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
but only Death for I did not think I should have died so soon How troublesome will it be to thee when thy Soul is about to be divorced from thy Body to be at best uncertain then what will become of thee To express thy self with dying Aristotle [u] Dubius morior quò vadam nescio I die doubtful not well knowing whither I am going Or with the Emperour Adrian [w] Animula vagula blandula Hospes com esque corporis Quae nunc abibis in loca Pallsdula frigidula nudula Nec ut soles dabis jocos Ah dear departing wandring Soul the old and sweet Companion of my Body into what Region art thou now going surely thou wilt never be so merry and pleasant as thou hast been How intolerably vexatious will it be to change for Vncertainties or to make a certain Change for the worse To die unsatisfied what will become of thee as to thy future unchangeable State Or sure and certain that thou shalt enter into a worse State and Place and shalt be miserable to all Eternity To see then but a Step but a Breath between thee and everlasting Death To have all the horrid and heinous sins of a whole misled and misspent Life fiercely fly in thy very Face and thy enraged furious guilty Conscience to be then most active to torment thee the nearer thou apprehendest thy self approaching to the End of thy mortal Life As usually bodily Aches and Wounds do prick and pain and shoot most the nearer it draweth unto Night What a lamentable sad Case was that of Cardinal Wolsey to cry out in his extreme unhappy Circumstances Had I been as careful and diligeut to please and serve the God of Heaven as I have been to comply with the Will of my earthly King he would not have left and for saken me now in my gray Hairs and old Age as the other has done So think what a doleful Case it will be for thee in thy last Hours to pour forth thy Soul in such Words as these If I had served my God as earnestly and unweariedly as I have constantly served the world served diverse Lusts and Pleasures served the Devil himself Had I been at Church when I was in Bed been in my Closet upon my Knees when I was sitting tippling upon the Ale-bench or was quaffing at Tavern and drinking of Healths upon my Knees Had I satisfied the Reason of a Man as I gratified my brutish Appetite and sensual Desire Had I done the Will of God and of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as I have done the Will of the Devil the Will of the Flesh and fulfilled my own carnal corrupt Will I had then been own'd by God and approv'd by my own Conscience inwardly strengthned and supported and sweetly comforted and refresh'd who now am deserted and rejected by God and miserably perplexed and disquieted rent and racked torn and tormented in my own Conscience Then thou wilt certainly count and call thy self unhappy and him the only happy Man who as dying [x] Beatus es Abba Arseni qui semper hanc horam ante oculos habuisti Bibl. Patr. Theophilus said of devout Arsenius has had the Hour of his Departure ever before his Eyes That is the first Conider what a dreadful Thing it is to be found unprovided at the Hou◠of Death When Friends and Physicians cannot keep thee and God and his good Angels will not take thee O then O then what will become of thee 2. Seriously think on the other hand what [y] Considera quà n pulchra res sit consummare vitam ante mortom deinde expectare securum reliquam tempor is sui part m◠Sen. ep 32. an happy and comfortable Thing it will be to find your Time well improved and your self prepared to die before you die 'T is a true Saying of the Wise Man that to a good man the * Eccl. 7.1 Day of Death is better than the Day of his Birth For is not that Day which perfectly frees and fully delivers a good Man from the many Vanities and great Vexations which the Life of Man is obnoxious to and the Troubles and Sufferings which the Life of a Christian is expos'd to far better than that Day which let 's him into the Possession of them Again The Time when a Person has attain'd the End of his Being made good the Hopes of others answer'd god's and Man's expectation concerning him walked himself in the Fear of the Lord brought up Children in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord walked worthy of his Vocation fill'd up every Relation with suitable Duties and Graces serv'd his Generation according to the Will of God liv'd and acted with reference to Eternity The Time when he most willingly leaves this wicked World and leaves an holy Seed to stand up in his room and stead leaves a good Name and a good Example behind him and goes to Heaven to the Spirits of just Men made perfect goes to God his heavenly Father and to Christ his Redeemer to receive the gracious and glorious Reward of all his Works and Labours and the Crown he has striven and contended for Surely the Day when this falls out which is the Day of his Death gives cause of more abundant Comfort than can the Day of his Birth together with all the Daies of his Life Is not that Day better wherein a Man has truly and really answered the Ends of Life than that in which he only began at first to live Is not that Day better in which he has fully and compleatly acted his Part well quitted and behav'd himself like a Man and Christian and is gone off the Stage of this lower world with Credit and Esteem Approbation and Applause of God himself good Angels and Men than the Day of his first appearing upon the Stage or Theater of this World in a way of Probation and Trial and in Hope of his future good Performance Is not the Day of his actual Admission and honourable Reception into a blissful Condition and happy Mansion far better than the Day of his Entrance into a State of Preparation for it Think well with thy self what a joyful Day what a [z] Cùm ecquid lumen molestiae afferret rogarent pectus tangens Oecolampadius abundè lucis est inquit Melch. Adam in vita Oecolamp p. 56. lightsome Hour what a Time of refreshing it will be to thee to be able to say with thy Saviour a little before thy Departure * Joh. 17.4 Father I have glorified thee on Earth I have finished the Work which thou hast given me to do And with the Apostle St. Paul †2 Tim. 4 6 7. The Time of my Departure is at hand I have fought a good Fight [a] Vixi quem dederat cursum fortuna peregi I have finished my course I have kept the Faith ‖ 2 Cor. 1.12 My rejoicing is this the Testimony of my Conscience that in
