any act of Prophaneness Sin and Wickedness a fit Action for Christ to take and present unto his Father for Divine Acceptance Certainly our Actions must have the Truth though not the Perfection of good Works for otherwise 't were a Thing unbeseeming Christ to present them and unbecoming God to accept them for in so doing Christ must become a Patron of Sin and God an Owner of the Works and an Encourager of the Workers of Iniquity O then take care that your Actions be such as may be fit to be presented by Christ unto his Father and to be accepted by God in and thorough Christ This is the Way to honour Christ considered as a Priest 2. Accept of Christ as a Prophet to teach and instruct thee thorowly to teach both thy Head and Heart and be willing and forward to learn of Christ and to be taught by him the Truth as it is in Jesus and to profit both by his Doctrine and Example 3. Accept of Christ not only for thy Priest and Saviour and for thy Prophet Teacher and Instructour but for thy wise and holy Law-giver and for thy soveraign King and Governour to rule and to reign over thee Give up thy self in hearty Subjection to the Person and Authority of Christ and [c] Credere se in Christâ—m quomodo dicit qui non facit quod Christus facere praecepit aut unde perveniet ad praemium fidei qui fidem non vult servare mandati Cyprianus de Eccles unit Quid est credulitas vel fides opinor fideliter hominem Christo credere id est fidelem Deo esse hoc est fideliter Dei mandata servare Christiani homines infideles sunt si bona sibi à Deo assignata corruperint Salvian de Gubern Dei lib. 3. vow and be ready to perform sincere Obedience to all the Particular Commands of Christ When others cry these are hard Sayings who can bear them do you profess that his Commands are not grievous and do thou say from thy very Heart I delight to do thy Will O Christ Love and Delight in the Laws of Christ and choose and strive to keep and observe them when others censure break and violate them While other Men dishonour Christ and put him to an open Shame and cause his worthy Name to be blasphemed let thy Life lead Men to high and excellent Thoughts of Christ and of his Laws and Waies and Government This is the right Acceptance of Christ so * Coloss 2.6 to receive Christ Jesus the Lord as to purpose and endeavour to walk in him And then for the other Act of Faith Have not only a bare Opinion of Christ's Fidelity but trust in Christ with a practical Trust So thoroughly trust him as to venture all thy Happiness on him in his own way Trust him so far as to be sincerely and heartily willing to leave and forsake all to follow him to part with Sin and the World yea Life it self for him who will not suffer thee to be finally a Loser by him to be ready to relinquish all that thou seest and possessest here for things invisible which Christ hath promised to render to the Believer in the other World And so believe what is said concerning the Holy Ghost as heartily to believe in the Holy Ghost Consent to take him for thy Teacher and Guide Sanctifier and Quickner Advocate and Comforter Enter into solemn Covenant with resign and give up thy self to the Worship and Service of the sacred Trinity Be fully resolv'd to live to God and Christ and to worship in the Spirit to be led by the Spirit to walk in the Spirit and to bring forth the Fruits of the Spirit Believe and learn to live by Faith and let thy Faith work by Love and shew it self by good Works and be productive of the Obedience of Faith And let thy Obedience be voluntary and cheerful uniform and universal constant and perpetual Thus thus improve the precious Season of Gospel-Light Grace and Strength by plainly and fully coming up to the Terms and faithfully performing the great and necessary Conditions of the Gospel Honour and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by entertaining and walking worthy of the Gospel of Christ There was a memorable Statue set up in the Isle of Rhodes in honour of the Sun which once a Day is said to shine upon that Island be the Air in all other Parts never so overcast with Clouds But we enjoy a greater and higher Priviledg than they The Sun of Righteousness shines upon this our Island and affords the Light of the blessed Gospel not only once every Day but all the Day long every Day And now shall we be so blind and unthankful as to take no notice of it so idle and careless as to make no use of it Since the Light of the Gospel does clearly and sweetly beam out in our Faces when the Air is dark abroad and many other places are cover'd with the thick Clouds of Ignorance let us * Joh. 5.35 rejoice in the Light and †1 Joh. 1.7 walk in the Light of the Glorious Gospel as Children of the ‖ Eph. 5.8 Light and of the (*) 1 Thess 5.5 Day and then we shall be as so many Statues set up in Honour of Christ the Sun of Righteousness that shines in his Lustre and Strength upon us But besides the General Opportunity of the Continuance of the Gospel which is afforded to many all their Life long I say besides this there are some Parcels and Portions of our Lives some Daies and Hours of our Time that are Particular and special Opportunities above others as namely these following The first Particular Opportunity to be redeemed 1. The Morning of our Age the Time of Youth and Health and Strength this is an Opportunity of providing for Eternity this is a fit Season of working out our Salvation of laying up in store against a Time of Sickness an Hour of Weakness and the Day of Death This is a Time wherein [a] Juvenes possumus discore possumus facilem animum adhuc tractabilem ad meliora convertere hoc tempus idoneum est laboribus idoneum agitandis â—er studia ingeniis exercendâ—s ter opera corporibus Quod superest segnius languiaius est propâ—â—◠â fine Primus quisquo tanquam optimus dies placeat redigatur in nostrum Sen. ep 103. both Body and Mind are strong and vigorous This is an Age meet for Impression capable of Instruction and fit for Action The Wise Man calls young Men to redeem this choicest Part of their Time to think of him early who lov'd and minded us so early Eccles 12.1 Remember now thy Creator in the Daies of thy Youth thy choice Daies while the evil Daies come not nor the Years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no Pleasure in them The Daies of Youth are good Daies the Time of Health and Strength is a good Time indeed
when he stands ready with Strength and Assistance when he publisheth great and precious Promises when the golden Scepter is held out by God to us as it was to * Esther 5.2 Esther by Ahasuerus when gracious Offers merciful Tenders kind and loving Invitations are made and repeated and very sweet and comfortable Encouragements propounded and assured to penitent Sinners in the Ministery of the Word this is †Rev. 2.21 space given for Repentance this is a golden Season of Grace in which we may have Christ and all his precious and saving Benefits upon the reasonable Terms and acceptable Conditions of the Gospel When the Trumpet of the Jubile soundeth when Liberty to the Captives and the Opening of the Prison to them that are bound is proclaimed ‖ 2 Cor. 6. i 2. Behold now is the accepted Time behold now is the Day of Salvation O ‖ 2 Cor. 6. i 2. receive not the Grace of God in vain lose not so long and large a Season make your Advantage of the Time of the Gospel be thankful for it and faithful in the Use and Improvement of it close with the Gospel and daily and earnestly endeavour and pray that it may be made effectual to you Repent believe sincerely obey in this thy Day Repent think upon thy Waies be sorry for thy Sins hate them forsake them repent with a Repentance from dead Works never to be repented of So change thy Mind as to change thy Manners to reform and alter the Course of thy Life for the future So truly repent as to take care to bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance Believe not with a bare historical a meer intellectual Faith not with an idle dronish wholly ineffectual Assent but with a [b] Fortasse unusquisque apud seipsum dicet Ego jam credidi salvus ero verum dicit si fidem operibus tenet vera etenim fides est qua in hoc quod verbis dicit moribus non contradicit Fidei nostrae veritatem in vitae nostrae consideratione debemus agno cere Greg. Hom. 29. in Euang. Credere in Deum est credendo amare credendo diligere credendo in eum â—re membris ejus incorporari Putasne Filium Dei Iesum reputat quisquis ille est homo qui ipsius nec terretus comminationthus nec attrahitur promissonibus nec praeceptis obtemperat nec consiliis acquiescit Nonne is etiamsi fatearur se nosse Deum factis tamen negat Bernard in Octav. Pasc de tribus Testim in coelo ter serm 1. p. 88. practical active operative Belief So believe the Word of God as to take it seriously and in good earnest for the only Rule of thy Conversation in Matters necessary to Salvation So firmly receive and assent to the Divine Testimony as to have thy Heart rightly