but what I make within my self Does not he command me to believe and is not this my proper work that I shoud be found labouring in is there one in the Book of God that does incourage me to question either his ability or willingness to save me it is the work of Satan to make obstructions in a Man 's own self and then to lay them at God's door but is it any part of my work to believe him of regard him it is thy every dayes work to believe with all thy Heart and if thou canst say that thou art willing to give up thy self to the Lord Jesus be saved and sanctified by him to be pardoned and purged by him to bring nothing to him to keep nothing from him to deny thy sinful self thy righteous self and if he call for it thy natural self thou mayest conclude thou art in thy proper work which is suitable for every season and that thou art observing the order of God and appointment the Lord Jesus for This is the work of God saith our Lord that ye believe on him whom he hath sent And what ever it is that does obstruct and hinder this work comes from Satan and not from God it is a work that was never numbred out by God for thee to do for it is according to his mind and pleasure that every one should say as his Apostle Paul did the Life that I live it is by Faith in the Son of God and the work that I do is to be alwaies exercising and putting forth Acts of Faith upon the Lord Jesus And as for the concerns of my Body is it any part of my work or duty according to Gospel-rule to be carking and caring and vexing my self how I shall maintain that what I should Eat and Drink and wherewithal I should be Cloathed has not he engaged his Providence for me is not his express word and is it not my proper work to believe it be content with such things as ye have For be hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Hath he given me a Kingdom and will not he give me a staff to walk to that Kingdom as I have heard it well observed by a worthy Minister will he give me Heaven and will not give me Earth will he give me an inheritance and will he not give me spending money can I trust him for my Soul and can I not trust him for my poor frail Body Is not food and ralment within the Covernant as well as life and Salvation Did he ever put me upon such work as this as to get my own Breads and leave me to my own Hands It s true as he has told me that in the sweat of my Brows I must eat my Bread but he never said I should do it in the care and trouble and grief of my Heart I must work indeed but the care of me lies with him he is bound to maintain me it is not my labour but his blessing that must do it I am but a journy-man the work is not mine but his I must be at his allowance he has set me my dimensum my task and it is purely in his disposal how I must be maintained what he will give me of these outward things whether much or little he knows best my constitution what I can bear what may be convenient for my passage what may be helping and not clogging in my journey to Heaven and if I have but little of the present World I must not call it Poverty but Discipline I conclude therefore it was never intended by the Lord to be any part of my work or to take up any part of my time to sret and perplex my self how I should have provisions to carry me or my Family through the wilderness of this World But to proceed this very thing of not numbring the work to the day and so answering the design of God in giving the day is that which proves fatal to Persons and People and becomes their utter ruine How does our Saviour weep over Jerusalem and breaks out into these mournful expressions Sayings If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes For the day shall come upon thee that thine Enemies shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee round and keep thee in on every side and shall lay thee even with the ground and thy Children within thee and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another Good Lord what is the cause of all this misery why will thou deal so severely with thine own and only People surely there is some great things in the bottom What have they done Dost thou ask what have they done It is for something they did not do when they had an opportunity on purpose given for doing of it Because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation God gave them his Ordinances the means of Grace he waited a great while upon them to see whether they would profit under them and prove an holy and reformed People but they not minding the Lord's end in being at such charge with them continued a careless formal worldly contentious and a very unholy sinful People yea grow worse and worse therefore c. The Lord help us my Brethren to know the day of our visitation our tranquillity is lengthened out our liberties continued we enjoy Sabbaths and Sermons and Ordinances one Exhortation and Admonition after another precept upon precept warning after warning we have also some lesser corrections and chastisements intermingled and what is all this for that we should bring forth fruit to God that we should become an heavenly and serious People that our Faith might grow exceedingly and the charity of every one of us all towards each other might abound But if we go on as we do bringing forth so many truits of the flesh remain carnal frothy so lukewarm indifferent in the things of Religion dead under the opportunitie of life with so much formally in Duties under Ordinances turning as a door upon the hinges neither well with the means of Grace nor well without them with so much outside in our services and performances so little presling after inward communion with God with so little zeal for the Name and Honour and Truths of God so little sence of the sins of others to mourn over them reprove them of the suffering of others to mourn with them and bear their burthens so great lovers of the World so desirous of having much so little contented with our conditions what never an Heart moved yet at the hearing of all this is there none cry guilty so unjust equivocating overreaching and unwatchful over our tongues in trading and bargaining so little thinking of the Royal rule to do as we would be done by so vain in our Discourses so upcircumspect in our Conversations so sensual and unmortified such
