knows c. He that made you knows what you stand in need of what your Constitutions do require how much will serve how little Nature requires and how much less Grace needs if you have but little do not call it Poverty but Discipline he is your Father 7. Motive is a proprio medio from the proper and most effectual way and means to secure a competency and that is by seeking first of all the kingdom of God Ver. 33. He that would make Earth sure must first of all make Heaven sure shall I be taking thought what to eat and drink here and never fear begging a drop of water hereafter shall I be solicitous for Clothes and do not know but my Soul and Body may lie naked in the scorching flames of the wrath of God to all Eternity besides I have a Promise of God for outward things if I make it my business to seek after Heavenly it is a very needless care God provides meat for me that I may not be taken off my work to seek after it 8. Ground lies in my Text and it is taken from the Consideration of that sufficient trouble that each day is filled with you need not fetch the misery of another day unto this day it hath enough full enough of its own some read it The day hath enough with his own grief I now came to the Observations Doct. 1. Which is implyed The life of a Christian is to be reckoned by the day Sufficient unto the Day not to the Week or Month or Year but to the Day I need not insist upon the proof of the Point What saies old Jacob Fen and evil have the dayes of the years of my life been It is observable that dayes is four times repeated in that verse So Job Man that is born of Woman is of few dayes His dayes are determined Turn from him that he may accomplish as an Hireling his day Take a third witness of this and it is no other than a King and a Prophet David The dayes of our years are threescore years and ten c. But a greater than all these is our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who tells us in the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard that they were hired for a day which is the time of life and he calls his own life a day Abraham rejoyced to see my day There is a Natural day and there is a Metaphorical day a day of time and a day of opportunity season and dispensation mark the expression of our Saviour I must work the works of him taht sent me whilst it is Day the Night cometh when no man can work whil'st I have time time and whil'st I have opportunity So we read of the dayes of his flesh I might make this further appear by shewing to you 1. That we are taught to beg our Bread for the day Give us this day our daily Bread and forbid to take thought for to morrow for why should I take thought for Meat when I know not whether I shall have a Mouth to put it in or for Clothes when I know not whether I shall have a Body to put them on 2. We are to beg our pardon for the day and to forgive our Brother to day forgive us our Trespasses this day for as Jacob sayes Thou may'st seek me in the morning and I shall not be and for our Brother The Sun which is the measure of the day must not go down upon our wrath And if we come to the Altar and there remember that our Brother hath ought against us we must leave the Gift before the Altar c. we must not say that we will do it to morrow 3. Every night is a resemblance of Death Death is called a Sleep and the Grave is called a Bed the Sun rises and sets which measures time 4. The Commands and Promises in Scripture run for the present day and none for to morrow Heb. 3.7 To day if ye will hear his voice Ver. 13. Exhort one another daily whil'st it is called to day now is the accepted time But to conclude the Proof of this Point I shall and this that our whole life-time is very fitly compared to a Natural Day 1. As a day is but a short space of time so is our life what is a day to a thousand years what is our time to Eternity 2. As a day is cut off by the night so is our life cut short cut off somtimes sooner somtimes later some dayes are longer than others but none very long some mens lives are longer than others but never a long life among them all of them cut short all of them cut off 3. The day is succeeded by the night so is this life by the darkness the dayes of darkness which shall be many There is a day which shall not be succeeeded by night and there is an evening which shall be succeeded by light but it is not this day I now come to the Reasons of the Point Why must our lives be reckoned by the day and they are principally these four Reason 1. Because our Breath is in our Nostrils our Lives hang by a small Threed how soon are our Countenances changed and we sent away how many that have been well in the morning have been dead before evening gone out in health and a dead Carcase brought home or else they have died and been buried abroad and never came within their own doors more how many ways may a mans breath expire and how quickly is it done Ah my Brethren how little is this considered though nothing is more ordinary than to say I little thought such an one would have been gone so soon what an healthful lusty Man was he it was but such a day I saw him and I thought he never looked better since I knew him I thought I should have died long before him was not he at such a place at such a Meeting but a few dayes ago c. Oh Friend Know his Breath was in his Nostrils and so it is with thee there may not be a step between thee and Death for any thing thou knows a lurking Distemper in thy Body may rise up and pull thee by the Throat and all thy friends stand about thee and none be able to rescue thee and save thee from that deadly Hand A slip a fall a cross accident a Surfeit c. presently the health is gone As it is with a Venice-Glass very useful whil'st it is whole but one fall upon the ground breaks it and than it 's good for nothing but the broken pieces are thrown out to the Dungbild So whilst breath is there thou art very useful for many things can walk and work and advise and manage Affairs but when once thy breath is gone and thy life like water spilt upon the ground which can not be gathered up again thy dead Carcase must be taken up and carried out and laid in
