all the Solemnity of a Publick Judge in the Glory of his Father surrounded with all his holy Angels 6. In a great weanedness from this World and having our Affections strongly set upon Heavenly things Our Saviour plainly warns us That too deep a concern about earthly matters exposes men to a fatal Surprize by this great day Luk 21.34 Take heed saith he to your selves lest at any time your hearts be over-charged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life and so that day come upon you unawares How bitter are the Thoughts and much more the Approaches of Death to him whose Affections cleave strongly to this wretched World Violence must be used to separate him from it But he who sits loose to all things here below is easily parted from them Like the Beams of Light which gently touch the Earth but not being tied to it are easily withdrawn from it as soon as ever the Sun begins to set and the Evening to come on 7. In getting our Evidences for Heaven bright and clear Heb. 11.8 Abraham indeed at the call of God readily departs from his own Country into a Foreign Land not knowing whither he went But 't is impossible any one should be willing to leave this World and pass into the other if he be at a great loss in his own mind whither he is going to Heaven or Hell and which of these two must be his everlasting Habitation Where Eternal Happiness or Misery is the Doubt it must needs be a very uneasy thing to a serious Person and men are generally so in their last minutes to be tost up and down between Hopes and Fears But when our Title to that blessed Inheritance is clear and our Assurance is strong we may chearfully lay down our Bodies and resign up our Souls No man can live with half that Comfort and Joy as such a man may dye withal 8. In watching waiting and expecting Death and Judgment every day not fancying that certainly we shall dye but thinking within our selves that for ought we know we may dye every day Frequently seasoning our Hearts with such serious Reflections as these will be like a daily watering the Tree at the roots which makes the Sap to rise and shoot up into every Branch it will quicken us to the performance of all the forementioned particulars and have the same good Influence upon us as the expecting that Thieves may come every Night which makes us careful to provide for our own Defence 9. In well settling your worldly Estates Do this in the time of Health that it may be your last Will yours and not the Will of those that are about you who otherwise may be practising upon you when you are sick and weak in Body and Mind too The neglecting or the not doing this to their own full Satisfaction has caused very great uneasiness of mind in many when they have been suddenly within the near Views of Death We need not to have these worldly matters to distract and discompose us when we have much weightier Affairs enough to take up all the little remainder of our Time and our most serious Thoughts For Lastly If our Heads be clear and we have leisure we must seriously review the State of our own Souls Otherwise it will be as improper for us so to do as it would for a man that is to make a Map of any Country to pretend to survey it in a foggy day In this case we must live upon and draw Comfort from the former Trials of our selves We must also renew our Repentance for all those particular Sins we can remember and our Faith in the Blood of Christ for the pardon of them and again commit and give up our Souls to him recalling to our minds some of the Promises of God that are most suitable to our present condition speaking somewhat if we are able in the behalf of God and Christ and serious Holiness that may be of use to those that we shall leave behind us lifting up our Hearts to the heavenly Glory and commending our departing Spirits into the hand of God and Christ III. General I come to shew you wherein the force of this Argument lies from the suddenness of Death and Judgment to be always ready for them And 1. Death and Judgment will not stay beyond the appointed time till we get ready Thy Days are numbred thy Glass has been turned up and running for some time there are it may be but a few Sands more how few God only can toll and when they are run out ready or unready all is one away thou must Now God gives thee Time improve it that the long-suffering of God may be Salvation to thee But if thou trifle it away now when the Decree is gone forth to cut down the barren Tree it shall not stand a moment longer Many a Time hast thou been sick and the consciousness of thy having made little or no Provision for Eternity has made thee cry out in the bitterness of thy Soul O spare me a little longer God has been merciful to thee once and again but the time is a coming when he will be so no more How many hast thou known of thy sinful