hearty Thankfulness to Christ for it your Obedience to your Lord who does not only vouchsafe it as a Priviledge but command it as a Duty Do this in Remembrance of me Perform this easie sweet Command of thy dying Lord and Saviour who has freed and delivered thee by his Death from the heavy Yoke and grievous Bondage of Jewish Sacrifices and Observances O let our Hearts at such a Time be broken and bleed at the Remembrance of our Sins which brake Christ's Body and shed his Blood Behold in the Sacrifice and bloody Death of Christ represented in this Sacrament the odiousness and baseness of your own Sins and resolve to be the Death of that which was the Death of Christ and rather to die than willingly to do that for which Christ died Abhorr the Thoughts of wilfully choosing so great an Evil as once brought so great a Punishment upon so great a Person as the holy Jesus the well-beloved Son of God Consider seriously upon this Occasion that if God would not spare Christ when he who knew no Sin was by voluntary charitable Assumption of our Guilt to answer for our Sins to be sure then he will not spare us if we wilfully run on in Sin and obstinately allow our selves therein notwithstanding so convincing a Demonstration of his sin-hating Holiness and vindicative Justice Upon due Meditation draw this Conclusion which is the excellent Reasoning of the [p] Facilis est collectio si Deus ne resipiscentibus quidem peccata remittere voluit nisi Christo in poenas succedente multò minùs inultos sinet contumaces Grot. de Satisfact Christi learned Grotius that if God would not pardon the Sins no not of penitent Persons unless Christ did substitute himself in their Room and stand in their Stead to bear the Punishment much less will he suffer unreclaimable Rebels and contumacious Sinners to go unpunished When Christ is set forth in this Sacrament crucified before your Eies think how he intended and aimed at our Mortification and Sanctification in his Death and Passion * Tit. 2.14 Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purify to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works †Pet. 2.4 Who his own self bare our Sins in his own Body on the Tree that we being dead to Sin should live unto Righteousness Let us yield that Christ should have his End in his Death and never allow our selves to live in Sin which will render us uncapable of receiving the Benefit of Christ's Death Think how the Unholiness of our Lives is a greater wrong to Christ than the Jews being the very Death of him because as the [q] D. Jackson Vol. 3. p. 343 344 345. learned Dr. Jackson notes it is more against the Will and Liking and good Pleasure of our Saviour whose Will was regulated by Reason and was a constant Rule of Goodness for though a painful shameful Death and that inflicted by his own People went much against his human Will yet he chose rather to die and to suffer the most afflictive Circumstances of Death for us than to suffer us to live and die in our Sins and in the Servitude and Power of Satan Shall we pretend when we approach to the Table of our Lord affectionately to remember a loving dying Saviour and to desire to have his Memory continued and transmitted to Posterity and yet so much forget him upon the return of any Temptation as to repeat that which was the Death of him Shall we weep at the Sacrament and seem to be hugely troubled for those Sins which were the Cause of Christ's Sorrows and yet go about again to destroy and to crucify Christ afresh Shall we commemorate at the Lord's Supper our wonderful Redemption by the precious Blood of Christ and when we have done shall we do the Devil more work and service than the Lord Christ O what a Reproach is this to Christ and what a Sport to the Devil that they that pretend to remember Christ's Dying for them should not find in their hearts to live to him [q] Ego pro istis quos mecum vides nec alapas accepi nec flagella sustinui nec crucem pertuli nec sanguinem fudi nec familiam meam pretio passionis cruoris redemi sed nec regnum illis coeleste promitto nec ad paradisum restitutâ immortalitate denuò revoco Tuos tales Christe demonstra vix tui meis pereuntibus adaequantur qui à te divinis mercedibus praemiis coelestibus honorantur Cypr. de Opere Eleemosynis p. 220. St. Cyprian brings in the Devil boasting and bragging against our Saviour and insulting over us silly and sinful Wretches in this manner I have endured no Buffetings nor born Smitings with the Palms of Men's Hands I have suffer'd no Scourgings nor under-gon the Cross for any of these nor have I redeem'd my Family with the Price of my Passion and Blood-shedding yet shew me O Christ so many so busy so painful so dutiful Servants of thine as I am able to shew thee every where of mine Bring forth if thou canst such a Number of Persons who devote themselves and give their Labours Estates and Time to thee as I can easily produce of those who do all this to me When thou professest to remember that Christ died for thee O die to that for which he died Offer thy self to him and lay out thy self for him who once offered himself for us and in the Sacrament offers himself to us Think no Duty too much for him For Shame for Shame do not serve any longer a bloody Murtherer instead of a blessed Saviour and merciful Redeemer Let our Thoughts and Meditations dwell upon the Demonstration given us in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper of Christ's exceeding incomparable Love to Mankind See there how contrary the sweet and kind Nature of Christ is to the cruel and execrable Nature of the old Tyrant the Devil For as the learned [r] His Mystery of Godliness p. 133 245. Dr. More very well observes whereas the Devil who by unjust Vsurpation had got the Government of the World into his own hands tyrannizing with the greatest Cruelty and Scorn that can be imagined over Mankind thirsted after humane Blood and in most Parts of the World required the Sacrificing of Men which could not arise from any thing else but a salvage Pride and Despight against us This new gracious Prince of God's own appointing Christ Jesus was so far from requiring any such villainous Homage that himself became at once one grand and all sufficient Sacrifice for us to expiate the Sins of all Mankind and so to reconcile the World to God Shall not all this disengage us from Sin and Satan and win and gain us over to Christ And let Christ's Death make thee study to do something answerable to the dearest Love of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has
left to the last Art not thou asham'd saies he to reserve nothing but the Reliques the Dross the Dregs and Refuse for thy self and to set that Time for the bettering of thy Mind and amendment of thy Manners which can be bestowed on nothing else Is it not extreamly late saies he then to begin to live when thou shouldst make an end of Life What is so foolish a Forgetfulness of Mortality as to defer wholsome Counsels to the fiftieth or sixtieth Year of thy Age and to think to enter upon a vertuous Life at such a time as very few have lengthned out their daies to I may here apply those Words of Epicurus commended and adopted by Seneca [i] Quid est turpius quà m senex vivere incipiens Sen. ep 12. in fine What is more uncomely than an Old Man beginning to live Though the Truth is in the case of Godly Living Better late than never But is it any act or part of Wisdom to resolve to begin to redeem the Time at such an Age when thou wilt blush in consideration of thy Years to discover to any thy wonderful shameful gross Ignorance of the things of God in order to thy receiving Information and Instruction and furnishing thy Mind with necessary Knowledg and through Weakness of Understanding and Memory be more uncapable of learning the great things of the Christian Religion and Gospel-Institution than thou wast in thy Younger Time And wilt be backward to attempt so ungrateful a Work as openly to censure the Actions and Carriages of thy past Life and to condemn and discontent thy old Companions by forsaking their Fellowship and taking up a course of Life so wholly different from and directly contrary to theirs And when thou wilt find it so [k] God in Wisdom will have the Conversions of such as have gone on in a course of Sinning especially after Light revealed to be rare and difficult Births in those that are ancienter are with greater danger than in the younger sort Cavendum est vulnus quod dolore curatur Dr. Sibbs's Soul 's Const p 327. tough an undertaking so troublesome and uneasy a task to conquer and master to expel and extirpate inveterate vicious Habits which have been growing all thy Life and to get vertuous Dispositions and gracious Habits introduced and planted in thy Heart Is this to conclude and act rationally to think to turn thy self at large to the full Exercise of all thy Christian Duty when thou art reduc'd to a little Nook and Corner of thy Life What lamentable wretched Folly is it to defer all to an [l] Ante sonectutem curandum est ut homo bene vivat in seâ—â—etute autem ut bene moriatur Sen. Old Age But is not this the most marvellous Folly and Madness of all to adjourn the necessary Work and weighty Business of Redemption of Time to a dying Day and Hour or to put off all to a Death-bed and so to make that the Time of beginning which should be only the Time of renewing Repentance and to cast thy self into such straits in which thou shalt have no time to receive and make use of that variety of God's Grace his preventing restraining assisting furthering quickning strengthning confirming persevering Grace which it is his usual sapiential Method to dispense and afford for the gradual bringing returning Sinners in the way of Obedience and Holy Living to a participation of the great Rewards of a blessed Eternity Yea to conclude and shut up thy self within such narrow Cancels Bounds and Limits wherein thou shalt be utterly unable to discharge and perform a great part of that Duty which the Gospel expresly requires as the ordinary Qualification and common clearly revealed Condition in order to Salvation unable to * Rev. 22.14 do the Commandments of God †14.12 to keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus to do to keep them all when thou shalt want the Objects and Opportunities of performing the several Duties and exercising the several Graces which a course of Obedience plainly includes unable to answer the end of Christ's Death by ‖ 1 Pet. 2.24 living to Righteousness to exercise Chastity Temperance Mortification as acts of Election when thy Body is weak and low and languishing no Lust stirring no Temptation to such a Sin assaulting unable to (*) T it 2.12 live soberly righteously and Godly in this present World to (†) Heb. 12.1 run a Race (‖) Rom. 2.7 patiently to continue in Well-doing * Gal. 6.9 without faintirg For these are things which cannot be dispatch'd on a sudden perform'd in a trice or shrunk up into a narrow scantling so small a pittance of Time How can thy Light sufficiently shine before Men that they may see thy good Works when thy [k] Dr. Tillotson's serm 2. vol. p. 80. Candle is just sinking into the Socket What a wild Fancy and idle Imagination is it to [l] VVhen we are come to the very last cast our Strength is gone our Spirit clean spent our Senses appalled and the Powers of our Soul as numb as our Senses when a General Prostration of all our Powers and the shadow of Death upon our Eyes Then something we would say or do which should stand for our seeking But I doubt it will not serve This is the Time we allow God to seeking him in Is this it would we then seek him when we are not in case to seek any thing else VVould we turn to him then when we are not able to turn our selves in our Bed Or rise early to seek him when we are not able to rise at all Or enquire after him when our Breath faileth us and we are not able to speak three VVords together No Hour but the Hour of Death No Time but when he taketh Time from us and us from it Bp. Andrew's serm p. 180. flatter thy self into the perswasion that some sudden flashings of a passionate Repentance some short gleams of Piety and little scatterings of Devotion a few good Thoughts or Godly Words some weak ineffectual Purposes imperfect Promises fallacious Resolutions or at most the Performance of some single Actions will upon a Death-bed be acceptable to God without habitual Sanctity and an industrious persevering Piety That a few Prayers and Tears Sighs and Groans an extorted Sorrow and enforced Sadness a compulsory Confession of thy Sins and a Gift of Charity left to the Poor out of that Estate which now is [m] Defer not Charities till Death for certainly if a Man weigh it rightly he that doth so is rather liberal of an other Man's than of his own Sir Fr. Bacon's Essaies of Riches p. 2ii Let thy Alms go before and keep Heaven's Gate Open for thee 3 or both may come too late rather another Man 's than thy own since thou thy self art able to keep it no longer That such little slight things as these will serve as a sufficient Composition to be
