and will put off mens souls with uneffectual formalities do you think this is an honourable usage of Christs Spouse Are the souls of men thought meet by God to see his face and live for ever in his glory and are they not worthy of your utmost cost and labour Do you think so basely of the Church of God as if it deserved not the best of your care and help Were you the Keepers of sheep or swine you might better let them go and say they be not worthy the looking after and yet you would scarce do so if they were your own But dare you say so by the souls of men even by the Church of God Christ walketh among them Remember his presence and keep all as clean as you can The praises of the most high God are in the midst of them They are a sanctified peculiar people a Kingly Priesthood an holy Nation a choice generation to shew forth the praises of him that hath called them 1 Pet. 2. 9. and yet dare you neglect them What a high honour is it to be but one of them yea but a door keeper in the house of God! but to be the Priest of these Priests and the Ruler of these Kings this is such an honour as multiplyeth your obligations to diligence and fidelity in so noble an employment SECT IV. IV. THE last Motive that is mentioned in my Text is from the Price that was paid for the Church which we Oversee God the Son did purchase it with his own blood O what an Argument is here to quicken the negligent and what an Argument to condemn those that will not be quickned up to their duty by it O saith one of the antient Doctors if Christ had but committed to my keeping one spoonful of his blood in a fragile glass how curiously should I preserve it and how tender should I be of that glass If then he have committed to me the purchase of his blood should I not as carefully look to my charge What Sirs shall we despise the blood of Christ Shall we think it was shed for them that are not worthy of our utmost care You may see here it is not a little fault that negligent Pastors are guilty of as much as in them lyeth the blood of Christ should be shed in vain They would lose him those souls that he hath so dearly bought O then let us hear those Arguments of Christ when ever we feel our selves grow dull and careless Did I dye for them and wilt not thou look after them Were they worth my blood and are they not worth thy labour Did I come down from Heaven to Earth to seek and to save that which was lost and wilt not thou go to the next door or street or Village to seek them How small is thy labour or condescention as to mine I debased my self to this but it is thy honour to be so imployed Have I done and suffered so much for their salvation and was I willing to make thee a co-worker with me and wilt thou refuse that little that lyeth upon thy hands Every time we look upon our Congregations let us believingly remember that they are the purchase of Christs blood and therefore should be regarded accordingly by us And think what a confusion it will be at the last day to a negligent Minister to have this Blood of the Son of God to be pleaded against him and for Christ to say It was the purchase of my blood that thou didst so make light of and dost thou think to be saved by it thy self O Brethren seeing Christ will bring his Blood to plead with us let it plead us to our duty leâ—t it plead us to damnation SECT V. I Have done with the Motives which I find in the Text it self There are many more that might be gathered from the rest of this Exhortation of the Apostle but we must not stay to take in all If the Lord will set home but these few upon your hearts I dare say we shall see reason to mend our pace and the change will be such on our hearts and in our Ministery that our selves and our Congregations will have cause to bless God for it I know my self unworthy to be your Monitor but a Monitor you must have and its better for us to hear of our sin and duty from any body then from no body Receive the admonition and you will see no cause in the Monitors unworthyness to repent of it but if you reject it the unworthyest Messenger may bear that witness against you that will confound you But before I leave this Exhortation as I have applyed it to our general work so I shall carry it a little further to some of the special parts and modes of our Duty which were before expressed 1. And first and above all See that the work of saving grace be throughly wrought on your own souls It is a fearful case to be an unsanctified Professor but much more to be an unsanctified Preacher Doth it not make you tremble when you open the Bible lest you should read there the Sentence of your own Condemnation when you pen your Sermons little do you think that you are drawing up inditements against your own souls When you are arguing against sin you are aggravating your own When you proclaim to your hearers the riches of Christ and grace you publish your own iniquity in rejecting them and your unhappiness in being without them What can you do in perswading men to Christ in drawing them from the world in urging them to a life of faith and holiness but conscience if it were but awake might tell you that you speak all this to your own confusion If you mention Hell you mention your own Inheritance If you describe the Joyes of heaven you describe your misery that have no right to it What can you devise to say for the most part but it will be against your own souls O miserable life that a man should study and preach against himself and spend all his daies in a course of self-condemning A graceless unexperienced Preacher is one of the most unhappy creatures upon earth And yet is he ordinarily most insensible of his unhappiness For he hath so many counters that seem like the gold of saving grace and so many splendid stones that seem like the Christians Jewel that he is seldom troubled with the thoughts of his poverty but thinks he is Rich and wanteth nothing when he is poor and miserable and blind and naked He is acquainted with the holy Scripture he is exercised in holy duties he liveth not in open disgraceful sin he serveth at Gods Altar he reproveth other mens faults and preacheth up holiness both of heart and life and how can this man chose but be Holy O what an aggravated misery is this to perish in the midst of plenty and to famish with the bread of life in our hands while we offer it to others and urge it on
