unlawful Deeds He vexed himself was active in it Saint Peter expresses more in this than in the former Verse as Calvin observes to wit that Lot did [n] Nempe quòd voluntarios cruciatus justus Lot subierit Calv. in loc voluntarily and willingly afflict himself He did it freely he was not forc'd to it He vexed himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is [o] Est Metaphera à toâ—mentis ducta Gethar in loc a Metaphor drawn from Torments says Gerhard [p] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rich Man being in Torments Luke 10.23 The same Word is used to set out Hell-Torments This good Man continually tortured and tormented himself He lived a grievous painful Life labouring no less than if he had laien upon the Rack It was a kind of Hell upon earth to him to see and hear such Things among them They gave him Ground and Cause enough of Trouble and Grief by their Impieties and Impurities and his righteous Soul could not but work upon that Matter and vex and afflict himself therewith The gross Wickedness of ungodly Men is contrary to the gracious Temper and new Nature of a good Man and therefore he is no more able to bear it than the Stomach can bear that which it nauseates As a musical Ear will be offended with any harsh Sound So Sin grates upon a godly Man and is a Discord to him At his new Birth there was implanted in his Nature a true Zeal to the Cause and Interest of Righteousness and Goodness in the World an inward Sense of its Beauty Excellency and Usefulness in the World and a clear Conviction and strong Apprehension of the Vanity Unprofitableness and Mischievousness of Sin in the World The righteous Man has a real Dislike of a mighty Prejudice and inward Antipathy against Sin as Sin He hates Sin and loves Holiness heartily wherever he sinds it and really wishes that there were no such Evil as Sin in the World He is of another Spirit than wicked Men are of a better Constitution of a purer and more refined Temper His new Nature and Disposition is directly contrary to that which is evil and therefore whenever he sees it wherever he meets with it it is a Vexation and Torment to him So holy David seriously laid to heart the Sins of others was deeply affected with them and heavily afflicted for them * Psal 119.53 Horrour hath taken hold upon me because of the Wicked that forsake thy Law ‖ Verse 136 139. Rivers of Waters run down mine Eyes because they keep not thy Law †Verse 158. My Zeal hath consumed me not because I have Enemies and these Enemies despise me but because mine Enemies have forgotten thy Words I beheld the Transgressors and was grieved because they kept not thy Word (*) Psal 69.9 The Zeal of thine House hath eaten me up and the Reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me When he was in Trouble he testifies his Sorrow for the Reproaches that fell upon God as if he himself had been reproached And the Prophet Jeremy could say (†) Jer. 13.17 My Soul shall weep in secret Places for your Pride And the Saints in Jerusalem are described to be (‖) Ezek. 9.4 Men that sigh and that cry for all the Abominations that be done in the midst thereof And you know St. Paul is very famous for this Affection In the case of the incestuous Person he wrote unto the Corinthians [*] 2 Cor. 2.4 with many Tears out of much Affliction and Anguish of Heart I fear lest when I come again saies he my God will humble me among you and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already and have not repented of the Vncleanness and Fornication and Lasciviousness which they have committed [†] 2 Cor. 12.21 * Phil. 3.18 Many walk saies he of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the Enemies of the Cross of Christ. 1. O that it might be thus with every one of us Let a Time of others Sin be the Time of our Sorrow Let it greatly trouble us to see our good God wronged our heavenly Father abused and his holy just and good Law broken and violated To see the Gospel dishonoured and Religion discredited To see Satan pleased and honoured and his Kingdom strengthned and advanced by the Wickedness of the Wicked To see the precious Souls of Sinners hazarded and endangered by their own wilful Sin and Wickedness To observe rarional Creatures living like mere brute Beasts Baptized Christians acting like very Devils incarnate To find Men rebelling against Light resisting a Reproof loath to be reclaimed hardned in their Sin and hating to be reformed To see so many Fools and Mad-men besotted and bewitch'd cruel to their own Souls and Enemies to their own Peace refusing all Helps of Health and Cure contemning the Means of their Recovery fond of a Disease in love with Slavery devoted to their Enemy courting their own Misery and Calamity chusing Death rather than Life eternal Life walking apace in the broad Way that leadeth to Destruction running on in the Way to Hell the Way that goeth down to the Chambers of Death To behold so many stabbing themselves to the very Heart greedily swallowing their own Poison running into Pest-houses and infected Places drowning themselves in Destruction and Perdition and casting themselves into intolerable eternal unquenchable Flames 2. And let us moreover mourn to see so much Hurt and Misohief done in the World by others open Sin and Wickedness To see Sin become so fashionable and creditable To behold so many corrupted and infected hardned and confirmed in Sin and Wickedness by the ill Examples of loose Livers and vicious debauched Persons To discern the heinous provoking Sins of notoriously wicked Persons hastening and pulling down Judgment after Judgment upon the Land of our Nativity and the Places of our abode To see Sin spread this spiritual Plague encrease and a Cloud of divine Wrath and Judgment gathering and growing thick and black and hanging over our Heads ready to drop and shower down upon us Let us be so publick spirited as to be troubled exceedingly troubled that so much Mischief publick Mischief should be done by others Sins That so many should be drawn into Sin or brought under Suffering by the common and open Wickedness of the Wicked 3. Farther yet Let it be a Thing very grievous to us to meet with a Sort of Men who instead of perplexing and tormenting themselves with the Sins of others do please and delight recreate and refresh themselves with the Sins of others Do tempt and entice them into Sin and hearten and harden them in their Sin Who are so far from troubling themselves at others Sins that they * Rom. 1.32 do the same and have pleasure in them that do them Who make themselves merry with those Sins which make the Land mourn That will laugh at Lewdness
in the Grave or Hell or in any Place of the separated Soul's abode What is to be done of this Nature do now or never Act now with the greatest Care and Diligence Life and Vigour As Zeuxis a famous Painter once said Pingo Aeternitati I limn for Eternity So let us do every Thing now for Eternity and be sure to be very exact in our Actions because they must stand upon Record for ever and lay the Foundation of our Happiness or Misery to all Eternity In Time let us make Provision for Eternity We are careful to provide convenient handsome Lodgings here but consider where shall I dwell to all Eternity Remember that a serious Life of Faith and Repentance Grace and Holiness here is the only Way to an happy heavenly eternal Life hereafter That it is in vain with * Num. 23.10 Balaam to wish we might die the Death of the Righteous if we refuse to live the Life of the Richteous As Euchrites foolishly desired to be Croesus vivens Socrates mortuus Croesus while he liv'd and Socrates when he was dead CHAP. V. The Vse and Application of the Doctrine Ought we to redeem the Time Then 1. Let not the Men of this World think strange that serious and conscientious Christians do not lose their Time as desperately as they do Good Men know the Worth of Time and understand the great Consequences and weighty Concernments of well or ill husbanding of it Vse 2 Let us all examine our selves and see whether we have redeem'd our Time or no bewail and bemoan our loss of Time 3. Vse A seasonable sharp Reproof of several Persons who are grossly guilty of mis-spending their Time 1. A Reproof of those that mis-spend their Time in Idleness and Lasiness Idleness a Sin against our Creation against our Redemption against our own Souls against our Neighbour and an Inlet to many other Sins 2. Such Persons are justly censurable who mis-spend their Time in excessive Sleep and Drousiness which wasts not only much of our Time but the best of our Time too Immoderate sleeping nought on any Day but worst of all upon the Lord's-Day 3. Many mis-spend their Time in impertinent Employments 4. Many lose much precious Time in vain Thoughts 5. In wain Speeches 6. In vain Pleasures in using unlawful or abusing lawful Recreations either using them unseasonably or else immoderately 7. In excessive immoderate worldly Cares 8. Some Persons are to be reproved for mis-spending their Time in Duties 1. By performing them unseasonably 2. By doing them formally Time lost in Duties by unseasonable Performance two Waies 1. When one Duty thrusts and justles out another and so the Duty is mis-timed 2. When Duty is perform'd at such a Time when we are most unfit for 't I Have done with the Reasons of this Duty and now proceed to the Vse and Application of this Doctrine 1. By way of Caution 2. Examination 3. Reproof And lastly Exhortation The first Vse by way of Caution Ought we to redeem the Time Then let not the Men of this World * 1 Pet. 4.4 think strange that serious and conscientious Christians do not run with them into the same Excess of Riot and lose their Time as desperately as they do There 's good Reason why the sober considerate Christian does not slightly and carelesly sling away his Time with others For as [a] Neque enim quicquâm reperit dignum quod cum tempore suo permutaret custos ejus parcissimus Sen. de brev vit cap. 7. Seneca speaks of an excellent and eminent good Man he does not meet with any Thing worthy to be accepted in exchange for his Time and therefore he keeps and reserves it to be employed to useful and prositable Purposes and is very saving and sparing of it The Children and Servants of God do sufficiently know the Worth of Time and plainly understand the gteat Consequences and weighty Concernments of well or ill husbanding of it If they were wanting by an early fore-handed Care to secure and improve any part of the Time that is past Their former prodigal lavishing out their Time is the present Burthen of their Spirits and Sadness of their Souls And they are resolv'd by a timely Diligence in a spiritual Manner to redeem the Time for the future They often seriously think with themselves that to lose the Remainder of their Time is to lose eternal Happiness and to incur eternal intolerable Misery Rather follow and imitate them than judg and censure them If you won't forbear reproaching and reviling them know that the Time is coming when you shall give an Account * 1 Pet. 4.3 4 5. not only of your Excess of Riot but even of your hard Speeches top If any in the Family if any in the Neighbourhood be more strict exact and careful to redeem the Time than your sevles take heed you do not speak ill of them for it Do not wonder that they do not do as you do But as you love your Souls and as you would give an Account of your Time with Joy and not with Grief labour with the holiest and precisest in the Places where you live to walk circumspectly not as Fools but as Wise redeeming the Time because the Daies are evil The second Vse by way of Examination Is it the Duty of a Christian to redeem the Time Then let us examine our selves a while and see whether we have discharg'd our Duty herein Let us all look back on our former Lives and bewail and bemoan our Loss of Time [b] Vanitas est longam vitam optare de bonit vita parùm curare A Kempis l. 1. c. 1. n. 4. How vainly have we wish'd oftentimes for a long Life and yet alwaies neglected a good Life May we not apply that of [c] Exigua pars est vitae quam nos vivimus ex Ennio Omne spatium non vita sed tempus est Sen. de brevitate vitae cap. 2. Non est quod quemquam propter canos aut rugas putes diu vixisse non enim ille diu vixit sed diu fuit non ille muliùm navtagavit sed multum jactatus est ld de brev vit c. 8. Doce nonesse positum bonum vitae in spatio ejus sed in usu posse fieri imò saepissime fieri ut qut diu vixit parùm vixerit Id. ep 49. Seneca to our selves It is but a small Part of Life that we live The Space we wear out is not Life but Time We have been a long Time in the World but can we affirm and prove we have liv'd long Can we be said to have sail'd much to use the Similitude of that most practical Moralist because we have been tossed very much in the Sea of this World Can we be said to have truly liv'd because some Cubits are added to our Stature because some Hair is grown upon our Chin or because we have married Wives and gotten Children and it may
