord, had gone in to hear an Englishman preach in his own kirk in the parish of Govan, who attended Colonel Overtoun’s regiment, and that the said Mr. Hew, be his example and counsel, had moved the people to do the like, and did maintain the lawfulness of this his action, in the face of the presbyterie as if the abstaining from this should have been a needless separatione upon his part, and the part of his people, though that having found that some took offence at it, he did no more countenance that man’s preaching”—(Records of Presbytery of Glasgow). At the previous meeting Bailie had protested against Mr. Binning’s appointment to the moderator’s chair because he maintained, another member of the presbytery had a greater number of uncontraverted votes.—Id.

17 An Apology for the Clergy of Scotland, p. 45, London, 1692.

18 Orme’s Mem. of Dr. Owen, p. 488.

19 Christian Instructor, vol. xxi. p. 547; Biog. Presb., vol. i. p. 131; Lorimer’s Eldership, p. 155.

20 Neal’s History of the Puritans, vol. iii. p. 120.

21 Id. p. 318. Mr. Herle, who came to Scotland with the Earl of Nottingham and the Earl of Stanford preached in the High church of Edinburgh on Sunday the 27th of February, 1648. Mr. Stephen Marshall not long after, at the request of Mr. George Gillespie one of the ministers of Edinburgh, preached in the same church, “he,” says Bishop Guthry “who being here four years ago professed to be a presbyterian, but since turned independent.”—(Memoirs of Bishop Guthry, &c., pp. 256-258, second edition). Fuller however says of Mr. Marshall that he died a presbyterian.—(Fuller’s Worthies, book 2, p. 53; apud. Neal’s Hist. vol. iv. p. 134). And Baillie represents him to have been the best preacher in England.—(Letters and Journal, vol. i. p. 440.

22 Pp. 360, 362.

23 Miscellanea Scotica, vol. ii. p. 32.

24 See p. 497 _note_.

25 This was followed by a written controversy between the parties (Wodrow MSS. vol. ix. in 13th Ad.). The same person disputed publicly in the church of Cupar on two successive days, in 1652, with Mr. James Wood, professor of theology at St. Andrews.—Lamont’s Diary, p. 48.

26 Wodrow’s Hist. of the Suf. of Ch. of Scot. vol. i. p. 165. Glas. 1829.

27 See note, p. 512.

28 Balfour’s Annals vol. iv. pp. 141-160. Brown’s Hist. of Glas. vol. i. p. 109. Peterkin’s Rec. of Kirk of Scot. p. 672.

29 P. 489.

30 Small quarto, pp. 51.

31 Shields Faithful Contendings pp. 485-488. Faithful Witness Bearing Exemplified, _preface_, p. iv.

32 Faithful Contendings, p. 66.

33 Memoirs of the First Years of James Nisbet, one of the Scottish Covenanters, written by himself, Append. p. 287. Edin. 1827.

34 Pp. 54-58.

35 P. 486. See also Life of the Author, p. xliii. _note_.

36 Verse 1193.

37 Mr. Alexander Peterkin, the annotator of the Records of the Kirk of Scotland, before presenting his readers with a long extract from the “Whigs Supplication,” (ver 94-113) describing an armed body of Covenanters, gravely declares, it was “taken from a MS copy of a doggrel poem (by Cleland it is thought), which the editor presented some years ago to the Library of the Antiquarian Society of Edinburgh.” See Rec. of Kirk of Scot. p. 533.

38 Baillie’s Letters, vol. ii. p. 360.

39 Rec. of Kirk of Scot. pp. 627-633.

40 Records of Presbyters of Glascow.

41 P. xvii.

42 Pp xxv, xxvi.

43 “The sermons preached at conventicles, which are ordinarily circulated, are a very unsafe rule by which to judge of the talents of the preachers, and the quality of the discourses which they actually delivered. We have never been able to ascertain that one of these was published during the lifetime of the author, or from notes written by himself. They were printed from notes taken by the hearers, and we may easily conceive how imperfect and inaccurate these must often have been. We have now before us two sermons by Mr. Welsh, printed at different times; and upon reading them, no person could suppose that they were preached by the same individual.… We have no doubt that the memory of Mr. Peden has been injured in the same way. The collection of prophecies that goes under his name is not authentic; and we have before us some of his letters, which place his talents in a very different light from the idea given of them in what are called his sermons and his life.” (Review of Sir Walter Scott’s Tales of my Landlord written by Dr.