you go into a Potter's Shop and see a great Company of earthen Pots and should ask the Owner which of these would break first he would tell you Not that which was first made but that which first got a Fall 'T is common for them to go first to the Winding-sheet who came last from the Womb. We are earthen Vassels brittle Ware and may quickly get a Knock or Fall and crack and break How many Persons have lost their Lives by very strange and sad Accidents Some and great ones too have fallen suddainly by an Ehud's Dagger a Ravilliack or Felton's Knife A poisoned Torch did serve to light the Cardinal of Lorrain to his long home Fabius surnamed the Painter as [k] Bp. Taylor in his great Exemplar p. 557 558. See also Dr. Patrick's Div. Arithm. p. 26 27. a learned Bishop has with variety remarked out of History was choaked with an Hair in a Mess of Milk Adrian the fourth with a Flie Anacreon with a Raisin Drusus Pompeius with a Pear Casimir the second King of Polonia with a little Draught of Wine Tarquinius Priscus with a Fish-bone Lucia the Sister of Aurelius the Emperour playing with her little Son was wounded in her Breast with a Needle and died The great Lawyer Baldus playing with a little Dog was bitten upon the Lip instantly grew mad and perished So far that great and excellent Author A little Bruise on the Toe is said to have killed Aemilius Lepidus I have heard of several that have died by the cutting of a Corn upon their Toe a Place remote from the Heart and have read of a Person who after sixteen Years Travel and enduring much Hardness abroad returning home died of an Hurt in his Thumb [i] Mr. Edward Terry Mr. of Arts and Student of Christ's-Church in Oxford in his Voyage to the Eust-Indies Anno Christi 1615 ells us of a Nobleman in the great Mogul's Court who fitting in Dalliance with one of his Women had an Hair pulled by her from his Breast This little Wound made by that small and unexpected Instrument of Death presently festred and turning into an incurable Cancer killed him God needs no bigger a Lance than an Hair to kill an Atheist as this dying Lord acknowledged Purchas Pilgrims vol. 2. The plucking but a single Hair off the Breast of a Nobleman in the Great Mogul's Court caused an incurable Cancer in his Flesh and proved as mortal as the tearing out his very Heart [k] See Instances in the Gr. Exemplar p. 558. How many Persons have died in the midst of Sport and Merriment excessive Laughter and too great a Joy and what a Number have been found unexpectedly and suddenly dead in their Beds We are obnoxious to numerous perilous Diseases subject to various violent Passions and exposed to a thousand Casualties and Contingencies any one of which may quickly be the Death of us We are in Danger of perishing by falling into the Water or into the Fire by the firing or Fall of some Part of an House by the Fall of a Coach the Fall of an Horse or a Fall off an Horse We know not how soon a Vein may break and let out our Blood and Life How soon an Ague may shake us to Death as [l] 27. Jan. 1402. Knolles's Hist of the Turks p. 235. it did the great Tamerlane in the midst of his great Hopes and greatest Power when he was preparing for the utter rooting out of the Othoman Family and the Conquest and Overthrow of the Greek Empire We know not how soon a Dropsie may drown us how soon a Fever may burn us up how soon a Quincy may stop our Breath how soon an Apoplexy may bereave us of our Senses and of our Lives how soon we may groan under deadly Gripes how soon the Pestilence may smite us and cleave unto us till it has quite consumed us Every Pore in our Bodies is a Door at which Death may enter in If we had as many Hands as Hairs on our Heads they would not be able to stop up all those Passages at which Death may creep in unawares We know not but that some Disease is now breeding in our Bodies which will shortly make an End of us Blessed be God we are now free from Pain but ere long we may be even distracted with it To day we are well and in good Health but to morrow we may be sick heart-sick sick unto Death and the next Day laid in our Coffins and lodged in our Graves Many are gone before us who were likely enough to ontlive us and who knows but our turn may be the very next This Night mine thy Soul may be requied of us and to morrow Morning the Bell may give notice of our Death We are apt to imagine that we may continue in the World till we have effected all we design and yet we have no Promise of God's nothing but our own Presumption to secure us of longer Life And to be sure the Greatness and Multitude of our Sins give us Cause to fear the Fewness of our Daies and Shortness of our Lives to fear lest every Sickness should prove our Death and lest our Death should prove our Damnation If we consider how little need God has of us how many better than our selves go before us how useless and worthless how unprofitable and unserviceable we are in the World what an hgih Provocation our heinous Sins are unto God's infinite Holiness and Justice and how many Waies there are of snatching us away and removing us hence we cannot but confess that it is a thousand to one if ever we reach to an old Age. You that are old indeed have reason to conclude that your Time is sufficiently short your Pulse can beat comparatively but a few Strokes more your Sun draws low is almost set your Glass is almost run your Life is almost done you have one Foot in the Grave already you stand upon the Brink of Eternity and tread upon the borders of another World And will you be guilty of such prodigious inconsideracy still [m] San. de brev vit cap. 4. velut ex pleno abundanti perdere when you have but a few Daies or Hours remaining to spend as extravagantly as if you had all your Years before you You that are weak and infirm sickly and crasie have reason to reckon your Time uncertain and not to flatter your selves and say that threatned Folk live long You that are more eminently useful and holy zealous and forward in the Profession and Practice Maintenance and Defence of the Christian and Reformed Religion your very Religion which will save your Souls may possibly cause you to lose your Lives For your Activity in your Duty to God and your Country you may be [n] Preached on the Lod's-Day after the Discovery of the Murder of Sr. Edwund Berry Godfrey strangled or stabbed by the barbarous Hands of the butcherly bloody Papists But especially you that are
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
many and great Mercies of God towards you and yours and all Mankind are you bound to recount and to be affected with on this Day Ought you not still on this Day to remember and consider and solemnly and heartily to bless God and Christ for the capital Mercies of Creation and Redemption and for the gracious seasonable Sending of the Holy Ghost and to spend some Time in speaking highly and honourably of these Benefits to the Praise of your Maker and Glory of your Redeemer Are not you ignorant of many Things in which you ought to be informed and have not you need then to spend some Part of the Lord's-day in reading the Bible and some select Books of sound Divinity in hearing the Word preach'd and in Conference with godly understanding and well-experienced Christians Are you not too great Strangers to God and your selves and have not you need then to improve some Portion of this Seasonn in Meditation and Self-examination that you may get more Acquaintance with God and your own Hearts Have not you the Sins of the whole Week past to confess to God in secret and to beg the Pardon of every Lord's-day when you have leisure from your bodily Labour is it not fit you should take some pains in conquering the Corruptions and mortisying the Lusts of your own Hearts and in wrestling with God in Praier for his Strength and Grace Can you idle away your Time and take your Pleasure on the Lord's-day when you have Families to inform and Children and Servants to catechize and instruct Let your Consciences tell me whether it be better on the Lord's-day to spend your Time in unnecessary Divertisements in fruitless Visitations in vain and frothy Discourses to talk freely together of worldly Businesses to judg the Preacher to censure your Christian Neighbour Or to commune with your selves and to labour to edify your own Families To teach your Children the Doctrine of Adam's Fall and of the Redemption wrought by Christ To acquaint them what Sin and Corruption they brought with them into the World and how they have encreased it since they came into the World That the Wages of Sin is Death To tell them what Christ has done and suffered to free and deliver them from Sin and Death and what they must do to be capable of partaking of Christ's saving Benefits To ground your Servants in the Principles of Religion To take account what they remember of the Sermons they heard that Day and to examine how they have profited by the publick Ordinances You see what a great deal of Work you have to do and what a little Time you have to do it in You have but one whole Day in seven It concerns you then to be very saving of this whole Day [c] Quicunque hisee sacris ita seriò se excicent ut ipsorum familiae necessitas plani postulat locum nullum relictum esse quaestioni ists carn â—liter de larantium invenient An licitum sit die Dominâ—co aut oftari aut ludere aut epu is aut inanabus aut mundanis non planè necessariis tempus sacrum conterere Et qui serpsum alaos werè novit ut diei negotia commoda oblata verbo divino de rebus sparitio libus aeternis verè credit ipsius altorum ex vera necessitate ut â—â—â—tate interesse percepiet diem totum quantùm fieri potest in sacris colocare neque frustra sine fruge horae moment um essluere sinet Neque niâ—â—ges quaestionem movebit An liceat ludis vel aliis manibus ad perdere quà m An laceat sanguinent sâ—um inaniter fundere aurum oblasum respâ—ere in canum projicere Carnalis quippe pe animus sui rerum spiritualium ignarus disputationum talium author est plerumque promus-condus Baxter Method Theol. part 3 c. 14. P. 172. To be as far from disputing whether it be not lawful to use Recreations and Sports on some Part of it or to employ some Hours of it in any unnecessary worldly Businesses as from putting the Question Whether it be not lawful vainly to spill your own Blood or to make a refusal of Gold that is offer'd you and to cast it contemtuously into the Dirt. 'T will but little avail you to make the utmost worldly Advantage of all the other six Daies if you make not a sufficient spiritual Improvement of this which is more considerable than all the rest What would it profit you if as God made the World in six Daies so you could gain the whole World by working hard the six Daies if by gross neglect of the Lord's-day you at last lost your own Souls The Church of England in her pious and useful Homily of the Time and Place of Praier declares that in the fourth Commandment God has given express Charge that his obedient People should use our [d] And truly it is strange that some who have a dearness yea fondness for some VVords of Jewish Extraction Altar Temple and the like should have such an Antipa by against the Sabbath Fuller's Church-Hiâ—â— B. 11. p. 144. Sabbath-day which is now our Sunday holily and rest from their common and daily Businesses and also give themselves wholly to heavenly Exercises of God's true Religion and Service And in his Majestie 's Royal Proclamation for the Observation of the Lord's-day all his Majestie 's Subjects are bid to take notice that by the Law the resorting to divine Service enjoined on that Day does comprehend the entire Day and entire Service both Morning and Evening Yea every Lord's-day Morning you your selves make this open Confession and publick Praier in the Congregation after the Reading of the fourth Commandment Lord have Mercy upon us and encline our Hearts to keep this Law As much as to say Lord we acknowledg we have neglected this thy Day We pray thee pardon all our unchristian Sabbath-breaking for the Time past and give us Grace to observe the Christian Sabbath better for the future Now will you confess in the Fore-noon and transgress in the After-noon Will you beg pardon in the Morning and sin again the very same Sin before Night Will you open your Mouths to ask God's Grace to sanctify and keep holy the Sabbath-day and it may be profane it in a graceless manner as soon as you are out of the Congregation If the Lord's-day ought to be observed at all it is to be kept both Parts of the Day And for those that commonly stay away in the After-noon I would ask them what their Employment is at home in the mean Time Do not some of them spend the After-noon in sleeping or walking or talking or drinking or gaming while others are jointly confessing and praying and praising and hearing If God requires a Day is this to sanctify a Day to the Lord to worship God in the Morning and to dishonour God and serve the Devil and divers Lusts in the Afternoon
hitherto stood still or mov'd but slowly let 's now with the Sun rejoice to run our Race Saint Paul had a long time been out of the Way but when once he was led into the right Way he pressed toward the Mark * Phil. 3.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very same Word by which he expresseth his former Persecution †Acts. 2 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As he eagerly pursued the one so afterward he as earnestly followed the other He was as zealous in the Practice as he had been before in the Suppression of Christ's Religion It is our Duty to redeem the Time because much Time is mis-spent already 'T is ‖ â— Pet. 4.2 3. St. Peter's Argument that we should no longer live the rest of our Time in the Flesh to the Lusts of Men but to the Will of God [c] Certè hic acerrimus stimulus nobis esse debes ad bene currendum dum reputamus nos magnd parte vitae extra viam â—â—rasse Calv. in â—â— c. v. 3. For the Time past of our Life says he may suffice us to have wrought the Will of the Gentiles when we walk'd in Lasciviousness Lusts Excess of Wine Revellings Banquetings and abominable Idolatries We have heretofore done much for Satan little for God and God knows little enough for our own Souls We have lived to very ill or to very small Purpose in the World ever since we came into the World and are at present lamentably behind-hand Now then it 's high Time for us to lay out our selves to purpose to lay out our selves to the utmost for God to be zealous and active for God and to go about doing good And it greatly concerns us to be pious and religious in such Instances in which we have formerly been vicious or incurious and to bestow our Time especially in the Performance of those Duties and the Exercise of those graces that are contrary to our former sinful Practices or gross Neglects The third Additional Reason It concerns us highly to redeem the Time because the Time that remains is very short and uncertain and our special Opportunities far shorter and more uncertain a nd the Work we have to do very great 1. The Time that remains is very short Our whole Life-time is but a very short Space now in Comparison of what [d] Methusâ— lah lived 969. Years and Enoch the shortest lived of the Patriarchs before the Flood lived 365 Years as many Years as there are Daies in one Year Job 14.1 7.6 9.25 26. 8.9 Psal 102.11 103.15 16. 