affected and thy Life powerfully influenced by it So cordially believe the Truth of the Gospel as to resolve and on all Occasions to endeavour to carry suitably to such Belief to live and act as a Person that does indeed believe it and to answer the end for which divine Truth was revealed which is the bringing us to good Lives So yield Assent to the Doctrine of the Gospel as to close and comply with the Terms of the Gospel and heartily to consent to the whole Duty of Man contain'd and delivered in the Word or God and Gospel of Christ so assent to the Commands of the Gospel as true as withal to love and like them to choose and embrace them as good and as good for thee yea as incomparably better for thee to observe than any other Rule that possibly can be respected by thee whatever they cause thee to lose or suffer here in this World So give your undoubted Assent to them as to cleave closely and stick invincibly to them against all flattering or affrighting Temptations to the contrary and still to engage and charge and provoke thy self to conform thy whole Heart and Life to them Farther So assent to the Truth of the Gospel-Promises as to take care to perform the necessary Conditions of them to trust in the Promises of the Gospel with an obediential Affiance with an obsequious and dutiful Reliance to trust in them according to the Tenour of them to trust in the Promises of Pardon and Remission in the Exercise of sincere and unfeigned Repentance and in the Promises of Sanctification in the Use of Gospel-Ordinances and Means and diligent Improvement of the Grace of God already communicated and received and in the Promises of Life everlasting in the way of new and sincere Obedience Assent to the Promises not only that they are true and real but that they are also the most valuable that can be * 1 Pet. 1 4. exceeding great and precious Promises so as to prefer the Promises of God above all the Proffers of the World as better than any thing that the Devil can offer or the World afford Farther yet So assent to the Truth of the Threatnings of the Word as to fear and stand in aw of them and to study to avoid those Sins which will put thee in Danger of temporal and eternal Sufferings and to keep thy self free from the Fear of the Menaces of Men while thou art in the way of thy Duty to God Believe the whole Word of God and Believe in all the Persons of the holy and blessed Trinity So assent to the Truth of whatsoever is spoken in the Scripture of God and Christ and the Spirit of God and Christ as deliberately to choose God the Father Son and holy Ghost for thy Portion and Treasure thy Happiness and chief Good To bring thy Heart to own love honour serve and worship God the Father as thy good and bountiful Creator and Preserver and very merciful God Redeemer by Jesus Christ and freely and gladly to consent to have God the Father for thy Covenant-Friend and reconciled gracious Father And to accept with all Love and Thankfulness even a crucified Christ for thy only Lord and Saviour to bring thee to God thy chiefest Good by reconciling thy Person and Nature to him to recover and bring thee back both in Heart and Life to God and to rest and rely upon Christ and on God only in and through Christ for Justification Sanctification and eternal Salvation according to the Promises of the Gospel Cordially receive him in all his Offices And here 1. Accept of Christ as a Priest to save thee by the offering of himself a Sacrifice in thy stead and by making Intercession on thy behalf And labour to answer the ends of his Death by Purity and Holiness of Heart and Life and to act becoming his Intercession to live so as it may be fit for Christ with Honour to present your Works and Services to his Father to be accepted by him to do nothing but what is worthy of such a Mediatour as Christ is to present unto God on your behalf Now tell me is
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
will become the Root of Errour If you be loth to be ruled by the Laws of Christ you have a Temptation from your own Lusts to turn to Antinomianism As Luther said that Every Man had a Pope in his Belly So every wicked Man has an Heretick in his Breast And let me moreover tell you that without Grace you will never taste and savour rellish love and like the Truth or have any sensible sweet experimental Knowledg of it which may engage and keep you close to it The Truths of God are so suitable to a gracious Heart that it quickly closeth with them But the Errours of the Wicked are slatly against such and such practical Impressions upon the Soul of a Christian A gracious Person has a good Complexion and Constitution of Soul which disgusts and disrelisheth whatsoever is contrary to it And therefore many an Errour lies but unevenly and untowardly in a good Man's Mind when presented to his Thoughts And when an honest-hearted Christian hears some Sermon or Discourse that is erroneous though he be not able handsomly to detect and logically to lay open the Nature and Danger of the Errour yet it goes against him he cannot down with it he finds a strong Antipathy against it he has not by Inspiration but by real [k] See Mr. Baxter's Unreason of Infid His 2d Discourse there on 1 Joh. 5.10 p. 116 117 127 128 158 161. Impression on his Soul a Witness within himself against it an inward Sense that disapproves it a new Nature that nauseats rejects and rises against it Just as the Sea by the Strength of its Nature casts up works out and purgeth it self of those Straws and Sticks that Filth and Dirt that Frippery and Trash which flowed into it with the River-water And therefore get a Principle of Grace into thy Heart as ever thou wouldst keep Errour out of thy Head And be sure to * 1 Tim. 1.19 hold a good Conscience that you may be able to hold the Doctrine of Faith †1 Tim. 3.9 Hold the Mystery of the Faith in a pure Conscience Like heavenly Manna let it be kept in a Pot of pure Gold By all means labour to be ‖ Tit. 2.2 sound in the Faith and (*) 2 Tim. 1.13 hold fast the Form of sound Words Resolve by the Help of God to (*) 2 Tim. 1.13 hold it fast against all Temptations to let it go Hold it fast in Faith and Love Let the Grace of Love even glue you to the Truth and constrain you to a firm Adhesion to it (†) 2 Thess 2.10 11. Receive the Love of the Truth that you may abide in the Truth and may not be given over to strong Delusions to believe a Lie (‖) Jude 3. Contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints Vigorously oppose fundamental Errours such as directly or reductively expresly or by necessary Consequence destroy the Articles of our Faith Contend for fundamental Truths for these especially and most earnestly but not for these only Contend for all Truth All Truth is valuable for the least Truth The very Parings and Filings of Gold are precious Contend as well for that which is not acknowledged to be necessary to Salvation as for that which is accounted commonly and ordinarily necessary though not with an equal Contention We are chiefly to look to the Foundation or else the House will certainly fall But yet we must look to the Tiles of the House too or else the Rain will beat into the House and in time the very Foundation may rot and moulder and perish If we neglect those Truths which are not fundamental we may in Time be brought to neglect Fundamentals themselves Yet in smaller Errours be content to bear what you cannot cure Very good Christians may have as it is said of St. Cyprian naevos in candido pectore here and there a Mole or Mark in otherwise a fair and clear Breast Very honest Hearts may have some lighter Errours in their Minds some Mistakes or other in their Judgments which ought to be prudently tolerated rather than brotherly Peace and Union be broken and violated or Christian Love and charitable Affection be withdrawn and alienated Wisely and carefully distinguish between those Differences in Opinion which are as the striving of one Israelite with another which is the Lord [p] Advanc of Learn l. 9. p. 473. Verulam's elegant Comparison and those pernicious damnable Heresies which are as the fighting of an Egyptian with an Israelite You must with Moses be mild and gentle fair and peaceable in dealing with the former but sharp and severe in oppugning and suppressing the latter Take care that you your selves don 't desperately fall into the gross and grievous Errours of the Times you live in And take all Opportunities according to your Abilities to inform and instruct to gain and win and bring over the erroneous and incredulous to the * Tit. 1.1 acknowledging of the Truth which is after Godliness That is the first Redeem the Time because the Daies and evil Daies in which dangerous Errours and false Doctrines are vented and propagated The second Particular Evil of the Apostles Daies and ours 2. The Evil of the Apostles Times stood in the vicious and wicked Lives of scandalous Professors of the Gospel The Daies are Evil that is saies [m] Dies