wilfully wicked and impenitent have reason to determine that you have not long to live How can you hope that God should put another Talent and trust a new Stock of time in the Hands of such Prodigals as you have been That he should give such Rebels longer Time to affront and dishonour him That he should suffer you to live who know not how to live and care not how you live who do not understand or consider for what it was you came into the World That he should allow you one Day more who never yet knew how to spend and improve any one Day as ye ought You have Ground enough to expect that the continuing and lengthening out of your Sins will extremely diminish and lessen curtail and shorten your Daies You have reason to fear every Hour the Loss of your Lives and of all Possibility of Repentance that you shall be removed and room made for worthier Persons to stand up in the Places which you so unprofitably and perniciously take up in the World Our Time is short and therefore let us lay present hold upon that small Remnant of [o] Cum celeritate temporis utendi velocitate certandum est velut ex torrente rapido nec semper casuro cito hauriendum est Sen. de brev vit cap. 9. hasty Time which posteth away whether we work or play Let 's take with us Words and say to God with the devout Herbert [p] Repentance O let thy Height of Mercy then Compassionate short-breathed Men. Oh! gently treat With thy quick Flow'r thy moment any Bloom Whose Life still pressing Is one undressing A steady aiming at a Tomb. Let 's daily prepare to die by earnest importunate Pleading with God for Pardon of Sin and Sanctification and Sence of Pardon and of our fitness for Heaven and Happiness that so we may certainly die safely and comfortably And by the Help of God let 's double our Diligence and Activity and endeavour to do a great deal of Work in a little Time You know Nature at the Approach of Death usually acts a double Part and puts forth all its Strength Bells when about ceasing strike thicker than before A Stone the nearer it comes to its Center the faster it moves When Night draws on the Traveller mends his Pace Considering we have but a few Daies let 's labour to live them all to lose none of them So to lead our Life that we may be able to enjoy our past Life by making sweet and comfortable Reflections upon it which is in a manner to [p] Ampliat aetatis spatium sibi vir bonus hoc est Vivere bis vitá posse priore frui Epigrammatograph Latin enlarge our Age and after a Sort to live twice [q] Nemo quà m bene vivat sed quam diu curat cùm omnibus possit contingere ut bene vivant ut diu nulli Sen. ep 22. in fine Quomodo fabula sic vita non quà m diu sed quà m bene acta sit refert Id. ep 77. Discendum quà m bene vivas refrie non quà m diu Id. ep 101. We have but a little while to live let us therefore study and strive to live well Our Life is just like a Comedy saies Seneca it matters not so much how long as how well it is acted [r] Let us account that the oldest Life which is most holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch conjol ad Apollon A long Life is not the best but a good Life As we do not commend saith he him that hath playâ—d a great while on an Instrument or made a long Oration but him that hath played and spoken well and as we account those Creatures best that give us most profit in a short Time and every where we see maturity preferred before length of Age so it ought to be among our selves They are the worthiest Persons and have lived longest in the World who have brought the greatest Benefit unto it and made the greatest Advantage of their Time to the Service of God and of Men. Let our Conscience therefore be the Ephemeris or Diary of our Life Let us not reckon by the Almanack but by the Book of God how much we live And let us account that he who lives Godly lives long and that other Men live not at all D. Patrick's Div. Arithm. p. 34 35. He lives long that lives well who in a few Years is very useful and serviceable unto God and geatly profitable and beneficial to the World The Author of the Book of Wisdom says concerning Enoch who was the shortest liv'd of the Patriarchs before the Flood but an eminent Pattern of Piety and a rare Exemplar of walking with God that he being perfected or consummated in a short Time fulfilled a long Time Chap. 4. Vers 13. For as the same Author a little before does well express it Vers 8 9. Honourable Age is not that which standeth in length of Time nor that which is measured by Number of Years But Wisdom is the gray Hair unto Men and an unspotted Life is old Age. Lucilius having in an Epistle to Seneca sadly lamented the immature untimely Death of Metronactes the Philosopher who might and in his Conceit ought to have lived longer The grave Moralist seasonably checks his causeless unjust Complaint of [s] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apud Poctas Minor p. 513. Providence and takes Occasion in his Answer to discourse usefully and excellently in this manner [t] Octoginta annis vixit nisi fortè sic vixisse eum dicis quomodo dicuntur arbores vivere Quemadmodum in minorâ— corporis habitu potest homo esse perfect us sic in mâ—nore temporis modo potest esse vita perfecta Qâ—aeris quod sit amplissimum vitae spatium Vsque adsapientiam vivere qui adâ—â—â—m pervenit attigit non longissimum sinem sed maximum Nem tam multis vixit annis quà m potuit Et paucorum versuum liber est quidem laudandus atque utilis Sâ—n. ep 93. Multis ille bonis slebilis occidit Horat. carm l. 1 Od. 14. de morte Quintilii Our Care should be saies he not to live long but to live enough Life is long if it be full What good do eighty Years do him that spends them all idly such a Person did not live but only linger in Life nor did he die late but was a long Time dead But you make your moan that he died young and green yet he performed the Offices of a good Citizen a good Friend a good Son he was deficient in no part that properly belonged to him Though his Age was imperfect his Life was perfect He liv'd yea he was here eighty Years unless you will reckon he liv'd no otherwise than Trees are said to live I pray thee my Lucilius let us endeavour says he that as precious Things so our Life though it be not of any great Extent and Length yet may be of much Weight and Worth Let us