90.5 6 9. James 4.14 Psal 39.5 Men liv'd before the Floud but a few Dates and those swifter than a Weaver's Shuttle than a Post or Racer on the Land They pass away as the swift Ship upon the Sea as the Eagle that hasteth to the Prey Our Daies upon Earth are like a Shadow that declineth that changeth and is liker Darkness every Moment like Grass which in the Morning flourisheth and groweth up in the Evening is cut down and withereth We spend our Years like a Tale that is told Now if a Tale be pleasant you know Time passeth away so quickly in the telling of it that it is scarce perceived either by Speaker or Hearer Our Life is as a Vapour a Smoak 't is gone presently Our Daies are as an Hand-breadth The whole of our Life is but a Span and it may be the Remainder is but an Inch. Our whole Life is but a Day and it may be we have past the greatest Part of it already and a few Hours or Moments will serve to measure all that is left behind [e] Infinita est velocitas temporis quae mdgis apparet respicientibus Sen. ep 49. If we look back on our past Years the longest Life will seem but a short Space and why should we reckon the Remainder by any other Measure which with many in the very Course of Nature is but small and short in Comparison of the former The succeeding Part of our Lives will be gone and quite past over ere we are aware It is not so proper to ask when we shall die as when we shall make an End of dying for surely [f] Quotidie mcrimur quotidie enim demitur aliqua pars vita tunc quoque ùm crescimus vita decrescit Hunc ipsum quem agimus diem cum morte dividimus Quem admodum clepsydram non extremum stilliciaium exhaurit sed quidquid autè defluxit sic ultima hora qua esse desinimus non sola mortem facit sed sola consummat Sen. ex Lucilio ep 24. we have been dying ever since we were born we have been going out of the World ever since we came into the World As not only the Sands that fall last of all but all that run out from the very first do properly empty the Hour-glass So the last Hour in which we cease to be doth not alone effect but only finish our Death Quicquid aetatis retro est mors tenet says Seneca Ep. 1. We are dead already to yesterday and t'other Day and all the former Daies of our Lives Death is possess'd of all that is past And how does Death seise as on our Time so on our Bodies by Degrees As it is in the Decay of an House there falls down a Window then a Piece of a Wall then a Door So 't is with the House of this earthly Tabernacle Death seised upon our teeth and makes the * Eccles 12.3 Grinders cease because they are few upon our Eyes and makes us dim-sighted upon our Ears and makes us thick of Hearing upon our Feet and Hands our Limbs and Joints and makes them weak and feeble stiff and cold We decline and hasten apace to our long Home and are fitly said to be †Psal 39.4 frail or ceasing Our Life is [g] If we did seriously think how many of our Years are spent before we can do any more than a Beast and how many we cast away without considering after we are Men and how many necessary Refeshments by Meat and Drink and Sleep will still devour we would not be so prodigal and lavish of the small Number that remains but save them for good Uses and the Service of our Souls D. Patrick's Div. Arithm. p. 20. short And 2. It is uncertain how short it may be Young ones may be snatch'd away in their Childhood or Youth There were as many Lambs and Kids facriliced under the Old Law as Goats and old Sheep They that have escaped in their Youth may be cut off in the midst of their Daies The strongest may go as well as the weakest and the lustiest of all may go soonest Iron and Brass may melt as well as Clay molder Possibly some Fruit may hang on till it 's so ripe that it falls and drops down of it self but most of the Fruit is violently pluckt or shaken down while it 's raw and green If
In what has Satan this Day taken Advantage against me or how has my own deceitful Heart turned me aside What Degrees of Intemperance have I admitted in Meats or Drinks what worldly Cares have I been distracted with what carnal Fears have I been ready to sink under To what have I my self been effectually tempted or wherein have I offered to be a Tempter of any other What Solicitation to Evil have I resisted What Sin and Corruption have I striven against What open careless or wilful Sinner have I seasonably and prudently reproved What Duty have I perform'd What Grace have I exercis'd What Time have I employed in Closet-Devotion in Family-Religion in diligent following the Business of my Calling What Company have I run into or kept What Hours have I spent in such Company and to what profit or benefit to my self or others What was my Omission and Neglect what my Sin and Vanity committed and repeated in such Society have I not closed this Day with a drousy sleepy Prayer this Night Am I grown any better this Week this Day than I was the last You know at Night and at the End of the Week we usually call our Servants to Account Let us use the same Method and take the same Course for a Daily weekly Reckoning with our selves In the Close of the Day at the End of the Week let 's commune with and reflect upon our selves and take our solves to task Let 's take a view and make a surveigh of our past Lives observe how our Time goes watch what becomes of it see how it is laid out that so beholding how useless and unfruitful we have been we may even be ashamed of our selves and labour to grow more useful and fruitful for the future As * Rev. 2.5 remembring from whence she was fallen was prescribed to the Church of Ephesus as a means of her repenting And on the contrary because †ser 8.6 no Man said What have I done therefore every one turned to his Course as the Horse rusheth into the Battel By daily observing examining taking account of our selves and Waies we shall come to Repentance more speedily and easily and recover the Favour of God immediatly The Candle that is presently blown in again offends not We shall have the Advantage of making to God [h] Mr. Hildersam on Ps 51. p. 183. a fuller Confession of our Sins while our Sins with their Circumstances are fresh and recent in our Memories And shall be more effectually restrained from Sin for the future by thinking thus with our selves This I must account with God and my own Conscience for before I sleep And by this means we shall be freed from the Fear of sudden Death and be in a constant good Preparation for it because though our Master come suddenly he will not find us sleeping nor surprize us in unrepented Sin When in this manner we make all even every Night between God and our own Consciences we may lie down in Peace and take a quiet Rest and Sleep without any perplexing amazing Fears of our awaking the next Morning in the other World Hold and maintain this Practice of Calling thy self to a daily strict Account and you shall certainly find and happily experience that of A Kempis to be a great Truth [i] Suaviter requiesees si cor tuum te non reprehenderit Noli laetari nisi cùm bene feceris A Kemp. l. c. 6 n 1. Gaudebis semper vespere si diem expendas fructuosè Idem l. 1. c. 25. n. 11. Thou shalt sweetly rest if thy own Heart reprehend thee not Thou shalt rejoyce and be glad at heart every Night if thou hast not lost but fruitfully spent the Day past [k] De perfectione Rodericus relateth of Suarez that he was wont to say he esteemed that little Pittance of Time which constantly every Day he set apart for the private Examination of his own Conscience more than all the other Part of the Day which he spent in his voluminous Controversies And it is reported of that learned Professor of Divinity Dr. Samuel Ward that when he lay upon his Death-Bed he profess'd he had read many Books but had no such comfort from his reading any as from his reading and studying the Book of his own Heart and Life That is the second Direction Frequently call yourselves to an Account Often Reckonings make long Friends It holds most true between God and our Souls between our Consciences and our selves Reckon with God and your selves every Evening how you have spent the Day fore-going and this will provoke you humbly to beg the Pardon of your Sins at God's Hands and Power against them to judg and punish and take an holy Revenge upon your selves to exercise Repentance for your past Failings and strict Watchfulness for the future The third Direction That we may rightly redeem our Time let Reason and Conscience have some Authority with us and not be despised and disregarded by us They are most brave generous Rules and Precepts that are given by Pythagoras in his golden Verses [a] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Never accustome thy self in any Thing to act and carry thy self irrationally and below a Man And of all things see says he that you [b] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cùm jam prâ—fecâ—ris tantum ut sit tibi etiam tui reverentia dum te efficis eum coram quo peccare non audeas aliqua coeperit apud te tui esse dignatio Sen. ep 25. reverence and use good Manners to your self Let Reason rule and govern thy Passions and Affections and Conscience withhold thee from being guilty of any Impiety or Impurity Absurdity or Undecency Do nothing to put thy self to the blush to sill thy self with secret Shame and Sorrow and sinking Fear for the Turpitude or Folly of thy Own Actions Take the wholesome Counsel and good Advice that Ausonius gives thee [c] Turpe quid ausurus te sine teste time When thou art about to do any vile and vicious Thing be afraid of thy self though no body else be near thee to be a Witness of thy Wickedness [d] Si turpia sunt quae facis quid refert neminem scire cùm tu seias O te miserum si contemnis hunc testem Sen. ep 43. i. sine If the Things thou doest says Seneca excellently be unseemly and uncomely what does it avail thee that none in the World knows it when thou thy self knowest it O miserable Man says he if thou contemnest this Witness within thee And I find Lactantius citing these admirable Sayings out of him [e] Demens quid prodest non habere conscium habence conseientiam Custos te tuus sequitur Haeret hic quo carere nunquam potes Lactant de vero cultu 1. 6 §. 24. Thous very mad Man what will it profit thee to have no other conscious of thy Crime so long as thou doest carry a Conscience within thee
will have a mighty Influence upon the whole Course of our Lives and Actions The first of the four last Things proposed as the subject Matter of Meditation in order to the right Redemption of Time I. USE I. Use in thy Life time to think much of the Day of thy own particular Death and of the general Dissolution of all Things 1. [e] Mortem ut nunquam timeas semper cogita Sen. ep 30. in fine Vive me nor lethi fugit hora hoc quod loquor inde est Pers sat 5. Dum loquimue sugerit invida aetas Horat. carm l. 1. Od. 11. To think much of the Day of thy own particular Death Be not thou of Lewis the eleventh's Mind who strictly charged all about him that they sould not so much as name the terrible Word Death Do not only patiently hear of it but chuse to think and often to think of it Men are too commonly regardless of their End and unmindful of their own Mortality and Frailty The very Heathen have acknowledged Man's natural Proneness to forget his End and therefore they used several Arts to mind themselves and others of it Some Emperours on the Day of their Coronation have had several sorts of Marble presented to them out of which to chuse their Tombs Philosophers have had their Sepulchres before their Gates that they might neither go out nor in but they might still be put in mind of their Mortality And many great Men have had them in their Places of Pleasure And dead Men's Skulls have been served up in delicious Banquets And Philip King of Macedon had a young Monitor that came every Day and rubb'd up his Memory with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Remember thou art but a Mortal Man And we plainly find in Scripture that this is naturally Man's Temper The Fool in the Gospel is a clear Instance of this who * Luke 12.19 said to his Soul Soul thou hast much Goods laid up for many Years take thine ease eat drink and be merry He never dream'd of a Stulte hac nocte Thou Fool this Night That was the farthest Thing off his Thoughts †Jam. 4.13 14. St. James reproves those who promise themselves to morrow and build upon the next Year for the driving of their Trade and getting of Gain Men in their Health think not of Sickness and in Sickness seldome reckon of Death Even dying Men often times think of nothing but recovering and living longer in the World Men are apt to look upon Death as afar off and when in all probability they have but a few Sands in their Glass to run they are ready to say that they ‖ Job 29 18. shall multiply their Daies as the Sand. Men can willingly measure their Lands and Grounds and number their Herds and Droves of Cattel and count the Revenues of their Manours and Farms and reckon their daily or yearly Incomes but who is willing to measure and number his Daies Yea we can willingly measure other Mens Daies and learn to know their End and take great Notice how frail they are We can point at an old Man and cry he is thus or thus old his Daies cannot be many he is past his best he has one Foot in the Grave Upon sight of one sick or in a Consumption we are apt to say Such a one is near his End he can't live long sure But we take little notice of our selves we make little Reckoning of our own End we little consider what may become of us to morrow We do not actually think we shall not die yet the most of us do not actually think we shall die God frequently reads Lectures of Mortality to us and yet we will not learn to remember them The Arrows of the Almighty have flown thick on every side of us and yet we live as if we thought to escape alwaies Though others have fallen round about us we are ready to count our standing sure We securely lie in a dead Sleep amidst many awakening providences I am afraid many of us are too like your common Grave-makers who often handle Skulls and dead Mens Bones but are so daily us'd to them that they are not at all mov'd or affected with them What senseless silly Creatures are we that we won't believe we are mortal till we feel it that we won't be perswaded we shall die till we our selves are struck with Death Ah Friends we do not live as if we believ'd it and were truly and really convinc'd fully and throughly perswaded of it We are apt to overmeasure our Daies to put more in than we should to promise our selves what God never promis'd us and to count those Daies ours which are wholly in God's Hand and quite out of ours We are ready to measure by [f] Reade Dr. Patrick's Div. Arithm. false Rules to reckon that because we are young we shall not die till we are old That because we are strong we shall last it out and indure long That because we are temperate we need not fear Diseases and Death That because some live much longer than others that we may live as long as the longest The Guilt of Sin makes many afraid to take a true Measure of their Daies The want of a good and well-grounded Hope of a better Life makes Men unwilling to know the End of this And the inordinate Love of the World makes Men loth to know their End and to think of leaving what they love Haec faciunt invitos mori These are the Things that make us unwilling to die was a discreet Answer given by the Emperour Charles the fifth to a certain Duke of Venice You are naturally backward and disinclin'd to the consideration of your latter End and therefore pray to God to enable you to it and help you in it Say with David * Psal 39.4 Lord make me to know my End and the Measure of my Daies what it is that I may know how frail I am And with Moses likewise †90.12 So teach me to number my Daies that I may apply my Heart unto Wisdom We need but a little Arithmetick to number our Daies as [g] Caryl on Job 4.21 one saies well but we need a great deal of Grace to number them A Child may be wise enough to number the Daies of an old Man and yet that old Man a Child in numbring his own Daies so as to apply his Heart to Wisdom Well then heartily beg of God that he would make you to know your End to know it so as to have your Heart touched and affected with the Knowledg of it To know your End and to live suitably and answerably to the Knowledg of it To know your End so as to make a good End of it Now give me leave to direct and assist you in this necessary Duty Suffer me to serve in a Death's-Head and to put a Turf of fresh Earth into your Hands 't is counted very wholsome to
