lay field to field he hath been loading himself with thick Clay he hath been very throng a getting that together that he knoweth not how soon he must leave behind him he cannot tell but before to morrow Ask another he will tell you he hath been at the Butterflies work painting his wings tricking and trimming and making himself fine and smooth and brisk and gay with a world of art and cost setting himself out to the view of beholders and to be thought handsom he was willing to wave all the real accomplishments of humanity and little thinks the poor spark how soon all his trimming must be laid aside and how courfly a fit of sickness and much more two or three days Lodging in the Grave will make him look Another or perhaps the same if you question him when he is in the right mood to give you an answer will tell you he has been Drinking Dancing Singing Feasting dallying all his days Ransacking all the avenues of pleasure and racking nature to make her confess some secret source of delight and trying untrodden Paths of Luxury that if it were possible some new mode of sensual gratification might be found on which the Preacher had not written Vanity of Vanities but know O fleshly wretch that for all these things God will bring thee into Judgment Eccl. xi 9. Another hath been climbing hard to reach the topmost Pinacle of Honour Cringing Bribing Flattering to get an opportunity to wrong others and ruine himself for man being in honour abideth not he is like the Beasts that perish Psal Lix 12. Now alas what poor employments are these for that time on which Eternity depends And yet how few even among Christians lay out their time to any better purposes Well Sirs all your time that is not laid out for God's glory the good of others and the Salvation of your Souls is lost time you had as good nay better all that time have been out of Being Oh what a World of time do the most give away to Death People complain of the shortness of Life and yet act as if they thought it too long What cause have most of us to sit down and sadly say What have I been doing hitherto Am I not even a dying before I have begun to live And Oh that men would sit down and think seriously of it there might be then some hope that they would at last in earnest begin to do that which they should have been doing all this while Infer VI. What need have we to implore the Grace and Spirit of Christ to encline and enable us to direct and assist us in this necessary work We have a great deal of work to do and it must be done and we cannot do it of our selves what more reasonable then than that we should speedily and carefully look out for help The great Gospel promise is the Promise of the Spirit we ought therefore to plead it in Christ's name with God the Father since he hath said he will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke xi 13. If we have not the Spirit of Christ we are none of his Rom. viii 9. And without special relation to him and interest in him we cannot groundedly hope for assistance from him without whom yet we can do nothing Joh. xv 5. We are dark we therefore need the Spirit to enlighten us we are weak we need him to strengthen us we are wavering we need him to settle and fix us we are oft dejected and discouraged we then need him to comfort and confirm us Since then we so greatly need this blessing on all accounts how earnest and importunate should we be for it How observant of all the blessed Spirits accesses to and recesses from our Souls How careful to cherish his blessed motions How loath to grieve our guide If our Baptism in his name were not a nullity which many at least of our scoffers are not yet arrived at the impudence to assert our pretensions to his assistance cannot be justly charged to be Enthusiastical provided our claims be proportioned to the ends of our Baptismal Covenant relation to the Holy Ghost and our holiness of Life and Conversation manifest their reality As Enthusiasm though it seem to look another way leads to Infidelity so Infidelity too often and never more than of late masks it self under the veil of a vehement zeal against Enthusiasm But a good understanding of our Baptism and a practical experience of the main vital principles of Christianity therein contained would be an effectual cure of both When we know what it is to have the Spirit of Life living and working in our Souls as our Souls in our Bodies then and not till then shall we know what it is to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long Some forced motions in the externals of Religion we may have before but it is the Spirit that quickeneth Joh. vi 23. And where the Spirit of the Lord is there and there only is true Liberty 2 Cor. iii. 17. Even such as whereby we run the ways of God's Commandments with enlarged hearts Psal Cxix 32. Infer VII What care should Parents take to begin in a way of holy Education with their Children betimes that the best course in the World may not seem difficult and uneasie to them by disuse The wise man bids train up a Child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it Prov. xxii 6. And undoubtedly one great reason why many frame so aukwardly in the matters of Religion is because they were so long