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
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
when he stands ready with Strength and Assistance when he publisheth great and precious Promises when the golden Scepter is held out by God to us as it was to * Esther 5.2 Esther by Ahasuerus when gracious Offers merciful Tenders kind and loving Invitations are made and repeated and very sweet and comfortable Encouragements propounded and assured to penitent Sinners in the Ministery of the Word this is †Rev. 2.21 space given for Repentance this is a golden Season of Grace in which we may have Christ and all his precious and saving Benefits upon the reasonable Terms and acceptable Conditions of the Gospel When the Trumpet of the Jubile soundeth when Liberty to the Captives and the Opening of the Prison to them that are bound is proclaimed ‖ 2 Cor. 6. i 2. Behold now is the accepted Time behold now is the Day of Salvation O ‖ 2 Cor. 6. i 2. receive not the Grace of God in vain lose not so long and large a Season make your Advantage of the Time of the Gospel be thankful for it and faithful in the Use and Improvement of it close with the Gospel and daily and earnestly endeavour and pray that it may be made effectual to you Repent believe sincerely obey in this thy Day Repent think upon thy Waies be sorry for thy Sins hate them forsake them repent with a Repentance from dead Works never to be repented of So change thy Mind as to change thy Manners to reform and alter the Course of thy Life for the future So truly repent as to take care to bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance Believe not with a bare historical a meer intellectual Faith not with an idle dronish wholly ineffectual Assent but with a [b] Fortasse unusquisque apud seipsum dicet Ego jam credidi salvus ero verum dicit si fidem operibus tenet vera etenim fides est qua in hoc quod verbis dicit moribus non contradicit Fidei nostrae veritatem in vitae nostrae consideratione debemus agno cere Greg. Hom. 29. in Euang. Credere in Deum est credendo amare credendo diligere credendo in eum â—re membris ejus incorporari Putasne Filium Dei Iesum reputat quisquis ille est homo qui ipsius nec terretus comminationthus nec attrahitur promissonibus nec praeceptis obtemperat nec consiliis acquiescit Nonne is etiamsi fatearur se nosse Deum factis tamen negat Bernard in Octav. Pasc de tribus Testim in coelo ter serm 1. p. 88. practical active operative Belief So believe the Word of God as to take it seriously and in good earnest for the only Rule of thy Conversation in Matters necessary to Salvation So firmly receive and assent to the Divine Testimony as to have thy Heart rightly affected and thy Life powerfully influenced by it So cordially believe the Truth of the Gospel as to resolve and on all Occasions to endeavour to carry suitably to such Belief to live and act as a Person that does indeed believe it and to answer the end for which divine Truth was revealed which is the bringing us to good Lives So yield Assent to the Doctrine of the Gospel as to close and comply with the Terms of the Gospel and heartily to consent to the whole Duty of Man contain'd and delivered in the Word or God and Gospel of Christ so assent to the Commands of the Gospel as true as withal to love and like them to choose and embrace them as good and as good for thee yea as incomparably better for thee to observe than any other Rule that possibly can be respected by thee whatever they cause thee to lose or suffer here in this World So give your undoubted Assent to them as to cleave closely and stick invincibly to them against all flattering or affrighting Temptations to the contrary and still to engage and charge and provoke thy self to conform thy whole Heart and Life to them Farther So assent to the Truth of the Gospel-Promises as to take care to perform the necessary Conditions of them to trust in the Promises of the Gospel with an obediential Affiance with an obsequious and dutiful Reliance to trust in them according to the Tenour of them to trust in the Promises of Pardon and Remission in the Exercise of sincere and unfeigned Repentance and in the Promises of Sanctification in the Use of Gospel-Ordinances and Means and diligent Improvement of the Grace of God already communicated and received and in the Promises of Life everlasting in the way of new and sincere Obedience Assent to the Promises not only that they are true and real but that they are also the most valuable that can be * 1 Pet. 1 4. exceeding great and precious Promises so as to prefer the Promises of God above all the Proffers of the World as better than any thing that the Devil can offer or the World afford Farther yet So assent to the Truth of the Threatnings of the Word as to fear and stand in aw of them and to study to avoid those Sins which will put thee in Danger of temporal and eternal Sufferings and to keep thy self free from the Fear of the Menaces of Men while thou art in the way of thy Duty to God Believe the whole Word of God and Believe in all the Persons of the holy and blessed Trinity So assent to the Truth of whatsoever is spoken in the Scripture of God and Christ and the Spirit of God and Christ as deliberately to choose God the Father Son and holy Ghost for thy Portion and Treasure thy Happiness and chief Good To bring thy Heart to own love honour serve and worship God the Father as thy good and bountiful Creator and Preserver and very merciful God Redeemer by Jesus Christ and freely and gladly to consent to have God the Father for thy Covenant-Friend and reconciled gracious Father And to accept with all Love and Thankfulness even a crucified Christ for thy only Lord and Saviour to bring thee to God thy chiefest Good by reconciling thy Person and Nature to him to recover and bring thee back both in Heart and Life to God and to rest and rely upon Christ and on God only in and through Christ for Justification Sanctification and eternal Salvation according to the Promises of the Gospel Cordially receive him in all his Offices And here 1. Accept of Christ as a Priest to save thee by the offering of himself a Sacrifice in thy stead and by making Intercession on thy behalf And labour to answer the ends of his Death by Purity and Holiness of Heart and Life and to act becoming his Intercession to live so as it may be fit for Christ with Honour to present your Works and Services to his Father to be accepted by him to do nothing but what is worthy of such a Mediatour as Christ is to present unto God on your behalf Now tell me is
or a Duty to observe the Lord's-day or to come constantly to the Congregation or to repeat Sermons and the like If these ungodly Wretches had one spark of spiritual Life within them and any taste and feeling of the matters that concern their own Salvation instead of asking How can you prove that I must pray with my Family or that I must keep the Lord's-day they would be readier to say How can you prove that I may not pray with nay Family and that I may not sanctify the Lord's-day and that I may not have Communion with the Saints in Holiness I can perceive in many that I converse with the great difference between an Heart that loâ—es God and Holiness and an Heart that seems religious and honest without such a Love The true Conveit perceiveth so much sweetness in holy Duties and so much spiritual advantage by them to his Soul that he is loch to be kept back he can not spare these Ordinances no more than he can spare the Bread from his Mouth or the Clothes from his Back yea or the Skin from his Flesh no not so much He loveth them he cannot live without them And therefore if he had but a bare leave from God without a Command to sanctify the Lord's-day and to live in the holy Communion of the Saints he would joyfully take it with many thanks for he need not be driven to his Rest when he is weary nor to his spiritual Food when he is hungry But the unsanctified Hypocrite that never loved God or Godliness in his Heart he stands questioning and enquiring for some proof of a Necessity of thâ—se Courses And if he can but bring himself to hope that God will save him without so much adoe away then goes the Duty He never was Religious from a true Predominant love to God and an holy Life but for fear of Hell and for other inferiour respects Mr. Baxter's Direct and Perswas to a sound Convers from p. 372 to 376. too strict of being too holy on this holy Day 'T is an excellent Saying of Tully Nemo pius est qui pietatem cavet The plain English of which is this No man is truly godly who is afraid of being too godly Will you so observe the Lord's-day as you were ready to promise you would when you lay last upon a Sick-Bed and as careless Sinners commonly wish they had when they come to lie upon a Death-bed Will you make every Sabbath here on Earth resemble in some Degree that eternal Rest which you hope to hallow more perfectly in Heaven Seriously consider how many Lord's-daies you have lost already and what reason you have to observe and improve those that remain Do you know how few such Daies you shall ever enjoy more It may be this Lord's-day may be the last Before the next Sabbath comes thou maiest be called to a reckoning for neglecting and mis-spending all that are past Thou art not sure that ever thou shalt pray in publick more that never the Liberty shall again be afforded thee of hearing another Sermon preach'd to thee Thou maiest never enjoy such a blessed Opportunity to take pains with thy Family and to save their Souls from Death before thou diest If God shall please to put such Prices into thy Hands God give thee an Heart to make use of them Carefully redeem the Lord's-day and every Day after shew in thy Life that thou hast redeem'd it Make it appear by the Frame of thy Actions and Course of thy Life all the Week long that thou hast been under spiritual powerful quickening Ordinances the last Lord's-day You that enjoyed Communion with God on the Lord's-day have no parley with Satan no familiarity with Sin no fellowship with the unfruitful Works of Darkness on any of the Week-daies following Be sure you every Day avoid those Sins which you solemnly confess'd the last Lord's-day and live over the Praiers you made that Day and live up to the Sermons you heard that Day and obey from the Heart that Form of Doctrine which that Day was delivered to you Perform every Day those Resolutions and Promises which you made to God on the Lord's-day and keep the Covenant you renewed at the Sacrament on that Day and maintain the Warmth that was wrought on your Souls by the Word and Spirit on that Day Use every Day the Grace you ask'd obtain'd and receiv'd on the Lord's-day and act in the Strength and Power of Christ which was communicated and given in to you in your Attendance upon him in his own Ordinances on his own Day This is the second particular Season and special Opportunity that is to be carefully redeem'd by every Christian The Morning of the Week the Lord's Day And I have purposely treated so largely concerning the Redemption of the Lord's-day because it is so despised in the Judgment and disregarded in the Practice of the confident Men of this dissolute and degenerate Age. The third Particular Opportunity to be redeem'd As the Morning of every Week the first Day of the Week so the [i] Dr. Gouge was very conscientious in the expence of his Time from his Youth to the very Time of his Death His custom was to rise very early both in the Winter and Summer In the Winter-time he constantly rose so long before Day as that he alwaies perform'd all the exercises of his Private Devotions before Day-light And in the Summer-time he rose about four a Cleck in the Morning by which means he had done half his Work before others began their Studies If he happen'd to hear any at their Work before he began his Studies he would say as Demosthenes spake concerning the Smith that he was much troubled that any should be at the Works of their Calling before he was at his In his Life among Mr. Clark's Lives of ten Em Div. p. 116 117. He continued in King's Colledg for the space of mine Years and in all that Time except he went forth of Town to his Friends he was never absent from Morning-Praiers in the Chappel which used to be about half an Hour after five a Clock in the Morning yea he used to rise so long before he went to the Chappel as that he gained Time for his Secret Devotions and for reading his Morning-task of the Scriptures Ibid p. 97. Morning of every Day is a special Season that ought to be redeem'd and improved by a Christian to spiritual Advantage The Morning is an Opportunity of giving God the very first and best of the Day and the chief of our Life Spirits and Strength In the Morning our Spirits are recreated and repair'd and our Bodies strengthned and refresh'd with the Rest and Sleep of the Night past and our Minds are vacant and not disturb'd with those Images and Representations of Things which the variety of worldly Employments in the Day usually fill and possess us with In the Morning our Minds are most free and our Affections most lively as