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
their Time in slandering detracting whispering tale-bearing speaking [c] In primis provideat nesirmo vitium aliquod indicetinesse morst us Quod maxtmè tum solet evenive cum stuâ—tosè de absentibus detrahendt causâ aut per ridiculum aut severè aut maledicè contumel osèque dicitur Dicero l. 1 de Offic Evil of others when they have no lawfull Call to do it in talking uncharitably of others [d] De alterius vtta de alterius morte disputatis Seneca de vita beata c. 19. Lives and Deaths in private caracterizing judging censuring back-biting of others These are as perfect in the Enumeration of others Faults [e] Dr. Allestry's Sermons p. 35. as if their Memories were the Books that shall be opened at the Day of Judgment This is in it self a base Temper where-ever it is with the Fly to fasten now here but upon a Sore like a Cupping-Glass to draw nothing but corrupt Blood This is an ungodly Humour for any to suffer their Tongues to be busily medling with those Sins and Miscarriages Failings or Faults of other Persons which never grieved and troubled touched or came near their own Hearts and which they never secretly bewail'd and sadly bemoan'd before God To be continually judging and censuring those that were never privately and personally reprov'd lovingly and compassionately admonished nor once earnestly and heartily praied for by them This censorious Spirit is a Christless Spirit Jesus Christ is an Advocate with the Father he excuses he pleads for Sinners he makes the best of every Thing he covers a Multitude of Sins Now when we do nothing but rip open and aggravate others Faults behind their backs we are far from an Imitation of Christ This is so far from being a Christ-like that it is too evidently a Diabolical Spirit The Devil he is called an Accuser and we plainly play Satan's Part and act him to the Life and spend our Time just as the Devil does if we make it our Business to be ever prying and finding of Faults to be alwaies bringing Charges against and framing Accusations of others And the employing our Time thus is far from redeeming it Might not we spend our Time far better in meekly admonishing of others and in heartily praying for others than in rashly judging and censuring of others Let me tell you while we are alwaies pleading others guilty we do but make our selves more guilty and thus to lose our own Innocency is this to redeem our Time To render our selves uncapable of Heaven is this to work out our own Salvation * Psal 15.1 3. Lord who shall abide in thy Tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy Hill he that back-biteth not with his Tongue nor doeth Evil Wrong Hurt or Injury to his Neighbour in this way of backbiting nor taketh up that is with his Mouth that uttereth not a Reproach against his Neighbour that does not curiously pry into the Businesses Affairs Infirmities secrets of others and then busily divulge and tell them abroad to other Persons thereby defaming disgracing disparaging and rendring Men contemptible one to another and stirring up Strife Hatred Enmity Division and Quarrels among Men. Where shall we now find the Christian who deserves the Commendation that once [i] Hieron ad Marcellam de laudibus Asellae St. Jerome gave of Asella of whom he says Sermo silens silentium loquens she was silent when she spake for she spake only of religious and necessary things not medling with other Persons or Fame How do many mis-spend their Time and talk in vain and ridiculous Self-gloriation and in uncomely affected if not false and ungrounded Commendation of themselves in complementing and flattering great Sinners to their very Faces And some very vile and wicked Wretches abuse their Time and Tongues in speaking a Multitude of Lies in frequent taking God's Name in vain in common and customary Swearing in [f] Dr. Allestry's Sermons p. 154. mingling horrid and bitter Imprecations with their sportive Talk and making the Wounds and Blood of God and other such sad Words their foolish or peevish Modes of speaking Many Mens Mouths run like an Issue nothing but Putrefaction They vent and pour out * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 4.29 putrid unsavoury rotten †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coloss 3.8 filthy Discourse apt only to minister to a Vice instead of ministring Grace unto the Hearers Corrupt it self and tending to corrupt good Manners and to infect the Fancies and defile the Minds of those that hear it They pass the Time in uttering [g] The Apostle chargeth that Fornication should not be once named among them as becometh Saints Eph. 5.3 not meaning that the Vice should not have its Name and filthy Character but that nothing of it be named in which it can be tempting or offensive nothing tending to it or teaching of it should be named Bishop Taylor 's Sermons 1 Vol. p. 288. wanton loose lascivious Words in singing amorous and obscene Songs whereas he that is ‖ James 5.13 Private