so it may be taken into two parts and yet either of them retain the force of a Reason to urge us to the duty under consideration 1. The night cometh 2. When it is come no work can be done in it 1. The night that is death cometh in which these things are imploy'd which may serve to heighten our diligence and to hasten us in our Work 1. The night cometh then death is certain and will undoubtedly be with us for in that it 's said it comes it undeniably proves that there is such a thing as death since that which is not cannot come And this is a thing not more certain in it self than it is evident and apparent to us That we are Mortal and when our part is acted must go off the Stage of this World constant and daily Experience teaches us and proves it to us This is the Path that is daily trodden by all sorts ages and conditions of men the Young and Old the Poor and Rich Bond and Free Male and Female all meet together in the Chambers of Death and lye down to rest in the dust This is the common fate of Man kind and that irreversible Decree past at the first Transgression from which no man ordinarily is exempt Methuselah ran a long Course yet after Nine hundred sixty and nine years he dyed and Abraham lived well and was the Father of the Faithful and the Friend of God yet after an hundred threescore and fifteen Years he gave up the Ghost and dyed And there want not dayly Memento's of our Mortality even in all those things that are daily obvious to our eyes the constant course of Winter and Summer and of Day and Night put us in mind of our putting off the Glories of this Life and of our sleeping in death The Winter strips the Earth of her glory and beauty and leaves her naked it hinders and determines her fruitful seasons and death takes down our Pride and Pomp and tyes our hands that we cannot work At night we uncloath and go to bed and how far soever we ramble in the day we then leave our Labours and confine our selves to a narrower compass to take our rest till morning And in death we strip and lye down in the Grave and our Bodies take their long sleep till dooms day morning wake us again Our great Estates and numerous Lands shrink up in death to six foot of Earth and our stately Seats and ceiled Rooms and costly Furnitures give way to a Winding-sheet a Tomb and a Coffin Thus Night and Winter are fit Emblems to us of Death and serious Memonto's of our mortal state The certainty then of this should mind us of the work we have to do and engage us to be diligent at it our time is stated and nothing is more sure than that its end will come and death will overtake us our Work is appointed and so is our time too why then do we waste or trifle away that time which hath its limits fixed and will certainly be determined by death Why then do we project great things for our selves here which death will strip us of and turn aside from that work that God has appointed us to do thereward of which no death can deprive us of This very Consideration that death is certain should make us more careful in our work and sit more loose and be more indifferent to any advantages or enjoyments of this life If our work be done death cannot rob us of the reward of that but may be embraced as an advantage being a Rest from our Labours and a refuge from every Calamity that here we are burdened with Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them But for all other things which are the advantages of this Life only death robs us of them all and brings the Great and Mighty into an equal state with the Poor Ignoble and Mean The Grave knows no difference and the Worm knows no distinction betwixt finer and courser flesh He that marches to the Grave in a stately array and with a solemn pomp and he that steals silently into the Chambers of death and makes no noise nor bustle at his going both find an equal Entertainment in the dust and both have the same Kindred and Relations there and both with Job must say chap. 17. 14. To Corruption thou art my Father to the Worm thou art my Mother and my Sister Our Greatness leaves us at the Grave and no distinctions remain after death but such as a faithful serving of God and a conscientious industry in our Works may give us Why then do we neglect our work that would live with us beyond death and are fond of things that perish as to us by it since the night cometh that is Death is certain 2. The night cometh Then Death is at hand it cometh Then it is hastning on towards us it 's already in the way and onwards in its journey to us And this the shortness of our Lives when they are at their longest plainly speaks If once we are born even by the course of Nature we have not long to live and threescore years and ten which is the age of a man is but a poor pittance of time if it be compared to the Eternity that depends upon it The very first step that we set into this World is onwards towards Death and to the Youngest as well as to the Old it may be said death cometh Our Life is compared to a Race as swift as short as that the starting-place is from the Womb and the Goal is the Grave and all the while between our Birth and Decease we are in our Race hasting on to death As soon as our day begins to dawn the night also begins to hasten its approaches and we do no sooner begin to live but we are going onwards towards death How should this Consideration then hasten us in our Work and make us more diligent and industrious our time is short and the end of it at hand our Work is great and we have much to do how unreasonable is it then for us to loyter or be idle and how much more for us to be doing of Evil which must be unravelled and undone again All our time is little enough for our business there can be none to spare for evil ends or for a forreign service our End draws on whither we mind it or no Prudence then would teach us to ply our Work that the end of our time and our work may meet together Let us always then be well employed that death may find us so when it comes and that time cannot be far off The night cometh that is death is at hand 3. The Night cometh And this implies that the time of death is uncertain the night cometh Then no man knows how near death may be all that is
