fit to meet their Persons and to enjoy their holy Company and happy Society in the heavenly Glory hereafter 6. And lastly Love and delight to enlarge thy Thoughts in the frequent Meditation of the Vninterruption Perpetuity and Eternity of this blessed State To sit down and consider that thou hast the Promise of eternal Life eternal Salvation eternal Glory a continuing City an everlasting Habitation a House eternal in the Heavens an Inheritance incorruptible an everlasting Kingdom a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away That if thou art a righteous Person thou shalt be ever with the Lord and as a Son abide in thy heavenly Father's House for ever and reign in the Kingdom of thy Father for ever and ever that thou shalt be a Pillar in the Temple of thy God and go no more out That if once thou entrest in thou canst never pass out of that State of Bliss that the Eternity of thy Felicity will be the Compleatment of thy Happiness That there will be no fear of ever losing or relinquishing thy pleasant Possession That to admit any such Thought would be a lessening and diminishing a souring and imbittering the Joys and Delights of that blessed State and a kind of Hell even in Heaven it self That therefore in Heaven thou shalt surely live an immortal Life of endless Love and continual Joy and perpetual Praise This Meditation will sweetly constrain thee to labour earnestly to become meet to enjoy a Perpetuity and Eternity of perfect and consummate heavenly Felicity 'T will make thee mindful to lay the Foundation of Life eternal in thy self here in this World to pass from Death to Life even in this Life to get the Seed of eternal Life here Grace the Seed of Glory to get eternal Life initial that thou maiest be sit for eternal Life perfectional To obtain the good Beginnings of Life everlasting as an earnest in this Life of that which is to follow and a good Preparation for Life everlasting to be conferred in the World to come To begin by Grace to live here that thou maiest be fit to live eternally in Glory hereafter And this Meditation will engage thee to give God here thy whole remaining Time that thou maiest be fit to enjoy his blessed Eternity To be careful that there be no voluntary Intercision or Interruption of thy Obedience To endeavour to serve God in Holiness and Righteousness before him * Luke 1.75 all the Daies of thy Life without any wilful departing backsliding withdrawing declining or moral discontinuance of thy holy and religious walking with him by gross Neglect of what thou oughtest to do or by doing the contrary to thy Duty This will incline thee to deal with God as thou wouldst that he should deal with thee and move thee to say thus to thy self Would I have God give me Admission into Heaven and afford me only a Taste of Happiness and then presently put an end to those transporting ravishing Joys and ere long annihilate me or at least turn me quite out of Paradise and for ever deprive me of that joyful blissful State and Place and thrust me into far a meaner and lower Condition Would I be well contented with this If not why then let me not only enter into God's Service but continue therein to my Life's End If I expect a perfect perpetual Happiness from God is it sit and reasonable that I should give God a broken imperfect flitting inconstant Obedience Would I have God's Goodness last for ever then let not my Goodness be as a * Hos 6.4 Morning-cloud and go away as the early Dew Let not me be off and on with God Let not me serve him by Fits and Starts but let my Heart stand alwaies bent for God and let me perform a constant Course of Obedience to him Let me not only enter into the Race and run for a Spurt and then sit down or start aside and fly out of the Way but let me here hold out to the End or I shall be unfit for an endless Felicity in another and better World The Consideration of all that has been spoken both in general and particular of the glorious Happiness of Heaven will be of further Use and Advantage to thee as to the Redemption of thy Time in several respects for 1. 'T will hearten and encourage thee to do and suffer any thing for God 2. 'T will help and enable thee to answer and oppose the fair and furious Temptations of Satan 3. To live in an holy Contempt of this present World and in the serious real visible Exercise of constant heavenly-mindedness 4. And lastly To live in delightful fore-thoughts and fore-tastes of the Glory to come 1. The foregoing Meditations of a perfect heavenly glorious Reward will quicken and strengthen hearten and encourage thee to do and suffer any thing for God 1. The serious frequent Consideration of a perfect State of heavenly Glory will ammate and encourage thee to lay out thy self to the utmost for God and to act vigorously in the performance of thy Daty in this State of Probation in which thou art placed in this lower World All the forementioned Particulars of this Reward will be so many Cords to bind thee to thy Duty and as so many Magnctical Hocks to draw thee to Obedience Thou wilt up and be doing upon this Consideration that there is enough to be gotten by well doing Thou wiâ—t * Col. 3.23 24. heartily serve the Lord Christ that Christ that died for thee of whom thou knowest thou shalt receive the Reward of the Inheritance who hath promised a Reward to the Gift of a †Mat. 10.42 Cup of cold Water only and therefore will undoubtedly give a great Reward to a constant course of sincere Obedience Thou wilt besorward to do any thing * Col. 1.5 for the Hope that is laid up for thee in Heaven considering that all thy good Duties and faithful Performances shall be †1 Pet. 1.7 found unto Praise and Honour and Glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ The deep Thoughts of the heavenly Glory will render the Duties of Religion easy to thee The Meditation of an everlasting heavenly Rest will facilitate the Yoke and lighten the Burden of Christ to thee The Greatness of thy Reward will lessen and take off the Difficulty of thy Labour Thou wilt surely think no Task no Duty no Diligence no Care no Cost no Pains too much to get to Heaven which at last will fully make amends for all Thou wilt strive to do thy best in all thou doest because as Apelles said of his great Care in drawing a very curious Picture Pingo Aeternitati I limn for Eternity so whatever thou doest thou doest for Glory Honour Immortality a blessed Eternity If by the Eternity of thy Felicity were meant only an Aevum of very long Duration yet it would seem a weighty Motive to any considering rational Man to engage him to Godliness and Christianity and
unde descenderim semel haec mihividâ—nda sint an saepe nascendum quò hanc sturus sim quae sedes expectat animam folutam legibus servitutis humanae vetas me caelo interesse idest jubes me vivere capite demisso Sen. Ep. 65. Tunc natarae rerum gratias ago cum secreticra ejus intravit cùm disco quis universi auctor aut custos quid sit Deus Nisi ad haec admitterer non fuerat nasci Detrahe hoc inaestemabile bonum non est vit a tanti ut sudem ut aestuem O quà m contempta res est homo nisi supra humana surrexerit Sen. Praef. Nat. Quaest Our Time is given us to study to know and acquaint our selves with God and our selves To contemplate the Creator To rise and ascend from the Effects to the prime Cause and ultimate End To seek and embrace the first Truth and chief Good which only can satisfy Man's Mind desirous of more Truth and his Will capable of more Good than finite Beings can afford By diligent Searching to find out God to be our absolute Owner supream Governour and great Benefactor and to labour to be suitably affected towards him and every way answerably observant of him [b] Magnum majúsque quà m cogitari potest numen est cut vivendo operam dà mus Huic nos approbemus Sen. apud Lactant. de vero cultu l. 6. § 24. To own and acknowledg love fear and serve the Author of our Beings and Patron of our Lives to put our Trust and place our Confidence in him and to take care to promote and advance his Interest in the World To contemplate and reflect upon the [c] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I hoc lid