them that entertained him that you were called on and warn'd as well as they but obstinately despised and neglected all That Life and Death were set before you and the everlasting joyes were offered to your choice against the charms of sinful Pleasures and you might have freely had them if you would and were told that Holiness was the only way and that it must be Now or Never and yet that you chose your own destruction These thoughts will be part of Hell to the ungodly They will wonder that Reason could be so unreasonable and they that had the common wit of man in other matters should be so far beside themselves in that which is the only thing that its commendable to be wise for that such sottish Reasonings should prevail with them against the clearest light and nothing should be preferred before all things and arguments fetcht from chaff and dung should conquer those that were fetcht from Heaâ—en O what heart-renting thoughts will these be when Eternity shall afford them leisure for an impartial review Yea that they should deceive others also with such a gross deceit and scorn at all that would not be as mad as they that being drunken with the worlds delusion they should abuse all that were truly sober that the one thing needfull should seem to them a needless thing That their tongues should plead for these delusions of their wicked hearts and they should be enemies to those that would not be enemies to God and to themselves and cast away their Time and Souls as they did They will wonder with self-indignation what could bewitch them into so great unreasonableness below a man against the light of nature as well as of supernatural revelation Honourable and beloved Hearers I beseech you do not take it ill that I speak so much of these matters that are so unpleasant and unwelcome to unbelieving careless carnal hearts It is that I may prevent all this in time by the awakenings of true Repentance And O that this might be the success That I might hear by your penitent Confessions and see by your universal speedy reformation that God hath so great Mercy for you that these perswasions might be the means of so much Happinesse to you and comfort unto me However this Assembly shall be witnesses that you were warned and Conscience shall be witness that if you wast the rest of your dayes in the pleasures and vanities of this deceitful world it was not because you could have no better and were not called to higher things That if you yet stand idle it is not because you could not be hired For in the name of Christ I have called you into his vineyard and told you of your work and wages and ashamed your excuses and objections this day Come away then speedily from the snares of sinners and the Company of deceived hardened men and cast away the works of darknesse Heaven is before you Death is at hand The Eternal God hath sent to call you Mercy doth yet stretch forth its arms You have staid too long and abused Patience too much already Stay no longer O now please God and comfort us and save your selves by Resolving that this shall be the Day and faithfully performing of this your Resolution Vp and be doing Believe Repent Desire Obey and do all this with all your Might Love him that you must Love for ever and Love him with all your Soul and Might seek that which is truly worth the seeking and it will pay for all your cost and pains And seek it first with all your Might Remembring still it must be Now or Never BEfore I conclude I have two messages yet to deliver to the servants of the Lord The One is of Encouragement The Other of Direction I know that many of you have a threefold trouble which requireth a threefold comfort and encouragement One is that you have done so little of your work but lost so much of your time already Another is that you are so opposed and hindred And the greatest of all is that you are yet so dull and slow The cure of which must be the matter of my Directions 1. For the first That you have lost your Time must be the matter of your Humiliation But that all is not lost before you see your sin and duty but yet the patience and mercy of the Lord are attending you and continuing your hope this is the matter of your comfort and encouragement Repent therefore that you came no sooner home But rejoyce that you are come home at last and now be more diligent in redeeming your time in remembrance of the time already lost And though it must be your grief that your Master hath been deprived of so much as his service and others of so much good which you should have done them and that time is lost that cannot be recalled yet it is your comfort that your own Reward may be equal with them that have born the burthen and heat of the day For many that are last in the time of their coming in shall be first in receiving their reward This is the meaning of that Parable in Mat. 20. which was spoken to encourage them that had stood out too long and to rebuke the envie and high expectations of them that came in sooner and it is no whit contradictory to those passages in Matth. 25. which intimate a different degree of glory to be given to them that have different degrees of Grace upon their industrious improvement The one Parable Matth. 20. shews that men shall not be rewarded differently for their longer or shorter continuance in the work but that those that came in late and yet are found with equal holiness shall be rewarded equally with the first And more if their holiness be more which the second Parable expresseth declaring Gods purpose to give them the greatest Glory that have improved their Holiness to the greatest Measure O therefore that the sense of your former unkindness might provoke you the more resolvedly to give up your selves in fervent love and full obedience and then you will find that your Time is Redeemed though it cannot be recalled and that Mercy hath secured your full reward O what an unspeakable Mercy is this that if yet you will devote your selves entirely to Christ and serve him with your might the little time that yet remains he will take it as if you had come in at the first hour of the day 2. And as for the Opposition and hinderances in your way they are no other then what your Lord foretold He hath gone before you and conquered much more then ever you will encounter from without though he had not a body of sin to conquer and in that respect the conquest of his Spirit in his members hath the preheminence of his personal conquest He hath bid you Be of good chear because he hath overcome the World If you will not take up your cross and follow him you