smell of Remember and consider 1. That Death thy Death is certain 2. That the Time of thy Death is very uncertain 3. That when Death comes a great change will be made by it 4. and lastly Consider seriously what a sad and uncomfortable Thing it will be to be found unprepared to die at the Point of Death And how sweet and happy a Thing it will be to be in a readiness and preparation at the Hour of Death Consider 1. It is sure and certain thou must die at last Death entred into the World by Sin The Wages of thy Sin is thy Death It is now appointed unto Men to all Men once to die Death is the way of all the Earth Every Thing plainly points thee to it Thy very Sleep is an Image of thy Death The very Meat thou eatest as it breeds thy Nourishment so it breeds thy Diseases Thou hast apparently died already in thy Friends and Relations Neighbours and Acquaintance Thou hast lost thy Parents or Husband or Wife or Children or Servants and therefore thou hast reason to think thou shalt one Day lose thy own Life and certainly die in thy own Person Some one it may be that lately lay in thy Bed and lay in thy Bosom is now laid out of thy Sight laid in the Grave and Time will come when as lively and brisk as thou art thou shalt lie by them and be gather'd to them Surely every Sickness every Disease every Tooth-ach Head-ach every Pain and Distemper and bodily Weakness is an Harbinger and Fore-runner of thy Death and a plain Remembrancer to thee of thy latter End Thou seest enough in others thou findest enough in thy self to make thee to know thy own Frame and to cause thee to remember that thou thy self art but Dust Xerxes viewing his vast Army wept over them to think how within a few Lustres of Years there would be none of them all remaining Be affected to think how a few Years will wear out and carry off thy self and all thy Family the numerous Company of thy Friends and Relations Neighbours and Acquaintance The close Meditation of the Certainty of thy own Dissolution this will keep thee from living here as if thou wert to live here alwaies which is a common Fault among Men reprov'd and censur'd of old by [h] Tanquam semper victuri vivitis Seneca de brev vit cap. 4. Seneca And from building here as if thou shouldst here continue for ever as [i] Diogenis dictum est Megarenses obsonant quasi crastinâ die morituri aedificant verò quasi nui quam morituri Tert. Apolog. c. 39. Diogenes once severely charg'd the Megarenses When thou rearest thy Building this Course will cause thee to think of thy own Tomb and Grave and that thy earthly House of this Tabernacle must be dissolved And this will enable thee to live loose from the temporary Enjoyments of this present World and to have lower Thoughts of all earthly Pleasures which are but for a Season and would engage you to be [k] Vivere totâ vitâ discendum est quod magis fortasse miraberis totâ vita discendum est mori Seneca de brev vit cap. 7. learning to die as long as you live The frequent Thoughts of thy latter End would prompt thee to say thus to thy self How shall I dare to live in Jest who am sure I must die in Earnest Am I afraid to die and yet shall I use all Means I can to make Death dangerous and terrible to me Shall I venture [l] St. Jerom said well He deserves not the Name of a Christian who will live in that State of Life in which he will not die Bp. Taylor 's great Exemplar p. 558. to live in that State of Life in which I would not die 2. Consider farther That the Day and Means of thy Death is as [m] Ah stulte quid cogitas te diu victurum cùm nullum diem habeas securum Quam multi decepti sunt irsperatè de cerpore extracti Quoties audisti à dicentibus quia ille gladio cecidit ille submersus est ille ab alto ruens cervicem fregit ille manducando obriguit ille ludendo finem fecit Alius igne alius ferre alius peste alius latrocinto interiit sic omnium finis mors est vita hominum tanquam umbra subito pertransit A Kempis l. 1. c. 23. n. 7. uncertain as thy Death it self is certain Think when thou art eating that then thou maiest be digging thy Grave with thy Teeth and when thou art drinking that then thou maiest find and meet with Death in the Cup or Pot. When thou art ready to take thy Rest consider that God this Night may require thy Soul of thee and before Morning may take away the [n] Vine's Essex's Hearse p. 12. diry Difference between Sleep and Death Here practise according to Seneca's Direction [o] Dic tibi dormituro possum non expergisci Dic experrecto possum non dormire ampliùs Dic exeunti possum non reverti dic redeunti possum non exire Sen. ep 49. Cùm mane fuerit putate ad vesperum non perventurum vespere autem facto mane non audeas tibi polliceri Semper ergo paratus esto taliter vive ut nunquam te imparatum mors inveniat A Kempis l. 3. c. 23. n 3. Say to thy self when thou goest to sleep it may be I shall never wake again and when thou risest it may be I shall never sleep again Say to thy self when thou goest out it may be I shall never return home and come in alive again And when thou comest in at any Time say to thy self It may be I shall never go out of doors again Consider when thou art going a Journey that thou maiest be going to thy long home When thou art riding upon the Road that thou maiest be posting unto thy Grave that the Horse thou ridest on may be the pale Horse and his Name that sits upon him though unseen may be Death Conclude with thy self I must die shortly I may die instantly This Day may be the last that I shall see this Hour the last that I shall spend this Word the last that I shall speak this Deed the last that I shall persform this Place the last that I shall breath in When thou goest into any Company consider that it may be the last time that ever thou shalt come in the Company of those Persons that therefore it behoves thee to behave thy self among them and to spend thy Time and bestow thy Hours with them like a Man and a Christian not like a Beast or an Heathen to demean thy self there soberly and temperately and with good Government of thy Appetite and Passions and with the Exercise and Improvement of thy Reason and of Grace in some useful Discourse and profitable Converse not childishly and unmanly intemperately and luxuriously rudely and uncivilly wildly and
extravagantly The often renewed Meditation of the great Vncertainty of the Time of the Departure This will be a Means to hasten thy Repentance which if defer'd may prove too late And will surely help thee so to carry thy self continually [p] Id ago ut mihi instar totius vitae sit dies Sen. ep Ille qui nullum non tempus in usus suos comfert quiomnes dies tanquam vitam suam ordmat nec optat crastinum nec timet Idem de brev vit c 7. as one that reckons and uses a single Day as if it were a whole Life To live every day as if it were [q] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Musonius apud Stob Serm. 1. â—ic ordinandus est aies omnis tamquam cogat agmen consummet atque expleat vitam In somnum ituri loeti hilar ésque dicamus Viâ—i quem dederat cursum fortuna peregi thy very last Not to promise thy self a Morrow and to neglect thy present Work in Hope and Expectation of it but to order thy self immediately as if thou didst never look to see and enjoy it and to count it as [r] Crastinum si adjecerit Deus laeti reciptamus Ille beatissimus est securus sai possessor qui crastinum sine solicitudine expectat Qussquis dixit vixi quotidie ad lucrum surgit Sen. ep 12. pure Gain as may be if God shall be pleased to afford thee the Light and Benefit of a new Day As the Bird guideth her Flight with her Train and the Ship is governed at the Stern or hindermost Part so the Life of Man is directed and ordered by frequent Meditation of his latter End 3. Think moreover of the great Change that will at last be made by Death which is lively represented in a Story related by a learned [s] Bishop Taylor in his rule and Exercise of holy Dying c. 1. §. 3. Doctor of a fair young German Gentleman who while he lived often refused to be pictured but put off the importunity of his Friends Desire by giving way that after a few Daies Burial they might send a Painter to his Vault and if they saw cause fo rit draw the Image of his Death unto the Life They did so and found his Face half eaten and his Midriff and Back-bone full of Serpents and so he stands pictured among his armed Ancestours Think how the Case will shortly be much alike with thee that Death in a Moment will turn thy Colour into Paleness thy Heat into Coldness thy Beauty into Lothsomness and will so alter and disfigure thee that thy ver Husband or Wife or Child will stand afraid and start at thee That thy nearest dearest kindest Friends who delighted in thy Company whilst thou livedst took thee to their Board took thee to their Bed and put thee in their Bosom will as soon as thou art dead take a speedy Course to remove thee out of their Sight yea to put thee under Ground because by Death thou wilt become not only useless but offensive to them And what a frightful Spectacle thou wouldst be if thy Body should be viewed when once the Vermin have bred in it and shall have devoured and consumed some Parts of it Think how Death will make a Change in thy Body a change in thy Mansion Habitation Companions That when thou art dead thou shalt quickly change thy Bed for a winding Sheet thy Chamber for a Coffin thy House for a Grave thy Friends for Worms This Consideration will be hugely instrumental to beat down Pride of any beauty Health Strength or Ornaments of the Body and be useful to cause thee to walk humbly and soberly and will instruct thee to say to thy self Why should I glory in any such transitory Enjoyment As fair and fine as I may be apt to think my self I know I shall be but a sorry Creature when Death comes Why should I delight to stand long at the Glass and there to view my own Face and Features and Dresses now since Death will one Day so change me that my most intimate loving familiar Friends will hardly endure to behold me Why should I pride my self in any rich Attire and brave Apparel who must ere long be strip'd to a winding Sheet Why should I bestow so much cost upon that Tenement which I shall dwell but a while in and which will decay and fall to utter Ruin when I have done all I can Why should I make my Belly my God which must be destroyed and be Meat for Worms Why should I be so high and stately as to think no House good enough no Room fine enough no Fair dainty enough for me who must quickly be brought as low as the Grave and be forc'd to make my Bed in the dark and to lay my Head in the Dust to lodg yea dwell in a black lonely desolate Hole of Earth to say to the Grave Thou art mine House to say to Corruption Thou art my Father and to the Worm Thou art my Mother and my Sister Why should I spend all my time in pleasing and pampering this base Flesh and in over-caring for this changeable vile Body which must shortly suffer Rottenness and Corruption Shall I not rather take care to beautify and adorn my inner Man to get a Change wrought in my Soul by the good Spirit and Grace of God before I suffer a Change in my Body a Change by Sickness a Change by Death and so to live that when I am dead it may not be said of me Here lies one that was dead while he lived and whose Soul then stank worse by sinful Corruption than his Body now stinks by Putrefaction 4. Consider once more What a sad and uncomfortable Thing it wil be to be found unprepared to die at the point of Death and how happy a Thing it will be to be in a readiness and preparation at the Hour of Death 1. Think well with thy self how miserable a Thing it will be to be wholly unprepared for Death when you come to die indeed [t] Cù a illos aliqua imbecillitas mortalitatis admonuit quemadmodum paventes moriuntur non tanquam exeant de vita sed tanquam extrahantur Seneca de brevitate vitae cap. 11. to be driven away in thy Wickedness as the * Prov. 14.32 Wise Man speaks and forced to go to thy own Place whether thou wilt or no. To say as Theophrastus of old Dii boni nunc Good God must I go now How discompos'd and disorder'd amaz'd and terrified wilt thou be when thou art surpriz'd What a disconsolate Condition was that of Cesar Borgia who when through the Errour of a Servant he had unawares drunk of the poison'd Wine which he and his Father Pope Alexander the sixth had mingled and prepared for some rich Cardinals and verily expected it would prove his Death is said to have broke out into this or the like Expression I had made Provision against all possible Disasters
