stable of all earthly things uncertain Do they not suddenly make them wings and flee away as an Eagle towards heaven 4. Though there were the richest confluence of them and though a man did even wallow in them would they ever be able to make his Life comfortable truely comfortable without the favour of God and peace of Conscience Hath not Solomon who knew how to estimate them Eccl. 1.2 Ver. 14. pronounced them all Vanity vanity of vanities yea vanity and vexation of spirit Instead of making men truly happy do they not wound and pierce them through with many sorrows 1 Tim. 6.10 who greedily covet after them and set their hearts upon them 5. Can they stand you in any stead in an evil day Solomon again tells you Riches profit not in the day of wrath Prov. 11.4 6. However it be though these things should still continue with you yet you cannot always continue with them to enjoy them though they should not leave you yet you must shortly leave them be rent away from them all Job 1.20 and go naked out of the world And so much may suffice to have been spoken to these three sorts of people that so ill bestow their time which ought to have been redeemed for better purposes such as spend their time wickedly such as spend it vainly and such as suffer the World to swallow it up and devour it VSE 4. Now in the last place let us all labour to be humbled for the loss of our time and be careful to husband it better for the future 1. Let us labour to be humbled for the loss of our time And O how much time have we all lost even those of us who seem to have been most careful to improve it 1. How much time hath been spent idlely How much hath run out fruitlesly while we yielded to and gratified our lazy and slothful Nature 2. How much in impertinent and unprofitable Visits that signified nothing that were not in the least improved to the benefit of our own or other mens Souls or to any other real advantage of our selves or them 3. How much in dressing and adorning the Body in decking and beautifying that corruptible part which must shortly be Meat for Worms 4. How much hath been spent in vain thoughts idle phansies fruitless projectings distrustful cares How much of our time by day and by night have these impertinencies eaten up and devoured 5. How much of our time hath passed away in unprofitable talk in empty and frothy discourses and too often in unsavoury and corrupt communication 6. How much hath been spent in Gaming and Pastimes in needless Recreations and Divertisements 7. How much in pampering the Body and gratifying the Flesh with sensual Pleasures 8. How much of that part of our time which we think to have been best imployed I say how much of that hath been laid out on things of less concernment to us while our highest concernments have been shamefully neglected How careful have many of us been about our worldly business that no time or opportunities for temporal advantages might be lost while the one thing needful hath been least minded O how few hours in a Week or perhaps in a Month have we redeemed for secret Prayer Self-examination and communing with our own hearts for stating matters aright between God and our own Souls How few hours have we redeemed for seeking God and making Intercession for a sinful Nation How few for turning away the wrath of God that hangs over our heads and for averting of those heavy Judgments which our horrid provocations deserve and daily threaten us with I say we have all very much cause to be humbled that while we have suffered poor and inconsiderable things to steal away and to inhance so much of our time these great and important matters have had so small a share of it 2. Let us all be stirred up to improve our time better for the future redeeming as much of it as we can for the purposes before-mentioned relating to the good of our own and other mens Souls and to the present sad condition of the Kingdom And the more effectually to provoke us hereunto let us 1. Lay before us that which hath been last spoken of let us consider how much time we have already mis-spent some in one kind and some in another I scarce know what stronger motive can be made use of to prevail with us to redeem the time than this Having mis-spent and lost so much time already doth it not highly concern us to make better use of what remains Especially if we likewise consider that as we have mis-spent much time already so we know not how little remains to be better imployed 2. Consider that when you have been as good an husband of your time as 't is possible yet it cannot be but that much of it must have been lost notwithstanding all the care that hath been taken to prevent the loss of it Much of our time runs out in sleep much in eating and drinking and other ways of necessary refreshing much in those unavoidable divertisements which every day we meet with How much of our time do these things take up Certainly the far greater part of every four and twenty hours is thus imployed unless we be more provident than most men are yea unless we be extraordinary husbands of time and rare patterns of the well-managing and improving thereof 3. Hereunto add the motive in the Text Let us redeem the time because the days are evil And evil they are both in respect of the evil of Sin and the many Temptations thereunto and in respect of the evil of Affliction and Punishment which our Sins either have already brought upon us or threaten us with 1. The days are evil in respect of Sin and the many Temptations thereunto Never did as I think Sin more abound than in these our days never was it more shameless and impudent