Simplicity and Godly Sincerity I have had my Conversation in the World To say with Hilarion as St. Jerom reports in his [b] Egredere anima quid times Egredere quid dubitas Septuaginta prope annis servisti Christo mortem times Hier. in vita Hilar. Life Go out my Soul why art thou afraid go out why lingrest thou thou hast served Christ well nigh these seventy Years and dost thou now fear Death To see that it has been to thee * Phil. 1.21 to live Christ and to be able to look on thy Death as thy Gain And with good old [c] His Life inserted among Mr. Clark's Lives of ten emin Div. p. 123. When his good Sister said to him in his Sickness Brother I am afraid to leave you alone VVhy Sister said be I shall I am sure be with Jesus Christ when I die Ib. p. 123 124. Dr. Gouge in thy last Sickness to term Death thy best Friend next to Jesus Christ With †Phil. 1.23 St. Paul to desire to depart and to be ready to utter such Language as this Oh loose this Frame this Knot of Man unty That my free Soul may use her Wing Which is now pinion'd with Mortality As an entangled hamper'd Thing As the pious [d] Home Mr. Herbert pathetically expresses it in one of his sacred Poems Dwell upon these Considerations That the Loss and Misimprovement of Time will make a Death-bed uneasy to you and that the right redeeming of time will render a Death-bed comfortable to you And this will be very apt to move you to prepare for Death by dying to Sin dying to the World and living to Righteousness before you die 'T will help you to live every Day so indeed as others wish that they had liv'd when they come to lie upon a Death-bed To live so now that you may with comfort think of dying and may be freed from the slavish Fear of Death and be held no longer ‖ Heb. 2.15 in bondage by it 'T will cause you to live the Life of the Righteous that so you may die the Death of the Righteous die safely and die comfortably 'T will make you careful to set not only your House but your Heart in order your Life in order and so to dispatch your work and Business that when you come to die you may have nothing to do but to die and freely and cheerfully to resign your Spirit to the Father of Spirits and to surrender your Soul to your faithful Creator and gracious loving Lord Redeemer In a Word it will enable you so to live that you may have * Prov. 14.32 Hope in your own Death and that when Friends shall mourn for your Departure they may not sorrow without †1 Thess 4.13 Hope And so much shall suffice for your Direction as to your Meditation of Death your own particular Death in order to your Redemption of Time 2. Meditate here moreover of the general Dissolution of all Things at least in this inferiour World Think well of what (*) 2 Pet. 3.11 St. Peter informs you that all these Things shall be dissolved Consider that the Description which is there given of this Dissolution is too august and [e] Dr. ore's y st of Godl p 214. big by far for so small a Work as [f] Of which Dr. Hammend in eâ—prets it the Destruction of the City of Jerusalem That the Scoffers arguing there against the Promise of christ's coming that (†) Verse 4. all Things continue as they were from the Beginning of the Creation does clearly shew that this Coming of Christ was not understood by them and consequently not by St. Peter of the Burning of a City by War a Thing which might as probably and easily happen to Jerusalem as it had already fallen out in many other Places of the World But of the final glorious Coming of Christ to judge the World which [f] Superest I 'e ultimus perpetuus judicis di s ille nationibus insperatus ille derisus cùm tanta secult vetusta tot ejus nativitates uno ignt haurientur Tertull. lib de Spectae cap 30. Judgment the Conflagration of the Earth is to attend Think very seriously with thy self that * Verse 7. the Heavens and the Earth which are now are reserved unto Fire How †Verse 10. the Heavens shall one Day pass away with a great Noise and ‖ Verse 12. being on Fire shall be dissolved and the (*) Verse 10 12. Elements or [g] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordine mitiari incedo The host of the Aethereal Heavgens are the Stars and Planets The Host of the Aereal Heavens are Clouds and Meteors Fowls and flying Creatures Hosts shall melt with fervent Heat the Earth also and the Works of Nature or Art that are therein shall be burnt up That though the superiour Aethereal starry Heavens may be exempted as [h] He that considereth both the super-eminent Nature and Immensity of the Aethereal Heaven and of those innum rable Bodies therein in regard of which the whole Sublunary VVorld is but a Point or Centre and that it no way can be prov'd that ever those Bodies received any Curse for Man's Sin or Contagion by the VVorld's Deluge or that any Enemies of God dwell in them to pollute them He that considereth this will not easily be induced to believe that the Fire of the Day of Judgment shall burn them It remaineth therefore that the Sublunary Heavens only with their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are to be the Subject of this Conflagration Mr. Mede's Works p. 614 615. some with probable Reason conceive yet that without dispute or doubt [i] Dr. More 's Myst of Godl p. 231. the Globe of the Earth and the circumjacent Air with all the Garnishings of them shall be burnt up That this Air and Earth shall be strangely and wonderfully alter'd though not annihilated That the present Order and comely Beauty of the Compages and Frame of this visible lower World shall be dissolv'd That this great House and goodly Building made for Man to dwell in shall be taken down and all the Furniture wherewith it was fitted for his Use and Service shall be destroyed That it will be an Act of Wisdom for God to abolish these Things when the Time appointed for Probation and Trial of immortal Spirits cloathed with Flesh is ended and expired and Men shall enter into so different a State in which there will be no need of any Thing that serves and ministers to this terrene and animal Life And though God think good to continue this World for a while that it may be a Theater whereon his Wisdom Goodness Mercy Patience and other his glorious Attributes may be displayed and made conspicuous yet it is convenient and reasonable that this Stage of God's Acts and Works of Providence when all is finished should be taken down And
