dismal Voice Serve nequam * Mat. 25.19 26 30. thou wicked and slothful Servant and shall find and feel a Retribution accordingly 'T will surely then be said concerning him * Mat. 25. 19 26 30. Cast the unprofitable Servant into outer Darkness there shall be Wecping and Gnashing of Teeth O let 's not put that evil Day far from us but let that Voice be alwaies ringing in our Ears which was ever sounding in [g] Quoties diem tillum considero toto corpore contremisco sive entm comedo sive bibo sive aliqutd facio semper videtur mihi tuba illa terrtilis sonare in auribus meis Surgite mortus ventte ad judicium Hieron St. Jerom's Arise ye Dead and come to Judgment Our Time must be strictly reckon'd for and therefore we should thriftily husband if possible every Minute of it The sixth and last Additional Reason Sixthly and lastly We should be sure to redeem the Time Because this Time is all we can redeem and upon this short Moment of Time depends long Eternity We shall never have any more Time or Space to redeem either in this or in another World 1. As we cannot live this same Life over again so when once we die and leave this World we shall never return to this Earth again to converse in Flesh with Men any more nor be suffer'd to live another Life here in this World to mend and correct what we did amiss heretofore * Job 14.14 If a Man die shall he live again says Job Some understand this Interrogation as flat denial an absolute Negation He shall live a natural Life on Earth no more †Job 7.9 10. As the Cloud is consumed and vanisheth away So he that goeth down to the Grave shall come up no more He shall return no more to his House neither shall his Place know him any more ‖ Job 26.22 Job 10. 21. When a few Years are come then I shall go the Way whence I shall not return 2. And as we shall have no new Time in this So no Space will be given or granted us for Repentance and Purgation of our Souls nor will any Offer of Mercy be made us in the other World No new Covenant will ever there be tendred to us no Ambassadours of Peace be sent to beseech us to pray us there n Christ's stead to be reconcil'd to God God will then be irreconcilable Sin unpardonable and unremovable Heaven unattainable and lost Souls uncurable and irrecoverable If we do not do our best here we shall have no other Game to play nor Part to and in any other Region or Mansion We shall not be [h] Quoad animae separatae statum nun itâ—rum sit Viator neque in probationis stain posita ad foe scitatein â—ahue acquirendam sed in statu ponitur hnals resurrections mutationibus expectatis Baxter Methodus Theologiae Christianae part 4. cap. 4. Probationers in the other World We shall not be suffered to begin there upon a new Score [i] In quo quemque invenerit suus novissimus dies in hoc eum compiehendet munds novissmas dies Quoniam qualis in die isto qutsque moritur talis in die illo judicabitur August Epist 80. Qualis exieris de hac vita talis redder is illi vitae August in Psal 36. Our Souls at Death will enter into a sixed unchangeable State and continue for ever such as they went out of this World The very same Frame and Temper Qualities and Assectious as we carry with us out of this Life we shall keep and retain in the next Such good Dispositions as were begun here will indeed beintended and perfected in Heaven And such ill Dispositions as took place and got Root here will be strongly setled and fully confirm'd in the damn'd hereafter But the [k] See Dr. Tillotson 1. vol pag. 29â— Dr. More 's Mystery of Godliness pag. 441. Dr. Dowler's Design of Christianity pag. 122. main State of any either good or bad will never be varied or altered in the other World As the Tree falls so it lies As Time leaves us so Eternity will find and continue us God will never trie us more with Opportunities and Helps of Conversion and Reformation with the Means of Grace and Life in another Place and State And therefore let 's now improve Providences and Ordinances Aids and Assistances as those that shall never hereafter meet with such Advantages and do all the Duties and Offices of Religion as those that are going to that World where there is no room for such Performances no place for Confession Praier Repentance and Amendment of Life in order to the Pardon of our Sins and Salvation of our Souls no occasion of running wrestling striving watching fighting any more in order to obtaining of a Prize and receiving of a Crown All that is now left undone must be undone for ever This is the only Space allotted us and Opportunity afforded us wherein to build and prepare our Ark to get Oil sufficient into our Vessels and to provide a competent Measure or Portion of Manna We can only gather the spiritual Manna in the six Daies of this Temporal Life there is no finding no getting of it on the Sabbath of Eternity As we must do all our worldly Business before the weekly Sabbath comes So we must quite finish our spiritual Business in the working Daies of the Life present for there is no working on the eternal Sabbath when once this earthly Lise is ended Then we must labour and work preparatory Work no longer but receive from our great Lord and Master the Reward or Punishment of our former Works The Life to come it is no Seed Time but only a Time of Harvest We must reap in the future State the Fruit of our own present Doings whether good or bad As we do use the Time of this Life so shall we be used treated and dealt with in the other Life We shall certainly fare happily or miserably to all Eternity according to our Carriage and Behaviour here According to our Choice and Election Affection and Action in this World will be our everlasting Lot in the World to come So that the right Improving or Misimproving the well or ill spending and husbanding of our Time is of infinite Consequence and Concernment to us Let us therefore in this Time of Life get all Things ready that are necessary to a joyful Entrance into eternal Life Let our Work and Business in Preparation for an endless Happiness be dispatch'd and done before we go hence and be no more seen * Eccles 9.10 Whatsoever our Hand findeth to do let us do it with our Might for there is no Work nor Device nor Knowledg nor Wisdome in the Grave whither we are going There is no Hope or Expectation of working out our Salvation in an after State and Condition If this Work be not effected before this mortal Life is ended it can never be done
our Time was bought into our Hands not with corruptible Things as Silver and Gold but with the precious Blood of Christ for we had forfeited our very Lives and space for Repentance is the Fruit of the Death of Christ Consider 2. How precious Time is in regard of the Vse and End to which it serves how Time bringeth Advantages with it for the compassing of the greatest Undertakings and for the perfecting of those that are most imperfect Time is not an empty Duration God hath filled Time with Helps to Eternity and with Means sufficient to know him the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent whom to know is Life eternal Consider 3. What precious Thoughts the more improved Heathens had of Time [a] Poteras hasce horas non perdidisse Pliny seeing his Nephew walk for his Pleasure called to him and said You might have found somewhat else to do you needed not have lost your Hours thus It is the Commendation given by Aelian of the old Lacedamonians that they [b] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. were exceeding frugal and parsimonious of their Time taking care to employ it in serious urgent Businesses not allow or permitting any Citizen to waste and consume it in Idleness and Sloth or vainly to throw it away by spending it on such Things as did not at all appear to minister to any Vertue For a Testimony of which the Historian gives this Instance That when it was told the Ephori that the People of Decelia did use to walk in the Afternoons those vigilant diligent Magistrates presently sent to them to prohibit their customary Walking meerly to take their Pleasure For they reckon'd [c] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aelian var. Hist l. 2.9.5 it became the Lacedemonians to get and preserve good Health not by taking such idle Recreations but by giving themselves to some profitable Exercises which might train and fit them for publick Use and Service Were they so thrifty only for the Profit and Commodity of their City And shall not we make much of our Time be sparing and saving of our Hours that we may employ them in the Worship and Service to the Honour and Glory of our God for the Safety and Welfare of our immortal Souls and the securing to our selves a celestial City and an heavenly Country The judicious Plutarch acknowledges that [d] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. Time is of all the most costly Expence The considering and understanding Seneca was more sensible than many of the Worth of Time had himself appretiating Thoughts of it and reproves the common Sort of Men of their great Ignorance of the Preciousness and Usefulness of it I am apt to wonder says he when I hear some Men ask others to spend their Time and bestow their Hours on them and observe those that are thus ask'd to be so easy to part with theis Time to them [e] Quasi nihil petitur quasi 〈◊〉 datur re omnium pretiosiâ—mà luditur c de brev vit c. 8. 'T is ask'd as a very small matter and given away as if it were worth nothing Men plainly play with the most precious Thing that is But this deceives them says he That Time is an incorporeal Thing nd cannot be perceived with bodily Eyes and is therefore made of little reckoning or no account with them And in his first Epistle he thus complains to his Friend Lucilius [f] Quâ—m mihi dabis qui aliquod pretium teâ— ori ponat qui diem â—stimet Sen. ep 1. Where will you find me a Man says he that sets a due Price a right and true Estimate and Value upon his Time Most Men are careful of an Hour-Glass but careless of their Hours Men throw away their Time because they have mean and low Thoughts of it They know not the Worth of this Jewel and therefore they are easily cheated of it and are ready to part with it upon the cheapest terms Many Christians may learn of some of the wisest Heathens not to make light of their precious Hours but to value their Time at an higher Rate 4. Let those that yet have Time in their hands learn to prize it by considering how those that want it judg of it They that have quite lost their Time Oh! what would they give to redeem it Men too commonly little think that Time is of any great Value I am sure the most of us live as if we did not believe so But I pray consider what damned Spirits and dying Persons who have not made their peace with God think of Time Consider 1. What precious Thoughts lost damned Souls have of Time who suffer such extremity of Misery for slighting and abusing it What would not they give if it were possible for our Time and Opportunities and those Seasons of Grace which we enjoy but do not improve which God indulgeth to us but we are not thankful for nor careful of What would not they offer or yield to to have a new Price put into their hands to have farther advantages of redeeming Time Could they be admitted to live in this World again and to act here another Part would they ever grudg to do any spiritual Duty would they ever think any religious Exercise tedious would they be tired at a Sermon or weary of a Prayer would not they be willing to pray every Day till they were even hoarse again to pray till their Knees were as hard as the Boards upon which they kneel'd Would not their Heads be Fountains of Waters and would not they be ready to weep out their very Eyes in the Confession of their Sins Could they be releas'd and restor'd would they be any more afraid to resist the Temptations of a carnal Friend to refuse an ensnaring Invitation to deny a Cup immodestly pressed and unseasonably urged to reprove a bold and daring Sinner and to own and side with God and Religion in any Company whatsoever With what undaunted Courage and Resolution would they be forward to bear Witness against the reigning Sins and common Vices of the World With what Force and Violence would they endeavour to take the Kingdom of Heaven and how would they labour to lead others into and to help them on in the Way to Heaven How would they speak with yearning Bowels of tenderest Compassions to the Souls of their sinful Friends and Relations and seek the Conviction Conversion and Salvation of the sensual worldly careless ungodly Neighbourhood round about them How would every Word that proceeded out of their Mouths be Heart-deep How patiently would they conti nue in well doing to make sure of an endless glorious Happiness And how contentedly would they endure and cheerfully suffer any thing here to escape the intolerable eternal Torments of Hell and to fly from the Wrath to come Consider further 2. What high and precious Thoughts a dying Man who has not made his Peace with God has of Time The fore-mentioned
that when the New Testament was first set forth by Erasmus he was drawn to buy it more in consideration of the good Latine of that Edition than out of any regard to the Word of God of which he was utterly ignorant at that Time And by the Providence of God he fell at first reading on this Sentence This is a faithful Saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners of whom I am chief [h] O mihi suavissimam Pauli sententiam Haec una serâ—â—â—ntia Deo iatus in corde meo docente sic exhilaravit pectus meum c. Biln ep ad Cutb. Tonstallum Lond. Episc Fox Act. Mon 2 v. p. 915. O this Saying of Paul was a sweet and comfortable Saying to me saies he This one Sentence God inwardly teaching and instructing me did so exhilarate and comfort my Heart which before was wounded and ready to despair through the Conviction and Sense I had of my Sins that I felt immediatly such a marvellous Tranquillity and Gladness within me that the Bones which had been broken did rejoice and from this Time the Scripture began to be sweeter to me than the Honey and the Honey-comb As Adam and Eve went about in vain to cover their Nakedness with their Fig-leaves and were never quieted till they had believed the Promise of God that the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpents Head so neither could I be healed saies he of the Stings and Bitings of my Sins before I was taught of God that Lesson of which Christ speaks Joh. 3.14 15. As Moses listed up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal Life Thomas à Kempis is said to have uttered and to have written this Sentence in his Books [i] In omnibus requiem quaesivi sed nusquam inveni praeterquam in angulo cum libello S. Torshel exercit in Malach. I have sought for Rest every where but have found it no where except in a Corner alone with a little Book The Bible is that blessed Book which will either alone or above all other Books afford a suitable seasonable Rest unto our Souls And now these Things considered is it not well worth the while to bestow your Time and Pains in reading and studying the sacred Scriptures 3. It is moreover a Means and Help to the right redceming of our Time for the future For here in the Scripture we have the plainest Precepts given us to oblige us to take due Care of our Time the best Examples and worthiest Patterns of Redemption of Time set before us in the Servants of God and in the Son of God and have here afforded us the strongest Motives and Encouragements to it and the most prudent Instructions and proper Directions about it For all that has been hitherto discoursed concerning it has chiefly been fetch'd from and drawn out of the holy Scriptures And these divine and sacred Writings will not only teach and instruct you but also inwardly dispose and qualify sit and enable you to make the best Improvement of your remaining Time by converting and transforming regenerating and renewing purifying and sanctifying you By giving you a new Nature they will enable you to lead a new Life And therefore be sure to redeem some competent Time for reading of the Scripture that you may the better redeem the Remainder of your Time by reading of the Scripture The noble Aethiopian * Acts 8.28 Eunuch would lose no Time but as he was travelling and sitting in his Chariot he read Esaias the Prophet And as St. Chrysostom well notes if he was so religiously employed in a Journey what a diligent Student of the Scripture was he at home yea though he found what he then read to be to him difficult and [k] Quae aperta sunt in quibus mentem suam Deus aperit avidè prompto animo susâ—ipere decet quae adhuc nobis obscura sunt praeterire couvenit donec plentor lux affulgeat Quod si legendo non satigabimur fiet tandem ut scriptura assiduo usu familiaris nobis reddatur Calv. in loc obscure yet he would not lay that holy Book away which he did not at present well understand We must esteem reverently of the Word saies the judicious [l] Mr. Arthur Hildersam Lecture 1. on the Title of Psal 51. pag. 2. The obscurity of any Place should increase our Diligence in searching the meaning of it and teach us to acknowledg the necessity of a learned Ministry and of that Gift of Interpretation God hath given unto his Servants Act. 8.31 And to see the Necessity of joining with our reading humble Prayer unto God that he would open our Understanding Ps 119. 18. And cause us to come to the reading of the Word with an Heart that is humbled and fearful to offend God For the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant Ps 25.14 And this should move us to mark and lay up in our Hearts even those things which we understand not because they may do us good hereafter Luke 2.50 51. Joh. 2.22 Id. ib. pag. 2 3. Hildersam though we cannot at the first reading or hearing of it profit by it or discern what use it may serve us unto The Jews were so exactly versed in the Old Testament that [m] Contr. Appion l. 2. Josephus gives this Testimony of them Every one of our Nation being demanded of our Laws can answer as readily as he can tell his own Name * Acts 17.11 The Bereans are commended for spending their Time every Day in searching the Scriptures It is the honourable Character of Apollos that he was * Acts 18.24 mighty in the Scriptures one that had a great Insight and Skill in the Scriptures of the Old Testament But †Verse 26. Aquila and Priscilla ordinary Tent-makers had attained to such a measure of Knowledg in the Gospel that they were able to instruct an eloquent Apollos and to expound unto him the Way of God more perfectly ‖ 2 Tim. 3.15 Timothy had known the holy Scriptures from a Child Tertullian after his Conversion was taken up night and day in reading of the Scriptures and did with great Pains get much of them by heart and that so exactly that he knew each Period Origen having this daily Task set him by his Father to rehearse unto him some Portion of Scripture He though a Child not only committed the Words unto his Memory but inquired into the Sense and Meaning of them and diverse Times would gravel his Father with the Questions which he propounded to him And when he was grown to riper Years he spent much of the Night in meditating on the holy Scriptures [n] Quis sic universam divinam Scripturam edidicit imbibit concoxit versavit meditatus est Erasm ep