Christianâ— are to teach and admonish one another in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs Coloss 3 16 Etiaâ—n cùn htlaritati inser vimus addification is utâ—iâ—at is mutuae memores esse debemus Dav. in loc merry should sing Psalms Many mis-spend their Hours in * Ephes 5.4 inconvenient [h] Ipsum genus jocandi non profusum nec immodestum sed ingenuum facetum esse debet Vt enim puer is non omnem licentiam ludendi damus sed eam quae ab honest is actionibus non sit aliena sic in ipso joco aliquod probi ingenit lumen eluceat Cicero l. 1. de Office scurrilous immodest yea many mis-spend them in impious and profane Jesting in openly Scossing at good Men and making merry with their Imperfections and their own Slanders and in jeering the holy Waies and playing with the holy Word of God He that makes a Jest of the Words of Scripture or of holy things as a [i] Bishop Taylor 's Sermons 1 V. p. 305. learned Pen richly expresses it plaies with Thunder and kisses the Mouth of a Canon just as it belches Fire and Death he stakes Heaven at spurn-point and trips Cross and pile whether ever he shall see the Face of God or no he laughs at Damnation while he had rather lose Goal than lose his Jest nay which is the Horrour of all he makes a Jest of God himself and the Spirit of the Father and the Son to become ridiculous And is not this a monstrous cursed Improvement of precious Time to use and employ it in profanely deriding and desperately abusing the Word and Spirit of God that gave it 'T is a good Saying of the [k] Detestanda illorum insania qui hilares esse non pâ—ssunt sine Christi contumelia religionis ludibrio Dav. in Coloss 3.16 Thes if any do hilarem insaniam insanire ac per risum furere Seneca
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
by their Affections encouraged by their Examples recovered by their Reproofs directed by their Counsels assisted by their Praiers instructed strengthned and comforted by their Experiences When you come in company with able godly Ministers or knowing experienced Christians you may put Cases and have them resolved propound Doubts and have them satisfied you may light your Candle by their's you may kindle your Coal at their Fire and stay and warm your self well before you go away Godly Company is an Opportunity to be prized and improved Whenever you enjoy good Company make the best of it Let not carnal Bashtulness nor a vain and worldly Heart which is apt to seek idle and unprofitable Discourse hinder and deprive you of the Profit and Benefit which may be reaped by godly Society The last Particular Opportunities to be redeemed 5. And lastly The particular Seasons of practising and performing particular Duties of getting and encreasing acting and exercising particular Graces these have a special commodious Fitness for the doing or receiving some particular Good and ought accordingly to be embraced and improved by us When we know a Person a good Man especially to be in real Necessity and great Extremity then is an Opportunity of exercising Charity in giving liberally according to our Ability When another has wronged and injured us then we have gotten a good Occasion of exercising Charity and shewing Mercy in free and full Forgiveness When a Brother is fallen into Sin at any Time then it is a Season to * Gal. 6.1 restore such an one in the Spirit of Meckness When any Person is flexible and tractable yielding and pliable being melted and mollified by an afflictive Providence or moved and enclined to hearken to us by Dependance on us Expectation from us or any Relation and Obligation to us we have a fair Opportunity to deal with such an one at such a Time for the furthering of his spiritual and eternal Good When any are cast upon Sick-beds and are somewhat awakened and softned by God's Hand then they are prepared for your Hand you may the more easily work upon them When any have newly received a Benefit from us or hope to be shortly beholden to us and so are ready to think well of us and to take all well from us then we may reprove admonish exhort them with a comfortable Hope of happy Success and good Effect The Conscience of a Man is a nice and sullen Thing and if it be not taken at fit Times there is no meddling with it And so likewise in respect of our selves when we have received any fresh Mercy from God or are actually enjoying the Blessings of God and tasting how good and gracious the Lord is then is an Occasion of stirring up our selves to Praise and Thanksgiving When we lie under an heavy Affliction then it is a Season of acting and exercising Faith Repentance Patience a convenient Season for Self-Examination sound Humiliation earnest Supplication and thorough Reformation When we find a secret Chearfulness of Spirit then it is a Season to spiritualize our Joy and Gladness to think upon God's Mercies to recount his Benefits to set forth the Praises of our Creator Preserver and Redeemer * Jam. 5 13. Is any merry let him sing Psalms When we find any Sadness growing upon our Spirits then it is a Season to spiritualize our Sorrow and Sadness to mourn and grieve for our Sins especially to weep in secret for them to confess and acknowledg them and pray against them Once more When at any Time [p] We must not measure our Time by the length but by the weight not by its greatness but by its worth Let us not in asure our Daie◠as we do by the motion of the Sun which we see but by the shining of the Sun of Righteousness upon our Souls not by the celestial Bodies but by the celestial Inspirations As to the purposes of Holiness and getting nearer to Heaven one moment when the Spirit of God is upon us and strongly possesses our Mind with good Things and breaths into us holy