any act of Prophaneness Sin and Wickedness a fit Action for Christ to take and present unto his Father for Divine Acceptance Certainly our Actions must have the Truth though not the Perfection of good Works for otherwise 't were a Thing unbeseeming Christ to present them and unbecoming God to accept them for in so doing Christ must become a Patron of Sin and God an Owner of the Works and an Encourager of the Workers of Iniquity O then take care that your Actions be such as may be fit to be presented by Christ unto his Father and to be accepted by God in and thorough Christ This is the Way to honour Christ considered as a Priest 2. Accept of Christ as a Prophet to teach and instruct thee thorowly to teach both thy Head and Heart and be willing and forward to learn of Christ and to be taught by him the Truth as it is in Jesus and to profit both by his Doctrine and Example 3. Accept of Christ not only for thy Priest and Saviour and for thy Prophet Teacher and Instructour but for thy wise and holy Law-giver and for thy soveraign King and Governour to rule and to reign over thee Give up thy self in hearty Subjection to the Person and Authority of Christ and [c] Credere se in Christâ—m quomodo dicit qui non facit quod Christus facere praecepit aut unde perveniet ad praemium fidei qui fidem non vult servare mandati Cyprianus de Eccles unit Quid est credulitas vel fides opinor fideliter hominem Christo credere id est fidelem Deo esse hoc est fideliter Dei mandata servare Christiani homines infideles sunt si bona sibi à Deo assignata corruperint Salvian de Gubern Dei lib. 3. vow and be ready to perform sincere Obedience to all the Particular Commands of Christ When others cry these are hard Sayings who can bear them do you profess that his Commands are not grievous and do thou say from thy very Heart I delight to do thy Will O Christ Love and Delight in the Laws of Christ and choose and strive to keep and observe them when others censure break and violate them While other Men dishonour Christ and put him to an open Shame and cause his worthy Name to be blasphemed let thy Life lead Men to high and excellent Thoughts of Christ and of his Laws and Waies and Government This is the right Acceptance of Christ so * Coloss 2.6 to receive Christ Jesus the Lord as to purpose and endeavour to walk in him And then for the other Act of Faith Have not only a bare Opinion of Christ's Fidelity but trust in Christ with a practical Trust So thoroughly trust him as to venture all thy Happiness on him in his own way Trust him so far as to be sincerely and heartily willing to leave and forsake all to follow him to part with Sin and the World yea Life it self for him who will not suffer thee to be finally a Loser by him to be ready to relinquish all that thou seest and possessest here for things invisible which Christ hath promised to render to the Believer in the other World And so believe what is said concerning the Holy Ghost as heartily to believe in the Holy Ghost Consent to take him for thy Teacher and Guide Sanctifier and Quickner Advocate and Comforter Enter into solemn Covenant with resign and give up thy self to the Worship and Service of the sacred Trinity Be fully resolv'd to live to God and Christ and to worship in the Spirit to be led by the Spirit to walk in the Spirit and to bring forth the Fruits of the Spirit Believe and learn to live by Faith and let thy Faith work by Love and shew it self by good Works and be productive of the Obedience of Faith And let thy Obedience be voluntary and cheerful uniform and universal constant and perpetual Thus thus improve the precious Season of Gospel-Light Grace and Strength by plainly and fully coming up to the Terms and faithfully performing the great and necessary Conditions of the Gospel Honour and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by entertaining and walking worthy of the Gospel of Christ There was a memorable Statue set up in the Isle of Rhodes in honour of the Sun which once a Day is said to shine upon that Island be the Air in all other Parts never so overcast with Clouds But we enjoy a greater and higher Priviledg than they The Sun of Righteousness shines upon this our Island and affords the Light of the blessed Gospel not only once every Day but all the Day long every Day And now shall we be so blind and unthankful as to take no notice of it so idle and careless as to make no use of it Since the Light of the Gospel does clearly and sweetly beam out in our Faces when the Air is dark abroad and many other places are cover'd with the thick Clouds of Ignorance let us * Joh. 5.35 rejoice in the Light and †1 Joh. 1.7 walk in the Light of the Glorious Gospel as Children of the ‖ Eph. 5.8 Light and of the (*) 1 Thess 5.5 Day and then we shall be as so many Statues set up in Honour of Christ the Sun of Righteousness that shines in his Lustre and Strength upon us But besides the General Opportunity of the Continuance of the Gospel which is afforded to many all their Life long I say besides this there are some Parcels and Portions of our Lives some Daies and Hours of our Time that are Particular and special Opportunities above others as namely these following The first Particular Opportunity to be redeemed 1. The Morning of our Age the Time of Youth and Health and Strength this is an Opportunity of providing for Eternity this is a fit Season of working out our Salvation of laying up in store against a Time of Sickness an Hour of Weakness and the Day of Death This is a Time wherein [a] Juvenes possumus discore possumus facilem animum adhuc tractabilem ad meliora convertere hoc tempus idoneum est laboribus idoneum agitandis â—er studia ingeniis exercendâ—s ter opera corporibus Quod superest segnius languiaius est propâ—â—◠â fine Primus quisquo tanquam optimus dies placeat redigatur in nostrum Sen. ep 103. both Body and Mind are strong and vigorous This is an Age meet for Impression capable of Instruction and fit for Action The Wise Man calls young Men to redeem this choicest Part of their Time to think of him early who lov'd and minded us so early Eccles 12.1 Remember now thy Creator in the Daies of thy Youth thy choice Daies while the evil Daies come not nor the Years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no Pleasure in them The Daies of Youth are good Daies the Time of Health and Strength is a good Time indeed
