be [z] Cato Munatio scripsit se vereri ne nimia amicitia causam altquando daret odio Huc proverbium Persicum Homines invisere indecorum non est modò toties non fiat ut dicant Sat est Et Arabes dicunt Visita raro angebis amcrem Et Martialis Nulli te facias nimis sodalem Quantò meltor ergo est Dei quà m hominum amicitia Deo tanto sumus gratiores quanto saepius ad eum accedimus Syn. Crit. in loc weary of thee and so hate thee But alas how few among us are to be found who make their Visits to these better Purposes to help and assist counsel and comfort sick Persons to exercise Charity to the Souls and Bodies of poor Neighbours to minister suitable and seasonable Relief to such as are in real and great Want and Need to further the Edification and promote the Salvation of all about them to labour and endeavour to bring some off from their Errours or Sins to mind one another of their latter End in a serious and savoury Manner to talk of the Kingdom and the Way to the Kingdom and to help one another Heaven-ward to add to one another's spiritual Knowledg to encrease and stir up one another's Graces to comfort and warm and strengthen one another's Hearts to affect one another with the Remembrance of God's Ordinances and with the Consideration of his Providences to their Persons Families Relations more particularly r to the Land of our Nativity and the People of God and Church of Christ more generally To bring one another to a due Sense of the Divine Mercies and to a dread of the Divine Judgments to pray with one another and to quicken one another to a Reformation of their Hearts and Lives and a well ordering of themselves and Families and the Redemption of their Time in these evil Daies and to a speedy and sound Preparation of themselves to suffer for the Gospel and for the Purity of the Reformed Religion if God shall please to call them to it That Prodigy of early youthful Piety and spiritual divine Proficiency [a] In his Life written by his Brother Jam. Janew p. 72 73. Mr. John Janeway Fellow of King's Colledg in Cambridg once in Company sate down silent took out his Pen and Ink and wrote down in Short-hand the Discourses that passed for some Time together among those that pretended to more than common Understanding in the Things of God and after a while he took his Paper and read it to them and asked them Whether that Talk was such as they would be willing God should record Is not this a brave rational divine Discourse says he Where 's our Love to God and Souls all this while Where 's our Sense of the Preciousness of Time and of the Greatness of our Account Did Saints in former Times use their Tongues to no better Purpose Would Enoch David or Paul have talked thus Is this the sweetest Communion of Saints upon Earth How shall we do to spend Eternity in the Praises of God if we cannot find some good Matter for an Hour's Discourse This he did to convince and shame them out of their barren Discourse and empty Converse and foolish fruitless Communication and to quicken and provoke them to a more profitable Improvement of their Society A seventh Sort of Persons reproved They also are justly blame-worthy who cast away their Time in excessive immoderate worldly Cares for superfluous Things Who as the [a] Magno temporit impendio quaeruntur supervacua multi transcunt vitam dum vitae instrumenta conquirunt Seneca ep 45. Philosopher describes them do wholly pass their Life in seeking and procuring the Instruments of Life and are [b] Seneca de brevitate vitae cap. 20. Facile est occupationes evadere si occupationum pretia contempseris Mercedem miseriarum amant ipsas exccrantur Idem ep 22. Rebus non me trado sed commodo nec consector perdendi temporis causas Idem ep 62. sooner weary of living than of labouring whose desire lasts longer than their Ability and Power to labour for this World who reckon Old Age grievous only on this Account that it laies them aside and hinders their lively and vigorous Pursuit of the Things of the World Who complain sometimes of the Trouble of Businesses of the Weight of great and full Employments but cannot find in their Hearts to leave them because though they hate the Miseries of their Labours yet they love the Gain and Profit the Price and Reward of them Who bestow a great Deal of Pains about that they never intend to use who toil and sweat tire and weary out themselves to heap up much thick Clay to treasure up Silver and Gold to * Isa 5.8 joyn House to House and lay Field to Field all which they must shortly exchange for a Turf in the Church-yard Who anxiously labour to raise and gather to clear and secure an Estate which they must every Man of them †Eccles 2.18 19. leave unto the Man that shall be after them and none knows whether he shall be a Wise Man or a Fool and take no pains in the mean Time to try and confirm their Title to Heaven Who are so solicitous about plowing their Grounds that they cannot ‖ Jer. 4.3 Hos 10.12 break up the Fallow-Ground of their own Hearts who are so busy in making up their Accounts with Men that they mind not the making even their Accounts with God So over-careful to improve their temporal that they neglect the Improvement of their spiritual Estates Who are * Luke 10.40 41 42. like Martha so cumbred and troubled about many Things that they are ready to forget the one only Thing which is absolutely necessary the happy Choice of that good Part or Portion which would be a Thing very acceptable to God and the Advantage of which would continue to themselves to all Eternity Who are so taken up with worldly Dealings that they have little or none of their Conversation in Heaven Who say in their Hearts what Duke de Alva once replied to the King who asked him whether he had seen the Ecclipse of the Sun that he had so much Business to do upon Earth that he had no Time to look up to Heaven Who are more studious and industrious to get a good earthly Bargain than to obtain a Crown of Righteousness a Crown of Life and Glory and to make sure of an heavenly and everlasting Kingdom Who have their Hearts as full of the World as their Hands and are so covetous and greedy of it that they will lose their Time and let go God and a god Conscience for it Who suffer their worldly Employments too often and easily to steal away their set and stated Times for Reading Prayer Confession Thanks-giving Meditation Self-Examination to rob their Duties of their allotted Hours or to borrow of their Duties their appointed Seasons without ever making any
think yet farther That it will be an Act of Justice for God to do this That though he Sin yet he does not revoke the Sentence but in due Time will execute Judgment and Vengeance upon it for the first Sin that Man committed and for all the rest that have been acted in it That Man not only being a Tenant at will but having unworthily broken his Covenant and forfeited his Possession by breaking the Articles of his Lease his Lord at last will turn him out of Doors or rather pull down his House about his Ears and not suffer it to be alwaies a Nest of Rebels and Covenant-breakers That this World the Creature made for the Use of Man being defiled and abused by him to serve him in his Sin when the Sins of the Inhabitants of the Earth as of the * Gen. 15.16 Amorites of old shall arrive to a * Gen. 15.16 Fulness when once the rebellious Generations of Adam shall have fill'd up the Measure of their Iniquities and are ripe for Judgment the Day of Dissolution will then certainly come called expresly †2 Pet. 3 7. the Day of Judgment and Perdition of ungodly Men That then the wicked and abominable Men shall be burnt in the Place of their Wickedness and the Objects and Instruments of their Sin shall be destroyed with them and become the Instruments of their Punishment For so the Garden of Eden wherein Man was at first plac'd was destroyed and defac'd when once he had sinned in it And what more usual even among Men than to order the Execution of notorious Malefactors in the Places where they have committed their Wickedness and to sentence the Houses wherein themselves and their Families liv'd to be demolished ‖ Dan. 3.29 Their Houses shall be made a Dunghill You have heard of great and terrible Fires in the World and of famous Cities consum'd thereby and have seen not many Years since the devouring desolating Flames of London the Metropolis and chief City of our Nation But think with thy self that all this is nothing at all to that great Fire which one Day God will kindle at once setting Heaven and Earth in a Flame together Let me here assist your Meditation by proposing and presenting to you a notable Description given by a very learned [k] Dr. More 's Myst of Godl p. 238. Concerning the Partibility of the Conflagration of the Earth See there Book 6 c. 7 8. Doctor of the general and final Conflagration of the Earth Christ will cause saies he such an universal Thunder and Lightning that it shall rattle over all the Quarters of the Earth rain down burning Comets and falling Stars and discharge such Claps of unextinguishable Frie that it will do sure Execution wherever it falls so that the Ground being excessively heated those subterraneous Mines of combustible Matter will also take Fire which inflaming the inward Exhalations of the Earth will cause a terrible Murmur under Ground so that the Earth will seem to thunder against the tearing and ratling of the Heavens and all will be fill'd with sad remugient Echo's Earth-quakes and Eruptions of Fire there will be every where and whole Cities and Countries swallowed down by the vast gapings and wide Divulsions of the Ground And this fiery Vengeance shall be so thirsty that it shall drink deep of the very Sea nor shall the Water quench her devouring Appetite but excite it Wherefore the great Channel of the Sea shall be left dry and all Rivers shall be turned into Smoak and Vapour so that the whole Earth shall be inveloped in one entire Cloud of an unspeakable Thickness which shall cause more than an Egyptian Darkness clammy and palpable to be felt which added to this choaking Heat and Stench will compleat this External Hell Consider how the Scripture testifies that God will do this and the Power of God assures us that he can do it for nothing is hard or difficult to him much less impossible Think of the Creation God's raising and building this Frame of the World out of nothing and reason thus with thy self Cannot he that made it by the Word of his Power easily dissolve it And argue further in this manner Cannot he that destroyed the old World by a Floud of Waters destroy this by Fire and cause this to die of a Feaver as the did of a Dropsy Cannot he that turned Sodom and Gomorrah into Ashes do the like with the World it self also Is not he that made Mount Sinai shake and smoak at the giving of the Law able to dissolve all these Things The close and intent Meditation of this general Dissolution will clearly convince thee that Sin is an evil and a bitter Thing and will move thee to hate and abhor to shun and avoid Sin which is of a Nature so mischievous and destructive which is the meritorious procuring Cause of so dreadful a Judgment which not only of old brought the Floud of Water upon the World of the Vngodly and forced down Gehennam de Coelo as Salvian speaks caused God to rain Hell-sire and Brimstone from Heaven * Jude 7. 2 Pet. 2.5 6. upon Sodom and Gamorrah and miserably destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple and turned their fruitful Land into a barren Wilderness but will one Day set this World on fire and put it in a flame and turn this stately Structure and beautiful Frame into a rude confused Chaos The deep and earnest Thoughts of this will affect and influence thy Heart and Life and quicken thee exceedingly to all Sincerity Diligence and Zeal in the Exercise of Godliness to an holy Fear and Aw of him who can and will destroy the World 'T will constrain thee to use the Words of the Apostle and to say in good Sadness * 2 Pet. 3.11 Seeing then that all these Things shall be dissolved what manner of Person ought I to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness Seeing this Destruction shall thus involve all what an engagement does this lay upon me to live the most pure strict Life that ever Man liv'd It will incite thee by a constant course of true Piety wisely to provide for thy Escape in that Day to save and secure thy self from the Evil and Danger of it that thou maiest not be undone by this general Dissolution nor suffer Loss in this Conflagration nor perish in this Burning 'T will put thee in mind to sit thy self for this Day of Dissolution of all Things by getting the Works of the Devil throughly dissolved in thee and the Kingdom of God set up and established in thy Soul The due Consideration of this general Dissolution and final Conflagration will certainly keep thee from setting thy Heart inordinately upon any outward earthly Things from heaping up Treasure to thy self here from dreaming that any of thy Houses here shall continue for ever from having unlimited everlasting Affections for flitting fugitive transitory Things for the World the †1
of God only but thou shalt see God within thee and feel his Power throughly working thee to the same Mind Will and Desire with himself That thou shalt see God hereafter and be like him and reflecting upon thy self shalt see that thou art like him and be pleased and satisfied joyful and delighted in thy Similitude and Resemblance of him This Meditation will move thee to labour to be fit for the perfect Vision and Fruition of God in the future State of heavenly Glory To remember to turn away thy Eyes from beholding Vanity as thou lookest to behold the Divine Glory To make it thy Business * Heb. 12.14 to follow Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord enjoy the glorious Sight and behold the blessed Face of God To labour to see God here that thou maiest be the fitter to see him hereafter To see him in his Works to search after behold and admire that infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness which are visible and legible in his wonderful Works of Creation and Providence But more especially to study to see and know God as he has reveal'd himself in his Word to see his Holiness in his Precepts his Justice in his Threatnings his Grace and Goodness in his Promises Once more To see and converse with God in his Ordinances to see him as he presents himself to thy view and exhibits himself to be seen in the Sanctuary to enjoy Communion and Fellowship with him in the publick solemn Ordinances of Prayer hearing receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper And to be alwaies purging thy Sight clearing thy Eyes and cleansing thy Soul endeavouring to become * Mat. 5.8 [e] Purity speaks two Things 1. Freedom from mixture with any Thing that is more vile so Metal is pure that is not embas'd with a worse Metal and Wine is pure that is not mixt with Water 2. Purity speaks cleerness and transparency So Spring-waters Fountains Diamonds are pure So Purity of Heart consists 1. in Abstraction and Septration from every Thing base and filthy and in gathering up the Soul into Communion with that which is pure and 2. in that Glory Lustre and Beauty which arises from such Purity pure in Heart not desiled by looking after fleshly or worldly Lusts nor polluted with other foul Mixtures to be free from Hypocrisy and Vncleanness from Filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit in this Sense to be pure in Heart that thou maiest see God have a spiritual Sight and inward Sense and [f] See Dr. Jackson 3. V. book 11. c. 21. Tast a savory assectionate Knowledg of him and be capable and receptive of Impressions from him as the crystal Spring easily admits the Sun-beams and imbibes its Raies and the clean Glass plainly receives the Species and Images of any Bodies To get a cleansed purified Soul that thou maiest be able to see and enjoy God here and so be fit for the Beatifical Vision hereafter To behold in the * 〈…〉 3.18 Glass of the Gospel the Glory of the Lord and to be changed into the same Image here as thou hopest hereafter to see God so as to be †Ps 17.15 satisfied with his Likeness 2. Think how happy thou shalt hereafter be in Heaven by beholding the glorified humane Nature of Christ That when he shall appear thou ‖ 1 Joh. 3 2. shalt see him as he is see the Person of Christ as he is in Opposition to what he was while he was here on Earth in the Form of a Servant That if thou beest a Servant of the Lamb thou shalt see his (*) Rev. 22.3 4. Face in the New Jerusalem That thou shalt be (†) Joh. 17.24 with him where he is and shalt immediatly behold his Glory which his Father hath given him Sit down and consider when thou shalt arrive at the Court of Heaven how transcendent and ravishing and pleasingly amazing the heavenly Glory of Christ will be to thee That if the (‖) 1 Kings 10 8. Queen of Sheba pronounced Solomon's Servants happy because they stood continually before him and heard his Wisdom and beheld but a temporal fading and earthly Glory how unspeakable then thy Happiness will be constantly to behold the Presence and heavenly Mediatorial Glory of Jesus Christ That if here it be so sweet and pleasant a Thing [*] Eccl. 11.7 for the Eyes to behold the Sun how pleasant and delightful then it will be to view and behold the Sun of Righteousness to look upon the glorified humane Nature of Christ which will appear more beautiful and shine more bright than the Sun in the Firmament If it were so refreshing and joyful a Sight to the Faithful in those Daies to see and enjoy Christ though in his State of Humiliation If the * Mat. 2.1 Wise Men came from far to see Christ though lying in a Manger And †Luke 19.4 Zaccheus climbed up into a Tree to see him in the Daies of his Flesh And one of the [g] Romam in flove Paulum in ore Christum in corpore three Things which St. Austin wish'd he might have seen was Christ in the Flesh Think how Christ in his Glory and Advancement will be a more taking satisfying Object than in his Humility and Debasement How strangely it will affect and delight thee to see him so highly exalted and vastly enrich'd who humbled and emptied himself for thy sake and became very mean and poor that thou through his Poverty mightst be made rich To see that Body that here was laid in a Manger nail'd to a Cross and buried in a Sepulchre now made a most glorious Body and one of the rarest Sights and greatest Wonders in Heaven To see Christ in Glory and Christ in Glory thine thy glorified Head and Lord and the Exemplary Cause of thy Glorification To see him ‖ Job 19.27 for thy self as ‖ Job 19.27 Job speaks for thy own unspeakable Good and Comfort To see him and be enamour'd of him and be like unto him to converse and enjoy Communion with him and to rejoice in and with him To behold his Glory and not only curiously to gaze upon him but to be glorified with him in some proportion and according to thy capacity to be made Partaker of the same Glory and to be admitted (*) Rev. 3.21 to sit with him in his Throne Think what a sablime and notable part of thy Happiness this will be in Heaven If having * 1 Pet. 1.8 not seen Christ thou lovest him and believing in him rejoycest with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory O then consider how thou shalt love and rejoyce in him when thou shalt actually see him and immediatly enjoy him in the heavenly Kingdom This Meditation will prevail with thee to labour to become meet and fit for the happy Sight and felicitating Enjoyment of the glorified humane Nature of Christ 'T will make thee study to attain to real Holiness of Heart