moiling in several Callings and Vocations to get a little supply for the wants of the Body since the time it was said in the sweat of thy Brows thou shal Eat thy Bread the World is become a great Correction of Work-house a General Bridewel to task us all to our Labours the very Bread we put into our Mouths the very Cloaths we put upon our Backs the very Houses we put our Heads into what are they but evident Arguments of Mans great labour and pains As for the House consider what a deal of labour must needs come between the Timber standing uncut in the Mountains and the Stones unhewn in the Quarry and the making of them now in the form of a fit House to dwell in as for thy Cloaths thou puttest on consider but all the labour that comes between the Sheeps wearing them on their Backs and thy wearing them on thine As for the Bread also which thou puttest into thy Mouth consider besides the Plowing up the Ground the great labour that comes between the Seed-Mans hand casting it into the Ground and thy Hand putting it into thy Mouth consider well but these and then thou wilt acknowledge many great labours every Day I might add likewise the great Trouble that comes in regard of Sores and Sicknesses and Infirmities they know well what this trouble means that tell the Clock whilst others sleep that have wearisome Dayes and Nights appointed for them that are seldom free from Pains and Weakness and griefs as much as they can well bear Consider also the manifold troubles of the Mind by reason of disappointments and discontents from Friends from Enemies from Children from Servants c. will you now say that our daily wants and troubles that flow from thence are not sufficient to fill every Day with as much Affliction as ever it can hold 3. Daily fears bring daily perplexities have you a Day without its fears fears about the state of your Souls whether your Faith be right your Repentance unfeigned your Duties accepted your Works wrought in God whether you have savingly closed with Jesus Christ upon Gospel-terms whether you have brought all to him and take all from him whether you are truly Married to him and can groundedly say my Beloved is mine and I am his I hare every false way I have respect to all God's Commandments so far as I am acquainted with his will Again fears about holding out my Corruptions are strong my temptations are pressing I shal one Day fall by the Hands of my strong Lusts and unruly Affections if Persecution should come I should do as Peter did I should want Courage I should dishonour God I know not how to suffer Imprisonment or be a Martyr for the Gospel and Waies of Christ Again Fears of Death which keep some in Bondage all their dayes every day they do uprise what shall I do when I come to Dye I cannot think of it but with amazement I cannot look that King of Terrours in the Face I neither know how to part with my Comforts nor yet how to endure the Pains and Pangs of Death and least of all to meet with God who I have caufe to Fear is not at peace with me and then what will become of me to fall into the Hands of a Living God who is a Consuming Fire Again fear of outward Want how the World will hold out how I shall maintain my Family and bring up my Children such Fears as these are daily companions to some though by the way let them consider that fear Want that they want nothing so much as Faith a little more Trusting God and a little less sinful foresight and needless care would do very well Now tell me whether all these Fears and a great many such like be not enough to spoil the comfort of our Day 4. Daily defects and disappointments procure daily Misery and Vexation The shortness that is in every Creature-comfort and which the Soul cannot but be every day sensible of must needs cause Trouble I thought to have had such an easy seat and the stool breaks under me I promised my self so much comfort in this Child How are my hopes and expectation frustrated I reckon'd that this design would have prospered and have done my Work and I see it has failed me I see these Worldly enjoyments are but dreamish things they are but shadows they can feed the hunger of the Soul but they cannot feed the hungry Soul I have been Labouring for the Wind I never plcased my self in any thing but to be sure I met with a Cross in it these outward enjoyments promise more than they can perform I never leaned upon them but they deceived me I never trusted them but they failed me Riches and Friends and Relalations make themselves Wings and they flee away I was at the merry meeting but some things were wanting and some passages did not please me and thus you have the proof of the Doctrine I now come to give you the Grounds and Reasons of the point how it comes to pass as you have already heard how it does appear that every day should be so full of Trouble What is the matter why will God have it so Take these three Reasons in special Reason 1. The Lord does it for Correction of Sin daily Sins must have daily chastisements there is a necessary connexion between