These things are not indifferent but of flat necessity THE tenth Direction Do all your works as men that must be judged for them It is not enough at least in point of Duty and Comfort that you Judge this preparation in General to be the main business of your lives but you should also order your particular Actions by these Thoughts and measure them by their Respects to this approaching day Before you venture on them enquire whether they will bear weight in Judgement and be sweet or bitter when they are brought to tryal Both for matter and manner this must be observed Oh that you would Remember this when Temptations are upon you When you are Tempted to give up your minds to the world and drown your selves in earthly cares will you bethink you soberly whether you would hear of this at Judgement and whether the world will be then as sweet as now and whether this be the best preparation for your Tryal When you are Tempted to be Drunk or to spend your precious time in Ale-houses or vain unprofitable company or at Cards or Dice or any sinful or needless sports bethink you then Whether this will be comfortable at the Reckoning and whether time be no more worth to one that is so neer eternity and must make so strict an account of his Hours and whether there be not many better works before you in which you might spend your time to your greater advantage and to your greater comfort when it comes to a Review When you are tempted to wantonness fornication or any other fleshly intemperance bethink you soberly with what face these Actions will appear at Judgement and whether they will be then pleasant or displeasant to youâ— So when you are tempted to neglect the daily worshipping of God in your families and the Catechizing and Teaching of your children or servants especially on the Lords Day bethink your selves then what account you will give of this to Christ when he that entrusted you with the care of your children and servants shall call you to a reckoning for the performance of that trust The like must be Remembred in the very manner of our Duties How diligently should a Minister study how earnestly should he perswade how unwearyedly should he bear all oppositions and ungrateful returns and how carefully should he watch over each particular soul of his charge as far as is possible when he Remembers that he must shortly be Accountable for all in Judgement And how importunate should we all be with sinners for their Conversion when we consider that themselves also must shortly be Judged Can a man be cold and dead in prayer that hath any true apprehension of that Judgement upon his mind where he must be accountable for all his prayers and performances O Remember and seriously Remember when you stand before the Minister to hear the word and when you are on your knees to God in prayer in what a manner that same person even your selves must shortly stand at the Barr of the dreadful God! Did these thoughts get throughly to mens hearts they would waken them out of their sleepy Devotions and acquaint them that it is a serious business to be a Christian How careful should we be of our thoughts and words if we believingly remembred that we must be accountable for them all How carefully should we consider what we do with our Riches and with all that God giveth us and how much more largely should we expend it for his service in works of Piety and Charity if we believingly remembred that we must be Judged according to what we have done and give account of every Talent that we receive Certainly the believing consideration of Judgement might make us all better Christians then we are and keep our lives in a more innocent and profitable frame THE eleventh Direction As you will certainly renew your failings in this life so be sure that you daily renew your Repentance and fly daily to Christ for a renewed pardon that no sin may leave its sting in your souls It is not your first pardon that will serve the turn for your latter sins Not that you must Purpose to sin and Purpose to repent when you have done as a Remedy for that is an hypocritical and wicked purpose of repenting which is made a means to maintain us in our sins But sin must be avoided as far as we can and Repentance and Faith in the blood of Christ must remedy that which we could not avoid The righteousness of pardon in Christs blood is useful to us only so far as we are sinners and cometh in where our Imperfect Inherent Righteousness doth come short but must not be purposely chosen before innocency I mean we must rather choose as far as we can to obey and be innocent than to sin and be pardoned if we were sure of pardon THE twelfth Direction In this vigilant obedient penitent course with confidence upon God as a Father Rest upon the Promise of Acceptance and Remission through the Merits and Intercession of him that Redeemed you Look up in hope to the Glory that is before you and believe that God will make good his Word and the patient expectation of the righteous shall not be in vain Cheerfully hold on in the work that you have begun and as you serve a better master than you did before your change so serve him with more willingness gladness and delight Do not entertain hard Thoughts of him or of his service but rejoyce in your unspeakable happiness of being admitted into his family and favour through Christ Do not serve him in drooping dejection and discouragement but with Love and Joy and filial fear Keep in the Communion of his Saints where he is cheerfully and faithfully praised and honoured and where is the greatest visible similitude of heaven upon earth