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
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
wilfully wicked and impenitent have reason to determine that you have not long to live How can you hope that God should put another Talent and trust a new Stock of time in the Hands of such Prodigals as you have been That he should give such Rebels longer Time to affront and dishonour him That he should suffer you to live who know not how to live and care not how you live who do not understand or consider for what it was you came into the World That he should allow you one Day more who never yet knew how to spend and improve any one Day as ye ought You have Ground enough to expect that the continuing and lengthening out of your Sins will extremely diminish and lessen curtail and shorten your Daies You have reason to fear every Hour the Loss of your Lives and of all Possibility of Repentance that you shall be removed and room made for worthier Persons to stand up in the Places which you so unprofitably and perniciously take up in the World Our Time is short and therefore let us lay present hold upon that small Remnant of [o] Cum celeritate temporis utendi velocitate certandum est velut ex torrente rapido nec semper casuro cito hauriendum est Sen. de brev vit cap. 9. hasty Time which posteth away whether we work or play Let 's take with us Words and say to God with the devout Herbert [p] Repentance O let thy Height of Mercy then Compassionate short-breathed Men. Oh! gently treat With thy quick Flow'r thy moment any Bloom Whose Life still pressing Is one undressing A steady aiming at a Tomb. Let 's daily prepare to die by earnest importunate Pleading with God for Pardon of Sin and Sanctification and Sence of Pardon and of our fitness for Heaven and Happiness that so we may certainly die safely and comfortably And by the Help of God let 's double our Diligence and Activity and endeavour to do a great deal of Work in a little Time You know Nature at the Approach of Death usually acts a double Part and puts forth all its Strength Bells when about ceasing strike thicker than before A Stone the nearer it comes to its Center the faster it moves When Night draws on the Traveller mends his Pace Considering we have but a few Daies let 's labour to live them all to lose none of them So to lead our Life that we may be able to enjoy our past Life by making sweet and comfortable Reflections upon it which is in a manner to [p] Ampliat aetatis spatium sibi vir bonus hoc est Vivere bis vitá posse priore frui Epigrammatograph Latin enlarge our Age and after a Sort to live twice [q] Nemo quà m bene vivat sed quam diu curat cùm omnibus possit contingere ut bene vivant ut diu nulli Sen. ep 22. in fine Quomodo fabula sic vita non quà m diu sed quà m bene acta sit refert Id. ep 77. Discendum quà m bene vivas refrie non quà m diu Id. ep 101. We have but a little while to live let us therefore study and strive to live well Our Life is just like a Comedy saies Seneca it matters not so much how long as how well it is acted [r] Let us account that the oldest Life which is most holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch conjol ad Apollon A long Life is not the best but a good Life As we do not commend saith he him that hath playâ—d a great while on an Instrument or made a long Oration but him that hath played and spoken well and as we account those Creatures best that give us most profit in a short Time and every where we see maturity preferred before length of Age so it ought to be among our selves They are the worthiest Persons and have lived longest in the World who have brought the greatest Benefit unto it and made the greatest Advantage of their Time to the Service of God and of Men. Let our Conscience therefore be the Ephemeris or Diary of our Life Let us not reckon by the Almanack but by the Book of God how much we live And let us account that he who lives Godly lives long and that other Men live not at all D. Patrick's Div. Arithm. p. 34 35. He lives long that lives well who in a few Years is very useful and serviceable unto God and geatly profitable and beneficial to the World The Author of the Book of Wisdom says concerning Enoch who was the shortest liv'd of the Patriarchs before the Flood but an eminent Pattern of Piety and a rare Exemplar of walking with God that he being perfected or consummated in a short Time fulfilled a long Time Chap. 4. Vers 13. For as the same Author a little before does well express it Vers 8 9. Honourable Age is not that which standeth in length of Time nor that which is measured by Number of Years But Wisdom is the gray Hair unto Men and an unspotted Life is old Age. Lucilius having in an Epistle to Seneca sadly lamented the immature untimely Death of Metronactes the Philosopher who might and in his Conceit ought to have lived longer The grave Moralist seasonably checks his causeless unjust Complaint of [s] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apud Poctas Minor p. 513. Providence and takes Occasion in his Answer to discourse usefully and excellently in this manner [t] Octoginta annis vixit nisi fortè sic vixisse eum dicis quomodo dicuntur arbores vivere Quemadmodum in minorâ— corporis habitu potest homo esse perfect us sic in mâ—nore temporis modo potest esse vita perfecta Qâ—aeris quod sit amplissimum vitae spatium Vsque adsapientiam vivere qui adâ—â—â—m pervenit attigit non longissimum sinem sed maximum Nem tam multis vixit annis quà m potuit Et paucorum versuum liber est quidem laudandus atque utilis Sâ—n. ep 93. Multis ille bonis slebilis occidit Horat. carm l. 1 Od. 14. de morte Quintilii Our Care should be saies he not to live long but to live enough Life is long if it be full What good do eighty Years do him that spends them all idly such a Person did not live but only linger in Life nor did he die late but was a long Time dead But you make your moan that he died young and green yet he performed the Offices of a good Citizen a good Friend a good Son he was deficient in no part that properly belonged to him Though his Age was imperfect his Life was perfect He liv'd yea he was here eighty Years unless you will reckon he liv'd no otherwise than Trees are said to live I pray thee my Lucilius let us endeavour says he that as precious Things so our Life though it be not of any great Extent and Length yet may be of much Weight and Worth Let us
measure it by Work and not by Time Wouldst thou know the Difference between him that spent so few and another that hath passed over many Years The one lives even after Death the other perished before Death Let us therefore praise him and place him in the Number of happy Persons who how little Time soever he enjoyed was careful to bestow it well Why do you inquire how long he lived he liv'd to the Memory and Benefit of Posterity As there may be a perfect Man in a less Habit of Body so there may be a perfect Life in a less Measure of Time Do you demand what is the largest Space of Life it is to live till we attain to Wisdom He that arrives to that is come not to the longest End but the greatest He liv'd not so many Years as he might why a Book may contain but a few Verses and yet be very laudable and useful He that attains the End of Life though his time be short yet his Life is long because he lives [u] In quantolibet tempore bona aeterna consummant Sen. Ep. 92. much in a little Like him that writes small thick and close having much to write and but a little Paper to write in When the Ninivites had but forty Dvies allowed them they made use of that Space to exercise a notable Repentance in Our Time is short and very uncertain let our Improvement therefore be as speedy and as great as may be Let our Care be to live alwaies holily that we may never fear dying suddenly nor dread the Thought of being surprised and taken unprovided If we cannot be certain of longer enjoying this present mortal transitory Life Oh let 's not be contented to be as uncertain of our obaining a better being and an endless Life when this is concluded and expired 3. Our special Particular Opportunities are much shorter than our Time and more uncertain Though the Stalk remain the Flower may be gone though somewhat of Time may be left yet Opportunity may be slipt But this I say Brethren the * ◠Cor. 7.29 TIME IS SHORT the Word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contracted or shortened It is an Allusion to Sea-faring Men that have almost done their Voyage and begin to strike Sail are ready to roll and fold up their Sails together to put into Harbour and to go to unlade their Goods Our special Seasons are very short and uncertain Things We may quickly be laid upon Sick-Beds and unfitted by a Disease for the Performance of those Duties which now we are free to the Exercise of We may suddenly fall into so weak a Condition that an earnest Care and working Thoughts about the final Estate of our Souls would hinder the Cure and Recovery of our Bodies and will be apt to be laid aside upon that Pretence In a Time of Sickness our Heads may be distempered or our Hearts may be straitned that we cannot pray We may possibly lose our Estates that we cannot hereafter give to the Poor so liberally as now we may It may be for the future we may not be excited and suscitated by such good Motions as now we are We may never be entrusted with such rich Talents nor have such precious Opportunities any more afforded us as are at present vouchsafed to us Let 's therefore now improve them to the utmost let us make the best of them and lose none of them Especially considering that as our Time is short and uncertai and our special Opportunities shorter and more uncertain So 4. The Work we have to do is very great 'T is no slight and trifling Work above all keepings to keep our Hearts to prevail with our selves to make a Covenant with our Eyes and perform it to turn away our Eyes from beholding Vanity and from gazing on alluring Objects to learn habitually to govern our Tongues to set a Watch over our Lips that we offend not with our Tongues nor speak unadvisedly with our Lips to take heed unto our Feet and to make streight Paths to walk circumspectly * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 5.15 accurately exactly to strive to enter in at the strait Gate to watch for our Souls to work out our Salvation to make our Calling and Election sure to procure and preserve a Right and Title to the heavenly Kingdom to get our Evidences for Heaven sealed and to keep them so clear from Blots and Blurs that they may be plainly read It is no facile Thing to repent of so many thousand Sins and Follies to believe with all our Hearts to obey the several Laws and Commands of Christ and to discharge and perform our particular respective Duties both towards God towards our Neighbour and towards our selves 'T is no such easy matter to become able to resist the Devil to tread Satan under our Feet to get Victory over the World to subdue our own Flesh to deny our selves To reach and attain to such a Degree of spiritual Niceness as not to endure the Impurity of a Dream nor to allow our selves in so much Anger as would disorder and disturb a Child Sin is not mortified on a suddain Our old Man is not crucified in a Moment The strong Man is not disarm'd and cast out in an instant The Plague of our Heart is not so soon cured our spiritual Leprosie so quickly healed nor our Issue of Blood so presently dried up A corrupt Nature is not so easily changed [w] Malá consuetudine obsessis diu rubigo animorum essricanda est Sen. ep 95. Ill Habits and Customs are not so readily broken and laid aside A craving Appetite is not immediatly drawn off from sensual Objects nor our Inclinations to the Things below vanquish'd and conquer'd with a single and short Conflict Strength is not so speedily gotten against Temptations nor Power over our Passions nor Conquest obtain'd over our Corruptions It is not a Thing of so quick a dispatch to six and settle our Resolutions to remove strong Prejudices to resolve our Doubts to answer Objections and satisfy many weighty and difficult Questions which will arise concerning our Souls and spiritual Estates 'T is a great Work sure Employment and Business enough for all our Time to get a Change of Mind and Heart and Life To get Pardon of Sin and Purity of Heart To recover the Favour and Friendship of God and to regain the glorious Image and Likeness of God To procure the Reconciliation of our Persons and Natures to God To get a Participation of the divine Nature a Participation of God's Holiness To attain a blessed Conformity in a Spirit and Practice to Christ our Head To get an affective transformative Knowledg of God and Christ and a deep Impress of the holy Gospel upon our Hearts and Lives To know the Gospel to know God and Christ so as to become Gospel-like God-like Christ-like Creatures To gain a good Measure of grace and Holiness a rooted Love to God and Goodness a
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