Poem Royal Pedigree the noblo and divine Extraction the high and heavenly Original the excellent Nature and large Capacity of our incorporeal and immortal Souls the Alliance of our Spirits to the Father of Spirits and to charge our selves to live and act worthy of so high and honourable a Descent so noble a Nature such excellent Endowments To confider and ponder the direct Respect and certain Referenoe that this Life has to another That the World we live in we must not live alwaies in That this is not the Place of our Happiness and Rest That we are but Pilgrims and Strangers here and Travellers toward * Heb. 11.16 [d] Sapiens patitur mortalia quamvis sciat ampliora superesse Sen. Ep. 65. a better Country That this World is but the Road and Way that surely leads to another That this World is but a Nursery for Eternity that we are planted in this in order to our Transplanting into the other World That the present Liâ—e is not a durable permanent Condition nor the final State of Mankind but is only intended as a certain [e] See Mr. Howe 's very rational Proemial Discourse to the Blessedness of the Righteous preliminary preparatory State [e] Per has mortalis aevi morns illi meliori vitae longto ique proluditur Quemadmoduns novem mensibiu nos tenet maternits uteries praeparat non sibi sed ili loco in quem videmur emitri jam idonei spiritum trahere in aperto durare Sic per hoc spatium quod ab infantia pates in senectutem in alium maturescimus partum Ala origo nos expectat alius rerum staius Nondum coelum nisi en intervallo pati possumus Seneca Epist 102. and fitly contrived and wisely designed by way of present previous Probation in order to future Happiness or Misery that God has placed us here for a Time that we may be [f] Aeternitatis candidati Tertull. Candidates for Eternity [g] Discitéque 8 miseri causas cognoscite rerum Quid sumus quidnam victuri gignimur Quem te Deus esse Jussie humanâ quâ parte locatus et in re Pers Sat. 3. Time is allowed us to consider and answer the Ends of our coming into this World to dispatch the Errand and finish the Business which our heavenly Father Lord and Master hath given us to do To find out and discover the ill Condition and unsound Constitution the Incurvation and Depression of our Souls the Vitiosity moral Deformity and wretched Degeneracy of our Nature the Sickness and Weakness Disorder and Distemper of all our Faculties the ill Bent and wrong Biass and perverse Inclination of our Minds and Wills Hearts and Affections To observe and bewail that lamentable [h] Plut. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and unhappy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hanging and flagging of our Soul's Wings the drooping and moulting of our Souls their losing those noble Feathers by which they should nimbly raise themselves and fly and soar as high as God and mount up and aspire to heavenly Things To be truly sensible of and sadly affected with the Mutiny and Rebellion of the brutish and inferiour Faculties of our Souls against the higher Power and soveraign Faculty of our Reason And to endeavour what in us lies by all possible means to recover and rectify to purify and sublimate our heaven-born Souls and to use well and rightly our seeing and foreseeing our intellectual and elective Faculties and Powers To open and clear the Eye of our Souls to [i] Dociles natura nos edidit ratienim dedâ—t im â—rfectam sed quae perfici posset Sen. Ep. 49. improve and heighten our Reason to ripen and strengthen our Judgment to enlarge and widen our Understanding and to live and act suitably and agreeably to right Reason and the sober Dictates and most mature Judgment of a sound and solid Understanding To consult the divine Oracles and search the sacred Scriptures and thence more clearly to gather and fully to discover our sinful miserable State by Nature To learn plainly and certainly from divine Revelation the particular Manner of our Apostacy and Defection the Universality of our Depravation and Corruption our Obligation to Punishment for our Transgression and Rebellion and the ready Way and infallible Means of our happy Recovery and Restitution to the Image and Favour of God And out of a deep Sense and Feeling of all our Sin and Guilt and spiritual Impotency and Inability to seek God's Face and Favour in Christ to seek his Grace and Strength and with Faithfulness and Diligence to use his Grace and uct in his Strength And in the Vse or Reason which is Man's proper Vtensil and by the Help of divine Grace to govern our Senses to tame our wild and extravagant Fancies to curb our [k] Efficiendum est ut appetitus rationi obedtant cui sunt subjects lege naturae Cic. l. 1. de Offic. Appetite to moderate our Affections to bridle our violent and boisterous Passions and to [l] If we suppose this Life to be a State of Tryal in order to a better as in all reason we ought to do what can be imagined more proper to
our Health and Strength to resume our old-acquaintance Sins or to * Ps 85.8 turn again to Folly Did we but answer our sacred Vows and solemn Promises we should no longer be expensive and wasteful of our pretious Hours We should not be [f] Inter caetera mala hoc quoque habet stultitia proprium semper incipit vivere Epicuri dictum à Seneca laudatum ep 13 Considera quà m foeda sit hominum levitas quotidie nova vitae fundamenta ponentium novas spes etiam in exitu inchoantium Id. ib. Malè vivunt qui semper vivere incipiunt quia semper illis imperfecta vita est Non potest autem stare paratue ad mortem qui modò incipit vivere Id agendum est ut satis vixerimus nemo hoc putat qui ordetur cùm maximè vitam Id. ep 23. alwaies beginning to live but should live indeed and in good earnest We should in time make so sure of a blessed Eternity that we should never more have cause to fear either Sickness Death the Grave or Hell The twelfth and last Direction If we would effectually redeem the Time we must not give way to any Delay but strengthen and settle our Resolution against any farther Procrastination * Luke 19.44 Know the Time of thy Visitation †Verse 42. Know in this thy Day the things which belong unto thy Peace ‖ Is 55.6 Ps 32.2 Seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near (*) Job 22 21. Acquaint now thy self with God (†) Mat. 5.25 Agree with thine Adversary quickly whilst thou art in the Way with him (‖) 3.7 Flee from the Wrath to come Not go nor run but flee * Heb. 6.18 Flee for Refuge to lay hold upon the Hope set before you as of old the unwitting and unwilling Man-slayer was wont to hasten to take hold upon the Horns of the Altar and to †Exod. 21.13 Num. 35.6 Deut. 4.41 flee for safety to a Sanctuary or City of Refuge when hotly pursued by the enraged Avenger of Blood Be able to say with holy David ‖ Ps 119.60 I made [a] Properat vivere nemo sntis Martial l. 2. epigr. 90. haste and delayed not to keep thy Commandments Where the Prophet expresses it both affirmatively and negatively and so the more Emphatically after the manner of the Hebrews to shew his promptitude and readiness speediness and quickness in [b] Calv. in loc comparison of those dull and lazy Procrastinators who come not at all or come but softly and slowly to God And [c] Quanquam verba sunt praeteriti temporis continuum tamen actum notant Ibid. though the Words speak of the time past yet as Calvin observes they note a continual act I made haste and delayed not and I still make haste and now do not delay to keep thy Commandments Remember how Abraham rose up early in the Morning and without objecting or disputing or letting slip the first opportunity was ready to offer and forward to sacrifice his only Son at God's command Gen. 22.3 And how Christ's Disciples at his first Call immediatly left their Nets the Ship and their Father and followed him Matth. 