with him by Baptism into Death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of Life These words import not only our belief of a crucified Saviour who dyed and was buried for sin to save us from it but also our Repentance whereby we renounce sin as dead and buried to it for the time to come The general Design of this Sacrament being sufficiently plain and clear from these and other Scriptures it is to little purpose and oftentimes it proves to very ill purpose to enquire any further as to particulars for by so doing a great many persons judging of divine things by their own weak and foolish apprehensions have reasoned themselves if I may so speak both out of their Reason and Religion 2. Duty to season their Minds betimes with good Impressions Secondly When Children begin to speak and to discover some dawnings of Reason it is fit to season their Minds with some good Thoughts with some divine Impressions that Religion betimes may catch hold of their tender and innocent Minds before they are corrupted and defiled with bad Principles and vain unreasonable Opinions which they are apt to learn too soon from evil Company Teach them who made them who dyed for them for what end they were made whither good Children go when they dye and whither naughty Children go what a place Heaven is and Hell c. These and such like plain and easie things are to be told them which they can understand and which may make some impression on their minds In teaching Children such matters it is necessary to condescend to their weak capacity It is not fit to ask them such Questions at all times nor yet to say too much to them at any one time Such Instructions are to be dropt into their minds softly and leisurely so as not to oppress them but to recreate them not to be a burden to them but a pleasure It cannot be expressed how great Advantages attend such early Instructions these are the Seeds of Virtue which take root insensibly and spring up sometimes very unexpectedly the Impressions which they make continue a great while as Earthen Vessels retain the savour of that Liquor which was first put into them a long time after So powerful are these first Instructions that they are able to conquer even Nature it self The famous Lycurgus made this appear by bringing into the Market-place two Dogs of one Litter and presenting before them a Pot of Pottage and a Hare one of them which was trained up in Hunting run after the Hare and the other which was brought up in the House fell to the Pottage What a wonderful power may we daily observe in those early impressions which are made on mens minds Thereby it comes to pass that the most absurd and extravagant Opinions which have been suck'd in when one was young can hardly be removed by the clearest and strongest Reasonings 3. Duty to teach them to pray Thirdly Teach them so soon as may be to pray to God Morning and Evening To say after you or others whom you appoint for that purpose two or three short Petitions which are easie to be understood and as their Understanding and Capacity increaseth teach them the Lord's Prayer and after that some larger Form of Prayer which they may say after you till they can read it themselves or get it by heart You are to have a special care that they perform their Devotions in as grave and serious a manner as their years can admit You are to keep them from all sorts of indecent Actions and Postures when they say their Prayers For this end you are to teach them who it is they speak to when they pray and what these things mean which they pray for Chuse the fittest times for them wherein to say their Prayers as in the Morning when-ever they arise while their Spirits are most vigorous and their Thoughts most free At Night let them say their Prayers rather before Supper than after because after Supper they are more apt to be very dull and sleepy and thereby less fit for such a performance God is not to be served with the refuse of our thoughts and with sluggish sleepy desires but with our best and most lively affections and with the strength and fervour of our desires You are to prevent their omitting their Prayers at any one time because doing so once or twice they are apt to neglect them wholly or to return to them with great aversness Whereas Custom and Constancy in performing their Devotions will make them much more easie and pleasant to them When they are possessed with more perfect and solid thoughts about Religion with stronger and more lively impressions of Divine things and are able without great difficulty to express the sense of their Souls They may do what they find does serve best the great purposes of Devotion If praying without restraining themselves to any particular Form of Words contribute more to their fervency and elevation of mind in Prayer let them pray without using a Form But if they find that their Minds are more stayed and fixed and their fervency and devotion greater in the use of a Form than without it let them do that which they find best When they pray for outward and temporal things teach them to do it with an entire submission to the Will of God who hath promised perishing things conditionally that is so far as he sees the bestowing of them will be for his Glory and the good of his Children Therefore they must not be vehement and importunate in their desires and Prayers for such things but ought to pray for them with great humility and resignation to the Divine Will As for spiritual Blessings to wit the pardon of Sin the direction and assistance of the Spirit of God his Grace to help them in time of need