best are but dreamish things and may prove much worse if you do them as they did them in the dayes or Noah and Lot I wish with all my heart the next Jog be not so hard and the cry so loud that instead of being kindly awakened they be not mazed and stunned and deaf and disabled from getting up and putting on their clothes 4. How irrecoverable they are and lever to be recalled If I would give all the World I cannot call yesterday back nor be placed where I was yesterday morning He that cries out Call time again call time again is as unlikely to be heard and answered as any man I know â—ay but cannot you set me one day or two backward place me where I was but t'other morning that I may pass over those three or tour hours as I did then No I cannot do it And this is the first Rule in this Christian Arithmetick Number the dayes that yon have past this will make you wise Rule 2. A second Rule in Arithmetick Number the dayes that you have lost this will be a special means to lead you to Wisdom What have your past days been filled with have not you lost weeks and moneths nay years Consider this well and you will be able to tell me I need not tell you what thoughts it will work in you and what wise Counsels it will put you upon have not many of thy dayes been filled with nothing but vanity some men do nothing at all many worse than nothing the most do something that is not their proper work to do but belongs to others canst thou say that any day of thy life has been as well filled with good as it ought to have been or as it might have been if thou had thy best spent dayes to spend over again couldest thou not spend them a great deal better no such cause of mourning as for lost time was not thy Childhood and thy Youth vanity has not the World had many an hour that God and Christ should have had and should have been improved for the promoting of thine eternal welfare How many idle dayes and play-dayes hast thou made how many needless Journeyes Visits Walks and Discourses hast thou made How many unnecessary designs unprofitable labours May it not be said of much of thy business thou hast been imployed in as some said of the Womans pouring the Ointment on Christs Head why was this waste of time might it not have been made better use of Rule 3. Third Rule of Arithmetick Number the work you have done and how you have dont it what will this do you will tell me what it will do if you observe it you will find upon Examination that put all your good works together and allow for dammage for the Hay and the Stubble the Dregs and the Dross and they amount but to very little you will see how much mending all your work needs what mourning over and begging pardon for the defects and failings about it time runs and work sticks and that which we thought we had done well must be done over again how should this awaken us and quicken us when we have done all we can we are but unprofitable servants when we have done the best we can we have not done that which is our duty when we have done the most we can we have not done all we should still some work lies before us and it may be very little time will not this consideration to make men make much of time and not prodigally throw it away as they have done because so much is required to survey and mend old done Deeds Rule 4. Number the Sabbaths the Sermons the Opportunities which you have enjoyed This a fourth Rule in Christian Arithmetick and what will this tend to You will tell me when you have well considered it Reckon how many of Gods Embassadors have been sent to thee with several Messages and with the same message over and over again how many years of the dayes of the Son of Man you have seen how long you enjoyed such a Ministry in such a place and such a powerful Ministry in another and now what am I the better God will expect an account of me is it not high-time for me to consider what return I can make what profiting and progress I have made in the knowledg and fear of God and Faith in his Son Jesus Christ to what degrees and measures of patience Meckness Hope Love Heavenly Conversation crucifying the flesh looking for the appearing of Christ and aiming at his Glory in every thing I do c. Many an exhortation and motive and direction and encouragement have I had about all these and much more many a time and that with a great deal of pressing God may call me to even accounts with him the very next hour for any thing I know and how ready am I for it Oh for a little time for this work I have cause to be afraid that I shall be found much in arrearages to God and that there are some hundreds of Sermons I have heard that I can remember neither Text Doctrine Reason nor Use nor have any real impression remaining upon me from them a dram of habitual vertue or strength by them Oh that God would not clap me up and make me bankrupt that have taken up so many goods of him and am not able to make him any payment the goods are embezeled Oh that I had time to make my composition