malos esse dicit h. e. omnia scandalis corruptelis esse plena ut difficilè sit pios manere illaesos Calv. in loc Calvin all Things are full of Scandals and Corruptions insomuch as it 's hard for those that are good to be kept free from hurt to be preserved untainted with the Infection of the Times And in this Sense the Daies we live in are evil Daies too The present Age is an ungodly Age. †Matt. 24.12 Iniquity everywhere abounds Great and gross Irreligion and Profaneness extreme Loosness and Licentiousness boundless Sensuality and Voluptuousness immeasurable Gluttony and Drunkenness beastly Wantonness and Uncleanness prodigious Pride and Haughtiness bitter Animosity and Revenge malicious Slandering and Backbiting rash and uncharitable Judging and Censuring Lying Swearing Subornation Perjury Cursing Sabbath-breaking Unthankfulness Unfruitfulness Want of Humiliation and Reformation under Variety of sore and severe Judgments Carelesness of God's Providences Contempt of his Word and Ordinances Abuse of his blessed Spirit Playing and Drolling with Scripture Mocking at Religion Scoffing at Holiness and Enmity against Purity and the Power of Godliness are now rife and common the reigning and crying Sins of this Land and Nation Now what should we do to make a good Vse and due Improvement of such evil Daies as these I answer 1. Are the Daies thus evil let us then in a right manner be troubled at the Evil of them It is said that * 2 Pet. 2.8 righteous Lot dwelling among the filthy Sodomites in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous Soul from day to day with their
cause to fear and in their Old Age almost ground enough to despair I may here take up the Complaint of the devout [i] Quid prodest din vivere quando tam parùm emendae nur Ah long a vita non semper emendat sed saepe culpam magis auget Vtinam per unam diem bene essemus conversati in hoc mundo multiannos computant conversionis sed saepe pâ—rvus est fructus emendationis A Kempis l. 1. c. 23. n. 2. A Kempis What does it avail us to live long when we are so little better'd by it Ah long Life says he does not alwaies mend our Manners but does often the more encrease our Crimes Would we had a alked but one Day well in this World Many reckon Years of their Conversion but there is too often but little sign of a new Conversation Had we not been grosly wanting to our selves how much might we have known of God and of his Mind and Meaning in his Word and Works How much might we have done for God and received from god by this Time what a Stock of Grace might we have gotten before now What a Treasure of Experience might we have heaped up What a good Foundation might we have laid of a sound solid and well-setled Peace and Comfort to stand us in stead in a Time of Need What ground might we have gotten against our Corruptions What Growth in Grace What Strength in the inner Man What Skill to discern and avoid the Wiles and Snares of the Devil What Love to and Delight in the Law of God What Readiness to every good Word and Work What Ereedom and Enlargedness might we have attaineed to in God's Service How truly might it have been our very Meat and Drink to do the Will of God our constant Course daily Use and chosen cheerful Exercise to run the Waies of God's Commandments How forward might we have been in the Way to the spiritual Canaan who have it may be been greatly guilty of many Retrogradations How might we have been of another Spirit than we are of at present How publick-spirited might we have grown How zealous for the Glory of God and the good of Souls How active in the Cause of God and Religion How careless of the Pleasures that are but for a Season How spiritual and heavenly-minded How ready to die How ripe for Heaven O let this Consideration be laid to Heart by us and serve deeply to humble us that we have had much Time but have redeemed little or none that we have liv'd long to little to bad Purpose that we have trifled and squandred away those Seasons of grace that can never be enjoyed again and lost those Opportunities that can never return back again Let us put our selves to the Trial and bring our selves under Examination whether we have discharged our Dutyin Redeeming the Time yea or no. The third Vse by way of Reproof Is every Christian bound to redeem the Time Then here is a Word of seasonable serious sharp Reproof to several Persons who are grosly guilty of mis-spending their Time and divers Waies do foolishly cut this precious Commodity to waste Particularly to these following The first Sort of Persons reproved To such as mi-spend their Time in Idleness who lose their Time nihil agendo in doing just nothing or nothing at all worthy the naming Who live in Neglect of all honest and Useful Employment or do not sedulously exercise chemselves in the Duties of their Place and [a] There dwelled in Belsted a small Village some three Miles from Ipswich a Tanner who being very busie in tawing of a Hide Mr. Carter came by accidentally and going sostly behind him being familiarly acquainted with the good Man merrily gave him a little Clap on the Back The man started and looking behind him suddenly blushed and said Sir I am ashamed that you should find me thus To whom Mr. Carter replied Let Christ when he comes fiad me so dotag What said the man doing thus Yes said M. Carter to him saithfully performing the Duties of my Calling The Life of Mr. John arter inserted among Mr. Clark's Lives of ten Eminent Divines pag. 13. Calling How sharply may God reprove and say to many among us * Mat. 20.6 Why stand ye here all the Day idle What Cause have Ministers to complain of their People with the Apostle and say †2 Thess 3.11 There are some which walk among you disorderly working not at all To how many may we use the VVords of the VVise Man ‖ Prov. 6.6 Go to the Ant thou Sluggard 1. Idleness is a Sin against a Man's very Creation God did not so curiously work and accurately frame us to sit still and fold our Hands and give our selves to our ease and to [b] Desidea somnium vigilantis dream when we are awake Our Maker intended and fitted us for work To what End did God furnish us with so many useful instruments as the several members of our Bodies and endow us with those nimble and active Faculties of our Souls but that we might up and be doing and vigorously prosecute and pursue some worthy and good End in the diligent Use of sit and proper Means Adam even in Paradise was not allowed to be idle but before he feil we appointed and ordered to * Gen. 2.15 dress the Garden and to keep the Ground in which Employment he should have [c] Oberatus fuisser agrievlturâ non laboriosd sed deliciosa ad voluptatem experientiam Synops Crit. taken Delight and gain'd Experience And afterward when he had sinn'd not light and case but hard and painful tedious and wearisome Labour was enjoined him as a perpetual Penance for his Transgression and Offence and imposed as a [d] Andr. River Exercit. in Gen. p. 157. Bridle to rest rain the Flesh which by reason of Sin is now become wanton and rebellious against the Spirit (*) Gen. 3.17 19. In sorrow shalt thou eat all the Daies of thy Life In the Sweat of thy Face shalt thou eat thy Bread * Job 5.7 Man says Eliphaz is born unto Labour troublesome Labour †Psal 104.23 Man says David goeth forth to his Work and to his Labour until the Evening This is the Course which God has set him But by their Idleness Men attempt to overthrow the Purpose and Design of God and to frustrate the End whereto Man was created and plainly thwart and contradict cross and controul God's Curse while only in the Sweat of others Brows they eat their Bread and cast off the Means which God has ordain'd for repressing and taming the petulant and unruly Flesh Were these so wise as to accept of the Punishment threatned and inflicted and to become painful and laborious in their Places and Employments the Curse of God would by a Miracle of the divine Mercy be turn'd into a [e] The Labour and Sweat of our Brows is so far from being a