are one would think should be no great cause of Pride However do not the Devils know more then you And will you be Proud of that which the Devils do excell you in Yea to some I may say as Salvian li. 4. de Gubern p. 98. Quid tibi blandiris O homo quisquis es Credulitate quae sine timore atque obsequio Dei nulla est aliquid plus Daemones habent Tu emin unam rem habes tantummodo illi duat Tu Credulitatem habes non habes timorem illi Credulitatem habent pariter timorem Our very business is to teach the great lesson of self-denyal and humility to our people and how unfit is it then that we should be proud our selves We must study Humility and Preach Humility and must we not possess and practice it A proud Preacher of Humility is at least a self-condemning man What a sad case is it that so vile a sin is no more easily discerned by us but many that are most Proud can blame it in others and take no notice of it in themselves The world takes notice of some among us that they have aspiring minds and seek for the highest room and must be the Rulers and bear the sway where-ever they come or else there is no standing before them No man must contradict them that will not partake of the fruits of their indignation In any consultations they come not to search after truth but to dictate to others that perhaps are fit to teach them In a word they have such arrogant domineering spirits that the world rings of it and yet they will not see it in themselves Brethren I desire to deal closely with my own heart and yours I beseech you consider Whether it will save us to speak well of the grace that we are without or to speak against the sin that we live in Have not many of us cause to enquire once again Whether sincerity will consist with such a measure of Pride When we are telling the drunkard that he cannot be saved unless he become temperate and the fornicator that he cannot be saved unless he become chaste an undoubted truth have we not as great reason if we are proud to say of our selves that we cannot be saved unless we become humble Certainly Pride is a greater sin then whoredom or drunkenness and Humility is as necessary as Chastity and Sobriety Truly Brethren a man may as certainly and more slily and dangerously make haste to hell in a way of Profession and earnest preaching of the Gospel and seeming zeal for a Holy life as in a way of drunkenness and filthyness For what is true Holiness but a devotedness to God and a living to him and what is a wicked and damnable state but a devotedness to our carnal selves and a living to our selves And doth any man live more to himself then the proud or less to God And may not Pride make a Preacher study for himself and pray and preach and live to himself even when he seemeth to out-go others in the work if he therefore out-go them that he may have the glory of it from men It is not the work without the principle and end that will prove us upright The work may be Gods and yet we do it not for God but for our selves I confess I feel such continual danger in this point that if I do not watch against it least I should study for my self and preach for my self and write for my self rather then for Christ I should soon miscarry and after all I justifie not my self when I must condemn the sin Consider I beseech you Brethren what baits there are in the work of the Ministery to entice a man to be selfish that is to be carnal and impious even in the highest works of piety The fame of a godly man is as great a snare as the fame of a learned man And woe to him that takes up with the fame of godliness instead of godliness Verily I say unto you they have their reward When the times were all for learning and empty formalities then the Temptation of the proud did lie that way But now through the unspeakable mercy of God the most lively practical preaching is in credit and godliness it self is in credit and now the Temptation to Proud men is here even to pretend to be zealous Preachers and godly men O what a fine thing doth it seem to have the people crowd to hear us and to be affected with what we say and then we can command their Judgements and Affections What a taking thing is it to be cryed up as the ablest and godlyest man in the Countrey and to be famed through the Land for the highest spiritual excellencies Alas Brethren a little grace will serve turn to make you to joyn your selves with the forwardest of those men that have these inducements or encouragements To have the people plead for you as their felicity and call you the Pillars of the Church of God and their Fathers the Chariots and horse-men of Israel and no lower language then excellent men and able Divines and to have them depend upon you and be ruled by you though this may be no more then their duty yet I must again tell you that a little grace may serve to make you seem zealous men for this Nay Pride