suffered to be utterly unacquainted with them O what a difference do Ministers usually find as to the Success of their Preaching between catechised and uncatechised youth Oh how hard is it to get people in years that have been left in ignorance till then to learn to understand but the most plain and common principles of Religion through want of early instruction when we tell men of being in the fear of the Lord continually the most know nothing what we mean tell them of the necessity of Repentance Faith and Holiness in order to Eternal Life and they understand not what they hear speak to them of the blessed Trinity in whose name they were baptized of the necessity of the Spirits help and of regeneration and it is all one as if we spoke to them in Greek or Arabick their minds have never been used to such matters O you that desire it should be otherwise with yours take care of their early instruction tell them betimes of their duty in order to Salvation and Eternal happiness and acquaint them with the holy Scriptures teach them to pray set before them briefly and plainly the order of their daily duty to God their Neighbours and themselves help them to govern their appetites and passions by reason and the Word of God tell them what Christ hath suffered in their stead what benefits he hath
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
whole Body of Christ and of all the Members of it by such a sympathy as may prove you a living Member thereof This is the news that a right Christian is inquisitive after how it fares with the Churches of Christ what becomes of the Interest of true Religion in the World what hopes there is that the Kingdoms of the Earth may become the Kingdoms of the Lord and his Christ If he meets with good tydings as to these matters it glads him at the heart But if he hears of the prevailing of wicked Errors and abominable Idolatries of the Divisions and Scandals of the Professors of Christianity of violent Persecutions against the Saints and Servants of the most High God this wounds him at the very Soul he is so affected as if he saw one killing his Father forcing his Wife or butchering the fruit of his own Loins If Sion sit in the dust he puts on Sackcloth And in the particular afflictions of Gods Children that are known to him he resents them deeply cries to God for their deliverance and he is willing to be both at cost and pains that they may want no help that he is capable of affording them He is not one of the glib-tongu'd gouty-sisted Professors whom the Apostle James characteriseth James ii 15 16. of which sort there are abundance in our days that if a Brother or Sister be naked or destitute of daily Food say unto them Depart in peace be you clothed and filled notwithstanding they give them not those things that are needful for the Body If others sufferings do not make us smart so that for our own ease besides a great many better considerations we would do what in us lies to help them out of them I will not say we are stark naught lest I too much discourage you but I will say we are far from what we should be and it concerns us to strive hard to become better 17. Let Heads of Families see they defraud not God of his honour nor the Souls of theirs of the means of their Spiritual Life but keep up Family Religion with seriousness life and constancy He that provideth not for his own especially for them of his own houshold hath denied the Faith and is worse than an Infidel 1 Tim. v. 8. He is a Murderer that provides not bread for his Family unless the Providence of God debar him of all opportunity to do it what is he then that never breaks the Bread of Life to them but leaves them to starve and pine away in their iniquities Prayerless Families are Types of Hell O Sirs let no day pass without calling yours together morning and evening and praying praising God with them reading the Scriptures to them exhorting them seriously to remember their Creator and to work out their Salvation and to make their Calling and Election sure How can you think God should bless your Society or your Labours while you call not upon his Name Whence come such quarrellings and discontents such crosses and disappointments such outragious wickednesses and disorders in Families but from this neglect of daily worshâ—p Oh therefore take heed how you let the World justle out the daily exercises of Religion that ought to be in your Families For let me tell you All that the World can do for you when you have got the most of it cannot make up the loss of one hours Communion with God What will you say and think then when for it you have shut your selves and yours out from the everlasting enjoyment of God in Heaven 18. Look upon Relative duties as a main part of your daily business as Christians Be well versed therefore in the Scripture-directory for the discharge of them and be sure you make conscience of yielding obedience to it See Eph. v. 22. to chap. vi 6. Col. iii. 18. to iv 2. Let yoke-fellows live together in mutual love and helpfulness Let the Husband excel in Love and walk with his Wife as a man of Knowledge Let the Wife see that there be a Law of kindness in her Lips that she adorn her self