power and strength to fight against the Devil the World and the Flesh c. These things are to be prayed for with all the importunity and earnestness that is possible The more vehement and fervent their desires and Prayers are for such things the more acceptable are they to God and the more likely to obtain from him the desires of their Souls for he hath promised to satisfie the longing Soul with good things 4. Duty to observe carefully their temper and disposition and to endeavour to reform what is amiss therein Fourthly Observe carefully their Temper and Disposition what Vices they are most inclined to If they are sturdy and proud peevish and passionate cunning given to lying flattery and dissimulation if they are conceited rash and unadvised c. Endeavour all you can to bend their minds another way For Example if they are sturdy and proud strive to humble them and break them to tame their proud Spirits accustom them to the doing acts of humility do not gratifie them in those things that are apt
in quarrelling and fighting in whoring and ranting and such like woful doings which cannot but prove to those who have any the least degree of real goodness so very uneasie and afflictive that Wealth and Riches can make no amends for them Such unfortunate persons cannot but often envy the happiness of those who are in a very poor and low estate and condition but yet live in peace and quietness in love and concord and in the fear of God and so enjoy-real satisfaction and contentment and have a great deal of Comfort to sweeten their outward Wants and Necessities Prov. 15.16 17. Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great Treasure and trouble therewith Better is a Dinner of Herbs where Love is than a stalled Ox and hatred therewith Thirdly Parents are to provide for them 3. Duty about providing somewhat that may be the foundation of their comfortable subsistance in the World if they can somewhat that may be a foundation for their Comfortable subsistance in the World which by the Blessing of God on their Callings may be improved towards their living decently and honestly Parents are not to propose to themselves the rendring their Children very Great and Rich But as they themselves having Food and Rayment are to be therewith content so if they can get Necessaries for their Children they ought to rest satisfied and be thankful Our life that is the happiness of our life doth not consist in the abundance of the things we possess Luke 12.15 Tho' you are thus to provide for your Children yet you are not out of too great thoughtfulness about the time to come to restrain your selves from doing all necessary Offices of Charity to the poor who do now stand in need of your help Never neglect a present Duty for fear of an uncertain inconvenience You are forbid to take thought for the Morrow Matth. 6.34 But you are required to do good to all Men while you have opportunity Gal. 6.10 To cast your Bread upon the Waters to give a Portion to seven as also unto eight because you know not what evil there may be in the Earth Eccles 11.1 2. This is the way to lay up Treasures for your Children to entail upon them great Blessings to make God their Guardian to leave them to his merciful and kind Providence and to his Almighty protection Ps 37.25 26. I have been young and now am old yet have I not seen the Righteous forsaken nor his Seed begging Bread He is ever merciful and lendeth and his Seed is Blessed So that by your Bounty and Charity you put forth your Money into God's hands who will not fail to repay it with Usury He that gives to the poor lendeth to the Lord. You thereby bring your Wares to a good Market The liberal Soul shall be made fat Prov. 11.25 He that gives to the poor shall not lack Prov. 28.27 and Deut. 15.10 it is written Thou shalt surely give him to wit thy poor Brother and thy heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy Works and in all that thou puttest thine hands unto And in the Epistle to the Hebrews ch 6. v. 10. it is said God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which you have shewed towards his Name in that you have ministred to the Saints and do minister From all which it appears that Charity and Liberality are the best Husbandry As you are to beware lest your care for your Children make you neglect necessary Duties of Charity so you are to take heed lest you use any unlawful method to get Wealth to bestow upon them This is not a way to make them rich for such Riches seldom prosper There is a Curse which attends all unlawful Gain and like a Canker eats it out and consumes it All Ages and Places afford Examples which confirm this Observation Better saith Solomon Prov. 16.8 is a little with Righteousness than great Revenues without Right Thus I have shewed you what are the principal Duties you owe to the Souls and Bodies of your Children and what you are to do for them as to their outward Estate The above mentioned particulars earnestly recommended to Parents From what hath been said you may see what a weighty and difficult charge you have the sense whereof should excite you to beg of God earnestly every day that he would direct and assist you to perform the Duties that belong to Christian Parents That you may the better act your part 't is fit for you when you call your selves to an account about your Lives and Conversations to make enquiry particularly how you perform the Duties of Parents towards your Children as to their Souls their Bodies and Outward Concerns And if upon serious enquiry you find that you sincerely endeavour to do whatever