never was there I think a greater deluge of wickedness in City and Country considering what means there are to prevent it And never were there so many temptations to Sin what by Seducers that compass Sea and Land to make Proselytes Proselytes to Rome and Proselytes to I know not how many pernicious Sects in great part created and fomented by Factors for Rome and set a work and imployed by them and what by other Instruments which the Devil hath in all places to debauch men and make them Atheists in Opinion or in Life and Conversation either practical or speculative Atheists or both Was there ever such an Atheistical Age as ours is when so many espouse and avow Atheism when they blush not openly to profess it when they plead for it when they dispute for it when they do all they can to spread and propagate it and when so many more live like perfect Atheists frame their lives no otherwise than they would or could do if they verily believed that there is
Pearls and Richest Treasures in the World were not a price sufficient to purchase again and recover one quarter of an hour when 't is past Wherefore by redeeming time nothing else can be understood but a wise and holy improvement of the present time to speak vulgarly for if we speak properly and acurately no part of time is present the present being only an instant which is indivisible This wise improvement of our time with double care and diligence may however in an improper sence be said to be a redeeming of mis-spent time that is past namely as it makes amends for that loss As for Example if a Man having play'd away and vainly lost an hour shall by extraordinary industry so improve the next hour as to dispatch the work of two hours therein he may be said to have redeemed the hour that was lost And seeing the Apostle in this place intends the redeeming of time for heavenly things at least principally if not solely as the whole series of his discourse shews and not the redeeming it for the things of the World if time be sometimes gained and improved for heavenly things with some inconvenience or prejudice to our selves in Temporals then we redeem it in a sence not very improper for the inconvenience or prejudice that we sustain in Temporal things is as it were the price that we lay down to redeem it But we need not be too Critical or Accurate in explaining a phrase where the Apostles sense and meaning is obvious and easie to be understood Without all question his intention in the expression of redeeming time is only this that we should so wisely and carefully husband and imploy it for our Spiritual advantage as we may make the most of it toward the furthering of our Salvation and suffer as little of it as is possible to be so laid out as no benefit may thence accrue to our Souls And in regard 't is no easie matter thus to improve our time for Spiritual things there being so many things of an inferior nature that will be continually putting in for a share in our time and rob us of it therefore the Apostle makes the redeeming of time for Spiritual ends and purposes one main thing in which our Circumspection should be exercised See that ye walk circumspectly redeeming the time Thus we have the Scope of the Apostle before us They are not Temporal but Spiritual and Heavenly things chiefly of which the Apostle is here discoursing for these better and more excellent things we are exhorted to redeem the time that is to make the best improvement of it which by our greatest Care and Circumspection we can and this sometimes even by undergoing some loss and prejudice in other things In discoursing of this Subject keeping as near the phrase in the Text as I can I shall shew 1. From what we must redeem the time 2. For what we must redeem it 3. How time is to be redeemed 4. Why 't is to be redeemed And then make Application of what shall have been delivered I begin with the first of these from what must we redeem time I answer we must redeem it from all those things that would seize it and rob us of it I shall mention some of them 1. We must redeem time from the World The World if we affect it immoderately and pursue the things thereof eagerly will ingross to it self and swallow up all our time leaving us none for better things and things of higher Concernment to us 2. We must redeem time from the Flesh The Flesh is also craving as well as the World it would have all our time if it might to be spent in what may gratifie Corrupt Nature in sleep and ease and pastimes and idleness in pleasing the Senses and pampering the Body and giving satisfaction to Men's Lusts 3. We must redeem the time from Satan who will likewise cheat us of it and find out such imployment for it as no part of it may be gained for our Souls if he can hinder it Under these three the World the Flesh and the Devil may be comprehended all those things which so take up and steal away our time as that our greatest and most important work hath the least part of it if any part at all And so much concerning the first particular from what we must redeem the time 2. For what must time be redeemed I answer we must redeem the time for all those great ends and purposes for which our time here is allotted us As 1st To attend upon the business of our lawful Callings and to serve God and our Generation in the respective places and stations in which God hath set us And here every man is to consider what that work is which God hath assigned him what his proper business and imployment is about which God hath set him and he must be very circumspect and careful that he do not suffer needless divertisements and