especially in the celebration of the Sacrament of Christs Supper where he seals up a Renewed pardon in his blood and where unanimously we keep the Remembrance of his Death until he come Do not cast your selves out of the Communion of the Saints from whom to be cast out by just Censure and Exclusion is a dreadful emblem and fore-runner of the Judgement to come where the ungodly shall be cast of the presence of Christ and his Saints for ever I have now finished the Directions which I tender to you for your preparation for the Day of the Lord and withal my whole Discourse on this weighty point What effect all this shall have upon your hearts the Lord knows it is not in my power to determine If you are so far blinded and hardened by sin and Satan as to make light of all this or coldly to commend the Doctrine while you go on to the end in your carnal worldly condition as before I can say no more but tell thee again that Judgement is neâ—r when thou wilt bitterly bewail all this too late And among all the rest of the Evidence that comes in against thee this Book will be one which shall testifie to thy face before Angels and men that thou wast told of that Day and intreated to prepare But if the Lord shall shew thee so much mercy as to open thy eyes and break in upon thy heart and by sober Consideration turn it to himself and cause thee faithfully to take the warning that hath here been given thee and to obey these Directions I dare assure thee from the word of the Lord that this Judgement which will be so dreadful to the ungodly and the beginning of their endless terror and misery will be as joyful to thee and the beginning of thy glory The Saviour that thou hast believed in and sincerly obeyed will not condemn thee Psal. 1.5 6. Rom. 8.1 John 3.16 It is part of his business to Justifie thee before the world and to glorifie his merits his Kingly power his holyness and his rewarding Justice in thy Absolution and Salvation He will account it a righteous thing to recompence Tribulation to thy Troublers and Rest to thy self when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power Even then shall he come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe in that day Even because his servants Testimony and his Spirits among them was believed 2 Thes. 1.6 7 8 9 10. That day will be the great marriage of the Lamb and the Reception of thee and all the Saints into the glory of thy beloved to which they had a Right at their first Consent and Contract upon earth And when the Bridegroom comes thou who art Ready shalt go in to the Marriage when the door shall be shut against the sleepy negligent world and though they Cry Lord Lord open to us they shall be repulsed with a Verily I know you not Mat. 25.10 11 12 13. For this day which others fear maist thou long and hope and pray and wait and comfort thy self in all troubles with the remembrance of it 1 Cor. 15.55 56 57 58. 1 Thes. 4.17 18. If thou were ready to be offered to death for Christ or when the time of thy departing is at hand thou maisâ— look back on the good fight which thou haâ—t fought and on the course which thou hast finished and on the Faith which thou hast kept and maiâ—t confidently conclude that henceforth there is laid up for thee a Crown of Righteousness which The Lord the Righteous Judge shall give thee at that day and not to thee only but unto all them also that Love his Appearing 2 Tim. 4.6 7 8. Even so Come Lord Jesus Rev. 22.20 FINIS
is certainly perishing and vain These vain Excuses will but condemn you The eighth Excuse I was so enticed and perswaded by sinners to do as they did that I could not deny them They would never let me rest Answ. 1. And were you not as earnestly perswaded by God to forsake sin and serve him and yet that would not prevail with you You could not deny the Devil and fools but you could deny God and all his Messengers Were not Ministers as earnest with you every week to repent and amend What did men entice you with with a little deluding fleshly pleasure for a few daies And what did God entice you with with the Promise of endless unconceivable felicity And if this were a smaller matter in your eyes then the other then you have had your choice be content with it and thank your selves In your life time you had the good things which you chose and preferred before heaven and therefore cannot expect to have heaven besides The ninth Excuse I lived among ungodly persons that derided all that feared God so that if I had not done as they did but had made any more ado to be saved I should have been the very scorn of the place where I lived Answ. And was not Heaven worth the enduring of a scorn Is not he worthy to go without it that thinks so basely of it Dâ—d not Christ tell you that if you were ashamed of him before men he would be ashamed of you before his Father and the Angels of heaven Mark 8.38 He suffered more then scorns for you and could not you suffer a scorn for him and your selves seeing you chose rather to endure everlasting Torment than a little derision from ignorant men take that which you made choice of And seeing so small a matter would drive you from heaven and part God and you as a mock as the wind of a mans mouth No wonder if you be commanded to Depart from him into everlasting fire The tenth Excuse I had ungodly persons to my Parents or Masters or Landlord or Governors who threatned to undo me if I had addicted my self to so strict a life and if I would not believe and do as they did Answ. What if they threatned you with present Death Did not God also threaten you with everlasting Death if you were not