NOW OR NEVER The Holy Serious Diligent Believer Justified Encouraged Excited and Directed And the Opposers and Neglecters Convinced by the Light of Scripture and Reason By Richard Baxter To be Communicated by such as want ability or opportunity themselves to plead the Cause of Serious Holiness for mens Conviction Luk. 7. 35. But wisdom is justified of all her children Nihil est ad defendendum Puritate tutius nihil ad dicendum Veritate facilius Ambros LONDON Printed in the Year 1662. The Contents IN the Preface the Question resolved Whether a Man may be saved in any Religion that is serious in practising it No Religion will save a man that is not true to it serious diligent in practising it Why the Author rather publisheth such common necessary things than confutation of the many calumnies publisht against himself His expectations from men And answer with Tertullian about sufferings An Advertisement about a passage cited out of the Homilies His Justification for opposing scorners enemies of Holiness out of the Church Homilies A Passage about Philip Nerius the Father of the Oratorians The Text opened Doct. 1. The work of this life cannot be done when this life is ended Doct. 2. Therefore while we have time we must do the work of this present life with vigour and diligenee 1. Time cannot be recalled 2. Life shall never be here restored 3. There is no doing this work in the life to come What it is to do it with our Might some cautions Instances of the work to be done with our might Obj. What Might have we Answered How to rouse up our selves to seriousness What to think of them that oppose a holy serious diligence in the service of God The greatness of the sin Especially if they are Preachers What it is in Religion that Hypocrites hate Seneca's testimony for seriousness A terrible passage in our Homilies against Scorners at godliness The greatness of their sin Obj It is not Godliness but humour faction disobedience hypocrisie c. Answered Advice to the flocks Obj. Be not righteous overmuch Answered Exhortation to serious diligence Obj. 1. I have lost my Time Answered Obj. 2. I have opposition and hinderances Obj. 3. I am dull and cold Directions and Cautions Reasons for pleading this cause with Ministers The Exhortation re-inforced The Devils designe to make use of Differences in smaller matters against Christianity and Godliness it self Such differences sects divisions shall be no excuse to the ungodly but aggravate their sin as being against that which all Sects and Parties were agreed in What that Religion is that we call men to be serious and diligent in 1. To live according to the Principles of Faith that among Christians are past controversie Ten named 2. To do that Materially that all are agreed of Ten duties named 3. To do that in the very Manner of Gods service that all are agreed in Ten particulars mentioned Obj. I will never believe that God delights in long and earnest prayers or is moved by the words of man Answered Obj. Is not your strict observation of the Lords Day a Controversie Answered The Conclusion exhortatory The Preface IT is a question more boldly than accurately debated by many Whether a man may not be saved in any Religion that is faithful to the principles of it by serious diligent practice The true Solution is this Religion is that which men hold and do to serve and please God 1. If men make themselves a Religion of serving Idols or Devils instead of God 2. Or if they place their service to God himself in things that are evil as what evil is there that some men have not brought into their Religion and fathered upon God the more diligent such men are in their Religion the more they sin 3. Or if they make themselves a Religion of irrational ludicrous ceremonies their greatest diligence in this will not save them 4. Or if they hold all the Essentials of the true Religion except some one it cannot save them while one thing is wanting which is Essential to that Religion and so necessary to salvation which is the case of real Hereticks For they are not indeed of that Religion if they want that which is Essential to it 5. Or if they hold all that is Essential to the true Religion only Notionally and hold any thing with it practically which is contradictory and inconsistent with it the soundness of their Notional belief will not save them from the mortal poison of their practical Heresie or Error But 1. Whosoever holdeth all that is necessary to salvation and is serious and diligent in living according thereunto shall be saved whatever error he holdeth with it For if he be serious and diligent in the Practice of all things necessary to salvation he hath all that is necessary to salvation viz. in Belief and Practice And it must needs follow that his Errors are either not concontradictory to the things necessary which he holdeth and practiseth or that he holdeth not those Errors practically but notionally as an opinion or uneffectual cogitation in a dream which provokes not to action and in such a case the error keeps no man from salvation What is necessary to be believed by them that never hear the Gospel it so little concerneth us to know that God hath not thought meet to make it so plain to us as things that more concern our selves But as it is certain that without the Atonements Satisfaction and Reconciliation made by Christ and without new terms of Grace to be judged by and without his Grace for the performance of their part no man can be saved that hath the use of reason so there is so much knowledge necessary to salvation as is necessary to engage the heart to love God above all and sincerely to obey his revealed will and to prefer the life to come before the transitory pleasures of this life Now if any man can prove to me that those that never heard the Gospel can thus love God and the life to come and obey sincerely without the knowledge of the person life death resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Declaration of the attractive Love and Goodness of God in him and in the work of our Redemption then I should believe that such Negative Infidels may be saved For God cannot damn a sanctified soul that sincerely loveth him But if the discovery of the Love of God in our Redemption be so necessary a moral means to ingage the heart now corrupted by sin and creature-creature-love to the true Love of God that this cannot be wrought without it or if Christ give not his Spirit to produce the love of God in any but those that hear the Gospel and believe in him then no such persons can be saved by their Religion For Christ is the way to the Father and no man cometh to the Father but by him and and the Love of God is absolutely and of its self necessary to salvation
and creatures attending me that have health to enable me or affliction to remember and excite me that have such a master such a work such a reward as better cannot be desired who is lesse excusable for neglect then I Qu. 11. Could I do no more if I were sure that my salvation lay on this one duty that according to this prayer it should go with me for ever or if the soul of my child or servant or neighbour must speed for ever as my endeavours speed with them now for their conversion for ought I know it may be thus Qu. 12. Would I have God to come with the spur and rod How do I complain when affliction is up-me And will I neither endure it nor be quickened without it Is it not better mend my pace and work on easier tearms I would not have distressed souls to use these considerations meerly to disquiet themselves for their infirmities and so live in heaviness and self-vexation because they cannot be as good as they desire or do as much and as well as they should do It is not despair that will mend the matter but make it worse But I would wish the lazie sloathful soul to plead these Questions with it self and try whether they have no quickning power if closely urged and seriously considered Believe it Sirs it is the deceitfulness of prosperity that keeps up the reputation of a slathful life and makes holy diligence seem unnecessary When affliction comes awakened reason is ashamed of this and seeth it as an odious thing BY this time you may see what difference there is between the judgement of God and of the world and what to think of the understandings of those men be they high or low learned or unlearned that hate or oppose this holy diligence God bids us love and seek and serve him with all our heart and soul and might And these men call them Zealots and Precisians and Puritans that endeavour it though alas they fall exceeding short when they have done their best It is one of the most wonderfull monstrosities and deformities that ever befel the nature of man that men that learned men that men that in other things are wise should seriously think that the utmost diligence to obey the Lord and save our souls is needless and that ever they should take it for a crime and make it a matter of reproach That the serious diligent obeying of Gods Laws should be the matter of the common disdain and hatred of the world that no men are more generally abhorred and tost up and down by impatient men that great and small the Rulers and the vulgar rabble in most places of the earth cannot endure them To think how the first man that ever was born into the world did hate his own brother till he had proceeded to murder him because he served God better then himself Because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous 1 Joh. 3. 12. And how constantly this horrid unnatural madness hath succeeded and raged in the world from Cain until this day It is not in vain that the Holy Ghost addeth in the next words 1 Joh. 3. 13. Marvail not my brethren if the world hate you implying that we art apt to marvail at it as I confesse I have oft and greatly done Methinks it is so wonderful a plague and stain in Nature that it doth very much to confirm me of the truth of Scripture of the doctrine of mans fall and original sin and the necessity of a Reconciler and of renewing grace Distracted miserable souls is it not enough for you to refuse your own salvation but you must be angry withal that will not imitate you Is it not mad enough and bad enough to choose damnation but you must be offended withal that are not of your mind If you will not believe God that without Regeneration Conversion Holiness and a Heavenly Spiritual life there is no Salvation to be hoped for John 3. 