of precious Time which at such a season will be esteemed precious tho' now it be not O how swift how short is my Time of Trial in order to Eternity how difficult how important a work is it to prepare for an Everlasting State What is all this World how little how meer a nothing to a departing Soul And shall I after such Reflections continue to pursue Shadows and please my self with empty Dreams when being so near my final Judgment the Common Wisdom of a Man requires me to mind it in good Earnest and be more solicitous about it than for any thing Temporal O in what manner will Death open my Eyes by shutting the Windows of Sense How shall I then see the Nothingness of what is but Temporal and the Reality of what is Eternal We sometimes laugh to see the Vanity of little Children who are greatly pleased with painted Toys and busily employed about Trifles It extorts a Smile to see them eager and industrious and mightily concerned in their Childish Sports to see them sigh or weep for little things which we despise to observe with what Solicitude and Care they 'll raise a little Fabrick which three Moments after they themselves pull down or would otherwise tumble of its own Accord We laugh at these but should weep over our selves as the greater and elder Fools who are every whit as silly yea infinitely more that considering we know the fraily of our present Life and can look beyond the Grave to another World should yet mispend our precious Time on things which cannot profit and please our selves with what is so unsuitable to our Age and State and suffer our Passions to work with violence for a thing of nought and our greatest Diligence Care and Zeal to be exercised on things impertinent and vain that are perishing in themselves and can contribute nothing to our Eternal Welfare And is it not thus with reference to all that Men toil and labour for with the Neglect of an immortal State The Voluptuous Sadducee will not refuse the present Gratification of his sensual Appetite because he is uncertain of another day Let us eat and drink for to Morrow we dye Should not the same Motive quicken my Diligence in a better work and because my Lord may come suddenly at a Thief in the Night immediately prepare to meet him Let me now therefore O my Soul look forward to the End of Life and Time and so let me esteem and seek and choose and do every thing in the first place which then I shall wish I had Let me do nothing now which I verily believe I shall then be ashamed or sorry to reflect on that by thinking what a Condition I shall then wish to have my Soul in I may now provide my self much better than I have done hitherto That while I am in the greatest probability of living I may suppose my change to be near and so not dare to do any thing but what I would or might do if I were in the present Expectation of Death To this end let me go down to the Potters-House descend to the Consideration of my Mortality and dwell among the Tombs remembring the Aegyptians built themselves better Tombs than Houses because they were to dwell longer in them Let every Nights repose serve me as a Memorial of my last sleep and let my Bed stand for the Model of my Coffin This is the only Way to be dead to this World to be able to judge of things now as we shall do after Death according to Immutable Eternal Truth SECT X. The Brevity of Life considered as the fruit of Sin There are but three ways of leaving this World as Abel Adam or Enoch A diligent Improvement of Time farther prest and the Neglect of it bewailed THE shortning of our Days is the fruit of Sin All the Funerals that have ever been in the World have been caused by Sin We dye because we have sinned and yet we should not sin as now if this were not forgot that we must dye From the first Transgression of Adam we derive our Death and therefore some of his Posterity lived longer than he Which proves that the lengthning of our Days is the peculiar Gift of God and yet 't is such a Gift as was more desired formerly than since the Appearance of Christ For we read of none in the New Testament since Life and Immortality is brought to Light by the Gospel who desired a long Continuance here on Earth Were we delivered from Sin the sting of Death by having made our Peace with God in the Blood of Jesus Death would not be frightful or put on such a Ghastly Vizor as to most it doth But we are uncertain of our Justification we waver between Hopes and Fears as to our final Sentence and are conscious to our selves that we are not ready for our great Account This makes Death so terrible Considering withal that it is inevitable The Way of all the Living For tho' the Curse be removed and the sting