cause were it possible to cancel and blot our every day of his Life each day having been only spent in treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of God's righteous Judgment Rom. ii 5. R. 10. By such a holy improvement of the short and troublesom days of time we shall secure to our selves an happy being thorowout the long and endless days oâ— Eternity If we sow to the Spirit we shall of the Spirit reap Life Everlasting Gal. vi 7 8. If we suffer with Christ we shall reign with him 2 Tim. ii 12. The good and faithful Servant shall enter into the joy of his Lord Mat. xxv 21. Wherefore my beloved Brethren be stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. xv 58. God suffereth none of his faithful Servants to be losers by him or any thing they do for his honour and glory Our light afflictions which are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory while we look not at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen for the things that are seen are Temporal but the things that are not seen are Eternal 2 Cor. iv 17 18. Surely if we believe an eternity of happiness for holy Souls we shall not think any pains in duty or any patience in suffering too much for it Our discouraging apprehensions of the difficulty of duty proceed much from the Wavering and Weakness of our Faith concerning the Reality and Excellency of the heavenly glory If we lived as seeing him who is invisible Heb. xi 27. And as foreseeing that glory which is eternal we should lead other manner of lives both in respect of grace and comfort than now we do Who would not Watch and Pray Toil and Labour Suffer and Wait that did soundly apprehend and firmly believe that the result of all would be the Souls being for ever with the Lord 1 Thes iv 17. Oh the glory purchased with the redeemers blood and which he hath as our forerunner taken possession of what will it not excite and enable us to undertake and perform Did we believe that the fervent effectual Prayer of a righteous man availeth much Jam. v. 16. to the gaining of Eternal blessedness we should not so often omit nor so lazily perform that duty as we do Did Faith enliven our Meditations of Heaven we should be oftner in them and continue at them longer and with more delight Did we look upon every alms given by us to the poor as a laying up treasure in Heaven we should labour to be rich in good Works Did we reckon that the more of the sufferings of Christ are fulfilled in us now the more of the glory of Christ shall be revealed in us hereafter we should even be ambitious of Martyrdom and esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt Heb. xi 26. But alas we think Heaven may be had with less ado or else we think so poorly of it as if it were scarce worth having So that there is too much cause to take up concerning us the complaint of one of the Ancients Aut hoc non est Evangelium aut nos non sumus Evangelici either this that we have in our Bibles is not the Gospel or we are not the Gospellers so wide is the difference between the Gospel of Christ and the Lives of Christians But be assured my friends we must bring our hearts and lives to the Gospel and make that the Rule of them if ever we will be happy For Christ will never bring down his Gospel to our hearts and lives If we will be saved it must be in his way and on his Terms and he hath said Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. xii 14. And the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. vi 9. For without are Dogs c. Rev. xxii 15. Consider therefore whether you will live a life of present ease and be hereafter cast out into eternal Torments or you will now painfully exercise your selves unto godliness and approve your selves Christ's Servants that you may hereafter be for ever with him and behold his glory John xvii 24. and share in that Rest that remaineth for the People of God Heb. iv 9. Having now shewn you what it is to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long and given you the Reasons which oblige every one of us to take care that we daily be so III. It remains that I point out to you those Inferences and practical Conclusions that follow upon and flow from the Truths we have hitherto been discoursing Inference I. Must we as you have heard be in the fear of the Lord all the day long What then shall we think of them that have no fear of God before their eyes that are so far from making Religion their daily business that they live every day as without God in the World Eph. ii 12. They say unto God Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways Job xxi 14. If it be so necessary to our present peace and future happiness as hath been shewn to walk with God continually what a condition are they in that never took one step in Heavens way or so much as once set their faces Sion-ward Jer. L. 5. What shall we think of the Atheistical Crew that call in question God's Being and boldly deny his Providence The Infidel-scoffers that deny Jesus to be the Son of God and ridicule the sacred Records of Eternal Life that deride all pretensions to the assistance of the Holy Spirit and hold the intercourse and communion of Souls with the Father of Spirits to