3 5 6. Mat. 18. 3. Heb. 12. 14. Rom. 8. 9 13. 2 Cor. 5. 17. mnst we all be unbelievers with you if you will laugh at Hell till you are in it must we do so too if God and glory seem less worth to you then your fleshly pleasure for a time must we renounce our Christianity and our Reason for fear of differing from you if you dare differ from your Maker and the Redeemer and the Holy Ghost and all the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists and all that ever came to Heaven might not we be bold to differ from you If you will needs be ungodly and choose your everlasting wo be patient with them that have more understanding and dare not be so hardy as to leap after you in the unquenchable fire Mock not at Holiness if you have no mind of it Hinder not them that strive to enter in at the strait gate if you refuse your selves Be not so desirous of company in Hell It will prove no comfort to you or abatement of your pain But because you have the faces to contradict the God of Truth and to reproach that work which he commandeth and to say what needs so much ado when he bids us do it with all our might I will briefly tell you what you are doing and shew you the ugly face of the scorner and the filthy hearts of the enemies of Holiness that if it may be you may loath your selves 1. These enemies of Holy diligence deny God with their works and lives and are practical Atheists and it seems are so near of kin to that wicked one see 1 Joh. 3. 12. that they would have all others do so too And then how soon would earth be turned into Hell The case is plain If God deserve not to be loved and served with all thy heart and soul and might he is not God And if thy wealth or honour or flesh or friend deserveth more of thy love and care and diligence then God then that is thy God that deserveth best See now what these deriders of purity and obedience do think of God and of the world 2. These Cainites do blaspheme the Governour of the world When he hath given Laws to the Creatures that he made of nothing These wretches deride and hate men for obeying them If God have not commanded that which you oppose contradict it and spare not I would you were much more against that pretended Religion which he commandeth not But if he have commanded it and yet you dare revile them as too pure and precise that would obey it what do you but charge the King of Saints with making Laws that are not to be obeyed which must needs imply that they are Foolish or Bad though made by the most wise and Good 3. These Enemies of Holiness oppose the practice of the very first principles of all Religion For Heb 11. 6. He that commeth to God must believe that God is and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek
much of the labour of our lives And if all others did as some do by us alas how sad an employment should we have and how little would it trouble us to be silenced and laid aside If we were sick of the ambitious or covetous thirst we should then say that it is they that deny us wealth and honour that disappoint us But if we are Christians this is not our case but it is the thirst after your conversion and salvation which affecteth us and therefore it is you even you that linger in your sins and delay repentance and forget your home and neglect your souls it is you that disappoint us and you that are our afflicters and as much as you think you befriend us when you plead our cause against men of violence and rage it is you that shall answer for the loss of our time and labour and hope and for the grieving of your Teachers hearts Sinners what ever the Devil and raging passion may say against a holy life God and your own consciences shall be our witnesses that we desired nothing unreasonable or unnecessary at your hands I know it is the master-piece of the Devils craft when he cannot keep all Religion in contempt to raise up a dust of controversie in the world about names and forms and circumstances in Religion that he may keep men busily striving about these while Religion it self is neglected or unknown and that he may make men believe that they have some Religion because they are for one side or other in these controversies and especially that he may entice men to number the substantials of Religion it self among these lesser doubtful points and make sinners believe that it is but the precise opinion of one party that they reject while they reject the serious practice of all true Religion And so the Devil gets more by these petty quarrels and controversies occasioned by contentious empty men then he could have done by the open opposition of Infidels Heathens or the prophane So that neither I nor any man that opinionative men have a mind to quarrel with can tell how to exhort you to the very practice of Christianity it self but you are presently casting your thoughts upon some points wherein we are reported to differ from you or remembring some clamours of malicious men that prejudice against the person of the speaker make keep your souls from profiting to salvation by the doctrine which even your selvs profess If this be the case of any one of you I do not mean your consciences shall so scape the power or evidence of the truth Dost thou talk of our differences about Forms and Ceremonies Alas man what 's that to the message which we come about to thee what is that to the business that we are preaching of The question that I am putting to you is not whether you will be for this form of Church-Government or for that for a Ceremony or against it but it is whether you will hearken in time to God and conscience and be as busie to provide for Heaven as ever you have been to provide for Earth and whether you will set your selves to do the work that you are Created and Redeemed for This is the business that I am sent to call you to what say you will you do it and do it seriously without delay You shall not be able to say that I called you to a party a faction or some opinion of my own or laid your salvation upon some doubtful controversie No sinner thy conscience shall have no such shift for its deceit It is godlinesse serious and practical godliness that thou art called to It is nothing but what all christians in the world both Papists Greeks Protestants and all the parties among those that are true christians are agreed in the profession of That I may not leave thee in any darkness which I can deliver thee from I le tell thee distinctly though succinctly what it is that thou art thus importuned to and tell me then whether it be that which any christian can make doubt of 1. That which I intreat of thee is but to live as one that verily believeth there is a God and that this God is the Creator the Lord and Ruler of the world and that it is incomparably more of our business to understand and obey his Laws and as faithful Subjects to be conformed to them then to observe or be conformed to the Laws of Man And to live as men that do believe that this God is Almighty and the greatest of men are less then crawling worms to him and that he is infinitely wise and the wisdom of man is foolishness to him and that he is infinitely good and amiable and the best of creatures is dung and filth in comparison of him and that his love is the only felicity of man and that none are happy but those that do enjoy it and none that do enjoy it can be miserable and that riches and honors and fleshly delights are brutish vanities in comparison of the eternal love of God Live but as men that heartily believeth all this and I have that I come for And is any of this a matter of controversie or doubt not among Christians I am sure not among wise men It is no doubt to those in heaven nor to those in hell not to those that have not lost understanding upon earth they Live then according to these truths 2. Live as men that verily believe that Mankind is fallen into sinne and misery and that all men are corrupted and under the condemnation of the Law of God till they are delivered pardoned reconciled to God and made new creatures by a renewing restoring sanctifying change Live but as men that believe that this cure must be wrought and this great restoring change must be made upon your selves if it be not done already Live as men that have so great a work to look after And is this a matter of any doubt or controversie sure it is not to a Christian and me-thinks it should not be to any man else that knoweth himself any more then to a man in a dropsy whether he be diseased when he feels the thirst and sees the swelling Did you but know what cures and changes are necessarily to be made upon your diseased miserable souls if you care what becomes of them you would soon see cause to look about you 3. Live but as men that verily believe that you are Redeemed by the Son of God who hath suffered for your sins and brought you the tidings of pardon salvation which you may have if you will give up your selves to him who is the physitian of souls to be healed by him Live as men that believe that the infinite love of God revealed to lost mankind in the Redeemer doth bind us to love him with all our hearts and serve him with all our restored faculties and to work as those that have the greatest
