12. The Darkness hideth not from him but the Night shineth as the Day the Darkness and the Light are both alike to him And therefore let the serious Thoughts of God's Omniscience restrain and deter us from secret Sins When Paphnutius the Monk was solicited by an Harlot to impure Embraces and she led him out of one Room into another he still complained they were not yet private enough At last she brought him into an inner Room which was quite dark and here said she none can see us but God and the Devil What said he do you make a but at that come carry me where neither God nor the Devil can see me And so the holy Ephrem Syrus being enticed by a Harlot to commit Lewdness with her only desired that he might chuse the Place which she agreeing to he presently pitch'd upon the common and open Market-place And when she told him for shame they must forbear to do it there in the eye and view of all he demanded of her how she durst do that in God's Sight which she would never offer to do in Mens The wise Discourses of these two religious Persons seasonably and seriously urging and presling the Consideration of God's Omniscience not only repressed but reclaimed seriously convinced and effectually converted changed the Minds and mended the Manners of those notoriously impudent Harlots If Satan or his Instruments or thy own corrupt deceitful Heart tell thee at any Time or suggest to thee that no Eye sees thee thou maiest commit it safely ask whether they can pluck out God's all-seeing Eye or search out any Place that is not filled with the Divine Presence or can expunge and dash the Items out of the Book of God's Remembrance 2. Consider this in your private Families Then count thy self an happy Man saies Seneca to Lucilius when thou art able to live as it were in publick when thy own Walls shall cover thee not conceal thee which for the most part we reckon our selves enclos'd with not [k] Non ut tut us vivamus sed ut peccemus occuli ùs Sen. ep 43. that we may live more safely but that we may sin more secretly and securely Thou shalt hardly find any one saies he that is able to live with his Door open [l] Janitores conscientia nestra non super bia opposuit Sic vivimus ut desrehends sit subito assici Sen. ep 43. Not our Pride but our Conscience which is afraid lest any discovery should be made has set Porters at our Gates We live so saies he that to be suddenly seen is to be taken in a Fault or Crime And therefore me-thinks it was an excellent Speech which Velleius Paterculus relates of Livius Drusus who when he was about to build an House and the Work-man offer'd him so to contrive it that it should be every way private and no body should be able to look into it No saies he but [m] Si quid in te artis est ita compore domum meam â—â— quicquid agâ—m ab omnibus perspics possâ— Vell. â— aterculuâ— lib. 2. §. 14. if you have any Art at all so frame and contrive my House that whatever I do may be seen by all O Christian live in thy Family as if the Eyes of all the World were upon thee But especially walk within thy House as having God's all-seeing Eye continually fix'd and intent upon thee Think O my Friends yea often think with your selves that God beholds your Family-neglects and Omissions your Family-Irregularities and Transgressions your Family-Contentions and Divitions That he observes your Walking disorderly in your House and Family That God sees how ill you discharge your Care of Souls that he knows in what Families Religion is laid aside disrelish'd discountenanc'd derided that he everywhere looks narrowly whether Men pray in their Closets and Families and reade the Scriptures and good Books and catechise and instruct their Children and Servants and give them wholesome Counsel and a good Example or behave themselves with Neglect and Contempt of these Things There is not a Family that goes without Prayer from Day to Day and breaks the Lord's-Day every Week but God knows them and takes particular notice of them Did Men consider this they would not suffer Profaneness and Atheism Contention and Strife to abound in their Families as they do 4. And Lastly Whenever we come to the publick Worship of God let us seriously consider that we stand in his Presence and are in his Eye Many that come to Church out of Custome and Formality and are not sensible of God's Omniscience and Omnipresence may say with * Gen. 28.16 Jacob when they come to be awakened Surely the Lord is in this Place and we knew it not Let 's all consider That when we join together in Prayer God knows our Preparations our Affections our Motives to the Duty our Carriages in it He beholds the Rovings and Wandrings of our Minds and Thoughts and the Deadness and Straitness of our Hearts and affections Consider in like manner that when we hear the Word read or preach'd God well understands why we hear and how we hear He plainly discerns how our Hearts work under the Word He takes notice that when you come and sit and make as if you heard his Word †Ezek. 33 31. your Heart goeth after your Covetousness He views all your negligent irreverent Carriages and undecent unseasonable Whisperings God looks upon you when under an Ordinance you nothing but look about you to see who are there and what they wear If Men would really believe and seriously consider this that when they are in publick they are in a solemn manner before God they would not then be mindless and heartless cold and formal in Prayer they would not be critical careless scornful Hearers of the Word but they would be lively and fervent in praying and as diligent and attentive as could be in hearing in order to their spiritual prositing and well-living 'T is good when we have so solemnly to do with God to think of the Eye of that God with whom we have to do This would possess us with more Reverence and Godly Fear in the Duties of God's Worship If the Apprehension of the Presence of * 1 Cor 11.10 Angels in publick Christian Assemblies be apt to compose Men to a reverent Behaviour much more will the Consideration of the Presence of God be able to effect it The fifth Direction That we may wisely redeem the Time let 's be sure to propound a good End to our selves in all our Actions and to do nothing deliberately but what we can ask God's Assistance in and Blessing upon when we go about it 1. Let 's be sure to propound a good End to our selves in all our Actions Let every Action be as an [a] Est aliquid quò tendis in quod dirigis arcum Atque ex tempore vivis Pers sat 3. Arrow shot at a Mark. [b]
sinned away being only concern'd for things of nought and busy in doing worse than nothing What a pain and torture will it be to consider that when you know you have had sufficient Discretion and exceeding Care Prudence and Providence enough and more than enough in other Matters you should be dull and listless sluggish and sottish wanting and defective in the only commendable necessary point of Wisdome A Man's falling out with himself for ever the sharp Rebukes and cutting Upbraidings of a Man 's own Conscience and Self-condemnation for former Folly and Madness will certainly be no small part of the dreadful intolerble Torments of Hell The sixth Motive Sixthly and lastly Consider once more That do what we can to redeem our Time we shall never repent at last of any Care we have had to redeem it but shall certainly blame and find fault with our selves for being so careless of our Time so negligent of good Opportunities as we have been 1. Good Men do often in their Life-time confess and condemn their Loss and Neglect of their precious Time That it was so long before they began to redeem it St. Austin very much laments his coming in to Christ no sooner [a] Serò te cognovi lumen verum serò te cognovi Vae vae praeteritae ignorantiae nâ—eae quando non cognoscebam te Domine Serò cognovi te veritas antiqua sèrò te cognovi veritas aeterna Aug Soliloq c. 33. 'T was late Lord before I knew thee the true Light says he alas I knew thee but late And that they have redeem'd it no better since first they went about it The devout St. Bernard who was so rarely pious a Person and so continually given to divine Meditation yeet bewails most sadly and complains most passionately of his spirituall Backwardness and Unproficiency [b] Terret me tota vita mea Deus meus quoniam diligenter discussa apparet mihi aut peccatum aut sterilitas Sic comedo bibo dormio securus quasi jam transierim diem mortu evaserim diem judicii tormenta inferni Sic ludo rideo quasi jam regnem tecum in regno tuo Bernard de interiori domo c. 33. Tanquam arbor sterilis terram occupo velut jumentum vile plus consumo quà m proficio Vivere erubesco quia parum proficio mori timeo quoniam non sum paratus Id. ib. c. 35. O my God my whole Life makes me afraid says he for if I diligently examine it that which appears to me in it is either Sin or Barrenness And again I cumber the Ground as a barren Tree says he and as a base Beast I waste and consume more than I profit I am asham'd to live because I profit so little and I 'm afraid to dy because I am unprovided Erasmus professed concerning himself [d] Accusant quò l nimium fâ—cerim â—â—rù câ—nscientia mea me accusat quò l minus secerim q ò lque lentior fuerim They accuse me for doing too much but my own Conscience accuses me for doing too little and being too slow It is [e] His Life in Mr. Clark's Collect. of the Lives of ten Em. Div. p. 37. reported of Mr. Samuel Crook that whensoever his Preaching-day happen'd upon Januar. 17. which was his Birth-day he still noted his Years compleat with this Birth-day he still noted his Years compleat with this Penitential Epiphonema 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God be merciful to me a Sinner An Eminent Divine of our own yet living who has laboured [f] I refer to the better Works of him that labours more abundantly than us all Mr. Baxter in the Margin of Dr. Patrick's Aqua Genitalis p. 75 in 12. more abundantly than the most of his Brethren in the Ministry yet expresses himself in such humble Self-reflections as these For [g] Mr. Baxter's Now or Never p. 181 182. my own part says he though I have long liv'd in a sense of the Preciousness of Time and have not been wholly idle in the World yet when I have the deepest Thoughts of the great everlasting Consequents of my Work and of the Vncertainty and Shortness of my Time I am even amazed to think that my Heart can be so slow and senseless as to do no more in such a case The Lord knows and my accusing wounded Conscience knows that my Slothfulness is so much my shame and admiration that I am astonished to think that my Resolutions are no stronger my Affections no livelier and my Labour and Diligence no greater when God is the Commander and his Love the Encourager and his Wrath the Spur and Heaven or Hell must be the Issue Let who will speak against such a Life it shall be my daily grief and moan that I am so dull and do so little And in another [h] Making light of Christ and Salvation Consideration 3. Discourse he makes this free and open acknowledgment For my self says he as I am ashamed of my dull and careless Heart and of my slow and unprofitable course of Life so the Lord knows I am ashamed of every Sermon that I preach When I think what I have been speaking of and who sent me and that Mens Salvation or Damnation is so much concerned in it I am ready to tremble lest God should judg me as a Slighter of his Truth and the Souls of Men and lest in the best Sermon I should be guilty of their Blood The Trees of Righteousness are apprehensive of their own Vnfruitfulness troubled at it mourn under it and use themselves to such holy Breathings as that of [i] Employment Mr. Herbert O That I were an Orange-tree That busy Plant Then should I ever laden be And never want Some Fruit for him that dressed me Serious considerative Christians do blame themselves for their Loss of Time even in their Life-time But 2. They are especially sensible of it and exceedingly ashamed of themselves for it at their Death They that have been the most busy stirring Christians all their Life-time when they come to die do repent of their Lasiness blush to think of their spiritual Slothfulness bewail and lament their Carelesness and Negligence They that have been the Wonders of the World for Strictness and Preciseness Singularity and Severity of holy Living that have been admired for their Usefulness Industry Diligence and Activity yet when they lay a dying have condemned themselves censured their past Lives and earnestly wished O! that they had been a thousand times more holy and religious more painful and laborious for God and their own and others Souls Melchior Adam relates in [k] Pag. 235. The Life of the Learned and holy Theodore Beza that when he was very aged and plainly perceived his approaching End he often used that Saying of St. Austin Diu vixi diu peccavi I have lived long I have sinned long The excellent and useful Philip de Mornay in his last Sickness said to the Minister that