raised Philosopher well observes the different Judgments and Affections of Men in the course of a pleasurable Life and under apprehensions of the Nearness of Death When Men think they have Time enough they have no regard of Time but are extreamly prodigal of it [g] At eosdem aegros vide si mortis periculum admotum est propius medicorum genua tangentes Sen. de brev vit c 8. But look on these Men when they are sick says he If they appear in any danger of Death you shall find them courting and crouching to Physicians and bowing down to their very Knees begging the Use of their Art and Skill to prolong their Daies and lengthen out their Lives Or if they fear they shall suffer capital Punishment you shall see them ready to lay out all to save their Lives But if as the Number of every ones past Years may be reckoned so the Number of those that are to come could be assign'd [h] Quemodo illi ui paucos viderent superesse trepidarent quomodo illis parcerent Id. Ib. How would they tremble saies he that should see but a few remaining and how apt would they be to be sparing of them Surely they that have all their Lives made it their Business to drive away their Time would at their Deaths give all the World to redeem it What would the dying Husband give for Time to spend more spiritually with his Wife the dying Wife for Time to spend more holily with her Husband the dying Master for Time to spend more godlily with his Family the dying Parent for Time to spend in a more religious Institution and conscientious Education of his Children a dying Neighbour for Time to spend in more profitable Converse with those about him Would he intend to spend his Time if he could live longer in tempting his Neighbour to the Tavern or Ale house to drinking or gaming or the like If God would but lengthen out such a Person 's Daies and afford him but a little more Space to amend his Life and to lay hold on eternal Life he would thankfully accept of it upon the hardest Conditions He would be content to be the poorest Beggar in the Street and to live a mean and outwardly miserable Life as long as he liv'd He is just now departing out of this World and immediatly going to his own Place and if Time were now to be redeem'd what would not the most voluptuous Man be willing to do or suffer What would not the most covetous Man be ready to part with for the purchasing of it What would not he give for [i] Considera quà m multi modo mâ—riuntur quibus si haec hora ad agendum pâ—nitentiam oneâ—â—erâ—tur quae tibi concessa est quomodo per aâ—taria quà a fâ—stinanter currerent ibi sleâ—â—s genibus vel cerè toto corpore in terram prestrato tamdiu suspirerent plorarent orare tâ— donec plenissâ—â—am peccatorum venâ—am à Deo consequi merâ—â—entur Tu verò comedendo bibendo jocanâ—o ridendo tempus ocâ—osè vivendo perdis quod tibi indulserat Deus ad acquirendam gratiam ad promerendaâ— gloriam Bernard de interiori domo c. 63. that Time which some of you it may be spend and throw away in Drinking Gaming Carding Diceing in Romances and Stage-Plaies in idle foolish Pastimes in Jeering and Jesting and carnal sinful Merry-making To what excellent Vses would he resolve to put his Hours if he could enjoy any more of them If God would grant him but one Year of Trial more how little would he design to give to the World and the Flesh and how much to God and Godliness and the Offices and Exercises of pure Religion and undefiled How would such an one purpose and promise to resist Temptations to shun all Occasions and Appearances of Evil carefully to provide for his immortal Soul diligently to study the sacred Scriptures strictly to observe the whole Lord's-Day attentively to hear the Word preach'd both in Season and out of Season frequently to meditate of it and constantly to frame and order his Life according to it to pray with his Family devoutly and fervently morning and evening to spend some Time every Day with God and himself in secret to make the purest and precisest Christians his constant Patterns and Examples and for the future to follow and imitate those whom heretofore he hated and derided nick-named and abused When once Men ly a dying and the near Approach of their latter End does awaken their sleepy secure Consciences and make the most stupid sottish Sinner begin now to be truly sensible and serious with what aestuations and perturbations of Mind with what anguish and akings of Heart with what Pangs and Agonies and fearful Tremblings with what doleful Accents and passionate piercing moving melting Expressions do they lament and beâ—ail their waâ—teful Mis-spence and miserable Loss of all the Time of God's most patient Trial of them and of all their special golden Seasons and rare Advantages and Opportunities When they take their leave of all about them how earnestly and importunately do they exhort and urge them to be better husbands of their Time and Talents How pathetically and feelingly do they then advise and counsel their Children and Servants Friends and Relations Neighbours and Acquaintance to number their Daies to lead good Lives to improve their Health and Strength for God and their own and others Souls and timely to prepare for Death and Judgment Let 's consider some of us who have thought sometimes that the Sentence of Death has past upon us and have look'd on such or such a Sickness as our last Arrest and Summons what would we then have disbursed for a Reprieve Would we not have given with Hand and Heart an House full of Silver and Gold if we had had it to have been sure to have lived another Year for the proving and evidencing the Truth and Sincerity of our Faith and Repentance by a course of Obedience and our making a larger and surer provision for our comfortable Reception and happy Entertainment in the other World Friends we shall ere long be all of us plac'd upon our Death-beds and if we make no matter of Time now if we won't value and prize it now we shall then sure enough highly prize it when alas it will be too late And if we now have worthy thoughts of it we shall suffer nothing to rob and deprive us of it [k] Quà m felix prudent qui talis nunc nititur esse in vita qualis optat inveniri in morte Thomas a Rempis lib. 1. c. 23. n. 4. Hic est apex summae sapientiae ea viventem facere quae morienti essent appetenda Let 's be of the same mind and judgment now in our Health and Strength that we shall certainly be of in Sickness and Weakness and not contemn and vilify that in our Life time which we shall wish we had worthily
did so early and so solemnly dedicate our selves Souls Bodies and Interests to God and vow to give our Time and Opportunities to his Service We are in Justice obliged to keep this Promise to pay this Vow which if we fail to do we are miserably perjured and forsworn 2. And then for the other Sacrament that of the Lord's Supper In our preparations for the receiving of it we have it may be searched and tried proved and examined our selves inquired into our hearts and waies taken special notice of many passages of our misled Lives and mis-spent Time seriously considered our many partial Covenant-breaches renew'd and repeated our Baptismal-contract with God and our Lord Jesus Christ determined to mortify those hateful Sins which crucisied our Saviour setled our purposes of returning to our Duty with greater care and diligence than ever strengthned and reinforced our Covenant of reforming our Lives and redeeming our Time and resolved upon a stricter Observance of God's Laws for the rest of our daies And at every time of our participation of the holy Communion we openly offer'd and publickly presented ourselves our Souls and Bodies to be a reasonable holy and lively Sacrifice unto God O let 's remember and stand to our Word and take care in God's Fear through Christ strengthning us to perform the Covenant we have so often ratified and frequently reiterated 2. And then again When God hath roused and startled us by some awakening Ordinance or Providence When some * Mark 3.17 Son of Thunder has plainly preach'd as if Death were at our backs which was the Character King James once gave of a lively Minister that preached before himself Or when some affectionate zealous Ambassadour of Christ coming to us in the Spirit of St. Paul has so convincingly reason'd of the Judgment to come and brought his Discourse so close and home to our very Consciences as to cause us to tremble again with Felix we then came to sudden Resolutions and speedy Purposes of Emendation of our Waies Or when at any time God has cast us upon Beds of Sickness brought us to the very brink of Death the very Mouth of the Grave when Friends and Physicians have been doubtful of our Lives when all our own Hopes of Life sickned and died when our Souls have almost sat upon our Lips O then what [a] Si aliqua nos aegritudo corripiat si signa aegritudinis vicinam mortem denuncient inducias vivendi quaerimus ut peccata nostra desleamus eas cum magno aestu desiderit setimus quas acceptas modô pro nihilo habemus Gregor Homil. 12. in Euang. fair and large Promises and specious goodly Resolutions have we made if God should ever restore us lend longer Life to us and try and trust us once again to become new Men to turn over a new Leaf to lead a new Life to improve our Time to all possible Advantage to do God more Service in a Day than we did him in a Month before Have we not been sometimes so sick that we verily concluded we were really seized by the Arrest of Death and seemed to hear God saying to us in particular * Luke 16.2 Give an account of thy Stewardship for thou maiest be no longer Steward and thought of nothing but the tolling of the Bell and expected some of us that the several parts of us within a few daies or hours should be shared and divided between the Grave and Hell Then we experienced in our selves Philosophantes metus aegrae fortunae sana consilia to use the elegant expressions of the most ingenious [b] Sen. ep 94. in fine Nam quasi ista inter se contraria sint bona fortuna mens bona ita melius in malis sapimus secunda rectum auferunt Ibid. Moralist Then our Fears read Lectures of Philosophy Lectures of Divinity to us and the sad and sorrowful circumstances of a sick and declining and dangerous condition did minister salutary Counsels and healthful Advices to us Let 's recollect and remember what were our serious secret Thoughts the inward workings of our Hearts the lively stirrings of our Consciences yea our open Confessions free Professions and large Promises and Protestations at such a time as that Men are too commonly of a Temper much like that of Naevolus in Martial of whom we find there this [c] Securo nihil est te Naevole pejus eodem Sollicito nihil est Naevole te melius c. Esto Naevole sollicitus Martial l 4. Epigr. 83. Character that when he was secure and prosperous none was more arrogant and insolent but when he was solicitous and press'd with care none was more modest and humble and of better condition and carriage than he We generally appear sensible and serious ready to reform and forward to enter into Vows and Engagements in Affliction and Adversity in grievous Calamities and deep Distresses and to do this especially when confin'd to our Chambers by malignant Distempers violent or painful Diseases and forced by Sickness to take and to keep our Beds Plinius Secundus writing to his Friend Maximus acquaints him with this observation of his The late languishing Condition of a Friend of mine taught me thus much saies he that we are usually [d] Optimos esse nos dum insirmi sumus best when we are sick and weak for what infirm sick Person is amorous or lascivious ambitious of Honour or covetous of Riches How little soever such a Person possesses he reckons he has enough because he supposes he must shortly relinquish what ever he has Then a Man remembers that there is a God saies he and that he himself is but a Man Then he envies admires despises no body then he does not hearken to nor feed upon uncharitable Discourses nor is he malicious or injurious to any but only designs if he should continue longer in the World to lead an innocent and a happy Life And he ends that notable Epistle with this very wise and wholsome Counsel What Philosophers endeavour to deliver in many Words and Volumes * Vt tales esse sani perseveremus quales nos futuros profitemur infirmi Plin. l 7. Ep. 26. that I may thus briefly hint by way of Instruction to thee and to myself saies he * Ps 85.8 That we continue to be such when we are well as we promise we will be when we are sick When Sigismund the Emperour enquired of the Bishop of Colen what he should do to be happy eternally he only advised him to take care to live as he promised to do the last time he had the Gout or Stone O let 's but pay our Sick-bed Vows and we shall redeem the Time indeed Let 's be the [e] Ille promissum suum implevit qui cùm videas illum cùm audias idem est Sen. ep 75. same when our Actions are seen as when our Words are heard Let 's never offer when we recover
