Man ashiv le-Yahoweh, or, A serious enquiry for a suitable return for continued life,…

¹Hath God spared you in a time of Pestilence, then if you would live answerable, diligently watch against secret sins, and let your special care be about the hidden and secret things in Religious Duties. God hath kept you in his Chambers, Isa. 26.20. Come my people, enter thou into thy Chambers, and shut thy doors about thee; hide thy self as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast. God hath hid you from Judgment in the secret Chambers of his Protection, and will you hide your sins in the secret corners of your hearts? Or will you allow your self to sin because you are in your secret Chambers? Or will this be to live worthy of Gods secret Protection of you, to commit secret sins against God? That you are preserved this is visible; all that see you walking in the streets know this: But Gods way of preserving you was not only by visible means, as Antidotes and Cordials, but by the invisible Guard of holy Angels, Psal. 91.10. There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any Plague come nigh thy dwelling. Ver. 11. For he shall give his Angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. Ver. 12. They shall bear thee up in their hands: lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. ⟨p. 218⟩The reason why you have been preserved is, because God hath caused you to dwell in the secret place of the most high, and hath made you to abide under the shadow of the Almighty, Psal. 91.1. When the Pestilence was walking in darkness, and the Arrows of the Almighty were secretly shot and flying abroad, He kept you in the secret of his Pavilion, Psal. 37.5. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his Pavilion: in the secret of his Tabernacle he shall hide me, he shall set me upon a rock. As all visible means would not have been effectual for your preservation, without Gods secret and invisible watching over you: So abstaining only from visible sins, and performing only that of duty, which is visible, will not be a suitable, nor answerable return for this great mercy: Therefore my advice unto you is, that as Gods goodness to you hath been in a secret way of preservation, so your care should especially be about secret things, and that in two respects. In abstaining from secret sins. In maintaining secret duties.