lose nothing by conferring it upon us Our Hearts would sink and fail within us and our Hands our Faith could not be strong if God were to lose by what we hope to gain if the receiving us to glory must be by the eclipsing of his own glory For he will never diminish that for the advancement of which all things were made by him and for the sake of which he doth all that he doth or ever will do that therefore his Mercy may be thus magnified safely he hath provided how his Justice may be satisfied fully and all his other Attributes retain their lustre and their brightness He hath therefore raised up for us a mighty salvation in the house of his servant David as he spake by the mouth of all his Holy Prophets since the world began And to give us the clear knowledge of salvation by the remission of our sins through the tender mercies of our God the day spring from on high hath visited us He hath devised means to bring home his banished that they should not for ever be expelled from himself that we may be delivered from going down to the pit He hath found a ransom He hath laid help upon one that is mighty able to save to the utmost all those that come to God by him He spared not his own Son but gave him to be a ransom for us made him to be sin that is a sin offering for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him yea made him a curse for us bear that curse of the Law which we had deserved that we might be delivered from it God hath set forth his Son Jesus Christ to be a propitiation through faith in his blood And he is gone into Heaven to appear in the presence of God for us so that if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous who is a propitiation for our sin and therefore If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin And he hath revealed him to us and publisht these glad tidings to us in his Gospel which takes its name its denomination hence because in it and by it is made known to us those glad tidings of great joy that the Son of God is become the Son of man is now Emanuel God with us to be a Saviour to us Fifthly He makes us the most free kind pathetick invitations to come to him to look unto him and be saved He bids us to a Feast of fat things which he hath slain and prepared and of choice Wine Wine upon the lees well refined You shall scarce any where amongst men tho the dearest to one another and most delighted in each others conversation meet with so passionate so restless an importunity as is exprest to bring in Guests to the Wedding Feast Matth. xxii and Luk. xiv First a previous invitation before hand then a liberal and sumptuous preparation which might allure any man to partake of it Then a sending forth servants to call them who were before bidden then a sending forth other servants to inform them what an extraordinary entertainment was provided and again to let them know the meat was on the Table and their Lord staid for them and would not sit down till they were come and then other servants are posted away some into the Streets and Lanes of the City to search the very Lanes and by Allies where none but persons of the meanest rank dwell or converse others into the Country into the Highways where may be met Passengers of all degrees and qualities and to the Hedges where the Beggers lye basking or the Robbers lye sculking to hide themselves or look and wait to catch their prey and not only tell them they may come if they please and shall be very welcome but invite them heartily press them earnestly to come along wich them immediately and if they be indifferent whether they come or no urge them and persuade them till you have made them willing and if they continue still unwilling even constrain and compel them to come in and if when all this is done some of them make such excuses that nothing will prevail with them find out others in their room and give not over till the House be full and the Table be furnished as plentifully with Guests as 't is nobly stored and even loaden with provisions Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no mony come ye buy and eat come and buy wine and milk without mony and without price Isa lv 1. Come unto me all ye that are weary and hâ—â—vy laden and I will refresh you and you shall find rest Matth. xi 28. And the whole Bible is as it were concluded and shut up with that large and free and earnest invitation which is so proclaimed that the whole world is made to ring of it He that hears first as being nearest to the first sound having charge to tell it unto others and call to them that are remote and out of hearing of the first publishers of it The Spirit and the bride God from Heaven the Church on Earth say come And let him that heareth say come And let him that is a thirst come And whosoever will let him take the water of life freely Rev. xxii 17. And lest any should enlarge what God hath streitned or streiten what God hath enlarged and take off from the encouragement which this invitation gives so universally to all sinners to repent and turn and come in to God the words next following may seem to have a peculiar aspect on what is immediately before declared in this 17. verse now set down tho I would not confine them to that only verse 18. For I testifie to every one that heareth the words of the prophesie of this book if any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book that is if any man shall add to the conditions of this invitation which assures acceptance to them who thirst and so thirsting come to God by Faith and Repentance if I may inoffensively subjoyn such a gloss as if it were so free as even to exempt sinners from these terms as necessary for their peace and safety God will plague that man then vers 19. And if any man shall take away from the words of the Book of this Prophecy God shall take away his part out of the Book of life and out of the Holy City and from the things which are written in this Book that is if any man shall deny any one to be capable of the benefit offered in this so large and free and universal an invitation who doth thirst after these waters of life and so thirsting shall come to them repenting and believing and willing and desirous to drink of them He himself shall have no part