McCrie, Christian Instructor, vol. xiv. pp. 127, 128)—We are cautioned not to judge of the talents of Samuel Rutherford as a preacher “from the sermons printed after his death, and of which it is probable he never composed a single sentence.” (Murray’s Life of Rutherford pp. 221-223)—And says Patrick Walker, the simple compiler of the “Life and Death of Mr. Daniel Cargill,” “I have seen some of Mr. Cargill’s sermons in writ, but I never saw none as he spake them; and I have been much pressed to publish them, and other old sermons, which I dare not do, upon several considerations; knowing that sermons would have past then, and very edifying, which will not pass now, in this critic and censorious age, without reflections; not knowing how they were taken from their mouth, nor what hands they have come through since.” Biographia Presbyteriana, vol. ii. p. 53.

44 The presbyterian clergy in Scotland were much offended when this silly yet mischievous book made its appearance, as they justly looked upon it as calculated not only to blacken their reputations, but to inflict a serious injury upon religion. (See “A Just and Modest Reproof of a pamphlet called The Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence,” pp. 36, 38. Edin. 1693.)—No one is more perseveringly held up to ridicule in it than the Rev. James Kirkton, whose character as a man of talents, and possessing a sound judgment, has been since sufficiently vindicated by the publication of his “Secret and True History of the Church of Scotland.” Kirkton takes notice of the Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence, and informs us that its reputed authors were “Mr. Gilbert Crockat and Mr. John Munroe,” adding “Truly one would think, a thinking man who reads this piece may wonder first, what conscience governs these men, who publish, to abuse the world, such stories, which they themselves know to be lies, as well as they whom they believe. Next, what wisdom is among them, who knew well enough there are thousands of honest people to refute their calumnies!”

(p. 194)—Provoked by an insulting reference to the book under review, an able controversial writer of that period says “Thou hast, by the bye, mentioned the Presbyterian Eloquence. Every body knows that book to be a forgery out of the curates shop. But to give the world a true test both of the Presbyterian and the Episcopal eloquence, let us appeal to the printed sermons on both sides. Do thou take the printed sermons of the Presbyterians, and pick out of them all the ridiculous things thou ever canst. And if I don’t make a larger collection of more impious and ridiculous things out of the printed sermons of the Episcopalians, citing book and page for them, I shall lose the cause.” (Curate Calder Whipt, p. 11.)—In such a contest as is here proposed, religion must suffer, and truth be sacrificed. Lord Woodhouselee therefore, does not hesitate to pronounce both the Presbyterian Eloquence Displayed, and the Answer to it, to be “equally infamous and disgraceful libels.” Life of Lord Kames, vol. i. Append., p. 10.

45 Granger’s Biog. Hist. of Eng. vol. i. part ii. p. 416. London 1769.

46 Burnet’s Hist. of his own Times vol. i. p. 280. Oxford 1833.

47 Life of Professor Wodrow, p. 61.

48 Analecta, at present printing by Maitland Club, vol. i. pp. 277, 300. Biog. Presby. vol. i. pp. 236, 237.

49 Burnets Hist. of his Own Times vol. i. p. 279.

50 Watts Works vol. v. 350.

51 P. 213.

52 Journals and Letters vol. ii. p. 385.

53 Analecta, vol. iv. p. 171, vol. v. p. 342 MSS in Bib. Ad.

54 “Their ministers generally brought then about them on the Sunday nights where the sermons were talked over, and every one women as well as men, were desired to speak their sense and their experience, and by these means they had a comprehension of matters of religion, greater than I have seen among people of that sort anywhere. The preachers went all in one track, of raising observations on points of doctrine out of their text, and proving these by reasons, and then of applying those, and shewing the use that was to be made of such a point of doctrine, both for instruction and terror, for exhortation and comfort, for trial of themselves upon it, and for furnishing them with proper directions and helps, and this was so methodical that the people grew to follow a sermon quite through every branch of it.” Barnet’s History of his own Times vol. i. p. 2.

55 P. 600.

56 P. 356.

57 P. 131. See also p. 576.

58 Gillespie’s Miscellany questions. p. 247. Edin. 1649.

59 P. 135.

60 P. 133.

61 Hist. of his Own Times, vol. i. p. 348.

62 Mede’s Works, _General Preface_.

63 Heber’s Life of Bishop Taylor, p. 171.

64 Pecock’s Works, vol. i., Life of the Author, p. 22.

65 Manton’s Sermons, Life of the Author, p. v.

66 Œuvres De Massillon, tome vi. p. 4; Essai Sur L’Eloquence de la Chaire, par le Cardinal Maury, tome ii. p. 231.