lib. p. 1690. When Dr. Cranmer was made Arch-Bishop of Canterbury he evermore gave himself to continual Study not breaking the order that in the University he commonly used that is by five of the clock in the Morning he was at his Book and spent his Time in Study and Prayer till nine of the clock By reason of other private Studies and by means of useful proper Employments he was never idle no Hour of the Day was spent in vain by him but was so bestowed as tended to the Glory of God the Service of his Prince or the Commodity of the Church The excellent Bp. Juel read much and wrote much besides his publick Employments Scarce any Year in all the Time of his Bishoprick passed wherein he published not some famous Work or other At nine a clock at Night he used to call all his Servants to an Account how they had spent that Day and after Prayer to admonish them accordingly Then he returned to his Study where often he sate till after Midnight * Dr. Humphr in the Life of Bp. Jewel When he was very weak a Gentleman meeting him as he was riding to preach at Lacock in Wiltshire earnestly desired him to return home for his health's sake telling him that it was better the People should want one Sermon than be altogether deprived of such a Preacher To whom he replied [u] Oportet Episcopum concionantem mori That it best became a Bishop to dy Preaching alluding to that of Vespasian [a] Oportet Imperatorem stantem mori It becomes an Emperour to dy standing and thinking upon his Master's Saying * Mat 24.46 Blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing And presently after that very [b] On Gal. 5 16. Walk in the Spirit Sermon by reason of his Sickness encreasing upon him he was forced to take his Bed from which he never came off till his Soul quitted his frail Body and was translated to everlasting Glory He said in his last Sickness That seeing God had not granted his Desire to glorify him by sacrificing his Life for the Defence of his Truth yet he rejoiced that his Body was exhausted and worn away in the Labours of his holy Calling It was the Motto of the pious and painful Mr. Perkins that which he used to write in the Frontispiece of all his Books Minister verbi es hoc age Thou art a Minister of God's Word mind thy Work and attend thy Business It was also the Motto of [c] His Life among Mr. Clark's Lives of 10 Eminent Divines Mr. Samuel Crook Impendam expendar I will spend and be spent It was moreover the Motto of [d] Bp. Usher's Life written by Dr. Bernard p. 52. Bp. Vsher's Episcopal Seal when he was Bishop of Meath which he continued in the Seal of his Primacy also Vae mihi si non euangelizavero Wo is unto me if I preach not the Gospel All which they severally answer'd and made good in an eminent and very exemplary Manner The learned and religious Dr. John Rainolds was so very careful to redeem the Time that when the Heads of the Houses in Oxford came to visit him in his last Sickness which he had contracted merely by excessive Pains in his Study whereby he brought his Body to be a very Sceleton and earnestly perswaded him that he would not [v] Perdere substa etiam propter accidentia lose the Substance for the Accidents not lose his Life for Learning He smiling answered with those excellent Words of the Prince of Satyrists [w] Nec propter vitam vivendi perdere causas Juv. sat 8. That to save his Life he would not lose the Ends of living I may well apply to [e] Reade the Lives of Mr. Joseph Allein and Mr. John Janeway these Worthies those words of A Kempis [x] Dati sunt in exemplum omnibus Religiosis plus provocare nos debent ad bene prosiâ—tendum quà m tepidorum numerus ad relaxandum T. a Kempis l. 1. c. 18 n. 4. These are given for an Example to all pious Persons and should be more powerful to provoke us to profit well than a number of lazy lukewarm Persons to draw us to Slackness and Remisness Let us follow these fair and bright Exemplars in the main of their tendency to teach us to live serviceably to God and usefully and profitably to our selves and others We have hitherto been ingentium Exemplorum parvi Imitatores to use Salvian's Expression small Imitators of great Examples O how short do we come of many of the eminent Saints and faithful Servants of God who redeemed their Time and served their Generation by the Will of God in former Ages Yea may not our own personal Knowledg and particular Observation of the Labour and Diligence Improvement and Growth of other Christians put our selves to the blush Many that have liv'd in the same Times and Places in the same Parishes and Families with our selves Many that have sate under the same Ordinances enjoyed no better Means received no greater Helps than our selves have yet surpassed and excell'd us in the gracious Frame of their Hearts out-strip'd and out-shined us in the Holiness and Exemplariness of their Lives To what a pitch are others gotten to what an height have they arriv'd and attain'd What right apprehensions have they gotten of the Nature of God and Undertaking of Christ for the promoting of Holiness What a good Understanding of the Word of God What Insight into the various Providences of God What warm and good Affections suited to true Notions of Things How have they proceeded in Knowledg grown in Grace profited in Experience increased in Strength abounded in Comfort What Power have they gotten over their Corruptions what Strength against Temptations What Government of their Senses What Command of their Passions What Freedom and Enlargement and Delight in Duties How useful are they in their Places How serviceable to God and their Generations What Evidence have they gotten of the Goodness of their State of the Truth and Sincerity of their Love to God and of the special Love and Favour of God to them What good grounds for their Hopes of Heaven and Happiness How sit are they to live How ready and prepared to dy How meet to be Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Alas how far do we fall short of them and come behind them What Fools have we been when others have been wise for their own Souls When others shine as Lights and as bright Stars in the World are not we as dark as a Coal or as dim as a Glow-worm Are not we who are planted in the same Soil dressed and cultivated with the same Hand watered with the same River of God wetted with the same heavenly Dew and refreshed with the same Droppings of the Sanctuary yet notwithstanding as barren and as unfruitful as may be when others of our Neighbours
and Fellow-Christians do bear not only Leaves but Fruit bring forth Fruit in due Season Fruit meet for the Dresser much Fruit Fruit which will abound to their own account We have been brought up in the same House we have suck'd at the same Breasts and sate at the same Table We have eaten the same Milk the same Meat But we have not grown by the sincere Milk of the Word we have not rellish'd and concocted the spiritual Food of our Souls as others have done The Word of God's Grace has not been sweet unto our Taste as it has been to others We have not desir'd it delighted in it and received it in the Love of it as others have done and therefore we have not profited by the Word we have not been nourished and strengthened by it as others have been Oh how much Leanness may be found in our Souls when others are thriving and well-liking in the Eye of God and good Men Others have excell'd and exceeded us Our Fellow-Christians have out-shot us out-grown us out-run us out-done us Themistocles professed he could not [a] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch in vic Thes p. 3. sleep for thinking of the Trophies of Miltiades And when Julius Caesar was employed in Spain in the Office of a Quaestor or Judg in matters of Law and coming to Cales beheld there the Image or Portraiture of Alexander the Great in the Temple of Hercules [y] Ingemuit quasi pertaesus ignaviam suam quòd nihil dum à se memorabile actâ—m esset ia aetate quâ jam Alexander orbem terrarum subegisset missionem contmuò esslaguavit ad captandas quà m primùm majorum rerum occasiones in urbe Sueton. in vit sul Caesaris §. 7. he was asham'd to think of his own Sloth and sighed to consider that as yet he had perform'd no memorable Act at those Years wherein Alexander had conquered the whole World and presently craved leave to depart that so he might take the first Occasions of greater Actions in the City So when we see and consider what others have acted at our Years how others have done more good to their own Souls more good to the Souls of their Relations more spiritual good in their Families and Places of abode have conquer'd their own Passions subdued Temptations and Lusts and been the means of bringing others into Subjection and Obedience to the Lord Christ it may cause a more than ordinary Blush to arise in our Faces if there be any Christian Blood in them O let others considerable Improvement and Proficiency quite shame us out of our Idleness Negligence and Indiligence and quicken and provoke us to Activity and Industry in working the Work of God and working out our Salvation with Fear and Trembling The fourth Motive Consider farther That it is an Act of spiritual Wisdom to redeem the Time Redeeming the Time is called a * Coloss 4.5 walking in Wisdom a walking †Eph. 5.15 not as Fools but as Wise in the Verse before my Text. they are commended for * Mat. 25.4 wise Virgins who took Oil in their Vessels with their Lamps And on the contrary it is meer Madness and gross Folly not to redeem the Time They are noted for †Verse 3. foolish Virgins who took their Lamps and took no Oil with them 'T is Folly for a Merchant to trifle away the Time of his Trade Solomon marks him for a ‖ Prov. 17.16 Fool who has a Price in his Hand to get Wisdom and has no heart no use it What an odd and foolish Humour what a weak and childish Carriage and Behaviour what a vain and fruitless Practice and Employment was that of the Emperour [a] Inter initia principatûs quoâ—â—â—e secretum sibi horarium sumere solebat nec quicquam amplius quà m muscas captare ac stylo praeacuto configere ut cuidam interroganti Essetne quis intus cum Caesare non absurdè responsum sit a Vibio Crispo Ne musca quidem Id. in vit Domitiani § 2. Domitian to spend so many Hours in catching and killing Flies when he should have been in the Senate-House consulting for the good of the Commonwealth Which occasioned Vibius Crispus when a certain Person asked whether any one were within with Caesar to return this smart Answer There is not so much as a Fly with him And how has the World scorn'd and laughed at [b] Repente ut conchas legerent gaâ—ásque sinus replerent imperavit Spolia Oceani vocans Capitolio Palatiôque debita Id in vit Caligulae § 46. Caligula who when he drew out his Army on the Sea-shore and made a Shew of War on a suddain he only commanded his Souldiers to gather a company of Cockle-Shells and to fill their Shields and Bosoms with them affirming that they were the Spoils of the Sea and were due to the Capitol and Palace So how contemptible in the Eyes of God and good Men do many Christians render themselves by their toyish trissing Actions and petty inconsiderable Employments who were sent into the World about matters and Businesses of the greatest weight and moment When a certain [c] Dr. Lightfoot serm on Psal 4.4 p. 20. Epicure made his Will he bequeathed to his Player to his Cook to his Jester Talents and Pounds but Philosopho obolum an Half-penny only to him that would have taught him Wisdom And is not the Distribution of most Mens Time much after the same absurd Measure and foolish proportion What vast Portions of the rich Treasure of Time do they give and allow to sensual Pleasures and carnal Delights and freely bestow and lavish out upon secular Affairs and worldly Employments But if they part with any at all alas how few Minutes how very small and poor a pittance of Time is it that they find in their Hearts to spare in a Day a Week a Month a Year yea in a whole Life-time to God and Religion and the Needs and Concerns of their own Souls The Reverend [d] Bp. Hall's Remains or Shaking of the Olive-tree Serm. on 1 Pet. 1.17 p. 226. Bp. Joseph Hall relates a very remarkable Story out of [e] Summa Praedicantium Bromiard of a certain Lord in his Time that had a Fool in his House to whom the Lord gave a Staff and charg'd him to keep it till he should meet with one that was more Fool than himself and if he met with such an one to deliver it over to him Not many Years after this Lord falling sick even unto Death his Fool came to see him and was told by his sick Lord that he must now shortly leave him And whither wilt thou go said the Fool Into another World said his Lord And when wilt thou come again within a Month No Within a Year No When then Never Never And what Provision hast thou made for thy Entertainment there whither thou goest None at all No said the Fool none at all
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
are sanctified by making thee Partaker of effectual Vocation real Regeneration gracious Adoption and thorough Sanctification that by Holiness he would qualify and dispose thee for Happiness And this Meditation will incline thee to put thy self in God's Way to be made fit And when he begins to make thee fit to do the best thou canst under God in his Strength and by his Grace to sit thy self to inquire after the Means of eternal Life and to charge thy self with the Vse of these Means in order to the attaining of this great End To cleanse thy self from all Filthiness that thou maiest be meet for an undefiled Inheritance (*) Rev. 3.4 To keep thy Garments undefiled that thou maiest be worthy to walk with Christ in white To glorify God both in thy Body and Spirit that thou maiest receive and inherit the Promise of the Glorification both of thy Soul and Body To endeavour to have (†) Rom. 6.22 thy Fruit unto Holiness that thy End may be everlasting Life (‖) Rev. 22.14 To do God's Commandments that thou maiest be blessed and have Right to the Tree of Life and maiest enter in through the Gates into the City [*] Rom. 2.7 By patient continuance in well doing to seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality that God may render eternal Life to thee Believing and considering that he that made thee without thee won'd save thee without thee a known Saying of St. Austin that God will never bestow glorious Immortality upon any that are loth to look after it that he will never give eternal Life to any that are unwilling to receive it that he won't make thee happy against thy Will nor force Heaven upon thee whether thou wilt or no That eternal Life is a Thing well worth thy looking after and therefore it is that God will have it sought for and sought for by well doing in a way of Obedience and good Works And that not only by Fits and Starts but by Perseverance or Continuance in well-doing and by patient Continuance in well-doing That a Man may as well think to be able to [t] Qui fide solitarta putat se posse ambulare in Christo is uno pede ambulare conatur quod est impoâ—â—bâ—le Dav. in Col. 2.6 p. 174 walk with one Leg as ever expect to go to Heaven by a Faith that is separated from good Works But do not only think of Glory in the General But consider seriously more particularly how upon the Reunion of Soul and Body thou shalt be made completely happy In the Vision of God In beholding the glorisied humane Nature of Christ In the Perfection of thy Knowledg and the full Satisfaction of all thy rational Desires In the blessed Place thou shalt dwell in In the blessed Company thou shalt enjoy And in the Uninterruption Perpetuity and Eternity of this blessed State 1. How thou shalt at last be made happy * Mar. 5 8. 1 Joh. 3.2 in the Sight of God That thy Vnderstanding shall acquiesce in the highest Being That then thou shalt see him as he is a Fountain of all that is desirable to thy Nature see him [a] Nos non negamus quin Deum videant animae separatae sed quta visionis intus non est und ratio sed variae partes prout Deus sise clariùs vel obsc riùs revelas libenter concedimus nondum cò pervenisse animas fidelium ut eum sacie ad faciem intuers dici possint Thes Salmur de vit Aetern thes 11. †1 Cor. 12.12 Face to Face know him even as also thou art known that in Heaven thou shalt have as clear a Sight of God and as free Communion with him as the State of a Creature can admit That though thou shalt not then immediatly see the very Essence of God as the over-acute School-men affirm God being in this respect invisible to the Angels themselves who though they be unspotted with any Sin yet the sole Imbecillity of their Nature and Creature-state does hinder such a Sight of God yet as the learned Camero expresses himself concerning it thou shalt see God by [b] Videtur Deus experiundo quis sit qualem se erga nos praestet Camero Praelect de Verbo Dei c. 7. p. 455. experiencing who he is and what he shews and manifests himself to be to thee by reaping the blessed Fruit and Benefit of the Divine Power Wisdom and Goodness so far as the Measure of a Creature can bear in the Sanctity of thy Soul and glorious Immortality of thy Body And as the ingenious judicious [c] Vide Thes Salmur de vita aeterna a Thes 13. ad finem Thes 27. Amyraldus does very intelligibly explain this Matter thou shalt see God hereafter in his glorious Works and admirable Operations such as will be the most bright Splendor and beautiful Habitation of Paradise the Glorification of thy own and others Bodies the Consociation of the Church with Angels and especially the glorious Presence of Christ in whose Manhood will appear as much of the Creator as is possibly visible in the Nature of Man To which add whatever else there may be in which the Majesty of the Deity shall then manifest it self Which rare Effects of the Divinity will certainly lead thee to a clear and full Knowledg of God's most excellent Properties and divine Vertues his Wisdom and Knowledg Power and Greatness Grace and Mercy Truth and Faithfulness the Knowledg and Contemplation of which will Fire and inflame thee with Love to him and ravish thee with joy and Delight in him Think how hereafter thou shalt see God and see him as thy God and Chief Good see god not with a transient Sight but see him so as to possess and enjoy him to close with him and be united to him and complacentially to rest in him as thy utmost and perfect End See God not by a mere speculative Contemplation of him but so as by seeing him [d] In the Tife of Glory our Souls become living polished Gsasses wherein the Divine Nature wherein Christ God and Man may be seen as he is and he is Truth it self Life it self and Goodness it self and we are transform'd into the Similitude of all these his Actibutes Dr. Jackson third Vol. p. 504 505. to become * 1 Joh 3.2 like unto him to be changed and transformed into the true and lively Image of him to be made Partaker in thy Measure and Proportion of that Wisdom and Holiness Love and Goodness which thou shalt apprehend and behold in him That thou shalt not only please and delight thy self by looking on some Glory that shall appear before thee to use some Words of a [d] See D. Patrick's Parable of the Pilgr p. 89 90. learned Doctor but shalt be made all glorious within and become thy self a God-like Creature That thou shalt not behold the Divinity only without thy self and be made happy by some external Enjoyment
