So let these Confiderations quicken you lest you be be-nighted and find too soon the Folly of your coming too late to enter into the City of God But Man hath a Door too into which God must enter and this will be shut at Night Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the Door and Knock if any Man open to Me I will come in and Sup with him and he with Me. There is a Door of Knowledge The Key of Knowledge Opens it When the Eyes of our Understandings are enlightned opened to know God in Christ and to receive the Knowledge of His Will God comes into the Heart through this Door when the Eyes of our Minds are so opened as to know God and Christ a right so as to Know them is Eternal Life Joh. 17.3 And a Door of Faith through which Christ comes when He enters to dwell in our Hearts by Faith Ephes 3.17 And there is a Door of Repentance by which Sin is turn'd out and God is admitted into our Souls And Lastly There is the Door of Holy Affections Love Desire Delight in God These are at least the Hinges upon which the Door of our Hearts turn Now these Doors may all be opened to let in God while the Day lasts and He will come in and make His Abode with us John 14.23 Jesus said If any Man love Me he will keep My Words And My Father will love him and We will come unto him and make Our Abode with him But when Night comes they will be shut for ever Hasten therefore to open them while you may lest when you would it prove too hard for you and be above both your Skill and your Power You know a Door that is opened dayly opens easily But Doors which stand long shut 't is hard to make them stir or open them without great Violence that shakes them and even breaks them in pieces The Timber will swell the Hinges will rust the Wards of the Lock will be cankered and the Bolts will even grow into the Staples And so will it by Proportion be with your Hearts if you keep the Door long shut against God Nay He may in Anger clap on a Padlock on the other side shut thee up Judicially in Unbelief and Impenitency nail and barracado up the Door for ever because He knock't and call'd so long and woo'd so earnestly in vain Cant. 5.2 Open to Me My Sister My Love My Dove My Vndefiled for My Head is fill'd with Dew and My Locks with the Drops of the Night Then after many idle Excuses for her Delay Vers 6. I opened to my Beloved but my Beloved had with-drawn Himself and was gone My Soul failed when He spake I sought Him but I could not find Him I called Him but He gave me no Answer Take heed lest this or worse be thy Case Refuse not to open at the first Knock the first Call the Motions of His Spirit the Checks of thy Conscience the Admonitions of the Word lest He Knock no more or refuse when thou shalt open at thy own Leasure to come near the Door The Servants which shall be blessed are They that wait for their Lord and when he cometh and knocketh open to him immediately Luk. 12.35 Rouze up your selves therefore and speak to your Souls in David's Language and as much as may be with David's Zeal Psal 24.7 9. which he witnessed by the Ingemination of them Lift up your Heads Oh ye Gates and be ye lift up ye Everlasting Doors and the King of Glory shall come in Who is this King of Glory The Lord of Hosts He is this King of Glory And take heed that dreadful Place be not fulfilled upon you Isa 6.10 the most dreadful Word God can speak till he say Depart ye Cursed Make the Heart of this People fat and their Ears heavy and shut their Eyes lest they be Converted and I Heal them A Place Six times repeated in the New-Testament to make us mind it lest by our sinful Shutting the Door we provoke God Judicially to shut it up for ever Sixthly No Man can work when this Night cometh because 't is an abiding Night There is no Day on the other side of it We say To Morrow is a New Day what we cannot do to Day we may do to Morrow But there is no Morrow beyond the Night of Death 'T is appointed to all Men once to Dye but once and after that the Judgment Heb. 9.29 No Second Day of Life allowed to them who have mis-spent and lost the First Job said long since There is Hope of a Tree that if it be cut down it will sprout again and that the tender Branch thereof will not cease Though the Root thereof wax old in the ground and the Stock thereof Dye yet through the Scent of Water it will bud and bring forth Boughs like a Plant. But Man dyeth and wasteth away yea Man giveth up the Ghost and Where is he As the Waters fail from the Sea and the Flood decayeth and dryeth up so Man Lyeth down and Riseth not till the Heavens be no more They shall not awake or rise out of their Sleep Job 14.7 12. And the Heathen Poet long ago observed the like of the Sun The Sun 's Set and Rise Set and Rise again But We when We Set are covered with Eternal Night No repeated Light or Day succeeds O therefore timely and wisely Improve the Present That had need be done well which can be done but once and admits no doing it again to remedy the Errours of doing ill at first And such above all things is the Work of Dying and finishing our Dayes Work before the Night surprize us The Proverb tells us Three Things require greatest Caution and most