3. Quenching of the Spirit, 1 Thess. v. 19. When the Spirit goes as he goes, so liveliness goes. Some cast water on this holy fire, by sinning against light, which wastes the conscience, defiles the soul, fills it with darkness and deadness. Some ruin themselves by their not nourishing and cherishing this fire, to give fuel to it, but they bring themselves into darkness and deadness by neglecting it. Some smother it, by taking part with some one lust or other against it, and so resist and rebel against the Spirit, to their own wreck.

USE. I shall drop a word to two sorts of persons.

First, To those with whom nothing remains, but all is died out. Time was ye had convictions and awakenings at a sermon, on a sick-bed, or otherwise but now of all that ever they got at all the communions, sermons, afflictions, &c. nothing remains, but they are just where they were before that time, if not worse. To stir you up to see to yourselves in time, I would pose your consciences with the following queries:

1. When ye had your awakening, would ye not have given all the world to have had that undone ye had done? Why then turn back to the same courses?

2. Did ye not resolve never to be so unconcerned about your soul, as ye have been? What have ye done with these resolutions? were fools to make them? or were ye fools to break them?

ye

3. Did ye think God's wrath against sin a mere scarecrow then? why look ye on it so now? Could you sleep sound this night, if God should send you home with his arrows again in your conscience? They have need of strong armour, that have God for their party.

4. Was not death very terrible then? and is the turning back to your old courses the way to make it pleasant now? Is there any more sand in your glass now? It may be farther from your mind, but sure it is nearer your heels than then.

Secondly, To those with whom something remains, though ready to die. This is the prevailing case of the generation, which is in a decaying, dying condition, whereof there are several sad symptoms.

1. The stomach for our spiritual food is gone. Ordinances are not prized, but despised. We look as we had got a surfeit of the gospel. Farms and merchandize go nearer the heart than occasions of communion with God. A sign we may come to fast till we find our stomach.

2. Zion's children have generally lost their colour, their beauty gone. That heavenliness, spirituality, tenderness, favour of godliness, sometimes about them, is much away. And self-conceit, pride, formality, worldly-mindedness, and untenderness, has made them the colour of the earth.

Lastly, Death is working powerfully amongst us by the most horrid ingratitude of the generation, for most signal repeated deliverances, under which the generation is nothing bettered; and by the many melancholy divisions whereby we are crumbled into many pieces; all foreboding ruin!

Stir up yourselves to strengthen what remains with you, and is ready to die. Improve this ordinance, communicants, for strengthening the dying remains, and follow on with any little you have, in order to a recovery.

MOT. 1. The longer ye be a beginning, it will be the harder to

recover.

2. If ye do not, ye may come to lose more, yea, some may lose all that they have, the remaining spark die out.

Lastly, You may and shall get a recovery, if ye will ply the means, Hos. vi. 3; says the prophet, "Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain; as the latter and former rain unto the earth."

OBJECT. I meet with many disappointments, I think I will never recover. ANSW. Consider the case of Job, chap. xxiii. and the case of the spouse, Cant. iii. Disappointments sharpen the appetite, teach honourable thoughts of sovereignty, and make the enjoyment sweeter when it comes.

OBJECT. But I grow worse and worse. ANSW. The darkest time of the night may be before day-break. See Mark ix. 20-26.

Morebattle, Monday, July 20, 1719.

REV. iii. 2,

Strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die.

(The second Sermon on this text.)

I PROCEED to enquire into the causes that bring one's religion to dying remains.

4. Slacking in diligence about the duties of religion; Prov. xix. 15, says the wise man, "Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger." The heart touched with the finger of God, is like a watch, which will stand if it be not duly rolled Thomas having missed one occasion of communion with Christ,

up.

his heart was overgone with the power of unbelief. If one be not diligent in the means of soul-thriving, how can he think his soul will prosper? It will be owned, that religion, among the professors of it, is not this day as it has been but is it not as sure, folks are not so diligent now as they were in the thriving times of religion?

5. Doing any thing with a doubting conscience, doubting whether the practice be lawful or not, Rom. xiv. ult. Venturing forward, though they are not persuaded in their own minds but it is forbidden ground. This is such "a casting of God behind one's back," as the phrase is, Ezek. xxiii. 35, that it cannot miss to give one's soul's case a frem'd cast. It quenches the Spirit, gives the conscience a throw, wounds faith and confidence in the Lord, casts the soul into a kind of spiritual palsy, wherein the whole spiritual case is loosed, nothing firm, and the man decays daily, till recovered by repentance.