Affections is worth many Hours yea Daies and Years when that is not with us or doth not so powerfully incite us D. Patrick's Div. Arithm. p. 37 38. the holy Spirit of God joining with the good Word of God or concurring with the Providences and remarkable Works of God does strongly work upon our Minds and sweetly and powerfully move and stir our Hearts and Affections When the Spirit instills any good Motions into our Souls and kindles any good Desires in our Hearts and kindly draws us on to holy Purposes and good Resolutions This is a special Opportunity indeed This is Temporis Articulus the very Nick of Time which must be taken on a suddain or it 's presently lost to our great Disadvantage Do not fail to strike while the Iron is hot Step into the Pool whenever the Angel stirs the Water Lanch out immediately whiles Wind and Tide serve When you feel any gentle Gale spread open your Sail This Wind blows when and where it listeth You know not how soon this Wind may turn Whenever the Spirit knocks open the Door [q] Rara hora brevis mora O si durâsset Bernard you know not how soon he may have done how quickly he may be gone Delicata res est Spiritus Sanctus saies Tertullian The Spirit of God is a nice and delicate Thing it is soon offended and quickly grieved And therefore subject your selves to the Working of the Spirit and work with the Spirit while the Spirit is at work Gladly receive every Impression of this immediate gracious free Operator Welcome every Suggestion of this blessed Monitor Let every Inspiration find thee as the Seal does the Wax or the Spark the Tinder Kindly entertain all its Visits and readily obey all its Motions follow them home don't check and quench them stifle and smother them Never suffer them to die and decay to languish and perish and come to nothing Do the Particular Duties the Spirit calls you to Get and grow in the special Graces which the Spirit is ready to beget and encrease in you Run freely and willingly so soon as ever you feel and perceive that the Spirit draws you If you don't stir when the Spirit moves and act when it works you may drive and chase away the Spirit and so lie dull and dead graceless and helpless and hopeless for ever And thus I have open'd and explain'd the Duty and shewn you particularly both what it is to redeem the Time and what the Time is that is to be redeemed The Sum of all is briefly this that our whole Life-time and every particular Occasion afforded us in it must whatever it cost us by all means be laid hold on and improved by us for the Glory of God and our own and others spiritual Advantage CHAP. III. The Grounds and Reasons why we ought to redeem the Time The Special Reason laid down in the
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
good Hope and a setled well-grounded Peace of Conscience To learn to be careful for nothing with an anxious distrustful distracting * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 4.6 dividing Care but in every Estate and Condition of Life to be humbly and cheerfully content To improve and stir up the several Graces of God in us By God's Assistance to bring our selves to maintain a daily holy Communion with God and a constant Conversation in Heaven to prepare aright for Death and Judgment to arrive to a Weanedness from this present World to a Desire to depart and be with Chrit and to a Love of the appearing and an earnest longing for the second Coming of the Lord Jesus This hard Task and weighty Work will require all our Labour and even take up every Hour Let 's therefore vigorously redeem the Time and industriously put it to this Vse and diligently employ it to this Purpose and daily say the Prayer of Moses †Psal 90.12 So teach us to number our Daies that we may apply our Hearts unto Wisdom Let 's lose none of our little Time upon unfruitful unprofitable Things till we have no more worthy and weighty Things to spend it in and till we have Time to spare from more momentous important Work But let 's lay out our Time in those necessary Works which will comfort us most when we come to die The Work that lies before us is great let 's therefore redeem the whole of our remaining Time redeem it perfectly as far as in us lies and redeem it constantly to the very last and not purposely make the good Improvement of one Day an Argumeat of mis-spending and trifling away the next but lay out every Day with Labour and Diligence in so very great and good a Work If we intend to redeem the Time we must continue in well-doing Now a natural Cessation of the Act is not a moral Discontinuance But only our Omission of any necessary Act Or our Doing a clean contrary Act This is that which we must take Care we do not become guilty of [x] Nan exiguum temporis habemus sed multum perdimus Satis long a vita in maximarum rerum consummationem largè data est si tota bene collocaretur Non accepimus brevem vitam sed fecimus nec inopes ejus sed prodigi sumus Sicut amplae regiae opes ubi ad malum dominum pervenerunt momento dissipantur at quam vis modica si bono custodi traditae sunt usu crescunt Ita aetas nestra bene disponenti multum patet Quid de rerum natura querimur illa se benignè gessit Vita si scias uts longa est Sen. de brevitate vitae cap. 1 2. We have no reason here to accuse and cast any Blame upon God for giving so little Time to us and expecting so great and weighty a Work from us for though our Time be short of it self and we have no spare Time to throw away in vain Pleasures or unnecessary Employments Yet blessed be God the Time he gives us is large and long enough to serve all rational spiritual Ends of Life to do all our necessary Work and real Business in by the Help of God and in the Strength of Christ We