be taken out by our Blessed Saviour so that the Souls of Believers are safe and shall not be touch'd by the second Death yet God hath not taken away the stroke of it from the Body Tho' a Christian is assured of deliverance from Hell he is not exempted from the Grave as his Passage to Heaven Prepare me Lord by the free Remission of all my Sins and make me meet for the Blessed Inheritance by sanctifying Grace and then thy Time is best Thy Holy Will be done No matter then whether my Death be violent or what we call Natural It will be one of the two for I can't expect to be Translated by a miraculous Change as Holy Enoch was and as they shall be who shall be found alive in the World when our Glorious Judge shall come again There are but those three ways of leaving Earth and the Three first Men of whose Departure we read in Scripture are Instances of all Three Abel of a violent Death Adam of a natural One and Enoch of a Translation The Variety and Order of their Departure as one observes is very admirable and deserves to be considered For all Mankind must follow one or other of those three Examples Every Man or Woman that is born into the World must leave it by one of those three ways either be cut off by a violent Death as Abel the first Man who dyed or dye a natural Death as Adam did who was the second or be translated as Enoch who was the third we read of But though I know that within a few Years at farthest I must leave this World by one or other of these ways though I have been dying ever since I began to live am Dead to the last Year and to all the preceeding Portions of my Time and know withal that what remains will quickly pass and be gone after the same manner yet how have I overloved this Body as if I should
I may not be unwilling in the flower of my Age and Time in Youth and Strength to leave this World let me think often that no one age or part of Life is more priviledged against the stroke of Death than another If I have done my work betimes as my deceased Fellow Traveller had is it not better to receive the blessed Recompence than to to tarry longer in a World of Sin and Suffering absent from the Lord Shall I not thereby escape a multitude of Temptations Sins and Sorrows which others by living longer are exposed to If my Peace be made with God what should make me willing to live at this distance from him What should render this World so desirable where God is so dishonoured where I am so often tempted to displease him and so often yield to such Temptations And may I not fear lest I should fall into such scandalous and grievous sins that may bring a publick reproach on the Gospel of Christ and sadden the Hearts of all my Acquaintance who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity By dying early I shall contract less guilt and commit less sin and see and feel less Sorrow than others who live longer And tho' I should maintain my Integrity yet in this World my highest love and obedience to God and my sweetest Communion with him is but imperfect How many Impediments and Diversions do I daily meet with that deaden my Heart to Heavenly Contemplations and Affections What disappointments and sorrowful disasters to convince me that this is not the place of Rest and Happiness What smart afflictions may some of my Relations prove What dangerous Snares may attend me in the remaining Portion of my Time What Opposition and Hatred from Men may the stedfast professing of the Truth and Fidelity to God expose me to what Publick National Calamities may I have my share in c. But if I consider Old Age it self which we do desire to reach what and how many are the Infirmities and Griefs and troublesome Circumstances which attend that State which dying young will prevent Are not most Men who reach a very great old Age helpless Objects of Pity A Burthen to themselves and to all about them And which commonly happens may I not then be as unwilling to dye as at present As loth then to leave the World as now tho' in a manner it will have left me For how many Old Men past the Relish of Sensual Pleasures are yet inordinately fond of a longer Life Have I not been told by Heathens as well as Christians that 't is not the length of time but it 's improvement that doth really make a Long Life If I have answered the Ends for which I were born 't is not too soon to dye No Man ever miscarried as to his Everlasting Interest because his Life was Short but Evil. He that is prepared for Death he that dyes in the Lord hath lived long enough and should thank God for a speedy Call to the Possession of that Felicity which the Holiest Saints on Earth desire and breath after Gideon lost nothing by returning from