spread so far and wide among us When so many so boldly deny the Providence and very Being of God the Immortality of the rational Soul and a Life and State of Retribution in another World the Divine Authority Perfection and Perspicuity of the sacred Scriptures the eternal Duration of Hell-torments the Divinity and Satisfaction of our Saviour Christ the divine Institution of the Lord's-Day deny the Necessity of the Moral Law disown Original Sin and any such Thing as Special Effectual Discriminating Grace infallibly securing the Event as to the Elect assert Perfection contend for Papal Infallibility plead for Idolatry and gross Superstition and design and endeavour and hope to make Popery become the Religion of the Nation it concerns you surely carefully now to redeem the Time The Evil of Errour mightily prevails in these our Daies Seducers and Impostors are subtil and industrious and Errour is of a catching spreading Nature therefore as St. Paul said to the Corinthians * 2 Câ—r 11.3 I fear lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his Subtilty so your Minds should be corrupted from the Simplicity that is in Christ. Take heed that the Leprosie get not into your Head In that case you know the Priest was to pronounce a Man †Levit. 13.44 utterly unclean That Errour take not Possession of your Mind for that is the Eye the leading Faculty and it it slip into the Mind and Judgment it will steal and creep into the Conscience and that is so active a Faculty that it will engage all O do your utmost and best endeavour to keep your selves clear and free from the foul and infectious Errours of the Times you live in ‖ 2 Pet. 3 17. Beware lest ye being led away with the Errour of the Wicked fall from your own Stedfastness 1. Be not too credulous (*) 1 Joh. 4.1 Believe not every Spirit not every one that pretends to a Spirit of Truth acting and breathing in him Now the Air abroad is so pestilentially infected take heed what Air you suck in be very wary what Money you take since the Markets are so full of adulterate Coin 2. Be careful to avoid the Meetings and to shun the Society of Seducers From (†) 1 Tim. 6.5 Men of corrupt Minds and destitute of the Truth from such withdraw thy self Don't venture to keep them Company and to take their Breath who have the Plague of wicked Errour upon them and whose Converse is Death and the eternal Ruin of your Souls Forbear to hear their Discourses or to read their Writings You are bidden indeed to (‖) 1 Joh. 4.1 try the Spirits that is to try all you hear but you must not be bold to hear all when you can shift it The Wise Man forbids that * Prov 19.27 Cease my Son to hear the Instruction that causeth to err from the Words of Knowledg Remember the sad Event of Eve's Rashness in venturing to listen to the Discourse of the Serpent 3. And that you may be the better secured from Errour labour to get a good Understanding of your Catechism to be well grounded in the Principles and Essentials and setled in the radical sundamental and practical Truths of Religion and throughly acquainted with the Necessaries to Salvation Do not stick to say with [h] Fateor me Catechismi descipulum Luther I confess I am still a Learner and Studier of my Catechism Learn it your selves and teach it your Children and Servants understandingly The want of Peoples being well instructed and throughly grounded in the Principles of Religion is a great [i] If this Duty of Catechising be neglected we may preach our Lungs our if we will but wich little Effect When we have spent all our Wind upon the Ears of our People their Hearts will be still apt to be carried away with every Wind of Doctrine Ep. Hali's Peace-maker p. 202. Reason of the many Errours that have been so rife in these late Times Men have not lyen fast in the Building upon the Foundation and therefore it is that they have so easily been tumbled up and down like loose Stones Converse with your Catechism 4. And confirm your Belief of the Divinity of the Scripture by getting rational Evidence and an inward Sence and Experience of it And search and study the Scriptures and compare the Doctrines taught by Men with the Word of God and try and examine them by that Rule 5. Again Beg the Spirit of Truth to lead and guide you into all necessary Truth As it is not a strong Constitution that will secure you from the Plague so it is not your best Parts that will preserve you from the Infection of Errour if the Spirit of God do not keep and protect you if the Spirit of Christ the Spirit of Truth withdraw from you 6. Add to all your earnest Endeavour to get your Hearts * Rom. 12.2 Heb. 13.9 2 Pet. 3.17 18. renewed and seasoned and * Rom. 12.2 Heb. 13.9 2 Pet. 3.17 18. stablish'd with Grace which will prove an excellent Preservative a soveraign Antidote and Defensative against the Contagion and Infection of Errour Any Errour will easily slip into an ignorant uncatechized Head and an unmortified unsanctified ungrà cious Heart The †2 Tim. 3 6. silly Women that were led captive were such as were laden with Sins led away with divers Lusts So they were ‖ Jude vers 4. ungodly Men who turned the Grace of our God into lasciviousness and denied the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ They that walk in loose Garments soon take Wind Loose Lives will gather in and breed loose Principles If you don't take in sufficient Ballast of Grace to settle you you will be tossed to and fro and carried about with every Wind of strange Doctrine If you want a good Biass of Sincerity for God carnal Interests and Ends will easily mis-lead you If you be devoid and destitute of Grace you will be proud and conceited rash and unwary you will never distrust your selves you will never weigh and consider Things well before you take them up Want of Grace will also breed an Itch of vain Curiosity in your Minds and cause you to linger and hanker after Novelties Further your depraved Wills will have a malign Influence on your Understandings and your carnal Affections will too often bribe and pervert your Judgments so that whatever your Wills and Affections are vehemently set upon must be allowed by the Authority of your Judgments and secretly if not openly maintained and pleaded for Those various Opinions about the Chief Good might arise and proceed from their Over-affection to some created and inferiour Good Your foul Stomach will infect your Brain your unsound Heart will cause a corrupt Head And an ill Life will engage you to entertain and take up such corrupt Principles as may favour and foster your Viciousness give allowance and countenance to your Wickedness Your Sin
He professeth to have the Knowledg of God and he calleth himself the Child of the Lord. He was made to reprove our Thoughts He is grievous unto us even to behold for his Life is not like other Mens his Waies are of another fashion We are esteem'd of him as Counterfeits he abstaineth from our Waies as from Filthiness he pronounceth the End of the Just to be blessed and maketh his Boast that God is his Father Let us see if his Words be true let us examine him with Despitefulness and Torture let us condemn him with a shameful Death c. The Wicked are so ill-natured as to render to the Righteous evil for good to vex and abuse their Physicians Chirurgians Advocates Guardians Friends To use them harshly and unkindly that endeavour to benefit them by their Counsels to better them by their Examples and labour by earnest Praiers to God for them to keep off many a Judgment that hangs over their Heads from falling upon them They watch and study to harm those that are really ready to help them to grieve and break their Hearts whose Bowels yearn towards them to vex and torment their Souls which is a great Misery than to persecute and afflict their Bodies 2. The Wicked persecute those that are good as by their Injuries to them in particular so by the Wickedness and Vnholiness of their Lives in General The ill Conversation of the Wicked is a spiritual Persecution of the Godly It is Matter of exquisite Torment to them It wounds and rends the very Souls of the Righteous It plainly cuts them even to the Heart and makes their very Heart bleed I find z August Hom. 10. inter 50. St. Austin in a Discourse of his upon my Text insisting pathetically and particulary on this very kind of Persecution applying and accommodating that of the Apostle Tim. 3.12 All that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer Persecution Behold here says he because the Daies are evil there is no living for the Righteous without suffering Persecution But ye says he are ready to say thus to me What when we enjoy Peace among us when the Judges of the Provinces honour the Church when Kings and Princes do not appear and carry themselves as Enemies to the Church and when all the Laws are in favour of the Church pray how do they that live godly suffer Persecution His Answer is that they that live among wicked Persons do suffer Persecution for all this Why so Because all the Wicked do persecute the Good Nonferro lapidibus sed vitâ moribus though not with Fire and Fagot though not with Swords and Stones yet by their Lives and Manners Did any persecute righteous Lot n Sodom says he No Man troubled or molested him We reade indeed of no Rudeness of theirs towards him of no Assault made upon him but only of one done just before his Departure out of Sodom And yet that good Man suffer'd continual Persecution Non vapulando sed inter malos vivendo not by being beaten and smitten of them but by living among those vile and vicious proud blasphemous lewd and debauch'd Persons For whoever is truly righteous and holy saies he when he sees any to live wickedly to serve Luxury to carry Things unjustly to follow Pride and Vanity to disregard Charity when they that are good see any live after this manner they mourn and grieve are sadned and afflicted for with the Apostle they bewail many that have sinn'd already and have not repented It is said that * 2 Pet. 2.7 just Lot was vexed with the filthy Conversation of the Wicked The Word which we render vexed is in the Original a Verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat opprimi fatigari graviter affligi Gerard. in loc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he laboured under it as an heavy Burthen was oppressed wearied grievously afflicted with it And as Lot was burthened with the loose and lawless Lives of the Sodomites So good Jeremiab was wearied out with the wicked and exorbitant Courses of the Jews and constrained to cry out under the Pressure and Persecution of them †Jer. 9.2 3 5. Oh that I had in the Wilderness a lodging Plate of wayfaring Men that I might leave my People and go from them to wish with all his Heart that he might withdraw himself from his People and live in any solitary Desart and in any sorry Traveller's Lodg or Shed there rather than among them whose wicked Lives were such a continual Eye-sore and daily heart-sore to him for tey proceed from Evil to Evil saies he from one Evil to another or from one Degree of it to another they grow daily worse and worse and weary themselves to commit Iniquity take Pains to do wickedly and tire out themselves in it Alas the Wicked little think how they vex God in vexing his Servants and that God will one Day sorely vex them for it and make them weary of wearying his People that he will torment them in Hell hereafter for tormenting his People here on Earth They little think that the Righteous themselves will one Day heavily vex those that have given them such Occasion and Cause of Vexation vex them in the Day when the * 1 Cor. 6.2 Saints shall judg the World Yea they little think that they shall torment themselves hereafter for making good Men torment themselves here That if they do not grieve in Time with a penitent Grief they shall certainly grieve with a desperate Grief to all Eternity for being a Grief and Heart-break to the Godly Now this Persecution which in the Waies forementioned is managed and carried on by the Wicked as it is the Evil in some measure of all Ages so more especially and remarkably of the Times and Places in which we live 'T is true that now we suffer nothing barely for owning the Name of Christians There is no Persecution in our Nation merely for the outward Profession of the Christian and of the Reformed Religion But was ever the other Persecution hotter among us than in these Daies How do the Wicked persecute with their Eye looking upon the sincerely Godly with an evil a scornful a malicious Eye How do they persecute them with their Tongues which are as so many †Psal 57.4 sharp Swords b Nemo plus videtur aestmare virtutem nemo magis il'i esse devotus quam qui boni viri famam perdidit ne conscientsam perderet Sen. Ep. maliciously standering reproaching reviling the Godly as a Company of weak [c] Vt sis beatus inquit Socrates te alicui stultum videri siue Id ep 71. Plerumque boni inepti inertes vocautur Mihi contingat iste dersus AEquo animo audienda sunt imperitorum convitit ad honesta vadends contemnendus est sste contemptus Idem Fools and conceited Fanaticks frequently making them their very Songs in their drunken Meetings and even mocking their very Praiers in
