will blast the fairest Reputation with the far greatest part of the World It may be lost by unwary Mistakes by false Reports by Envy and Malice by the subtle Hatred of Enemies or by the Weakness and Credulity of Friends who will listen to every Back-biters Story or by one or two Indiscretions of the Man himself and no Man can be certain to secure his Reputation whilst he lives much less after he is dead Who can content all Men however he live And who is well spoken of by all when he is dead Who is so esteemed that some do not despise him The wisest Conduct cannot hinder but some will judge hardly and amiss How vain and faulty is an Ambition to be talkt of after we are dead which will be but by very few and that very differently and but for a little while There is no Remembrance of former things neither shall there be of things to come with those that shall come after Eccles 1.11 For how little a while do the proudest Monuments last that are set over the rotten Flesh and Bones of many to preserve their Memory God hath promis'd 't is true that The Righteous shall be had in everlasting Remembrance but it must be understood so far only as the frame and state of this World and the Revolutions and Vicissitudes of Time will permit But what Good can it do us farther than the Interest of God's Glory and the Good of others is concerned in it The Blessed will not need it and the Damned have no Advantage by it And no Endeavours can be certain of Success For People will talk of us as they please and their Opinions very often change from one Extream to the other But he who hath the loudest Fame shall only be talkt of a little longer than his Neighbours and that by a few dying Men that must themselves be e're long forgotten And how small a part of the inhabited World is acquainted so much as with the Name of the greatest Men in Europe And how different and contrary are mens Opinions and Discourses of them where they are known and talkt of And how many holy excellent Persons are buried in Oblivion or mis-represented as unworthy to live on Earth whose Names will be found in the Book of Life Our Life is yet as mutable and uncertain as any of theirs The Time is hastning when we shall be too old to Live but at any time we are old enough to Die Our Breath is in our Nostrils and though there be room enough for it to go out we have no Assurance that we shall have power to draw it in again SECT III. Of the Uncertainty of living to the Period of another year The Vanity of this Life The Swistness of Time and how to be improved I Now begin another Year But what Assurance have I to out-live it I cannot not say how soon my Sovereign Judge may call me hence and summon me to appear before his Righteous Bar. O let me not defer my necessary Preparation for Death which may be nearer than I imagine Let me mind the Great things first which are of absolute necessity to be done some time or other before I dye This perishing Body which I have pampered and indulged at the expence of so much Cost and Time may be putrifying in a silent Grave before half this Year be past Lord bless this thought to awaken my diligent endeavours to secure the Blessedness of Eternity to mortifie the desire of Great Things for my self in future Years by the considered Possibility of dying before the end of this Let me look into the Graves of others and consider that this may quickly happen to me and must ere long be my own ease Let me think what this Body will shortly be when it hath been six or eight days separated from my Soul how vile how loathsome that I may despise the Beauty and be dead to the Pleasures of the Body which so easily so suddenly so strangely may be changed For no Glass is more brittle no Bubble more vanishing no Ice more dissolving no Flower more fading no Shadow less substantial no Sleep or Dream more deceiving no Sound more transient nothing more vain and more uncertain than Life on which all other things in this World depend My days are as nothing saith Job though they lasted above two Ages There is hardly any thing very frail and feeble mutable and uncertain but the Spirit of God in Scripture sets forth the Vanity of Life by as if he would teach us by it from the Light of every perishing Object which our Eyes behold to reflect on our own Mortality We sleep every Night in the outer Chambers of Death And in some Diseases Sleep which is the image and Picture of Death is taken away to give place to the Original and make way for death And every year every week every day are we hastening to our final Change which may overtake us e're we are aware Every day we lose some part of our Lives in our very growth from Infancy to Manhood our Life decreases and grows less Every Pulse and Breath doth tell us we are hastening to the End of Time and calls upon us to dispatch our Work If we consider * Dr. Donn's Devotions Time to be the measure of Motion however it may seem to have three Stations Past Present and Future yet the First and Last of these are not one is not now and the other is not yet That which you call Present is not now the same it was when you began to call it so in this Line before you sound that word Present or the Monasyllable Now the Present and the Now is past If we consider Eternity