abused Patience kindle into such Fury as shall burn to the nethermost Hell and none can quench it 'T is hard to stop my running Pen in such a Current but I will check it and refer you to the Sermons for more pressing Arguments These things have been often ecchoed in your Ears enough to make them tingle I now put them into your Hands and Houses and lay them before your Eyes read them attentively consider them Wisely practise them Faithfully and Pray earnestly that God would bless them to you as I shall not cease to do in your behalf and set this little Book in some conspicuous Place that it may be your Remembrancer when you do but glance your Eye upon it and as often as you see it ask your Consciences have I yet obeyed the Errand on which God sent that little Messenger Am I ready for Christ have I finished the work God sent me into this World for bear I such Fruit as God expects from every Tree he plants in the Vineyard of his Church Now the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has so loved us as to give us his dearly beloved Son to Dye for us and will speedily send him again to Judge us That great lover of Souls who hath sworn he desires not the Death of a Sinner but would have all Men to be Saved and come to the Knowledg of the Truth inable you in this your Day to know the things which belong to your Peace before they be hidden from you that when ever he shall come who hath said so often behold I come quickly you may lift up your Heads and not be ashamed and your Hearts may Eccho with Faith and Joy even so come Lord Jesus So Prayes dear Neighbours Your faithful Monitor and Willing Servant in the Things of Christ Anthony Walker Fyfield March 9 1680 1. THE CONTENTS Serm. I. AGainst the Neglect of present Readiness for our Lords Coming Upon St. Luke 12.40 Be ye therefore Ready also In which is shewed wherein our Readiness for Christs Coming consists and the Duty is prest by many Arguments Serm. II. AGainst putting off the finishing our great Work upon St. John 9.4 I must Work the Works of him that sent me while it is Day The Night cometh when no Man can Work In which is shewed what this Work is and Diligence urged because 't is Work and Speed with respect to the Time allowed and limited for the doing of it Serm. III. AGainst the want of present fruitfulness in our Lords Vineyard Upon St. Luke the 13.6 7 8 9. A certain Man had a Figtree planted c. In which the whole Parable is succinctly Opened and Applyed and speedy Fruitfulness proved the only means to prevent cutting down A SERMON PREACHED At St. Buttolphs Algate on Friday the 18th of February 1680 1 at the Funeral of Mr. Nathaniel Duckfeild Citizen of London and Inhabitant of the said Parish St. Luke 12.40 Be ye therefore Ready also T Is the great Design of every faithful Minister to save himself and them that hear him and nothing more naturally contributes to that good Work than a serious preparedness of Heart on the part of the Hearers and on the Preachers a Word seasonably fitted to the Occasion by which God calls them to attend to it And if any thing next to the Grace of God can awaken men to awful Apprehensions of the World to come 't is convincing Evidence of their uncertain Continuance in this World and unavoidable necessity of their certain Departure out of it And this is no where written in more legible Characters than on the Hearses of our Friends with whom we have had familiar and daily Conversation and were a few Days since as likely to have attended us to our long Homes as we were to follow them to their Beds of Silence And for this Reason the wise Man tells us it is better to go to the House of Mourning than to go to the House of Feasting For that is the end of all Men and thâ— Living will lay it to his Heart Eccl. 7.2 Supposing therefore that your Eye hath affected your Heart and that this solemn and mournful Object of our worthy and obliging Friend now shut up from us iâ— the close Confinement of a Coffin hatâ— disposed your Hearts to receive what iâ— Fit and Reasonable to be learn'd from it The Work on my part is to render my Discourse sutable That the Ordinance we are exercised in may answer the Providence which brought us to it That there may be an Harmony in the parts which are to be joyned into one piece For God hath two Books one of his Works another of his Word Both described by David in Psal xix and we are to turn a Page in either of them To learn a Lesson in the School of Nature and in the School of Grace And I desire these may answer each other as the Windows did in Solomons Temple Light over against Light Our Text our Lesson or if you will our Sermon from the Book of Providence is not only to view a man like our selves Mortal and actually dead But a man not past the vigour of his years and strength and t'other day in perfect health summoned to his Tryal to stand at Christ's Tribunal to receive his final doom and sentence And I think no Text in Scripture Ecchoes more vocally to this than the words I