unlawful Deeds He vexed himself was active in it Saint Peter expresses more in this than in the former Verse as Calvin observes to wit that Lot did [n] Nempe quòd voluntarios cruciatus justus Lot subierit Calv. in loc voluntarily and willingly afflict himself He did it freely he was not forc'd to it He vexed himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is [o] Est Metaphera à toâ—mentis ducta Gethar in loc a Metaphor drawn from Torments says Gerhard [p] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rich Man being in Torments Luke 10.23 The same Word is used to set out Hell-Torments This good Man continually tortured and tormented himself He lived a grievous painful Life labouring no less than if he had laien upon the Rack It was a kind of Hell upon earth to him to see and hear such Things among them They gave him Ground and Cause enough of Trouble and Grief by their Impieties and Impurities and his righteous Soul could not but work upon that Matter and vex and afflict himself therewith The gross Wickedness of ungodly Men is contrary to the gracious Temper and new Nature of a good Man and therefore he is no more able to bear it than the Stomach can bear that which it nauseates As a musical Ear will be offended with any harsh Sound So Sin grates upon a godly Man and is a Discord to him At his new Birth there was implanted in his Nature a true Zeal to the Cause and Interest of Righteousness and Goodness in the World an inward Sense of its Beauty Excellency and Usefulness in the World and a clear Conviction and strong Apprehension of the Vanity Unprofitableness and Mischievousness of Sin in the World The righteous Man has a real Dislike of a mighty Prejudice and inward Antipathy against Sin as Sin He hates Sin and loves Holiness heartily wherever he sinds it and really wishes that there were no such Evil as Sin in the World He is of another Spirit than wicked Men are of a better Constitution of a purer and more refined Temper His new Nature and Disposition is directly contrary to that which is evil and therefore whenever he sees it wherever he meets with it it is a Vexation and Torment to him So holy David seriously laid to heart the Sins of others was deeply affected with them and heavily afflicted for them * Psal 119.53 Horrour hath taken hold upon me because of the Wicked that forsake thy Law ‖ Verse 136 139. Rivers of Waters run down mine Eyes because they keep not thy Law †Verse 158. My Zeal hath consumed me not because I have Enemies and these Enemies despise me but because mine Enemies have forgotten thy Words I beheld the Transgressors and was grieved because they kept not thy Word (*) Psal 69.9 The Zeal of thine House hath eaten me up and the Reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me When he was in Trouble he testifies his Sorrow for the Reproaches that fell upon God as if he himself had been reproached And the Prophet Jeremy could say (†) Jer. 13.17 My Soul shall weep in secret Places for your Pride And the Saints in Jerusalem are described to be (‖) Ezek. 9.4 Men that sigh and that cry for all the Abominations that be done in the midst thereof And you know St. Paul is very famous for this Affection In the case of the incestuous Person he wrote unto the Corinthians [*] 2 Cor. 2.4 with many Tears out of much Affliction and Anguish of Heart I fear lest when I come again saies he my God will humble me among you and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already and have not repented of the Vncleanness and Fornication and Lasciviousness which they have committed [†] 2 Cor. 12.21 * Phil. 3.18 Many walk saies he of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the Enemies of the Cross of Christ. 1. O that it might be thus with every one of us Let a Time of others Sin be the Time of our Sorrow Let it greatly trouble us to see our good God wronged our heavenly Father abused and his holy just and good Law broken and violated To see the Gospel dishonoured and Religion discredited To see Satan pleased and honoured and his Kingdom strengthned and advanced by the Wickedness of the Wicked To see the precious Souls of Sinners hazarded and endangered by their own wilful Sin and Wickedness To observe rarional Creatures living like mere brute Beasts Baptized Christians acting like very Devils incarnate To find Men rebelling against Light resisting a Reproof loath to be reclaimed hardned in their Sin and hating to be reformed To see so many Fools and Mad-men besotted and bewitch'd cruel to their own Souls and Enemies to their own Peace refusing all Helps of Health and Cure contemning the Means of their Recovery fond of a Disease in love with Slavery devoted to their Enemy courting their own Misery and Calamity chusing Death rather than Life eternal Life walking apace in the broad Way that leadeth to Destruction running on in the Way to Hell the Way that goeth down to the Chambers of Death To behold so many stabbing themselves to the very Heart greedily swallowing their own Poison running into Pest-houses and infected Places drowning themselves in Destruction and Perdition and casting themselves into intolerable eternal unquenchable Flames 2. And let us moreover mourn to see so much Hurt and Misohief done in the World by others open Sin and Wickedness To see Sin become so fashionable and creditable To behold so many corrupted and infected hardned and confirmed in Sin and Wickedness by the ill Examples of loose Livers and vicious debauched Persons To discern the heinous provoking Sins of notoriously wicked Persons hastening and pulling down Judgment after Judgment upon the Land of our Nativity and the Places of our abode To see Sin spread this spiritual Plague encrease and a Cloud of divine Wrath and Judgment gathering and growing thick and black and hanging over our Heads ready to drop and shower down upon us Let us be so publick spirited as to be troubled exceedingly troubled that so much Mischief publick Mischief should be done by others Sins That so many should be drawn into Sin or brought under Suffering by the common and open Wickedness of the Wicked 3. Farther yet Let it be a Thing very grievous to us to meet with a Sort of Men who instead of perplexing and tormenting themselves with the Sins of others do please and delight recreate and refresh themselves with the Sins of others Do tempt and entice them into Sin and hearten and harden them in their Sin Who are so far from troubling themselves at others Sins that they * Rom. 1.32 do the same and have pleasure in them that do them Who make themselves merry with those Sins which make the Land mourn That will laugh at Lewdness
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
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
good Hope and a setled well-grounded Peace of Conscience To learn to be careful for nothing with an anxious distrustful distracting * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 4.6 dividing Care but in every Estate and Condition of Life to be humbly and cheerfully content To improve and stir up the several Graces of God in us By God's Assistance to bring our selves to maintain a daily holy Communion with God and a constant Conversation in Heaven to prepare aright for Death and Judgment to arrive to a Weanedness from this present World to a Desire to depart and be with Chrit and to a Love of the appearing and an earnest longing for the second Coming of the Lord Jesus This hard Task and weighty Work will require all our Labour and even take up every Hour Let 's therefore vigorously redeem the Time and industriously put it to this Vse and diligently employ it to this Purpose and daily say the Prayer of Moses †Psal 90.12 So teach us to number our Daies that we may apply our Hearts unto Wisdom Let 's lose none of our little Time upon unfruitful unprofitable Things till we have no more worthy and weighty Things to spend it in and till we have Time to spare from more momentous important Work But let 's lay out our Time in those necessary Works which will comfort us most when we come to die The Work that lies before us is great let 's therefore redeem the whole of our remaining Time redeem it perfectly as far as in us lies and redeem it constantly to the very last and not purposely make the good Improvement of one Day an Argumeat of mis-spending and trifling away the next but lay out every Day with Labour and Diligence in so very great and good a Work If we intend to redeem the Time we must continue in well-doing Now a natural Cessation of the Act is not a moral Discontinuance But only our Omission of any necessary Act Or our Doing a clean contrary Act This is that which we must take Care we do not become guilty of [x] Nan exiguum temporis habemus sed multum perdimus Satis long a vita in maximarum rerum consummationem largè data est si tota bene collocaretur Non accepimus brevem vitam sed fecimus nec inopes ejus sed prodigi sumus Sicut amplae regiae opes ubi ad malum dominum pervenerunt momento dissipantur at quam vis modica si bono custodi traditae sunt usu crescunt Ita aetas nestra bene disponenti multum patet Quid de rerum natura querimur illa se benignè gessit Vita si scias uts longa est Sen. de brevitate vitae cap. 1 2. We have no reason here to accuse and cast any Blame upon God for giving so little Time to us and expecting so great and weighty a Work from us for though our Time be short of it self and we have no spare Time to throw away in vain Pleasures or unnecessary Employments Yet blessed be God the Time he gives us is large and long enough to serve all rational spiritual Ends of Life to do all our necessary Work and real Business in by the Help of God and in the Strength of Christ We have in the Daies of our Lives Space enough given us for Repentance Time sufficient to dispatch the one Thing necessary to work out our Salvation to prepare for Eternity And for our Comfort and Encouragement if we be not grosly wanting to our selves we may probably yet perform whatever is indispensably requir'd of us in the Time that is continued and lengthned out to us if we take up presently and lose and squander away no more of it Life is long enough says Seneca and let me add the Resdidue of thy Life may provelong enough if thou knowest but how to spend it well And