But here beware of confounding a doubting and a scrupling conscience. The former hangs in suspense betwixt the two parts of the question, lawful or not, assenting to neither of them. The latter assents to one part of it; but there is a certain uneasiness, arising from some difficulties in the matter, inclining the conscience to the other side. In this last case, one should endeavour to have his conscience well informed from the word, that the scruples may evanish : but if after all they remain, in case one be sure from the word, that there is no sin on the side to which the scruples tend, they may forbear the action. But otherwise they should throw them by, or act even against them; because the conscience has light on the other side, and they are but the weaknesses of conscience, and without solid foundation. If it were not so, folk might scruple themselves out of all religion. For it is certain some have been so tossed by the wiles of the tempter, striking in with a weak conscience, that they have scrupled even to pray any more, or eat any more. Though God's express command for praying, and the sixth commandment, gave light for praying and eating; yet they had such scruples against these things, that they could not answer, and made the light dim. Yet to have followed these would have been but to gratify the tempter, and dishonour God, and foster the weakness of the conscience. The case is the same in other duties of reading, hearing, communicating, &c.; all which might be shovelled away with scrupling. There is a case, Deut. xiii. 1—4, "If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee saying, Let us go after other gods, (which thou hast not known), and let us serve them; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to

know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and you shall serve him, and cleave unto him." The sign's coming to pass could hardly miss to raise scruples in favour of his doctrine, yet they were not to be regarded so as to be complied with.

6. Worldliness and carnality, Jam. i. ult. When one goes aside from God to the world, he lies down among the lions' dens, and the mountains of the leopards: and how can he come away without loss? Therefore says Christ to the church, Cant. iv. 8, "Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards." The world has given many up their foot in religion for altogether; witness Demas. And many a good stock of grace it has brought down to little. And,

1st, The cares of the world, Luke viii. 14. When the heart is set on the tenter-pins for getting and keeping the world, good motives evanish. One cannot hold the gripe of religion, while he takes such a greedy gripe of other things; more than one can grasp heaven and earth at once. They are Beelzebub's flies and wasps, that he sends to buzz about the soul, and disturb its rest in the Lord. Hence many, while they are young, and without care of the world, how blooming and lively are they in religion! but when once they come to get a family, they enter into a cloud of cares, and their religion melts away like snow before the sun.

2dly, The drenching of the heart in worldly ease, comforts, and pleasures, Luke xxi. 34. Troublous times kept the people of God waking; but now, they find ease sweet, put their hand in their bosom, and it grieveth them to bring it again to their mouth. The warm sun of worldly ease has caused many cast the cloak from them, which they held fast in spite of the boisterous wind of persecution. O deceitful world, that with silken cords draws souls into perdition! Even lawful things may prove ruining. A very gourd stole away the heart of Jonah, and cast him into a decay; two graceless sons, the heart of good Eli.

Lastly, The entertaining of any one lust, or idol of jealousy, Psalm lxvi. 18. While Samson lay in Deliah's lap, he lost his locks and strength; and God departed from him. How many have tampered with some bosom lust, till it has given them a deadly wound? like the fly, flying about the candle till its wings are burnt, and it falls down. Gideon had seventy sons by his wives, but one by his Shechemite concubine; but that one destroyed all the seventy but So one sin indulged destroyeth much good.

one.

III. Wherein lies the strengthening of things which remain, that are ready to die? It lies in two things.

1. In blowing up the remaining spark that is ready to die out, 2 Tim. i. 6, "Wherefore I put thee in remembrance, that thou stir up the gift of God, "which is in thee by the putting on of my hands." It is weak in itself, stir it up, that it may act more vigorously. May be ye have nothing but a conviction of sinfulness, and that very weak; hold hand to it, press it forward, till it be deeper, and more lively. If conscience has got the first touch, the heart may get the next. If sin is become uneasy to the conscience, it may become a burden to the heart next, and the sweet morsel be vomited up. May be hearing, or joining in prayer, to purpose is gone: but praying alone remains, though ready to die: why, stir up that, when alone, pray more believingly, fervently, &c., so shall you "strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die."

2. In adding to the remains, 2 Pet. i. 5—7, “ And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience, and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity." Is there a remaining coal, put to another; that will strengthen the dying remains. O decaying Christians, look about you, and you will see several gaps in your religion; make up these gaps, fill up the void spaces, if ever ye would strengthen the dying remains. Many a one's religion this day is like a city-wall, wherein there are many fearful slaps, and at these the enemy brings in, and carries out, to the ruin of the city: and ay the longer the gaps are not made up, they grow the wider; and the enemy has the easier access. If ye would strengthen the dying remains, ye must repair the wall, and fill up what is the gap; and so what remains will stand firm. Make up what is wanting in external duties, in internal duties and graces.

USE. O decayed Christians, professors, all ye with whom it is come to dying remains, stir up yourselves to "strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die." And as for you with whom it is better, who are in a thriving case, what is said to them, may be of use to you, to look to yourselves, that ye come not to that pass.

MOT. 1. Dying remains are not for the work a Christian has to do in the world. Ye have much work, much opposition from the devil, the world, and the flesh, and ye have little time to do it in; ye have need of strength; they that have most grace will have enough ado with it.

1. Salvation-work is on your hand; hence is that exhortation of the apostle's, Phil. ii. 12, "Wherefore, my beloved,-work out your