4.20 22. And take Example by the wise Merchant in the Parable who dispatch'd his necessary business immediatly without cunctation or delay The account there given of him is express'd all in the present Tense He * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 13.44 goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth the Field in which the Treasure was hid †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 6.10 While you have opportunity do good to your selves and do good to all Let me say to you concerning Time and Opportunity as Boaz said to his Kinsman concerning the Land ‖ Ruth 4.4 If you will redeem it redeem it Stand no longer dallying and trifling in a matter that requires haste and speed For here consider 1. The sooner the better 'T is better 1. In respect of God 2. Of our selves 1. The sooner we redeem the Time the better it is in respect of God for God is abundantly more honoured and better serv'd by it He is more honoured by it Our making haste to redeem the Time prevents the doing of much Dishonour which by great and gross misspence of our Time would many waies be cast upon God by our affronting his Authority continuing in open Rebellion against him breaking his holy and righteous Laws abusing his Creatures and misemploying his Gifts from day to day And more than so It actually and positively does much honour to him as it is a ready present obedient Answer to God's Call who cries * Heb. 3.7 13. To day while it is called to day And a real demonstration and high expression of our ardent Love and hearty Affection to him and his Laws and Waies and an open and constant Justification of their Equity Bonity Suavity and Amability in the eye of the World And it is no small Honour done to God that by making haste and not delaying we devote the best of our Time to him and put him not off with the very dregs and refuse And further yet as God is more honoured so he is much better served by it The more haste we make to redeem the Time we shall be the better disposed more adapted and sitted for the Service of God become more meet Vessels for our Master's Vse and not only acquire greater Abilities but meet with larger more frequent and various Opportunities of doing God faithful and acceptable Service The sooner we enter in the longer we shall labour in our Lord's Vineyard and do the more work for our Heavenly Master 2. The sooner we redeem the Time the better it is in respect of our selves 'T is more honour able more pleasurable more profitable to do it sooner than later 1. It is more honour able to hasten and not to delay for this is a Sign that our Acts and Deeds are free and voluntary not forced and constrained That what we do in Religion we do of good will and choice On a Sick or Death-bed a Man is scared into a sudden and unchosen Piety and frighted into sits of involuntary Devotion He that never sets himself to redeem his Time till a mighty Fear forcibly drives and impells him to it till he finds he approaches and draws near to the Gates of Death and Hell and is ready to give up his unready and unallowable Accounts to the great and righteous Judg This Man acts dishonourably for he does nothing out of disaffection to his Sins nothing at all for the Love of God and for the sake of Vertue But it is an Honour and a Credit to a Christian to redeem the Time by his own Election and to act for God out of a free and ingenuous Principle of Love 2. The more haste we make to redeem the Time it is so much the more pleasurable
hearty Thankfulness to Christ for it your Obedience to your Lord who does not only vouchsafe it as a Priviledge but command it as a Duty Do this in Remembrance of me Perform this easie sweet Command of thy dying Lord and Saviour who has freed and delivered thee by his Death from the heavy Yoke and grievous Bondage of Jewish Sacrifices and Observances O let our Hearts at such a Time be broken and bleed at the Remembrance of our Sins which brake Christ's Body and shed his Blood Behold in the Sacrifice and bloody Death of Christ represented in this Sacrament the odiousness and baseness of your own Sins and resolve to be the Death of that which was the Death of Christ and rather to die than willingly to do that for which Christ died Abhorr the Thoughts of wilfully choosing so great an Evil as once brought so great a Punishment upon so great a Person as the holy Jesus the well-beloved Son of God Consider seriously upon this Occasion that if God would not spare Christ when he who knew no Sin was by voluntary charitable Assumption of our Guilt to answer for our Sins to be sure then he will not spare us if we wilfully run on in Sin and obstinately allow our selves therein notwithstanding so convincing a Demonstration of his sin-hating Holiness and vindicative Justice Upon due Meditation draw this Conclusion which is the excellent Reasoning of the [p] Facilis est collectio si Deus ne resipiscentibus quidem peccata remittere voluit nisi Christo in poenas succedente multò minùs inultos sinet contumaces Grot. de Satisfact Christi learned Grotius that if God would not pardon the Sins no not of penitent Persons unless Christ did substitute himself in their Room and stand in their Stead to bear the Punishment much less will he suffer unreclaimable Rebels and contumacious Sinners to go unpunished When Christ is set forth in this Sacrament crucified before your Eies think how he intended and aimed at our Mortification and Sanctification in his Death and Passion * Tit. 2.14 Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purify to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works †Pet. 2.4 Who his own self bare our Sins in his own Body on the Tree that we being dead to Sin should live unto Righteousness Let us yield that Christ should have his End in his Death and never allow our selves to live in Sin which will render us uncapable of receiving the Benefit of Christ's Death Think how the Unholiness of our Lives is a greater wrong to Christ than the Jews being the very Death of him because as the [q] D. Jackson Vol. 3. p. 343 344 345. learned Dr. Jackson notes it is more against the Will and Liking and good Pleasure of our Saviour whose Will was regulated by Reason and was a constant Rule of Goodness for though a painful shameful Death and that inflicted by his own People went much against his human Will yet he chose rather to die and to suffer the most afflictive Circumstances of Death for us than to suffer us to live and die in our Sins and in the Servitude and Power of Satan Shall we pretend when we approach to the Table of our Lord affectionately to remember a loving dying Saviour and to desire to have his Memory continued and transmitted to Posterity and yet so much forget him upon the return of any Temptation as to repeat that which was the Death of him Shall we weep at the Sacrament and seem to be hugely troubled for those Sins which were the Cause of Christ's Sorrows and yet go about again to destroy and to crucify Christ afresh Shall we commemorate at the Lord's Supper our wonderful Redemption by the precious Blood of Christ and when we have done shall we do the Devil more work and service than the Lord Christ O what a Reproach is this to Christ and what a Sport to the Devil that they that pretend to remember Christ's Dying for them should not find in their hearts to live to him [q] Ego pro istis quos mecum vides nec alapas accepi nec flagella sustinui nec crucem pertuli nec sanguinem fudi nec familiam meam pretio passionis cruoris redemi sed nec regnum illis coeleste promitto nec ad paradisum restitutâ immortalitate denuò revoco Tuos tales Christe demonstra vix tui meis pereuntibus adaequantur qui à te divinis mercedibus praemiis coelestibus honorantur Cypr. de Opere Eleemosynis p. 220. St. Cyprian brings in the Devil boasting and bragging against our Saviour and insulting over us silly and sinful Wretches in this manner I have endured no Buffetings nor born Smitings with the Palms of Men's Hands I have suffer'd no Scourgings nor under-gon the Cross for any of these nor have I redeem'd my Family with the Price of my Passion and Blood-shedding yet shew me O Christ so many so busy so painful so dutiful Servants of thine as I am able to shew thee every where of mine Bring forth if thou canst such a Number of Persons who devote themselves and give their Labours Estates and Time to thee as I can easily produce of those who do all this to me When thou professest to remember that Christ died for