impertinent things to take him off from that work And he must know that he doth serve God in that work as well as in Prayer or any other spiritual Duty whatsoever Only great care must be taken 1. That in those his imployments he do what he doth in obedience to God and with respect to his command who hath enjoined him to be diligent and industrious in his Calling and that he eye God therein and aim at pleasing him and at being accepted with him Coloss 3.23 doing every thing as unto the Lord and not unto men as the Apostle exhorts 2. He must also be careful that he be not so intent upon the World or any worldly thing as to neglect his Soul and the Duties that pertain to God's immediate Worship Neither may it here be thought needless that men should be called upon to redeem time for the duties of their particular Callings For though many are too busie that way devoting their whole time to the World yet many others shamefully neglect their Callings and suffer themselves to be drawn off from their business by every divertisement that comes in their way and offers it self How well were it for many if they could be persuaded to redeem time from the Alchouse from the Tavern from the Coffee-house for the duties of their Calling to redeem time from their lewd Acquaintance and idle Companions from their wicked Complices and Associates in sin Through their neglect to redeem and improve their time better their poor Families may be half starved at home while they waste their time in excess and lewdness abroad I am apt to hope the Magistrates will do what they can to prevent or redress these lamentable Disorders unto which there were never more temptations than in these our days there are 2. Time must be redeemed for prayer reading the Scriptures meditation on heavenly things self-examination communing with your heart and taking an account of your life These are the things and others of like nature for which especially we are to
redeem time and which the Apostle chiefly aims at in this place as hath been said 3. Time must be redeemed for performance of the duties and offices of love to our Neighbours whether they be such as concern their Souls or their Bodies 1. With relation to their Souls time must be redeemed for teaching instructing counselling advising comforting admonishing and reproving them as there shall be cause for it and as their conditions shall require it 2. With relation to their Bodies time must be redeemed for looking after them providing for them and ministring such reliefs and succours to them as they shall stand in need of But above all time must be redeemed for our own Souls and for the things that refer to our spiritual and everlasting welfare 3. How is the time to be redeemed A. By using our utmost diligence to make the best improvement of it that we can And for our help and furtherance therein it will concern us 1. To be careful that we rightly divide and distribute our time allotting such a proportion of it for attending the duties of our particular Callings so much for necessary refreshings so much for holy duties and so for the rest of those things which necessarily require some part of our time 2. To be ever watchful against all Incroachers upon our time and the principal Thieves of our time which will be every day attempting to steal away some part of it What these Thieves of time are every one best knows who is best acquainted with his own Temptations and the circumstances of his Condition 3. He should daily call himself to an account and enquire how he hath imployed his time and what use he hath made of it And where he finds he hath mispent any part of it he should be humbled for it and resolve to make amends by greater care in husbanding his time for the future And this he should especially be careful to do where through his carelesness he hath misimployed or vainly squandred away that time which should have been spent in the Service of God and in the Duties that more immediatly refer to his Soul and more directly tend to the promoting of the good thereof But you will say If a man should every day thus reckon with himself and call himself to an account concerning the imploying of every part of his time this would be a very irksome and tedious course Who would endure to be so strict and severe to himself as to be accountable to himself for every hour in the day This were an intolerable burthen a yoke too heavy to be born To this I answer 1. That whether we be willing to be accountable to our selves for our time daily or no we must be accountable to God for it for every hour of it And the best way to render our Account to God more easie is to be daily calling our selves to an account He that doth this and doth it as he ought makes even Reckonings between God and his own Soul every day 2. We may not think to get to Heaven so easily as to undergo nothing in our way thither that may be tedious and unacceptable to our corrupt Nature They who may hope to go to Heaven must deny themselves and cross the sinful Inclinations of their Nature they must ever and anon be rigid and severe to themselves they must be willing to take pains Luk. 13.14 â— Pet. 1. â—0 Pail 3.13 14. and to strive to enter in at the strait gate They must give all diligence to make their calling and election sure Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before they must press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God If men dream of getting to Heaven without labour and difficulty without offering some violence to their depraved and sinful Natures they are not likely to come thither Undoubtedly 't is not for nothing that our Saviour hath declared Matth. 