the Knowledg of those Things which God hath been pleased most clearly to discover and plainly to reveal in his Word to thee as any way necessary to thy own and others Edisication and Salvation Thou being assured and well perswaded that practice and doing is the ready way to further Knowing as * Ps 111.10 Joh. 7.17 to increase thy Knowledg here so to augment thy Knowledg hereafter 'T will cause thee to charge thy self to walk as a Child of the Light and of the Day to follow the Light of God's Word and Spirit that thou maiest be meet to be made Partaker of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light The foremention'd Meditation will moreover make thee wise unto Sobriety repress the itching Curiosity of thy Nature keep thee from spending thy Time in boldly prying into God's [m] Homo sum non intelligo secreta Dei investigare non audeo ideo etiam attentare sormido qâ—â—â— hoc ipsum genus quasi sacrilegae temerâ—tatis est siplus sone qupias quà m siâ—â—â—is Salv. de gub Del l. 3. Secrets and from immoderatly thirsting and reaching after the Knowledg of Things too high for thee Remembring and considering that in this Life thou canst not attain to clear and full and perfect Knowledg which is a Reward reserved for another Life And that thou maiest enjoy it in due Time 't will make thee willing to wait and stay God's Time to be humbly and modestly and contentedly ignorant of all those Things wherein God has been pleased to be silent and has though most fit in this lower imperfect State for Man to be ignorant The Consideration that thy Knowledg shall be perfected hereafter will bring thee at present to be quietly ignorant of those Things which God sees meet and most convenient for a Time to hide and conceal from thee and will help thee to wait very patiently for the Season of the fuller Manifestation of himself to thee this being the Way to have thy Knowledg encreased and perfected another Day Further This Meditation will also mind thee to fit thy self for the sure receiving the full Satisfaction of all thy Desires in Heaven hereafter 'T will cause thee now to curb and restrain thy sensual Appetite to moderate thy Desires to submit thy Will to the Will of God and to do his Pleasure here that so thou maiest have thy widest Capacities and largest Desires every way satisfied and fulfilled hereafter 4. Meditate how happy thou shalt be hereafter by dwelling in a most glorious beauteous blessed Place in thy heavenly Father's House in thy * Joh. 14.2 Saviour's Father's House in which there are many Mansions a stately Palace a spatious House indeed fit to receive and entertain an innumerable Company of glorious Inhabitants That thou shalt be placed and setled in the Seat of the Blessed an House not made with Hands a Building of God Paradise Heaven the third Heaven which is seated not only above the Region of the Air but above the Moon and highest Stars from whence thou shalt with Advantage take a pleasant Prospect of the admirable Beauty and comely Order of the Universe and of the Usefulness of all its Parts That thou shalt inhabit a Place which is so incomparably glorious that it is called in Scripture the Throne of God That thou shalt dwell hereafter in the better and heavenly Countrey of the Saints That thou shalt actually and personally enter into the promised Land and not only have a Pisgah-sight of it afar off That thou shalt be translated into the heavenly Canaan transported into the holy Land conducted and received into the holy City in which there is no Night and which has no need of the Sun or Moon to shine in it the Glory of God inlightning it and the Lamb being the Light thereof Think how the beautiful glorious precious Things of which there is mention in the 21th and 22th of the Revelation in the large Description of the new Jerusalem if meant of the Glory of the highest Heaven are but Umbrages and Shadows of the good Things to come which are contain'd and treasur'd up in the heavenly Kingdom Though Heaven be indeed more a State than a Place yet think how the Majesty and Amenity of the Place of Glory will add to thy Joy and increase thy Felicity And this Meditation will provoke thee to labour to become apt and fit to live in so holy and blessed a Place as Heaven To be alwaies travelling towards this heavenly Country though thy Way lie through a Wilderness To make the mention of Heaven and the Way thereto to be thy frequent Discourse thy most serious and most refreshing Conference To be careful to have thy constant Conversation in Heaven To give all Diligence to be prepared and disposed by an heavenly State for an heavenly Place To let the Kingdom of God enter into thy Soul that thou maiest be meet to enter into the Kingdom of God To become the Temple of God here an Habitation of God through the Spirit that thou maiest be worthy to be received hereafter into an heavenly Habitation To cleanse thy self because no unelean Thing can ever enter into that holy City To labour to get such a vertuous Disposition and generous Spirit such holy Habits heavenly Customs and divine Manners as may fit and qualify thee to be admitted Citizen of the new Jerusalem And to beg of thy Father which is in Heaven that as he hath prepared an Heaven for holy Souls so he would more and more prepare thy too too unprepared Soul for Heaven 5. Spend thy Thoughts in the Consideration of thy future Enjoyment of the most blessed Company in the most blessed Place Consider seriously that as thou shalt have Communion with the blessed Trinity in the heavenly Glory fully enjoy God and have Fellowship with Jesus Christ thy Head So thou shalt associate and be conversant with Angels and have sweet Familiarity with those blessed Spirits and shalt there enjoy the Communion of Saints shalt there meet with the holy Patriarchs be received into the goodly Fellowship of the Prophets be taken into the glorious Company of the Apostles and be joyned to the noble Army of Martyrs and with all the Faithful of all Ages recount the Mercies and chaunt the Praises of thy bountiful Creator and gracious Redeemer Think with thy self how that good Company is a great part of the Pleasure and Comfort of a good Man's Life and a kind of Heaven here upon Earth But that hereafter thou shalt have the best Company that Earth and Heaven can afford That there thou shalt converse with and delight in the most eminent Children and faithful Servants of God and famous Worthies of the Church of Christ [m] Esseror studio patres vestros quos colui dilexi videndi Neque eos verò solùm convenire aveo quos ipse cognovi sed illos etiam de quibus audivi legi ipfe conscripsi Cic. in Cat. Maj.
seu de sen That there thou shalt see and know those whom thou never sawest before sit down * Mat. 8.11 with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven and shalt renew a blessed Acquaintance with thy old dear Christian Godly Friends and vertuous Relations Not know them by former Stature Feature Favour for there will be a vast Difference between a mortal and glorified Body but know them by Revelation or by the [n] Vide thes Salmur de vit aetern thes 35 36. publick Testimony that Christ shall give concerning them or by Passages occurring in some Opportunities of Discourse with them Nor know them in a worldly or fleshly Manner but know and enjoy them in a most pure and spiritual divine and heavenly Manner And think what a comfort it will be to enjoy Society with those in Heaven with whom thou didst use to go frequently to the House of God in Company What an Happiness it will be to meet in Heaven with those with whom thou wast wont to discourse of Heaven to rejoice and join in Praises with those in Heaven whom thou hast often wept and mourned and prayed with here on Earth What a rejoicing it will be to see and enjoy those dear Saints in the Heavenly Glory whom thou wast a Means of bringing thither or who were the Means of bringing thee thither What a pleasing refreshing Converse it will be in the heavenly Jerusalem to tell one another there the most remarkable Stories of the Divine Love and to receive a faithful particular Relation of the rare Passages of the Divine Providence of which the good and vertuous have had Experience in all Ages of the World How kindly and sweetly thou shalt converse with others when all Corruptions on all sides shall be removed your Judgments and Affections united and your Dispositions exactly suited How contented and satisfied you shall there be where you shall live absolutely free from all manner of Injury Envy Strangeness Suspicion Uncharitableness Where all the Inhabitants shall alwaies live as [o] See D. Patrick's Par. of the Pilgr p. 92 93 94. one describes that State in a rapturous Love of God and a most passionate Love of one another Where every one will be loving and every one will be lovely Where every one will love others as much as they deserve or desire and look for no other Retribution but a Reciprocation of Love and where all shall rejoice not only in their own Salvation but in the Glory and Blessedness of others as if it were all their own Consider that hereafter thou shalt be so pleased with the Place thou shalt be in and satisfied with the Company thou shalt be with that thou shalt say in the State of Glorification * Mat. 17 4. as Peter did in the Transfiguration Lord it is good for me to be here That as thy essential Happiness shall consist in the Fruition of God the Chiefest Good so that thy concomitant circumstantial accidental Joies will consist in the beauteous Place and the holy Company thou shalt enjoy But yet [p] Dr. Jackson 3 vol. p. 508. that either the Place or Society of Saints and Angels can add or confer any Thing to thy Happiness proceeds from God's special Presence in both This Meditation will invite and provoke thee to make it thy diligent constant Care here upon Earth to fit and prepare thy self for the future Enjoyment of the most holy and blessed Company in the heavenly Glory To get a Spirit suitable both to the Company and Employment of Heaven To mortify thy unruly Lusts and to moderate those violent boisterous Passions which would cause a kind of Hell in Heaven and make thee not only restless and uneasy in thy self but apt and prone to trouble others and to disturb the Peace of that blessed Place To labour to become truly holy and so to be meet for the heavenly Society Remembring and considering that scandalous unholy disorderly Persons are by the Divine Ordination to * Mat. 18.17 1 Cor. 5.5 11. Rom 16.17 be excluded from the Communion of Saints even here below to be shut out from the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to be denied the Benefit and Comfort of brotherly Society and Chistian familiar Converse And that if by Scandal and Practice of open Wickedness thou shouldst render thy self unfit for present Fellowship and Communion with the Saints thou wouldst surely prove much more unmeet for their perfectly pure and unspotted Society in Heaven hereafter And this will cause thee to keep Company and to hold Communion with the Saints here that thou maiest be fit to enjoy blessed Communion with them hereafter To shun and avoid the Company of the Wicked as a kind of Hell here upon Earth to count their unavoidable Neighbourhood a daily Trouble and an heavy Burden to thee And if any truly Godly live in the Place where thou dwellest to find them out and to prize and improve them to the utmost To sort and suit thy self with those now whom thou wouldst desire to be ranked with and gathered to another Day To seck to live with those here whom thou wouldst earnestly wish to live withal hereafter To make account that now to live among the Good to converse with regenerate sanctified Persons and real spiritual experimental Christians and to enjoy God in his People and Christ in his Members that this is a great Happiness and a little Image of Heaven To use such reasoning as this with thy self Should I hate or decline the Communion of Saints here what should I do in Heaven at last where next to the Fruition and Enjoyment of God in Glory the best Entertainment will be the Company and Society of blessed and glorified Saints to all Eternity This would keep thee from sitting upon Thorns when thou art in Company with gracious Persons with serious savory Christians and wishing thou wert well rid of thy Trouble and would cause thy Heart to spring and leap within thee to see the Face and hear the Discourse and enjoy the Converse and profitable Company of the truly Godly It would direct thee to chuse and use such Company all thy Life long that when thou diest as Dr. Preston said of himself upon his Death-bed thou maiest only change thy Place and not thy Company This would help thee to labour that God may now dwell in thee that hereafter thou maiest dwell with him That Christ may now dwell in thy Heart by Faith that thou at last maiest dwell with Christ in Glory To have at present Fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ and with those who have the Image of God and Christ stampt upon them the Beauty of Holiness and the Glory of Heaven shining in them to have thy Soul sympathize and thy Heart harmonize with them and thy Affections closely embrace them and freely run out to them to love and rejoice to meet and confer with them here that thou maiest be
Violation of your Baptismal Vow You promis'd at your Baptism that you would obediently keep God's holy Will and Commandments and walk in the same all the Days of your Lives But how apparently do you break this part of your Vow by living in a long continued course of Disobedience to this so reasonable Command of Christ Yea this unchristian Practice of yours is by interpretation a kind of Renunciation of your Baptismal Covenant entred into in your Infancy you do in a manner openly disown and disavow it when you will not yield at Years of Discretion to renew and confirm it though often minded of it frequently required and called upon in the Name of Christ to do it in the Use and Celebration of this Sacrament And by being so utterly averse and unwilling to bind your selves by this means to Christ and to ratify and strengthen your Covenant with him you seem to quit your Part in Christ and to disclaim all Interest and Propriety in the precious Benefits purchased by his Blood and Death and to be guilty of the basest Ingratitude and greatest Unkindness imaginable in refusing to remember in a solemn manner your Blessed Saviour who has so lovingly remembred you and been with so much charge and cost so great a Benefactor to you and in unworthily undervaluing the inestimable Benefits of his Death and Passion sealed and exhibited in the right Use of this Sacrament When Christ has said in plain terms Do this will you in effect dare to say We will not do this we will break a known Law and will not regard the Authority of Christ Will you persist in such Omission as you cannot justify but are forc'd if reason'd with to condemn your selves for Can you be so weak and short in your reasoning as to think you reserve to your selves a freedom and liberty to sin for the present without any great Danger to you by absenting your selves from the Sacrament which would closely tie and straitly bind you up to a stricter way and more exact course of Life never considering that by your relation to God and dependance upon him by your early Covenant made in Baptism by all your hearing or reading the Word of God and by every Prayer you have in all your Life put up to God you are already strongly obliged to all that Duty which the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper would further engage you to perform Will you put off this Sacrament from Time to Time and satisfy your selves at present that you purpose to prepare and receive hereafter why this is just as foolish and absurd as to resolve that when you have very greedily swallowed much more Poison then you will take the benefit of an Antidote that when you have stuffed your selves with trash and fill'd your selves with abundant crudities and by so doing weakned and destroyed your Appetite or by long Fasting quite lost your Stomach then you will hasten to a Feast That when you have further despised the Riches of Divine Goodness and Grace made more light of Christ and of his pretious Blood and Benefits and grieved his Spirit by longer Deâ—ays and Non-improvement of Gospel-seasons and golden Opportunities then you will seek Reconciliation to God Union to and Communion with Christ Purgation from Sin by the Blood of Christ and the Consolation of the Spirit of Christ You may delude your selves with Intentions and Resolutions to remember Christ in the Sacrament at some convenient Season hereafter but if you neglect and closer it now you may lose your Senses and Memory before ye have another Occasion offer'd you of remembring Christ in this Sacrament You may die and depart and Christ may come to you in particular Judgment before you can enjoy another Opportunity of 〈◊〉 to the Table and Supper of your Lord We may tell of your Death and shew to others where you lie low in your Graves before the Times comes that you should shew forth your Lord's Death in the celebration of the holy Communion And ifyou should communicate upon a Death-bed the Sacrament so late sought and receiv'd is very unlikely to assure Heaven to you when you die when it was never desired and used by you as a necessary Means of helping you to Holiness and so of leading you on to Happiness all your Life long Let not humble honest-hearted Christians debar and deprive themselves of this Ordinance by over-looking or mis-judging their own Qualifications But finding that they regard no Iniquity in their Hearts and feeling in themselves vehement Longings and earnest Breathings after Christ and continual Hungrings and Thirstings after Righteousness let them own with thankfulness any measure of Grace discernible in themselves and not deny to themselves what Christ so freely affords and offers them but when invited to this Spiritual Feast draw near with Faith and take this holy Sacrament to their Comfort and use it as a means of supplying their spiritual wants and needs Come yea frequently come to the Lord's Table The Sacrament of Baptism is the Symbol and Seal of our Regeneration or New Birth and therefore it is to be received but once But the holy Communion is the Symbol and Seal of our spiritual Nutrition and therefore in reason we are to receive it often When Christ appointed that this should be done in remembrance of him can you think he intended only a single or seldom remembrance Did not Christ himself in giving that Command and enacting that Law intimate insinuate and suppose a reiterated frequent remembrance of himself when he said * 1 Cor. 11.25 26. as oft as ye drink it the Apostle subjoining as often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup Will he then accept and take it kindly at your hand if ye do it so seldom as is next to a total Omission of it Did the Primitive Christians communicate every day or at least every Lord's-Day and can you content your selves to live many Weeks Months and Years without it Did you but know and understand consider and meditate of your own spiritual great necessities Wants Weaknesses and of the certain considerable Advantages of a frequent Participation of the holy Communion you would quickly find a Law within your selves to bind and oblige you a strong Argument and Impellent within your own Breasts a pressing powerful Motive in your own Bosoms to draw you to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper you would as soon forget to take your daily Bread as neglect to receive this blessed Sacrament upon any good Occasion and fit Opportunity offer'd to you Among all your Cares take special care to feed and nourish to strengthen and comfort to cleanse and save your Souls Among all your Employments find some leisure to remember your Saviour to meet with your dearest Lord and to receive the seasonable plentiful rich * Phil. 1.19 Supplies of the Spirit of Jesus Christ Will you pretend to value a Sermon and yet unworthily slight the Sacrament seem to make conscience of