fit to meet their Persons and to enjoy their holy Company and happy Society in the heavenly Glory hereafter 6. And lastly Love and delight to enlarge thy Thoughts in the frequent Meditation of the Vninterruption Perpetuity and Eternity of this blessed State To sit down and consider that thou hast the Promise of eternal Life eternal Salvation eternal Glory a continuing City an everlasting Habitation a House eternal in the Heavens an Inheritance incorruptible an everlasting Kingdom a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away That if thou art a righteous Person thou shalt be ever with the Lord and as a Son abide in thy heavenly Father's House for ever and reign in the Kingdom of thy Father for ever and ever that thou shalt be a Pillar in the Temple of thy God and go no more out That if once thou entrest in thou canst never pass out of that State of Bliss that the Eternity of thy Felicity will be the Compleatment of thy Happiness That there will be no fear of ever losing or relinquishing thy pleasant Possession That to admit any such Thought would be a lessening and diminishing a souring and imbittering the Joys and Delights of that blessed State and a kind of Hell even in Heaven it self That therefore in Heaven thou shalt surely live an immortal Life of endless Love and continual Joy and perpetual Praise This Meditation will sweetly constrain thee to labour earnestly to become meet to enjoy a Perpetuity and Eternity of perfect and consummate heavenly Felicity 'T will make thee mindful to lay the Foundation of Life eternal in thy self here in this World to pass from Death to Life even in this Life to get the Seed of eternal Life here Grace the Seed of Glory to get eternal Life initial that thou maiest be sit for eternal Life perfectional To obtain the good Beginnings of Life everlasting as an earnest in this Life of that which is to follow and a good Preparation for Life everlasting to be conferred in the World to come To begin by Grace to live here that thou maiest be fit to live eternally in Glory hereafter And this Meditation will engage thee to give God here thy whole remaining Time that thou maiest be fit to enjoy his blessed Eternity To be careful that there be no voluntary Intercision or Interruption of thy Obedience To endeavour to serve God in Holiness and Righteousness before him * Luke 1.75 all the Daies of thy Life without any wilful departing backsliding withdrawing declining or moral discontinuance of thy holy and religious walking with him by gross Neglect of what thou oughtest to do or by doing the contrary to thy Duty This will incline thee to deal with God as thou wouldst that he should deal with thee and move thee to say thus to thy self Would I have God give me Admission into Heaven and afford me only a Taste of Happiness and then presently put an end to those transporting ravishing Joys and ere long annihilate me or at least turn me quite out of Paradise and for ever deprive me of that joyful blissful State and Place and thrust me into far a meaner and lower Condition Would I be well contented with this If not why then let me not only enter into God's Service but continue therein to my Life's End If I expect a perfect perpetual Happiness from God is it sit and reasonable that I should give God a broken imperfect flitting inconstant Obedience Would I have God's Goodness last for ever then let not my Goodness be as a * Hos 6.4 Morning-cloud and go away as the early Dew Let not me be off and on with God Let not me serve him by Fits and Starts but let my Heart stand alwaies bent for God and let me perform a constant Course of Obedience to him Let me not only enter into the Race and run for a Spurt and then sit down or start aside and fly out of the Way but let me here hold out to the End or I shall be unfit for an endless Felicity in another and better World The Consideration of all that has been spoken both in general and particular of the glorious Happiness of Heaven will be of further Use and Advantage to thee as to the Redemption of thy Time in several respects for 1. 'T will hearten and encourage thee to do and suffer any thing for God 2. 'T will help and enable thee to answer and oppose the fair and furious Temptations of Satan 3. To live in an holy Contempt of this present World and in the serious real visible Exercise of constant heavenly-mindedness 4. And lastly To live in delightful fore-thoughts and fore-tastes of the Glory to come 1. The foregoing Meditations of a perfect heavenly glorious Reward will quicken and strengthen hearten and encourage thee to do and suffer any thing for God 1. The serious frequent Consideration of a perfect State of heavenly Glory will ammate and encourage thee to lay out thy self to the utmost for God and to act vigorously in the performance of thy Daty in this State of Probation in which thou art placed in this lower World All the forementioned Particulars of this Reward will be so many Cords to bind thee to thy Duty and as so many Magnctical Hocks to draw thee to Obedience Thou wilt up and be doing upon this Consideration that there is enough to be gotten by well doing Thou wiâ—t * Col. 3.23 24. heartily serve the Lord Christ that Christ that died for thee of whom thou knowest thou shalt receive the Reward of the Inheritance who hath promised a Reward to the Gift of a †Mat. 10.42 Cup of cold Water only and therefore will undoubtedly give a great Reward to a constant course of sincere Obedience Thou wilt besorward to do any thing * Col. 1.5 for the Hope that is laid up for thee in Heaven considering that all thy good Duties and faithful Performances shall be †1 Pet. 1.7 found unto Praise and Honour and Glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ The deep Thoughts of the heavenly Glory will render the Duties of Religion easy to thee The Meditation of an everlasting heavenly Rest will facilitate the Yoke and lighten the Burden of Christ to thee The Greatness of thy Reward will lessen and take off the Difficulty of thy Labour Thou wilt surely think no Task no Duty no Diligence no Care no Cost no Pains too much to get to Heaven which at last will fully make amends for all Thou wilt strive to do thy best in all thou doest because as Apelles said of his great Care in drawing a very curious Picture Pingo Aeternitati I limn for Eternity so whatever thou doest thou doest for Glory Honour Immortality a blessed Eternity If by the Eternity of thy Felicity were meant only an Aevum of very long Duration yet it would seem a weighty Motive to any considering rational Man to engage him to Godliness and Christianity and
Punishment upon thee in case of thy final Impenitency and Disobedience Consider moreover That thy Punishment will be [l] How the infinity of Punishment is answerable to the infinity of the Fault see Barontus de peccato Mâ—rtalt Vent 〈◊〉 § 6. part 2. justly and deservedly everlasting if now thou sinnest with a [m] Deus punit nos in aeterno suo quta nes peccanites in aeferno nostro Mind and Will and Disposition to sin to Eternity and wouldst sin on for ever here and persevere in eternal Contumacy without end or term if God should not break off the course of thy Sins by putting a Period to thy Daies That thy eternal Torment will be reasonable and equitable if now when Life and Death an Eternity of Happiness and an Eternity of Misery are set before thee in this Time of thy Trial and Probation thou art grosly wanting to thy self [n] Vide Episcop Resp ad 64. quaest qu. 62. p. 68. slightest and despisest eternal Happiness and so puttest it away from thee for ever and drawest wilfully eternal Misery upon thy self If here thou closest with what is present and lettest go what is future as that vile and wretched Cardinal did who prefer'd his present part in Paris before his future part in Paradise hadst rather have any thing in possession than never so much in reversion and so greedily catchest at the present Pleasures of Sin for a season and refusest the Favour of God and the Joys and Blessendness of the World to come thou hast nothing to complain of for thy Loss of Heaven but thy own [o] See Dr. Jackson vol. 3. p. 496. free Choice And as for Pain of Sense though thou doest not expressly chuse it in its self yet if thou chusest it implicitly in the causes of it If now thou chusest that Sin to which such Torment is by the Law of God [p] See Baxier's Reas of the Christ Rel. p. 165 169 170. annex'd and deliberately and resolvedly to the very last eagerly pursuest those sinful Pleasures and Profits which God hath plainly told thee will be surely followed with no less than everlasting Torments And takest [q] Paradise was created for man the everlasting Fire was prepared for the Devil and his Angels But ungodly men with the Words and Works called it to them Wisd 1.16 committed a kind of â—iot upon Hell invaded Lucifer's peculiar and strive more vehemently for their portion in that Lake of Brimstone endure more temporal hardship in their pass'age thither than any Martyr in his siery Chariot of Ascent toward Heaven An the that take such pains for it is worthy to take his portion with it to have that pay which he hath merited so dearly Dr. Hammond pract Cat. see there p 412 413 in 12. as much or more pains in the waies of Sin to go to Hell than would have serv'd to get to Heaven thou wilt have none to blame at last of Cruelty toward thee but thy self no reason to cry out of the Divine Severity when thou hast but the consequents of thy wilful choice For God puts things to thy own Choice and intreats thee to be careful to chuse aright and will at last only suffer thee to inherit thy own foolish option and evil Choice which here thou madest to thy eternal Ruin Consider once more That all Hell is not in another Life That if thou beest a wicked Person thou hast an Argument within thee to convince thee that there is an Hell when thy Conscience pains and gripes thee and is too hot for thee That the present secret Checks and severe Rebukes of thy own Conscience are an Embleme and Representation and a kind of Anticipation of Hell Torments That now thou livest even in the Suburbs of Hell That thou feelest the [q] The Heathen feigned Prometheus his Liver to be continually gnawn upon by a Vultur or Cormorant without wasting the Substance of it or deading its capacity of Pain Vultur preying betimes upon thee the Worm crawling early in thy Bosom and beginning to gnaw thee even in this Life That thou hast an Aetna or Vesuvius at least some Sparks of the hellish Fire already kindled in thy own Breast some prelibations and fore-tastes of those Vials of Wratth that are prepared and reserved for thee some Drops let fall upon thee of that Ocean of Wrath that is likely at last to overwhelm thee That thou carriest the Sulphur of Hell about thee and thy Hell is already even here upon Earth begun within thee That though thou beest not actually in the very Place of Hell yet thou knowest that eternal Woes are due to thee and findest that this is a present Torment to thee in the midst of thy greatest outward worldly Enjoyments as a Person is scorch'd with a burning Fever though he lie upon a Bed of Ivory in a Chamber richly furnish'd and hung with the finest Tapestry or adorn'd with rare and curious Pictures and rendred as delightful and pleasant as can be Call here to mind how some that have been only sing'd by this Fire and have had no more than the Smell thereof passing upon them have been most rueful amazing Spectacles to all Beholders through that Horrour and Terrour of Conscience which was but an Image and Resemblance of Hell-Torments And if the beginnings of these Sorrows be so dreadful here in this World Consider how unsufferable then the full measure thereof will certainly be in the World to come Think earnestly and often of these Things and see how strangely they will operate with thee [r] Fox Acts and Mon. 2 vol. p. 922 923. Mr. Bilney the Martyr did diverse times in his Imprisonment put his Finger to the Flame of the Candle to feel and try the Heat of the Fire before his Execution Do thou by Meditation flash Hell-fire in thy own Face and burn the Brimstone of Hell at thy own Nostrils Use thy self to serious Thoughts of Hell Sit down and consider whether thou art able to bear those Torments to dwell with that consuming Fire to abide with those everlasting Burnings Pursue these Thoughts and often renew and repeat these Considerations and this is likely to startle and awaken thee to rouse and raise thee out of thy carnal Security Labour by Meditation to presentiate and to reallize the intolerable Torments of Hell to thy self and work the Thoughts of the Things forementioned upon thy Heart until thou art suitably affected with them and fully resolv'd to answer the Ends of the Threatning of them Thy Meditation of Hell-torments will be apt to beget [s] Mr. Perkins would pronounce the Word Damn with such an Emphasis as left a doleful Echo in his Auditors Ears a good while after Mr. Fuller in his Life Holy State p. 82. stirring and lively Affections in thee It will be useful to with-hold or with-draw thee from Sin which has such a dreadful Issue To keep or take thee off from living in such a