therefore be so pradent and provident as to use and improve that little which if the Fault be not thy own may happily serve to do thy main Business to save thy Soul from perishing everlastingly and from miscarrying to all Eternity The fourth Additional Reason We should redeem the Time while we enjoy it because we can neither bring Time back when once it is past unimprov'd nor any way prolong and lengthen out the Daies of our Lives when Death comes to put an End and Period to them 1. We should redeem the Time while we have it because we can never recall and retrieve the Time of this Life if once we lose and let it slip unimproved We can never live one Day of our Lives over again No Man will restore thy Time says [y] Nemo restituet annos nemo iterum te tibi redder Sen. d◠brev vit c. 8. Seneca or return thy lost Opportunities to thee and make thee Master once more of those Advantages which heretofore thou hadst in thy Hands If we would give the Fruit of our Bodies for the Redemption of our Time we can never purchase it into our Hands again It is reported to have been the Speech of Prince Henry upon his Death-bed to a certain Lord Ah Tom I now too late wish for those Hours we have spent in vain Recreations That of him in the Poet was a very groundless and fruitless Desire O mihi praeteritos referat si Jupiter annos [z] Bp. Reynold's Treat of the Pass Oh that Jove would me restore The Years that I have liv'd before When our Time is just at an End and we can hardly draw our Breath 't will be a lamentable desperate Case for us then to cry out with that poor distressed afflicted [a] Mrs. Pindar a Book-feller's Wife in Cambridg Woman in Cambridg Call Time again call Time again a Thing impossible to be effected by any Cares or Endeavours Prayers or Tears Money or Price The Time of Life once lost is irrecoverable and unredeemable And the sad Apprehension of the irreparable Loss of Time will one Day prove an intolerable Torment to too late considering and awakened Souls Let 's therefore use that Time well which there can be no Revocation of 2. As we cannot recover the Time that is past so we cannot make any Supplement or Addition of new and longer Time to the Daies of our Lives when once Death comes to put a Finis to them As we cannot add one Cubit to our Stature So we cannot add one Moment to the Measure and Number of our Daies [b] Hom. sz in Euang. in verba Vigilate itaque quia neseitis diem neque hordm St. Gregory in a certain Homily tells us a sad Story of one Chrisaurius a Nobleman but a had Liver as full of Wickedness as Wealth who at last was struck with Sickness and the same Hour that he was going out of the World he seem'd to see a Company of foul and black Spirits standing before him and coming to drag him to the Infernal Pit He began to tremble to
dismal Voice Serve nequam * Mat. 25.19 26 30. thou wicked and slothful Servant and shall find and feel a Retribution accordingly 'T will surely then be said concerning him * Mat. 25. 19 26 30. Cast the unprofitable Servant into outer Darkness there shall be Wecping and Gnashing of Teeth O let 's not put that evil Day far from us but let that Voice be alwaies ringing in our Ears which was ever sounding in [g] Quoties diem tillum considero toto corpore contremisco sive entm comedo sive bibo sive aliqutd facio semper videtur mihi tuba illa terrtilis sonare in auribus meis Surgite mortus ventte ad judicium Hieron St. Jerom's Arise ye Dead and come to Judgment Our Time must be strictly reckon'd for and therefore we should thriftily husband if possible every Minute of it The sixth and last Additional Reason Sixthly and lastly We should be sure to redeem the Time Because this Time is all we can redeem and upon this short Moment of Time depends long Eternity We shall never have any more Time or Space to redeem either in this or in another World 1. As we cannot live this same Life over again so when once we die and leave this World we shall never return to this Earth again to converse in Flesh with Men any more nor be suffer'd to live another Life here in this World to mend and correct what we did amiss heretofore * Job 14.14 If a Man die shall he live again says Job Some understand this Interrogation as flat denial an absolute Negation He shall live a natural Life on Earth no more †Job 7.9 10. As the Cloud is consumed and vanisheth away So he that goeth down to the Grave shall come up no more He shall return no more to his House neither shall his Place know him any more ‖ Job 26.22 Job 10. 21. When a few Years are come then I shall go the Way whence I shall not return 2. And as we shall have no new Time in this So no Space will be given or granted us for Repentance and Purgation of our Souls nor will any Offer of Mercy be made us in the other World No new Covenant will ever there be tendred to us no Ambassadours of Peace be sent to beseech us to pray us there n Christ's stead to be reconcil'd to God God will then be irreconcilable Sin unpardonable and unremovable Heaven unattainable and lost Souls uncurable and irrecoverable If we do not do our best here we shall have no other Game to play nor Part to and in any other Region or Mansion We shall not be [h] Quoad animae separatae statum nun itâ—rum sit Viator neque in probationis stain posita ad foe scitatein â—ahue acquirendam sed in statu ponitur hnals resurrections mutationibus expectatis Baxter Methodus Theologiae Christianae part 4. cap. 4. Probationers in the other World We shall not be suffered to begin there upon a new Score [i] In quo quemque invenerit suus novissimus dies in hoc eum compiehendet munds novissmas dies Quoniam qualis in die isto qutsque moritur talis in die illo judicabitur August Epist 80. Qualis exieris de hac vita talis redder is illi vitae August in Psal 36. Our Souls at Death will enter into a sixed unchangeable State and continue for ever such as they went out of this World The very same Frame and Temper Qualities and Assectious as we carry with us out of this Life we shall keep and retain in the next Such good Dispositions as were begun here will indeed beintended and perfected in Heaven And such ill Dispositions as took place and got Root here will be strongly setled and fully confirm'd in the damn'd hereafter But the [k] See Dr. Tillotson 1. vol pag. 29â— Dr. More 's Mystery of Godliness pag. 441. Dr. Dowler's Design of Christianity pag. 122. main State of any either good or bad will never be varied or altered in the other World As the Tree falls so it lies As Time leaves us so Eternity will find and continue us God will never trie us more with Opportunities and Helps of Conversion and Reformation with the Means of Grace and Life in another Place and State And therefore let 's now improve Providences and Ordinances Aids and Assistances as those that shall never hereafter meet with such Advantages and do all the Duties and Offices of Religion as those that are going to that World where there is no room for such Performances no place for Confession Praier Repentance and Amendment of Life in order to the Pardon of our Sins and Salvation of our Souls no occasion of running wrestling striving watching fighting any more in order to obtaining of a Prize and receiving of a Crown All that is now left undone must be undone for ever This is the only Space allotted us and Opportunity afforded us wherein to build and prepare our Ark to get Oil sufficient into our Vessels and to provide a competent Measure or Portion of Manna We can only gather the spiritual Manna in the six Daies of this Temporal Life there is no finding no getting of it on the Sabbath of Eternity As we must do all our worldly Business before the weekly Sabbath comes So we must quite finish our spiritual Business in the working Daies of the Life present for there is no working on the eternal Sabbath when once this earthly Lise is ended Then we must labour and work preparatory Work no longer but receive from our great Lord and Master the Reward or Punishment of our former Works The Life to come it is no Seed Time but only a Time of Harvest We must reap in the future State the Fruit of our own present Doings whether good or bad As we do use the Time of this Life so shall we be used treated and dealt with in the other Life We shall certainly fare happily or miserably to all Eternity according to our Carriage and Behaviour here According to our Choice and Election Affection and Action in this World will be our everlasting Lot in the World to come So that the right Improving or Misimproving the well or ill spending and husbanding of our Time is of infinite Consequence and Concernment to us Let us therefore in this Time of Life get all Things ready that are necessary to a joyful Entrance into eternal Life Let our Work and Business in Preparation for an endless Happiness be dispatch'd and done before we go hence and be no more seen * Eccles 9.10 Whatsoever our Hand findeth to do let us do it with our Might for there is no Work nor Device nor Knowledg nor Wisdome in the Grave whither we are going There is no Hope or Expectation of working out our Salvation in an after State and Condition If this Work be not effected before this mortal Life is ended it can never be done
in the Grave or Hell or in any Place of the separated Soul's abode What is to be done of this Nature do now or never Act now with the greatest Care and Diligence Life and Vigour As Zeuxis a famous Painter once said Pingo Aeternitati I limn for Eternity So let us do every Thing now for Eternity and be sure to be very exact in our Actions because they must stand upon Record for ever and lay the Foundation of our Happiness or Misery to all Eternity In Time let us make Provision for Eternity We are careful to provide convenient handsome Lodgings here but consider where shall I dwell to all Eternity Remember that a serious Life of Faith and Repentance Grace and Holiness here is the only Way to an happy heavenly eternal Life hereafter That it is in vain with * Num. 23.10 Balaam to wish we might die the Death of the Righteous if we refuse to live the Life of the Richteous As Euchrites foolishly desired to be Croesus vivens Socrates mortuus Croesus while he liv'd and Socrates when he was dead CHAP. V. The Vse and Application of the Doctrine Ought we to redeem the Time Then 1. Let not the Men of this World think strange that serious and conscientious Christians do not lose their Time as desperately as they do Good Men know the Worth of Time and understand the great Consequences and weighty Concernments of well or ill husbanding of it Vse 2 Let us all examine our selves and see whether we have redeem'd our Time or no bewail and bemoan our loss of Time 3. Vse A seasonable sharp Reproof of several Persons who are grossly guilty of mis-spending their Time 1. A Reproof of those that mis-spend their Time in Idleness and Lasiness Idleness a Sin against our Creation against our Redemption against our own Souls against our Neighbour and an Inlet to many other Sins 2. Such Persons are justly censurable who mis-spend their Time in excessive Sleep and Drousiness which wasts not only much of our Time but the best of our Time too Immoderate sleeping nought on any Day but worst of all upon the Lord's-Day 3. Many mis-spend their Time in impertinent Employments 4. Many lose much precious Time in vain Thoughts 5. In wain Speeches 6. In vain Pleasures in using unlawful or abusing lawful Recreations either using them unseasonably or else immoderately 7. In excessive immoderate worldly Cares 8. Some Persons are to be reproved for mis-spending their Time in Duties 1. By performing them unseasonably 2. By doing them formally Time lost in Duties by unseasonable Performance two