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
one another's sinning and to promote the Work of Grace and Holiness in one another's Hearts Take Occasion to warm not so much one another's Houses as one another's Hearts Visit one another in the Evening meet together and confer one with another at leisure hours and on daies of Recreation * Mal. 3.16 Speak often one to another concerning the things that belong to the Peace of one another's Souls and concern the Conditiion of the Church of Christ Build up †Jude 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one another on your most holy Faith ‖ 1 Thess 5.11 Comfort your selves together and edify one another (*) Heb. 3.13 Exhort one another daily while it is called To day Let your Exhortation be mutual and reciprocal frequent and continual seasonable and speedy lest any of you be hardened through the Deceitfulness of Sin Take the first Opportunity of dealing with thy Friend as the case and need of his Soul requires lest Death remove him unexpectedly out of the reach of thy Charity to all Eternity Consider with thy self that should thy Companion live longer yet he may continue in the omission of some Duty because you only purpose to put him upon it Or he may go on in the commission of some Sin grow more and more in Love with it and fall more under the Power of it because you have only some thought and intention to turn him from it Support preserve and keep one another from falling and in the Spirit of Meekness raise and recover (†) Gal. 6.1 restore and (‖) Jam 5.19 convert one another when overtaken and fallen in any degree and measure either into Sin or Errour * Le◠19 17. Hate not your Friend or Brother in your Heart in any wise rebuke your Neighbour and never suffer Sin upon him when you find him offending against God or Man And * Mat. 18.15 if a Friend or Brother shall plainly trespass against thee go and tell him his Fault between thee and him alone not seeming to reproach him by chiding and reprehending him in publick nor offering to back-bite him by talking privately to others against him †Col. 3.16 Rom. 15 14. Teach and admonish one another and let it appear that you practise your own Precepts and take your selves the Counsel you give to others Follow Tertullian's excellent Advice [p] Oportet constantiam commenend proprtie conversationis autheritate dertgere ne icta faciis aesictent thus crubescant Tert. de patientia initio strengthen your friendly Admonition and Exhortation with the Authority of your own Conversation that your want of Deeds may not make you blush at your own Words and let me add that your Friend and Companion may not neglect and reject your Sayings because he knows too well your Doings As oftentimes you thrust away the good Light of a Candle for the ill savour which the stinking Tallow yields Let none have reason to retort and say ‖ Luke 4.23 Physician heal thy self (*) Rom. 2 21. Thou which teachest another teachest thou not thy self What Mr. Herbert speaks of Ministers may be sitly accommodated to the Exhortations and Admonitions of Christian Friends [q] The Windows Doctrine and Life Colours and Light in one When they combine and mingle bring A strong Regard and Aw but Speech alone Doth vanish like a flaring thing And in the Ear not Conscience ring (†) Heb 10 24. Consider one another to provoke unto Love and to good Works or to [r] Dr. Ham of frat Admon or Correp p. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sharpen or provoke in one another Charity and good or laudable Works You are apt to forget and prone to neglect your selves you have need enough of one anothers spiritual Care and Help 't is necessary that others should watch and observe incite and assist you be at some trouble and take some pains with you your own and others Consideration and Provocation of you is little enough to stir and move you Ponder and [s] Dr. Hum. Par. in loc weigh all Advantages that you can have one upon another to excite and extimulate to engage and quicken one another to the Exercise of Charity and all Actions of Piety whensoever you find any thing of fainting or growing cold in one another Search and enquire into one anothers spiritual Estates mind and study the Cases and Conditions of one anothers Souls the Causes and Cures of one another spiritual Distempers Be very solicitous for one anothers present and future Good carefully consult the spiritual Prosperity and eternal Welfare of one another Consider one another to provoke one another not to Sin and Wickedness to Vanity and Folly to uncertain Opinions to Faction and Division to Siding and Party-taking not to that which is highly provoking but exceeding well-plealing to God not to Wrath but to Love not to Evil but to Good Works Consider and provoke one another not as the Devil considers and provokes Men by his Temptations but as God considers and provokes Men who watches over us continually prevents us daily with his Grace strengthens us against Temptations affords us his Counsel instils many good Motions into our Minds and often incites and stirs us up to the Duties incumbent on us And as Christ consider'd and provoked Sinners when he was here on Earth to Faith and Repentance good Works and Obedience who went about doing Good doing good to Mens Souls as well as Bodies who freely convers'd with them frequently instructed them affectionately exhorted them powerfully press'd them plainly reprov'd them was grieved for the Hardness of their Hearts lamented and wept over their Impenitency and Insidelity Consider thy Companion at such a season when it is most likely that he may consider what you say to him Provoke him to Good when in all probability it may do most good Remember to consider and provoke one another in a serious manner Never offer to utter a few cold dull dead Words between Jest and Earnest but earnestly perswade and pathetically expostulate one with another and let one another plainly see that every Application does arise and proceed from Love and Compassion and that it is the Desire of your Souls to save one another's Souls Let your Words be as * Eccl. 12.1 Goads as the Wise Man speaks to prick one another forward in the way of Religion Instead of detaining one another unnecessarily from the Publick Assembly stir up one another with an holy Zeal and say one to another in the Words of the Prophet * Zech. 8.21 Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of Hosts I will go also Be not Quench-coals but as live Coals begetting Heat in those that are next you Let Christian Acquaintance use their utmost Endeavours to bring one another more acquainted with God and with their own spiritual States and Conditions Let Christian Neighbours study
and endeavour to make one another nigh to God Let Christian Yoke-fellows exhort and encourage one another to take Christ's Yoke upon them and to bear his Burden Let Christian Servants stir up one another to work out their Salvation to do the Business and to finish the Work which their heavenly Master has given them to do Consider exhort provoke one another and look what becomes of all the Labour Care and Pains that you take with any Friend or Acquaintance and if it obtain not at present its much desired Fruit and Effect yet be not disheartened nor [t] Angor iste qui pro amico saepe capiendus est non tantum valet ut tollat è vita amicitiam non plus quà m ut virtutes quia nonnullas curas molestias afferunt repudientur Lael apud Cic. de Amic desert your Duty and give over this necessary Office and excellent Part of Friendship though you find it difficult and uneasy though you seem to any carnal Friend as one that mocks as * Gen. 19.14 Lot did to his Sons-in-law †2 Tim. 2.25 4 2. In Meekness instruct those that oppose themselves ‖ 1 Thess 5.14 Reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering which will be a becoming Imitation of God who you may remember endured you with much long-suffering who did not leave you to your selves when you first rejected his heavenly Admonition who called you often before you would hear and often provoked you before you would stir who suffers sinful Men so long till at last he suffers for his Suffering who is so patient till at last he loses by his Patience whose extream Patience as Tertullian excellently observes seems to [u] Vt sua sibi patientia detrahat plures enim Dominum idcirco non credunt quia seculo iratum tamdiu nesciunt Teit. de patientia detract and derogate from his Power for many