and Palate load your Body with Meats and Drinks pass the Time in Sport and Play with you sill your Ears with unprofitable atheistical profane loose and lewd Discourse vitiate your Mind pervert your Judgment debauch your Fancy corrupt your Manners help you to forget God and your selves teach you to become [g] Herbert's Church porch p 2. Beasts in Courtesy and by their foolish mad Mirth and cruel Kindness to you abroad make work enough for your earnest serious Sorrow and Sadness your dear and costly Repentance at home But will make you neither wiser nor better add nothing to your Vertue contribute nothing to your Graces and to the Feeding and Nourishing of your Souls Who will it may be feast and pamper your Body but starve and pine yea poison your Soul and by a pretended Civility and Courtesy to you labour to be the Bane and Undoing of you Who will either vex or [h] Serpunt vitia in proximum quemque transiliunt contactu nocent Itaque ut in pestilentia curandum est ne corruptis jam corporibus morbo slagratibus assideamus quia pericula trabemus asslatùque ipso laborabimus Ita in amicorum legendis ingeniis dabimus operam ut quà m minimè inquinatos assumamus Initium morbi est aegris sana miscere Sen de Tranq An. c. 7. Vt solent vitia in corpore alibi connata in aliud membrum perniciem suam esslare sic improborum vitia in eos derivantur qui cum illis vitae habent consuetudinem Tert. advers Valent. taint all that are near them Who being themselves infected with the Plague of Sin have a strange and strong desire to infect others The only mode of whose Kindness is an artificial Insinuation of variety of Temptations and an earnest importunate Solicitation to Evil Who will endeavour to turn you off from a diligent holy Life and if it be possible will laugh or mock you out of Heaven Who having no Seed or Spark of Vertue in themselves must needs hate besiege and undermine it in others as being a constant standing Reproach to themselves [h] Nisi in bonis amicitia esse non potest Nec sine virtute amiciti tesse uâ—o pacto potest â—ùm conciliatrix amicitiae virtutis epinio fuerit difficile est amicitiam manere si à virtute deseceris Lael apud Cic. de Amic Abandon those Companions that are good Companions only in sinning who will lead you to Atheism and Profaneness provoke you to Lust and Wantonness Anger and Rage or draw you into Drunkenness urge and impose their [i] Slight those who say amidst their sickly Healths Thou liv'st by Rule What doth not so but Man House are built by Rule and Common-wealths Entice the trusty Sun if that you can From his Ecllptick Line becken the Sky Who lives by Rule then Keeps good Company Herb. Church-porch p. 5. sickly Healths upon you and will not let you live by Rule but will unweariedly tice and press you to Sin and be sick with them sweetly perswade you into Inconvenience fairly and finely allure you into fashionable Folly and inevitable Misery court and complement you into eternal Ruin civilly bear you Company and lovingly befriend you into Hell and so really shew less Kinduess and worse Nature to you than * Luke 16.27 28. Dives among the Devils in Hell express'd toward his Brethren here on Earth who contrived and laboured to keep and preserve them from that Place of Torment Make not them the Joy and Entertainment of thy Life who by thy leave will be thy eternal Destruction and Death Have no Intimacy hold no Familiarity with wicked Persons you may go see and visit them as their Physicians but not as their Companions you may sometimes call upon them to cure and heal them to prescribe somewhat to them to leave some good Directions with them but you must not be so often with them nor stay so long with them till you get their Disease and take Infection from them But now on the other side If we would spend our Time profitably and comfortably and have it turn to any considerable good Account let 's study to contract Friendship and Union with vertuous Persons esteeming them the most valuable Friends and to use Tully's Expression [k] Optimam pulcherrimam vitae supellectilem Cic. de Amic the best and fairest furniture of Life Let 's reckon [l] Nihilest am ibilius virtate nihil quod magis alliciat homines ad diligendum Si tanta vis probitatis est ut eam vel in eis quos nunquam vidimus vel quod majùs est in hoste etiam diligamus quid mirum si animi hominum moveautur cùm eorum quibuscum usu conjuacti esse possint virtutem bonitatem perspicere videantur Id. ib. Vertue and Grace to be the weightiest reason of Amability the Worthiness and Excellency of Persons Dispositions and Manners to be the most solid stable Ground the greatest Allective strongest Attractive of Love and Dearness Let 's chuse with holy David to be * Ps 119.63 [i] Bonos boni diligunt assciscúntque sibi quasi propinquitate conjunctos atque naturd Constat bonts inter bonos quasine cessariam benerolentiam esse Id. ib. Companions of all them that fear God and of them that keep his Precepts To be their Companions out of true Affection not out of Faction because they are Godly not because they are Persons of such and such an Opinion and Party To be Companions of them and of all them Let not any difference in outward Quality nor in Opinion among the Godly in things remote from the Substance of Religion be a cause of sinful Partiality David a great King scorn'd not the Company of any such nor was ashamed to be seen in their Company As his was so let * Ps 16.3 all our Delight be in the Saints and the Excellent that are in the Earth Let 's join with him and say †119 79. Let those that fear thee turn unto me and those that have known thy Testimonies Let 's chuse to ‖ Prov. 13.20 walk with wise Men that we may be wise to be frequently in Company with those (*) 11.30 whose Fruit that is actively the Fruit which they bring forth the Profit which they yield and afford to others in their Communication and Conversation by Information and Example is a Tree of Life and who are wise to win Souls Be conversant with those saies [i] Cum his versare qui te meliorem facturi sunt â—â— illos admitte quos tu potes facere melitres Sen. ep 7. Seneca excellently who are any way likely to make thee better and receive those into thy Friendship and Acquaintance whom thou maiest probably some way or other make better I say in like manner let us sort and suit associate and familiarize our selves with those among whom we may do most spiritual Good or
in another World Consider 5. That the [x] Vid. Chryfost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good Thief redeemed and improved his Time at last in so notable and wonderful a way and manner as no Man ever did or can beside Surely thou canst never hope to do that Honour to God and Christ upon a Death-bed which the Thief did in a short time upon the Cross The Thief brought more Glory to God and Christ at the time of his Departure out of this World than another Man 's whole Life can do [y] See Bp. Taylor 's Great Exemp p. 581. What Age of the World can give Example of so strong a Faith or produce a Pattern of greater Piety for he believed him to be the Saviour whom the Jews accused as a grand Malefactor and Pilate condemned who was crucified by the Gentiles and vilified by the Jews and openly reviled by the other Thief He expected Life and Salvation from an afflicted suffering dying Person hanging in a publick shameful manner full of Pain upon a Cross under the Sadnesses Sorrows and Pangs of Death who was esteemed smitten and seemed to Man's Sense for saken of God whom he had alwaies profess'd to be his Father In the very Extremity of Christ's Passion the good Thief believed him to be the holy Son of God the Lord of Life able to save in Death He beheld the Beauty and Glory of Christ through the dark Ignominy of the Cross He saw him naked wounded a Partner of the same Torment upon the Tree enduring the servile Punishment of the Cross and yet was heartily perswaded Christ was a King [z] Dic ô latro ubi thronus ex sapphyro ubi Cherubim exercitus caeli ubi corona sceptrum purpura ut eum dicas Regem videsne coronam aliam quà m spine im sceptrum aliud quà m clavos aliam purpuram quà n sangutnem alium thronum quà m crucem alios ministros quà m carnifices juid ergo Regium vides Aug. Speak O Thief saies St. Austin where is the Throne of Sapphire where are the Cherubims and heavenly Hosts where is the Crown the Scepter and the Purple that thou shouldst count Christ a King Dost thou see any other Crown than that of Thorns any other Scepter than the Nails in his Hands any other Purple than his Blood any other Throne than the Cross any other Officers and Ministers than the Executioners [z] Videte quà m oculata sit sides quà m lynceos oculos habeat diligentiùs considerate Cognoscit Dei Filium in ligno pendentem cognoscit morientem siquidem latro cognoscit in patibulo c. Bern. serm 2. in Epiph. Dorn See saies St. Berâ—ard how sharp-sighted Faith is what quick and piercing Eyes it has how it apprehends and discerns Christ to be the Son of God though hanging bleeding dying upon the Cross How evidently it discovers the great King appearing in the mean form of a Servant and taking a Journey through the strait way of painful shameful Suffering into his heavenly Kingdom of Glory How far did the rare and noble Faith of this Thief excel the Faith even of all the Disciples and Apostles of Christ who now at last fearfully [a] Titubaverunt qus viderunt Christum mortuos suscitautem credidit ille quem videbat secum in ligno pendentem Aug. serm 144 de Tempore stumbled at Christ's Cross though sometime they had seen him raising the very Dead [b] Gerhard Harm in Luc. 23.40 41 42. Peter believed when he saw Christ * Mat. 14.28 walking upon the Sea but the Thief believed when he saw Christ's Feet fast nail'd to the Cross and beheld him flowing all over in Blood from Head to Foot The Apostles believed when they saw Christ †17.2 transfigur'd before them and his Face shining as the Sun and his Raiment white as the Light but the Thief believed when he saw Christ not transfigured but strangely disfigured miserably mangled and deforemed and his Face not shining but sullied and fadly besmeard with Spittle Wounds and Blood * Joh. 11.27 39. Martha believed when she saw Christ powerfully raising a dead and even stinking Lazarus from the very Grave who had been dead four Daies but the Thief believed when he saw Christ hanging in the Valley of the Shadow of Death almost expiring and very near giving up the Ghost Others believed when they saw Christ daily working divine Miracles and honoured by the People with solemn Acclamations but the Thief believed at such a Time when Christ wrought no Miracles to demonstrate his Divinity and testify his Innocency and was rejected despised and had in open derision of Men. He cleaved to him when the very Apostles and Disciples themselves forsook and fled from him He believed in Christ when he had the strongest Temptations to the coutrary when Christ was seemingly in as low a Condition as himself Verily Christ found not so great Faith no not in Israel no not in his [c] Recolamus fidem latronis quam non invenit Christus post resurrectionem in Discipulis suis August serm 144. de Tempote own Disciples even after his Resurrection All the holy Actions of another Man's Life are not likely to amount to the Service done to God and Christ by this one act of the Thief 's Faith Besides his pregnant Faith was eminently productive of many good Works [d] Vid. Daven Praelect de Just Act. p. 390. both internal and external He feared God acknowledged his own Sin and Guilt with Godly Sorrow true Contrition and hearty Repentance condemned himself justified Jesus and publickly testified that Christ was a Person perfectly just and righteous unblameable and innocent This Man hath done nothing * Luke 23.41 [e] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nibil absurdum absonum vel indetens fecit Non soâ—ùm banc crucem non est promeritus sed nec ullo etiam levissimo peccato est centaminatus Gerhard Harm in loc amiss said he He commiserated his causelesly calamitous Condition when the other vile [f] Belluinu n est non human 〈◊〉 non compati morienti Seneca brutish Thief was void of Humanity and instead of pitying mock'd and scoffed at a dying Person He maintain'd the Honour of his Saviour against the Railery and Blasphemy of his Fellow-sufferer who derided the Office especially the Kingly Dignity of Christ He called him Lord his Lord embracing him as the true Messias He honoured him whom Judas betrayed He boldly confess'd and defended him whom Peter timorously denied and fearfully forswore He plainly declared that he sought and look'd for a future State and better Life He freely acknowledg'd that this same suffering dying Person should have immediatly the Power of Paradise and Authority to place him in the Seat of the Blessed As †Dan. 6.10 Daniel prayed toward Jerusalem and the Temple when it was in its ruins and rubbish so the penitent Thief prayed to Christ when he was in the lowest State