Companions who have cried as loudly as thou canst do Yet a little more time But God would not vouchsafe it but they have been hurried away to Judgment before they have made up their Accounts 2. Little or nothing is to be done to get ready upon a sudden Surprize by Death Thou may'st be struck dead in a moment Thy Disease may lye in thy Head may so distract and cloud thy Brain that as one well saith if the meer saying Lord have mercy upon me would save thy Soul as it will not yet thou shalt not be able to utter so short a Petition But suppose thou hast a little longer warning how unlikely is it thou shouldest get thy Soul into a meet posture for Death and Judgment if then it be to begin When thou hast spent Forty or Fifty Years in Wickedness is a few Hours time sufficient to make thy Peace with God for such a multitude of Provocations or procure the Change of thy Heart and Nature so consirmed in Sin Soul and Body by Physick and Pains are miserably indisposed for so serious a matter and there is little hopes that the Grace of God which thou hast so long resisted should then convert thee in a moment It may be thy Ignorance will be so great that having a clear sight of thy manifold and crying Sins and little or no knowledge of a Saviour thou wilt be at thy Wits-end not knowing what to do It may be God's Spirit will withdraw and leave thee to the hardness of thy own Heart and then thou wilt remain stupid as a Block Or else the Thoughts of so many Sins of the Terrors of God the near Approaches of Death and Judgment and amazing Fears of Hell will cast thee into terrible
A Funeral Sermon Occasioned by the Sudden Death Of the Reverend Mr. Nathanael Vincent LATE Minister of the Gospel in Southwark By NATHANAEL TAYLOR LONDON Printed for John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultrey and Thomas Cockeril at the Corner of Warwick-lane in Pater-Noster Row 1697. To that part of the Church of Christ in Southwark of which the Reverend Mr. NATHANAEL VINCENT was Pastor Beloved in our Lord 'T Is commonly and justly esteemed an Instance of the Wisdom and Goodness of God that the Dispensation of the Gospel is committed to those who are of the same Make and Frame with the People to whom they Preach But that which is a Happiness in one respect is a disadvantage in another viz. That tho' they are never so Eminent and Vseful they must Dye as well as their Hearers As it was in the Mount of old tho' Christ himself remain with his Disciples and will do so even to the end of the World yet Moses and Elias tho' Excellent Prophets and glorious Creatures must withdraw and sometimes vanish in a Moment Of this you have a sad instance in the surprizing Death of your beloved Pastor which was the Occasion of the following Sermon the Design whereof is to quiet your Minds under and quicken you to improve so awakening a Providence by a diligent Preparation for your own Decease I am the rather encouraged to expect that this which is the main Scope of it will be complyed withall because many of you did immediately and readily in several Instances follow the advice which I gave you and which you may here find in the Close thereof Your so doing gives me great hopes that you will demean your selves as you ought towards a Successor when he shall he settled among you as you have done towards him who is removed from you I have often heard him speak with great pleasure of the many Testimonies you have given of a more than ordinary affection to him Indeed it would have been strange if it had been otherwise because he could use the Apostle's endearing Argument with a great many of you 1 Cor. 4.15 Though you have ten thousand Instructors in Christ yet you have not many Fathers for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel But the great Proof and Tryal of you will be when another who hath not that additional Advantage shall enter into his Labours and build upon that Foundation which this Wise Master-Builder hath laid and so successfully carried on among you Give me leave to put you in remembrance tho' you cannot but know it already Heb. 13.7 13. that you are not to govern but to be Ruled as well as Taught by him not to Trample on him but to Submit your selves to him not lightly to esteem him but shew him double Honour in Love for his Works sake and out of respect to him whom he shall Represent For a Faithful Ordained Minister is not the People's Creature 2 Cor. 5.20 Eph. 4.11 but an Embassadour of Christ his Gift from Heaven to the Church and a Great Blessing to those over whom he doth Preside That the God of Wisdom and Order would direct you to pitch upon such a One and Treat him as such with one Common Consent and by prospering his Labours among you build you up in Faith Holiness and Comfort to Eternal Life is and shall be the Earnest Prayer of Your