but only Death for I did not think I should have died so soon How troublesome will it be to thee when thy Soul is about to be divorced from thy Body to be at best uncertain then what will become of thee To express thy self with dying Aristotle [u] Dubius morior quò vadam nescio I die doubtful not well knowing whither I am going Or with the Emperour Adrian [w] Animula vagula blandula Hospes com esque corporis Quae nunc abibis in loca Pallsdula frigidula nudula Nec ut soles dabis jocos Ah dear departing wandring Soul the old and sweet Companion of my Body into what Region art thou now going surely thou wilt never be so merry and pleasant as thou hast been How intolerably vexatious will it be to change for Vncertainties or to make a certain Change for the worse To die unsatisfied what will become of thee as to thy future unchangeable State Or sure and certain that thou shalt enter into a worse State and Place and shalt be miserable to all Eternity To see then but a Step but a Breath between thee and everlasting Death To have all the horrid and heinous sins of a whole misled and misspent Life fiercely fly in thy very Face and thy enraged furious guilty Conscience to be then most active to torment thee the nearer thou apprehendest thy self approaching to the End of thy mortal Life As usually bodily Aches and Wounds do prick and pain and shoot most the nearer it draweth unto Night What a lamentable sad Case was that of Cardinal Wolsey to cry out in his extreme unhappy Circumstances Had I been as careful and diligeut to please and serve the God of Heaven as I have been to comply with the Will of my earthly King he would not have left and for saken me now in my gray Hairs and old Age as the other has done So think what a doleful Case it will be for thee in thy last Hours to pour forth thy Soul in such Words as these If I had served my God as earnestly and unweariedly as I have constantly served the world served diverse Lusts and Pleasures served the Devil himself Had I been at Church when I was in Bed been in my Closet upon my Knees when I was sitting tippling upon the Ale-bench or was quaffing at Tavern and drinking of Healths upon my Knees Had I satisfied the Reason of a Man as I gratified my brutish Appetite and sensual Desire Had I done the Will of God and of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as I have done the Will of the Devil the Will of the Flesh and fulfilled my own carnal corrupt Will I had then been own'd by God and approv'd by my own Conscience inwardly strengthned and supported and sweetly comforted and refresh'd who now am deserted and rejected by God and miserably perplexed and disquieted rent and racked torn and tormented in my own Conscience Then thou wilt certainly count and call thy self unhappy and him the only happy Man who as dying [x] Beatus es Abba Arseni qui semper hanc horam ante oculos habuisti Bibl. Patr. Theophilus said of devout Arsenius has had the Hour of his Departure ever before his Eyes That is the first Conider what a dreadful Thing it is to be found unprovided at the Hou◠of Death When Friends and Physicians cannot keep thee and God and his good Angels will not take thee O then O then what will become of thee 2. Seriously think on the other hand what [y] Considera quà n pulchra res sit consummare vitam ante mortom deinde expectare securum reliquam tempor is sui part m◠Sen. ep 32. an happy and comfortable Thing it will be to find your Time well improved and your self prepared to die before you die 'T is a true Saying of the Wise Man that to a good man the * Eccl. 7.1 Day of Death is better than the Day of his Birth For is not that Day which perfectly frees and fully delivers a good Man from the many Vanities and great Vexations which the Life of Man is obnoxious to and the Troubles and Sufferings which the Life of a Christian is expos'd to far better than that Day which let 's him into the Possession of them Again The Time when a Person has attain'd the End of his Being made good the Hopes of others answer'd god's and Man's expectation concerning him walked himself in the Fear of the Lord brought up Children in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord walked worthy of his Vocation fill'd up every Relation with suitable Duties and Graces serv'd his Generation according to the Will of God liv'd and acted with reference to Eternity The Time when he most willingly leaves this wicked World and leaves an holy Seed to stand up in his room and stead leaves a good Name and a good Example behind him and goes to Heaven to the Spirits of just Men made perfect goes to God his heavenly Father and to Christ his Redeemer to receive the gracious and glorious Reward of all his Works and Labours and the Crown he has striven and contended for Surely the Day when this falls out which is the Day of his Death gives cause of more abundant Comfort than can the Day of his Birth together with all the Daies of his Life Is not that Day better wherein a Man has truly and really answered the Ends of Life than that in which he only began at first to live Is not that Day better in which he has fully and compleatly acted his Part well quitted and behav'd himself like a Man and Christian and is gone off the Stage of this lower world with Credit and Esteem Approbation and Applause of God himself good Angels and Men than the Day of his first appearing upon the Stage or Theater of this World in a way of Probation and Trial and in Hope of his future good Performance Is not the Day of his actual Admission and honourable Reception into a blissful Condition and happy Mansion far better than the Day of his Entrance into a State of Preparation for it Think well with thy self what a joyful Day what a [z] Cùm ecquid lumen molestiae afferret rogarent pectus tangens Oecolampadius abundè lucis est inquit Melch. Adam in vita Oecolamp p. 56. lightsome Hour what a Time of refreshing it will be to thee to be able to say with thy Saviour a little before thy Departure * Joh. 17.4 Father I have glorified thee on Earth I have finished the Work which thou hast given me to do And with the Apostle St. Paul †2 Tim. 4 6 7. The Time of my Departure is at hand I have fought a good Fight [a] Vixi quem dederat cursum fortuna peregi I have finished my course I have kept the Faith ‖ 2 Cor. 1.12 My rejoicing is this the Testimony of my Conscience that in
〈◊〉 Eâ—asm Apophth l. 3. gather'd to blessed and perfected Spirits and be made it Welf equal to the Angels and so become sit Company for them That thy Soul shall be in an happy Condition and be secure and certain that it shall never be dispossess'd and ejected out of it depriv'd or bereaved of it Such Thoughts as these will never suffer thee to let thy Soul sleep in thy Body which will surely wake when it is out of it This Meditation is likely to preserve thee from living and acting sensually and brutishly as if thy Soul were material and mortal and capable of no greater Happiness or higher Preserment than to be imprison'd and buried in this gross dull Flesh This will cause thee to take care that thy Soul may exercise and maintain a due Superiority over thy Body that thy Soul may * 1 Cor. 9.27 keep under thy Body and bring it into subjection and not be servilely and sordidly subject to it since thy Soul is able to live without it and shall from the Day of Death till the Day of Resurrection live better without it than ever here it liv'd with it This will mind thee to bring thy Soul which is a Spirit to converse now with the Father of Spirits and help thee to live like an Angel here on Earth who after Death shalt be as an Angel of God in Heaven Farther the Consideration or a State of Bliss to departed Souls will make thee labour to become fit for this State by getting thy Soul made like to God by true Holiness that God may love his own Image and Likeness in thee and delight to do good to the Soul he loves By striving to lead a good and holy Life here which is by the Ordination of God the direct and ready Way to an happy and eternal Life hereafter By looking that every Action and Carriage of thy Life be worthy of thy Hope of eternal Life [o] See to this purpose Mr. Baxter's Reas of the Christ Rd. 1 part p. 138 139. If a State of glorious Immortality were but a Likely hood and Probability you would notwithstanding in all reason do any thing suffer any thing part with any thing that if at last it should prove a reality you might make sure of it and render your self capable of obtaining and enjoying it because if it should prove true and you should miss of it no present Enjoyment could any way countervail the Loss of an eternal State of Bliss And if it should not prove true the denying thy self these earthly sensual Pleasures would be no considerable Loss or great Unhappiness to thee 't would be but the Loss of a transitory short impure imperfect Pleasure which even in this World has Pain and Torment mixt with it and has often sad Rellishes and a bitter Farewel at the End of it If there were but a bare Probability of such a State the most obscure Notices and thy uncertain Hopes of it were enough to make thee diligently look after it Surely then thou wilt much more seek and press after it when God has given thee an absolute Certainty of the Thing and the highest Satisfaction that can rationally be desired of the Truth of it And this Meditation will be a Means as to fit thee for thy Translation so to make thee with * Phil. 1.21 23 St. Paul have an earnest Desire to depart to go hence to go home To breadth out [p] Melch. Adam in vit Calv. p. 100. Calvin's Ejaculaton Vsquequo Domine How long Lord To cry out as holy [q] Aug. Cons l. 9. c. 19 §. 4. Monica did when she had newly been largely discoursing with her Son St. AUstin of the heavenly Kingdom Son as for me I now take no delight in any thing in this Life Quid hic facio What do I here And to use such Words as those of Mr. Herbert [r] Home What have I left that I should stay and groan The most of me to Heav'n is fled My Thoughts and Joies are all packt up and gone And for their old Acquaintance plead 2. Bend thy Mind to think of the Resurrection of the Body to a State of Glory Consider that as thy Soul at Death is not extinguished so that thy dead and buried Body shall not finally perish and be quite lost but at last be reproduc'd and restor'd again to thee by the Agency of an omniscient and omnipotent God That if thou †Joh. 5.29 hast done good thou shalt come forth to the Resurrection of Life come out of thy Grave as Jonah out of the Whale's Belly as Daniel out of the Lions Den as Pharaoh's chief Butler yea as the innocent honest Joseph out of Prison to an high and honourale Condition Think how the very same Body that fell by Death shall be raised again at the last Day as Lazarus rose with the same Body which had lien in the Grave four Daies and as Christ rose with the same Body that was crucified and buried How congruous it is to the Wisdom and Goodness and governing Justice of God that the same Body which was Partner with the Soul in good Actions should be a Sharer with it in everlasting Rewards That that very Body which was the Temple of the Holy Ghost and whose Members were the Members of Christ and Instruments of Righteousness and did God Service and labour'd and suffer'd for Christ here should be raised and rewarded hereafter And how reasonable to conclude that God having planted in the Soul a natural Inclination to its own Body will surely one Day satisfy the Soul's Appetite by reuniting it to the same Body Think how thy Body shall rise the same for Substance but not the same for Qualities and Endowments that it shall be raised * 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44 49 50. in Incorruption in Glory in Power raised a spiritual Body and put on Immortality That thou shalt bear the Image of the Heavenly That this Flesh and Bloud shall be changed and altered with a perfective Alteration that it may be capable of inheritng the Kingdom of God That Christ shall †Phil. 3.21 change thy vile Body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious Body and that thou shalt ‖ Mat. 13.43 shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of thy Father These Thoughts will warm and affect thy Heart and move and incline thee to study and endeavour to get thy Soul and Body fitted and qualified for a Participation of a blessed and glorious Resurrection To get thy Soul now transform'd and made like unto Christ's gracious Soul that thy Body hereafter may be transform'd and made like unto his glorious Body to get I say a sanctified Soul here that thou maiest not sail of a glorified Body hereafter for the Body follows the Condition of the Soul Not to spend thy Time Care Cost Pains in decking and adorning in trimming and [s] Qui se pingunt in hoc seculo aliter