with him to sue out a release and discharge from him I am undone if I be arrested before this be done for I cannot pay twelve pence in the pound Lord spare me a little time that I may repent in and make money of all that I have that I may bring to thee I will not keep or conceal one peniworth from thee I will give thee a true account in whose hands they are whom I have traded with how I have been cheated by Satan by the World and most of all by a deceitful heart of my own that was bred up with me and which I have given much trust to I could no sooner have any of Heavens commodities come in but presently they were purloyned from me by the means of my deceitful hard vain idle foolish Heart for whilst I slept and was careless the wicked one came and catched them away or the cares of this World and the deceitfulness of Riches spoiled them and so I got no profit by them my base Heart did betray me to all this mischief and loss and now Lord be pleased to spare me a little that I may mourn over and bewail my great losses that I may call my treacherous wicked Heart to an account that I may seriously and severely examine and search it that I may bring it to confession and acknowledgment to deep sorrow and repentance to sincere and holy resolutions of a faithful improvement of any opportunity and season of Grace that he
objections God has allowed no time since Adam's fall to spend in conference with Satan his plain rule is to resist him and then he will flee from us how are poor Souls bewildred and spend much pretious time in hearing what he has to say against them their State their Duties their Comforts betake your selves to the strong hold of Scripture and there you will find safety rest and peace time spent in searching the Scriptures and meditating upon them is well-spent time and will cause Satan to depart from thee 4. Callings and necessary diversions and avocations take up much time a gracious Soul many times does begrudge the time he spends in eating and drinking and sleeping and in the necessary duties and labours of his calling he could wish with all his heart he had more time for God and that his business did not ly so hard upon him though this he cannot do without Divine Teaching the Men of the World and I fear many Professours too think their time well enough spent in the forementioned affairs 5. Idleness is a great feeder upon time doing nothing or next to nothing though no Man can be idle for the Devil imployes every one whom he finds idle he that is imployed by the Devil he may be sure it shall not be about building of chappels and hearing of Sermons not about any good and godly imployment The old Monks of Egypt were wont to say that the working Monk had only one Devil haunting and tempting him but the idle Monk had a number of Devils still about him to tempt him the idle body is haunted and followed with a Kennel of Hell-Hounds still about him to tempt him to naughtiness the unclean Devil to tempt him to uncleanness the prodigal Devil to tempt him to wastfulness what wastfuller than Idleness two of the best labourers would have much to do to maintain one loyterer one drone would devour more honey in a day than two Bees could gather the proud Devil to tempt him to Pride for what Prouder than Idleness that hath nothing to do but to trick and prick up it self the slandersome detracting Devil to tempt him to slander and detraction for who runs over all their neighbours in passing consures on them but they that talk away time they are so idle see 1 1 Tim. 5.13 Where the idle the tattlers and busie-bodies are ranked together the ristous drunken Devil to tempt him to drinking and who so faulty that way as they that must drink away time the sins of Sodom are made to be fulness of Bread and abundance of idleness why is fulness of Bread and abundance of Idleness such great sins no but he mentions these as causes and occasions of a great many sins give me a place where there is abundance of Idleness and I will not doubt to say there is abundance of naughtiness too thus for the sixth particular the wasters and devourers of time 7. The seventh particular is this none can know the periods of time without Divine Teaching and none can number his natural Dayes aright that does not in some measure understand Metaphorical and Mystial dayes he cannot perform his duty aright that does not understand what dispensation he is under in some degree see Revel 13.18 Here is wisdom let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast for it is the number of a Man and his number is six hundred threescore and six Our Saviour blames the Pharifees that they did not discern the sings of the times the Men of Issachar are commended that they were men that had understanding of the times We read of seneral number of dayes and times in Daniel 9.25 and 12.11 12. and Revel 11.3.11 ans 12.6 14. and its true that several have been guilty og misses and mistakes in their calculations but all argee that we are fallen into the very last dayes of Antichrists reign perillous times wherein the Devil is come down in great rage and that the signs of the times recorded Mat. 24. and Luk. 21. are upon us and therefore we come to understand what our duties are that are required in such times as watchfulness Prayer c. which are likewise clearly laid down in both the forenamed chapters now to take out these lessons and live in the practice of them and not fall into that fatal security unbelief sensuality and those other sins which make the last times dangerous does require Teachings from above None can know the successor of time without Divine teaching 't is impossible for a