be no better than meer fancy and delusion How are we to account of the Hypocritical Race of pretenders to that Religion they never felt the power of upon their hearts who oft turn Infidels themselves and draw others into the same condemnation The malignant Enemies of practical Religion who profess to love God while they hate their Brethren to the very death for no other reason but because they indeed love him The lovers of this World Mammons Idolatrous Worshippers who know no godliness but gain 1 Tim. vi 5. and who have no end of living but to be rich and to compass that will deny God damn themselves and destroy their Brethren The sond admirers of ease and pleasure that are dead while they live 1 Tim. v. 6. and are willing to purchase a dying Life with eternal Death and exchange Angels fare for that of Swine lovers of Pleasures more than lovers of God 2 Tim. iii. 4. The eager hunters after applause that value themselves by what others think of them without staying to consider what they ought to think of themselves Those who seldom worship God so much as in outward appearance and never in spirit and truth
employment of our whole time And here I shall lay down the Reasons and Motives that are proper to enforce this Practice upon us and perswade us to it 3. I shall conclude with some Inferences and Practical Remarks upon the whole 1. To open to you this being in the Fear of the Lord all the day long And this I shall do by laying before you the several parts of your daily duty that so you may be directed in the orderly performance of it Many neglect the great business of Christianity because they do not well understand what it is or if they know something of it in general yet their notions are but confused and they know not how to place and order their duties For your help in this I shall lay before you the following Scheme of good employments for every day which whosoever Prudently Sincerely Cheerfully and Constantly observes does in some good measure come up to this Divine Rule of being in the fear of the Lord all the day long 1. If you will be in the fear of the Lord all the day long you must see that the fear of the Lord be in you Look well that a principle of Grace and Regeneration be wrought in your Soul A dead man cannot work or walk you must make the tree good or the fruit will be naught A graceless Soul cannot do a gracious action much less is it to be expected that he should engage and persist in a course of holiness How many in a pang of Conviction and under present fears of Death and Hell resolve that they will lead new lives they will be drunk no more they will leave their loose Companions they will Pray and Read and Hear and do no body knows what But their goodness is but like a morning Cloud and early Dew that soon passeth away they dream of leading new lives without getting new hearts Whereas if you will to purpose reform your lives you must begin with your hearts Get a deep sense of sin see your need of Christ cry to God for Pardon and Grace be restless till you feel your Souls possest with the Spirit of a holy Life Light and Love till you be made partakers of a Divine Nature new creatures in whom all old things are passed away and all things are become new A new heart is virtually a new life inasmuch as it will certainly produce it whereas a seeming new Life while the old unsanctified heart with its unmortified Lusis remains is but a dead Image a painted carkass a thing that as it does not live so it cannot last 2. Begin every day with God When I awake saith the holy Psalmist I am still with thee Psal 139. 18. Labour that your first thoughts may be of God and Christ and Heaven Use your Souls upon their first release from the Fetters of sleep to work towards God in thankful acknowledgments and deep admirations of his goodness with very humbling reflections on your own frailty and vileness Say Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him or the Son of Man that thou visitest him Psal viii 4. Lift up a Prayer for protection from sin and danger throughout the new day God is pleased to give you Think how many have passed the night in Pain and Misery and how many Souls may be this night gone into Eternity while you have slept sweetly and safely and bless God for his mercy to you and labour to make a wise and holy improvement of it Good thoughts at our first waking season our hearts for all day 3. Waste no time in needless sleep or waking sloth How many that are horribly afraid to die yet make no matter of giving away a vast proportion and that of the very best the flower of their time to deaths Image and Brother Sleep O think how many are suing out obtaining their pardon and making sure their Salvation while you lie Sleeping and Snoring and have not you Souls as well as they Have not you as much need of Christ and Grace and Heaven as they Remember excessive Sleep is neither good for Body nor Soul All cannot do with the like measure of Sleep but there are very few but might do with a great deal less than they do And of those that are not guilty of indulging the Body in this respect how many more are there that abridge themselves for the World than that do it for God and their