prudent Circumspection Marriage Battle Death Upon this Account Because their Consequents are like to last Yet the First of these excludes not all possible Relief Good Counsel may reclaim Patience may bear and Wisdom may improve the Inconvenience or the Death of the Party which makes the Yoke unequal and uneasy may take it off the Grieved Party's Neck that it shall not alwayes gall here And at farthest Death will Dissolve the Bond that it shall not be alwayes troublesome And the Second though dangerous is not wholly desperate He that hath lost a Battle suffer'd a Defeat and Rout may Rally and Recruit and though it cost him Dear may learn Experience for more wary Conduct and may expect a more Propitious Fortune But he that Dyes Unpardoned and Ungodly that is before his Work is done he is undone to all Intents and Purposes no Remedy or Hope of Remedy remains to all Eternity And as the fore-nam'd Reasons shew it impossible to Work when this Night hath actually overtaken us so the Last which follows should excite and quicken us to the uttermost to be before-hand with it For Seventhly This Night makes hast The Text tells you It cometh and I tell you and Experience tells you and Christ in effect
with any of you when you are at Church when you are busie in the Streets when you are safe and merry in your Houses some unthought of some unsuspected calamity may suddenly surprize therefore Repent speedily that you may be always ready for all events and to meet what ever Message Gods Providence may send But of such importance is this duty and so earnest is our Lord to fasten this nail surely that he reiterates his stroaks to drive it home and therefore adds this Parable after the wise Application and improvement he had made of two real stories so apposite to his purpose And this is Historia ficta though not a real History of things actually done yet a Picture of things usual and likely to be done which strikes the Phansie and by that the Judgment and Conscience with a quicker and more smart stroak than what is delivered in plain those most expressive and significant words Methinks upon the reading of this Parable of the Fig-tree we may cry out as the Holy Apostle doth upon the writing the like Parable of the Olive-tree Rom xi 22. Behold the goodness and severity of God but with this two-fold difference First There they were both executed here Mercy and Goodness only is exercised Justice and Severity only threatned Secondly There they are imployed upon several Subjects or persons Goodness on the Gentiles Severity on the Jews here both are conversant about the same object First Behold his Goodness in several respects 1. 'T is great Mercy to be Planted so advantageously in the Vineyard in so Fat and well prepared a Soyl and so well Fenc'd and secured from annoyance both of Beasts and Weather by an Hedg and by a Wall 2. 'T is Mercy to be forborn so long and suffered to stand year after year notwithstanding its unfruitfulness 3. 'T is Mercy to have the Intercession of the Dresser of the Vineyard and to have that Intercession prevalent and accepted for it and thereupon to allow it more time and more pains and cost to be bestowed upon it in digging and dressing and dunging of it Secondly behold his Justice too 1. 'T is just with God to expect Fruit of a Tree so Planted to come with expectation of it to call it to accompt and take severe notice of its unfruitfulness 2. 'T is just to upbraid it and reproach it for Cumbring the ground and to pass Sentence against it to cut it down for so long and so often disappointing of his desires 3. 'T is just to proceed to actual cutting down without remedy or pity after more pains and cost bestowed upon it in vain and to no purpose We cannot have a better Commentary upon this Text than the seven first Verses of the fifth Chapter of Isaiah I will therefore transcribe them Now will I sing to my well beloved a Song of my beloved touching his vineyard my well beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill And he fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof and planted it with the choyest Vine and built a tower in the midst of it and also made a wine press therein and he looked that it should bring forth Grapes and it brought forth wild Grapes And now O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah judg I pray you betwixt me and my Vineyard What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it Wherefore when I looked for Grapes brought it forth wild Grapes And now go to I will tell you what I will do to my Vineyard I will take away the hedg thereof and it shall be eaten up and break down the Wall and it shall be trodden down And I will lay it wast it shall not be pruned nor digged but there shall come up briars and thorns I will also command the Clouds that they Rain no Rain upon it For the Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the House of Israel and the men of Judah his pleasant Plant and he looked for Judgment but behold oppression and for Righteousness but behold a cry I shall leave it to your selves to make the Paralel and such observations as may help you by one to understand the