NOW OR NEVER The Holy Serious Diligent Believer Justified Encouraged Excited and Directed And the Opposers and Neglecters Convinced by the Light of Scripture and Reason By Richard Baxter To be Communicated by such as want ability or opportunity themselves to plead the Cause of Serious Holiness for mens Conviction Luk. 7. 35. But wisdom is justified of all her children Nihil est ad defendendum Puritate tutius nihil ad dicendum Veritate facilius Ambros LONDON Printed in the Year 1662. The Contents IN the Preface the Question resolved Whether a Man may be saved in any Religion that is serious in practising it No Religion will save a man that is not true to it serious diligent in practising it Why the Author rather publisheth such common necessary things than confutation of the many calumnies publisht against himself His expectations from men And answer with Tertullian about sufferings An Advertisement about a passage cited out of the Homilies His Justification for opposing scorners enemies of Holiness out of the Church Homilies A Passage about Philip Nerius the Father of the Oratorians The Text opened Doct. 1. The work of this life cannot be done when this life is ended Doct. 2. Therefore while we have time we must do the work of this present life with vigour and diligenee 1. Time cannot be recalled 2. Life shall never be here restored 3. There is no doing this work in the life to come What it is to do it with our Might some cautions Instances of the work to be done with our might Obj. What Might have we Answered How to rouse up our selves to seriousness What to think of them that oppose a holy serious diligence in the service of God The greatness of the sin Especially if they are Preachers What it is in Religion that Hypocrites hate Seneca's testimony for seriousness A terrible passage in our Homilies against Scorners at godliness The greatness of their sin Obj It is not Godliness but humour faction disobedience hypocrisie c. Answered Advice to the flocks Obj. Be not righteous overmuch Answered Exhortation to serious diligence Obj. 1. I have lost my Time Answered Obj. 2. I have opposition and hinderances Obj. 3. I am dull and cold Directions and Cautions Reasons for pleading this cause with Ministers The Exhortation re-inforced The Devils designe to make use of Differences in smaller matters against Christianity and Godliness it self Such differences sects divisions shall be no excuse to the ungodly but aggravate their sin as being against that which all Sects and Parties were agreed in What that Religion is that we call men to be serious and diligent in 1. To live according to the Principles of Faith that among Christians are past controversie Ten named 2. To do that Materially that all are agreed of Ten duties named 3. To do that in the very Manner of Gods service that all are agreed in Ten particulars mentioned Obj. I will never believe that God delights in long and earnest prayers or is moved by the words of man Answered Obj. Is not your strict observation of the Lords Day a Controversie Answered The Conclusion exhortatory The Preface IT is a question more boldly than accurately debated by many Whether a man may not be saved in any Religion that is faithful to the principles of it by serious diligent practice The true Solution is this Religion is that which men hold and do to serve and please God 1. If men make themselves a Religion of serving Idols or Devils instead of God 2. Or if they place their service to God himself in things that are evil as what evil is there that some men have not brought into their Religion and fathered upon God the more diligent such men are in their Religion the more they sin 3. Or if they make themselves a Religion of irrational ludicrous ceremonies their greatest diligence in this will not save them 4. Or if they hold all the Essentials of the true Religion except some one it cannot save them while one thing is wanting which is Essential to that Religion and so necessary to salvation which is the case of real Hereticks For they are not indeed of that Religion if they want that which is Essential to it 5. Or if they hold all that is Essential to the true Religion only Notionally and hold any thing with it practically which is contradictory and inconsistent with it the soundness of their Notional belief will not save them from the mortal poison of their practical Heresie or Error But 1. Whosoever holdeth all that is necessary to salvation and is serious and diligent in living according thereunto shall be saved whatever error he holdeth with it For if he be serious and diligent in the Practice of all things necessary to salvation he hath all that is necessary to salvation viz. in Belief and Practice And it must needs follow that his Errors are either not concontradictory to the things necessary which he holdeth and practiseth or that he holdeth not those Errors practically but notionally as an opinion or uneffectual cogitation in a dream which provokes not to action and in such a case the error keeps no man from salvation What is necessary to be believed by them that never hear the Gospel it so little concerneth us to know that God hath not thought meet to make it so plain to us as things that more concern our selves But as it is certain that without the Atonements Satisfaction and Reconciliation made by Christ and without new terms of Grace to be judged by and without his Grace for the performance of their part no man can be saved that hath the use of reason so there is so much knowledge necessary to salvation as is necessary to engage the heart to love God above all and sincerely to obey his revealed will and to prefer the life to come before the transitory pleasures of this life Now if any man can prove to me that those that never heard the Gospel can thus love God and the life to come and obey sincerely without the knowledge of the person life death resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Declaration of the attractive Love and Goodness of God in him and in the work of our Redemption then I should believe that such Negative Infidels may be saved For God cannot damn a sanctified soul that sincerely loveth him But if the discovery of the Love of God in our Redemption be so necessary a moral means to ingage the heart now corrupted by sin and creature-love to the true Love of God that this cannot be wrought without it or if Christ give not his Spirit to produce the love of God in any but those that hear the Gospel and believe in him then no such persons can be saved by their Religion For Christ is the way to the Father and no man cometh to the Father but by him and and the Love of God is absolutely and of its self necessary to salvation