though the Apostles preached and celebrated the Lord's Supper on other Dates of the Week yet why are the4se Things mentioned as done on that Day particularly and remarkably unless it were for some singular Eminency of this above any other Day and because they were bound to do those Duties on this Day more than on any other And the Apostle gave express Order that †1 Cor. 16. 1 2. the Collection for the Saints a Work especially fit for a Sabbath-Day should be made particularly on the first Day that is [d] Beza in loc every first Day of the Week which was the fore-ordain'd and customary Day of the Christian religious Church Assemblies Vpon or [e] Bp. of VV. Opuse Speech against Mr. Trask p. 73. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the VVord is used Mark 15.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sense is against the Feast against the first Day of the Week every Person was to lay apart what God should move and encline him to offer The Preparation and Separation of it was to be at home every Week but the Collation and Contribution to be in the Publick Congregation every Lord's Day For [f] Hammond's Par. it was not reasonable for any to come to the Lord * Exod. 23.15 Deut. 16.16 empty upon the Day of the most solemn Christian Assembly And this Day was appointed for the Oblation of their Alms because of the inestimable Benefits and infinite good Things we this Day had bestowed upon us And the Church of Christ has constantly observ'd this high Day ever since the Apostles Daies and spent it in Reading Exhortation Praier Sacraments [g] Si die Solis laetitiae indulgemus alia longe ratione quà m religione Solis secundo loco ab eis sumus qui diem Saturni otto victus â—ecernunt exorbitantes ipsi à Judaico more quem ignorant Tertul. Apol. c. 16 The Primitive Christians were suspected to worship the Sun because they used to celebrate the Sunday It was an [h] Bp. of VV. Speech in the Star-Chamber Opusc p. 74. usual Question put of old by the Heathen to the Christians before ever they offer'd to torture and martyr them Num Dominicum servasti Did you keep the Lord's Day To which they answer'd Christianus sum intermittere non possum I am a Christian and dare not omit or give over the Observation of it This is a Day in which God is to be solemnly worshipped and served and Christ to be pbulickly magnified and glorified A special Season to be laid hold on a particular Opportunity to be improved for our Soul's Good This is a special Day of Grace in which as I may say the Mint is going and in which we may take our Stamp of Holinefs [i] VVhole duty of man Partit 2. sect 18. This is the gainfullest the joyfullest Day of the Week a Day of Harvest wherein we are to lay up in store for the whole Week nay for our whole Lives This is a Market-day for our Souls in which we may trade for Eternity This is a Day in which we may hear and understand the Things that belong unto our Peace Pious and pathetical is that of the divine and holy Mr. Herbert Sunday O Day most calm most bright The Week were dark but for thy Light Thy Torch doth show the way Sundaies They are the fruitful Beds and Borders In God's rich Garden that is bare Which parts their Ranks and Orders On Sunday Heaven's Gate stands ope Blessings are plentiful and rife More plentiful than Hope This is a Day in which the most precious Commodities that ever the World saw or heard of are set forth in which the Riches and Treasures of the Gospel are opened Christ himself offered his Merit and Spirit tendred Pardon and Grace Light and Life Strength and Comfort held out and exhibited This is a Day in which no Pandora's Box is opened but in which the Cabinet of God's Jewels is unlocked and his precious Gifts and Graces dispensed This is a Day in which a spiritual Mart a divine Fair is publickly kept in which with the wise Virgins we may buy Oil for our Lamps buy spiritual Eye-salve to anoint our Eyes that we may see as our Saviour counsels excellently buy the Truth as the wise Man advises us and be perswaded so well to like it as never to sell or part with it buy Wine and Milk and Bread to fill and satisfy our empty hungry and thirsty Souls buy white Rainment that we may be clothed and that the Shame of our Nakedness may not appear buy the Christian 's compleat Armour that we may be furnished for our Warfare and well provided against the Assaults of our Spiritual Enemies buy Gold tried in the Fire that we may be rich yea in which we may buy the Pearl of Price in which we may receive and lay hold on Christ and all his Benefits and embrace and apply the great and precious Promises of the Gospel This is a Day in which the Word of God's Grace is opened and applyed and the holy Sacraments the Seals of the Covenant frequently administred in which we have the Priviledg of hearing God speaking unto Sinners and wooing and beseeching Rebels to be reconciled and in which we may enjoy the glorious Liberty of speaking our selves to God with an holy Boldness at the Throne of Grace and pouring out with one Accord our Supplications and Souls in Praier to him This is a Day of solemn Rest from servile Offices and worldly Works A Time of drawing nigh to God and of meeting the Lord in his own Ordinances of joining with the Saints and Servants of God in the Worship of God in Praiers to God and the Praises of him of having Communion and Fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ through the blessed Spirit and of enjoying a kind of Heaven here upon Earth The Lord's Day you see is a special Season of Grace and Mercy O let 's be spiritually thrifty of this Opportunity Let 's not live as if we were of the same Mind with the modern carnal Jews who think as the learned [k] Tempore Sabbati matutino non tam citò quà m solent alias cubitu surgentes in lucem multam voluptatis certè magis quà m Sabbati debitè colendi causâ stertunt Quantò enim voluptatis isti plus percipiunt tantò se devotrùs Sabbatum colere statuunt Buxtorf Synag Judaic c. 11. initio Buxtorf tells us that sleeping excessively on their Sabbath is a great Honour dòne to God Let 's not content our selves with an idle Rest Let our Rest be the Rest [l] Lawson's Theo-Pol p. 179. of Men and not of Beasts and the Rest of holy Men as holy Let 's not only cease from secular Works but exercise our rational and spiritual Faculties in heavenly and divine Employments and set our selves to Works of Piety Charity and Mercy Let us redeem this Time out of the Hands of
dealt so graciously with thee as to transfer the Punishment from thee upon his Son and so bountifully with thee as to give his own Son for thee and to thee O bless and praise God by studying to do such good Works as may provoke others to bless and glorify him And when you come home from the publick Ordinance take heed you do not entangle your selves with Businesses or Recreations which have as much Power to render the publick Duties ineffectual after as before their Performarsce But carefully spend that which is not Church-time in Meditation Praier Reading savoury Speeches heavenly Discourses and the conscionable Performance of such Duties as tend to your own and others Edification Let Magistrates redeem the Lord's-day by personally frequenting open owning and countenancing the publick Worship of God and Ordinances of Christ and by improving the utmost of their Power for the Glory of God and Honour of Religion in the zealous Prevention or speedy Reformation of the horrid Prosanation of the Lord's-day and vigorous promoting the general Sanctification of it out of serious Consideration and a strong Conviction that the Preservation and Continuance of Religion doth much depend upon the due Observation of the Lord's-day And that a Disesteem and Neglect of the Sanctification of that Day does quickly cause a lamentable Decay of Christian Piety and hasten the infliction of [s] It is somewhat remarkable and not altogether to be neglected that even in this Nation upon the publick Allowance of Sports and Recreations upon the Lord's-day which is our Christian Sabbath Civil and bloody VVars and Ruin of the Royal Family should so shortly follow and that the Hand of God should be most against those who by VVriting VVords or Practice had maintained the lawfulness of that Doctrine Lawson's Theo-Polit p. 181. fearful Judgments upon a Land and Nation Let them do this in imitation of the brave and holy-spirited * Nehem. 13. from 15. to 22. Nehemiah who testified against and contended with the notorious Profaners and Violators of the Sabbath-day and would not suffer the open selling of Victuals and Wares the trading with Commodities and carrying of Burthens and doing the servil Works of their ordinary Callings on that Day Did not your Fathers thus saies he and did not our God bring all this Evil upon us and upon this City yet ye bring more Wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath Let Magistrates see to the Observation and look to the Sanctification of this Day and so become the happy Instruments and blessed Means of the subsisting and flourishing of Religion in the World of keeping up in the Minds and Hearts of Men a Sense of God a Sense of Sin a Sense of Duty to God and Man a Sense or believing Apprehension of a certain Reward or Punishment a Sense of Heaven and Hell a Sense of Eternity of begetting and preserving a Tenderness and Quickness in Men's Consciences which are apt to be roused and awakened under every Ordinance of maintaining the Life of Religion and the Power of Godliness of upholding the outward Worship and Service of God and heightning and increasing the inward Honour and hearty Love and Fear of him All which depend in a great measure upon Magistrates securing what lies in them the due and sacred Observation of the Lord's-day Let Ministers redeem the Lord's-day not by composing their Sermons or committing them to their Memories on that Day which Toil and Task is fitter to be the Labour of other Daies but by striving to work their Sermons and Discourses upon their own and others Hearts and Consciences Let them spend that Day in [u] Dexteriùs loquentur cum hominibus qui priùs totá mente cum Deo fuerint collocuti Erasm wrestling with God in secret for Assistance in and a Blessing upon their publick Employment In first confessing their own Sins in their private Closets and in begging divine Gifts and Graces to make them able Ministers of the New Testament in setting right their aims and ends in all their Exercises and Undertakings and in imploring the special spiritual gracious powerful Presence of God with his own Ordinances And then in humbly consessing the Sins of the People in the publick Congregation in earnestly praying for their Souls and praising God for his wonderful Mercies in the Mediator for the happy Restauration of sinful and miserable Mankind and the Communications of himself to the lost World by Jesus Christ In propounding and pressing the most sound and solid Reasons the most convincing cogent Arguments to engage them to their Duties and in giving with the greatest Expression of Affection the most proper Directions and seasonable Counsels to guide them in the Way to Heaven And Let the People redeem the Lord's-day by privately reading or hearing read some Part and Portion of Scripture which would season their Hearts and make them more teachable when they hear the Word publickly read or preach'd By praying for themselves to the Shepherd and Bishop of their Souls and by praying for their Minister to the chief Shepherd that Shepherd both of Shepherd and Sheep of Pastor and People that great Prophet and Teacher of his Church that he would teach their Teacher instruct their Instructor and so lead and guid him by his Word and Spirit that he may safely conduct them by sound and seasonable Doctrine and winning Example in the Way everlasting Yea Let them redeem the Lord's-day by attending on the Lord without Distractions by joining in the publick Prayers by being present at publick Baptism that they themselves may be minded and remembred of their own Baptismal Vow and Covenant By worthy and frequent receiving the holy Communion of the body and Blood of Christ By diligent hearing the Word preacht By serious Meditation on it and conscionable Practice of it and by charging themselves and humbly desiring God to help them to walk worthy continually of the Means Mercies and Priviledges they enjoy By maintaining heart-warning Conference By charitable Visitation of and Ministration of seasonable suitable Counsel and Comfort to any sick and weak afflicted or distressed Persons By acknowledging all their Offences to God and Amendment of the same and by endeavouring heartily to reconcile themselves charitably to their Neighbours where any Difference or Displeasure has been You that are Masters and Governours of Families redeem the Lord's-day for your selves and cause your Families to redeem it The Lord of the Sabbath commandeth that thou and thy Son and thy Daughter thy Man-servant thy Maid-servant and all within thy Gate keep that Day holy Set not suffer not your Servants to work nor your Children or Servants to play on this Day Be as much ashamed to see your Child or Servant steal and take God's Time to themselves as you would be to find them pilfering or stealing from your Neighbour You can keep your Servants close to your own work all the Week-daies See that they neglect not the Work of God on the Lord's-day
Will you make them labour for you six Daies together and will not you cause them to serve God one Day in seven Be at least as much concern'd in Case of neglect of God's Service as you are at any Time when your own Work and Family-business is neglected Do it for God's sake Shew that you love the Honour of God and not only respect your own Commodity and look to your own Advantage Do it for your Servant's sake Make it their Business to do God Service that they may be approved and rewarded by him Yea do it for your own sake Make your Servants God's faithful Servants that so they may prove more faithful to you and that God may bless them in your Service and that your Work may thrive and succeed in their Hands On this Day especially call thy Family thy whole Family to Family-duties prepare them for and hasten them to the publick Ordinances It is reported of [w] M. Clark in his Life Dr. Chaderton the first Master of Emmanuel-Colledg that he was married three and fifty Years and yet in all that Time he never kept any of his Servants from the Church to dress his Meat saying that he desired as much to have his Servants know God as himself And it was the Custome of the Reverend and pious [x] See his Life among Mr. Clark's Lives of ten Em. Div. Dr. Gouge to forbear providing of Suppers the Eve before that Servants might not be occasioned thereby to sit uplate neither would he suffer any [y] Die Dominicâ ut in festis licet etiam ciborum lautiorem apparatum habere quamvit in eis parandis ne majora impediantur servorum animae detrimentum non necessarium iucurrant summopere curandum est Baxter Meth. Th. part 3. c. 14. p. 172. Servant to stay at home for dressing any Meat upon the Lord's-day for the Entertainment of Friends whether they were mean or great few or many Take your Family to Church along with you and when you return home again examine catechize inform instruct them recapitulate the Sermon read the Scripture and good Books to them whet practical profitable necessary saving Truths on them sing Psalms among them and pray most heartily and affectionately with and for them And you that are Servants who have little leisure most of you on other Daies and who live too many of you in such profane and ungodly Families where you hear not so much as one Praier put up to God nor one Line of the Word of God read nor one serious Word spoken of God all the Week long what reason have you carefully to redeem the Lord's-day to redeem it in publick by devoutly attending to the Prayers that are made and the Word that is both read and preacht in the publick Congregation And to redeem it in private by taking all possible Occasions to retire and go aside by your selves to consider in secret the needs of your Souls to examine your Hearts and States to review your Lives and Actions to humble your selves in Confession of Sin and to pour out your Souls in Prayer for Pardon and Grace to read the Bible and some instructive practical Writings of the most judicious experimental Divines apt to inform your Judgments and to work and prevail upon your Affections to set your selves to meditate of God to draw out and engage your Hearts to God rather than to lavish out and throw away those precious Hours in foolish Talk and frothy Discourse or in gadding abroad and walking idly in the Fields and recreating your Bodies rather than your Souls and in thrusting God and turning Religion wholly out of your Minds and Hearts and nourishing your selves in Ignorance of God and Unacquaintance with him and in Encreasing the Atheism of your Hearts and Lives and hardening your own and others Hearts through the Ensnarements of the World and the Deceitfulness of Sin But it may be you will say you are hard wrought all the Week long and you have reason to take your ease and pleasure and to rest and recreate your tired Bodies one Day in seven that so you may endure your Labour and go through all your Work the better I answer that your very Cessation in any measure from your wonted Labour is an ease and relief to your weary Bodies and that the very change of your Work and Occupation from secular servile Employment to spiritual divine Worship and Service and the Diversion of your Minds from worldly Businesses to the Offices and Exercises of Religion if you would but acquaint your selves with them and use your selves to them would be delightful and refreshing to you And the Peace and Quiet Joy and Comfort of a good Conscience in the faithful Discharge of your Duty to God and a tender Care of your immortal Souls would strengthen and hearten you to bear all the Burthen of the hardest Labours of your domestick Ministeries in consideration that your heavenly Father Lord and Master will accept and reward your Works of Piety and bless and prosper the Works of your Hands in the Houshold-businesses and Family-employments incumbent on you and belonging to you Rather break your Sleep to rise the earlier than lose the Opportunities of that Day Or chuse to leave and live out of those Families in the which you are forced to live without God are debarr'd from his Service and can have no Liberty allowed you to mind God and your Souls on a Day that was purposely ordained and appointed for your spiritual Proficiency and Improvement Let the Poor of this World redeem this Day by taking this Opportunity to labour spiritually for the Meat which perisheth not but endureth to everlasting Life and by hearing the Gospel preach'd in this Season to them to become rich in Faith rich in Grace to know and to partake of the Grace and Favour the Love and Kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ who though he was rich yet for our sakes became poor that we through his Poverty might be made rich You that are poor and mean and low in the World and who cannot take so much Time as others to worship and enjoy God on the Week-Daies see that you well improve this Day Now you are released from secular Businesses and common Services and your Bodies rest from their hard Labours be sure that you spiritually busie and holily employ your selves in the Service of God Let me likewise charge them that are rich in this World to redeem this choicest Part of their Time and in it to endeavour to be rich toward God rich in God to lay up for themselves a Treasure in Heaven to obtain the true certain durable Riches which when they fail will never leave them but when they remove will bear them company into the other World And here let me hint to you of the Gentry what [z] Fuller's Church-Hist B. 11. p. 146. Dr. Paul Michlewait once urged and pressed in a Sermon at the Temple that Gentle-folk of all