Violation of your Baptismal Vow You promis'd at your Baptism that you would obediently keep God's holy Will and Commandments and walk in the same all the Days of your Lives But how apparently do you break this part of your Vow by living in a long continued course of Disobedience to this so reasonable Command of Christ Yea this unchristian Practice of yours is by interpretation a kind of Renunciation of your Baptismal Covenant entred into in your Infancy you do in a manner openly disown and disavow it when you will not yield at Years of Discretion to renew and confirm it though often minded of it frequently required and called upon in the Name of Christ to do it in the Use and Celebration of this Sacrament And by being so utterly averse and unwilling to bind your selves by this means to Christ and to ratify and strengthen your Covenant with him you seem to quit your Part in Christ and to disclaim all Interest and Propriety in the precious Benefits purchased by his Blood and Death and to be guilty of the basest Ingratitude and greatest Unkindness imaginable in refusing to remember in a solemn manner your Blessed Saviour who has so lovingly remembred you and been with so much charge and cost so great a Benefactor to you and in unworthily undervaluing the inestimable Benefits of his Death and Passion sealed and exhibited in the right Use of this Sacrament When Christ has said in plain terms Do this will you in effect dare to say We will not do this we will break a known Law and will not regard the Authority of Christ Will you persist in such Omission as you cannot justify but are forc'd if reason'd with to condemn your selves for Can you be so weak and short in your reasoning as to think you reserve to your selves a freedom and liberty to sin for the present without any great Danger to you by absenting your selves from the Sacrament which would closely tie and straitly bind you up to a stricter way and more exact course of Life never considering that by your relation to God and dependance upon him by your early Covenant made in Baptism by all your hearing or reading the Word of God and by every Prayer you have in all your Life put up to God you are already strongly obliged to all that Duty which the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper would further engage you to perform Will you put off this Sacrament from Time to Time and satisfy your selves at present that you purpose to prepare and receive hereafter why this is just as foolish and absurd as to resolve that when you have very greedily swallowed much more Poison then you will take the benefit of an Antidote that when you have stuffed your selves with trash and fill'd your selves with abundant crudities and by so doing weakned and destroyed your Appetite or by long Fasting quite lost your Stomach then you will hasten to a Feast That when you have further despised the Riches of Divine Goodness and Grace made more light of Christ and of his pretious Blood and Benefits and grieved his Spirit by longer Deâ—ays and Non-improvement of Gospel-seasons and golden Opportunities then you will seek Reconciliation to God Union to and Communion with Christ Purgation from Sin by the Blood of Christ and the Consolation of the Spirit of Christ You may delude your selves with Intentions and Resolutions to remember Christ in the Sacrament at some convenient Season hereafter but if you neglect and closer it now you may lose your Senses and Memory before ye have another Occasion offer'd you of remembring Christ in this Sacrament You may die and depart and Christ may come to you in particular Judgment before you can enjoy another Opportunity of 〈◊〉 to the Table and Supper of your Lord We may tell of your Death and shew to others where you lie low in your Graves before the Times comes that you should shew forth your Lord's Death in the celebration of the holy Communion And ifyou should communicate upon a Death-bed the Sacrament so late sought and receiv'd is very unlikely to assure Heaven to you when you die when it was never desired and used by you as a necessary Means of helping you to Holiness and so of leading you on to Happiness all your Life long Let not humble honest-hearted Christians debar and deprive themselves of this Ordinance by over-looking or mis-judging their own Qualifications But finding that they regard no Iniquity in their Hearts and feeling in themselves vehement Longings and earnest Breathings after Christ and continual Hungrings and Thirstings after Righteousness let them own with thankfulness any measure of Grace discernible in themselves and not deny to themselves what Christ so freely affords and offers them but when invited to this Spiritual Feast draw near with Faith and take this holy Sacrament to their Comfort and use it as a means of supplying their spiritual wants and needs Come yea frequently come to the Lord's Table The Sacrament of Baptism is the Symbol and Seal of our Regeneration or New Birth and therefore it is to be received but once But the holy Communion is the Symbol and Seal of our spiritual Nutrition and therefore in reason we are to receive it often When Christ appointed that this should be done in remembrance of him can you think he intended only a single or seldom remembrance Did not Christ himself in giving that Command and enacting that Law intimate insinuate and suppose a reiterated frequent remembrance of himself when he said * 1 Cor. 11.25 26. as oft as ye drink it the Apostle subjoining as often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup Will he then accept and take it kindly at your hand if ye do it so seldom as is next to a total Omission of it Did the Primitive Christians communicate every day or at least every Lord's-Day and can you content your selves to live many Weeks Months and Years without it Did you but know and understand consider and meditate of your own spiritual great necessities Wants Weaknesses and of the certain considerable Advantages of a frequent Participation of the holy Communion you would quickly find a Law within your selves to bind and oblige you a strong Argument and Impellent within your own Breasts a pressing powerful Motive in your own Bosoms to draw you to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper you would as soon forget to take your daily Bread as neglect to receive this blessed Sacrament upon any good Occasion and fit Opportunity offer'd to you Among all your Cares take special care to feed and nourish to strengthen and comfort to cleanse and save your Souls Among all your Employments find some leisure to remember your Saviour to meet with your dearest Lord and to receive the seasonable plentiful rich * Phil. 1.19 Supplies of the Spirit of Jesus Christ Will you pretend to value a Sermon and yet unworthily slight the Sacrament seem to make conscience of
and eminently holy Mr. Joseph Allein that when but a School-Boy he was observed to be so studious that he was known as much by this Periphrasis the Lad that will not [p] Bibentibus colludentibus aliis ipse sumto libro iâ— sylvulam vicinam sese proripuit tantisper in illa vel ad legendum considens vâ—l ad meditandum deambulans donec ipsum hora coenae domum revocaret Melch. Adam in vit Musculi p. 369. Bishop Andrews from his first going to Merchant-Taylor's School accounted all that Time lost that he spent not in his Studies He studied so hard when others plaied that if his Parents and Masters had not forced him to play with them also all the Play had been marr'd His late studying by Candle and early rising at four in the Morning procured him Envy among his equals yea with the Ushers also because he called them up too soon The Serm preached at the Fun. of Bp. Andrews p. 17. play as by his Name And when in the University he so demeaned and carried himself that he deserved to be called the Scholar who by his good Will would do nothing else but pray and study Yea so early as about the eleventh Year of his Age he was noted to be very diligent in private Praier and so fixed in that Duty that he would not be disturbed or moved by the coming of any Person accidentally into the Places of his Retirement And 't is remarkable what is storied [q] Mr. James Janeway's token for Children p 30 35. of a young Child who died about five or six Years old that he would so beg and expostulate and weep in Praier that sometimes it could not be kept from the Ears of Neighbours so that one of the next House was forced to cry out The Praiers and Tears of that Child in the next House will sink me to Hell because the forward Piety and Devotion of the Child did reprove and condemn his neglect of Praier or his slight Performance of it And to what a Degree of good Understanding and holy Affection had [r] Mr. White 's little Book for little Children p. 106 107. that child of Mr. Owen the Minister arrived who was but about fourteen Years old when he died and in his Life time would often write very serious Godly Letters to his Brother which shewed his great Piety and happy improvement And how savourily and spiritually he exerCised himself in Meditation notably appear in this Instance that though he much delighted in young Lambs yet one Day his Mother bringing a Lamb newly fallen of an Ewe of his and shewing a little Displeasure that he should take no more notice of her bringing it to him He told her that as he saw the Lamb in her Arms he was thinking of the Lamb of God how he presented him to the Father and that the Lamb his Mother brought him was but a poor thing for him to rejoice in for he had far higher Matters for his Joy Some young ones have redeemed the Time of their Youth O do you so too Be able to say upon better Grounds than the young Man in the Gospel that all God's Commands you have kept from your Youth up The Time of Youth is a special Season of doing and receiving good That 's the first The second Particular Opportunity to be redeemed 2. As the Mâ—rning of our Age so the Morning of the Week the first Day of the Week is a special Time to be redeem'd Let this Day be religiously observed by us which was applied and consecrated separated and appropriated to sacred Uses and holy Offices by the blessed Apostles who were either commanded by Christ to do it when for forty Daies after his Resurrection he instructed the Apostles and * Acts i. 3. spake to them of the Things pertaining to the Kingdom of God Or having received the holy Ghost Christ's Agent or Advocate promised and sent to inspire their Minds to teach and shew them how to manage Affairs and order Matters relating to the Church were extraordinarily guided and divinely directed by the Spirit of Christ in this weighty Business of the Surrogation and Substitution of the first Day in the place of the Jewish seventh Day Sabbath which was partly a Ceremonial Rest and was joined with the Ceremonial Law [a] Lawson's Theo-Polit p. 182 183. the Services and Rites whereof were to be observed in the Tabernacle and Temple upon this Day and was a distinguishing Sign and Part of that Partition-wall whereby the Jews were separated from the Gentiles and was therefore fit to be now removed and laid aside And were moreover plainly lead to it by the Providence of God which imprinted and put a most not able Character and signal Honour on this Day and made it more excellent than any other by Christ's Resurrection and Apparitions and the Spirit 's Mission upon it which were a remarkable pointing and special singling out of this Time and a clear Intimation that this very Day should be publickly kept and universally observed in perpetual Honour of the Lord Christ [b] Words that have their Termination in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signify actively As the Sacrament is called * 1 Cor. 11.20 23 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord's Supper not only because it is kept in Remembrance of the Lord's Death till his coming again but because it was instituted by the Lord himself So the first Day of the week is expresly stiled †Rev. i. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord's Day not only because it is observed by the Church in Memory of the Resurrection of the Lord Christ but because it was appointed by the Lord Christ because he was the Author and Ordainer of it either immediatly by himself or mediatly by his Apostles And we cannot imagine that there shall ever occur a sufficient Reason for the [c] VVho that is well instructed would endure to hear of a Pope Sy vester that durst presume to alter the Day decreeing that Thouâ—dâ—y thould be kept for the Lord's Day through the whole Year because on that Day Christ ascended into Heaven and on that Day instituted the blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood Bp. Huâ—â— Peace-maker p. 198. ex Hospinian de festis Christ Alteration of this to any other Day for we can never look to receive a richer Benefit in this World than Redemption by Christ who rose from the Dead and Sanctification by the Spirit sent down from Heaven on this very Day We can never have greater Blessings to remember on another Day and therefore the Sanctification of this Day must be perpetuated to the End of the World On this Day especially the Apostles performed those Offices which are most proper and most agreeable to a Sabbath-Day * Acts 20.7 There was a Convention and Congregation of the Disciples on the first Day of the Week to break Bread and St. Paul preacht to them the same Day And