〈◊〉 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
are sanctified by making thee Partaker of effectual Vocation real Regeneration gracious Adoption and thorough Sanctification that by Holiness he would qualify and dispose thee for Happiness And this Meditation will incline thee to put thy self in God's Way to be made fit And when he begins to make thee fit to do the best thou canst under God in his Strength and by his Grace to sit thy self to inquire after the Means of eternal Life and to charge thy self with the Vse of these Means in order to the attaining of this great End To cleanse thy self from all Filthiness that thou maiest be meet for an undefiled Inheritance (*) Rev. 3.4 To keep thy Garments undefiled that thou maiest be worthy to walk with Christ in white To glorify God both in thy Body and Spirit that thou maiest receive and inherit the Promise of the Glorification both of thy Soul and Body To endeavour to have (†) Rom. 6.22 thy Fruit unto Holiness that thy End may be everlasting Life (‖) Rev. 22.14 To do God's Commandments that thou maiest be blessed and have Right to the Tree of Life and maiest enter in through the Gates into the City [*] Rom. 2.7 By patient continuance in well doing to seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality that God may render eternal Life to thee Believing and considering that he that made thee without thee won'd save thee without thee a known Saying of St. Austin that God will never bestow glorious Immortality upon any that are loth to look after it that he will never give eternal Life to any that are unwilling to receive it that he won't make thee happy against thy Will nor force Heaven upon thee whether thou wilt or no That eternal Life is a Thing well worth thy looking after and therefore it is that God will have it sought for and sought for by well doing in a way of Obedience and good Works And that not only by Fits and Starts but by Perseverance or Continuance in well-doing and by patient Continuance in well-doing That a Man may as well think to be able to [t] Qui fide solitarta putat se posse ambulare in Christo is uno pede ambulare conatur quod est impoâ—â—bâ—le Dav. in Col. 2.6 p. 174 walk with one Leg as ever expect to go to Heaven by a Faith that is separated from good Works But do not only think of Glory in the General But consider seriously more particularly how upon the Reunion of Soul and Body thou shalt be made completely happy In the Vision of God In beholding the glorisied humane Nature of Christ In the Perfection of thy Knowledg and the full Satisfaction of all thy rational Desires In the blessed Place thou shalt dwell in In the blessed Company thou shalt enjoy And in the Uninterruption Perpetuity and Eternity of this blessed State 1. How thou shalt at last be made happy * Mar. 5 8. 1 Joh. 3.2 in the Sight of God That thy Vnderstanding shall acquiesce in the highest Being That then thou shalt see him as he is a Fountain of all that is desirable to thy Nature see him [a] Nos non negamus quin Deum videant animae separatae sed quta visionis intus non est und ratio sed variae partes prout Deus sise clariùs vel obsc riùs revelas libenter concedimus nondum cò pervenisse animas fidelium ut eum sacie ad faciem intuers dici possint Thes Salmur de vit Aetern thes 11. †1 Cor. 12.12 Face to Face know him even as also thou art known that in Heaven thou shalt have as clear a Sight of God and as free Communion with him as the State of a Creature can admit That though thou shalt not then immediatly see the very Essence of God as the over-acute School-men affirm God being in this respect invisible to the Angels themselves who though they be unspotted with any Sin yet the sole Imbecillity of their Nature and Creature-state does hinder such a Sight of God yet as the learned Camero expresses himself concerning it thou shalt see God by [b] Videtur Deus experiundo quis sit qualem se erga nos praestet Camero Praelect de Verbo Dei c. 7. p. 455. experiencing who he is and what he shews and manifests himself to be to thee by reaping the blessed Fruit and Benefit of the Divine Power Wisdom and Goodness so far as the Measure of a Creature can bear in the Sanctity of thy Soul and glorious Immortality of thy Body And as the ingenious judicious [c] Vide Thes Salmur de vita aeterna a Thes 13. ad finem Thes 27. Amyraldus does very intelligibly explain this Matter thou shalt see God hereafter in his glorious Works and admirable Operations such as will be the most bright Splendor and beautiful Habitation of Paradise the Glorification of thy own and others Bodies the Consociation of the Church with Angels and especially the glorious Presence of Christ in whose Manhood will appear as much of the Creator as is possibly visible in the Nature of Man To which add whatever else there may be in which the Majesty of the Deity shall then manifest it self Which rare Effects of the Divinity will certainly lead thee to a clear and full Knowledg of God's most excellent Properties and divine Vertues his Wisdom and Knowledg Power and Greatness Grace and Mercy Truth and Faithfulness the Knowledg and Contemplation of which will Fire and inflame thee with Love to him and ravish thee with joy and Delight in him Think how hereafter thou shalt see God and see him as thy God and Chief Good see god not with a transient Sight but see him so as to possess and enjoy him to close with him and be united to him and complacentially to rest in him as thy utmost and perfect End See God not by a mere speculative Contemplation of him but so as by seeing him [d] In the Tife of Glory our Souls become living polished Gsasses wherein the Divine Nature wherein Christ God and Man may be seen as he is and he is Truth it self Life it self and Goodness it self and we are transform'd into the Similitude of all these his Actibutes Dr. Jackson third Vol. p. 504 505. to become * 1 Joh 3.2 like unto him to be changed and transformed into the true and lively Image of him to be made Partaker in thy Measure and Proportion of that Wisdom and Holiness Love and Goodness which thou shalt apprehend and behold in him That thou shalt not only please and delight thy self by looking on some Glory that shall appear before thee to use some Words of a [d] See D. Patrick's Parable of the Pilgr p. 89 90. learned Doctor but shalt be made all glorious within and become thy self a God-like Creature That thou shalt not behold the Divinity only without thy self and be made happy by some external Enjoyment
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
in another World Consider 5. That the [x] Vid. Chryfost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good Thief redeemed and improved his Time at last in so notable and wonderful a way and manner as no Man ever did or can beside Surely thou canst never hope to do that Honour to God and Christ upon a Death-bed which the Thief did in a short time upon the Cross The Thief brought more Glory to God and Christ at the time of his Departure out of this World than another Man 's whole Life can do [y] See Bp. Taylor 's Great Exemp p. 581. What Age of the World can give Example of so strong a Faith or produce a Pattern of greater Piety for he believed him to be the Saviour whom the Jews accused as a grand Malefactor and Pilate condemned who was crucified by the Gentiles and vilified by the Jews and openly reviled by the other Thief He expected Life and Salvation from an afflicted suffering dying Person hanging in a publick shameful manner full of Pain upon a Cross under the Sadnesses Sorrows and Pangs of Death who was esteemed smitten and seemed to Man's Sense for saken of God whom he had alwaies profess'd to be his Father In the very Extremity of Christ's Passion the good Thief believed him to be the holy Son of God the Lord of Life able to save in Death He beheld the Beauty and Glory of Christ through the dark Ignominy of the Cross He saw him naked wounded a Partner of the same Torment upon the Tree enduring the servile Punishment of the Cross and yet was heartily perswaded Christ was a King [z] Dic ô latro ubi thronus ex sapphyro ubi Cherubim exercitus caeli ubi corona sceptrum purpura ut eum dicas Regem videsne coronam aliam quà m spine im sceptrum aliud quà m clavos aliam purpuram quà n sangutnem alium thronum quà m crucem alios ministros quà m carnifices juid ergo Regium vides Aug. Speak O Thief saies St. Austin where is the Throne of Sapphire where are the Cherubims and heavenly Hosts where is the Crown the Scepter and the Purple that thou shouldst count Christ a King Dost thou see any other Crown than that of Thorns any other Scepter than the Nails in his Hands any other Purple than his Blood any other Throne than the Cross any other Officers and Ministers than the Executioners [z] Videte quà m oculata sit sides quà m lynceos oculos habeat diligentiùs considerate Cognoscit Dei Filium in ligno pendentem cognoscit morientem siquidem latro cognoscit in patibulo c. Bern. serm 2. in Epiph. Dorn See saies St. Berâ—ard how sharp-sighted Faith is what quick and piercing Eyes it has how it apprehends and discerns Christ to be the Son of God though hanging bleeding dying upon the Cross How evidently it discovers the great King appearing in the mean form of a Servant and taking a Journey through the strait way of painful shameful Suffering into his heavenly Kingdom of Glory How far did the rare and noble Faith of this Thief excel the Faith even of all the Disciples and Apostles of Christ who now at last fearfully [a] Titubaverunt qus viderunt Christum mortuos suscitautem credidit ille quem videbat secum in ligno pendentem Aug. serm 144 de Tempore stumbled at Christ's Cross though sometime they had seen him raising the very Dead [b] Gerhard Harm in Luc. 23.40 41 42. Peter believed when he saw Christ * Mat. 14.28 walking upon the Sea but the Thief believed when he saw Christ's Feet fast nail'd to the Cross and beheld him flowing all over in Blood from Head to Foot The Apostles believed when they saw Christ †17.2 transfigur'd before them and his Face shining as the Sun and his Raiment white as the Light but the Thief believed when he saw Christ not transfigured but strangely disfigured miserably mangled and deforemed and his Face not shining but sullied and fadly besmeard with Spittle Wounds and Blood * Joh. 11.27 39. Martha believed when she saw Christ powerfully raising a dead and even stinking Lazarus from the very Grave who had been dead four Daies but the Thief believed when he saw Christ hanging in the Valley of the Shadow of Death almost expiring and very near giving up the Ghost Others believed when they saw Christ daily working divine Miracles and honoured by the People with solemn Acclamations but the Thief believed at such a Time when Christ wrought no Miracles to demonstrate his Divinity and testify his Innocency and was rejected despised and had in open derision of Men. He cleaved to him when the very Apostles and Disciples themselves forsook and fled from him He believed in Christ when he had the strongest Temptations to the coutrary when Christ was seemingly in as low a Condition as himself Verily Christ found not so great Faith no not in Israel no not in his [c] Recolamus fidem latronis quam non invenit Christus post resurrectionem in Discipulis suis August serm 144. de Tempote own Disciples even after his Resurrection All the holy Actions of another Man's Life are not likely to amount to the Service done to God and Christ by this one act of the Thief 's Faith Besides his pregnant Faith was eminently productive of many good Works [d] Vid. Daven Praelect de Just Act. p. 390. both internal and external He feared God acknowledged his own Sin and Guilt with Godly Sorrow true Contrition and hearty Repentance condemned himself justified Jesus and publickly testified that Christ was a Person perfectly just and righteous unblameable and innocent This Man hath done nothing * Luke 23.41 [e] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nibil absurdum absonum vel indetens fecit Non soâ—ùm banc crucem non est promeritus sed nec ullo etiam levissimo peccato est centaminatus Gerhard Harm in loc amiss said he He commiserated his causelesly calamitous Condition when the other vile [f] Belluinu n est non human 〈◊〉 non compati morienti Seneca brutish Thief was void of Humanity and instead of pitying mock'd and scoffed at a dying Person He maintain'd the Honour of his Saviour against the Railery and Blasphemy of his Fellow-sufferer who derided the Office especially the Kingly Dignity of Christ He called him Lord his Lord embracing him as the true Messias He honoured him whom Judas betrayed He boldly confess'd and defended him whom Peter timorously denied and fearfully forswore He plainly declared that he sought and look'd for a future State and better Life He freely acknowledg'd that this same suffering dying Person should have immediatly the Power of Paradise and Authority to place him in the Seat of the Blessed As †Dan. 6.10 Daniel prayed toward Jerusalem and the Temple when it was in its ruins and rubbish so the penitent Thief prayed to Christ when he was in the lowest State
