so it may be taken into two parts and yet either of them retain the force of a Reason to urge us to the duty under consideration 1. The night cometh 2. When it is come no work can be done in it 1. The night that is death cometh in which these things are imploy'd which may serve to heighten our diligence and to hasten us in our Work 1. The night cometh then death is certain and will undoubtedly be with us for in that it 's said it comes it undeniably proves that there is such a thing as death since that which is not cannot come And this is a thing not more certain in it self than it is evident and apparent to us That we are Mortal and when our part is acted must go off the Stage of this World constant and daily Experience teaches us and proves it to us This is the Path that is daily trodden by all sorts ages and conditions of men the Young and Old the Poor and Rich Bond and Free Male and Female all meet together in the Chambers of Death and lye down to rest in the dust This is the common fate of Man kind and that irreversible Decree past at the first Transgression from which no man ordinarily is exempt Methuselah ran a long Course yet after Nine hundred sixty and nine years he dyed and Abraham lived well and was the Father of the Faithful and the Friend of God yet after an hundred threescore and fifteen Years he gave up the Ghost and dyed And there want not dayly Memento's of our Mortality even in all those things that are daily obvious to our eyes the constant course of Winter and Summer and of Day and Night put us in mind of our putting off the Glories of this Life and of our sleeping in death The Winter strips the Earth of her glory and beauty and leaves her naked it hinders and determines her fruitful seasons and death takes down our Pride and Pomp and tyes our hands that we cannot work At night we uncloath and go to bed and how far soever we ramble in the day we then leave our Labours and confine our selves to a narrower compass to take our rest till morning And in death we strip and lye down in the Grave and our Bodies take their long sleep till dooms day morning wake us again Our great Estates and numerous Lands shrink up in death to six foot of Earth and our stately Seats and ceiled Rooms and costly Furnitures give way to a Winding-sheet a Tomb and a Coffin Thus Night and Winter are fit Emblems to us of Death and serious Memonto's of our mortal state The certainty then of this should mind us of the work we have to do and engage us to be diligent at it our time is stated and nothing is more sure than that its end will come and death will overtake us our Work is appointed and so is our time too why then do we waste or trifle away that time which hath its limits fixed and will certainly be determined by death Why then do we project great things for our selves here which death will strip us of and turn aside from that work that God has appointed us to do thereward of which no death can deprive us of This very Consideration that death is certain should make us more careful in our work and sit more loose and be more indifferent to any advantages or enjoyments of this life If our work be done death cannot rob us of the reward of that but may be embraced as an advantage being a Rest from our Labours and a refuge from every Calamity that here we are burdened with Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them But for all other things which are the advantages of this Life only death robs us of them all and brings the Great and Mighty into an equal state with the Poor Ignoble and Mean The Grave knows no difference and the Worm knows no distinction betwixt finer and courser flesh He that marches to the Grave in a stately array and with a solemn pomp and he that steals silently into the Chambers of death and makes no noise nor bustle at his going both find an equal Entertainment in the dust and both have the same Kindred and Relations there and both with Job must say chap. 17. 14. To Corruption thou art my Father to the Worm thou art my Mother and my Sister Our Greatness leaves us at the Grave and no distinctions remain after death but such as a faithful serving of God and a conscientious industry in our Works may give us Why then do we neglect our work that would live with us beyond death and are fond of things that perish as to us by it since the night cometh that is Death is certain 2. The night cometh Then Death is at hand it cometh Then it is hastning on towards us it 's already in the way and onwards in its journey to us And this the shortness of our Lives when they are at their longest plainly speaks If once we are born even by the course of Nature we have not long to live and threescore years and ten which is the age of a man is but a poor pittance of time if it be compared to the Eternity that depends upon it The very first step that we set into this World is onwards towards Death and to the Youngest as well as to the Old it may be said death cometh Our Life is compared to a Race as swift as short as that the starting-place is from the Womb and the Goal is the Grave and all the while between our Birth and Decease we are in our Race hasting on to death As soon as our day begins to dawn the night also begins to hasten its approaches and we do no sooner begin to live but we are going onwards towards death How should this Consideration then hasten us in our Work and make us more diligent and industrious our time is short and the end of it at hand our Work is great and we have much to do how unreasonable is it then for us to loyter or be idle and how much more for us to be doing of Evil which must be unravelled and undone again All our time is little enough for our business there can be none to spare for evil ends or for a forreign service our End draws on whither we mind it or no Prudence then would teach us to ply our Work that the end of our time and our work may meet together Let us always then be well employed that death may find us so when it comes and that time cannot be far off The night cometh that is death is at hand 3. The Night cometh And this implies that the time of death is uncertain the night cometh Then no man knows how near death may be all that is