Victory while the Sun was yet high He hath fought long enough who hath gained the Victory If I have wrought but a few Hours in a Vineyard and done but little Service for my Lord and Master and yet am dismist and rewarded before the rest of my Fellow-Labourers shall I repine and think my Lord doth not befriend me If he hath any farther Service for me he will prolong my Days and make me Diligent I hope and contented Otherwise I pray he would make me ready to dye and make me willing and desirous to depart this Life For to be only content to dye that I may be perfectly Holy and fully Blessed is methinks too low for a Christian who acts like himself believing the Certainty of his avowed Principles and Hopes and knowing that While we are present in the Body we are absent from the Lord. SECT XVI The Contemplation of our Approaching Change may assist us to mortifie the Lusts of the Flesh the Lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life to cure Ambition and promote Contentment ALL that is in the World saith the Apostle is the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life The Dust and Ashes of our own Mortality duly considered and applied will help to deaden and extinguish each of these By Pride of Life we lift up our selves against Heaven and despise our Maker by the Lust of the Flesh we overlove and indulge the Body and study to gratifie the sensual Appetite By the Lust of the Eyes our Desires are immoderate after Temporal and External Goods The thought of our approaching End hath a Tendency to oppose and mortifie these Lusts to humble us before God to take us off from the inordinate Love of the Body and to moderate our Passions to Earthly Things It may help us against Pride by shewing us the infinite distance between the Eternal Self-sufficient God and such poor Dust as we who are but of Yesterday and if he uphold us not and maintain our Souls in Life shall be laid in the Dust to Morrow It will mind us of his Justice against Sin the Parent of Death and of all the Miseries of our mortal State and convince us of our Weakness to resist his Will or avoid his Wrath. As to our fond Affection to the Body it may instruct us that it deserves not to be so much accounted of it will open our Eyes to discern the Preference of our immortal Souls and what Concerns them to the Interest of a perishing Body It may convince us that we are Cruel and unkind to our very Bodies by overloving them because we thereby contribute to their Eternal Sufferings and so teach us to love and use our Bodies as Servants to our Souls in this World and as expecting to share in Glory with them after the Resurrection It may also help to moderate our Desires after Earthly Good and so cure the Lust of the Eyes by letting us see the Vanity Uncertainty and short Duration of these Things and their Insufficiency to make us Happy and give us true Content The Thoughts of an Approaching Change may if any thing will do it damp the Mirth of the Luxurious Epicure and strike him into a fit of Trembling as did Belshazzar's Hand-writing on the Wall It may discover the Distraction of living in Pleasure and of Care to please the Senses and the fleshly Appetite when the End is so near It may likewise check the Folly of Ambitious Designs that Men should make so much ado to get into slippery Places from whence they may so easily fall Where being puft up with vain Applause they forget themselves and their latter End 'till their Life and Glory expire together Where are now the Great and Mighty and Honourable who have made such a Noise in the World What is now the Difference between the Dust of
shall Believers then contemplate the unsearchable Riches of his Grace In all the Parts and Instances of his Humiliation from his Conception to his Crucifixion and Burial in all the Evidences and Discoveries made of it from the first Promise to its Completion yea from before the Foundation of the World in the Covenant of Peace between the Father and the Son until his second Coming to Judge the World and deliver up the Kingdom to his Father How shall we then admire and adore his Powerful Grace which snatcht us as Firebrands out of everlasting Burnings that effectually shin'd into our minds by heavenly Light conquer'd the Opposition of our stubborn Wills Sanctified our carnal Hearts rescued us from the Tyranny of Satan and the Dominion of Lust giving cherishing and preserving the holy Seed of Grace and making it Spring up to Eternal Life defeating the malicious and subtil Endeavours of the Devil to destroy it inabling us to indure Tribulation and persevere to the end giving us Victory over Death conducting us through the dark Valley raising our Bodies