People are obliged to a strict observation of the Lord's-day The Gentry in comparison rest all the Week long their Cheeks are not moistened with Sweat their Hands are not hardened with hard Labour they are not tired and wearied out with pains-taking They who take their Pleasure and recreate themselves every Day in the Week have nothing to plead for Recreations on the Lord's-day Though for my own part I should be far from indulging a Liberty to any to take such Recreations as hinder the Devotions due to any part of the Lord's-day and are Impediments to the Sanctification of it aright Let all industriously redeem the Lord's-day And take we heed we redeem it not by halves but let 's religiously observe and covetously redeem the whole Lord's-day We are bound in justice to God to do it because God has set a Day not a Piece of a Day apart for himself and requires this Portion and Tribute of Time to be paied to him who has graciously given us all our Time We should be as much yea more afraid to steal God's Time than Mens Goods Do not only observe the former Part of the Day repairing to the Church or Chappel in the Morning but commonly and customarily absenting your selves and growing quite weary of any such Duty in the After-noon for God has allotted and appointed a seventh Part of our Time for his own Worship and Service but if you keep only one half of the Lord's-day you give God but a fourteenth Part of your Time Nay of one Day in seven I fear too many spare him no more than that Time only which their Morning-Attendance takes up in publick on the Lord's-day And here I appeal to their own Reason whether it be a meet and fit Thing that rational Persons created by God and redeemed by his Son should afford to the Worship and Service of God and Christ and the great concerns of their immortal Souls but two Hours at most of the whole Lord's-day and it may be no more of the whole Week and shall spend those Hours in a formal customary cold and heartless Worship of an infinitely holy and just Deity the tremendous impartial Judg of Angels and Men. Grudg not to give God one whole Day in seven who largely and liberally grants and allows six whole Daies in seven to you and who designs a greater Benefit and Advantage to you by your Observation of this one Day than possibly can accrue to you by the carefullest and painfullest worldly Improvement of all the rest O believe and consider that the taking out of this one Day and setting it apart for such an excellent Service and high Employment as you are called to in it is certainly the greatest Gift of all How can you be loth to spend one Day in seven in Familiarity with Heaven in communion with your Maker and Fellowship with your Saviour Let us all call the Christian Sabbath the Lord's-day a Delight take as much Contentment and Satisfaction in doing on this Day the Exercises of Religion as Men usually take in doing the Works of their ordinary Calling take as much Pleasure in God's Service as others take in Sin and Vanity Let us spend the Lord's-day as becomes those who profess that they love God better and delight in him more than in any Thing in the World Spend it as they that are glad of so honourable and profitable and pleasurable an Employment as the publick and private Worshiping of God Let us go to the House of God with Joy Let the Church on the Lord's-day be a Banquetting-house and not a Prison to us Do but bring your selves to spend the Lord's-day with Delight and then you will keep it to the End of it The Jews were bound to keep a whole Day holy in a grateful Memory of the lesser Benefits of the Creation and their Deliverance out of Aegypt And shall not we solemnly observe the whole Lord's-day in a thankful Remembrance of greater Blessings not only of the Goodness of God in our Creation but of his Grace and Mercy in our Redemption and Deliverance from Hell and Death eternal We have greater Engagements to do it than they not only greater Motives but greater [a] See Mr. Cawdrey's Sabbathum redivivum p. 563 564. Means too We have greater Variety of publick Exercises on the Lord's-day than they had on their Sabbath We have more Scripture to reade in private than they had We have the Old and New Testament many Expositors upon them many good Practical Theological Tractates written We have more Knowledg afforded us than they had more Grace offer'd us to do the Duties incumbent on us Now we that have more Means and Helps how can we offer to put God off with less Duty and smaller Service and shorter Performance Nay the very Heathens guided by the Light of Nature held it reasonable that the Daies consecrated to their Gods should be devoutly and totally observed with Rest and Sanctity [b] Saturn l. 1. c. 7. Macrobius tells us that on their holy Daies the People came together to spend the whole Day in learning Fables to be conferred upon and will you that call your selves Christians refuse to come together on the Lord's-day to spend one Hour in the Morning another in the After-noon in learning the Mysteries of the Gospel and in receiving saving Instructions out of the Word of God You that give your Bodies two Meals every Day will you feed your Souls but once on the Lord's-day Give me leave to deal with you in the winning Words of that sweet Singer of our Israel Speaking of the Lord's-day saies he [a] Church-porch p. 14. Twice on the Day his due in understood For all the Week thy Food so oft he gave thee Thy cheer is mended bate not of the Food Because 't is better and perhaps may save thee Thwart not th' Almighty God O be not cross Fast when thou wilt but then 't is gain not loss Consider that your own and your Families spiritual Necessities do require and call for a most strict Observation of the whole Lord's-day and a faithful Improvement of all the Helps and Advantages of it The Works of your Callings and your worldly Occasions and Employments do in a manner take up six Daies of the Week and you have but one whole Day in seven to provide for the Needs of your immortal Souls Now the Necessities of your Souls are far greater than those of your Bodies your spiritual eternal Estate is of nearer and higher Concern than your outward and temporal Estate And will you not labour then to improve every Hour and endeavour to redeem every Minute of this one Day Do but seriously think with your selves how much work you have to do in this one Day and then tell me whether in reason and Prudence you can spare any Part of it yea or no. What have you to do for God for your selves What for your Families for your Children and Servants How
will use all Diligence and good Conscience in their Calling and Trading on the Week-day And their Pains-taking and honest Dealing is likely to bring God's Blessing on their outward Estates Besides They that faithrully worship God on the Lord's-day will seek to God for a Blessing on the Week-day and they that seek it are likely to find it Once more God won't be wanting to those who would not be wanting to him God will bless you six Daies for your Blessing and Serving him one whole Day in seven 2. Our Observation of the Lord's-day as it is a spiritual wise redeeming of that special Season so it is a good Help to the spiritual Redeeming of all the six Daies following The more Liberty Men allow themselves upon the Lord's-day the more loose their Hearts are and negligent of good Duties and religious Exercises all the Week after They that pray not on the Lord's-day will hardly so much as say a Praier all the Week long They that hear not a Sermon on this Day will searcely read a Chapter the whole Week They that rob God of his due on the Lord's-day will rarely deal justly and honestly with their Neighbour on the Week-day But if we keep holy the Lord's-day then every Week-day will have a Tincture and Savour of the Lord's-day Our being Spiritual on the Lord's-day will put us into a very good Frame of Heart will awaken Principles of Conscience compose our Minds six our Wills call in and set in order our Assections Our Sanctification of this Day will season and sanctify us sit and dispose us for a close and holy Walking with God all the Week after If we attend upon God and converse with him on this special Day of his own Appointment we shall find a sensible spiritual Vigour a divine Power and heavenly Strength to carry us through all the Duties of the whole Week following relating either to God or Man If we earnestly redeem the Lord's-day the Observation of that Day will have a strong and mighty Influence on our Lives on other Daies too We shall endeavour to carry our selves after it suitably to it to live and walk and act continually as those that have newly or lately enjoyed so blessed and happy an Opportunity as those that have heard of God heard from him spoken to him had to do with him we shall labour to live in pursuance of the End and Design of the work and Business of the Lord's-day Mot. 2. Our Sanctification and good Improvement of the Lord's-day will fit and prepare us to keep and enjoy a blessed Rest and eternal Sabbath in Heaven They that delight in God here will much more delight in him hereafter and those whom God delights in here he will delight in for evermore They that keep holy the Christian Sabbath here shall be translated and admitted to sanctify and celebrate an everlasting Sabbath in Glory hereafter [g] The Church-porch p. 15. He that loves God's Abode and to combine With Saints on Earth shall one Day with them shine But on the other side your gross continued Neglect and wilful resolved Profanation of the Lord's-day will unfit and unqualify you to keep a glorious festival and a joyful happy Holy-Day in Heaven God can take no Complacency and Delight in you if you can take no Complacency in him no Delight in his Sabbaths no Pleasure in his Worship and Service They that refuse to sanctify a Sabbath and totally to rest on that Day from their worldly Labours and secular Negotiations have reason to fear lest God sware in his Wrath that they shall never enter into his Rest. They that will not rest from their Works and Pleasures on this Day have cause to conclude that in Hell they shall have no Rest neither Day nor Night They that will do their own Works on the Lord's-day may expect to suffer for their evil Deeds in the Day of the Lord. They who wilfully absented themselves from God's House on God's Day have no ground to hope that God will receive them to Communion with himself in his heavenly Kingdom And as God can take no delight in you so if you pollute and profane break and violate the Lord's-Day neglect Religion contemn the Worship and despise the Service of God if you changed your place you would there no more delight in God than you do here Heaven would be a Burden Heaven would be an Hell to the unsuitable Spirit of an irreligious profane voluptuous Person Thou that art weary of Praiers and Praises here what wouldst thou do in Heaven tro there is nothing else there You that are sick of a Sabbath here and long till it be over and can't endure to think of spending a whole Day in Religious Exercises what wilt thou do in Heaven where there is a perpetual Sabbath to be kept for ever Thou that hatest the Communion of Saints here I wonder what thou wouldst do in Heaven where next to the Fruition and Enjoyment of God in Glory the best Entertainment will be the Company and Society of the holy Angels and of the blessed and glorified Saints to all Eternity I have given you some Motives to perswade and engage you to the due Observation and right Redemption of the Lord's-Day Now what are you resolved upon Shall your former Profanation of this Day be the present Burthen of your Spirits and Sadness of your Souls Will you live as those that are convinced that Religion depends upon the Sanctification of this Day and your Salvation upon Religion Will you forbear any more to break into God's Inclosure to encroach upon God's Propriety sacrilegiously to engross God's Day to your selves or to make bold with any Part of it for worldly Employments or vain Pleasures or such Recreations as are apt to prove Lets and Hindrances of your Duties and Devotions and be careful to give God that Portion of Time which is his due Will you for the future sequester your selves from worldly Cares Affections Affairs on this Day and henceforth dedicate the Lord's-Day to the Honour of God and Christ Will you not only cease to censure those serious Christians who dare not lose this choice Time and precious Opportunity as profanely and desperately as formerly you have done But will you so consider the Worth of this Time and so far weigh the great Consequences and weighty Concernments of the well or ill spending of it as to count it honourable and keep it holy without intermixing of secular Matters or indulging profane Thoughts and introducing inconvenient improper Discourses in any part of it Will you labour to walk accurately exactly precisely on this Day and not be afraid of being [h] He keeps the Lord's-day best that keeps it with most Religion and with most Charity Bp. Taylor 's Rule and Exerc. of Hol. Lif chap. 4 sec 6. rul 8. Hypocrites are out disputing the Obligations to their Duty and asking How do you prove that it is a Duty to pray in my Family
or a Duty to observe the Lord's-day or to come constantly to the Congregation or to repeat Sermons and the like If these ungodly Wretches had one spark of spiritual Life within them and any taste and feeling of the matters that concern their own Salvation instead of asking How can you prove that I must pray with my Family or that I must keep the Lord's-day they would be readier to say How can you prove that I may not pray with nay Family and that I may not sanctify the Lord's-day and that I may not have Communion with the Saints in Holiness I can perceive in many that I converse with the great difference between an Heart that loâ—es God and Holiness and an Heart that seems religious and honest without such a Love The true Conveit perceiveth so much sweetness in holy Duties and so much spiritual advantage by them to his Soul that he is loch to be kept back he can not spare these Ordinances no more than he can spare the Bread from his Mouth or the Clothes from his Back yea or the Skin from his Flesh no not so much He loveth them he cannot live without them And therefore if he had but a bare leave from God without a Command to sanctify the Lord's-day and to live in the holy Communion of the Saints he would joyfully take it with many thanks for he need not be driven to his Rest when he is weary nor to his spiritual Food when he is hungry But the unsanctified Hypocrite that never loved God or Godliness in his Heart he stands questioning and enquiring for some proof of a Necessity of thâ—se Courses And if he can but bring himself to hope that God will save him without so much adoe away then goes the Duty He never was Religious from a true Predominant love to God and an holy Life but for fear of Hell and for other inferiour respects Mr. Baxter's Direct and Perswas to a sound Convers from p. 372 to 376. too strict of being too holy on this holy Day 'T is an excellent Saying of Tully Nemo pius est qui pietatem cavet The plain English of which is this No man is truly godly who is afraid of being too godly Will you so observe the Lord's-day as you were ready to promise you would when you lay last upon a Sick-Bed and as careless Sinners commonly wish they had when they come to lie upon a Death-bed Will you make every Sabbath here on Earth resemble in some Degree that eternal Rest which you hope to hallow more perfectly in Heaven Seriously consider how many Lord's-daies you have lost already and what reason you have to observe and improve those that remain Do you know how few such Daies you shall ever enjoy more It may be this Lord's-day may be the last Before the next Sabbath comes thou maiest be called to a reckoning for neglecting and mis-spending all that are past Thou art not sure that ever thou shalt pray in publick more that never the Liberty shall again be afforded thee of hearing another Sermon preach'd to thee Thou maiest never enjoy such a blessed Opportunity to take pains with thy Family and to save their Souls from Death before thou diest If God shall please to put such Prices into thy Hands God give thee an Heart to make use of them Carefully redeem the Lord's-day and every Day after shew in thy Life that thou hast redeem'd it Make it appear by the Frame of thy Actions and Course of thy Life all the Week long that thou hast been under spiritual powerful quickening Ordinances the last Lord's-day You that enjoyed Communion with God on the Lord's-day have no parley with Satan no familiarity with Sin no fellowship with the unfruitful Works of Darkness on any of the Week-daies following Be sure you every Day avoid those Sins which you solemnly confess'd the last Lord's-day and live over the Praiers you made that Day and live up to the Sermons you heard that Day and obey from the Heart that Form of Doctrine which that Day was delivered to you Perform every Day those Resolutions and Promises which you made to God on the Lord's-day and keep the Covenant you renewed at the Sacrament on that Day and maintain the Warmth that was wrought on your Souls by the Word and Spirit on that Day Use every Day the Grace you ask'd obtain'd and receiv'd on the Lord's-day and act in the Strength and Power of Christ which was communicated and given in to you in your Attendance upon him in his own Ordinances on his own Day This is the second particular Season and special Opportunity that is to be carefully redeem'd by every Christian The Morning of the Week the Lord's Day And I have purposely treated so largely concerning the Redemption of the Lord's-day because it is so despised in the Judgment and disregarded in the Practice of the confident Men of this dissolute and degenerate Age. The third Particular Opportunity to be redeem'd As the Morning of every Week the first Day of the Week so the [i] Dr. Gouge was very conscientious in the expence of his Time from his Youth to the very Time of his Death His custom was to rise very early both in the Winter and Summer In the Winter-time he constantly rose so long before Day as that he alwaies perform'd all the exercises of his Private Devotions before Day-light And in the Summer-time he rose about four a Cleck in the Morning by which means he had done half his Work before others began their Studies If he happen'd to hear any at their Work before he began his Studies he would say as Demosthenes spake concerning the Smith that he was much troubled that any should be at the Works of their Calling before he was at his In his Life among Mr. Clark's Lives of ten Em Div. p. 116 117. He continued in King's Colledg for the space of mine Years and in all that Time except he went forth of Town to his Friends he was never absent from Morning-Praiers in the Chappel which used to be about half an Hour after five a Clock in the Morning yea he used to rise so long before he went to the Chappel as that he gained Time for his Secret Devotions and for reading his Morning-task of the Scriptures Ibid p. 97. Morning of every Day is a special Season that ought to be redeem'd and improved by a Christian to spiritual Advantage The Morning is an Opportunity of giving God the very first and best of the Day and the chief of our Life Spirits and Strength In the Morning our Spirits are recreated and repair'd and our Bodies strengthned and refresh'd with the Rest and Sleep of the Night past and our Minds are vacant and not disturb'd with those Images and Representations of Things which the variety of worldly Employments in the Day usually fill and possess us with In the Morning our Minds are most free and our Affections most lively as