7.14 That narrow is the way and strait is the gate that leadeth unto life 'T is a severe passage that we have and deserving to be seriously considered by all slothful Christians that would go to Heaven so as it might cost them nothing If the righteous scarcely be saved 1 Pet. 4.18 where shall the ungodly and sinner appear If the most righteous man after all the care and diligence which he hath used and the pains which he hath taken to secure his Soul be scarce saved at last if all that he could do be but just enough to bring him to Heaven shall any man think to loiter away his time here and wast it as he pleaseth and yet make account to get to Heaven as well as those who have been most careful and sollicitous most diligent and industrious in the use of all good means to prevent the everlasting miscarrying of their Souls Let no man so deceive himself whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap As men have been sollicitous and diligent or careless and slothful about the concernments of their Souls here so must they expect to fare hereafter They that sow to the flesh Gal. 6.7.8 shall of the flesh reap corruption And they that sow to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting But you will say My Condition is such that how careful soever I be about what concerns my Soul I can redeem but a very little time for things of that nature My particular Calling so continually takes me up that I can hardly gain one quarter of an hour in a day from it to be spent upon any thing else I answer 1. This may sometimes be through a man 's own fault Perhaps he takes more upon him and incumbers himself with more business than he ought No man should so intangle himself with the Affairs of this World as to shut out better things Better let part of the World go than indanger the loss of your Soul By so grasping the World as to lose your Soul you would be a sorry gainer in the end 2. But supposing a man's Calling to be such as very little time can be redeemed from it for heavenly things yet he must remember Luke 10.42 that one thing is needful absolutely and indispensably necessary and therefore he must find time for that one great thing whatever else he omitted Earthly things must so far give way to heavenly things as that our Souls and eternal concernments be not neglected 3. But yet however it must be considered That God doth not require the same portion of time from all men Persons whose Condition is low and strait as to outward things and some others also whose time is necessarily and unavoidably taken up with the duties of their particular Calling may satisfy themselves in allowing much less time for spiritual things than others who are less straitned and more at liberty But as for such as have more leisure they may not think that no more is expected of
otherwise all that which you do is lost and your labour is laid out to no purpose for you can neither look for acceptance nor reward thereof nor comfort therein 1. You can never expect acceptance with God When you never aimed at pleasing him nor looked after acceptance with him how should you be accepted Can those your actions please him which were never done with any such intent to the undertaking whereof you were wholly swayed by other Considerations and which you would never have set your self about had not other Motives induced you thereunto 2. Much less can you expect any reward at the hands of God of what is not done faithfully Why should God reward you for that service which was not intended to be done for him but for your self or for some other Master For that service in which his glory was not aimed at but your own reputation and advantage or your worldly interest one way or other When the Scribes and Pharisees were vain-glorious and hypocritical in their Duties Praying and giving Alms only to be seen of men Christ said of them Mat 6.2 They have their reward They sought only praise and commendation from men and they have what they sought after Men applaud them and speak well of them and that 's all the reward they must look for As for God they must expect no reward from him whom they never intended to please or honour by their services 3. Neither can they have any sound comfort in what is not done faithfully If the most excellent and glorious services and which are most highly esteemed valued and magnified by men should be so done as God would neither accept nor reward them what true comfort could any man have in them If God frown upon a man what good will the smiles of all the World do him In his favour and gracious acceptance Psal 30.5 is life but his frowns and displeasure are as death Psal 76.7 Who may stand in his sight when once he is angry Happy is the man whose constant study and endeavour it is in all things so to order his Conversation as to please him whoever be thereby displeased The Fifth Sermon PROV XXII 2. The rich and the poor meet together the Lord is the maker of them all THESE words as we see contain two Propositions the former of which is That the rich and the poor meet together The latter That the Lord is the maker of them all Both these Propositions may be understood several ways I shall speak of them in order and first of the former Proposition The rich and the poor meet together Which words are capable of many Interpretations and 't is not easie to judge which of them Solomon chiefly intended 'T is possible that he might purposely express himself in such terms as that we might not be able to restrain the words to any one sense excluding all other