Souls And is the World a better Master think you than God and Christ And is Gold a better purchase than Grace And then when you are awake slugg not as many do turning upon their beds like a door upon its hinges much less contrive not mischief upon your Beds let not contemplative wickedness find that time to steal into your hearts But shake off sloath and as soon as true necessity will give leave be stirring Remember morning hours are the cream of time more precious than the filings of Gold or dust of Pearl therefore throw them not away 4. Be not long in dressing and lose not even that time but think of some apparel for the Soul Be not like the gaudy Butter-flies and gay Peacocks of our days that spend their best hours between the Comb and the Glass and so their Bodies be but fine care not how filthy their Souls are Remember Cloaths came in to cover that nakedness of which sin had made us ashamed and therefore they should be a constant memorial to us of the fall of our first Parents and ours in them and to be proud of them or to make a great deal of stir and do about them is very foolish and absurd as well as wicked Count that fashion of apparel the best that being sufficient for Warmth and Decency truly so called requires least time in putting on To spend an hour every morning in Tricking and Trimming the Body and to think half an hour for Reading and Prayer too much is to me no very good sign than he or she whose ordinary practice is such is a real hearty Christian. And you whose apparel is really Grave and Decent the time that is spent in putting it on let it not be wholly taken up in that but let your minds be employed in suitable Meditations Think of putting oâ— the Lord Jesus Christ he is the only cloathing for your Souls that the shame of your nakedness may not appear You would be ashamed to go naked into the Company of your Neighbours O be ashamed of sin which is the Souls nakedness While you are dressing think what Temptations you are like to meet with in the day and labour to fence against them forelay the employments of the day meditate on some Scripture promise or the like 5. Go not out of your Chamber or Lodging Room without urgent necessity till you have offered up your morning Sacrifice of Prayer and Praise unto God He that is to travel among Thieves had need go armed Origen Complains that that day he
with sincerity and alacrity instead of those forced shews and that feigned Devotion that now alas too generally corrupts yea even nullifies the Christian Worship 20. Lastly Close the day as you began it with God Retire e're you be too sleepy and examine your selves how you have spent the day Look over the foregoing Rules and think how you have complied with them or wherein you have come short Thus ask what State and Condition is my Soul in Am I truly regenerate or no Did I this day awake with God What were my first Thoughts upon Have I not wasted morning hours or even minutes in needless sleep or sloth in vain imaginations or contemplative wickedness Have I not been too long in dressing my body too curious in my apparel proud of it Have I not lost that time or have I redeemed it by holy Meditations Spiritual Projects and wise fore-casting how I might best serve God the ensuing day Have I solemnly sought God in fervent and believing Prayer and diligent study of his holy Word And has not Spiritual Life been wanting in my closet-duties Was it as much and more to me that God was by than if all the World had seen me Have I looked strictly this day whatever Company I have been in both to my Thoughts and Speeches that neither were Light Vain or Wicked but Serious Spiritual Heavenly becoming my high calling and honourable profession of Christianity Especially have I carefully avoided that common and hateful sin of Tale-bearing and Pragmatical medling with other mens matters Have I been diligent in my particular calling and that not for Covetousness but Conscience towards God Have I done to others as I would be done by Have I defrauded nor over-reached none Have I been sober and temperate in the use of bodily refreshments Have I referred them to Gods glory and seasoned my use of them with the reverent mention of his name Have I medled with no recreations but what were certainly lawful and have I used them lawfully Have I neither been cast down with causeless or excessive grief nor lifted up with carnal jollity and frothy merriment Have I this day very seriously thought of my last day and how have those thoughts affected me Have I duly noticed and improved the Occurrence of Providence and the influences of Grace this day What special seasons of doing or receiving good have I had this day and how have I laid hold of them or let them slip What sense have I had of Sions sufferings what Sympathy with afflicted brethren Have I done my utmost to relieve and help those that are in want and distress Have I been careful to keep up Family Religion and conscionable in the discharge of relative duties this day Has sincerity and cheerfulness rendred Christ's Yoak easie and his burden light in all the variety of employments wherein I have this day served him Thus take Conscience to task about your daily