unweariedly in the holy Path though he has but few to bear him company in the narrow Way to Heaven Though the common Vote should go against us yet with holy * Josh 24.15 Joshua le us be singular in our vertuous Choice and plous Resolution Let us with Noah be upright and walk with God even when †Gen. 6.12 all Plesh have corrupted their way Let us with Lot be righteous even in Sodom and keep our Garments underfiled and unspotted with the Flesh even in a Sink of Sin and Uncleanness Let 's use all possible Arts and Means to retain our Healthfulness in a very bad and corrupt Air to keep the Spark of Grace alive in the very midst of the Ocean to preserve and maintain a gracious Disposition in the mids of a Deluge of Temptation Let us labour to be like Fish sweet and fresh in salt Water like Pearls or Jewels sparkling in a Dunghill yea to be like the Sun shining upon a Dunghill whose pure Raies and clear Beams are no way polluted with the Filthiness of it Let 's endeavour to be righteous among the Unrighteous and zealous among those that are careless and negligent of God and Religion And let the Coldness of the ambient Air. without not extinguish or weaken but fortify and strengthen our supernatural Heat within Though we live in bad Times yet let 's keep our selves free from the Evil of the Times And the freer we keep and preserve our selves from the Taint and Infection of the common Corruption we shall the more notably reprove and condemn discourage and discountenance the reigning Sins and abounding Vices of the Times we live in Though we be in the World which lies in Wickedness yet let us not be of the World but pray to God to keep us and endeavour to keep our selves * Joh. 17.15 from the Evil of the World Let not us be the worse for these evil Daies for if we be made worse by them we shall also make them worse Let our Care and Endeavour be to be good in evil Daies and as the Evil of Sin abounds let us encrease in Holiness Farther 3. Let us labour as to be good so to do good in evil Daies As to be good our selves so to make others good in the worst Times that can be By a holy and exemplary Conversation to be instrumental to their Conversion and if it be possible a Means effectual to bring the very Worst and Wickedest home to God In the †Phil. 2.15 16. midst of a crooked and perverse Nation let us shine as Lights in the World holding forth the Word of Life By our vertuous Lives adorned with excellent Actions let 's shine as so many Stars before them and be as so many Lights set up in Towers to direct others how to steer aright their Christian Course and safely to arrive at the Port of eternal Rest and the Haven of heavenly Happiness Let us pity and pray for those who pity and pray not for themselves let us exhort admonish them rebuke reprove them and ‖ Jude 23. save them with Fear pulling them out of the Fire Let us labour in this manner to make the evil Men of the Times as much better as we can By way of Motive Consider seriously these three Things Mot. 1. That if we grow bad in evil Times we can fetch no excuse from the Times for our Sins Men are apt indeed to translate the blame of their own Actions upon the Times and Places in which they live [s] Intelligas tua vitia esse quae put as renum Non ego ambitiosus sum sed me mo aliter Romae potest vivere Non ego fumptuosus sum sed Vrbs â—psd magnds impensas exigit Quid nos decipimus non est extrinsecus malum nostrum intrà nos est in visceribus ipsis sed t. Seneca E0 50. Seneca complains of some too ready to do so in his Daies that would argue and plead thus for themselves I am not ambitious but no man can live otherwise in Rome I am not extravagantly sumptuous but the City enforces great Expences it is costly and chargeable living in the City But why do we deceive our selves says he This Evil is not from any Cause without us it is within us it is seated on and sticks in our very Bowels If our Minds and Hearts were well disposed and rightly enclined Temptations would prove like Fire falling upon [t] Nec interest ex quà m magna causa ira naseatur sed in qualem perveniat animum Sic ignis non refert quà m magnus sed quò incidat nam etiam maximum solida non receperunt rursus arida corripi facilia scintiliam quoque fovent usque adiacendium Seneca Ep. 18. in sine uncombustible Matter Evil Times and Places are indeed an Occasion of Sin but the Cause is our own Hearts and Wills If we would carefully watch over our selves and above all keepings keep our Hearts we might keep our selves * Jam. 1.27 unspotted from the World in the corruptest Times and Places as well as others recorded in Scripture for our Example and Encouragement have done before us The Badness of the Times as [u] Of the Decelifulness of Man's Heart p. 157. Mr. Dyke occasionally citing my Text notes well upon it did not serve with St. Paul for a Cloak to excuse our Conformity to the Times but as a Spur to excite us to be so much the more careful of our selves not to be swaied with the common Stream And good reason have we saies he to make this use of the Corruption of the Times for if the Air be generally infectious had we not need to be so much the more strict in our Diet and careful in the use of wholesome Preservatives Surely as the same Author adds the worse the Times are the nearer grow they to their End and therefore so much the more apprehensive ought we to be of the Occasions of good because the Day in which only we can work is declining apace and that fearful Night approacheth wherein none can work Consider Mot. 2. It will be our high Praise and Glory to be religious and holy when the Times are profane and ungodly To be good Husbands in redeeming the Time when others are prodigals round about us [i] Sicut gravior is culpae est inter bonos bonum non esse it a immensi est praeconit bonum etiam inter malos extilisse Greg. l. 1. Mor. c. 1. As it 's a great Sin to be bad in good Times so 't is an admirable Vertue to be good in bad Times It is not so praise worthy to be good in good Times and among good Persons But to resist the Stream of evil Times and Persons to tug hard against Wind and Tide to resolve to be good and to endeavour to do good against all Opposition and Discouragement whatever Not to follow others in any sinful Waies and
wilfully wicked and impenitent have reason to determine that you have not long to live How can you hope that God should put another Talent and trust a new Stock of time in the Hands of such Prodigals as you have been That he should give such Rebels longer Time to affront and dishonour him That he should suffer you to live who know not how to live and care not how you live who do not understand or consider for what it was you came into the World That he should allow you one Day more who never yet knew how to spend and improve any one Day as ye ought You have Ground enough to expect that the continuing and lengthening out of your Sins will extremely diminish and lessen curtail and shorten your Daies You have reason to fear every Hour the Loss of your Lives and of all Possibility of Repentance that you shall be removed and room made for worthier Persons to stand up in the Places which you so unprofitably and perniciously take up in the World Our Time is short and therefore let us lay present hold upon that small Remnant of [o] Cum celeritate temporis utendi velocitate certandum est velut ex torrente rapido nec semper casuro cito hauriendum est Sen. de brev vit cap. 9. hasty Time which posteth away whether we work or play Let 's take with us Words and say to God with the devout Herbert [p] Repentance O let thy Height of Mercy then Compassionate short-breathed Men. Oh! gently treat With thy quick Flow'r thy moment any Bloom Whose Life still pressing Is one undressing A steady aiming at a Tomb. Let 's daily prepare to die by earnest importunate Pleading with God for Pardon of Sin and Sanctification and Sence of Pardon and of our fitness for Heaven and Happiness that so we may certainly die safely and comfortably And by the Help of God let 's double our Diligence and Activity and endeavour to do a great deal of Work in a little Time You know Nature at the Approach of Death usually acts a double Part and puts forth all its Strength Bells when about ceasing strike thicker than before A Stone the nearer it comes to its Center the faster it moves When Night draws on the Traveller mends his Pace Considering we have but a few Daies let 's labour to live them all to lose none of them So to lead our Life that we may be able to enjoy our past Life by making sweet and comfortable Reflections upon it which is in a manner to [p] Ampliat aetatis spatium sibi vir bonus hoc est Vivere bis vitá posse priore frui Epigrammatograph Latin enlarge our Age and after a Sort to live twice [q] Nemo quà m bene vivat sed quam diu curat cùm omnibus possit contingere ut bene vivant ut diu nulli Sen. ep 22. in fine Quomodo fabula sic vita non quà m diu sed quà m bene acta sit refert Id. ep 77. Discendum quà m bene vivas refrie non quà m diu Id. ep 101. We have but a little while to live let us therefore study and strive to live well Our Life is just like a Comedy saies Seneca it matters not so much how long as how well it is acted [r] Let us account that the oldest Life which is most holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch conjol ad Apollon A long Life is not the best but a good Life As we do not commend saith he him that hath playâ—d a great while on an Instrument or made a long Oration but him that hath played and spoken well and as we account those Creatures best that give us most profit in a short Time and every where we see maturity preferred before length of Age so it ought to be among our selves They are the worthiest Persons and have lived longest in the World who have brought the greatest Benefit unto it and made the greatest Advantage of their Time to the Service of God and of Men. Let our Conscience therefore be the Ephemeris or Diary of our Life Let us not reckon by the Almanack but by the Book of God how much we live And let us account that he who lives Godly lives long and that other Men live not at all D. Patrick's Div. Arithm. p. 34 35. He lives long that lives well who in a few Years is very useful and serviceable unto God and geatly profitable and beneficial to the World The Author of the Book of Wisdom says concerning Enoch who was the shortest liv'd of the Patriarchs before the Flood but an eminent Pattern of Piety and a rare Exemplar of walking with God that he being perfected or consummated in a short Time fulfilled a long Time Chap. 4. Vers 13. For as the same Author a little before does well express it Vers 8 9. Honourable Age is not that which standeth in length of Time nor that which is measured by Number of Years But Wisdom is the gray Hair unto Men and an unspotted Life is old Age. Lucilius having in an Epistle to Seneca sadly lamented the immature untimely Death of Metronactes the Philosopher who might and in his Conceit ought to have lived longer The grave Moralist seasonably checks his causeless unjust Complaint of [s] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apud Poctas Minor p. 513. Providence and takes Occasion in his Answer to discourse usefully and excellently in this manner [t] Octoginta annis vixit nisi fortè sic vixisse eum dicis quomodo dicuntur arbores vivere Quemadmodum in minorâ— corporis habitu potest homo esse perfect us sic in mâ—nore temporis modo potest esse vita perfecta Qâ—aeris quod sit amplissimum vitae spatium Vsque adsapientiam vivere qui adâ—â—â—m pervenit attigit non longissimum sinem sed maximum Nem tam multis vixit annis quà m potuit Et paucorum versuum liber est quidem laudandus atque utilis Sâ—n. ep 93. Multis ille bonis slebilis occidit Horat. carm l. 1 Od. 14. de morte Quintilii Our Care should be saies he not to live long but to live enough Life is long if it be full What good do eighty Years do him that spends them all idly such a Person did not live but only linger in Life nor did he die late but was a long Time dead But you make your moan that he died young and green yet he performed the Offices of a good Citizen a good Friend a good Son he was deficient in no part that properly belonged to him Though his Age was imperfect his Life was perfect He liv'd yea he was here eighty Years unless you will reckon he liv'd no otherwise than Trees are said to live I pray thee my Lucilius let us endeavour says he that as precious Things so our Life though it be not of any great Extent and Length yet may be of much Weight and Worth Let us
cause to fear and in their Old Age almost ground enough to despair I may here take up the Complaint of the devout [i] Quid prodest din vivere quando tam parùm emendae nur Ah long a vita non semper emendat sed saepe culpam magis auget Vtinam per unam diem bene essemus conversati in hoc mundo multiannos computant conversionis sed saepe pâ—rvus est fructus emendationis A Kempis l. 1. c. 23. n. 2. A Kempis What does it avail us to live long when we are so little better'd by it Ah long Life says he does not alwaies mend our Manners but does often the more encrease our Crimes Would we had a alked but one Day well in this World Many reckon Years of their Conversion but there is too often but little sign of a new Conversation Had we not been grosly wanting to our selves how much might we have known of God and of his Mind and Meaning in his Word and Works How much might we have done for God and received from god by this Time what a Stock of Grace might we have gotten before now What a Treasure of Experience might we have heaped up What a good Foundation might we have laid of a sound solid and well-setled Peace and Comfort to stand us in stead in a Time of Need What ground might we have gotten against our Corruptions What Growth in Grace What Strength in the inner Man What Skill to discern and avoid the Wiles and Snares of the Devil What Love to and Delight in the Law of God What Readiness to every good Word and Work What Ereedom and Enlargedness might we have attaineed to in God's Service How truly might it have been our very Meat and Drink to do the Will of God our constant Course daily Use and chosen cheerful Exercise to run the Waies of God's Commandments How forward might we have been in the Way to the spiritual Canaan who have it may be been greatly guilty of many Retrogradations How might we have been of another Spirit than we are of at present How publick-spirited might we have grown How zealous for the Glory of God and the good of Souls How active in the Cause of God and Religion How careless of the Pleasures that are but for a Season How spiritual and heavenly-minded How ready to die How ripe for Heaven O let this Consideration be laid to Heart by us and serve deeply to humble us that we have had much Time but have redeemed little or none that we have liv'd long to little to bad Purpose that we have trifled and squandred away those Seasons of grace that can never be enjoyed again and lost those Opportunities that can never return back again Let us put our selves to the Trial and bring our selves under Examination whether we have discharged our Dutyin Redeeming the Time yea or no. The third Vse by way of Reproof Is every Christian bound to redeem the Time Then here is a Word of seasonable serious sharp Reproof to several Persons who are grosly guilty of mis-spending their Time and divers Waies do foolishly cut this precious Commodity to waste Particularly to these following The first Sort of Persons reproved To such as mi-spend their Time in Idleness who lose their Time nihil agendo in doing just nothing or nothing at all worthy the naming Who live in Neglect of all honest and Useful Employment or do not sedulously exercise chemselves in the Duties of their Place and [a] There dwelled in Belsted a small Village some three Miles from Ipswich a Tanner who being very busie in tawing of a Hide Mr. Carter came by accidentally and going sostly behind him being familiarly acquainted with the good Man merrily gave him a little Clap on the Back The man started and looking behind him suddenly blushed and said Sir I am ashamed that you should find me thus To whom Mr. Carter replied Let Christ when he comes fiad me so dotag What said the man doing thus Yes said M. Carter to him saithfully performing the Duties of my Calling The Life of Mr. John arter inserted among Mr. Clark's Lives of ten Eminent Divines pag. 13. Calling How sharply may God reprove and say to many among us * Mat. 20.6 Why stand ye here all the Day idle What Cause have Ministers to complain of their People with the Apostle and say †2 Thess 3.11 There are some which walk among you disorderly working not at all To how many may we use the VVords of the VVise Man ‖ Prov. 6.6 Go to the Ant thou Sluggard 1. Idleness is a Sin against a Man's very Creation God did not so curiously work and accurately frame us to sit still and fold our Hands and give our selves to our ease and to [b] Desidea somnium vigilantis dream when we are awake Our Maker intended and fitted us for work To what End did God furnish us with so many useful instruments as the several members of our Bodies and endow us with those nimble and active Faculties of our Souls but that we might up and be doing and vigorously prosecute and pursue some worthy and good End in the diligent Use of sit and proper Means Adam even in Paradise was not allowed to be idle but before he feil we appointed and ordered to * Gen. 2.15 dress the Garden and to keep the Ground in which Employment he should have [c] Oberatus fuisser agrievlturâ non laboriosd sed deliciosa ad voluptatem experientiam Synops Crit. taken Delight and gain'd Experience And afterward when he had sinn'd not light and case but hard and painful tedious and wearisome Labour was enjoined him as a perpetual Penance for his Transgression and Offence and imposed as a [d] Andr. River Exercit. in Gen. p. 157. Bridle to rest rain the Flesh which by reason of Sin is now become wanton and rebellious against the Spirit (*) Gen. 3.17 19. In sorrow shalt thou eat all the Daies of thy Life In the Sweat of thy Face shalt thou eat thy Bread * Job 5.7 Man says Eliphaz is born unto Labour troublesome Labour †Psal 104.23 Man says David goeth forth to his Work and to his Labour until the Evening This is the Course which God has set him But by their Idleness Men attempt to overthrow the Purpose and Design of God and to frustrate the End whereto Man was created and plainly thwart and contradict cross and controul God's Curse while only in the Sweat of others Brows they eat their Bread and cast off the Means which God has ordain'd for repressing and taming the petulant and unruly Flesh Were these so wise as to accept of the Punishment threatned and inflicted and to become painful and laborious in their Places and Employments the Curse of God would by a Miracle of the divine Mercy be turn'd into a [e] The Labour and Sweat of our Brows is so far from being a
Payment of them The learned and judicious Bp. Sanderson in a Sermon [c] Bp. Sanderson on 1 Cor. 7.14 p. 214 215. preached to the People gives them this wholesome good Instruction not to ingulf themselves so wholly into the Businesses of their particular Callings as to abridg themselves of convenient Opportunities for the Exercise of those religious Duties which they are bound to perform by virtue of their general Calling This says he is a point of Duty Men being commanded in their Callings to abide with God A point of Wisdom also it being a means to procure a Blessing upon their Labours from his Hands who never faileth to serve them that never fail to serve him And a Point of Justice too as due by way of Restitution of which he gives this both ingenious and solid Proof We make bold with God's Day says he and dispense with some of that Time which he hath sanctified unto his Service for our own Necessities It is equal we should allow him at least as much of ours as we borrow of his though it be for our Necessities or lawful Comforts But if we rob him of some of his Time as too often we do employing it in our own Businesses without the Warrant of a just Necessity we are to know that it is Theft yea Theft in the highest Degree Sacriledg and that therefore we are bound at least as far as petty Theeves were in the Law to a * Exod. 22.1 2 Sam. 12.6 fourfold Restitution But how very many so overload and overburthen themselves and their Families with ordinary worldly Businesses that either they quite neglect their Duties or put God off with slight and short and hasty Duties and neither afford themselves sufficient Time nor allow their Servants convenient Opportunities of remembring their God and minding their Souls Necessities These have no leisure to consider that the Soul is more worth than the Body and Heaven more valuable than the Earth and therefore that the Things that necessarily conduce to the saving of the Soul and securing of Heaven must not wholly be neglected for any bodily Concernments or worldly Interests whatsoever We must first seek the Kingdom of God and chiefly lay up a Treasure in Heaven and therefore we must not suffer worldly Cares to take up an undue Proportion of our Time We must not engage in so many Businesses nor so eagerly pursue and follow any as that our ordinary worldly Affairs should hinder our selves or our Families from the Performance of ordinary religious Exercises [d] Toward the end of his Life before his Remains It is reported of the famous Mr. George Herbert sometime Orator of the University of Cambridg that when he came to have a Family he was eminent and exemplary for his spiritual Love and Care of his Servants by his own Practice teaching Masters this Duty to allow their Servants daily Time wherein to pray privately and to enjoyn them to do it holding this for true generally That publick Prayer alone to such Persons is no Prayer at all Our Love and Care even of our Servants spiritual Welfare ought to be greater than our Love and Care of the Things of this World As many so deeply plunge themselves into unnecessary Businesses that they have no Leisure for religious Performances So some so mainly mind earthly Things that they make Religion subservient to their worldly Employment take up a specious Profession of Religion and fair Form of Godliness chiefly to invite and draw Customers to their Shops and that they may deal falsely and [e] Totius injustitia nulla capitalior est quà m eorum qui tum cùm maxime fallent id tamen agunt ut viri boni esse videantur Cicero l. 1. de Offic. unjustly without Question or Suspicion and gain unreasonably and unconscionably by a dissembled Sanctity and sictitious Piety The last Sort of Persons reproved And lastly Some Persons are to be reproved for mis-spending their Time in their Duties You may think this strange that Time should be thrown away in Duties But I would have you to understand it may for you may lose your Time in Duties these two waies 1. By performing them unseasonably 2. By doing them formally 1. You lose Time in Duty if you perform it unseasonably And that may be done these two Waies 1. When one Duty thrusts and justles out another and so the Duty is mistimed As if a Man do spend that Time in his Closet and in religious Devotion which God does require him to employ in his Shop and in following his Vocation So again if you reade and pray privatly at home when you should attend on the publick Ordinance Or reade in your Bible or Prayer-Book at Church when you should hearken to the Sermon there Or if you do nothing but reade when you should meditate sometimes and confer sometimes Or if you give way to such good Thoughts as in Prayer or hearing the Word at any Time come into your Mind but are impertinent and irrelative to the Matter in hand Such Thoughts though they be materially good yet are formally evil though good in themselves yet are sinful to thee at such unfit and inconvenient Times and will at least taint and fly-blow thy necessary present Duty To do any Duty whatever when you should rather do another is to mis-spend Time about such a Duty which is to you unseasonable 2. When Duty is perform'd at such a Time when we are most unfit for it then it is unseasonable and Time is lost in it As when we go to Prayer when we are fitter to go to sleep and kneel upon the Cushion when we are fitter to lay our Head upon the Pillow and hold up our Hands then when we are scarce able to hold open our Eyes and speak to God then when we hardly hear our selves speak When Luther during his retirement in the Castle at Coburga for his Safety enjoyed more leisure than ordinary one Vitus Theodorus who then lived with him informed Melancthon concerning him that he spent in Prayer every Day [f] Nullus abit dits quin ut minimum tres horas edsque fludiis aptissimas in orationem ponat Melch. Adam in vit Luther p. 138 142. three Hours at least and those that were fittest and properest for his Studies And it is commendable in some Masters of Families that as often as they can do it with any convenience they perform Evening-Prayer in their Families before Bed-Time yea before Supper-Time when they are not clogg'd with Meat nor heavy with Sleep but are every way freest and fittest for Duty Will you set your selves and your House-hold to do God's Work when you are wholly unfit to do your own You lose Time in Duty by performing it unseasonably That 's the first 2. You lose Time in Duty if you perform Duty no otherwise than formally customarily slightly and superficially If you handle holy Things without any Feeling If you do the Duty for the Matter