Curse that without it our very bread would not be so great a Blessing If it were not for Labour men neither could cat so much nor relish so pleasantly nor sleep so soundly nor he so he althful nor so useful so strong nor so patient so noble or so untempted And as God has made us beholding to labour for the purchase of many good Things so the Thing it self ows to labour many Degrees of its Worth and Valne Labour is necessary not only because we need it for making Provision of out Life but even to ease the Labour of our Rest there being no greater Tediousness of Spirit in the World than want of Employment and an unactive Life And the lasy man is not only unprofitable but also accursed and he groans under the Load of his Time which yet passes over the active man light while the Disemployed is a Disease and like a long sleepless Night to himself and a load unto his Countrey Bp. Taylor 's Serm. 2. V. Ser. 25. p. 322. Vt desidtam Deus prohibet execratur sic opedrentibus morigeris in benedictiouem convertit quod homini init to tanquam pana impositum futt Psal 128 2. Labor om manuum tugrum comedes beatius er bene tibi erit Andr. River loc cirat Blessing For ordinarily no Bread tastes so sweet as that which is earn'd with hard Labour and Sweat 2. Again Idleness is a Sin against our very Redemption * 1 Pet. 1.17 18. Pass the Time of your Sojourning here in Fear for as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible Things as Silver and Gold from your vain Conversation but with the precious Blood of Christ c. This should engage you to walk reverently strictly and watchfully all your Time †1 Cor. 6.20 Ye are bought with a Price God hath pai'd dear given his Son out of his Bosom for the Purchase of you Therefore glorify God in your Body and in your Spirit which are God's And let 's remember Christ ‖ Tit 2.14 gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purisy unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works [f] Hammond's Par. He delivered himself up to a shameful Death on purpose that he might ransom us out of the Power of Satan from that Course of vicious living in which Men were before engaged and cleanse us in an eminent Manner to be an holy pious People most diligent to advance to the nighest pitch of all Vertue Christ hath redeemed us to this End that we might redeem Time for his Service Why then dost thou stand lasing and loitering when thou art made and born for Work and redeemed for Work and call'd to Work 3. Farther Idleness is a Sin against our very Bodies and Souls It is in a Manner the Murther of the Body for as the Air and Water so Man's Body is apt to corrupt and putrify without Motion Ease destroys the Health of the Body breeds the Gout and other Diseases And it hurts and taints the Soul too and produceth that Indisposition in it which one fitly calls Podagram animi the Gout of the Soul and another terms it the Scurvy of the Mind 'T is highly prejudicial both to our temporal and spiritual Estate The Man that neglects the Means of a temporal Provision and of his eternal Salvation through Lasiness and Idleness starves and kills both his Body and Soul and every way beggareth and impoverisheth himself in respect to the inward spiritual true Riches of Grace as well as in reference to outward Enjoyments and worldly good Things Without Labour Industry and diligent Husbandry we can neither increase the natural nor improve the divine Riches of our Souls There is nothing to be gotten by Idleness but Misery here and Hell hereaster The * Matt. 25.30 idle and slothful Servant is condemned to be cast into outer Darkness 4. Farther yet Idleness is a Sin against our Neighbour How do they offend against their Neighbours who are wholly unfruitful in their Places and live as unprofitably in their Health as if by Sickness they were utterly disabled for any Service Idle Persons are superfluous Creatures of no Advantage or Benefit to the Body Politick where they live and as Cicero says of the Swine [g] Animam pro sale habent have their Souls only instead of Salt to keep their Bodies sweet They are an unnecessary intolerable Burthen to any Kingdom or Common-wealth It was a pertinent and prudent Question put by Pharaoh to Joseph's Brethren * Gen. 47.3 What is your Occupation An Interrogation says the learned [h] Eâ—ercir in Gen. p 650. vide Pareum in loc Andrew Rivet worthy of a Prince who ought not rashly to receive any Strangers into his Dominion Without first examining whether they be sit for any good Thing and know how by some honest Labour to make Provision for themselves and theirs that they may neither be burthensome to others nor living idly take Occasion of doing ill Hence wise Politicians as he well urges there have expresly prohibited Idleness by severe Laws The Judges of Areopagus took particular notice of the several Citizens at Athens and strictly enquired in what way of Business every one liv'd and whether any addicted himself to base and sluggish Idleness The idle Person was made liable to an [i] Ea nominabatur act to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Rivet loc citat pag. 650. vid. p. 157. Action qt Law and he that was once found guilty of Idleness was according to Draco's old Law presently branded with Infamy But Solon afterward somewhat mitigated that Law and only pronounced him an infamous Person who was a third Time condemned of Idleness The Massilienses of old denied such Persons Entrance into their City as were not skilled and versed in some Art whereby to get a lively-hood Nor did they admit or allow of Players Dancers Jesters Juglers because these Arts do nourish the Idleness oâ—such Spectators as commonly They call and draw to themselves who Waste their Time in Toies And it was ordained by Law among the Persians as the fore-cited Author notes out of Herodotus that at the End of every Year every Sabject should go to the Magistrate to give an Account of their Employment An idle Body is plainly guilty of Injustice and [k] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phocylid Theft for he takes and uses the Creatures he has no right to and lives upon others Labour and Industry The Apostle commands * 2 Thess 3.10 12. that If any would not work neither should he eat that is at the publick Charge or at the Cost of any other And he commands and exhorts such as are idle that they work and eat their own Bread As if it were not their own Bread if not gotten with the Work of their own Hands and the Sweat of their own Faces So far as we are idle we are [l]
assisted him [l] In his Life centracted and translated out of French by Mr. Edward Stern Fellow of P. Hall in Cambridg among Mr. Clark's Lives p. 74. fol. I have a great Account to make having received much and profited little So the painful and pious Dr. Robert Harris when a Friend told him in his Sickness Sir you may take much comfort in your Labours you have done much good His Answer was [m] In his Life written by Mr. W. Durham p. 55 56. Oh! I am an unprofitable Servant I have not done any thing for God as I ought Loss of Time sits heavy upon my Spirit Work work apace Assure your selves nothing will more trouble you when you come to dy than that you have done no more for God who has done so much for you Yea the Reverend and holy Bp. Vsher a most laborious and sedulous Servant of God a Prodigy of Industry a Person that never was known to lose an Hour by was ever employed in his Master's Business either praying preaching studying writing reading or hearing others reade to him either resolving of Doubts or exhorting instructing giving good wholsome and holy Counsel to such as came to visit him yet as [n] Pag. 110. Dr. Bernard relates in his Life the very last Words that ever he was heard to utter in praying for Forgiveness of Sins were these But Lord in special forgive my Sins of Omission If the choicest Saints on Earth the faithfullest Servants of God in the World who have surpassed and transcended us by many Degrees do close and end their Lives with an humble Confession and earnest Petition for Forgiveness and Pardon of their Sins of Omission Surely then we have reason to conclude that we our selves do what we can shall repent at last of doing too little and not repent and complain of having done too much And if those that have well redeem'd their Time complain especially at the Hour of Death that they have lost too much of it What a case then will the careless negligent World be in when their sleepy Consciences shall be roused and awakened and they be hastened and hurried out of this world and their Souls and Bodies shall be just a parting and they shall look behind them upon an idle loose and lazy Life and look before them upon a dreadful horrible terrible Judgment I have done with the Motives to press you to the Duty In the next place I shall give you some Directions which may be so many Means to help you to regain the Time and redeem the Opportunity Take these twelve following CHAP. VII Direction 1. If ever we would redeem the Time we must endeavour to be throughly convinc'd of the great value and real worth of Time In respect of the Price paid for it In regard of the use and end to which it serves Considering what precious Thoughts the more improved Heathens had of Time And what damned Spirits and dying Persons who have not made their Peace with God think of Time Direct 2. If we would well redeem the Time we must often examine our selves and call our selves to a serious strict Account for the spending of our Time This was the Precept of Pythagoras and Cicero and the Practice of Sextius Seneca and Titus Vespasian Direct 3. That we may rightly redeem our Time let Conscience have some Authority with us and procure some reverence from us Stand much in aw of thy own Conscience which will either acquit and absolve thee or surely judg and condemn thee Direct 4. If ever we would redeem the Time we must live and act and do every thing as in the sight and presence and under the eye and inspection of God The apprehension of God's all-seeing all-searching Eye will be of excellent Vse and Advantage to us at 4 times especially 1. Actually consider that God sees you when you ordinarily visit one another and at any time feast and make merry together 2. When Buying or Selling remember you are manifest in God's Sight that God stands by and sees your dealings 3. Consider this in your secret Retirements and in your private Families 4. Whenever we come to the publick Worship of God let us seriously consider that we stand in his Presence and are in his eye Direct 5. That we may wisely redeem the Time let 's be sure to propound a good end to our selves in all our Actions and do nothing deliberately but what we can safely and freely warrantably and comfortably ask God's Assistance in and Blessing upon when we go about it Direct 6. We must be sure to give our selves to Prayer as a special way in which and principal means and help by which we may redeem and improve our Time aright And here 1. Be careful to keep up set and stated times of Prayer of secret Prayer and Family-Prayer 2. Be ready to betake thy self to Prayer upon special extraordinary emergent Occasions 3. Vse thy self to frequent suddain ejaculatory Prayers to God This is the Priviledg of Ejaculation that it is a gaining of Time for the Exercise of Religion without any prejudice or hindrance to your Calling Direct 7. We must set our selves to the frequent diligent reading and serious studying of the sacred Scriptures For 1. This is a gaining and making advantage of all that Time past which the Scripture gives us the History and Account of 2. Our reading the holy Books of Scripture is a well improving the present time that is imployed in this religious Duty for 't is an honouring of God and a means of attaining divine Knowledg heavenly Grace and spiritual Comfort 3. It is moreover a means and help to the right redeeming of our Time for the future Direct 8. If we would effectually redeem the Time we must give our selves to frequent and serious Meditation Set some Time apart for this Duty Think of the 4 last things especially 1. Of Death of the Day of thy own particular Death and of the Time of the General Dissolution of this World 2. Of the Day of Judgment 3. Of the Joys of Heaven 4. Of the Torments of Hell Direct 9. If you would redeem the Time you must labour to spiritualize even your ordinary worldly Employments and must take care that your natural as well as civil Actions partake of Religion Direct 10. if we would wisely redeem the Time we must make a good Choice of our Friends and Acquaintance and a good Improvement of our Company and Society with them Direct 11. We must remember and consider perform and answer our solemn Sacramental Vows and Sick-bed-Promises and Resolutions Direct 12. Lastly If we would redeem the Time we must not give way to any Delay but strengthen and settle our Resolution against any farther procrastination The First Direction IF ever we would redeem the Time we must endeavour to be throughly convinced of the great Value and real Worth of Time Consider 1. How precious Time is in respect of the Price paid for it That