behaviour and labour to be rightly affected with all the discoveries you make of your State Frame and Way Further examine what temper and disposition of Soul you arâ—â—ow in whether fit in some measure to draw nigh to God or not Read the Scriptures meditate on what you read or on some other heart-affecting Subject and leave not till you feel your heart suitably moved therewith then pour out your Souls again to God in Prayer and commit your Souls and Bodies with Faith and Confidence to his Love and Care As you undress you think As I now put off my Cloaths so I must ere long this Body As I now lie down in my bed so shortly must I in the Grave Think what an Image sleep is of death and how easie if God give the word the passage is from the Image to the reality and how sure the sleep of death is to be followed with the morning of the Resurrection when we shall awake never to sleep again With such Meditations close your â—yes and lock out vanity from your hearts and let your beloved Jesus Christ lie all night as a bundle of Myrrh betwixt your Breasts Cant. i. 13. Thus will there be a setled correspondence betwixt your Souls and Heaven you will be its care and it will be your hope and days so spent will not be to be repented of at last 2. Having thus opened to you what it is to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long and how Christians are to be daily taken up in the Religious employment of their whole time I now proceed to shew you Why they are so to do and what are the reasons and motives enforcing this Practice upon us We are to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long and every day to make Religion our business Reas 1. Because this is to answer the Ends and Purposes for which God hath given us Life and Time Wise agents propound to themselves valuable ends in all they do the infinite wisdom therefore cannot be thought to have made this lower World and to have placed man made after his own Image therein but upon very valuable considerations not those indeed of profit to himself the absolute and compleat perfection of his nature barring all Impotency or defect to be assisted or supplied Job xxxv 6. 7. If thou sinnest what dost thou against him or if thy transgressions be multiplied what dost thou unto him If thou be righteous what givest thou him or what receiveth he of thine hand But the complacency of his own Will in the Communications of his Beneficence to his Creatures in proportion to their capacities of receiving To enlarge therefore our receptive capacities that so we may reflect more of the lustre of the divine goodness is the great end of our being and likewise of our continuance and support therein Now by nothing are our capacities more enlarged than by such a continual being in the fear of the Lord as I have before described For by doing Gods Wâ—ll we become enlarged in Divine and Spiritual Knowledge and our understanding will and active Powers receive a joint improvement He that doth the will of my Father saith our Saviour shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak it of my self Joh vii 17. and this is Life Eternal to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent Joh. xvii 3. Knowledge is the ground-work of Holiness and Holiness advanceth Knowledge and to be thus daily improving in holy Light Life and Love is that very end for which God made us at first again new made us redeeming us when we were lost and undone and for which his providential care still continues and supports us in the World Why were we not swallowed up of Death and Damnation when we had sinned but that the dead praise not God Psal cxv 17. Wherefore are we redeemed by the blood of Christ but that we should be a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. ii 14. Why are we made
who make no conscience of Relative duties of diligence in their Callings or of justice in their dealings who know not how to govern either their Souls or their Bodies by the Rules of Religion or the Laws of Sobriety what can we think of all these but that they are evidently the Sons of Death They are in a sad and miserable condition they live at random and must die at a venture for there can be no grounded assurance to such of an eternal well-being Such as these make a hard shift to please themselves in the course but will undoubtedly fool themselves in the issue of their Life they will one day wish they had not lived at all rather than to have lived thus A Life void of care commonly ends in a Death void of hope As ever therefore you would die the death of the righteous see that you live the life of the righteous and then and not otherwise your last end shall be like his Numb xxiii 10. Infer II. If we must be in the fear of the Lord every day much more on the Lords day We have shewn you how you must in a sound sense make every day a Sabbath by working for God and resting in him and diligent preparing for an eternal Sabbatism with him but you are not to pretend this in excuse for your neglect of sanctifying strictly the Christian Sabbath the first day of the week the day which the Lord hath made Psal cxviii 24. in which he calleth us to rejoyce and be glad In which we celebrate the memorial