and Life †Heb. 12.14 without which no Man shall see the Lord Jesus Christ in Glory 'T will cause thee to endeavour to be a Partaker of the Divine Nature of Christ that thou maiest be admitted to be a Spectator and Enjoyer of the glorified humane Nature of Christ to be in this World as he was in this World that at last thou maiest be in the other World as he is in that World to purify thy self even as he is pure if thou hast any Hope in thee to see him as he is at his Appearance And this Meditation will move and incline thee to labour and love to see Christ here that thou maiest be fitted to have the Honour and Priviledg to see him hereafter To delight to see him now in his Promises to see and enjoy him in his Gospel Ordinances to behold him in his Graces shining in his Members and to see his Image formed in thy own Heart and Life Considering that only Christ-like Creatures are in a capacity of being happy with Christ in Glory That as [h] D Rust in his Serm. at the Fun. of Bp. Taylor p. 8. f. one saies well God and Christ without thee cannot possibly make thee happy That it is not the Person of God and Christ but their Life and Nature wherein consists thy formal Happiness And that thou maiest be fit to see him as he is 't will direct thee at present to see him as he was to look upon him as humbling himself to the Death of the Cross for thy Sins till thy Heart be kindly broken for and thy Heart and Life be truly broken off from all thy Sins and to eye and imitate that excellent Pattern and rare Example which here he gave thee in every Action of his holy Life 3. Freely and largely meditate how happy thou shalt be made hereafter in the great Advancement and Perfection of thy Knowledg and in the filling up of thy utmost Capacities and the Satisfaction of all thy Desires That though now thou * 1 Cor. 13.9 10 12. seest through a Glass darkly and knowest but in part yet when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away as the Light of Candles and Stars is done away by the rising of the Sun That though now [i] See Bolton of the four last Things p 143 144. many Difficulties in Nature and Mysteries in Scripture and Secrets and Wonders of Divine Providence pose and non-plus thee dazle thy Eyes and are too high and sublime for thee yet that in Heaven thou shalt have the Causes of natural things manifested to thee the deep and profound Mysteries of Religion and of thy Redemption and Salvation revealed to thee the Intricacies and Riddles of God's Providence unfolded to thee the Wisdom and Justice and Goodness of God in his darkest Dispensations and most inscrutable and unsearchable Actions cleared up to thee That there thou shalt know the Orders Offices Excellencies of the Angels and the Nature Operations and Original of thy own Soul which is given thee rather to use than to know in this present World That in the State of Glory thy Vnderstanding shall be extraordinarily and supernaturally illuminated and irradiated and thy Knowledg be wonderfully increas'd and advanced and thy Mind exceedingly pleased and delighted both by the Repetition and new †Variety of Contemplation That in the heavenly Glory the Divine Manifeslations and Communications shall be ample and liberal enough to fill all the Capacities and richly to answer all the Desires of thy most exalted and perfected Faculties That there thou shalt never feel any Want or Indigence but be so satisfied as not to be * satiated cloyed or glutted That [k] See D Patrick's parab of the Pilgr p. 97 98. And D. Rust's Serm. at the Funeral of Bp. Taylor p. 7. fol. Tametsi nibil desit ad plenam perfect amque loetutiam meredjbilem veluptatem quâ sruemur in dies * nulla tamen nos unquâ—â—n rerum â—starum satietas capiet quin quotidie †nova quaedaem tum contemplandi cognoscendi tum loet tiam ex contemâ—â—â—â—one percipiendi materia ex rebus illis manabit ac esslorâ—scet Thes Salmur de vita aeterna thes 27. in Heaven thou shalt alwaies reckon that thou hast sufficient already to make thee throughly and completely happy and yet still be receiving new Additions and fresh Accruements and an Accumulation of Satisfaction That every Participation of Truth and Goodness will stretch and distend the Capacities of thy Soul and fit thee for further and further Receptions That the Capacities of thy Faculties shall be continually widened and enlarged and continually filled and satisfied until thou arrivest unto such Degrees as thou canst assign no Measure unto This Meditation will cause thee to carry thy self so here that thou maiest be fit to attain a Perfection of Knowledg hereafter To be careful to know those Things now which are necessary to the present and preparatory to the future State and [l] Omnibus pietatis Christianae studiosis velut sertum â—â—â—â—dam suum commendare solebat dictum â—â—ud Hieronâ—mi ad â—â—â—linum Diseamus in 〈◊〉 quorum scientia nobi◠〈◊〉 in coelo Quod etiam Auditorio Theologico in 〈…〉 literas docebat inscriâ—sit Narrat hist de vita Das. Parei conscript à Phil. Par. Dav. fil the Knowledg of which will abide and continue and be heightned and perfected in the other World To beg of God that he would open thy Eyes here enlighten thy Understanding translate thee out of the Kingdom of Darkness and turn thee from Darkness to light Believing and considering that gross and sottish Ignorance here is an ill preparation for Perfectio of Knowledge hereafter That if now thou wilfully continuest ignorant of the very first Principles of the Oracles of God thou art unfit to go on to perfection and to be admitted another day to the Vnderstanding of the Secrets and hidden Mysteries of God That if now thou makest thy self like a Beast in Ignorance thou wilt be unmeet to be made like an Angel of God in the glorious Perfection of heavenly Knowledg If now thou darknest thy own Understanding and blindest thy own Mind thou wilt be unfit for the perfect Iagâ—n of the heavenly Glory If now thou shuttest thy Eyes against the Light and art afraid to come to the Light lest thy Deeds should be reprov'd thou wilt be utterly unmeet to be Partaker of the Inheritance of the saints in Light thou wilt only be meet for the Kingdom of Darkness fit to be cast out into utter Darkness and to inherit the Blackness of Darkness for ever 'T will make thee labour to get some competent Knowledg here which will be a good Preparation for perfect coplete Knowledg hereafter Remembring that to him that hath shall be given which is true of Knowledg as well as Grace And this Meditation will likewise stir thee up to practise and live up to
hearing two Sermons usually every Lord's-Day and yet let your receiving the holy Communion twice or thrice a Year at most suffice your Souls and satisfy your Consciences Have you been swift to hear some thousands of Sermons in your time and yet so slow some of you as not once to receive this holy Sacrament in the many Years of your whole Lives though so very many of the Sermons preach'd to you urg'd and press'd you with due Preparation to receive the Communion Know ye not that the Sacrament has in sundry respects the advantage of a Sermon for in the Sacrament there is a Sermon to the Eye as well as to the Ear. Preaching alone cannot possibly so clearly and lively set forth the Evil of Sin and the Love of Christ to you as the visible Representation of the Crucifixion and bloody Death of Christ made in this Sacrament by the breaking of the Bread and pouring out of the Wine before you is apt to do Besides that The Sacrament calls you to a more solemn previous Examination of your selves than a Sermon does and requires you publickly to renew your whole Covenant with God and Christ whereas a Sermon ordinarily engages you to some one or few particular Duties only And the Sacrament is a Seal and Confirmation of the Covenant on God's part of all the great and precious Promises made in Christ to penitent Believers as well as a Ratification of the Covenant on your part Again The Sacrament has a singular Virtue and Efficacy to join and unite you more nearly and closely to Christ your Head and to knit and cement you more firmly and strongly one to another in Christian Love And is moreover a powerful Instrument and effectual Means of conveying spiritual Strength from Christ and Grace sufficient to enable you to perform the Covenant made and repeated by you and to practise the Precepts explicated and inculcated in the very many profitable Sermons preached to you 5. You that are Parents and Masters of Families in the Fear of God set up the Duties and maintain the Exercises of Christ's Religion in your Families Let Prayer and Reading the sacred Scripture and a course of Catechizing be things they are used to and well acquainted with Resolve with Joshua * Jos 24.15 As for me and my House we will serve the Lord. And vow deliberately with holy David †Ps 119.2 I will walk within my House with a perfect Heart Walk so closely and constantly with God and be so faithfully obedient to him that your Children may fare the better for your Covenant interest in him and relation to him Train bleed and ‖ Eph. 6.4 bring up your Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Teach them to know fear love and serve God with Abraham * Gen. 18.19 command your Children your Houshold that they keep the Way of the Lord This will be a means to propagate Religion to Posterity Suffer not your Children to have their Heads and Humours but labour betimes to break them of their Wills lest by their Stubbornness and Disobedience they break your very Hearts at last Adonijah was a Person unlikely ever to come to good when his Father was so indulgent to him as †1 Kings 1.6 not to displease him at any time in saying Why hast thou done so Follow the Direction which St. Austin gives to teach Men to do the Works of Abraham [p] Omnis qui trucidat sitiorum voluptates tale sacrificium offert Deo quale Abraham Aug. Kill sinful Pleasures says he and slay youthful Lusts in your Children by this means you will offer such a Sacrifice to God as Abraham did Let this Thought often arise in your Minds that the young Plants that stand in the little Nourseries of your private Families will according to your care or neglect of them grow up to be good and useful or vicious and noxious Members in Church and State and so the [q] Gratum est quod patriae civem populoque dedisti Si facit ut patriae sit idontus Juv. sat 14. Publick will be profited or prejudiced by your well or ill ordering the Dispositions and Manners of those that belong unto your charge Restrain and regulate the rude and loose manners both of your Children and Servants Labour to instil good Principles into them and to render all your seasonable Instructions prosperous and profitable by your good Examples [r] Velocius citius not Corrumpunt vitiorum exempla domistica magnis Cùm subsant animos autoribus Id. ib. Domestical Examples are very notably leading and drawing and wonderfully powerful and influential Your Children and Servants they have their Maintenance from you Dependance upon you and are much inferiour to you and so are apt to eye and imitate you and ready to conform themselves to you You that are Parents is it not enough that you have conveyed and communicated a corrupt Nature to your Children but will you proceed to deprave them further by your ill Examples and to draw forth the Corruption of their Nature into manifold actual Miscarriages and Transgressions Will you make your Children as far as ever lies in your power the Children of the Devil You that are Masters will you make your Servants the Servants of Sin and bind them Apprentices to the very Devil Will you dare any longer to (s) Nil dictu foedum visÃque hac lime ia tangat Intra quae puer est Maxima debetur puero reverentia Illud non agitas ut sanctam filius omni Aspiciat sine labe domum vitiâ—que carentem Id. ib. corrupt and debauch your Children and Seavants by your frequent Drunkenness common Swearing vain and loose Talking Profanation of the Lord's-Day Atheistical ungodly Living Let Governours of Families charge themselves to give better Examples 6. Yea let every one of you study to be Exemplary in every relation and capacity in every carriage and deportment both within the private Family and before all the Neighbourhood round about you Let this consideration discourage and deter you from being ill-exemplary that if at last you should go to Hell your selves your own Damnation will receive aggravation from the Damnation of others who have been Sinners and Sufferers through your ill Examples Which may be the reason why * Luke 16.28 Dives desired to keep his Brethren out of the place of Torment Nay St. Austin goes a great deal higher in those very notable Words of his which deserve to be pondred in your most serious Thoughts (u) Quantiscunque exemplum malae conversationis etiamsi non eum illi sequantur aliquis praebuerit pro tantis se malis rationem noverit redditurum Aug. serm 163. de Tempore If thou hast given an ill Example says he thou shalt one Day give an account for so many wicked Persons as thou hast shown an ill Example to though they have not followed thy ill Example For it is no thank to
the Devil the World and our own carnal cozening corrupt Hearts Do not offer to work the Works of your Calling the Works of the Flesh the Works of the Devil on the Lord's Day Take heed of serving the Devil more upon the Lord's Day than on any other Day than on all the Days of the Week besides Let not the Lord's Day be leisure for the Devil as if the first Day of the Week were Daemoniacus potiùs quà m Dominicus the Devil 's and not the Lord's Day Let not any Temptations or Delusions of Satan keep and detain us from the publick Ordinance divert our Attention at it and hinder our Spiritual Benefit by it Let not any Recreations and sensual Pleasures upon this Day especially hinder the Performance or Family-Duties and private religious Exercises Let not vain Thoughts this Day lodge within us and justle out heavenly Meditations Let not worldly impertinent Discourses upon this Day shut out more profitable Christian Conferences The Lord's Day it is the most considerable Advantage the most notable Opportunity that is afforded us and the best Price that is put into our Hands all the Week long You have several Market-daies in the Week for civil Affairs and worldly interests but you have this one only for spiritual and eternal Interests and Advantages O do not neglect so great Salvation as is this Day offered and tendred to you Having such an excellent Price in your Hands O be not such Fools as not to make a good and a right Use of it [m] Mr. Valentine Marshal in his Preface before Capel's Remains Mr. Richard Capel pressing the strict Observation of the Lord's Day would usually say that we should go to sleep that Night with Meat in our Mouths as it were The Lord's-day being our best Opportunity if we mis-spend that we cannot be said to redeem the Time Now that we may redeem the Lord's-day to good Effects and useful Purposes let us not be wanting to put our selves in a sit Preparation for the due Observation of it not only by previous Meditation of the Day and the Duties of it but by ordering aright the constant Course of our Conversation and labouring for habitual Sanctification Let us every Day live as those that expect to have Communion with God the next Lord's-day Let us act so regularly all the Week that nothing may be done by us which may breed any strangeness between God and us and hinder our delightful Converse with him on his own Day that on that sacred separated Day we may not bring the fresh Guilt of any gross and wilful Sin along with us which may make us blush and be ashamed to come into his Presence Let us walk so circumspectly every Day that upon the Return of his own Day we may meet him with a pure and clear Conscience with clean Hands and clean Hearts and may be made joyful in his House of Praier That we may keep the Lord's-day holy let us strive and study to live holily all the Week and be so provident and diligent as to finish and dispatch in the six Daies all kinds of secular Works and common Employments that no Sin committed on the one hand nor any Business of our Calling omitted on the other may disturb and slacken our Attention distract and discompose us in the Exercise of our Devotion but that we