reviving ard reuniting them to our Souls and rendring them glorious like his own Body and at length rewarding our imperfect Services with Eternal Life Yea tho' our best Services were mixt with Sin our holiest Duties spotted our most couragious Sufferings mixt with Unbelief yet rewarded with a Blessedness that hath no Alloy of Evil but all the Ingredients of a Perfect Felicity and nothing to lessen and interrupt it How shall we then admire the Bounty of our Gracious Lord the Freeness Tenderness Riches and the exceeding Greatness and Glory of his Infinite Goodness and Grace to poor Believers With what Ecstasies of Joy and Gratitude may we imagine that our Lord will be then admired by all his Redeemed ones Saying This is He who made our Peace with God and reverst the Sentence of Damnation which we were under who bought us with the price of his most precious Blood bore the Wrath of his Father and submitted to an infamous and cursed Death for us He assumed our Nature that we might partake of his became the Son of Man that we might be made the Children of God for our sakes he became poor that we through his Poverty might become Rich He stoopt to bear the greatest Ignominy and Reproach to confer Honour on us He was for a time forsaken of his Father that we might not be so Eternally He felt the stroke of his Anger against Sin that we might not perish under it He was a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Griefs that we might Rejoyce His Agonies and bloody Sweat were for our Refreshment and by his Stripes we are Healed He bowed his Head on the Cross that we might lift up ours in Triumph and because we had eaten of the forbidden Fruit he hung on the Accursed Tree 'T was for us that he suffered the Frowns of Heaven the Enimity of Hell the Rage of Devils the Hatred and Persecution of the World He was judged that we might not come into Condemnation He was Crucified that we might be Glorified and he is now Come again finally and fully to effect it O the Height and Depth and Length and Breadth of the Love of Christ which passeth Knowledge but calls for Admiration and everlasting Gratitude This is the Blessed Day we long'd and waited and prayed for This is our Gracious our Glorious Lord whose Love melted our Heart whose Promise was our Support whose Word was our Rule whose Spirit was our Comforter whose Cross was our Crown and the Hope of his Appearance our chief Consolation Lord What am I what was I that the ever Blessed Son of God should do and suffer and purchase all this for me I can remember when I was ignorant of God a Stranger to him at Enmity with him under the Power of Darkness and the Devil serving divers Lusts and Pleasures hastening to Hell and liable to his Wrath. But he chose me out of the World stampt his Image upon me pardoned my Sins and imbrac'd me in the Arms of his unchangeable Love O happy Change and yet how little did I prize his Grace admire his Love and express my own or promote his Glory and honour him in the Eyes of others How did I dishonour my Profession and holy Calling as his Disciple by aggravated Apostacy But he recovered me by Repentance and healed my Back-slidings and received me graciously because he loved me freely O admirable Grace to pardon and save and bring to Glory such an unthankful Wretch as I have been to make such a Difference between Me and Others whom I knew on Earth That the same Power which makes them Miserable now makes me Blessed That when they are banisht from his Presence into Everlasting Destruction I am admitted to behold his Glory and shall dwell with him for ever O how much more do I now see and find than ever I believed of the Love of Christ and his promised Salvation How much more glorious is the Person of my Redeemer How much more Excellent is the Heavenly State than ever I thought or expected I could not have imagined the thousandth thousandth Part of that which I now see and feel I cannot but admire and spend an Eternity in admiring and praising the incomparable Grace and Glory of my blessed Redeemer Such Holy Admiration will certainly produce the most thankful Adoration of our Lord Jesus Saying one to another O Bless the Lord of Love and Glory Who humbled himself so low as our Mediator and hath exalted us so high as the blessed Fruit of it How can we ever enough adore and praise him who condescended so far and hath done and suffer'd so much for us See how the Holy Angels worship this King of Glory And have not every one of us more reason to do so O let all the Quire of Heaven celebrate his glorious Love And let us his Redeemed his Glorified ones say continually Let the Lord be magnified who hath loved us and washed us from our