REDEMPTION OF TIME The Duty and Wisdom of Christians in EVIL DAYS OR A Practical Discourse Shewing what SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES Ought to be redeem'd What MISSPENCES of TIME Are to be avoided with convincing REASONS Quickning MOTIVES And proper DIRECTIONS For the right Improvement of pretious Time By J. W. London Printed for Nathanael Ranew at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard 1683 To the Gentlemen and Inhabitants of HAMMERSMITH Honoured Worthy and Well-beloved Friends THe great and good God made Man Lord of the * Gen. 1.28 Psal 8.6 115.16 whole Earth but this is not the highest Preferment and utmost Advancement that he is capable of and destin'd to The incorporeal and diviner Part of him sufficiently discovers and evidently demonstrates that he pertains and belongs to another World Tully brings in Cato delivering this high point of Philosophy that this [a] Est animus coelestis ex altissimo domicilâ—o depressus quasi demersus in terram locum divinae naturae aternitaiâ— que contrarium cic in Cat. Maj. seu de senect Earth and earthly Body into which the Soul is sunk at present is a place extreamly contrary to a divine Nature and to Eternity This Earth is but our [b] Ex vita ista discedo tanquam ex hospitio non tanqu im ex domo Commorandi enim natura diversorium nobis non habitandi dedit Id. ib. Inn saies he in which as Travellers we are to lodg in our Journey hastening through Time to Eternity not our House and Home in which we are to dwell continually This World is appointed only as a Passage to a better place and state We are now in a way of Preparation for it This World as [c] Sir Mat. Hale's Contempl. M. and D. 1 part p. 263. one saies well is the great Laboratory for perfecting of Souls for the next We are here indeed to make but a short stay yet we must not repine at the brevity of this Life but ought to be content with that space of time which is allowed us for our Life on Earth and to take care that in [d] Neque enim histriont ut placeat peragenda est sabula modo in quocunque fuerit actu probetur nec sapientis sque ad plaudite vivendum Breve enim tempus aetatis satis est longum ad bene honestéque vivendum Cic. lib. cit whatsoever Act we are appointed to appear we perform our particular parts well though they prove but short ones that are assigned and committed to us in the great Comedy acted in the Theater of this inferiour World for as the forementiond Philosopher acknowledgeth a short time of Life is long enough to serve us to live well and honestly It concerns us only to endeavour to use and improve what time God pleases to afford us in doing those things which will fit and dispose us for a happy Eternity and make our Translation and Removal hence gainful and advantageous comfortable and desirable to us God hath prescribed a course of convenient means to be observed and used by us in this Probation-state [e] Non per difficiles Quaestiones ad beatam vitam nos ducit Deus Hilar. He does not lead us to a Life of Blessedness as St. Hilary tells us truly through thorny difficult Controversies and knotty hard Questions He would have us not dispute but live for as the * Mic. 6.8 Prophet informs us He hath shewed thee O Man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love Mercy and to walk humbly with thy God And as the ‖ Tit. 2 11 12. Apostle expresses it The Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all Men teaching us that denying Vngodliness and worldly Lusts we should live soberly righteously and godlily in this present VVorld He requires us to believe in order to Practice and Obedience God has given us but a [f] Pauca credenda multa facienda Cosid Mod. Pac. in epist Praef. few things to be believed as Bp. Forbes was wont well to observe but he has plainly ordered and appointed a great many necessary things to be done by us We must †Rev. 22.14 do his Commandments that we may be blessed and have right to the Tree of Life and enter in by the Gates into the City We mmst * Rom. 2 7. by patient Continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality The Scope and Drift of the following Treatise is to shew you particularly and fully how to redeem the Time of this Life so as to gain a glorious Immortality As for the Matter of it it is useful to instruct you in the Divine Arithmetick to make you wiser than [g] The Philosopher affirms that Man is therefore the wisest of all Creatures because he alone can number and they note this as an essential difference between them that Bruta non numerant Brure Creatures cannot number I am sure this is most true of that Divine Arithmetick which the Psalmist prays for Lord teach us so to number our Days that we may apply our Hearts unto Wisdom Dr. Stoughton's Heavenly Conversat p. 80. brutish Sinners that know not how to number their Days It is apt to engage you upon an early present Industry a diligent speedy Care of your Time and of your Souls and is a Manuduction to the Exercise of a great part of Practical Religion The Style of it is plain familiar and easy to be understood by all which renders the Treatise the more generally useful Some affect a Language so gaudy as is not consistent with the Gravity of Theology Others discourse in so strong a Style that by their lofty Words and Expressions they shoot quite over the Heads and so miss the Hearts of too too many of their Auditors Some paint the Glass till they darken the Window and keep out the Light Seneca professes that he does not approve of any jejune and dry Discourses about the great and weighty matters of Morality for Philosophy says he does not renounce all Wit and Ingeny but he does not allow much labour to be laid out upon Words [h] Non quaerit aeger medicum eloquentem sed sanantem c. non erit quare gratuletur sibi quòd inciderit in medicum etiam disertum hoc enim tale est quale si peritus gubernator et tam formosus est Quid aures meas scalpis quid oblectas aliud agitur urendus secandus abstinendus sum Ad haec adhibit us es curare debes morbum veterem gravem â—ublicum Tantum negotii habes quantum in pestilentia medieus circa verba occupatus es jamdudum gaude si sufficis rebus Sen. ep 75. A sick Man says he does not seek a Physician that is eloquent but that is able to cure his Disease no more than the Passenger regards and enquires whether the skilful Pilot or Governour of a Ship be a
when he stands ready with Strength and Assistance when he publisheth great and precious Promises when the golden Scepter is held out by God to us as it was to * Esther 5.2 Esther by Ahasuerus when gracious Offers merciful Tenders kind and loving Invitations are made and repeated and very sweet and comfortable Encouragements propounded and assured to penitent Sinners in the Ministery of the Word this is †Rev. 2.21 space given for Repentance this is a golden Season of Grace in which we may have Christ and all his precious and saving Benefits upon the reasonable Terms and acceptable Conditions of the Gospel When the Trumpet of the Jubile soundeth when Liberty to the Captives and the Opening of the Prison to them that are bound is proclaimed ‖ 2 Cor. 6. i 2. Behold now is the accepted Time behold now is the Day of Salvation O ‖ 2 Cor. 6. i 2. receive not the Grace of God in vain lose not so long and large a Season make your Advantage of the Time of the Gospel be thankful for it and faithful in the Use and Improvement of it close with the Gospel and daily and earnestly endeavour and pray that it may be made effectual to you Repent believe sincerely obey in this thy Day Repent think upon thy Waies be sorry for thy Sins hate them forsake them repent with a Repentance from dead Works never to be repented of So change thy Mind as to change thy Manners to reform and alter the Course of thy Life for the future So truly repent as to take care to bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance Believe not with a bare historical a meer intellectual Faith not with an idle dronish wholly ineffectual Assent but with a [b] Fortasse unusquisque apud seipsum dicet Ego jam credidi salvus ero verum dicit si fidem operibus tenet vera etenim fides est qua in hoc quod verbis dicit moribus non contradicit Fidei nostrae veritatem in vitae nostrae consideratione debemus agno cere Greg. Hom. 29. in Euang. Credere in Deum est credendo amare credendo diligere credendo in eum â—re membris ejus incorporari Putasne Filium Dei Iesum reputat quisquis ille est homo qui ipsius nec terretus comminationthus nec attrahitur promissonibus nec praeceptis obtemperat nec consiliis acquiescit Nonne is etiamsi fatearur se nosse Deum factis tamen negat Bernard in Octav. Pasc de tribus Testim in coelo ter serm 1. p. 88. practical active operative Belief So believe the Word of God as to take it seriously and in good earnest for the only Rule of thy Conversation in Matters necessary to Salvation So firmly receive and assent to the Divine Testimony as to have thy Heart rightly affected and thy Life powerfully influenced by it So cordially believe the Truth of the Gospel as to resolve and on all Occasions to endeavour to carry suitably to such Belief to live and act as a Person that does indeed believe it and to answer the end for which divine Truth was revealed which is the bringing us to good Lives So yield Assent to the Doctrine of the Gospel as to close and comply with the Terms of the Gospel and heartily to consent to the whole Duty of Man contain'd and delivered in the Word or God and Gospel of Christ so assent to the Commands of the Gospel as true as withal to love and like them to choose and embrace them as good and as good for thee yea as incomparably better for thee to observe than any other Rule that possibly can be respected by thee whatever they cause thee to lose or suffer here in this World So give your undoubted Assent to them as to cleave closely and stick invincibly to them against all flattering or affrighting Temptations to the contrary and still to engage and charge and provoke thy self to conform thy whole Heart and Life to them Farther So assent to the Truth of the Gospel-Promises as to take care to perform the necessary Conditions of them to trust in the Promises of the Gospel with an obediential Affiance with an obsequious and dutiful Reliance to trust in them according to the Tenour of them to trust in the Promises of Pardon and Remission in the Exercise of sincere and unfeigned Repentance and in the Promises of Sanctification in the Use of Gospel-Ordinances and Means and diligent Improvement of the Grace of God already communicated and received and in the Promises of Life everlasting in the way of new and sincere Obedience Assent to the Promises not only that they are true and real but that they are also the most valuable that can be * 1 Pet. 1 4. exceeding great and precious Promises so as to prefer the Promises of God above all the Proffers of the World as better than any thing that the Devil can offer or the World afford Farther yet So assent to the Truth of the Threatnings of the Word as to fear and stand in aw of them and to study to avoid those Sins which will put thee in Danger of temporal and eternal Sufferings and to keep thy self free from the Fear of the Menaces of Men while thou art in the way of thy Duty to God Believe the whole Word of God and Believe in all the Persons of the holy and blessed Trinity So assent to the Truth of whatsoever is spoken in the Scripture of God and Christ and the Spirit of God and Christ as deliberately to choose God the Father Son and holy Ghost for thy Portion and Treasure thy Happiness and chief Good To bring thy Heart to own love honour serve and worship God the Father as thy good and bountiful Creator and Preserver and very merciful God Redeemer by Jesus Christ and freely and gladly to consent to have God the Father for thy Covenant-Friend and reconciled gracious Father And to accept with all Love and Thankfulness even a crucified Christ for thy only Lord and Saviour to bring thee to God thy chiefest Good by reconciling thy Person and Nature to him to recover and bring thee back both in Heart and Life to God and to rest and rely upon Christ and on God only in and through Christ for Justification Sanctification and eternal Salvation according to the Promises of the Gospel Cordially receive him in all his Offices And here 1. Accept of Christ as a Priest to save thee by the offering of himself a Sacrifice in thy stead and by making Intercession on thy behalf And labour to answer the ends of his Death by Purity and Holiness of Heart and Life and to act becoming his Intercession to live so as it may be fit for Christ with Honour to present your Works and Services to his Father to be accepted by him to do nothing but what is worthy of such a Mediatour as Christ is to present unto God on your behalf Now tell me is
any act of Prophaneness Sin and Wickedness a fit Action for Christ to take and present unto his Father for Divine Acceptance Certainly our Actions must have the Truth though not the Perfection of good Works for otherwise 't were a Thing unbeseeming Christ to present them and unbecoming God to accept them for in so doing Christ must become a Patron of Sin and God an Owner of the Works and an Encourager of the Workers of Iniquity O then take care that your Actions be such as may be fit to be presented by Christ unto his Father and to be accepted by God in and thorough Christ This is the Way to honour Christ considered as a Priest 2. Accept of Christ as a Prophet to teach and instruct thee thorowly to teach both thy Head and Heart and be willing and forward to learn of Christ and to be taught by him the Truth as it is in Jesus and to profit both by his Doctrine and Example 3. Accept of Christ not only for thy Priest and Saviour and for thy Prophet Teacher and Instructour but for thy wise and holy Law-giver and for thy soveraign King and Governour to rule and to reign over thee Give up thy self in hearty Subjection to the Person and Authority of Christ and [c] Credere se in Christâ—m quomodo dicit qui non facit quod Christus facere praecepit aut unde perveniet ad praemium fidei qui fidem non vult servare mandati Cyprianus de Eccles unit Quid est credulitas vel fides opinor fideliter hominem Christo credere id est fidelem Deo esse hoc est fideliter Dei mandata servare Christiani homines infideles sunt si bona sibi à Deo assignata corruperint Salvian de Gubern Dei lib. 3. vow and be ready to perform sincere Obedience to all the Particular Commands of Christ When others cry these are hard Sayings who can bear them do you profess that his Commands are not grievous and do thou say from thy very Heart I delight to do thy Will O Christ Love and Delight in the Laws of Christ and choose and strive to keep and observe them when others censure break and violate them While other Men dishonour Christ and put him to an open Shame and cause his worthy Name to be blasphemed let thy Life lead Men to high and excellent Thoughts of Christ and of his Laws and Waies and Government This is the right Acceptance of Christ so * Coloss 2.6 to receive Christ Jesus the Lord as to purpose and endeavour to walk in him And then for the other Act of Faith Have not only a bare Opinion of Christ's Fidelity but trust in Christ with a practical Trust So thoroughly trust him as to venture all thy Happiness on him in his own way Trust him so far as to be sincerely and heartily willing to leave and forsake all to follow him to part with Sin and the World yea Life it self for him who will not suffer thee to be finally a Loser by him to be ready to relinquish all that thou seest and possessest here for things invisible which Christ hath promised to render to the Believer in the other World And so believe what is said concerning the Holy Ghost as heartily to believe in the Holy Ghost Consent to take him for thy Teacher and Guide Sanctifier and Quickner Advocate and Comforter Enter into solemn Covenant with resign and give up thy self to the Worship and Service of the sacred Trinity Be fully resolv'd to live to God and Christ and to worship in the Spirit to be led by the Spirit to walk in the Spirit and to bring forth the Fruits of the Spirit Believe and learn to live by Faith and let thy Faith work by Love and shew it self by good Works and be productive of the Obedience of Faith And let thy Obedience be voluntary and cheerful uniform and universal constant and perpetual Thus thus improve the precious Season of Gospel-Light Grace and Strength by plainly and fully coming up to the Terms and faithfully performing the great and necessary Conditions of the Gospel Honour and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by entertaining and walking worthy of the Gospel of Christ There was a memorable Statue set up in the Isle of Rhodes in honour of the Sun which once a Day is said to shine upon that Island be the Air in all other Parts never so overcast with Clouds But we enjoy a greater and higher Priviledg than they The Sun of Righteousness shines upon this our Island and affords the Light of the blessed Gospel not only once every Day but all the Day long every Day And now shall we be so blind and unthankful as to take no notice of it so idle and careless as to make no use of it Since the Light of the Gospel does clearly and sweetly beam out in our Faces when the Air is dark abroad and many other places are cover'd with the thick Clouds of Ignorance let us * Joh. 5.35 rejoice in the Light and †1 Joh. 1.7 walk in the Light of the Glorious Gospel as Children of the ‖ Eph. 5.8 Light and of the (*) 1 Thess 5.5 Day and then we shall be as so many Statues set up in Honour of Christ the Sun of Righteousness that shines in his Lustre and Strength upon us But besides the General Opportunity of the Continuance of the Gospel which is afforded to many all their Life long I say besides this there are some Parcels and Portions of our Lives some Daies and Hours of our Time that are Particular and special Opportunities above others as namely these following The first Particular Opportunity to be redeemed 1. The Morning of our Age the Time of Youth and Health and Strength this is an Opportunity of providing for Eternity this is a fit Season of working out our Salvation of laying up in store against a Time of Sickness an Hour of Weakness and the Day of Death This is a Time wherein [a] Juvenes possumus discore possumus facilem animum adhuc tractabilem ad meliora convertere hoc tempus idoneum est laboribus idoneum agitandis â—er studia ingeniis exercendâ—s ter opera corporibus Quod superest segnius languiaius est propâ—â—◠â fine Primus quisquo tanquam optimus dies placeat redigatur in nostrum Sen. ep 103. both Body and Mind are strong and vigorous This is an Age meet for Impression capable of Instruction and fit for Action The Wise Man calls young Men to redeem this choicest Part of their Time to think of him early who lov'd and minded us so early Eccles 12.1 Remember now thy Creator in the Daies of thy Youth thy choice Daies while the evil Daies come not nor the Years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no Pleasure in them The Daies of Youth are good Daies the Time of Health and Strength is a good Time indeed