may cheerfully and fruitfully spend the Lord's-day in the Lord's Work Let us every Day carry our selves so spiritually and perform our Closet and Family religious Duties so conscionably and constantly that we may be the fitter and readier to spend this choice select Day in the solemn Worship and Service of God and may go through the several Duties of it with less Tediousness and more Delight Let us be with God some part of every Day that so we may grow into Acquaintance with him and may taste the Sweetness and experience the Gainfulness of Communion with him and long for the return of the Lord's-day that we may meet and enjoy him in the publick Ordinances and have Opportunity of larger and freer Converse with him Let us pray to God every Day that so by using our selves to the Duty we may be the better disposed to join in Praier with the Congregation on the Lord's-day Let us read the Bible every Day and daily do whatever we know to be our Duty and this will make us more apt to hear and the better prepared to receive the Word that is preached on the Lord's-day And when the Lord's-day comes let us get up as early as may be that so we may have the more Time before us to work the Work of God in And take some Pains to prepare our selves in private for our better Attendance upon the publick Ordinances and timely [n] Quisquis incolit civitatem in qua extat Synagoga inibi non precatur cum coetis publico is est qui meritò dicitur malus vicinus Dictum Maimonidis resort to the Place of publick Meeting Follow the Counsel of holy Mr. Herbert [o] The Church-porch p. 14. Sundaies observe think when the Bells do chime 'T is Angel's Musick therefore come not late God then deals Blessings if a King did so Who would not haste nay give to see the Show O be drest Stay not for th' other Pin why thou hast lost A Joy for it worth Worlds Thus Hell doth jest Away thy Blessings and extreamly flout thee Thy Clothes being fast but thy Soul loose about thee And when thou art come into the Church watch over thy Behaviour there make thy self all Reverence and Fear Open thy Ears but shut thy Eies to all distracting Objects [n] The Church-Porch p. 15. Who marks in Church-time others Symmetry Makes all their Beauty his Deformity As the same Divine Poet pathetically expresses it Let God and Angels see your most devout Behaviour and serious Composure the whole Time of Praier And give all diligent close Attention to the Word of god read and preach'd Do not carp and catch jest and jear at the Preacher's Language or Expression Do not shew by your vain and prophane Carriage your ridiculous Gestures and unseemly Actions your Laughing and Whispering Toying and Talking that you slight and contemn the [o] God calleth Preaching folly Do not grudg to pick out Treasures from an earthen Pot. The Church-Porch p. 15. Foolishness of Preaching And when on the Lord's-day the Lord's Table is richly furnish'd with a spiritual Banquet make not needless and frivolous Excuses to absent your selves from this Marriage-feast If any croud in that have not a Wedding-Garment let not this make you stay out that have one Lose not your Portion of this heavenly Food because of others impreparation Though others eat and drink their own Damnation let your Faith feed on Christ to your own Salvation By your frequent receiving of this Sacrament shew your real Sense of your own need of it your high prizing and valuation of it your
many and great Mercies of God towards you and yours and all Mankind are you bound to recount and to be affected with on this Day Ought you not still on this Day to remember and consider and solemnly and heartily to bless God and Christ for the capital Mercies of Creation and Redemption and for the gracious seasonable Sending of the Holy Ghost and to spend some Time in speaking highly and honourably of these Benefits to the Praise of your Maker and Glory of your Redeemer Are not you ignorant of many Things in which you ought to be informed and have not you need then to spend some Part of the Lord's-day in reading the Bible and some select Books of sound Divinity in hearing the Word preach'd and in Conference with godly understanding and well-experienced Christians Are you not too great Strangers to God and your selves and have not you need then to improve some Portion of this Seasonn in Meditation and Self-examination that you may get more Acquaintance with God and your own Hearts Have not you the Sins of the whole Week past to confess to God in secret and to beg the Pardon of every Lord's-day when you have leisure from your bodily Labour is it not fit you should take some pains in conquering the Corruptions and mortisying the Lusts of your own Hearts and in wrestling with God in Praier for his Strength and Grace Can you idle away your Time and take your Pleasure on the Lord's-day when you have Families to inform and Children and Servants to catechize and instruct Let your Consciences tell me whether it be better on the Lord's-day to spend your Time in unnecessary Divertisements in fruitless Visitations in vain and frothy Discourses to talk freely together of worldly Businesses to judg the Preacher to censure your Christian Neighbour Or to commune with your selves and to labour to edify your own Families To teach your Children the Doctrine of Adam's Fall and of the Redemption wrought by Christ To acquaint them what Sin and Corruption they brought with them into the World and how they have encreased it since they came into the World That the Wages of Sin is Death To tell them what Christ has done and suffered to free and deliver them from Sin and Death and what they must do to be capable of partaking of Christ's saving Benefits To ground your Servants in the Principles of Religion To take account what they remember of the Sermons they heard that Day and to examine how they have profited by the publick Ordinances You see what a great deal of Work you have to do and what a little Time you have to do it in You have but one whole Day in seven It concerns you then to be very saving of this whole Day [c] Quicunque hisee sacris ita seriò se excicent ut ipsorum familiae necessitas plani postulat locum nullum relictum esse quaestioni ists carn â—liter de larantium invenient An licitum sit die Dominâ—co aut oftari aut ludere aut epu is aut inanabus aut mundanis non planè necessariis tempus sacrum conterere Et qui serpsum alaos werè novit ut diei negotia commoda oblata verbo divino de rebus sparitio libus aeternis verè credit ipsius altorum ex vera necessitate ut â—â—â—tate interesse percepiet diem totum quantùm fieri potest in sacris colocare neque frustra sine fruge horae moment um essluere sinet Neque niâ—â—ges quaestionem movebit An liceat ludis vel aliis manibus ad perdere quà m An laceat sanguinent sâ—um inaniter fundere aurum oblasum respâ—ere in canum projicere Carnalis quippe pe animus sui rerum spiritualium ignarus disputationum talium author est plerumque promus-condus Baxter Method Theol. part 3 c. 14. P. 172. To be as far from disputing whether it be not lawful to use Recreations and Sports on some Part of it or to employ some Hours of it in any unnecessary worldly Businesses as from putting the Question Whether it be not lawful vainly to spill your own Blood or to make a refusal of Gold that is offer'd you and to cast it contemtuously into the Dirt. 'T will but little avail you to make the utmost worldly Advantage of all the other six Daies if you make not a sufficient spiritual Improvement of this which is more considerable than all the rest What would it profit you if as God made the World in six Daies so you could gain the whole World by working hard the six Daies if by gross neglect of the Lord's-day you at last lost your own Souls The Church of England in her pious and useful Homily of the Time and Place of Praier declares that in the fourth Commandment God has given express Charge that his obedient People should use our [d] And truly it is strange that some who have a dearness yea fondness for some VVords of Jewish Extraction Altar Temple and the like should have such an Antipa by against the Sabbath Fuller's Church-Hiâ—â— B. 11. p. 144. Sabbath-day which is now our Sunday holily and rest from their common and daily Businesses and also give themselves wholly to heavenly Exercises of God's true Religion and Service And in his Majestie 's Royal Proclamation for the Observation of the Lord's-day all his Majestie 's Subjects are bid to take notice that by the Law the resorting to divine Service enjoined on that Day does comprehend the entire Day and entire Service both Morning and Evening Yea every Lord's-day Morning you your selves make this open Confession and publick Praier in the Congregation after the Reading of the fourth Commandment Lord have Mercy upon us and encline our Hearts to keep this Law As much as to say Lord we acknowledg we have neglected this thy Day We pray thee pardon all our unchristian Sabbath-breaking for the Time past and give us Grace to observe the Christian Sabbath better for the future Now will you confess in the Fore-noon and transgress in the After-noon Will you beg pardon in the Morning and sin again the very same Sin before Night Will you open your Mouths to ask God's Grace to sanctify and keep holy the Sabbath-day and it may be profane it in a graceless manner as soon as you are out of the Congregation If the Lord's-day ought to be observed at all it is to be kept both Parts of the Day And for those that commonly stay away in the After-noon I would ask them what their Employment is at home in the mean Time Do not some of them spend the After-noon in sleeping or walking or talking or drinking or gaming while others are jointly confessing and praying and praising and hearing If God requires a Day is this to sanctify a Day to the Lord to worship God in the Morning and to dishonour God and serve the Devil and divers Lusts in the Afternoon
unlawful Deeds He vexed himself was active in it Saint Peter expresses more in this than in the former Verse as Calvin observes to wit that Lot did [n] Nempe quòd voluntarios cruciatus justus Lot subierit Calv. in loc voluntarily and willingly afflict himself He did it freely he was not forc'd to it He vexed himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is [o] Est Metaphera à toâ—mentis ducta Gethar in loc a Metaphor drawn from Torments says Gerhard [p] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rich Man being in Torments Luke 10.23 The same Word is used to set out Hell-Torments This good Man continually tortured and tormented himself He lived a grievous painful Life labouring no less than if he had laien upon the Rack It was a kind of Hell upon earth to him to see and hear such Things among them They gave him Ground and Cause enough of Trouble and Grief by their Impieties and Impurities and his righteous Soul could not but work upon that Matter and vex and afflict himself therewith The gross Wickedness of ungodly Men is contrary to the gracious Temper and new Nature of a good Man and therefore he is no more able to bear it than the Stomach can bear that which it nauseates As a musical Ear will be offended with any harsh Sound So Sin grates upon a godly Man and is a Discord to him At his new Birth there was implanted in his Nature a true Zeal to the Cause and Interest of Righteousness and Goodness in the World an inward Sense of its Beauty Excellency and Usefulness in the World and a clear Conviction and strong Apprehension of the Vanity Unprofitableness and Mischievousness of Sin in the World The righteous Man has a real Dislike of a mighty Prejudice and inward Antipathy against Sin as Sin He hates Sin and loves Holiness heartily wherever he sinds it and really wishes that there were no such Evil as Sin in the World He is of another Spirit than wicked Men are of a better Constitution of a purer and more refined Temper His new Nature and Disposition is directly contrary to that which is evil and therefore whenever he sees it wherever he meets with it it is a Vexation and Torment to him So holy David seriously laid to heart the Sins of others was deeply affected with them and heavily afflicted for them * Psal 119.53 Horrour hath taken hold upon me because of the Wicked that forsake thy Law ‖ Verse 136 139. Rivers of Waters run down mine Eyes because they keep not thy Law †Verse 158. My Zeal hath consumed me not because I have Enemies and these Enemies despise me but because mine Enemies have forgotten thy Words I beheld the Transgressors and was grieved because they kept not thy Word (*) Psal 69.9 The Zeal of thine House hath eaten me up and the Reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me When he was in Trouble he testifies his Sorrow for the Reproaches that fell upon God as if he himself had been reproached And the Prophet Jeremy could say (†) Jer. 13.17 My Soul shall weep in secret Places for your Pride And the Saints in Jerusalem are described to be (‖) Ezek. 9.4 Men that sigh and that cry for all the Abominations that be done in the midst thereof And you know St. Paul is very famous for this Affection In the case of the incestuous Person he wrote unto the Corinthians [*] 2 Cor. 2.4 with many Tears out of much Affliction and Anguish of Heart I fear lest when I come again saies he my God will humble me among you and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already and have not repented of the Vncleanness and Fornication and Lasciviousness which they have committed [†] 2 Cor. 12.21 * Phil. 3.18 Many walk saies he of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the Enemies of the Cross of Christ. 1. O that it might be thus with every one of us Let a Time of others Sin be the Time of our Sorrow Let it greatly trouble us to see our good God wronged our heavenly Father abused and his holy just and good Law broken and violated To see the Gospel dishonoured and Religion discredited To see Satan pleased and honoured and his Kingdom strengthned and advanced by the Wickedness of the Wicked To see the precious Souls of Sinners hazarded and endangered by their own wilful Sin and Wickedness To observe rarional Creatures living like mere brute Beasts Baptized Christians acting like very Devils incarnate To find Men rebelling against Light resisting a Reproof loath to be reclaimed hardned in their Sin and hating to be reformed To see so many Fools and Mad-men besotted and bewitch'd cruel to their own Souls and Enemies to their own Peace refusing all Helps of Health and Cure contemning the Means of their Recovery fond of a Disease in love with Slavery devoted to their Enemy courting their own Misery and Calamity chusing Death rather than Life eternal Life walking apace in the broad Way that leadeth to Destruction running on in the Way to Hell the Way that goeth down to the Chambers of Death To behold so many stabbing themselves to the very Heart greedily swallowing their own Poison running into Pest-houses and infected Places drowning themselves in Destruction and Perdition and casting themselves into intolerable eternal unquenchable Flames 2. And let us moreover mourn to see so much Hurt and Misohief done in the World by others open Sin and Wickedness To see Sin become so fashionable and creditable To behold so many corrupted and infected hardned and confirmed in Sin and Wickedness by the ill Examples of loose Livers and vicious debauched Persons To discern the heinous provoking Sins of notoriously wicked Persons hastening and pulling down Judgment after Judgment upon the Land of our Nativity and the Places of our abode To see Sin spread this spiritual Plague encrease and a Cloud of divine Wrath and Judgment gathering and growing thick and black and hanging over our Heads ready to drop and shower down upon us Let us be so publick spirited as to be troubled exceedingly troubled that so much Mischief publick Mischief should be done by others Sins That so many should be drawn into Sin or brought under Suffering by the common and open Wickedness of the Wicked 3. Farther yet Let it be a Thing very grievous to us to meet with a Sort of Men who instead of perplexing and tormenting themselves with the Sins of others do please and delight recreate and refresh themselves with the Sins of others Do tempt and entice them into Sin and hearten and harden them in their Sin Who are so far from troubling themselves at others Sins that they * Rom. 1.32 do the same and have pleasure in them that do them Who make themselves merry with those Sins which make the Land mourn That will laugh at Lewdness