it then to hear and think that you lost wilfully lost such an opportunity Look about you then and see what is to be done Are there not Ale-houses to be supprest and drunkards riotous persons to be restrained Preaching and Piety to be promoted Do it with your might For it must be Now or Never 6. To come yet a little nearer you and speak of the work that is yet to be done in your own souls Are any of you yet in the state of unrenewed nature born only of the flesh and not of the Spirit Joh. 3. 3 5 6. minding the things of the flesh and not the things of the Spirit Rom. 8. 1 5 7 9 13. consequently yet in the power of Satan taken captive by him at his will Act. 26. 18. 2 Tim. 2. 26 27. Vp and be doing if thou love thy soul If thou care whether thou be in Joy or misery for ever bewail thy sin and spiritual distress Make out to Christ cry mightily to him for his renewing and reconciling pardoning grace plead his sactisfaction his merits his promises Away with thy rebellion thy beloved sin Deliver up thy soul entirely to Christ to be sanctified governed and saved by him Make no more demurs about it it is not a matter to be questioned or trifled in Let the earth be acquainted with thy bended knees and the air with thy complaints and cries men with thy confessions and enquiries after the way of life and heaven with thy sorrows desires and resolutions till thy soul be acquainted with the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8. 9. and with the new the holy and heavenly nature and thy heart have received the transcript of Gods Law the impress of the Gospel and so the Image of thy Creator and Redeemer Ply this work with all thy might For there is no Conversion Renovation or Repentance unto life in the grace whither thou goest It must be Now or Never And Never saved if Never sanctified Heb. 12. 14. 7. Hast thou any prevailing sin to mortifie that either reigneth in thee or woundeth thee and keepeth thy soul in darkness and unacquaintedness with God Assault it resolutely Reject it speedily Abhor the motions of it Turn away from the persons or things that would entice thee Hate the doors of the Harlot and of the Alehouse or the gaming house and go not as the Ox to the slaughter and as a bird to the fowlers snare and as a fool to the correction of the stocks as if thou knewest not that it is for thy life Prov. 7. 22 23. Why thou befooled stupid soul wilt thou be tasting of the poysoned cup wilt thou be glutting thee with the bait Hast thou no where to walk or play thee but at the brink of Hell Must not the flesh be crucified with its affections and lusts Gal. 5. 24. Must it not be tamed and mortified or thy soul condemned Rom. 8. 13. 1 Cor. 9. 27. Run not therefore as at uncertainty fight not as one that beats the air ver 26. seeing this must be done or thou art undone delay and dally with sin no longer Let this be the day resolve and resist it with thy might It must be Now or Never when death comes it is too late It will be then no reward to leave thy sinne which thou canst keep no longer No part of Holiness or happiness that thou art not drunk or proud or lustful in the grave or hell As thou art wise therefore know and take thy Time 8. Art thou in a declined lapsed state decayed in grace Hast thou lost thy first desires and love do thy first works and do them with thy might Delay not but remember from whence thou art fallen and what thou hast lost by it and into how sad a case thy folly and negligence hath brought thee say I will go and return to my first husband for then was it better with me then now Hos 2. 7. Cry out with Job 29. 2 3. 4 5. O that I were as in moneths past as in the dayes when God preserved me when his candle shined upon my head and when by his light I walked through darkness As I was in the dayes of my youth when the secret of God was on my Tabernacle when the Almighty was yet with me Return while thou hast day lest the night surprize thee Loyter and delay no more thou hast lost by it already thou art far behind hand Bestir thee therefore with all thy Might 9. Art thou in the darknesse of uncertainty concerning thy conversion and thy everlasting state Dost thou not know whether thou be in a state of life or death and what should become of thee if this were the day or hour of thy change If thou art careful about it and enquirest and usest the means that God hath appointed thee for assurance I have then no more to say to thee now but wait on God and thou shalt not be disappointed or ashamed Thou shalt have assurance in due time or be saved before thou wouldst believe thou should be saved Be patient and obedient and the light of Christ will shine upon thee and yet thou shalt see the days of peace But if thou art careless in thy uncertainty and mindest not so great a business be awakened and call thy soul to its account Search and examine thy heart and life Read and consider and take advice of faithful Guides Canst thou carelesly sleep and laugh and sport and follow thy lesser business as if thy Salvation were made sure when thou knowest not where thou must dwell for ever Examine your selves whether you be in the faith prove your selves know ye not your own selves that Christ is in you except you are reprobates 2 Cor. 13. 5. Give all diligence in time to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1. 10. In the Grave and Hell there is no making sure of Heaven you are then past enquiries and self-examinations in order to any recovery or hope Another kind of tryal will finally resolve you Up therefore and diligently ply the work it must be Now or Never 10. In all the duties of thy Profession of Piety Justice or Charity to God thy self or others up and be doing with thy might Art thou seeking to inflame thy soul with love to God plunge thy self in the Ocean of his love admire his mercies gaze upon the representations of his transcendent goodness O taste and see that the Lord is gracious Remember that he must be loved with all thy heart and soul and might canst thou pour out thy love upon a creature and give but a few barren drops to God When thou art Fearing him let his Fear command thy soul and conquer all the fear of man When thou art Trusting him do it without distrust and cast all thy care and thy self upon him Trust him as a creature should trust his God and the members of Christ should trust their Head and dear Redeemer When thou