Sin and Punishment as between sowing and reaping we are fowing and reaping every day It is worthy your observation that some kind of grain comes up sooner a great deal than others but the Husband-man does so order his sowing that commonly he reaps all together some sins that are committed are not punished till a great while after again some sins are reckoned for immediately upon the Commission some sad sinful seed comes up quickly sown in the morning reaped the same day some not till a Week or a Month or a Year or many years after but it is so ordered that there is reaping work for every day I may be reaping this week what I sowed the last and sowing this week for the next I may this year be teaping what I sowed last Or twenty years ago as Joseph's Brethren did their cruelty to their Brother I may in old Age be reaping the Sins of my Youth Thou writest bitter things against me and makes me possess the Sins of my Youth saith Job The Fathers sow for the Children God punishes the Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children and I may be reaping the Fruit of my Fore-Fathers transgression and I may now be sowing that seed that my posterity may taste the bitter fruit of and set their teeth on edge When I meet with any remarkable Affliction more bitter than ordinary then should I be thinking with my self what seed was this of what is the name of the seed that this Fruit came from what is the name of the Apple it is a very sowre one it wrings me by the
is I this dispensation has Love in it it is for thy good it wil not hurt thee be not so afrighted not an hair of thy Head shall perish by thy affliction thou shall lose nothing but what would have done thee harm to have kept how afterwards the Lord quieted composed and satisfied his Soul made him see how much need there was of such a severe Providence such a sharp Passage such a bitter Dispensation as also how much Love and Goodness there was in it which at first sight carried so much of the Face of enmity disturbance and destruction so that he comes to say this Affliction this Loss this great Trial though I thought at first I could not have born it yet I now see I could not have been without it as he said once I had been undone if I had not been undone I had perished if I had not perished and lastly how he no sooner had got through one Affliction but the Lord brought him to the borders of another he was no sooner Landed and safe in his Harbour but God bids him prepare for another Voy age in those dayes was Hezekiah seek unto Death see Isa 38.1 comp with 3 last verses of 37. cha To hear him tell you how gladly now he would have taken a little rest and was thinking surely he should now meet with no more Troubles so dismal when presently another messenger came to tell him that the Lord did intend to try him again the first chapter of Job did not conclude his combate and bid him make ready for a new on-set either in the same or another kind how he treated the Messenger and spake wisely and kindly unto him in such language as this it is but lately that my Lord laid an heavy and an amazing Affliction upon me it found me much unready and unprepared I did storm and rage at it I was as a Bullock unaccustomed to the Yoke I was cast down and dejected I did murmur and repine many an hard thoght had I of my maker and several unhandsom and unbecoming expressions came from me some that favoured of despair Oh I shall never have a comfortable day more my good dayes are gone better for me that I had never been Born than to live to see this Trouble why does the Lord let me live why does he not destroy me it would be an happiness for me if some would come and take a Knife and cut my throat its happy for them that are Dead they endure no such tormenting pain they sustain no such losses they know not tht meaning of such piercing Heart-breaking Sorrows c. But it plesed the Lord by degrees to bring me to more sober expressions he began to convince me that I had deserved a great dealmore it is a wonder I was out of Hell he set my sins in order before mine eyes and then I saw that he had Puhished me less than mine Iniquities did deserve that if I had my Due I should be in Endless Easeless and Remediless Torment and then I came to acknowledg him his Justice his Mercy and to fall down at his Feet he then began to speak some comfortable Words to me to give me a little reviving a little Faith and Hope in himself and to let me see his end and design ih Afflicting me he shewed me my work and my transgressions wherein I had exceeded he opened my ear to Discipline and commanded me to depart from Iniquity and now he has recovered me and made me to live in his sight if it be his pleasure to bring me into the fire again I know it is for the purging away of my Iniquity I desire I may not dishonour him and then let him do with me what he pleases I hope he will lay no more upon me than he will enable me to bear and then his will be done thus you see what great experience is to be got by Affliction how needful it is for the exercise of Grace Reason third The Lord fills our day with trouble for distinction sake that we may know Earth from Heaven and God from the Creature To Know the meaning of that text there remaineth therefore a rest for the People of God if it were not so we should be apt to say it is good being here There are two things the World is hardly brought to Believe First That quietness and peace and rest cannot be obtained here And Secondly That it is to be enjoyed hereafter and in himself Now it is impossible that we should ever meet with any full contentive