Creed or profess themselves Believers though the Congregation seeth not hypocrite written in their foreheads God seeth iâ— written on their hearts and those that converseâ— with them may see it written in their lives And yet these men are the forwardest to cry out against Hypocrites The Devil hath taught it them to stop the suspition and the chase of conscience as he hath taught the greatest Schismaticks or Church-dividers the Papists to cry out most against Schism and division and pretend to unity But these shifts do blind none but fools and forsaken consciences and the cheat that is now detected by the wife will quickly by God be detected before all the world Till then lâ—t them make merry in their deceits who would envy the drunkard the pleasure of an hours swinish sick delight This is their portion and this is their time As we have chosen and covenanted for another portion we are content to stay the time assigned till God shall tell them all the world who was sincere who the hypocrite For our parts we believe that he is most or least sincere that is most or least serious in the practice of his own profest Religion For my part I must profess that by the mercy of God I have made it the work of many a year to look about me and think wherein the felicity of man doth indeed consist And I have long been past doubt as much as I am that I am a man that it is not in transitory sensual delights and that these are such lean and dry commodities and pittiful pleasures leaving men so speedily in a forlorn state that I am contented that my greatest enemy have my part of them I have renounced them to God as any part of my felicity and I renounce them to men Let them do with me about these things as God will give them leave I will have a portion after death or Iâ—e have none And the case is so palpable that it is my admiration that the contrary deceit is consistant with the nature and reason of a man and that so many Gentlemen and Scholars and persons of an ingenuous education can no better distinguish and can possibly conquer their reason so easily with the presence or sensual delights and so easily make nothing of that which will be to morrow and for ever meerly because it is not to day Well I must say the Wisdom and Justice of God is abundantly seen in the Government of the world with the Liberty of the will and determining that all men should speed as they choose It may be the Reader will say be expected that instead of writing such popular discourses I should have vindicated my self against the accusations that in multitudes of Libels and Pamphlets are scattered abroad against me But doth he think that man is seriously a Christian that is not more zealous for God and Religion and the souls of men then for himself Have I nothing else to do with my time labour but plead cause of my own which God will so speedily and effectually plead Will it not be time enough to be justified at the Bar and day of God I am content that they carry it as they desire till then were it not more for their own and other mens sakes then mine Am I like to forsake my life all for Christ endure torments if I were called to it if I cannot endure to be reviled and slandered by passionate men Was it for nothing that our Lord would not answer for himself when he was accused before Pilate Shall they be able to calumniate under the threatnings of the Revenge of Heaven and shall I not be able to be silent under such a promise as Mat. 5. 10 11 12. The servant of the Lord must not strive Our Lord gave us an example of not reviling again when he was reviled He made himself of no reputation but endured the cross and contradiction of sinners despising the shame I confess I think when Gods interest and the good of others doth require it a man should not be wanting to his own defence and I have long ago written that which will satisfie the impartial But when I saw that it is like to tend to heats and set more on work I had rather let men call me all the names they can devise and voluminously accuse me of any thing that malice shall suggest then do any thing to foment contentions in the Church But if God convince me that it is my duty to detect the calumnies of man it is a work soon done But what good will it do the world for me to open the numerous untruths that other men have published or to confute every Script when all that I converse with are satisfied already and believe not the reproaches and all the evidence in the world will not satisfied those that will not read it or are resolved by their malice or interest never to be satisfied For my part I doubt not but God and their consciences will give them such a Confutation as shall be sufficient to them and me to end the controversie My work is to plead the Cause of God and holiness against the profane and sensual world and no further to plead any Cause of my own then is necessary to that If I must bear the effects of mens displeasure I had an hundred times rather it were for pleading for Holiness and Love and Peace and Concord against impiety uncharitableness and divisions then for defending my self or upon the account of Ceremonies or smaller matters And if for these I bear it I doubt not of more comfort at the present much less do I doubt of a better issue then false accusers can expect We shall be shortly upon even ground The time is short The pleasures of sin the triumphs of malice the sufferings of innocency are but for a moment I envy them not so short and dark day The Judge is at the door that will judge all again and set all strait and judge in righteousness When I am afraid of leaving a noisom and unrighteous world and ending all my pain and trouble and being beyond the reach of malice then I will fear what man can do Let them keep me out of heaven or deprive me of my peace and comfort if they can If they fear not the threatnings of God against the malicious and unjust surely I have less reason to fear their threatnings When they have done their worst to others let them save themselves from death if they can I am devoted to God and I never yet found cause to repent it I am resolved to use the utmost of my power for the interest of Holiness Charity and Peace and for loyalty to the King and obedience or patient submission to Superiors And if yet I bear the fruits of fury let those that insult over sufferers as if they were therefore guilty or miserable remember that we could have avoided it if we would and could
dullards Let me be so derided The reproaches of the ignorant or unskilful must be patiently heard and this contempt of one that followeth vertue must be contemned Yea it is the highest honour to be content to be accounted bad that we may not be so and the greatest tryal whether we be indeed sincere to be put to it to be either accounted Hypocrites or to be such Me thinks I can scarce too oft recite that excellent saying of Seneca Epist 72. Nemo plus videtur aestimare virtutem nemo magis illi esse devotus quam qui beni viri famam perdidit non conscientiam perderet that is No man seems to set a higher price on vertue no man seems to be more devoted to it then he that hath lost the reputation of being a good man lest he should lose his conscience But perhaps you 'l ask May not a man be righteous over-mmch as is intimated Eccl. 7. 16. I answer it is making a mans self over-wise or righteous that is therâ— reppoved And no doubt but 1. many take on them or make themselves more wise and righteous then they are that is are hypocrites 2. As righteousness is taken materially and in common estimation so a man may be too Righteous He may be too rigorous which is called Justice and too much in grief or fear or trouble too much in any outward act that goeth under the name of duty But it is not then truly and formally duty and righteousness but sin As to fast to the disabling the body for Gods service To pray when we should hear To hear when we should be about some greater work of mercy or necessity To neglect our outward labour and calling on pretence of Religion To set up sacrifice against or before mercy To sorrow when we should rejoyce To meditate and fear and grieve beyond what the brain can bear till it distract us This is called being righteous over-much As also to make us a Religion of our own inventions and to over-do with will-worship and the traditions of men as the Pharisees and Papists But indeed this is not Righteousness but sin To be formally over-much righteous is a contradiction and impossible For to go beyond the Rule is unrighteousness And to do too much is to go beyond the Rule Unless you dare imagine that God hath erred and the Rule it self is over-strict and the Law is unrighteous But then how shall God judge the world saith the Apostle Rom. 3. 6. Shall not the judge of all the world do righteously Gen. 18. 25. Nay how then shall he be God And is there any thing now left but Ignorance or Wickedness to stand up against thy speedy diligence Away then with thy delayes and sloathfulness If thou wilt serve God with all thy might let it be seen If thou wilt be a Christian indeed let deeds declare it Christianity is not a dead Opinion If really thou live in hope of heaven such hopes will make thee stir for the attainment Why standest thou idle when thou art born for work and all thy faculties are given thee for work and thou art redeemed for work for Evangelical work If thou be sanctisied thou hast the Spirit of Christ a quickning working principle within thee which way canst thou look but thou mayst see that which would shame a sloathful soul and fire a cold and frozen heart and call thee up to a speedy industry what quickning words shalt thou find in Scripture if thou wilt but bring thy heart thither as one that is willing to be quickened what powerful commands what promises what threatnings what holy examples of exceeding diligence of Christ and his Apostles See how the Godly about thee are at work though the world oppose them and deride them how earnestly they pray how carefully they walk how sadly they complain that they are no better And hast thou not an immortal soul to save or lose as well as they See what a stir the proud ambitious person makes for less then nothing what a stir the covetous and the voluptuous make for a sweetned draught of mortal poyson And shall we be idle that are engaged for Heaven Is it reason that we should do less for God our salvation then they do for sinful pleasure to damnation You cannot mock them out of their Pride and Covetuousness And shall they mock thee out of thy Religion and thy hopes of Heaven All the commands and promises and threatnings of God the most powerful preaching that as it were sets open Heaven and Hell to them doth not prevail with fleshly men to leave the most sordid and unmanly sin And shall the words or frowns of creeping dust prevail with thee against the work for which thou livest in the world when thou hast still at hand unanswerable arguments from God from thy self from Heaven and Hell to put thee on Were it but for thy Life or the Life of thy children friend yea or enemy or for the quenching of a fire in thy house or in the Town wouldst thou not stir and do thy best And wilt thou be idle when eternal life â—ies on it Let Satan bawl against thee by his instruments Let sensless sinners talk awhile of they know not what till God have made them change their note Let what will be the consequent to thy flesh These are not matters for a man much to observe that is engaged for an endless life O what are these to the thingâ— that thou art called to prosecute Hold on then Christians in the work that you have begun Do it prudently and do it universally Take it together both works of Piety Justice and Charity But do it now without delay and do it seriously with your might I know not what cloud of darkness hath seized on those mens minds that speak against this or what deadly damp hath seized on their hearts that hath so benummed and unmanned them For my own part though I have long lived 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 uncertainty and shortness of my time I am even amazed to think that my heart can be so slow and sensless as to do no more in such a case The Lord knows and my accusing wounded Conscience knows that my sloathfulness 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 hiis Love the encourager and his wrath the spur and Heaven or Hell must be the issue O what lives should all of us live that have things of such unspeakable consequence on our hands if our hearts were not almost dead within us Let who will speak against such a life it shall be my daily grief and moan that I am so dull