ruled by him And whose threatning should you have chiefly feared Is man more dreadful than God Is death more terrible then Hell Did not Christ bid you Fear not them that can kill the body and after that can do no more but fear him that is able to destroy both body and soul in hell fire yea I say unto you fear him Mat. 10.28 Luke 12.4 5. and Isa. 51.7 Fear ye not the Reproach of men neither be afraid of their revilings For the moth shall eat them up like a Garment and the worm shall eat them like wool but my Righteousness shall be for ever and my salvation from Generation to Generation Seeing therefore you have chosen rather to suffer from God for ever for your sin then to suffer small matters for well-doing for a moment you must even bear your own choice Christ told you before hand that if you could not forsake all the world and your own lives for him you could not be his Disciples Matth. 10.37 38 39. And seeing you thought his terms too hard and would needs seek you out a better service even take what you have chosen and found The eleventh Excuse I saw so many follow their pleasures and their worldly business and never look after these higher things and so few go the other way that I thought sure God would not damn so great a part of the world and therefore I ventured to do as the most did Answ. God will make good his word upon many or few Did you doubt of his will or of his power For his will he hath told it you in his word For his power he is as able to punish many as one man What is all the world to him but as a drop of a Bucket as the dust of the ballance He told you before hand that the gate was strait and the way to heaven was narrow and few did find it and the gate to destruction was wide and the way was broad and many did enter in at it Mat. 7.13 14. And if you would not Believe him you must bear what your unbelief hath brought you to What if you had twenty children or servants or friends and the greater part of them should prove false to you and seek your destruction or prove disobedient and turn to your enemy would you think it a good excuse if the rest should do the like because of their example will you therefore wrong God because you see others wrong him would you spit in the face of your own Father if you saw others do so God warned you that you should not follow a multitude to do evil Exod. 23.2 And if yet you will do as most do you must even speed as most speed You should not so much consider who they be as what they do and whether they go and who they forsake and what they lose and what strength is in the Reasons that move them to do this And then you would find It is God they forsake it is sin they choose it is heaven they lose it is hell they run into and it is no true reason but Satans delusion and sensual inclinations that lead them to it And should men be imitated be they many or be they few in such a course as this The twelfth Excuse I saw so many faults in those that were accounted Godly and saw so much Division among them that I thought they were as bad as others and among so many opinions I knew not what Religion to be of Answ. 1. A spot is soonest seen in the fairest cloth And the malicious world useth to make such far worse then they are 2. But suppose all were true that malice saith of some you could not say the like by others 3. Or if you could yet it was Gods Law and not mens faults that was made the Rule for you to live by Will it excuse you that others are bad 4. And for their diverse opinions you should have taken counsel at Gods word which was right Did you first search the Scripture impartially as willing to know the Truth that you might obey it and did you pray daily that God would lead you into the Truth and did you obey as much as you knew Did you joyn with the godly so far as they are all agreed They are all agreed in the Fundamental Articles of Christianity and in all things absolutely necessary to a holy Life and to salvation that all known sin is to be forsaken and all known duty to be done Why did you not so far then agree with them Alas the imperfections of the godly and the false Accusations of the malicious world will prove but
here The seven and twentieth Excuse God might have hindred my Sin and Damnation if he would Answ. And will you wilfully sin and think to scape because God doth not hinder you The Prince that makes a Law against murder could lock you up and keep you from being a Murderer But are you excusable if he do not We are certain that God could have hindred all the sin and death and confusion and misery that is in the world And we are as certain that he doth not hinder it but by forbidding it and giving men means against it And we are certain that he is Just and Good and Wise in all and not bound to hinder it And what his Reasons are you may better know hereafter In the mean time you had been better have looked to your own Duty The eight and twentieth Excuse How could I be saved if Christ did not dye for me He dyed but for his Elect and none could be saved without his Death Answ. He did dye for you and for more than his Elect though he Absolutely purposed only their salvation Your sins crucified him and your debt lay upon him and he so far ransomed you that nothing but your wilful refusal of the benefits could have condemned you The nine and twentieth Excuse It was Adams sin that brought me into this Depravedness of will which I can neither cure nor could prevent Answ. 1. If Adam cast away his holiness he could no more convey that to us which he cast away then a Nobleman that is a Traytor can convey his lost Inheritance or Honours