Jesus Christ to make a barren Heart fruitful especially if it be first well dug about by the Spade of the Law and the Roots of it laid bare and open to receive the due application of it And he that will or doth interceed to have a barren an impenitent people spared must add to his Prayers for them his best his utmost endeavours with them to dig about them first by convincing them of sin rebuking and reproving them cuttingly till like St. Peters Hearers Acts ii They be tricked to the Heart By denouncing the Laws Curse and Gods Judgments By shewing them their lost and undone condition by stripping them of all their excuses and false confidences by teaching them the necessity of a speedy and sincere repentance and by urging and pressing them to fly from the wrath to come and removing all their presumptions of peace and safety while they continue ignorant and destitute of Gods Righteousness which lye like cold Earth and clungy sullen Loam about their Hearts and hinder them from drawing any nourishment which may make them thrive or bear the Fruit which God expects And when this is done then lay fresh Mould and mellow tender Earth about them then offer and apply unto them the promises of Pardon Peace and Life through the tender Mercies of our God in the blood of our dear Redeemer Jesus Christ Exhorting inviting persuading beseeching alluring and by the Holy violence of Love even constraining and compelling them to turn come in and be reconciled to God And if any thing will make a barren tree bear Fruit If any thing will make a stubborn and an hardned sinner yield and relent repent and amend and bring forth Fruit to God this will do it And if it bear fruit well and if not then after that thou shalt cut it down This last Verse of the Text contains the Dresser of the Vineyards submiss concession and willing yielding to the putting the Sentence of excision and cutting the Fruitless Tree down as most equitable and just if it still continue Fruitless after more patience and more pains and cost allowed it and bestowed upon it in vain If it bear Fruit. 'T is an imperfect Speech in which somewhat is exprest and somewhat supprest which is ta be supplyed and understood a form of speaking which men use when they speak with emotion vehemency and a great Pathos Aposiopesis or Anantopodoton a figure proper to and of frequent use in the Attick dialect 'T is seldom hard to supply it and make the Sence perfect in this place 't is very easie and obvious Thou shalt suffer it to stand and not cut it down Our Translatours have done it briefly yet sufficiently well As we use to say when we exhort persuade threaten promise with an implyed condition if you will do so or so well and good if not then take what follows So here if the impenitent sinner will repent and turn to God and bring forth fruits meet for repentance then God will put all his past iniquities out of his remembrance and will spare and not destroy him And there is if I may so speak a great efficacy in the suppressing of the answer the Lord of the Vineyard gives consent by his silence and saith much by saying nothing but leaves it to be taken for granted he yields and is content it should be so Annuit such a gratious holding of his Peace is as significative as if he had said as elsewhere Say to the Righteous it shall be well with him And this manner of intimating has mind hath its great usefulness it gives the highest degree of assurance never doubt it question it not in the least no man Plants Trees in his Orchard meerly to make Fuel of but to bear Fruit and had a great deal rather they should stand to answer that end than cut them down to be burnt and when they answer his first desire and design will never do it As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye dye Ezek. xxxiii 11. The Tree which hath been long barren the Christian which hath been long unfruitful yet if upon digging and dunging if upon new endeavours and fresh application made to him he bear Fruit I need not tell it you you may be sure on 't and take it for granted he shall be spared and not cut down He shall surely live he shall not dye Ezeck xviii 21. But if not Then after that thou shalt cut it down If it do not bear Fruit after all this patience with it in sparing it another year and all the cost and pains of digging and dunging it then cut it down and spare not I have no more to say for it I 'le never speak word more in its behalf They who after long barrenness add a secure and obstinate unfruitfulness against a fresh indulged patience and renewed calls warnings and means to make them fruitful to bring them to repentance and amendment shall be surely suddenly severely cut down without excuse apology or pity According to that of Solomon Proverbs xxix 1. He that being often reproved hardneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy He flees to the pit let no man stay him We may sum up the meaning of these two Verses in this short recapitulation by way of Paraphrase as if he had spoken plainly to this Sence O Lord I humbly acknowledg thou hast exercised great long-suffering and shewed much mercy already to this sinful people to this and that impenitent man and woman yet I beseech thee for thy meer mercy sake spare them a little longer try them yet once more and give me leave opportunity and an heart to convince them of their duty to make them sensible of their danger to persuade them to do the one and avoid the other and I promise and engage my self by thy Grace to do all that Art and Industry can do all that Christian Charity and my Ministerial Compassions and Office can do proportionable to those Talents and Abilities thou hast vouchsafed to intrust me with to bring them to Repentance And if by thy blessing those endeavours succeed and prosper I know O Lord Thou wilt of thy goodness pardon what is past and spare them and Repeal thy Sentence and repent thee of the evil denounced against them But if after thy granting what I have Prayed and my performing what I have Promised they will take no warning but continue secure and obstinate as hitherto Then Lord do with them as thou pleasest execute upon them what seems good in thine own Eyes Thy Justice will be clear I shall be free from their blood they will be without excuse and all the fault and guilt will light upon their own heads Cut them down and spare not I will not I cannot speak one word more in their
2. God can do no more 3. Your kindest Intercessours will ask no more for you 4. God charges them they should not 5. He hath told them he will not grant it tho they do 6. They will turn their Prayers against you if you turn not 7. Your own mouths will be stopt 8. Or be opened in vain for God will not regard your too late requests 9. God will take the means away you yet injoy 10. Or he will take away his Spirit and Blessing from them 11. Or which is still worse blast and curse them to you 12. And avenge your long sinful hardness with final and judicial hardning And Lastly Will expose you to eternal ignominy and himself deride your folly But I must not only dig about you but Manure you not only apply the Corrosives of the Law but the Cordials of the Gospel Not only Thunder could I do it like a Boanerges but like a Barnabas both Shine and Rain upon you those Consolations which may refresh and chear you Not only rip up your Breasts and cut you to the Hearts with the Sword of Gods dreadful threatnings but pour in the Balm of Gilead into those Wounds that Sword hath made to close and heal them Not only use the Spade and Mattock but such Tools call them by what names you please by which fresh amendment warm and tender Mould and mellow Earth of a cherishing prolifick Nature may be applyed to your Roots to the very Roots of your Hearts and Consciences I mean the tender Mercies of our God his great and preticus Promises the warm and cherishing blood of Jesus Christ Supposing therefore and 't is my Heart's desire and Prayer to God that it prove not a false supposition that what hath been said already hath removed what might hinder and hath laid bare your Roots and made them open to receive the influence of what 's yet to follow I now in the name of that God whose name is recorded Exod. xxxiv 6. As proclaimed by himself to be the Lord the Lord God Merciful and gratious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity trangression and sin tho he will by no means acquit the guilty the wilfully impenitent the stubbornly unfruitful Who keepeth mercy for thousands of them that turn to him love him and keep his Commandments Whose word it is that When the wicked man turneth away from the wickedness that he hath committed and doth that which is lawful and right he shall save his soul alive Because he considereth and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed he shall surely live he shall not dye Eze. xviii 27 28. In the name of that God whose mercy endureth for ever as David tells us twenty six times in one Psalm cxxxvi Who not only sheweth Mercy but delighteth in mercy See the three last verses of the Prophet Micah who not only saith but sweareth and that by himself because he can swear by no greater and sweareth by that which is greatest in himself and dearest to himself if any thing be greater or dearer than other that is by his Life and by his Holiness As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked But that the wicked turn from his way and live turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye dye O house of Israel Eze. xxxiii 11. My covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lye unto David Psal lxxxix 35. to his people that accept his Covenant therefore the Covenant of Grace is called the Sure