do so little I know that our works do not profit the Almighty nor bear any proportion with his reward nor can they stand in his sight but as accepted in the Lord our Righteousness perfumed by the odour of his merits But I know they are neâ—essary they are sweet Without the holy imployment of our faculties this life will be but a burden or a dream and the next an unexpressible misery O therefore that I had more of the Love of God that my soul could get but nearer to him and swiftlier move upward by Faith and Love O that I had more of that Life and active diligence which the serpentine Cainish nature doth abhor though I had with it the scorns of all about me and though they made me as they once did better men as the filth of the world the off-scowring of all things 1 Cor. 14. 13. O that I had more of this derided diligence and holy converse with the Lord though my name were cast out as an evil-doer Luk. 6. 22. and I were spit at and buffetted by those that do now but secretly reproach Might I nearly follow Christ in holiness why should I grudge to bear his Cross and to be used as he was used Mat. 26. 27. Luke 18. 32. knowing that if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him and the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. 8. 17 18. If when we have done all we are but unprofitable Servants and must say we have done but our duty Luke 17. 10. have we not all more need of monitors to humble us for doing so much lesse then our duty then to be reprehended for being too diligent and exact I again protest that it is not any works of Supererogation or humane invention superstition or self-appointment that I am defending but only the accurate obeying of the Laws of God and the utmost diligence in such obedience for the obtaining of everlasting life Either God hath commanded these works of Holiness Justice and Charity or not If he have not then I have done and yeild the cause It is only what he hath commanded that I plead for O that before you either speak against any Holy duty or your selves neglect it you would but come to us and soberly joyn in searching the Holy Scriptures to see whether it be required there or not and resolve but to obey it if we prove it thence and if it be but matter of humane imposition we leave you to your selves and should desire that you may be much left to your liberty in such things and that you place not too much of your Religion therein But if indeed it be commanded in the word of God I beseech you as you are Christians as you are men remember that when ever you blame or scorn a holy duty it is God himself that you blame or scorn If it be naught it is long of him that did command it The Subject must obey should not such worms as we obey the infinite God that made us If it be a fault to obey it is a duty to rebel or disobey and that must be because that God hath no authority to command that must be because he is not God See whether you bring your opposition to a holy life And dare not you stand to this Dare you as openly mock God for making these strict and holy Laws as you do men for obeying them None but a professed Atheist dare Alas Sirs it is nothing but intoxicating prosperity and sensual delights and worldly diversions that turn your brains and leave you not the sober use of Reason that makes you think well of ungodly sloathfulness and makes you think so contemptuously or senselesly of a heavenly life I tell you remember another day that you were told of it that there is not the boldest Infidel in the world nor the bitterest enemy to holiness in this Assembly but shortly would wish they had rather been Saints in rags with all the scorn and cruelty that malice can inflict on such then to have braved it out in pride and gallantry with the neglect of the great everlasting things I tell you again there is not an ungodly wretch that heareth me but eâ—e long would give a world if he were owner of a holy heart and life that he had spent his days in holy watchful preparations for his change which he spent for that which will deceive him and forsake him Methinks I even see how you will passionately rage against your selves and tear your hearts with self-revenge if grace prevent it not by a more safe repentance when you think too late how you lived on earth and what golden times of grace you lost and vilisied all that would not lose them as folishly as you If Repentance unto life made Paul so call himself foolish disobedient deceived and exceeding mad Tit. 3. 3. Acts 26. 11. you may imagine how tormenting Repentance will make you call your selves too late O Sirs you cannot now conceive while you sit here in health and ease and honour what different thoughts will then possess you of a holy and an unholy life How mad you will think them that had but one lifes time of preparation for eternal life and despeâ—ately neglected it And how â—ensibâ—e you will then be of the wisdom of believers that knew their Time used it while they had it Now wisdom is iuâ—â—ified of all her children but then how sensibly will it be justified of all its enemies O with what gripe will undone souls look back on a life of mercy and opportunities thus basely undervalued and slept away in dreaming idleness fooled away for things of nought The language of that damned rich man Luk. 16. may help you in your predictions O how you wil wonder at your selves that ever you could be so blind and senslesse as to be no more affected with the warnings of the Lord and with the fore-thoughts of everlasting joy or misery To have but one one small part of time to do all that ever must be done by you for Eternity and say all that ever you must say for your own or others souls and that this was spent in worse then nothing To have but One uncertain life in which you must run the race that wins or loseth Heaven for ever that you should be tempted by a thing of nought to lose that one irrecoverable opportunity and to fit still or run another way when you should have been making hast with all your might O sirs the thoughts of this will be other kind of thoughts another day then now you feel them you cannot now think how the thoughts of this will then affect you That you had a time in which you might have pray'd with promise of acceptance and had not hearts to take that time That Christ was offered you as well as he was offered
them that entertained him that you were called on and warn'd as well as they but obstinately despised and neglected all That Life and Death were set before you and the everlasting joyes were offered to your choice against the charms of sinful Pleasures and you might have freely had them if you would and were told that Holiness was the only way and that it must be Now or Never and yet that you chose your own destruction These thoughts will be part of Hell to the ungodly They will wonder that Reason could be so unreasonable and they that had the common wit of man in other matters should be so far beside themselves in that which is the only thing that its commendable to be wise for that such sottish Reasonings should prevail with them against the clearest light and nothing should be preferred before all things and arguments fetcht from chaff and dung should conquer those that were fetcht from Heaâ—en O what heart-renting thoughts will these be when Eternity shall afford them leisure for an impartial review Yea that they should deceive others also with such a gross deceit and scorn at all that would not be as mad as they that being drunken with the worlds delusion they should abuse all that were truly sober that the one thing needfull should seem to them a needless thing That their tongues should plead for these delusions of their wicked hearts and they should be enemies to those that would not be enemies to God and to themselves and cast away their Time and Souls as they did They will wonder with self-indignation what could bewitch them into so great unreasonableness below a man against the light of nature as well as of supernatural revelation Honourable and beloved Hearers I beseech you do not take it ill that I speak so much of these matters that are so unpleasant and unwelcome to unbelieving careless carnal hearts It is that I may prevent all this in time by the awakenings of true Repentance And O that this might be the success That I might hear by your penitent Confessions and see by your universal speedy reformation that God hath so great Mercy for you that these perswasions might be the means of so much Happinesse to you and comfort unto me However this Assembly shall be witnesses that you were warned and Conscience shall be witness that if you wast the rest of your dayes in the pleasures and vanities of this deceitful world it was not because you could have no better and were not called to higher things That if you yet stand idle it is not because you could not be hired For in the name of Christ I have called you into his vineyard and told you of your work and wages and ashamed your excuses and objections this day Come away then speedily from the snares of sinners and the Company of deceived hardened men and cast away the works of darknesse Heaven is before you Death is at hand The Eternal God hath sent to call you Mercy doth yet stretch forth its arms You have staid too long and abused Patience too much already Stay no longer O now please God and comfort us and save your selves by Resolving that this shall be the Day and faithfully performing of this your Resolution