quà m creavit Deus metuant ne cùm venerit resurrectionis dies artifex creaturam suam non recognoseat Cypr. beautifying thy Body but to dress and adorn thy Soul with true Grace and Holiness here that so at the Day of Resurrection thy Body may be made very glorious and beautiful indeed and then may be changed for the better never to suffer any Change more Yea thy Meditation of the Resurrection of thy Body will make thee labour to get thy Body sanctified that it may be glorified 'T will make thee pray that thy * 1 Thess 5.23 Body may be preserved blameless unto the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and cause thee as thou wouldst have thy Body rais'd to Glory to keep under thy Body here and not to suffer its Members to rise in Rebellion against God 'T will help thee to use thy bodily Members holily here that they may fare well and happily hereafter Considering how unfit it is that God should raise the Instruments of Iniquity to a State of glorious Immortality How unmeet that Christ should take that Body which in this Life vigorously oppos'd him and busily and violently acted against him and fashion this wicked hellish Body like unto his heavenly and glorious Body How incongruous that they * Rom. 3.13 that live after the Flesh and †Cal. 6 8. sow to their Flesh should in their Flesh see God that they who use their Eyes chiefly to let in sinful Objects should at the latter Day ‖ Job 19 26 27. see God for themselves and that their Eyes should behold him with Comfort and Joy Thy Meditation concerning the Resurrection will direct thee to say upon any Temptation Shall I offer to abuse and dishonour this Flesh to abuse and dishonour God with this Flesh which I look that God should so highly honour and greatly glorify at the last Day Shall I sin against God with this Body of mine which I hope shall shine at the Resurrection as the Sun in the Firmament and as the Stars for ever and ever and be chang'd and fashioned like the glorious Body of Jesus Christ This will engage thee to strive with the Apostle (*) Phil 3.11 if by any means thou maiest attain unto the Resurrection of the Dead a Resurrection to a glorious Immortality To study to be just that thou maiest be Partaker of the (†) Acts 24 15. Resurrection of the Just To labour to have part in the (‖) Rev. 20.6 first that thou maiest partake of the second Resurrection [*] Jo. 5.25 28 29. To hear now the Voice of the Son of God speaking by his Word and Works and Spirit and hearing to live a divine and spiritual Life that when thou art dead and rotten in thy Grave thou maiest at last hear his Voice and come forth to the Resurrection of Life and lift up thy Head with Joy in the latter Day To labour to be a true Member of Christ and to live to Christ that so thou maiest [†] 1 Th. fl 4.14 sleep in Jesus and by the Power of God be brought from the dead with him To feast and refresh the Bodies of the Poor that thou maiest be * Luke 14.14 recompensed at the Resurrection of the Just To endeavour to act spiritually and lively as thou hopest to partake of the Resurrection unto Life To be careful to have alwaies a †Acts 24.15 16. Conscience void of Offence in Hope and Expectation of an happy Resurrection and in Intuition of the Promise of it with the ‖ 26.7 12 Tribes to serve God instantly Day and Night To refuse at any time to (*) Heb 11.35 accept Deliverance upon base and unworthy Terms and sinful Conditions that thou maiest obtain a better Resurrection To be willing to put thy Body to any Pains Labour Suffering for the sake of God and Christ who will not suffer so much as thy Body to be a Loser To (†) 1 Cor. 6.20 glorify God in thy Body since God hath promised to glorify this Body To resolve that Christ shall be (‖) Phil. 1.20 magnified in thy Body whether it be by Lise or by Death since Christ will raise even thy dead Body and give this very Body of thine an (*) 1 Cor. 15.58 abundant Recompense of Reward at last In a Word to have thy Conversation [†] Phil. 3.20 21. in Heaven from whence thou lookest for thy Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to change thy vile Body 3. And lastly Meditate much and often of that perfect State of heavenly Glory that is to be enjoyed upon the Reunion of Soul and Body Think when thy Soul shall recover its own Body what a glad and joyful Meeting there will of those old Companions and intimate Friends which have been parted and separated so long and how the Glory of thy Body will be an Addition to the Joy and Happiness of thy Soul and that from the Day of Resurrection not only a Part but thy whole Person consisting both of Soul and Body will be setled in a perfectly happy Condition 1. Apply thy Mind to think in general of enjoying an * 1 Pet. 1.4 Inheritance incorruptible and undesiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you of taking Possession of an heavenly Kingdom and receiving a Crown of Life That if thou beest a real good Christian †Col. 3.4 when Christ who is thy Life shall appear thou also shalt appear with him in Glory That neither ‖ 1 Cor 2.9 Eye hath seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the Heart if Man the Things which God hath prepared for them that love him Think of an excellent State of heavenly Happiness which cannot indeed be fully understood till it is enjoyed but yet at present is sufficiently revealed to provoke our Desires after it and to encourage our Endeavours to gain and obtain it The Meditation of heavenly Happiness and Glory in the general will cause thee to beware of such (*) 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Gal. 5.19 20 21. Eph. 5.5 6. Rev. 21.27 Sins as will meritoriously exclude thee from the Kingdom of Heaven and formally unfit thee for the Enjoyment of it and will make thee careful to get the Qualifications proper to a Person to whom it belongs and to perform the necessary indispensable Conditions upon which the promised Benefit depends To labour to be (†) Col. 1.12 made meet to be a Partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in Light by Grace to become capable and susceptible of Glory to * Joh. 3.3 be born again that thou maiest see the Kingdom of God to be a †Rom. 9.23 Vessel of Mercy sitted and prepared unto Glory To bow thy Knees to God that he would work this Meetness and Fitness this spiritual Aptitnde and Idoneity in thee that he would prepare thee for the Inheritance of the Saints and Inheritance ‖ Acts 20 32. among them which
and Life †Heb. 12.14 without which no Man shall see the Lord Jesus Christ in Glory 'T will cause thee to endeavour to be a Partaker of the Divine Nature of Christ that thou maiest be admitted to be a Spectator and Enjoyer of the glorified humane Nature of Christ to be in this World as he was in this World that at last thou maiest be in the other World as he is in that World to purify thy self even as he is pure if thou hast any Hope in thee to see him as he is at his Appearance And this Meditation will move and incline thee to labour and love to see Christ here that thou maiest be fitted to have the Honour and Priviledg to see him hereafter To delight to see him now in his Promises to see and enjoy him in his Gospel Ordinances to behold him in his Graces shining in his Members and to see his Image formed in thy own Heart and Life Considering that only Christ-like Creatures are in a capacity of being happy with Christ in Glory That as [h] D Rust in his Serm. at the Fun. of Bp. Taylor p. 8. f. one saies well God and Christ without thee cannot possibly make thee happy That it is not the Person of God and Christ but their Life and Nature wherein consists thy formal Happiness And that thou maiest be fit to see him as he is 't will direct thee at present to see him as he was to look upon him as humbling himself to the Death of the Cross for thy Sins till thy Heart be kindly broken for and thy Heart and Life be truly broken off from all thy Sins and to eye and imitate that excellent Pattern and rare Example which here he gave thee in every Action of his holy Life 3. Freely and largely meditate how happy thou shalt be made hereafter in the great Advancement and Perfection of thy Knowledg and in the filling up of thy utmost Capacities and the Satisfaction of all thy Desires That though now thou * 1 Cor. 13.9 10 12. seest through a Glass darkly and knowest but in part yet when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away as the Light of Candles and Stars is done away by the rising of the Sun That though now [i] See Bolton of the four last Things p 143 144. many Difficulties in Nature and Mysteries in Scripture and Secrets and Wonders of Divine Providence pose and non-plus thee dazle thy Eyes and are too high and sublime for thee yet that in Heaven thou shalt have the Causes of natural things manifested to thee the deep and profound Mysteries of Religion and of thy Redemption and Salvation revealed to thee the Intricacies and Riddles of God's Providence unfolded to thee the Wisdom and Justice and Goodness of God in his darkest Dispensations and most inscrutable and unsearchable Actions cleared up to thee That there thou shalt know the Orders Offices Excellencies of the Angels and the Nature Operations and Original of thy own Soul which is given thee rather to use than to know in this present World That in the State of Glory thy Vnderstanding shall be extraordinarily and supernaturally illuminated and irradiated and thy Knowledg be wonderfully increas'd and advanced and thy Mind exceedingly pleased and delighted both by the Repetition and new †Variety of Contemplation That in the heavenly Glory the Divine Manifeslations and Communications shall be ample and liberal enough to fill all the Capacities and richly to answer all the Desires of thy most exalted and perfected Faculties That there thou shalt never feel any Want or Indigence but be so satisfied as not to be * satiated cloyed or glutted That [k] See D Patrick's parab of the Pilgr p. 97 98. And D. Rust's Serm. at the Funeral of Bp. Taylor p. 7. fol. Tametsi nibil desit ad plenam perfect amque loetutiam meredjbilem veluptatem quâ sruemur in dies * nulla tamen nos unquâ—â—n rerum â—starum satietas capiet quin quotidie †nova quaedaem tum contemplandi cognoscendi tum loet tiam ex contemâ—â—â—â—one percipiendi materia ex rebus illis manabit ac esslorâ—scet Thes Salmur de vita aeterna thes 27. in Heaven thou shalt alwaies reckon that thou hast sufficient already to make thee throughly and completely happy and yet still be receiving new Additions and fresh Accruements and an Accumulation of Satisfaction That every Participation of Truth and Goodness will stretch and distend the Capacities of thy Soul and fit thee for further and further Receptions That the Capacities of thy Faculties shall be continually widened and enlarged and continually filled and satisfied until thou arrivest unto such Degrees as thou canst assign no Measure unto This Meditation will cause thee to carry thy self so here that thou maiest be fit to attain a Perfection of Knowledg hereafter To be careful to know those Things now which are necessary to the present and preparatory to the future State and [l] Omnibus pietatis Christianae studiosis velut sertum â—â—â—â—dam suum commendare solebat dictum â—â—ud Hieronâ—mi ad â—â—â—linum Diseamus in 〈◊〉 quorum scientia nobi◠〈◊〉 in coelo Quod etiam Auditorio Theologico in 〈…〉 literas docebat inscriâ—sit Narrat hist de vita Das. Parei conscript à Phil. Par. Dav. fil the Knowledg of which will abide and continue and be heightned and perfected in the other World To beg of God that he would open thy Eyes here enlighten thy Understanding translate thee out of the Kingdom of Darkness and turn thee from Darkness to light Believing and considering that gross and sottish Ignorance here is an ill preparation for Perfectio of Knowledge hereafter That if now thou wilfully continuest ignorant of the very first Principles of the Oracles of God thou art unfit to go on to perfection and to be admitted another day to the Vnderstanding of the Secrets and hidden Mysteries of God That if now thou makest thy self like a Beast in Ignorance thou wilt be unmeet to be made like an Angel of God in the glorious Perfection of heavenly Knowledg If now thou darknest thy own Understanding and blindest thy own Mind thou wilt be unfit for the perfect Iagâ—n of the heavenly Glory If now thou shuttest thy Eyes against the Light and art afraid to come to the Light lest thy Deeds should be reprov'd thou wilt be utterly unmeet to be Partaker of the Inheritance of the saints in Light thou wilt only be meet for the Kingdom of Darkness fit to be cast out into utter Darkness and to inherit the Blackness of Darkness for ever 'T will make thee labour to get some competent Knowledg here which will be a good Preparation for perfect coplete Knowledg hereafter Remembring that to him that hath shall be given which is true of Knowledg as well as Grace And this Meditation will likewise stir thee up to practise and live up to
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
potation◠nque d ligebat c. Poslidonius de vita August Possidonius and [o] Mensam habebat magis srugiseris sermonibus quà m exqu sitis e luliis opiparam Eóque firè velsacram lectionem adhibebat mensae vel de re quaptam frugisera commentabatur ut non minùs ammt convivarum resi erentur quà n cerpora Lrasm epist ad archiep Toletan ante Op. August Erasmus certify us concerning St. Austin that he had a Table richly furnish'd rather with fruitful Discourses than exquisite Dainties That he took great care that their Table-talk should be serious and pious or some way profitable at least charitable and innocent To which end he ordered that a certain Distich or two Verses should be written on it or hung at it as a necessary Law forbidding those that fed at his Table to gnaw the good Names of others or to fasten their Teeth in them by back-biting of them by detracting from or speaking evil of absent Persons A Disease as Erasmus there well observes almost peculiar to those who otherwise make a profession of Piety when nothing is more alien from true Piety for this Pest usually steals upon Men under a shew of Probity and guise of Goodness while it would appear to be an hatred of Vices and a Zeal of Vertue Which great Evil was so abhorr'd by this holy Man that sometimes he would not yield to the Authority of the very Bishops but when some of his most familiar Fellow-Bishops were forgetful of that Writing and spake what was not agreeable to the Direction of it he would very sharply reprehend them and be so mov'd as to tell them Let them either blot out those written Verses or he would rise from the Table in the midst of his Refection and go to his Chamber if they would not forbear such Tales and Stories He would not suffer his Table to be polluted with such Talk but either required some Scripture to be read while he sat at Table or held some useful Disputation or discours'd concerning some fruitful Matter at Meals that the Minds of his Guests might be no less refresh'd than their Bodies How instructive and edifying were the Table-colloquies of the excellent Luther and the holy Mr. Greenham And [p] In the Life of Bp. Usher p. 57 58. Dr. Bernard acquaints us that the Discourses which daily fell from Bp. Usher at his Table in the clearing of Difficulties in the Scripture and other Subjects especially when learned Men came to visit him were of great advantage to such as were capable of them To others he would apply and accommodate himself with wonderful Humility and Condescention to their meaner Capacities to inform and satisfy their Minds and to work upon their Affections in practical Matters and in his Discourses would sometimes rather incline toward such than to others more learned It put me often in mind saies that worthy Doctor of that Speech of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon Happy are these thy Servants that continually stand about thee and hear thy Wisdom We should all ordinarily stir up our selves to use savoury Expressions and shew holy Affections when we are eating We should still taste and commend the Goodness of God in the variety of his Creatures we partake of and give God solemn hearty [q] A young man lying upon his Sick-bed was alwaies calling for meat but as soon as he saw it was brought to him at the sight of it he shook and trembled dreadfully in every part of his Body and so continued till his Food was carried away and thus being not able to eat he pined away and before his Death acknowledged God's Justice in that in his Health he had received his meat ordinarily without giving thanks