annexed to this Consideration We are to know that although Death be thus subdued and rendred rather a benefit than a terrour to good men yet 1. Death is not to be wished or desired though it be an object not to be feared it is a thing not to be coveted for certainly life is the greatest temporal blessing in the World It was the passion not the virtue of that excellent Prophet Elijah that desired to dye because he thought himself only left of the true worshippers of God 1 Kings 19.4 We are all placed in this World by Almighty God and a talent of life is delivered to us and we are commanded to improve it a task is set every one of us in this life by the great Master of the Family of Heaven and Earth and we are required with patience and obedience and faithfulness to perform our task and not to be weary of our work nor wish our day at an end before its time When our Lord calls us it is our duty with courage and chearfulness to obey His call but until He calls it is our duty with patience and contentedness to perform our task to be doing of our work And indeed in this life our Lord hath delivered us several tasks of great importance to do as namely 1. To improve our graces and virtues our Knowledge and Faith and those works of piety and goodness that he requires the better and closer we follow that business here the greater will be our reward and improvement of glory hereafter And therefore as we must with all readiness give over our work when our Master calls us so we must with all diligence and perseverance continue our employment out till he calls us and with all thankfulness unto God entertain and rejoyce in that portion of life he lends us because we have thereby an opportunity of doing our Master the more service and of improving the degrees of our own glory and happiness 2. And besides the former he hath also set us another task namely to serve our Generation to give an example of virtue and goodness to encourage others in the ways of virtue and goodness to provide for our Families and Relations to do all good offices of Justice Righteousness Liberality Charity to others cheerfully and industriously to follow our Callings and Employments and infinite more as well Natural Civil Moral employments which though of a lower importance in respect of our selves yet are of greater use and moment in respect of others and are as well as the former required of us and part of the task that our great Lord requires of us and for the sake of which he also bestows many Talents upon us to be thus improved in this life and for which we must also at the end of our day give our Lord an account and therefore for the sake of this also we are to be thankful for our life and not be desirous to leave our post our station our business our life till our Lord call us to Himself in the ordinary way of His Providence for He is the only Lord of our lives and we are not the Lords of our own lives 2. A second Caution is this That as the business and employments and concerns of our life must not estrange us from the thoughts of death so again we must be careful that the overmuch thought of death do not so much possess our thoughts as to make us forget the concerns of our life nor neglect the businesses which that portion of time is allowed us for As the business of fitting our Souls for Heaven the businesses of our callings relations places stations Nay the comfortable thankful sober enjoyments of those honest lawful comforts of our life that God lends us so as it be done with great sobriety moderation as in the presence of God and with much thankfulness to Him for this is part of that very duty we owe to God for those very external comforts and blessings we enjoy Deut. 28.47 A wise and due consideration of our latter ends is neither to render us a sad melancholy disconsolate people nor to render us unfit for the businesses and offices of our life but to render us more watchful vigilant industrious soberly cheerful and thankful to that God that hath been pleased thus to make our lives serviceable to Him comfortable to us profitable to others and after all this to take away the bitterness and sting of death through Jesus Christ our Lord. OF VVISDOM AND The Fear of GOD That that is True WISDOM JOB XXVIII 28. And to man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding THe great preheminence that Man hath over Beasts is his Reason and the great preheminence that one man hath over another is Wisdom though all men have ordinarily the priviledge of Reason yet all men have not the habit of Wisdom The greatest commendation that we can ordinarily give a man is that he is a wise man and the greatest reproach that can be to a man and that which is worst resented is to be called or esteemed a fool and yet as much as the reputation of wisdom is valued and the reputation of folly is resented the generality of mankind are in truth very fools and make it the great part of their business to be so and many that pretend to see◠after wisdom do either mistake the thing or mistake the way to attain commonl◠those that are the greatest pretenders 〈◊〉 wisdom and the search after it place it i◠some little narrow concern but place i◠not in its true latitude commensurate to th◠nature of mankind And hence it is tha◠one esteems it the only wisdom to be 〈◊〉 wise Politician or Statesman another t◠be a wise and knowing Naturalist anothe◠to be a wise acquirer of Wealth and th◠like and all these are wisdoms in their kind and the World perchance would be much better than it is if these kind of wisdom were more in fashion than they are bu◠yet these are but partial wisdoms the wisdom that is most worth the seeking and finding is that which renders a man a Wise Man This excellent man Job after a diligen◠search in the speech of this Chapter after Wisdom what it is where to be found doth at length make these two Conclusions viz. 1. That the true root of wisdom and that therefore best knew where it was to be found and how to be attained is certainly none other but A mighty God vers 23. God understandeth the way thereof and knoweth the place thereof and 2. As he alone best knew it so he best knew how to prescribe unto mankind the means and method to attain it To man he said to fear God that is wisdom that is it is the proper and adequate wisdom sutable to humane nature and to the condition of mankind and we need not doubt but it is so because he that best knew what was