with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit that she be not querulous nor imperious but content with the station Providence has assigned her and the place wherein both the Light of Nature and the written Law of Scripture sets her Let Parents take care for the Children they have been the Instruments of bringing into the World especially for their Souls and to give them Christian Education Let Children honour their Parents reverencing them loving them obeying them requiting them and not despise them when they grow old and their parts decay or they have had what they can hope for from them Let Masters carry to their Servants with a due mixture of love and awe provide them what is needful for the Body and especially be tender of their Souls as knowing they must account to God for the Soul of every Servant that cometh under their Roof And let Servants be humble diligent faithful and let me add silent not carrying tales about from one house to another discovering the secrets of the Family in which they live this is a base property and they that are so glib of their Tongues are seldom fit for any business that requires either skill or industry 19. Take heed of Formality and labour to be sincere in all you do Let not a course of serious Religion seem a drudgery to you but labour to maintain a holy delight in duties All this that I have been telling you will seem to most especially to them that have never been used to any such thing and are wholly strangers to it a great deal Obj. So much reading and praying so much labouring such exact watching of our selves such inspection into ours what all this ado for Salvation Cannot we get to Heaven at cheaper rates than so This is a hard saying who can hear it Sol. But I pray Sirs do not think any of this needless till you know better what work is fit to be appointed you than he that has set you this nor do not condemn this as intolerably hard work till you have tried it Some that have tried it have said they never knew what a pleasant Life meant till then Is it such a terrible hard task for a hungry man to be set to a full Table and be bid eat heartily Or for a man that is dropping into his Grave to be bid drink this pleasant potion and be whole Or for a Condemned Malefactor to be bid thankfully accept his pardon and be set at Liberty Or for a banished man to have leave to return home if he will but converse an hour or two every day with his nearest Relation or his dearest Friend Why such is the task that Sensualists and Hypocrites shrink back so from If men knew what practical Religion were they would equally avoid the opposites and the Counterfeits of it Love would cast out slavish fear And God would be worshipped
God's fear Reckon your Sabbaths gains consider your actions and the frame of your Souls in them fix the Word of the day upon your hearts and resolve by the Grace of God to be found in the sincere and speedy practice of it He who thus regardeth a day unto the Lord Rom. xiv 6. shall comfortably experience that the Lords-day hath the seventh days blessing transferred unto it and an additional blessing of its own conferred upon it Infer III. Seriousness in Religion is not more ado than needs Strictness is not Fanaticism Religion in all its parts is our reasonable service Rom. xii 1. We do not serve God for nought that true enough though once said by the Father of Lies Job i. 9. In keeping Gods Commandments there is great reward Psal xix 11. All this work you have heard laid open is of God's setting us and we may be sure he will not suffer us to be losers by our care to please him And besides the variety of Employments allotted to us which sinners count their burden and their cumber is indeed that which sweetens Religion unto holy Souls It is not the hardness of the work in it self but the unsuitableness of it to our Spirits that maketh it so uneasie to the most and when Grace hath removed that the Soul goes on with chearfulness in those ways which sinners cannot endure to tread and do all they can to discourage others from walking in When therefore sinners entice thee from the ways of godliness and tell thee What needeth so much ado sure God is more merciful than to damn men for neglect of secret prayer for vain thoughts for foolish speeches for taking now and then a Cup of Nimis for making the best of their own c. Sure God won't shut all out of Heaven but a few Puritans and Precisians so much reading and praying c. will but mope you or make you melancholy or mad take care of thy Body and make sure of thy Estate and trust God with thy Soul When I say sinners do thus entice thee consent thou not Prov. i. 10. Let no man deceive you with vain words Eph. v. 6. Tell them God knows better who he will save and who he will damn than any of they and he hath said Without holiness no man shall see the Lord He will pour out his fury upon the Families that call not upon his Name Life and Death are in the power of the Tongue Drunkards among others shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Covetousness is Idolatry It is a little Flock our Heavenly Father will give his Kingdom to The Righteous are scarcely saved The Kingdom of God consists in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost What is a man profited if he gain the whole World and lose himself or be cast away Tell them these are the true sayings of God see Heb. xii 14. Jer. x. 25. Prov. xviii 21. 