may do it without any special Grace O therefore be jealous of your selves and in all your studies be sure to study Humility He that exalieth himself shall be brought low and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted I observe commonly that almost all men good and bad do loath the Proud and love the Humble so far doth Pride contradict it self unless it be where it purposely hideth it self and as conscious of its own deformity doth borrow the homely dress of humility And we have cause to be the more jealous because it is the most radicated vice and as hardly as any extirpated from the soul Nam saepe sibi de se mens ipsa mentitur fingit se de bono opere amare quod non amat de mundi autem gloria non amare quod amat inquit Gregor M. de cura Pastor P. 1. c. 9. When it was a disgrace to a man to be a godly zealous Preacher then Pride had not such a baite as now As the same Gregor saith ibid. p. 21. c. 8. Eo tempore quo quisquis plebibus praeerat primus ad Martyris tormenta ducebatur Tunc laudabile fuit Episcopatum quaerere quando per hunc quemque dubium non erat ad supplicia major a pervenire But it is not so now as he saith in another place Cap. 1. initio Sed quia authore Deo ad Religionis reverentiam omne jam praesentis seculi culmen inclinatur sunt nonnulli qui intra sanctam Ecclesiam per speciem regiminis gloriam affectant honoris Videri Doctores appetunt transcendere caeteros concupiscunt atque
them I know that some of these men are Learned and Reverend and intend not such mischievous ends as these The hardening of men in ignorance is not their design But this is the thing effected To intend well in doing ill is no rarity Who can in reverence to any men on earth sit still and hold his tongue while he seeth people thus run to their own destruction and the souls of men be undone by the contendings of Divines for their several parties and interests The Lord that knows my heart knows that if I know it my self as I am not of any one of these parties so I speak not a word of this in a sactious partiality for one party or against another as such much less in spleen against any person but if I durst in conscience I would have silenced all this for fear of giving them offence whom I much honour But what am I but a servant of Christ and what is my life worth but to do him service and whose favour can recompence for the ruines of the Church and who can be silent while souls are undone Not I for my part while God is my Master and his word my Rule his work my business and the success of it for the saving of men my end Who can be reconciled to that which so lamentably crosseth his Masters interest and his main end Nor yet would I have spoken any of this if it had been only in respect to my own charge yet I bless God the sore is but small in comparison of what it is in many other places But the observation of some neighbour Congregations and others more remote me thinks should make the very contrary minded Divines relent if they were present with them Would it be a pleasant hearing to them to hear a croud of scandalous men to reproach their Ministers that would draw them to repentance and to tell them they have no authority over them and all this under the pretence and shelter of their judgements Had they rather men went to Hell then be taught the way to Heaven by Presbyters that had not their Imposition of hands Is that point of order more necessary then the substance of the work or the end it self Nay I must needs in faithfulness say yet more That it is no credit to the cause of these Reverend men nor ever was that the generality of the most wicked men and haters and contemners of all Devotion are the great friends and maintainers of it And the befriending of such a party did more to gain their love then to save their souls And the engageing such a Party for them hath not been the least cause of their fall This is true however it be taken And what a case would the Churches of England be in if we should yield to the motions of these Reverend men supposing that mens judgements are not at their own wills and therefore many cannot see the reasons for Prelacy must we all give up our charges as no true Ministers and desert the Congregations as no true Churches Why whom will they then set over them in our stead First it is known that they cannot if they had fit men procure them what liberty their way requires because of the discountenance of authority and it is known that they have not fit men for one Congregation of very many And had they rather that the doors were shut up and God had no publike worship nor the people any publike teaching or Sacraments then any but they should have a hand in the performance of it Or if the Ministers keep their places can they wish all the Congregations to stay at home and live like Heathens Nay are they not angry with us for casting out a grosly ignorant insufficient scandalous sort of Ministers who were the great means of the perdition of the people whose souls they had taken charge of As for the casting out of any able godly men upon meer differences about the late troubles and State affairs I speak not of it I approve not of it If any such thing were done let them maintain it if they can that did it for I neither can nor will But it s a very sad case that any men of judgement piety should not only be indifferent in matters of such moment but should think it a persecution and an injury to their party and cause to have hundreds of unworthy wretches to be ejected when it was a work of so great necessity to the Church And indeed by all this they plainly shew what a condition