voluntary Crimes and according to the measure of them And think again That as thou shalt suffer variety of Punishment Punishment of Loss and Punishment of Sense so thou shalt undergo extremity of Torment That thou shalt be forc'd to depart into Fire †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 25.41 the Fire emphatically which whether it shall be material or metaphorical speaks the sharpness and severity of thy Torment That thou shalt be cast into Fire prepar'd suffer a contrived Punishment that falls under the solemnity of a Preparation Prepared by God the wise and just Lord and Judg For the Devil and his Angels A great and inevitable Punishment such as the Devils must suffer and such as thou must suffer with the Devils That if thou servest the Devil here thou must dwell with him in Hell-fire And if it be so great an Affliction to the People of God who have a true Sense and a right Judgment of Things to be necessitated to live among * Ps 120.5 the Wicked here in this World Think then what a grievous Misery it will be to thee when thy Eyes are open'd in Hell to see thy self under a necessity of dwelling continually with the Devils and cursed Fiends of Hell Think how it would [d] Shepheard's S C. p 95. scare thee almost out of thy wits to have the Devil frequently appear to thee here and what Horror then shall fill thy Soul when thou shalt be banish'd from the Face of God and Presence of Christ and from Angels Society and be joined in Fellowship with the Devil and his Angels be shut up in the darkest Den with that roaring Lion and be chained with the Devil in fiery Fetters Nor will it at all relieve thee to have Companions in all thy Pain and Distress in Hell But the more there be that shall suffer with thee there the less ease and comfort shalt thou enjoy for as [e] Dr. Jackson 3 vol. p. 495. one of profound Judgment well observes there will be no Concord or Consort there nothing but perpetual Discord which is alwaies so much the greater by how much the Parties discording are more in number It being a Thing too well known that to live in continual Discord though but with some few is a kind of Hell here upon Earth Think yet further That thy Punishment in Hell will be perpetual thy Torments be endless as well as easeless thy †Mat. 25.41 46. 3.12 Fire everlasting and unquenchable That thou shalt be * Rev. 20.10 tormented in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone day and night for ever and ever That if it were possible for one Eternity to be spent for one ever to expire and come to an End there should be another ever for thee to be tormented in That in Hell †Mark 9.44 46 48. thy Worm shall never die That thou shalt be punished with ‖ 2 Thess 1.9 everlasting Destruction from the Presence of the Lord That thou shalt be destroyed in a moral not in a natural Sense That thy Essence and Being shall be everlastingly preserv'd but thou shalt be everlastingly depriv'd of God and Glory and of all that makes to thy well-being and everlastingly afflicted and punished with all that tends to thy ill-being That as Nero refus'd to put [f] Philostr in viâ—a Apoll. Tyanaei Apollonius to Death who was very desirous to die because he would not so far gratify him And as Tiberius Caesar when a certain Offender petition'd him to hasten his Punishment retur'd this Answer [g] Suetonius l. 3. c. 6. Nondum tecum redii in gratiam Stay Sir you and I are not Friends yet So if thou provest a damned Person that God won't be mov'd by all thy entreaty to grant a quick and speedy Dispatch to thee nor after [h] See Mr. Bolton's 4 last Things p. 107 108 109 110. If thou hadst an Head as big as Archimedes and couldst tell how many Atomes of Dust weâ—e in the Globe of the Earth yet think that such a vast number is but as one little Atome in compare with those endless Sorrows and those endless Joys Let this be thy Impress or Motto let this be writ upon the minâ— that a learned man writes upon all his Books Aeternâ—tatem cogita Think of Eternity Johan Meursius D. Patrick's Div. Arithm p. 40 41. thousands and millions of Years spent in Torments yield to let thee die at last And that the Eternity of thy Torments will be the Hell of Hell and the very Sting of the second Death That the Eternity both of Loss and Sense will even break the very Heart of thee If good Men here do grieve and mourn when God withdraws and absents himself but for a Moment from them Think then how lamentably and intolerably it will perplex and punish thee to be made sensible hereafter that God will hide his Face from thee for ever That if here thou art unable to bear a tedious Fit of the Tooth-ach Head-ach Cholick Gout or Stone what then thou wilt do to endure those akings of Heart and wounds of Spirit and convulsions of Conscience and complicated torments of Soul and Body which will be the Portion of damned Persons to eternal Ages And if it be so sad a Misery for any to be burnt to Death here Think then how incomparably greater a Misery it will be to be alwaies burning and frying in Hell and yet never to be burnt to Death there Nay if here to lie long on a Bed of Down or on a Bed of Roses and not once to rise in several Years together would prove a grievous sore Trouble and heavy Affliction what an overwhelming Thought is this then of lying in Flames to all Eternity Consider here that so great is the Folly of Man's Mind and the Hardness of his Heart and the Power of present sensual Allurements that [i] See Baxter's Reas of the Christ Rel. p. 171. nothing less than the Threatning of an endless Misery was an apt and sit Instrument of God's ruling and governing the World That Men would not have been sufficiently awed and effectually restrain'd and deterr'd from Sin and kept in order and obedience if God had not intimated and foretold that the obstinate Sinner shall certainly suffer perpetual Punishment in another World That it is too evident that the Denunciation even of eternal Pain and infinite Torment does [k] Id. ib. p. 164 170. not move and sway the greatest part of Men and therefore that the Threatning of meer Annihilation or of some lighter and shorter Punishment would surely have less prevail'd and wrought upon the World And now when everlasting Punishment is plainly threatned that the just and holy Law-giver doth not intend to affright thee with a Lie or with an uncertainty That his Threatning is not like the prediction of an Almanack It may be so it may be not But that he meaneth really to execute and inflict the Penalty of eternal
