think no more on these things than only to consider that they deserve not and therefore should not have our serious Thoughts As any thing is of more or less use and concernment to us as it may more or less conduce to make us Wise or Good or Happy as the thoughts of it may more or less help us to live as we ought to do in our duty to God or Man in this life or to come to Eternal Life when we go out of this so is it more or less to be seriously thought on And in like manner whatever things may make us worse or more miserable and may be hindrances and obstructors either of our duty or happiness are accordingly to the hurt more or less which they may do us to be more or less made the Objects of our serious Thoughts So that whatever things they be that may not be either useful or hurtful to us and the more or less so as we either do or do not think upon them are to be look'd on as things not at all considerable and therefore no more to be thought on than must needs be when they come into our Heads whether we will or no and then are they to be thought on with all indifferency imaginable The things then that are of concernment to us and for that considerable are all such as we may be better or worse for such as God may be honour'd or dishonour'd by such as may help or hinder us to be good and to do good in this World or may prepare or unfit us for everlasting Blessedness Hence the concerns of the Soul are more to be thought on than the concerns of the Body Publick concerns more than Private relating to this World only Spiritual and Heavenly things more than things Carnal and Earthly Eternal concerns more than Temporary and God who is infinitely above all and whose both Honour and Favour is of nearer concernment to us than all things is to be thought on more than all things Such are the things which most deserve our serious thinking on 2. Let us now see what kind of thinking it is that can deserve the name of Consideration Or how are these considerable things to be thought upon so as that we may be truly said to consider them It is certain that every sort of thinking is not to be accounted considering We have all of us a thousand rambling thoughts of many things which we take so little into consideration that we can give very little account how we came to think of them and often can hardly remember that we did so at all Whilst we are awake always and sometimes when we are asleep our Heads are full of thoughts which are very busie or rather playing even whether we will or no about a multitude of little things which we never thought worth one hours consideration As in a Market-crowd a Man may see a hundred Faces and give every one he meets with a slight Good-morrow or a How-d ' you and he hath some thoughts such as they are of every one and yet takes no farther notice of them these being Persons he is not then concern'd with His business which brought him thither is the only thing he thinks of then in good earnest So most of the things we think of we do but remember at most or occasionally and accidentally they come into our minds but as they come so they go Like to a thing that passeth by us in haste we see it as it passes and think but very little of it but as we lose the sight of it so do we the thoughts of it too and are no more concern'd about it than as if we had never seen it or as if there had never been such a thing The thinking of a thing which may be call'd Consideration is a designed concern'd leisurely serious and thorough thinking of it 1. It is a designed thinking with a full purpose of mind to inform our selves better about it a summoning up of our thoughts and a diligent setting them on work It is not a thought that a Man hits on by chance and which stays with him a while tho' he never intended it but that which is sought chosen and invited As 't is said Plal. II. 2. The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take â—ounsel together So a Man must set himself to consider to advise with and take counsel of his own Reason This is an usual thing with most Men in any great Difficulty or Danger which they apprehend to set themselves to think and contrive what course is fittest for them to take Neither will any wise Man neglect this And why should not we set our selves to consider and contrive for our safety who meet with daily so many difficulties in our way to Heaven and are in so great danger to come short of it 2. It is a concerned thinking as about that the near and great concernment whereof to our selves we are very sensible of We often think of things without any reflection on our selves as upon matters that no way touch us But we are not apt to be very serious about them unless we apprehend our selves some way or other concerned in them When David had determined evil against Nabal Abigail's Servants desired her to consider well of it 1 Sam. XXV 17. Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do for evil is determined against our master and against all his houshold She was to think of it as a matter that concern'd the Safety and Welfare of her self and Family And thus the Psalmist speaking in God's Name to the wicked Psal. L. 22. Now consider this ye that forget God lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver If we will pass our time in Peace and Comfort we must not forget but think much and very concernedly of God considering well what it lieth us upon to live conformably to his Will that we may never fall under his displeasure 3. It is a leisurely thinking a taking time to view and observe a thing exactly together with all its circumstances its conveniences or inconveniences and all the evils or goods which attend it Sudden Thoughts little deserve the name of Consideration It is a laying things in order in our thoughts with a design to conclude from them what may be or ought to be done or expected by us Consider of it take advice and speak your minds say the Israelites one to another in the Levites case Iudg. XIX 30. And so said Elihu to Iob Hearken unto this O Iob stand still and consider the wondrous works of God Job XXXVII 14. There is implied in it First A preparing the Mind for it by awakening it and stirring it up from the bed of security and an unthinking temper such as the mind of habitual Sinners is even always in in relation to Spiritual things and of Eternal concernment Rise up Balak and hear said Balaam to him Num. XXIII 18. Put the