Sins in his own Blood and made us Kings and Priests unto God his Father and through him ours O merciful Saviour O glorious Change O happy Society With whom we shall Eternally adore our Common Lord. We can some of us remember when we lived together on Earth how we wept and prayed and fasted and mourned together how we suffered and complain'd and sinn'd together O the marvellous Change our Redeemer hath now wrought for us and in us These Bodies these Souls this Life this Place this Company these Injoyments are not like those in yonder World But alas who can describe what Believers shall then think and say to extol their Saviour How small a Portion is it we understand of that World How little can I conceive and how much less express Blessed be God we know so much as the matter of our joyful Hopes and for ever Blessed be God who hath promised and provided such a Glory for us as cannot now be
Years till then from the Creation of the World was from Tisri or September Lightfoot Vol. II. p. 1322. Bishop Patrick's Comment upon Exod. 12.2 chap. 23.16 as the Beginning of Years but now they are commanded to begin their Reckoning from March Therefore the Passover kept in this Month is said to be observ'd in the first Month and the Feast of Purim which was kept in our February is said to be in the last Month that is of the Sacred Year A Period so remarkable and extraordinary as that was to the Jews deserved very well to be particularly remembred and taken notice of and might justly be accounted the First or chiefest of their Months And by comparing Exod. 12.41 with Gal. 3.17 it may be concluded that Abraham receiv'd the Promise on the Fifteenth Day of this Month and 't is computed that about the same time of the Year Isaac was born and the Tabernacle afterwards erected in the Wilderness As the Redemption of Israel from their Bondage in Egypt was but a Type of a more glorious one by the Messiah he was pleas'd to suffer Death in this Month John 18.28 According to this Computation the Month Tisri which began with the first New Moon next to the Autumnal Equinox is often called the Seventh Month but was not so accounted before the Deliverance of Israel out of Egypt As to Civil and Political Affairs it was for the most part reckon'd the First Month of the Year on this Account in this Month Heidegeri Hist Patriarch Tom. 1. Diss 12. §. 22. de Anno Patriarcharum Tisri which answers to part of our September and part of October on the Fifteenth Day of the Month was the Feast of Tabernacles when the Exod. 23.15 16. See Ger. l. Vossii Isag Chronol dissert 2. Scaliger de Emend Temp. Lydiat de variis Annorum formis Selden de Anno Civili vet Jud. Joel 2.23 1 King 8.2 Lightfoot Horae in Matth. 2.1 Fr. Spanhemii F. Introd ad Chronol Hist Sacram. 4 to p. 16 27 c. J. Mayeri Diatrice de Festis Jud. 8vo c. 3. Fruits of the Earth were gather'd in and is said to be in the End of the Year Much hath been said by many Learned Men for the Date of the World's Creation and the Beginning of the Year from the Vernal Equinox or the Spring And the Aegyptians are alledged as keeping the great Festival of Aries or of the New-Year when the Sun enters into Aries But however uncertain that be and difficult to determine it yet the Jews reckon to have been in Autumn the Creation of the World the Birth of the first Patriarchs the Reparation of the Tables of the Law the Dedication of the Temple the Three Great Solemn Feasts of the Beginning of the Year and other Remarkable Passages As many Religious Assemblies and Solemn Feasts were appointed of God to the Jews in this Month Tisri as in all the Year besides That the Birth and Baptism of our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ should be at this time of the Feast of Tabernacles is as Considerable as that his Passion should be about the time of the Jewish Passover He was Sacrificed for us at that time when by God's appointment the Paschal Lamb was to be offer'd as his Type And at the Feast of Tabernacles he came to pitch his Tent in our Nature to John 1.14 Tabernacle in our Flesh and dwell among us The Sceptre was so far gone from Judah that the Jews were compell'd by a Foreign Power instead of observing the Feast of Tabernacles at Jerusalem every one to repair to his own City to be Taxed as the Emperor Augustus had Commanded and 't is not very likely he would appoint that in the depth of Winter the time of our Christmas and now was the Season for Shilo to appear The 81st Psalm composed by Asaph for the First Day of this Month or the Feast of Trumpets Dr. Hammond in loc Godeau Vnivers Hist de l'Eglise tom 4. c. 1. §. 