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
Do you spend your Time as religiously at home as you might do at Church Do you catechize read and pray and sing Psalms at home in the mean Time If you do you do it unseasonably and plainly break the Lord's-day by ordinarily performing private Duties in the Time of publick Ordinances The Lord's-day being chiefly appointed for the publick Worship and Service of God The most [d] The sixth Council at Constans decreed That whosoever was absent from the Congregation three Lord's-daies together without necessity If he was a Minister should be put from the Ministry and if he was a private Man he should be cast from the Communion of the Church publick Worship being the highest Honour that can be done to God and Christ Reading a Sermon or some Catechistical Doctrine at home in the Time of publick Preaching or Catechising though in it self it may be a better composed Sermon or Exposition yet is not so good as hearing a Sermon or Exposition at Church For the publick Ministry of the Word is a divine Ordinance which has a special Promise of God's gracious Presence Matth. 28. last Go teach says Christ lo I am with you alway even unto the End of the World You are therefore bound to frequent and attend upon it You must not mis-time and mis-place Duty You must not read at home in private when God calls you to hear in publick You must not use one Ordinance in contempt or neglect of another You cannot hope to profit if you do You can't expect not hope to profit if you do You can't expect God's Presence and look for the Gift of God's Grace in a way of Disobedience to his Command and Neglect of his appointed Means When God sets up the Ministry of the Word in any Place his Spirit then opens his School and expects that all who would be taught for Heaven should come thither Now whether is it most fitting that a Scholar should wait on his Master at School to be taught or the Master should run after his truant Scholar at Play in the Field to teach him there as the accurate Preacher [e] Christ Armour 2 part p. 552. in quarto Mr. W. Gurnal does well illustrate it Moreover in Attendance upon publick Preaching there are the Praiers of the [e] Deus pluris facit preces in ecclesia quà m domi factas non ob locum sed ob considerationem multitudints fidelium Deum communi consensu invocantium Rivet Cath. Oath whole Congregation put up for a Blessing upon the Word that is spoken and heard which is an Advantage that can't be enjoyed in private Reading There is also somewhat in this that the lively Voice of the Preacher is more affecting and powerfully working than private Reading And as for reading the Scripture and Books of Theology it is to be feared that they care but little for reading who pretend such reading to excuse their Absence from publick hearing But grant you do read yet certainly the Scripture and good Books were never written to divert and hinder you from publick Hearing so long as you are able to go to the publick but to fit you for it and help you in it Nay the Bible and good Books forbid you to stay at home in Time of publick Worship and Service and command you to be present at publick Praier Baptism the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Catechising Preaching * Heb. 10.25 Not to forsake the Assembly of your selves together as the manner of some is Take notice further that if you then every one as well as you may stay away and read a Book at home and so what will become of all publick Assemblies Once more consider you know not how much you may lose by but once neglecting a publick Ordinance [f] Joh. 20. from 19 to 29. †Thomas meritò privaetur communi fratrum suorum gratia quod tanquam vagus aut erraticus males ab unitatis vexillo discesserat Calv. ib. in vers 19. Thomas by reason of his Absence when Christ appeared to the Disciples that were assembled together lost the Advantage of receiving Satisfaction concerning the Truth of Christ's Resurrection and lay a whole Week in Unbelief That may be spoken in thy unnecessary Absence so agreeable and congruous to thy Condition as it may be thou maiest not meet with the like for a long time after if ever after The Devil may be busie to detain thee from the publick that very Day or Hour when he knows well enough that is provided and prepared which is most suitable to thee and apt to work upon thee Obj. But he that preaches is a Man of weak Parts mean Gifts and very ordinary Abilities Answ But if he be an approved ordained Minister be conscionable in his Place and unblameable in his Life and if what he delivers be sound and profitable blame your own Hearts if you do not profit by him and take more Pains with them in hearing and see that your Carelesness or Prejudice cause not your unprositableness It is a remarkable Saying of the Reverend and Holy [g] Hilders on John p. 241. Mr. Arthur Hildersam I am perswaded saies he there is never a Minister that is of the most excellent Gifts if he have a Godly Heart but he can truly say he never heard any faithful Minister in his Life that was so mean but he could discern some Gift in him that was wanting in himself and could receive some profit by him You know a Torch may be sometimes lighted by a Candle and a Knife be whetted and sharpned by an unhewn and unpolish'd Stone And it is considerable which the same judicious Author adds there that the Fruit and Profit that is to be received from the Ministry depends not only nor chiefly upon the Gifts of the Man that preacheth but upon the Blessing that God is pleased to give unto his own Ordinance and God does oft give a greater Blessing to weaker than to stronger Means and therefore despise not any sound Ministry because of the meanness of it Obj. But some may say The Exercise is too long and the Season is too hot or cold to come twice a Day Answ But let me ask you Could not you willingly stay in any Season of the Year as long again at a Play 'T is the Coldness of your Hearts and your frozen Affections that make you plead either the Heat or Coldness of the Weather in excuse of your Absence from Church-Assemblies and I pray seriously consider whether Hell at last won't prove too hot for wilful careless causeless Sabbath-breakers I shall further offer two Things to your Consideration to move and provoke you to a careful and diligent Redeeming of the Lord's-day Mot. 1. The right Redemption of the Lord's-day is an apt and likely means of redeeming the whole Week following Of redeeming it as to Temporals Of redeeming it as to Spirituals 1. As to Temporals They that serve God sincerely on the Lord's-day
unlawful Deeds He vexed himself was active in it Saint Peter expresses more in this than in the former Verse as Calvin observes to wit that Lot did [n] Nempe quòd voluntarios cruciatus justus Lot subierit Calv. in loc voluntarily and willingly afflict himself He did it freely he was not forc'd to it He vexed himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is [o] Est Metaphera à toâ—mentis ducta Gethar in loc a Metaphor drawn from Torments says Gerhard [p] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rich Man being in Torments Luke 10.23 The same Word is used to set out Hell-Torments This good Man continually tortured and tormented himself He lived a grievous painful Life labouring no less than if he had laien upon the Rack It was a kind of Hell upon earth to him to see and hear such Things among them They gave him Ground and Cause enough of Trouble and Grief by their Impieties and Impurities and his righteous Soul could not but work upon that Matter and vex and afflict himself therewith The gross Wickedness of ungodly Men is contrary to the gracious Temper and new Nature of a good Man and therefore he is no more able to bear it than the Stomach can bear that which it nauseates As a musical Ear will be offended with any harsh Sound So Sin grates upon a godly Man and is a Discord to him At his new Birth there was implanted in his Nature a true Zeal to the Cause and Interest of Righteousness and Goodness in the World an inward Sense of its Beauty Excellency and Usefulness in the World and a clear Conviction and strong Apprehension of the Vanity Unprofitableness and Mischievousness of Sin in the World The righteous Man has a real Dislike of a mighty Prejudice and inward Antipathy against Sin as Sin He hates Sin and loves Holiness heartily wherever he sinds it and really wishes that there were no such Evil as Sin in the World He is of another Spirit than wicked Men are of a better Constitution of a purer and more refined Temper His new Nature and Disposition is directly contrary to that which is evil and therefore whenever he sees it wherever he meets with it it is a Vexation and Torment to him So holy David seriously laid to heart the Sins of others was deeply affected with them and heavily afflicted for them * Psal 119.53 Horrour hath taken hold upon me because of the Wicked that forsake thy Law ‖ Verse 136 139. Rivers of Waters run down mine Eyes because they keep not thy Law †Verse 158. My Zeal hath consumed me not because I have Enemies and these Enemies despise me but because mine Enemies have forgotten thy Words I beheld the Transgressors and was grieved because they kept not thy Word (*) Psal 69.9 The Zeal of thine House hath eaten me up and the Reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me When he was in Trouble he testifies his Sorrow for the Reproaches that fell upon God as if he himself had been reproached And the Prophet Jeremy could say (†) Jer. 13.17 My Soul shall weep in secret Places for your Pride And the Saints in Jerusalem are described to be (‖) Ezek. 9.4 Men that sigh and that cry for all the Abominations that be done in the midst thereof And you know St. Paul is very famous for this Affection In the case of the incestuous Person he wrote unto the Corinthians [*] 2 Cor. 2.4 with many Tears out of much Affliction and Anguish of Heart I fear lest when I come again saies he my God will humble me among you and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already and have not repented of the Vncleanness and Fornication and Lasciviousness which they have committed [†] 2 Cor. 12.21 * Phil. 3.18 Many walk saies he of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the Enemies of the Cross of Christ. 1. O that it might be thus with every one of us Let a Time of others Sin be the Time of our Sorrow Let it greatly trouble us to see our good God wronged our heavenly Father abused and his holy just and good Law broken and violated To see the Gospel dishonoured and Religion discredited To see Satan pleased and honoured and his Kingdom strengthned and advanced by the Wickedness of the Wicked To see the precious Souls of Sinners hazarded and endangered by their own wilful Sin and Wickedness To observe rarional Creatures living like mere brute Beasts Baptized Christians acting like very Devils incarnate To find Men rebelling against Light resisting a Reproof loath to be reclaimed hardned in their Sin and hating to be reformed To see so many Fools and Mad-men besotted and bewitch'd cruel to their own Souls and Enemies to their own Peace refusing all Helps of Health and Cure contemning the Means of their Recovery fond of a Disease in love with Slavery devoted to their Enemy courting their own Misery and Calamity chusing Death rather than Life eternal Life walking apace in the broad Way that leadeth to Destruction running on in the Way to Hell the Way that goeth down to the Chambers of Death To behold so many stabbing themselves to the very Heart greedily swallowing their own Poison running into Pest-houses and infected Places drowning themselves in Destruction and Perdition and casting themselves into intolerable eternal unquenchable Flames 2. And let us moreover mourn to see so much Hurt and Misohief done in the World by others open Sin and Wickedness To see Sin become so fashionable and creditable To behold so many corrupted and infected hardned and confirmed in Sin and Wickedness by the ill Examples of loose Livers and vicious debauched Persons To discern the heinous provoking Sins of notoriously wicked Persons hastening and pulling down Judgment after Judgment upon the Land of our Nativity and the Places of our abode To see Sin spread this spiritual Plague encrease and a Cloud of divine Wrath and Judgment gathering and growing thick and black and hanging over our Heads ready to drop and shower down upon us Let us be so publick spirited as to be troubled exceedingly troubled that so much Mischief publick Mischief should be done by others Sins That so many should be drawn into Sin or brought under Suffering by the common and open Wickedness of the Wicked 3. Farther yet Let it be a Thing very grievous to us to meet with a Sort of Men who instead of perplexing and tormenting themselves with the Sins of others do please and delight recreate and refresh themselves with the Sins of others Do tempt and entice them into Sin and hearten and harden them in their Sin Who are so far from troubling themselves at others Sins that they * Rom. 1.32 do the same and have pleasure in them that do them Who make themselves merry with those Sins which make the Land mourn That will laugh at Lewdness
He professeth to have the Knowledg of God and he calleth himself the Child of the Lord. He was made to reprove our Thoughts He is grievous unto us even to behold for his Life is not like other Mens his Waies are of another fashion We are esteem'd of him as Counterfeits he abstaineth from our Waies as from Filthiness he pronounceth the End of the Just to be blessed and maketh his Boast that God is his Father Let us see if his Words be true let us examine him with Despitefulness and Torture let us condemn him with a shameful Death c. The Wicked are so ill-natured as to render to the Righteous evil for good to vex and abuse their Physicians Chirurgians Advocates Guardians Friends To use them harshly and unkindly that endeavour to benefit them by their Counsels to better them by their Examples and labour by earnest Praiers to God for them to keep off many a Judgment that hangs over their Heads from falling upon them They watch and study to harm those that are really ready to help them to grieve and break their Hearts whose Bowels yearn towards them to vex and torment their Souls which is a great Misery than to persecute and afflict their Bodies 2. The Wicked persecute those that are good as by their Injuries to them in particular so by the Wickedness and Vnholiness of their Lives in General The ill Conversation of the Wicked is a spiritual Persecution of the Godly It is Matter of exquisite Torment to them It wounds and rends the very Souls of the Righteous It plainly cuts them even to the Heart and makes their very Heart bleed I find z August Hom. 10. inter 50. St. Austin in a Discourse of his upon my Text insisting pathetically and particulary on this very kind of Persecution applying and accommodating that of the Apostle Tim. 3.12 All that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer Persecution Behold here says he because the Daies are evil there is no living for the Righteous without suffering Persecution But ye says he are ready to say thus to me What when we enjoy Peace among us when the Judges of the Provinces honour the Church when Kings and Princes do not appear and carry themselves as Enemies to the Church and when all the Laws are in favour of the Church pray how do they that live godly suffer Persecution His Answer is that they that live among wicked Persons do suffer Persecution for all this Why so Because all the Wicked do persecute the Good Nonferro lapidibus sed vitâ moribus though not with Fire and Fagot though not with Swords and Stones yet by their Lives and Manners Did any persecute righteous Lot n Sodom says he No Man troubled or molested him We reade indeed of no Rudeness of theirs towards him of no Assault made upon him but only of one done just before his Departure out of Sodom And yet that good Man suffer'd continual Persecution Non vapulando sed inter malos vivendo not by being beaten and smitten of them but by living among those vile and vicious proud blasphemous lewd and debauch'd Persons For whoever is truly righteous and holy saies he when he sees any to live wickedly to serve Luxury to carry Things unjustly to follow Pride and Vanity to disregard Charity when they that are good see any live after this manner they mourn and grieve are sadned and afflicted for with the Apostle they bewail many