have in the Daies of our Lives Space enough given us for Repentance Time sufficient to dispatch the one Thing necessary to work out our Salvation to prepare for Eternity And for our Comfort and Encouragement if we be not grosly wanting to our selves we may probably yet perform whatever is indispensably requir'd of us in the Time that is continued and lengthned out to us if we take up presently and lose and squander away no more of it Life is long enough says Seneca and let me add the Resdidue of thy Life may provelong enough if thou knowest but how to spend it well And therefore be so pradent and provident as to use and improve that little which if the Fault be not thy own may happily serve to do thy main Business to save thy Soul from perishing everlastingly and from miscarrying to all Eternity The fourth Additional Reason We should redeem the Time while we enjoy it because we can neither bring Time back when once it is past unimprov'd nor any way prolong and lengthen out the Daies of our Lives when Death comes to put an End and Period to them 1. We should redeem the Time while we have it because we can never recall and retrieve the Time of this Life if once we lose and let it slip unimproved We can never live one Day of our Lives over again No Man will restore thy Time says [y] Nemo restituet annos nemo iterum te tibi redder Sen. d◠brev vit c. 8. Seneca or return thy lost Opportunities to thee and make thee Master once more of those Advantages which heretofore thou hadst in thy Hands If we would give the Fruit of our Bodies for the Redemption of our Time we can never purchase it into our Hands again It is reported to have been the Speech of Prince Henry upon his Death-bed to a certain Lord Ah Tom I now too late wish for those Hours we have spent in vain Recreations That of him in the Poet was a very groundless and fruitless Desire O mihi praeteritos referat si Jupiter annos [z] Bp. Reynold's Treat of the Pass Oh that Jove would me restore The Years that I have liv'd before When our Time is just at an End and we can hardly draw our Breath 't will be a lamentable desperate Case for us then to cry out with that poor distressed afflicted [a] Mrs. Pindar a Book-feller's Wife in Cambridg Woman in Cambridg Call Time again call Time again a Thing impossible to be effected by any Cares or Endeavours Prayers or Tears Money or Price The Time of Life once lost is irrecoverable and unredeemable And the sad Apprehension of the irreparable Loss of Time will one Day prove an intolerable Torment to too late considering and awakened Souls Let 's therefore use that Time well which there can be no Revocation of 2. As we cannot recover the Time that is past so we cannot make any Supplement or Addition of new and longer Time to the Daies of our Lives when once Death comes to put a Finis to them As we cannot add one Cubit to our Stature So we cannot add one Moment to the Measure and Number of our Daies [b] Hom. sz in Euang. in verba Vigilate itaque quia neseitis diem neque hordm St. Gregory in a certain Homily tells us a sad Story of one Chrisaurius a Nobleman but a had Liver as full of Wickedness as Wealth who at last was struck with Sickness and the same Hour that he was going out of the World he seem'd to see a Company of foul and black Spirits standing before him and coming to drag him to the Infernal Pit He began to tremble to
render suitably to the Lord for such undeserved and it may be unexpected Blessings and Benefits We reade of Abraham's Servant that when his Master sent him to take a Wife for his Son Isaac he sought God and said * Gen. 24.12 O Lord God of my Master Abraham I pray thee send me good speed this Day and shew Kindness unto my Master Abraham And when God had given him good Success †Vers 26 27 48. he worshipped and blessed God which had led him in the right Way When Jacob was greatly afraid of Esau's coming ‖ Gen. 32 9 10 11. he prayed to God to deliver him from the Hand of his Brother When Nehemiah understood the Misery of Jerusalem he (*) 1 Neh. 4.11 fasted and prayed before the God of Heaven and intreated God to proper him that Day and to grant him Mercy in the Sight of the King So when Esther was to make an extraordinary Suit to King Ahasuerus (†) Esth 4.16 she and her Maidens fasted and prayed for an happy Issue and good Event When David was troubled with slanderous Enemies (‖) Ps 109.4 he gave himself unto Prayer And upon the Receit of Sennacherib's blasphemous Letter [*] Isa 37.14 15 21. Hezekiah went up unto the House of the Lord and spread it before the Lord and prayed against Sennacherib King of Assyria Christ upon his approaching Passion [†] Matt. 26.39 42 44. prayed thrice in the Garden St. Paul likewise when there was given to him a Thorn in the Flesh the Messenger of Satan to buffet him * 2 Cor. 12.7 8. for this thing he besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from him How eminent have many pious Persons been for gaining Opportunities of Religious Addresses and for their Care to improve much Time in Prayer whether upon ordinary or extraordinary Occasions It is the worthy Commendation of [k] Knolles's Hist of the Turks p. 580. Philippus Villerius the Great Master of the Rhodes that all the Time he could spare from the necessary Cares of his weighty Charge from Assaults and the natural Refreshing of his Body he bestowed in Prayer and Serving of God He oftentimes spent the greatest Part of the Night in the Church alone praying his Head-piece Gorget and Gantlets lying by him so that it was often said that his devout Prayers and Carefulness would make the City invincible Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden would pray a Ship-board a Shore in the Field in