smell of Remember and consider 1. That Death thy Death is certain 2. That the Time of thy Death is very uncertain 3. That when Death comes a great change will be made by it 4. and lastly Consider seriously what a sad and uncomfortable Thing it will be to be found unprepared to die at the Point of Death And how sweet and happy a Thing it will be to be in a readiness and preparation at the Hour of Death Consider 1. It is sure and certain thou must die at last Death entred into the World by Sin The Wages of thy Sin is thy Death It is now appointed unto Men to all Men once to die Death is the way of all the Earth Every Thing plainly points thee to it Thy very Sleep is an Image of thy Death The very Meat thou eatest as it breeds thy Nourishment so it breeds thy Diseases Thou hast apparently died already in thy Friends and Relations Neighbours and Acquaintance Thou hast lost thy Parents or Husband or Wife or Children or Servants and therefore thou hast reason to think thou shalt one Day lose thy own Life and certainly die in thy own Person Some one it may be that lately lay in thy Bed and lay in thy Bosom is now laid out of thy Sight laid in the Grave and Time will come when as lively and brisk as thou art thou shalt lie by them and be gather'd to them Surely every Sickness every Disease every Tooth-ach Head-ach every Pain and Distemper and bodily Weakness is an Harbinger and Fore-runner of thy Death and a plain Remembrancer to thee of thy latter End Thou seest enough in others thou findest enough in thy self to make thee to know thy own Frame and to cause thee to remember that thou thy self art but Dust Xerxes viewing his vast Army wept over them to think how within a few Lustres of Years there would be none of them all remaining Be affected to think how a few Years will wear out and carry off thy self and all thy Family the numerous Company of thy Friends and Relations Neighbours and Acquaintance The close Meditation of the Certainty of thy own Dissolution this will keep thee from living here as if thou wert to live here alwaies which is a common Fault among Men reprov'd and censur'd of old by [h] Tanquam semper victuri vivitis Seneca de brev vit cap. 4. Seneca And from building here as if thou shouldst here continue for ever as [i] Diogenis dictum est Megarenses obsonant quasi crastinâ die morituri aedificant verò quasi nui quam morituri Tert. Apolog. c. 39. Diogenes once severely charg'd the Megarenses When thou rearest thy Building this Course will cause thee to think of thy own Tomb and Grave and that thy earthly House of this Tabernacle must be dissolved And this will enable thee to live loose from the temporary Enjoyments of this present World and to have lower Thoughts of all earthly Pleasures which are but for a Season and would engage you to be [k] Vivere totâ vitâ discendum est quod magis fortasse miraberis totâ vita discendum est mori Seneca de brev vit cap. 7. learning to die as long as you live The frequent Thoughts of thy latter End would prompt thee to say thus to thy self How shall I dare to live in Jest who am sure I must die in Earnest Am I afraid to die and yet shall I use all Means I can to make Death dangerous and terrible to me Shall I venture [l] St. Jerom said well He deserves not the Name of a Christian who will live in that State of Life in which he will not die Bp. Taylor 's great Exemplar p. 558. to live in that State of Life in which I would not die 2. Consider farther That the Day and Means of thy Death is as [m] Ah stulte quid cogitas te diu victurum cùm nullum diem habeas securum Quam multi decepti sunt irsperatè de cerpore extracti Quoties audisti à dicentibus quia ille gladio cecidit ille submersus est ille ab alto ruens cervicem fregit ille manducando obriguit ille ludendo finem fecit Alius igne alius ferre alius peste alius latrocinto interiit sic omnium finis mors est vita hominum tanquam umbra subito pertransit A Kempis l. 1. c. 23. n. 7. uncertain as thy Death it self is certain Think when thou art eating that then thou maiest be digging thy Grave with thy Teeth and when thou art drinking that then thou maiest find and meet with Death in the Cup or Pot. When thou art ready to take thy Rest consider that God this Night may require thy Soul of thee and before Morning may take away the [n] Vine's Essex's Hearse p. 12. diry Difference between Sleep and Death Here practise according to Seneca's Direction [o] Dic tibi dormituro possum non expergisci Dic experrecto possum non dormire ampliùs Dic exeunti possum non reverti dic redeunti possum non exire Sen. ep 49. Cùm mane fuerit putate ad vesperum non perventurum vespere autem facto mane non audeas tibi polliceri Semper ergo paratus esto taliter vive ut nunquam te imparatum mors inveniat A Kempis l. 3. c. 23. n 3. Say to thy self when thou goest to sleep it may be I shall never wake again and when thou risest it may be I shall never sleep again Say to thy self when thou goest out it may be I shall never return home and come in alive again And when thou comest in at any Time say to thy self It may be I shall never go out of doors again Consider when thou art going a Journey that thou maiest be going to thy long home When thou art riding upon the Road that thou maiest be posting unto thy Grave that the Horse thou ridest on may be the pale Horse and his Name that sits upon him though unseen may be Death Conclude with thy self I must die shortly I may die instantly This Day may be the last that I shall see this Hour the last that I shall spend this Word the last that I shall speak this Deed the last that I shall persform this Place the last that I shall breath in When thou goest into any Company consider that it may be the last time that ever thou shalt come in the Company of those Persons that therefore it behoves thee to behave thy self among them and to spend thy Time and bestow thy Hours with them like a Man and a Christian not like a Beast or an Heathen to demean thy self there soberly and temperately and with good Government of thy Appetite and Passions and with the Exercise and Improvement of thy Reason and of Grace in some useful Discourse and profitable Converse not childishly and unmanly intemperately and luxuriously rudely and uncivilly wildly and
extravagantly The often renewed Meditation of the great Vncertainty of the Time of the Departure This will be a Means to hasten thy Repentance which if defer'd may prove too late And will surely help thee so to carry thy self continually [p] Id ago ut mihi instar totius vitae sit dies Sen. ep Ille qui nullum non tempus in usus suos comfert quiomnes dies tanquam vitam suam ordmat nec optat crastinum nec timet Idem de brev vit c 7. as one that reckons and uses a single Day as if it were a whole Life To live every day as if it were [q] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Musonius apud Stob Serm. 1. â—ic ordinandus est aies omnis tamquam cogat agmen consummet atque expleat vitam In somnum ituri loeti hilar ésque dicamus Viâ—i quem dederat cursum fortuna peregi thy very last Not to promise thy self a Morrow and to neglect thy present Work in Hope and Expectation of it but to order thy self immediately as if thou didst never look to see and enjoy it and to count it as [r] Crastinum si adjecerit Deus laeti reciptamus Ille beatissimus est securus sai possessor qui crastinum sine solicitudine expectat Qussquis dixit vixi quotidie ad lucrum surgit Sen. ep 12. pure Gain as may be if God shall be pleased to afford thee the Light and Benefit of a new Day As the Bird guideth her Flight with her Train and the Ship is governed at the Stern or hindermost Part so the Life of Man is directed and ordered by frequent Meditation of his latter End 3. Think moreover of the great Change that will at last be made by Death which is lively represented in a Story related by a learned [s] Bishop Taylor in his rule and Exercise of holy Dying c. 1. §. 3. Doctor of a fair young German Gentleman who while he lived often refused to be pictured but put off the importunity of his Friends Desire by giving way that after a few Daies Burial they might send a Painter to his Vault and if they saw cause fo rit draw the Image of his Death unto the Life They did so and found his Face half eaten and his Midriff and Back-bone full of Serpents and so he stands pictured among his armed Ancestours Think how the Case will shortly be much alike with thee that Death in a Moment will turn thy Colour into Paleness thy Heat into Coldness thy Beauty into Lothsomness and will so alter and disfigure thee that thy ver Husband or Wife or Child will stand afraid and start at thee That thy nearest dearest kindest Friends who delighted in thy Company whilst thou livedst took thee to their Board took thee to their Bed and put thee in their Bosom will as soon as thou art dead take a speedy Course to remove thee out of their Sight yea to put thee under Ground because by Death thou wilt become not only useless but offensive to them And what a frightful Spectacle thou wouldst be if thy Body should be viewed when once the Vermin have bred in it and shall have devoured and consumed some Parts of it Think how Death will make a Change in thy Body a change in thy Mansion Habitation Companions That when thou art dead thou shalt quickly change thy Bed for a winding Sheet thy Chamber for a Coffin thy House for a Grave thy Friends for Worms This Consideration will be hugely instrumental to beat down Pride of any beauty Health Strength or Ornaments of the Body and be useful to cause thee to walk humbly and soberly and will instruct thee to say to thy self Why should I glory in any such transitory Enjoyment As fair and fine as I may be apt to think my self I know I shall be but a sorry Creature when Death comes Why should I delight to stand long at the Glass and there to view my own Face and Features and Dresses now since Death will one Day so change me that my most intimate loving familiar Friends will hardly endure to behold me Why should I pride my self in any rich Attire and brave Apparel who must ere long be strip'd to a winding Sheet Why should I bestow so much cost upon that Tenement which I shall dwell but a while in and which will decay and fall to utter Ruin when I have done all I can Why should I make my Belly my God which must be destroyed and be Meat for Worms Why should I be so high and stately as to think no House good enough no Room fine enough no Fair dainty enough for me who must quickly be brought as low as the Grave and be forc'd to make my Bed in the dark and to lay my Head in the Dust to lodg yea dwell in a black lonely desolate Hole of Earth to say to the Grave Thou art mine House to say to Corruption Thou art my Father and to the Worm Thou art my Mother and my Sister Why should I spend all my time in pleasing and pampering this base Flesh and in over-caring for this changeable vile Body which must shortly suffer Rottenness and Corruption Shall I not rather take care to beautify and adorn my inner Man to get a Change wrought in my Soul by the good Spirit and Grace of God before I suffer a Change in my Body a Change by Sickness a Change by Death and so to live that when I am dead it may not be said of me Here lies one that was dead while he lived and whose Soul then stank worse by sinful Corruption than his Body now stinks by Putrefaction 4. Consider once more What a sad and uncomfortable Thing it wil be to be found unprepared to die at the point of Death and how happy a Thing it will be to be in a readiness and preparation at the Hour of Death 1. Think well with thy self how miserable a Thing it will be to be wholly unprepared for Death when you come to die indeed [t] Cù a illos aliqua imbecillitas mortalitatis admonuit quemadmodum paventes moriuntur non tanquam exeant de vita sed tanquam extrahantur Seneca de brevitate vitae cap. 11. to be driven away in thy Wickedness as the * Prov. 14.32 Wise Man speaks and forced to go to thy own Place whether thou wilt or no. To say as Theophrastus of old Dii boni nunc Good God must I go now How discompos'd and disorder'd amaz'd and terrified wilt thou be when thou art surpriz'd What a disconsolate Condition was that of Cesar Borgia who when through the Errour of a Servant he had unawares drunk of the poison'd Wine which he and his Father Pope Alexander the sixth had mingled and prepared for some rich Cardinals and verily expected it would prove his Death is said to have broke out into this or the like Expression I had made Provision against all possible Disasters
but only Death for I did not think I should have died so soon How troublesome will it be to thee when thy Soul is about to be divorced from thy Body to be at best uncertain then what will become of thee To express thy self with dying Aristotle [u] Dubius morior quò vadam nescio I die doubtful not well knowing whither I am going Or with the Emperour Adrian [w] Animula vagula blandula Hospes com esque corporis Quae nunc abibis in loca Pallsdula frigidula nudula Nec ut soles dabis jocos Ah dear departing wandring Soul the old and sweet Companion of my Body into what Region art thou now going surely thou wilt never be so merry and pleasant as thou hast been How intolerably vexatious will it be to change for Vncertainties or to make a certain Change for the worse To die unsatisfied what will become of thee as to thy future unchangeable State Or sure and certain that thou shalt enter into a worse State and Place and shalt be miserable to all Eternity To see then but a Step but a Breath between thee and everlasting Death To have all the horrid and heinous sins of a whole misled and misspent Life fiercely fly in thy very Face and thy enraged furious guilty Conscience to be then most active to torment thee the nearer thou apprehendest thy self approaching to the End of thy mortal Life As usually bodily Aches and Wounds do prick and pain and shoot most the nearer it draweth unto Night What a lamentable sad Case was that of Cardinal Wolsey to cry out in his extreme unhappy Circumstances Had I been as careful and diligeut to please and serve the God of Heaven as I have been to comply with the Will of my earthly King he would not have left and for saken me now in my gray Hairs and old Age as the other has done So think what a doleful Case it will be for thee in thy last Hours to pour forth thy Soul in such Words as these If I had served my God as earnestly and unweariedly as I have constantly served the world served diverse Lusts and Pleasures served the Devil himself Had I been at Church when I was in Bed been in my Closet upon my Knees when I was sitting tippling upon the Ale-bench or was quaffing at Tavern and drinking of Healths upon my Knees Had I satisfied the Reason of a Man as I gratified my brutish Appetite and sensual Desire Had I done the Will of God and of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as I have done the Will of the Devil the Will