mercâ—es of David I will make an everlasting covenant with you even the sure meâ—cies of David Isa lv iii. that is with those that encline their Ears and come to him that hear that their souls may live This God I say desireth not the death of the greatest sinner amongst you nor the cutting down of the barrennest tree in all his Vineyard But calls you with the most pressing importunity and invites you with the most indubitable assurance to turn to him and that if you do so you shall not dye To you who have been so long Fruitless in so rich a Soyl Planted on so very fruitful hills upon Mount Sion his Holy Hill his Church his Gospel Church Who have disappointed Gods expectation so often so many years as he hath come to look for Fruit and have sent him away disappointed grieved provoked because he found none To you and such as you I say Behold Behold and wonder wonder to amazement to astonishment at his superabounding goodness and unwearied patience that First He hath spared you to another year notwithstanding not only your own forfeitures and provocations by your past unfruitfulness and the condemning Sentence which they extorted from him against you But also the subtle Conspiracies the bold design the cruel and restless machinations of the Enemies of his Gospel and your lives Who in their proud hopes and wicked purposes had swallowed up all and rooted up the whole Vineyard and laid it desolate with all that grows therein and you amongst the rest long since Secondly He yet continues to bestow more cost and pains upon you he is yet waiting to be gratious to you he keeps up his Fence about his Vineyard his double Fence The Wall and Hedg a Christian Magistracy a Gospel Ministry he yet causes you to injoy the labours of the Dressers of his Vineyard He yet imploys laborers to Dress to Prune to Husband to Cultivate those Plants he might in justice have stubbed up long since O admirable patience O adorable Compassions from which alone it is that we are not consumed Let me apply to the Lords patience what in another respect the Apostle speaks concerning mans let patience have its perfect work Let it lead us to Repentance and while we continue Planted by the River side by that stream which makes glad the City of God Let us bring forth our Fruit in due season Thirdly He declares himself willing to forget and forgive our past unfruitfulness if it bear fruit well yet yet after so long bearing none if yet at last it thrive under this last tryal and answer this new husbandry bestowed upon it it shall stand He shall surely live he shall not dy God will blot out all your iniquities out of his remembrance Wash you make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well come now let us reason together saith the Lord tho your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow tho they be red like crimson they shall be as wooll Isa i. 16 17 18. Fourthly To assure our Faith how all this may be done and that it shall be done assuredly he hath provided a security for his own glory That we may attain all this and yet he
Christians and blessed is he that hath attained them to be Justified and Sanctified yet one thing is farther necessary if not to the Esse the Being yet to the bene Esse the well Being of a Christian to render us compleatly and actually ready for Christs present coming They that had their Lamps lighted and Oyl provided in their Vessels yet slumbered and slept and tho their Lamps were not gone out they burnt dim and wanted new trimming The brightest Coals will vail themselves with Ashes if they be not blown off And the clearest waters will contract a slime and muddy Sediment by long standing and so will our Graces decline wax Faint and languish if they be not exerted stirred up and exercised which makes it most needful to be daily acting that Faith a fresh upon the promises by which we are justified and actuating that Grace anew by which we are Sanctified There are many expressions in Scripture whereby this duty is injoyned as trimming our Lamps Matth. xxv 7. Having our loins girded and our lights burning Luke xii 35. stirring up the gift of God 2 Tim. i. 6. which in the Greek is an eligant Metaphor signifying the blowing off the Ashes Giving all diligence to make our calling and election sure 2 Pet. i. 10. Proving our own selves 2 Cor. xiii 5. Growing in Grace 2 Pet. iii. 18. Going on to perfection Reaching forth to those things which are before pressing towards the mark for the price Phil. iii. 14. Being Righteous still and Holy still Rev. xxii 11. that is let him take care to be more and more so by holding fast what we have Rev. iii. 3 11. By keeping our selves in the Love of God Jud. 21. Looking for and hastning to the coming of the day of God 2 Pet. iii. 12. With many more but the most frequent and most significant is Watching Watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour when your Lord doth come Mat. xxiv 42. xxv 13. Mark xiii 35. and 37. What I say unto you I say unto all Watch. Watch ye stand fast in the Faith quit you like men be strong 1 Cor. xvi 13. Now this charge given us in the Text to be ready as it in the first place requires our speedy care to get our sins pardoned and our peace made with God and our hearts changed and our Natures renued to the Image of God so it farther puts us upon a dayly strengthning our Faith and renuing our Repentance labouring after assurance standing upon our constant guard and endeavouring to be always in such a posture as we would be willing nay glad to be found in when ever Christ shall come To Watch against sloath security worldly cares relapses into sin or what ever may overcharge our hearts and render us liable to surprize or to be overtaken with that day at unawares read Luke xxi 34 35 36. To rise speedily from our falls into sin by present Repentance To be watchful against all temptations to sin and occasions of backsliding or declining For admitting that on Gods part whose gifts and calling are without Repentance Rom. xi 29. and who loves unchangeably and to the end them whom he takes for his own Joh. xiii 1. Those who are truly Justified and Sanctified cannot fall totally and finally from that estate because God upholds them with his hand and none can take them out of his hand because he is stronger than all Joh. x. 28. 29. and the Righteous are an everlasting Foundation Prov. x. 25. because the Foundation of God standeth sure having this seal the Lord knoweth who are his 2 Tim. ii 19. and these two Deus Providebit and Christus Oravit Gods Providential care over them and Christs constant intercession for them will preserve them to and at the last Yet were it as possible on Gods part as 't is on theirs It would be very sad for David and Bathshebah to have dyed like Zimri and Cosby as they sinned like them and for St. Peter to have breathed out his soul in that breath which was polluted with denying and forswearing of his Master and for any man to dye without at least a General Repentance for every sin and Particular Repentance for every gross and known sin and therefore we must be upon our constant Watch and Guard Especially considering this Watchfulness is appointed as a means to preserve us from falling Watch and Pray lest ye fall into temptation Mark xiv 38. By him who designs the means as well as the end And hath no where secured the end to them who disobey and tempt him by neglecting of the means and for want of Watching Admitting again they cannot break their Necks as the usual comparison is wholly lose their Spiritual life yet may they break their Legs and their Arms and all their other Limbs and go maimed and halting to their Graves And may incur many dreadful evils to themselves besides the dishonour they bring to God reproach to the Gospel and scandal and offence they give to others for they may by grieving the Spirit provoke him to suspend his influence may wound their own Conscience weaken their Graces lose their Comforts fall under desertion pull down Temporal vengeance on themselves be brought into bondage by the fear of death lessen their reward in the Kingdom of Heaven tho they should not wholly be shut out yea may make it justly questionable to themselves and others whether they were ever Justified and Sanctified indeed or had any more than a name to live All which do so infinitely out weigh the short the paultry the filthy pleasures of sin that their sloath and neglect of Watching may gratifie them with that I hope they may abundantly convince you of the necessity of adding this last care to what went before to be presently ready for Christ and to keep your selves so by Watching and standing always on your guard till he shall come and give you the blessing promised to those he finds so doing Matth. xxiv 46. I shall now proceed to an useful improvement of this weighty truth that it is the indispensable duty and highest wisdom of every man to be presently ready for Christs coming and I shall endeavour it in four Uses 1. Instruction 2. Reprehension 3. Examination 4. Exhortation Altho I shall slide over the three first little more than naming the particulars the last being that which I chiefly design First It will be very useful to Instruct and direct you what is to be done on your parts that you may become thus fit and ready for Christs coming or to attain those things in which this readiness hath been declared to consist I take it for granted that some thing is yea very much is incumbent on us to be done on our parts and that wretched Opinion that we may neglect duty to Gods Revealed will upon pretence of devolving all upon his Secret Decrees is fitter to be exploded and abhorred amongst Christians than confuted The Text