Waies 1. When one Duty thrusts and justles out another and so the Duty is mis-timed 2. When Duty is perform'd at such a Time when we are most unfit for 't I Have done with the Reasons of this Duty and now proceed to the Vse and Application of this Doctrine 1. By way of Caution 2. Examination 3. Reproof And lastly Exhortation The first Vse by way of Caution Ought we to redeem the Time Then let not the Men of this World * 1 Pet. 4.4 think strange that serious and conscientious Christians do not run with them into the same Excess of Riot and lose their Time as desperately as they do There 's good Reason why the sober considerate Christian does not slightly and carelesly sling away his Time with others For as [a] Neque enim quicquâm reperit dignum quod cum tempore suo permutaret custos ejus parcissimus Sen. de brev vit cap. 7. Seneca speaks of an excellent and eminent good Man he does not meet with any Thing worthy to be accepted in exchange for his Time and therefore he keeps and reserves it to be employed to useful and prositable Purposes and is very saving and sparing of it The Children and Servants of God do sufficiently know the Worth of Time and plainly understand the gteat Consequences and weighty Concernments of well or ill husbanding of it If they were wanting by an early fore-handed Care to secure and improve any part of the Time that is past Their former prodigal lavishing out their Time is the present Burthen of their Spirits and Sadness of their Souls And they are resolv'd by a timely Diligence in a spiritual Manner to redeem the Time for the future They often seriously think with themselves that to lose the Remainder of their Time is to lose eternal Happiness and to incur eternal intolerable Misery Rather follow and imitate them than judg and censure them If you won't forbear reproaching and reviling them know that the Time is coming when you shall give an Account * 1 Pet. 4.3 4 5. not only of your Excess of Riot but even of your hard Speeches top If any in the Family if any in the Neighbourhood be more strict exact and careful to redeem the Time than your sevles take heed you do not speak ill of them for it Do not wonder that they do not do as you do But as you love your Souls and as you would give an Account of your Time with Joy and not with Grief labour with the holiest and precisest in the Places where you live to walk circumspectly not as Fools but as Wise redeeming the Time because the Daies are evil The second Vse by way of Examination Is it the Duty of a Christian to redeem the Time Then let us examine our selves a while and see whether we have discharg'd our Duty herein Let us all look back on our former Lives and bewail and bemoan our Loss of Time [b] Vanitas est longam vitam optare de bonit vita parùm curare A Kempis l. 1. c. 1. n. 4. How vainly have we wish'd oftentimes for a long Life and yet alwaies neglected a good Life May we not apply that of [c] Exigua pars est vitae quam nos vivimus ex Ennio Omne spatium non vita sed tempus est Sen. de brevitate vitae cap. 2. Non est quod quemquam propter canos aut rugas putes diu vixisse non enim ille diu vixit sed diu fuit non ille muliùm navtagavit sed multum jactatus est ld de brev vit c. 8. Doce nonesse positum bonum vitae in spatio ejus sed in usu posse fieri imò saepissime fieri ut qut diu vixit parùm vixerit Id. ep 49. Seneca to our selves It is but a small Part of Life that we live The Space we wear out is not Life but Time We have been a long Time in the World but can we affirm and prove we have liv'd long Can we be said to have sail'd much to use the Similitude of that most practical Moralist because we have been tossed very much in the Sea of this World Can we be said to have truly liv'd because some Cubits are added to our Stature because some Hair is grown upon our Chin or because we have married Wives and gotten Children and it may
†Isa 49.5 Israel be not gathered though the straying and stragling Sheep be not reclaimed and brought home to God yet they may be glorious in the Eyes of the Lord and their God may be their Strength That the may be ‖ Acts 20.26 pure from the Blood of all Men and may (*) Verse 24. finish their Course with Joy and be able to say as the most laborious and indefatigable Apostle St. Paul expressed himself with an Heart full of Comfort when the Time of his Departure was at hand (†) 2 Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought a good Fight as a faithful Souldier I have finish'd my Course as a strenuous Runner I have kept the Faith as a trusty Depositary Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judg shall give me at that Day Yea let People in general give all serious constant Diligence to redeem the Time and to make their Calling and Election sure Believing and considering that we were not sent into this World to eat and drink and sleep and sport and play to take our Pas-time and Recreation and to enjoy a little short carnal Mirth some sensual sinful Pleasure or worldly Profit or earthly Honour for a season but to live in the constant Exercise of Reason and Vertue and true Goodness To study the Nature and Attributes the Mind and Will the Word and Works the Laws and Waies of God To (‖) Rev. 14.12 keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus To worship and serve our Creator Redeemer Sanctisier and Comforter To prepare and provide for Eternity and to do good to all while we have Opportunity And here to proceed particularly I shall I. Propound some Motives to quicken you And then II. I shall give you some Directions to help you to gain the Time and redeem the Opportunity To press you to the Duty besides the several Reasons of the Doctrine which are also so many Motives to the Duty I shall farther lay you down a six-fold Motive The first Motive First consider how notably Christ redeem'd the Time when he was here in the World * Mat 3.15 It becometh us to fulfil and Righteousness says he * †Luke 2.49 Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's Business ‖ John 9.4 I must work the Works of him that sent me while it is Day the Night cometh when no Man can work 1. He redeemed the Time to save us 2. To be an Example to us 1. He redeemed the Time to save us His whole Life to his very Death yea his Life and Death were nothing else but a continual Course of doing and suffering for our Salvation Did Christ spend his Time his Labour his Blood to save us and shall we be backward to spend our Daies our Pains our Strength to serve him Did Christ redeem the Time to accomplish and work out our Redemption and shall not we redeem the Time to secure and work out our own Salvation 2. Christ redeem'd the Time to be an Example to us Not an idle Word ever came out of his Mouth He speake as never Man spake and did as never Man did He was serious and favory holy and heavenly in his private Converses and took all Occasions to spiritualize his Discourses He redeemed Time for secret Prayer He * Acts 10.38 went about doing good He neglected his bodily Food to gain an Occasion of spiritual Converse and to feed a Soul He professeth it was †John 4.34 his Meat to do the Will of him that sent him and to finish his Work ‖ Psal 40.8 his Delight to do the Will of God This he did (*) 1 Pet. 2.21 leaveing us an Example that we should follow his Steps an eminent Example to be transcribed and copied out by us that we likewise should redeem the Time in Imitation of him and Conformity to him Now where are the Men that seriously consider Thus thus Jesus Christ liv'd in the World and are ready to say within themselves I will do nothing but what I would do if Jesus Christ were by I would act now as if I followed Christ at the Heels How very many have liv'd already the full Age of our blessed Saviour nay how many have doubled our Saviour's Age and yet how few have liv'd after the manner of the Life of Christ one Day or Hour or in conformity to our Pattern and Exemplar in any Measure done the Will and wrought the Work of our heavenly Father I may very fitly here take up the Words of a Religious Person [a] Bene ver ecundari potes inspectà vitâ Jesu Christi quia necdum magis illi te conformare studuisti licet diu in via Dei faisti A Rempis l. 1. c. 25. n. 6. Thou maiest well blush to behold the Life of Jesus Christ because as yet thou hast studied no more to conform thy self to him though thou hast been long in the Way of God Let us hence forward daily eye the Life of Christ as that which is an Example to us in all our Actions and Motions in the World in the midst of all the Passions to which we are subject and Temptations to which we are exposed Let 's frequently reflect upon our selves and seriously say Did Christ live thus In all our Actings and Undertakings let 's say continually Would Christ do thus If not how dare I who profess my self a Christian venture upon it If Christ were now upon the Earth would he be wasteful and prodigal of his Hours would he be loose and wanton vain and profane in his Life would Christ swear and curse or by any means be tempted to Perjury or false Testimony would he be drunk himself and delight to make others drunk would Christ scoff and mock at Religion and Holiness and jear and deride the strictest Professors and Practisers of it would he that once wept over Jerusalem be now jovial and merry when publick Misery and common Calamity hangs over he Heads of a People laden with Iniquity could he find in his Heart to laugh and sport over a tottering sinking fainting dying Nation Take care * 1 John 2.6 to walk even as Christ walked Aim and endeavour †1 John 4.17 to be in the World as he was in the World When you rise in the Morning resolve thus with thy self I will this Day study to behave my self as Christ did I will labour to exercise those Vertues and to act those Graces which Jesus Christ when he was here on Earth was eminent in and exemplary for I will this Day strive to be as meek and humble as free from pride and passion malice and revenge as clear from covetousness and earthly-mindedness discontent and impatience as Christ himself was To be as watchful against the World and the Devil as resolv'd against Temptation as sober and temperate as just and righteous as kind and merciful as useful and