Servant for Jesus sake Nathanael Taylor A Funeral Sermon c. LUKE XII 40. Be ye therefore ready also For the Son of Man cometh at an Hour when ye think not OUr Blessed Saviour having Preached an Excellent Sermon full of very Serious Advice in many Particulars of which you have an Account in the Foregoing Verses of this Chapter for the better Fastening of the whole upon his Hearers he falls in the Close of it upon a Subject of a very Affecting and Moving Nature namely the approaching Day of Judgment and the Necessity of living in the Continual Expectation of and making daily Provision for it This he enters upon in the 35th Verse of the Chapter and prosecutes to this 40th Verse which I have now read unto you wherein you have these four Things observable 1. The Duty that he presses upon his Hearers Be ye ready 2. A Strong Motive to back and enforce it For the Son of Man cometh at an Hour when ye think not The Son of Man cometh 'T is that more Eminent and Famous Coming of Christ to judge the World at the last Day which is here plainly meant But under this is comprehended also the Day of a Man's Death For so you shall sine the Scripture uses this Expression Philip. 1.10 That you may be sincere and without Offence till the Day of Christ 1 Tim. 6.14 Keep this Commandment till the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ These Phillipans and Timothy have been dead many Ages since and yet the Day of Christ is not come he hath not yet appeared How therefore is this to be understood 'T is meant of the Day of their Death and so the Scripture words it because the Day of every particular Man's Death and the Day of the Universal Judgment is to him in Effect one and the same his State is as truly and as fully determined thereupon as it will be when Christ shall come to judge the World no Alteration can possibly be made in it after we are once dead As to that such as we are when we leave this World such shall we be when we come to stand before the Bar of Christ at the last Day to receive our Unchangeable Sentence And as this Coming of Christ is Certain so many times 't is a very sudden thing too The Son of Man cometh that is Death and Judgment come in an hour when you think not 3. The Persons here spoken to Who they are you may learn from Peter's Question in the Verse immediately following my Text v. 41. wherein says he Lord speakest thou this Parable to us v. 42. c. or even to all And from our Lord's Answer wherein he continues this Discourse of his and particularly applies it to the Wise and Faithful Rulers and Stewards in his House So that the best of his Ministers are as much concerned in it as any of the Family they are as liable to a Sudden Summons by Death and Judgment as any of their Hearers and 't is as much their Interest yea more because of the heavier Account they have to make to be Always ready for it 4. The Connexion of these Words with the Fore-going Verse Be ye therefore ready also Which suggests another Motive to our Thoughts In the preceding Verse our Saviour had represented the Suddenness of his coming by the similitude of a Thief who sets upon a House unexpectedly in the Night which if the Owner thereof had known of he would certainly have watched and not have suffered it to have been broken open And then comes in
to take up Moses's Complaint That the Lord hath not given them a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear unto this day which is a plain argument that he hath not been seriously applied unto nor his Instructions obediently complied withal Our Saviour indeed in his Parable supposes the number of the Wise and Prepared the Foolish and Unready Virgins to be equal five of the one and five of the other But surely in our days there is a vast disproportion between these two sorts of persons 3. Are you ready for Death and Judgment yea or no Would not an immediate Summons to appear before the Bar of Christ put you into as much Disorder and Confusion as a sleepy and careless Army by the sound of their Enemies warlike Instruments in the dead of the Night 4. Will you make it the great business of your Lives from this time forword to prepare for this day that you may not be surprized by it To do this is the Wisdom of all But it would be a most unaccountable Folly in some men if it should be neglected by them Ex. Gr. Those who have weak and crazy Bodies and are frequently alarm'd by Sickness If the Roof of the House be fallen and the Floor be rotten and several pieces of the Wall broken down and the ragged Remains are visibly bowing and tottering every day 't is evident to our very Senses it cannot stand long Those who are old whose grey Hairs make 'em look like Ears of Corn which are white and ripe for the Harvest Those who are the Watchmen of Israel and whose business it is to awaken others how