1 Cor. vi 10. Col. iii. 5. Luke xii 32. 1 Pet. iv v. 18. Rom. xiv 17. Luke ix 25. And you should be a Fool indeed if you should believe the silly sayings of blind Earth-worms and prejudiced unexperienced Sots before the Word of the Living and True God the Infinite and Eternal Wisdom Infer IV. What cause have we to lament the Fall of our First Parents by which we are disabled for this excellent Life God Created Man holy and happy with wisdom to know his Duty and power to do it and holy Love to encline him to the performance of it It was easie for Adam to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long though it was possible for him by a faulty omission of Reasons government over the inferiour powers of the Soul to depart there-from And such was the mutability of his Will that being assaulted by Temptation he wretchedly yielded and so betrayed himself and his Posterity into a forlorn state of wretchedness and impotency so that now we have none of us by nature light enough to discern nor ability to perform aright our Duty in the most ordinary instances of Life Certain it is we have lost that Moral Liberty of Will which was the glory of Innocent Adam and had been our glory had he stood and remained in his Integrity But now the Crown is fallen from our Heads woe unto us that we have sinned Lam. v. 16. We may well name ours Ichabod for the glory is departed from us 1 Sam. iv 21. We are all shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin Psal Li. 5. In our flesh dwelleth no good thing when we would do good evil is present with us O wretched ones that we are who shall deliver us from the body of this death Rom. vii 18 21 24. By one man sin entred into the World and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Rom. v. 12. We have cause to look our hearts and lives in the glass of God's Law and cry out as once a good Man did after a long Sickness looking his Face in a Glass and beholding his pale Cheeks and meager Visage Ah! Adam saith he Adam what hast thou done Oh! what a condition are we who sinned in Adam fallen from and what a sad estate are we fallen into our Minds are dark our Wills perverse our Affections froward c. we cannot of our selves think one good thought if we might have Heaven and Eternal happiness for our pains 2 Cor. iii. 5. We cannot pray nor read nor hear nor do any spiritual Duty aright We have an hereditary Sickness that threatens us with death in that it makes us loath the means of Life Oh what a averseness to and unfitness for secret prayer and meditation and examining themselves do even awakened sinners find and feel till special Grace come in to their aid What shifting what shufling what excuses what slightness what slubbering over of Duties is there In a word Adam's Fall hath rendered us all utterly unable of our selves to do aright any duty to God our Neighbour or our selves Infer V. What cause have we all to lament our past days because they have been in too great a measure lost days If you look back upon the description that hath been laid before you of the everyday work and walk of a serious practical Christian and consider how every day of your Life hath been spent since you came to the use of reason I fear you will most of you have cause to cry out not only with the Emperour Augustus Hem amici diem perdidi Alas my Friends I have lost a day But Heu vitam perdidi Alas I have lost my whole Life Alas How have our days been squandered away and our time lavished out upon unprofitable vanities Ask one man what he hath been doing ever since he came into the World And he must if he say true tell you he hath been labouring for the meat that perisheth he hath been toiling and drudging to add house to house and
THE BELIEVER's Daily Exercise OR The Scripture Precept of being in the Fear of the Lord all the day long Explained and urged in Four Sermons By John Billingsley Minister of the Gospel Gen. 5. 24. And Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him 1 Tim. 4. 7. Exercise thy self unto Godliness 2 Pet. 3. 11. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns the lower end of Cheapside near Mercers Chapel 1690. To his Beloved Auditors the Inhabitants of S. in the County of N. and the Villages adjacent My very dear Friends THese Sermons were first Preached in your hearing at your desire they become thus publick which I should never have suffered them to have been had I not hoped your spiritual good might be some way advanced thereby For I am conscious that the World is already full of Books yea that divers have written on this very Subject and that I am no ways capable of doing it so well as it is done already But your extraordinary affection to my unworthy Person and Labours may by Gods blessing make a meaner thing from me more acceptable and so more useful to you than the more Learned Labours of others that you are less acquainted with My many infirmities both of body and mind tell me I am like to be of little use in the World but what little I am capable by Divine Assistance of doing