raised Philosopher well observes the different Judgments and Affections of Men in the course of a pleasurable Life and under apprehensions of the Nearness of Death When Men think they have Time enough they have no regard of Time but are extreamly prodigal of it [g] At eosdem aegros vide si mortis periculum admotum est propius medicorum genua tangentes Sen. de brev vit c 8. But look on these Men when they are sick says he If they appear in any danger of Death you shall find them courting and crouching to Physicians and bowing down to their very Knees begging the Use of their Art and Skill to prolong their Daies and lengthen out their Lives Or if they fear they shall suffer capital Punishment you shall see them ready to lay out all to save their Lives But if as the Number of every ones past Years may be reckoned so the Number of those that are to come could be assign'd [h] Quemodo illi ui paucos viderent superesse trepidarent quomodo illis parcerent Id. Ib. How would they tremble saies he that should see but a few remaining and how apt would they be to be sparing of them Surely they that have all their Lives made it their Business to drive away their Time would at their Deaths give all the World to redeem it What would the dying Husband give for Time to spend more spiritually with his Wife the dying Wife for Time to spend more holily with her Husband the dying Master for Time to spend more godlily with his Family the dying Parent for Time to spend in a more religious Institution and conscientious Education of his Children a dying Neighbour for Time to spend in more profitable Converse with those about him Would he intend to spend his Time if he could live longer in tempting his Neighbour to the Tavern or Ale house to drinking or gaming or the like If God would but lengthen out such a Person 's Daies and afford him but a little more Space to amend his Life and to lay hold on eternal Life he would thankfully accept of it upon the hardest Conditions He would be content to be the poorest Beggar in the Street and to live a mean and outwardly miserable Life as long as he liv'd He is just now departing out of this World and immediatly going to his own Place and if Time were now to be redeem'd what would not the most voluptuous Man be willing to do or suffer What would not the most covetous Man be ready to part with for the purchasing of it What would not he give for [i] Considera quà m multi modo mâ—riuntur quibus si haec hora ad agendum pâ—nitentiam oneâ—â—erâ—tur quae tibi concessa est quomodo per aâ—taria quà a fâ—stinanter currerent ibi sleâ—â—s genibus vel cerè toto corpore in terram prestrato tamdiu suspirerent plorarent orare tâ— donec plenissâ—â—am peccatorum venâ—am à Deo consequi merâ—â—entur Tu verò comedendo bibendo jocanâ—o ridendo tempus ocâ—osè vivendo perdis quod tibi indulserat Deus ad acquirendam gratiam ad promerendaâ— gloriam Bernard de interiori domo c. 63. that Time which some of you it may be spend and throw away in Drinking Gaming Carding Diceing in Romances and Stage-Plaies in idle foolish Pastimes in Jeering and Jesting and carnal sinful Merry-making To what excellent Vses would he resolve to put his Hours if he could enjoy any more of them If God would grant him but one Year of Trial more how little would he design to give to the World and the Flesh and how much to God and Godliness and the Offices and Exercises of pure Religion and undefiled How would such an one purpose and promise to resist Temptations to shun all Occasions and Appearances of Evil carefully to provide for his immortal Soul diligently to study the sacred Scriptures strictly to observe the whole Lord's-Day attentively to hear the Word preach'd both in Season and out of Season frequently to meditate of it and constantly to frame and order his Life according to it to pray with his Family devoutly and fervently morning and evening to spend some Time every Day with God and himself in secret to make the purest and precisest Christians his constant Patterns and Examples and for the future to follow and imitate those whom heretofore he hated and derided nick-named and abused When once Men ly a dying and the near Approach of their latter End does awaken their sleepy secure Consciences and make the most stupid sottish Sinner begin now to be truly sensible and serious with what aestuations and perturbations of Mind with what anguish and akings of Heart with what Pangs and Agonies and fearful Tremblings with what doleful Accents and passionate piercing moving melting Expressions do they lament and beâ—ail their waâ—teful Mis-spence and miserable Loss of all the Time of God's most patient Trial of them and of all their special golden Seasons and rare Advantages and Opportunities When they take their leave of all about them how earnestly and importunately do they exhort and urge them to be better husbands of their Time and Talents How pathetically and feelingly do they then advise and counsel their Children and Servants Friends and Relations Neighbours and Acquaintance to number their Daies to lead good Lives to improve their Health and Strength for God and their own and others Souls and timely to prepare for Death and Judgment Let 's consider some of us who have thought sometimes that the Sentence of Death has past upon us and have look'd on such or such a Sickness as our last Arrest and Summons what would we then have disbursed for a Reprieve Would we not have given with Hand and Heart an House full of Silver and Gold if we had had it to have been sure to have lived another Year for the proving and evidencing the Truth and Sincerity of our Faith and Repentance by a course of Obedience and our making a larger and surer provision for our comfortable Reception and happy Entertainment in the other World Friends we shall ere long be all of us plac'd upon our Death-beds and if we make no matter of Time now if we won't value and prize it now we shall then sure enough highly prize it when alas it will be too late And if we now have worthy thoughts of it we shall suffer nothing to rob and deprive us of it [k] Quà m felix prudent qui talis nunc nititur esse in vita qualis optat inveniri in morte Thomas a Rempis lib. 1. c. 23. n. 4. Hic est apex summae sapientiae ea viventem facere quae morienti essent appetenda Let 's be of the same mind and judgment now in our Health and Strength that we shall certainly be of in Sickness and Weakness and not contemn and vilify that in our Life time which we shall wish we had worthily
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
Cor. 7.31 Fashion of which passeth away or for the Things of the World which either ‖ Col. 2.22 perish with the present using or must at last be burnt up in the general Conflagration It will preserve thee from placing thy Heaven and Happiness in any Thing here below from being transported and infinitely pleased with thy convenient Situation thy well-built House thy pleasant Gardens fruitful Grounds rich Furniture gorgeous Apparel store of Provisions and all manner of Accommodations as to earthly Possessions and outward Enjoyments since all those Things which sensual and voluptuous Persons now take excessive Delight in shall be demolished at the great Day and they themselves shall then like Bees be smother'd in their own Hives This Meditation will enforce thee to make this Inference and Conclusion Shall all this Frame be certainly dissolv'd then surely this is not the Place of my Rest I will be wiser hereafter than to take this World for my Dwelling-house I will only look upon 't as my Cottage my Tent and Tabernacle wherein as a Pilgrim I am to sojourn for a Time Nor will I reckon the Things of this World my Goods but only my Lumber which I can easily bear the Loss of I will presently put my self in a [l] Mundus ecce nutat lab tur ruinam sui non jam senecture rerum sed fine testatur tu non Deo gratias agis non tibi gratutaris quòd exitu maturtore subtractus rutuis manufragtis plagis imminentibus extaris Cypr. Serm 4. de Mortai readiness to leave and forsake this Place which is so near to ruin and shortly will surely be burnt up I have no continuing City here I will therefore seek one to come look after an heavenly Countrey set my Affections on Things above make sure of an enduring Substance of something much more certain and lasting than any of the Enjoyments of this World I will labour by charitable laying out to lay up a Treasure in Heaven quite out of the reach of this terrible Burning To store up such durable Riches as neither Moth nor Rust can now corrupt nor Thieves break through and steal nor this flaming raging Fire be ever able to devour I will make it my constant Care to provide that as when the little House of my earthly Tabernacle shall be dissolv'd so when this great House of the World and its fair Furniture shall be destroyed I may have another a better House to receive me * 2 Cor. 5.1 an House not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens I find [m] Homil. 7. de Poenit. St. Chrysostome discoursing much to this Sense and Purpose If some body should give notice to thee that this City in which thou livest would all fall down within a Year or should very quickly be destroyed and that it and all Things in it should utterly be consum'd with Fire and nothing at all be lest unburnt and that of necessity thou must depart hence and go into another City in which thou shouldst spend thy whole Life and in which thou shouldst have nothing at all to sustain and relieve thee but such Goods only as thou shouldst send from hence thither If thou shouldst undoubtedly believe this no reason certainly could ever induce thee to hord up Treasures in this City to begin to build a great House here to plant a Vineyard to set Gardens and Groves but thou wouldst bend and turn all thy Thoughts and use and apply all thy Endeavours to transmit all into that City into which thou knewest thou shouldst thy self be forc'd to remove The second of the four last Things proposed as the subject Matter of Meditation in order to the right Redemption of Time II. Proceed to meditate of a future and final Judgment Think 1. That such a Thing will certainly be 2. That the Time of it is to us as uncertain as can be 1. Consider seriously of the Certainty and Necessity of a Judgment to come in another Life Think how the common universal Consent of all Ages of the World avouches and declares it That the very Heathens had natural express Notions of a final Judgment and a future Reward or Punishment [a] See Dr. Jackson 3 vol p. 379 384 385 389. which made some among them prefer the Exercise of Vertue and Goodness before the Enjoyment of this mortal Life and the outward Comforts of it and abhor the Practice of any Dishonesty more than Death And do but give Audience to your own Conscience and you will find internal Experiments sufficient to convince you of a Judgment to be looked for after this Life to cause you to conclude that the private Session kept in the Conscience of a Sinner here is but the Antecedent and Fore-runner of a publick and general Assize That Conscience which is God's Deputy and keepeth Court for him here does but begin now what God hereafter at the great Audit will himself complete and finish Look upon the secret Checks and Rebukes of thy own Conscience upon thy Commission of any base or unworthy Action and upon the inward Applauses and Gratulations the hidden Joys and Exultations of thy Conscience upon the Performance of any laudable vertuous Action to be so many Tasts and Pledges Earnests and Assurances of a twofold Sentence or Award that shall be given at the Last Day and some Suggestion and Intimation of that Horrour and Confusion that shall seize upon the Wicked and of that Peace and Comfort which the Righteous shall be filled with at the general Day of Judgment Consider how thy Conscience reflecting upon thy past Actions does not only allow and approve thy good Actions but does also create a wonderful Boldness and Confidence in thee and does not only disapprove thy evil Actions but does also breed a strange Dread beget a fearful Expectation and Terrour in thee and all this without relation to any Thing either to be suffered or enjoyed in this Life and therefore that Conscience is not only a Judg in this Life but is also a Witness bound over to give Testimony for or against thee at some Judgment after this Life to pass upon thee Consider moreover That the many remarkable particular Judgments inflicted by God either upon Nations or Cities or Persons here in this World do not obscurely seem to signify and foroshew that a general Judgment shall surely come and certainly pass upon the whole World and that Justice shall be infallibly executed upon all final impenitent Rebels hereafter And consider yet farther That in reason there must be a future final Judgment that God at present may [b] The necessity of this Principle to the Government of Mens Lives and Actions is the ground of that Saying amongst the Rabbins that Paradise and Hell are two of the seven Pillars upon which God is said to have founded the World As if it could not be upheld without such a support Bp. Wilkins Princip and Dut of Nat.