Here take my Staff Art thou going away for ever and hast taken no order nor care how thou shalt speed in that other World whence thou shalt never return Take my Staff for I am not guilty of any such Folly as this And truly they that here neglect to provide for hereafter to lay up a durable Treasure in Heaven to make sure of a Building of God an House not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens of an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in the Heavens shall certainly be branded and upbraided for their Folly to all Eternity What Folly is it to count the one thing needful the only needless thing What Folly and Madness to part with Heaven for uncertain Riches and corruptible Wealth or a few merry Hours here on Earth What a shameful Folly is it when the * Jer. 8.7 Stork in the Heaven knoweth her appointed Times and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow observe the Time of their coming for Men and Christians not to discern and understand the gracious Seasons and special Opportunities of their particular Duties What grand and gross Folly is it for Men to have but one Life's Time of necessary Preparation for eternal Life and to live and dy in a total wilful desperate Neglect of it Yea to have but one small part of Time to do all that ever they can do for their own and others eternal Weal and to spend this little Portion of Time in increasing their own and others Sins and in destroying their own and others Souls What prodigious stupendious Folly is it to be weary of that which flies away too fast and cannot be recall'd and to use Arts and Devices to pass that Time away in Vanity which can only be spent profitably and comfortably in a daily diligent Provision for Eternity What absurd and ridiculous Folly is it a very heathen [e] Sen. de brev vit c. 3. Philosopher being Judg in the Case for Men to be so far from suffering others to possess themselves of their Manours or Farms or in the least to encroach and gain upon their Bounds and yet to permit them to enter upon their Time nay themselves to induct them into the Possession of it For those that are so wary as never to divide their Money among any yet to be so ready to distribute their Time to so very many For those that are very strait and hard in keeping of their Patrimony when once it comes to the spending of their Time to be extreamly lavish and [f] Profusissims in eo cujus unius honesta avaritia est Id. ibidem wasteful of that of which only we can be honestly covetous Once more What miserable unhappy Folly is it in the most of Men to throw away their Time slightly and carelessly profusely and prodigally and yet to be impatiently troubled and even distracted and tormented when all is gone Which aptly leads me to the fifth Motive The fifth Motive Consider moreover that if now thou losest and squanderest away thy Time thou wilt at last be forced thy self to condemn thy foolish Negligence and to justify the Care and Diligence of others that were wiser for their own Souls than thy self though here thou didst nothing but jeer and deride them scorn and scoff at them As Dionysius on his Death-bed when he heard Thales discoursing notably about the Nature and Excellency of Moral Philosophy [a] Virtutem videant intabescánt que relictâ Pers sat 3. cursed his Pastimes Sports and Pleasures that had taken him off and diverted him from the Study of so worthy a Subject So will careless Sinners and loose Livers when Death approaches and Conscience accuses loudly exclaim against all their foolish sensual Delights which turn'd off their Minds from weightier Matters and hindred their Acquaintance with better Things and their living to higher and nobler Purposes in the World The Heathen Moralist could observe thus much That Persons prodigal of their Time at present at last [b] stultos se fuisse quòd non vixerint claâ—â—tant Sen. de brev vit c. 11. cry out upon themselves for Fools that they have not liv'd any part of the Time they have been in the World And it is a notable Place and remarkable Passage to this purpose which we find in the fifth Chapter of the Book of Wisdom the third and fourth Verses They repenting and groaning for anguish of Spirit shall say within themselves This was he whom we had sometimes in derision and a Proverb of reproach We Fools accounted his Life Madness and his end to be without Honour How is he numbred among the Children of God and his Lot is among the Saints And in the seventh and eighth Verses We wearied our selves in the way of Wickedness and Destruction But as for the way of the Lord we have not known it What hath Pride profited us or what good hath Riches with our vaunting brought us 'T is therefore a seasonable good Premonition that is given by a pious Person [c] Quando illa extrema hera veneâ—it multum aliter sentire incipies de tota vita tua praeterita valde dolebs quia tam negligens remissus suisti Thom a Kempis l. 1. c. 23. n. 3. When thy last Hour shall draw near thou wilt then begin to have quite other sentiments and vastly different Apprehensions of thy whole Life past and wilt grieve a nd mourn exceedingly that thou hast continually been so remiss and negligent When you come to die you will be ready to cry out with Croesus Solon Solon who had before time taught him of Blessedness without regard You will then be apt in like manner to say Such and such a Minister did frequently and faithfully tell me my Duty and my Danger Such and such a Friend dealt plainly with me and well advis'd and counsel'd me but Fool that I was I would hear no Instruction I would receive no Admonition I would bear no Reproof I would take no warning How strangely will you shortly be astonish'd at the impartial Review of your unexcusable Ill-husbandry of all the Time in this World allotted you What wounding heart-renting revengeful Self-reflections will you suffer What passionate violent Rage against your selves will you be forced to feel within your selves What bitter Anguish and desperate Horrour will you unavoidably and irresistibly fall under when you sadly recount and too late remember how inconsiderately and unwarsly loosly and vainly you have passed your Time and spent your Years here on Earth what golden Seasons of Grace you have lost and scorn'd and dishonour'd and abused all that would not act the Parts of Fools and Mad-men like your selves When you have utterly lost and fully and finally undone your selves with what Gripes and Groans will you then look back upon all the Means and Mercies Helps and Assistances Opportunities and Advantages which here you enjoyed but slighted and undervalued dream'd and fool'd played and
sinned away being only concern'd for things of nought and busy in doing worse than nothing What a pain and torture will it be to consider that when you know you have had sufficient Discretion and exceeding Care Prudence and Providence enough and more than enough in other Matters you should be dull and listless sluggish and sottish wanting and defective in the only commendable necessary point of Wisdome A Man's falling out with himself for ever the sharp Rebukes and cutting Upbraidings of a Man 's own Conscience and Self-condemnation for former Folly and Madness will certainly be no small part of the dreadful intolerble Torments of Hell The sixth Motive Sixthly and lastly Consider once more That do what we can to redeem our Time we shall never repent at last of any Care we have had to redeem it but shall certainly blame and find fault with our selves for being so careless of our Time so negligent of good Opportunities as we have been 1. Good Men do often in their Life-time confess and condemn their Loss and Neglect of their precious Time That it was so long before they began to redeem it St. Austin very much laments his coming in to Christ no sooner [a] Serò te cognovi lumen verum serò te cognovi Vae vae praeteritae ignorantiae nâ—eae quando non cognoscebam te Domine Serò cognovi te veritas antiqua sèrò te cognovi veritas aeterna Aug Soliloq c. 33. 'T was late Lord before I knew thee the true Light says he alas I knew thee but late And that they have redeem'd it no better since first they went about it The devout St. Bernard who was so rarely pious a Person and so continually given to divine Meditation yeet bewails most sadly and complains most passionately of his spirituall Backwardness and Unproficiency [b] Terret me tota vita mea Deus meus quoniam diligenter discussa apparet mihi aut peccatum aut sterilitas Sic comedo bibo dormio securus quasi jam transierim diem mortu evaserim diem judicii tormenta inferni Sic ludo rideo quasi jam regnem tecum in regno tuo Bernard de interiori domo c. 33. Tanquam arbor sterilis terram occupo velut jumentum vile plus consumo quà m proficio Vivere erubesco quia parum proficio mori timeo quoniam non sum paratus Id. ib. c. 35. O my God my whole Life makes me afraid says he for if I diligently examine it that which appears to me in it is either Sin or Barrenness And again I cumber the Ground as a barren Tree says he and as a base Beast I waste and consume more than I profit I am asham'd to live because I profit so little and I 'm afraid to dy because I am unprovided Erasmus professed concerning himself [d] Accusant quò l nimium fâ—cerim â—â—rù câ—nscientia mea me accusat quò l minus secerim q ò lque lentior fuerim They accuse me for doing too much but my own Conscience accuses me for doing too little and being too slow It is [e] His Life in Mr. Clark's Collect. of the Lives of ten Em. Div. p. 37. reported of Mr. Samuel Crook that whensoever his Preaching-day happen'd upon Januar. 17. which was his Birth-day he still noted his Years compleat with this Birth-day he still noted his Years compleat with this Penitential Epiphonema 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God be merciful to me a Sinner An Eminent Divine of our own yet living who has laboured [f] I refer to the better Works of him that labours more abundantly than us all Mr. Baxter in the Margin of Dr. Patrick's Aqua Genitalis p. 75 in 12. more abundantly than the most of his Brethren in the Ministry yet expresses himself in such humble Self-reflections as these For [g] Mr. Baxter's Now or Never p. 181 182. my own part says he though I have long liv'd in a sense of the Preciousness of Time and have not been wholly idle in the World yet when I have the deepest Thoughts of the great everlasting Consequents of my Work and of the Vncertainty and Shortness of my Time I am even amazed to think that my Heart can be so slow and senseless as to do no more in such a case The Lord knows and my accusing wounded Conscience knows that my Slothfulness is so much my shame and admiration that I am astonished to think that my Resolutions are no stronger my Affections no livelier and my Labour and Diligence no greater when God is the Commander and his Love the Encourager and his Wrath the Spur and Heaven or Hell must be the Issue Let who will speak against such a Life it shall be my daily grief and moan that I am so dull and do so little And in another [h] Making light of Christ and Salvation Consideration 3. Discourse he makes this free and open acknowledgment For my self says he as I am ashamed of my dull and careless Heart and of my slow and unprofitable course of Life so the Lord knows I am ashamed of every Sermon that I preach When I think what I have been speaking of and who sent me and that Mens Salvation or Damnation is so much concerned in it I am ready to tremble lest God should judg me as a Slighter of his Truth and the Souls of Men and lest in the best Sermon I should be guilty of their Blood The Trees of Righteousness are apprehensive of their own Vnfruitfulness troubled at it mourn under it and use themselves to such holy Breathings as that of [i] Employment Mr. Herbert O That I were an Orange-tree That busy Plant Then should I ever laden be And never want Some Fruit for him that dressed me Serious considerative Christians do blame themselves for their Loss of Time even in their Life-time But 2. They are especially sensible of it and exceedingly ashamed of themselves for it at their Death They that have been the most busy stirring Christians all their Life-time when they come to die do repent of their Lasiness blush to think of their spiritual Slothfulness bewail and lament their Carelesness and Negligence They that have been the Wonders of the World for Strictness and Preciseness Singularity and Severity of holy Living that have been admired for their Usefulness Industry Diligence and Activity yet when they lay a dying have condemned themselves censured their past Lives and earnestly wished O! that they had been a thousand times more holy and religious more painful and laborious for God and their own and others Souls Melchior Adam relates in [k] Pag. 235. The Life of the Learned and holy Theodore Beza that when he was very aged and plainly perceived his approaching End he often used that Saying of St. Austin Diu vixi diu peccavi I have lived long I have sinned long The excellent and useful Philip de Mornay in his last Sickness said to the Minister that
which are of so strange and weighty an importance that the * 1 Pet. 1 1◠Angels themselves desire [o] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is an Allusion to the Cherubims which were made with their Eyes looking down towards the Mercy-Seat slooping down to look to peep and pry into them In gaining Knowledg and Understanding of the Wisdome Counsel Mind and Will of God In acquainting our selves with the Rule of our Lives in learning the Laws of the Kingdome and studying the Statutes of Heaven in using the Means of getting and growing in saving Grace in opening and reading our Elder Brother's Will and Testament in sucking those full Breasts of strong Consolation and in drawing the refreshing Water of Life out of those Wells of Salvation Let it be the shame and sorrow and trouble of our Souls that we have been careless of the Scriptures in any part of our whole Lives [p] In his Life written by Mr. W. Durham p. 2. Dr. Robert Harris President of Trinity-Colledg in Oxford was not a little afflicted to his dying day that even in his Childhood he was more willing of play than of reading the Scriptures to his pious Parents at their Call And let 's lament and sadly lay to heart the slight Thoughts that too many have of the holy Scriptures and their gross neglect and great disregard of the precious and venerable Book of God Mr. Fuller in his [p] Pag. 148. History of the University of Cambridge does give us a Relation of an excellent Meditation of the Reverend Dr. Richard Holdesworth which the Relater himself heard drop from him a little before his expiring I admire saies he at David 's gracious Heart who so often in Scripture but especially in the 119th Psalm extolleth the Worth and Value of the Word of God and yet Quantillum Scripturae how little of the Word had they in that Age the Pentateuch or five Books of Moses the Book of Job and some of the Hagiography a little of other holy Writ How much have we now thereof since the accession of the Prophets but especially of the New Testament and yet alas the more we have of the Word of God the less it is generally regarded Lastly let 's do our honest and utmost endeavour to win and draw others on to the Love and Liking to the Reading and Studying of the sacred Scriptures * Deut. 6.6 7. Let them be in thine Heart and teach them diligently unto thy Children and talk of them when thou sittest in thine House and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thon risest up †4.9 Teach them thy Sons and thy Son's Sons ‖ Gen. 18.19 Command thy Children and engage thy Houshold and Servants to reade the Scriptures and to mind what they reade and allow them Time for so necessary a Duty and let not any in thy Family want a Bible for their Use and Benefit [q] The Life of Dr. Rob. Harris written by Mr. W. Durham pag. 57. In all the Wills made by the forementioned Dr. Robert Harris this Legaey was alwaies renewed Item I bequeath to all my Children and their Childrens Children to each of them a Bible with this Inscription None but Christ The eighth Direction If we would effectually redeem the Time we must give our selves to frequent and serious [a] Meditatio soror lectionis nutrix orationis directrix oporis emntumque pariter perfectio consummatrix Gerson Meditation Meditation is more excellent than mere Study for the End of Meditation is not the filling our Heads with Notions but the quickening of our Affections and strengthning of our Resolutions the warming of our Hearts and putting them upon Duty the bringing them to an inward lively Sense of God to the Love and Fear of God to Thankfulness and Obedience to him to the Enjoyment of him and Fellowship and Communion with him Let 's use and inure our selves [b] See Dr. T. Goodwin of the Vanity of Thoughts pag. 8 9 10. to raise and extract holy Observations and spiritual Considerations from all ordinary Occurrences and Occasions and as the Bee sucks Honey out of every Flower let 's endeavour to distil heavenly and savory sweet and useful Meditations out of all God's Dealings with us and Dispensations towards us out of all Accidents that befall us or any about us out of the Things we see hear or hear of and out of all the Objects that any way come into our Thoughts This was the Practice of our blessed Saviour when he came to * Joh. 4. a Well he took occasion to discourse of the Water of Life And this has likewise been the Vsage of the most eminent practical Christians The Reverend and holy [c] His Life among Clark's Lives of ten em Div. p. 166 167. Mr. Jeremy Whitaker as he was riding with one of his intimate Friends by Tiburn which he had not seen or not observ'd before he asked what that was and being answered that it was Tiburn where so many Malefactors had lost their Lives he stop'd his Horse and utter'd these Words with much Affection O what a shame is it that so many thousands should die for the Satisfaction of their Lusts and so few be found willing to lay down their Lives for Christ Why should not we in a good Cause and upon a good Call be ready to be hanged for Jesus Christ It would be an everlasting Honour and it is a thousand times better to die for Christ to be hanged or to be burn'd for Christ than to die in our Beds When we are riding walking sitting alone in the day time or when we are awake in the night season let us commune with our own Hearts and fill up such spaces of Time and employ such Spare-Hours in holy Thoughts of the best Things yea let us set some Time apart for the solemn Duty of Meditation That which comes into our Souls by Meditation is like a Shower of Snow which falls soft and sinks deep 'T is a good Saying of St. Austin Intellectus cogitabundus principium omnis boni A thinking Mind is a Principle productive of all good [d] Dr. Annesly M. E. Serm. i. p. 9. The Father of a Prodigal lying on his Sick and Death-bed straitly charg'd his only Son that he would spend a Quarter of an Hour every day in serious solitary Thoughts leaving to himself the particular Subject of his retired Meditation The Son accordingly following this Advice at last cast in his Thoughts what might be his Father's Intention in such Injunction He concluded that his Father being a wise and a good Man designed to direct and lead his Thoughts to the consideration of somewhat of Religion which did so mightily operate upon him that he quickly became rationally religious Upon all Occasions particularly and especially often meditate and frequently think of the four last Things Death Judgment Heaven and Hell the serious Thoughts of which