not work the works of him tha◠〈◊〉 us because as he sent us to live in Holiness towards him so he has also made it our duty to live in righteousness towards our Neighbour And thus as we may be considered as men in general there are works that are incumbent on us in that relation and as we are men we have a service to do for God to Man and 't is an equal Violation of the Law of God to rob God or to wrong Man since God has equally forbidden both Much Sacrifice will not expiate that sin nor many prayers drown the voice of its cry nothing but repentance and a reformation of our Injustice and Immorality nothing but a ceasing to do evil and a learning to do the contrary good will procure our acceptance with God and therefore we have him in the Prophet expostulating with his people who were highly injurious towards man and yet pretended to be extreamly Religious towards God They even cloy'd him with the fat of their fed Beasts and even darkned Heaven with the clouds of Incense they observed exactly their New Moons and Feasts their Sabbaths and Solemn Assemblies but withall practiced Injustice and Rapine and Violence and their hands were full of Blood they had no pitty to the Poor nor mercy to the Widdow nor regard to the Fatherless Children God therefore declares his dislike of their Religious service because of their defect in these moral duties and calls them first to the practice of them and then promises to hear and accept them in the others Let us reaâ—â— and weigh the first chapter of Isaiah from the 10th verse to the 21th and there we shall fâ—nd our duty in this case and find this made good that a Religion towards God without a Conscience towards man is defective and in vain Our Work then that we are sent to do relates to Man as well as God and that as we are considered in general as men 2. But we may farther be considered as we are men placed by God in some particular Relation and Sphear to act in whether as Magistrate or Minister as Master or Servant as Husband or Wife as Parent or Child these and the like several Relations and Places call for several Works from us which are our duties as so related and as set in those places Of these a care must be had for in these alâ—o we serve him that sent us and he that is a faithful Labourer a good Christian will not nay dare not neglect these The consideration of all which shews that a Christians life was never designed for Jollity or Idleness Having given you a sight of thus much Work to be done without saying any more 〈◊〉 â—â—ve evidently proved that we have no time to spare in whâ—â— we may lawfully sit still and do nothing our Work and our Time are equally matched for as long as we live we must be doing Much less can we find any time to do evil in or to serve the flesh or to be instrumental to the carrying on of the designs of the Kingdom of darkness for God made us for himself and gave us our time to be employed in his Service and 't is no less than robbing of God and being unfaithful in our trust to give any part of it to the service of another Thus much may suffice to have spoken of the Work we have to do 2. The next thing to be considered is the time when this Work ought to be done a thing almost as material to be enquired after as the Work it self for as some mistake or are ignorant of their Work so it may be more mistake the true notion of their time and therefore defer it because they think the time not yet come to begin or set about it This time the Text says is while it is day and the meaning of that has been shown to be while the time of Life lasts for the Text plainly excludes Eternity from being a season for work for it tells us if this Life be at an end so is our work too the Night cometh wherein no man can Work Now since the time of this Life may be divided into three parts past present and to come all the matter of our Enquiry will be Which of these three is our working time in which we ought to apply our selves to our business For that which is past there can be no question made whether that be a time for Work which remains yet to be done for it is elaps'd and gone and being once lost is irrecoverable we may more easily recall the River that slides insensibly by hasting to the Ocean than recover the dayes that are silently stollen on towards Eternity there is no use to be made of the time past but only this by reflexion upon what we have lost or idly mispent to quicken and awaken our selves to the more careful improvement of what remains 'T is impertinent to wish that we had our time again since that cannot be all our wisdom in this case is to lay the faster hold upon what we yet have This therefore being granted that the time that is past is none of ours and cannot now be imployed in Work yet it may be hoped that what is to come may be counted our own and that we have a better hold of that 'T is true at present we are not disposed for Work or are otherwise imployed but we are Young or hope to live long or hope at least that we shall not dye yet and so hope we may have time enough for Work hereafter This is the usual Plea that men make for delaying their Work till the time to come and this is the ruiu of many a one and a fatal Snare in which Satan entangles many an unwary Soul while he beats them off from what is present and sure and turns them over to what is future and contingent He perswades them 't is too soon to repent and reform yet that 't is too early to sadden and damp the jollity and briskness of their Youth with the sad entertainment of sorrow and repentance or with the melancholly apprehensions of Death and Judgment another time he perswades them to be more fit for those things and that Old Age or at least an Age more solid and stayed more flegmatick and serious than the sprightliness of Youth would be a season much more proper to mind and accomplish that work But while unwary man listens to these charms the fatal hour steals on and the night comes wherein no man can work How many defer their Work till Old age that dye in the prime of their Youth and how many delay till too morrow that never live to see that day How many put off their Repentance till they come to be sick whom death never gives so fair a warning to but cuts them down unawares in the midst of their health and strength Delays are dangerous and if they are any where so then much more