good under Heaven if one could show me that which the Tempter shewed our Saviour even all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them they are too beggarly a good to give content excellently to this purpose one of the Antients O Lord saies he thou hast made us for thy self and our Hearts cannot be at quiet till they come to rest in thy self I tumble and toss this way and that way upon Back and Belly this side and that side and every way to get a little ease and yet I find every thing to be hard and God is the only true Rest No satisfaction to he had from any thing here below look but upon the several Conditions of Men in City Court and Country and see if every one would not be a little higher a little Richer and a little bettered in estate or else what means their endless carking and caring what means so many hands working and Heads hammering about this thing and that thing there is not the veriest frock and apron but by little and little it would hirstle up to the Rob and Purple not the poorest Friars cowle but by step and step have at the Popes mitre This unsatisfied desiring of one thing after another which Is very troublesome and grieving the Preacher elegantly calls the walking of the desire better saies he is the sight of the Eyes that is the comfortable beholding and enjoying these things we have then the walking of the desire the rambling of it after the things we have not or as some render it the walking Soul a walking Soul is very uncomfortable to be haunted night and day with a Spirit of greediness and unsatisfiedness to have its company going out and coming in lying down and rising up nay to have disturbing and troublesome dreams too The Lord never intended that the world should be a quiet place do you know any place upon Earth that a man may go to have one day of rest and freedom from care and trouble within and without I would go many miles to see that place and enjoy such a Day he that kept the key of such a place would quickly heap up Treasures what flocking would there be thither from all quarters of all sorts of People you would see great numbers of Great-one and Noble-men posting thither The Apostle dehorts us from seeking things that are upon the Earth the reason is
old puritan one of his hearers One story relates the conversion of King Edwink about the year 600 together with his Kingdom which contained especially Yorkshire Thus a wise Courtier of his when he heard of a Christ that promiseth Eternal happiness was preached unto him reasoned with him This present life of our's O King sayes he in regard of the uncertain time that was before us and shall be after us is but like the flying of a Bird here through your entry in at one door and presently out at another whilst you and your Nobles in a stormy blustering day sit warm here about your Hall-fire the poor bird for small moment of time whilst she was in your entry felt not the cold and stormy weather but that was for a very short moment and presently she did but as it were dart through from storm to storm so this present life of our's is but a very short thing but a Bird's flight through your entry what went before and what follows after we utterly know not and therefore if this new Doctrine bring us any more certainty and after a short flight through this entry can tell us how and where we shall live happy for ever by all means let us imbrace it this was a great motive to his conversion as also of his People The other passage is of the Son of an Heathen Emperour whom his Father for fear he should turn Christian laboured by all means to keep from entertaining a thought of future happiness or of Death or of the shortness of this Worldl's pleasures lest hereby he should be driven to embrace the Christian Religion that promiseth after this Life an Happiness Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us The Emperour that his Son should never think of any such future happiness cansed him to be brought up in a most Glorious Palace and attended there with gallant attendants fresh and comely and youthful and that he should never see nor ' bear of the miseries of this Life as Death old Age Sickness Poverty c. to the end that he should think of nothing but the present happiness afterwards the young Man desiring to recreate himself with going abroad his Father appointed that the officers should take order that all things irksome and unpleasant should be removed out of the way and that there should be nothing but Song and Musick and Danceing and delightful sights in his way but upon a time through the negligence of his Officers he espyed an old decayed writhen Man ready to drop into his Grave whereupon being somewhat moved he demanded what would become of that Miserable Creature Answer was returned that he should shortly Die and be Buried in the Earth and what shall all Men Die likewise saies he or some only nay all say they all must Die and within how many Years Eighty or an hundred at most and when he had heard this it would never out of his thoughts but still he was mourning out these Words and what shall Death also seize within such a time upon me shall I within such a time bid sarewel to all my pleasures why then Laughter than art mad and Mirth what dost thou and why should Madness be in my Heart whilst I live and after that go to the Dead and then to have a Living Dog to be better than I a Dead Lyon and thus his troubled Heart coursed him with these thoughts and would never let him res till Christianity brought him to a lively hope of that other Happiness Now it were good as this made him of