for the glory of God and the good of Souls I am very desirous if God see it good it may henceforth be among you For this little Book I desire you will make it your Pocket companion read it frequently and practise it and I shall have no cause whatever censure it expose me to to repent its Publication nor you the Perusal of it That your best good may be effectually promoted by this and all my poor endeavours is the hearty prayer of An affectionate desirer of your Soul-prosperity John Billingsley The Believers Daily Exercise Prov. ch xxiii v. 17. Let not thine heart envy sinners but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long THE firmest Believers have their fits of Vnbelief and the strongest Faith has some intermissions and abatings of its vigorous exercise Peter that had Faith to leave the Ship and set his feet on the Waves to give his Lord the meeting yet when the Winds grew boisterous his unbelief had sunk him had not Jesus lent him a hand and by one word of his mouth stilled a double Tempest that of the Winds and Waves without and that of his Disciples Fear within Matth. ch xiv from v. 22 to 33. The People of God are a thinking People They are apt to take notice of and observe those passages of Providence which an unthinking World let slip unregarded And in their first thoughts of the Ways of God they are sometimes mistaken and often at a stand And in nothing are they more ordinarily at a loss or sooner surprized than in the consideration of the state of good and bad men here in this World They believe a just and holy Providence governs the Affairs of this lower World and this puts them sometimes to wonder how it comes to pass that the Righteous should be so often persecuted and perplexed while the wicked are in peace and safety flourishing like a green Bay-tree having more than heart can wish Psal xxxvii 1. Psal Lxxiii 3. And while they are thus intent upon the consideration of the present glory of the wicked and the poor and dejected state of the godly no wonder if the Tempter pursue his advantaâ—es against them and they feel in their hearts some motions of envy and emulation thinking the wicked's prosperity too much and inordinately wishing themselves a share of it This the wise men here warns us against Let not thine heart envy sinners q d. Let not their Prosperity seem a great matter in thine Eye entertain no thought of wishing to change places with them remember in whose choice and appointment both their and thine own Lot is Fear God and thou wilt not fret at or envy sinners The great Preservative against this as well as all other vices is to have the fear of God always before our Eyes Envying sinners is a disease the Godly are sometimes apt to fall into the Antidote prescribed by the best Physician is to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long This indeed is a Panpharmacon an All-heal the fear of God is an effectual remedy as against Envy so against Pride Covetousness Sensuality Hypocrisie and whatever distempers else our Souls are Subject and Liable to It is meet therefore that we should always be provided of it and carry it about with us continually Be thou This necessary Precept is directed to every one in particular Be we Young or Old Rich or Poor Learned or Vnlearned Superiours or Inferiours Bond or Free of whatever Rank or Condition we be this Precept belongs to us and we ought every one to take it to our selves In the fear of the Lord. Have a lively sâ—nce of the Being Attributes Presence and Providence of God that he beholds all thy actions and that he will render to thee according to thy works Fear in this place implies Reverence Love and Obedience Let a Principle of Religion possess thy Soul and be the Governor and Director of thy Life and Actions Walk with God Live by Rule order thy Conversation aright this is to be in the fear of the Lord. All the day long Continually throughout thy whole life every day and in every part of the day Religion is to be our whole employment we are not to own or allow our selves in any one action that is not Religious From our waking in the morning to our lying down it night we are to see that we be in the fear of the Lord. I do not say that we must turn Euchites and spend all our time in acts of immediate Worship Praying Hearing Meditation c. But we must do no deliberate act that for its principle and end does not deserve to be denominated a Religious action Our very Eating Drinking Sleeping Buying Selling Visiting Recreating of our selves must be a walking according to the Gospel Rule if we would have peace and a blessing from Heaven upon us The Doctrine I shall give you from the words is this Doct. That it should be the continual study and endeavour of every one of us to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long Or The Religious spending of our whole time should be our daily exercise The Method of handling this important truth shall be 1. To shew you what the nature of this exercise is to open to you this being in the fear of the Lord all the day long 2. Why we must be daily taken up and exercised in the religious