believe saies he that there is no Governour of the World because they do not see him angry with the World Patiently continue thy Consideration and Care of thy Friends for though they do not consider what you say at present they may consider it hereafter Consider them because this will be a comfortable Consideration that though you do no good upon them yet you did your honest faithful and best Endeavours to do them good and are therefore clear from their Blood Think how greatly you will gain in your own Experience by considering your Acquaintance and dealing in a spiritual way with them and how much you will heighten and strengthen your own good Affections by exhorting provoking and exciting your Friends by rubbing and chasing your Companions you will not only get warmth into them but will with the same labour make your selves a great deal hotter than you were before The more you perswade and stir up them to the Love and Fear of God the more your own Heart will be warmed and inhamed with the Love and filled and possess'd with the Fear of God The more you quicken and stir up them to good Works you your selves will become much more ready to every good Work And as this will increase and improve your own spiritual Gifts and Graces so it will enlarge your Joys and Comforts and be matter of Satisraction and Pleasure to you to see some of their Souls spiritually prosper whom you have taken a special care of What a comfort will it be at last to consider that you have done much good by considering your Associates that by your consideration of them you have brought them to consider God and themselves that under God you have been the happy Instruments of awakening convincing strengthning and quickning your Acquaintance of * Mat. 18.15 gaining your Brethren of gaining them to God and gaining and endearing them more and more to your selves and of saving some precious Souls from Death which are more worth than the whole World How will they be your †1 Thess 2.19 20. Glory and Joy and Crown of Rejoicing who shall confess and acknowledg that you were the blessed means of working upon them and prevailing with them that under God they ow their spiritual Light and Life their Growth and Thriving in Grace their Progress and Procedure in Faith and Holiness their Stedfastness and Advancement in Religion and Godliness to your cure and pains with them your compassionate Consideration of them and watchful Circumspection over them yea will not this increase the Joies of Heaven and heighten the Pleasures of Paradise to you to meet with those Acquaintance there whom you were a means of helping thither by prompting and encouraging them to do those Works which are the way to the heavenly Kingdom Consider moreover that your considering your Friends and Neighbours will be consider'd and accepted by God though they should never consider any thing at all that your Labour of Love shall not be in vain to your selves though it should be ineffectual to others But if by dealing with them you do some real considerable good upon them that then very great will be your Reward in Heaven that if you * Dan. 12.3 turn many to Righteousness you shall shine as the Stars for ever and ever That if from a Principle of the Fear of the Lord you †Mal. 3.16 17. speak often one to another to animate one another to Faith and Obedience to Courage and Constancy the Lord will hearken and hear it and a Book of Remembrance shall be written before him concerning it and you shall be his in that Day when he maketh up his Jewels his peculiar Lot Inheritance choice Portion chief Treasure and he will spare you as a Man spareth his own Son that serveth him If you consider one another for good God will consider you for good If you provoke one another to Love this will provoke God to love you for it If you provoke your Acquaintance to good Works this will provoke God to reward you as well as them for all the good Works that are done by them by means of your Exhortations and [w] Quantoscunque aliquis exemplo sanctae vitae aedificaverit cum tantis pro tantis mercedem beatae vitae retributionis aceipiet Aug. tom 10. p. 209. Paris Examples But if you provoke not them to do good Works you shall one Day be found guilty of all the evil Works done by them which you might have hindred by any means and any way prevented the Commission of Neglect not the serious Exhortation loving Consideration and zealous Provocation one of another for surely when you come to die your own Hearts will not condemn you for labouring too hard in the grand concernments of the Souls of your Friends who are as * Deut. 13.6 your own Souls But you will be ready to challenge your selves for want of Care and Diligence in that Performance and to grieve and mourn that you have been so useless in your Friendship and Society that
you have no better improved Christian Fellowship and Communion no more awaken'd quicken'd comforted and spiritually served one another Grudg not to bestow a little Labour in watching over thy Friend and Neighbour this Work and Task will be quickly over And take not amiss anothers taking care of thee Count the Christian Religion lovely and amiable upon this Consideration that it makes such excellent and admirable Provision for the Welfare and Safety of Souls for the spiritual Security and eternal Felicity of the Professors of it Prize and value the rich Mercy and abundant Kindness of God to thee that he should appoint every Friend about thee to be a spiritual Help to thee and make it part of his Office and Business to take care of thy Soul And when you find any Friend faithful in the Exercise of his Duty and Discharge of his Conscience toward thee bless God that he is so And be truly thankful to him also for so high an expression of his charitable Affection Let his sincere and hearty Love to thee make him appear * 1 Sam 29.9 good in thy sight as an Angel of God and cause his †Rom. 10 15. Feet as well as Face to be truly [x] Quid tam alsurdum quà m delectari multis inanibus rebus ui honore ut glorià ut aedificio ut vestitu culiú jue cerporis animo autem virtute praedito eo qut vel amare vel ut enini remuneratione benevolentiae nthil vicissitudine studiorum essicier úmque jucundiù Lael apud Cic. de amic beautiful to thee Never be provoked with an ill Provocation against the Person of a Friend who sharpens and provokes you with a good Provocation Be not angry with any that provoke you to Love nor render evil for good to such as labour to provoke you to good Works If thy Friend and Companion rebuke thee know how to accept a great Kindness take his Love and Good-will well and shew that thou hast good Flesh to heal Say with holy David ‖ Ps 41.5 Let the Righteous smite me it shall be a Kindness and let him reprove me it shall be an excellent Oil which shall not break my Head And reckon this to be one of the saddest Strokes that God inflicts for God to say (*) Hos 4.4 Let no Man strive nor reprove another Be so wise and good natured as to [y] Plurimim in amicitia amicorum bene suadentium valeat autoritas eáque adhibeatur ad monendum non moaò aperrè sed etiam acriter si res postulabit autoritati adhibitae pareatur Id. ib. suffer a Word of Exhortation and Admonition from a truly loving Christian Friend When thou aut in Company with thy Friends do †1 Kings 20.23 as Benhadad's Servant did in the Presence of Ahab diligently observe whether any good thing will come from any and hastily catch it Shew thy self much pleased and delighted with any good Discourse that is started and labour to keep it up and maintain it But know that if now thou refusest to hearken to the Counsels and follow the Advices and submit * Eph. 5.21 thy self to the Reproofs and Reprehensions of prudent pious Christian Friends and art ready to strive against all their earnest passionate Strivings with thee then they that contended and laboured in vain with thee here shall surely †1 Cor. 6.2 judg thee at Last Day and bring in Evidence and Testimony against thee that they would have healed thee and thou wouldst not be healed that they by all means would have helped thee to Heaven and thou wouldst hasten and hurry to Hell ‖ Jer. 51.9 The eleventh Direction If we would earnestly redeem the Time we must remember and consider perform and answer our solemn Sacramental Vows Occasional Promises and Sick-bed Resolutions 1. Our solemn Sacramental Vows 1. Our Promise and [a] Of the Vow of Baptism see Dr. Hammond's Pract. Cat. l. 6. the latter part of sect 2 and 3. And his notions contracted in the VVhole Duty of Man partit 2. par 33 c. Vow made in Baptism Which Promise made by Persons baptized when adult or of full Age is called as some understand and interpret that Place the stipulation or * 1 Pet. 3.21 answer of a good Conscience towards God At the time of our Infant-Baptism we were dedicated to the Service of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and solemnly entred into a sacred Covenant Then we indented and engaged to renounce