6. Hospinian de Fest Judaic is supposed to have been in Remembrance of that Deliverance out of Egypt The Sounding of Trumpets being a token of Liberty This Feast of Trumpets on the First Day of the New Year according to their Civil Account is thus commanded Levit. 23.24 Numb 29.2 cap. 10.10 That it should be a Sabbath and a Memorial of Blowing of Trumpets an Holy Convocation c. Some think it is called a Memorial of Trumpets to preserve the Memory of Isaac's Deliverance by the substitution of a Ram to be sacrificed in his stead To this purpose it may be alledged that it is sometimes called by the Jews the Binding of Isaac which they suppose to have been in the same Day of the Year By others termed Festum Cornu the Feast of the Horn. But it is more probable that this Name was not given with any respect to Isaac but on the account of that kind of Trumpets which were then sounded viz. such as were made of Sheep or Rams Horns Whether the Year of Jubilee was proclaim'd by such Trumpets see Bp. Patrick's Commentary upon Levit. 25.10 Others think it to have been appointed as a grateful Remembrance of former Victories which God had afforded them particularly that at Jericho where was the first opposition they met with in their passage to Canaan And the Walls of the City fell down at the Sound of such Horn-Trumpets Josh 6.13 20. But the most likely Account of it is this That it was intended to solemnize the Beginning of the New Year to mind them of the Beginning of the World and to excite their Thankfulness for the Fruits and Blessings and Benefits of the Year preceding The extraordinary Blowing of Trumpets by the Priests at that time in all their Cities as well as at Jerusalem where two Lightfoot's Temple-Service chap. 16. §. 5. Silver Trumpets were also used at the Temple as well as these of Horn and the Levites sung the 81st Psalm might serve both to stir up the People to bless God for the Favours of the Year past acknowledging his Goodness in preserving them to the beginning of Another and withal excite them to pray for his Protection and Blessing for the New-Year on which they now entred Maimonides the famous Jewish Rabbin thinks the Sounding of Trumpets at this time was design'd to signifie some such Exhortation as this Canones de Poenitent cap. 3. can 6. Arise O ye sleepers out of your sleep and you that slumber awake out of your slumbering Search your works and turn by Repentance Remember your Creator you that have forgotten the Truth and have exchanged it for the Vanities of the World and have all your Lives wandred after Vanity which will not profit or deliver you Consider your Souls Consider your Ways and Works and let every one of you forsake his evil way and his thoughts that are not good Some have imagined a Typical Representation of the two Covenants in this Feast The Old Covenant figured
charitable Assistance of him that when his Heart is most serious his Spirit most composed and devout and his Affections most vigorous and lively he would not forget to put up one Prayer to Heaven for me for Greater Holiness and Abilities to Honour God and persevering Faithfulness to his Truth and Interest whatever Temptations to desert it may be employed by the World the Flesh and the Devil the three Great Enemies of thine and my Salvation J. S. FINIS THE CONTENTS Sect. I. OF the changeable State and short Duration of Earthly things especially of Man how little it is considered and believed how necessary it should be p. 1. Sect. II. Of the change in Mens Inclinations Opinions and Actions which one year shews how observable it is in Others how much more discernable in our selves Honour and Reputation c. how uncertainly preserved and how easily blasted p. 7 Sect. III. Of the Uncertainty of living to the Period of another Year The Vanity of this Life The Swiftness of Time and how to be Improved p. 13. Sect. IV. Of the seeming Difference between so many Years past and the same number of Years to come p. 20 Sect. V. The little Portion of our Time on Earth considered by a Computation of the Life of Man from the number of Years and Hours p. 22. Sect. VI. Of the Redemption of Time how precious and valuable a Treasure it is and will be thought to be when 't is too late p. 26. Sect. VII Of the Ordinances of Heaven Day and Night Summer and Winter Seed Time and Harvest their Order and Succession establisht by God is the effect of Infinite Wisdom and Goodness What they may teach us p. 30. Sect. VIII Of Evils to be expected in this Year the Wisdom and Mercy of God in concealing from us the Knowledge of future Events p. 36. Sect. IX The Supposition of dying this Year should be improved the consequence of redeeming Time and providing for Eternity farther prest The folly of Elder