the midst of a Battel 'T is a memorable Passage in the [l] Fox Acts and Mon. 2 vol. p. 1457. Life of Mr. John Bradford that his continual Study was upon his Knees and no doubt he mingled many holy Prayers with his hard Studies [m] Id. ib. p. 1579. Mr. Hugh Latimer in the latter Time of his Imprisonment which was at Oxford from April to October did oftentimes continue so long in fervent Prayer kneeling that he was not able to rise without Help And three special principal Matters which he ever mention'd in his Praiers at that Season were these That God would give him Grace to stand to his Doctrine until his Death that he might give and shed his Heart-blood in the Defence of the Gospel That God of his Mercy would restore his Gospel to England once again once again He also desired with Tears that God would preserve the Princess Elizabeth and make her a Comfort to his comfortless Realm of England All which Requests God graciously granted and in Answer to his first particular Desire it was very remarkable that his Body being open'd by the Force of the Fire his Blood which gather'd much to his Heart gush'd out of his Heart with Violence and ran out in Abundance [n] Eccl Hist l 2. c. 23. Eusebius out of Aegesippus tells us of James called Justus that his Knees were grown very callous hard and brawny benumm'd and berest of the Sense of Feeling by reason of his continual kneeling in Supplication to God and Petition for the People So Gregory relates of his Aunt Trucilla that her Elbows were as hard as an Horn by often learning on a Desk when she prayed And St. Jerome in an Epistle to Marcella mentions this in the Praises of Asella that by her frequent kneeling in Prayer she had contracted such an Hardness on her Knees as is to be found on the [p] Durities de genubus camelorum in illo sancto corpusculo prae orandi frequentia obcaluisse perspecta est Hier. ad Marcell de laudib Asellae Knees of Camels The same Father writes in the Life of Paul the Hermite that [q] Ac primum iâ—se vivere eum credens pariter orabat Postquam verò nulla ut solebat suspiria precantis at divit in flebile osculum ruens intellexit quod etiam cadaver Sancti Deum cui omnia vivunt officioso gestu precabatur Hier. in vit Pauli Eremitae Anthony entring into the Cave found there the dead Body of that Saint in a praying Posture upon its bended folded Knees with its Head listed up and its Hands stretched out on high [r] O ter belitam il'ius animam sine corpore cujus adâ—o venerabundum corpus sine anima Arrows Tact. sacr p. 273. How happy now is his Soul without his Body whose Body was in a worshiping Gesture without his Soul 3. If we would redeem the Time we must give our selves to frequent holy Ejaculation either mental or vocal inwardly lifting and darting up our Petitions and Heart's Desires or orally uttering them in some very short yet pithy Expressions of both which we have several Instances in Sacred Writ * Exod 14.15 Wherefore [s] In Dei auribus desiderium vehemens clamor magnus 〈◊〉 regione autem remissa iniontio vox submissa Bern sâ—rm 16. in Ps 90. criest thou unto me said God to Moses when Moses utter'd not a Word that we do reade of but only used strong Ejaculations inward ardent Desires and Groans †Nehem. 2.4 So I prayed to the God of Heaven said holy Nehemiah that is he dispatch'd and sent up some short Heart-prayers to Heaven that God would direct his Tongue and bend and [t] Qui preces ad Regem perferre vult priùs ad Deum perserat cujus in manu corda sunt Regum Grot. in loc incline the Heart of the King the King's Heart being in the Lord's Hand He could pray no otherwise at that Time for he was then in the Presence of the King and in Discourse with him And Nehemiah ‖ Nehem. 13.14 21 31. and (*) Mat. 11.25 John 12 27 28. our Saviour and others did use by an holy Apostrophe to turn their Speech to God in vocal Ejaculations The true Christian as a solid [u] Shaw's Immanuel p. 73. Divine saies well does not limit himself penuriously to a Morning and Evening Sacrifice and Solemnity as unto certain Rent-seasons wherein to pay an Homage of dry
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
short Race who though thou maiest sometimes start aside or stumble in the Way yet will not deny thee thy Reward nor lessen thy Crown but if thou doest thy best will reward thy Sincerity largely and liberally and will abundantly recompense the very meanest faithful Performance the giving but a Cup of cold Water in the Name of a Disciple It will excite thee to give thanks to God who hath begotten thee again to a lively Hope and made thee very rich in Hope It will enable thee to live comfortably and walk cheerfully as an Heir of the Promises an Heir of the Grace of Life of eternal Life or Glory which will be bestowed by the free Grace and Favour of God To rejoice with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory as one whose Name is written in Heaven and that hast a Mansion prepared by Christ in Heaven for thee To rejoice and be exceeding glad to consider that great is thy Reward in Heaven To rejoice in the first Fruits of the Spirit in the earnest of the Spirit which is the earnest of thy Inheritance given by God as a Pledg or first part of Payment of that Inheritance which he hath destin'd to thee To sit down and express and vent thy Thoughts in the feeling affectionate words of the fore-cited sweet Singer [t] Herb. Poem The Glance If thy first glance so powerful be A Mirth but open'd and seal'd up again What wonders shall we feel when we shall see Thy full-eyed Love When thou shalt look us out of pain And one Aspect of thine spend in Delight More than a thousand Suns disburse in Light In Heaven above If thou shalt use to think much of