inexcusable would they be if they fall asleep themselves Mr. Kentish both the Brothers Mr. Okes Mr. Shewen of Coventry Mr. R. Mayo Several of our Orde of late have been struck in the Pulpit and tho' they have languisht some days never recovered the fatal Blow they there received They have been like a Taper which while 't is burning and shining in the Candlestick on a sudden drops down into the Socket where it lies for a little time shooting up its wavering and trembling Light which is immediately suckt back again and extinguisht in a few moments That you may not be surprized by this last Enemy 1. Strengthen your Faith about the coming of Christ and be much in consideration of it and the suddenness of it too 2. Be often putting Questions to your selves in a very serious anner Am I ready indeed What if I should dye before to morrow comes O my Soul art thou in such a Posture as thou art willing to be found in when Christ shall appear 3. Shame your selves by considering what care you use to be ready and prevent a Surprize in matters of a lower nature 4. Reflect upon your selves What Thoughts you had the last time you were Sick and knew that you were unready and were inwardly tormented in your minds at the Thoughts thereof Lastly Improve the sudden Death of others to this end This is the Voice of that Providence that so hastily removed your late excellent Pastor Mr. Nathanael Vincent I need not to tell you June 22. How on Tuesday was sevennight he was suddenly taken ill in the Morning and had leisure only to say I find I am a dying Lord Lord Lord have mercy on my Family and Congregation So near did you his People lye to his Heart even in his last Moments Herein he resembled his and our common Lord who having loved his own loved them even to the end He was the Son of a Godly Minister Mr. John Vincent and a living Confutation of that Scandal that the Children of the Prophets do more commonly than others prove Sons of Belial As also was his late Brother Mr. Thomas Vincent a Minister of eminent Usefulness in London while he lived especially in the time of the dreadful Plague and whose Memory is still deservedly very dear and precious to those that knew him like a Rose which adorns the Garden and perfumes the Air while 't is growing on the Tree Mr. Baxter's Life Part 3d. p. 95. and hath a fragrant smell too a long time after it is gathered and dead For he was a serious humble godly man of sober Principles and great Zeal and Diligence as the Incomparable Mr. Baxter doth truly describe him He was of such pregnant Parts and so strong a Memory that by the help of that when he was but Seven years Old he was wont for the ease of his tired Father to repeat his Sermons in the Family in the Evenings of the Lord's Day He was admitted as a Member of the Famous University of Oxford about the Eleventh Year of his Age and went out Master of Arts about Eighteen Preached publickly as a Lecturer at Pulborow in Sussex before Twenty and at the Age of One and Twenty was Ordained and fixed as Rector of Langly-Marsh in Bucking-hamshire After his Ejectment and a few years spent in a private Family he came to this City the year after the Fire and quickly settled among you in this Place And this being the most publick Sphere wherein he moved let us briefly consider him as a Minister and as a Christian for I shall not draw him at his full length 1. As a Minister He had a good share of Learning and other Ministerial Abilities which he was daily improving by great diligence in his Study as wisely considering he that spends on the main stock how large soever that may be and does not endeavour to lay more in will quickly come to Poverty He had a great Zeal against bold Intruders into the Work of the Ministry And I hope you that are his People will herein resemble him turn away from those Men and do not so much as vouchsafe them the Hearing These Vermin begin to swarm among us and disturb us by their hideous Noise not in Corners or Chambers but in our very Pulpits and are like to prove an Egyptian Plague to us If these Illiterate Antinomian Usurpers are not speedily and effectually discountenanced by Ministers and People too they who are already the Blemish of Nonconformity will quickly prove the total Ruin of it He had Luther's Three Qualifications to make a Man a Gospel-Minister he gave himself much to Meditation and Prayer to his last that he might work things upon his own Soul and thence more effectually convey them to yours If Divine Truths are first Engraven on our Hearts then are we most likely to Print them on those of our Hearers And as for Temptation he had been sorely exercised and distressed by it in his Younger days though from that time Satan left him and molested him no more in that manner He had a natural Fervency of spirit which made him somewhat vehement in every thing that he espoused which Time and Experience did correct in some matters making him more Calm and Moderate towards our Brethren who differ from us in things that lie remote