before Death and Judgment and to live idly loosly and voluptuously all the Daies of thy Life till the very last But surely thou wilt reckon now That the great Vncertainty of Christ's coming is a notable Spur to Vigilancy and Watchfulness That now not being secure any one Moment 't is thy Wisdom to stand upon thy Watch continually lest Christ come at a Time when thou doest least expect him and find thee in a Posture uncapable of Mercy from him unqualitied to receive Benefit by his Coming Frequently and intently think that the Time of thy Death and particular Judgment is very uncertain That thou * Mark 13.35 knowest not when the Master of the House cometh at Even or at Midnight or at the Cock-crowing or in the Morning whether he will call thee in the Daies of thy Youth or in the Midst of thy Daies or in elder Years Whether he will take thee in thy Bed or at thy Table or in a Journey At what Time or by what Means he will cite and summon thee to leave this World and to come to Judgment Consider that thou maiest drop into thy Grave before the fall of the Leaf from the Tree Yea that though now in perfect Health thou maiest be dead [l] Qend in die judicii futurum est omnibus hoc in singulis die mortis impleter Hier. in c. 2 Joelis Tunc unicuique veniet dies ille don venerit ei dies ut talis hinc exeat qualis judicandus est illo die Aug. ep 80. and doomed and damned before the next Lord's-day that this very Day this Hour thy Soul may be required of thee and be presently judged to Heaven or Hell and pass immediatly into an unchangeable State and Condition And that the particular Judgment will consign thee over to the general Judgment which will be conform to and a Confirmation of the former for ever And this will raise and quicken thee to watch alwaies lest coming suddenly he find thee sleeping secure in thy Sins lest that Day come as a * Luke 21.35 Snare upon thee and when thon shalt †1 Tless 5.3 say Peace and Safety then sudden Destruction come upon thee as Travail upon a Woman with Child and thou canst not escape This will cause thee to take heed to thy self lest at any Time thy Heart be over-charg'd with Surfeiting and Drunkenness and the Cares of this Life and so that Day come upon thee unawares To dread the Thoughts of being surprized and taken unprovided by the great and just Judg of Angels and Men. This will help thee to be constantly careful as to thy Person that it be such as may find acceptance in that Day and careful as to thy Employment that it be such as is suitable to thy Expectation of Christ's Coming and sit to be approved by thy Lord To be alwaies in a readiness to receive thy Summons and give up thy Accounts To reason and argue thus with thy self It Christ's Coming should surprize me in such a Course of Sin what a woful Case should I then be in Shall I dare to live in that State which I shall tremble to be found in at the Day of Judgment Represent thy Judg as standing at the Door and this will excite thee to watch and pray alwaies that thou maiest be * Luke 21.36 accounted worthy to escape the Sentence of Condemnation and to stand before the Son of Man To pray God to make thee such a wise Virgin as may timely take care to trim thy Lamp to furnish thy Vessel with the Oil of Grace to put on the Wedding-garment and to get thy self arraied with that fine Linen which is the Righteousness of the Saints that so thou maiest gladly go out to meet the Bridegroom and when others are unprovided and miserably excluded thou being ready maiest be admitted by him and enter with him into the Marriage-Chamber The third of the four last Things proposed as the subject Matter of Meditation in order to the right Redemption of Time III. Let Heaven and its Joys be the subject Matter of thy Meditation And here 1. Think of the happy Condition of a pious Soul in the State of Separation Consider seriously that Christ hath †2 Tim. 1.10 brought Life and Immortality to Light through the Gospel [m] Hodie experiar an animà sit immortalis said Paulus Quintus when he was about to die A brave infallible judg indeed that doubted of the Soul's Immortality Nonne vobis videtur animus is qui plus cernat longius vidâ—rese ad meliora proficisci ille autem cujus obtusior sit acies non videre Cie de sen That thy Soul will subsist after the Shipwrack of this Body and that in the State of Separation it shall not droop in an unactive Lethargy nor be numm without Sence void of all Apprehension and Operation and in a drousy sleepy joyless comfortless Condition till the Resurrection An erroneous Opinion which Pope John the 22th was so stiff and peremptory in that he not only taught it himself but procur'd an Order in the Vniversity of Paris that none should take his Degree in Divinity unless he held it Do thou believe and consider that if thou beest a faithful Person thy Soul at its Departure shall change its State for the better and have a delightful Sense and joyful perception of its good Condition be * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 23.43 quickly with Christ in Paradise †2 Cor. 5.8 immediately present with the Lord and ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 14.13 forthwith blessed be (*) Luke 16.22 carried by a Convoy of Angels into Abraham's Bosom received to him and entertain'd with him That as Ambassadours when they arrive at forreign Courts are conducted thither by the Masters of Ceremonies so thy holy Soul shall be translated by good Angels into a blessed Mansion and with Lazarus be (†) Verse 25. comforted in that Condition That if thou art a just Person thy (‖) Heb. 11.23 Spirit shall then be made perfect thy Vnderstanding be cleared from Ignorance and Errour enlarged and illustrated at thy Departure thy Will be endowed with exact Conformity to the Will of God and with perfect Liberty from all Servitude of Sin and be troubled no more with doubtful Choice but fully embrace the Chief Good thy Affections be duely and firmly plac'd thy Spirit be [n] The Oracle told Amelius enquiring what was become of Polinus 's Soul that he was gone to Pythagoras and Socrates and Plato 'T was a comfort to Socrates that after Death he hoped to see Homer Hesiod O praeclarum diew cùm ad illud animor um concilium 〈…〉 sear cùm ex hac taròa colluvione discedam 〈…〉 seu de Sâ—n. Socrates Critoni Amicos inquit hinc diseedens in eniam vobis aut similes aut eâ—â—am meliores ne vestrà quid m 〈◊〉 diu curiturus quandoquidem ros 〈…〉 estis
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
fit to meet their Persons and to enjoy their holy Company and happy Society in the heavenly Glory hereafter 6. And lastly Love and delight to enlarge thy Thoughts in the frequent Meditation of the Vninterruption Perpetuity and Eternity of this blessed State To sit down and consider that thou hast the Promise of eternal Life eternal Salvation eternal Glory a continuing City an everlasting Habitation a House eternal in the Heavens an Inheritance incorruptible an everlasting Kingdom a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away That if thou art a righteous Person thou shalt be ever with the Lord and as a Son abide in thy heavenly Father's House for ever and reign in the Kingdom of thy Father for ever and ever that thou shalt be a Pillar in the Temple of thy God and go no more out That if once thou entrest in thou canst never pass out of that State of Bliss that the Eternity of thy Felicity will be the Compleatment of thy Happiness That there will be no fear of ever losing or relinquishing thy pleasant Possession That to admit any such Thought would be a lessening and diminishing a souring and imbittering the Joys and Delights of that blessed State and a kind of Hell even in Heaven it self That therefore in Heaven thou shalt surely live an immortal Life of endless Love and continual Joy and perpetual Praise This Meditation will sweetly constrain thee to labour earnestly to become meet to enjoy a Perpetuity and Eternity of perfect and consummate heavenly Felicity 'T will make thee mindful to lay the Foundation of Life eternal in thy self here in this World to pass from Death to Life even in this Life to get the Seed of eternal Life here Grace the Seed of Glory to get eternal Life initial that thou maiest be sit for eternal Life perfectional To obtain the good Beginnings of Life everlasting as an earnest in this Life of that which is to follow and a good Preparation for Life everlasting to be conferred in the World to come To begin by Grace to live here that thou maiest be fit to live eternally in Glory hereafter And this Meditation will engage thee to give God here thy whole remaining Time that thou maiest be fit to enjoy his blessed Eternity To be careful that there be no voluntary Intercision or Interruption of thy Obedience To endeavour to serve God in Holiness and Righteousness before him * Luke 1.75 all the Daies of thy Life without any wilful departing backsliding withdrawing declining or moral discontinuance of thy holy and religious walking with him by gross Neglect of what thou oughtest to do or by doing the contrary to thy Duty This will incline thee to deal with God as thou wouldst that he should deal with thee and move thee to say thus to thy self Would I have God give me Admission into Heaven and afford me only a Taste of Happiness and then presently put an end to those transporting ravishing Joys and ere long annihilate me or at least turn me quite out of Paradise and for ever deprive me of that joyful blissful State and Place and thrust me into far a meaner and lower Condition Would I be well contented with this If not why then let me not only enter into God's Service but continue therein to my Life's End If I expect a perfect perpetual Happiness from God is it sit and reasonable that I should give God a broken imperfect flitting inconstant Obedience Would I have God's Goodness last for ever then let not my Goodness be as a * Hos 6.4 Morning-cloud and go away as the early Dew Let not me be off and on with God Let not me serve him by Fits and Starts but let my Heart stand alwaies bent for God and let me perform a constant Course of Obedience to him Let me not only enter into the Race and run for a Spurt and then sit down or start aside and fly out of the Way but let me here hold out to the End or I shall be unfit for an endless Felicity in another and better World The Consideration of all that has been spoken both in general and particular of the glorious Happiness of Heaven will be of further Use and Advantage to thee as to the Redemption of thy Time in several respects for 1. 'T will hearten and encourage thee to do and suffer any thing for God 2. 