Vp and be doing Believe Repent Desire Obey and do all this with all your Might Love him that you must Love for ever and Love him with all your Soul and Might seek that which is truly worth the seeking and it will pay for all your cost and pains And seek it first with all your Might Remembring still it must be Now or Never BEfore I conclude I have two messages yet to deliver to the servants of the Lord The One is of Encouragement The Other of Direction I know that many of you have a threefold trouble which requireth a threefold comfort and encouragement One is that you have done so little of your work but lost so much of your time already Another is that you are so opposed and hindred And the greatest of all is that you are yet so dull and slow The cure of which must be the matter of my Directions 1. For the first That you have lost your Time must be the matter of your Humiliation But that all is not lost before you see your sin and duty but yet the patience and mercy of the Lord are attending you and continuing your hope this is the matter of your comfort and encouragement Repent therefore that you came no sooner home But rejoyce that you are come home at last and now be more diligent in redeeming your time in remembrance of the time already lost And though it must be your grief that your Master hath been deprived of so much as his service and others of so much good which you should have done them and that time is lost that cannot be recalled yet it is your comfort that your own Reward may be equal with them that have born the burthen and heat of the day For many that are last in the time of their coming in shall be first in receiving their reward This is the meaning of that Parable in Mat. 20. which was spoken to encourage them that had stood out too long and to rebuke the envie and high expectations of them that came in sooner and it is no whit contradictory to those passages in Matth. 25. which intimate a different degree of glory to be given to them that have different degrees of Grace upon their industrious improvement The one Parable Matth. 20. shews that men shall not be rewarded differently for their longer or shorter continuance in the work but that those that came in late and yet are found with equal holiness shall be rewarded equally with the first And more if their holiness be more which the second Parable expresseth declaring Gods purpose to give them the greatest Glory that have improved their Holiness to the greatest Measure O therefore that the sense of your former unkindness might provoke you the more resolvedly to give up your selves in fervent love and full obedience and then you will find that your Time is Redeemed though it cannot be recalled and that Mercy hath secured your full reward O what an unspeakable Mercy is this that if yet you will devote your selves entirely to Christ and serve him with your might the little time that yet remains he will take it as if you had come in at the first hour of the day 2. And as for the Opposition and hinderances in your way they are no other then what your Lord foretold He hath gone before you and conquered much more then ever you will encounter from without though he had not a body of sin to conquer and in that respect the conquest of his Spirit in his members hath the preheminence of his personal conquest He hath bid you Be of good chear because he hath overcome the World If you will not take up your cross and follow him you
and to confute them But I am listed under Christ will never give over pleading for him till his adversaries give over pleading against him and his cause as long as he continueth my liberty and duty And blessed be the Lord that if an Hypocritical Preacher be found among us that secretly or openly disgraceth a diligent holy life there are more able holy faithful ones to confute him both by Doctrine and by their Lives then are to be found in any other Kingdom in the world proportionally that ever I could hear of And that the faithful Disciples are so many and the Judas'es so few how great a blessing is it to this Land and how great an honour to his Majesties Government and to the Church in his Dominions The Lord teach this sinful Nation to be thankful and pardon their ingratitude and never deprive them of this forfeited mercy The Lord teach them to hearken to the Friends and not to the Enemies of Holiness and never to receive a wound at the heart of their Religion however they hear their smaller differences about things circumstantial And now I should conclude I am loth to end for fear lest I have not yet prevailed with you What are you now resolved to do from this day forward It is work that we have been speaking of and necessary work of endless consequence which must be done and quickly done and throughly done Are you not convinced that it is so that plowing and sowing are not more necessary to your harvest then the work of holiness in this day of grace is necessary to your salvation You are blind if you see not this you are dead if you feel it not what then will you do For Gods sake and for your own sake stand not demurring till time be gone It is all that the Devil desireth if he can but find you one thing or other to be thinking and talking and doing about to keep you from this till time be gone and then he will insult over you then he that kept you from seeing and feeing will help you to see and feel to your calamity Then the Devil will make you feel that which Preachers could not make you feel and he will make you think of that and lay it close enough to your hearts which we could not get you to lay to heart Now we study and preach to you in hope but then alas it breaks our hearts to think of it we have done with you for ever because all hope is gone Then the Devil may challenge a Minisâ—â—r Now do thy worst to bring this sinner to repentance Now call to him to consider and believe and come to Christ Now offer him mercy and intreat him to accept it Now cry to him to take heed of sin and of temptations that he comes not to this place of torments Now tell him of the beauty or necessity of holiness and call upon him to Turn and Live Now do thy worst to rescue him from my power and to save his soul Alas poor sinner will you stop your ears and go on in sin and damn your selves and break our hearts to fore-see that day Must we see the Devil go away with such a prey and shall we not rescue your captivated souls because you will not hear you will not stir you will not consent Oh hear the God of Heaven if you will not hear us who calleth to you Return and Live Oh hear him that shed his blood for souls and tendereth you now salvation by his blood O hear without any more delay before all is gone and you are gone and he that now deceiveth you torment you Yet hold on a little longer in a carnal earthly unsanctified state and it is too late to hope to pray or strive for your salvation Yet a little longer and mercy will have done with you for ever and Christ will never invite you more nor never offer to cleanse you by his Blood or sanctifie you by his Spirit Yet a little longer and you shall never hear a Sermon more and never more be troubled with those Preachers that were in good sadness with you and longed once for your conversion and salvation O sleepy dead-hearted sinners what should I do to show you how near you stand to Eternity and what is now doing in the world that you are going to how these things are thought on there What should I do to make you know how Time is valued how sin and holinesse are esteemed in the world where you must live for ever What should I do to make you know those things to day which I will not thank you to know when you are gone hence O that the Lord would open your eyes in time Could I but make you know these things as believers should know them I say not as those that see them nor yet as dreamers that do not regard them but as those that believe that they must shortly see them what a joyfull hours work should I esteem this how happy would it be to you and me if every word were accompanied with tears If I followed you home and beg'd your Consideration on my bear knees or as a beggar begs an alms at your doors If this Sermon cost me as many censures or slanders as ever Sermon did I should not think it too dear if I could but help you to such a sight of the things we speak of that you might truly understand them as they are that you had but a true awakned apprehension of the shortnesse of your day of the nearless of eternity and of the endless consequence of your present work and what holy labour and sinful loytering will be thought of in the world to come for ever But when we see you sin and trifle and no more regard your endless life and see also what haste your Time is making and yet cannot make you understand these things when we know our selves as sure as we speak to you that you will shortly be astonished at the review of your present sloth and folly and when we know that these matters are not thought of in another world as they are among the sleepy or the bedlam sinners here and yet know not how to make you know it whom it doth so exceeding much concern this amazeth us and almost breaks our hearts Yea when we tell you of things that are past doubt and can be no further matter of controversie then men have sold their understandings betrayed their reason to their sordid lusts and yet we cannot get reasonable men to know that which they cannot choose but know to know that seriously and practically which alwayes hath a witness in their breasts and which none but the profligate dare deny I tell you sinners this even this is worse then a prison to us it is you that are our persecutors it is you that are the daily sorrow of our hearts it s you that disappoint us of our hopes and make us lose so