to his son 2. You perish not only for your Original sin but for Rejecting the Recovering mercy of the Redeemer you might have had Christ and Life in him for the Accepting The thirtieth Excuse God will require no more than â—e gives He gave me not Grace to Repent and Believe and without his gifts I could not have it Answ. 1. God will justly require more than he giveth that is The improvement of his Gâ—fts as Mat. 25. shews He gave Adam but a Power to persevere and not Actual perseverance Yet did he justly punish him for want of the Act even for not using by his own will the Power which he had given him 2. It is long of your self if God did not give you Grace to Believe It was because you wilfully refused some preparatory Grace Christ found you at a great distance from him and he gave you Grace sufficient to have brought you neerer to him than you were you had grace sufficient to have made you better than you were and restrained many sins and brought you to the means when you turned your back on them Though this were nâ—t sufficient to cause you to Believe it was sufficient to have brought you neerer to Believing and through your own wilfulness became not Effectual Even as Adam had sufficient grace to have stood which was not Effectual So that you had not only Christ offered to you if you would but Accept him but you had daily and precious helps and means to have cured your wills and caused you to Accept him for neglect of which and so for not believing and so for all your other sins you Justly perish The one and thirtieth Excuse Alas man is a worm a dry leaf Job 13.25 a silly foolish creature and therefore his Actions be not regardable nor deserve so great a punishment Answ. Though he be a worm and as nothing to God and foolish by sin yet is he naturally so noble a creature that the Image of God was on him Gen. 1.26 and 5.1 Jam. 3.9 and the world made his servants and Angels his attendants Heb. 1.14 so noble that Christ dyed for him God takes special care of him He is capable of knowing and enjoying God and heaven is not thought too good for him if he will obey And he that is capable of so great Good must be capable of as great Evil and his waies not to be so overlooked by that God that hath undertaken to be his Governor When it tendeth to Infidelity the Devil will teach you to Debase man even lower than God would do The two and thirtieth Excuse Sin is no Being and shall men be damned for that which is nothing Answ. 1. It is such a mode as deformeth Gods creature It is a moral Being It is a Relation of our actions and hearts to Gods will and Law 2. They that say sin is nothing say Pain and Loss is nothing too You shall therefore be paid with one nothing for another Make light of your misery and say It is nothing as you did of your sin 3. Will you take this for a good Excuse from your children or servants if they abuse you Or from a Thief or Murderer shall he escape by telling the Judge that his sin was Nothing Or rather have death which is nothing as the just Reward of it The three and thirtieth Excuse But sin is a Transient thing At least it doth God no harm and therefore why should he do us so much harm for it Answ. 1. It hurts not God because he is above hurt No thanks to you if he be out of your reach 2. You may Wrong him when you cannot Hurt him And the wrong deserves as much as you can beare If a Traytor endeavour the death of the Prince in vain his endeavour deserves death though he never hurt him You despise Gods Law and Authority you cause the Blaspheming of his name Rom. 2.24 He calls it A pressing him as a Cart is pressed with sheaves Amos 2.13 and a grieving of him 3. And you wrong his Image his Church the publike good and the souls of others The four and thirtieth Excuse But Gods nature is so Good and Merciful that sure he will not damn his own creature Answ. 1. A merciful Judge will hang a man for a fault against man By proportion then what is due for sin against God 2. All the death and calamity which you see in the world comes from the anger of this merciful God why then may not future misery come from it 3. God knoweth his own mercy better then you do and he hath told you how far it shall extend 4. He is infinitly merciful but it is to the Heirs of mercy Not to the final Rejecters of his mercy 5. Hath not God been merciful to thee in bearing with thee so long and offering thee Grace in the blood of Christ till thou didst wilfully reject it Thou wilt confess to thy everlasting wo that â—od was merciful Had he not been so merciful thou wouldst not have been so miserable for rejecting it The five and thirtieth Excuse I would not so Torment mine enemy my self Answ. No reason you should Is it all one to wrong you and to wrong the God of Heaven God is the only Judge of his own wrongs The six and thirtieth Excuse All men are sinners and I was but a sinner Answ. All were not Impenitent Unbelieving