together And when the Sun sets the Candle is put out for Ever You know I suppose where the Custome prevails of multiplying Tapers Torches Candles about the Herses and upon the Tombs and Graves of the Dead and singing Masses Dirges Requiems for them and there Last are just as profitable for their Souls as the First are serviceable to their Eyes when Death hath clos'd them Christians I beseech you as you love your Souls beware of these Cheats and venture not your eternal Estates upon such after-Games and Work out your own Salvation while you live and trust not to their Superstitious and Covetous Frauds who undertake to do it for you when you are Dead Thirdly Men cannot work when Night is come because the Night is Unfruitful If you think to work then or try to work then you will most certainly but lose your Labour I may use the Apostle's Expression at least allusively Vnfruitful Works of Darkness Eph. 5.11 If Men should Plow and Sow by Night and no Day follow no Fruit would come of all their Cost and Pains We need the Sun not only to see to work by but also to influence our Work He must warm and cherish and ripen all by his Heat as well as direct the doing of it by his Light When Night comes you cannot work to any Purpose or Advantage Suppose you could cry and knock as earnestly and loud as did those Foolish Virgins at Mid-night Matth. 25.10 it would prove as useless to you as it did to them or those you read of Prov. 1.28 Then when this Night is upon them Then they shall call upon Me but I will not answer they shall seek Me early as they think perhaps 't is spoken Ironically but they shall not find Me But they shall eat of the Fruit of their own way Oh bitter Fruit and be fill'd with their own Devices Vers 31. And as I touch't before the Folly of those who trust to the Prayers of others when they are dead So let me earnestly admonish and intreat you not to defer Praying for your selves 'till you are a Dying I use the word Praying Comprehensively for Penitential Devotion and being sincerely Religious I would not be too severe but I would be faithful to you and therefore I must tell you I think it extreamly dangerous to defer till then I know you are ready enough to remember the Old Proverb True Repentance is never too Late But I beseech you forget not the Second Part of it Late Repentance is seldome True How often have we seen the most earnest Penitential Vows of Men upon their Sick Beds grow Weak and Dye as those who made them grow Strong and Lively I would write nothing but what is most serious upon so weighty a Subject Yet because many are prone to retain such a Passage who would forget a graver Sentence give me Leave without Offence or Censure to add the Translation of those Proverbial Verses which signify that the very worst of Men are ready to pretend Reformation when they are Sick though they never intend it when they are Well They were fitted to the Times in which they were made when the Name of a Monk signifyed a Devout Man The Devil was Sick the Devil a Monk would be The Devil was Well the Devil a Monk was he Trust not your deceitful Hearts to so deceitful a Time neither defer your Repentance till you are so unfit to perform it But while your Strength is firm and your Reason sound and all your Faculties in their Vigour set upon this Work which you 'll find hard enough for your best Abilities lest it prove like Day-Work attempted in the Night altogether Fruitless Fourthly You cannot work when this Night comes because it will strip you of your Furniture and Tools with which you should perform it When Morning-Light appears Men Rise and Dress themselves and take their Tools and go forth unto their Work and Labour But like that Old Man at Gibeah Judg. 19.16 They come out of the Field from their Work at Even and then they strip themselves set by their Tools and go to Bed to take their Rest While the Day of your Life and God's Grace are continued you have Talents to trade with and Tools to work with but when Night comes they must be all laid by Use them therefore while you have them Suppose a Man had borrowed of his Neighbour some useful or necessary Instrument for a Work he is much concerned to finish or a Schollar a Book which he is much concerned to Read but both were lent but for a Day and must be return'd at Night How hard would One Labour how closely would the Other fit to his Study Concluding thus I must not Loyter now for this Work must be done and I cannot do it without this Instrument and this is but lent me till Night and then 't will be fetch 't away While the Day lasts God furnishes you with Tools fitted to your Work You have Ministers you have Bibles you have Sermons you have Sacraments you have all appointed Means of Grace and you have Eyes to read and Ears to hear Reason to understand consider and judge Consciences to check you Affections