so much to do know all that is now left undone must be undone for ever Alas sirs how many questions of exceeding weight have you yet to be resolved in whether you are truly sanctified whether your sins be pardoned whether you shall be saved when you die whether you are ready to leave this world and enter upon another I tell you the answering of these and many more such questions is a matter of no small difficulty or concernment And all these must be done in this little and uncertain time It must be Now or Never Live but as men that believe and consider these certain unquestionable things 10. Lastly Will you but live as men that believe that the world and the flesh are the deadly enemies of your Salvation and that believe that if any man love the world so far the love of the Father is not in him 1 Joh. 2. 15 16. And as men that believe that if ye live after flesh ye shall die but if by the spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the bodie ye shall live Rom. 8. 13. and that those that are in Christ Jesus and are freed from condemnation are such as walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. And that we must make no provision for the flesh to satisfie the will or lusts thereof Rom. 13. 10. and must not walk in gluttonie drunkenness in chambering and wantonness in strife and envying v. 13. but must have our hearts where our treasure is Mat. 6. 21. and converse in Heaven Phil. 3. 18 19 20. and being risen with Christ must seek the things that are above and set our affections on them and not on the things that are on earth Col. 3. 1 2 3. Sirs will you say that any of this is our singular opinion or matter of controversie doubt Are not all Christians agreed in it Do you not your selves profess that you believe it Live then but as those that do believe it condemn not your selves in the things that you confess I tell thee if now thou wilt refuse to live according to these common acknowledged truths thou shalt never be able to say before the Lord that mens controversie about a Ceremony or Church-Government of the manner or worship were the things that hindred thee but all sorts sects shall be witnesses against thee and condemn thee for they all agreed in these things even the bloodiest sect that imprison and torment and kill others for their differences in smaller matters are yet agreed with those that they persecute and murder about these things Papists are agreed in them and Protestants are agreed in them All the sects that are now quarrelling among us in the world are agreed in them who are but meet for the name of Christians All these will be ready to bear witness against the prophane the sensual the sloathful neglecter of God and his Salvation and to say we all confessed notwithstanding our other differences that all these things were certain truths and that mens lives should be ordered according unto these But if yet you pretend controversie to cover your malignity or ungodliness I will go a little further and tell you that in the matter as well as in the principles it is things that we are all agreed in which I call you to and which the ungodly do refuse I le briefly name them 1. One part of your work which we urge you to do with all your might is seriously soberly to consider often of all these truths before mentioned which you say you do believe And is it any controversie with reasonable men whether they should use their reason or with believers whether they should consider and lay to heart the weight use of the things which they believe 2. Another part of your work is to love God with all your soul might and to make him your delight to seek first his Kingdom and the rightousness thereof and to set your affections on things above and to live on earth as the heirs of heaven And is there any controversie among Protestants Papists or any about this 3. Another part of your work is to see the honouring of God in the world the promoting of his Kingdom and Government in your selves and others the doing of his will and obeying of his Laws And is there any controversie in this 4. Another part of your work is to to mortifie the flesh to reject its conceits and desires and lusts which resist the foresaid obedience to God and to cast out the inordinate love and care of worldly things to refuse the counsels the commands the will the enticements and perswasions of man which contradict the commands will of God to forsake all that you have in the world rather then forsake your dear Redeemer and hazard your salvation by any wilful sin To take up your Cross and follow Christ through a life of suffering to glory I know there is difficulty enough in all this and that flesh will repine against it and abhor it But is there any controversie about it among any true believers Is not all this the express Command of God and necessary to salvation 5. Another part of your work is to avoid temptations and fly from the occasions and appearances of evil and not only to avoid that which is directly evil it self but that also which would draw you into evil as far as you can and to keep as far as may be from the brink of hell and danger to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darknes nor be companions with them but reprove them and mourn for the unclean and wicked conversation of the world This is it that we intreat of you is there any matter of controversie in all this 6. Another part of the work which we call you to is to redeem this little Time that is allotted you To make the best of it and improve it to the greatest furtherance of your salvation To lose none of it upon unprofitable things to spend it in those works which will comfort you most when time is gone If it will be more comfortable to you in the day of Judgment that you have spent your Time in playes sports and idleness worldly cares pleasures then in serving God preparing for another life then hold on and do so to the end But if it will not then do what you would hear of seeing you must hear of it spend none of your time in idleness unfruitful things till you have no better and more necessary things to spend it in till you have Time to spare from more important work This is our request to you that you would not lose one hour of your pretious Time but spend it as those that have lost too much and have but a little more to spend in preparation for eternity And is this any Schismatical or factious motion Is there any thing controvertible
or which any Christian can speak against in any of this 7. Another part of your work is to search the Scripture as that which containeth your directions for eternal life Joh. 5. 39. To love the Word of God more then thousands of gold silver perfer it before your necessary food Psal 119. 72. Job 23. 12. and to meditate in it day night as that which is your pleasure and delight Psa 1. 2. as that which is able to make you wise unto Salvation 2 Tim. 3. 15. and to build you up give you an inheritance among the sanctified Acts 20. 32. That you lay up the word of God in your hearts and teach them diligently to your children and talk of them when you sit in your houses and when you walk by the way when you lie down and when you rise up Deut. 6. 6 7. 11. 18 19. that so you your houshoulds may serve the Lord Josh 24. 15. This is the work that we call you to And is there any thing that a christian can make a controversie of in all this Is there any thing that Protestants are not agreed of 8. Another part of your work is that you guard your tongues and take not the name of God in vain and speak no reproaches or slanders against your brethren that no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouths but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers Eph. 4. 29. and that fornication uncleanness and covetousness be not once named among you as becometh Saints neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks Eph. 5. 3 4. And is there any thing of doubt or controversie in this 9. Another part of the work which we perswade you to is to pray continually 1 Thes 5. 17. and not to wax faint Luke 18. 1. to be fervent and importunate with God as those that know the greatnesse of their necessity Luke 18. 6 7. Jam. 5. 16. That you pray with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit Eph. 6. 18. and in every thing by prayer and supplication to make known your requests to God Phil. 4. 6. that you pray for Kings and all in Authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honestie 1 Tim. 2. 1 2. And is there any thing in all this that any Christian can deny 10. Lastly the work we call you to is to love your neighbours as your selves and to do to others as you would have them arbitrio sano do to you To scorn deride molest imprison slander or hurt no man till you would be so used your selves on the like occasion To rejoyce in other mens profit and reputation as your own To envy none to hate no man to wrong none in their persons estates or names To preserve the chastity honour and estate of your neighbour as your own To love your enemies and forgive them that wrong you and pray for them that hate and hurt and persecute you This is your work And is there any thing of faction Schism or controversie in this No you shall shortly be convinced that the differences and controversies of believers and the many opinions about Religion were a wretched hypocrital pretence for your neglect and contempt of the substance of Religion about which there was no difference but all parties were agreed in the confession of the truth however hypocrites would not live according to their own professions But perhaps you 'l say that there is such difference in the Manner yet among them that agree in the Principles and the Matter that you know not which way God is to be worshipped In answer 1. Do you practise as aforesaid according to the Principles and matter agreed on or not If you do not it is but gross hypocrisie to pretend disagreements in the Manner as an excuse for your contempt or omission of the Matter which all agree in Forsooth your families shall be prayerless and you will make a jeast of serious prayer because some pray on a book and some without and some that are wisest think that either way is lawful Will God be deceived by such siilly reasonings as these 2. But this shall not hide the nakedness of your impiety Will you also in the Manner of your obedience but go so far as all Christians are agreed in I will breifly then give you some particular instances 1. The work of God must be done with reverence in his fear not like the common works of men with a common carelesse frame of mind God will be sanctified of all that draw near him Lev. 10. 