thee O die to that for which he died Offer thy self to him and lay out thy self for him who once offered himself for us and in the Sacrament offers himself to us Think no Duty too much for him For Shame for Shame do not serve any longer a bloody Murtherer instead of a blessed Saviour and merciful Redeemer Let our Thoughts and Meditations dwell upon the Demonstration given us in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper of Christ's exceeding incomparable Love to Mankind See there how contrary the sweet and kind Nature of Christ is to the cruel and execrable Nature of the old Tyrant the Devil For as the learned [r] His Mystery of Godliness p. 133 245. Dr. More very well observes whereas the Devil who by unjust Vsurpation had got the Government of the World into his own hands tyrannizing with the greatest Cruelty and Scorn that can be imagined over Mankind thirsted after humane Blood and in most Parts of the World required the Sacrificing of Men which could not arise from any thing else but a salvage Pride and Despight against us This new gracious Prince of God's own appointing Christ Jesus was so far from requiring any such villainous Homage that himself became at once one grand and all sufficient Sacrifice for us to expiate the Sins of all Mankind and so to reconcile the World to God Shall not all this disengage us from Sin and Satan and win and gain us over to Christ And let Christ's Death make thee study to do something answerable to the dearest Love of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has
Will you make them labour for you six Daies together and will not you cause them to serve God one Day in seven Be at least as much concern'd in Case of neglect of God's Service as you are at any Time when your own Work and Family-business is neglected Do it for God's sake Shew that you love the Honour of God and not only respect your own Commodity and look to your own Advantage Do it for your Servant's sake Make it their Business to do God Service that they may be approved and rewarded by him Yea do it for your own sake Make your Servants God's faithful Servants that so they may prove more faithful to you and that God may bless them in your Service and that your Work may thrive and succeed in their Hands On this Day especially call thy Family thy whole Family to Family-duties prepare them for and hasten them to the publick Ordinances It is reported of [w] M. Clark in his Life Dr. Chaderton the first Master of Emmanuel-Colledg that he was married three and fifty Years and yet in all that Time he never kept any of his Servants from the Church to dress his Meat saying that he desired as much to have his Servants know God as himself And it was the Custome of the Reverend and pious [x] See his Life among Mr. Clark's Lives of ten Em. Div. Dr. Gouge to forbear providing of Suppers the Eve before that Servants might not be occasioned thereby to sit uplate neither would he suffer any [y] Die Dominicâ ut in festis licet etiam ciborum lautiorem apparatum habere quamvit in eis parandis ne majora impediantur servorum animae detrimentum non necessarium iucurrant summopere curandum est Baxter Meth. Th. part 3. c. 14. p. 172. Servant to stay at home for dressing any Meat upon the Lord's-day for the Entertainment of Friends whether they were mean or great few or many Take your Family to Church along with you and when you return home again examine catechize inform instruct them recapitulate the Sermon read the Scripture and good Books to them whet practical profitable necessary saving Truths on them sing Psalms among them and pray most heartily and affectionately with and for them And you that are Servants who have little leisure most of you on other Daies and who live too many of you in such profane and ungodly Families where you hear not so much as one Praier put up to God nor one Line of the Word of God read nor one serious Word spoken of God all the Week long what reason have you carefully to redeem the Lord's-day to redeem it in publick by devoutly attending to the Prayers that are made and the Word that is both read and preacht in the publick Congregation And to redeem it in private by taking all possible Occasions to retire and go aside by your selves to consider in secret the needs of your Souls to examine your Hearts and States to review your Lives and Actions to humble your selves in Confession of Sin and to pour out your Souls in Prayer for Pardon and Grace to read the Bible and some instructive practical Writings of the most judicious experimental Divines apt to inform your Judgments and to work and prevail upon your Affections to set your selves to meditate of God to draw out and engage your Hearts to God rather than to lavish out and throw away those precious Hours in foolish Talk and frothy Discourse or in gadding abroad and walking idly in the Fields and recreating your Bodies rather than your Souls and in thrusting God and turning Religion wholly out of your Minds and Hearts and nourishing your selves in Ignorance of God and Unacquaintance with him and in Encreasing the Atheism of your Hearts and Lives and hardening your own and others Hearts through the Ensnarements of the World and the Deceitfulness of Sin But it may be you will say you are hard wrought all the Week long and you have reason to take your ease and pleasure and to rest and recreate your tired Bodies one Day in seven that so you may endure your Labour and go through all your Work the better I answer that your very Cessation in any measure from your wonted Labour is an ease and relief to your weary Bodies and that the very change of your Work and Occupation from secular servile Employment to spiritual divine Worship and Service and the Diversion of your Minds from worldly Businesses to the Offices and Exercises of Religion if you would but acquaint your selves with them and use your selves to them would be delightful and refreshing to you And the Peace and Quiet Joy and Comfort of a good Conscience in the faithful Discharge of your Duty to God and a tender Care of your immortal Souls would strengthen and hearten you to bear all the Burthen of the hardest Labours of your domestick Ministeries in consideration that your heavenly Father Lord and Master will accept and reward your Works of Piety and bless and prosper the Works of your Hands in the Houshold-businesses and Family-employments incumbent on you and belonging to you Rather break your Sleep to rise the earlier than lose the Opportunities of that Day Or chuse to leave and live out of those Families in the which you are forced to live without God are debarr'd from his Service and can have no Liberty allowed you to mind God and your Souls on a Day that was purposely ordained and appointed for your spiritual Proficiency and Improvement Let the Poor of this World redeem this Day by taking this Opportunity to labour spiritually for the Meat which perisheth not but endureth to everlasting Life and by hearing the Gospel preach'd in this Season to them to become rich in Faith rich in Grace to know and to partake of the Grace and Favour the Love and Kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ who though he was rich yet for our sakes became poor that we through his Poverty might be made rich You that are poor and mean and low in the World and who cannot take so much Time as others to worship and enjoy God on the Week-Daies see that you well improve this Day Now you are released from secular Businesses and common Services and your Bodies rest from their hard Labours be sure that you spiritually busie and holily employ your selves in the Service of God Let me likewise charge them that are rich in this World to redeem this choicest Part of their Time and in it to endeavour to be rich toward God rich in God to lay up for themselves a Treasure in Heaven to obtain the true certain durable Riches which when they fail will never leave them but when they remove will bear them company into the other World And here let me hint to you of the Gentry what [z] Fuller's Church-Hist B. 11. p. 146. Dr. Paul Michlewait once urged and pressed in a Sermon at the Temple that Gentle-folk of all