'T will help and enable thee to answer and oppose the fair and furious Temptations of Satan 3. To live in an holy Contempt of this present World and in the serious real visible Exercise of constant heavenly-mindedness 4. And lastly To live in delightful fore-thoughts and fore-tastes of the Glory to come 1. The foregoing Meditations of a perfect heavenly glorious Reward will quicken and strengthen hearten and encourage thee to do and suffer any thing for God 1. The serious frequent Consideration of a perfect State of heavenly Glory will ammate and encourage thee to lay out thy self to the utmost for God and to act vigorously in the performance of thy Daty in this State of Probation in which thou art placed in this lower World All the forementioned Particulars of this Reward will be so many Cords to bind thee to thy Duty and as so many Magnctical Hocks to draw thee to Obedience Thou wilt up and be doing upon this Consideration that there is enough to be gotten by well doing Thou wiâ—t * Col. 3.23 24. heartily serve the Lord Christ that Christ that died for thee of whom thou knowest thou shalt receive the Reward of the Inheritance who hath promised a Reward to the Gift of a †Mat. 10.42 Cup of cold Water only and therefore will undoubtedly give a great Reward to a constant course of sincere Obedience Thou wilt besorward to do any thing * Col. 1.5 for the Hope that is laid up for thee in Heaven considering that all thy good Duties and faithful Performances shall be †1 Pet. 1.7 found unto Praise and Honour and Glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ The deep Thoughts of the heavenly Glory will render the Duties of Religion easy to thee The Meditation of an everlasting heavenly Rest will facilitate the Yoke and lighten the Burden of Christ to thee The Greatness of thy Reward will lessen and take off the Difficulty of thy Labour Thou wilt surely think no Task no Duty no Diligence no Care no Cost no Pains too much to get to Heaven which at last will fully make amends for all Thou wilt strive to do thy best in all thou doest because as Apelles said of his great Care in drawing a very curious Picture Pingo Aeternitati I limn for Eternity so whatever thou doest thou doest for Glory Honour Immortality a blessed Eternity If by the Eternity of thy Felicity were meant only an Aevum of very long Duration yet it would seem a weighty Motive to any considering rational Man to engage him to Godliness and Christianity and
did so early and so solemnly dedicate our selves Souls Bodies and Interests to God and vow to give our Time and Opportunities to his Service We are in Justice obliged to keep this Promise to pay this Vow which if we fail to do we are miserably perjured and forsworn 2. And then for the other Sacrament that of the Lord's Supper In our preparations for the receiving of it we have it may be searched and tried proved and examined our selves inquired into our hearts and waies taken special notice of many passages of our misled Lives and mis-spent Time seriously considered our many partial Covenant-breaches renew'd and repeated our Baptismal-contract with God and our Lord Jesus Christ determined to mortify those hateful Sins which crucisied our Saviour setled our purposes of returning to our Duty with greater care and diligence than ever strengthned and reinforced our Covenant of reforming our Lives and redeeming our Time and resolved upon a stricter Observance of God's Laws for the rest of our daies And at every time of our participation of the holy Communion we openly offer'd and publickly presented ourselves our Souls and Bodies to be a reasonable holy and lively Sacrifice unto God O let 's remember and stand to our Word and take care in God's Fear through Christ strengthning us to perform the Covenant we have so often ratified and frequently reiterated 2. And then again When God hath roused and startled us by some awakening Ordinance or Providence When some * Mark 3.17 Son of Thunder has plainly preach'd as if Death were at our backs which was the Character King James once gave of a lively Minister that preached before himself Or when some affectionate zealous Ambassadour of Christ coming to us in the Spirit of St. Paul has so convincingly reason'd of the Judgment to come and brought his Discourse so close and home to our very Consciences as to cause us to tremble again with Felix we then came to sudden Resolutions and speedy Purposes of Emendation of our Waies Or when at any time God has cast us upon Beds of Sickness brought us to the very brink of Death the very Mouth of the Grave when Friends and Physicians have been doubtful of our Lives when all our own Hopes of Life sickned and died when our Souls have almost sat upon our Lips O then what [a] Si aliqua nos aegritudo corripiat si signa aegritudinis vicinam mortem denuncient inducias vivendi quaerimus ut peccata nostra desleamus eas cum magno aestu desiderit setimus quas acceptas modô pro nihilo habemus Gregor Homil. 12. in Euang. fair and large Promises and specious goodly Resolutions have we made if God should ever restore us lend longer Life to us and try and trust us once again to become new Men to turn over a new Leaf to lead a new Life to improve our Time to all possible Advantage to do God more Service in a Day than we did him in a Month before Have we not been sometimes so sick that we verily concluded we were really seized by the Arrest of Death and seemed to hear God saying to us in particular * Luke 16.2 Give an account of thy Stewardship for thou maiest be no longer Steward and thought of nothing but the tolling of the Bell and expected some of us that the several parts of us within a few daies or hours should be shared and divided between the Grave and Hell Then we experienced in our selves Philosophantes metus aegrae fortunae sana consilia to use the elegant expressions of the most ingenious [b] Sen. ep 94. in fine Nam quasi ista inter se contraria sint bona fortuna mens bona ita melius in malis sapimus secunda rectum auferunt Ibid. Moralist Then our Fears read Lectures of Philosophy Lectures of Divinity to us and the sad and sorrowful circumstances of a sick and declining and dangerous condition did minister salutary Counsels and healthful Advices to us Let 's recollect and remember what were our serious secret Thoughts the inward workings of our Hearts the lively stirrings of our Consciences yea our open Confessions free Professions and large Promises and Protestations at such a time as that Men are too commonly of a Temper much like that of Naevolus in Martial of whom we find there this [c] Securo nihil est te Naevole pejus eodem Sollicito nihil est Naevole te melius c. Esto Naevole sollicitus Martial l 4. Epigr. 83. Character that when he was secure and prosperous none was more arrogant and insolent but when he was solicitous and press'd with care none was more modest and humble and of better condition and carriage than he We generally appear sensible and serious ready to reform and forward to enter into Vows and Engagements in Affliction and Adversity in grievous Calamities and deep Distresses and to do this especially when confin'd to our Chambers by malignant Distempers violent or painful Diseases and forced by Sickness to take and to keep our Beds Plinius Secundus writing to his Friend Maximus acquaints him with this observation of his The late languishing Condition of a Friend of mine taught me thus much saies he that we are usually [d] Optimos esse nos dum insirmi sumus best when we are sick and weak for what infirm sick Person is amorous or lascivious ambitious of Honour or covetous of Riches How little soever such a Person possesses he reckons he has enough because he supposes he must shortly relinquish what ever he has Then a Man remembers that there is a God saies he and that he himself is but a Man Then he envies admires despises no body then he does not hearken to nor feed upon uncharitable Discourses nor is he malicious or injurious to any but only designs if he should continue longer in the World to lead an innocent and a happy Life And he ends that notable Epistle with this very wise and wholsome Counsel What Philosophers endeavour to deliver in many Words and Volumes * Vt tales esse sani perseveremus quales nos futuros profitemur infirmi Plin. l 7. Ep. 26. that I may thus briefly hint by way of Instruction to thee and to myself saies he * Ps 85.8 That we continue to be such when we are well as we promise we will be when we are sick When Sigismund the Emperour enquired of the Bishop of Colen what he should do to be happy eternally he only advised him to take care to live as he promised to do the last time he had the Gout or Stone O let 's but pay our Sick-bed Vows and we shall redeem the Time indeed Let 's be the [e] Ille promissum suum implevit qui cùm videas illum cùm audias idem est Sen. ep 75. same when our Actions are seen as when our Words are heard Let 's never offer when we recover
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
in another World Consider 5. That the [x] Vid. Chryfost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good Thief redeemed and improved his Time at last in so notable and wonderful a way and manner as no Man ever did or can beside Surely thou canst never hope to do that Honour to God and Christ upon a Death-bed which the Thief did in a short time upon the Cross The Thief brought more Glory to God and Christ at the time of his Departure out of this World than another Man 's whole Life can do [y] See Bp. Taylor 's Great Exemp p. 581. What Age of the World can give Example of so strong a Faith or produce a Pattern of greater Piety for he believed him to be the Saviour whom the Jews accused as a grand Malefactor and Pilate condemned who was crucified by the Gentiles and vilified by the Jews and openly reviled by the other Thief He expected Life and Salvation from an afflicted suffering dying Person hanging in a publick shameful manner full of Pain upon a Cross under the Sadnesses Sorrows and Pangs of Death who was esteemed smitten and seemed to Man's Sense for saken of God whom he had alwaies profess'd to be his Father In the very Extremity of Christ's Passion the good Thief believed him to be the holy Son of God the Lord of Life able to save in Death He beheld the Beauty and Glory of Christ through the dark Ignominy of the Cross He saw him naked wounded a Partner of the same Torment upon the Tree enduring the servile Punishment of the Cross and yet was heartily perswaded Christ was a King [z] Dic ô latro ubi thronus ex sapphyro ubi Cherubim exercitus caeli ubi corona sceptrum purpura ut eum dicas Regem videsne coronam aliam quà m spine im sceptrum aliud quà m clavos aliam purpuram quà n sangutnem alium thronum quà m crucem alios ministros quà m carnifices juid ergo Regium vides Aug. Speak O Thief saies St. Austin where is the Throne of Sapphire where are the Cherubims and heavenly Hosts where is the Crown the Scepter and the Purple that thou shouldst count Christ a King Dost thou see any other Crown than that of Thorns any other Scepter than the Nails in his Hands any other Purple than his Blood any other Throne than the Cross any other Officers and Ministers than