them to run to their utmost Extent and therefore David Psalm 39. 5. compares their length to a Span but of this little how much is liable to be cut off by Accidents and Incertainties or by the determinations of an all-wise and over-ruling providence that though we may be sure that at their longest they are but as a Span long yet no man can be sure that they shall be so much as a Span long to him Both which brevity and uncertainty of our Lives the Scriptures teach us while it compares our time to things that are soon done or that are very incertain in their durance The Shepheards Tent or the Weavers shuttle are fit Emblems of the shortness of our dayes and St. James tell us our life is even a vapour and the Prophet Isaiah proclaims that all flesh is Grass to shew how uncertain and unstable our continuance even in this short time is And this Incertainty of our Lives must needs be evident to him that shall but consider either the Principles we are composed of or the Accidents we are liable to or the daily Experiences we have of it The Principles we are composed of are different in their Nature and repugnant one to another hot and cold moist and dry by the Wisdom and Power of God are tempered together in the dust that makes up our Frame these discordant Humors are alwaies at variance amongst themselves and there is an Intestime War continually maintain'd that threatens the ruin of the whole Frame How easily may one Humor get the upper hand of all the rest and yet our safety consists in the equal temperature of them and if one prevail the Body is destroyed by the Tyranny and Praedominance of that one Humor so that our Lives depend upon the success of a scuffle and are uncertain as the chance of War But besides these how numerous and various are External accidents who knows what a Night may produce or what may be in the Womb of a Morning Who can say that his path is secure or that no Creature has received a Commission to day to take away his Life the very Inanimate Creatures are sufficiently armed against our Lives if God does but give the Word and the wayes to effect it are too many and too different for our Wisdom or Prudence to fore-see or prevent And to all this the undeniable proof of Experience may be added our dayes are uncertain beyond dispute for almost every day we have Instances that confirm it Death does not wait upon the course of Nature nor observe the order of Birth but shoots his arrows hood-winkt among the Herd He snatches the tender Infant from its Mothers breast and cuts off the Young-man in the midst of his strength and dayes as well as gathers the Hoary head like a Shock of Corn in his season into the Grave The Young and Old the Weak and Strong are huddled together in the Dust and there is no Age or State that can secure and make us free from Deaths arrest Here he fells the full grown Oak and there he cuts up the tender Speers and every dayes Experience makes the Proverb good viz. As soon goes the green Tree to the Fire as the dry What should man do then whom Scripture and Reason and Experience daily convince of the incertainty of his life Or to what end is he made so palpably sure that he is at no certain stay here but that he might lift up his thoughts to what is more firm and improve the present Seasons which only weare sure of to the obtaining an Eternal and Unchangeable state For since this Life as incertain as it is is in order to a Future state which once entred upon admits of no alteration that our Lives are uncertain does earnestly call upon us to hasten our Work and improve our time that we may be ready for our Change whensoever it comes That we must dye and come to Judgment makes it necessary for us to prepare for death but since we know not but that we may dye to morrow it 's necessary that we provide for its coming to day This then is the Use we should make of all the Memento's we have of Mortality or of the incertainty or frailty of our Lives and we should never see or hear of any snatcht away from us but it should hasten us in our Work and make us more diligent to prepare for our turn for who knows whose is next And to this end I have been desired to apply this sad and amazing providence that has lately befallen one of the Chiefest Families in our Parish that seeing a Young-man cut off near the midst of his dayes those that are left both Young and Old may lay it to heart and be awakened to consider by this Instance how uncertain our time is that they may be stirred up to mind their Work in the present time lest their End prevent their Preparations for it And to this end I have been directed to this Portion of Scripture as giving a sufficient Ground to build such an Exhortation upon I must Work the Works of him that sent me while it is day the night cometh when no man can Work Words that are capable of a Two-fold Application as they are the Reason of our Saviours practice and as they are Rule of ours As they are the reason of our Saviours acting so they were spoken by our Saviour of himself and have a peculiar Relation to himself but the Reason they are founded upon makes them a Rule to us and from that they are an argument reaching ever to us to be diligent and sedulous in our business Our Saviour was sent into the World to work the great work of our Redemption and as he came into the world and the Word was made Flesh that he might dye so was he while he was upon Earth to prove his Mission from the Father and by the works he wrought convince the World that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Messiah he that was to come And therefore having here found a Subject fit to manifest his power upon and by a Miracle to manifest his Mission he does not stay to dispute or debate the impertinent and erroneous Quaere of his Disciples Who sinn'd this man or his Parents that he was born blind but denying both parts of the Question hastens to the Cure and that upon this Reason I must work the works c. that is I must take all opportunities to do the Works about which I am sent into the world and make use of my present time for my death is coming by which these works must have an end Where his reason of working while it is day being founded upon the general reason of approaching death the words will be found to be of equal extent with the Reason they are built upon and are a strong Argument for the like diligence to every one that is under the like circumstances of Mortality If therefore there