Thoughts of ever becoming the unhappy Instruments of hurrying any others to Hell And will incline thee in Pity and Charity to the Souls of Sinners to do thy best by all means possible to keep all about thee from running and falling into that ‖ Luke 16.28 place of Torment to be zealous and industrious to [b] Si fieri possit abâ—spsis inferis extrahendi nobis sunt homints Calv. in Act. 8.22 (*) James 5.20 save Souls from Death to save (†) Jude 23. them with Fear pulling them out of the Fire as the (‖) Gen. 19.16 Angels of old plackt lingning Lot out of Sodom Not to suffer thy Neighbour ever to go to Hell quietly but rather to territy thy sinful Brother than to permit him to miscarry for ever Obj. But is not this a slavish Tomper to be moved to my Duty out of Fear of Hell Should not the Love of God be the Principle that acts us and [*] 1 Joh. 4.18 perfect Love is said to cast out Fear I answer When all the Motives and Incentives that possibly can be made use of will scarcely effectually put us upon Duty surely we have [c] Bonum tamen est ut si necdum amor à malo te revocat saltem timor gehennalis coerceat Thomas a Kempis l. 1. c 24. n. 7. little reason to let go or lay aside any one of them but to use whatever may work upon us Love or Hope or Fear And as for a Christians Love to God it does not here exclude all Fear because it is not perfect in this Life It will indeed in the future Life cast out all Fear of Damnation And it may be so perfect in this Life as to banish and expel all distrustful tormenting Fear which consisteth in terrifying disquieting Apprehensions that God will deal with a Man as a Slave take Advantages of him condemn and destroy him whenever he does amiss But the true sincere Love of God is fairly consistent with a filial cautelous preserving preventing Fear [d] Mr. Baxter in his Directions for Peace and Comfort Doult 6. A judicious Divine well observes that it is a great Mistake to think that filial Fear is only the Fear of temporal Chastisement and that all Fear of Hell is slavish Even filial Fear is a Fear of Hell which yet is join'd with such a Perswasion of God's Love to us that we conclude he will not cast us off upon every provocation and is accompanied with some Love in us to God and with Care and Watchfulness lest we should by Apostasy and final Impenitency miscarry eternally The ninth Direction If you would redeem the Time you must endeavour to spiritualize your common and ordinary worldly Employments and must take care that your natural as well as civil Actions partake of Religion 1. You must endeavour to spiritualize your ordinary civil or domestical Employments by doing them all in Oâ—edience of Faith and making them the Instruments whereby to shew forth your Honesty Equity Righteousness Justice and whatever Vertues may be exercis'd therein You must make conscience to follow your Calling out of an awful respect to the Command of God to do what you do even in civil Business in the Name of Christ as the Work of Christ so as you may say at that time Now I am about the Work of God and of Jesus Christ I thank God my Conscience bears me witness I am acting in Obedience to Christ expecting a Blessing from Christ upon what I do and I look to receive a Reward from Christ The Apostle commands Servants * Col. 3.23 24. whatsoever they do for Men to do it heartily as to the Lord to serve the Lord Christ in the Service they do to their earthly Masters Thus to work for God and Christ is for that time to honour God and Christ as much nay more by the meanest servile worldly Act than if you should spend all that time in Prayer Meditation or any other spiritual Employment to which you had no sufficient Call at such a time The devout Herbert in one of his sacred [a] The Elixir Poems desiring God to teach him what he did in any thing to do it as for him expresses himself thus sweetly and spiritually All may of thee partake Nothing can be so mean Which with this Tincture for thy sake Will not grow bright and clean A Servant with this Clause Makes Drudgery divine Who sweeps a Room as for thy Laws Makes that and th' Action fine This is the famous Stone That turneth all to Gold For that which God doth touch and own Cannot for less be told 2. We must take care that our natural as well as civil or oeconomical Actions partake of Religion be inscribed with * Zech. 14.20 21. Holiness unto the Lord and by the purity of our end and intention therein become as acceptable [b] Vt quiequid aggrediantur homines sit sacrisicium Calv. in loc Sacrifices unto God That on all occasions we [c] In cilo potu homines sacri erunt Deo sanctitatem colent Id. ib. eat and drink not merely to indulge and gratify our Appetite [d] Seâ—ing there must be in us a sensitive Appetite whilst we are in this animal State iâ— is to be endeavoured a far as may be that we gratify the Appetite nor aâ— it is a sensitive Appetite but under this notion as the thing that it desires makes for our real good and tends to the enjoyment of the supreme Good to eat and drink not because we are hungry or thirsty because the Appetite desires it but with reference to the main end with respect to the highest Good that the Body may be enabled strengthned and quickned to wait upon the Soul chearfully in the Actions of a holy Life Mr. S. Shaw in his Voice of one Crying in a Wilderness p. 149 150. as it is a sensitive Appetite not only or chiefly to [e] It is lawful in all hences to comply with a weak and a nice Stomach but not with a nice and curious Palate Bp. Taylor 's Rule and Exerc. of holy Liv. c. 2. § 2. meas 3. please our Taste That we do not cover a Business of Pleasure under a pretence of preserving Health or the fair colour of supplying Nature as [f] Ad hoc incertum hilarescit infalix anima ut obtentu salutis obumbret negocium voluptatis Aug. Conf. l. 10. c. 31. §. 2. St. Austin confesses he found himself too apt to do And more especially that we never offer to pamper our Bodies that we may be the stronger to serve our Lusts That we do not eat and drink our selves either into Lust or out of Duty But that we take our Meat as our Medicine as [g] Hoc me docuisti ut quemadmodum medicamenta sic alimenta sumpturus accedam Id. ib. §. 1. St. Austin acknowledges God had taught him to do use Meat-and Drink as remedies to cure