they would reduce this Nation into again if it were in their power Sure they that would have the people disown and withdraw from them as being no Ministers and turn their backs on the word and Sacraments would silence them if they could I think there is no doubt of that And surely they that are so offended that the insufficient and scandalous ones are cast out would have them in again if they could And if this be the change that they desire let them not blame men that believe the Scripture and value mens salvation if they have no mind of their change If it were a matter of meer opinion we should be more indifferent with them Or if the question were only whether men should be conducted in waies of holiness by a Prelate or by meer Presbyters only we should think it of less moment then the matter that is before us But when it comes to this pass that the Prince of darkness must be so gratified and so much of the Church of Christ delivered overmuch into his power and the people led by multitudes to perdition and all for the upholding of our own parties or interests or conceits we cannot make light of such matters as these These are not meer speculations but matters that are so obvious to sense and Christian experience that they must not think much that serious experienced Christians are against them But that I be not mistaken it is far from my thoughts to speak what I have done of any peaceable man of the Prelatical way or to meddle in the Controversie of the best way of Government nor do I speak to any of the New Prelatical way but only those who are guilty of the miscarriages which I have spoken of and for them I had rather bear their indignation then the Church should bear the fruits of their destructive intemperate conceits The most common cause of our Divisions and unpeaceableness is mens high estimation of their own Opinions And it ordinarily worketh these two waies sometimes by setting men upon Novelties and sometimes by a censorious condemning of all that differ from the party that they are of Some are as busie in their enquiries after new Doctrines as if the Scripture were not perfect or Christ had not told us all that is necessary or the way to heaven were not in all ages one and the same from Christ to the end of the world or the Church
students where meer Arguments would not take And the same tractable distemper doth so often follow them into the Ministery that it occasioneth the enemies to say that Reputation and preferment is our Religion and our Reward 2. And for the second How common is it with Ministers to drown themselves in worldly business Too many are such as the Sectaries would have them be who tell us that we should go to plough and cart and labour for our living and preach without so much study And this is a lesson easily learnt Men take no care to cast off and prevent care that their souls and the Church may have their care And especially how commonly are those duties neglected that are like if performed to diminish our estates For example Is there not many that dare not that will not set up the exercise of any Discipline in their Churches not only on the forementioned accounts but especially because it may hinder the people from paying them their dues They will not offend sinners with Discipline least they offend them in their estates yea though the Law secure their maintenance I find money is too strong an Argument for some men to answer that can proclaim the love of it to be the root of all evil and can make large orations of the danger of covetousness I will say no more now to these but this If it was so deadly a sin in Simon Magus to offer to buy the Gift of God with money what is it to sell his gifts his cause and the souls of men for money and what reason have such to fear least their money perish with them 3. But the most that I have to say is to the third discovery If worldly and fleshly interest did not much prevail against the interest of Christ and the Church surely most Ministers would be more fruitful in good works and would more lay out that they have to their masters use Experience hath fully proved it that works of Charity do most potently remove prejudice and open the ears to words of piety If men see that you are addicted to do good they will the easilyer belive that you are good and the easilyer then believe that it is good which you perswade them too When they see that you Love them and seek their good they will the easilyer trust you And when they see that you seek not the things of the world they will the less suspect your intentions and the easilyer be drawn by you to seek that which you seek O how much good might Ministers do if they did set themselves wholly to do good and would dedicate all their faculties and substance to that endl Say not that it is a small matter to do good to mens bodies and that this will but win them to us and not to God nor convert the soul For it is prejudice that is a great hindrance of mens conversion and this will remove it We might do men more good if they were but willing to learn of us and this will make them willing and then our further diligence may profit them Brethren I pray you do not think that it is ordinary charity that is expected from you any more then ordinary piety You must in proportion to your talents go much beyond others It is not to give now and them two pence to a poor man others do that as well as you But what singular thing do you with your estates for your Masters use I know you cannot give away that which you have not But me thinks all that you have should be for God I know the great objection is We have