to excite and quicken you But when Night comes all will be taken from you Then the Lord will say Take the Talent from him Mat. 25.28 And if you do not your work while you are furnished with all these Helps What can you hope to do when all are gone Fifthly No Man can work after this Night is come because this Work is express'd by entring into a Gate or Door and Night is a Time of shutting Doors Josh 2 5. About the Time of Shutting the Gate when it was Dark All the Day the Gates of the Cities stand wide open to afford free Ingress and Egress to all Comers and the Doors of your Houses stand open or but upon the Latch and yield an easy Entrance but when the Day is shut in you Lock and Bolt and Bar and make all fast that none can enter Now there are Two Sorts of Gates or Doors which must be entred before the Sun set and they be shut 1. God's Gate into which Man mâ—st enter 2. Man's Door into which God must enter First God's Gate Open to me the Gates of Righteousness This is the Lord's Gate Into which the Righteous shall enter Psal 118.20 Enter in at the Streight-Gate Matth. 7.13 Now God's Gate stands open all the Day But at Night the Door is shut as the Foolish Virgins found to their Shame and Sorrow St. Matth. 25.10 God hath Four Gates which stand open to Returning Sinners all Day long but shall be all shut up at Night The Gates of Grace of Mercy of Hope of Glory First The Gate of Grace Grace is God's Free Favour that Perfection of the Divine Nature which inclines Him to do Good to Men without any External Motive of His own Accord This Gate stands open all the Day God waits
So let these Confiderations quicken you lest you be be-nighted and find too soon the Folly of your coming too late to enter into the City of God But Man hath a Door too into which God must enter and this will be shut at Night Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the Door and Knock if any Man open to Me I will come in and Sup with him and he with Me. There is a Door of Knowledge The Key of Knowledge Opens it When the Eyes of our Understandings are enlightned opened to know God in Christ and to receive the Knowledge of His Will God comes into the Heart through this Door when the Eyes of our Minds are so opened as to know God and Christ a right so as to Know them is Eternal Life Joh. 17.3 And a Door of Faith through which Christ comes when He enters to dwell in our Hearts by Faith Ephes 3.17 And there is a Door of Repentance by which Sin is turn'd out and God is admitted into our Souls And Lastly There is the Door of Holy Affections Love Desire Delight in God These are at least the Hinges upon which the Door of our Hearts turn Now these Doors may all be opened to let in God while the Day lasts and He will come in and make His Abode with us John 14.23 Jesus said If any Man love Me he will keep My Words And My Father will love him and We will come unto him and make Our Abode with him But when Night comes they will be shut for ever Hasten therefore to open them while you may lest when you would it prove too hard for you and be above both your Skill and your Power You know a Door that is opened dayly opens easily But Doors which stand long shut 't is hard to make them stir or open them without great Violence that shakes them and even breaks them in pieces The Timber will swell the Hinges will rust the Wards of the Lock will be cankered and the Bolts will even grow into the Staples And so will it by Proportion be with your Hearts if you keep the Door long shut against God Nay He may in Anger clap on a Padlock on the other side shut thee up Judicially in Unbelief and Impenitency nail and barracado up the Door for ever because He knock't and call'd so long and woo'd so earnestly in vain Cant. 5.2 Open to Me My Sister My Love My Dove My Vndefiled for My Head is fill'd with Dew and My Locks with the Drops of the Night Then after many idle Excuses for her Delay Vers 6. I opened to my Beloved but my Beloved had with-drawn Himself and was gone My Soul failed when He spake I sought Him but I could not find Him I called Him but He gave me no Answer Take heed lest this or worse be thy Case Refuse not to open at the first Knock the first Call the Motions of His Spirit the Checks of thy Conscience the Admonitions of the Word lest He Knock no more or refuse when thou shalt open at thy own Leasure to come near the Door The Servants which shall be blessed are They that wait for their Lord and when he cometh and knocketh open to him immediately Luk. 12.35 Rouze up your selves therefore and speak to your Souls in David's Language and as much as may be with David's Zeal Psal 24.7 9. which he witnessed by the Ingemination of them Lift up your Heads Oh ye Gates and be ye lift up ye Everlasting Doors and the King of Glory shall come in Who is this King of Glory The Lord of Hosts He is this King of Glory