and make a mock at Sin and hear the Relation of another's Wickedness with an inward Tickling and secret Delight As if the Reproach and Dishonour of God were a very good jest and the eternal Damnation of immortal Souls were a Thing fit to make sport with 4. Once more Let it make our very Hearts ake to take notice-of some who instead of vexing themselves with the unlawful ungodly Deeds of the Wicked do daily vex and afflict themselves with the lawful and godly Deeds of the Righteous Who miserably trouble and torment themselves with the Goodness and Holiness and not with the Vileness and Wickedness of others Who storm at others Strictness and fret and fume at others Forwardness in the Way of Holiness and are mad at heart that any that live among them refuse to run with them into all Excess of Riot To whom the very Presence and Company of a good Man is oftentimes as offensive and troublesome as would be the visible Appearance of the Devil among them Who heartily vex to hear at any Time any serious savoury good Discourse from them and are tormented before their Time by the gracious Lives and good Conversations of serious conscientious Christians 5. And after all Let it be no small trouble and grief to us to find so few troubling themselves with such Matters as these That Men too generally should only regard themselves and mind their own Bags and Backs and Bellies and Bodies and feel nothing but that which touches their outward Estates and nearly concerns their worldly Interests but wholly neglect and disregard the Cause and Interest of God and Goodness in the World That so many so patiently can see and hear and bear any open and common Wickedness and if they can be respected themselves matter it not much tho' God be dishonoured So they themselves be pleased care little or nothing though God be displeased and if they themselves can but get gain let God and Religion lose what they will for them That Men should count it a piece of over-much Righteousness to take any notice of others Faults and think it enough to cry God mercy for their own Sins without afflicting and tormenting themselves with the Sins of others That Magistrates should be so little sensible of daily Affronts done to God That Ministers should see their Flocks running on to Destruction and have no more Bowels of Compassion That Masters of Families should not at all lay to heart their Servants Offences and frequent Trespasses against their heavenly Lord and Master That Parents Hearts should even ake again if any little Hurt or Illness come to their Children's Bodies and their Bowels never yearn at all though mischief and Misery through Sin and Iniquity fall upon their Souls to all Eternity That Men should kindly do their Neighbours any friendly Offices in Civil Matters relieve them if in Want visit them if they be sick pull out their Ox or Ass if fallen into the Ditch and if their House be on Fire presently run and help to quench it and yet-never be affected with the sad and lamentable shiritual Estate of their Neighbours That Men should see and suffer those about them to make Shipwrack of a good Conscience to lose their Peace lose Heaven lose their God lose their Souls to be just falling into Hell-fire to grow violently sick of the Plague of the Heart to die in their Sins before their Eyes and perish in their Iniquities before their Faces without fetching one Sigh or dropping one Tear for them or speaking one Word to them or lending a seasonable Hand to help them How ought they to be ashamed that can be passionatly affected in other Matters and yet have no Passion no Trouble no Tears for the common and dangerous Sins of the Times and Places in which they live and to which they belong Let us be affected with their Want of Affection upon so great and urgent an Occasion Are the Daies evil in respect of evil Men and their evil Manners let us be troubled at the Evil of them That 's the first 2. Are the Daies thus evil Let us then see that we be not made worse by them Let 's * Eph. 51.11 have no Fellowship with the unfruitful Works of darkness as the Apostle adviseth †Philip. 2 15. Let 's be blanieless and hurmless the Sons of God without Rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation as the same Apostle exhorteth Where you see the Apostle argues from the ill Quality and bad Condition of those among whom they conversed for as [p] Erant enim eo tempore mores Judaeorum Gentium non conversarum ad Christum corruptissimi Grotius in loc Grotius observes the Lives and Manners both of the Jews and unconverted Gentiles were at that Time exceeding corrupt And here the Argument holds these two Waies 1. It concern'd the Philippians to be sincere and upright [q] Quod agerent inter maloi qui pro animi sui pravitate etiam bene facta criminarentur Estius in loc because they lived with such wicked Persons who were ready to slander that which was good and therefore would be sure to aggravate that which was bad So Estius And this same Duty greatly concerns our selves this Day for the same reason 2. It behoves us to be careful of our Conversation in the midst of a wicked and adulterous a crooked and perverse Generation [r] Vt nihil ab illis malitioe pravit at is nobis affricars sinamus Zanchius in loc that we our selves be not corrupted and depraved with the evil Manners of those among whom we live So Zanchy upon the Place Let 's be careful to avoid all Occasions of Sin and to resist all Temptations to tlie Sins which reign and abound in the Times and Places wherein we live Though we dwell among the Wicked let 's not communicate in their Sin nor give any countenance to their Wickedness But beg and use God's Grace and Help implore and employ the divine Strength for the overcoming and conquering the Temptations both of Men and Devils And heartily bless God that we are not left and forsaken of God and given up to the reigning Sins and Vices of the Times Let 's not be conformed to this World to the evil Customs and vicious Manners that generally prevail and take place in it nor follow a multitude to do evil If never so many should stab themselves at their very Hearts or drown themselves in the Thames or sore their Houses with their own Hands to consume and destroy themselves would this induce any wise Man to do the like Why then should any offer to * 1 Tim. 6.9 drown themselves in destruction and perdition to throw themselves into Hell-fire and to cast away their Souls for ever because many others do so When Vice grows into Fashion Singularity is a Vertue When Sanctity is counted Singularity happy is he that goeth in a Manner alone and walks
Body 2. In making dainty Provision for the Belly 3. In Play and Sport and vain Recreations 1. How do the brave Gallants and gaudy People of the Times sordidly use their Souls as so many tailors setting them to mind every new Fashion and very unmanly spend their Time in over-nice and too curious decking and dressing of the Body and poudering of the Hair the [b] When th' Hair is sweet through pride or lust The Pouder doth forget the Dust Herbert's Poems Charms and Knots Pouder quite forgetting the Dust losing their Time inter pectinem speculumque occupati to use [c] De brevitate vitae c. 12. Quomodo trascuntur si tonsor paulo negligence or fuit tanquam virum tonderet Quomodo excandeseunt siquidextra ordinem jacuit nisi omnia in anulos suos recider unt quis est istorum qui non malit Rempub icam sâ—am turbart q an comam qui non solicitior sit de capitis sut d core quà m de salute qui non comptor esse malit quà m gnus ornatus Adhibendaest munditia non odiosa neque exquisita nimis â—an ù n quae sugiat agrestem inhumanam negâ—tgentiam Cicero l 1. de Offic. Seneca's Exprellion by being wholly taken up between the Comb and the Glass These are so exceedingly concern'd for their Heads of Hair or for the Periwigs they wear that to speak in the VVords of the forementioned Philosopher they had rather that a whole Common-wealth should be troubled and distrubed than that their well-set Hair should be disordered and discomposed and more affect to be neat and fine spruce and trim than to be truly good and honest And how do too many of the other Sex instead of early looking up to Heaven in Prayer and looking diligently into the perfect Law of Liberty list up their [d] Doctor Alleâ—â—ry's Sermons page 226. Morning-Eyes to nothing but a Looking-glass and there contemplate their Faces and garish wanton Dresses for several Hours together and even worship their own Image and fall in Love with their own Shadow and please themselves to think how the Eyes of others will be drawn to gaze and be pleased with looking upon them These gentile Sinners ordinarily spend the most of their Time before Dinner in the Arts and [e] Tanquam famae diserimen agatur Aut animae Tantiest quaerendi cura decer is Juvenalis satyra 6. Labours of Attire in putting on their Bulls and Towers many in patching and too many in painting their Faces and giving themselves another Colour and Complexion than ever their Maker thought good to give them in making themselves a new Face instead of making themselves a new Heart VVhenas these idly busie Persons might spend their Hours a great deal better in the trimming of their Souls and * 1 Pet. 3.4 adorning their inner hidden Man and making themselves all glorious within in putting on the Lord Jesus Christ in putting on Christian Charity and clothing themselves with Gospel-Humility and with the Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit and in beautifying themselves with all the Graces of the holy Spirit 2. How much Time do many spend in contriving how to furnish their Tables to [f] Cibus per artem voluptatémque corruptus Non ad tollendam sed ad irritandam fame in quaeritur inventae sunt mille conditurae quibus aviditas excitaretur Mâ—ltos morbos multa fercula secerunt Vide quantum rerum per unam gulam transiturarun ermisceat luxurta terrarum marisque vastatrix necesse est it aque inter se tam diversa dissideant hausta malè drger antur altis aliò nitentibus Dii boui quantum hominum unus venter exercet Coguntur in unum sapores In coena sit quod fiers debet saturo in ventre Non esset confusior vomentium cibus Seneca ep 95. mix their Meats to fill and garnish out variety of Dishes to prepare and order their several Sauces in the pleasing of their [g] Qutbus in solo vivendi causa palato est Juvenalis satyra 11. Palates the pampering of their Flesh and the strengthning of their Lusts in immoderate Eating riotous [h] Aspice quantum occupent conviva quae jam ipsa officia sunt Seneca de brevitate viâ—ae c. 6. Feasting frequen Junketing in excessive Drinking tarrying long at the VVine or sitting long Tipling at the Ale-house How many suffer Sensuality and Luxury to eat up their Time and make no greater Improvement of their Years than to become accomplished Epicures How do such voluptuaries make their Souls Cooks to look out Provisions for their Bodies imploying their Minds in studying and devising Meats for their Bellies How do these live [i] Quiderat cur in numero viventium me positum esse gauderem an ut cibos potiones percolarem ut hoc corpus causarium ac staidum perituâ—ú nque nisi subinde impleatur farcirem viverem aegri minister Idem praef nat quaest Fateer insit am esse nobis cor poris nostri caritatem fateor nos hisjus gerere tutelam non engo indulgendum illi sed serviendum nego Sie gerere nos debemus non tanquam propter corpus vivere debeamus sed tanquam non possimus siue corpore Honestum ei vile eit cui cor us nimis carum est Idem ep 14. as if the Business of their Lives were to please and serve to gratify and satisfy the Flesh as if they were made for no higher than the mere animal Life as if they received their rational Souls only to procure for and to animate the Organs of their Sensuality as if they were born for nothing else but to cloath and feed to purvey and provide to cark and care for this vile Body and were capable of enjoying no nobler Pleasures or higher Satisfaction than the Entertainment of their Senses Though the Truth of it is that [k] Quid mihi voluptatem nominas Hominis bonum quaero non ventris qui pecudibus ac belluis laxior est Sen. de vita beata c. 9. Hunc tu numeras inter homines cujus summum bonum saporibus ac coloribus ac sonis constat Idem ep 92. St quae mens est paulò ad voluptmates propensior modò ne sit ex pecudum genere sunt enim quidam homines non re sed nomine sed si quis est paulò erectior quamvis voluptate capiatur occultat dissimulat appetitum voluptatis propter verecundiam Ex quo intelligitur corporis voluptatem non satis esse dignam hominis prastantiâ eánque contemni rejict oportere Si considerare volumus quae sit naturae excellentia dignitas intelligemus quà n sit turpe difftuere luxuriâ delicaiè ac molliter vivere quâmque honestum parcè continenter severè sobriè Cicero l. 1. de Offic. sensual Pleasure as Seneca well discourses is but the Good of a Beast Canst thou reckon him I will not say among Men but