wife and children to provide for a little will not serve them at present and we are not bound to leave them beggars To which I answer 1. There are few texts of Scripture more abused then that of the Apostle He that provideth not for his own and specially those of his family hath denyed the faith and is worse then an Infidel This is made a pretence for gathering up portions and providing a full estate for posterity when the Apostle speaketh only against them that did cast their poor kindred and family on the Church to be maintained out of the common stock when they were able to do it themselves As if one that hath a widdow in his house that is his mother or daughter and would have her to be kept on the Parish when he hath enough himself His following words shew that it is present provision and not future portions that the Apostle speaketh of when he bids them that have widdows administer to them or give them what is sufficient 2. You may so educate your children as other mean persons do that they may be able to get their own livings in some honest trade or imployment without other great provisions I know that your charity and care must begin at home but it must not end there You are bound to do the best you can to educate your children so as they may be capable of being most serviceable to God but not to leave them rich or a full estate Nor to forbear other necessary works of Charity meerly for a larger provision for them There must be some proportion kept between our provision for our families and for the Church and poor A truly charitable self-denying heart that hath devoted it self and all that he hath to God would be the best judge of the due proportions and would see which way of expence is likely to do God the greatest service and that way he would take 3. I confess I would not have men lie too long under endangering strong temptations to incontinency lest they wound themselves and their profession by their falls But yet methinks its hard that men can do no more to mortifie the concupiscence of the flesh that they may live in a single freer condition and have none of these temptations from wife and children to hinder them from furthering their Ministerial ends by charitable works If he that marryeth not doth better then he that doth sure Ministers should labour to do that which is best And if he that can receive this saying must receive it we should endeavour after it This is one of the highest points of the Romish policy which they pretend to be a duty of common necessity that all their Bishops Priests and other Religious orders must not marry by which means they have no posterity to drain the Churches revenues nor to take up their care but they make their publike cause to be their interest and they lay out themselves for it while they live and leave all that they have to it when they die So that their Churches wealth doth daily increase as every Bishop Abbot Jesuite or other person doth gather more in their life time and usually add it to their common stock It s pitty that for a better cause we can no more imitate them in wisdom and self-denyal where it might be done 4. But they that must
labours then no doubt if the fear of God be in them and they have any love to his truth and mens souls they will set to their helping hand and not let men perish because there is no man to speak to them to prevent it They will one way or other raise maintenance in such populous places for labourers proportioned to the number of souls and greatness of the work Let them but see us fall to the work and see it prosper in our hands as if it be well managed through Gods blessing there is no doubt but it will do and then it will draw out their hearts to the promoting of it and instead of laying Parishes together to diminish the number of teachers they will either divide them or allow more teachers to a Parish But when they see that many carnal Ministers do make a greater stir to have more maintenance to themselves then to have more help in the work of God they are tempted by such worldlings to wrong the Church that particular Ministers may have ease and fulness 11. ANother benefit that is like to follow our work is this It may exceedingly facilitate the Ministerial service to the next generation that shall succeed us and prevent the Rebellion of people against their Teachers As I said custom is the thing that swaies much with the multitude and they that first break a destructive custom must bear the brunt of their indignation some body must do this If we do it not it will lie upon our successors And how can we look that they should be more hardy and resolute and faithful then we It s we that have seen the heavy Judgements of the Lord and heard him pleading by fire and sword with the Land It s we that have been our selves in the furnace and should be the most refined Mal. 3. 