(1.) Fear.

(2.) That desire of perishing things, which hath a mixture of covetousness and ambition.

The first maketh men wary, what they do against men ; the other maketh them weary of doing any thing for God, as whereby their sordid ends are not like to be accomplished.

(1.) Fear. When once magistrates begin to listen after 'quid sequitur's,' and so to withdraw from doing good, for fear of suffering evil, paths of wickedness are quickly returned unto, and the authority of God despised. Let this man go, and take heed of Cæsar,' John xix. 12. did more prevail on Pilate's treacherous heart, than all the other clamours of the Jews. Yea, was not the whole Sanhedrim swayed to desperate villany, for fear the Romans should come and take away their kingdom?' John xi. 48. When men begin once to distrust that God will leave them in the briers, to wrestle it out themselves (for unbelief lieth at the bottom of carnal fear), they quickly turn themselves to contrivances of their own, for their own safety, their own prosperity, which 'commonly is by obliging those unto them by compliances, in an opposition to whom they might oblige the Almighty to their assistance; surely they conclude he wants either truth, or power to support them in his employment.

If a prince should send an ambassador to a foreign state to treat about peace, or to denounce war; who, when he comes there, distrusting his master's power to make good his undertaking, should comply and wind up his interest with them to whom he was sent, suffering his sovereign's errand to fall to the ground, would he not be esteemed as arrant a traitor as ever lived? And yet, though this be clipped coin among men, it is put upon the Lord every day

as current.

From this principle of carnal fear and unbelief, 'trembling for a man that shall die, and the son of man that shall be as grass, forgetting the Lord our Maker;' Isa. li. 12. are all those prudential follies, which exercise the minds of most men in authority, making them, especially in times of difficulties, to regulate and square all their proceedings by what suits their own safety and particular interests, counselling, advising, working for themselves, quite forgetting

by whom they are intrusted, and whose business they should do.

(2.) A desire of perishing things tempered with covetousness and ambition. Hence was the sparing of the fat cattle, and of Agag by Saul; 1 Sam. xv.

When those two qualifications close on any, they are diametrically opposed to that frame which of God is required in them, viz. That they should be men fearing God, and hating covetousness.' The first will go far, being only a contrivance for safety; but if this latter take hold of any, being a consultation to exalt themselves, it quickly carrieth them beyond all bounds whatsoever. The Lord grant, that hereafter there may be no such complaints in this nation, or may be causeless, as have been heretofore, viz. That we have poured out our prayers, jeoparded our lives, wasted our estates, spent our blood, to serve the lusts, and compass the designs of ambitious ungodly men.

The many ways whereby these things intrench upon the spirits of men, to bias them from the paths of the Lord, I shall not insist upon, it is enough that I have touched upon the obvious causes of deviation, and manifested them to be treacheries against the God of all authority.

Use. Be exhorted to beware of relapses, with all their causes and inducements; and to be constant to the way of righteousness, and this I shall hold out unto you in two particulars..

1. Labour to recover others, even all that were ever distinguished and called by the name of the Lord, from their late fearful returning to sinful compliances with the enemies of God and the nation. I speak not of men's persons, but of their ways. For three years this people have been eminently sick of the folly of backsliding, and without some special cordial are like to perish in it, as far as I know.

Look upon the estate of this people, as they were differenced seven years ago, so for some continuance, and as they are now, and you shall find in how many things we have returned to others, and not one instance to be given of their return to us. That this may be clear, take some particulars.

(1.) In words and expressions, those are index animi.' Turn them over, and you may find what is in the whole heart: Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth

speaketh.' Now is not that language, are not those very expressions which filled the mouths of the common adversaries only, grown also terms of reproach upon the tongues of men, that suffered sometimes under them, and counted it their honour so to do? Hence that common exprobation, A parliament of saints, an army of saints, and such,-like derisions of God's ways, now plentiful with them, who sat sometimes, and took sweet counsel with us. Ah! had it not been more for the honour of God, that we had kept our station, until others had come to us, so to have exalted the name and profession of the gospel; than that we should so return to them, as to join with them in making the paths of Christ a reproach? Had it not been better for us with Judah. to continue 'ruling with God, and to be faithful with the saints,' Hos. xi. 12. than 'to stand in the congregation of the mockers, and to sit in the seat of the scornful?' What shall we say, when the saints of God 'are as signs and wonders to be spoken against in Israel?' Isa. viii. 18. Oh, that men would remember how they have left their first station; when themselves use those reproaches unto others, which for the same cause themselves formerly bare with comfort! It is bitterness to consider, how the gospel is scandalized by this woful return of ministers and people, by casting scriptural expressions by way of scorn, on those, with whom they were sometimes in the like kind companions of contempt. Surely in this we are returned to them, and not they to us.