a pagan a Christian so our Hearts would course us thus to make same of us that are Christians only in shew to be Christians in Power and to be Sanctified by the Spirit of Regeneration that when we fail we may be received into Everlasting Habitations what a Madness is it counted in the foot in the Gospel to say Soul set up thy Rest when he was removed before he bad well warmed his seat One of the Ancients tells a Story of one whom the World did strive as it were to make Happy he had an Healthful Body he had pleasant Friends fruitful Grounds good Succes s in all things and what else might make for his pleasure and yet was miserable because he feared still left all these might quickly have an end now he was well but he could not tell whether he might not be Sick ere to morrow now his Friends were Faithful but c. The Sea is not to be trusted no not when it smiles upon us in a moment it is all in a Storm and the same Day Ships are swallowed up there where they played at Anthor before How much does it concern us to learn the meaning of that Eccles 7.2 It is better to go to the House of Mourning than to the House of Feasting for that is the End of all Men namely Death and the Living will lay it to Heart At the sight of the Spectacle of Mortality we will happily begin to consider how vain all the Hopes and Purposes and Desires of Men here are that now at Death will have an End and thereupon begin to think of some more solid and enduring Heppines how shuld we Prize the Gospel our Religion that teach us how in this small pittance of time we may make good Provision for an Eternal and Everlasing state how should our Faith and Repentance and Holy Meditation and Communion with God and Heavenly Mindedness be furthered by this and whatever it is that hath a tendency to our well-being in the World that is to come which shall never have an End Consult Heb. 11.8 9 10. In the 32. of Ezekiel there are reckoned up the flourishing and mighty Kings and Kingdoms of the Earth Egypt and Elam c. and still it is added and expressed of them that though they cause their terrour in the Land of the living yet they are gone into the Nethermost Parts of the Earth though by our Greatness and Riches we may cause a little envy in the World by our Parts of body or mind beauty wit strength or policy cause a little admiration in the land of the living yet one Day ere long we shall go down into the nethermost parts of the Earth It 's said in the 27 ver of that Chapter That the mighty Men are laid in their Graves and their Swords Under their Heads the phrase as a Learned Man observes is borrowed from the Heathenish manner of burying their Warriours and great Worthies with their Weapons or Conquering Swords under their Heads the Wealthy ones that buy and sell and get gain shall be laid in the Grave with their Bags and Bonds and Evidences under their Heads they that Glory in Titles of Honour shall be laid in their Grave with their Coats and Scutcheons laid under their Heads the fair and beauteous that now rejoice in their fresh and lovely complexions shall
how with safety to turn private man complained that fortune had set him a Cock-height and then took away the ladder that he could not come down when he would And above all Solomon that had so flourishing a Kingdom as the best and sought good so accurately and universally what might be that good for the Sons of Men which they would so fain lay hold of under the sun and what can the man do that comes after the King yet after all this search the sum is this all is vanity and vexation this is proof enough of my Doctrine if I had no other He went about to cause his Heart to despair of all the labour which he took under the Sun King's Palaces say that peace and quietness is not in them the Crown and Purple say they have not heard of it but on the contrary trouble and vexation and anguish and sorrow and enough of it why should we then not think that it is no-where to be found if great Men that have so many fences against Affliction cannot escape how shall poor infirm naked Men avoid the dint of it I remember an answer of one Apollonius Thyaneus to one who asked him whether he believed the story of the Cup made of an Unicorns-horn that he who should drink out of it should be priviledged from all Diseases wounds and poisons I will believe it saies he if I shall know that the King of the Country where the Unicorn lives shall be immortal and escape Death he thought if any then the King would procure that Cup and enjoy the Benefit so if there be any that could free their Dayes from trouble or so much trouble as others may have King 's and Great-ones would surely hit on it but we find it is quite otherwise The Doctrine standing thus clear with the grounds and reasons of it I come now to draw some Inferences from it Vse 1. In the first place I note this that every man thinks he has trouble enough and would not willingly bear more than he has take any man in the World and come to him what day you will chuse and what time of the day you will and say to him Sir do you want any trouble no saies he I have trouble enough if it be a duty I must take it though troublesome but cares and crosses I want none come to the King and say Sir do you want any trouble he will tell you he has enough of his own the Crown of gold has thorns in it every man you meet with if you would sit down and hear him he will give you a large catalogue of his griefs and tell you either of some inward trouble from the fear and sense of the wrath of God from the temptations and bufferings and assaults suggestions and injections