good Hope and a setled well-grounded Peace of Conscience To learn to be careful for nothing with an anxious distrustful distracting * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 4.6 dividing Care but in every Estate and Condition of Life to be humbly and cheerfully content To improve and stir up the several Graces of God in us By God's Assistance to bring our selves to maintain a daily holy Communion with God and a constant Conversation in Heaven to prepare aright for Death and Judgment to arrive to a Weanedness from this present World to a Desire to depart and be with Chrit and to a Love of the appearing and an earnest longing for the second Coming of the Lord Jesus This hard Task and weighty Work will require all our Labour and even take up every Hour Let 's therefore vigorously redeem the Time and industriously put it to this Vse and diligently employ it to this Purpose and daily say the Prayer of Moses †Psal 90.12 So teach us to number our Daies that we may apply our Hearts unto Wisdom Let 's lose none of our little Time upon unfruitful unprofitable Things till we have no more worthy and weighty Things to spend it in and till we have Time to spare from more momentous important Work But let 's lay out our Time in those necessary Works which will comfort us most when we come to die The Work that lies before us is great let 's therefore redeem the whole of our remaining Time redeem it perfectly as far as in us lies and redeem it constantly to the very last and not purposely make the good Improvement of one Day an Argumeat of mis-spending and trifling away the next but lay out every Day with Labour and Diligence in so very great and good a Work If we intend to redeem the Time we must continue in well-doing Now a natural Cessation of the Act is not a moral Discontinuance But only our Omission of any necessary Act Or our Doing a clean contrary Act This is that which we must take Care we do not become guilty of [x] Nan exiguum temporis habemus sed multum perdimus Satis long a vita in maximarum rerum consummationem largè data est si tota bene collocaretur Non accepimus brevem vitam sed fecimus nec inopes ejus sed prodigi sumus Sicut amplae regiae opes ubi ad malum dominum pervenerunt momento dissipantur at quam vis modica si bono custodi traditae sunt usu crescunt Ita aetas nestra bene disponenti multum patet Quid de rerum natura querimur illa se benignè gessit Vita si scias uts longa est Sen. de brevitate vitae cap. 1 2. We have no reason here to accuse and cast any Blame upon God for giving so little Time to us and expecting so great and weighty a Work from us for though our Time be short of it self and we have no spare Time to throw away in vain Pleasures or unnecessary Employments Yet blessed be God the Time he gives us is large and long enough to serve all rational spiritual Ends of Life to do all our necessary Work and real Business in by the Help of God and in the Strength of Christ We have in the Daies of our Lives Space enough given us for Repentance Time sufficient to dispatch the one Thing necessary to work out our Salvation to prepare for Eternity And for our Comfort and Encouragement if we be not grosly wanting to our selves we may probably yet perform whatever is indispensably requir'd of us in the Time that is continued and lengthned out to us if we take up presently and lose and squander away no more of it Life is long enough says Seneca and let me add the Resdidue of thy Life may provelong enough if thou knowest but how to spend it well And therefore be so pradent and provident as to use and improve that little which if the Fault be not thy own may happily serve to do thy main Business to save thy Soul from perishing everlastingly and from miscarrying to all Eternity The fourth Additional Reason We should redeem the Time while we enjoy it because we can neither bring Time back when once it is past unimprov'd nor any way prolong and lengthen out the Daies of our Lives when Death comes to put an End and Period to them 1. We should redeem the Time while we have it because we can never recall and retrieve the Time of this Life if once we lose and let it slip unimproved We can never live one Day of our Lives over again No Man will restore thy Time says [y] Nemo restituet annos nemo iterum te tibi redder Sen. d◠brev vit c. 8. Seneca or return thy lost Opportunities to thee and make thee Master once more of those Advantages which heretofore thou hadst in thy Hands If we would give the Fruit of our Bodies for the Redemption of our Time we can never purchase it into our Hands again It is reported to have been the Speech of Prince Henry upon his Death-bed to a certain Lord Ah Tom I now too late wish for those Hours we have spent in vain Recreations That of him in the Poet was a very groundless and fruitless Desire O mihi praeteritos referat si Jupiter annos [z] Bp. Reynold's Treat of the Pass Oh that Jove would me restore The Years that I have liv'd before When our Time is just at an End and we can hardly draw our Breath 't will be a lamentable desperate Case for us then to cry out with that poor distressed afflicted [a] Mrs. Pindar a Book-feller's Wife in Cambridg Woman in Cambridg Call Time again call Time again a Thing impossible to be effected by any Cares or Endeavours Prayers or Tears Money or Price The Time of Life once lost is irrecoverable and unredeemable And the sad Apprehension of the irreparable Loss of Time will one Day prove an intolerable Torment to too late considering and awakened Souls Let 's therefore use that Time well which there can be no Revocation of 2. As we cannot recover the Time that is past so we cannot make any Supplement or Addition of new and longer Time to the Daies of our Lives when once Death comes to put a Finis to them As we cannot add one Cubit to our Stature So we cannot add one Moment to the Measure and Number of our Daies [b] Hom. sz in Euang. in verba Vigilate itaque quia neseitis diem neque hordm St. Gregory in a certain Homily tells us a sad Story of one Chrisaurius a Nobleman but a had Liver as full of Wickedness as Wealth who at last was struck with Sickness and the same Hour that he was going out of the World he seem'd to see a Company of foul and black Spirits standing before him and coming to drag him to the Infernal Pit He began to tremble to
Payment of them The learned and judicious Bp. Sanderson in a Sermon [c] Bp. Sanderson on 1 Cor. 7.14 p. 214 215. preached to the People gives them this wholesome good Instruction not to ingulf themselves so wholly into the Businesses of their particular Callings as to abridg themselves of convenient Opportunities for the Exercise of those religious Duties which they are bound to perform by virtue of their general Calling This says he is a point of Duty Men being commanded in their Callings to abide with God A point of Wisdom also it being a means to procure a Blessing upon their Labours from his Hands who never faileth to serve them that never fail to serve him And a Point of Justice too as due by way of Restitution of which he gives this both ingenious and solid Proof We make bold with God's Day says he and dispense with some of that Time which he hath sanctified unto his Service for our own Necessities It is equal we should allow him at least as much of ours as we borrow of his though it be for our Necessities or lawful Comforts But if we rob him of some of his Time as too often we do employing it in our own Businesses without the Warrant of a just Necessity we are to know that it is Theft yea Theft in the highest Degree Sacriledg and that therefore we are bound at least as far as petty Theeves were in the Law to a * Exod. 22.1 2 Sam. 12.6 fourfold Restitution But how very many so overload and overburthen themselves and their Families with ordinary worldly Businesses that either they quite neglect their Duties or put God off with slight and short and hasty Duties and neither afford themselves sufficient Time nor allow their Servants convenient Opportunities of remembring their God and minding their Souls Necessities These have no leisure to consider that the Soul is