into that Time never entred Eternity is not an Everlasting Flux of Time but Time is a short Parenthesis in a long Period and Eternity had been the same as it is tho' Time had never been If we consider not Eternity but Perpetuity which shall out live Time and be when Time shall be no more What a Minute is the Life of Man to that How soon must it end Every Word we speak is formed of that Breath whereby we live and we may not live to pronounce another Sentence but the Lamp of Life may be extinguisht and blown out by a sudden Blast Every thing we do carries away some Sands of our little Glass of Time and how little may remain Or how soon may the Glass be broken Our Souls are in our Bodies as a little Air inclosed in a thin Bubble how easily is that broken and where are we How many who are now alive in health and vigour who deliberate on their Meat and Drink and are curious of Air and Exercise to maintain themselves in Health and please themselves with the Dream of Years to come shall never see another New-years-day It may be not another Month or week or morrow Many have promised themselves great things on the morrow but dyed before
What will be the next Word O my Soul how much am I concerned to know it Will it be Blessedness or Misery Will it be Life or Death This one Word is the Joy of Angels and the Horror of Devils the Unspeakable Delight of Blessed Saints and the Confusion and Despair of Condemned Sinners At the Creation of the World Time got the start of us and was five days elder than we but our Immortal Souls shall endure beyond the utmost Limits of Time and last as long as the Everlasting Father of Spirits of whose Duration there is no End Shall I then exist and live though my Body perish and see Corruption Shall my Soul my Self exist beyond the Grave in Felicity or Misery and that for ever and according to my present Actions What am I then most concerned to mind What am I to chuse What am I most to fear to wish to do What is a Shadow of Honour and Reputation among dying Men What are a few Drops of fleshly Pleasure for a Moment to Eternal Rivers of Pleasure at God's right Hand What are the sufferings of an Hour or two to the Pains and Anguish of Eternity What can the World Flesh or Devil give me comparable to Eternal Life What can I suffer in the way of Holiness that may be set in the Balance against an Everlasting Hell And yet how often O my Soul how boldly how unconcernedly how foolishly do I hazard the One and forfeit the Other for the Sins and Vanities of this World Whereas one Prospect of Eternity should make every thing that is Temporal appear little in my Eyes The highest Elevations of Earthly Greatness Abundance of Riches the Great Affairs Business and Employments of the World Pomp and Splendor and Reputation and all that now flatters the Senses and the Vanity of Mankind Oh! that I could but live as believing and expecting an Eternal State as having it in my Eye managing all my Affairs with a Visible Reference to it discovering to all the World by my Behaviour and Deportment that I do in earnest believe it certain for be it never so Certain if I do not apprehend and consider it as such it will no more affect me than a Fable Neither is it enough to consider it as certain but as near For the most weighty the most terrible things apprehended as at a great distance will little move Thinking of the long Interval between the advantage of being exempted from such Evils for so long a time will please me more than such distant Calamities will affright Let me therefore endeavour to impress the consideration of Eternity as at hand more deeply on my Heart that I may walk and live discourse and pray and demean my self in every thing as near an unchangeable State Am I not convinced that this is certain from the nature and operations of my Soul from the reflections of Conscience from the Righteousness of God in his Government of the World from the present unequal distributions of Good and Evil by his Providence and from the plain and frequent assertions of his Revealed Will I have nothing to object nothing to reply but I find a necessity of inculcating and urging the consideration of it in order to its influence I find it needful to reflect often how near I am to such an endless State that in one Instant by Death I enter upon it And that this Instant may be as near me as my next Thoughts That the holy Scripture describes the two contrary Conditions after Death and every Man and Woman in the World shall share in one of them as both Everlasting the one by Eternal Life Eternal Glory an incorruptible Crown that fadeth not away an incorruptible Inheritance an House Eternal in the Heavens c. the other by unquenchable Fire a Prison whence no escape Eternal Damnation Everlasting Burning Everlasting Punishment Everlasting Destruction a Worm that never dies wrath that is ever to come blackness of darkness for ever ever c. Think O my Soul that in One of these two contrary States I must abide for ever in endless Joy or Sorrow Blessed in the Presence of God or for ever banished from it And whoever thou art that readest this apply it seriously to thy self 't is thine own case Yea I tell thee from God that Holiness of Heart and Life is absolutely Necessary to the former