shall have an hereafter to repent in How know we that we shall not die before God hath not assured us of any such thing and Man cannot on what then do we build our hopes of living to any time hereafter We are well assured That it is appointed for all men once to die and after that the judgment Heb. IX 27. We are well assured that except we repent we shall all perish and die the second death and go into everlasting punishment But who hath assured us that we shall have any time at all after this that now is to repent in And if we be not assured of this what can it be to put off that which must be done before we die to another day which we have no assurance at all that we shall live to see but a rash hazarding of our Souls to all Eternity What is our life St. Iames hath told us and we all know it It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Jam. IV. 14. And thence that Apostle very rationally dissuades men from the great folly of confidently resolving any otherwise than conditionally to do any thing hereafter Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow How foolish a thing is it to say to morrow we will do this or that Ye ought to say if the Lord will we shall live and do this or that V. 15. When we say we will repent to morrow do we know whether we shall be alive or dead to morrow If we do not what can we mean by saying so but this That if we live we will repent to morrow And are we content then to be damned if we die to night If not why are we so mad as to put it to the venture Boast not thy self of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth saith the wise man Prov. XXVII 1. Alas a day an hour the least moment of time may lay the strongest and most confident of us all upon our backs in the dust and why are we confident we shall repent to morrow when we know so little what changes one single minute may produce Is it possible that any of us whilst we see so many every day dropping down into the grave round about us should need a Monitor to mind him that this life is a very ticklish thing to trust to What though we be young and lusty and healthful Were not some of them so too who died the other day and thought they not themselves as likely to live as any of us can be All their confidence is swallowed up of Death in a moment and I am sure we are all of us so many days the nearer to Death as we have out-lived them How many hundreds yearly die in the heat and wantonness of their youthful blood How many in the very fulness of strength and vigour How many in the very throng of their worldly business and whilst they are as busy as the Bee in gathering for old age How many in the midst of their mirth and jollity yea in the very acts of Sin in their drunkenness and gluttony their fornication and adultery their theft and robbery their anger and revenge How many in the height of their security and confidence sleeping in their beds riding merrily on the rode going busily about their common affairs It 's no news to hear of sudden and unexpected Deaths of many sorts and less strange can it be to any one to see those young people cut off by Death who thought it too soon to become good and serious and were unwilling to marr their juvenile pleasures with many thoughts of Piety and Religion Let us but think how many are already Dead who delay'd their Repentance with as much confidence as we can do to Repent hereafter till they had no time left them to Repent in And how fruitlesly they now lament their folly in doing so Think but what they would now be content to give that they might have their life to begin again on Earth and whether they would were that granted them venture again to delay their Repentance and hazard another sudden fall into those intollerable torments which now they feel O let us not stay till thinking of this will do us no good let us not go on till we fall into their condition and experience the Torments of vain and fruitless wishes Let us not indulge our infidelity as to these things till some come from the dead to make us believe lest we be made before we fear it to see and feel what we make no more haste to escape We say still we will Repent and become new men to morrow But alas we know not yet whether we shall live till then nay we know not but that our bodies may be in the Grave and our Souls in Hell to morrow and for this very reason because we Repent not to day Who then that is wise will venture one moment longer on such an uncertainty But suppose we may live and have the time we at present presume so groundlesly upon we may not be one jot the better for it when we have it We are to consider yet farther how many things may happen to us at that time or before which may as much disable us to Repent as Death it self We may live and yet be as good as dead unto all manner of Religious Duty and Exercise We may be we know not how soon in such a condition as we may not be able either to reflect on what is past or understand what is present or consider what is to come We cannot be ignorant how many Diseases suddenly surprise men which though they do not immediately deprive them of life yet destroy their memory and understanding and reason or so weaken them that they can be of little use for the exercise of Repentance May we not be suddenly taken with an Apoplexy or a Lethargy with a Phrenzy or Melancholy or Dotage May we not become mad or foolish and so distracted and crazed in our heads that we cannot at all consider either what we do or what we should do Yea suppose none of these things befall us yet are there other diseases and pains whereunto we are subject and which we may labour under a very considerable time before they kill us by which yet we may be brought into such a condition as we shall find it very hard to perform any Religious Duty as we ought We may lie under such continual and even intollerable pains of body under such daily languishings and faintings and decays of Strength and Spirits that we shall have very little freedom or strength of mind left us to Consider and do all that is needful to Repentance which till then hath been delay'd Why do not we think our selves concern'd to prevent all these evils Are we not sensible that such things often befal men who as little fear'd them as we do And may they not for ought we