have read Be ye therefore Ready also The illative Particle therefore hath an aspect also on the Context and it looks both backward and forward to what went before in the 37. and 39. verses and what follows after in this In the Verses pointed at before the Text are laid down the blessedness of the ready and the misery of the unready Rewards and Punishments are the Instruments of Government Hopes and Fears are the Spurs and Bridles to quicken to Good to restrain from Evil. Therefore if you would injoy the Good 't is Natural to hope for and desire or escape the Evil 't is Natural to fear and fly from Be ready The blessedness of the ready is described by the honour every such servant shall receive from his Lord and Master when he comes He will gird himself and make them sit down to meat and come forth and serve him And for greater assurance like Pharaohs dream 't is doubled v. 37. begins blessed are those servans and v. 38. ends blessed are those servants The misery of the not ready is described by the condition of an Housholder surprized by Robbers who break through his House with the supposed consequences take away his Goods and Life so that the sum is seeing such ready servants shall assuredly be blessed And such unprepared Housholder shall be miserably ruined Let others happiness be your incouragement And let others harms be your warnings that ye be ready But the duty is of such vast importance that 't is prest yet farther with a Reason at the back of it For the son
upon this as the last year of Gods patience to this Church and to thy self if thou mend not nay as the last day To day if ye will hear his voice nay this present now now now is the day of Salvation now is the accepted time Behold 't was a wonder he came so oft again and again and 't is a wonder a miracle of mercy he hath added another years patience in our circumstances therefore now lay hold upon God that he depart not now catch hold of his hand which is lift up to fetch the fatal stroak and catch and hold it fast before the blow fall by faith by prayer and by repentance Happy we 't is not too late already the next may never be or may be too late When the master of the House is once risen when the door is lock'd when the Market is over and the Shops are shut up 't is then too late and in vain to endeavour that which might have been dispatch'd with ease in convenient season Who knows but some of you would next year nay next week nay it may be too morrow give ten thousand worlds if you had them to redeem the opportunities you now enjoy to have the offers made you again I am now making you in the Name of a most Gracious God and be in a capacity to receive them Oh therefore for God for Christ's sake for the Churches sake for Posterity sake and for your own souls sake improve this year this month this very day and moment to resolve to be presently fruitful and to fulfil those Resolutions But know that as your acceptance of this last invitation shall blot out the remembrance of all your former Refusals So your adding another refusal to your too many former ones will aggravate them and multiply your guilt and God's wrath as a third and fourth figure added to two before them multiplies Vnites and Tens into Hundreds and Thousands And your despising the Riches of his Goodness Long-suffering and Forbearance and refusing to be led to repentance by them will prove a treasuring up unto your selves whole stores of wrath against the day of wrath from which God grant your speedy and sincere Repentance and bringing forth fruits meet for it in amendment of life which alone can do it may effectually deliver you Amen FINIS Books lately Printed for and sold by Nathanael Ranew at the Kings Arms in St. Pauls Church-Yard In Folio THE Principles of Christian Religion with a large Body of Divinity Methodically and Familiarly handled by way of Question and Answer for the use of Families together with Immanuel or the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God By the most Reverend James Usher late Arch-Bishop of Armagh to which is now added in this seventh Edition twenty Sermons Preached at Oxford before His Majesty and elsewhere perused and published by his Lordship with the Life of the Author containing many remarkable passages and an Alphabetical Table never before extant In Quarto Reflections on Dr. Stilling fleet 's Book of the Unreasonableness of Separation By a Conformist Minister in the Country in order to Peace Some Additional Remarks on the Late Book of the Reverend Dean of S. Pauls intituled The Unreasonableness of Separation By a Conformable Clergy-man Argumentum ad Hominem or an Argument against Protestants who hold that Papists qua tales or living and dying Papists may be saved By Thomas Whorwood Divine Providence the Support of good men under all Events A Sermon Preached before the Lord Mayor c. at Guild-Hall Chappel By William Shelton Rector of S. James Colchester Durus Sermo or Aenigma moriendi The Mystery of Dying Daily in a Sermon Preached in Plimouth at the Funeral of Mistress Joan Warren By William Pyke M. A. and Rector of Stokeclimsland in the County of Cornwal A Plea for Moderation or a Stricture upon the Ecclesiasticks of our Times The Evidence of things not seen or divers Scriptural and Philosophical Discourses concerning the state of good and holy men after death By that eminently Learned Divine Moses Amyraldus Translated out of the French Tongue by a Minister of the Church of England Octavo Natural Theology or the Knowledge of God from the Works of Creation accommodated and improved to the Service of Christianity By Matthew Barker