that have sinn'd already and have not repented It is said that * 2 Pet. 2.7 just Lot was vexed with the filthy Conversation of the Wicked The Word which we render vexed is in the Original a Verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat opprimi fatigari graviter affligi Gerard. in loc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he laboured under it as an heavy Burthen was oppressed wearied grievously afflicted with it And as Lot was burthened with the loose and lawless Lives of the Sodomites So good Jeremiab was wearied out with the wicked and exorbitant Courses of the Jews and constrained to cry out under the Pressure and Persecution of them †Jer. 9.2 3 5. Oh that I had in the Wilderness a lodging Plate of wayfaring Men that I might leave my People and go from them to wish with all his Heart that he might withdraw himself from his People and live in any solitary Desart and in any sorry Traveller's Lodg or Shed there rather than among them whose wicked Lives were such a continual Eye-sore and daily heart-sore to him for tey proceed from Evil to Evil saies he from one Evil to another or from one Degree of it to another they grow daily worse and worse and weary themselves to commit Iniquity take Pains to do wickedly and tire out themselves in it Alas the Wicked little think how they vex God in vexing his Servants and that God will one Day sorely vex them for it and make them weary of wearying his People that he will torment them in Hell hereafter for tormenting his People here on Earth They little think that the Righteous themselves will one Day heavily vex those that have given them such Occasion and Cause of Vexation vex them in the Day when the * 1 Cor. 6.2 Saints shall judg the World Yea they little think that they shall torment themselves hereafter for making good Men torment themselves here That if they do not grieve in Time with a penitent Grief they shall certainly grieve with a desperate Grief to all Eternity for being a Grief and Heart-break to the Godly Now this Persecution which in the Waies forementioned is managed and carried on by the Wicked as it is the Evil in some measure of all Ages so more especially and remarkably of the Times and Places in which we live 'T is true that now we suffer nothing barely for owning the Name of Christians There is no Persecution in our Nation merely for the outward Profession of the Christian and of the Reformed Religion But was ever the other Persecution hotter among us than in these Daies How do the Wicked persecute with their Eye looking upon the sincerely Godly with an evil a scornful a malicious Eye How do they persecute them with their Tongues which are as so many †Psal 57.4 sharp Swords b Nemo plus videtur aestmare virtutem nemo magis il'i esse devotus quam qui boni viri famam perdidit ne conscientsam perderet Sen. Ep. maliciously standering reproaching reviling the Godly as a Company of weak [c] Vt sis beatus inquit Socrates te alicui stultum videri siue Id ep 71. Plerumque boni inepti inertes vocautur Mihi contingat iste dersus AEquo animo audienda sunt imperitorum convitit ad honesta vadends contemnendus est sste contemptus Idem Fools and conceited Fanaticks frequently making them their very Songs in their drunken Meetings and even mocking their very Praiers in
their publick prophane Plaies and often uttering very false and proud and hard Words against them And according as they meet with Occasion and find any Opportunity how do they persecute with the Hand * Mich 7.3 Do evil with both Hands earnestly How ready are their Hearts to rise against them and their Hands to be lifted up to strike at them and to pull them down to the very Ground that so they may be trampled upon and troden under Foot Yea how do they persecute them by their Lives continually vexing their pious Souls with their unlawful Deeds grieving and wounding paining and piercing their very Hearts The wilful Wickedness of the bold and daring Sinners of the Times in their open dishonouring God and Religion is a cruel Torment to serious Souls and makes their Lives a wearisome pressing Burthen to them They that live godly do suffer daily the sad Persecution of wicked Mens offensive afflictive Lives and Manners What a Persecution is this to force good Men to cry out with David †Psal 120.5 Wo is me that I sojourn in Mesech that I dwell in the Tents of Kedar to cause ‖ Psal 119.136 Rivers of Waters to run down their Eyes as they did from David's because Men keep not God's Law Now since we live in such evil Daies in which there is such inveterate Enmity against the Practise of Piety and such a b Omne tempus Clodios non omne Catones feret Seneca Ep. 97. malignant persecuting Spirit reigning and raging in the Breasts of the Wicked against the Good let us keep a (*) Amos 5.13 prudent Silence in an evil Time Let us take care that we do not unnecessarily [c] Quia dies mali sunt h. e. quia periculosa sunt tempora bonis adversa ut cauè hî sit agendum ne crabrones quod dicitur urites Crellii Ethica Christiana pag. 32. provoke and exasperate them for we know not what their Malice may grow to nor give them any just Occasion of furious vexatious Opposition Let us see that we do not * 1 Pet. 4.15 suffer as Evil-doers from them nor as rash and heady imprudent and unwary Persons In evil Daies Evil will come soon enough upon us and we have no reason to accelerate and hasten our own Suffering Let 's labour therrfore by all discreet and wise direct and innocent Means to keep our selves out of their Hands to prevent their taking Advantage against us and endeavour to solace our selves in God and to preserve the Comforts of a good Conscience To be patient under and to glory in our Sufferings from them To consider with our selves that it is far better to be troubled by the Wicked than to be Troublers of the Good and to be thankful and joyful that we are not guilty of their Wickedness nor deserve such Usages at their Hands And let us study and endeavour to render †Rom. 12.17 21. 1 Thess 5.15 not Evil for Evil but still to return good for evil to the very Worst and Wickedest of them And whatever Measure we receive from them let us not be disheartned and discouraged and dish'd out of Countenance by them nor suffer our selves to give Way to their Wickedness to be wearied out of our Holiness to be laughed and jeered and sconed out of our Religion but let 's run the Race that is set before us though all the Dogs in the Street bark at us Let us with Zeal and Courage bear up against them and bear Witness against them and if we cannot win and gain them at least shame and silence them judg and condemn them by an holy unblameable exemplary Life as Noah * Eeb. 11.7 condemned the Old World Like Stars let us appear most clear and bright in the sharpest and coldest Night And let the Vexation we meet with from the Wicked here drive us the oftner to God to make our Complaint and Moan to him and cause us to long the more earnestly for Heaven where we shall be for ever out of the Reach of Satan and all his Instruments and out of all Danger of any Enemy Persecutor or bad Neighbour And so we have fully considered the Reason in the Text the Force of which even as to our selves lies plainly thus The Daies are such wherein yeare in Danger of Infection by the wicked Errours and damnable Heresies of the Times In Danger of Corruption by the common Sins and reigning Vices of the Times and in Danger of Persecution by the injurious Carriages and grievous wicked Lives of the profligate and desperate Sinners of the Times and therefore redeem the Time because the Daies are evil in these respects These various Evils must not make us give place to Unfruitfulness but make us much more careful and watchful to take every good Occasion [d] See Mr. Bayne on the Text. If an Harvest-Day be cloudy and windy or prove catching Weather as well call it Men will not therefore keep in but work more diligently and warily Good Opportunities in evil Times are [e] Qusa dies mali sunt hoc est quia tempus ab hominibus plerumque malis rebus transigitur it aut nonfacile sese opportunitas offerat eos arguends officii commonefaciendi Crell Eth. Christ p. 31. few and scare The more rare these Commodities grow the more we should engross them And as some kinds of good Opportunities are hard to come by so not like to abide and continue long with us in evil Times and therefore while the Occasion lasteth we should strive to make the utmost Advantage and Improvement of it CHAP. IV. Six other Reasons added to that in the Text. We ought to redeem the Time 1. Because our Time is afforded us by God to this very End and Purpose 2. Because we have all of us lost much Time already 3. Because the Time that remains is very short and uncertain and our Special Opportunities far shorter and more uncertain and the Work we have to do very great 4. Because we can neither bring Time back when once it is past unimproved nor any way prolong and lengthen out the Daies of our Lives when Death comes to put an End and Period to them 5. Because we shall all be certainly called to an Account for our Time 6. Because this Time is all we can redeem and upon this short Moment of Time depends long Eternity BUt besides the Reason in the Text I shall farther shew you that we ought to redeem the Time upon a six-fold Account The first Additional Reason We must redeem the Time because our Time is afforded us by God to this very End and Purpose that we should improve and apply it to rational and religious Vses [a] Ego non quaeram quae sint initia universorum quis rerum formator quis sit artisex hujus munde quâ ratione tanta magnitudo in legem ordinem venerit unde lux tanta fundatur Ego nesciam
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
raised Philosopher well observes the different Judgments and Affections of Men in the course of a pleasurable Life and under apprehensions of the Nearness of Death When Men think they have Time enough they have no regard of Time but are extreamly prodigal of it [g] At eosdem aegros vide si mortis periculum admotum est propius medicorum genua tangentes Sen. de brev vit c 8. But look on these Men when they are sick says he If they appear in any danger of Death you shall find them courting and crouching to Physicians and bowing down to their very Knees begging the Use of their Art and Skill to prolong their Daies and lengthen out their Lives Or if they fear they shall suffer capital Punishment you shall see them ready to lay out all to save their Lives But if as the Number of every ones past Years may be reckoned so the Number of those that are to come could be assign'd [h] Quemodo illi ui paucos viderent superesse trepidarent quomodo illis parcerent Id. Ib. How would they tremble saies he that should see but a few remaining and how apt would they be to be sparing of them Surely they that have all their Lives made it their Business to drive away their Time would at their Deaths give all the World to redeem it What would the dying Husband give for Time to spend more spiritually with his Wife the dying Wife for Time to spend more holily with her Husband the dying Master for Time to spend more godlily with his Family the dying Parent for Time to spend in a more religious Institution and conscientious Education of his Children a dying Neighbour for Time to spend in more profitable Converse with those about him Would he intend to spend his Time if he could live longer in tempting his Neighbour to the Tavern or Ale house to drinking or gaming or the like If God would but lengthen out such a Person 's Daies and afford him but a little more Space to amend his Life and to lay hold on eternal Life he would thankfully accept of it upon the hardest Conditions He would be content to be the poorest Beggar in the Street and to live a mean and outwardly miserable Life as long as he liv'd He is just now departing out of this World and immediatly going to his own Place and if Time were now to be redeem'd what would not the most voluptuous Man be willing to do or suffer What would not the most covetous Man be ready to part with for the purchasing of it What would not he give for [i] Considera quà m multi modo mâ—riuntur quibus si haec hora ad agendum pâ—nitentiam oneâ—â—erâ—tur quae tibi concessa est quomodo per aâ—taria quà a fâ—stinanter currerent ibi sleâ—â—s genibus vel cerè toto corpore in terram prestrato tamdiu suspirerent plorarent orare tâ— donec plenissâ—â—am peccatorum venâ—am à Deo consequi merâ—â—entur Tu verò comedendo bibendo jocanâ—o ridendo tempus ocâ—osè vivendo perdis quod tibi indulserat Deus ad acquirendam gratiam ad promerendaâ— gloriam Bernard de interiori domo c. 63. that Time which some of you it may be spend and throw away in Drinking Gaming Carding Diceing in Romances and Stage-Plaies in idle foolish Pastimes in Jeering and Jesting and carnal sinful Merry-making To what excellent Vses would he resolve to put his Hours if he could enjoy any more of them If God would grant him but one Year of Trial more how little would he design to give to the World and the Flesh and how much to God and Godliness and the Offices and Exercises of pure Religion and undefiled How would such an one purpose and promise to resist Temptations to shun all Occasions and Appearances of Evil carefully to provide for his immortal Soul diligently to study the sacred Scriptures strictly to observe the whole Lord's-Day attentively to hear the Word preach'd both in Season and out of Season frequently to meditate of it and constantly to frame and order his Life according to it to pray with his Family devoutly and fervently morning and evening to spend some Time every Day with God and himself in secret to make the purest and precisest Christians his constant Patterns and Examples and for the future to follow and imitate those whom heretofore he hated and derided nick-named and abused When once Men ly a dying and the near Approach of their latter End does awaken their sleepy secure Consciences and make the most stupid sottish Sinner begin now to be truly sensible and serious with what aestuations and perturbations of Mind with what anguish and akings of Heart with what Pangs and Agonies and fearful Tremblings with what doleful Accents and passionate piercing moving melting Expressions do they lament and beâ—ail their waâ—teful Mis-spence and miserable Loss of all the Time of God's most patient Trial of them and of all their special golden Seasons and rare Advantages and Opportunities When they take their leave of all about them how earnestly and importunately do they exhort and urge them to be better husbands of their Time and Talents How pathetically and feelingly do they then advise and counsel their Children and Servants Friends and Relations Neighbours and Acquaintance to number their Daies to lead good Lives to improve their Health and Strength for God and their own and others Souls and timely to prepare for Death and Judgment Let 's consider some of us who have thought sometimes that the Sentence of Death has past upon us and have look'd on such or such a Sickness as our last Arrest and Summons what would we then have disbursed for a Reprieve Would we not have given with Hand and Heart an House full of Silver and Gold if we had had it to have been sure to have lived another Year for the proving and evidencing the Truth and Sincerity of our Faith and Repentance by a course of Obedience and our making a larger and surer provision for our comfortable Reception and happy Entertainment in the other World Friends we shall ere long be all of us plac'd upon our Death-beds and if we make no matter of Time now if we won't value and prize it now we shall then sure enough highly prize it when alas it will be too late And if we now have worthy thoughts of it we shall suffer nothing to rob and deprive us of it [k] Quà m felix prudent qui talis nunc nititur esse in vita qualis optat inveniri in morte Thomas a Rempis lib. 1. c. 23. n. 4. Hic est apex summae sapientiae ea viventem facere quae morienti essent appetenda Let 's be of the same mind and judgment now in our Health and Strength that we shall certainly be of in Sickness and Weakness and not contemn and vilify that in our Life time which we shall wish we had worthily