hearty Thankfulness to Christ for it your Obedience to your Lord who does not only vouchsafe it as a Priviledge but command it as a Duty Do this in Remembrance of me Perform this easie sweet Command of thy dying Lord and Saviour who has freed and delivered thee by his Death from the heavy Yoke and grievous Bondage of Jewish Sacrifices and Observances O let our Hearts at such a Time be broken and bleed at the Remembrance of our Sins which brake Christ's Body and shed his Blood Behold in the Sacrifice and bloody Death of Christ represented in this Sacrament the odiousness and baseness of your own Sins and resolve to be the Death of that which was the Death of Christ and rather to die than willingly to do that for which Christ died Abhorr the Thoughts of wilfully choosing so great an Evil as once brought so great a Punishment upon so great a Person as the holy Jesus the well-beloved Son of God Consider seriously upon this Occasion that if God would not spare Christ when he who knew no Sin was by voluntary charitable Assumption of our Guilt to answer for our Sins to be sure then he will not spare us if we wilfully run on in Sin and obstinately allow our selves therein notwithstanding so convincing a Demonstration of his sin-hating Holiness and vindicative Justice Upon due Meditation draw this Conclusion which is the excellent Reasoning of the [p] Facilis est collectio si Deus ne resipiscentibus quidem peccata remittere voluit nisi Christo in poenas succedente multò minùs inultos sinet contumaces Grot. de Satisfact Christi learned Grotius that if God would not pardon the Sins no not of penitent Persons unless Christ did substitute himself in their Room and stand in their Stead to bear the Punishment much less will he suffer unreclaimable Rebels and contumacious Sinners to go unpunished When Christ is set forth in this Sacrament crucified before your Eies think how he intended and aimed at our Mortification and Sanctification in his Death and Passion * Tit. 2.14 Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purify to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works †Pet. 2.4 Who his own self bare our Sins in his own Body on the Tree that we being dead to Sin should live unto Righteousness Let us yield that Christ should have his End in his Death and never allow our selves to live in Sin which will render us uncapable of receiving the Benefit of Christ's Death Think how the Unholiness of our Lives is a greater wrong to Christ than the Jews being the very Death of him because as the [q] D. Jackson Vol. 3. p. 343 344 345. learned Dr. Jackson notes it is more against the Will and Liking and good Pleasure of our Saviour whose Will was regulated by Reason and was a constant Rule of Goodness for though a painful shameful Death and that inflicted by his own People went much against his human Will yet he chose rather to die and to suffer the most afflictive Circumstances of Death for us than to suffer us to live and die in our Sins and in the Servitude and Power of Satan Shall we pretend when we approach to the Table of our Lord affectionately to remember a loving dying Saviour and to desire to have his Memory continued and transmitted to Posterity and yet so much forget him upon the return of any Temptation as to repeat that which was the Death of him Shall we weep at the Sacrament and seem to be hugely troubled for those Sins which were the Cause of Christ's Sorrows and yet go about again to destroy and to crucify Christ afresh Shall we commemorate at the Lord's Supper our wonderful Redemption by the precious Blood of Christ and when we have done shall we do the Devil more work and service than the Lord Christ O what a Reproach is this to Christ and what a Sport to the Devil that they that pretend to remember Christ's Dying for them should not find in their hearts to live to him [q] Ego pro istis quos mecum vides nec alapas accepi nec flagella sustinui nec crucem pertuli nec sanguinem fudi nec familiam meam pretio passionis cruoris redemi sed nec regnum illis coeleste promitto nec ad paradisum restitutâ immortalitate denuò revoco Tuos tales Christe demonstra vix tui meis pereuntibus adaequantur qui à te divinis mercedibus praemiis coelestibus honorantur Cypr. de Opere Eleemosynis p. 220. St. Cyprian brings in the Devil boasting and bragging against our Saviour and insulting over us silly and sinful Wretches in this manner I have endured no Buffetings nor born Smitings with the Palms of Men's Hands I have suffer'd no Scourgings nor under-gon the Cross for any of these nor have I redeem'd my Family with the Price of my Passion and Blood-shedding yet shew me O Christ so many so busy so painful so dutiful Servants of thine as I am able to shew thee every where of mine Bring forth if thou canst such a Number of Persons who devote themselves and give their Labours Estates and Time to thee as I can easily produce of those who do all this to me When thou professest to remember that Christ died for thee O die to that for which he died Offer thy self to him and lay out thy self for him who once offered himself for us and in the Sacrament offers himself to us Think no Duty too much for him For Shame for Shame do not serve any longer a bloody Murtherer instead of a blessed Saviour and merciful Redeemer Let our Thoughts and Meditations dwell upon the Demonstration given us in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper of Christ's exceeding incomparable Love to Mankind See there how contrary the sweet and kind Nature of Christ is to the cruel and execrable Nature of the old Tyrant the Devil For as the learned [r] His Mystery of Godliness p. 133 245. Dr. More very well observes whereas the Devil who by unjust Vsurpation had got the Government of the World into his own hands tyrannizing with the greatest Cruelty and Scorn that can be imagined over Mankind thirsted after humane Blood and in most Parts of the World required the Sacrificing of Men which could not arise from any thing else but a salvage Pride and Despight against us This new gracious Prince of God's own appointing Christ Jesus was so far from requiring any such villainous Homage that himself became at once one grand and all sufficient Sacrifice for us to expiate the Sins of all Mankind and so to reconcile the World to God Shall not all this disengage us from Sin and Satan and win and gain us over to Christ And let Christ's Death make thee study to do something answerable to the dearest Love of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has
you go into a Potter's Shop and see a great Company of earthen Pots and should ask the Owner which of these would break first he would tell you Not that which was first made but that which first got a Fall 'T is common for them to go first to the Winding-sheet who came last from the Womb. We are earthen Vassels brittle Ware and may quickly get a Knock or Fall and crack and break How many Persons have lost their Lives by very strange and sad Accidents Some and great ones too have fallen suddainly by an Ehud's Dagger a Ravilliack or Felton's Knife A poisoned Torch did serve to light the Cardinal of Lorrain to his long home Fabius surnamed the Painter as [k] Bp. Taylor in his great Exemplar p. 557 558. See also Dr. Patrick's Div. Arithm. p. 26 27. a learned Bishop has with variety remarked out of History was choaked with an Hair in a Mess of Milk Adrian the fourth with a Flie Anacreon with a Raisin Drusus Pompeius with a Pear Casimir the second King of Polonia with a little Draught of Wine Tarquinius Priscus with a Fish-bone Lucia the Sister of Aurelius the Emperour playing with her little Son was wounded in her Breast with a Needle and died The great Lawyer Baldus playing with a little Dog was bitten upon the Lip instantly grew mad and perished So far that great and excellent Author A little Bruise on the Toe is said to have killed Aemilius Lepidus I have heard of several that have died by the cutting of a Corn upon their Toe a Place remote from the Heart and have read of a Person who after sixteen Years Travel and enduring much Hardness abroad returning home died of an Hurt in his Thumb [i] Mr. Edward Terry Mr. of Arts and Student of Christ's-Church in Oxford in his Voyage to the Eust-Indies Anno Christi 1615 ells us of a Nobleman in the great Mogul's Court who fitting in Dalliance with one of his Women had an Hair pulled by her from his Breast This little Wound made by that small and unexpected Instrument of Death presently festred and turning into an incurable Cancer killed him God needs no bigger a Lance than an Hair to kill an Atheist as this dying Lord acknowledged Purchas Pilgrims vol. 2. The plucking but a single Hair off the Breast of a Nobleman in the Great Mogul's Court caused an incurable Cancer in his Flesh and proved as mortal as the tearing out his very Heart [k] See Instances in the Gr. Exemplar p. 558. How many Persons have died in the midst of Sport and Merriment excessive Laughter and too great a Joy and what a Number have been found unexpectedly and suddenly dead in their Beds We are obnoxious to numerous perilous Diseases subject to various violent Passions and exposed to a thousand Casualties and Contingencies any one of which may quickly be the Death of us We are in Danger of perishing by falling into the Water or into the Fire by the firing or Fall of some Part of an House by the Fall of a Coach the Fall of an Horse or a Fall off an Horse We know not how soon a Vein may break and let out our Blood and Life How soon an Ague may shake us to Death as [l] 27. Jan. 1402. Knolles's Hist of the Turks p. 235. it did the great Tamerlane in the midst of his great Hopes and greatest Power when he was preparing for the utter rooting out of the Othoman Family and the Conquest and Overthrow of the Greek Empire We know not how soon a Dropsie may drown us how soon a Fever may burn us up how soon a Quincy may stop our Breath how soon an Apoplexy may bereave us of our Senses and of our Lives how soon we may groan under deadly Gripes how soon the Pestilence may smite us and cleave unto us till it has quite consumed us Every Pore in our Bodies is a Door at which Death may enter in If we had as many Hands as Hairs on our Heads they would not be able to stop up all those Passages at which Death may creep in unawares We know not but that some Disease is now breeding in our Bodies which will shortly make an End of us Blessed be God we are now free from Pain but ere long we may be even distracted with it To day we are well and in good Health but to morrow we may be sick heart-sick sick unto Death and the next Day laid in our Coffins and lodged in our Graves Many are gone before us who were likely enough to ontlive us and who knows but our turn may be the very next This Night mine thy Soul may be requied of us and to morrow Morning the Bell may give notice of our Death We are apt to imagine that we may continue in the World till we have effected all we design and yet we have no Promise of God's nothing but our own Presumption to secure us of longer Life And to be sure the Greatness and Multitude of our Sins give us Cause to fear the Fewness of our Daies and Shortness of our Lives to fear lest every Sickness should prove our Death and lest our Death should prove our Damnation If we consider how little need God has of us how many better than our selves go before us how useless and worthless how unprofitable and unserviceable we are in the World what an hgih Provocation our heinous Sins are unto God's infinite Holiness and Justice and how many Waies there are of snatching us away and removing us hence we cannot but confess that it is a thousand to one if ever we reach to an old Age. You that are old indeed have reason to conclude that your Time is sufficiently short your Pulse can beat comparatively but a few Strokes more your Sun draws low is almost set your Glass is almost run your Life is almost done you have one Foot in the Grave already you stand upon the Brink of Eternity and tread upon the borders of another World And will you be guilty of such prodigious inconsideracy still [m] San. de brev vit cap. 4. velut ex pleno abundanti perdere when you have but a few Daies or Hours remaining to spend as extravagantly as if you had all your Years before you You that are weak and infirm sickly and crasie have reason to reckon your Time uncertain and not to flatter your selves and say that threatned Folk live long You that are more eminently useful and holy zealous and forward in the Profession and Practice Maintenance and Defence of the Christian and Reformed Religion your very Religion which will save your Souls may possibly cause you to lose your Lives For your Activity in your Duty to God and your Country you may be [n] Preached on the Lod's-Day after the Discovery of the Murder of Sr. Edwund Berry Godfrey strangled or stabbed by the barbarous Hands of the butcherly bloody Papists But especially you that are