be preferred in your estimation love and service and all that is done for man must be done for his sake You must not set up duties of Piety against duties of Justice Charity and Sobriety It is not true Piety that will not bring forth these God must be loved above all and our neighbours as our selves and these two sorts of love are inseparable Do all the good you can to all while you have opportunity especially to them of the houshold of faith Gal. 6. 10. What good you would hear of in the day of your accounts that do now speedily diligently and sincerely according to your power Say not I may come to want my self but cast thy bread upon the waters for thou shalt find it after many dayes give a portion to seven and also to eight for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth Eccles 11. 1 2. and whether all may not quickly be taken from thee and then thou wilt wish thou hadst done good with it whilst thou hadst it and lent it to the Lord and trusted him with thy remainder who entrusted thee with his blessings and hadst made thee friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when all fail they might receive thee into the everlasting habitations Drop not now and then a scant and grudging alms as if thou were a loser by it and God must be be beholden to thee but believe that the greatest gain is to thy self and look after such bargains and do good as readily and gladly liberally as one that verily expecteth a ful reward in Heaven This is part of the service of God that we exhort you to even to visit and relieve and love Christ in his members and brethren Mat. 25. and is there any thing of doubt or controversie in all this 8. Moreover God will be served with Love and willingness and delight It is the most gainful honourable blessed and pleasant work in the world which he hath appointed you and not a toilsome task or slavery And therefore it is not a Melancholy pining troublesom course of life that we perswade you to under the name of Godliness but it is to rejoyce in the Lord and to live in the joyful expectations of Eternal Life and in the sense and assurance of the Love of God If you could shew us any probability of a more pleasant and joyful life on Earth then that which serious Holiness doth afford I should be glad with all my heart to hearken to you I am ready to tell you what is the ground of our comforts which faith revealeth If you will come and soberly debate the case and shew us the matter and ground of your comforts which you have or hope for in any other way if yours prove greater and better and surer then the joys of faith we will hearken to you and be of your mind and side The matter of the joyes of a Believer is that all his sins are pardoned that God is reconciled to him in Christ that he hath the promise of God that all things even the greatest sufferings shall work together for his good that he is always in the love and care and hands of God that he hath leave to draw near him by holy prayer and open his heart to him in all his straits and wants that he may solace himself in his Praises and Thanksgiving and in other parts of holy worship that he may read and hear his holy Word the sure discovery of the will of God and revelation of the things unseen and the Charter of his Inheritance that he may exercise his soul in the serious believing thoughts of the Love of God revealed in the wonderful work of our Redemption and of the person and office and grace of Jesus Christ our Redeemer and that he may love that God that hath so wonderfully loved him that he hath the Spirit of God to quicken and actuate his soul to supply his spiritual defects and kill his sins and help him to Believe to Love to Rejoyce to Pray that this Spirit is Gods Seal upon him and the earnest of everlasting life that Death shall not kill his hopes nor end his happiness but that his felicity and fullest joy beginneth when that of worldlings hath an end and their endless misery begins that he is delivered from everlasting torment by the redemption of Christ and the sanctification of the spirit that Angels will attend his departing soul into the presence of his Father that he shall be with his glorified Redeemer and behold his Glory that his body shall be raised to everlasting life that he shall be justified by Christ from all the accusations of the Devil and all the slanders of the malicious world that he shall live with God in endless Glory and see and enjoy the Glory of his Creator and shall never more be troubled with enemies with sin or sorrow but among his holy ones shall perfectly and most joyfully love and praise the Lord for ever These are the matter of a Believers joy These purchased by Christ revealed in his Word sealed by his Miracles his Blood his Sacraments and his Spirit are our comfort This is the Religion the labour that we invite you to It is not to despair nor to some dry unprofitable toil nor to self-troubling grieving miserable melancholy nor to costly Sacrifices or idle Ceremonies or irrational Service such as the Heathens offered to their Idols it is not to cast away all mirth and comfort and to turn unsociable and morose and sower but it is to the greatest joys that the world alloweth and nature is here capable of and reason can discern and own It is to begin a truly merry sociable life It is to fly from fear sorrow in flying from sin and Hell and from the consuming wrath of God It is to the foretastes of everlasting joys and to the beginnings of eternal life This the labour the Religion which we would have you follow with all your might If you have better things to seek and follow and find let us see them that we may be as wise as you If you have not for your souls sake make not choice of vanity which will deceive you in the day of your necessity But you must not think to make us believe that a great house or a horse or a whore or a feast or a flatterer or fine cloaths or any childish toys or brutish filthiness are more comfortable things then Christ and Everlasting Life or that it is sweeter and better to love a harlot or lands or mony then to love God and Grace and Glory nor that any thing that will go no further then the Grave with you is as good as that which will endure to Eternity nor that any pleasure which a dog or swine hath is equal to the delights of the Angels of Heaven If you would have us of your mind you must not be of this mind nor perswade us to such horrible things as