other And I will now proceed to the easiest and plainest explication of the Parable that possibly I can And let us divide it into its parts that they may be explained in the better order Of the four verses of which it consists the two former six and seven belong to the Lord of the Vineyard and the two latter eight and nine belong to the Dresser of the Vineyard of those two which relate to the Lord of the Vineyard the former tells you what he did the latter what he said Of the two which relate to the Dresser of the Vineyard the former contains his Intercession that it may be spared the latter his Concession that it should be destroyed upon supposition of its continuing unfruitful I shall now explain them in this order I have named them and all as concisely as I may and with respect to the Application which I chiefly intend In the sixth we have four things to be opened 1. Who this Lord of the Vineyard is and the three things he did 1. Had a Fig-tree Planted in his Vineyard 2. Came to seek Fruit of it 3. Found none First the certain man the Lord of the Vineyard is the Lord Jehovah the great God possessor of Heaven and Earth as appears by Is v. 7. before named Ps lxxx from the seven to the sixteenth very fully and by St. Matth. xx 1. and xxi 33 4◠The Vineyard is in the primary intention of the Parable the Synagogue the Church of the Jews which God had planted with so much love and care as is declared in the forenamed Psalm lxxx 7 8. But by just Analogy and proportion is the Catholick Church of God under the Gospel And any particular Church in any Nation to which God doth vouchsafe his Gospel Word and Ordinances The Fig-tree planted in this Vineyard is any particular Church with respect to the Catholick or Universal Church of which it is a Part or Member Or any particular person man or woman with respect to that particular Church in which he lives and partakes of Christs Institutions The Fig-tree is a Tree of a Fruit-bearing kind Naturally apt to bring forth sweet and good Fruit Judg. ix 11. not barren by Nature like an Asp or Elm or Willow nor bad Fruit as the Thorn of which men expect not to gather sweet Fruit Luke vi 44. Of thorns men do not gather figs. So man endued with Reason Conscience Will Affections is capable to know chuse love fear serve God and obey him Now that it may not seem incongruous to speak of a Fig-tree which is a Plant of another kind in a Vineyard You must know though the Vine Plants as being most gave denomination as Denominatio est à potiori Yet it was usual with them both to sow Corn in Vineyards betwixt their
attain to what he can not do In order to be ready for Christ some thing a man can do some thing he can not do He can Read Hear Pray Consider stir his Natural affections Love Fear Hope Desire by weighing what he knows Some things as yet he can not do Repent turn to God believe Savingly for these are the gifts and work of God Now God hath set the first in the way to the second as it were in the middle betwixt what he can do and what he can not that by doing what he can at present he may gradually come to ability to do what he cannot yet do and by degrees may ascend thither whither he could not reach per Salâ—um at once I will make this plain by an easie comparison A man cannot at one stride step up into the Room above him ten foot higher than the floor he stands on but if there be a Pair of Stairs he can set his Foot first on the lowest than on the second third and by degrees ascend a second third fourth Story tho ten or twenty Foot above the place from whence he first began Just thus there is a Jacobs Ladder of many Rounds set up between Heaven and Earth We cannot step at once from Nature to Grace from Earth to Heaven but we may begin at the foot of this Ladder and climb from the first Round to the second and then the third and so to the top and gradually by the help of this Ladder and the hand of the Spirit leading us up we come to that which without this we could not reach by the means of Grace we attain Grace and by Grace as a means we attain Glory I therefore again press you to Read Hear Pray Meditate with honest industry and an humble expectation of Gods blessing upon his own Institutions and thy labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Sixthly Allow your selves due time and leisure for these things Be good Husbands of time no thrift is more commendable Eternity depends upon it And as I would specially commend unto you the strict Sanctifying the Lords day a thing much out of use which is one of the most visible Causes why the power of Godliness withers and dwindles so much away For 't is easily observable that Religion thrives and prospers proportionably to the improvement of this day and flourisheth or is troden down according as this Fence is kept up or neglected So let me earnestly commend to you the setting apart some Portion of time every day for God and your souls That as God hath the Tribute of a Day-Sabbath out of the Week He may have as it were an Hour-Sabbath out of every Day As there was a continual Morning and Evening Sacrifice dayly under the Law so there should be at least Morning and Evening