employed by the great and mighty Monarch of the World To yield your Members as Instruments of Unrighteousness unto Sin instead of yielding your selves to God and your Members as Instruments of Righteousness unto God 2. To delay the Redemption of our Time is hazardous and dangerous as well as unworthy and disingenuous For 1. The Time of our Life is very uncertain Seriously consider that if thou dost not take the present Time Time with thee may quickly be no more [f] Subito tollitur qui diu toleratur Gregor Hom. 12. in Euang. He that is long forborn is often snatcht away of a sudden * Job 21.13 Thou maiest go down to the Grave in a Moment Thou maiest be dead and buried thy Body be rotten in the Grave and thy Soul grievously tormented in Hell long before the Time comes which thou didst fix and set for thy Repentance and the amendment of thy Life [g] Maxima vitae jactura dilatio est Illa primum quemque extrahit diem illa eripit praesentia dum ulteriora promittit Maximum vivendi impedimentum est expectatio quae pendat excrastino Quò spectas quò te extendis omnia quae ventura sunt in incerto jacent protinus vive Sen. de brev vit cap. 9. Delay saies Seneca is the greatest Loss of humane Life It deprives us of that which is present while it Promises that which is future The greatest hindrance of living well saies he is Hope of living to morrow But it is a noted Saying of St. Gregory [h] Qui poenitenti veniam spopondit peccanti diem crastinuninon promisit Greg. Hom. 12. in Euang. He that hath promised Pardon to him that repents he has not promised to morrow to repent in And if God has not promised it to us we have no reason to promise it to our selves for 't is a Rule in Civil Law [i] Nemo potest promittere alienum No Person can promise that which is anothers He spake prudently and piously who when he was invited to come to morrow to a Feast returned this Answer I have not had a morrow for these many Years It was good Counsel which a wise Rabbi gave his Scholar that he should be sure to repent one Day besore he died But if you delay to be penitent and pious holy and religious the present Day you may never have the Benefit and Advantage of another Young Men too commonly lavish out the present in hope of redeeming the future Time But they build their Hope upon the greatest Vncertainty in the World [k] Quis est tam stultus quamvis sit adolescens cui sit exploratum se ad vesperum esse victurum Quinetiam aetas illae muliò plures quà m nostra mortis casus habet Faciliùs in morbos incidunt adolescentes graviùe aegrotant tristiùs curantur Ità que paùci veniunt adsenectutem Cicero in Cat. Maj. sen de Senect Young Men as Tully brings in Cato discoursing in some respects are in greater danger of Death than Old Men They fall into Diseases more easily sicken more violently and are cured more hardly and therefore there are but very few that reach to an Old Age. The Jews tell of Ben Syra yet a Child as [l] Dr. Stoughton's Heavenly Conversation p. 81 82. Dr. Stoughton relates the Story that he begged of his Master to instruct him in the Law of God who defer'd it and put him off saying he was too young yet to be entred into Divine Mysteries then he replied But Master said he I have been in the Church-yard and perceive by the Graves which I have lain down by and measured and find shorter than my self that many have died younger than I am and what shall I do then and if I should die before I have learned the Law of God what would become of me then Master The consideration of our short Life saies that worthy Doctor should cause us to [m] Ad haec quaerenda natus aestima quà m non multum acceperit temporis etiamsi illud totum sibi vendicet cui licèt nihil facilitate eript nihil negligendo patiatur excidere licèt horus avarissimè servet usque in ultimae aetatis his manae terminos procedat nec quicquam illi ex eo quod natura constituit fortuna concutiat tamen homo ad immortalium cognitionem nimis mortalis est Sen. de Otio sap c. 32. make haste to learn to know and serve God and to think we cannot begin to study that Lesson too soon that can never be learned too well And withal to use all Speed and Diligence lest as Children have usually torn their Books so we have ended our Lives before we have learned our Lessons * Joh. 9 4. Work while it is Day the Night cometh when no Man can work †12.35 Yet a little while is the Light of this Life with you walk while ye have the Light lest Darkness come upon you Do not carry your selves like idle Boies who play away their Candle and then are forced to go to bed in the dark Thy Life is uncertain and therefore with Apelles that curious Painter let no Day go without some Stroke or Line drawn to the Life Let no Day pass without dispatching some lawful Business without performing some good Work and doing some laudable vertuous Action Do every Day the Work of that Day Make Religion thy business every day of thy Life 2. Delaies and Prorogations are very dangerous because many other things are exceeding uncertain as well as our Lives Thou dost not know but that by some Disease thou maiest quite lose the use of thy Reason and the natural right Exercise of thy Rational Faculties and so become in a manner dead even while thou livest Or if still thou retainest the free use of thy Reason yet thou maiest be deprived of the means of Grace and helps to Salvation * Isa 30.20 Thy Teachers may be removed into a Corner Thou maiest be pinch'd with a †Amos 8 11 12. Famine of hearing the Word of the Lord and be ready to ‖ Prov. 29.18 perish for want of Vision Or through Sickness or some sad Providence thou maiest be hindred and detain'd from making use of those common Means which others comfortably and profitably enjoy Or if thou hast Liberty to attend on the outward means of Grace thou maiest (*) 2 Cor. 6.1 receive the Grace of God in vain not (†) Luk. 19 42. know and understand in this thy Day the things that belong unto thy Peace Thou maiest have a (‖) Prov. 17.16 Price in thy hand to get Wisdom and be such a Fool as to have no heart to it Thy Mind may become more unprepared and thy Will more indisposed to receive the Truth and embrace the Goodness of the Word Thou maiest be ready to * Acts 7.51 resist the working of the Spirit in the great Ordinances of the Gospel and maiest