you know your selves to be bound to do for them then bless and praise God who gives you both to will and to do according to his good pleasure Beg his pardon for those imperfections and defects that attend all Humane Actions Resolve to go on and not to grow weary in your Duty towards them that so they may be as happy in all respects as is possible for you by the help of God to make them But if upon enquiry you find that you have been very defective in your duty towards your Children that you have done very little good for their Souls and not what you should and might have done for their Bodies and outward Estate and that perhaps you have done them a great deal of hurt by your Evil Counsel and Prophane and Wretched Example that you have led them on in the Broad Way which leads to the Chambers of Death that you have robbed God who bestowed them on you of their Service and Obedience and have made them the Servants of Sin that you have contributed to the making them Heirs of Wrath Children of Disobedience who were made by their Baptism Children of God and Inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven that you have done what tended to destroy eternally those Souls and Bodies which God intrusted with you that you might take care of them and do what you could to make them happy If I say upon enquiry into your hearts and lives you find your selves guilty of those things how great reason have you to be in bitterness and grief of Heart to weep and lament to abhor your selves in Dust and Ashes to confess and acknowledge your sins with great humility and contrition to implore the divine mercy and forgiveness with all earnestness for the sake of his dear Son to resolve and purpose sincerely to amend your ways and doings to beg grace from God that he would assist you that he would compass you about with his Salvation and never leave you nor forsake you Consider the particular things wherein you have hurt the Souls of your Children and
the Lord shall forgive her because her Father disallowed her Now if it be thus in a Father's power to disanul his Daughters rash Vow which she made to God how much more may we reckon it in his Power to disanul her rash and indiscreet promise made to Man of bestowing her self without her Parents allowance Can there be any thing more unjust more unkind more unthankful and more unnatural than for Children who have been brought up nourished and cherished by their Parents for whom all their care and pains have been bestowed to dispose of themselves in the most important affair of their lives without their knowledge or against their Will What a grief and trouble of heart must this needs be to their poor Parents As we see it was to Isaac and Rebekah Gen. 26.34 35. And Esau was forty years old when he took to Wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Bashemath the Daughter of Elon the Hittite which were a grief of mind to Isaac and to Rebekah As to such undutiful Children who do thus bestow themselves against their Parents will and consent it is very remarkable that they seldom live happily and comfortably they bring upon themselves very often a great deal of sorrow and trouble lasting misery and woe They live to eat the fruit of their foolish doings and wish when it is to little purpose that they had never done so mad and wicked a thing 5. Duty to submit to their Parents Reproofs and Chastenings Fifthly They are meekly and patiently to submit to their Reproofs to their Chastenings and Corrections It is a Power that God hath given Parents over their Children to correct and chasten them for their Faults This is necessary for Childrens good and therefore when Parents do correct them they ought not to be angry with them or grumble at their severity which they use for reforming of them much less are they to resist and rebel against them Heb. 12.9 We have had Fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence Yea tho' Parents sometimes exceed the bounds of prudence and discretion in chastising their Children tho' they indulge a little to their own Passion yet Children are bound patiently to bear and suffer their Corrections They are not to fly out into indecent and irreverent words and actions but with all the submission and respect that 's possible ought to endeavour to mitigate the wrath and passion of their angry Parents and afterwards they are to study all that ever they can to prevent their anger and displeasure by a most humble reverend and dutiful carriage How much may this serve to reprove those Against Rebellious Children who are so far from taking in good part their Parents correcting and chastening of them that they refuse to submit thereto They resist them and rebel against them Can there be any thing more unnatural and monstrous than to see those who owe their being to their Parents who have been brought up by them who have met with so many testimonies of a tender care and of great kindness to rise up against them to fly into the faces of those who are the Authors of their being to lift up their hand against them This is a sin of so crying a nature that he who was guilty thereof was to be put to death by the Law of Moses Exod. 21.15 He that smiteth his Father or his Mother shall be surely put to death How greatly does it aggravate this sin when Children have met with no severe nor unmerciful dealing from their Parents But have been treated by them with all that gentleness and kindness that was possible And yet for such Children to rise up against their Parents is a Crime of so black a nature that it is no wonder if the hand of