of it but fail in the Principle and Manner of the Duty and never look to the [g] The end of all Exercises of Piety and Devotion is more and mine to dispose our Hearts to the Love and our Wills to the Obedience of our blessed Creatour and Redeemer And busying our selves in any of them without this Design may well be counted in the Number of the fruitless and unaccountable Actions of our Lives Thus to do is prodigally to waste and mis-spend our Time as the Jews were upbraided by one of their Adversaries with doing upon the account of their Sabbath saying They they lost one Day in seven Dr. Fowler 's Design of Christianity pag. 186. End of the Duty have no real Design and hearty Intention to please and glorify God thereby and to gain and encrease in true Holiness of Heart and Life If you act not out of a Principle of Love and inward Life and Liking but only out of some external respect If you perform your Services not out of a filial ingenuous Disposition but merely out of a Slavish Fear of being beaten or of losing the Wages you expect for your Work If you use only a careless and supine Devotion If you matter not at all how little you do for God or what is the Frame of your Minds and Hearts in what you do If you give way to vain Thoughts in holy Duties If you be not intent in your religious Services but instead of using the World as if you used it not you use good Duties as if you did not use them observe the Lord's-Day as if you observ'd it not confess and repent as if you did no such thing hear as if you heard not and pray as if you prayed not If you pray only out of Custom and do not mind and well consider what you say nor are affected with what you speak nor desire what you ask If you pray and reade and hear only because you are brought up so to do and have taken up such a Practice or because you would satisfy natural Conscience and have the good Opinion and Word of all in your Families and be commended by your Neighbours for religious Persons and do not pray to this necessary End that so you may enjoy Communion with God and get and obtain Pardon and Grace and Strength from God nor reade the Scripture and good Books and hear the Word preached that so you may know your Duty in Order to the Practice and Performance of it all the Time that is thus spent in Duty is in a manner Time lost and mis-spent in so doing you lose your Duties and you lose your Time too But especially if any shall dare to do nothing but whisper and talk and laugh to mock and jeer at the Word and the Minister of it to be undecent and rude and profane in their Carriage and Behaviour in a Christian Assembly in the Time of Divine Worship in the [i] Vae mihi quia ibi pecco ubi peccata emendare debeo Bernard de interior Domo c. 33. Presence of the great God and in the Sight of the holy * 1 Cor. 11.10 Angels This is to lose the Time of publick Duty if it be to be lost at all This is to lose the Time of Duty with a Witness And so I have done with the third Vse namely of Reproof and Rebuke to several Sorts of Persons who are guilty of the Loss the lamentable Loss of their precious Time and unvaluable Opportunities CHAP. VI. The fourth and last Vse is of Exhortation to Magistrates Ministers the People in general Six quickening Motives to press the Duty of Redemption of Time 1. Consider how notably Jesus Christ redeem'd the Time when he was here in the World 1. He redeem'd the Time to save us 2. He redeem'd the Time to be an Example to us 2. Consider further that as Christ did once redeem the Time to save us So the Devil does daily redeem the Time to destroy us 3. Consider how very notably many of the Saints and Servants of God have improved and redeemed their Time 4. Consider that it is an Act of spiritual Wisdom to rodeem the Time and mere Madness and gross Folly not to redeem the Time 5. Consider that if now thou losest and squanderest away thy Time thou wilt at last be forced thy self to condemn thy foolish Neghgence and to justify the Care and Diligence of others that were wiser for their own Souls then thy self 6. Consider that do what we can to redeem our Time we shall never repent at last of any Care we have had to redeem it but shall certainly blame and find fault with our selves for being so careless of our Time so negligent of good Opportunities as we have been Serious considerative Christians do blame themselves for their Loss of Time even in their Life-time but they are especially sensible of it and exceedingly ashamed of themselves for it at their Death THe fourth and last use shall be of Exhortation to put you upon the Duty of Redeeming Time Let Magistrates vigorously redeem the Time in the faithful Execution and impartial Administration of governing Justice and in being active and zealous bold and couragious in the Cause of God and Goodness * Rem 13.3 in being a Terrour to Evil and not to good Works and in acting for the †i Pet. 2.14 Punishment of Evil-doers and for the Praise of them that do well in repressing Vice and checking Profaneness and daily dashing Sin out of Countenance and in countenancing and encouraging nourishing and cherishing Sobriety and Temperance Vertue and Godliness Holiness and Religion Let Ministers industriously redeem the Time in ‖ Acts 20.27 not shunning to declare to the People all the Counsel of God in urging Truths upon their own Hearts and pressing and enforcing them upon others Souls in labouring abundantly in the Lord's Vineyard in (*) Verse 28. taking heed unto themselves and (†) 1 Tim. 4.16 to their Doctrine and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made them Over-seers in feeding the Church of God with the wholsome Food of sound Words in (‖) Heb. 13.17 watching for Souls as they that must give Account in [*] Acts 20.31 daily warning Sinners with Tears in perswading Men with Earnestness and Importunity as those that well [†] 2 Cor. 5.11 know the Terrour of the Lord in endeavouring to [‖] 1 Tim. 4.16 save themselves and them that hear them to () Jude 23. save some with Fear pulling them out of the Fire in taking all possible Care lest they [] 1 Cor. 9.26 beat the Air and * Gal. 2.2 Phil. 2.16 run in vain and labour in vain left their Peoples †Ezek. 3.18 Blood be required at their Hands and lest when they have preached to others they themselves should become * 1 Cor. 9.27 Cast-aways in discharging their Duty so painfully and faithfully that though
approbemus Sen apud Lactant. de vero cultu l. 6. §. 24. It nothing profits us to have a Conscience shut up within us we are open to God Let 's approve our selves to him What rare Lectures are these from a meer Pagan Philosopher how consonant and agreeable to the sacred Scripture That ancient Father much admiring the high and raised Expressions falling from that incomparable Stoick professes concerning him [f] Potuit esse verus Dei cultor si quis illi monstrasset accontempsisset profecto Zenonem magistrum suum Socionem si verae sapientiae Ducem mactus essit Lactant. loc cit He might have been a true Worshipper of God if any one had but shewn him the right Way and surely he would have contemned Zeno and his Master Socion if he had but met with a ready Guide to true Wisdome And Erasmus before his Notes on Seneca's Works gives this Judgment of his Writings [g] D. Hieronymus Senecam recensuit in catalogo Sanctorum Si legas illum ut paganum scripsit Christianè si ut Christianum scripsit paganicè Erasmi de Sen. judicium ante Comment in Sen. Oper. If you reade him as an Heathen he wrote like a Christian if you reade him as a Christian he wrote like an Heathen But to return to the Matter in hand To live as under God's Eye is more than to live as in the presence of all the good Men in the World more than to live as in the Sight of all good Men and Angels Well then with holy * Psal 16.8 David let us set the Lord alwaies before us The Lord sets us alwaies before himself let us therefore set the Lord alwaies before our selves for then if ever we shall work strenuously follow our Business closely bestir our selves to purpose and carefully look about us when we really believe that our Lord and Master stands by us and looks upon us Did we but consider that God * Job 31.4 sees all our goings that he †Job 34.21 counts all our Steps that he knows all our Waies our crooked winding Waies wherein we live wherein we dy not live and is more far above Deceit than Deceit seems above Simplicity as Mr. [h] Sict Poâ—m A Wreath Herbert expresses it This Consideration would cause us to make streight Paths and to order our Conversations aright If a Reverend grave Divine a severe Magistrate a Parent a [i] Rp. Andrews as if he had made Mr. Mulcaster formerly his Schoolâ—â—after his Tutor or Supervisor placed his Picture over the door of his Study whereas in all the rest of his House you could scaurly see a Pâ—â—ture His funeral Sermon at the end of his Sermons p. 18. Master an Husband a Wife a Servant a Child a Friend or an Enemy stood by beheld and heard you would often forbear many an unhandsome uncomely unseemly Word and Action If you were always plac'd under Mens Observation you would study to do every thing to their Approbation and Satisfaction And could you spend your Time in immoderate Eating Drinking Sleeping Attiring in Swearing Swaggering Gaming Sporting Playing vain and srothy and wanton Discoursing in any idle unworthy ungodly Action if you did but imagine at such a Time and in such a Place that God was by and saw or heard whatever was said or done Pray do but actually and seriously consider that wherever you are the omniscient and omnipresent God is alwaies one of the Company and ever beholds whatever you do and this will restrain you from doing Evil and powerfully constrain and effectually engage you with Care and Diligence to do your Duty to embrace and improve every Opportunity and to make a Benefit and Advantage of it The Apprehension of God's all-seeing all-searching Eye will be of excellent Use and Advantage to us at four Times especially 1. Actually consider that God sees you when you ordinarily visit one another and at any Time feast and make merry together Whenever you go to see one another remember and consider that God sees how you spend your Time together that whenever you meet together God is present in your Company he hears your Discourses and writes down your Words he observes and registers your Actions He takes exact and strict Notice how much Time you spend idly and unprofitably how far you exceed in your Recreations what Gluttony and Drunkenness mingle with your Feastings Still therefore meet together as those that can never steal or step out of God's Presence Say and do nothing together but what you are willing that God should see and hear Whenever you feast feast as before the Lord and when you eat and drink together eat and drink as before the Lord. 2. When buying or selling remember you are manifest in God's Sight that all you do is naked * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 4 1â— ript open unbowell'd anatomiz'd turn'd inside outward in the Eye of God Consider that God stands by and sees your Dealings hears the making of every Contract is a faithful Witness to every Bargain and is privy to your Carriage in your particular Calling to all your Breaches and Violations of commutative Justice Never offer to deceive Man because it is impossible to deceive God The Tradesman may secretly falsify his Weights and mingle his Wares and lie and dissemble to get them off the better But God understands his false Dealings and discovers his deceitful Heart and Hand Men may cunningly cheat and cozen their Neighbours but they can't blind and impose upon God * 1 Thess 4.6 Let no Man go beyond and defraud or over-reach his Brother in any Matter because the Lord is the Avenger of all such Let not the Seller abuse the Ignorance or Credulity of the Buyer nor the Buyer work upon the Simplicity or Necessity of the Seller let him not say †Prov. 20.14 It is naught it is naught and when he is gone his way then boast of his Penny-worth Though such may promise themselves Impunity among Men yet God is the Beholder and Avenger of all such 3. Consider this in your secret Retirements and private Families 1. Consider this in your secret Recesses and Retirements That God is present looks on and weighs and ponders all your Doings That God sees the very [k] Meminerit Deum se habere testem Itaque vir bonus non modò facere sed ne cogitare quidem quiequam audebit quod non andeat praedicare Tullius apud Lactant. de vero cultu l. 6. c. 24. hidden Motions and vain Imaginations of your Hearts He knows all your secret Designs and Projects he beholds the most private unseemly Carriages and filthy Deeds He sees within thy close-drawn Curtains though they be of Cloth where never yet came Moth to use again the ingenious Words of the holy [l] Sacr. Poem Misery Mr. Herbert * Psal 90.8 Our secret Sins are set in the Light of God's Countenance †Psal 139