and that without it thou shalt never see his Face but be punished with Everlasting Destruction from the Presence of his Glory Is this an Unquestionable Truth O let me consider it till I feel the Power and Efficacy of so Important a Principle let the Impression be Deep and Lasting let it pierce and enter into my very Soul to cool the Heats of Lust to quench Sensual and Earthly desires and to mortifie all Inordinate Affections to this World and fix my Resolutions to mind and seek Eternal Life with all my Heart These are not difficult and perplexed Niceties which wise and holy Men differ and disagree about They are not Metaphisical Subtleties which few can understand but the express Word of God and the daily Dictates of my own Reason and Conscience which all Christians and almost all Men in their Wits except in an Hour of great Temptation confess and own or whether they will or no are forced to expect and fear if they are not in a Condition to consider them with a joyful Hope Lord cure the unbelieving Doubts concerning these Great Things which notwithstanding the plainest Evidence the Devil may at any time suggest Iet a confirmed Faith be the Reality of what is thus future that my Soul may be influenc'd by them as it is wont to be by Things present Let it be the Substance of Things hoped for and the Evidence of Things unseen and as yet at a Distance as if the Day of Judgment were already come and there were no intermediate Time to pass between this and that O Eternity Eternity the more I consider it the more unfathomable still I find it Vnchangeable Blessedness or remediless endless Torments An Eternal Blissful Day or Everlasting Horror Darkness and Despair Life or Death Glory or Destruction to last as long as the Immutable Living God! None of the Patriarchs who lived longest arrived to the period of a Thousand Years which in comparison of God's Everlastingness is set forth but as one day But strictly considered Millions of Years and Ages have no proportion with it because no multiplication of them will amount to Eternity Whereas one Hour hath some proportion to an hundred thousand years because a certain number of Hours will amount to so many years But no number of Years or Ages never so often multiplied will make up Eternity As no substraction of Millions of Years will lessen it an entire Eternity will be still to come and will ever be to come When innumerable myriads of Years are past Eternity shall then seem but to begin because when as many more are over
by the Year passed and the Covenant of Grace or the Gospel state by the New Year then begun and that by the Sound of Trumpets was prefigured the future Preaching of the Gospel according to that of the Apostle Their sound went forth unto all the Earth and their words unto the end of the World And so the Feast of Trumpets is abrogated by the Preaching of the Gospel if that were typically signified by it The Publication of the Gospel is the joyful sound Psal 89.15 And Ministers are to lift up their Voice like a Trumpet Isai 58.1 the discharge of their Office as Watchmen is express'd by setting the Trumpet to their mouth Hos 8.1 Ezek. 33. When the Jews shall be converted to the Faith of Christ it is said in that day the great Trumpet shall be blown and they shall come who are ready to perish Isa 27. ult 'T was the Office of the Priests to sound these Trumpets Numb 10.8 The publick Dispensation of the Gospel is committed to Ministers set a-part for that Work as the Sons of Aaron for theirs We read but of two Trumpets at first for Eleazar and Ithamar the two Sons of Aaron Numb 3.4 But David added many Musical Instruments And in Solomon's time at the Dedication of the Temple we read of One hundred and twenty Priests who sounded with Trumpets 2 Chron. 5.12 Without supposing any Type here in a strict and proper sense we may yet farther consider the Parallel and observe how the Joy and Gratitude these Trumpets did excite is exceeded by that greater Rejoycing promised and foretold by the Prophets when the glad Tidings of the Gospel of Salvation by the Messiah should be publish'd to the World Isa 54.1 Luk. 2.11 Gal. 4.27 Which hath been in part accomplish'd and will be more compleat in that Kingdom of Peace and Purity which Christ will establish upon Earth toward the end of the World And shall be finally perfected at the end of Time when Days and Years and Time thus measured shall be no more When the Messiah our B. Saviour having finished his Mediatory Undertaking as to what concerns Earth shall come again from Heaven with the Trump of God to raise the Dead and summon all the World to their final Judgment Then shall he deliver up the Kingdom to his Father And the Faithful shall enter into the Joy of their Lord and be forever with him There is a Tradition among the Jews mention'd by Maimonides Canones de Poenit. cap. 3. can 5. That on the First Day of the New Year God enters into Judgment for the Sins of the Year and Life past That every one's Faults are weighed against his good Works He that is found Righteous is sealed unto Life And he that is found Wicked is sealed unto Death And 't is a general Custom that hath obtained among the Jews for the ten first Days of the New Year to rise out of their Beds in the