Simplicity and Godly Sincerity I have had my Conversation in the World To say with Hilarion as St. Jerom reports in his [b] Egredere anima quid times Egredere quid dubitas Septuaginta prope annis servisti Christo mortem times Hier. in vita Hilar. Life Go out my Soul why art thou afraid go out why lingrest thou thou hast served Christ well nigh these seventy Years and dost thou now fear Death To see that it has been to thee * Phil. 1.21 to live Christ and to be able to look on thy Death as thy Gain And with good old [c] His Life inserted among Mr. Clark's Lives of ten emin Div. p. 123. When his good Sister said to him in his Sickness Brother I am afraid to leave you alone VVhy Sister said be I shall I am sure be with Jesus Christ when I die Ib. p. 123 124. Dr. Gouge in thy last Sickness to term Death thy best Friend next to Jesus Christ With †Phil. 1.23 St. Paul to desire to depart and to be ready to utter such Language as this Oh loose this Frame this Knot of Man unty That my free Soul may use her Wing Which is now pinion'd with Mortality As an entangled hamper'd Thing As the pious [d] Home Mr. Herbert pathetically expresses it in one of his sacred Poems Dwell upon these Considerations That the Loss and Misimprovement of Time will make a Death-bed uneasy to you and that the right redeeming of time will render a Death-bed comfortable to you And this will be very apt to move you to prepare for Death by dying to Sin dying to the World and living to Righteousness before you die 'T will help you to live every Day so indeed as others wish that they had liv'd when they come to lie upon a Death-bed To live so now that you may with comfort think of dying and may be freed from the slavish Fear of Death and be held no longer ‖ Heb. 2.15 in bondage by it 'T will cause you to live the Life of the Righteous that so you may die the Death of the Righteous die safely and die comfortably 'T will make you careful to set not only your House but your Heart in order your Life in order and so to dispatch your work and Business that when you come to die you may have nothing to do but to die and freely and cheerfully to resign your Spirit to the Father of Spirits and to surrender your Soul to your faithful Creator and gracious loving Lord Redeemer In a Word it will enable you so to live that you may have * Prov. 14.32 Hope in your own Death and that when Friends shall mourn for your Departure they may not sorrow without †1 Thess 4.13 Hope And so much shall suffice for your Direction as to your Meditation of Death your own particular Death in order to your Redemption of Time 2. Meditate here moreover of the general Dissolution of all Things at least in this inferiour World Think well of what (*) 2 Pet. 3.11 St. Peter informs you that all these Things shall be dissolved Consider that the Description which is there given of this Dissolution is too august and [e] Dr. ore's y st of Godl p 214. big by far for so small a Work as [f] Of which Dr. Hammend in eâ—prets it the Destruction of the City of Jerusalem That the Scoffers arguing there against the Promise of christ's coming that (†) Verse 4. all Things continue as they were from the Beginning of the Creation does clearly shew that this Coming of Christ was not understood by them and consequently not by St. Peter of the Burning of a City by War a Thing which might as probably and easily happen to Jerusalem as it had already fallen out in many other Places of the World But of the final glorious Coming of Christ to judge the World which [f] Superest I 'e ultimus perpetuus judicis di s ille nationibus insperatus ille derisus cùm tanta secult vetusta tot ejus nativitates uno ignt haurientur Tertull. lib de Spectae cap 30. Judgment the Conflagration of the Earth is to attend Think very seriously with thy self that * Verse 7. the Heavens and the Earth which are now are reserved unto Fire How †Verse 10. the Heavens shall one Day pass away with a great Noise and ‖ Verse 12. being on Fire shall be dissolved and the (*) Verse 10 12. Elements or [g] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordine mitiari incedo The host of the Aethereal Heavgens are the Stars and Planets The Host of the Aereal Heavens are Clouds and Meteors Fowls and flying Creatures Hosts shall melt with fervent Heat the Earth also and the Works of Nature or Art that are therein shall be burnt up That though the superiour Aethereal starry Heavens may be exempted as [h] He that considereth both the super-eminent Nature and Immensity of the Aethereal Heaven and of those innum rable Bodies therein in regard of which the whole Sublunary VVorld is but a Point or Centre and that it no way can be prov'd that ever those Bodies received any Curse for Man's Sin or Contagion by the VVorld's Deluge or that any Enemies of God dwell in them to pollute them He that considereth this will not easily be induced to believe that the Fire of the Day of Judgment shall burn them It remaineth therefore that the Sublunary Heavens only with their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are to be the Subject of this Conflagration Mr. Mede's Works p. 614 615. some with probable Reason conceive yet that without dispute or doubt [i] Dr. More 's Myst of Godl p. 231. the Globe of the Earth and the circumjacent Air with all the Garnishings of them shall be burnt up That this Air and Earth shall be strangely and wonderfully alter'd though not annihilated That the present Order and comely Beauty of the Compages and Frame of this visible lower World shall be dissolv'd That this great House and goodly Building made for Man to dwell in shall be taken down and all the Furniture wherewith it was fitted for his Use and Service shall be destroyed That it will be an Act of Wisdom for God to abolish these Things when the Time appointed for Probation and Trial of immortal Spirits cloathed with Flesh is ended and expired and Men shall enter into so different a State in which there will be no need of any Thing that serves and ministers to this terrene and animal Life And though God think good to continue this World for a while that it may be a Theater whereon his Wisdom Goodness Mercy Patience and other his glorious Attributes may be displayed and made conspicuous yet it is convenient and reasonable that this Stage of God's Acts and Works of Providence when all is finished should be taken down And
〈◊〉 Eâ—asm Apophth l. 3. gather'd to blessed and perfected Spirits and be made it Welf equal to the Angels and so become sit Company for them That thy Soul shall be in an happy Condition and be secure and certain that it shall never be dispossess'd and ejected out of it depriv'd or bereaved of it Such Thoughts as these will never suffer thee to let thy Soul sleep in thy Body which will surely wake when it is out of it This Meditation is likely to preserve thee from living and acting sensually and brutishly as if thy Soul were material and mortal and capable of no greater Happiness or higher Preserment than to be imprison'd and buried in this gross dull Flesh This will cause thee to take care that thy Soul may exercise and maintain a due Superiority over thy Body that thy Soul may * 1 Cor. 9.27 keep under thy Body and bring it into subjection and not be servilely and sordidly subject to it since thy Soul is able to live without it and shall from the Day of Death till the Day of Resurrection live better without it than ever here it liv'd with it This will mind thee to bring thy Soul which is a Spirit to converse now with the Father of Spirits and help thee to live like an Angel here on Earth who after Death shalt be as an Angel of God in Heaven Farther the Consideration or a State of Bliss to departed Souls will make thee labour to become fit for this State by getting thy Soul made like to God by true Holiness that God may love his own Image and Likeness in thee and delight to do good to the Soul he loves By striving to lead a good and holy Life here which is by the Ordination of God the direct and ready Way to an happy and eternal Life hereafter By looking that every Action and Carriage of thy Life be worthy of thy Hope of eternal Life [o] See to this purpose Mr. Baxter's Reas of the Christ Rd. 1 part p. 138 139. If a State of glorious Immortality were but a Likely hood and Probability you would notwithstanding in all reason do any thing suffer any thing part with any thing that if at last it should prove a reality you might make sure of it and render your self capable of obtaining and enjoying it because if it should prove true and you should miss of it no present Enjoyment could any way countervail the Loss of an eternal State of Bliss And if it should not prove true the denying thy self these earthly sensual Pleasures would be no considerable Loss or great Unhappiness to thee 't would be but the Loss of a transitory short impure imperfect Pleasure which even in this World has Pain and Torment mixt with it and has often sad Rellishes and a bitter Farewel at the End of it If there were but a bare Probability of such a State the most obscure Notices and thy uncertain Hopes of it were enough to make thee diligently look after it Surely then thou wilt much more seek and press after it when God has given thee an absolute Certainty of the Thing and the highest Satisfaction that can rationally be desired of the Truth of it And this Meditation will be a Means as to fit thee for thy Translation so to make thee with * Phil. 1.21 23 St. Paul have an earnest Desire to depart to go hence to go home To breadth out [p] Melch. Adam in vit Calv. p. 100. Calvin's Ejaculaton Vsquequo Domine How long Lord To cry out as holy [q] Aug. Cons l. 9. c. 19 §. 4. Monica did when she had newly been largely discoursing with her Son St. AUstin of the heavenly Kingdom Son as for me I now take no delight in any thing in this Life Quid hic facio What do I here And to use such Words as those of Mr. Herbert [r] Home What have I left that I should stay and groan The most of me to Heav'n is fled My Thoughts and Joies are all packt up and gone And for their old Acquaintance plead 2. Bend thy Mind to think of the Resurrection of the Body to a State of Glory Consider that as thy Soul at Death is not extinguished so that thy dead and buried Body shall not finally perish and be quite lost but at last be reproduc'd and restor'd again to thee by the Agency of an omniscient and omnipotent God That if thou †Joh. 5.29 hast done good thou shalt come forth to the Resurrection of Life come out of thy Grave as Jonah out of the Whale's Belly as Daniel out of the Lions Den as Pharaoh's chief Butler yea as the innocent honest Joseph out of Prison to an high and honourale Condition Think how the very same Body that fell by Death shall be raised again at the last Day as Lazarus rose with the same Body which had lien in the Grave four Daies and as Christ rose with the same Body that was crucified and buried How congruous it is to the Wisdom and Goodness and governing Justice of God that the same Body which was Partner with the Soul in good Actions should be a Sharer with it in everlasting Rewards That that very Body which was the Temple of the Holy Ghost and whose Members were the Members of Christ and Instruments of Righteousness and did God Service and labour'd and suffer'd for Christ here should be raised and rewarded hereafter And how reasonable to conclude that God having planted in the Soul a natural Inclination to its own Body will surely one Day satisfy the Soul's Appetite by reuniting it to the same Body Think how thy Body shall rise the same for Substance but not the same for Qualities and Endowments that it shall be raised * 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44 49 50. in Incorruption in Glory in Power raised a spiritual Body and put on Immortality That thou shalt bear the Image of the Heavenly That this Flesh and Bloud shall be changed and altered with a perfective Alteration that it may be capable of inheritng the Kingdom of God That Christ shall †Phil. 3.21 change thy vile Body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious Body and that thou shalt ‖ Mat. 13.43 shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of thy Father These Thoughts will warm and affect thy Heart and move and incline thee to study and endeavour to get thy Soul and Body fitted and qualified for a Participation of a blessed and glorious Resurrection To get thy Soul now transform'd and made like unto Christ's gracious Soul that thy Body hereafter may be transform'd and made like unto his glorious Body to get I say a sanctified Soul here that thou maiest not sail of a glorified Body hereafter for the Body follows the Condition of the Soul Not to spend thy Time Care Cost Pains in decking and adorning in trimming and [s] Qui se pingunt in hoc seculo aliter
to oblige him to Industry and Activity But when the Gospel-revelation does give thee Assurance of the Perpotuity and endless Duration of this Felicity the due Consideration of so great and infinite a Reward will have a more forcible powerful Influence upon thee It greatly raised and much affected David's Heart to be able to say to God ‖ 2 Sam. 7.19 thou hast spoken of thy Servant's House for a great while to come How then is it likely to spirit and encourage thee to consider that God has spoken of an heavenly Happiness to be bestowed upon thee that shall last as long as Eternity it self that shall last as long as God himself 2. The serious Thoughts of a perfect heavenly State of eternal Bliss will quicken and encourage thee not only to do but to [q] Nihil crus sentit in nervo quando anmus est in coel Tertul. suffer any thing for God and Christ and the Gospel to chuse * Heb. 11.25 26. with Moses rather to suffer Affliction with the People of God than to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin for a Season esteeming the Reproach of Christ or for Christ far greater Riches than any Worldly Treasures out of a respect unto the Recompense of the Reward And with Christ for †12.2 the Joy that is set before thee to endure the Cross and despise the Shame ‖ 1 Pet. 4.13 To rejoice to be a Partaker of Christ's Sufferings that when his Glory shall be revealed thou maiest be glad also with exceeding Joy To be ready to (*) Heb. 10.34 35 36. take joyfully the spoiling of thy Goods knowing in thy self that thou hast in Heaven a better and an enduring Substance But of this I shall speak more under the next Head That is the first The serious Consideration and earnest Expectation of a vast and ample Reward in Heaven will encourage and enable thee not only to do but to suffer for Christ Jesus 2. The Consideration of a future perfect heavenly Happiness will help and enable thee to resist and repel both the fair and furious Temptations of Satan By Meditation put on for an Helmet the Hope of Salvation and that will defend thee against the Assault and will ward off the Blows of the Devil It will 1. Enable thee to answer and oppose the subtil and powerful Temptations of Satan when he fairly promises any pleasing Good to thee The consideration of what God offers thee will make thee reject and disdain whatever Satan for the present proffers thee because he can make no proffer valuable and considerable equal and answerable to what God has made in the Gospel to thee This Sun will presently put out the Light of all his twinkling Stars As Saul said to his Servants to keep them from falling away to David * 1 Sam. 22.7 Will the Son of Jesse give every one of you Fields and Vineyards and make you all Captains of thousands and Captains of hundreds So thou wilt say to thy considering self are the Devil and the World able to afford me those Honours and Dignities Riches and Treasures Delights and Pleasures and to entertain me with such a Paradise as God hath prepared for me and promised to me Are the Devil and the World and all the Pleasures of Sin which are slight and short and last but for a Season ever able to make me amends if I make a refusal of God's Kindness Are they ever able to countervail and make up the Loss of God and Christ and the heavenly Kingdom to me What 's all the outward Splendor and Glory of this World to the incomparable unconceivable Glory of Heaven What are these Meats and Drinks here below to the celestial Food and the full Satisfaction of all my spiritual Desires What signify all the filthy impure Pleasures here to the Enjoyment of the Society of immaculate Angels and the glorious Presence of the immaculate Lamb hereafter How are all the Pleasures of Sin put in the Ballance against the Joys of Heaven but as a Feather against a Mountain How poor and beggarly are all the Riches on Earth to the vast and sure Treasures laid up for me in Heaven How mean a Cottage what a very Dunghil is the most sumptuous Building and stately Habitation here to the beautiful spatious glorious heavenly Palace What vile Weeds and sorry Rags are the costliest Garments and richest Apparel here to the white Ornaments and glorious Robes of Saints triumphant in Heaven How contemptible and despicable is all Honour with Men in comparison or Honour with God and Angels any secular Preferment and worldly Power in respect of the heavenly Crown and Kingdom What Invitation or Inducement is this carnal Company to me that I should so covet and fondly embrace their Society to the Loss and Forfeiture of all blessed Fellowship with God and Christ with Saints and Angels to all Eternity Shall I ever become such a meer Bedlam and humane Beast as to slight and undervalue a perfect State of heavenly Glory and to place my Happiness in Sensuality and Flesh-pleasing Further 2. The Meditation of the high and heavenly Felicity and Glory will serve to counterpoise the heaviest Temptation when Satan or his Initruments shall terribly tempt thee and sharply assault thee by threatning any great and grievous Evil to thee If Satan threaten thee with Persecution with the Loss of thy Estate or of temporal Life it self this will instruct thee to tell him what Christ himself hath told thee that * Mat. 5.10 11 12 Blessed are they which are persecuted for Righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven That blessed art thou when Men shall revile thee and persecute thee and shall say all manner of evil against thee falsely for Christ's sake that then thou must rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is thy Reward in Heaven That †19.29 every one that hath forsaken Houses or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for Christ's Name 's sake shall receive an hundred-fold and shall inherit everlasting Life That ‖ 16.25 whosoever will save his Life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his Life for Christ's sake shall find it It will enable thee to tell the Devil what the great Apostle of Christ has told thee That (*) 2 Tim 2.12 if thou sufferest thou shalt also reign with Christ and be glorified with him but if thou deniest him he also will deny thee That thou (†) Rom. 8.17 18. reckonest that the Sufferings of this present Time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in thee That thy (‖) 2 Cor. 4.17 light Affliction which is but for a Moment not only worketh but [*] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worketh out for thee a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory This will cause thee to be [†] Phil. 1.28 in nothing terrified by thy Adversaries the Agents