3. He will be served as God and not as man He will not be prayed to with a regardlesse mind as those do that can divide their tongues from their hearts and say over some customary words while they think of something else Is a dreadful thing for dust to speak to God Almighty and a dangerous thing to speak to him as slightly and regardlesly as if we were talking to one of our companions It beseemeth a believer to have more of the fear of God upon his heart in his ordinary converse in the world then hypocrites and formalists have in their most solemn prayers Knowest thou the difference between God and man Put then such a difference between God and man in thy addresses as his Majesty requireth And see also that thy family compose themselves to a reverent behaviour when they joyn with thee in the worshipping of God What have you to say now against this reverent manner of behaviour Is there any thing controvertible in this 2. It also requisite that you be serious and sober in all the service you perform to God Do it not ludicruously and with half a heart Be as much more fervent and serious in seeking God and your salvation then you are in seeking worldly things as God and your Salvation is better then any thing in the world Or if that be beyond your reach though else there is reason for it at least let the greatest things have the greatest power upon your hearts You cannot pray more fervently for heaven then heaven deserveth O let but the excellency and greatnesse of your work appear in the serious manner of your performance I hope you cannot say that his is any point of controversie unlesse it be a controversie whether a man should be an hypocrite or be serious in the Religion which he doth profess 3. It is requisite that your service of God be performed understandingly Psal 47. 7. 1 Cor. 14 15. God delighteth not in the blind devotion of men that know not what they do Prayers not understood are indeed no prayers For no mans desire goeth further then his knowledge and he expresseth not his desires that knoweth not what he expresseth himself Nor can he expect the concurrence of another mans desires that speaketh what another understandeth
Authority the Work it self I desire you but to receive what is there delivered not by any factious persons but by the Church Do this and we are agreed and satisfied And I make it my request to the Reader to peruse both Parts of that Homily that he may know how far the Church of England is from the loose conceits of the enemies of Godliness And if also you will read over the Homilies against the peril of Idolatry you will the fuller know the Judgement of the Church about the manner of Gods worship Indeed the whole Book is such as the people should be acquainted with I Have done my part to open to you the Necessity of SERIOVS DILIGENCE and to call up the sluggish souls of sinners to mind the work of their salvation and to do it SPEEDILY and with all their MIGHT I must now leave the success to God and you What use you will make of it and what you will be and do for the time to come is a matter that more concerneth your selves then me If long speaking or multitude of words were the way to prevail with you I should willingly speak here while my strength would endure and lengthen out my exhortations yet seven-fold But that 's not the way A little wearieth you You love long feasts and long visits and plays and sports much better then long Sermons or Books or Prayers But it is no small grief to us to leave you in a case of such importance without some considerable hopes of your deliverance Sirs the matter is now laid before you and much in your own hands it will not be so long What will ye now do Have I convinced you now that God and your salvation are to be sought with all your might If I have not it is not for want of evidence in what is said but for want of willingness in your selves to know the truth I have proved to you that it is a matter out of controversie unless your lusts and passions and carnal interest will make a controversie of it I beseech you tell me if you be of any Religion at all why are you not strict serious and diligent and mortified and Heavenly in that Religion which you are of Sure you will not so far shame your own Religion whatever it be as to say that your Religion is not for mortification holinesse heavenliness self-denial or that your Religion alloweth you to be ambitious covetous gluttonous drunken to curse and swear and whore and raile and oppress the innocent It is not Religion but Diabolical serpentine malignity that is for any of this It s wonderful to think that learned men and Gentlemen and men that pretend to reason and ingenuity can quietly betray their souls to the Devil upon such silly grounds and do the evil that they have no more to say for and neglect that duty that they have no more to say against when they know they must do it NOW or NEVER That while they confesse that there is a God and a life to come a Heaven and a Hell and that this life is purposely given us for preparation for Eternity while they confess that God is most wise and holy and good and just and that sin is the greatest evil and that the Word of God is true they can yet make shift to quiet themselves in an unholy sensual careless life And that while they honour the Apostles and Martyrs and Saints that are dead and gone they hate their successors and imitators and the lives that they lived and are inclined to make more Martyrs by their malicious cruelty Alas all this comes from the want of a sound belief of the things which they never saw and the distance of those things the power of passion and sensual objects and inclinations that hurry them away after present vanities and conquer reason and rob them of their humanity and by the noise of the company of sensual sinners that harden and deaffen one another and by the just judgement of God forsaking those that would not know him and leaving them to the blindness and hardness of their hearts But is there no remedy O thou the fountain of mercy and relief vouchsafe these miserable sinners a remedy O thou the Saviour of lost mankind have mercy upon these sinners in the depth of their security presumption and misery O thou the Illuminater and Sanctifier of souls apply the remedy so dearly purchased We are constrained oft to fear lest it be much long of us that should more seriously preach the awakening truths of God unto mens hearts And verily our consciences cannot but accuse us that when we are most lively and serious alas we seem but almost to trifle considering on what a message we come and of what transcendent things we speak But Satan hath got his advantage upon our hearts that should be instrumental to kindle theirs as well as on theirs that should receive the truth O that we could thirst more after their salvation O that we could pray harder for it and entreat them more earnestly as those that were loath to take a denial from God or man I must confess to you all with shame and sorrow that I am even amazed to think of the hardness of my own heart that melteth no more in compassion to the miserable and is no more earnest and importunate with sinners when I am upon such a subject as this and am telling them that it must be NOW or NEVER and when the messengers of Death within and the fame of mens displeasure from without doth tell me how likely it is that my Time shall be but short and that if I will say any thing that may reach the hearts of sinners for ought I know it must be NOW or NEVER O what an obstinate what a lamentable disease is this insensibility and hardness of heart If I were sure this were the last Sermon that ever I should preach I find now my heart would shew its sluggishness and rob poor souls of the serious fervour which is suitable to the subject and their case and needful to the desired success But yet poor sleepy sinners hear us Though we speak not to you as men would do that had seen Heaven and Hell and were themselves in a perfectly awakned frame yet hear us while we speak to you the words of truth with some seriousness and compassionate desire of your Salvation O look up to your God! Look out unto eternity Look inwardly upon your souls Look wisely upon your short and hasty Time and then bethink you how the little remnant of your Time should be employed and what it is that most concerneth you to dispatch and secure before you die Now you have Sermons and Books and Warnings It will not be so long Preachers must have done God threatneth them and death threatneth them and men threaten them and its you it s you that are most severely threatned and that are called on by Gods warnings
your Gain The time of market for your souls and of laying up a treasure in Heaven and setting your money to the most gainful Usury and of making you friends of the mammon of unrighteousness furthering your salvation by that which hindereth other mens occasioneth their perdition As you have opportunity do good to all men but especially to them of the houshold of faith Gal. 6. 6 7 8 9 12. Cast thy bread upon the waters for thou shalt find it after many dayes Give a portion to seven and to eight for thou knowest not what evil may be upon the earth Eccles 11. 1 2. In the morning sow thy seed and in the evening withhold not thy hand for thou knowest not whether shall prosper this or that or whether they both shall be alike good v. 6. Withhold not good from them to whom it is due when it is in the power of thy hand to do it say not to thy neighbour Go and come again and to morrow I will give when thou hast it by thee Prov. 3. 27 28. Lay up a foundation for the time to come do good before thy heart be hardened thy riches blasted consumed thy opportunities taken away part with it before it part with thee Remember it must be Now or Never There is no working in the Grave 5. Hath God intrusted you with Power or Interest by which you may promote his honour in the world relieve the oppressed restrain the rage of impious malice Hath he made you Governours and put the sword of Justice into your hands up then and be doing with your might Defend the innocent protect the servants of the Lord cherish them that do well be a terror to the wicked encourage the strictest obedience to the universal Governor discountenance the breakers of his Laws Look not to be reverenced or obeyed before him or more carefully then he openly maintain his Truth and worship without fear or shame Deal gently and tenderly with his lambs and little ones Search after vice that you may succesfully suppress it Hate those temptations that would draw you to man-pleasing temporizing remisness or countenancing sin but especially those that would ensnare you in a controversie with Heaven in quarrels against the ways of Holiness or in that selfconfounding sin of abusing and opposing the people that are most careful to please the Lord. Your trust is great so is your advantage to do good And how great will be your account how dreadful if you be unfaithful As you signifie more then hundreds or thousands of the meaner sort and your actions do most good or hurt so you must expect to be accordingly dealt with when you come to the impartial final judgement Befriend the Gospel as the Charter of your everlasting priviledges Own those that Christ hath told you he will own Use them as men that are ready to hear Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my Brethren you did it unto me Mat. 25. Know not a wicked person but let your eyes be on the faithful of the land that they may dwel therein and lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty Psal 101. 