Persons is condemned and checkt from the Example of Children 'T is advisable to familiarize the Thoughts of our own Death and to imagine before-hand What Apprehensions of things we shall then have p. 39. Sect. X. The Brevity of Life considered as the fruit of Sin There are but three ways of leaving this World as Abel Adam or Enoch A diligent Improvement of Time farther prest and the neglect of it bewailed p. 44. Sect. XI Of the Expectation of another Life The Vanity and Misery of Man in his Best Estate if there be none The satisfactory removal of that Supposition by the Thoughts of God and of Eternal Felicity in his Blessed Presence p. 48. Sect. XII The consideration of the Death of others especially of Relations Friends and Acquaintance how to be improved What instructions we may learn by the sight of a dead Carkass or a Deaths-Head and the usual Motto on it and what by the death of Holy Persons to quicken our desires to be as they p. 55. Sect. XIII What Influence the Consideration of Eternity would have upon our Hearts and Lives if soundly believed and considered especially if the Supposition of dying this Year be annexed to it p. 62. Sect. XIV How a good Man may improve and encourage himself under the Supposition of dying this Year even in the most uneasy and undesirable Circumstances p. 67. Sect. XV. Of dying in a Foreign Country and of dying Young Considerations proper to Reconcile the Mind to both p. 74. Sect. XVI The Contemplation of our approaching Chance may assist us to mortifie the Lusts of the Flesh the Lusts of the Eye and Pride of Life to cure Ambition and promote Contentment p. 81. Sect. XVII The same Argument considered farther as disswasive from Worldliness and Earthly mindedness and as proper to confute the Vanity of long Projects and great Designs for this World p. 85 Sect. XVIII The consideration of the certain near approach of an Everlasting State amplified and prest to inforce an Holy Life p. 89. Sect. XIX The Punishments of the Damned considered as Intolerable and Everlasting and as unquestionably certain What the Reflection upon Hell-Torments may and ought to teach us p. 97. Sect. XX. The Eternal Blessedness of HEAVEN considered as the Perfection of Holiness to quicken our desires and endeavours after greater Meetness to possess it p. 112. Sect. XXI A devout Meditation upon Psalm 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee And there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee p. 127 Sect. XXII The glorious Appearance of J. Christ to Judgment considered as certain the Terror Astonishment Confusion and Despair of Wicked Jews and Christians to behold their Judge and bear his condemning Sentence to EVERLASTING Destruction p. 141. Sect. XXIII Meditations of the Glory of Christ in his Glorified Saints and of the Thankful Admiration of Believers when He shall come again from Heaven which shall be continued to all Eternity p. 151. Sect. XXIV Concerning the Examination of a Man's Heart and Life the Reasonableness Advantages and Necessity of it Some Direction and Advice concerning the Time and Manner That we may know in what Preparedness we are for ETERNITY p. 163. Sect. XXV How Christians ought to Examine their Decays of Grace and Piety The greatness of their Sin and of their Loss under such Declensions Gods Displeasure and Departure from them considered to awaken Endeavours of Recovery In what manner the Faith of Adherence may be acted by one who hath no Assurance p. 174. Sect. XXVI Confession of Sin Humiliation and Repentance must follow upon Self-Examination Advice concerning Repentance for some particular Backsliding The great Perplexity and Distress of a Penitent Sinner represented as a Caution against returning to Folly p. 187. Sect. XXVII The necessity of Christian Resolution unto Vpright Persevering Obedience how full and extensive it ought to be and yet humble by what means we may be assisted to perform that which we Resolve p. 199. Sect. XXVIII The Import and Obligation of our Baptismal Covenant The renewal of it by a solemn Dedication of our selves to God the Father Son and Holy Spirit Exemplified and recommonded p. 207. Sect. XXIX Practical and consolatory Reflections on the preceeding Self-dedication or Covenant with God p. 214. Sect. XXX Thanksgiving to God for his many Benefits and Mercies particularly in the Year past with some Direction and Advice concerning it p. 224. The Appendix from what time the Jews reckoned the Beginning of their Year of the difference between their Sacred and Civil Account The Feast of Trumpets on the first day of the Year its Institution Nature and Design The Traditions and Customs of the Jews respecting that Day