partakers of a Divine Nature but that we should cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God and shewing forth the virtues and praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous Light 2 Pet i. 4. 2 Cor. vii 1. 1 Pet. ii 9. All which we can never do but by denying Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts and living Righteously Soberly and Godly in this present World Tit. ii 12. So that while we live not to God we live beside the end of our being we lose our time and provoke God to strip us of a blessing we no better know how to value R. 2. This is the way to secure our present peace and future happiness There is no way to a setled grounded tranquillity of mind but by a holy Life Sin is the great make-bate in Kingdoms Churches Families and it will never let that Soul enjoy peace in which it resides unpandoned and unmortified And these two always go together unmortified sin is ever unpardoned sin and guilt still makes the Soul uneasie He must be an Atheist or a Brute that can be secure and jolly while sin lieth at the door Gen. iv 7. like a Bailiff ready to drag him before the Supreme Judge at whose Bar being condemned he must be forth with abandoned to Eternal Torments What comfort can Pleasures Honours or Profits yield to that man who is awake and knows not but he must be in Hell to morrow Besides it is easie to demonstrate that the happiness of rational Creatures consists in Communion with God of which we are altogether uncapable whilst we lie wallowing in the mire of sin God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity scil with approbation Evil shall not dwell with him Hab. i. 13. The conviction sinners have of this appears in their shiness to approach the Sovereign Majesty especially in secret acts of Worship after the commission of any grosser sin And if we be in such a case that we dare not come to God our Life must needs be very uncomfortable Hence the Prophet Isa Lvii. 21. There is no peace saith my God to the wicked And the Psalmist Psal Lxxiii 27 28. All they that are far from thee shall perish but it is good for me to draw nigh to God Many complain of their present restless uncomfortable condition but they neglect the true Method of cure they would have peace but they will not crucifie the flesh with its affections and lusts Sinner thou must either leave thy sinful courses or be a continual torment and vexation to thy self unless for a while thou shouldest in Judgment be given over to a spirit of slumber and then thou wilt shortly awake in unsufferable terrours But the way to peace is to walk humbly with God to be constant in the daily practice of true Piety See Psal cxix 165. Great peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them Gal. vi 16. As many as walk according to this Rule peace be on them and on the Israel of God And as this is the wav to present peace so it is also to future everlasting Glory To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory honour and immortality God will render Eternal Life Rom. ii 7. There remains a Rest for the people of God Heb. iv 9. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. xii 14. They only who live to God here are capable of living with him for ever hereafter As ever therefore you value peace here or glory hereafter let it be your constant care to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long R. 3. Vnless we thus make Religion our daily delightful Employment we are ungrateful to God who daily loadeth us with his Benefits Who gave thee thy Being Who redeemed thy Life from Destruction and thy Soul from Damnation By whom are all the hairs of thy head numbred that not one of them fall to the ground without his will To whose care and kindness dost thou owe thy health liberty peace plenty quiet habitation comfortable Relations Gospel opportunities thy share in Publick National and Church Deliverances Is it not God that holds thy Soul in Life and suffers not thy feet to be moved Psal Lxvi 9. Is it not the Father of mercies that crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies Psal ciii 4 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities and healeth all thy diseases v. 3. Is it not his hand that holdeth thee out of Hell and supporteth thee from sinking into the bottomless Pit Is it not he that hath rescued thee as well as others of late from the devouring Jaws of bloody Papists from an horrible slavery of Body Soul and Conscience to such as worship graven Images from being compelled first to worship and then to chew and swallow a bit of Bread or a thin Wafer under the title and denomination of thy Lord God Maker and Redeemer And what return thinkest thou is due to God for such Mercies as these Can any less suffice than that which the Apostle exhorts unto Rom. xii 1. I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service And if we have once sincerely given up our selves to God we shall then walk with him and be in his fear all the day long and if we refuse this we are the most ungrateful wretches breathing What Monsters of Ingratitude are we if when God hath made us and redeemed us and still preserveth us we deny him our service especially when his service is perfect freedom and in keeping his Commandments there is great Reward Psal xix 11. God hath made nothing our Duty