the Executioners [z] Videte quà m oculata sit sides quà m lynceos oculos habeat diligentiùs considerate Cognoscit Dei Filium in ligno pendentem cognoscit morientem siquidem latro cognoscit in patibulo c. Bern. serm 2. in Epiph. Dorn See saies St. Berâ—ard how sharp-sighted Faith is what quick and piercing Eyes it has how it apprehends and discerns Christ to be the Son of God though hanging bleeding dying upon the Cross How evidently it discovers the great King appearing in the mean form of a Servant and taking a Journey through the strait way of painful shameful Suffering into his heavenly Kingdom of Glory How far did the rare and noble Faith of this Thief excel the Faith even of all the Disciples and Apostles of Christ who now at last fearfully [a] Titubaverunt qus viderunt Christum mortuos suscitautem credidit ille quem videbat secum in ligno pendentem Aug. serm 144 de Tempore stumbled at Christ's Cross though sometime they had seen him raising the very Dead [b] Gerhard Harm in Luc. 23.40 41 42. Peter believed when he saw Christ * Mat. 14.28 walking upon the Sea but the Thief believed when he saw Christ's Feet fast nail'd to the Cross and beheld him flowing all over in Blood from Head to Foot The Apostles believed when they saw Christ †17.2 transfigur'd before them and his Face shining as the Sun and his Raiment white as the Light but the Thief believed when he saw Christ not transfigured but strangely disfigured miserably mangled and deforemed and his Face not shining but sullied and fadly besmeard with Spittle Wounds and Blood * Joh. 11.27 39. Martha believed when she saw Christ powerfully raising a dead and even stinking Lazarus from the very Grave who had been dead four Daies but the Thief believed when he saw Christ hanging in the Valley of the Shadow of Death almost expiring and very near giving up the Ghost Others believed when they saw Christ daily working divine Miracles and honoured by the People with solemn Acclamations but the Thief believed at such a Time when Christ wrought no Miracles to demonstrate his Divinity and testify his Innocency and was rejected despised and had in open derision of Men. He cleaved to him when the very Apostles and Disciples themselves forsook and fled from him He believed in Christ when he had the strongest Temptations to the coutrary when Christ was seemingly in as low a Condition as himself Verily Christ found not so great Faith no not in Israel no not in his [c] Recolamus fidem latronis quam non invenit Christus post resurrectionem in Discipulis suis August serm 144. de Tempote own Disciples even after his Resurrection All the holy Actions of another Man's Life are not likely to amount to the Service done to God and Christ by this one act of the Thief 's Faith Besides his pregnant Faith was eminently productive of many good Works [d] Vid. Daven Praelect de Just Act. p. 390. both internal and external He feared God acknowledged his own Sin and Guilt with Godly Sorrow true Contrition and hearty Repentance condemned himself justified Jesus and publickly testified that Christ was a Person perfectly just and righteous unblameable and innocent This Man hath done nothing * Luke 23.41 [e] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nibil absurdum absonum vel indetens fecit Non soâ—ùm banc crucem non est promeritus sed nec ullo etiam levissimo peccato est centaminatus Gerhard Harm in loc amiss said he He commiserated his causelesly calamitous Condition when the other vile [f] Belluinu n est non human 〈◊〉 non compati morienti Seneca brutish Thief was void of Humanity and instead of pitying mock'd and scoffed at a dying Person He maintain'd the Honour of his Saviour against the Railery and Blasphemy of his Fellow-sufferer who derided the Office especially the Kingly Dignity of Christ He called him Lord his Lord embracing him as the true Messias He honoured him whom Judas betrayed He boldly confess'd and defended him whom Peter timorously denied and fearfully forswore He plainly declared that he sought and look'd for a future State and better Life He freely acknowledg'd that this same suffering dying Person should have immediatly the Power of Paradise and Authority to place him in the Seat of the Blessed As †Dan. 6.10 Daniel prayed toward Jerusalem and the Temple when it was in its ruins and rubbish so the penitent Thief prayed to Christ when he was in the lowest State
which are of so strange and weighty an importance that the * 1 Pet. 1 1◠Angels themselves desire [o] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is an Allusion to the Cherubims which were made with their Eyes looking down towards the Mercy-Seat slooping down to look to peep and pry into them In gaining Knowledg and Understanding of the Wisdome Counsel Mind and Will of God In acquainting our selves with the Rule of our Lives in learning the Laws of the Kingdome and studying the Statutes of Heaven in using the Means of getting and growing in saving Grace in opening and reading our Elder Brother's Will and Testament in sucking those full Breasts of strong Consolation and in drawing the refreshing Water of Life out of those Wells of Salvation Let it be the shame and sorrow and trouble of our Souls that we have been careless of the Scriptures in any part of our whole Lives [p] In his Life written by Mr. W. Durham p. 2. Dr. Robert Harris President of Trinity-Colledg in Oxford was not a little afflicted to his dying day that even in his Childhood he was more willing of play than of reading the Scriptures to his pious Parents at their Call And let 's lament and sadly lay to heart the slight Thoughts that too many have of the holy Scriptures and their gross neglect and great disregard of the precious and venerable Book of God Mr. Fuller in his [p] Pag. 148. History of the University of Cambridge does give us a Relation of an excellent Meditation of the Reverend Dr. Richard Holdesworth which the Relater himself heard drop from him a little before his expiring I admire saies he at David 's gracious Heart who so often in Scripture but especially in the 119th Psalm extolleth the Worth and Value of the Word of God and yet Quantillum Scripturae how little of the Word had they in that Age the Pentateuch or five Books of Moses the Book of Job and some of the Hagiography a little of other holy Writ How much have we now thereof since the accession of the Prophets but especially of the New Testament and yet alas the more we have of the Word of God the less it is generally regarded Lastly let 's do our honest and utmost endeavour to win and draw others on to the Love and Liking to the Reading and Studying of the sacred Scriptures * Deut. 6.6 7. Let them be in thine Heart and teach them diligently unto thy Children and talk of them when thou sittest in thine House and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thon risest up †4.9 Teach them thy Sons and thy Son's Sons ‖ Gen. 18.19 Command thy Children and engage thy Houshold and Servants to reade the Scriptures and to mind what they reade and allow them Time for so necessary a Duty and let not any in thy Family want a Bible for their Use and Benefit [q] The Life of Dr. Rob. Harris written by Mr. W. Durham pag. 57. In all the Wills made by the forementioned Dr. Robert Harris this Legaey was alwaies renewed Item I bequeath to all my Children and their Childrens Children to each of them a Bible with this Inscription None but Christ The eighth Direction If we would effectually redeem the Time we must give our selves to frequent and serious [a] Meditatio soror lectionis nutrix orationis directrix oporis emntumque pariter perfectio consummatrix Gerson Meditation Meditation is more excellent than mere Study for the End of Meditation is not the filling our Heads with Notions but the quickening of our Affections and strengthning of our Resolutions the warming of our Hearts and putting them upon Duty the bringing them to an inward lively Sense of God to the Love and Fear of God to Thankfulness and Obedience to him to the Enjoyment of him and Fellowship and Communion with him Let 's use and inure our selves [b] See Dr. T. Goodwin of the Vanity of Thoughts pag. 8 9 10. to raise and extract holy Observations and spiritual Considerations from all ordinary Occurrences and Occasions and as the Bee sucks Honey out of every Flower let 's endeavour to distil heavenly and savory sweet and useful Meditations out of all God's Dealings with us and Dispensations towards us out of all Accidents that befall us or any about us out of the Things we see hear or hear of and out of all the Objects that any way come into our Thoughts This was the Practice of our blessed Saviour when he came to * Joh. 4. a Well he took occasion to discourse of the Water of Life And this has likewise been the Vsage of the most eminent practical Christians The Reverend and holy [c] His Life among Clark's Lives of ten em Div. p. 166 167. Mr. Jeremy Whitaker as he was riding with one of his intimate Friends by Tiburn which he had not seen or not observ'd before he asked what that was and being answered that it was Tiburn where so many Malefactors had lost their Lives he stop'd his Horse and utter'd these Words with much Affection O what a shame is it that so many thousands should die for the Satisfaction of their Lusts and so few be found willing to lay down their Lives for Christ Why should not we in a good Cause and upon a good Call be ready to be hanged for Jesus Christ It would be an everlasting Honour and it is a thousand times better to die for Christ to be hanged or to be burn'd for Christ than to die in our Beds When we are riding walking sitting alone in the day time or when we are awake in the night season let us commune with our own Hearts and fill up such spaces of Time and employ such Spare-Hours in holy Thoughts of the best Things yea let us set some Time apart for the solemn Duty of Meditation That which comes into our Souls by Meditation is like a Shower of Snow which falls soft and sinks deep 'T is a good Saying of St. Austin Intellectus cogitabundus principium omnis boni A thinking Mind is a Principle productive of all good [d] Dr. Annesly M. E. Serm. i. p. 9. The Father of a Prodigal lying on his Sick and Death-bed straitly charg'd his only Son that he would spend a Quarter of an Hour every day in serious solitary Thoughts leaving to himself the particular Subject of his retired Meditation The Son accordingly following this Advice at last cast in his Thoughts what might be his Father's Intention in such Injunction He concluded that his Father being a wise and a good Man designed to direct and lead his Thoughts to the consideration of somewhat of Religion which did so mightily operate upon him that he quickly became rationally religious Upon all Occasions particularly and especially often meditate and frequently think of the four last Things Death Judgment Heaven and Hell the serious Thoughts of which