God appear against them for it in a very signal manner as it did in the case of Absalom for whom his Father David had so great a fondness This unthankful and unnatural Son rose up against him and endeavoured by force and violence to pull him from the Throne and to usurp the Royal Dignity See how the hand of God appeared against him 2 Sam. 18.9 And Absalom met the Servants of David and Absalom rode upon a Mule and the Mule went under the thick Boughs of a great Oak and his Head caught hold of the Oak and he was taken up between the Heaven and the Earth and the Mule that was under him went away And ver 14. it is said that Joab took three darts in his hand and thrust them through the heart of Absalom while he was yet alive in the midst of the Oak And ver 15. Ten young Men that bare Joab's Armour compassed about and smote Absalom and slew him And ver 17. They took Absalom and cast him into a great Pit in the Wood and laid a very great heap of stones upon him This was done as a lasting Monument of Absalom's sin and shame and of God's righteous Judgment upon him 6. Duty to love their Parents and how they are to express their Love Sixthly Children ought to love their Parents and to express it by all those Offices which are in their Power to do for them by serving them readily by doing every thing that may make them well pleased by sympathizing with them in all their troubles by assisting them and doing all they can to make their Lives joyful and comfortable by shunning every thing that may grieve them or make them uneasie They ought to refuse no labour nor pains to do them service especially when they are sick and weak oppressed with the Burden of Old Age or poor and indigent under any sort of necessity whatsoever then ought Children to be very ready to help them to comfort and to encourage them to do all that they can to make their lives easie to them and to lighten their Burdens This is called 1 Tim. 1.4 A shewing Piety at home It is an act of Religion and Worship which God is well pleased with We see how Joseph nourished his Father and his Brethren and all his Fathers household with Bread Gen. 47.12 It was an old Roman Law Let Children relieve their Parents or be put in Prison How many Examples have there been amongst the Heathens of Eminent Piety towards Parents Such was that Act of her Valer. Max. l. 5. cap. 4. who when her Old Father was condemned to be put to death in Prison visited him often and gave him suck and so preserved him alive who otherwise must have dyed of Famine The like instance we meet with in the same Author Valer. Max. ibid. of a worthy Roman Daughter who did in the same manner preserve her Mother in Prison being condemned to dye When the Keeper of the Prison to whom the charge of putting her to death was committed found after some time that her Daughter kept her alive by giving her suck he was so affected with the greatness of the Daughters Compassion
how Have not some dyed through an excess of joy and others through immoderate grief some by excessive laughter and others by too much mourning and weeping Some have dyed with a fright or sudden fear some by the violence of their anger and wrath and others by an excess of love How many have been killed with over much care and too great watching and others have occasioned their own death by idleness and too much sleep Some have killed themselves with eating and drinking and others have done it by too great abstinence and fasting Have not some dyed while they have been at Meals by a Crumb or a little Bone or some such very small matter When they were thinking to repair their strength and to fit themselves for going on with their business and work that which they did to save and lengthen out their lives did shorten them and put an end to them May not this instance alone shew you the great uncertainty of your time and how necessary it is to redeem it But besides all this consider that when you go abroad you are in danger from innumerable accidents You may be killed by the noisom steams of the Earth by some infectious quality in the Air by the Beasts of the field by the teeth of Dogs by the horns of mad Oxen or by the heels of wild Horses You are likewise in danger from the winged Creatures the least of whom have Weapons sufficient to destroy you if God by his Power and Justice arm them against you How remarkable was the manner of the death of Aeschylus Valer. Max. lib. 9. cap. 12. an ancient Poet in Sicily who as he sate in a Sunny place without the Walls of the City was killed by a Tortoise which an Eagle let fall on his head And no less memorable is the Story which is mentioned in the Book of Martyrs of one Burton Bailiff of Crowland in Lincolnshire who pretending to be a Friend to the Reformation in King Edward's time after the King's death began to set up the Popish Mass again and would have beaten the Curate if he had not complied with his design But see how the Lord's hand overtook him as he came riding from Fenbank one day a Crow flying over his head let fall her excrements upon his face the noisom scent whereof so annoyed his stomach that he never ceased vomiting till he came home And after falling deadly sick would never receive any meat but vomited still and complained of that stink cursing the Crow that had poisoned him and in a few days he died without giving any sign of his repentance for his former wicked life Besides the danger you are in from unreasonable Creatures are you not also sometimes in hazard from men who are mad either through the distemper of their Brain or through their violent Malice and