and delightful Communion with God to exercise thy Graces in this holy Duty and to feel thy Heart warm'd and inflam'd and thy Soul refresh'd and repair'd before thou departest out of God's Presence To [e] Oratio clavis diei sera nâ—ctis begin and end with God every Day to be with the Lord first and last to call upon God Morning and Evening In the Morning to praise him for the Mercies of the Night past to ask Wisdome of God to order our Conversation aright to beg his Favour Presence Guidance Spirit Grace and Strength his Protection of us his * Psal 90 17. Beauty on glorious Blessing upon us and his establishing and [f] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pythag Aur. Cam. prospering the Works both of our Heads and Hands the whole Day following And in the Evening to bless and praise God for the Mercies and Favours of the Day past to confess our Faults and Failings in it and so to lie down with no heavy Guilt of any unrepented Sin lying upon us To pray for the hPardon and Healing of the Miscarriages of that Day and to commit our selves and ours to the Divine Keeping the Night following beseeching God to prevent any sinful Dreams which might proceed from the Corruption of our Natures and Constitutions Hearts and Imaginations Conversations and Actions and to spiritualize and sanctify our Thoughts and Cogitations in the vacant Spaces and broken Hours of our Sleep To keep and maintain the set Times of personal secret Closet-Prayer and the stated Times of Oeconomical Houshold Family-Prayer this is a well-spending so much of our Time as is employed in that Duty and this is the right and ready way to redeem and improve every Day to the Honour and Glory of God and to our own and others Profit and Benefit Satisfaction and Comfort This is a likely hopeful good way to prevent or remove Miscarriages in our selves and Disorders in our Families to keep every Member of our Family in their Station and Duty to season them all with a religious Fear and high Respect to God and his Waies and to train and bring up Children and Servants to a competent Ability to express their Desires in Prayer to God for themselves and others to teach our Servants with * Gen. 24.12 Eliezar Abraham's good oand faithful Servant to follow their earthly Master's Business with hearty Prayers to their heavenly Master for a Blessing upon it Be careful and diligent wise and prudent to redeem Time for Prayer that you may redeem Time by Prayer Find Time sufficient to work this Work of God and so to workout your own Salvation as well as to follow the Works and Businesses of your particular Callings to attend and wait upon God in Prayer as well as to wait upon your Customers and to attend your secular Occasions and Concerns Let not worldly Cares and civil or domestick Affairs hinder and divert thee from due Performance of Prayer in thy Family and in thy private Closet Though David had the Care of the Kingly Government upon him yet his usual Course and Practice was to pray to God †Psal 55.17 Evening and Morning and at Noon yea ‖ 119.154 seven times a day did he praise God as he himselfe professes If he did not exactly and punctually observe so many Hours but a certain Number is put here for an uncertain yet the meaning must be that he did it very often Love sweetned the Duty to him and caused him to praise God * Ps 71.14 more and more to be nover weary of praising him here as knowing that it would be his sole Employment to praise him hereafter for evermore Though Daniel was deeply engag'd in Publick Business and State Affairs yet he took not any Occasion from these to neglect his daily Duty and wonted Service to his God He kept his former Course and Order for every day and constantly †Dan. 6.10 three Times a Day he kneeled upon his Knees and prayed and gave thanks before his God though he knew he hazarded his high Preferment and endanger'd his very Life by it So Cornelius a Centurion taken up with many Martial Occasions yet suffer'd not himself to be taken off from his Devotion thereby but ‖ Acts 10.2 prayed to God alway He did not do it only by fits but daily and constantly observ'd his usual Seasons It is reported of the famous [g] In the Serm. preached at his Fun. at the end of his Sermons p. 21. Bp. Andrews that though he had many weighty Employments as Bishop of Winchester and Privy Counsellor yet his Life was a Life of Prayer and a great part of five Hours every day did he spend in Prayer and Devotion to God The holy and excellent [h] His Life written by Dr. Bernard p. 58. Bp. Vsher had Prayer in his Family four times a day In the Morning at six in the Evening at eight and before Dinner and Supper in the Chappel at each of which he was alwaies present [i] His Life written by Mr. Clark Mr. William Whately Minister of Banbury had much Work lying upon him continually catechising and preaching twice every Lord's-day and a weekly Lecture besides well studying and usually penning his Sermons at large and yet his constant Practice was besides Family-Prayer twice a day and sometimes catechizing to pray also with his Wife and alone both Morning and Evening And with what shew of Reason can any of you excuse your selves Have you Time to eat and drink and sleep and not only to labour and works but to play and sport Leisure to recreate your selves and visit your Friends and take your pleasure a Spare-Hour to spend in discourse and it may be to waste in empty and idle talk with another Have you Time to do nothing Time to do Evil and have you no Time to serve and worship God in your Families no Time for religious Retirements and hidden Repairs to God in your privy Chambers and secret Closets Have you so many Sins and Wants Corruptions and Temptations and can no Time be spared and set apart to seek God for the Pardon of your Sins and the Supply of all your spiritual Wants and to pray to him for Strength and Power to mortify the Corruptious with which you are infested and to resist the Temptations with which you are assaulted 2. We should moreover betake our selves to solemn continued Prayer when we have Place and Space for such a Duty upon the Emergency of any weighty important Business or on any special extraordinary occurrent and urgent Occasion to beg of God the prudent Conduct of our Affairs Success in and a Blessing upon our lawful and honest Undertakings Strength to go through Trials Afflictions and Temptations Freedom and Deliverance from Evils and Sufferings felt or feared or to return God thanks for the receit of his Mercies in any such particulars and to engage our selves to walk answerably and to
render suitably to the Lord for such undeserved and it may be unexpected Blessings and Benefits We reade of Abraham's Servant that when his Master sent him to take a Wife for his Son Isaac he sought God and said * Gen. 24.12 O Lord God of my Master Abraham I pray thee send me good speed this Day and shew Kindness unto my Master Abraham And when God had given him good Success †Vers 26 27 48. he worshipped and blessed God which had led him in the right Way When Jacob was greatly afraid of Esau's coming ‖ Gen. 32 9 10 11. he prayed to God to deliver him from the Hand of his Brother When Nehemiah understood the Misery of Jerusalem he (*) 1 Neh. 4.11 fasted and prayed before the God of Heaven and intreated God to proper him that Day and to grant him Mercy in the Sight of the King So when Esther was to make an extraordinary Suit to King Ahasuerus (†) Esth 4.16 she and her Maidens fasted and prayed for an happy Issue and good Event When David was troubled with slanderous Enemies (‖) Ps 109.4 he gave himself unto Prayer And upon the Receit of Sennacherib's blasphemous Letter [*] Isa 37.14 15 21. Hezekiah went up unto the House of the Lord and spread it before the Lord and prayed against Sennacherib King of Assyria Christ upon his approaching Passion [†] Matt. 26.39 42 44. prayed thrice in the Garden St. Paul likewise when there was given to him a Thorn in the Flesh the Messenger of Satan to buffet him * 2 Cor. 12.7 8. for this thing he besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from him How eminent have many pious Persons been for gaining Opportunities of Religious Addresses and for their Care to improve much Time in Prayer whether upon ordinary or extraordinary Occasions It is the worthy Commendation of [k] Knolles's Hist of the Turks p. 580. Philippus Villerius the Great Master of the Rhodes that all the Time he could spare from the necessary Cares of his weighty Charge from Assaults and the natural Refreshing of his Body he bestowed in Prayer and Serving of God He oftentimes spent the greatest Part of the Night in the Church alone praying his Head-piece Gorget and Gantlets lying by him so that it was often said that his devout Prayers and Carefulness would make the City invincible Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden would pray a Ship-board a Shore in the Field in the midst of a Battel 'T is a memorable Passage in the [l] Fox Acts and Mon. 2 vol. p. 1457. Life of Mr. John Bradford that his continual Study was upon his Knees and no doubt he mingled many holy Prayers with his hard Studies [m] Id. ib. p. 1579. Mr. Hugh Latimer in the latter Time of his Imprisonment which was at Oxford from April to October did oftentimes continue so long in fervent Prayer kneeling that he was not able to rise without Help And three special principal Matters which he ever mention'd in his Praiers at that Season were these That God would give him Grace to stand to his Doctrine until his Death that he might give and shed his Heart-blood in the Defence of the Gospel That God of his Mercy would restore his Gospel to England once again once again He also desired with Tears that God would preserve the Princess Elizabeth and make her a Comfort to his comfortless Realm of England All which Requests God graciously granted and in Answer to his first particular Desire it was very remarkable that his Body being open'd by the Force of the Fire his Blood which gather'd much to his Heart gush'd out of his Heart with Violence and ran out in Abundance [n] Eccl Hist l 2. c. 23. Eusebius out of Aegesippus tells us of James called Justus that his Knees were grown very callous hard and brawny benumm'd and berest of the Sense of Feeling by reason of his continual kneeling in Supplication to God and Petition for the People So Gregory relates of his Aunt Trucilla that her Elbows were as hard as an Horn by often learning on a Desk when she prayed And St. Jerome in an Epistle to Marcella mentions this in the Praises of Asella that by her frequent kneeling in Prayer she had contracted such an Hardness on her Knees as is to be found on the [p] Durities de genubus camelorum in illo sancto corpusculo prae orandi frequentia obcaluisse perspecta est Hier. ad Marcell de laudib Asellae Knees of Camels The same Father writes in the Life of Paul the Hermite that [q] Ac primum iâ—se vivere eum credens pariter orabat Postquam verò nulla ut solebat suspiria precantis at divit in flebile osculum ruens intellexit quod etiam cadaver Sancti Deum cui omnia vivunt officioso gestu precabatur Hier. in vit Pauli Eremitae Anthony entring into the Cave found there the dead Body of that Saint in a praying Posture upon its bended folded Knees with its Head listed up and its Hands stretched out on high [r] O ter belitam il'ius animam sine corpore cujus adâ—o venerabundum corpus sine anima Arrows Tact. sacr p. 273. How happy now is his Soul without his Body whose Body was in a worshiping Gesture without his Soul 3. If we would redeem the Time we must give our selves to frequent holy Ejaculation either mental or vocal inwardly lifting and darting up our Petitions and Heart's Desires or orally uttering them in some very short yet pithy Expressions of both which we have several Instances in Sacred Writ * Exod 14.15 Wherefore [s] In Dei auribus desiderium vehemens clamor magnus 〈◊〉 regione autem remissa iniontio vox submissa Bern sâ—rm 16. in Ps 90. criest thou unto me said God to Moses when Moses utter'd not a Word that we do reade of but only used strong Ejaculations inward ardent Desires and Groans †Nehem. 2.4 So I prayed to the God of Heaven said holy Nehemiah that is he dispatch'd and sent up some short Heart-prayers to Heaven that God would direct his Tongue and bend and [t] Qui preces ad Regem perferre vult priùs ad Deum perserat cujus in manu corda sunt Regum Grot. in loc incline the Heart of the King the King's Heart being in the Lord's Hand He could pray no otherwise at that Time for he was then in the Presence of the King and in Discourse with him And Nehemiah ‖ Nehem. 13.14 21 31. and (*) Mat. 11.25 John 12 27 28. our Saviour and others did use by an holy Apostrophe to turn their Speech to God in vocal Ejaculations The true Christian as a solid [u] Shaw's Immanuel p. 73. Divine saies well does not limit himself penuriously to a Morning and Evening Sacrifice and Solemnity as unto certain Rent-seasons wherein to pay an Homage of dry
Devotion but his loving and longing Soul disdaining to be confin'd within Canonical Hours is frequently soaring in some heavenly Raptures or other and sallying forth in holy Ejaculations If thou beest a truly regenerate Person such Ejaculation was thy first and will be thy last Breathing O see that it be the most usual Exercise of thy Life Great is the Benefit of holy and heavenly Ejaculation which is like the keeping alive and quickning the Fire for the Use and Service of the daily Sacrifice If by neglect of this spiritual Exercise we unhappily suffer the holy Fire to go out we can't expect that God should kindle it anew when we go to offer the Sacrifice of solemn Prayer to God By our much using Ejaculatory Prayer and familiarizing our selves to praying Thoughts and Desires and exercising our selves in spiritual Pleadings with God our Hearts will be generally [w] Such as will be ever and anon thus whetting their praying Spirits and Graces will make Work of it when they come to it They that are good at these running Pulls and Trips are surely good Wrastlers with God Cobbet of Prayer p. 47. fram'd and sitted and by immediatly previous Ejaculatory Prayer our Hearts will be particularly disposed and prepared for performance of set and solemn Prayer We shall also [x] All the Prayers of a gracious Suppliant are not ended with his continued Speech in Prayer no his heart is lifting and lifting as you see a Bell-rope oft hoysing up after you have done ringing the Bell. When a gracious Person 's Heart is left in Heaven uttering its after Requests now Prayer was well carried on These shorter Post-scripts written after the other longer Letter have ever something of note and worth Id. ib p. 33 34. When men part with men they use to give one another a Faâ—ewell and not bluntly deliver their Mind one to another and so turn their backs one upon another Neither may a man when a Duty is done go away bluntly from God but give him a Farewell by holy Meditation It 's an unseemly kicking of a Duty as most men do when they are come to the end of their Prayers to whom with the Father and Holy Spirit be ascribed all Praise and Glory Amen Come is Dinner ready or What news do you hear This is unmannerliness towards the Ordinances of God Fenner of the Vse and Ben. of Divine Medit. p. 25. fol close and come off well from continued Prayer with the greater Spirituality and Ardency of Devotion by following at last our larger and longer Prayers with several short strong Desires earnest and affectionate good Wishes lively and vigorous Heart-lifts such like as these Lord forgive the Iniquity of my holy Things O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do defer not for thine own sake O my God Let the Words of my Mouth and the Meditation of my Heart be acceptable in thy Sight O Lord my Strength and my Redeemer Good Lord help me to live over my Prayers and let me not destroy my Prayers by a careless Christless wicked loose and ungodly Life Amen Amen Yea often retire address and apply thy self to God in short Prayers and cordial Ejaculations and these may [y] Bp. Taylor 's Rule and Exerc. of Holy Living c. 1. §. 