your Gain The time of market for your souls and of laying up a treasure in Heaven and setting your money to the most gainful Usury and of making you friends of the mammon of unrighteousness furthering your salvation by that which hindereth other mens occasioneth their perdition As you have opportunity do good to all men but especially to them of the houshold of faith Gal. 6. 6 7 8 9 12. Cast thy bread upon the waters for thou shalt find it after many dayes Give a portion to seven and to eight for thou knowest not what evil may be upon the earth Eccles 11. 1 2. In the morning sow thy seed and in the evening withhold not thy hand for thou knowest not whether shall prosper this or that or whether they both shall be alike good v. 6. Withhold not good from them to whom it is due when it is in the power of thy hand to do it say not to thy neighbour Go and come again and to morrow I will give when thou hast it by thee Prov. 3. 27 28. Lay up a foundation for the time to come do good before thy heart be hardened thy riches blasted consumed thy opportunities taken away part with it before it part with thee Remember it must be Now or Never There is no working in the Grave 5. Hath God intrusted you with Power or Interest by which you may promote his honour in the world relieve the oppressed restrain the rage of impious malice Hath he made you Governours and put the sword of Justice into your hands up then and be doing with your might Defend the innocent protect the servants of the Lord cherish them that do well be a terror to the wicked encourage the strictest obedience to the universal Governor discountenance the breakers of his Laws Look not to be reverenced or obeyed before him or more carefully then he openly maintain his Truth and worship without fear or shame Deal gently and tenderly with his lambs and little ones Search after vice that you may succesfully suppress it Hate those temptations that would draw you to man-pleasing temporizing remisness or countenancing sin but especially those that would ensnare you in a controversie with Heaven in quarrels against the ways of Holiness or in that selfconfounding sin of abusing and opposing the people that are most careful to please the Lord. Your trust is great so is your advantage to do good And how great will be your account how dreadful if you be unfaithful As you signifie more then hundreds or thousands of the meaner sort and your actions do most good or hurt so you must expect to be accordingly dealt with when you come to the impartial final judgement Befriend the Gospel as the Charter of your everlasting priviledges Own those that Christ hath told you he will own Use them as men that are ready to hear Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my Brethren you did it unto me Mat. 25. Know not a wicked person but let your eyes be on the faithful of the land that they may dwel therein and lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty Psal 101. 1. Tim. 2. 2. Let those that work the work of the Lord be with you without fear 1 Cor. 16. 10. Remember that it is the Character of a Pharisee and Hypocrite to see the mote of the non-observance of a Ceremony or tradition or smaller matter of difference in Religion in their Brothers eye and not to see the beam of hypocrisie injustice and malicious cruel opposition of Christ and his Disciples in their own eyes And that its the brand of them that please not God that are filling up their sins on whom Gods wrath is coming to the utmost to persecute the servants of the Lord forbidding them to Preach to the people that they might be saved 1 Thess 2. 15 16. Learn well the second and the hundred and first Psalm And write these sentences on your walls and doors as an Antidote against that self-undoing sin Mat. 18. 6. Whosoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea Zach. 2. 8. He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye Rom. 14. 1 2. and 15. 1. Him that is weak in the faith receive you but not to doubtful disputations For God hath received him Mat. 10. 40 41 42. He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me He that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous mans reward And whoso shall give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a Disciple Verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward If you love not the Godly love your selves so far as to such self-self-love is possible wound not your own hearts to make their fingers bleed Damn not your souls and that by the surest nearest way that you may hurt their bodies Provoke not God to thrust you from his presence and deny your suits by your dealing so with them stop not your own mouths when your misery will bespeak your lowdest cryes for mercy by your stopping the mouths of the servants of the Lord and refusing to hear their requests for justice If you have the Serpents enmity against the womans seed you must expect the Serpents doom Your heads will be bruised when you have bruised their heels Gen. 3. 15. Kick not against the pricks Acts 9. Let not bryars and thorns set themselves in battel against the Lord lest he go therefore through them burn them together Isa 27. 4. I speak not any of this by way of accusation or dishonorable reflexion on the Magistrate Blessed be God that hath given us the comfort of your defence But knowing what the Tempter aimeth at and where it is that your danger lieth by what means the rulers of the earth have been undone faithfulness commandeth me to tell you of the snare and to set before you good evil as ever I would escape the guilt of betraying you by flattery or cruel and cowardly silence And especially when your Magistracy is but annual or for a short time it concerneth you to be doing with your might It is but this year or short space of time that you have to do this special service in Lose this and lose all By what men on earth should God be eminently served honoured if not by Magistrates whom he hath eminently advanced impowred and intrusted With considerate foresight seriously ask your selves the question Are you willing to hear at the day of your accounts that you had but one year or a few to do God special service in and that you knew this and yet would not do it Can your hearts bear