but what is equally our Priviledge And when as an acknowledgment of former kindnesses God only requires that we should receive more at his hands and yet we will not we thereby render our selves such a composition of folly and ingratitude as is beyond parallel Among Heathens Ingratitude to Benefactors is esteemed one of the most hainous crimes a man can be guilty of So that it 's become a common Proverb among them Ingratum dixeris omnia when you have called a man ungrateful you have said your worst of him And if Ingratitude to fellow-creatures deserve so black a brand what shall we think then of Ingratitude against our Sovereign Lord the great Creator and common Parent of Mankind Shun therefore this foul blot by diligence and constancy in a holy walk R. 4. By walking thus with God we set others a good Example and recommend Religion to the World Thus we become the Salt of the Earth the Lights of the World a City set on an Hill which cannot be hid our Light so shines before men that they see our good conversations and glorifie our Heavenly Father Mat. v. 13 14 16. A holy Life is a continual Sermon Thus you may all be
purchased for them by his death and how those benefits come to be applyed to the Souls of his chosen Labour to work things down into their hearts and get them to feel what they know This is Gods work but it is to be expected in Conjunction with your endeavour and Children thus initiated betimes rarely do amiss whereas a Child left to himself causeth shame Prov. xxix 15. Dishonours God grieves his Parents and damns himself Infer VIII What great need there is for us to keep the Christian hopes in constant believing view that by them we may be encouraged to so great and difficult work The Just shall live by his Faith Hab. ii 4. Now Faith is the Substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Heb. xi 1. Moses had respect unto the recompence of reward Heb. xi 26. And our Lord himself endured the Cross and despised the shame for the joy that was set before him Heb. xii 2. Christianity were not the best Religion if it did not propound to us the best Reward and that with the fullest and clearest evidence and we are not Christians if the hope of that reward act us not in our endeavours of conformity to its blessed Precepts So widely are they out that cry down diligence in the Christian Work and Race in expectation of the Rewards of Eternal Glory as mercenary and that talk of quenching Hell and burning Heaven to prove the sincerity of their obedience God help me to obey and suffer for the joy set before me and I doubt not but I shall be for ever in that Heaven where Jesus Christ now is and let those that hope to fare better in new-fangled ways of their own devising let them I say at long run bragg as they speed Man is a creature the very frame and constitution of whose Soul shews him made to be governed by Hopes and Fears And no hopes like those of a happiness compleat and everlasting The Apostolical Canon therefore is Heb. vi 11 12. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end that ye be not slothful but followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises He that will be an Active Useful Exemplary Persevering Christian must clear and settle well his hope of Everlasting Life as that which God who cannot lye hath promised and often review it by believing Meditation nothing quickens nothing supports like this Am I lazing and slugging and moving heavily in the ways of God What a Spur is such a thought as this Do I now act as becomes a Candidate for Eternal Glory an Expectant of Heavenly Felicity Would this pace content me if I now saw Heaven open to my bodily Eyes And is it not equally certain as if I did So when sinking into discouragement when drooping and desponding when horribly afraid of suffering or the like say O my Soul doth this become a Christian a Child of God an Heir a Coheir with Christ What a Kings Son the King of Heavens Son the Heir of a Kingdom and such a Kingdom And thus lean from day to day allusion to 2 Sam. xiii 4. Oh Sirs little do we think what a vigorous Instrument of an holy Life the Christian hope in our Souls would prove were we more careful to get it firmly rooted there and then to maintain it in its lively act and powerful exercise Infer IX How much is it the concernment of all that would be Christians indeed to get right notions of Religion That our Duty is our Interest a real pleasure and advancement to our Souls 'T is wrong conceits of Religion and the nature of the work it puts us upon that scareth so many from it Men will not hear of becoming Religious because they take it to be what it really is not and have no right understanding what indeed it is Men think Religion ties them up from all that is grateful and fills them continually with fear and sorrow and unhinges them for business unfits them for action and calls them to part with all that they at present count valuable and giveth them nothing or next to nothing in exchange This is the notion the World hath commonly of Religion and no wonder if in this dress it appear very terrible and be so far from alluring Lovers that it affright Spectators But I pray you Sirs you that labour under these prejudices