more worth than the Body and Heaven more valuable than the Earth and therefore that the Things that necessarily conduce to the saving of the Soul and securing of Heaven must not wholly be neglected for any bodily Concernments or worldly Interests whatsoever We must first seek the Kingdom of God and chiefly lay up a Treasure in Heaven and therefore we must not suffer worldly Cares to take up an undue Proportion of our Time We must not engage in so many Businesses nor so eagerly pursue and follow any as that our ordinary worldly Affairs should hinder our selves or our Families from the Performance of ordinary religious Exercises [d] Toward the end of his Life before his Remains It is reported of the famous Mr. George Herbert sometime Orator of the University of Cambridg that when he came to have a Family he was eminent and exemplary for his spiritual Love and Care of his Servants by his own Practice teaching Masters this Duty to allow their Servants daily Time wherein to pray privately and to enjoyn them to do it holding this for true generally That publick Prayer alone to such Persons is no Prayer at all Our Love and Care even of our Servants spiritual Welfare ought to be greater than our Love and Care of the Things of this World As many so deeply plunge themselves into unnecessary Businesses that they have no Leisure for religious Performances So some so mainly mind earthly Things that they make Religion subservient to their worldly Employment take up a specious Profession of Religion and fair Form of Godliness chiefly to invite and draw Customers to their Shops and that they may deal falsely and [e] Totius injustitia nulla capitalior est quà m eorum qui tum cùm maxime fallent id tamen agunt ut viri boni esse videantur Cicero l. 1. de Offic. unjustly without Question or Suspicion and gain unreasonably and unconscionably by a dissembled Sanctity and sictitious Piety The last Sort of Persons reproved And lastly Some Persons are to be reproved for mis-spending their Time in their Duties You may think this strange that Time should be thrown away in Duties But I would have you to understand it may for you may lose your Time in Duties these two waies 1. By performing them unseasonably 2. By doing them formally 1. You lose Time in Duty if you perform it unseasonably And that may be done these two Waies 1. When one Duty thrusts and justles out another and so the Duty is mistimed As if a Man do spend that Time in his Closet and in religious Devotion which God does require him to employ in his Shop and in following his Vocation So again if you reade and pray privatly at home when you should attend on the publick Ordinance Or reade in your Bible or Prayer-Book at Church when you should hearken to the Sermon there Or if you do nothing but reade when you should meditate sometimes and confer sometimes Or if you give way to such good Thoughts as in Prayer or hearing the Word at any Time come into your Mind but are impertinent and irrelative to the Matter in hand Such Thoughts though they be materially good yet are formally evil though good in themselves yet are sinful to thee at such unfit and inconvenient Times and will at least taint and fly-blow thy necessary present Duty To do any Duty whatever when you should rather do another is to mis-spend Time about such a Duty which is to you unseasonable 2. When Duty is perform'd at such a Time when we are most unfit for it then it is unseasonable and Time is lost in it As when we go to Prayer when we are fitter to go to sleep and kneel upon the Cushion when we are fitter to lay our Head upon the Pillow and hold up our Hands then when we are scarce able to hold open our Eyes and speak to God then when we hardly hear our selves speak When Luther during his retirement in the Castle at Coburga for his Safety enjoyed more leisure than ordinary one Vitus Theodorus who then lived with him informed Melancthon concerning him that he spent in Prayer every Day [f] Nullus abit dits quin ut minimum tres horas edsque fludiis aptissimas in orationem ponat Melch. Adam in vit Luther p. 138 142. three Hours at least and those that were fittest and properest for his Studies And it is commendable in some Masters of Families that as often as they can do it with any convenience they perform Evening-Prayer in their Families before Bed-Time yea before Supper-Time when they are not clogg'd with Meat nor heavy with Sleep but are every way freest and fittest for Duty Will you set your selves and your House-hold to do God's Work when you are wholly unfit to do your own You lose Time in Duty by performing it unseasonably That 's the first 2. You lose Time in Duty if you perform Duty no otherwise than formally customarily slightly and superficially If you handle holy Things without any Feeling If you do the Duty for the Matter
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
is the sincere Milk and strong Meat by which you may grow and be daily nourished the Wine with which you may be refreshed when weak the Physick with which you may be cured when sickâ— the Sword of the Spirit with which you may defend your selves when assaulted and resist and repel your spiritual Enemies Will you not readily and gladly repair to the Precepts which counsel you in all your Doubts and quicken you in all your Deadness and get and keep a spiritual Acquâ—lâ—tance with those exceeding great and precious Pronâ—â—ses that strengthen and stay relieve and refresh support and comfort you in all your Sorrow and Afflictions Troubles and Trials Dejection and Heart-breakings Disquietments and Discouragements Me-thinks a Man should never take up the Bible when he reads in private but with the greatest Comfort and Joy that can be and should say within himself Here 's that which very plainly proposeth the most excellent End and withal the most proper and sure Means to reach and attain it which clearly holds forth a sufficient Rule of Faith and Life which plentifully affords me most admirable Precepts and most select exact Patterns of exercising Graces and performing Duties most rare Exemplars of strong believing and holy Living Here 's that which contains the grand Charter of all my Spiritual and Heavenly Priviledges Here 's that that keeps me from Horrour and Despair notwithstanding all my Sin and Guilt Here 's that that teaches me how to live and that makes me able to think of Death without sinking and dying at the Thoughts of it Here 's that that makes me hold my Head above Water in the blackest Hour and saddest Condition that can befal me Love and delight in the Scriptures chiefly and especially for their Sanctity and Purity because they reveal and discover the holy Nature and Law of God the Necessity and Beauty of Holiness the Evil and Folly and Danger of Sin and are apt to win and draw us off from Sin and to bring us to a real universal Conformity to the Will of God and to a Participation of the Divine Nature an happy Participation of God's Holiness And apply thy self to the daily reading and diligent studying of the holy Scriptures with a sincere Desire to [b] This is the thankful Glass that mends the Lookers Eyes this is the VVell that washes what it shews Herb. Poem H. Script be made really holy in Heart and Life by them to be transform'd and renewed assimilated and made like to God by them to be conformed to Scripture-Precepts and Examples and to gain a Frame of Heart and a Conversation and Course of Life every way becoming the Gospel of Christ Whenever thou takest the Bible into thy Hand to reade a Chapter or any Portion of Scripture lift up thy Heart to God and say Now let me be made * Jo. 15.3 clean through the Word which thou shalt speak unto me Now let me be †17.17 sanctified through thy Word of Truth and Holiness Now let me gain some Degree of Grace and make some Improvement and Proficiency in Holiness by thy holy Word by this sacred Writ Allot and allow and ordinarily employ some Portion of Time every day for reading and considering the holy Scriptures If we don't in a manner task our selves usually to observe some certain set Times for this Use and Purpose our slothful Hearts will easily admit yea