Holiness from Earth to Heaven from our carnal Selves to God but only a change of our Security into Fear and of our Pleasure into Sorrow and it may be of our Minds into a very serious Resolution to live better if we shall live any longer and that merely because we are afraid that we shall live no longer how any one should think such a forced Change as this an acceptable Repentance I must confess I know not unless he have forgotten not only his Bible but his Reason too There are some things as useful as they are easie to be observed in dying People who have spent their days in wickedness And I think they are enough to afright any one from thinking any longer of having the benefit of a Death-bed Repentance First It is too easie to observe That often such a Sinner's Conscience is quite dead within him I speak of some not of all a long time before he dieth and never reviveth again so long as he liveth He is given up to a reprobate mind and his heart turn'd to stone and nothing that should move him to Repentance can make any impression upon it Yea 't is somewhat a rare thing to see an old habitual customary Sinner ever come to any true sense of Religion his Duty his Sin or his Danger or ever to concern himself at all about Eternity Even upon his Death bed whatever care he takes about his Body Estate and Family his Soul seems as much forgotten by him as if he had none at all to take care of It is no uncommon thing to see an old Sinner die thus unconcerned what shall become of him Secondly It is as easie to observe in some of these dying Persons who seem to make some little ado about their future State when they are about to die that though they are desirous of good Advice and send for the Minister to talk to them and pray for them and confess to him some few of their most notorious Faults yet are they the confidentest Persons in the World of their pardon 't is not easie to persuade them that their case is very dangerous but after they have confess'd they are great Sinners and have been pray'd for as though all were done they pass off the Stage of this World as unconcernedly as if they had never acted any ill part thereon Thirdly It hath been very often observ'd that those of them who in some very dangerous sickness have made more ado than ordinary have cried out very bitterly of their past wickedness and folly have shed many tears and poured out many earnest Prayers and have made many Vows to God and Promises to Men of leading a new and holy life if God would restore them to health have yet very shortly after their recovery forgotten all this as if it had never been returning with the Dog to his vomit and with the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire Shewing plainly that though they might be in earnest yet was it but for fear and how little credit is to be given to such forced Repentances Fourthly 'T is to be observed That whatever else these old and hardened Sinners are wont to do upon their Death-beds which may look like repentance they are not easily persuaded to confess any very foul Sin which is not so notorious that they cannot deny it and then too it shall be excused as well as they can instead of being aggravated as it ought to be With much more difficulty can they be persuaded to make restitution of all they have ill gotten or so much as to confess their Frauds and wicked Arts of injuring others Rarely do they send for those whom they have offended humbling themselves confessing their Faults begging their pardon and making them all the satisfaction they can before they die And what kind of Penitents are these Lastly If any of these old Sinners at last be touch'd to the quick and pricked at the heart with a sharp sense of their sinful Vileness it is not hard for the malicious and cunning Tempter to bring them into despair so as it shall be impossible for any one to comfort them and in vain to counsel them Their own long-abused Consciences do now begin to revenge themselves upon them for neglecting them so long and they know 't is so just a thing for God now to serve them as they have served him that they conclude it in vain to seek for pardon and mercy He that stands by the Bed-side of these old Sinners when they are on their last Bed may easily observe all this that I have said of them and that but a few of them in comparison die so as that one has any great encouragement to say their repentance was any thing else but the grief and remorse of a heart oppress'd with fear of imminent danger whereinto they find themselves brought by their own folly and perverseness It is easie on the other side to observe the death of the truly pious Christians to differ very much from the death of this sort of men I mean as often as in their sickness they have time and freedom of mind to shew what kind of spirit they are of In many respects as the one dieth so dieth the other these may be cut off by a sudden stroke they may die of a distracting or stupifying Disease as well as the other and the frame of their hearts is to be seen only in their life and not in their death However only those few dying Persons who have in their health conscientiously endeavour'd to live a truly Christian life and have their Repentance not to begin but only to finish with their life upon their Death-bed shew if they have time and strength and liberty to shew it that they die indeed like sincere Christians For either they end their days of trouble in much spiritual joy and comfort reflecting sweetly on the mighty powers of Divine Grace whereby they have been carried victoriously through all the Temptations of the Devil the World and the Flesh and in the ravishing expectation of entring speedily into the joy of their Lord Or being Persons of tender Consciences and deeply wounded in spirit with the sense of all their own imperfections and failings they shew all the signs of an humble broken and contrite heart and close up their time with the Prayers and Tears Sighs and Groans of a devout Soul longing to be made perfectly holy in Heaven with God and endeavouring to that end thus to compleat and perfect all their Repentances on Earth Some will possibly ask If there be so little trust to be put in a very late and Death-bed Repentance Why the Ministers of Christ when they are call'd to assist the Sick do so earnestly exhort even the most notorious Sinners who have spent their whole time past in wickedness to repent of their sins and comfort them with the promises of Salvation if they do repent This Question I confess deserves to be