Envy Let a Bear robbed of her Whelps saith Solomon meet a man rather than a fool in his folly Prov. 17.12 And not only are your Lives in danger from unreasonable Creatures and from Men but likewise from the Spirits of Darkness unless restrained by the mighty Power of God These are Enemies of great Power and of as great Malice But your heavenly Father keeps them as it were in chains and sets bounds to their rage and fury that they cannot hurt you so much as in a hair of your head without the Divine permission But further so uncertain is your time that there is not a stone nor a block in your way but it may be an occasion of your stumbling and falling into the snares of Death And sometimes when there is no such block in your way you are not secure from danger One foot may prove a stumbling-block to the other and an occasion of your falling into the hands of Death And more than all this in how great danger are your Lives from Fire and from Water from Heat and Cold from Storms and Tempests from Thunder and Lightning and many other things the stroke whereof you cannot prevent nor foresee God hath in store the Sword the Famine and Pestilence and innumerable Judgments and Plagues whereby he can cut you off and shorten your Lives When you are in your houses and think your selves in safety you know not but that Death is even there and that your Grave is ready for you By a sudden Wind by an Earthquake or by a decay in the Foundation or some other part of the Building the house may fall down about your ears and prove your burying place From all which you may conclude that your time is the most uncertain thing in the World Ought you not therefore to make good use of it while it lasts not knowing how soon and suddenly it may be at an end Thirdly Consider how great and difficult a work you have to do 3. Motive from the greatness and difficulty of the work you have to do a work that requires a great part of your time and worthy of all your time How hard is it to work out your Salvation to make your Calling and Election sure to strive to enter in at the strait gate to be born again to be made new Creatures to be renewed in the Spirit of your mind to put off the works of darkness and to put on the armour of light to add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity To have the image of God renewed in your Souls to be made partakers of the Divine Nature to escape the corruptions which are in the World through lust to be comformed to the Example of your Blessed Lord and Master in those Virtues wherein you ought to imitate him to learn of him who was meek and lowly to go about as he did doing good to the Souls and Bodies of men to be zealous for God and holy as he who called you is holy in all manner of conversation How great a work is it to overcome your selves To become vile and base in your own eyes to think meanly of your selves and to be willing that others should think so of you too to be content with every state and condition of life wherein God does by his Providence place you to bear wrongs and injuries with meekness and patience not to be overcome with evil but to overcome evil with good to mortifie your sinful desires and sensual appetites to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts to purifie your selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit to cleanse your hearts from all manner of wickedness that they may be fit Temples for the Spirit of God to dwell in to govern your eyes that you may not thereby betray your souls into the hands of your enemies to govern your lips to take heed to your ways that you offend not with your tongue to put away from you all lying flattery and dissimulation all
said 142 The Contents OF The Discourse about the Right Way of Improving our Time THE Introduction 155 The Text explained 156 How Time is to be redeemed 1. Time is to be redeemed from sleep 158 2. It is to be redeemed from dressing and adorning the Body 162 3. It is to be redeemed from eating and drinking 165 4. It is to be redeemed from gaming 168 5. It is to be redeemed from visuing 172 6. Time is to be redeemed from worldly business 179 7. It is to be redeemed from idleness 183 8. It is to be redeemed in sacred and religious Performances by doing them in the best manner 186 Some Motives to Excite you to do these things 1. Motive from the shortness of your Time 197 2 Motive from the uncertainty of your Time 201 3. Motive from the greatness and difficulty of the work you have to do 209 4. Motive from the account you must give how you spend your Time 216 The Conclusion 223 ADVICE TO PARENTS PART I. IT has been always reckoned by the best and wisest men a thing absolutely necessary towards a Reformation in the World to begin with the Instruction and right Education of Children those of elder Years being ordinarily so rooted and hardned in their sinful habits that for the most part there 's very little can be done to reform them and make them better So sensible were some ancient States of this that they made particular Laws for educating Children thinking it too great a Trust to leave it altogether in the Power of Parents to train up their Children according to their Humour and Fancy Amongst Christians there are few restraints upon Parents in most Countries it being in their power to Educate their Children as they think good It is therefore of no small importance for them to know what their Duty is that they may approve themselves to God in doing whatever he requires towards their Children for their Souls their Bodies and their outward Estate The design of this