of the Flesh and fulfilled my own carnal corrupt Will I had then been own'd by God and approv'd by my own Conscience inwardly strengthned and supported and sweetly comforted and refresh'd who now am deserted and rejected by God and miserably perplexed and disquieted rent and racked torn and tormented in my own Conscience Then thou wilt certainly count and call thy self unhappy and him the only happy Man who as dying [x] Beatus es Abba Arseni qui semper hanc horam ante oculos habuisti Bibl. Patr. Theophilus said of devout Arsenius has had the Hour of his Departure ever before his Eyes That is the first Conider what a dreadful Thing it is to be found unprovided at the Hou◠of Death When Friends and Physicians cannot keep thee and God and his good Angels will not take thee O then O then what will become of thee 2. Seriously think on the other hand what [y] Considera quà n pulchra res sit consummare vitam ante mortom deinde expectare securum reliquam tempor is sui part m◠Sen. ep 32. an happy and comfortable Thing it will be to find your Time well improved and your self prepared to die before you die 'T is a true Saying of the Wise Man that to a good man the * Eccl. 7.1 Day of Death is better than the Day of his Birth For is not that Day which perfectly frees and fully delivers a good Man from the many Vanities and great Vexations which the Life of Man is obnoxious to and the Troubles and Sufferings which the Life of a Christian is expos'd to far better than that Day which let 's him into the Possession of them Again The Time when a Person has attain'd the End of his Being made good the Hopes of others answer'd god's and Man's expectation concerning him walked himself in the Fear of the Lord brought up Children in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord walked worthy of his Vocation fill'd up every Relation with suitable Duties and Graces serv'd his Generation according to the Will of God liv'd and acted with reference to Eternity The Time when he most willingly leaves this wicked World and leaves an holy Seed to stand up in his room and stead leaves a good Name and a good Example behind him and goes to Heaven to the Spirits of just Men made perfect goes to God his heavenly Father and to Christ his Redeemer to receive the gracious and glorious Reward of all his Works and Labours and the Crown he has striven and contended for Surely the Day when this falls out which is the Day of his Death gives cause of more abundant Comfort than can the Day of his Birth together with all the Daies of his Life Is not that Day better wherein a Man has truly and really answered the Ends of Life than that in which he only began at first to live Is not that Day better in which he has fully and compleatly acted his Part well quitted and behav'd himself like a Man and Christian and is gone off the Stage of this lower world with Credit and Esteem Approbation and Applause of God himself good Angels and Men than the Day of his first appearing upon the Stage or Theater of this World in a way of Probation and Trial and in Hope of his future good Performance Is not the Day of his actual Admission and honourable Reception into a blissful Condition and happy Mansion far better than the Day of his Entrance into a State of Preparation for it Think well with thy self what a joyful Day what a [z] Cùm ecquid lumen molestiae afferret rogarent pectus tangens Oecolampadius abundè lucis est inquit Melch. Adam in vita Oecolamp p. 56. lightsome Hour what a Time of refreshing it will be to thee to be able to say with thy Saviour a little before thy Departure * Joh. 17.4 Father I have glorified thee on Earth I have finished the Work which thou hast given me to do And with the Apostle St. Paul †2 Tim. 4 6 7. The Time of my Departure is at hand I have fought a good Fight [a] Vixi quem dederat cursum fortuna peregi I have finished my course I have kept the Faith ‖ 2 Cor. 1.12 My rejoicing is this the Testimony of my Conscience that in
Simplicity and Godly Sincerity I have had my Conversation in the World To say with Hilarion as St. Jerom reports in his [b] Egredere anima quid times Egredere quid dubitas Septuaginta prope annis servisti Christo mortem times Hier. in vita Hilar. Life Go out my Soul why art thou afraid go out why lingrest thou thou hast served Christ well nigh these seventy Years and dost thou now fear Death To see that it has been to thee * Phil. 1.21 to live Christ and to be able to look on thy Death as thy Gain And with good old [c] His Life inserted among Mr. Clark's Lives of ten emin Div. p. 123. When his good Sister said to him in his Sickness Brother I am afraid to leave you alone VVhy Sister said be I shall I am sure be with Jesus Christ when I die Ib. p. 123 124. Dr. Gouge in thy last Sickness to term Death thy best Friend next to Jesus Christ With †Phil. 1.23 St. Paul to desire to depart and to be ready to utter such Language as this Oh loose this Frame this Knot of Man unty That my free Soul may use her Wing Which is now pinion'd with Mortality As an entangled hamper'd Thing As the pious [d] Home Mr. Herbert pathetically expresses it in one of his sacred Poems Dwell upon these Considerations That the Loss and Misimprovement of Time will make a Death-bed uneasy to you and that the right redeeming of time will render a Death-bed comfortable to you And this will be very apt to move you to prepare for Death by dying to Sin dying to the World and living to Righteousness before you die 'T will help you to live every Day so indeed as others wish that they had liv'd when they come to lie upon a Death-bed To live so now that you may with comfort think of dying and may be freed from the slavish Fear of Death and be held no longer ‖ Heb. 2.15 in bondage by it 'T will cause you to live the Life of the Righteous that so you may die the Death of the Righteous die safely and die comfortably 'T will make you careful to set not only your House but your Heart in order your Life in order and so to dispatch your work and Business that when you come to die you may have nothing to do but to die and freely and cheerfully to resign your Spirit to the Father of Spirits and to surrender your Soul to your faithful Creator and gracious loving Lord Redeemer In a Word it will enable you so to live that you may have * Prov. 14.32 Hope in your own Death and that when Friends shall mourn for your Departure they may not sorrow without †1 Thess 4.13 Hope And so much shall suffice for your Direction as to your Meditation of Death your own particular Death in order to your Redemption of Time 2. Meditate here moreover of the general Dissolution of all Things at least in this inferiour World Think well of what (*) 2 Pet. 3.11 St. Peter informs you that all these Things shall be dissolved Consider that the Description which is there given of this Dissolution is too august and [e] Dr. ore's y st of Godl p 214. big by far for so small a Work as [f] Of which Dr. Hammend in eâ—prets it the Destruction of the City of Jerusalem That the Scoffers arguing there against the Promise of christ's coming that (†) Verse 4. all Things continue as they were from the Beginning of the Creation does clearly shew that this Coming of Christ was not understood by them and consequently not by St. Peter of the Burning of a City by War a Thing which might as probably and easily happen to Jerusalem as it had already fallen out in many other Places of the World But of the final glorious Coming of Christ to judge the World which [f] Superest I 'e ultimus perpetuus judicis di s ille nationibus insperatus ille derisus cùm tanta secult vetusta tot ejus nativitates uno ignt haurientur Tertull. lib de Spectae cap 30. Judgment the Conflagration of the Earth is to attend Think very seriously with thy self that * Verse 7. the Heavens and the Earth which are now are reserved unto Fire How †Verse 10. the Heavens shall one Day pass away with a great Noise and ‖ Verse 12. being on Fire shall be dissolved and the (*) Verse 10 12. Elements or [g] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordine mitiari incedo The host of the Aethereal Heavgens are the Stars and Planets The Host of the Aereal Heavens are Clouds and Meteors Fowls and flying Creatures Hosts shall melt with fervent Heat the Earth also and the Works of Nature or Art that are therein shall be burnt up That though the superiour Aethereal starry Heavens may be exempted as [h] He that considereth both the super-eminent Nature and Immensity of the Aethereal Heaven and of those innum rable Bodies therein in regard of which the whole Sublunary VVorld is but a Point or Centre and that it no way can be prov'd that ever those Bodies received any Curse for Man's Sin or Contagion by the VVorld's Deluge or that any Enemies of God dwell in them to pollute them He that considereth this will not easily be induced to believe that the Fire of the Day of Judgment shall burn them It remaineth therefore that the Sublunary Heavens only with their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are to be the Subject of this Conflagration Mr. Mede's Works p. 614 615. some with probable Reason conceive yet that without dispute or doubt [i] Dr. More 's Myst of Godl p. 231. the Globe of the Earth and the circumjacent Air with all the Garnishings of them shall be burnt up That this Air and Earth shall be strangely and wonderfully alter'd though not annihilated That the present Order and comely Beauty of the Compages and Frame of this visible lower World shall be dissolv'd That this great House and goodly Building made for Man to dwell in shall be taken down and all the Furniture wherewith it was fitted for his Use and Service shall be destroyed That it will be an Act of Wisdom for God to abolish these Things when the Time appointed for Probation and Trial of immortal Spirits cloathed with Flesh is ended and expired and Men shall enter into so different a State in which there will be no need of any Thing that serves and ministers to this terrene and animal Life And though God think good to continue this World for a while that it may be a Theater whereon his Wisdom Goodness Mercy Patience and other his glorious Attributes may be displayed and made conspicuous yet it is convenient and reasonable that this Stage of God's Acts and Works of Providence when all is finished should be taken down And
〈◊〉 Eâ—asm Apophth l. 3. gather'd to blessed and perfected Spirits and be made it Welf equal to the Angels and so become sit Company for them That thy Soul shall be in an happy Condition and be secure and certain that it shall never be dispossess'd and ejected out of it depriv'd or bereaved of it Such Thoughts as these will never suffer thee to let thy Soul sleep in thy Body which will surely wake when it is out of it This Meditation is likely to preserve thee from living and acting sensually and brutishly as if thy Soul were material and mortal and capable of no greater Happiness or higher Preserment than to be imprison'd and buried in this gross dull Flesh This will cause thee to take care that thy Soul may exercise and maintain a due Superiority over thy Body that thy Soul may * 1 Cor. 9.27 keep under thy Body and bring it into subjection and not be servilely and sordidly subject to it since thy Soul is able to live without it and shall from the Day of Death till the Day of Resurrection live better without it than ever here it liv'd with it This will mind thee to bring thy Soul which is a Spirit to converse now with the Father of Spirits and help thee to live like an Angel here on Earth who after Death shalt be as an Angel of God in Heaven Farther the Consideration or a State of Bliss to departed Souls will make thee labour to become fit for this State by getting thy Soul made like to God by true Holiness that God may love his own Image and Likeness in thee and delight to do good to the Soul he loves By striving to lead a good and holy Life here which is by the Ordination of God the direct and ready Way to an happy and eternal Life hereafter By looking that every Action and Carriage of thy Life be worthy of thy Hope of eternal Life [o] See to this purpose Mr. Baxter's Reas of the Christ Rd. 1 part p. 138 139. If a State of glorious Immortality were but a Likely hood and Probability you would notwithstanding in all reason do any thing suffer any thing part with any thing that if at last it should prove a reality you might make sure of it and render your self capable of obtaining and enjoying it because if it should prove true and you should miss of it no present Enjoyment could any way countervail the Loss of an eternal State of Bliss And if it should not prove true the denying thy self these earthly sensual Pleasures would be no considerable Loss or great Unhappiness to thee 't would be but the Loss of a transitory short impure imperfect Pleasure which even in this World has Pain and Torment mixt with it and has often sad Rellishes and a bitter Farewel at the End of it If there were but a bare Probability of such a State the most obscure Notices and thy uncertain Hopes of it were enough to make thee diligently look after it Surely then thou wilt much more seek and press after it when God has given thee an absolute Certainty of the Thing and the highest Satisfaction that can rationally be desired of the Truth of it And this Meditation will be a Means as to fit thee for thy Translation so to make thee with * Phil. 1.21 23 St. Paul have an earnest Desire to depart to go hence to go home To breadth out [p] Melch. Adam in vit Calv. p. 100. Calvin's Ejaculaton Vsquequo Domine How long Lord To cry out as holy [q] Aug. Cons l. 9. c. 19 §. 