my Text Be ye therefore ready also q.d. If Men are so prudent and careful that they be not surprized in Matters of a lower Nature where the utmost that they can lose is their Worldly Substance and their Temporal Lives how much more should they be so in a matter of the highest Concern whereupon their Souls their Everlasting Welfare their All does depend And therefore be ye ready in this case also for the Son of Man cometh in an hour when ye think not From the Words thus divided and opened I shall raise this Doctrine as the Subject of my present Discourse Doct. Seeing Death and Judgment may suddenly and unexpectedly seize upon any even the best of Men and Ministers therefore every Man should be always ready for them In the managing this Point I shall do these four Things 1. I shall say somewhat to Vindicate and Justifie the Providence of God in the sudden and unexpected Death of Good Men and Ministers 2. Shew you wherein this Readiness for Death and Judgment doth consist 3. Set before you the force of the Argument from the Suddenness of them to be always ready 4. Apply the whole I. I shall say somewhat to Vindicate and justifie the Providence of God in the sudden and unexpected Death of good Men and Ministers And this is requisite because such thoughts as these upon such Occasions are apt to arise in our Minds For a Vile Person indeed to be Driven away in his Wickedness like Chaff and Smoak before the Wind in those Storms which his own Sins have raised may be easily accounted for but that very Holy Men in the height of their Usefulness and in the midst of their Work should be snatcht away almost in the same manner seems at first View to be very strange and severe Their Enemies will be apt to censure and reproach them and look upon this as a Black Mark from Heaven upon them and their Friends cannot but bitterly bewail it For had Death made its Regular and Leisurely advances they might have had many an Opportunity of speaking in Commendation of the Ways of God and Religion from their own Experience and of giving suitable Advice and Counsel to us and the last Words of our dying Husband or Father of our dying Friend or Pastor would to be sure have made very deep and lasting Impressions upon us and have been of mighty Use and Service to us all our Days Why therefore O why did God deal so unkindly with him and us as to hurry him away from us in so hasty a manner as hardly to suffer him to speak one Word when he took his Everlasting Fare-well of us By way of Reply to all this I have these five or six Things to offer 1. Consider the Absolute Soveraignty and Dominion of God This Divine Attribute is displayed when he closeth his right-Hand to hide these Stars Rev. 3.1 wherein they were formerly held or when he seals them up in a Sudden and so thick a Darkness Job 9.7 that we can neither see them nor receive any further Influences from them And if we had nothing else to urge in the Case even this alone were enough to stop all our Mouths Shall we not allow God that which we challenge to our selves to Do with his own what he pleaseth Ps 46.10 Be still and know that I am God And the Exercise of this Attribute about Good Men even when it seems to bear a little hard upon them should least of all be regretted by us because it has been employed about them in vastly greater Instances so much for their Advantage For it was Divine Soveraignty that selected them out of the Common Mass of Mankind when others were passed by and Crowned them with all those Gifts and Graces wherein they did excel Now if the same Hand that framed them into Vessels of Honour break them in pieces with one single stroak it becomes us to bow our Heads and humbly adore him crying out How unsearchable are his Judgments Rom. 11.33 Eph. 1.11 and his Ways past our finding out who yet Worketh all things according to the Counsel of his own Will 2. God orders it thus That Men may not judge of his Love or Hatred by meer external Providences This is a deceitful Beam at which we are very prone to weigh Men and Things but hereby God gives us a plain and sensible Proof of the Truth of that Scripture Eccles 9.2 that All things come alike to all and there is one Event to the righteous and to the wicked The best Rule whereby to form our Judgments as to this point is from the manner of Men's Lives and not from that of their Death And that the suddenness of their Departure alone is no Black Mark from Heaven against them is very plain from this convincing Demonstration that there shall be Saints alive at that very hour wherein Christ shall appear to judge the World 1 Thes 4.17 1 Cor. 15.52 who shall be