Treatise is to furnish those who want such helps with some plain and easie directions that they may know how to act the part of Christian Parents While Children are yet in the Womb How Parents ought to be affected while Children are yet in the Womb. it is the Duty of Parents to endeavour to bring their mind to an indifferency as to the Sex which shall be born not to prescribe to God by their impatient desires and their bold asking of him a Child of this or that Sex but to leave it entirely to his Will and Pleasure to do what he thinks best The happiness of Parents does not consist in having Children of this or that Sex Sometimes Sons who are most desired ordinarily may prove useless in the World yea very hurtful in many regards they may occasion great grief of Heart and lasting Anguish and Vexation to their Parents by their mad and foolish Courses and wicked doings And on the other hand Daughters may prove great Blessings in the World great Comforts to their Parents and great Examples of Piety and of Zeal for the honour of God On which Accounts Parents ought to resign their will to God and be ready with all gratitude to accept whatever he bestows Secondly When a Child is born How they ought to be affected when their Children are born Parents ought with all thankfulness to return praise and thanks to God who hath bestowed such a Blessing on them giving them a living Child sound and perfect in all its parts and proportions without either defect of necessary parts or excess and deformity thereof This should make them admire and adore the Powerful and Wise Providence of God which appears in framing and fashioning their Infant so curiously and wonderfully in the Womb preserving it and making it grow up from a very small and imperfect beginning to such a bigness with all those comely shapes and proportions which they behold They ought to look upon their Children as given them of God to be taken care of both as to their Souls and Bodies to be bred up in his fear for his Honour and Glory to be made fit to serve him here and to live with him for ever hereafter The Soul being the chiefest part of the charge committed to Parents I shall first shew what they ought to do for their Childrens Souls The first Duty of Parents for the Souls of their Children is to consecrate them to God in Baptism First They ought to consecrate their Children to God in Baptism so soon as conveniently they can They cannot better express their gratitude to God for blessing them with Children than by presenting them to him again in this holy Ordinance that he may set his Seal upon them and admit them into his House and Family that he may bestow upon them the priviledges of his Children and give them a Right and Title to the Blessedness the Grace and Glory purchased by Jesus Christ It is for this End that Baptism is instituted not only to be a Ceremony of Admission into the Church but to seal unto us the pardon of our Sins to assure us of the Divine Favour to make us Members of Christ Heirs of God and Inheritours of the Kingdom of Heaven if we by wilful impeuitency and unbelief do not afterwards hinder and frustrate the Virtue thereof It is not necessary for Parents to enquire how such things are done by Baptism it is enough for them to know That Baptism is appointed for those Ends and we are sure that God appoints nothing in vain Our Saviour is said Eph. 5.26 To sanctify and cleanse his Church with the washing of water by the Word And Tit. 3.5 he is said to save us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost And in the 22d of the Acts and 16. it is said by Ananias unto Paul Arise and be baptized and wash away thy Sins And says St. Peter 1 Epist 3.21 The like Figure whereunto even Baptism doth now also save us not the putting away of the filth of the Flesh but the answer of a good Conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ And St. Paul tells us Gal. 3.27 As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ Which words import not only our owning and acknowledging him as the Saviour of the World who alone is able to wash and cleanse us with his Blood but also our professing our resolution to live holy lives to walk in newness of life according to his Example in token of which in the ancient Church they who were baptized were presently cloathed with White Rayment to testify their resolution to live in holiness and to put off the Old Man that is all their former wicked Deeds and Customs and filthy Practices Likewise Rom. 6.3 and 4. it is thus written Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his Death Therefore we are buried
his Life and Estate would he not improve with great care and diligence that little time To be sure he would not lose one moment of it And tho' perhaps at other times he was wont to give up himself to his pleasures and pastimes and to mind little else but the gratifying his Lusts and Passions and his vanity and folly yet now that his Life and Fortune lye at the stake you should see such a man changed in a moment You should see him with great application of mind with the utmost diligence imploying his time running from place to place from one person to another according as his great and important business and concern required How readily would such a person redeem his time not only from idleness from gaming from impertinent Visits and from dressing and adorning of his Body and the like but even from eating and drinking and from his rest and repose in the night The desire of preserving his life would so fill his thoughts as to make him forges almost every thing