4. Monica did when she had newly been largely discoursing with her Son St. AUstin of the heavenly Kingdom Son as for me I now take no delight in any thing in this Life Quid hic facio What do I here And to use such Words as those of Mr. Herbert [r] Home What have I left that I should stay and groan The most of me to Heav'n is fled My Thoughts and Joies are all packt up and gone And for their old Acquaintance plead 2. Bend thy Mind to think of the Resurrection of the Body to a State of Glory Consider that as thy Soul at Death is not extinguished so that thy dead and buried Body shall not finally perish and be quite lost but at last be reproduc'd and restor'd again to thee by the Agency of an omniscient and omnipotent God That if thou †Joh. 5.29 hast done good thou shalt come forth to the Resurrection of Life come out of thy Grave as Jonah out of the Whale's Belly as Daniel out of the Lions Den as Pharaoh's chief Butler yea as the innocent honest Joseph out of Prison to an high and honourale Condition Think how the very same Body that fell by Death shall be raised again at the last Day as Lazarus rose with the same Body which had lien in the Grave four Daies and as Christ rose with the same Body that was crucified and buried How congruous it is to the Wisdom and Goodness and governing Justice of God that the same Body which was Partner with the Soul in good Actions should be a Sharer with it in everlasting Rewards That that very Body which was the Temple of the Holy Ghost and whose Members were the Members of Christ and Instruments of Righteousness and did God Service and labour'd and suffer'd for Christ here should be raised and rewarded hereafter And how reasonable to conclude that God having planted in the Soul a natural Inclination to its own Body will surely one Day satisfy the Soul's Appetite by reuniting it to the same Body Think how thy Body shall rise the same for Substance but not the same for Qualities and Endowments that it shall be raised * 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44 49 50. in Incorruption in Glory in Power raised a spiritual Body and put on Immortality That thou shalt bear the Image of the Heavenly That this Flesh and Bloud shall be changed and altered with a perfective Alteration that it may be capable of inheritng the Kingdom of God That Christ shall †Phil. 3.21 change thy vile Body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious Body and that thou shalt ‖ Mat. 13.43 shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of thy Father These Thoughts will warm and affect thy Heart and move and incline thee to study and endeavour to get thy Soul and Body fitted and qualified for a Participation of a blessed and glorious Resurrection To get thy Soul now transform'd and made like unto Christ's gracious Soul that thy Body hereafter may be transform'd and made like unto his glorious Body to get I say a sanctified Soul here that thou maiest not sail of a glorified Body hereafter for the Body follows the Condition of the Soul Not to spend thy Time Care Cost Pains in decking and adorning in trimming and [s] Qui se pingunt in hoc seculo aliter
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
one another's sinning and to promote the Work of Grace and Holiness in one another's Hearts Take Occasion to warm not so much one another's Houses as one another's Hearts Visit one another in the Evening meet together and confer one with another at leisure hours and on daies of Recreation * Mal. 3.16 Speak often one to another concerning the things that belong to the Peace of one another's Souls and concern the Conditiion of the Church of Christ Build up †Jude 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one another on your most holy Faith ‖ 1 Thess 5.11 Comfort your selves together and edify one another (*) Heb. 3.13 Exhort one another daily while it is called To day Let your Exhortation be mutual and reciprocal frequent and continual seasonable and speedy lest any of you be hardened through the Deceitfulness of Sin Take the first Opportunity of dealing with thy Friend as the case and need of his Soul requires lest Death remove him unexpectedly out of the reach of thy Charity to all Eternity Consider with thy self that should thy Companion live longer yet he may continue in the omission of some Duty because you only purpose to put him upon it Or he may go on in the commission of some Sin grow more and more in Love with it and fall more under the Power of it because you have only some thought and intention to turn him from it Support preserve and keep one another from falling and in the Spirit of Meekness raise and recover (†) Gal. 6.1 restore and (‖) Jam 5.19 convert one another when overtaken and fallen in any degree and measure either into Sin or Errour * Le◠19 17. Hate not your Friend or Brother in your Heart in any wise rebuke your Neighbour and never suffer Sin upon him when you find him offending against God or Man And * Mat. 18.15 if a Friend or Brother shall plainly trespass against thee go and tell him his Fault between thee and him alone not seeming to reproach him by chiding and reprehending him in publick nor offering to back-bite him by talking privately to others against him †Col. 3.16 Rom. 15 14. Teach and admonish one another and let it appear that you practise your own Precepts and take your selves the Counsel you give to others Follow Tertullian's excellent Advice [p] Oportet constantiam commenend proprtie conversationis autheritate dertgere ne icta faciis aesictent thus crubescant Tert. de patientia initio strengthen your friendly Admonition and Exhortation with the Authority of your own Conversation that your want of Deeds may not make you blush at your own Words and let me add that your Friend and Companion may not neglect and reject your Sayings because he knows too well your Doings As oftentimes you thrust away the good Light of a Candle for the ill savour which the stinking Tallow yields Let none have reason to retort and say ‖ Luke 4.23 Physician heal thy self (*) Rom. 2 21. Thou which teachest another teachest thou not thy self What Mr. Herbert speaks of Ministers may be sitly accommodated to the Exhortations and Admonitions of Christian Friends [q] The Windows Doctrine and Life Colours and Light in one When they combine and mingle bring A strong Regard and Aw but Speech alone Doth vanish like a flaring thing And in the Ear not Conscience ring (†) Heb 10 24. Consider one another to provoke unto Love and to good Works or to [r] Dr. Ham of frat Admon or Correp p. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sharpen or provoke in one another Charity and good or laudable Works You are apt to forget and prone to neglect your selves you have need enough of one anothers spiritual Care and Help 't is necessary that others should watch and observe incite and assist you be at some trouble and take some pains with you your own and others Consideration and Provocation of you is little enough to stir and move you Ponder and [s] Dr. Hum. Par. in loc weigh all Advantages that you can have one upon another to excite and extimulate to engage and quicken one another to the Exercise of Charity and all Actions of Piety whensoever you find any thing of fainting or growing cold in one another Search and enquire into one anothers spiritual Estates mind and study the Cases and Conditions of one anothers Souls the Causes and Cures of one another spiritual Distempers Be very solicitous for one anothers present and future Good carefully consult the spiritual Prosperity and eternal Welfare of one another Consider one another to provoke one another not to Sin and Wickedness to Vanity and Folly to uncertain Opinions to Faction and Division to Siding and Party-taking not to that which is highly provoking but exceeding well-plealing to God not to Wrath but to Love not to Evil but to Good Works Consider and provoke one another not as the Devil considers and provokes Men by his Temptations but as God considers and provokes Men who watches over us continually prevents us daily with his Grace strengthens us against Temptations affords us his Counsel instils many good Motions into our Minds and often incites and stirs us up to the Duties incumbent on us And as Christ consider'd and provoked Sinners when he was here on Earth to Faith and Repentance good Works and Obedience who went about doing Good doing good to Mens Souls as well as Bodies who freely convers'd with them frequently instructed them affectionately exhorted them powerfully press'd them plainly reprov'd them was grieved for the Hardness of their Hearts lamented and wept over their Impenitency and Insidelity Consider thy Companion at such a season when it is most likely that he may consider what you say to him Provoke him to Good when in all probability it may do most good Remember to consider and provoke one another in a serious manner Never offer to utter a few cold dull dead Words between Jest and Earnest but earnestly perswade and pathetically expostulate one with another and let one another plainly see that every Application does arise and proceed from Love and Compassion and that it is the Desire of your Souls to save one another's Souls Let your Words be as * Eccl. 12.1 Goads as the Wise Man speaks to prick one another forward in the way of Religion Instead of detaining one another unnecessarily from the Publick Assembly stir up one another with an holy Zeal and say one to another in the Words of the Prophet * Zech. 8.21 Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of Hosts I will go also Be not Quench-coals but as live Coals begetting Heat in those that are next you Let Christian Acquaintance use their utmost Endeavours to bring one another more acquainted with God and with their own spiritual States and Conditions Let Christian Neighbours study
of his Humiliation When Christ was almost entring into his Grave he begg'd and intreated that Christ would remember him when he came [g] Tò ev ponitur pro eis into his Kingdom Which of the Eleven were heard to utter so gracious a Word to their Saviour in his last Pangs and dying Agonies This penitent Thief prayed in Faith and look'd for ‖ Mal. 4.2 Healing from the Wings of this Sun of Righteousness when this glorious Sun rose from the West as I may say He was so humble that he would not presume to ask of Christ a participation of his Kingdom or any great and high Honour in it but only requested that he might not be forgotten by him the way of remembring and considering him he left wholly to him He shewed a very exemplary Patience upon the Cross he did not murmur against God or the Magistrate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but owned the Dueness and Justice of his Punishment and was content to bear it and desired not the removal or abatement of it he meekly and quietly accepted his corporal temporal Punishment being only solicitous for his Soul's Salvation He charitably [i] Luk. 23.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat repreleâ—do anterdico Gerhard Harm in loc reprehended his Fellow-Thief and [i] Luk. 23.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat repreleâ—do anterdico Gerhard Harm in loc forbad him to proceed in his Blasphemy invited him to Repentance and sought to further the Salvation of his Neighbour Thou canst not expect ever to meet with such an Occasion to try and exercise thy Faith and Obedience and therefore thou hast no imaginable reason to nourish up thy self in Security upon presumptuous Hopes of faring as he did since thou canst not do as he did 6. And lastly Suppose thou shouldst at last redeem thy Time so well as by God's help with the good Thief to act and exercise unfeigned Repentance upon thy Death-bed yet I pray shew me and help me a little to understand how thou art likely to get that Comfort and gain that sweet Peace of Conscience which a more early Redemption of thy Time would in all probability bring thee in and bless thee with in thy last Hours A thinking understanding Heathen will tell thee [i] Mortem venientem nemo hilaris excipit nisi qui se ad illam diu composucrat Sen. ep 30. He only can chearfully entertain and gladly welcome Death when it comes who has a long time been fitting and preparing himself for it The Thief upon the Cross had indeed full Assurance that his Soul was in a good Condition at present and sure Ground of strongest Confidence and most comfortable Acquiescence that he should be very quickly in a pure and holy a blissful and happy State in another World But it is not to be expected that thou shouldst arrive to such Assurance in the same or the like way that he did for Christ then hung upon the Cross by him and had compassion on him and reveal'd it to him that his Repentance which was God's extraordinary gracious Gift was Repentance unto Life that his Person was accepted and his Prayer heard and that a higher Favour should be shewn him and a greater Good be bestowed upon him than was expresly desired by him That his Lord was ready to take the Key of Paradise into his hand and would very quickly open the Door and let him in and give him entrance into the Joy of his Lord. All which is included in Christ's gracious Answer to the humble Petition of the penitent Thief which