of his Humiliation When Christ was almost entring into his Grave he begg'd and intreated that Christ would remember him when he came [g] Tò ev ponitur pro eis into his Kingdom Which of the Eleven were heard to utter so gracious a Word to their Saviour in his last Pangs and dying Agonies This penitent Thief prayed in Faith and look'd for ‖ Mal. 4.2 Healing from the Wings of this Sun of Righteousness when this glorious Sun rose from the West as I may say He was so humble that he would not presume to ask of Christ a participation of his Kingdom or any great and high Honour in it but only requested that he might not be forgotten by him the way of remembring and considering him he left wholly to him He shewed a very exemplary Patience upon the Cross he did not murmur against God or the Magistrate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but owned the Dueness and Justice of his Punishment and was content to bear it and desired not the removal or abatement of it he meekly and quietly accepted his corporal temporal Punishment being only solicitous for his Soul's Salvation He charitably [i] Luk. 23.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat repreleâ—do anterdico Gerhard Harm in loc reprehended his Fellow-Thief and [i] Luk. 23.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat repreleâ—do anterdico Gerhard Harm in loc forbad him to proceed in his Blasphemy invited him to Repentance and sought to further the Salvation of his Neighbour Thou canst not expect ever to meet with such an Occasion to try and exercise thy Faith and Obedience and therefore thou hast no imaginable reason to nourish up thy self in Security upon presumptuous Hopes of faring as he did since thou canst not do as he did 6. And lastly Suppose thou shouldst at last redeem thy Time so well as by God's help with the good Thief to act and exercise unfeigned Repentance upon thy Death-bed yet I pray shew me and help me a little to understand how thou art likely to get that Comfort and gain that sweet Peace of Conscience which a more early Redemption of thy Time would in all probability bring thee in and bless thee with in thy last Hours A thinking understanding Heathen will tell thee [i] Mortem venientem nemo hilaris excipit nisi qui se ad illam diu composucrat Sen. ep 30. He only can chearfully entertain and gladly welcome Death when it comes who has a long time been fitting and preparing himself for it The Thief upon the Cross had indeed full Assurance that his Soul was in a good Condition at present and sure Ground of strongest Confidence and most comfortable Acquiescence that he should be very quickly in a pure and holy a blissful and happy State in another World But it is not to be expected that thou shouldst arrive to such Assurance in the same or the like way that he did for Christ then hung upon the Cross by him and had compassion on him and reveal'd it to him that his Repentance which was God's extraordinary gracious Gift was Repentance unto Life that his Person was accepted and his Prayer heard and that a higher Favour should be shewn him and a greater Good be bestowed upon him than was expresly desired by him That his Lord was ready to take the Key of Paradise into his hand and would very quickly open the Door and let him in and give him entrance into the Joy of his Lord. All which is included in Christ's gracious Answer to the humble Petition of the penitent Thief which he strengthned and confirmed with an earnest Asseveration Verily I say unto thee I will not only be mindful of thee but thou shalt be with me and that not only some time hereafter but [l] Nee sine grave causa expressum illud hoâ—le Censebant enim Judaes non quorumvis animas statim in selicem Paradisi statum recipi sed eas demum quae bene purgatâ— ex hac vita excederent Grot. in loc to day immediatly after thy Death and Departure To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise be joyfully received and pleasurably entertain'd in that happy Repository and Receptacle of Spirits which God hath prepared for holy Souls But when thou shalt come to lie upon a Death-bed and be conscious to thy self that thou hast led a very sinful and ungodly Life all thy daies and that this is the first time that thou hast in good earnest minded this great Work Suppose that the workings of thy Heart should be sincere how canst thou evidence thy Uprightness to thy self prove and make out to thy self and satisfy thy self in any ordinary way that thy Conversion is true and real sound and sincere When thou shalt plainly apprehend that thou art changing thy Place and Habitation State and Condition all of a sudden thou canst not but conclude that it highly concerns thee to humble thy self to God to beg his Pardon and promise him fair and to resolve by all possible means to shake off thy Sins which are too grievous and dang erous Companions to carry along with thee into the other World to cast away thy Sins at loost as a Man in a Storm begins to cast away his Goods because if he keeps his much valued Goods he must lose his dearest Life But dost not thou remember the famous remarkable Story of * 2 Mac. 9. Antiochus who when the Judgment of God followed him and smote him with an incurable and invisible Plague with a Pain of the Bowels that was remediless and sore Torments of the inner Parts so that the filthiness of his Smell was noisome to all his Army and no Man could endure to carry him for his intolerable Stink and he himself could not abide his own Smell Then he began to leave off his great Pride This wicked Person vowed also unto the Lord that he would set the holy City at Liberty make all the Jews equals to the Citizens of Athens garnish the holy Temple with goodly Gifts become a Jew himself and go through all the World that was inhabited and declare the Power of God But the Lord would now no more have Mercy upon him having suffer'd grievously he died most miserably And hast not thou [k] I never knew nor heard of any unwrought upon under conscionable means who after Recovery perform'd the Vows ... not counted as error and Promises of a new Life which he made in his Sickness and times of Extremity For if he will not be moved with the Ministry God will never give that honour unto the Cross to do the deed Mr. Bolton's Instructions for a right Comf afflicted Conscience p. 255. known some and heard of others who being condemned by Law or cast upon Beds of Sickness have outwardly manifested as great and probable signs of true Repentance upon seeming near approaches of Death and Judgment as thou canst now be well supposed to do and yet when God by