else What would you 〈◊〉 or say if you should see a man in such circumstances wholly unconcerned and careless spending his time in gâ—ming or idleness in making impertinent visits in rioting and drinking and the like and doing nothing at all to obtain his pardon and to secure his life and fortune Doubtless you would look upon such a man as void of common understanding fit only for Bedlam or not worthy to live who knew no better to make use of his short time to preserve his life which Nature teacheth all men to do by all honest and lawful means It is easie for you to make application of all this to your selves You are by your sins Enemies to God Rebels against your Lord and King whereby you are in danger of everlasting death and destruction But God in his infinite mercy gives you time to sue out your Pardon which he offers you upon the most just and reasonable conditions only believe and repent and you shall be saved He will have mercy upon you and blot out your iniquities Be therefore so wise as to husband well this short time which God bestows on you for this purpose Redeem it as much as you can from all vain and unnecessary things that you may obtain forgiveness of Sins and the assistance of the Holy Spirit to enable you afterwards to walk in newness of life But if instead of minding this great and important concern of your Souls you give up your selves to sin and folly and indulge your selves in your mad and wicked practices and thereby provoke God yet more and more against you how just will your judgment and condemnation be If you will not be saved if you will not turn to the Lord that you may live if you will not believe repent and amend what remains you shall certainly dye and be miserable for ever They that will not be happy shall not be happy The wrath of God shall abide upon them Secondly 2. Motive from the uncertainty of your Time Consider that as your time is very short so it is most uncertain What do you know whether your Sun shall decline leasurely or whether it may not go down suddenly when you think it is not yet come to the noon-tide of the day You are not sure to live till you come to a good old Age. How many sicknesses and distempers and how many sudden accidents are there in the way which may shorten your day and cause your Sun to set when you think it shines with its greatest force and lustre Sometimes a Candle is blown out by the Wind or snufft out undesignedly when it is not yet half burnt And so the life of Man is often extinguished by outward accidents when by the course of Nature it might have been prolonged much further How many come forth into the World and give great appearances of making a very considerable figure in it by their Wisdom and Sagacity their good Conduct and Address their excellent Parts and useful Learning their Courage and Valour their charming Eloquence and clear and distinct Reasoning or by their shining Piety and burning Zeal But do not you see how suddenly they are gone they are hurried away by death and you neither see them nor hear of them any more There is nothing certain as to your time but its shortness and uncertainty Nothing can secure you against an unexpected blow by death when God sees fit to give charge to the King of terrors to knock you down Youth and strength cannot do it for how many dye when their Breasts are full of milk and their bones are moistened with marrow Too great abundance of Blood and Spirits do sometimes oppress and stifle the life of Man Wealth and Riches cannot secure you How many great and wealthy men have been suddenly carried away as with a Flood when their Coffers were full of Silver and Gold when they had all that heart could wish Even their Wealth proved the bait which allured idle covetous and desperate persons to break into their Houses and rob them not only of their Treasure but of their lives Greatness of Power and earthly Honour and Dignity are not able to do it Crowns and Scepters Castles and Palaces a wise Council and great Armies are not able to protect Princes from the violent and desperate attempts of Men who are prodigal of their lives How many of those who have been most famous in the World for their Power and Greatness have been very unexpectedly removed by a violent and sudden death When they have been in their greatest heighth at the very top of Earthly Felicity and full of the deepest Projects and Designs when they made account to make the Earth as it were to tremble to humble and to mortifie their Enemies to enlarge their own Dominions or to enslave their Subjects even then Death gave them a sudden blow and so there was an end of them and their designs together But may not Wisdom and Understanding great Learning and skill in various Arts and Sciences do somewhat to secure men from the sudden blow of Death No all this cannot do it We see even Wise men suddenly and unexpectedly removed from us by death as well as others In the midst of their useful Studies and excellent contrivances and designs the King of terrors puts a stop to them and in the twinkling of an Eye they are gone and all their thoughts are laid asleep So vain a thing is Man and even the wisest Man and so uncertain is his time Consider that Death can enter by a thousand doors Every pore in your Body is a gate wide enough for Death to enter in at Do not you see what a small thing makes way for Death The prick of a Thorn or a Splinter of Wood does it sometimes by occasioning a Fever or a Gangrene How quickly are some removed by violent and unexpected Distempers and sometimes on a sudden are struck dead you cannot tell