he strengthned and confirmed with an earnest Asseveration Verily I say unto thee I will not only be mindful of thee but thou shalt be with me and that not only some time hereafter but [l] Nee sine grave causa expressum illud hoâ—le Censebant enim Judaes non quorumvis animas statim in selicem Paradisi statum recipi sed eas demum quae bene purgatâ— ex hac vita excederent Grot. in loc to day immediatly after thy Death and Departure To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise be joyfully received and pleasurably entertain'd in that happy Repository and Receptacle of Spirits which God hath prepared for holy Souls But when thou shalt come to lie upon a Death-bed and be conscious to thy self that thou hast led a very sinful and ungodly Life all thy daies and that this is the first time that thou hast in good earnest minded this great Work Suppose that the workings of thy Heart should be sincere how canst thou evidence thy Uprightness to thy self prove and make out to thy self and satisfy thy self in any ordinary way that thy Conversion is true and real sound and sincere When thou shalt plainly apprehend that thou art changing thy Place and Habitation State and Condition all of a sudden thou canst not but conclude that it highly concerns thee to humble thy self to God to beg his Pardon and promise him fair and to resolve by all possible means to shake off thy Sins which are too grievous and dang erous Companions to carry along with thee into the other World to cast away thy Sins at loost as a Man in a Storm begins to cast away his Goods because if he keeps his much valued Goods he must lose his dearest Life But dost not thou remember the famous remarkable Story of * 2 Mac. 9. Antiochus who when the Judgment of God followed him and smote him with an incurable and invisible Plague with a Pain of the Bowels that was remediless and sore Torments of the inner Parts so that the filthiness of his Smell was noisome to all his Army and no Man could endure to carry him for his intolerable Stink and he himself could not abide his own Smell Then he began to leave off his great Pride This wicked Person vowed also unto the Lord that he would set the holy City at Liberty make all the Jews equals to the Citizens of Athens garnish the holy Temple with goodly Gifts become a Jew himself and go through all the World that was inhabited and declare the Power of God But the Lord would now no more have Mercy upon him having suffer'd grievously he died most miserably And hast not thou [k] I never knew nor heard of any unwrought upon under conscionable means who after Recovery perform'd the Vows ... not counted as error and Promises of a new Life which he made in his Sickness and times of Extremity For if he will not be moved with the Ministry God will never give that honour unto the Cross to do the deed Mr. Bolton's Instructions for a right Comf afflicted Conscience p. 255. known some and heard of others who being condemned by Law or cast upon Beds of Sickness have outwardly manifested as great and probable signs of true Repentance upon seeming near approaches of Death and Judgment as thou canst now be well supposed to do and yet when God by
stedfastly resolvest and earnestly endeavourest to work the Work of God now when there is some Opportunity remaining and Power left which if thou wouldst thou couldst employ in the Devil's Work if indeed this be thy case if truly it be thus with thee then be of good comfort for I dare assure thee that God in Christ will graciously accept thee and gloriously reward thee Remember and consider that they that were hired about the * Mat. 20.9 12. eleventh Hour received every Man a Penny and were made equal unto those which had born the Burden and Heat of the day This indeed gives no Encouragement to any that study to delay from day to day because these Persons in the Parable were never call'd before the eleventh Hour they stood no longer idle but went into the Vineyard as soon as they were call'd without any the least delay Nor does it afford sufficient comfort to a [m] As concerning the man which was called the last Hour of the day to labour in the Vineyard I pray you take notice that this man was a Labourer and though he took pains but for a short time yet Labour he did whereas he that shall defer his Repentance and Amendment of Life till his last Hour if he indeed prove sorry for his Sins yet labour he cannot the best that he can do is to make Offers and Resolutions to work the good VVork of God if it shall please him to snare him Life But that those Resolutions of his shall be accepted with God instead of real very Labour indeed I find no Commission to assure you Chillingworths serm 6. on Luke 16 9. p. 397. Death bed Penitent because these Persons that went in late laboured soundly and wrought full hard for the space of an Hour before they received their Pay which Death-bed Penitents have no time to do But yet this Passage gives good ground of great Comfort to all such Persons as timely think upon their Waies turn their Feet unto God's Testimonies and enter into the Race of Godliness when they could stand idle a while longer or still continue and run on further in foolish Waies and sinful Courses To conclude all I exhort and beseech you and let me effectually perswade and prevail with you by all that with any reason has been offer'd to your consideration to [n] Quare vis procrastinare propositum tuum Surge in instant â—â—ncipe die Nunc tempus est faciendi nunc tempus est pugnandi nunc tempus est emend indi A Kemâ—is l 1. c. 22. n. 5. break off all your Delaies Excuses Discouragements and to give all speedy careful chearful Diligence to redeem the Time to work out your Salvation and to make your Calling and Election sure by bringing forth the seasonable proper plentiful Fruits of an undelayed Repentance Take the excellent Counsel of the wise Son of Sirach * Ecclus 18.19 10 21 22. Vse Physick or ever thou be sick Before Judgment examine thy self and in the day of Visitation thou shalt find Mercy Humble thy self before thou be sick and in the time of Sins shew Repentance Let nothing hinder thee to pay thy Vow in due time and defer not until Death to be justified Follow likewise the Advice and practise according to the profitable Direction of the Learned Gerhard Timely and faithfully [o] Vtamur mediis conversionis salutis vivamus in vero timore Dei insistamus precibuâ— resistamus peccatorum principus ne cogitatio prava delectationem delectatio consensum consensus opus gignat opus consuetudinem consuetudo necessitatem necessitas pertinaciam pertinacia desperationem desperatio damnationem pariat Gerhard Harm c. 201. p. 2000. use the means of Conversion and Salvation live in the true Fear of God pray without ceasing resist the Beginnings of any Sins lest an evil Thought raise Delight Delight draw on Consent Consent produce an evil Work evil Works beget an evil Habit an evil Habit induce a kind of Necessity of sinning and such Necessity breed Pertinacy Pertinacy cause Despair and Desperation end in Damnation FINIS
esteemed and well-improved at the Hour of Death The second Direction If we would well redeem the Time we must often [a] Vide Ludov. Crocii Syntagm a p. 1207 ad 1212. examin our selves and call our selves to a serious strict Account for the spending of our Time Alas too many earnestly study to know and understand all things but themselves They observe and take notice of other Mens Tempers and Humours search and enquire into other Mens Actions and reade the Histories of other Mens Lives and [b] Quando omnia percur visti quid te neglecto profecisti A Kempis l. 2. c. 5. n. 2. yet are ignorant of their own Hearts and spiritual Estates unobservant of the Passages and unacquainted with the particulars of their own Conversations We can easily pass away the Day and the Night the Week and the Year in musing on a thousand Matters [c] Vt nemo in seso tentat descendere nemo Pers Sat. 4. But where is the Man that bestows any serious Thoughts on himself that questions and interrogates his own Heart and takes due notice of his own Life or is at all concern'd how his Soul is improved and his Hours employed Certainly some of the very Heathens will rise up in Judgment against most Christians for we find that they have been very famous for this Practice of being severe in taking Account of themselves and of their Time Suetonius relates of Titus Vespasian the Heathen Emperour that remembring on an Evening as he was at Supper that he had done no good that Day to any one [d] Memorabilem illam meritóque landatam vocem edidit Annci diem perdidi Suet in vit Vesp §. 8. he utter'd that memorable and deservedly commended Saying Alas my Friends I have lost this Day St. Jerom tells us of a wise Saying of the Pythagoreans [e] Pythago teum illud praeceptum est ducrum temporum maximè habondam curam manè vespert id est eorum quae acturi sumus eorum quae gesserimus Apolog. Hieron advers Russi um l. 3. Mone prepone vespere discute mores tuos qualis hodie suists in verbo opere cogit â—â—â—one quia ia his saepius sâ—itan offendssti Deum proximum A Kemp. l 1 c. 19. n 4 Quid quòqu die dixerim audiverim egerim commemoro vespers Caro apud Cic de Senect That a special Care is to be had of two portions of our Time of the Morning and of the Evening Of the Morning to consider and resolve to do what ought to be done and of the Evening to examine whether we have done what we ought And it is one of Pythagoras's golden Precepts Never offer to give sleep to your Eyes before you have thrice run over in your Mind the several Particulars of that Day 's Actions and put such Questions as these to your self [f] Examen Pythagoricum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where have I transgressed what have I well done what have I left undone which it became me to have done And if thou hast done any thing saies he that is base and unworthy charge thy self with it and chide thy self for it But if thou hast done any thing that is good and vertuous rejoyce and delight in it [g] Hoc nos pessimos facit quod nemo vitans saam respicit c. Sen. ep 83. This makes us so very bad says Seneca because no man reflects upon his own Life It may be sometimes though seldome we think what we are to do says he but what we have done we do not think But we are to deliberate what to do for the future from the consideration of what we have done already And in his third Book de Ira he has an excellent Discourse to this Purpose He says there That the Soul is daily to be call'd to give an Account And he tells us of one Sextius whose constant Course it was to do thus That when the Day was spont and he went to take his rest at Night he would demand of himself What evil of yours have you healed this Day what Vice have you resisted in what part are you better Anger and Passion says the Philosopher there will be moderated and abated when it knows it must daily come before a Judg And therefore says he what is more excellent than this Custom of examining the whole Day past O [h] Qualis ille somnus pâ—st recog itionem sui sequitur c. Sen. de Ira l. 3. c. 36. what a sweet Sleep is that which follows after the Recognition of a Man's self How quiet and free is a Man's Mind when it is either commended or admonished and a Man does secretly review and censure his own Manners I use this Liberty with my self says Sencea there in the same Place I have a daily Trial within my self says he When at Night the Candle is taken away and all is still and silent then I search and enquire into the whole Day I measure and run over I scan and consider all my Words and Deeds I hide nothing from my self I overlook and pass by nothing I say to my self you have done so and so see you do so no more You see how some of the wisest and best of the very Heathen did accustome themselves to this Self-scrutiny and took an Account of their Lives and Actions And many eminent and Godly Christians to this Purpose do use Diaries and daily set down in Journals or Day-books the observable remarkable Passages of their Lives And we must do at least somewhat like it Before we sleep every Night let 's be sure to make such a Recollection and Examination of the Actions of that Day as may represent any thing that is remarkable to be matter either of Humiliation or of Thanks-giving Accustome thy self before thou takest thy Rest and Repose to have some private Talk some secret Conference with thy selt to ask thy self such Questions as these and to use such Language as this What has been the Frame and Temper of my Heart what my Carriage and Behaviour this Day what the Principles of my Practice what the Ends of this Day 's Actions Did my Mind awake with my Body in the Morning did I then exercise the Consideration of a Man and Christian and deliberately renew and six and settle my Resolution for the purifying and right ordering my Conversation Did I early go to God by Prayer and in the * Matth. 6.33 first place seek the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness Wherein have I offended or angred my good God this Day wherein have I injured or provoked my Neighbour or hurt his Soul Body Estate or good Name wherein have I wronged or any way prejudic'd my own Soul what proud discontented covetous ambitious malicious revengeful Thought what silthy or angry vain-glorious or idle Word what inconvenient abusive offensive Jest what ungodly Deed or unbecoming unseemly Action have I this Day been guilty of