23. It s we that are most deeply obliged by oaths and covenants by wonderful deliverances experiences and mercies of all sorts And if we yet flinch and turn our backs and prove false-hearted why should we expect better from them that have not been driven by such scourges as we nor drawn by such cords But if they do prove better then we and will do it the same odium and opposition must befall them which we avoid and that with some increase because of our neglect For the people will tell them that we their predecessors did no such things But if we would now break through that are set in the front and break the ice for them that follow us their souls will bless us and our names shall be dear to them and they will feel the happy fruits of our labour every week and day of their Ministery When the people shall willingly submit to their private instructions and examinations yea and to discipline too because we have acquainted them with it and removed the prejudice and broke the evil custom that our fore-goers had been the cause of And so we may do much to the saving of many thousand souls in all ages to come as well as in the present age that we are working in 12. ANother Benefit will be this We shall keep our peoples minds and times from much of that vanity that now possesseth them When men are at work in their Shops almost all their talk is vanity the children also learn foolish and ribbald songs and tales and with such filth and rubbish are their memories furnished Many an hour is lost and many a thousand idle thoughts and words are they guilty of Whereas when they once know that Catechisms must be learnt and that they must all give account it will turn much of their thoughts and time that way 13. MOreover It will do much to the better ordering of families and better spending of the Lords day When we have once got the Master of the family to undertake it that he will once every Lords day examine his family and hear them what they can say of the Catechism it will find them the most profitable imployment whereas otherwise many of them would be idle or ill employed And many Masters that know little themselves may yet be brought to do this for others 14. MOreover It will do some good to many Ministers that are apt to be too idle and mispend their time in unnecessary discourses businesses or journeys or recreations and it will let them see that they have no time to spare for such things And so when they are engaged in so much pressing employment of so high a nature it will be the best cure for all that idleness or loss of time And withall it will cut off that scandal which usually followeth thereupon For people use to say such a Minister can sit in an Ale-house or Tavern or spend his time at bowls or other sports or vain discourse and why may not we do so as well as he Let us all set close to this part of our work and then see what time we can find to spare and live idly or in a way of voluptuousness yea or worldliness if we can 15. AND many personal Benefits to our selves are consequential to these It will do much 1. To exercise and increase our own graces And 2. to subdue our own corruptions And 3. besides our safety it will breed much peace to our own consciences and comfort us when our time and actions must be reviewed 1. To be much in provoking others to Repentance and heavenly-mindedness may do much to excite them in our selves 2. To cry down the sin of others and engage them against it and direct them to overcome it will do much to shame us out of our own and conscience will scarce suffer us to live in that which we make so much ado to draw others from And that very constant imployment for God and busying our minds and tongues against sin and for Christ and holiness will do much to habituate us and to overcome our fleshly inclinations both by direct mortification and by diversion leaving our fancies no room nor time for their old imployment I dare say that all the Austerities of Monks and Hermits that addict themselves to unprofitable solitude and are the true imitators of the unprofitable servant Mat. 25. that hid his Talent because his Master was an austere man and that think to save themselves by neglecting to shew compassion on others will not do near so much in the true work of Mortification as this fruitful diligence for Christ will do 16. AND it will be some Benefit that by this means we shall take off our selves and our people from vain controversies and from letting out our care and zeal and talk upon the lesser things in Religion which least tend to their spiritual edification For while we are taken up in teaching and they in learning the Fundamentals we shall divert our minds and tongues and have less room for lower things And so it will cure much wranglings and contentions between Ministers and people For we do
apparent danger of damnation And every impenitent person that you see and know about you suppose that you hear them cry to you for help as ever you pitied poor wretches pity us lest we should be tormented in the flames of hell if you have the hearts of men pitty us And do that for them that you would do if they followed you with such complaints O how can you walk and talk and be merry with such people when you know their case Me thinks when you look them in the face and think how they must lie in perpetual misery you should break forth into tears as the Prophet did when he looked upon Hazael and then fall on with the most importunate Exhortations when you must visit them in their sickness will it not wound your hearts to see them ready to depart into misery before you have ever dealt seriously with them for their recovery O then for the Lords sake and for the sake of poor souls have pity on them and bestir your selves and spare no pains that may conduce to their salvation 3. ANd I must further tell you that this Ministerial fidelity is Necessary to your own welfare as well as to your peoples For this is your work according to which among others you shall be judged You can no more be saved without Ministerial diligence and fidelity then they or you can be saved without Christian diligence and fidelity If you care not for others at least care for your selves O what is it to answer for the neglect of such a charge and what sins more hainous then the betraying of souls Doth not that threatning make us tremble If thou warn not the