In what has Satan this Day taken Advantage against me or how has my own deceitful Heart turned me aside What Degrees of Intemperance have I admitted in Meats or Drinks what worldly Cares have I been distracted with what carnal Fears have I been ready to sink under To what have I my self been effectually tempted or wherein have I offered to be a Tempter of any other What Solicitation to Evil have I resisted What Sin and Corruption have I striven against What open careless or wilful Sinner have I seasonably and prudently reproved What Duty have I perform'd What Grace have I exercis'd What Time have I employed in Closet-Devotion in Family-Religion in diligent following the Business of my Calling What Company have I run into or kept What Hours have I spent in such Company and to what profit or benefit to my self or others What was my Omission and Neglect what my Sin and Vanity committed and repeated in such Society have I not closed this Day with a drousy sleepy Prayer this Night Am I grown any better this Week this Day than I was the last You know at Night and at the End of the Week we usually call our Servants to Account Let us use the same Method and take the same Course for a Daily weekly Reckoning with our selves In the Close of the Day at the End of the Week let 's commune with and reflect upon our selves and take our solves to task Let 's take a view and make a surveigh of our past Lives observe how our Time goes watch what becomes of it see how it is laid out that so beholding how useless and unfruitful we have been we may even be ashamed of our selves and labour to grow more useful and fruitful for the future As * Rev. 2.5 remembring from whence she was fallen was prescribed to the Church of Ephesus as a means of her repenting And on the contrary because †ser 8.6 no Man said What have I done therefore every one turned to his Course as the Horse rusheth into the Battel By daily observing examining taking account of our selves and Waies we shall come to Repentance more speedily and easily and recover the Favour of God immediatly The Candle that is presently blown in again offends not We shall have the Advantage of making to God [h] Mr. Hildersam on Ps 51. p. 183. a fuller Confession of our Sins while our Sins with their Circumstances are fresh and recent in our Memories And shall be more effectually restrained from Sin for the future by thinking thus with our selves This I must account with God and my own Conscience for before I sleep And by this means we shall be freed from the Fear of sudden Death and be in a constant good Preparation for it because though our Master come suddenly he will not find us sleeping nor surprize us in unrepented Sin When in this manner we make all even every Night between God and our own Consciences we may lie down in Peace and take a quiet Rest and Sleep without any perplexing amazing Fears of our awaking the next Morning in the other World Hold and maintain this Practice of Calling thy self to a daily strict Account and you shall certainly find and happily experience that of A Kempis to be a great Truth [i] Suaviter requiesees si cor tuum te non reprehenderit Noli laetari nisi cùm bene feceris A Kemp. l. c. 6 n 1. Gaudebis semper vespere si diem expendas fructuosè Idem l. 1. c. 25. n. 11. Thou shalt sweetly rest if thy own Heart reprehend thee not Thou shalt rejoyce and be glad at heart every Night if thou hast not lost but fruitfully spent the Day past [k] De perfectione Rodericus relateth of Suarez that he was wont to say he esteemed that little Pittance of Time which constantly every Day he set apart for the private Examination of his own Conscience more than all the other Part of the Day which he spent in his voluminous Controversies And it is reported of that learned Professor of Divinity Dr. Samuel Ward that when he lay upon his Death-Bed he profess'd he had read many Books but had no such comfort from his reading any as from his reading and studying the Book of his own Heart and Life That is the second Direction Frequently call yourselves to an Account Often Reckonings make long Friends It holds most true between God and our Souls between our Consciences and our selves Reckon with God and your selves every Evening how you have spent the Day fore-going and this will provoke you humbly to beg the Pardon of your Sins at God's Hands and Power against them to judg and punish and take an holy Revenge upon your selves to exercise Repentance for your past Failings and strict Watchfulness for the future The third Direction That we may rightly redeem our Time let Reason and Conscience have some Authority with us and not be despised and disregarded by us They are most brave generous Rules and Precepts that are given by Pythagoras in his golden Verses [a] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Never accustome thy self in any Thing to act and carry thy self irrationally and below a Man And of all things see says he that you [b] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cùm jam prâ—fecâ—ris tantum ut sit tibi etiam tui reverentia dum te efficis eum coram quo peccare non audeas aliqua coeperit apud te tui esse dignatio Sen. ep 25. reverence and use good Manners to your self Let Reason rule and govern thy Passions and Affections and Conscience withhold thee from being guilty of any Impiety or Impurity Absurdity or Undecency Do nothing to put thy self to the blush to sill thy self with secret Shame and Sorrow and sinking Fear for the Turpitude or Folly of thy Own Actions Take the wholesome Counsel and good Advice that Ausonius gives thee [c] Turpe quid ausurus te sine teste time When thou art about to do any vile and vicious Thing be afraid of thy self though no body else be near thee to be a Witness of thy Wickedness [d] Si turpia sunt quae facis quid refert neminem scire cùm tu seias O te miserum si contemnis hunc testem Sen. ep 43. i. sine If the Things thou doest says Seneca excellently be unseemly and uncomely what does it avail thee that none in the World knows it when thou thy self knowest it O miserable Man says he if thou contemnest this Witness within thee And I find Lactantius citing these admirable Sayings out of him [e] Demens quid prodest non habere conscium habence conseientiam Custos te tuus sequitur Haeret hic quo carere nunquam potes Lactant de vero cultu 1. 6 §. 24. Thous very mad Man what will it profit thee to have no other conscious of thy Crime so long as thou doest carry a Conscience within thee
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
Cor. 7.31 Fashion of which passeth away or for the Things of the World which either ‖ Col. 2.22 perish with the present using or must at last be burnt up in the general Conflagration It will preserve thee from placing thy Heaven and Happiness in any Thing here below from being transported and infinitely pleased with thy convenient Situation thy well-built House thy pleasant Gardens fruitful Grounds rich Furniture gorgeous Apparel store of Provisions and all manner of Accommodations as to earthly Possessions and outward Enjoyments since all those Things which sensual and voluptuous Persons now take excessive Delight in shall be demolished at the great Day and they themselves shall then like Bees be smother'd in their own Hives This Meditation will enforce thee to make this Inference and Conclusion Shall all this Frame be certainly dissolv'd then surely this is not the Place of my Rest I will be wiser hereafter than to take this World for my Dwelling-house I will only look upon 't as my Cottage my Tent and Tabernacle wherein as a Pilgrim I am to sojourn for a Time Nor will I reckon the Things of this World my Goods but only my Lumber which I can easily bear the Loss of I will presently put my self in a [l] Mundus ecce nutat lab tur ruinam sui non jam senecture rerum sed fine testatur tu non Deo gratias agis non tibi gratutaris quòd exitu maturtore subtractus rutuis manufragtis plagis imminentibus extaris Cypr. Serm 4. de Mortai readiness to leave and forsake this Place which is so near to ruin and shortly will surely be burnt up I have no continuing City here I will therefore seek one to come look after an heavenly Countrey set my Affections on Things above make sure of an enduring Substance of something much more certain and lasting than any of the Enjoyments of this World I will labour by charitable laying out to lay up a Treasure in Heaven quite out of the reach of this terrible Burning To store up such durable Riches as neither Moth nor Rust can now corrupt nor Thieves break through and steal nor this flaming raging Fire be ever able to devour I will make it my constant Care to provide that as when the little House of my earthly Tabernacle shall be dissolv'd so when this great House of the World and its fair Furniture shall be destroyed I may have another a better House to receive me * 2 Cor. 5.1 an House not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens I find [m] Homil. 7. de Poenit. St. Chrysostome discoursing much to this Sense and Purpose If some body should give notice to thee that this City in which thou livest would all fall down within a Year or should very quickly be destroyed and that it and all Things in it should utterly be consum'd with Fire and nothing at all be lest unburnt and that of necessity thou must depart hence and go into another City in which thou shouldst spend thy whole Life and in which thou shouldst have nothing at all to sustain and relieve thee but such Goods only as thou shouldst send from hence thither If thou shouldst undoubtedly believe this no reason certainly could ever induce thee to hord up Treasures in this City to begin to build a great House here to plant a Vineyard to set Gardens and Groves but thou wouldst bend and turn all thy Thoughts and use and apply all thy Endeavours to transmit all into that City into which thou knewest thou shouldst thy self be forc'd to remove The second of the four last Things proposed as the subject Matter of Meditation in order to the right Redemption of Time II. Proceed to meditate of a future and final Judgment Think 1. That such a Thing will certainly be 2. That the Time of it is to us as uncertain as can be 1. Consider seriously of the Certainty and Necessity of a Judgment to come in another Life Think how the common universal Consent of all Ages of the World avouches and declares it That the very Heathens had natural express Notions of a final Judgment and a future Reward or Punishment [a] See Dr. Jackson 3 vol p. 379 384 385 389. which made some among them prefer the Exercise of Vertue and Goodness before the Enjoyment of this mortal Life and the outward Comforts of it and abhor the Practice of any Dishonesty more than Death And do but give Audience to your own Conscience and you will find internal Experiments sufficient to convince you of a Judgment to be looked for after this Life to cause you to conclude that the private Session kept in the Conscience of a Sinner here is but the Antecedent and Fore-runner of a publick and general Assize That Conscience which is God's Deputy and keepeth Court for him here does but begin now what God hereafter at the great Audit will himself complete and finish Look upon the secret Checks and Rebukes of thy own Conscience upon thy Commission of any base or unworthy Action and upon the inward Applauses and Gratulations the hidden Joys and Exultations of thy Conscience upon the Performance of any laudable vertuous Action to be so many Tasts and Pledges Earnests and Assurances of a twofold Sentence or Award that shall be given at the Last Day and some Suggestion and Intimation of that Horrour and Confusion that shall seize upon the Wicked and of that Peace and Comfort which the Righteous shall be filled with at the general Day of Judgment Consider how thy Conscience reflecting upon thy past Actions does not only allow and approve thy good Actions but does also create a wonderful Boldness and Confidence in thee and does not only disapprove thy evil Actions but does also breed a strange Dread beget a fearful Expectation and Terrour in thee and all this without relation to any Thing either to be suffered or enjoyed in this Life and therefore that Conscience is not only a Judg in this Life but is also a Witness bound over to give Testimony for or against thee at some Judgment after this Life to pass upon thee Consider moreover That the many remarkable particular Judgments inflicted by God either upon Nations or Cities or Persons here in this World do not obscurely seem to signify and foroshew that a general Judgment shall surely come and certainly pass upon the whole World and that Justice shall be infallibly executed upon all final impenitent Rebels hereafter And consider yet farther That in reason there must be a future final Judgment that God at present may [b] The necessity of this Principle to the Government of Mens Lives and Actions is the ground of that Saying amongst the Rabbins that Paradise and Hell are two of the seven Pillars upon which God is said to have founded the World As if it could not be upheld without such a support Bp. Wilkins Princip and Dut of Nat.
quà m creavit Deus metuant ne cùm venerit resurrectionis dies artifex creaturam suam non recognoseat Cypr. beautifying thy Body but to dress and adorn thy Soul with true Grace and Holiness here that so at the Day of Resurrection thy Body may be made very glorious and beautiful indeed and then may be changed for the better never to suffer any Change more Yea thy Meditation of the Resurrection of thy Body will make thee labour to get thy Body sanctified that it may be glorified 'T will make thee pray that thy * 1 Thess 5.23 Body may be preserved blameless unto the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and cause thee as thou wouldst have thy Body rais'd to Glory to keep under thy Body here and not to suffer its Members to rise in Rebellion against God 'T will help thee to use thy bodily Members holily here that they may fare well and happily hereafter Considering how unfit it is that God should raise the Instruments of Iniquity to a State of glorious Immortality How unmeet that Christ should take that Body which in this Life vigorously oppos'd him and busily and violently acted against him and fashion this wicked hellish Body like unto his heavenly and glorious Body How incongruous that they * Rom. 3.13 that live after the Flesh and †Cal. 6 8. sow to their Flesh should in their Flesh see God that they who use their Eyes chiefly to let in sinful Objects should at the latter Day ‖ Job 19 26 27. see God for themselves and that their Eyes should behold him with Comfort and Joy Thy Meditation concerning the Resurrection will direct thee to say upon any Temptation Shall I offer to abuse and dishonour this Flesh to abuse and dishonour God with this Flesh which I look that God should so highly honour and greatly glorify at the last Day Shall I sin against God with this Body of mine which I hope shall shine at the Resurrection as the Sun in the Firmament and as the Stars for ever and ever and be chang'd and fashioned like the glorious Body of Jesus Christ This will engage thee to strive with the Apostle (*) Phil 3.11 if by any means thou maiest attain unto the Resurrection of the Dead a Resurrection to a glorious Immortality To study to be just that thou maiest be Partaker of the (†) Acts 24 15. Resurrection of the Just To labour to have part in the (‖) Rev. 20.6 first that thou maiest partake of the second Resurrection [*] Jo. 5.25 28 29. To hear now the Voice of the Son of God speaking by his Word and Works and Spirit and hearing to live a divine and spiritual Life that when thou art dead and rotten in thy Grave thou maiest at last hear his Voice and come forth to the Resurrection of Life and lift up thy Head with Joy in the latter Day To labour to be a true Member of Christ and to live to Christ that so thou maiest [†] 1 Th. fl 4.14 sleep in Jesus and by the Power of God be brought from the dead with him To feast and refresh the Bodies of the Poor that thou maiest be * Luke 14.14 recompensed at the Resurrection of the Just To endeavour to act spiritually and lively as thou hopest to partake of the Resurrection unto Life To be careful to have alwaies a †Acts 24.15 16. Conscience void of Offence in Hope and Expectation of an happy Resurrection and in Intuition of the Promise of it with the ‖ 26.7 12 Tribes to serve God instantly Day and Night To refuse at any time to (*) Heb 11.35 accept Deliverance upon base and unworthy Terms and sinful Conditions that thou maiest obtain a better Resurrection To be willing to put thy Body to any Pains Labour Suffering for the sake of God and Christ who will not suffer so much as thy Body to be a Loser To (†) 1 Cor. 6.20 glorify God in thy Body since God hath promised to glorify this Body To resolve that Christ shall be (‖) Phil. 1.20 magnified in thy Body whether it be by Lise or by Death since Christ will raise even thy dead Body and give this very Body of thine an (*) 1 Cor. 15.58 abundant Recompense of Reward at last In a Word to have thy Conversation [†] Phil. 3.20 21. in Heaven from whence thou lookest for thy Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to change thy vile Body 3. And lastly Meditate much and often of that perfect State of heavenly Glory that is to be enjoyed upon the Reunion of Soul and Body Think when thy Soul shall recover its own Body what a glad and joyful Meeting there will of those old Companions and intimate Friends which have been parted and separated so long and how the Glory of thy Body will be an Addition to the Joy and Happiness of thy Soul and that from the Day of Resurrection not only a Part but thy whole Person consisting both of Soul and Body will be setled in a perfectly happy Condition 1. Apply thy Mind to think in general of enjoying an * 1 Pet. 1.4 Inheritance incorruptible and undesiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you of taking Possession of an heavenly Kingdom and receiving a Crown of Life That if thou beest a real good Christian †Col. 3.4 when Christ who is thy Life shall appear thou also shalt appear with him in Glory That neither ‖ 1 Cor 2.9 Eye hath seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the Heart if Man the Things which God hath prepared for them that love him Think of an excellent State of heavenly Happiness which cannot indeed be fully understood till it is enjoyed but yet at present is sufficiently revealed to provoke our Desires after it and to encourage our Endeavours to gain and obtain it The Meditation of heavenly Happiness and Glory in the general will cause thee to beware of such (*) 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Gal. 5.19 20 21. Eph. 5.5 6. Rev. 21.27 Sins as will meritoriously exclude thee from the Kingdom of Heaven and formally unfit thee for the Enjoyment of it and will make thee careful to get the Qualifications proper to a Person to whom it belongs and to perform the necessary indispensable Conditions upon which the promised Benefit depends To labour to be (†) Col. 1.12 made meet to be a Partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in Light by Grace to become capable and susceptible of Glory to * Joh. 3.3 be born again that thou maiest see the Kingdom of God to be a †Rom. 9.23 Vessel of Mercy sitted and prepared unto Glory To bow thy Knees to God that he would work this Meetness and Fitness this spiritual Aptitnde and Idoneity in thee that he would prepare thee for the Inheritance of the Saints and Inheritance ‖ Acts 20 32. among them which