67 Address to the Christian Reader.

68 Memorial for the Bible Societies in Scotland, p. 91. See also pp. 30, 90, 112.

69 P. 5.

70 Pp. 42, 48.

71 P. 55.

72 P. 303.

73 P. 80.

74 P. 279.

75 P. 90.

76 Pp. 301-303.

77 P. 74.

78 P. 36.

79 P. 46.

80 P. 165.

81 P. 216.

82 P. 76.

83 P. 248.

84 P. 657.

85 P. 619.

86 P. 217.

87 [Mr. Robert Macward went to England as the secretary, or amanuensis, of the famous Samuel Rutherford, when the latter was appointed one of the commissioners to the Westminster Assembly (Murray’s Life of Rutherford, p. 233). When mentioning Macward’s institution, as Professor of Humanity in the old college of St. Andrews, in April, 1650, Lamond says of him, that he was previously “servant to Mr. Sam Rutherford, m. of St. Andrews” (Diary, p. 16, Edin. 1830). Sir John Chiesley was, in the same sense, and at the same period, the servant of the celebrated Alexander Henderson, another of the commissioners (Kirkton’s Hist. of the Ch. of Scot., _note_, p. 71). It is justly remarked by Dr. M’Crie, when speaking of Richard Bannatyne, who was also called _the servant_ of Knox, “that the word servant, or servitor, was then used with greater latitude than it is now, and, in old writings, often signifies the person whom we call by the more honourable name of clerk, secretary, or man-of-business” (Life of Knox, p. 349. _Sixth edition_). Mr. Macward succeeded Mr. Andrew Gray as one of the ministers of Glasgow, in the year 1656, chiefly through the influence of Principal Gillespie (Baillie’s Letters, vol.

ii. pp. 406, 407. Cleland’s Annals of Glasgow, vol. i. p. 128). A sentence of banishment was unjustly passed upon him for a sermon on Amos iii. 2, which he preached in the Tron Church, Glasgow, after the Restoration. As to what he said in that sermon regarding the conduct of the parliament, Baillie declares, that “all honest men did concur with him,” though he disapproves, at the same time, of Macward’s “high language,” and blames him, because “he obstinately stood to all,” and thereby provoked his persecutors (Letters, pp. 453, 454). But it appears, from Wodrow (Hist. of the Sufferings of the Ch. of Scot., vol. i. p. 213, Glasg. 1829), that when Mr. Macward understood that what had given offence was the use he had made, in his sermon, of the words “protest” and “dissent,” he did not hesitate to explain he did not mean thereby a legal impugning of the acts, or authority of parliament, but “a mere ministerial testimony” against what he conceived to be sin. Macward retired to Holland.

After repeated applications from Charles the Second, the States General, on the 6th of February, 1677, ordered Mr. Macward, and other two Scottish exiles, to withdraw from the Seven Provinces of the Netherlands (Dr. M’Crie’s Mem. of Veitch and Brysson, p. 367). That the States came to this determination with very great reluctance, will appear from the following passage in one of Sir William Temple’s Letters: “I will only say that the business of the three Scotch ministers hath been the hardest piece of negotiation that I ever yet entered upon here, both from the particular interest of the towns and provinces of Holland, and the general esteem they have of Mackand [Macward] being a very quiet and pious man” (Vol. i. p. 291). It is creditable to the good feeling, though not certainly to the firmness of the States General that at the time they determined to require Macward and his two friends to leave the Seven Provinces, they voluntarily furnished them with a certificate bearing that each of them had lived among them “highly esteemed for his probity, submission to the laws, and integrity of manners” (Dr. M’Crie’s Mem. of Veitch and Brysson, p. 368). He was afterwards permitted to return to Rotterdam, where he had been officiating as minister of the Scottish Church at the time he was ordered to remove out of the country. He died there in the month of December, 1681. Dr. Steven’s “History of the Scottish Church, at Rotterdam”, p. 336.—_Ed._]

88 [In his very interesting “History of the Scottish Church, Rotterdam,” Dr. Steven mentions (p. 72) that Mr. James Koelman was deprived of his charge at Sluys in Flanders, for refusing to observe the festival days and to comply with the formularies of the Dutch church. He appears to have been a very conscientious and pious man. Among the Wodrow MSS in the Library of the Faculty of Advocates Edinburgh (Vol. ix., Numb. 28) there is a copy of “A Resolution of the States of Zeeland anent the suspension of Thomas Pots and Bernardus Van Deinse, ministers of Vlissing, because of their suffering or causing Jacobus Coelman to preach, together with the Placinet (or proclamation) whereby the said Coelman is for ever banished out of the province of Zealand, Sept. 21, 1684.” Extract out of the Registers of the Noble and Mighty Lords, the States of Zeeland, Sept 21, 1684. It is set forth in this paper, that though Koelman had been suspended from his office by the States of the Land and Earldom of Zealand, in consequence of their “Resolution and penal discharge of the 21st of September, 1674, made by reason of his perverse opinions, and disobedience to his lawful high superiors,” he had notwithstanding “adventured and undertaken to go about private exercises within this province and also to preach twice publickly within the city Vliesing [Flushing] on Sabbath the 3d of this instant moneth, September, and so hath rendered himself guilty of the punishment contained in our forementioned Resolution, and penal discharge, bearing that he should be banished the province, so be he happened to hold any publick or private exercises there.”