Man to number his dayes aright that does not know time's successor 1. That time will certainly have a successor and that it will cease and be no more 2. What kind of successor it will be not of the same Nature with time Eternity is quite differing from time in the Resurrection there will be no eating nor drinking nor marrying nor giving in marriage nor buying nor selling no Turkish Paradise to entertain us with carnal plasures nor yet a Popish Purgatory to cleanse us from sins unrepented of in time Vse 1 For Application I note this in the first place how few there are that are under Divine Teachings in this point of numbring dayes aright We live bySense and not by Faith Oh what is time to endless conceiveless Eternity but alas alas where is the Soul that sits down and thinks of Eternity for half an hour together David's History of the Men of his day is a Prophecy of the Men of our day Psa 49.11 Their inward thought is that their Houses shall continue for ever and their dwelling places to all generations though Man being in honour abideth not but is like the beasts that perish Vse 2. Beg of God this blessed skill and art of numbring your daies aright do not think it a needless Petition thou does not know that thou shalt die unless God reveal it to thee thou does not know that time will end that there is an Eternity thou lives in this World very forgetful how transitory the state of all these things are the vulgar Proverb bears witness to vulgar practice I thought as much of it as of my Death as of the day of doom as of the worlds end I was much pleased with what I met with lately in the Book of wisdom chap 8.9 which though it be Apocriphal yet it is Canonical truth For I was a witty Child saies he and was of a good Spirit nevertheless when I perceived I could not enjoy her that is wisdom except God gave her that was a point of wisdom also to know whose gift it was I went unto the lord and besought him c. Witty Men Learned Men Old Men Holy Men unless they be all taught of God will be at a loss in the point of numbring their dayes of living under the powerfull perswasion of the shortness swiftness and determination of dayes and times Let me add one thing which was slipt in the proof of the
weaker Christians That you both may grow in Grace and especially in the Life of Believing and be found still in the exercise of those good Works as the Lord shall enable you of Gospel Hospitality of entertaining Prophers and Saints though strangers and exiles with your liberality and bounty to the poor Saints and People of God and that under that very consideration and denomination without more private and narrow respects that you with all your faults and you with all your fears may be presented blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and When your little time is expired in this troublesome restless Earth whereas a Man uncannot find a place to set his foot easily be safely landed in unconceivable and immense Eternity shal be the constant Prayer vvhilst time lasts of Your Faithful true Friend in Him that is true T. H. To my loving Friends the Members and Hearers of that Congregation which I stand related to as Minister Dearly beloved Friends IT would seem strange if I should leave you out in this affair since what is here published was Preached among you and they were your Sermons in the Preaching I have not much to Communicate to you in this manner having so many sfeasons of speaking to you blessed be God or the continuance of them only meeting with this fair opportunity I cannot but make mention of that Universal and continued Affection I have met with from you since the Lord by his Providence brought me among you I cannot likewise but take notice to the praise of our Lord and your incouragement of that union Love and moderation there is among you notwithstanding some difference in apprehension your soundness and stedfastness in the Faith of the Gospel your zeal and Love to the Name Honour Offices and standing Ordinances of the Lord Jesus in this Age wherein he hath so many sorts of Enemies appearing against him your peaceable dispositions together with your readiness to suffer for rather than run from the discharge of your Duties and Consciences towards God when Persecution and trouble threatned you c. Let me exhort you to Bless the Lord for and improve your present liberty pray that those whom the Lord hath made to see it their interest not to fall out with Religion may come to see it their chief concern to fall in with it prepare for worse times and endeavour to see your own sins to be the procuring cause of them make trial what influence the right measuring and spending of time will have upon the power of Godliness which is so much decayed Be careful to grow in Grace and go on as it is your true desire to strengthen Christianity yet more in its more principal and vital parts keeping up Communion with God in serious meditation and servant Prayer giving Religion an honourable and chief respect in your Families daily renewing Acts of Faith and Repentance watching carefully over the Tongue looking well to the Hand 's that they over-reach not nor withhold more than is meet to the feet and conversations that they be preserved without grieving and offending slips and falls c. Finally pray for me earnestly that I may approve my self a Work-man that need not be ashamed If you would feel my Sermons let me feel your Prayers and be helpt by them I shall conclude with that needful admonition Revel 16.15 From which I have lately Discoursed largely to you Behold I come as a thief blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his Garments