of the wicked one or else arising from the corruption and deceitfulness of his own Heart or he will acquaint you with some outward trouble full of discontent it may be from Superiors by putting up many a wrong and injury at their hands from inferiours by back-biting slander and detraction from equals by much unsociable fallings out or being in every thing our rivals or emulous copemates to give us the check at every turn from Friends by unkind falling away or treacherous disclosing of secrets or failing in the time of need like Jobs friends For now ye are nothing saies he ye see my casting down are afraid My Brethren have dealt deceitfully with me as a brook and as the stream of brooks they pass away From enemies also by doing us as we look for no other all the despite they can from Wife or Husband by many frowns or unkind fits between them from servauts by common negligence and unfaithfulness c. And as from all sorts of People so in all sorts of conditions in the married estate discontents sometimes for want of Children but much more for having unthriving Children and little less from having good and hopeful ones sometimes untimely taken away or that they must leave such to the wide World without leaving any thing to such pretty Babes The married body hath discontents in being put to care for others and the single person is not without it that he hath none to care for him Masters complain of bad Servants and Servants think that Masters are very cross and froward see the Apostle Paul's Catalogue of his Troubles 2 Cor. 11.23 c. There is trouble in getting the World trouble in keeping it and trouble in parting with it I shall conclude this with that of the Wise-Man who spoke by experience and there 's nothing like it What hath Man of all his labour and of the vexation of his Heart wherein he hath laboured under the sun For all his dayes are Sorrow and his travel grief yea his Heart taketh not rest in the Night This is also vanity Vse 2. I note the goodness of God that seeing the day hath trouble enough he has so ordered it that trouble is but for a day if many dayes and many troubles met together it would be sad it s well that Dayes of trouble and extream misery are shortened In Hell there is a Life without end and trouble without end seeing it is sharp it is a comfort it is so short Vse 3. I note the great difference between this life and the Life to come many Dayes and full of joy for few Dayes and full of troubles In thy Presence is fulness of joy at thy right Hand are pleasures for evermore Vse 4. The great mistake of promising a better morrow if you have not the same trouble to morrow which you had to day you shall have another in the room of it and full as bad to morrow may not be and if it be it will not be better it is looked upon as great vanity and wickedness in them that said to Morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant Vse 5. The great Mercy of God that has been pleased to order suitable support and sufficient supply for the day As thy day is so shall thy strength be Vse 6. There is comfort in this that we canot expect a worse morrow more than enough cannot be fear of a worse makes this the worst The Lord will lay no more upon you than he will enable you to bear if thou shalt have burthen enough for thy bearing so thou wilt have strength enough for thy burden if thou hast but little trouble thou has but little strength and the burden is enough for thy strength so if thou hast great troubles thou hast proportionable strength and so the strength is enough for the burden To conclude this Text my care will not make to morrow's trouble less and therefore why should it make this day's trouble more I am resolved to part with a great many thoughts and cares which have been very chargeable to maintain have eaten up my strength and comfort and I have got
Another Woman there may be that may do the same things may seek wool and flax and work willingly with her hands may rise early put her hand to the wheel c and yet may be a meer scraper a meer worldling a meer progger for Earthly trash and subsistence for these dayes a meer vitious and not a vertuous Woman Why Because she does them not from the same ground out of obedience and fear of God and respect to another World but from a prophane heart greedy of the world so how many precepts are there in Proverbs that might seem to smell of meer worldliness as that of taking heed of suretiship and that of diligently looking after the state of their flocks and looking well to their herds And yet no Worldliness that Solomon meant in them but rather Heavenliness mark his General rule in the Begi 〈…〉 the Fear of the Lord is the Beginn 〈…〉 Wisdoms all other precepts are to be performed by vertue of this general precept and guided by it Let this lastly be added that you may see how necessary it is to number time and dayes and what-ever fills them for Eternity if we do not do it we shall lose the comfort of our best and most specious Actions To be painful in the Ministry to be forward in Works of Charity c. How goodly and how good are these Actions in themselves and yet spend my Spirits I may consume and wait my strength I may in the Ministry and yet if I do this as a task only that the world looks I should discharge or to get my own maintenance or to set up my own credit and not chiefly in all this my labour be guided by that which he I that was so laborious in the Ministry was guided by To me to live is Christ the honour of Christ and to die is gain here is Eternity in the case I lose all the comfort I might have in this so good