Interpretations In such Scriptures where divers Expositions carry equal probability so that we know not well which to embrace or which to reject the safest way for the most part is to take in all those senses which the words will naturally and fairly admit of so among them all we shall be sure to have that which was aimed at As to our present business The rich and the poor may be said to meet together 1. In respect of the common nature of Mankind in which they agree whatsoever other difference there may be between them As for their Bodies there is the same rare composure and admirable artifice in both the same infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness of God discovered in framing the Bodies of the one as of the other there is not a Limb nor a Joint nor a Bone nor a Sinew nor a Vein nor an Artery nor a Muscle nor a Nerve nor a Gristle nor the least string or little instrument of vital or animal operation or motions but is alike to be found in the one as in the other and all alike exquisitely framed and fitted for the respective uses and services in the Body In a word The Body of the poor man is in all respects as wonderfully made as that of the rich Then as to their better part the Spirit the poor man is endowed with as excellent a Soul as the rich man Hath the rich man a Soul endowed with the admired faculties of reason and liberty of will so hath the poor man Have the rich an immortal Soul that shall have a Being to eternity so have the poor Hath the rich man the Image of God stampt upon his Soul so hath the poor Doth the Soul of the one owe its original immediatly and solely to God and so doth the Soul of the other Is God the Father of the Spirits of the rich so is he of the Spirits of the poor Is the Soul of the rich capable of unspeakable and endless happiness in the immediate vision and fruition of God in whose prefence is the fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore so is the Soul of the poorest every way as capable thereof 2. The rich and the poor meet together in respect of the mutual dependance they have upon each other and the need the one hath of the other As the poor man cannot live without the rich man so neither can the rich live without the poor The poor cannot live without the charity and assistance of the rich and the rich cannot live without the Service of the poor How many poor mens Service is necessary towards the making of the rich man's Clothing and the furnishing of his Table Doth he wear one Suit of Apparrel or make one Meal unto which the labour of the poor man's hands doth not some way or other contribute either immediately or mediately Eccles 5.9 and more remotely The king himself is served by the field And how many poor mens labour doth the Field require in manuring and plowing and harrowing and sowing and fencing and weeding and reaping and inning the Fruits of the Earth And yet after that all this is done the Corn that is thus housed is not presently without any more ado made food there must be threshing and winnowing and grinding and baking in which the service of many poor mens hands is necessary before the King himself can eat a bit of Bread And as for the Pride and Luxury of many rich men it were endless to reckon up how many poor mens hands in several ways of imployment are made use of to supply and furnish them with materials by which these their Vices are fed and maintained 3. The rich and the poor meet together in respect of their joint abode neighbourhood and cohabitation here in this World There is no place where they are not both to be found In all places where men live together for the mutual help and defence of one another God's wise Providence hath mingled the rich and the poor together Shew me a rich man's stately and
well-furnished House and I shall not need to go far to shew you a poor man's Cottage and so on the contrary And indeed 't is needful it should so be for as I have just now shewed neither of them could be without the other 4. The rich and the poor meet together in respect of the care and good Providence of God that is alike extended to both They are both under the same gracious Providence that looks after provides for preserves safeguards and protects them both though in ways somewhat different The rich cannot say that God only regards them and fixeth the eye of his Providence on them alone neither can the poor complain that God disregards or neglects them The Lord is good to all Psal 145.9 his mercy is over all his works And so far is he from having denied the poor the benefit of his gracious Providence that in consideration of their destitute disconsolate and helpless condition he hath many ways expressed his particular and tender care of them above others as may elsewhere be shewed Many Laws he hath made in behalf of them many promises he hath made to them he hath laid many charges on the rich to be helpful to them and made many promises also to encourage them thereunto 5. The rich and the poor meet together in the same possibility and capacity of exchanging Conditions with one another As the rich is capable of becoming poor so the poor is capable of being made rich The high Possessor of Heaven and Earth dispenceth outward things as he sees good and to whom he pleaseth He can fill the hand of the poor and empty the hand of the rich whensoever he will He can reduce the rich to such a condition as that the same hand that was wont to give relief shall receive it and he can advance the poor to such a condition as that the same hand which received relief shall give it Such strange turns of God's Providence