Night and to continue in their Synagogues praying and worshipping until break of Day The superstitious and ridiculous Ceremonies of the Vid. Ceremon Cout parmi les Juifs d'aujourdhay par 2. c. 5. modern Jews on this Day I shall not repeat However vain and groundless superstitious and absurd many of their Customs and Practices are on this Day Yet this blind Devotion of the Jews may justly shame and condemn the Christians of our Age Who commonly spend the Beginnings of every Year worse than any other parts of them and instead of any solemn Retirement for Prayer and Meditation which might assist them to number their Days and prepare for Eternity instead I say of such seasonable Exercises how do vain and hurtful Sports and Pastimes or trifling and unedifying Mirth and fruitless Conversations consume the greatest part of the Days and Nights too of the Beginning of the Year And thus when the first fruits of the Year are offer'd up to Sin and Vanity 't is no wonder if the following parts of it are employ'd to no better purpose without any due concern for the Soul and an Everlasting State To endeavour some Remedy to these Disorders and give some Assistance to such as desire seriously to make Religion their Principal Business is the end of publishing the foregoing Reflections I most heartily beseech the God of all Grace to influence by his Holy Spirit the Conscience of every Reader that some such good Effect may be attained Having found the Practice recommended to be of some use to my self and my own Heart warmed in composing the Substance of these Papers though without any Intention at that Time of exposing them to the World 't is not unreasonable to hope That what hath been beneficial to one may be helpful to another It cannot certainly be improper to Begin the Year with God with whom we should begin every Day 'T is decorous and becoming to Dedicate our selves to Him in a more solemn manner than ordinary at such a Time Thankfully to acknowledge the Favours and Blessings we have particularly received the Year Past And to recollect the Sins we have been guilty of to confess and aggravate 'em with Humility Contrition and deep Remorse to renew our Covenant with God to repeat and fortifie our Resolutions of living better imploring his Grace to assist us in it to reflect seriously on the Mutability Frailty and Brevity of our present Life to consider the Swiftness Uncertainty Irrecoverableness and consequent Value of our Time to look forward to a Blessed or Miserable Eternity one of which we must every one share in And to confirm our Faith in the Certainty thereof considering our near Approach to such an unchangeable State To think what Improvement we should make of the Death of others especially of Relations and Friends who have lately been called home To make the Supposition in good earnest that we may follow them This Year and die before another New-Year's-Day To impress such a Thought on our Hearts and the Inferences that may naturally be deduced from it To beg of God to enable us to Redeem our Time and discharge the duty of our particular Places and prepare us for all the Events of the following Year And so effectually Teach us to number our days that we may apply our Hearts unto true Wisdom Lest we be surprized by an Vnexpected Death before the Period of another Year And lastly to pray for our Relations and Friends Families and Neighbours and our Enemies too and plead with God on the behalf of Sion and the afflicted and deformed state of the Protestant Churches To some of these and the like Purposes I hope what is here offered may be subservient if considered with Seriousness and Application after humble Invocation of the Blessing of God and the Aids of his Spirit composing our Minds and Thoughts as in his most Awful and Holy Presence I have only this to request That if Any Reader shall find any real Benefit in this kind he would so far requite my
an Alexander or Caesar and that of their meanest Slaves or Captives Could their Dignities and Earthly Glory preserve any of them from the Stroke of Death or the Judgment of God or without Repentance from his condemning Sentence Think O my Soul how little it will shortly signifie whether I have been known and honoured among Men or no any farther than God may be glorified by it How should it suppress Vain-Glory to think of being one day esteemed and worshipt reverenced and applauded by dying Men and laid in the Grave the next Let me rather seek that Glory and Honour to which Immortality is annext and labour to be accepted with God at whose Bar I must be judged endeavouring to keep the Testimony of a good Conscience and then it is not much whether I pass through Good Report or Evil Report no Contempt or Frowns or Threatnings of Men need then discourage me Tho' I should be trampled on by the Foot of Pride while others are happy in a Dream for a little while and it may be have a prosperous Passage to Damnation I 'll rather thank God for delivering me from their Temptations and giving me the Opportunity and Call to hasten my Preparations for a Better World Let God dispose of my Condition here and Reputation too as best shall please his Sovereign Will only be pleased to keep me upright and to preserve me from Everlasting