good Hope and a setled well-grounded Peace of Conscience To learn to be careful for nothing with an anxious distrustful distracting * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 4.6 dividing Care but in every Estate and Condition of Life to be humbly and cheerfully content To improve and stir up the several Graces of God in us By God's Assistance to bring our selves to maintain a daily holy Communion with God and a constant Conversation in Heaven to prepare aright for Death and Judgment to arrive to a Weanedness from this present World to a Desire to depart and be with Chrit and to a Love of the appearing and an earnest longing for the second Coming of the Lord Jesus This hard Task and weighty Work will require all our Labour and even take up every Hour Let 's therefore vigorously redeem the Time and industriously put it to this Vse and diligently employ it to this Purpose and daily say the Prayer of Moses †Psal 90.12 So teach us to number our Daies that we may apply our Hearts unto Wisdom Let 's lose none of our little Time upon unfruitful unprofitable Things till we have no more worthy and weighty Things to spend it in and till we have Time to spare from more momentous important Work But let 's lay out our Time in those necessary Works which will comfort us most when we come to die The Work that lies before us is great let 's therefore redeem the whole of our remaining Time redeem it perfectly as far as in us lies and redeem it constantly to the very last and not purposely make the good Improvement of one Day an Argumeat of mis-spending and trifling away the next but lay out every Day with Labour and Diligence in so very great and good a Work If we intend to redeem the Time we must continue in well-doing Now a natural Cessation of the Act is not a moral Discontinuance But only our Omission of any necessary Act Or our Doing a clean contrary Act This is that which we must take Care we do not become guilty of [x] Nan exiguum temporis habemus sed multum perdimus Satis long a vita in maximarum rerum consummationem largè data est si tota bene collocaretur Non accepimus brevem vitam sed fecimus nec inopes ejus sed prodigi sumus Sicut amplae regiae opes ubi ad malum dominum pervenerunt momento dissipantur at quam vis modica si bono custodi traditae sunt usu crescunt Ita aetas nestra bene disponenti multum patet Quid de rerum natura querimur illa se benignè gessit Vita si scias uts longa est Sen. de brevitate vitae cap. 1 2. We have no reason here to accuse and cast any Blame upon God for giving so little Time to us and expecting so great and weighty a Work from us for though our Time be short of it self and we have no spare Time to throw away in vain Pleasures or unnecessary Employments Yet blessed be God the Time he gives us is large and long enough to serve all rational spiritual Ends of Life to do all our necessary Work and real Business in by the Help of God and in the Strength of Christ We have in the Daies of our Lives Space enough given us for Repentance Time sufficient to dispatch the one Thing necessary to work out our Salvation to prepare for Eternity And for our Comfort and Encouragement if we be not grosly wanting to our selves we may probably yet perform whatever is indispensably requir'd of us in the Time that is continued and lengthned out to us if we take up presently and lose and squander away no more of it Life is long enough says Seneca and let me add the Resdidue of thy Life may provelong enough if thou knowest but how to spend it well And therefore be so pradent and provident as to use and improve that little which if the Fault be not thy own may happily serve to do thy main Business to save thy Soul from perishing everlastingly and from miscarrying to all Eternity The fourth Additional Reason We should redeem the Time while we enjoy it because we can neither bring Time back when once it is past unimprov'd nor any way prolong and lengthen out the Daies of our Lives when Death comes to put an End and Period to them 1. We should redeem the Time while we have it because we can never recall and retrieve the Time of this Life if once we lose and let it slip unimproved We can never live one Day of our Lives over again No Man will restore thy Time says [y] Nemo restituet annos nemo iterum te tibi redder Sen. d◠brev vit c. 8. Seneca or return thy lost Opportunities to thee and make thee Master once more of those Advantages which heretofore thou hadst in thy Hands If we would give the Fruit of our Bodies for the Redemption of our Time we can never purchase it into our Hands again It is reported to have been the Speech of Prince Henry upon his Death-bed to a certain Lord Ah Tom I now too late wish for those Hours we have spent in vain Recreations That of him in the Poet was a very groundless and fruitless Desire O mihi praeteritos referat si Jupiter annos [z] Bp. Reynold's Treat of the Pass Oh that Jove would me restore The Years that I have liv'd before When our Time is just at an End and we can hardly draw our Breath 't will be a lamentable desperate Case for us then to cry out with that poor distressed afflicted [a] Mrs. Pindar a Book-feller's Wife in Cambridg Woman in Cambridg Call Time again call Time again a Thing impossible to be effected by any Cares or Endeavours Prayers or Tears Money or Price The Time of Life once lost is irrecoverable and unredeemable And the sad Apprehension of the irreparable Loss of Time will one Day prove an intolerable Torment to too late considering and awakened Souls Let 's therefore use that Time well which there can be no Revocation of 2. As we cannot recover the Time that is past so we cannot make any Supplement or Addition of new and longer Time to the Daies of our Lives when once Death comes to put a Finis to them As we cannot add one Cubit to our Stature So we cannot add one Moment to the Measure and Number of our Daies [b] Hom. sz in Euang. in verba Vigilate itaque quia neseitis diem neque hordm St. Gregory in a certain Homily tells us a sad Story of one Chrisaurius a Nobleman but a had Liver as full of Wickedness as Wealth who at last was struck with Sickness and the same Hour that he was going out of the World he seem'd to see a Company of foul and black Spirits standing before him and coming to drag him to the Infernal Pit He began to tremble to
grow pale to sweat again and to call out to his Son [c] Maxime curre Maxime curre nunquam tibi aliquid mali feci in fidem tuam me suscrpe Maximus to come quickly to save and help him When his Son and Servants came they could see nothing but he himself turn which way he would could see nothing else but those evil Spirits which he could not endure to see and in a despairing Manner at last cried out Inducias vel usque manè inducias vel ujque manè Let me have respite but till to morrow respite but till to morrow Morning And in this Perplexity he died immediatly The same Father makes this Use of it The Vision did him no good says he but let it do good to us upon whom God's Patience waits yet a while longer [d] Nos ergo sratres chartssimt nunc solicitè ista cogitemus ne nobis in vacuum tempora pereant tunc quaeramus ad bene agendum vivere cùm jam compellimur de corpore exire Let us seriously think upon 't that we may not lose our Time says he and then beg to live that we may do our Duty when we are forc'd to die whether we will or no. The fifth Additional Reason We should diligently redeem the Time because we shall be certainly call'd to an Account for our Time Eccles 11.9 Rejoice O young Man in thy Youth or because thou art young healthy and strong the wise Man here speaks Ironically and let thy Heart cheer thee in the Daies of thy Youth and walk in the Waies of thy Heart and in the Sight of thine Eyes take thy Course do what thou pleasest live as thou listest lay no restraint upon thy self deny thy self nothing that Heart can wish please thy Eye gratify thy Phansie satisfy thy Appetite and let thy sensual Heart give Law to thy whole Man take thy Swing thy Fill of Lust and Pleasure get Gain heap up Riches acquire Honour grow great in the World enjoy thy self take thine ease eat drink and be merry But take along with thee this sad and severe yet seasonable Premonition Know thou that for all these Things God will bring thee into Judgment Know thou that is consider an think well of it till thy Heart be warmed with the Thoughts of it Let this so necessary weighty Doctrine not only enter into and then slip out of thy Head almost as soon as in it but let this Truth take up and dwell in thy Thoughts and move and stir thy Heart and Affections and rule and govern thy Life and Actions Thus know thou that for all these Things for all the Vanities and Excesses Follies and Extravagancies of thy Youth for all those Things which are now so grateful and delightful to thy Senses God [c] Bp. Reynolds in loc whose Word and Fear thou now despisest from whose Eye thou canst not hide thy Sins from whose Tribunal thou canst not absent thy self This God will bring thee bring thee perforce whether thou wilt or no send his Angels to hale and drag thee when thou shalt in vain call and cry to Mountains and Rocks to hide and cover thee Bring thee into Judgment to a particular Judgment immediatly after Death and to the general Judgment the Judgment of the great Day as St. Jude speaks call'd by St. Paul the Terrour of the Lord. Thou fond and foolish thou daring venturous Sinner know that there is an After-reckoning a Time when thou must come to an Account when thou must think and hear of what thou hast done and left undone and must surely pay very dear for all They that live their Time in the Flesh to the Lusts of Men says * 1 Pet. 4.2 5. St. Peter they shall give Account to him that is ready to judg the Quick and the Dead [d] Bp. Taylor 's Serm. 1. Vol. p. 294. We are as sure to account for every considerable Portion of our Time as for every Sum of Money we receive [e] Qus unum capillum capitis non dimittit non numeratum unum momentum temporis dimittes non computatum If the very †Mat. 10.30 Hairs of our Heads and †Mat. 10.30 all our Hairs are numbred then certainly our very Hours and all our Hours too And above all our special Hours our Sermon-Hours and all providential Opportunities with all our Neglects and Non-improvements are exactly computed and reckoned up by God our Judg. God puts down in his Catalogue this is the first this the second this the third time that I have warn'd that I have woed such an one He strictly observes how long he has waited upon us how often he has treated with us by his Mercies by his Judgments by his Word by his Spirit by his own Ministers by our own Consciences or our Christian Friends God counts and casts up every Minute of Patience spent upon us He reckons and registers every Sand of Long-suffering run out by us God now takes special particular punctual Notice of all in order to a future final and full Account We must one Day reckon for all those Hours which now we idle and tride away and make so little and light of Time is now a Burthen to many of us and lies upon our Hands and we know not almost how to spend it or which way to get rid of it And therefore sometimes we use evil Arts to pass it away But oh what an intolerable Burthen will the Guilt of mâ—s-spent Time be when it shall be charged home upon a Soul at the great and dreadful Day What have you done with all your Time will God then say Is it true that you have spent so much in Dressing so much in Revelling so much in Dressing your self every Day Were these the Things I gave you Time for what will the Sinner be able to answer to these Things When our righteous Lord who delivered the Talents of Time and manifold Opportunities to us shall come to reckon with us he will require and call for some answerable good Improvement of every such Talent And the more of these Talents were concredited and committed to us the richer Return and greater Improvement will be expected and demanded of us [f] Crescunt dona crescunt rationes donorum Our Reckoning will rise according to the Largeness of our Opportunities and Receits And the longer it is before God calls us to a Reckoning our Account will certainly be the sadder and our Doom and Punishment much the heavier if we have been unfaithful Stewards of our Time and Talents What Account will the old Sinner give of three or four-score Years spent in Vanity Sin and Folly What will he be able to say for himself that his gray Hairs were found in the Way of Vnrighteousness It will be a fearful Audit when God shall call the inconsiderate careless Sinner to appear before his great Tribunal Then he that has but hid his Talent shall hear that sad and