suddenly Changed and Caught up in the Air to meet him in a moment in the twinkling of an Eye 3. God orders it thus Because he would prevent the Prayers of his People for the prolonging such a Man's Life when his Day is come Such a Value has God for his People and their Prayers that he would not have them wrestle with him for what he intends not to grant and therefore when Wrath is determined against any and there is no Remedy he is wont in a great measure to restrain the Spirit of Prayer and take off the Hearts of his People from interceding for them But it neither is nor can nor ought to be so with them when the Life of an Eminently Vseful Christian or Minister is in apparent danger such a one is always very Dear and Precious to them they would Gal. 4.15 as the Galatians for Paul Pluck out their very Eyes for him much more will they pour out their Souls to God in his Behalf The Church would do by him Act. 12.5 if the Lord's Prisoner by a lingering Sickness as they did by Peter when he was Herod's Prayer was made to God for him without ceasing Now when such a Man's Work is done and his determined Time run out God suddenly removes him that he may not give leisure to the People to lay hold on his Arm and endeavour to prevent that Blow which he is resolved to give 4. God does this as an Act of Favour and Kindness to the Good Man himself Hereby he is effectually preserved from many of those Evils wherewith some of the Saints of God who have more slowly gone off from the Stage of this World have been sorely distressed As 1. The Great Pains and Anguish of a long and tedious Sickness This darkens the Mind shatters the Judgment breaks the Spirit stakes and binds down the Soul to a Continual sad Meditation on the Misery it feels making a Man pine away in the bitterness of his
drop in this manner before our Eyes 't is a lively Comment on that Scripture Go to now ye that say James 4.13 14 15 16. to day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow Thou may'st travel to thy long Home before thou reach that City For what is your Life It is even a Vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away And therefore Ye ought to say If the Lord will we shall live and do this or that But now ye rejoyce in your Boastings please your selves with such vain Thoughts and Projects All such rejoycing is evil 'T is a sottish Thing so to do for you are not Lords of your own Lives and therefore not of your own Actions and if your Breath fail in that moment all these great Thoughts of yours shall perish like a proud and swelling Bubble that is broken by a single puff of Wind. 8. 'T is a strong Motive to Thankfulness to God that he hath nor so surprized us it our Natural state or in the very Act of some Sin and Folly A single Affront puts our Thoughts and Spirits into a mighty Ferment and Agitation which makes our Wrath immediately kindle like an heated Vapour by its own Motion in a sultry Evening and we are apt to be quick and severe in avenging our selves on our Adversaries if it be in the Power of our hands How easily could God have cut us off when we were Enemies to him struck us down dead at his Foot in an Instant when the Weapons of Iniquity were in our Hands without affording us any leisure to bethink our selves what we had done or whither we were going Astonishing Patience that he hath not long since torn away our guilty Souls from our Wretched Bodies sending one to the Grave and plunging the other into Hell That his Wrath hath not smoaked against us yea broke forth into a devouring Flame His Forbearance is so much the more admirable Eccles 8.11 because perverse Man takes an Occasion from hence to Embolden himself in Sin Because sentence against an Evil Work is not executed speedily therefore the Heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil His Power over himself is great as well as over us otherwise his Anger had been let out like a Flood upon us and we had been violently and hastily carried away before it 9. And Lastly 'T is an evident Demonstration of the Necessity of our being continually in a prepared Posture for Death and Judgment And this Naturally leads me to the II. General propounded which is to shew wherein this readiness for Death and Judgment does lye This is twofold First Habitual Secondly Actual The one as to the State the other as to the Frame of our Souls The one in Order to a Safe Departure the other in Order to a Comfortable one 1. There is an Habitual Readiness for Death and Judgment which lyes in these two things Justification by Faith in the Blood of Christ and Sanctification by the Spirit of Christ 1. Justification by Faith in the blood of Christ He is a miserable Creature who has the guilt of any one Sin cleaving to his Soul because that single guilt binds him over to Eternal Wrath. Who then can