and Life †Heb. 12.14 without which no Man shall see the Lord Jesus Christ in Glory 'T will cause thee to endeavour to be a Partaker of the Divine Nature of Christ that thou maiest be admitted to be a Spectator and Enjoyer of the glorified humane Nature of Christ to be in this World as he was in this World that at last thou maiest be in the other World as he is in that World to purify thy self even as he is pure if thou hast any Hope in thee to see him as he is at his Appearance And this Meditation will move and incline thee to labour and love to see Christ here that thou maiest be fitted to have the Honour and Priviledg to see him hereafter To delight to see him now in his Promises to see and enjoy him in his Gospel Ordinances to behold him in his Graces shining in his Members and to see his Image formed in thy own Heart and Life Considering that only Christ-like Creatures are in a capacity of being happy with Christ in Glory That as [h] D Rust in his Serm. at the Fun. of Bp. Taylor p. 8. f. one saies well God and Christ without thee cannot possibly make thee happy That it is not the Person of God and Christ but their Life and Nature wherein consists thy formal Happiness And that thou maiest be fit to see him as he is 't will direct thee at present to see him as he was to look upon him as humbling himself to the Death of the Cross for thy Sins till thy Heart be kindly broken for and thy Heart and Life be truly broken off from all thy Sins and to eye and imitate that excellent Pattern and rare Example which here he gave thee in every Action of his holy Life 3. Freely and largely meditate how happy thou shalt be made hereafter in the great Advancement and Perfection of thy Knowledg and in the filling up of thy utmost Capacities and the Satisfaction of all thy Desires That though now thou * 1 Cor. 13.9 10 12. seest through a Glass darkly and knowest but in part yet when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away as the Light of Candles and Stars is done away by the rising of the Sun That though now [i] See Bolton of the four last Things p 143 144. many Difficulties in Nature and Mysteries in Scripture and Secrets and Wonders of Divine Providence pose and non-plus thee dazle thy Eyes and are too high and sublime for thee yet that in Heaven thou shalt have the Causes of natural things manifested to thee the deep and profound Mysteries of Religion and of thy Redemption and Salvation revealed to thee the Intricacies and Riddles of God's Providence unfolded to thee the Wisdom and Justice and Goodness of God in his darkest Dispensations and most inscrutable and unsearchable Actions cleared up to thee That there thou shalt know the Orders Offices Excellencies of the Angels and the Nature Operations and Original of thy own Soul which is given thee rather to use than to know in this present World That in the State of Glory thy Vnderstanding shall be extraordinarily and supernaturally illuminated and irradiated and thy Knowledg be wonderfully increas'd and advanced and thy Mind exceedingly pleased and delighted both by the Repetition and new †Variety of Contemplation That in the heavenly Glory the Divine Manifeslations and Communications shall be ample and liberal enough to fill all the Capacities and richly to answer all the Desires of thy most exalted and perfected Faculties That there thou shalt never feel any Want or Indigence but be so satisfied as not to be * satiated cloyed or glutted That [k] See D Patrick's parab of the Pilgr p. 97 98. And D. Rust's Serm. at the Funeral of Bp. Taylor p. 7. fol. Tametsi nibil desit ad plenam perfect amque loetutiam meredjbilem veluptatem quâ sruemur in dies * nulla tamen nos unquâ—â—n rerum â—starum satietas capiet quin quotidie †nova quaedaem tum contemplandi cognoscendi tum loet tiam ex contemâ—â—â—â—one percipiendi materia ex rebus illis manabit ac esslorâ—scet Thes Salmur de vita aeterna thes 27. in Heaven thou shalt alwaies reckon that thou hast sufficient already to make thee throughly and completely happy and yet still be receiving new Additions and fresh Accruements and an Accumulation of Satisfaction That every Participation of Truth and Goodness will stretch and distend the Capacities of thy Soul and fit thee for further and further Receptions That the Capacities of thy Faculties shall be continually widened and enlarged and continually filled and satisfied until thou arrivest unto such Degrees as thou canst assign no Measure unto This Meditation will cause thee to carry thy self so here that thou maiest be fit to attain a Perfection of Knowledg hereafter To be careful to know those Things now which are necessary to the present and preparatory to the future State and [l] Omnibus pietatis Christianae studiosis velut sertum â—â—â—â—dam suum commendare solebat dictum â—â—ud Hieronâ—mi ad â—â—â—linum Diseamus in 〈◊〉 quorum scientia nobi◠〈◊〉 in coelo Quod etiam Auditorio Theologico in 〈…〉 literas docebat inscriâ—sit Narrat hist de vita Das. Parei conscript à Phil. Par. Dav. fil the Knowledg of which will abide and continue and be heightned and perfected in the other World To beg of God that he would open thy Eyes here enlighten thy Understanding translate thee out of the Kingdom of Darkness and turn thee from Darkness to light Believing and considering that gross and sottish Ignorance here is an ill preparation for Perfectio of Knowledge hereafter That if now thou wilfully continuest ignorant of the very first Principles of the Oracles of God thou art unfit to go on to perfection and to be admitted another day to the Vnderstanding of the Secrets and hidden Mysteries of God That if now thou makest thy self like a Beast in Ignorance thou wilt be unmeet to be made like an Angel of God in the glorious Perfection of heavenly Knowledg If now thou darknest thy own Understanding and blindest thy own Mind thou wilt be unfit for the perfect Iagâ—n of the heavenly Glory If now thou shuttest thy Eyes against the Light and art afraid to come to the Light lest thy Deeds should be reprov'd thou wilt be utterly unmeet to be Partaker of the Inheritance of the saints in Light thou wilt only be meet for the Kingdom of Darkness fit to be cast out into utter Darkness and to inherit the Blackness of Darkness for ever 'T will make thee labour to get some competent Knowledg here which will be a good Preparation for perfect coplete Knowledg hereafter Remembring that to him that hath shall be given which is true of Knowledg as well as Grace And this Meditation will likewise stir thee up to practise and live up to
to us For if we take up Christ's Burden betimes we shall account it a light Burden Vse will alleviate it to us If we enter early into God's Service we shall more easily reckon his Service perfect Freedom The sooner we turn our Feet unto God's Testimonies we shall run the way of them with more Freedom The sooner we address and apply our selves to the keeping of God's Commandments we shall bring our selves with so much less pains to keep them and shall taste more Sweetness in our Observance of them We shall not meet with such Difficulties when we set upon the Work nor have so great and vast Prejudlces against God's Laws and Waies to remove such strong Biasses to sinful Courses to knock off such grown and radicated sinful Habits to root out We shall enter into the Way of God's Commandments and fall upon the Practice of Piety with less reluctancy and contranitency and the longer we have walked in the holy Path the better we shall like it the longer we have kept the Divine Precepts the more we shall experience the Goodness and find and feel the Comfort of them and so still be more and more pleased and satisfied with them and delighted in them 3. The more haste we make to redeem the Time it will prove the more profitable and benesicial to us We shall get the more Grace the more Peace here and a greater reward of Glory hereafter The more we shall get of God's Grace Grace is encreased by degrees and this is the Method of the Divine Wisdom for God ordinarily to give out his Grace as a help and encour agement to usefulness and Diligence a Reward and Remuneration of it God does not use to communicate his Grace to drousy sleepy idle lazy-Loiterers but to impart it to waking and stirring active and busy Persons Habenti dabitur * Mat. 25.29 Vnto every one that hath and industriously useth what he hath in a faithful improvement of his Time and trading with his Talents to him shall be given and he shall have abundancè The more work we do the more strength and Grace we shall receive and therefore let 's early be up and quickly be doing Again The sooner we do redeem our Time the more peace we shall have as well as the more Grace An early painful a constant laborious Christian must needs be ordinarily a comfortable Christian [d] Se. Dr. Sll bs's Preface to the Soul's Conflict Some degree of comfort attends and follows every good Action as Heat accompanies Fire and as Beams and Influences issue from the Sun and many degrees of comfort will certainly usually accompany many good Actions The more we hasten to redeem our Time as we ought we shall the sooner attain to a high degree of Probability and a comfortable Assurance of our Justification and Right to Salvation But as long as we wilfully waste our Time and mis-spend our Hours so long we shall be troubled with disquieting Doubts and perplexing Fears * â—s 57.21 There is no Peace saith my God to the Wicked saies the Prophet But †Ps 119.165 great Peace have they which love thy Law saies David which love it so well as to make very great haste to keep it Once more As the sooner we redeem our Time and Opportunities the more Grace and Peace we shall get here so we shall receive a greater Reward of Glory hereafter God will remunerate us according to our Works The more we have done for him the more we shall receive from him The more acts of Obedience we have persormed we shall be recompensed with the higher Degree of heavenly Glory The sooner you do it so much the better That 's the first Consider 2. We must make haste and not delay to redeem the Time because they that make most haste to redeem it do find they have work enough to fill up all their Time and take up all their Daies and Hours The Well-doing the business of Religion will fully employ us all our life long 'T is a strange thing for any to think that the work of a Day of an Hour of an Instant which Wisdom's Children the most understanding People of God think a whole Life little enough for Do you dream of believing in an Instant of repenting in an Instant Repentance has many Acts and Exercises belonging to it To remove and expel long contracted habits of Sin to arrive to a confirmed setled state of Goodness to give an Example of Christian Graces in all Relations and Conditions of Life certainly these are things that require a large and very considerable tract of Time and cannot be crouded into a narrow Room If we do but consider that they that have entred the most early into the Service of God and have done many Years work for God do acknowledg themselves even after the pains and industry of thirty or forty Years Piety to be but very imperfect Christians If the most devout religious Persons after their using so much Diligence do find at last so much Indevotion and Vnholiness in themselves many bad reliques of Selfishness Worldliness Pride and Passion many initial excesses in Meats and Drinks much Coldness and Deadness in holy Duties much Slackness and Remisness in the waies of Godliness some strong Temptations which sometimes shake them and are ready to foil and overbear them some Weaknesses and Untowardnesses which they can never free themselves wholly from If we well and seriously consider this we shall be forced to confess that the Redemption of Time and Business of Religion is not to be delaied and put off to be a late much less the last Work to be done by a Christian 3. We must make haste and not delay to redeem the Time for Delaies are Vnworthy and disingenuous Delaies are Hazardous and dangerous Delaies are Foolish and unreasonable 1. Unworthy 1. In respect of God 1. Unworthy 2. In respect of our selves 1. Vnworthy in respect of God Every Delay of the Redemption of our Time for God's Service it argues our want of Respect our lack of Aflection and Love to God It shews we prefer our Sins before him * See p. 25. What an unworthy thing is it that we should put God off who should be served in the first place by us if we had Christianity or Reason That we should ever expect to receive the Reward of Eternal Life and unconceivable Happiness from him and yet grudg to devote the few Daies of this temporal Life to him That we should refuse to give our good Daies to God and strongly presume that God at last will be contented well-pleased and satisfied with the weak and faint and sickly Service of those evil Daies which we our selves †Eccl. 12.1 shall say we have no pleasure in What a disingenuous thing is it not to go to God till we cannot tell whither to go Just as Men go into an Hospital when they apprehend they are quite useless and find themselves utterly