we often see God according to his good pleasure putteth down one and setteth up another Psal 75.7 He raiseth the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the needy out of the dunghill that he may set him with princes even the princes of his people Psal 113.7 8. And he maketh those that were brought up in scarlet to imbrace dunghills Lam. 4.5 And this leads me to the second Proposition The Lord is the maker of them all Which when I shall also have spoken unto I shall then make application of both together This latter Proposition may also be diversly understood The rich and the poor may be considered either as men or as distinguished from one another by the different adjuncts of Riches and Poverty Now take them under which of these two Considerations you please the Lord is the maker of them both 1. If you consider them both as men so God is the maker of them all And this whether we look back to the first origine of Mankind or whether we consider them as taking their beginning from their more immediate Parents If we look unto the Rock whence we were all hewen and to the Pit whence we were digged if we look back to our first Parents Adam and Eve in them we all came out of the hands of God by creation he framed the first man out of the dust of the Earth and the first Woman out of the Rib of Man and breathed into them the breath of life endued them both with an immortal Soul In this Divine Original in the honour of this miraculous beginning the poor man hath an equal interest with the rich man the rich cannot claim nearer kindred to Adam and Eve than the poor the poor can call Adam Grandfather and Eve Grandmother by as good right as the rich Again if we consider them with relation to their more immediate Parents as they derive their beginning from them setting aside for the present the external and accidental considerations of Riches and Poverty Honour and Dishonour and the like which will come to be spoken of afterwards so God is the maker of them both neither hath the Rich and Noble considered merely as a Man any preeminence in his birth above the poor and ignoble They both are alike fearfully made Psal 139.14 15 16. and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth that is in their Mother's Womb In God's book were all the members of them both written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them And when the Body was by the concurrence of admirable Wisdom and Power fitted to receive and entertain the Soul and made a meet Receptacle and Instrument for so excellent a Being God infused the Soul into the Body by his immediate Almighty Power giving it a being out of nothing and in a wonderful manner far transcending our apprehension united the one to the other And all this expence of Wisdom and Power he equally bestows upon the Rich and the Poor And then they both endure the same confinement and imprisonment in the Womb the Infant of the rich and Noble hath no more room there nor is it sooner at liberty than the Infant of the Beggar And so at the length the same Wisdom Power and Goodness sends them both alike into the World the Infant of the meanest the lowest doth not put the Mother to more pains in the birth than the Infant of the highest it may be to a great deal less And how different soever their entertainment is when they are come into the World yet God sends them both into it alike the Infant of the Prince that sits upon the Throne is as naked and shiftless as the Infant of the poorest that imbraceth Dunghills And thus we have seen that God is the maker of them both considered as men and that as such God makes the rich and the poor alike putting no disserence between them nor being at any greater expence of Wisdom and Power in making of the one than he is in making of the other 2. If the rich and the poor be considered as they are distinguished by those adjuncts of Riches and Poverty so likewise God is the maker of them both 'T is God's Providence that puts these external Differences between men The Lord maketh poor 1 Sam. 2.7 and maketh rich he bringeth low and lifteth up as Hannah sings 'T is neither by chance nor by man's skill or industry alone that men become rich but by the blessing of God upon skill and industry and his over-ruling Providence that gives out and distributes these things by no other rule than the good pleasure of him who worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will Eph. 1.11 The race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong neither yet bread to the wise nor riches to men of understanding nor favour to men of skill Eccles 9.11 It is God that giveth men power to get wealth Deut. 8.18 This we see by
chastning for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable Fruit of Righteousness to them that are exercised thereby Afflictions are spiritual Physick Now Physick we know at present often discomposeth and disturbs Nature and puts the whole Body out of Frame it makes the Patient sick before it cures him And so it is with the Physick of the Soul you cannot discern the Benefit of it till it hath done working It makes you sick for the present but afterwards you come to see it was a good Sickness that made way for Health and ended therein 7. In the mean time that you see not that you in some measure profit by your Afflictions and that they are by degrees doing you good is very much your own Fault 1. You have a Prejudice against your Afflictions you have an ill Opinion of those Courses which God takes with you for your Good and this much hinders the kindly Operation of them upon you as an ill Opinion of your