conceive the misery of that man who has upon him the guilt of all those innumerable Sins which he has committed throughout the whole course of his life every one of which and much more all of them together expose him to the Fury and Everlasting Vengeance of God Such a one is far from being fit for Death and Judgment who must fall under that condemning-Sentence Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels What terrour and confusion will the very presence of Christ strike into the Souls of these men Gen. 45.3 Joseph had concealed himself from his Brethren a long while but when at last he made himself known to them and said I am Joseph the thought of those Injuries which they had done him struck them dumb and they were troubled at his presence and could not answer him When our Saviour shall appear and say to an Unbeliever I am Jesus That Jesus whose Blood thou hast despised whose Gospel thou hast slighted whose Spirit thou hast resisted whose merciful Design thou hast opposed all thy life long and wouldest not be reconciled to God through me I am that very Jesus These words will strike and pierce him to the very heart and cause him to wail Rev. 1.7 and call to the rocks and mountains saying Fall on me and hide me from the face of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of his wrath is come Rev. 6.16 17. and who shall be able to stand 2. Sanctification by the Spirit of Christ The most glittering Profession where there is not a work of Regeneration will not avail in that day The Foolish Virgins that had Lamps in their hands but no Oil in their Vessels will find the door shut against them when the Bridegroom comes Matth 25.10 as not being ready to enter in with him Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. If we are not true Penitents and Converts Acts. 3.19 our Sins are not blotted out but shall remain in God's Book against us under our respective Names and then it will not be a time of refreshing but of scorching Heat which we shall never be able to endure In a word There is not a more miserable Wretch out of Hell than an unpardoned and an unsanctified Man who is going to it and considers not whither he is hasting All this man's Happiness lies at the mercy of a Disease of an Accident of one moment for if this night God should take away his Soul where is he Nay it all lies at the mercy of one wise and sober thought For did he but understand and consider the true state of his Soul with reference to Eternity his Mirth would be changed into Trembling and all his Songs into Howlings and Lamentations into Agonies and Horrors of Conscience For 't is not more certain that he is at present out of Hell than it is that if he live and die in his present State he shall in a few moments be in it II. There is an actual readiness for Death and Judgment and that lies in these following things 1. In a careful abstinence from every wilful Sin and a speedy and deep repentance for any such 2 Pet. 3.14 if we have been guilty of it Wherefore beloved seeing ye look for such things be diligent that you may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless Our principal care must be to refrain from
such Sins For tho Repentance be a good thing yet Innocence is better Some men walk in a round and a circle of sinning and repenting repenting and sinning again Their hearts seeming to be much divided between God and their Lusts According as Conviction on the one hand or Corruption awaken'd by Temptation on the other hand doth work in them they sometimes forbear their Sins and at other times yield to them As the tops of Corn that waver and incline this way or that according as the force of the Wind doth bend and carry them Now the Hearts of these men rise or fall with the change of their Condition as the Quicksilver in a Weather-glass doth according as the surrounding Air is either bright and clear or thick and foggy A threatning Sickness doth as much alarm them as the furious march of a powerful invading Army doth the weak and defenceless Inhabitants of any Country Indeed as the aking of one small part of our Bodies causeth more sensible grief and pain than the sound and healthy state of all the rest doth of ease and pleasure so a few wilful Sins do cause more of terror in the Conscience than a great many good Actions are able to convey of support and comfort to it And I dare appeal to the Experience of all sober men when they are any thing serious whether these are not the things that do shake their confidence and make them jealous of themselves So many wilful Sins as a man hath of late especially been guilty of even after he hath repented of them so many Arguments hath he to make him doubt of his own Sincerity so many weights there are in the other Scale that make the Balance at least to hang even so that he hardly knows what to think of himself and in a dying-hour his misgiving-Heart will be apt to say the worst and reproach him that he hath not been right with God nor sound in his Statutes And as all wilful sins must be diligently watcht against so In particular Cruelty and Oppression must be avoided Jam. 2.13 He shall have judgment without mercy that sheweth no mercy A rigid exacting those Debts which our poor Brother is not able to pay Matth. 