lest he walk naked and men see his shame That you may stand compleat in all the will of God and be kept by his Power through Faith unto Salvation is the constant prayer and through Divine assistance shall be the Hearty Endeavour of Your faithful though unworthy Servant in the Work of the Gospel T. H. To Young Men. THis little piece may be of use to you to carry in your pockets and read a few lines in it every day you that think your time is before you may yet have out-lived and left your season behind you You have had many powerful Sermons Preached to you many excellent Treatises dedicated to you many servent Prayers put up to the Lord on your behalf many loud calls and grave admonitions from God your Parents Masters and Relations and if you could but see your time to be pretious it would make all effectual for the welfare of your Souls and Bodies your true Honour here and Glory hereafter Are not you found sometimes in the practice of some things for which the Lord of time never created any time save a reckoning time can you rationally conceive that God ever made any time for Idleness for Drinking for Gaming for vain sporting and pleasure for dancing for frothy or filthy communication for unruly passions or any uncomely behaviour I shall only recommend those two known words of Solomon Rejoice at your utmost peril and Remember for your unspeakable benefit The Lord help you to give to him your early and morning time and strength he will take it kindly and reward you Honourably Farewel A PREFACE TO THE READER Christian Reader IF the shortness swiftness and importance of time were well weighed what a change should we see in the World That Men may make truer and better measures of it than they have done is the honest design of this small Treatise I have sometimes thought that if persons would consider their words before they speak them and view their Actions before they do them and value their time before they lay it out what examplary Christians would they be found Thou wilt find herein some account of that expression of Job Man that is born of a Woman is of few dayes and full of trouble some discoveries of that large influence the right numbring of our dayes has upon true Godliness in all the parts of it the Discourse is calculated in an special manner for such sincere Souls as more affect matter than phrase who desire to know only that they may practise and place happiness not in speaking hearings or knowing but in doing and therefore I have gone in a plain and familiar way consulting the weakest capacities What good fruit should we bring forth if we laid this ground that the pleasures of sin and worldly grievances are but for a season what good seed would be sown for our Eternal welfare and being in the World to come I could tell thee of strange effects which the true consideration of the transitoriness of this Life the certainty of Death together with the duration of Eternity hath had upon Men to put them upon laying up a good foundation for time to come I would take the liberty to recommend unto thee one or two passages of a story made use of by an eminent Minister long since with God which together with some other remarkable observation and hints of his which I have quoted in the following work were communicated to me by a good
its proper evil and peculiar Trouble attending it and enough of it I need not stand much upon the Proof of it every ones experience bids me save my self this Labour our daily complaints discover our daily troubles where is the Person that ever could say this Day have I lived and met with no Cross no Trial no Disappointment no Grief no Perplexity every thing every circumstance has been to my Hearts desire I could not have wished it otherwise but however take a taste of Scripture-Judgment in this matter Old Jacob that tells you his years were few tells you with the same Breath that they were Evil too Job that saies that Man that is Born of a Woman is of few Daies does at the same time say that they are full of Trouble and indeed seeing they are so full of Trouble it s well for us they are so few and David that speaks of the shortness of our Dayes added this yet is their Strength Labour and Sorrow the best of them have Trouble enough in them I shall endeavour further to make it appear and evident to you in four Instances 1. Daily Temptations cause daily Troubles how canst thou expect to be quiet one moment that hath such an active and diligent Enemy who goes about night and day seeking whom he may devour he sleeps not in the night time much less on the day time he is upon thee continually either as a Tempter or a Troubler what a quiet World should we have if it were not for the Devil and his Instruments what brave living will there be when they shall be chained up There is no place but the Devil is there he is constantly at Meetings and is one of the first there who-ever come late he is there betimes how should this shame you for your late coming what comes he for but to disturb and distract with vain unruly worldly wandring thoughts if thou go into thy closet thou canst not shut him out thence for he is there before thee and assoon as ever thou hast shut thy Door down he sits with thee and presents thee sometimes with one sort of thoughts sometimes with another sort sometimes he bids make haste get thee down get thy Chapters read and thy Prayers said such a business stayed for thee such an one is to be spoken with and you must not fail your Family wants you a Customer waits c. be but shout now you may be longer another time God is a God of mercy if thou be indisposed now God is a God of pity he will pass