1. Tim. 2. 2. Let those that work the work of the Lord be with you without fear 1 Cor. 16. 10. Remember that it is the Character of a Pharisee and Hypocrite to see the mote of the non-observance of a Ceremony or tradition or smaller matter of difference in Religion in their Brothers eye and not to see the beam of hypocrisie injustice and malicious cruel opposition of Christ and his Disciples in their own eyes And that its the brand of them that please not God that are filling up their sins on whom Gods wrath is coming to the utmost to persecute the servants of the Lord forbidding them to Preach to the people that they might be saved 1 Thess 2. 15 16. Learn well the second and the hundred and first Psalm And write these sentences on your walls and doors as an Antidote against that self-undoing sin Mat. 18. 6. Whosoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea Zach. 2. 8. He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye Rom. 14. 1 2. and 15. 1. Him that is weak in the faith receive you but not to doubtful disputations For God hath received him Mat. 10. 40 41 42. He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me He that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous mans reward And whoso shall give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a Disciple Verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward If you love not the Godly love your selves so far as to such self-love is possible wound not your own hearts to make their fingers bleed Damn not your souls and that by the surest nearest way that you may hurt their bodies Provoke not God to thrust you from his presence and deny your suits by your dealing so with them stop not your own mouths when your misery will bespeak your lowdest cryes for mercy by your stopping the mouths of the servants of the Lord and refusing to hear their requests for justice If you have the Serpents enmity against the womans seed you must expect the Serpents doom Your heads will be bruised when you have bruised their heels Gen. 3. 15. Kick not against the pricks Acts 9. Let not bryars and thorns set themselves in battel against the Lord lest he go therefore through them burn them together Isa 27. 4. I speak not any of this by way of accusation or dishonorable reflexion on the Magistrate Blessed be God that hath given us the comfort of your defence But knowing what the Tempter aimeth at and where it is that your danger lieth by what means the rulers of the earth have been undone faithfulness commandeth me to tell you of the snare and to set before you good evil as ever I would escape the guilt of betraying you by flattery or cruel and cowardly silence And especially when your Magistracy is but annual or for a short time it concerneth you to be doing with your might It is but this year or short space of time that you have to do this special service in Lose this and lose all By what men on earth should God be eminently served honoured if not by Magistrates whom he hath eminently advanced impowred and intrusted With considerate foresight seriously ask your selves the question Are you willing to hear at the day of your accounts that you had but one year or a few to do God special service in and that you knew this and yet would not do it Can your hearts bear
it then to hear and think that you lost wilfully lost such an opportunity Look about you then and see what is to be done Are there not Ale-houses to be supprest and drunkards riotous persons to be restrained Preaching and Piety to be promoted Do it with your might For it must be Now or Never 6. To come yet a little nearer you and speak of the work that is yet to be done in your own souls Are any of you yet in the state of unrenewed nature born only of the flesh and not of the Spirit Joh. 3. 3 5 6. minding the things of the flesh and not the things of the Spirit Rom. 8. 1 5 7 9 13. consequently yet in the power of Satan taken captive by him at his will Act. 26. 18. 2 Tim. 2. 26 27. Vp and be doing if thou love thy soul If thou care whether thou be in Joy or misery for ever bewail thy sin and spiritual distress Make out to Christ cry mightily to him for his renewing and reconciling pardoning grace plead his sactisfaction his merits his promises Away with thy rebellion thy beloved sin Deliver up thy soul entirely to Christ to be sanctified governed and saved by him Make no more demurs about it it is not a matter to be questioned or trifled in Let the earth be acquainted with thy bended knees and the air with thy complaints and cries men with thy confessions and enquiries after the way of life and heaven with thy sorrows desires and resolutions till thy soul be acquainted with the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8. 9. and with the new the holy and heavenly nature and thy heart have received the transcript of Gods Law the impress of the Gospel and so the Image of thy Creator and Redeemer Ply this work with all thy might For there is no Conversion Renovation or Repentance unto life in the grace whither thou goest It must be Now or Never And Never saved if Never sanctified Heb. 12. 14. 7. Hast thou any prevailing sin to mortifie that either reigneth in thee or woundeth thee and keepeth thy soul in darkness and unacquaintedness with God Assault it resolutely Reject it speedily Abhor the motions of it Turn away from the persons or things that would entice thee Hate the doors of the Harlot and of the Alehouse or the gaming house and go not as the Ox to the slaughter and as a bird to the fowlers snare and as a fool to the correction of the stocks as if thou knewest not that it is for thy life Prov. 7. 22 23. Why thou befooled stupid soul wilt thou be tasting of the poysoned cup wilt thou be glutting thee with the bait Hast thou no where to walk or play thee but at the brink of Hell Must not the flesh be crucified with its affections and lusts Gal. 5. 24. Must it not be tamed and mortified or thy soul condemned Rom. 8. 13. 1 Cor. 9. 27. Run not therefore as at uncertainty fight not as one that beats the air ver 26. seeing this must be done or thou art undone delay and dally with sin no longer Let this be the day resolve and resist it with thy might It must be Now or Never when death comes it is too late It will be then no reward to leave thy sinne which thou canst keep no longer No part of Holiness or happiness that thou art not drunk or proud or lustful in the grave or hell As thou art wise therefore know and take thy Time 8. Art thou in a declined lapsed state decayed in grace Hast thou lost thy first desires and love do thy first works and do them with thy might Delay not but remember from whence thou art fallen and what thou hast lost by it and into how sad a case thy folly and negligence hath brought thee say I will go and return to my first husband for then was it better with me then now Hos 2. 7. Cry out with Job 29. 2 3. 4 5. O that I were as in moneths past as in the dayes when God preserved me when his candle shined upon my head and when by his light I walked through darkness As I was in the dayes of my youth when the secret of God was on my Tabernacle when the Almighty was yet with me Return while thou hast day lest the night surprize thee Loyter and delay no more thou hast lost by it already thou art far behind hand Bestir thee therefore with all thy Might 9. Art thou in the darknesse of uncertainty concerning thy conversion and thy everlasting state Dost thou not know whether thou be in a state of life or death and what should become of thee if this were the day or hour of thy change If thou art careful about it and enquirest and usest the means that God hath appointed thee for assurance I have then no more to say to thee now but wait on God and thou shalt not be disappointed or ashamed Thou shalt have assurance in due time or be saved before thou wouldst believe thou should be saved Be patient and obedient and the light of Christ will shine upon thee and yet thou shalt see the days of peace But if thou art careless in thy uncertainty and mindest not so great a business be awakened and call thy soul to its account Search and examine thy heart and life Read and consider and take advice of faithful Guides Canst thou carelesly sleep and laugh and sport and follow thy lesser business as if thy Salvation were made sure when thou knowest not where thou must dwell for ever Examine your selves whether you be in the faith prove your selves know ye not your own selves that Christ is in you except you are reprobates 2 Cor. 13. 5. Give all diligence in time to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1. 10. In the Grave and Hell there is no making sure of Heaven you are then past enquiries and self-examinations in order to any recovery or hope Another kind of tryal will finally resolve you Up therefore and diligently ply the work it must be Now or Never 10. In all the duties of thy Profession of Piety Justice or Charity to God thy self or others up and be doing with thy might Art thou seeking to inflame thy soul with love to God plunge thy self in the Ocean of his love admire his mercies gaze upon the representations of his transcendent goodness O taste and see that the Lord is gracious Remember that he must be loved with all thy heart and soul and might canst thou pour out thy love upon a creature and give but a few barren drops to God When thou art Fearing him let his Fear command thy soul and conquer all the fear of man When thou art Trusting him do it without distrust and cast all thy care and thy self upon him Trust him as a creature should trust his God and the members of Christ should trust their Head and dear Redeemer When thou