and creatures attending me that have health to enable me or affliction to remember and excite me that have such a master such a work such a reward as better cannot be desired who is lesse excusable for neglect then I Qu. 11. Could I do no more if I were sure that my salvation lay on this one duty that according to this prayer it should go with me for ever or if the soul of my child or servant or neighbour must speed for ever as my endeavours speed with them now for their conversion for ought I know it may be thus Qu. 12. Would I have God to come with the spur and rod How do I complain when affliction is up-me And will I neither endure it nor be quickened without it Is it not better mend my pace and work on easier tearms I would not have distressed souls to use these considerations meerly to disquiet themselves for their infirmities and so live in heaviness and self-vexation because they cannot be as good as they desire or do as much and as well as they should do It is not despair that will mend the matter but make it worse But I would wish the lazie sloathful soul to plead these Questions with it self and try whether they have no quickning power if closely urged and seriously considered Believe it Sirs it is the deceitfulness of prosperity that keeps up the reputation of a slathful life and makes holy diligence seem unnecessary When affliction comes awakened reason is ashamed of this and seeth it as an odious thing BY this time you may see what difference there is between the judgement of God and of the world and what to think of the understandings of those men be they high or low learned or unlearned that hate or oppose this holy diligence God bids us love and seek and serve him with all our heart and soul and might And these men call them Zealots and Precisians and Puritans that endeavour it though alas they fall exceeding short when they have done their best It is one of the most wonderfull monstrosities and deformities that ever befel the nature of man that men that learned men that men that in other things are wise should seriously think that the utmost diligence to obey the Lord and save our souls is needless and that ever they should take it for a crime and make it a matter of reproach That the serious diligent obeying of Gods Laws should be the matter of the common disdain and hatred of the world that no men are more generally abhorred and tost up and down by impatient men that great and small the Rulers and the vulgar rabble in most places of the earth cannot endure them To think how the first man that ever was born into the world did hate his own brother till he had proceeded to murder him because he served God better then himself Because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous 1 Joh. 3. 12. And how constantly this horrid unnatural madness hath succeeded and raged in the world from Cain until this day It is not in vain that the Holy Ghost addeth in the next words 1 Joh. 3. 13. Marvail not my brethren if the world hate you implying that we art apt to marvail at it as I confesse I have oft and greatly done Methinks it is so wonderful a plague and stain in Nature that it doth very much to confirm me of the truth of Scripture of the doctrine of mans fall and original sin and the necessity of a Reconciler and of renewing grace Distracted miserable souls is it not enough for you to refuse your own salvation but you must be angry withal that will not imitate you Is it not mad enough and bad enough to choose damnation but you must be offended withal that are not of your mind If you will not believe God that without Regeneration Conversion Holiness and a Heavenly Spiritual life there is no Salvation to be hoped for John 3. 3 5 6. Mat. 18. 3. Heb. 12. 14. Rom. 8. 9 13. 2 Cor. 5. 17. mnst we all be unbelievers with you if you will laugh at Hell till you are in it must we do so too if God and glory seem less worth to you then your fleshly pleasure for a time must we renounce our Christianity and our Reason for fear of differing from you if you dare differ from your Maker and the Redeemer and the Holy Ghost and all the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists and all that ever came to Heaven might not we be bold to differ from you If you will needs be ungodly and choose your everlasting wo be patient with them that have more understanding and dare not be so hardy as to leap after you in the unquenchable fire Mock not at Holiness if you have no mind of it Hinder not them that strive to enter in at the strait gate if you refuse your selves Be not so desirous of company in Hell It will prove no comfort to you or abatement of your pain But because you have the faces to contradict the God of Truth and to reproach that work which he commandeth and to say what needs so much ado when he bids us do it with all our might I will briefly tell you what you are doing and shew you the ugly face of the scorner and the filthy hearts of the enemies of Holiness that if it may be you may loath your selves 1. These enemies of Holy diligence deny God with their works and lives and are practical Atheists and it seems are so near of kin to that wicked one see 1 Joh. 3. 12. that they would have all others do so too And then how soon would earth be turned into Hell The case is plain If God deserve not to be loved and served with all thy heart and soul and might he is not God And if thy wealth or honour or flesh or friend deserveth more of thy love and care and diligence then God then that is thy God that deserveth best See now what these deriders of purity and obedience do think of God and of the world 2. These Cainites do blaspheme the Governour of the world When he hath given Laws to the Creatures that he made of nothing These wretches deride and hate men for obeying them If God have not commanded that which you oppose contradict it and spare not I would you were much more against that pretended Religion which he commandeth not But if he have commanded it and yet you dare revile them as too pure and precise that would obey it what do you but charge the King of Saints with making Laws that are not to be obeyed which must needs imply that they are Foolish or Bad though made by the most wise and Good 3. These Enemies of Holiness oppose the practice of the very first principles of all Religion For Heb 11. 6. He that commeth to God must believe that God is and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek
do so little I know that our works do not profit the Almighty nor bear any proportion with his reward nor can they stand in his sight but as accepted in the Lord our Righteousness perfumed by the odour of his merits But I know they are neâ—essary they are sweet Without the holy imployment of our faculties this life will be but a burden or a dream and the next an unexpressible misery O therefore that I had more of the Love of God that my soul could get but nearer to him and swiftlier move upward by Faith and Love O that I had more of that Life and active diligence which the serpentine Cainish nature doth abhor though I had with it the scorns of all about me and though they made me as they once did better men as the filth of the world the off-scowring of all things 1 Cor. 14. 13. O that I had more of this derided diligence and holy converse with the Lord though my name were cast out as an evil-doer Luk. 6. 22. and I were spit at and buffetted by those that do now but secretly reproach Might I nearly follow Christ in holiness why should I grudge to bear his Cross and to be used as he was used Mat. 26. 27. Luke 18. 32. knowing that if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him and the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. 8. 17 18. If when we have done all we are but unprofitable Servants and must say we have done but our duty Luke 17. 10. have we not all more need of monitors to humble us for doing so much lesse then our duty then to be reprehended for being too diligent and exact I again protest that it is not any works of Supererogation or humane invention superstition or self-appointment that I am defending but only the accurate obeying of the Laws of God and the utmost diligence in such obedience for the obtaining of everlasting life Either God hath commanded these works of Holiness Justice and Charity or not If he have not then I have done and yeild the cause It is only what he hath commanded that I plead for O that before you either speak against any Holy duty or your selves neglect it you would but come to us and soberly joyn in searching the Holy Scriptures to see whether it be required there or not and resolve but to obey it if we prove it thence and if it be but matter of humane imposition we leave you to your selves and should desire that you may be much left to your liberty in such things and that you place not too much of your Religion therein But if indeed it be commanded in the word of God I beseech you as you are Christians as you are men remember that when ever you blame or scorn a holy duty it is God himself that you blame or scorn If it be naught it is long of him that did command it The Subject must obey should not such worms as we obey the infinite God that made us If it be a fault to obey it is a duty to rebel or disobey and that must be because that God hath no authority to command that must be because he is not God See whether you bring your opposition to a holy life And dare not you stand to this Dare you as openly mock God for making these strict and holy Laws as you do men for obeying them None but a professed Atheist dare Alas Sirs it is nothing but intoxicating prosperity and sensual delights and worldly diversions that turn your brains and leave you not the sober use of Reason that makes you think well of ungodly sloathfulness and makes you think so contemptuously or senselesly of a heavenly life I tell you remember another day that you were told of it that there is not the boldest Infidel in the world nor the bitterest enemy to holiness in this Assembly but shortly would wish they had rather been Saints in rags with all the scorn and cruelty that malice can inflict on such then to have braved it out in pride and gallantry with the neglect of the great everlasting things I tell you again there is not an ungodly wretch that heareth me but eâ—e long would give a world if he were owner of a holy heart and life that he had spent his days in holy watchful preparations for his change which he spent for that which will deceive him and forsake him Methinks I even see how you will passionately rage against your selves and tear your hearts with self-revenge if grace prevent it not by a more safe repentance when you think too late how you lived on earth and what golden times of grace you lost and vilisied all that would not lose them as folishly as you If Repentance unto life made Paul so call himself foolish disobedient deceived and exceeding mad Tit. 3. 3. Acts 26. 11. you may imagine how tormenting Repentance will make you call your selves too late O Sirs you cannot now conceive while you sit here in health and ease and honour what different thoughts will then possess you of a holy and an unholy life How mad you will think them that had but one lifes time of preparation for eternal life and despeâ—ately neglected it And how â—ensibâ—e you will then be of the wisdom of believers that knew their Time used it while they had it Now wisdom is iuâ—â—ified of all her children but then how sensibly will it be justified of all its enemies O with what gripe will undone souls look back on a life of mercy and opportunities thus basely undervalued and slept away in dreaming idleness fooled away for things of nought The language of that damned rich man Luk. 16. may help you in your predictions O how you wil wonder at your selves that ever you could be so blind and senslesse as to be no more affected with the warnings of the Lord and with the fore-thoughts of everlasting joy or misery To have but one one small part of time to do all that ever must be done by you for Eternity and say all that ever you must say for your own or others souls and that this was spent in worse then nothing To have but One uncertain life in which you must run the race that wins or loseth Heaven for ever that you should be tempted by a thing of nought to lose that one irrecoverable opportunity and to fit still or run another way when you should have been making hast with all your might O sirs the thoughts of this will be other kind of thoughts another day then now you feel them you cannot now think how the thoughts of this will then affect you That you had a time in which you might have pray'd with promise of acceptance and had not hearts to take that time That Christ was offered you as well as he was offered