natural Infirmities not to cause moral Distempers as means to * Eccl. 10.17 sustain and refresh our Bodies that our Bodies may be fit to serve our Souls and our selves may be enabled with vigour and alacrity to serve and honour God in the proper Duties of our particular Places We should eat our Bread before God as the Expression is Exod. 18.12 that is not only as in the sight of God but as the * 1 Cor. 10.31 Apostle speaks whether we eat or drink we should do all to the Glory of God Remember to direct these natural Actions to spiritual Ends and to make them an occasion of some Exercise of Religion Be never wanting to beg a Blessing of God before you eat And when you sit at Table as [h] Cùn manducas nequaquam totus manduces sed corpore tuo suam refectionem postulante mens suam non negligat memoria suavitatis Domini vel Scripturarum poscat Meditationes Bernard St. Bernard advises be not wholly employed in eating and drinking but your body requiring and receiving its due repast let not your Mind neglect its proper refection Refresh your Soul when you feed your Body and use such holy Meditations as may keep and preserve you from †Jam. 5.5 Rom. 13.14 nourishing your Hearts from ministring fuel to your Lusts and making provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof [i] Fox Act. and Mon. 2 vol. p. 1457. Mr. Fox reports of the holy Bradford that in the midst of Dinner he used often to muse with himself having his Hat over his Eyes from whence came commonly plenty of Tears dropping on his Trencher Whenever you recruit and repair your Nature strive then to provoke and stir up in thy self and others ‖ Mat. 5 6. hungrings and thirstings after Righteousness Remember meditate and discourse of the Sweetness of Christ of the refreshing strengthning Ordinances of Christ of being (*) Ps 36.8 abundantly satisfied with the Fatness of God's House and of drinking of the River of his Pleasures of feeding and living by Faith on the Promises of the Gospel and receiving the * Rom. 15.4 Comforts of the Scriptures With Job †Job 23.12 esteem the Words of God's Mouth more than thy necessary Food or appointed Portion With David acknowledg the Laws and Judgments of God to be ‖ Ps 19.10 sweeter than Honey and the Honey-comb than the sweetest and purest Honey Think and speak of the (*) Joh 6.48 50 51 55. living Bread which came down from Heaven of the Bread of Life the (†) Rev. 21.6 22.17 Water of Life of spiritual (‖) Isa 55.1 Wine and Milk * 1 Pet. 2.2 Desire the sincere Milk of the Word that you may grow thereby Have a longing Mind to that spiritual Food which is Meat indeed and Drink indeed Taste and relish the †Rev. 2 17. hidden Manna Delight thy self in the serious Fore-thoughts of ‖ Mat 8.11 sitting down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven of (*) Luke 22.30 eating and drinking at Christ's Table in his Kingdom Raise and lift up thy Mind to the Celestial Table strengthen and sharpen thy Appetite to the most delicious heavenly Banquets Let the Consideration and Hope of the spiritual Joys and purer higher Pleasures of the other World cause thee to despise these gross and brutish Pleasures to say in the Words and with the Affection and Spirit of Mr. Herbert [k] Home What is this weary World this Meat and Drink That chains us by the Teeth so fast [l] Church-porch p. 5. Look on Meat think it Dirt then eat a Bit. And say withal Earth to Earth I commit Entertain thy self with better fare and richer cheer Thank God you have * Joh. 4.32 Meat to eat which the World knows not of Let others †6.27 labour for the Meat which perisheth but do thou resolve rather to labour for that Meat which endureth to everlasting Life Account and reckon it thy Meat and Drink with thy blessed ‖ 4.34 Saviour to do the Will of thy heavenly Father And with (*) 4.31 32. him have a greater care of making provision for others Souls than of supplying thy own bodily Necessities When at usual seasons thou nourishest thy Body be sure thou doest not then forget to (†) 1 Tim 4.6 nourish up thy self and others in (‖) 6.3 wholesome Words in the Words of Faith and of good Doctrine which is according to Godliness Even while thou arc feeding thy Body as thou hast occasion and opportunity let thy * Prov. 10.21 Lips feed many I remember Cicero introduceth Cato giving this good account of himself that he loved to feast with his Friends and Neighbours not so much for the [m] Neque enim ipsorum convivtorum delectationem corporis voluptatibus magis quà n catu amicorum sermonibus metiebar Bene enim majores nostri c. Ego verò proster sermonis delectationem tempestivis conviviis delector c. Cicero de senect corporal Pleasure of eating and drinking as for the delight and refreshment of the good Discourses that were used among them at such Meetings And Tertullian informs us that much of Religion was mingled with the Meals the very common Meals of the Primitive Christians That they did not offer to [m] Non priùs discumbitur quà m oratio ad Deum praegustetur It a suturaatur ut qui meminerint etiam per noctem ado andum Deum sibiesse c. Aequè oratio convivium duimit non tam coenam coenaverint quà m disciplinam Tert. Apol. c. 39 take their Meat before they had tasted the spiritual sweetnesses of Prayer and Devotion That they fed as those who well remembred that they were to go upon their Knees to God before they went to Bed and therefore narrowly watch'd over themselves that no degrees of Intemperance at Supper might dull and indispose them to the Duty of Prayer and unfit them for the Worship and Service of God that night That they talk'd and confer'd as those that knew God heard And after Supper as any was able either out of the holy Scriptures or out of his own Invention he was called forth into the midst of the Company to sing a Psalm or Hymn to God which was a manifest Proof what temperate measures he had at that Meeting kept in drinking having loaden neither his Stomach nor his Understanding Prayer in like manner dismiss'd the Company who then departed with setled dispositions and sirm resolutions to lead most modest chast vertuous godly Lives as those who at that very season had not so much made a Meal as kept a Discipline had at that time been at a Lecture rather than at a Supper and then had more replenish'd their Souls than satisfied their Bodies And both [n] In ipsa mensa magis lect onem vel disputationem quà n epu ationem
from whom we may reap and receive most spiritual Good or from whom we may reap and receive most spiritual Benefit Study and strive to chuse such an one for thy Friend to whom thou maiest give such reverential Respect in thy Carriage and Behaviour as may restrain thee from many uncomely sinful Actions which you might take more Liberty to commit in other Company Take him for thy special Friend and peculiar Companion who will be a constant Physician careful Tutor and spiritual Benefactor to thy Soul who will be a familiar tutelar guardian Angel to thee who will be as [k] Dr. Alle. bâ—â— Serm. p. 57. The second Soul and Conscience Dr. Ham. of srat Admoa and Correp p. 8. one well expresses it an [k] Dr. Alle. bâ—â— Serm. p. 57. The second Soul and Conscience Dr. Ham. of srat Admoa and Correp p. 8. assistant Conscience to thee who will not fail to perform that Office which the benumm'd or sleepy Conscience within thee shall at any time neglect Who will be as faithful a Monitor to thee as thy own Conscience should be Who daily does so improve in Vertue and Profit in Piety that whenever he comes into thy Company he will give thee the great Pleasure not only of seeing whom you would but of seeing such an one as you would Who will be careful to [l] Herb. Church-porch p. 6. salute himself before he visits thee and will surely bring himself a great Gift to thee as [m] Conspectus praesentia conversatio al quid habet vivae voluptatis utique si non tantum quem velis sed qualem velis videas Affer itaque te mihi ingens munus Prepera ad me sed ad te prâ—us Sen. ep 35. Seneca counsels his Friend Lucilius to order compose and carry himself toward him Chuse such Persons for thy intimate Friends who will be Friends and Helps in the best things to thee Friends in the concernments of the Life to come that will prize and value and on all occasions readily shew some real Kindness to thy Soul that will observe thy Motions and help to guide and direct thy Actions that will have a constant watchful Eye upon thy Life and Manners and not willingly suffer thee to misearry to Eternity for want of careful looking after Acquaint and accompany with those in the enjoyment of whom you may enjoy somewhat of God himself and whose sweet and gracious Converse will be a little Image of Heaven to you Take those for your Consorts and Associates here with whom you may desire and hope to keep joyful Company for ever hereafter If we make any Reckoning of our Time let us first make a good Choice of our Friends 2. And then a good Improvement of our Company and Society with them Be prudent and pious in the Vse as well as in the Choice of your Friends Let not your Friendship be a meer nominal formal empty juiceless thing Let your ordinary Visits to your Friends be out of Conscience as well as out of Courtesy out of a real Design to do some Office of Love especially to their Souls and to bring some spiritual Advantage to them [m] See p. 216. to the end of 219. Time is commonly lost by meer complemental Visits wherein no civil Business is dispatch'd no Service done to the Bodies Estates or Souls of others Let Christian Friends take heed especially that they come not together of purpose to waste their Time in unseasonable immeasurable Play and Sport that they be not found notoriously guilty of spending commonly and customarily as many Hours in Play together as if Gaming were not their Recreation and Diversion but their Trade and Profession their Calling and Occupation Can this be reckon'd a well redeeming the Time in evil Daies Would not some of that Time be spent more fruitfully and comfortably in the Communication of your Experiences and the Observations you have made relating either to God's Word or Works or in reading together some select and seasonable Scripture or else some part of practical Divinity or good Morality or useful History and in discoursing and conferring thereupon as you have Ability and find Occasion Let not Cards and Dice swallow up and devour the most of the Hours you spend together Nor ever suffer any Friends and Companions to rob you of your Time by [m] Nulla est excusatio peccati si amici causâ peccavâ—â—â— Strectum statuerimus vel concedere amicis quicquid veltur vel impetrare ab amicis quicquid velimus perseâ—â—â quideus â—pientià sumus si nibil habeat res vitu Haec prima lex in amicitia sanciatur ut neque rogemus res turper nec factamus rogati c. ut ab amicis honesta petamus amitorum can a honesta faciamus Lael apud Cic. de Amic yielding to them and complying with them when they unreasonably exact of you to hold out with them in their Sports If you perceive that any particular Game or Play does steal away your Heart and Time 't is high time then rather to lay it quite aside than to suffer such Detriment by Continuation of the Use of it When Bp. Vsher in his tender Years was taught by some of his Friends to play at Cards and found himself so delighted therewith that it not only took place of the Love of his Book but began to be a Rival with the spiritual Part in him upon apprehension thereof as [n] In the Life of Bp. Usher p. 24. Dr. Bernard informs us he gave it over and never played after When Christian Acquaintance meet together let them be as useful and profitable as helpful and beneficial as holy and heavenly in their Discourses as may be You may do more good by an honest Hint and a serious savoury Speech in Company than it may be a Minister may do by many Sermons Labour to spiritualize and ennoble your Friendship by making it a State of Love and Purity an Opportunity and Advantage of amending and reforming of benefiting and bettering one another [o] Dr. Ham. of frat Admon or Corrept p. 29. Let such as live either with or by one another by solemn Compact and Agreement strictly and strongly oblige one another to take some special spiritual Care of one another's Souls This would be real spiritual good Neighbourhood an high Advancement a rich and gainful Improvement of Friendship You that are Intimates and Familiars look upon your selves as one another's * Gen 4.9 Keepers Take a spiritual Charge one of another †Phil. 2.20 Naturally care for one another's spiritual State ‖ Heb. 13.17 Watch over one another's Souls as they that must give account an Account of one another as well as of your selves that you may do it with Joy and not with Grief Be (*) 2 Cor. 11.2 jealous over one another with a Godly Jealousy and shew your selves such fast Friends to one another's Souls as to do your best to prevent
Author of the [s] P. 281 282. Great Exemplar thinks it probable that the good Thief was much advantaged by the intervening Accident of dying at the same time with Christ there being a natural Compassion produced in us towards the Partners of our Miseries For Christ was not void of humane Passions though he had in them no Imperfection or Irregularity and therefore might be invited by the Society of Misery the rather to admit him to participate his Jaies and St. Paul proves him to be a merciful High-Priest because he was touched with a feeling of our Infirmities the first expression of which was to this Blessed Thief If the Thief had not met with such an extraordinary Opportunity of Suffering with Christ and entring with Christ into Paradise though he had been converted he might have tarried till he had suffer'd many Years Afflictions and Persecutions for the sake of Christ and his holy Gospel and perform'd a long and tedious Work of crucifying the Old Man crucifying the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts of Mortification Self-denial and sincere Obedience The good Thief by special Favour was let into Paradise at a privy Door as I may say but you and I must look to go thither and enter the ordinary Way Consider 3. That the Conversion and Salvation of the Thief is not only an extraordinary but a singular Instance The Example of the Thief it is but one and besides this one there is not one more to be produced out of all that Sacred Book which contains the History of several thousand Years and for this one that sped how many millions of late and Death-bed Penitents have eternally miscarried sadly repented of their late Repentance and inherited the uncomfortable Portion of Fools And if thou shalt venture to drive off all to the very last hast not thou very great cause to fear that thou shalt become an unhappy Cast-away as well as so many have been before thee Thou dost not think it prudent or safe to follow [t] It is as if a Man should spur his Ass till he spoke because Balaam's Ass did once speak Mr. Greenham Though some have found a Purse in their way let us not trust to like hap but carry money with us Bp. Andrew's serm pag. 180. or rely upon single or very unusual Precedents in other things If a thousand Persons should have perished by the taking of any poisoned Meat and one only have been miraculously preserved wouldst thou dare to taste of that or the like Food and hope to do well because one once escaped when a thousand died Wilt thou expect to be accommodated and upon any great Occasion provided for by Miracle because God once * Ps 78.13 divided the Sea and caused his Israel to pass through and made the Waters to stand as an heap †Vers 24 25 27 28. rained down Manna upon them to eat and gave them of the Corn of Heaven so that man did eat Angels Food rained Flesh also upon them as Dust and feathered Fowls like as the Sand of the Sea let it fall in the midst of their Camp round about their Habitations ‖ Vers 15 16. clave also the Rocks in the Wilderness and gave them drink as out of the great Depths and fed Elijah the Prophet by the Ministry of (*) 1 Kin. 17.4 6. Ravens whom he commanded to bring him Bread and Flesh both in the Morning and in the Evening Because the Thief was happily converted at the last Hour dost thou conclude so thou maiest be in like manner But why shouldst not thou be startled and affrighted by the (u) Ideo conjungitur exemple latrenis conversi exemplum latronis alteriue qui in peccatis quibus assueverat manet in aeternam damnationem inesdit ne quis adsecuritatem hac drctrinâ abutatur Gerhard Harm in loc sad Example of the other Thief who still lay in his accustomed Sins died and perished in his Iniquities and though his Saviour was so near him fell irrecoverably into eternal Damnation The one Example may serve to keep thee from abusing the other to Security 4. Do not offer any longer to draw the good Thief into Example and to embolden thy self thereby wittingly and willingly to defer thy Repentance till the last Hour and to hope for Mercy at the very last for let me tell thee There is a great deal of difference between the case and circumstances of the blessed Thief and thy self for suppose the Thief had heard somewhat of Christ by general fame before some commendation of his Doctrine and Miracles and an intimation of Christ's Profession that a Kingdom belonged to him though not of this World yet thou canst not prove that ever he had in all his Life a clear direct Call before this Day and Hour in which he was Christ's Companion upon the Cross and heard his gracious Speeches and his compassionate Prayer poured out to his Father for his Crucifiers and beheld and considered his excellent Vertues and admirable Graces in the time of his deepest Sorrows and forest sufferings This was the first time that the Thief had any Converse with Christ and the first Day of Grace that probably was ever vouchsafed to him Speak now is this thy case Art thou able to use this Plea that hitherto thou wast never plainly invited to Repentance nor expresly called to come to Christ Hast not thou liv'd long under the Means of Grace and frequented the Ministry of the Gospel Hast not thou heard yea of often heard the joyful sound of the Word and felt the sweet motions of the Spirit May not Christ complain of thee and such as thee * Mat. 23.37 How often would I have gathered you even as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her Wings and ye would not The Thief had no distinct Knowledg of Christ before His case was as if a [w] See Bp. Taylor 's serm of the Invalid of a Death-bed Rep. part 2. p. 78. Turk or Heathen should turn Christian and receive the Sacrament of Baptism and therewithal the Remission of the Sins of his State of Ignorance upon his Death-bed But thou wast very early baptized into the Name of Christ and hast solemnly entred into Covenant with Christ and frequently ratified and confirm'd that Covenant and all along openly and outwardly profess'd thy self the Disciple of Jesus and Servant of Christ And therefore if still thou livest in Sin and deferrest thy Repentance and puttest off thy Obedience thou failest in the performance of thy solemn Promise and grand Obligation and art false and treacherous to the Lord Christ and art to account for Breach of Contract and plain Rebellion against thy Heavenly Lord and King And how canst thou hope when thou hast refused and denied to present the Service of thy Life to him that God will be satisfied with the weeping and †Hos 7.14 howling of a careless Sinner unwillingly departing and forced to go to a speedy reckoning