an Action and the reward I might expect from Christ in the other World So 〈◊〉 Works of charity I may do many things I may feed the hungry 〈◊〉 the Naked entertain good Ministers and good People build Hospitals c. and yet if by-respects which supposition I put not that the world should in such cases where Good appears be suspicious but that Man that does Good should look still to his own Heart which is deceitful if I say by-respects sway too much and these things be not done chiefly in obedience to God that he might be glorified and that we might lay up a good Foundation for the time to come that we might lay hold upon Eternal Life and that we might make to our selves Friends of the unrighteous Mammon that when we want they may receive us into Everlasting habitations We lose the great comfort that we might expect from so good actions To conclude this Point if you be careful observe this rule of making all thy time all thy dayes and actions look with their Faces directly upon Eternity and the World to come thou wilt meet with wonderful advantage and benefit by it thou wilt bring all thy works into a narrow compass into a single channel into constant view and observation Thou will render all thy Duties and performances all thy labours under the Sun to be more sweet more easie unperplexed and affording much peace rest and tranquillity to the Soul by a perfect removing the fears of future evils publick judgments poverty c. and especially of the day of thy Death which by this means will be so facilitated and familiarized that it will become rather a day desireable than formidable nay thou will look upon the day of thy Death as better than any of the dayes of thy Life these and other things I might enlarge upon and they do indeed deserve a serious discussion but I design brevity and therefore hasten to the second Observation which I shall but touch upon and that is from this consideration that the Psalmist prayes for teaching and instruction in this point of numbring Dayes which is so plain so common so ordinary so obvious a thing besides that he had numbred them in ver 10. The Dayes of our years c. Doct. 2. Let the Observation hence be this that Christians may be much unacquainted with the Nature and power of those Truths which are known and confessed and acknowledged by them the hinge of this is that Truths that seem to be best known are least known things best seen are least understood I shall briefly give you a fivefold Instance and so pass on to the next 1. The Doctrine is evident in things relating to sense 1. The shortness of time 2. Certainty of Death 3. Uncertainty of Riches 2. In things obvious to Reason and most acknowledged as 1. The deceitfulness of Man's Heart 2. The necessary connexion between Sin and Punishment 3. The universal and particular Providence of God 3. In things known by Revelation as First That Christ Died and was Buried and rose again see 1 Cor. 15.1 2 3 4. And ascended into Heaven Secondly That he sent down his Holy Spirit to convince guide comfort and rule in the Hearts of the Saints Thirdly That the Lord Jesus will come again in Power and great Glory with his Saints and Angels to Judge the World in Righteousness 4. In matters of absolute and plain precept as First Loving the Brethren and being found in all the Acts and exercises of Gospel-Love Secondly Well-ordering and governing the tongue Thirdly Walking circumspectly and redeeming time 5. In approved Actions concerning Worship as First That God is to be Worshipped and Loved above all which is the first and great Commandment Is this observed diligently and constantly by all Christians is there nothing at any time steps before God Secondly Divine and Gospel-Worship must have Divine and Gospel-warrant Thirdly That Gospel-Worship must be Spiritual and not formal and carnal I might give you the Reasons of the point from the commonnesss of them few considering seriously what is obvious and plain from Man's curiosity still willing to find out some new thing and from Satan's subtilty who knows by experience that there is no such Robbing as by the high way side the great road the known path he Will let men alone in by-wayes and more private paths in Truths of lesser concernment and influence but dees the great spoil in known confessed practical Truths and Doctrines But I hasten to what remains it may be the Lord may stir up some more able Pen to shew the professing World their great errours and mistakes herein that the Spirits of the power of Godliness which have been long uhder decay may be recovered and the great arteties filled with good Blood that the Truths and the things of God may have their due consideration and observation by the pretenders to them according to their nature worth weight necessity and excellency of them There are two Observations behind