as acts of Justice Charity Compassion Liberality 4. Or last Actions Religious relating to Almighty God as Invocation Thanksgiving Inquiringinto his Works Will Obedience to his Law and Commands observing the solemn seasons of his Worship and Service and which must go through and give a tincture to all the rest a habit of Fear of him Love to him Humility and Integrity of heart and soul before him and in sum a habit of Religion towards God in his Son Jesus Christ which is the magnum oportet the one thing necessary and over-weighs all the rest upon this account 1. In respect of the excellency and soveraignty of the Object Almighty God to whom we owe our Being and the strength and flower of our Souls 2. In respect of the nobleness of the end thereby and therein to be attained for whereas all the rest serve only to the Meridian of this Life the latter hath a prospect to an eternal Life 3. In respect of the nobleness of the habit it self which hath an universal influence into all the rest of the before-mentioned relations and advanceth and improveth and innobleth them It would be too long to prosecute the methods of Redeeming the Time in the particular relations to all these actions in this sheet of paper therefore in this pursuit of the manner of Redeeming the Time I shall set down only these generals 1. We are to neglect no opportunity that occurs to do good but 1. To watch all opportunities that offer themselves in order thereunto 2. To seek for them if they offer not themselves 3. To use them and not to let them slip 2. In the co-incidence of opportunities of several kinds and suiting to several actions to give those the praelation that correspond to the most worthy actions and in the co-incidence of opportunities for actions of equal moment to prefer such as are most rare and probably of unlikelihood to occur again before those that are under a probability of frequent occurrence 3. We are to be very careful to leave no banks or interspersions of idleness in our lives Those men that have most imployment and of the most constant nature cannot choose but have certain interstitia between tween the varieties of business which may be fitted with imployments suitable to their length or qualities and it becomes a good Husband of his time to have some designations and destinations of businesses that may be suitable to the nature quality seasons and morae of those vacant interstitia An industrious Husband-man Trades-man Scholar will never want business fitted for occasional vacancies and horae subsecivae Gellius his Noctes Atticae have left us an experiment of it And a Christian even as such hath ready imployments for occasional interstices Reading Praying the crums and fragments of time would be furnished with their suitable imployments 't is precious and therefore let none of it be lost 4. Much time might be save dand redeemed in retrenching the unnecessary expences thereof in our ordinary sleep attiring and dressing our selves and the length of our Meals as Breakfasts Dinners Suppers which especially in this latter Age and among people of the better sort are protracted to an immoderate and excessive length There is little less than ten or twelve hours every day spent in these refections and their appendancies which might be fairly reduced to much less 5. Take heed of entertaining vain thoughts which are a very great consumption of time and is very incident to Melancholy and Fanciful persons whom I have known to sit the greatest part of several days in projecting what they would do if they had such Estates Honours or Places and such kind of unprofitable and vain meditations which humour is much improved in them that lie long in bed in a Morning 6. Beware of too much Recreation Some bodily exercise is necessary for sedentary men especially but let it not be too frequent nor too long Gameing Taverns and Plays as they are pernicious and corrupt Youth so if they had no other fault yet they are justly to be declined in respect of their excessive expence of time and habituating men to idleness and vain thoughts and disturbing passions and symptoms when they are past as well as while they are used Let no Recreations of any long continuance be used in the Morning for they hazard the loss or discomposure of the whole day after 7. Visits made or received are for the most part an intollerable consumption of time unless prudently ordered and they are for the most part spent in vain and impertinent discourses 1. Let them not be used in the Morning 2. If the visits be made to or by persons of impertinence let them be short and at such times as may be best spared from what is more useful or necessary viz. at Meals or presently after 3. But if the persons to be visited are men of Wisdom Learning or Eminence of parts the visits may be longer but yet so as the time may be prositably spent in useful discourse which carries with it as well profit and advantage as civility and respect 8. Be obstinately constant to your Devotions at certain set times and be sure to spend the Lords day entirely in those Religious duties proper for it and let nothing but an inevitable necessity divert you from it For 1. It is the best and most prositably spent time it is in order to the great end of your being in this World 2. It is in order to your everlasting happiness in comparison of which all other businesses of this life are idle and vain it is that which will give you the greatest comfort in your Life in your Sickness in your Death and he is a Fool that provides not for that which will most certainly come 3. It is the most reasonable tribute imaginable unto that God that lends you your time and you are bound to pay it under all the obligations of duty and gratitude And 4. It is that which will sanctifie and prosper all the rest of your time and your secular imployments I am not apt to be superstitious but this I have certainly infallibly found true that by my deportment in my duty towards God in the times devoted to his Service especially on the Lords day I could make a certain conjecture of my success in my secular occasions the rest of the week after If I were loose and negligent in the former the latter never succeeded well if strict and conscientious and watchful in the former I was successful and prosperous in the latter 9. Be industrious and faithful in your Calling The merciful God hath not only indulged unto us a far greater portion of time for our ordinary occasions than he hath reserved to himself but also injoyns and requires our industry and diligence in it And remember that you observe that industry and diligence not only as a civil means to acquire a competency for your self and your Family but also as an act of