And take heed that dreadful Place be not fulfilled upon you Isa 6.10 the most dreadful Word God can speak till he say Depart ye Cursed Make the Heart of this People fat and their Ears heavy and shut their Eyes lest they be Converted and I Heal them A Place Six times repeated in the New-Testament to make us mind it lest by our sinful Shutting the Door we provoke God Judicially to shut it up for ever Sixthly No Man can work when this Night cometh because 't is an abiding Night There is no Day on the other side of it We say To Morrow is a New Day what we cannot do to Day we may do to Morrow But there is no Morrow beyond the Night of Death 'T is appointed to all Men once to Dye but once and after that the Judgment Heb. 9.29 No Second Day of Life allowed to them who have mis-spent and lost the First Job said long since There is Hope of a Tree that if it be cut down it will sprout again and that the tender Branch thereof will not cease Though the Root thereof wax old in the ground and the Stock thereof Dye yet through the Scent of Water it will bud and bring forth Boughs like a Plant. But Man dyeth and wasteth away yea Man giveth up the Ghost and Where is he As the Waters fail from the Sea and the Flood decayeth and dryeth up so Man Lyeth down and Riseth not till the Heavens be no more They shall not awake or rise out of their Sleep Job 14.7 12. And the Heathen Poet long ago observed the like of the Sun The Sun 's Set and Rise Set and Rise again But We when We Set are covered with Eternal Night No repeated Light or Day succeeds O therefore timely and wisely Improve the Present That had need be done well which can be done but once and admits no doing it again to remedy the Errours of doing ill at first And such above all things is the Work of Dying and finishing our Dayes Work before the Night surprize us The Proverb tells us Three Things require greatest Caution and most prudent Circumspection Marriage Battle Death Upon this Account Because their Consequents are like to last Yet the First of these excludes not all possible Relief Good Counsel may reclaim Patience may bear and Wisdom may improve the Inconvenience or the Death of the Party which makes the Yoke unequal and uneasy may take it off the Grieved Party's Neck that it shall not alwayes gall here And at farthest Death will Dissolve the Bond that it shall not be alwayes troublesome And the Second though dangerous is not wholly desperate He that hath lost a Battle suffer'd a Defeat and Rout may Rally and Recruit and though it cost him Dear may learn Experience for more wary Conduct and may expect a more Propitious Fortune But he that Dyes Unpardoned and Ungodly that is before his Work is done he is undone to all Intents and Purposes no Remedy or Hope of Remedy remains to all Eternity And as the fore-nam'd Reasons shew it impossible to Work when this Night hath actually overtaken us so the Last which follows should excite and quicken us to the uttermost to be before-hand with it For Seventhly This Night makes hast The Text tells you It cometh and I tell you and Experience tells you and Christ in effect
Work effectually in others Convince them thou believest thy self the Truth and the Necessity of what thou pressest on them Secondly Ye that are Parents labour to season early the tender Hearts of your Children with a Sense of Religion and their Great Work Youth is the Age of Discipline and the Seed-time for their whole Life Train up a Child in the Way wherein he should go and when he is Old he will not Depart from it The First Impressions are most Lasting 'T is a great Honour to be entrusted with the Education of one Child and to have Opportunity to form it for God's Service As you were the means of their being Born and the Occasions of their being Born in Sin you owe them both in Love and Justice your Best Endeavours that they may be Born again and made Saints The Third and Last Branch of the Exhortation is to All in general though more especially to Young Persons 1. To a Speedy Setting about their great Work 2. To a Diligent Progress in it when it is Begun First To a Speedy Setting about this Work Young Man I say unto thee Arise And Oh! that Christ would vouchsafe to accompany this Word with such a Power of His Spirit as might render it as effectual to some Dead Soul as they were upon the Dead-Son of the Widdow of Naim Luk. 7. Awake thou that sleepest stand forth from the Dead and Christ shall give thee Light Suppose thou heardest God say to thee as in the Parable Son go work to day in my Vineyard this present Day and though thou hast neglected His Call heretofore yet now Repent and go But because it often is with Young Persons if I may make such an Allusion as it was with Lazarus when Christ call'd him forth of his Grave Joh. 11.44 He that was Dead came forth bound Hand and Foot with Grave-Cloaths and