and time and strength has been mostly imployed about their own outward Man and their Families and Children how to get them Bread and Livings and Portions and in the mean while have made no provision for their long home for Eternity for their precious Souls but let them lie at sixes and sevens hunger'd starved defiled naked and bare He that reckons of the fewness of his dayes reasons and resolves thus let me secure an interest for my Soul in the Lord Jesus let me be assured of a kind reception beyond the Grave and a mansion in Glory and then if I have time I may look a little after the World but if I leave the former undone I shall be undone for ever I may leave the latter undone and no great loss God will take care of my Children he is bound to it and for my self if I be in the meaner condition here as we use to say to Children no body will ask them or tell them when they come to be Men what cloaths they did wear when they were Children so when I come to Heaven it will be all one then whether I had two coats here or never a whole one whither I lived in plenty here or sometimes was in such a strait that I did not know where to get my dinner let my Soul be once in a safe condition and then I am sure there can be nothing much amiss in other things 2. It is a Point of Wisdom to foresee an evil and to avoid it the Wise-Man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself but the simple pass on and are punished He that numbers his dayes aright that knbws the shortness of time the certainty and suddenness of Death does prepare himself accordingly he gets himself hid in the rock the Lord Jesus he has got an hiding place so that when Death comes to strike and Satan watching for the Soul and the Grave which can never have enough gapeing for the Body all on a sudden the Soul is carried by Angels into Abraham's bosom and the Body laid as seed in the Earth not detained as a Prisoner under the grave's power to be raised again a Glorious Body at the Resurrection of the Just the Soul is continually whilst here fortifying it self by Faith and Repentance and humility and self-denial which are Armour of proof in every evih day 3. He is a Wise-Man that knows how to carry himself suitable to his condition The right numbring his dayes conduces much to this as you have already heard and therefore I need not enlarge upon this Head only this he reckons his time is so short that it never concerns him whether he be in an high or in a low condition it 's no matter where or how I fit I am not like to fit so long no matter what part I act I shal quickly be gone off the stage I can take any part that is allotted me it 's no matter how I buy and sell or pofesess for I must do all as though I did it not because of the shortness of time so that in short as numbring our dayes aright is the fruit of Divine Teachings so it is the way and means to obtain Divine Wisdom 4. He is a Wise-Man that is well-read in antient Records and History and has a good reach with him about what things may fall out hereafter and manages himself accordingly Now to number our dayes aright will put us upon a search of the dayes that are past what times have been before and that which is is but what hath been and is gone and past and so must what lies before us top and therefore we shall be looking after something that is lasting not so flitting and fading as these earthly things are a Man that knows no more than the present day will mind nothing else but the present things will be alwayes muddling and moyling and scraping in the World and never looks about him to see what has gone before him or what will come after him which if he once did he would quickly come out of his muddy hole and shake himself and seek about for some surer foot-hold some better standing some other imployment than what he is now engaged in and taken up with 5. He is a Wise-Man what knows things of deep reach and search of profound enquiry things that are out of other Mens thoughts that never enter into their head 's the right numbring of our dayes will much help to this knowledg for he that considers that time will quickly end and Eternity presently begin which will never end will begin to inquire what things are conversant and in use in the other world and when he finds that Communion with God beholding Christ in his Glory freedom from all sin the society of Saints c is the condition of the place he presently turns out Worldly thoughts and designs and discourses about Houses and Lands and Money and Pomp and Glory and Pleasures and dives into the Mystery of the Gospel the Word of reconciliation a Life of believing the work and sealing of the Spirit the priviledges of God's People c and falls upon studying the work of repentance of self-denial of mortification together with all those works of meekness love and charity by which Persons are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light and are prepared for an Eternal state and condition alas faies he why do you trouble me with these trifles as Eating and Drinking and Trading c. It 's true they are of use in and are calculated for this present infirm state and must have their place but the main work and business is quite another thing the usages and customes of this World are quite differing from and contrary to those of the next and therefore I must begin the life here that I expect to live in the next and must be practising Non-conformity to and living above this present evil World I must come out of it I must be out of Love with it I must keep it at due distance I must use it as not abusing it as if I used it not that I may be ready and fitted for the condition and company of the World to come when-ever the messenger of Death comes for me which I am to expect every hour For I am commanded to watch alwaies with my loins girt about and my light burning that when my Lord comes and knocks I may open to him immediatly 6. We count him a Wise-Man who is willing to be taught and nothing like the numbring of our dayes will further that it cures trewantry he that does a thing as his last will be willing to do it the best way he can and will be glad of any help persons that have difficult business to do which must be done in such a time are ready to receive advice and take it kindly and this does argue them to be wise for willingness to learn is a sign of Wisdom he is