time allowed for Spiritual Sacrifice under the Gospel And here I cannot I dare not forbear to caution you of this great City against the over lavish spending of whole Evenings in Publick Houses and at your Clubbs Tho 't is easiy to foresee it may offend both those whose guilt and whose interest it toucheth for both these are teachy things not that I am so rigid as to censure moderate Diversion and Friendly Conversation But I fear yea I greatly fear there is a fault yea a great fault in this matter If after your Shops your Counting-House and Business and the Change have taken all the day the Coffee-House the Tavern and the Clubb shall take up all your Evening What 's left for God for Souls and for Eternity And thou returnest home so late that thy Family is in Bed or half asleep and thy head full of Stories and News at least if not of something worse How slenderly cursorily and uncomposedly is God like to be served in Family and Closet if not shut out of both And what if Christ should come and find you doing thus Could you expect his Euge bone serve well done good and faithful servant or not rather his frown with why hast thou served me thus Seventhly If thou wouldest be ready for Christ get thy heart furnish'd and prepared as that Room was where he eat his last Passover Mark xiv 15. Cast out all thy Lusts and cast off every weight but above all keep thy self from thine own iniquity foster no bosome sin enter into league with none Tho 't will be hard enough to get rid of others yet thou'ld be easilier quit of twenty others than of such an one A darling sin a bosom sin a peccatum in deliciis is of all sins most offensive to God most dangerous to our selves One Dalilah was too strong for Sampson himself and he could not stand before her before whom a thousand men fell at one time but she cost him his Eyes and his Life Every sin is a snare and a cord to intangle men but none so much as his Own sin His Own iniquities there 's the Emphasis his Own shall take the wicked himself and he shall be holden with the Cords of His sins Prov. v. 22. Whether it be the sin of thy Natural Constitution or thy Calling and Profession of life or the time and place thou livest in or that long usage and custom hath indeared to thee For from these four quarters this blasting wind usually blows upon men and made as a right Hand or a right Eye or as the spots to a Leopard or skin to an Ethiopian This sin what ever it be is the plague of thy heart the most Mortal Disease of thy Soul and thou must set thy self with all thy might both to find it out and cast it out and mortifie it 'T was Davids Argument for his uprightness that he kept himself from his own iniquity Psal xviii 23. I was also upright before him and I kept my self from mine iniquity And so must thou if ever thou expect acceptance with God 'T is bad to be forced or ravished by Sin and Satan 't is worse to yield consent to one act of defilement or Spiritual Uncleanness but 't is worst of all to be married to them and this thou art by fostering a Bosome darling sin This yields the constant use of Soul and Body to his impure embraces This keeps Possession for him and opens the Door as often as he knocks and he enters in and dwells there Davids lust to Bathshebah tho very foul is called a Way-faring man and a Traveller 2 Sam. xii 4. But where a darling sin is harboured there Satan is at Home in his own House This makes thy condition almost desperate and nothing but a speedy Divorce can prevent its being altogether so Eighthly Disintagle and unchain thy heart from the inordinate love and cares of the things of this world Account thy self a Stranger and a Pilgrim here Know that this is not thy rest thou hast here no continuing place But especially take Gods Counsel to Hezekiah Isa xxxviii 1. Set thine house in order for thou shalt die
therefore could not do it in Faith For what-ever is not of Faith is Sin Rom. 14. ult The Heart cannot be Good without Knowledge nor thy Work Good without a Good Heart Wisdom is the Principal Thing to direct thee in thy Work therefore Get Wisdom and with all thy getting get Vnderstanding Prov. 4.7 No Man can aim Right that Shoots blindfold Ignorance will blind thy Eyes that thou can'st not see thy Mark God's Glory and thy own Salvation The Text is express That in the Night no Man can Work And one Reason given to Confirm it was Because 't is too dark to see to work in The most thou can'st do in the Night of Ignorance is to grope like a Blind Man and how thou art like to Finish so curious a Work in such a case I leave it to thy self to Judge Therefore provide against so Real and so Great a Hinderance The Second Real Hinderance is The Indulging of the Flesh and a Desire to gratify it by the Inordinate Love of Ease and Pleasure If this Humour prevail and thou be Delicate Soft and Tender thou wilt shrink and give back at the first Difficulty which steps forth to meet thee He is not fit to make a Souldier that can endure no Hardship Thou therefore endure Hardness as a Good Souldier of Jesus Christ 2 Tim. 2.3 He that loveth Pleasure shall be a Poor Man Prov. 21.17 And who so loves his Ease Poverty