catch at any trifling Excuse to put by the Performance of this Duty and by Degrees we shall be drawn to an habitual Neglect of it We should therefore charge and enjoin our selves not to dispense with our stated Hours but upon very necessary and just Occasions and in such Cases be very careful that what we were forc'd to omit at such a Time we faithfully and honestly endeavour to supply and make up another It is convenient to reade commonly if it may be some portion of Scripture every Morning and every Evening [c] Luxin's Introduct to the holy Script p. 28. A worthy Divine well observes that our reading some Scripture in the Morning will be a good Antidote against the Infection of those Corruptions which we live amongst and is apt to fortify us against the Temptations of the ensuing Day as those who live where there is any Contagion do usually drink something in the Morning to prevent Infection And our reading Scripture in the Evening will be a means to compose our Minds and furnish us with matter of Meditation for the Night-season as Cattel feed towards the Evening that they may have something to ruminate or chew over again when they lie down to take their Rest That nothing may prove an Hindrance and impediment in this Employment 1. Redeem the Time from unnecessary wordly Businesses Nay let no ordinary Occasions of your Calling make you generally careless and negligent of the sacred Scriptures Do not idly pretend want of Leisure to reade the weightiest Matters in the World things of greatest Importance and nearest Concernment to your immortal Souls They that enjoy much Leisure from worldly Assairs God expects that such should employ and bestow more of their Time in this spiritual Exercise Yet they that have fullest Business and fewect Spare-hours cannot wholly be exempted from this Duty 'T is very remarkable that the * Deut. 17.18 19 20. King himself was expresly commanded to write him a Copy of the Law in a Book to write out the Book of Deuteronomy which is a Compendium of the Law yea to write out the whole Pentateuch saies [d] Totum Pentateuchum tenebatur describere primùm ut Israel ta quivis deinde iterum ut Rex ut sciret in privatis in publicis negotiis Legem sibi sequendam Sic legere eam debebat sibi peivatim in Templo audiente populo ut sciret populus neminem à lege excipi Grot. in loc Grotius to write it with his own Hand saies Philo that the divine Precepts might be the better imprinted and fastened in his Mind It was to be with him and he was to reade therein all the Daies of his Life notwithstanding the Multiplicity and Greatness of the Affairs of his Kingly Office 2. Redeem the Time from fruitless Pleasures from Play-Books Romances Fansyful Poems feigned Stories common Histories witty or elegant Speeches Never suffer these or the like to fill your Hands to entertain your Eyes to please your Phansies to get into your Hearts so as to keep the sacred Scriptures and divine Oracles out of your Hands and Hearts Alexander would find Time to reade Homer even in the Camp and chose to lay up Homer's Poems in a most precious Casket taken out of the Spoils of Darius And the Emperour Aelius Verus was so in love with Ovid de arte amandi as to reade it in his Bed and to lay it under his Pillow when he went to sleep But these were utterly ignorant of the Scriptures O let not us Christians have
will have a mighty Influence upon the whole Course of our Lives and Actions The first of the four last Things proposed as the subject Matter of Meditation in order to the right Redemption of Time I. USE I. Use in thy Life time to think much of the Day of thy own particular Death and of the general Dissolution of all Things 1. [e] Mortem ut nunquam timeas semper cogita Sen. ep 30. in fine Vive me nor lethi fugit hora hoc quod loquor inde est Pers sat 5. Dum loquimue sugerit invida aetas Horat. carm l. 1. Od. 11. To think much of the Day of thy own particular Death Be not thou of Lewis the eleventh's Mind who strictly charged all about him that they sould not so much as name the terrible Word Death Do not only patiently hear of it but chuse to think and often to think of it Men are too commonly regardless of their End and unmindful of their own Mortality and Frailty The very Heathen have acknowledged Man's natural Proneness to forget his End and therefore they used several Arts to mind themselves and others of it Some Emperours on the Day of their Coronation have had several sorts of Marble presented to them out of which to chuse their Tombs Philosophers have had their Sepulchres before their Gates that they might neither go out nor in but they might still be put in mind of their Mortality And many great Men have had them in their Places of Pleasure And dead Men's Skulls have been served up in delicious Banquets And Philip King of Macedon had a young Monitor that came every Day and rubb'd up his Memory with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Remember thou art but a Mortal Man And we plainly find in Scripture that this is naturally Man's Temper The Fool in the Gospel is a clear Instance of this who * Luke 12.19 said to his Soul Soul thou hast much Goods laid up for many Years take thine ease eat drink and be merry He never dream'd of a Stulte hac nocte Thou Fool this Night That was the farthest Thing off his Thoughts †Jam. 4.13 14. St. James reproves those who promise themselves to morrow and build upon the next Year for the driving of their Trade and getting of Gain Men in their Health think not of Sickness and in Sickness seldome reckon of Death Even dying Men often times think of nothing but recovering and living longer in the World Men are apt to look upon Death as afar off and when in all probability they have but a few Sands in their Glass to run they are ready to say that they ‖ Job 29 18. shall multiply their Daies as the Sand. Men can willingly measure their Lands and Grounds and number their Herds and Droves of Cattel and count the Revenues of their Manours and Farms and reckon their daily or yearly Incomes but who is willing to measure and number his Daies Yea we can willingly measure other Mens Daies and learn to know their End and take great Notice how frail they are We can point at an old Man and cry he is thus or thus old his Daies cannot be many he is past his best he has one Foot in the Grave Upon sight of one sick or in a Consumption we are apt to say Such a one is near his End he can't live long sure But we take little notice of our selves we make little Reckoning of our own End we little consider what may become of us to morrow We do not actually think we shall not die yet the most of us do not actually think we shall die God frequently reads Lectures of Mortality to us and yet we will not learn to remember them The Arrows of the Almighty have flown thick on every side of us and yet we live as if we thought to escape alwaies Though others have fallen round about us we are ready to count our standing sure We securely lie in a dead Sleep amidst many awakening providences I am afraid many of us are too like your common Grave-makers who often handle Skulls and dead Mens Bones but are so daily us'd to them that they are not at all mov'd or affected with them What senseless silly Creatures are we that we won't believe we are mortal till we feel it that we won't be perswaded we shall die till we our selves are struck with Death Ah Friends we do not live as if we believ'd it and were truly and really convinc'd fully and throughly perswaded of it We are apt to overmeasure our Daies to put more in than we should to promise our selves what God never promis'd us and to count those Daies ours which are wholly in God's Hand and quite out of ours We are ready to measure by [f] Reade Dr. Patrick's Div. Arithm. false Rules to reckon that because we are young we shall not die till we are old That because we are strong we shall last it out and indure long That because we are temperate we need not fear Diseases and Death That because some live much longer than others that we may live as long as the longest The Guilt of Sin makes many afraid to take a true Measure of their Daies The want of