and Fellow-Christians do bear not only Leaves but Fruit bring forth Fruit in due Season Fruit meet for the Dresser much Fruit Fruit which will abound to their own account We have been brought up in the same House we have suck'd at the same Breasts and sate at the same Table We have eaten the same Milk the same Meat But we have not grown by the sincere Milk of the Word we have not rellish'd and concocted the spiritual Food of our Souls as others have done The Word of God's Grace has not been sweet unto our Taste as it has been to others We have not desir'd it delighted in it and received it in the Love of it as others have done and therefore we have not profited by the Word we have not been nourished and strengthened by it as others have been Oh how much Leanness may be found in our Souls when others are thriving and well-liking in the Eye of God and good Men Others have excell'd and exceeded us Our Fellow-Christians have out-shot us out-grown us out-run us out-done us Themistocles professed he could not [a] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch in vic Thes p. 3. sleep for thinking of the Trophies of Miltiades And when Julius Caesar was employed in Spain in the Office of a Quaestor or Judg in matters of Law and coming to Cales beheld there the Image or Portraiture of Alexander the Great in the Temple of Hercules [y] Ingemuit quasi pertaesus ignaviam suam quòd nihil dum à se memorabile actâ—m esset ia aetate quâ jam Alexander orbem terrarum subegisset missionem contmuò esslaguavit ad captandas quà m primùm majorum rerum occasiones in urbe Sueton. in vit sul Caesaris §. 7. he was asham'd to think of his own Sloth and sighed to consider that as yet he had perform'd no memorable Act at those Years wherein Alexander had conquered the whole World and presently craved leave to depart that so he might take the first Occasions of greater Actions in the City So when we see and consider what others have acted at our Years how others have done more good to their own Souls more good to the Souls of their Relations more spiritual good in their Families and Places of abode have conquer'd their own Passions subdued Temptations and Lusts and been the means of bringing others into Subjection and Obedience to the Lord Christ it may cause a more than ordinary Blush to arise in our Faces if there be any Christian Blood in them O let others considerable Improvement and Proficiency quite shame us out of our Idleness Negligence and Indiligence and quicken and provoke us to Activity and Industry in working the Work of God and working out our Salvation with Fear and Trembling The fourth Motive Consider farther That it is an Act of spiritual Wisdom to redeem the Time Redeeming the Time is called a * Coloss 4.5 walking in Wisdom a walking †Eph. 5.15 not as Fools but as Wise in the Verse before my Text. they are commended for * Mat. 25.4 wise Virgins who took Oil in their Vessels with their Lamps And on the contrary it is meer Madness and gross Folly not to redeem the Time They are noted for †Verse 3. foolish Virgins who took their Lamps and took no Oil with them 'T is Folly for a Merchant to trifle away the Time of his Trade Solomon marks him for a ‖ Prov. 17.16 Fool who has a Price in his Hand to get Wisdom and has no heart no use it What an odd and foolish Humour what a weak and childish Carriage and Behaviour what a vain and fruitless Practice and Employment was that of the Emperour [a] Inter initia principatûs quoâ—â—â—e secretum sibi horarium sumere solebat nec quicquam amplius quà m muscas captare ac stylo praeacuto configere ut cuidam interroganti Essetne quis intus cum Caesare non absurdè responsum sit a Vibio Crispo Ne musca quidem Id. in vit Domitiani § 2. Domitian to spend so many Hours in catching and killing Flies when he should have been in the Senate-House consulting for the good of the Commonwealth Which occasioned Vibius Crispus when a certain Person asked whether any one were within with Caesar to return this smart Answer There is not so much as a Fly with him And how has the World scorn'd and laughed at [b] Repente ut conchas legerent gaâ—ásque sinus replerent imperavit Spolia Oceani vocans Capitolio Palatiôque debita Id in vit Caligulae § 46. Caligula who when he drew out his Army on the Sea-shore and made a Shew of War on a suddain he only commanded his Souldiers to gather a company of Cockle-Shells and to fill their Shields and Bosoms with them affirming that they were the Spoils of the Sea and were due to the Capitol and Palace So how contemptible in the Eyes of God and good Men do many Christians render themselves by their toyish trissing Actions and petty inconsiderable Employments who were sent into the World about matters and Businesses of the greatest weight and moment When a certain [c] Dr. Lightfoot serm on Psal 4.4 p. 20. Epicure made his Will he bequeathed to his Player to his Cook to his Jester Talents and Pounds but Philosopho obolum an Half-penny only to him that would have taught him Wisdom And is not the Distribution of most Mens Time much after the same absurd Measure and foolish proportion What vast Portions of the rich Treasure of Time do they give and allow to sensual Pleasures and carnal Delights and freely bestow and lavish out upon secular Affairs and worldly Employments But if they part with any at all alas how few Minutes how very small and poor a pittance of Time is it that they find in their Hearts to spare in a Day a Week a Month a Year yea in a whole Life-time to God and Religion and the Needs and Concerns of their own Souls The Reverend [d] Bp. Hall's Remains or Shaking of the Olive-tree Serm. on 1 Pet. 1.17 p. 226. Bp. Joseph Hall relates a very remarkable Story out of [e] Summa Praedicantium Bromiard of a certain Lord in his Time that had a Fool in his House to whom the Lord gave a Staff and charg'd him to keep it till he should meet with one that was more Fool than himself and if he met with such an one to deliver it over to him Not many Years after this Lord falling sick even unto Death his Fool came to see him and was told by his sick Lord that he must now shortly leave him And whither wilt thou go said the Fool Into another World said his Lord And when wilt thou come again within a Month No Within a Year No When then Never Never And what Provision hast thou made for thy Entertainment there whither thou goest None at all No said the Fool none at all
quà m creavit Deus metuant ne cùm venerit resurrectionis dies artifex creaturam suam non recognoseat Cypr. beautifying thy Body but to dress and adorn thy Soul with true Grace and Holiness here that so at the Day of Resurrection thy Body may be made very glorious and beautiful indeed and then may be changed for the better never to suffer any Change more Yea thy Meditation of the Resurrection of thy Body will make thee labour to get thy Body sanctified that it may be glorified 'T will make thee pray that thy * 1 Thess 5.23 Body may be preserved blameless unto the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and cause thee as thou wouldst have thy Body rais'd to Glory to keep under thy Body here and not to suffer its Members to rise in Rebellion against God 'T will help thee to use thy bodily Members holily here that they may fare well and happily hereafter Considering how unfit it is that God should raise the Instruments of Iniquity to a State of glorious Immortality How unmeet that Christ should take that Body which in this Life vigorously oppos'd him and busily and violently acted against him and fashion this wicked hellish Body like unto his heavenly and glorious Body How incongruous that they * Rom. 3.13 that live after the Flesh and †Cal. 6 8. sow to their Flesh should in their Flesh see God that they who use their Eyes chiefly to let in sinful Objects should at the latter Day ‖ Job 19 26 27. see God for themselves and that their Eyes should behold him with Comfort and Joy Thy Meditation concerning the Resurrection will direct thee to say upon any Temptation Shall I offer to abuse and dishonour this Flesh to abuse and dishonour God with this Flesh which I look that God should so highly honour and greatly glorify at the last Day Shall I sin against God with this Body of mine which I hope shall shine at the Resurrection as the Sun in the Firmament and as the Stars for ever and ever and be chang'd and fashioned like the glorious Body of Jesus Christ This will engage thee to strive with the Apostle (*) Phil 3.11 if by any means thou maiest attain unto the Resurrection of the Dead a Resurrection to a glorious Immortality To study to be just that thou maiest be Partaker of the (†) Acts 24 15. Resurrection of the Just To labour to have part in the (‖) Rev. 20.6 first that thou maiest partake of the second Resurrection [*] Jo. 5.25 28 29. To hear now the Voice of the Son of God speaking by his Word and Works and Spirit and hearing to live a divine and spiritual Life that when thou art dead and rotten in thy Grave thou maiest at last hear his Voice and come forth to the Resurrection of Life and lift up thy Head with Joy in the latter Day To labour to be a true Member of Christ and to live to Christ that so thou maiest [†] 1 Th. fl 4.14 sleep in Jesus and by the Power of God be brought from the dead with him To feast and refresh the Bodies of the Poor that thou maiest be * Luke 14.14 recompensed at the Resurrection of the Just To endeavour to act spiritually and lively as thou hopest to partake of the Resurrection unto Life To be careful to have alwaies a †Acts 24.15 16. Conscience void of Offence in Hope and Expectation of an happy Resurrection and in Intuition of the Promise of it with the ‖ 26.7 12 Tribes to serve God instantly Day and Night To refuse at any time to (*) Heb 11.35 accept Deliverance upon base and unworthy Terms and sinful Conditions that thou maiest obtain a better Resurrection To be willing to put thy Body to any Pains Labour Suffering for the sake of God and Christ who will not suffer so much as thy Body to be a Loser To (†) 1 Cor. 6.20 glorify God in thy Body since God hath promised to glorify this Body To resolve that Christ shall be (‖) Phil. 1.20 magnified in thy Body whether it be by Lise or by Death since Christ will raise even thy dead Body and give this very Body of thine an (*) 1 Cor. 15.58 abundant Recompense of Reward at last In a Word to have thy Conversation [†] Phil. 3.20 21. in Heaven from whence thou lookest for thy Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to change thy vile Body 3. And lastly Meditate much and often of that perfect State of heavenly Glory that is to be enjoyed upon the Reunion of Soul and Body Think when thy Soul shall recover its own Body what a glad and joyful Meeting there will of those old Companions and intimate Friends which have been parted and separated so long and how the Glory of thy Body will be an Addition to the Joy and Happiness of thy Soul and that from the Day of Resurrection not only a Part but thy whole Person consisting both of Soul and Body will be setled in a perfectly happy Condition 1. Apply thy Mind to think in general of enjoying an * 1 Pet. 1.4 Inheritance incorruptible and undesiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you of taking Possession of an heavenly Kingdom and receiving a Crown of Life That if thou beest a real good Christian †Col. 3.4 when Christ who is thy Life shall appear thou also shalt appear with him in Glory That neither ‖ 1 Cor 2.9 Eye hath seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the Heart if Man the Things which God hath prepared for them that love him Think of an excellent State of heavenly Happiness which cannot indeed be fully understood till it is enjoyed but yet at present is sufficiently revealed to provoke our Desires after it and to encourage our Endeavours to gain and obtain it The Meditation of heavenly Happiness and Glory in the general will cause thee to beware of such (*) 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Gal. 5.19 20 21. Eph. 5.5 6. Rev. 21.27 Sins as will meritoriously exclude thee from the Kingdom of Heaven and formally unfit thee for the Enjoyment of it and will make thee careful to get the Qualifications proper to a Person to whom it belongs and to perform the necessary indispensable Conditions upon which the promised Benefit depends To labour to be (†) Col. 1.12 made meet to be a Partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in Light by Grace to become capable and susceptible of Glory to * Joh. 3.3 be born again that thou maiest see the Kingdom of God to be a †Rom. 9.23 Vessel of Mercy sitted and prepared unto Glory To bow thy Knees to God that he would work this Meetness and Fitness this spiritual Aptitnde and Idoneity in thee that he would prepare thee for the Inheritance of the Saints and Inheritance ‖ Acts 20 32. among them which