Heaven thou wilt rejoice in that Sight which thou gettest of God and Christ here as a real Pledg of a clearer Vision and nearer Fruition of God and Christ hereafter Thou wilt rejoice in that Communion which thou holdest with the Saints in the Church here as an earnest and assurance of thy Fellowship with them in the heavenly Glory hereafter Thou wilt delight in that measure of spiritual Knowledg and those Beginnings of eternal Life thou attainest here as Tokens and Pledges of a perfection of Knowledg a perfection of Life eternal to be received and enjoyed hereafter Thy thankful cheerful Life will answer the Reward the Riches the Crown the Kingdom which God hath plainly promis'd thee and given a sure Earnest and certain Pledg of to thee The last of the four last Things proposed as the subject Matter of Meditation in order to the right Redemption of Time Let [a] Reade Mr. Bolton of Hell in his 4 last things And Mr. Richard Adams's serm of Hell in the M. E. at St. G. Hell and its Torments be the Subject of thy solemn and frequent Meditation which will be of great Use and Advantage to thee for preventing the mis-spending and promoting the right redeeming of thy Time Hope of Heaven and Fear of Hell are the great Engines apt to turn about our Wills and the forcible Spring of all our Actions and nothing so strongly affects as Fear And we have need enough in this present State to get every Affection wrought upon and to use all possible Motives with our selves for the furthering and promoting the Salvation of our Souls And therefore surely she was overhasty and acted rashly that ran about the City with a Brand of Fire in one Hand and a Bottle of Water in the other and said her business was to set Heaven on fire with the one and to quench Hell-slames with the other that there might be neither of them left only pure Love to move and incite her Piety The devout St. Bernard puts us upon a wiser and better Course [b] Descendamus in insernum viventes ne defcendamus moriâ—ntes Let us go into Hell by Meditation while we live saies he that we may not go into Hell when we die Seriously consider that if thou shouldst prove a final impenitent Sinner when thy Soul shall quit the Tabernacle of thy Body it shall pass immediatly into a State of Misery and dwell in the Region of Devils and of evil discontented Spirits and that thou shalt be raised at the last Day to the * Ioh. 5.29 Resurrection of Damnation to †Dan. 12.2 Shame and everlasting Contempt be raised as a Malefactor is fetched out of Prison to appear in Judgment first and then to be had to the Place of Execution be raised though thou wouldst [c] Malunt extingui penitus quà m ad supplicia reparari Minucius Fel. p. 84. rather chuse to be annihilated than to be restored and raised again to Punishment That then thou shalt be ranked among the Goats on the * Mat. 25.41 left Hand and sentenced to * Mat. 25.41 depart That then thou shalt be excluded and banish'd from the Face and Favour the comfortable †2 Thess 1.9 Presence and blessed Enjoyment of God and Christ in Glory That thou shalt suffer the Loss of all thy outward and earthly Enjoyments have impetuous Desires after terrene and sensual Things still remaining and yet want the Objects which should suit and satisfy please and gratify those Desires But that thy greatest Punishment shall consist in the Loss of God and Christ and of all real substantial Good by the Loss of God and Christ the chiefest Good Consider further That thou shalt be forc'd to depart from Christ into Hell-fire not a purging but plaguing not a purifying but tormenting Fire That it will be no small Pain that will arise from an acute Feeling and lively Sense of the unutterable Losses and unrecoverable Damages thou shalt then sustain by reason of thy Sin from a quick and terrible Apprehension that thou art bereaved of God forsaken of Christ and utterly deprived of all the glorious Good that was so fairly offer'd to thee and from the sad Consideration that they whom thou didst despise and vilify and trample on here on Earth and account the very Off-scouring of the World are at last possess'd and made Partakers of that blissful State which thou findest thy self deprived of As it heightned and aggravated Dives's Misery to behold Lazarus in Abraham's Bosom But well consider That this will not be all but that there shall be a real Presence of all Evil as well as a privation of all Good That as all the Members of thy Body and Powers of thy Soul have been Weapons of Unrighteousness so thou shalt be punished in all the Parts of thy Body and Faculties of thy Soul which then shall be made more capable of Torment and shall suffer-Pain without any Diversion or Intermission Mitigation or Relaxation at all finding * Rev. 14.11 no Rest day nor night That then thou shalt be fill'd with Horrour of Conscience troubled and vexed to think and consider that all the Torments thou indurest are sent in Vengeance and inflicted by Divine Justice by way of Punishment for thy wilful Faults and