so much to do know all that is now left undone must be undone for ever Alas sirs how many questions of exceeding weight have you yet to be resolved in whether you are truly sanctified whether your sins be pardoned whether you shall be saved when you die whether you are ready to leave this world and enter upon another I tell you the answering of these and many more such questions is a matter of no small difficulty or concernment And all these must be done in this little and uncertain time It must be Now or Never Live but as men that believe and consider these certain unquestionable things 10. Lastly Will you but live as men that believe that the world and the flesh are the deadly enemies of your Salvation and that believe that if any man love the world so far the love of the Father is not in him 1 Joh. 2. 15 16. And as men that believe that if ye live after flesh ye shall die but if by the spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the bodie ye shall live Rom. 8. 13. and that those that are in Christ Jesus and are freed from condemnation are such as walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. And that we must make no provision for the flesh to satisfie the will or lusts thereof Rom. 13. 10. and must not walk in gluttonie drunkenness in chambering and wantonness in strife and envying v. 13. but must have our hearts where our treasure is Mat. 6. 21. and converse in Heaven Phil. 3. 18 19 20. and being risen with Christ must seek the things that are above and set our affections on them and not on the things that are on earth Col. 3. 1 2 3. Sirs will you say that any of this is our singular opinion or matter of controversie doubt Are not all Christians agreed in it Do you not your selves profess that you believe it Live then but as those that do believe it condemn not your selves in the things that you confess I tell thee if now thou wilt refuse to live according to these common acknowledged truths thou shalt never be able to say before the Lord that mens controversie about a Ceremony or Church-Government of the manner or worship were the things that hindred thee but all sorts sects shall be witnesses against thee and condemn thee for they all agreed in these things even the bloodiest sect that imprison and torment and kill others for their differences in smaller matters are yet agreed with those that they persecute and murder about these things Papists are agreed in them and Protestants are agreed in them All the sects that are now quarrelling among us in the world are agreed in them who are but meet for the name of Christians All these will be ready to bear witness against the prophane the sensual the sloathful neglecter of God and his Salvation and to say we all confessed notwithstanding our other differences that all these things were certain truths and that mens lives should be ordered according unto these But if yet you pretend controversie to cover your malignity or ungodliness I will go a little further and tell you that in the matter as well as in the principles it is things that we are all agreed in which I call you to and which the ungodly do refuse I le briefly name them 1. One part of your work which we urge you to do with all your might is seriously soberly to consider often of all these truths before mentioned which you say you do believe And is it any controversie with reasonable men whether they should use their reason or with believers whether they should consider and lay to heart the weight use of the things which they believe 2. Another part of your work is to love God with all your soul might and to make him your delight to seek first his Kingdom and the rightousness thereof and to set your affections on things above and to live on earth as the heirs of heaven And is there any controversie among Protestants Papists or any about this 3. Another part of your work is to see the honouring of God in the world the promoting of his Kingdom and Government in your selves and others the doing of his will and obeying of his Laws And is there any controversie in this 4. Another part of your work is to to mortifie the flesh to reject its conceits and desires and lusts which resist the foresaid obedience to God and to cast out the inordinate love and care of worldly things to refuse the counsels the commands the will the enticements and perswasions of man which contradict the commands will of God to forsake all that you have in the world rather then forsake your dear Redeemer and hazard your salvation by any wilful sin To take up your Cross and follow Christ through a life of suffering to glory I know there is difficulty enough in all this and that flesh will repine against it and abhor it But is there any controversie about it among any true believers Is not all this the express Command of God and necessary to salvation 5. Another part of your work is to avoid temptations and fly from the occasions and appearances of evil and not only to avoid that which is directly evil it self but that also which would draw you into evil as far as you can and to keep as far as may be from the brink of hell and danger to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darknes nor be companions with them but reprove them and mourn for the unclean and wicked conversation of the world This is it that we intreat of you is there any matter of controversie in all this 6. Another part of the work which we call you to is to redeem this little Time that is allotted you To make the best of it and improve it to the greatest furtherance of your salvation To lose none of it upon unprofitable things to spend it in those works which will comfort you most when time is gone If it will be more comfortable to you in the day of Judgment that you have spent your Time in playes sports and idleness worldly cares pleasures then in serving God preparing for another life then hold on and do so to the end But if it will not then do what you would hear of seeing you must hear of it spend none of your time in idleness unfruitful things till you have no better and more necessary things to spend it in till you have Time to spare from more important work This is our request to you that you would not lose one hour of your pretious Time but spend it as those that have lost too much and have but a little more to spend in preparation for eternity And is this any Schismatical or factious motion Is there any thing controvertible