Shame and Confusion of Face after the general Resurrection and final Judgment Vouchsafe me a Portion now in thine approving Love and own me for Thine at last in the great and terrible Day of Reckoning that then I may hear the Blessed Euge and enter into my Lord's Joy SECT XVII The same Argument considered farther as dissuasive from Worldliness and Earthly-mindedness and as proper to confute the Vanity of long Projects and great Designs for this World ARE the Years of my Life but few and they hastening to a Period and may this be my last Let me not then greedily covet Riches and Abundance and waste my little time to scrape together large Provisions for many years to come when I have no Assurance to see the End of this Is it becoming such a Belief to toyl from Day to Day that I may lay up that which I must so soon leave As if I were to spend an Eternity here on Earth and in the mean while neglect the One thing necessary Am I not upon the Shore of Eternity May not the next Tide carry me off And shall I spend my whole Life in Diversions from the main Business of it Have I nothing else to do but to gather Shells if they were Pearls the absurdity were still the same and pile them upon Heaps till I am snacht away past all Recovery Shall I be regardless of an Eternal State and run the Hazard of being undone for ever by sollicitous Care about pretended Necessaries for a long Abode on Earth Much less for Superfluities when I am not certain of the Possession this one Year Shall I magnifie and admire what is so soon to be parted with Value my self upon these Things so as to Despise those that have less and-Envy such as have more and suffer my Mind to be distempered and my Passions immoderate on every Change of these things Tho' I know besides my own Mortality that to inforce the Argument there is a Principle of Corruption in all these Things that our very Manna here in a little while will stink and Bread which is the Staff of Life moulder our richest Garments wax old and rot Silver and Gold rust and the greatest Beauty wither and every thing that is Earthly decay and perish And shall not this teach me to sit loose from all such things Can I imagine that in my last Hour it will be easier to part with much than little Or better in the Day of Judgment to have a great Estate to answer for than a lesser One We read concerning the Patriarch Abraham who rightly understood the Transitory Nature of Riches and his own mutable Condition that the only Purchase he made with his Riches was a Grave chusing to take Possession of the Land promised him rather by a Mark of his parting with it than of his possessing it Did I think oftner and more seriously O my Soul of tarrying here but a little while I should more easily be perswaded that a little of this World were sufficient to carry me through it I should consider more that my Heaven-born Soul is made and designed for another an Endless World And therefore should not so far forget his own People and Fathers House as eagerly to pursue and seek what is suited only to the Body for a little while and whereof a little with Contentment will be sufficient The same Reflection may be useful to contract our Thoughts to present Duty that we may not perplex our Minds with long Designs and Projects which if we dye this Year will come to nothing Our great Business in this World is adapted to the little Portion of Time which is allowed us Not that good Designs for the Publick Benefit may not be begun by one and finisht by others or that we are not obliged prudently to provide for those who shall come after us by attempting many Things of probable Advantage to Posterity But considering the Shortness and Uncertainty of Life not only should the most Necessary Things be first minded and not put off by prosecuting such Designs as may signifie somewhat to Others when we are Dead But we should not now omit that which we may hope to compass our selves to begin such Things whose Accomplishment must depend on the Pleasure of our Successors Consideration and faithful Counsel would in this case have prevented the fruitless Expence of many Mens Time and Money which if otherwise employed might have turned to good Account to Themselves and Others And this heightens our Folly that while we pursue great Projects in reference to this World and dye without effecting them our Preparations for Eternity are neglected and so we are suddenly cut off in the midst of our Folly and all our Thoughts perish How easily how soon may they do so The Difference and Distance between Death and Life being no more than that of a Candle lighted from its being blown out and if it is exposed to all Winds how quickly may that happen SECT XVIII The Consideration of the Certain near Approach of an Everlasting State amplified and prest to enforce an Holy Life IN this World we begin a Year and quickly come to the End of it and e're long the little Number of our Years and Days will be expired But when Death conveys us into the World of Spirits the Day of Eternity shall never be closed with an Evening Of how fearful Consequence is that Death by which an Eternity must be decided What Attention what Seriousness what Diligence what Care doth the Decision of so important a Matter call for ETERNAL