(2.) In actions, and those,

[1.] Of religion, not only in opinion, but practice also, are we here under a vile return. We are become the lions, and the very same thoughts entertained by us against others, as were exercised towards ourselves. Are not others as unworthy to live upon their native soil in our judgments, as we ourselves in the judgments of them formerly over us? Are not groans for liberty, by the warmth of favour, in a few years hatched into attempts for tyranny? And for practice, what hold hath former superstition in observing days and times, laid hold upon the many of the people again? Witness the late solemn superstition, and many things of the like nature.

[2.] For civil things, the closing of so many, formerly

otherwise engaged, with the adverse party in the late rebellion, with the lukewarm deportment of others at the same time, is a sufficient demonstration of it. And may not the Lord justly complain of all this? What iniquity have you seen in me, or my ways, that you are gone far from me, and walked after vanity, and are become vain?' Jer. ii. 4. 'Why have you changed your glory, for that which doth not profit?' ver. 11. 'Have I been a dry heath, or a barren wilderness to you?' Oh, that men should find no more sweetness in following the Lamb under wonderful protections, but that they should thus turn aside into every wilderness! What indignity is this to the ways of God? I could give you many reasons of it; but I have done what I intended, a little hinted, that we are a returning people, that so you might be exhorted to help for a recovery. And how shall that be?

2. By your own keeping close to the paths of righteousness. If you return not, others will look about again. This breach, this evil is of you, within your own walls was the fountain of our backsliding. Would you be the repairers of breaches, the restorers of paths for men to walk in? Do these two things.

(1.) Turn not to the ways of such as the Lord hath blasted under your eyes. And these may be referred to three heads.

[1.] Oppression; [2.] Self-seeking; [3.] Contrivances for persecution.

[1.] Oppression. How detestable a crime it is in the eyes of the Almighty; what effects it hath upon men, 'making wise men mad;' Eccles. vii. 7. how frequently it closeth in the calamitous ruin of the oppressors themselves, are things known to all. Whether it hath not been exercised in this nation, both in general by unnecessary impositions, and in particular by unwarrantable pressures, let the mournful cries of all sorts of people testify. Should you now return to such ways as these, would not the anger of the Lord smoke against you? Make it, I beseech you, your design to relieve the whole, by all means possible, and to relieve particulars, yea, even of the adverse party where too much overborne. Oh, let it be considered by you, that it be not considered upon you. I know the things you are necessitated to are

not to be supported by the air. It is only what is unnecessary as to you, or insupportable as to others, that requires your speedy reforming; that so it may be said of you as of Nehemiah, chap. v. 14, 15. And for particulars (pray pardon my folly and boldness), I heartily desire a committee of your honourable house might sit once a week to relieve poor men, that have been oppressed by men, sometimes enjoying parliamentary authority.

[2.] Self-seeking. When men can be content to lay a nation low, that they may set up themselves upon the heaps and ruins thereof. Have not some sought to advance themselves under that power, which with the lives and blood of the people they have opposed, seeming to be troubled at former things, not because they were done, but because they were not done by them? But innocent blood will be found a tottering foundation for men to build their honours, greatness, and preferments upon. O return not in this unto any. If men serve themselves of the nation, they must expect that the nation will serve itself upon them. The best security you can possibly have, that the people will perform their duty in obedience, is the witness of your own consciences, that you have discharged your duty towards them, in seeking their good, by your own trouble, and not your own advantages in their trouble. I doubt not but that in this, your practice makes the admonition a commendation, otherwise the word spoken will certainly witness against you.

[3.] Contrivances for persecution. How were the hearts of all men hardened like the nether mill-stone, and their thoughts did grind blood and revenge against their brethren? What colours, what pretences had men invented to prepare a way for the rolling of their garments in the tears, yea, blood of Christians? The Lord so keep your spirits from a compliance herein, that withal the bow be not too much bent on the other side, which is not impossible.

Be there a backsliding upon your spirit to these, or suchlike things as these, the Lord will walk contrary to you, and were you 'as the signet upon his hand,' he would pluck you off.

(2.) Return not to the open enemies of our peace. I could here enlarge myself, to support your spirits in the work