it by he knows the flesh is weak c. Sometimes again with other thoughts if he sees thee sit down to consider in good earnest about thy Soul why Soul what dost thou mean to make thy life so uncomfortable Godliness is a chearful thing thou comes into thy Closet and thou thinks many a sad thought and weeps a great many tears and puts up so many Petitions and spends so much time and thou art never the better this is but to turn as a Door upon the Hinges this life is not to be led this is not to be endured here comes no fruit at all it might even be as well not to make so much ado and make Religion a burden you may do your duty to God and please him as much with a great deal less trouble to your self how comfortably does many a good Christian live that do not spend so much time alone nor so many sorrowful thoughts and yet are careful not to neglect their Duty put away these troubled thoughts and try how it will be c. This is Satan's Language and by the way let me observe four Deceits Fallacies and lies in these few Words he has spoken First It is a most false insinuation as if too much time and care could be spent in good service Secondly The good Christian he means is the careless formal Professor that is much a stranger to the Power of Godliness Thirdly Here is a means to make thy thoughts more sad and perplexed than they should be that so he may provoke thee to throw all away all seriousness all Godly Sorrow as a Temptation Fourthly He would put this quite out of thy Mind that the Soul that diligently waits at the foot of Christ Weeping and Mourning though for a while Sorrow may rather seem to increase than abate yet shall certainly at last meet with full assurance with abundance of comfort peace and satisfaction they that sow in Tears shall reap in Joy But yet a little further Satan is in the shop in the Ware house counting house medling with buying and selling egging on to lying Equivocation bad Wares false Weights Over-reaching Defrauding and presently after to anger and discontent with Servants and it may be at last to murmuring this Trade will not do we cannot make both ends meet so many bad Debts so much Damaged Goods such bad Markets but if he be on the encreasing and thriving Hand then he Tempts to a self-pleasing proud humour Thou hast found the Life of thine Hand therefore thou wast not grieved and now thoughts come crouding in how to keep up and enlarge Trade Satan sits down with thee at thy Table and there he is Tempting to forgetfulness of God drawing fear off keeping down thankful Spirit prompting to sensuality and gratifying appetite c. He lies down with thee and is impatient whilst thou art bidding God good night and has other Work for thee other Meditations than those of the Name and Word of God and assoon as ever thou awakes in the Morning he is with thee to distract thee and trouble thee say now whether Satan alone be not enough to fill every day with trouble Secondly No condition free from temptations the rich and the Poor the high and the low Satan is in Kings Courts and Beggars Cottages he is with the sick Man and the Healthful the Freeman and the Imprisoned the Honoured and the Reproached no place free no Condition free 2. Daily wants cause daily Griefs to want is an Evil a Misery now the Body and Mind are alwaies wanting something consider the restlesness of the Body in a kind of tedious wearisomness stealing upon us in the very Reflections the interchangeable Reflections of the Body we must Sleep a while till we be Weary of that and then we must Wake another while till we come to the former again we must Eat a while till we be weary of that and Fast another while till we come to the former again we we must stand c. Whatsoever we turn to for our Ease there again we find our wearying these Bodies of ours are like wayward crying Children that are no sooner quieted with one thing but presently complaining again so I must walk I must sit I must cool I must warm my self again like the Nurses toil dress and undress how long the very same things Again consider the trouble of Laborious toiling and
day come in to your minds that might well be spared and indeed Ought not to be admitted you cannot pray in quiet for them you cannot eat and sleep in quiet for them you ought to watch against them and beg of the Lord divine Teaching how you may suppress them 2. Unprofitable discourses are great devourers of time that tend to no good at all neither to information nor reformation nor to prepare or fit the mind for work and business much talk about others Mens affairs matters that we are not concerned in and are forbid to meddle with study to be quiet and to do your own business and yet you cannot but observe it with half an Eye How much time is spent among Christians when they meet together about other Mens Actions Trades Shops Families c. and its strange if there is not mixture or backbiting envy uncharitableness and evil speaking throughout such discourses He that considers time rightly and knows how to number his Dayes as he should will see cause to wave such needless chat and fill his time with better conference that may leave a more sweet savour and relish upon his own heart and the spirits of the company The Lord knows how much we are to blame in this matter that we cannot fit together or meet together but with Augustus Caesar we must be taxing all the World especially such as it may be differ from us a little in some smaller circumstances we cannot have a good word for them nor hear a good word of them but can be greedy and gape at half a word that is reflecting and disparaging at a semblance at an appearance true