wicked their blood will I require at thy hands I am afraid nay I am past doubt that the day is near when unfaithful Ministers will wish that they had never known that charge But that they had rather been Colliars or Tinkers or sweepers of Channels then Pastors of Christs flock when besides all the rest of their sins they shall have the blood of so many souls to answer for O Brethren our death as well as our peoples is at hand and it is as terrible to an unfaithful Pastor as to any When we see that dye we must and there is no remedy no wit or learning no credit or popular applause can put by the stroke or delay the time but willing or unwilling our souls must be gone and that into a world that we never saw where our persons and worldly interest will not be respected O then for a clear Conscience that can say I lived not to my self but to Christ I spared not my pains I hid not my talent I concealed not mens misery nor the way of their recovery O Sirs let us therefore take time while we may have it and work while it is day for the night cometh when none can work This is our day too and by doing good to others we must do good to our selves If you would prepare for a comfortable death and a sure and great Reward the harvest is before you gâ—rd up the loins of your minds and quit your selves like men that you may end your days with that confident triumph I have fought a good fight I have kept the faith I have finished my course henceforth is laid up for me a crown of Righteousness which God the righteous Iudge shall give me And if you would be blessed with those that dye in the Lord Labour now that you may rest from your labours then and do such works as you would wish should follow you and not such as will prove your terror in the review SECT IV. HAving found so great Reason to move us to this work I shall before I come to the Directions 1. Apply them further for our Humiliation and Excitation And 2. answer some Objections that may be raised And 1. what cause have we to bleed before the Lord this day that have neglected so great and good a work so long That we have been Ministers of the Gospel so many years and done so little by personal instructions and conference for the saving of mens souls If we had but set a work this business sooner that we have now agreed upon who knows how many more might have been brought over unto Christ and how much happyer we might have made our Parishes ere now And why might we not have done it sooner as well as now I confess many impediments were in our way and so there are still and will be while there is a Devil to tempt and a corrupt heart in man to resist the light But if the greatest impediment had not been in our selves even in our own darkness and dulness and undisposedness to duty and our dividedness and unaptness to close for the work of God I see not but much might have been done before this We had the same God to command us and the same miserable objects of compassion and the same liberty from Governors of the Common-wealth But we stood looking for changes and we would have had the Magistrate not only to have given us leave to work but have done our work for us or at least to have brought the game to our hands and while we lookt for better daies we made them worse by the lamentable neglect of a chief part of our work And had we as much petitioned Parliaments for the interposition of their Authority to compell men to be catechized and instructed by the Minister as we did for maintenance and other matters its like we might have obtained it long ago when they were forward to gratifie us in such undisputable things But we have sinned and have no just excuse for our sin somewhat that may perhaps excuse à tanto but nothing à toto and the sin is so great because the duty is so great that we should be afraid of pleading excuse too much The Lord of Mercy forgive us and all the Ministry of England and lay not this or any of our Ministerial negligences to our charge O that he would cover all our unfaithfulness and by the blood of the everlasting Covenant would wash away our guilt of the blood of souls that when the chief Shepherd shall appear we may stand before him in peace and may not be condemned for the scattering of his Flock And O that he would put up his controversie which he hath against the Pastors of his Church and not deal the hardlyer with them for our sakes nor suffer underminers or persecutors to scatter them as they have suffered his Sheep to be scattered and that he will not care as little for them as they have done for the souls of men nor think his salvation too good for them as they have thought their labour and sufferings too much for mens salvation and as we have had many daies of Humiliation in England for the sins of the Land and the Judgements that have lain upon us I hope we shall hear that God will more