to rule the world 2. And as we see it by Reason so by certain experience that this is discernable by the light of nature for all the world or almost all do believe it Even those nations where the Gospel never came and have nothing but what they have by nature even the most Barbarous Indians acknowledge some life after this and a difference of men according as they are here Therefore you must believe thus much or renounce your common Reason and humanity as well as your Christianity Let me therefore perswade you all in the fear of God to confirm your souls in the belief of this as if you had heard Christ or an Angel from heaven say to you Oh man thou art hasting to Judgement Qu. 2. MY next Question is Whether you do ever soberly consider of this great day Sirs do you use when you are alone to think with your selves how certain and how dreadful it will be how fast it is coming on and what you shall do and what answer you mean to make at that day are your minds taken up with these considerations Tell me is it so or not Alas Sirs Is this a matter to be forgotten Is not that man even worse then mad that is going to Gods Judgement and never thinks of it when if they were to be tryed for their lives at the next Assize they would think of it and think again and cast 100 times which way to escape Me thinks you should rather forget to go to bed at night or to eat your meat or do your work then forget so great a matter as this Truly I have often in my serious thoughts been ready to wonder that men can think of almost any thing else when they have so great a thing to think of What! forget that which you must remember for ever forget that which should force remembrance yea and doth force it with some whether they will or not A poor despairing soul cannot forget it He thinks which way ever he goes he is ready to be Judged Oh therefore Beloved Fix these thoughts as deep in your hearts as thoughts can go Oh be like that holy man that thought which way ever he went he heard the Trumpet sound and the voice of the Angel calling to the world Arise ye dead and come to Judgement You have warning of it from God and man to cause you to Remember it do not then forget it It will be a cold excuse another day Lord I forgate this day or else I might have been ready you dare not sure trust to such excuses Qu. 3. MY next Question to you is How are you affected with the Consideration of this day Barely to think of it will not serve To think of such a day as this with a dull and senseless heart is a sign of fearful stupidity Did the knees of King Belshazzar knock together with trembling when he saw the hand-writing on the wall Daâ— 5.6 How then should thy heart be affected that seeth the hand-writing of God as a summons to his barr When I began to preach of these things long ago I confess the matters seemed to me so terrible that I was afraid that people would have run out of their wits with fear but a little experience shewed me that many are like a dog that is bred up in a forge or furnace that being used to it can sleep though the hammers are beating and the fire and hot Iron flaming about him when another that had never seen it would be amazed at the sight When men have heard us 7 years together yea 20 years to talk of a day of Judgement and they see it not nor feel any hurt they think it is but talk and begin to make nothing of it This is their thanks to God for his Patience Because his Sentence is not executed speedily therefore their hearts are set in them to do evil Eccl. 8.11 As if God were slack of his Promise as some men Account slackness 2 Pet. 3.9 When one day with him is as a 1000. years and a 1000. years as one day What if we tell you 20 years together that you must dye will you not believe us because you have lived so long and seen no death coming Three or four things there be should bring any matter to the heart 1. If it be a matter of exceeding weight 2. If it concern not others only but our selves 3. If it be certain 4. If neer All these things are here to be found and therefore how should your hearts be moved at the Consideration of this great day 1. What matter can be mentioned with the Tongue of man of greater moment For the poor creature to stand before his Maker and Redeemer to be Judged to Everlasting Joy or Torment Alas all the matters of this world are playes and toyes and dreams to this Matters of profit or disprofit are nothing to it Matters of credit or discredit are unworthy to be named with it Matters of temporal life or death are nothing to it We see the poor bruit beasts go every day to the slaughter and we make no great matter of it though their life be as dear to them as ours to us To be Judged to an Everlasting death or torment this is the great danger that one would think should shake the stoutest heart to consider it and awake the dullest sinner to prevent it 2. It s a matter that concerneth every one of your selves and every man or woman that ever lived upon the earth or ever shall do I am not speaking to you of the affairs of some far Countrey that are nothing to you but only to marvail at which you never saw nor ever shall do no It is thy own self man or woman that hearest me this day that shalt as surely appear before the Judgement-Seat of Christ as the Lord liveth and as he is true and faithful and that is as sure as thou livest on this earth or as the heaven is over thee That man that heareth all this with the most careless blockish heart shall be awakened and stand with the rest at that day that man that never thought of it but spent his time in worldly matters shall leave all and there appear that man that will not believe these things to be true but make a jest of them shall see and feel what he would not Believe and he also shall be there The godly that waited in hope for that day as the day of their full Deliverance and Coronation they shall be there Those that have lain in the dust these 5000. years shall rise again and all stand there Hearer whoever thou art believe it thou mayest better think to live without meat to see without light to escape death and abide for ever on earth then to keep away from that Appearance Willing or unwilling thou shalt be there And should not a matter then that so concerneth thy self go neer to thy heart and awake thee from thy security