of our Lord's Resurrection and consequently of the whole work of our Redemption by him If we must walk with God every day much more on this day to which a special blessing is annexed and on which we have special advantages for the service of God and the salvation of our Souls The cavils of any against the strict observation of the Lord's day are easily answered by any one that observeth the dependence of the Life of practical Religion hereupon I will be bold to say it The power of Religion lives or dies according as Sabbath-sanctification is kept up or let fall in Churches Families or Souls Of other days you are to consecrate a part to Religious exercises Acts of Devotion and Worship but this day is wholly to be taken up therein Only God indulgeth us in works of true necessity and obligeth us to acts of Charity thereon giving mercy the preference even to Sacrifice I will here briefly heap together a few Directions for Sabbath-sanctification 1. Discern your obligntion to it in point of duty and value it as your Priviledge That God have a seventh part of our time for his Solemn Worship is the kernel of the fourth Commandment and of perpetual obligation and seems to have been a part of Gods Law to Adam even in the state of Innocence God appointed and blessed the seventh day of the week before Christ's coming in the flesh for a weekly Sabbath in commemoration of the worldly Creation and added a Law of Ceremonious Rest to the Jews as a part of their Paedagogy and a shadow of things to come now done away Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week and after his Ascension on that day poured forth his Spirit on his Apostles to qualifie them to declare his Will to Man-kind in all things concerning Salvation They held and setled Church Assemblies on the first day of the week and called it by way of approbation The Lords day Rev. i. 10. And the Vniversal Church as far as appears from Church History without the least contradiction till our times see Dr. Young's Dies Dominica and Mr. Baxter's Divine Appointment of the Lords-day kept this day and no other as the day of stated weekly Solemnities and God was with them and owned and honoured their Assemblies with his gracious presence And therefore it seems the effect of strange weakness or intolerable perverseness for any now in these last days to question what the Universal Church hath so long on so good reason practised The Lords-day as the Christian-Sabbath I take to have been instituted by Christ if not while personally on Earth yet by his Spirit in his Apostles And as an attentive Reader of the Scriptures may there discern clear intimations of this so the current practice of the Christian Church in all times and places doth fully confirm it Nor ought we to esteem it any other than a very great Priviledge that we may have a day in seven to study the Works and Word of God to praise his holy Name to worship him in the Assemblies of his Saints to learn his Will for our Salvation A holy Soul must needs reckon it self in the Confines of Heaven while thus employed and bless himself that he may sometimes retire thus from the World and enjoy a holy freedom for spiritual delights and gladsome preparations for Eternal Joy 2. Prepare for this blessed day before it come Think of it and long for it every day but especially the Evening before rid your hands in good time of worldly business and your hearts of worldly cares Read pray meditate catechise your Families call your selves and yours to an account of what you and they heard the Lords-day before and if it may be get to bed sooner that night than you use to do of other nights that so you may be under no temptation to snore away that precious morning on which our Lord in testimony of the accomplishment of our Redemption rose so very early 3. Be sure to be up as early on the Lords-day morning as is consistent with your fitness for the blessed Employments of it And let the thoughts of Redeeming Love season your hearts at first awaking 4. Redeem time that you may add something to your daily Devotions both in Family and Closet and not be put to cut them short 5. Go with the first to Publick Assemblies but go with hearts prepared and behave your selves there with Reverence Attention and Affection Pray in prayer hear as for the Life of your Souls and praise God with joy and alacrity stay the Blessing and rush not into or out of Church Assemblies in a rude and hasty manner Consider God's Angels are there 1 Cor. xi 10. and view your behaviour nay the God of Angels he looks on 6. After Publick Worship retire to examine how you have behaved your selves there Call to mind what you have heard digest it by prayer and meditation and when you have opportunity fix it on your hearts and memories by conferring of it especially with your inferiours Children and Servants whom you may command thereto 7. Watch Sabbath time in the Intervals of it especially at Meals that they run not waste Quicken your selves and others to thankfulness and joy with the serious mention of Redeeming Love Take heed of vain talk and idle unprofitable musings Let the variety of holy employments maintain your delight in them 8. Close the day in