the best rule of wisdom prescribed it to man his best of visible creatures whom we have just reason to believe he would not deceive with a false or desicient rule of wisdom since as wisdom is the beauty and glory of man so wisdom in man sets forth the glory and excellency and goodness of God And consonant to this David a wise King and Solomon the wisest of men affirm the same truth Psal 111 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom a good understanding have they that do his commandments Prov. 1.7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction and 9.10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy is understanding And when the wise man had run all his long travel of Experiments to attain that which might be that good for the children of men in the end of his tedious chace and pursuit he closeth up all with this very same conclusion Eccles 12.13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man and he gives a short but effectual Reason of it For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil And hence it is that this wise man who had the greatest measure of wisdom of any meer man since the creation of Adam that had as great experience and knowledge of all things and persons that made it his business to search and to enquire not only into wisdom but into madness and folly that had the greatest opportunity of wealth and power to make the exactest enquiry therein This wise and inquisitive and experienced man in all his Writings stiles the man fearing God and obeying him the only wise man and the person that neglects this duty the only fool and mad man And yet it is strange to see how little this is thought of or believed in the World Nay for the most part he is thought the wisest man who hath the least of this principle of Wisdom appearing in him that shakes off the fear of God or the sense of his presence or the obedience to his will and the discipline of Conscience and by craft or subtilty or power or oppression or by whatsoever method may be most conducible pursues his ends of profit or power or pleasure or what else his own vain thoughts and the mistaken estimate of the generality of men render desirable in this World And on the other side he that governs himself his life his thoughts words actions ends and purposes with the fear of Almighty God with sense and awe of his presence according to his word that drives at a nobler end than ordinarily the World thinks of namely peace with Almighty God and with his own Heart and Conscience the hope and expectation of Eternity such a man is counted a shallow empty inconsiderate foolish man one that carries no stroke in the World a man laden with a melancholy delusion setting a great rate upon a World he sees not and neglecting the opportunities of the World he sees But upon a sound and true Examination of this business we shall find that the man that feareth God is the wisest man and he that upon that account departs from evil is the man of greatest understanding I shall shew therefore these two things 1. What it is to fear God 2. That this fear of God is most demonstratively the best Wisdom of mankind and makes a man truly and really a wise man 1. Touching the first of these Fear is an affection of the Soul that is as much diversified as any one affection whatsoever which diversification of this affection ariseth from the diversification of those objects by which this affection is moved I shall mention these four 1. Fear of Despondency or Desperation which ariseth from the fear of some great and important danger that is unavoidable or at least so apprehended and this is not the Fear that is here commended to mankind 2. Fear of Terrour or Affrightment which is upon the sense of some great important danger that though possibly it may be avoided yet it carries with it a great probability and immediate impendency as the fear of Mariners in a storm or a fear that befalls a man in some time or place of great confusion or visible calamity And this kind of fear of Almighty God is sometimes effectual and useful to bring men to Repentance after some great displeasure of Almighty God by Sin or Apostacy but this is not that fear that is here at least primarily and principally meant but those two that follow 3. A Fear of Reverence or Awfulness and this fear is raised principally upon the sense of some object full of glory majesty greatness though possibly there is no cause of expecting any hurt from the person or thing thus feared Thus a Subject bears a reverential fear to his Prince from the sense of his majesty and grandeur and thus much more the majesty and greatness of Almighty God excites reverence and awfulness though there were no other ingredient into that fear Jer. 5.21 Will ye not fear me saith the Lord will ye not tremble at my presence c. Jer. 10.7 who would not fear thee O King of Nations 4. A Fear of Caution or Watchfulness This is that which the Wise man commends Prov. 28.14 Blessed is the man that feareth always And this fear of Caution is a due care and vigilancy not to displease that person from whom we enjoy or hope for good the fear of a Benefactor or of that person from whom we may upon some just cause or demerit expect an evil as the fear of a just and righteous Judge And these two latter kinds of fear namely the fear of Reverence and the fear of Caution are those that are the principal ingredients constituting this fear of God that these excellent men commend to us as true Wisdom Now this fear of God ariseth from those right and true apprehensions concerning Almighty God that do with a kind of connaturality and suitableness excite both these two kinds of Fear and those seem to be principally these three 1. A true and deep sense of the Being of God namely That there is a most excellent and perfect Being which we call God the only true God the Maker of all things But this is not enough to constitute this Fear for Epicurus and Lucian did believe that there was a God yet were without the fear of him 2. A true and deep sense knowledge and consideration of the Attributes of God And although all the attributes of God are but so many expressions and declarations of his perfection and excellency and therefore all contribute to advance and improve this fear especially of Reverence yet there be some attributes that seem in a more special manner to excite and raise this affection of fear