or false My Brethren these things ought not to be I profess I often think of that place James 3.2 In many things we offend all but if any Man offend not in word the same is a perfect Man and able also to bridle the whole Body and let me tell you he that can manage his time aright will quickly order his tongue aright Oh that I could perswade you and my self that redeeming time lies at the very bottom of the power of Godliness Again how much needless and unprofitable talk about future events and contingencies about the Lord's matters his dispensations and providences what may come to pass in the World besides murmuring and discontented speeches about them it does not become us to sit in consistory upon God's providences to judge and pass hard censures upon them no time appointed by the Lord for it It was no small impiety in Pompey to rail against the god's and condemn the Providence that suffered him to be soiled by Caesar his cause being as he thought far better than Caesar's was he standing for the defence of the Common-Wealth like a good Patriot and Caesar like an Usurper aiming at a Monarchy and those Queries in Tully are but the symptomes of Atheism That if God govern the World then Why should persidious Hannibal be suffered to slay Marcellus why the barbarous Carthaginians to torture Regulas why bloody Cinna to slay so many Citizens why Marius to command Catulus his head a man far better than himself c. This was a thing that much displeased God Mal. 2. in that some there said and wearisome words they were to God that because the wickedest were suffered to play such 〈…〉 icks and domineer over others that either God favoured the wicked or was no Judg of the World ye have wearied the Lord with your words yet ye say wherein have we wearied him when ye say every one that is evil does good in the sight of the Lord and where is the God of Judgment as if God could not make his Judgments good if he suffered the Wicked to be such Judges of the Earth to slay whom they would and whom they would to keep alive to fit up whom they would and whom they would to pull down as Daniel said of wicked Nebuchadnezzar When Anthony the great was troubled with this and the like questionings about the Providence It is said that he heard a voice saying Anthony Anthony look thou to â—hy self and to thy own duty and let God alone with Governing the World he 〈◊〉 wise and just and powerful enough to do what is to be done Gersoh And Austin well answers the questionist asking him Why God suffers the Wicked to slay the Innocent see saies he whether in the first place it be not your duty to consider such plain Texts as these that more concern your self Break thy Bread to the hungry and bring the poor that are cast out to thy houfse when thou seest the naked cover him and hide not thy self from thy own flesh That would be time well-spent and God would allow for it Wash you make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before your eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek Judgment relieve the oppressed Judge the Fatherless plead for the Widow come now and let us reason together you would be disputing saies he with God about Providence before you have made your self fit to dispute with him Come now and let us reason together now when you have done all the former that more nearly concern you and it were good that many of the questions of this overcurious age were also thus answered But besides this answer he goes on and tells him that perhaps the party whom he thought was innocent was not so for how could he pry into his Heart or search into all his Life to know whether he had not thought or done any thing amiss wherefore God might justly suffer him to be put to Death But again suppose he were innocent indeed what then Christ was innocent and yet we know God's counsel to have been good and just in suffering him to be put to Death by the wicked seeing therefore by God's revealment thou hast found out his counsel why he suffered the unjust to slay that just one and such counsel as thou likest of very well thy self believe also that in others God does the same upon good counsel but it is perhaps concealed from thee lay aside therefore such Discourses about God's Transactions or if thou will discourse do it as the Prophet Jeremie does chap. 12.1 Who layes down this for a ground that God is righteous in them all if thou does thus thou wil easily light upon this solution v. 3. pull them out lihe sheep for the slaughter and prepare them for the day of slaughter I might add in the last place vain and foolish talking and discoursing with jesting which is not convenient which has nothing but frothines and unsavouriness in it ministers no edification but tends to put the Soul in a careless posture and set it at a greater distance from the fear of God which should alwayes be maintained as the Souls watch and overseer 3. Confused musings and dark reasonings spending much time holding a parley with Satan's suggestions and