voluntary Crimes and according to the measure of them And think again That as thou shalt suffer variety of Punishment Punishment of Loss and Punishment of Sense so thou shalt undergo extremity of Torment That thou shalt be forc'd to depart into Fire †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 25.41 the Fire emphatically which whether it shall be material or metaphorical speaks the sharpness and severity of thy Torment That thou shalt be cast into Fire prepar'd suffer a contrived Punishment that falls under the solemnity of a Preparation Prepared by God the wise and just Lord and Judg For the Devil and his Angels A great and inevitable Punishment such as the Devils must suffer and such as thou must suffer with the Devils That if thou servest the Devil here thou must dwell with him in Hell-fire And if it be so great an Affliction to the People of God who have a true Sense and a right Judgment of Things to be necessitated to live among * Ps 120.5 the Wicked here in this World Think then what a grievous Misery it will be to thee when thy Eyes are open'd in Hell to see thy self under a necessity of dwelling continually with the Devils and cursed Fiends of Hell Think how it would [d] Shepheard's S C. p 95. scare thee almost out of thy wits to have the Devil frequently appear to thee here and what Horror then shall fill thy Soul when thou shalt be banish'd from the Face of God and Presence of Christ and from Angels Society and be joined in Fellowship with the Devil and his Angels be shut up in the darkest Den with that roaring Lion and be chained with the Devil in fiery Fetters Nor will it at all relieve thee to have Companions in all thy Pain and Distress in Hell But the more there be that shall suffer with thee there the less ease and comfort shalt thou enjoy for as [e] Dr. Jackson 3 vol. p. 495. one of profound Judgment well observes there will be no Concord or Consort there nothing but perpetual Discord which is alwaies so much the greater by how much the Parties discording are more in number It being a Thing too well known that to live in continual Discord though but with some few is a kind of Hell here upon Earth Think yet further That thy Punishment in Hell will be perpetual thy Torments be endless as well as easeless thy †Mat. 25.41 46. 3.12 Fire everlasting and unquenchable That thou shalt be * Rev. 20.10 tormented in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone day and night for ever and ever That if it were possible for one Eternity to be spent for one ever to expire and come to an End there should be another ever for thee to be tormented in That in Hell †Mark 9.44 46 48. thy Worm shall never die That thou shalt be punished with ‖ 2 Thess 1.9 everlasting Destruction from the Presence of the Lord That thou shalt be destroyed in a moral not in a natural Sense That thy Essence and Being shall be everlastingly preserv'd but thou shalt be everlastingly depriv'd of God and Glory and of all that makes to thy well-being and everlastingly afflicted and punished with all that tends to thy ill-being That as Nero refus'd to put [f] Philostr in viâ—a Apoll. Tyanaei Apollonius to Death who was very desirous to die because he would not so far gratify him And as Tiberius Caesar when a certain Offender petition'd him to hasten his Punishment retur'd this Answer [g] Suetonius l. 3. c. 6. Nondum tecum redii in gratiam Stay Sir you and I are not Friends yet So if thou provest a damned Person that God won't be mov'd by all thy entreaty to grant a quick and speedy Dispatch to thee nor after [h] See Mr. Bolton's 4 last Things p. 107 108 109 110. If thou hadst an Head as big as Archimedes and couldst tell how many Atomes of Dust weâ—e in the Globe of the Earth yet think that such a vast number is but as one little Atome in compare with those endless Sorrows and those endless Joys Let this be thy Impress or Motto let this be writ upon the minâ— that a learned man writes upon all his Books Aeternâ—tatem cogita Think of Eternity Johan Meursius D. Patrick's Div. Arithm p. 40 41. thousands and millions of Years spent in Torments yield to let thee die at last And that the Eternity of thy Torments will be the Hell of Hell and the very Sting of the second Death That the Eternity both of Loss and Sense will even break the very Heart of thee If good Men here do grieve and mourn when God withdraws and absents himself but for a Moment from them Think then how lamentably and intolerably it will perplex and punish thee to be made sensible hereafter that God will hide his Face from thee for ever That if here thou art unable to bear a tedious Fit of the Tooth-ach Head-ach Cholick Gout or Stone what then thou wilt do to endure those akings of Heart and wounds of Spirit and convulsions of Conscience and complicated torments of Soul and Body which will be the Portion of damned Persons to eternal Ages And if it be so sad a Misery for any to be burnt to Death here Think then how incomparably greater a Misery it will be to be alwaies burning and frying in Hell and yet never to be burnt to Death there Nay if here to lie long on a Bed of Down or on a Bed of Roses and not once to rise in several Years together would prove a grievous sore Trouble and heavy Affliction what an overwhelming Thought is this then of lying in Flames to all Eternity Consider here that so great is the Folly of Man's Mind and the Hardness of his Heart and the Power of present sensual Allurements that [i] See Baxter's Reas of the Christ Rel. p. 171. nothing less than the Threatning of an endless Misery was an apt and sit Instrument of God's ruling and governing the World That Men would not have been sufficiently awed and effectually restrain'd and deterr'd from Sin and kept in order and obedience if God had not intimated and foretold that the obstinate Sinner shall certainly suffer perpetual Punishment in another World That it is too evident that the Denunciation even of eternal Pain and infinite Torment does [k] Id. ib. p. 164 170. not move and sway the greatest part of Men and therefore that the Threatning of meer Annihilation or of some lighter and shorter Punishment would surely have less prevail'd and wrought upon the World And now when everlasting Punishment is plainly threatned that the just and holy Law-giver doth not intend to affright thee with a Lie or with an uncertainty That his Threatning is not like the prediction of an Almanack It may be so it may be not But that he meaneth really to execute and inflict the Penalty of eternal
giving Nor in not forgiving never forgetting how the wicked uncompassionate Servant in the Parable was delivered by his Lord to the Tormentors Thou wilt strive and labour against sinful [w] Mr. Latimer having in a Sermon at Court in Henry the Eighth's daies much displeased the King he was commanded the next Lord's-Day to preach again and make his Recantation He coming prefaced to his Sermon with a kind of Dialogism in this manner Hugh Latimer Do'st know to whom thou art this day to speak to the high and mighty Monarch that can take away thy Life if thou offend therefore take heed how thou speakest a Word that may displease his Majesty But as recalling himself Hugh Hugh saies he do'st know from whom thou comest and upon whose message thou art sent even the great and mighty God that is able to cast both Body and Soul into Hell-fire for ever and therefore take heed to thy self that thou deliver thy message faithfully and so came to his Sermon and what he had deliver'd the Day before confirmed and urged with more vehemency than ever The King that day called for him and taking him off from his Knees embraced him in his Arms saying he blessed God that he had a Man in his Kingdom that durst deal so plainly and faithfully with him Mr. Newcomen's Serm on Heb. 4.13 p. 37. Fearfulness and not be drawn to do any Evil or omit any Good against clear and full Light of Conscience for Fear of any outward Trouble or Danger recollecting in thy Thoughts that the ‖ Rev 21.8 Fearful shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone Thou wilt be ready (*) Mat. 10.28 Luke 12.5 to set the Fear of God and the Fear of Hell against all carnal Fear of Men or of any temporal Evil whatsoever As the Primitive Martyrs did who when they were solicited by Heathen Emperours to sacrifice to their Idols with these Arguments That then they should save their Houses and Lands and Liberties and Lives but should otherwise lose all They put off all with this Answer [x] Da veniam Imperator tu carcerem minaris ille gehennam Pardon us O Emperour you threaten a Prison to us but God threatens Hell to us So Biblis as [y] Eccl. Hist l. 5. c. 1. Eusebius relates the Story a Woman who having fainted before and renounced her Profession of Christianity out of fear of suffering Persecution and being brought to the Place where the Christians Bodies were burnt to Ashes that others might be drawn from their Profession by means of her expected publick blasphemous Denial and Recantation was at the very Hour of Suffering thoroughly awaken'd as out of a dead Sleep by the sight of those Flames which were the Instruments of the Martyrs Torments to consider the intolerable eternal Torture of Hell-fire which she must unavoidably suffer if she should dishonour Christ and his Religion and asperse the innocent and unblameable Professors of it And thus expelling the lesser Fear by the greater and happily returning unto her self she disappointed her Persecutors Expectation and by being faithful unto Death obtain'd the Crown of a Martyr of Jesus and animated others to endure the Cross with Christian Fortitude and the Patience of the Saints Fix thy Cogitations on the Infernal Flames and this will make thee resolve and determine to chuse rather to do or suffer any thing here than to suffer the sad and bitter Pains of Hell hereafter Concluding that the Pains and Difficulties of Duty are no way comparable to the troublesome uneasy Condition and piercing raging Pains of Hell yea that the Suffering of Martyrdom here is a light Affliction to the dreadful Suffering of Hell-fire hereafter The serious frequent Meditation of the exquisite Punishments and dolorous Torments of Hell will moreover powerfully perswade thee to be far from [z] De horribili eorum exitio admoniti fideles praesentem illis sortem non invideant Calv. envying the greatest Prosperity of wicked Men who shall one day change their present Felicity for extream Want and utmost Misery lose the Presence of God and Christ and the full Fruition of endless Pleasures in Heaven and suffer an Eternity of distracting Pains and racking heart-renting Torments in Hell for a few bitter-sweet transient Pleasures here on Earth Yea this will help thee to bear any outward Affliction patiently and quietly to accept of any temporal Punishment of thy Iniquity considering thou deservest Hell it self and that all thy present Straits and Sufferings are nothing to the Wants and Losses the Pains and Miseries of damned Persons That eminent Pattern of Christian Patience the holy [a] His Life among Mr. Clark's Lives of ten em Div. p. 178. Mr. Jeremy Whitaker did humbly adore God's Goodness in the midst of his sorest sharpest Sufferings and violent excruciating racking and grinding Pains which were caus'd and continued by a complication of acute Diseases the Stone Ulcer Gangrene and expressed himself with marvellous Meekness in such Words as these Lord thou givest me no occasion to have any hard Thoughts of thee O who would not even in Burnings have honourable Thoughts of God Blessed be God there is nothing of Hell in all this Again This will throughly awaken and quicken thee to take heed of beginning the Hell here which will be compleated and consummated hereafter of being now of an hellish frame and temper of Mind of departing from and living without God and Christ which is not only Man's Sin but Misery which is a very Hell upon Earth and will be a great part of the future Hell of contracting and strengthning vicious habits here and of exposing thy self to the Misery that naturally arises from Sin to the Rebukes and Upbraidings of a guilty Conscience Considering with thy self that an hellish Temper and Disposition if thou livest and diest in that Condition will surely continue and be confirm'd in the other World and that an hellish State will prepare thee for and bring thee to the place of Hell This will also engage thee to bless God for Christ for giving his only begotten Son to * 1 Thess 1.10 deliver thee from the Wrath to come by suffering Tribulation and Anguish for thee and †5 9. not appointing thee to Wrath but to obtain Salvation by Jesus Christ. And to be truly thankful to Jesus Christ who condescended to be forsaken of God that thou mightst not be totally deserted and eternally forsaken of him and endured the Fire of God's Wrath that thou mightst be perfectly freed for ever from Hell-fire This will provoke thee by Faith and Repentance and bringing forth Fruits * Mat. 3.7 8. meet for Repentance * Mat. 3.7 8. to flee from the Wrath to come and to seek to escape the Damnation of Hell And this will cause thee to hate and abandon the cursed Arts and wicked Waies of †23.15 making others the Children of Hell to dread the