Physician or his Prescriptions hinders the working of your Physick and deprives you of much of the Benefit thereof 2. While you are under these Prejudices and perverse Misapprehensions you do not apply your self to endeavour to profit by your Afflictions improving God 's Providences and doing what in you lies to further the Success of the Means which he applies and makes use of for the Cure of your Soul While your Prejudices continue and you are thereupon still sluggish and unactive how can you expect to be sensible of the Benefit of your Afflictions Cast off your Prejudices have good Thoughts of God's Methods of Cure firmly believe that the Course which he takes with you is the best and fittest to do you good arise and be doing what you can towards the promoting of God's Design in afflicting you search your Heart try your Ways endeavour to get a Sight of your Sins a true Hatred of them serious and firm Resolutions to forsake them renew these your Resolutions often still endeavour to confirm and strengthen them more and more and above all be earnest and uncessant in Prayer to God that he would be pleased to bless your Endeavours and then say if you see any Cause of complaining that your Afflictions are such as can never do you any Good The Ninth Sermon LAM 3.40 Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. I Am now fallen upon the second part of the Text setting before us our Duty in time of Affliction Let us search and try our VVays and turn again to the Lord. The Duty is twofold First That we search and try our VVays And secondly That we turn unto the Lord. The former of these Duties as 't is first in the Order of the Text so 't is in Nature We must search after our Sins find them out and discover them and then turn away from them 'T is impossible that we should forsake them until we have a sight of them He who sees not his Sins what should he else do but still go on boldly and fearlesly in the practice of them What hath he to hinder him or reduce him I shall speak something of both these Duties and first of that which hath the first place in the Text. But before I come to speak of the Duty it self of searching and trying our Ways in time of Affliction in order to the finding out of those our Sins for which God hath laid his Hand upon us I shall speak a little in a more general way of that which is near of kin unto the Duty of the Text I mean of Self-reflection or a looking back upon our selves and a reviewing and consideration of our Thoughts Words and Ways And that which I shall say concerning it shall be touching the Excellency and great Usefulness thereof and touching the Mischiefs of the neglect of it I. As touching the Excellency of Self-reflection or reviewing of our Thoughts Words and Actions I need say no more than that 't is a Perfection which only Men and Angels are capable of All other Creatures even those of them which are most perfect in their Kind and seem to have as it were some Shadow and Resemblance of Reason in them yet fall short of this excellent Perfection They cannot review what they have done or take into consideration the Quality of their past Actions they cannot reckon with themselves and call themselves to an account of them And indeed they need not do it for they are under no other Rule or Law beside that of their Nature and those natural Instincts which God hath put into them by these they are ruled and swayed and according to these they act They are under the Command of no moral Law and consequently their Actions are not capable of moral Good or Evil. But Man being under a moral Law and accountable to his Creator for the Breaches thereof for the better regulating and ordering of his Thoughts Words and Actions according to the Prescriptions of that Law God hath endowed him with a Faculty of reviewing his Actions and of considering them with relation to the Rule to the end that where he finds he hath done well he may be comforted and encouraged and where he hath done ill he may be humbled and reformed Thus hath he a Tribunal within his own Breast before which he can as often as he pleaseth summon himself to appear demand an account of all that hath been done by himself whether good or evil At this Tribunal he can judg and pass Sentence acquit or condemn himself according to the moral Nature and Quality of his Actions Here he can rebuke and admonish as there shall be cause recal and reduce himself where he hath gone astray and lay stricter and severer Charges and Injunctions on himself of greater Care and Watchfulness for the future as in respect of his former Negligence and Remissness shall be necessary A most excellent and never-sufficiently-admired Faculty of Man's Soul What a rich Treasure have we herein if we knew how to value it and make use of it But alas how little Improvement do we make to our selves of this noble Faculty And this brings me to the second thing the great Usefulness of Self-reflection I have already in what hath been spoken on the former Head said something of the Usefulness of it in general I shall now descend to some Particulars and speak briefly to them 1st By reflecting on our selves and taking a view of our past Actions we come to know our selves We understand the State and Condition of our Souls what Case we are in and what Opinion we ought to have of our selves Hereby we come to be acquainted with our spiritual Concernments whether we be in the State of Nature or in the State of Grace whether we be in the Way to Heaven or in the Way to Hell Hereby we come to know what our Declinings and Decays what our Advances and Improvements in