point when your bagging of God this holy Wisdom to number your daise aright be sure you be earnest with the Lord that when you number your daies he would still help you to make the number come even what is that that that you may see your good dayes to be as many and as long as your evil ones and your dayes to be full as good as any of your neighbours thus to number will exceedingly conduce to give you content in your daies which the Lord numbers out to you in this World and keep you from inordinate desires after the changing of them and having some other dayes in the room of them The Wisdom of God in ballancing Men's conditions in the World is much to be observed though it is but little taken notice of every day has it's suitable good as well as sufficient evil every Man may see in his own condition if he has but his eyes open as much cause of rejoicing as of mourning and he may likewise see his own condition take it all together to be as good as any other Man's what is the reason no Man is contented With his Lot and Portion it is because they do not reckon right they do not stand in right places to take a view and an estimate either of their own or others conditions you stand on the inside of your own and on the outside of another Man's and by this means your own seems to be much worse and his much better than indeed it is do but change your stand and go into the inside of his and the outside of your own and then you will set cause to change your Opinion we may see the neatness of the shew but we little know where it pinches and others at a distance will judge your state very happy which it may be you do not sit so easily in but might sit more easily if thou would not sit alwayes in one place and posture I am perswaded the Lord hath in his Wisdom so ordered Mens conditions in this world that there 's no ods not one better than another if we could but see the ends and sides of them no room left for choice and that condition which every Man is in ought to be concluded the best for him of any in the World the Beggar 's condition is as good as the King 's take it all together no state in the World can be an object either of meer pitty or meer envy none so bad but a great deal of good is to be seen in it none so good but a great deal of misery is to be found in it the Lord in Wisdom and Goodness has fitted every Man's condition for him that another would not fit him so well and it will be our Wisdom if the Lord will give it us to see our selves fitted to our conditions and to observe in every point how well they fit us Here a bunch of pride is growing straighten and check there saies God there sensual delight would come in stop that place here strength is ready to be running over to be imployed in vanity pinch there with a little sickness there a grace or two want imployment send a cross or two to give them some work and exercise here the Soul is ready to faint slacken a little and give a cordial and there the Soul is like to fall clap an hedge or a wall quickly in the way c. What happy lives should we lead in comparison of what we do if we did but know how well every thing we meet with fits us what fitty dayes we enjoy there is not the most cross crooked thing comes to thee but there is some part of thee that it will fit exceeding well now the skill lies in putting it to the right part a Man's shooe will not fit his head nor his glove his leg do not turn thy back to thy cross when thou should take it in thy armes nor yet take it up at arms end when thou should bear it upon thy back a little weight is heavy at armes end which will be scarce felt upon the back which is a fifty place for a burthen we must take up our Crosses as the Man did his sheep upon his shoulder and away with it trudging after the Lord Jesus some men lead their crosses gingerly as a Man leads his young Child by the hand and so make no way some take them by the wrong end and are not able to lift them up some leap over them some fall upon them and many fall under them and all for want of this blessed Teaching of the Lord let us therefore never leave this out of our Parayers that the Lord would teach us the even numbring of our dayes and give us to see that every day we live whatever falls out in it is a fitty day and that our condition take it all together is at any time of the day as good as any Man 's living and take his all together too If he have money I have health if he have Children I have wealth if he have power I have peace if he have prosperity I have grace c. And so much for the third observation I come now to the Doct. 4. Fourth and last Observation in which I shall be brief That the right numbring of our dayes is a special means to obtain true Wisdom I shall endeavour to give you cleâ—â— demonstration of the point in these following particulars 1. He is a wise Man that minds his greatest concern in the first place now he that numbers his dayes aright that reckons of shortness of time he makes it his first business to seek the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof he will take Maries part and leave Martha's till afterward if there be time for it Our Lord Jesus in his travel comes into a certain Womans House named Martha and falls a Preaching her sister Mary considers with her self that she might have time to provide food when she could not have an opportunity to hear a Sermon and therefore she sate Jesus feet and beard his Word Matha was very busie in serving and providing entertainment and complains of her Sisters sleight and disrespect to his person and unkindness to her to suffer her to serve alone our Saviour gives her a check and commends Mary's entertaining his Doctrine before Martha's entertaining his person Christ loves that Man should look after their Souls and not make such a bustle about their outward cordions to make them easie and splendid and delightful but be content with such things as you have such things as the house affords as Christ would have been well enough and have been better pleased with Martha if she had sit down with Mary to hear the Sermon if Christ gave such a check to Martha for her great love to his outward Man because she neglected the good of her own Soul What a severe censure will he pass upon many one day whose care and cumber and pains