the Devil the †Eph. 6.12 2.2 Ruler ‖ Joh. 12 31. Prince and (*) 2 Cor. 4.4 God of this World And all his Works All that the Devil labours by any means to set us about and employ us in But especially and principally all those Sins which carry particularly the stamp and character the image and resemblance of Satan upon them and have (†) Joh. 8.44 from the beginning been practised by him such as Pride Lying Slandering Malice Envy Killing and Destroying Tempting and Soliciting others to Sin We covenanted expresly to abandon and abomine all Diabolical Works And to forsake and disclaim the Pomps and Vanities or Pompous Vanities the profane Spectacles the Luxury the ostentatious vain-glorious Bravery of this wicked World To abhor and avoid the evil Company and to resist the applauded vile vicious Customs and popular Temptations of the World To take care not to accompany the Ungodly in their Sins To deny Vngodliness and worldly Lusts and all the sinful Desires Affections Appetites of the Flesh◠to abstain from fleshly Lusts and from all the Works of the Flesh to make no provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof To endeavour to moderate and subordinate all our Desires to the Will of God And by God's Grace and under the influence of Divine Assistance according to our Abilities obediently to keep God's holy Will and Commandments and not only to take a few Steps but to walk in the same and that not only for a spurt or a few daies but all the daies of our Lives And since we came to years of Discretion and were of age sufficient to use our Reason and act understandingly we have personally owned openly and deliberately confirmed our Baptismal Vow taken the obligation in our own names by actual consent yielded and resigned devoted and delivered up our selves to become the teachable tractable Disciples the ready and voluntary Servants of the blessed Trinity Now to make this grand Promise good were to redeem the Time indeed Let 's never offer or dare to live as if we had been initiated in the impure Mysteries of the Heathen as if we had been baptized in the name of Bacchus or Venus baptized in the very Devil's name devoted to his Drudgery and deeply engaged against God and Christ and the Holy Spirit against the Gospel and Godliness against the Members of Christ and the People of God But look and see we live as those who
measure it by Work and not by Time Wouldst thou know the Difference between him that spent so few and another that hath passed over many Years The one lives even after Death the other perished before Death Let us therefore praise him and place him in the Number of happy Persons who how little Time soever he enjoyed was careful to bestow it well Why do you inquire how long he lived he liv'd to the Memory and Benefit of Posterity As there may be a perfect Man in a less Habit of Body so there may be a perfect Life in a less Measure of Time Do you demand what is the largest Space of Life it is to live till we attain to Wisdom He that arrives to that is come not to the longest End but the greatest He liv'd not so many Years as he might why a Book may contain but a few Verses and yet be very laudable and useful He that attains the End of Life though his time be short yet his Life is long because he lives [u] In quantolibet tempore bona aeterna consummant Sen. Ep. 92. much in a little Like him that writes small thick and close having much to write and but a little Paper to write in When the Ninivites had but forty Dvies allowed them they made use of that Space to exercise a notable Repentance in Our Time is short and very uncertain let our Improvement therefore be as speedy and as great as may be Let our Care be to live alwaies holily that we may never fear dying suddenly nor dread the Thought of being surprised and taken unprovided If we cannot be certain of longer enjoying this present mortal transitory Life Oh let 's not be contented to be as uncertain of our obaining a better being and an endless Life when this is concluded and expired 3. Our special Particular Opportunities are much shorter than our Time and more uncertain Though the Stalk remain the Flower may be gone though somewhat of Time may be left yet Opportunity may be slipt But this I say Brethren the * ◠Cor. 7.29 TIME IS SHORT the Word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contracted or shortened It is an Allusion to Sea-faring Men that have almost done their Voyage and begin to strike Sail are ready to roll and fold up their Sails together to put into Harbour and to go to unlade their Goods Our special Seasons are very short and uncertain Things We may quickly be laid upon Sick-Beds and unfitted by a Disease for the Performance of those Duties which now we are free to the Exercise of We may suddenly fall into so weak a Condition that an earnest Care and working Thoughts about the final Estate of our Souls would hinder the Cure and Recovery of our Bodies and will be apt to be laid aside upon that Pretence In a Time of Sickness our Heads may be distempered or our Hearts may be straitned that we cannot pray We may possibly lose our Estates that we cannot hereafter give to the Poor so liberally as now we may It may be for the future we may not be excited and suscitated by such good Motions as now we are We may never be entrusted with such rich Talents nor have such precious Opportunities any more afforded us as are at present vouchsafed to us Let 's therefore now improve them to the utmost let us make the best of them and lose none of them Especially considering that as our Time is short and uncertai and our special Opportunities shorter and more uncertain So 4. The Work we have to do is very great 'T is no slight and trifling Work above all keepings to keep our Hearts to prevail with our selves to make a Covenant with our Eyes and perform it to turn away our Eyes from beholding Vanity and from gazing on alluring Objects to learn habitually to govern our Tongues to set a Watch over our Lips that we offend not with our Tongues nor speak unadvisedly with our Lips to take heed unto our Feet and to make streight Paths to walk circumspectly * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 5.15 accurately exactly to strive to enter in at the strait Gate to watch for our Souls to work out our Salvation to make our Calling and Election sure to procure and preserve a Right and Title to the heavenly Kingdom to get our Evidences for Heaven sealed and to keep them so clear from Blots and Blurs that they may be plainly read It is no facile Thing to repent of so many thousand Sins and Follies to believe with all our Hearts to obey the several Laws and Commands of Christ and to discharge and perform our particular respective Duties both towards God towards our Neighbour and towards our selves 'T is no such easy matter to become able to resist the Devil to tread Satan under our Feet to get Victory over the World to subdue our own Flesh to deny our selves To reach and attain to such a Degree of spiritual Niceness as not to endure the Impurity of a Dream nor to allow our selves in so much Anger as would disorder and disturb a Child Sin is not mortified on a suddain Our old Man is not crucified in a Moment The strong Man is not disarm'd and cast out in an instant The Plague of our Heart is not so soon cured our spiritual Leprosie so quickly healed nor our Issue of Blood so presently dried up A corrupt Nature is not so easily changed [w] Malá consuetudine obsessis diu rubigo animorum essricanda est Sen. ep 95. Ill Habits and Customs are not so readily broken and laid aside A craving Appetite is not immediatly drawn off from sensual Objects nor our Inclinations to the Things below vanquish'd and conquer'd with a single and short Conflict Strength is not so speedily gotten against Temptations nor Power over our Passions nor Conquest obtain'd over our Corruptions It is not a Thing of so quick a dispatch to six and settle our Resolutions to remove strong Prejudices to resolve our Doubts to answer Objections and satisfy many weighty and difficult Questions which will arise concerning our Souls and spiritual Estates 'T is a great Work sure Employment and Business enough for all our Time to get a Change of Mind and Heart and Life To get Pardon of Sin and Purity of Heart To recover the Favour and Friendship of God and to regain the glorious Image and Likeness of God To procure the Reconciliation of our Persons and Natures to God To get a Participation of the divine Nature a Participation of God's Holiness To attain a blessed Conformity in a Spirit and Practice to Christ our Head To get an affective transformative Knowledg of God and Christ and a deep Impress of the holy Gospel upon our Hearts and Lives To know the Gospel to know God and Christ so as to become Gospel-like God-like Christ-like Creatures To gain a good Measure of grace and Holiness a rooted Love to God and Goodness a
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