a good and well-grounded Hope of a better Life makes Men unwilling to know the End of this And the inordinate Love of the World makes Men loth to know their End and to think of leaving what they love Haec faciunt invitos mori These are the Things that make us unwilling to die was a discreet Answer given by the Emperour Charles the fifth to a certain Duke of Venice You are naturally backward and disinclin'd to the consideration of your latter End and therefore pray to God to enable you to it and help you in it Say with David * Psal 39.4 Lord make me to know my End and the Measure of my Daies what it is that I may know how frail I am And with Moses likewise †90.12 So teach me to number my Daies that I may apply my Heart unto Wisdom We need but a little Arithmetick to number our Daies as [g] Caryl on Job 4.21 one saies well but we need a great deal of Grace to number them A Child may be wise enough to number the Daies of an old Man and yet that old Man a Child in numbring his own Daies so as to apply his Heart to Wisdom Well then heartily beg of God that he would make you to know your End to know it so as to have your Heart touched and affected with the Knowledg of it To know your End and to live suitably and answerably to the Knowledg of it To know your End so as to make a good End of it Now give me leave to direct and assist you in this necessary Duty Suffer me to serve in a Death's-Head and to put a Turf of fresh Earth into your Hands 't is counted very wholsome to
seu de sen That there thou shalt see and know those whom thou never sawest before sit down * Mat. 8.11 with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven and shalt renew a blessed Acquaintance with thy old dear Christian Godly Friends and vertuous Relations Not know them by former Stature Feature Favour for there will be a vast Difference between a mortal and glorified Body but know them by Revelation or by the [n] Vide thes Salmur de vit aetern thes 35 36. publick Testimony that Christ shall give concerning them or by Passages occurring in some Opportunities of Discourse with them Nor know them in a worldly or fleshly Manner but know and enjoy them in a most pure and spiritual divine and heavenly Manner And think what a comfort it will be to enjoy Society with those in Heaven with whom thou didst use to go frequently to the House of God in Company What an Happiness it will be to meet in Heaven with those with whom thou wast wont to discourse of Heaven to rejoice and join in Praises with those in Heaven whom thou hast often wept and mourned and prayed with here on Earth What a rejoicing it will be to see and enjoy those dear Saints in the Heavenly Glory whom thou wast a Means of bringing thither or who were the Means of bringing thee thither What a pleasing refreshing Converse it will be in the heavenly Jerusalem to tell one another there the most remarkable Stories of the Divine Love and to receive a faithful particular Relation of the rare Passages of the Divine Providence of which the good and vertuous have had Experience in all Ages of the World How kindly and sweetly thou shalt converse with others when all Corruptions on all sides shall be removed your Judgments and Affections united and your Dispositions exactly suited How contented and satisfied you shall there be where you shall live absolutely free from all manner of Injury Envy Strangeness Suspicion Uncharitableness Where all the Inhabitants shall alwaies live as [o] See D. Patrick's Par. of the Pilgr p. 92 93 94. one describes that State in a rapturous Love of God and a most passionate Love of one another Where every one will be loving and every one will be lovely Where every one will love others as much as they deserve or desire and look for no other Retribution but a Reciprocation of Love and where all shall rejoice not only in their own Salvation but in the Glory and Blessedness of others as if it were all their own Consider that hereafter thou shalt be so pleased with the Place thou shalt be in and satisfied with the Company thou shalt be with that thou shalt say in the State of Glorification * Mat. 17 4. as Peter did in the Transfiguration Lord it is good for me to be here That as thy essential Happiness shall consist in the Fruition of God the Chiefest Good so that thy concomitant circumstantial accidental Joies will consist in the beauteous Place and the holy Company thou shalt enjoy But yet [p] Dr. Jackson 3 vol. p. 508. that either the Place or Society of Saints and Angels can add or confer any Thing to thy Happiness proceeds from God's special Presence in both This Meditation will invite and provoke thee to make it thy diligent constant Care here upon Earth to fit and prepare thy self for the future Enjoyment of the most holy and blessed Company in the heavenly Glory To get a Spirit suitable both to the Company and Employment of Heaven To mortify thy unruly Lusts and to moderate those violent boisterous Passions which would cause a kind of Hell in Heaven and make thee not only restless and uneasy in thy self but apt and prone to trouble others and to disturb the Peace of that blessed Place To labour to become truly holy and so to be meet for the heavenly Society Remembring and considering that scandalous unholy disorderly Persons are by the Divine Ordination to * Mat. 18.17 1 Cor. 5.5 11. Rom 16.17 be excluded from the Communion of Saints even here below to be shut out from the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to be denied the Benefit and Comfort of brotherly Society and Chistian familiar Converse And that if by Scandal and Practice of open Wickedness thou shouldst render thy self unfit for present Fellowship and Communion with the Saints thou wouldst surely prove much more unmeet for their perfectly pure and unspotted Society in Heaven hereafter And this will cause thee to keep Company and to hold Communion with the Saints here that thou maiest be fit to enjoy blessed Communion with them hereafter To shun and avoid the Company of the Wicked as a kind of Hell here upon Earth to count their unavoidable Neighbourhood a daily Trouble and an heavy Burden to thee And if any truly Godly live in the Place where thou dwellest to find them out and to prize and improve them to the utmost To sort and suit thy self with those now whom thou wouldst desire to be ranked with and gathered to another Day To seck to live with those here whom thou wouldst earnestly wish to live withal hereafter To make account that now to live among the Good to converse with regenerate sanctified Persons and real spiritual experimental Christians and to enjoy God in his People and Christ in his Members that this is a great Happiness and a little Image of Heaven To use such reasoning as this with thy self Should I hate or decline the Communion of Saints here what should I do in Heaven at last where next to the Fruition and Enjoyment of God in Glory the best Entertainment will be the Company and Society of blessed and glorified Saints to all Eternity This would keep thee from sitting upon Thorns when thou art in Company with gracious Persons with serious savory Christians and wishing thou wert well rid of thy Trouble and would cause thy Heart to spring and leap within thee to see the Face and hear the Discourse and enjoy the Converse and profitable Company of the truly Godly It would direct thee to chuse and use such Company all thy Life long that when thou diest as Dr. Preston said of himself upon his Death-bed thou maiest only change thy Place and not thy Company This would help thee to labour that God may now dwell in thee that hereafter thou maiest dwell with him That Christ may now dwell in thy Heart by Faith that thou at last maiest dwell with Christ in Glory To have at present Fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ and with those who have the Image of God and Christ stampt upon them the Beauty of Holiness and the Glory of Heaven shining in them to have thy Soul sympathize and thy Heart harmonize with them and thy Affections closely embrace them and freely run out to them to love and rejoice to meet and confer with them here that thou maiest be