Mr. Swinnock's Christ man's Call p. 409. thanks after every Meal for his satherly Care of us and seasonable bountiful Provision for us and ours and charge our selves to spend the Strength we receive from his Creatures in doing him faithful and cheerful Service And as we should be spiritual and heavenly in eating and drinking so we should use Recreations and Sleep to holy ends that by doing for the present little or nothing we may become more apt to do some good thing to be usefully occupied and worthily employed The tenth Direction If we would wisely redeem the Time we must make a good Choice of our Friends and Acquaintance and a good Improvement of our Company and Society 1. A good Choice of our Friends and Acquaintance The sense Man has of his own Weakness and Indigency makes him naturally much [a] The Philosopher sitly calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 addicted and strongly inclin'd to Company and Society which he apprehends so necessary for the * Gen. 2.18 Eccl. 4.9 10 11 12. Help Relief and Comfort of his Life But of all Society that is the most inward and intimate which has its Rise from Choice and Election In the making of which Choice great Caution and Consideration Care and Prudence is to be exercis'd for Men are either made or marr'd as to the forming of their Manners and further'd or hindred as to the Improvement of their Time and their Preparations for Eternity according to the Company they sall in with And therefore we need Direction in no Action of our Life more than in the Choice of our Company especially of our Friends our closest and most familiar Companions They are excellent Counsels that are given by [a] Bp. Taylot of the Measures and Ossices of Friendship p. 14. Pythagoras and [b] Bp. Taylot of the Measures and Ossices of Friendship p. 14. Theognis to guide and conduct our Choice [a] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pvvhag Aur. Carm 5. Where Vertue dwells there Friendships make [b] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theogn sent 113. But evil Neighbourhoods forsake [c] Virtutum amicitia adjutrix à natura data est non vitiorum comes ut quoniam solitaria non posset virtus ad ea quae summa sunt perventre conjuncta sociata cum altera perviniret Lael apud Cic. de Amic Tully tells us that Friendship is given and intended by Nature to be an Assistant Helper and Advancer of Vertues and not a Companion Prompter and Promoter of Vices It therefore greatly concerns and becomes you so to pick and chuse your Friends and Acquaintance as may best serve some excellent End of Vertue And yet we sind when Persons are to chuse their most bosom Friends the Companions of their Youth and Age that they and their Relations who are their Guides and Governours do too commonly regard bodily Beauty and worldly Portion more than Piety and Religion and all the Riches and Ornaments of Grace and Helps for Salvation and Advantages of living and growing in the Knowledg and Faith and Fear of God Laelius in Cicero relates of Scipio that he was wont to complain that Men were exceeding diligent in all other Provisions would
one another's sinning and to promote the Work of Grace and Holiness in one another's Hearts Take Occasion to warm not so much one another's Houses as one another's Hearts Visit one another in the Evening meet together and confer one with another at leisure hours and on daies of Recreation * Mal. 3.16 Speak often one to another concerning the things that belong to the Peace of one another's Souls and concern the Conditiion of the Church of Christ Build up †Jude 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one another on your most holy Faith ‖ 1 Thess 5.11 Comfort your selves together and edify one another (*) Heb. 3.13 Exhort one another daily while it is called To day Let your Exhortation be mutual and reciprocal frequent and continual seasonable and speedy lest any of you be hardened through the Deceitfulness of Sin Take the first Opportunity of dealing with thy Friend as the case and need of his Soul requires lest Death remove him unexpectedly out of the reach of thy Charity to all Eternity Consider with thy self that should thy Companion live longer yet he may continue in the omission of some Duty because you only purpose to put him upon it Or he may go on in the commission of some Sin grow more and more in Love with it and fall more under the Power of it because you have only some thought and intention to turn him from it Support preserve and keep one another from falling and in the Spirit of Meekness raise and recover (†) Gal. 6.1 restore and (‖) Jam 5.19 convert one another when overtaken and fallen in any degree and measure either into Sin or Errour * Le◠19 17. Hate not your Friend or Brother in your Heart in any wise rebuke your Neighbour and never suffer Sin upon him when you find him offending against God or Man And * Mat. 18.15 if a Friend or Brother shall plainly trespass against thee go and tell him his Fault between thee and him alone not seeming to reproach him by chiding and reprehending him in publick nor offering to back-bite him by talking privately to others against him †Col. 3.16 Rom. 15 14. Teach and admonish one another and let it appear that you practise your own Precepts and take your selves the Counsel you give to others Follow Tertullian's excellent Advice [p] Oportet constantiam commenend proprtie conversationis autheritate dertgere ne icta faciis aesictent thus crubescant Tert. de patientia initio strengthen your friendly Admonition and Exhortation with the Authority of your own Conversation that your want of Deeds may not make you blush at your own Words and let me add that your Friend and Companion may not neglect and reject your Sayings because he knows too well your Doings As oftentimes you thrust away the good Light of a Candle for the ill savour which the stinking Tallow yields Let none have reason to retort and say ‖ Luke 4.23 Physician heal thy self (*) Rom. 2 21. Thou which teachest another teachest thou not thy self What Mr. Herbert speaks of Ministers may be sitly accommodated to the Exhortations and Admonitions of Christian Friends [q] The Windows Doctrine and Life Colours and Light in one When they combine and mingle bring A strong Regard and Aw but Speech alone Doth vanish like a flaring thing And in the Ear not Conscience ring (†) Heb 10 24. Consider one another to provoke unto Love and to good Works or to [r] Dr. Ham of frat Admon or Correp p. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sharpen or provoke in one another Charity and good or laudable Works You are apt to forget and prone to neglect your selves you have need enough of one anothers spiritual Care and Help 't is necessary that others should watch and observe incite and assist you be at some trouble and take some pains with you your own and others Consideration and Provocation of you is little enough to stir and move you Ponder and [s] Dr. Hum. Par. in loc weigh all Advantages that you can have one upon another to excite and extimulate to engage and quicken one another to the Exercise of Charity and all Actions of Piety whensoever you find any thing of fainting or growing cold in one another Search and enquire into one anothers spiritual Estates mind and study the Cases and Conditions of one anothers Souls the Causes and Cures of one another spiritual Distempers Be very solicitous for one anothers present and future Good carefully consult the spiritual Prosperity and eternal Welfare of one another Consider one another to provoke one another not to Sin and Wickedness to Vanity and Folly to uncertain Opinions to Faction and Division to Siding and Party-taking not to that which is highly provoking but exceeding well-plealing to God not to Wrath but to Love not to Evil but to Good Works Consider and provoke one another not as the Devil considers and provokes Men by his Temptations but as God considers and provokes Men who watches over us continually prevents us daily with his Grace strengthens us against Temptations affords us his Counsel instils many good Motions into our Minds and often incites and stirs us up to the Duties incumbent on us And as Christ consider'd and provoked Sinners when he was here on Earth to Faith and Repentance good Works and Obedience who went about doing Good doing good to Mens Souls as well as Bodies who freely convers'd with them frequently instructed them affectionately exhorted them powerfully press'd them plainly reprov'd them was grieved for the Hardness of their Hearts lamented and wept over their Impenitency and Insidelity Consider thy Companion at such a season when it is most likely that he may consider what you say to him Provoke him to Good when in all probability it may do most good Remember to consider and provoke one another in a serious manner Never offer to utter a few cold dull dead Words between Jest and Earnest but earnestly perswade and pathetically expostulate one with another and let one another plainly see that every Application does arise and proceed from Love and Compassion and that it is the Desire of your Souls to save one another's Souls Let your Words be as * Eccl. 12.1 Goads as the Wise Man speaks to prick one another forward in the way of Religion Instead of detaining one another unnecessarily from the Publick Assembly stir up one another with an holy Zeal and say one to another in the Words of the Prophet * Zech. 8.21 Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of Hosts I will go also Be not Quench-coals but as live Coals begetting Heat in those that are next you Let Christian Acquaintance use their utmost Endeavours to bring one another more acquainted with God and with their own spiritual States and Conditions Let Christian Neighbours study
our Health and Strength to resume our old-acquaintance Sins or to * Ps 85.8 turn again to Folly Did we but answer our sacred Vows and solemn Promises we should no longer be expensive and wasteful of our pretious Hours We should not be [f] Inter caetera mala hoc quoque habet stultitia proprium semper incipit vivere Epicuri dictum à Seneca laudatum ep 13 Considera quà m foeda sit hominum levitas quotidie nova vitae fundamenta ponentium novas spes etiam in exitu inchoantium Id. ib. Malè vivunt qui semper vivere incipiunt quia semper illis imperfecta vita est Non potest autem stare paratue ad mortem qui modò incipit vivere Id agendum est ut satis vixerimus nemo hoc putat qui ordetur cùm maximè vitam Id. ep 23. alwaies beginning to live but should live indeed and in good earnest We should in time make so sure of a blessed Eternity that we should never more have cause to fear either Sickness Death the Grave or Hell The twelfth and last Direction If we would effectually redeem the Time we must not give way to any Delay but strengthen and settle our Resolution against any farther Procrastination * Luke 19.44 Know the Time of thy Visitation †Verse 42. Know in this thy Day the things which belong unto thy Peace ‖ Is 55.6 Ps 32.2 Seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near (*) Job 22 21. Acquaint now thy self with God (†) Mat. 5.25 Agree with thine Adversary quickly whilst thou art in the Way with him (‖) 3.7 Flee from the Wrath to come Not go nor run but flee * Heb. 6.18 Flee for Refuge to lay hold upon the Hope set before you as of old the unwitting and unwilling Man-slayer was wont to hasten to take hold upon the Horns of the Altar and to †Exod. 21.13 Num. 35.6 Deut. 4.41 flee for safety to a Sanctuary or City of Refuge when hotly pursued by the enraged Avenger of Blood Be able to say with holy David ‖ Ps 119.60 I made [a] Properat vivere nemo sntis Martial l. 2. epigr. 90. haste and delayed not to keep thy Commandments Where the Prophet expresses it both affirmatively and negatively and so the more Emphatically after the manner of the Hebrews to shew his promptitude and readiness speediness and quickness in [b] Calv. in loc comparison of those dull and lazy Procrastinators who come not at all or come but softly and slowly to God And [c] Quanquam verba sunt praeteriti temporis continuum tamen actum notant Ibid. though the Words speak of the time past yet as Calvin observes they note a continual act I made haste and delayed not and I still make haste and now do not delay to keep thy Commandments Remember how Abraham rose up early in the Morning and without objecting or disputing or letting slip the first opportunity was ready to offer and forward to sacrifice his only Son at God's command Gen. 22.3 And how Christ's Disciples at his first Call immediatly left their Nets the Ship and their Father and followed him Matth. 4.20 22. And take Example by the wise Merchant in the Parable who dispatch'd his necessary business immediatly without cunctation or delay The account there given of him is express'd all in the present Tense He * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 13.44 goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth the Field in which the Treasure was hid †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 6.10 While you have opportunity do good to your selves and do good to all Let me say to you concerning Time and Opportunity as Boaz said to his Kinsman concerning the Land ‖ Ruth 4.4 If you will redeem it redeem it Stand no longer dallying and trifling in a matter that requires haste and speed For here consider 1. The sooner the better 'T is better 1. In respect of God 2. Of our selves 1. The sooner we redeem the Time the better it is in respect of God for God is abundantly more honoured and better serv'd by it He is more honoured by it Our making haste to redeem the Time prevents the doing of much Dishonour which by great and gross misspence of our Time would many waies be cast upon God by our affronting his Authority continuing in open Rebellion against him breaking his holy and righteous Laws abusing his Creatures and misemploying his Gifts from day to day And more than so It actually and positively does much honour to him as it is a ready present obedient Answer to God's Call who cries * Heb. 3.7 13. To day while it is called to day And a real demonstration and high expression of our ardent Love and hearty Affection to him and his Laws and Waies and an open and constant Justification of their Equity Bonity Suavity and Amability in the eye of the World And it is no small Honour done to God that by making haste and not delaying we devote the best of our Time to him and put him not off with the very dregs and refuse And further yet as God is more honoured so he is much better served by it The more haste we make to redeem the Time we shall be the better disposed more adapted and sitted for the Service of God become more meet Vessels for our Master's Vse and not only acquire greater Abilities but meet with larger more frequent and various Opportunities of doing God faithful and acceptable Service The sooner we enter in the longer we shall labour in our Lord's Vineyard and do the more work for our Heavenly Master 2. The sooner we redeem the Time the better it is in respect of our selves 'T is more honour able more pleasurable more profitable to do it sooner than later 1. It is more honour able to hasten and not to delay for this is a Sign that our Acts and Deeds are free and voluntary not forced and constrained That what we do in Religion we do of good will and choice On a Sick or Death-bed a Man is scared into a sudden and unchosen Piety and frighted into sits of involuntary Devotion He that never sets himself to redeem his Time till a mighty Fear forcibly drives and impells him to it till he finds he approaches and draws near to the Gates of Death and Hell and is ready to give up his unready and unallowable Accounts to the great and righteous Judg This Man acts dishonourably for he does nothing out of disaffection to his Sins nothing at all for the Love of God and for the sake of Vertue But it is an Honour and a Credit to a Christian to redeem the Time by his own Election and to act for God out of a free and ingenuous Principle of Love 2. The more haste we make to redeem the Time it is so much the more pleasurable