1. Rule 7. The want of the solemn Morning-Prayer in case that some necessary work of Charity do hinder us may be supplied by some frequent Ejaculatory Prayers and frequent inward spiritual Admirings and Adorings of God but the want of these cannot be supplied by the other White 's Power of Godl p. 97. If the case were so that we must omit one of them it were better to omit our solemn Prayer in the Morning and to have our Heart sending up continually Ejaculatory Prayers and Breathings after God than to spend an Hour in the Morning in solemn Prayer and Meditation and all the rest of the Day not to have so much as one Thought of God Id Ib. p. 202. You must not leave off solemn Duties and think to supply the want thereof by Ejaculatory Prayers for they are not to justle out but help one another This is as if the Priests should content themselves with keeping the Fire burning alwaies on the Altar and neglect their Morning and Evening Sacrifice Id. ib. p. 2 9. supply the Lack of those larger Portions of Time which thou desirest and covetest for thy Devotion and in which it may be thou thinkest others have advantage of thee Again This is the readiest surest way to improve any spiritual Warmth holy Affection or good Motion wrought in thy Heart in the Use of Christian Conference in Hearing Reading Meditation or the like To send up sudden suitable seasonable Ejaculatory Prayers or Praises while thou art under such a lively Sense and in such a Godly Frame Farther Our often using and daily maintaining a frequent Converse with God in the way of these holy devout Ejaculations these Aspirations and Emigrations of Soul after God this will prove a special Help to keep our Hearts very spiritual and savoury and close with God and to get more intimate Acquaintance with him and to secure the continuance of his gracious friendly Presence with us This moreover is a sit and proper Means to call in and engage Divine Assistance to inable us meetly to manage any temporal or spiritual Employment and rightly to improve any Ordinance or Providence a direct Means to procure from God Wisdome and Grace suitably to entertain any notable Mercy newly received to get Ease and Relief in any sudden strait or want Patience under and the Sanctification of a surprising and unexpected Affliction a present and approved Means to throw out the Injections and to repel the fiery Darts of the Devil to gain Help from Heaven against any sudden strong Temptation or rising and working of any Corruption and Strength against our Bosom Master Sin which is so apt so easily to beset us A Means to prevent our being unwarily ensnared and entangled in the Use and Exercise of our lawful Labours or Recreations To be preserved effectually from Sin and Folly when cast unawares into profane or carnal Company to obtain Mercy and Pardon speedily upon apprehension of any Insirmities Slips or Failings To lift up our Hearts in such Cases in the Way of sudden Ejaculatory Prayer to God This will save our solitary Hours in the Day-time and well improve our wakeful Hours in the Night-season when we cannot take our natural Rest and Sleep then to awaken and call upon our Souls to return unto their spiritual Rest to raise and lift up our Hearts to Heaven and to present the Desires of our Souls to God [z] In hard Havens so choaked up with the envious Sands that great Ships drawing many Foot Water cannot come near lighter and lesser Pinnaces may freely and safely arrive VVhen we are Time-bound Place-bound or Person-bound so that we cannot compose our selves to make a large
that when the New Testament was first set forth by Erasmus he was drawn to buy it more in consideration of the good Latine of that Edition than out of any regard to the Word of God of which he was utterly ignorant at that Time And by the Providence of God he fell at first reading on this Sentence This is a faithful Saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners of whom I am chief [h] O mihi suavissimam Pauli sententiam Haec una serâ—â—â—ntia Deo iatus in corde meo docente sic exhilaravit pectus meum c. Biln ep ad Cutb. Tonstallum Lond. Episc Fox Act. Mon 2 v. p. 915. O this Saying of Paul was a sweet and comfortable Saying to me saies he This one Sentence God inwardly teaching and instructing me did so exhilarate and comfort my Heart which before was wounded and ready to despair through the Conviction and Sense I had of my Sins that I felt immediatly such a marvellous Tranquillity and Gladness within me that the Bones which had been broken did rejoice and from this Time the Scripture began to be sweeter to me than the Honey and the Honey-comb As Adam and Eve went about in vain to cover their Nakedness with their Fig-leaves and were never quieted till they had believed the Promise of God that the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpents Head so neither could I be healed saies he of the Stings and Bitings of my Sins before I was taught of God that Lesson of which Christ speaks Joh. 3.14 15. As Moses listed up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal Life Thomas à Kempis is said to have uttered and to have written this Sentence in his Books [i] In omnibus requiem quaesivi sed nusquam inveni praeterquam in angulo cum libello S. Torshel exercit in Malach. I have sought for Rest every where but have found it no where except in a Corner alone with a little Book The Bible is that blessed Book which will either alone or above all other Books afford a suitable seasonable Rest unto our Souls And now these Things considered is it not well worth the while to bestow your Time and Pains in reading and studying the sacred Scriptures 3. It is moreover a Means and Help to the right redceming of our Time for the future For here in the Scripture we have the plainest Precepts given us to oblige us to take due Care of our Time the best Examples and worthiest Patterns of Redemption of Time set before us in the Servants of God and in the Son of God and have here afforded us the strongest Motives and Encouragements to it and the most prudent Instructions and proper Directions about it For all that has been hitherto discoursed concerning it has chiefly been fetch'd from and drawn out of the holy Scriptures And these divine and sacred Writings will not only teach and instruct you but also inwardly dispose and qualify sit and enable you to make the best Improvement of your remaining Time by converting and transforming regenerating and renewing purifying and sanctifying you By giving you a new Nature they will enable you to lead a new Life And therefore be sure to redeem some competent Time for reading of the Scripture that you may the better redeem the Remainder of your Time by reading of the Scripture The noble Aethiopian * Acts 8.28 Eunuch would lose no Time but as he was travelling and sitting in his Chariot he read Esaias the Prophet And as St. Chrysostom well notes if he was so religiously employed in a Journey what a diligent Student of the Scripture was he at home yea though he found what he then read to be to him difficult and [k] Quae aperta sunt in quibus mentem suam Deus aperit avidè prompto animo susâ—ipere decet quae adhuc nobis obscura sunt praeterire couvenit donec plentor lux affulgeat Quod si legendo non satigabimur fiet tandem ut scriptura assiduo usu familiaris nobis reddatur Calv. in loc obscure yet he would not lay that holy Book away which he did not at present well understand We must esteem reverently of the Word saies the judicious [l] Mr. Arthur Hildersam Lecture 1. on the Title of Psal 51. pag. 2. The obscurity of any Place should increase our Diligence in searching the meaning of it and teach us to acknowledg the necessity of a learned Ministry and of that Gift of Interpretation God hath given unto his Servants Act. 8.31 And to see the Necessity of joining with our reading humble Prayer unto God that he would open our Understanding Ps 119. 18. And cause us to come to the reading of the Word with an Heart that is humbled and fearful to offend God For the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant Ps 25.14 And this should move us to mark and lay up in our Hearts even those things which we understand not because they may do us good hereafter Luke 2.50 51. Joh. 2.22 Id. ib. pag. 2 3. Hildersam though we cannot at the first reading or hearing of it profit by it or discern what use it may serve us unto The Jews were so exactly versed in the Old Testament that [m] Contr. Appion l. 2. Josephus gives this Testimony of them Every one of our Nation being demanded of our Laws can answer as readily as he can tell his own Name * Acts 17.11 The Bereans are commended for spending their Time every Day in searching the Scriptures It is the honourable Character of Apollos that he was * Acts 18.24 mighty in the Scriptures one that had a great Insight and Skill in the Scriptures of the Old Testament But †Verse 26. Aquila and Priscilla ordinary Tent-makers had attained to such a measure of Knowledg in the Gospel that they were able to instruct an eloquent Apollos and to expound unto him the Way of God more perfectly ‖ 2 Tim. 3.15 Timothy had known the holy Scriptures from a Child Tertullian after his Conversion was taken up night and day in reading of the Scriptures and did with great Pains get much of them by heart and that so exactly that he knew each Period Origen having this daily Task set him by his Father to rehearse unto him some Portion of Scripture He though a Child not only committed the Words unto his Memory but inquired into the Sense and Meaning of them and diverse Times would gravel his Father with the Questions which he propounded to him And when he was grown to riper Years he spent much of the Night in meditating on the holy Scriptures [n] Quis sic universam divinam Scripturam edidicit imbibit concoxit versavit meditatus est Erasm ep
this present World Thy thinking of Judgment will make thee careful of thy Thoughts because God will judg the Secrets * Rom. 2.16 of Men and †1 Cor. 4.5 manifest the Counsels of the Hearts And render thee watchful over thy Words because of all thy ‖ Jude 15. hard Speeches and of every ‖ Jude 15. idle Word thou must give an account and ‖ Jude 15. by thy Words thou shalt be justified or condemned And will cause thee to be circumspect in all thy Waies and narrowly observant of all thy Actions because Christ vvill come to (†) Ibid. convince Men of all their ungodly Deeds and thou must be judged according to thy Works Didst thou faithfully mind thy self of a future Judgment thou wouldst not be so frothy and foolish in thy Speeches so vain and profane in thy Merriments so deceitful in thy Trade so formal in thy Duties thou wouldst not sottishly sleep or impertinently muse or irreverently talk out Sermons nor mumble and huddle over thy Praiers like so many Ave-Marie's Thou wouldst certainly think and speak and act buy and sell hear and pray carry thy self in thy Dealings with Men and in thy Devotions to God as one that must give an account of thy self to God O think and say at the End and Close of every Day Now I have one Day less to live and one Day more to reckon for It is [g] Apophthegms collected by George Herbert in his Remains reported of Ignatius Loyola that he used to say when he heard a Clock strike There 's one Hour more that I have to answer to God for Such a good Meditation concerning the past Hour would surely quicken thee to spend the following and succeeding Hour much better To conclude this particular Consider thou art to be judged by Christ and surely then thou wilt not be ashamed of him now lest he be ashamed of thee another Day Thou wilt wisely labour for an Interest in him who is to be thy Judg that when the Devil shall accuse thee thou maiest have an Advocate to plead for thee and the Judg himself to befriend thee and to deal according to the Mildness of the Gospel with thee Thou wilt hear and receive his Commands now that thou maiest hereafter hear the Sentence of Absolution from him Thou wilt endeavour so to live that thou maiest look upon the Day of Judgment as the Time of thy Refreshment and maiest * 2 Tim. 4.8 love the appearing of thy Lord and Judg. The eminently holy [h] In his Life written by his Brother Mr. James Janeway p. 95 96. Mr. John Janeway sometime Fellow of King's Colledg in Cambridg had very [i] At about 20 for he died between 23 and 24 and this was his Condition for about 3 Years before he died p. 97 120. early arriv'd and attain'd to such an high pitch and great measure of spiritual Readiness and heavenly Preparedness that when once there was much Talk that one had fore-told that Doom's-Day should be upon such a Day although he blamed the presumptuous Folly of the false Prophet yet supposing it were true What then said he What if the Day of Judgment were come as it will most certainly come shortly If I were sure the Day of Judgment were to begin within an Hour I should be glad with all my heart If at this very instant I should hear such Thundrings and see such Lightnings as Israel did at Mount Sinai I am perswaded my very Heart would leap for joy But this I am confident of through infinite Mercy that the very Meditation of the Day hath even ravished my Soul and the Thought of the Certainty and Nearness of it is more refreshing to me than the Comforts of the whole World Surely nothing can more revive my Spirits than to behold the blessed Jesus the Joy Life and Beauty of my Soul Would it not more rejoyce me than Joseph 's Wagons did old Jacob O let us labour to be like him Let 's love Christ's Laws that we may not dread but love his appearing when he shall come to reckon and call to an account for our Observation or Violation of them Let us love the Appearing and Manifestation of Christ in his Ordinances his Word and Sacraments love the Appearing Enlargement and Encreasing of his spiritual Kingdom in the World love his Appearing in the Hearts and Lives of his most saithful and obedient People love his Appearing in our Houses and Families and his being formed and inthroned in our own Hearts and in the Hearts of our nearest and dearest Friends and Relations and by earnest and ardent Desire even hasten the coming of the Day of God long for the second coming of the Lord Christ when he shall appear without Sin unto Salvation and very heartily pray and say * Rev. 22.17 20. Come Lord Jesus come quickly When wilt thou †Joh. 14.3 come again and receive us unto thy self that where thou art there we may be also Thus I have offer'd to your best Consideration the Certainty and Necessity of a future and final Judgment 2. I come now to lead you to the Meditation of the great Vncertainty as to us of the Time and Season of this Judgment O think with thy self that the Son of Man * Luke 12.40 cometh at an Hour when you think not That Christ saies †Rev. 16.15 Behold I come as a Thief That thou ‖ Mark 13.33 knowest not when the Time is That (*) Mat. 24.42 25.13 thou knowest neither the Day nor the Hour wherein (*) Mat. 24.42 25.13 your Lord (*) Mat. 24.42 25.13 the Son of Man cometh to particular Judgment at the Day of Death or to general Judgment at the End of the World That there are indeed Signs of the Times which shew when it is near which the Faithful are to observe and take notice of to be instructed by and to gather comfort from But that the punctual and precise Time is hid from us And that a considerable Latitude being to be allowed in the Accounts of Time both as to the Beginning and Ending of them we can therefore take no exact Measures nor six directly upon the very Time and Day that God hath set in his own purpose to judg the World in And here 't will be useful to thee to consider that as St. Austin speaks [k] Ideo later ultimus dies ut abserventur omnes dies The last Day is conceal'd and kept secret from thee that all other Daies may be observ'd well-spent and improved by thee and that there may be a due Trial of thy Faith and Patience and Obedience by a Course of holy Living Whereas if thou knewest certainly the just Term of thy Life and how long it would be before thou shouldst be called to be judged thou mightst too probably take Occasion from it to defer and put off thy Conversion and Repentance to a few Daies