come a little nearer and take a better prospect of Religion before you renounce her utterly It may be she is not what you take her for perhaps she hath charms you never yet discovered I hope you will not think it impossible but Solomon might be in the right when he said of Wisdom or true Religion All her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Prov. iii. 17. What if upon enquiry all your Objections against Religion prove calumnies What if upon a true opening of the case your Scruples all vanish and a little light of sober Reason dispel the mists you have endeavoured to benight her with I hope you will then come over to that side which hitherto you have so violently opposed and so malignantly derided Come then and let us reason together If Religion debar you of no true pleasure but call you to exchange sordid and perishing ones for those that are noble and durable will you then become her Votary Why so it is Religion teaches you Temperance in the use of bodily Pleasures which alone gives them their true relish and renders them safe to be enjoyed and which is of more important consideration makes their use consistent with the obtaining of those better Pleasures whereof she allows and offers you freer and fuller draughts and whereof you can never have too much and shall not finally want enough The pleasures of Knowledge and Love are ever perfecting till we come to glory immediately upon our entrance whereunto they are perfected to satisfaction though according to some see the ingenious discourse of a nameless Author called The Future State even there they are in a state of perpetual progress and advance Obj. But it may be you will say Surely Religion cannot be a state of Joy when men pass into it thorow so many fears and sorrows and when the great Author of it hath clad it in mourning saying Blessed are they that mourn Matth. v. 4. Sol. I answer Religion only calleth for so much sorrow as is consistent with or conducive to the greatest joy and debarreth us only of such joys as will end in everlasting sorrows For Religion's taking men off from business or unfitting them for it it is a vain cavil and contradicted by the Experience of all Ages For in every Age some of the most active and eminent have been jointly noted for Religion and for Wisdom Courage and Success in the management of Publick Affairs both in War and Peace as Abraham David Nehemiah and others The truth is Religion in these things changeth not mens natural Tempers and Endowments but taking them as it findeth them improves and perfects them And for what Religion obligeth us to forego it is demonstrable that it calleth us to quit nothing but what may well be spared and for what is not consistent with our happiness giveth us in exchange what is alone constituent of it And if its worst Enemies have no more to say against it but that which is so easily refutable who can wonder if notwithstanding all the scorns of profane wits heavenly Wisdom be still justified of her Children Matth. xi 19. as she will shortly more fully be by her great Author who is able to defend her against all her profane contemners and malignant opposers Infer X. Great cause there is for all such as know by experience how sweet and comfortable a thing it is to be daily taken up in the lively spiritual performance of Religious Exercises to pity and by counsel prayer and example do all they can to help the rest who are the most of Mankind yea of professed Christians that live as without God in the World having neither skill nor will to holy Employments or the due improvement of their Time It is a doleful thing to take a considerate view of the world and think what God made man and placed him upon the Earth for and what we are redeemed for and what large provision of help there is in the Gospel for lost Mankind and yet how few do in any measure answer the end of their Beings or act like persons that have any hope of saving benefit by Jesus Christ Not only the Heathen and Mahometan World and the obstinate Infidel Jews and the Idolatrous persecuting Papists but alas the generality of the Reformed Churches are a sight fit to make a sensible heart bleed abounding so with ignorance profaneness worldliness sensuality corruption in VVorship Church-tyranny Heresies Schisms Divisions Envyings and bitter Zeal that the Tares do in a manner hide the Wheat and the Faith even of good men is sometimes put to stagger at the Promise That the gates of Hell shall not prevail Mat. xvi 18. But oh that we did rather in our places all do our utmost to promote its accomplishment by personal Reformation by fervent Prayer by due instructing and calling upon others and setting them a good Example by mourning for the sins of the Times and pleading with God his Promises for the Remnant of his People If we thus hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord Lam. iii. 26. we may yet live to see the eminent returns of Prayer and the glorious accomplishment of Prophecies and Promises when Salvation shall be to God's Israel for VValls and Bulwarks Isa xxvi 1. and when Jerusalem's VValls shall be Salvation and her Gates praise Isa Lx. 18. Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly Amen FINIS