a kind and merciful Providence has restored them all that look'd so lively and lovely has quite vanish'd and come to nothing these fairly promising hopeful Penitents have afterward fallen to their old Biass prov'd as vile and vicious as bad and worse than ever they were before And it may be thou thy self hast been in the like case and done as much heretofore as now and hast reason to remember thy false deceitful treacherous dealing with God in former Instances on the like Occasions how many of thy own Purposes and Promises have fail'd and been quite lost and hast cause enough to suspect and question the Truth and Goodness of all the present fairest shews and goodliest Appearances of thy Repentance And here this great Difficulty will at last unavoidably lie before thee whether thou dost not seek return and enquire after God only because he now begins to * Ps 78.34 slay thee in good earnest Here will be the doubt and dispute How thou wilt be able to determine that the Confession of thy Sins and Condemnation of thy self thy Resolutions and Promises of better Obedience in case of longer Life are not all the meer effect of slavish Fear and only the product of trouble of Mind and terrour of Conscience rather than the genuin proper issue of a vehement hatred of Sin for the Turpitude and Unreasonableness of it of a strong Affection to God and his Laws and a hearty Love to Holiness when thou hast no time to make sufficient Proof and due Trial of the Truth and Sincerity of thy Faith and Repentance And what comfortable joyful security canst thou have that God will certainly and infallibly save thee by an act of extraordinary Grace and Favour in the want of the Actions of a vertuous and holy Life which he requires in the Gospel as ordinarily necessary to Salvation It is here but a may be a peradventure †Mat. 20.15 It is lawful indeed for God to do what he will with his own but the possibility of an extraordinary Grace is not likely then to bring thee that clear and full Light of sweet Peace and solid spiritual Comfort which an early diligent Improvement of the Grace of God ordinarily vouch-safed in the course of thy Life and time of thy Health and Strength would in all probability have produced If therefore thou wouldst wisely provide for thy Peace take no encouragement to delay the Redemption of thy Time from the Instance and Example of the Thief upon the Cross who was sincerely converted to Christ and fully ascertain'd of Salvation by the infallible Oracle of the Mouth of his Saviour in the very close of his Life the final and ultimate Hour before his Departure Obj. But some or other may be ready and apt to say Alas I have deferr'd so long already that though I entertain some serious Thoughts of redeeming the Time and use my honest Endeavours yet I fear do what I can it is now too late for me to obtain Eternal Salvation Answ I answer Hast thou made very long Delaies spent and wasted a very considerable part of thy Life the most of thy precious Time in the Service of Sin and Satan Why truly thou hast reason to be so much the more humbled the more sorry for it the more ashamed of it the more penitent at present and the more obedient for the future great cause to purpose and intend to give unto God the whole remainder of thy Time And though thou hast but a small Time but a few Years more to live here in this World yet let this be the Frame and Temper the setled Disposition and invincible Resolution of thy Soul that if God should prolong thy Life beyond thy expectation that if thou hadst never so much Time to spend upon this Earth thou wouldst by the help of God compose and set thy self to the study of knowing and an endeavour of doing the Divine Will to a Renunciation of thy past Life and Actions and a Conformation of thy Affections and Manners to the Rule and Prescript of the Gospel of Christ that thou wouldst employ thy whole Time expend and lay out all thy Strength in the Service and to the Glory of God only And here consider for thy Comfort that there are to be found several sorts and degrees of late Penitents and there is so much the more Hope for thee that thou art not of the lowest rank and form of all Indeed if thou wert a death-bed Penitent though I will not say thy case would be absolutely hopeless utterly helpless and altogether desperate yet because it is so seldom and rare a thing that so late Repentance proves sound and serious thy Condition would be exceeding [l] Poenitentia quae ab infirmo petitur insirma est Paenitentia quae à moriente tantùm petitur timeo ne ipsa moriatur Aug. de Temp. serm 57. dubious and very dangerous and thy spiritual Comfort extreamly uncertain if not ordinarily impossible and supposing thou wert to begin thy Repentance upon a Death-bed I should .... 2 occurences found not much wonder if thou shouldst almost begin thy Hell there But as [m] Vis te de dubio liberare vis quod incertum est evadere age poenitentiam dum sanus et Si enim agis viram poenitentiam dum sanus es invenerit te novissimus dies fecurus es Ergo curre ut reconcilieris si sic agis securus es Quare securus es quia egisti poenitentiam eo tempore quo peccare potuisti Si antem vis agere poenitentiam ipsam tune quando peccare non potes peccati te dimiserunt non tu illa Aug. Tom. 10. de verè poenitentibus Hom. 41 ex 50. Amb. exhortat ad Poenitentiam St. Austin discourses wisely and judiciously if now thou for sakest thy Sins and turnest to God while thou dost enjoy some measure of Health and Strength and chusest to serve God when yet thou couldst serve Sin and Satan if thou couldst here is some room and place for strong Comfort such as may quiet the troubled Mind and satisfy the afflicted Conscience of a Sinner Though thou beast but a late Penitent yet if thou couldst be an older Sinner and wilt not if thou art willing to break off from Sin when thou hast yet some Time to sin and Strength to sin and Occasions of Sin offer'd thee and Temptations to Sin lying before thee and pressing upon thee When thou art invited and it may be provoked to it and thy Faculties are not yet so weaken'd and disabled but that thou mightest several waies with Pleasure sin if thou wouldst if now thou refusest and wilt not it is a sign thy Repentance though late Repentance yet is true Repentance for all that Thou who couldst go over thy old Sins again if thou dost heartily cast them off when thou couldst commit them afresh If thou deliberately leavest thy Sins before thy Sins leave thee If thou