that thou wilt be able to deny thy Lust when thou hast greatly provoked and inflamed it by farther gratifying and fulfilling it Dost not thou take a direct course to besot and infatuate thy self and to bring thy self at last to delight in the Remembrance of those beloved Sins which thou shalt not be able to act any longer Thou Fool darest thou venture to break the Commandments of God now and pretend a purpose to keep them hereafter when every breach of God's holy Laws will lessen thy Aw and Reverence of them make thee more unfit and unable to keep them more averse to the Observation of them more ready to contemn them more prone and bold to violate them for the future How lamentably dost thou abuse thy self by encouraging thy self to Sin at present upon hopes of repenting hereafter that is in plain terms in hopes of accusing and condemning thy self of blushing and becoming asham'd and cofounded of being sorely troubled greatly grieved and sorry exceedingly at thy very heart of falling out with thy self at last calling thy self Fool Mad-man Beast and punishing and taking Revenge upon thy self for what thou hast done What a vain Confidence and groundless Expectation is it to think thou shalt easily get rid of thy Sins when they will be much more riveted and radicated and presently recover the Favour of God when thou hast more highly provoked and incensed him with thy aggravated Sins and multiplied Provocations and quickly regain the Motions of God's Spirit when thou hast grieved and driven him away by thy very tedious long Delaies What a false and imaginary Hope is it to look at last to obtain the Pardon of all thy Sins without having respect to God's Commandments in the course of thy Life when God does intend and promise Pardon in order to Holiness and chiefly design it as an Encouragement to chearful faithful sincere Obedience * Ps 130.4 There is Forgiveness with thee that thou maiest be feared saies the Psalmist How unreasonable is it to live in a continual Neglect of thy present necessary indispensable Duty and to expect that God at last should yield to accept [e] See the Gr. Exemp p. 302. the Will for the Deed when the Deed is out of thy own Power meerly through thy own Default What Weakness is it to delight to delay when nothing is to be gotten by it when thou canst not hope that God hereafter will alter his Law change his Covenant accept and save thee upon cheaper Terms and easier Conditions than now he is pleased to propose to thee When God's Will is not likely to alter nor thy own Will more likely by Delay to be wrought to a Compliance with the Divine Will what is the meaning of all thy tarrying Is it prudent to delay thy Duty when thou canst not retard thy Punishment when though thou lingerest and delaiest yet * 2 Pet. 2.3 thy Judgment now of a long time lingreth not thy Damnation slumbreth not Yea what an unaccountable carriage is it by making Delaies to cast thy self into grand Inconveniences to run thy self into such unhappy Circumstances that thou shalt have hereafter a more painful difficult Work to do than ever less time to do it in less strength within and smaller aids and helps from without from Heaven above to do it with and shalt meet with more hindrances and obstructions in the doing of it from the Devil the World and thy own Corruptions What an absurdity is it to multiply Delaies and [f] Victuros agimus semper nec vivimus unquam Cras hoc siet Idem eras fiet Quid quasi magnum Nempo diem donas sed cùm lux altera venit Jam cras hesternum consumsimus ecce aliud cras Egerit hos annos semper paulùm erit ultra Pers sat 5. v. 66. never to make any end of them to find no leisure in all thy Life to live well to lengthen out and let thy morrow grow till it reach the years of [g] Dic mihi cras istud Postume quando venit Jam cras istud habet Priami vel Nestoris annos Martial l. 5. epigr. 58 Vide l. 2. epigr. 64. Priamus or Nestor and if it were possible the full Age of Methuselah St. Austin confesses and condemns his former lingring dilatory Temper [h] Non erat omnino quod responderem veritate convictus nisi taniùm verba lenta somnclenta Modò ecce modò sine paululum sed modò modò non habebant modum Aug. Confess l. 8. c 5. I was clearly convinc'd by the Truth saies he and had nothing to answer but only lazy and sleepy Words another time shortly a while hence let me alone but a little longer But my Delaies were endless and infinite and would keep and observe no measures or limits I prayed in this manner to thee saies he [i] Da mihi castitatem continentiam sed noli modò timebam Lord give me the gift of Chastity and Continence But I said in my heart pray do not give it yet to me for I was afraid lest thou shouldst hear me too quickly and heal me too soon c. And at last he reasoned himself out of this unreasonable Humour in this manner How long how long shall I put it off till to morrow and next day Why not now Why should not this very Hour put an end to my lewd and loose Life What unhappy Folly is it tp delay the Time of thy Youth and so to lose the [k] See p. 22. Flower of thy Age What a Reproach and Disparagement to thy Judgment and Understanding that when thou art come to years of Maturity arriv'd to thy Middle Age thou shouldst shew thy self so inconsiderate and indiscreet as still to delay and not to use thy Reason and Judgment aright What a farther and higher degree of Folly is it to defer the Redemption of thy Time till [l] Our seeking all Summer withered and dry and beginning to shoot out a little about Michaelmass spring of which kind of shooting fruit can never come Bp. Andrew's Serm pag. 174. Old Age The Stoick will tell thee [m] Sera parsimonia in fundo est Non enim tantùm minimum in tino sed pessimum remanet Sen. ep 1. Non pisdet te reliquias vitae tibi reser vare id solum tempus bonae menti destinare quod in nullaem rem conferri possit Quam serum est tunc vtvere incipare cùn desinendum est quae tam stulta mortalitatis oblsvio in qumquagesimum sexagesimum annum differre sana consilia inde velle vitam inchoare qu◠panci perduxerunt id de brev vit c. 4. Quidam vivere tunc incipiunt cunt desinendum est Quidam antè vivere desecerunt quà n inciperent Idem epist 23. in fine 'T is late to spare when thou comest to the Bottom for it is not only the least but the very worst that is
Nuncupat ad G. Varam praesix Epist D. Hieron Erasmus gives this notable Testimony of St. Jerome Who saies he did ever learn by heart the whole Scripture imbibe concoct handle it meditate upon it as he did This very learned and holy Father did moreover [o] Has omnes Hierontmus ad divinae Scripturae studium inflammavit inflammatas suâ doctrina provexit Hieron vita per Erasm contexta inflame and stir up diverse noble Matrons of his Acquaintance at Rome to an earnest and constant Study of the divine Scriptures exhorting and urging those holy Women not to lay the Bible out of their Hands until being overcome with Sleep and not able any longer to hold up their Heads they bowed them down as it were to salute the Leaves below them with a Kiss And by his instruction of them and interpretation of the Scriptures to them he assisted and promoted their pious Endeavours in those sacred Studies [n] Quò saediùs essâ—t ab ipsis Episcopis sacros libros negligi quos sexus insirmtor amplecteretur Id. ib. that it might be the greater shame for any Bishops in any wise to neglect those sacred Books which were so often read and so well understood by the weaker Sex And he attests particularly Marcella's Industry and great Proficiency in his Epitaph of her expressing himself in these Words concerning her Because I was at that Time of some Repute and Note saies he for the Study of the Scriptures [o] Nunquam me convenit quin de Scripturis aliquid interrogaret Id. ib. she never met with me but still she would be putting some Questions to me about the Scriptures And he further adds there [p] Quicquid in nobis longo fuit studio congregatum meditatione diuturnâ quasi in naturam versum hoc illa libavit didicit atque possedit ita ut post profectionem nostram si in aliquo testimonio Scripturarum esset oborta contentio ad illam pidicem pergeretur Id. ib. Inserant in aures margaritas verbi Tertullian de cultu foemin Whatever by long Study was gathered by me and turn'd as it were into my Nature by continual Meditation all that she pick'd out tasted learn'd and possess'd So that after my departure if any Controversy arose about the Testimony of the Scripture in any Matter they had recourse to her as a Judg therein Prosper was assiduous in reading the Scripture and usually had the four Evangelists in his Hands Venerable Bede read the Scripture with such Devotion and Affection that he would often weep in the reading of it and would conclude his reading of Scripture with Prayer The good Emperour Theodosius Senior wrote out the whole new Testament with his own Hand and read some Part of it every Day [o] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Niceph. Acclehast Historia l. 14 c. 3. Theodosius the second dedicated and consecrated a good Part of the Night to the Study of the Scriptures to which end he had as Nicephorus relates a Lamp so artificially made that it constantly supplied it self with Oil that none of his Servants might suffer any Trouble upon those Occasions He learned much of the holy Scriptures without Book and when he met and confer'd with the Bishops he expounded and explain'd obscure and knotty Places of Scripture as if he himself had been a Person in holy Orders Maccovius reports of George Prince of Transylvania that he had read over the Bible seven and twenty times And it is storied of Alphonsus King of Arragon that notwithstanding all his Princely Affairs he read over the Bible with a large Comment some say ten others affirm fourteen times Bonaventure wrote out the Bible twice with his own Hand and had most of it by heart Antonius Walaeus in his younger Years imprinted much of the Scripture in his Mind and when he was [p] Vit. Ant. VValaei ante Oper. Tom. 1. old could repeat without Book the Epistle to the Romans the second to the Corinthians to the Galatians Ephesians and Philippians Zuinglius wrote out St. Paul's Epistles and got them by heart [p] Fox Act. and Mon. 2 v. p. 1075. Thomas Cromwel afterward Earl of Essex in his Journey going and coming from Rome learned the Text of the whole New Testament of Erasmus's Translation without Book which was a Means of bringing him to the Knowledg and Savour and Love of the Truth [q] Id. ib. p. 1609 1610. Bishop Ridley in his Letter of Farewel to his Friends bidding farewel to Pembroke-Hall does thus attest his own Practice with the comfortable Fruit and Effect of it In thy Orchard saies he the Walls Buts and Trees if they could speak would bear me witness I learned without Book almost all Paul 's Epistles yea and all the Canonical Epistles save only the Apocalypse of which study although in time a great part did depart from me yet the sweet smell thereof I trust I shall carry with me into Heaven for the Profit thereof I think I have felt in all my Life-time ever after [r] His Life inserted among Mr. Clark's Lives of so em Div. p. 97 98. Dr. Gouge did tye himself to reade every Day fifteen Chapters in English out of the Bible five in the Morning five after Dinner before he fell upon his other Studies and five before he went to bed which course he first took up when he was a young Student in King's Colledg in Cambridg He was often heard to say that when he could not sleep in the Night time he used in his Thoughts to run through divers Chapters of the Scripture in order as if he had heard them read to him The like Practice he used in the Day time when he was alone whether within Doors or abroad for which end he wrote in a little Book which he alwaies carried about him the distinct Heads of every Particular Passage in every Chapter of the Bible that so when in any Place he meditated on the Word of God and was at a loss he might presently find help by that little Book By this means he made himself so expert in the Text that if he heard any Phrase of Scripture he could presently tell where it was to be found And besides all this he had his set Times of Study for understanding the meaning of the more difficult Places of Scripture [s] His Life ib. p. 163. Mr. Jeremy Whitaker usually read all the Epistles in the Greek Testament twice every fortnight [t] He had read that voluminous Book of the Acts and Monuments of the Church seven times over In his Life among Mr. Clark's Lives in 4. Mr. Ignatius Jurdain read the Bible above twenty Times over and that with special Observation as appeared by the Asterisks and Marks in the Bible which he used making particular Application to himself [u] His Life written by Dr. Bernard p. 22. Bp. Vsher had two Aunts who by reason of their blindness from their Cradles never
saw Letters and yet taught him first to reade Dr. Bernard tells us that their readiness in the Scripture was marvellous being able suddenly to have repeated any part of the Bible I have read of one who was so conscientiously covetous of redeeming Time for reading of the Scripture that [w] Fox's Time and the end of Time p. 7. being a Prisoner in a dark Dungeon when a Light was brought to him for a little Time to eat his Diet he would pull out his Bible and reade a Chapter saying he could find his Month in the dark but not reade in the dark O mind the Scriptures in imitation of these and the like excellent Examples * 1 Tim. 4 13. Give attendance to reading †Joh. 5.39 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Search the Scriptrres as Christ commands As Diggers in [x] A Lapide in loc Mines with much Labour and Pains do search for Veins of Gold and Silver in the Bowels of the Earth So labour diligently to dig deep in the rich and golden Mines of Scripture for hidden Treasures of saving Truth Can you use your Eyes exercise your Reason improve your Hours in a better Employment Content not thy self with a slight and cursory reading but get a right and good understanding of these sacred Oracles Read them with Prayer to God before and after the reading of them Reade them with the [y] Quo Spiritu factae sunt Scripturae eo Spiritu legi desiderant ipsoetiam intelligendae sunt Bern. ep ad Fratres de monte Dei. Help of the same Spirit that wrote them Read them and hear the Voice of the blessed Spirit speaking in them Read receive and keep the Word in an honest and good Heart Luke 8.15 Hide the Word of God in thy Heart with David Ps 119.11 as a precious Jewel and Treasure as the Law was kept in a Chest or Ark Exod. 25.21 Let the Word of Christ dwell richly copiously plentifully in thee Coloss 3.16 and in this manner make thy Heart Bibliothecam Christi the Library of Christ as [z] Lectione assiduâ meditatione diuturnâ pectus suum bibliothecam fecerat Christi Hier. ep ad Heliod Epitaph Nepetiani St. Jerome tells us Nepotian did by his constant reading and daily Meditation Reade the Scriptures and fully assent to the Truth and Goodness of them Reade them and feed and feast upon them With the Prophet Ezekiel * Ezek 3.1 3. eat and fill thy Belly with this Roll 't will be in thy Mouth as Honey for Sweetness Do not only take the Scriptures into thine Hand and get them into thine Head but let them be deeply rooted in and fairly printed upon thy Heart Read them [a] Alimenta quae accepimus quamdiu in sua qualitate perdurant solida innatant stomacho onera sunt at cùm ex eo quod erant mutata sunt tunc demum in vires in sanguinem transeunt Idem in his quibus aluntur ingenia praestemus ut quaecunque hausimus non patiamur integra esse ne aliena sint Concoquamus illa altoquin in memoriam ibunt non in ingenium Assentiamur illis fideliter nostra faciamus ut unum quiddam siat ex multis Sen. ep 84. concoct and inwardly digest them do not only retain them in thy Memory but turn them into a new Nature Do not offer to deal with the Scriptures as little [b] Culpands sunt qui in lectione quidem Bibliorum versantur non tamen eum sibs proponunt scepum ut conscientiam suam aedisicent in pietate proficiant sed tantùm at scientiam aliquam sibi comparent qua velut artificio quodam apud alios se ostentent ibi Spiritum minimè quaerentes ubi maximè loquitur Spiritus non dissimiles pueris qui nuces ad ludendum quaerunt nucleo nec gustato nec aperto Andr. Rivet Isagog ad S. Script c. 30. §. 16. School-Boys do with their Nuts who often get them only to play with them having no mind or intention at all to crack the Shell and to taste the Kernel of any of them Reade and regard the Scriptures not only to get a notional Knowledg of them and merely to make them matter of Discourse and of Dispute but with an honest Purpose to profit in Piety and practical Knowledg by the frequent reading and constant studying of them Reade and receive the Scripture * 1 Thess 2.13 not as the Word of Men but as it is in truth the Word of God This will make all its Commands more strong and powerful more sweet and acceptable to think very seriously with thy self that they are the Commands of God who has Authority to command us and of a good God who shews as much Love in his Commands as he does in his Promises who gave his Son to die for us and therefore we may be sure will command us nothing but out of Love and for our good nothing but what will some way serve to sit us for and bring us to that Glory and Happiness which his Son has dearly purchas'd for us This also will mightily strengthen your Faith in Scripture Promises to consider that they are God's Promises who understands what he promises is true and faithful and cannot lie and is able to perform whatever he promises be his Promises never so large and great And this will render Scripture Threatnings very terrible and cause you to tremble at them and stand in aw of them to believe and consider that they are God's Threatnings who is arm'd with Omnipotency and able to execute to the utmost the most dreadful Threatnings that are denounced in his Word O bless and praise the good and holy Name of God that you are not left to the conduct of your purblind short-sighted Reason to the faint Light of the Candle within you to the natural Darkness and Blindness of your carnal Minds and corrupt Hearts that you are not guided with the Turks by a ridiculous Alcoran nor with the Jews directed to follow a few curious Rabbines nor with the Papists enslaved to humane unwritten uncertain Traditions But that you have the Bible open and intelligible in the English Tongue Highly prize and value the Scriptures and reade them with Thankfulness Love Joy and Delight as the best Book you can possibly reade in the whole World the most incomparable Writings which clearly and certainly declare the insinite Love of God and seasonably bring the glad Tidings of a Saviour to lost and undone Mankind which shew and discover to a miserable Sinner the only happy way and means of firm Reconciliation to an offended Deity and bring Life and Immortality to light which are God's publick Act of Indemnity and his free Grant of a full Pardon and of eternal Salvation to the penitent Believer Will you not prize and use the Word of God that incorruptible Seed of which you are or may be born again and have frequent recourse to that Word which