his Face bound about with a Napkin Therefore Jesus said unto them Loose him and let him go When they begin to be quickned and have some Sense of the Necessity of speedy Walking in the Wayes of God yet their Heads are bound about they are muffled and blind-folded with Prejudices and cannot see their Way and bound Hand and Foot with Grave-Cloaths hamper'd and shackled with former Customs and Objections that they can neither walk in God's Way nor work for Him I will endeavour to loose them and knock off their Fetters and remove the Lets and Hinderances of their Motion and their Speed and I shall do it briefly For though there may be many Foolish Cavils there can be neither wise nor strong Objections against the present Setting about God's Work that they should either need much Time or Pains to Remove them First then 't is Objected That Religion is too serious a Work for Young People as the Philosopher said Young Men were not fit Hearers of the Precepts of Morality but Postquam deferbuit aetas after the Heats of Youth are boyl'd over after their Lusts and Passions have spent themselves and they have Sow'd their Wild Oats as your Common Phrase is The Heat of Youth is a kind of Sickness and no wise Physitian administers in the Heighth of the Paroxisme but stayes till the Fit be over 'T is a Degree of Drunkenness and we Reprove not the Drunkard 'till he be Sober and come to himself Answer These Comparisons prove nothing and are as easily sleighted as produced For the main Objection 'T is true Religion is a very serious Thing and therefore the fitter to restrain the Extravagancy of Youthful Lusts which by how much the more Impetuous they are by so much the stronger Curbs they need to restrain and keep them in Order And 't is the Excellency of the Word of God and its high Commendation that 't is an Antidote strong enough to purge out such a Poyson Where-with-all shall a Young Man cleanse his Ways By taking heed thereto according to thy Word Psal 119.9 For a Man to indulge his Lusts and profess Religion I confess were a way to desecrate and pollute so Holy a thing But Religion minded in Sincerity will subdue and mortify them And give Subtilty to the Simple to the Young Man Knowledge and Discretion Prov. 1.4 Though Youth hath its Inconveniences which Religion will Correct it also hath its Advantages which Religion will Improve 'T is more Vigorous and Active more Susceptive and Retentive more Free and Dis-engaged more Unprejudiced and Dis-incumbred than the following Stages of Life And therefore most acceptable to God and fittest to be Consecrated to His Work Religion will Relieve against the Incommodities of Youth and give the Prerogatives of Age and make them Men in Knowledge and Gravity who are but Youths in Years For Honourable Age is not that which standeth in Length of Time nor that is measured by Number of Years But Wisdom is gray Hair unto Men and an unspotted Life is Old Age. Wisd 4.8 9. yea gives Prerogatives above it For Young David was Wiser than his Teachers and had more Vnderstanding than the Antients because he kept God's Precepts Yea the Wise King carries the Disproportion very high when he tells us Eccles 4.13 That a Poor and Wise Child is better than an Old and Foolish King Religion therefore is not too serious even for a Child seeing it can make a Child Serious nor in danger to to be prejudiced by the Levity of Youth seeing it can Cloath even Youth with Gravity Secondly A Second Objection against Early Piety is suggested by Superstitious Fear that they shall Dye presently if they grow Devout as some Fools think they must if they once make their Wills Answ How absurdly do Sinners suffer themselves to be abused by the Devil and their own vain Hearts They now begin to be fit to Live therefore they must presently Dye How inconsequent is this Conclusion How Unreasonable such Reasoning As if God would suffer none but Fools and Knaves to Live and those Wicked Men with whom He is Angry every Day and for whom He hath Prepar'd the Instruments of Death and Hath whet His Sword and bent His Bow and made all ready for speedy Execution if they turn not Psal 7.11 12 13. God calls the Righteous Lights and he hath more use for them to Shine in the World than to whelm them Vnder the Bushel of Death as soon as he hath set them up to Shine in a Crooked and Perverse Generation 'T is Bloody and Deceitful Men against whom the Sentence is pronounc't That they shall not Live out half their Dayes But of Wisdom it is said that Length of Dayes is in her Right Hand and in her Left Hand Riches and Honour Prov. 3.16 And St. Peter 1.3 10. He that will love Life and see good Dayes let him refrain his Tongue from Evil and his Lips from speaking Guile Let him eschew Evil and do Good Finally We find this Encouragement given to the Good Man Job 5.26 That he shall come to his Grave in a