foresaid proportion hath been blessed to my preservation though I know that much more had been like to have tended to my greater health And I do not know one Minister of an hundred that needeth so much as my self Yea I know abundance of Ministers that scarce ever use any exercise at all though I commend it not in them I doubt not but it is our duty to use so much exercise as is of necessity for the preservation of our health so far as our work requireth else we should for one daies work lose the opportunity of many But this may be done and yet the works that we are engaged in be done too On those two daies a week that you set apart for this work what hinders but you may take an hour or two to walk for the exercise of your bodies Much more on other daies But as for those men that limit not their Recreations to their stated hours but must have them for the pleasing of their voluptuous humor and not only to fit them for their work such sensualists have need to study better the nature of Christianity and learn the danger of living after the flesh and get more mortification and self-denyal before they preach these things to others If you must needs have your pleasures you should not have put your selves into that calling that requireth you to make God and his service your pleasure and restraineth you so much from fleshly pleasures Is it your baptismal engagement to fight against the flesh and do you know that much of the Christian warfare consisteth in the combate between the flesh and the spirit and that is the very difference between a true Christian and a wicked wretch that one liveth after the spirit and mortifyeth the deeds and desires of the body and the other liveth after the flesh and do you know that the overcoming the flesh is the principal part of our victory on which the Crown of life depends and do you make it your calling to preach all this to others and yet for all this must you needs have your pleasures If you must then for shame give over the preaching of the Gospel and the profession of Christian self-denyal and profess your selves to be as you are and as you sow to the flesh so of the flesh shall you receive the wages of corruption Doth such a one as Paul say I therfore so run not as uncertainly so fight I not as one that beateth the air But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection least that by any means when I have preached to others I my self should be a cast-away 1 Cor. 4. 26 27. And have not such sinners as we need to do so Shall we pamper our bodies and give them their desires in unnecessary pleasures when Paul must keep under his body and bring it into subjection Must Paul do this least after all his preaching he should be a cast-away and have not we cause to fear it of our selves much more I know that some pleasure it self is lawful that is when it is of use to the fitting us for our work But for a man to be so far in love with his pleasures as that he must unnecessarily wast his precious time in them and neglect the great work of God for mens salvation yea and plead for this as if it must or might be done and so to justifie himself in such a course is a wickedness inconsistent with the common fidelity of a Christian much more with the fidelity of a Teacher of the Church And such wretches as are lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God must look to beloved of him accordingly and are fitter to be cast out of Christian Communion then to be the chief in the Church for we are commanded from such to turn away 2 Tim. 3. 5. Recreations for a student must be specially for the exercise of his body he having before him such variety of delights to his mind And they must be as whetting is with the Mower that is only to be used so far is necessary to his work And we must be careful that it rob us not of our precious time but be kept within the narrowest bounds that may be I pray peruse well Mr. Wheatley's Sermon of Redemption of time 2. And then the labour that we are now engaged to perform is not likely much to impair our health It s true it must be serious but that will but excite and revive our spirits and not so much spend them Men can talk all the day long of other matters without any abatement of their health and why may not we talk with men about their salvation without such great abatement of ours 3. It is to be understood that the direction that we give and the work which we undertake is not for dying men that be not able to preach or speak but for men of some competent measure of strength and whose weaknesses are tollerable and may admit of such labours 4. What have we our time and strength for but to lay it out for God What is a Candle made for but to be burnt Burnt and wasted we must be and is it not fitter it should be in lighting men to heaven and in working for God then in living to the flesh How little difference is there between the pleasure of a long life and of a short when they are both at an end What comfort will it be at death that you lengthened your life by shortening your work He that works much liveth much Our life is to be esteemed according to the ends and works of it and not according to the meer duration As Seneca can say of a drone ibi jacet non ibi vivit diu fuit non diu vixit Will it not comfort us more at death to review a short time faithfully spent then a long time unfaithfully 4. And for the matter of Visitations and Civilities if they be for greater ends or use then our Ministerial imployments are you may break a Sabbath for them you may forbear preaching for them and so may forbear this private work But if it be otherwise how dare you make them a pretence to neglect so great a duty Must God wait on your friends What if they be Lords or Knights or Gentlemen Must they be served before God Or is their displeasure or censure a greater hurt to you then Gods displeasure Or dare you think when God shall question you for your neglects to put him off with this excuse Lord I would have spent more of my time in seeking mens salvation but that such a Gentleman and such a friend would have taken it ill if I had not waited on them If you yet seek to please men you are no longer the servants of Christ He that dares spend his life in flesh-pleasing and man-pleasing is bolder then I am And he that dares wast his time in complements doth little consider what he hath to do with it O that I