18.33 34. The Lord was wrath with that wicked servant that would not forgive his fellow-servant a few pence and commanded him to be delivered to the tormenters Drunkenness and Smiting of our Brethren Luke 12.41 If that servant shall say in his heart My Lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to beat the men-servants and maidens and to eat and drink with the drunken the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour when he is not aware And it holds not only as to these particular Sins but as to all other wilful ones as appears from what our Saviour adds And that Servant that knew his Master's Will Vers 47. and prepared not himself neither did according to his Will and much more if he knowingly went against it shall be beaten with many stripes 2. In great diligence and readiness for the doing of every good work in its proper season every Duty respecting either God or our Selves or our Neighbour For a Christian is like a Clock or Watch that hath several distinct Motions and as to every one of these will the Judge examine us when he shall appear This is what our Saviour means when he tells us Luke 12.35 our loyns should be girt about in a posture ready for any Service that our Master calls us to And blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing 2 Pet. 3.11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of Persons ought ye to be in all Holy Conversation and Godliness 3. In the lively exercise of every grace as we have occesion for it whether active or passive Some Graces are to be exercised every day be our circumstances what they will such as Faith in Christ Love to God and the like Others are to be exercised under some peculiar circumstances as the Providence of God gives us occasion and a call thereunto such as Patience Submission to God Faith in his Promises c. If need be ye are in heaviness through manifold tribulations 1 Pet. 1.7 that the trial of your faith being much more precious than that of gold which perisheth though it be tried with fire might be sound unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ That is either that you may be praised and honoured and glorified as having given such evident proofs of the Sincerity of your Faith under very trying Providences or else that Christ in that day may be glorified when your so noble Behaviour shall be displayed in the view of all the World as the Fruit of his Death and Grace and men shall see what excellent persons his Followers have shown themselves to be through his strengthening of them which will reflect an Honour upon him as well as upon them The Skill of the Artificer and the Beauty of the Vessel will be both admired together 4. In the diligent improving of every Talent for his Service Life Health Strength Reputation Interest Power Authority c. These are Talents which he hath committed to our Charge and when he comes he will strictly enquire what use we have made of them And we know what became of the Unprofitable Servant Those Feet which carried him to the place where he buried his Lord's Money instead of walking with it to the Exchangers and those Hands which were employed in concealing of it instead of trading with it were bound and for hiding it in the Earth he himself was cast into Hell What then will be the case of him who abuseth many of them contrary to the intent for which they were given 5. In perseverance in Faith and Holiness to the last Heb. 10.38 For if we draw back his Soul will have no Pleasure in us And how then shall we be able to look him in the Face Deserters are wont to be more severely treated than those who were always open and professed Enemies A sense of this hath come with so great a weight on some Backsliders in Judgment and Practice as to break their Spirits and sink them down into the Depths of Despair in the close of their Days Their awaken'd Consciences have lasht them with Whips of Steel and with siery Scorpions And therefore Little children abide in him that when he shall appear 1 Joh 2.23 we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming If Christ when he was a Frisoner by one Look did so dash Peter out of Countenance when in Words he disowned him as to make him go forth immediately and weep bitterly what overwhelming-Sorrow and Confusion will his Majestick and angry Countenance strike all those into who deny him in their Works when he shall appear in