and Palate load your Body with Meats and Drinks pass the Time in Sport and Play with you sill your Ears with unprofitable atheistical profane loose and lewd Discourse vitiate your Mind pervert your Judgment debauch your Fancy corrupt your Manners help you to forget God and your selves teach you to become [g] Herbert's Church porch p 2. Beasts in Courtesy and by their foolish mad Mirth and cruel Kindness to you abroad make work enough for your earnest serious Sorrow and Sadness your dear and costly Repentance at home But will make you neither wiser nor better add nothing to your Vertue contribute nothing to your Graces and to the Feeding and Nourishing of your Souls Who will it may be feast and pamper your Body but starve and pine yea poison your Soul and by a pretended Civility and Courtesy to you labour to be the Bane and Undoing of you Who will either vex or [h] Serpunt vitia in proximum quemque transiliunt contactu nocent Itaque ut in pestilentia curandum est ne corruptis jam corporibus morbo slagratibus assideamus quia pericula trabemus asslatùque ipso laborabimus Ita in amicorum legendis ingeniis dabimus operam ut quà m minimè inquinatos assumamus Initium morbi est aegris sana miscere Sen de Tranq An. c. 7. Vt solent vitia in corpore alibi connata in aliud membrum perniciem suam esslare sic improborum vitia in eos derivantur qui cum illis vitae habent consuetudinem Tert. advers Valent. taint all that are near them Who being themselves infected with the Plague of Sin have a strange and strong desire to infect others The only mode of whose Kindness is an artificial Insinuation of variety of Temptations and an earnest importunate Solicitation to Evil Who will endeavour to turn you off from a diligent holy Life and if it be possible will laugh or mock you out of Heaven Who having no Seed or Spark of Vertue in themselves must needs hate besiege and undermine it in others as being a constant standing Reproach to themselves [h] Nisi in bonis amicitia esse non potest Nec sine virtute amiciti tesse uâ—o pacto potest â—ùm conciliatrix amicitiae virtutis epinio fuerit difficile est amicitiam manere si à virtute deseceris Lael apud Cic. de Amic Abandon those Companions that are good Companions only in sinning who will lead you to Atheism and Profaneness provoke you to Lust and Wantonness Anger and Rage or draw you into Drunkenness urge and impose their [i] Slight those who say amidst their sickly Healths Thou liv'st by Rule What doth not so but Man House are built by Rule and Common-wealths Entice the trusty Sun if that you can From his Ecllptick Line becken the Sky Who lives by Rule then Keeps good Company Herb. Church-porch p. 5. sickly Healths upon you and will not let you live by Rule but will unweariedly tice and press you to Sin and be sick with them sweetly perswade you into Inconvenience fairly and finely allure you into fashionable Folly and inevitable Misery court and complement you into eternal Ruin civilly bear you Company and lovingly befriend you into Hell and so really shew less Kinduess and worse Nature to you than * Luke 16.27 28. Dives among the Devils in Hell express'd toward his Brethren here on Earth who contrived and laboured to keep and preserve them from that Place of Torment Make not them the Joy and Entertainment of thy Life who by thy leave will be thy eternal Destruction and Death Have no Intimacy hold no Familiarity with wicked Persons you may go see and visit them as their Physicians but not as their Companions you may sometimes call upon them to cure and heal them to prescribe somewhat to them to leave some good Directions with them but you must not be so often with them nor stay so long with them till you get their Disease and take Infection from them But now on the other side If we would spend our Time profitably and comfortably and have it turn to any considerable good Account let 's study to contract Friendship and Union with vertuous Persons esteeming them the most valuable Friends and to use Tully's Expression [k] Optimam pulcherrimam vitae supellectilem Cic. de Amic the best and fairest furniture of Life Let 's reckon [l] Nihilest am ibilius virtate nihil quod magis alliciat homines ad diligendum Si tanta vis probitatis est ut eam vel in eis quos nunquam vidimus vel quod majùs est in hoste etiam diligamus quid mirum si animi hominum moveautur cùm eorum quibuscum usu conjuacti esse possint virtutem bonitatem perspicere videantur Id. ib. Vertue and Grace to be the weightiest reason of Amability the Worthiness and Excellency of Persons Dispositions and Manners to be the most solid stable Ground the greatest Allective strongest Attractive of Love and Dearness Let 's chuse with holy David to be * Ps 119.63 [i] Bonos boni diligunt assciscúntque sibi quasi propinquitate conjunctos atque naturd Constat bonts inter bonos quasine cessariam benerolentiam esse Id. ib. Companions of all them that fear God and of them that keep his Precepts To be their Companions out of true Affection not out of Faction because they are Godly not because they are Persons of such and such an Opinion and Party To be Companions of them and of all them Let not any difference in outward Quality nor in Opinion among the Godly in things remote from the Substance of Religion be a cause of sinful Partiality David a great King scorn'd not the Company of any such nor was ashamed to be seen in their Company As his was so let * Ps 16.3 all our Delight be in the Saints and the Excellent that are in the Earth Let 's join with him and say †119 79. Let those that fear thee turn unto me and those that have known thy Testimonies Let 's chuse to ‖ Prov. 13.20 walk with wise Men that we may be wise to be frequently in Company with those (*) 11.30 whose Fruit that is actively the Fruit which they bring forth the Profit which they yield and afford to others in their Communication and Conversation by Information and Example is a Tree of Life and who are wise to win Souls Be conversant with those saies [i] Cum his versare qui te meliorem facturi sunt â—â— illos admitte quos tu potes facere melitres Sen. ep 7. Seneca excellently who are any way likely to make thee better and receive those into thy Friendship and Acquaintance whom thou maiest probably some way or other make better I say in like manner let us sort and suit associate and familiarize our selves with those among whom we may do most spiritual Good or