offer'd to God and prove available to cross and cancel all the Debts and wipe off the many and great Guilts of a fifty or threescore Years Impiety and Iniquity And that the Pardon of all thy Sins will be comfortably sealed and thy Soul be certainly consign'd to the Joys of Paradise and Glory of Heaven by receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper immediatly before thy Departure That if thou canst but form and frame thy shortest Breath to call upon God with these five Words Lord have Mercy upon me but a little before thy last Gasp they will really [n] Dâ—ke prove as powerful and available for the happy Translation of thy Soul to Heaven as the mumbling over those five Words of Consecration Hoc est enim Corpus meum for this is my Body is by the Papists imagined to be effectual for the Transubstantiation of their Host Is this consistent with the use of Reason and Consideration to venture all upon a Death-bed Repentance to take a wilful Course to bring thy self into such a Condition in which thou shalt be utterly unable with all the help that can be afforded thee to find out one Promise or to meet with one Example in the whole Bible that will full reach or plainly and properly speak to thy particular case and afford thee sufficient support relief and Comfort in that dark and dismal Day and Hour Obj. No Promise may some object and say Why what do you make of those Words At what time soever a Sinner doth repent him of his Sins from the bottom of his Heart I will put all his Wickedness out of my Remembrance saith the Lord. Answ For answer give me leave to tell you what others make of these Words and those very great Divines too There are no such Words in the whole Bible saies the very Learned [l] Serm. of the Invalid of a Death bed Rep. part 2. Bp. Taylor nor any nearer to the sense of them than those Words of the Prophet Ezekiel chap. 18.21 But if the Wicked will turn from all his Sins that he hath committed and keep all my Statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not die Or those chap. 33.14 15. in which you shall find Repentance more fully described When I say unto the Wicked Thou shalt surely die If he turn from his Sin and do that which is lawful and right if the Wicked restore the Pledg give again that he had robbed walk in the Statutes of Life without committing Iniquity he shall surely live he shall not die Here only is the condition of Pardon to leave all your Sins to keep all God's Statutes to walk in them to abide to proceed and make progress in them and this without the interruption by a deadly Sin without committing Iniquity to make restitution Satisfaction for all Injury to our Neighbour's Fame all wrongs done to his Soul When this is done according to thy utmost Power then thou hast repented truly then thou hast a title to the Promise Thou shalt surely live thou shalt not die for thy old Sins thou hast formerly committed This Place of Ezekiel is it which is so often mistaken for that common Saying At what time soever c. Repentance as stated by the Prophet cannot be done at what time soever not upon a Man's Death-bed Let that Saying therefore no more deceive you or be made a colour to countenance a persevering Sinner or a Death-bed Penitent And it is observable what a free reflection the judicious Chillingworth in a [m] P. 337. Sermon preached before King Charles the First was bold to make upon that Passage which then stood in the entrance to our Common-Prayer-Book I would to God saies he the Composers of our Liturgy out of a care of avoiding mistakes and to take away Occasion of cavilling our Liturgy and out of Fear of encouraging Carnal Men to security in sinning had been so provident as to set down in Terms the first Sentence taken out of the 18th of Ezekiel and not have put in the place of it an ambiguous and though not in it self yet accidentally by reason of the mistake to which it is subject I fear very often a pernicious Paraphrase for whereas thus they make it At what time soever saith the Lord the plain truth if you will hear it is the Lord doth not say so these are not the very Words of God but the Paraphrase of Men The Words of God are * Ezek. 18.21 where I hope you easily observe that there is no such Word as At what time soever a Sinner doth repent c. and that there is a wide difference between this as the Word repent usually sounds in the Ears of the People and turning from all Sins and keeping all God's Statutes That indeed having no more in it but Sorrow and good Purposes may be done easily and certainly at the last Gasp and it is very strange that any Christian who dies in his right Senses and knows the difference between Heaven and Hell should fail of the performing it but this Work of turning keeping and doing is ordinarily a Work of Time a long and laborious Work but yet Heaven is very well worth it and if you mean to go through with it you had need go about it presently And I find the Reverend and Learned Mr. Robert Bolton expressing himself to the same purpose [n] Mr. Bolton's Instruct for a right coms Affl. Conse pag. 254 255. I marvel saies he that any should be so blindfolded and baffled by the Devil as to embolden himself to drive off until the last by that Place before Confession At what time soever c. Especially if he look upon the Text from whence it is taken which me-thinks being rightly understood and the Conditions well considered is most punctual and precise to fright any from that desperate Folly The Words run thus Ezek. 18.21 22 c. Hence it appears that if any Man expect upon good ground any portion in this pretious Promise of Mercy and Grace he must leave all his Sins and keep all God's Statutes Now what space is left to come to Comfort by keeping all God's Statutes when thou art presently to pass to that highest and dreadful Tribunal to give an exact and strict Account for the continual Breach of all God's Laws all thy Life long But I must desire the Objector to remember that when some Alterations were made by Authority in our Liturgy the Paraphrase was removed and the proper Words of Scripture put in the room of it and now the self-deceiving Procrastinator will not well know what to do for want of a What time soever c. which is nowhere now to be found or met with in all his Bible or Common-Prayer-Book Obj. But a Friend to Delaies may further object and say Though I confess I was out in alledging the Promise yet certainly there is an Example that affords sufficient ground of
Comfort to a late and Death-bed Penitent You cannot deny saies he but that the Thief was converted upon the Cross in the last Hour of his Life and notwithstanding his extream late Repentance was accepted and received by Christ to Mercy Answ It is especially from this Example abused that ignorant Dawbers and untaught Teachers take occasion to prepare and make up that [o] Bp. Andrews serm 1. of Repent and Fast p. 181. Opiate Divinity which they minister to the Souls of superficial Death-bed Penitents and so send them away into the Paradise of Fools And this is the great Rock of Presumption which many build or rather split upon They resolve to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin during the Season of their Health and Strength and intend and hope to repent of their Sins and turn to God to accept of Christ and make sure of Heaven upon the Cross of their last Sickness and with the beatified Thief to slip immediatly into Paradise But I shall labour to convince you that the Instance of the Thief upon the Cross will [p] Vid. Chillingworth's serm 6th on Luke 16.9 p. 397. not suit your Condition nor serve your turn For here consider with me these few things 1. That it may be he was not so vile and vicious a Person as he is commonly taken to have been for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Latro do not alwaies note a Thief or Robber but signify a Souldier and out of Zeal to the Jews he might have somewhat transgress'd the Roman Laws It may be otherwise he was not altogether so bad a Man But thou knowest the heinous circumstances of thy own misled and ill-governed Life But 2. Suppose him to have been a notorious Ill Liver yet it is to be considered that the Conversion and Salvation of the Thief is an extraordinary Instance For 1. The Thief was converted at a very remarkable Time when the Son of God and Saviour of the World shed his precious Blood and suffer'd a painful shameful Death to satisfy the Divine Law and Justice and to redeem and recover lost and miserable Mankind And certainly if ever God would work a Miracle he would do it then Dost thou hope to exercise Repentance unto Life at the Hour of Death and to sue out a Pardon with thy last Breath when thou hast not heartily and devoutly call'd upon God in all thy Life because God had Mercy on the Thief upon the Cross Tell me canst thou expect that Christ should come another Time into the World and suffer again and die once more for Mankind if so then thou maiest conceive great Hopes indeed that God will do the like again and it may fare as well with thee as it did with the Thief Christ then triumphing on the Cross saies the Worthy [p] Threat of Repent p. 161. Mr. Daniel Dyke did as Princes do in the Triumph of Entring into their Kingdoms they pardon gross Offences before committed such as they pardon not afterwards And [q] Instruct for a right comf Affl. Consc p. 251. Mr. Robert Bolton useth an Illustration somewhat like it A King sometimes pardons a Malefactour at the Place of Execution saies he wilt thou therefore run desperately into some horrible Villany deserving Death hoping to be that One amongst many Thousands If God do good to any Sinner that has securely liv'd in his Sins all his Daies and bring him home to himself at last he goes out of the way of his ordinary Grace and Providence and the Conversion of a Sinner upon his Death-bed it is a high expression of extraordinary Grace and Mercy and an Act of God's absolute Power and Soveraignty And surely it is safest and most comfortable to expect from God not meerly what he can do but what he has promis'd in his Word and given us plain notice that he will do and what in the ordinary course of his Providence he declares himself ready to do I make no Question but God is [n] Agentia naturali mode debilius agunt quà m ut possant unt actu habitum informare idóque opus est subinde râ—petit is actibu At res longè aluer se habet in divinis cùn nemsram is qui producit actum Deus est Deus inquam agent tantâ vi efficacia ut statim primo illo actis in utraqus animae parte seu potentia habitus fides charatates ingeneret atque infundat quasi Cameronis oper p. 912. But I think that ordinarily Habitus infusi infunduntur ad modum acquisitoâ—â—â— able in the shortest Time to work such clear and strong Convictions and to make such powerful deep Impressions upon the Mind and Heart of a dying Sinner as should have the virtue and power of a general Habit or be equivalent to many particular Habits and in case of longer continuance of Life should be effectual to a lasting persevering Obedience And I readily acknowledg that the Nature of God is infinitely merciful and that it was the gracious Nature of God which mov'd and inclined him to make the Evangelical Promise and I think he has not so restrain'd and bound up himself by the New Covenant but that if he please he may use [p] Divine tum libertati tum gratiae ac nilsericer liae detr thi aut decedere non parùn videtur si dicatur Deum non posse aut nulo u quam tempote velle extra ordinem idâ—st praeter aut suprae quà n promisit paenitentium resipiseentium licèt se ò admodum iâ— capulo quasi vitae suae misereri Non entm astringitur suis legtbus proprits Deus sed jus suunt supremum semper intig um siet servat agendi pro arbitrio suo Annon licit mibi facere de meo quod volo Mat. 20.15 Ad jus autem Divinum hoc pertinet aestimatio paenitentiae resipiscentiae quae in sine vitae fit pro paenitentta resipiscentia quae spe ventae digna est Epise Resp ad 64 Quaest quaest 15. Prerogative Royal and act beyond his own Covenant-obligation and ordinary certain and express Promise to the saving of a Sinner upon the change of his Mind and Heart and his having [q] See Dr. Sibbs's Soul's Conflict p. 327. an eternal desire of pleasing God begotten in him by special Grace who had no time to perform the constant Obedience of a holy Life But is it easy for thee to expect that an infinitely wise holy and just God should at last act in a very extraordinary way to save thee who wouldst destroy thy self and hast long neglected the ordinary Means of thy Soul's Salvation and wouldst by no means know and do the things that belonged unto thy Peace How very justly may God at last * Prov. 1.26 [r] Risus Dei longè gravior est irâ Dei Quod Deus loquitur cum risu tu legas cuns luctu Aug. laugh at thy Calamity and mock when thy Fear cometh 2. The Learned