shall come upon him as an Armed Man They can never serve God acceptably who serve their Lusts and Pleasures willingly And they Who are Lovers of Pleasures more than Lovers of God may possibly attain a Form of Godlyness but will certainly Deny the Power of it 2 Tim. 3.4 5. For the Pleasures of this World choak the Seed of the Word and they bring forth no Fruit unto Perfection Luk. 8.14 The Third Real Hinderance is Incumbrance with Multitude of Cares and Worldly Affairs This over-charges the Heart and distracts the Mind that it cannot wait on God No Man can serve God and Mammon Our Breasts are too narrow to lodge so many and so contrary Inmates We cannot look Upwards and Downwards both at once If Carmina secessum scribentis otia poscunt a Poet's Thoughts must be free and disintangled Religion requires it much more Enter thou into thy Closet and shut to thy Door to shut out Distractions I deny not but while we Live in this World wee need the things of this World and we may lawfully seek them and use them But then we must seek and use them lawfully which is done when we keep them at due Distance allow them at most but the Second Place Vse them as if we us'd them not remembring the Time is short and that the Fashion of this World passeth away If Hagar domineer and begin to despise her Mistriss Sarah she must be made to know she 's but a Bond-Maid and she must be cast out Next to them who cannot find an Heart to serve God they are to be pittyed who cannot find Time to serve Him And the truth is they therefore can find no Time for this Work because they can find no Heart to it and they therefore can find no Heart because the World hath stolen it away 'T is said by the Prophet Wine and Women take away the Heart Hos 4.11 And 't is as true Riches and Business and Multiplicity of Affairs and a Croud and Hurry of Employments take it away no less If some Men can scarce find time to Eat and Sleep as well as they love their Bodies What Time do you think they will find to Read and Pray and Meditate and search their Consciences and purify their Souls Of all Remote Advantages which Religion may have I esteem none Greater than Retirement Vacancy a Time to be still and Commune with our Hearts call our Wayes to Remembrance to think and consider and to have Leisure to Converse with God I acknowledge the Truth of Solomon's Vae soli Woe to him that is alone yet 't is as as true Vae nunquam soli Woe to him that will not Woe to him that cannot but most of all Woe to him that dares not be alone The Second Branch of this Vse is to Direct you to the Helps which will Promote your Diligence which amongst others are these Willingness Love Wisdom Speed Industry Courage Constancy or Perseverance First Willingness or a Good Will to your Work The willing Man will be a Diligent Man Willingness is the Rise or leading Step to Diligence 'T is not only Oyl to your VVheels but the very VVheels themselves And Men drive heavily like Pharaoh's Chariot's when the VVheels were taken off when they want a Willing Mind to what they are engaged in VVhen on the contrary Willingness makes them like the Chariots of Aminadab Cant. 6.12 sets them on the Chariots of my Willing People as the Margin there The First VVork upon the Soul is described Psal 110.3 Thy People shall be Willing in the Day of Thy Power In God's Offerings for the Tabernacle the Directions were to Receive them from them who brought them with a Willing Heart Exod. 35.5 21 29. And when they were Willing they bring more than enough Exod. 36.5 Willingness will need a Bridle rather than a Spur. That Picture of Diligence drawn by Solomon's Pen of the Virtuous Woman hath This inserted as the Soul of all the Rest She worketh Willingly with her Hands Prov. 31.13 Willingness to your VVork will help your Diligence in it many wayes For it will make you Docible and Careful to learn your VVork You use to let Children chuse their Professions knowing they will learn that soonest they have most mind to 'T will make you Cheerful and Ready in the Undertaking it We use to say There is nothing to a Willing Mind What the Naturalist saith of the Hand the Moralist saith of the Will It is the Instrument of Instruments A Man treads that Path in which his Will leads him as if he did not feel the Ground he goes on 'T is the best Sauce all things Taste as it doth Season them And Things are Dear or Cheap according to the Ptice it sets upon them It will make Men Serious and in good Earnest they will netiher speak faintly nor act coldly about what they have engag'd their Wills in They will not trifle as those do who are in Bivio know not their own Minds nor what themselves would have Be Willing therefore to your Work that will make you Diligent at it Secondly Love to your Work will double your Diligence about it Love is the Flower the Cream of Willingness nay the Quintessence and Spirits of it If Willingness gives Feet Love will give Wings Jacob served Seven Years for Rachel and they seem'd but as so many Dayes because he Lov'd her The Servant that Lov'd his Master would refuse the Freedom the Law provided for him and would have his Ear bored at his Door-Post and be his