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
offer'd to God and prove available to cross and cancel all the Debts and wipe off the many and great Guilts of a fifty or threescore Years Impiety and Iniquity And that the Pardon of all thy Sins will be comfortably sealed and thy Soul be certainly consign'd to the Joys of Paradise and Glory of Heaven by receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper immediatly before thy Departure That if thou canst but form and frame thy shortest Breath to call upon God with these five Words Lord have Mercy upon me but a little before thy last Gasp they will really [n] Dâ—ke prove as powerful and available for the happy Translation of thy Soul to Heaven as the mumbling over those five Words of Consecration Hoc est enim Corpus meum for this is my Body is by the Papists imagined to be effectual for the Transubstantiation of their Host Is this consistent with the use of Reason and Consideration to venture all upon a Death-bed Repentance to take a wilful Course to bring thy self into such a Condition in which thou shalt be utterly unable with all the help that can be afforded thee to find out one Promise or to meet with one Example in the whole Bible that will full reach or plainly and properly speak to thy particular case and afford thee sufficient support relief and Comfort in that dark and dismal Day and Hour Obj. No Promise may some object and say Why what do you make of those Words At what time soever a Sinner doth repent him of his Sins from the bottom of his Heart I will put all his Wickedness out of my Remembrance saith the Lord. Answ For answer give me leave to tell you what others make of these Words and those very great Divines too There are no such Words in the whole Bible saies the very Learned [l] Serm. of the Invalid of a Death bed Rep. part 2. Bp. Taylor nor any nearer to the sense of them than those Words of the Prophet Ezekiel chap. 18.21 But if the Wicked will turn from all his Sins that he hath committed and keep all my Statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not die Or those chap. 33.14 15. in which you shall find Repentance more fully described When I say unto the Wicked Thou shalt surely die If he turn from his Sin and do that which is lawful and right if the Wicked restore the Pledg give again that he had robbed walk in the Statutes of Life without committing Iniquity he shall surely live he shall not die Here only is the condition of Pardon to leave all your Sins to keep all God's Statutes to walk in them to abide to proceed and make progress in them and this without the interruption by a deadly Sin without committing Iniquity to make restitution Satisfaction for all Injury to our Neighbour's Fame all wrongs done to his Soul When this is done according to thy utmost Power then thou hast repented truly then thou hast a title to the Promise Thou shalt surely live thou shalt not die for thy old Sins thou hast formerly committed This Place of Ezekiel is it which is so often mistaken for that common Saying At what time soever c. Repentance as stated by the Prophet cannot be done at what time soever not upon a Man's Death-bed Let that Saying therefore no more deceive you or be made a colour to countenance a persevering Sinner or a Death-bed Penitent And it is observable what a free reflection the judicious Chillingworth in a [m] P. 337. Sermon preached before King Charles the First was bold to make upon that Passage which then stood in the entrance to our Common-Prayer-Book I would to God saies he the Composers of our Liturgy out of a care of avoiding mistakes and to take away Occasion of cavilling our Liturgy and out of Fear of encouraging Carnal Men to security in sinning had been so provident as to set down in Terms the first Sentence taken out of the 18th of Ezekiel and not have put in the place of it an ambiguous and though not in it self yet accidentally by reason of the mistake to which it is subject I fear very often a pernicious Paraphrase for whereas thus they make it At what time soever saith the Lord the plain truth if you will hear it is the Lord doth not say so these are not the very Words of God but the Paraphrase of Men The Words of God are * Ezek. 18.21 where I hope you easily observe that there is no such Word as At what time soever a Sinner doth repent c. and that there is a wide difference between this as the Word repent usually sounds in the Ears of the People and turning from all Sins and keeping all God's Statutes That indeed having no more in it but Sorrow and good Purposes may be done easily and certainly at the last Gasp and it is very strange that any Christian who dies in his right Senses and knows the difference between Heaven and Hell should fail of the performing it but this Work of turning keeping and doing is ordinarily a Work of Time a long and laborious Work but yet Heaven is very well worth it and if you mean to go through with it you had need go about it presently And I find the Reverend and Learned Mr. Robert Bolton expressing himself to the same purpose [n] Mr. Bolton's Instruct for a right coms Affl. Conse pag. 254 255. I marvel saies he that any should be so blindfolded and baffled by the Devil as to embolden himself to drive off until the last by that Place before Confession At what time soever c. Especially if he look upon the Text from whence it is taken which me-thinks being rightly understood and the Conditions well considered is most punctual and precise to fright any from that desperate Folly The Words run thus Ezek. 18.21 22 c. Hence it appears that if any Man expect upon good ground any portion in this pretious Promise of Mercy and Grace he must leave all his Sins and keep all God's Statutes Now what space is left to come to Comfort by keeping all God's Statutes when thou art presently to pass to that highest and dreadful Tribunal to give an exact and strict Account for the continual Breach of all God's Laws all thy Life long But I must desire the Objector to remember that when some Alterations were made by Authority in our Liturgy the Paraphrase was removed and the proper Words of Scripture put in the room of it and now the self-deceiving Procrastinator will not well know what to do for want of a What time soever c. which is nowhere now to be found or met with in all his Bible or Common-Prayer-Book Obj. But a Friend to Delaies may further object and say Though I confess I was out in alledging the Promise yet certainly there is an Example that affords sufficient ground of
of God only but thou shalt see God within thee and feel his Power throughly working thee to the same Mind Will and Desire with himself That thou shalt see God hereafter and be like him and reflecting upon thy self shalt see that thou art like him and be pleased and satisfied joyful and delighted in thy Similitude and Resemblance of him This Meditation will move thee to labour to be fit for the perfect Vision and Fruition of God in the future State of heavenly Glory To remember to turn away thy Eyes from beholding Vanity as thou lookest to behold the Divine Glory To make it thy Business * Heb. 12.14 to follow Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord enjoy the glorious Sight and behold the blessed Face of God To labour to see God here that thou maiest be the fitter to see him hereafter To see him in his Works to search after behold and admire that infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness which are visible and legible in his wonderful Works of Creation and Providence But more especially to study to see and know God as he has reveal'd himself in his Word to see his Holiness in his Precepts his Justice in his Threatnings his Grace and Goodness in his Promises Once more To see and converse with God in his Ordinances to see him as he presents himself to thy view and exhibits himself to be seen in the Sanctuary to enjoy Communion and Fellowship with him in the publick solemn Ordinances of Prayer hearing receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper And to be alwaies purging thy Sight clearing thy Eyes and cleansing thy Soul endeavouring to become * Mat. 5.8 [e] Purity speaks two Things 1. Freedom from mixture with any Thing that is more vile so Metal is pure that is not embas'd with a worse Metal and Wine is pure that is not mixt with Water 2. Purity speaks cleerness and transparency So Spring-waters Fountains Diamonds are pure So Purity of Heart consists 1. in Abstraction and Septration from every Thing base and filthy and in gathering up the Soul into Communion with that which is pure and 2. in that Glory Lustre and Beauty which arises from such Purity pure in Heart not desiled by looking after fleshly or worldly Lusts nor polluted with other foul Mixtures to be free from Hypocrisy and Vncleanness from Filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit in this Sense to be pure in Heart that thou maiest see God have a spiritual Sight and inward Sense and [f] See Dr. Jackson 3. V. book 11. c. 21. Tast a savory assectionate Knowledg of him and be capable and receptive of Impressions from him as the crystal Spring easily admits the Sun-beams and imbibes its Raies and the clean Glass plainly receives the Species and Images of any Bodies To get a cleansed purified Soul that thou maiest be able to see and enjoy God here and so be fit for the Beatifical Vision hereafter To behold in the * 〈…〉 3.18 Glass of the Gospel the Glory of the Lord and to be changed into the same Image here as thou hopest hereafter to see God so as to be †Ps 17.15 satisfied with his Likeness 2. Think how happy thou shalt hereafter be in Heaven by beholding the glorified humane Nature of Christ That when he shall appear thou ‖ 1 Joh. 3 2. shalt see him as he is see the Person of Christ as he is in Opposition to what he was while he was here on Earth in the Form of a Servant That if thou beest a Servant of the Lamb thou shalt see his (*) Rev. 22.3 4. Face in the New Jerusalem That thou shalt be (†) Joh. 17.24 with him where he is and shalt immediatly behold his Glory which his Father hath given him Sit down and consider when thou shalt arrive at the Court of Heaven how transcendent and ravishing and pleasingly amazing the heavenly Glory of Christ will be to thee That if the (‖) 1 Kings 10 8. Queen of Sheba pronounced Solomon's Servants happy because they stood continually before him and heard his Wisdom and beheld but a temporal fading and earthly Glory how unspeakable then thy Happiness will be constantly to behold the Presence and heavenly Mediatorial Glory of Jesus Christ That if here it be so sweet and pleasant a Thing [*] Eccl. 11.7 for the Eyes to behold the Sun how pleasant and delightful then it will be to view and behold the Sun of Righteousness to look upon the glorified humane Nature of Christ which will appear more beautiful and shine more bright than the Sun in the Firmament If it were so refreshing and joyful a Sight to the Faithful in those Daies to see and enjoy Christ though in his State of Humiliation If the * Mat. 2.1 Wise Men came from far to see Christ though lying in a Manger And †Luke 19.4 Zaccheus climbed up into a Tree to see him in the Daies of his Flesh And one of the [g] Romam in flove Paulum in ore Christum in corpore three Things which St. Austin wish'd he might have seen was Christ in the Flesh Think how Christ in his Glory and Advancement will be a more taking satisfying Object than in his Humility and Debasement How strangely it will affect and delight thee to see him so highly exalted and vastly enrich'd who humbled and emptied himself for thy sake and became very mean and poor that thou through his Poverty mightst be made rich To see that Body that here was laid in a Manger nail'd to a Cross and buried in a Sepulchre now made a most glorious Body and one of the rarest Sights and greatest Wonders in Heaven To see Christ in Glory and Christ in Glory thine thy glorified Head and Lord and the Exemplary Cause of thy Glorification To see him ‖ Job 19.27 for thy self as ‖ Job 19.27 Job speaks for thy own unspeakable Good and Comfort To see him and be enamour'd of him and be like unto him to converse and enjoy Communion with him and to rejoice in and with him To behold his Glory and not only curiously to gaze upon him but to be glorified with him in some proportion and according to thy capacity to be made Partaker of the same Glory and to be admitted (*) Rev. 3.21 to sit with him in his Throne Think what a sablime and notable part of thy Happiness this will be in Heaven If having * 1 Pet. 1.8 not seen Christ thou lovest him and believing in him rejoycest with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory O then consider how thou shalt love and rejoyce in him when thou shalt actually see him and immediatly enjoy him in the heavenly Kingdom This Meditation will prevail with thee to labour to become meet and fit for the happy Sight and felicitating Enjoyment of the glorified humane Nature of Christ 'T will make thee study to attain to real Holiness of Heart