not work the works of him tha◠〈◊〉 us because as he sent us to live in Holiness towards him so he has also made it our duty to live in righteousness towards our Neighbour And thus as we may be considered as men in general there are works that are incumbent on us in that relation and as we are men we have a service to do for God to Man and 't is an equal Violation of the Law of God to rob God or to wrong Man since God has equally forbidden both Much Sacrifice will not expiate that sin nor many prayers drown the voice of its cry nothing but repentance and a reformation of our Injustice and Immorality nothing but a ceasing to do evil and a learning to do the contrary good will procure our acceptance with God and therefore we have him in the Prophet expostulating with his people who were highly injurious towards man and yet pretended to be extreamly Religious towards God They even cloy'd him with the fat of their fed Beasts and even darkned Heaven with the clouds of Incense they observed exactly their New Moons and Feasts their Sabbaths and Solemn Assemblies but withall practiced Injustice and Rapine and Violence and their hands were full of Blood they had no pitty to the Poor nor mercy to the Widdow nor regard to the Fatherless Children God therefore declares his dislike of their Religious service because of their defect in these moral duties and calls them first to the practice of them and then promises to hear and accept them in the others Let us reaâ—â— and weigh the first chapter of Isaiah from the 10th verse to the 21th and there we shall fâ—nd our duty in this case and find this made good that a Religion towards God without a Conscience towards man is defective and in vain Our Work then that we are sent to do relates to Man as well as God and that as we are considered in general as men 2. But we may farther be considered as we are men placed by God in some particular Relation and Sphear to act in whether as Magistrate or Minister as Master or Servant as Husband or Wife as Parent or Child these and the like several Relations and Places call for several Works from us which are our duties as so related and as set in those places Of these a care must be had for in these alâ—o we serve him that sent us and he that is a faithful Labourer a good Christian will not nay dare not neglect these The consideration of all which shews that a Christians life was never designed for Jollity or Idleness Having given you a sight of thus much Work to be done without saying any more 〈◊〉 â—â—ve evidently proved that we have no time to spare in whâ—â— we may lawfully sit still and do nothing our Work and our Time are equally matched for as long as we live we must be doing Much less can we find any time to do evil in or to serve the flesh or to be instrumental to the carrying on of the designs of the Kingdom of darkness for God made us for himself and gave us our time to be employed in his Service and 't is no less than robbing of God and being unfaithful in our trust to give any part of it to the service of another Thus much may suffice to have spoken of the Work we have to do 2. The next thing to be considered is the time when this Work ought to be done a thing almost as material to be enquired after as the Work it self for as some mistake or are ignorant of their Work so it may be more mistake the true notion of their time and therefore defer it because they think the time not yet come to begin or set about it This time the Text says is while it is day and the meaning of that has been shown to be while the time of Life lasts for the Text plainly excludes Eternity from being a season for work for it tells us if this Life be at an end so is our work too the Night cometh wherein no man can Work Now since the time of this Life may be divided into three parts past present and to come all the matter of our Enquiry will be Which of these three is our working time in which we ought to apply our selves to our business For that which is past there can be no question made whether that be a time for Work which remains yet to be done for it is elaps'd and gone and being once lost is irrecoverable we may more easily recall the River that slides insensibly by hasting to the Ocean than recover the dayes that are silently stollen on towards Eternity there is no use to be made of the time past but only this by reflexion upon what we have lost or idly mispent to quicken and awaken our selves to the more careful improvement of what remains 'T is impertinent to wish that we had our time again since that cannot be all our wisdom in this case is to lay the faster hold upon what we yet have This therefore being granted that the time that is past is none of ours and cannot now be imployed in Work yet it may be hoped that what is to come may be counted our own and that we have a better hold of that 'T is true at present we are not disposed for Work or are otherwise imployed but we are Young or hope to live long or hope at least that we shall not dye yet and so hope we may have time enough for Work hereafter This is the usual Plea that men make for delaying their Work till the time to come and this is the ruiu of many a one and a fatal Snare in which Satan entangles many an unwary Soul while he beats them off from what is present and sure and turns them over to what is future and contingent He perswades them 't is too soon to repent and reform yet that 't is too early to sadden and damp the jollity and briskness of their Youth with the sad entertainment of sorrow and repentance or with the melancholly apprehensions of Death and Judgment another time he perswades them to be more fit for those things and that Old Age or at least an Age more solid and stayed more flegmatick and serious than the sprightliness of Youth would be a season much more proper to mind and accomplish that work But while unwary man listens to these charms the fatal hour steals on and the night comes wherein no man can work How many defer their Work till Old age that dye in the prime of their Youth and how many delay till too morrow that never live to see that day How many put off their Repentance till they come to be sick whom death never gives so fair a warning to but cuts them down unawares in the midst of their health and strength Delays are dangerous and if they are any where so then much more
till now He was a kind and loving Husband to his Wife and as God had blessed them with a numerous Issue between them so he had blest them also with a mutual love and complacency one in another and that to such a degree that what that Roman said in his Funeral Elegy of his Se nunquam rediisse in gratiam cum Matre. Mother That for thirty years space he was never reconciled to her Meaning that there was never any difference between them that needed a reconciliation may be said truly of them That for the space of fifteen years which was all the time they lived together they were never reconciled for that supposes a difference to have benn but in all that time there happened none betvveen them For it comes from the mouth of his own dear Consort whom he hath left so much the more disconsolate by the remembrance of so great kindness that in all the time they lived together there was never any contradiction between them in anger As a Father he was tender over his children careful of their Education and provident to lay up for them And now if we take a view of him in a large capacity and as standing in a wider relation we shall find the same perfume of a good name following him still I â—â—ve consider him in general as a man and at large as a Citizen of the World we shall find that he did well become that station and well discharge the duties of that relation God had given him a plentiful estate and he had withal a heart to enjoy and use it a blessing that does not 〈◊〉 wayes attend upon the possession of riches he lived comfort 〈◊〉 upon what he had and was never a slave to his own possessions And as he did not rob himself for I count every Miser a thief to his own body so neither did he rob the poor neither in grinding them with oppression nor in with-holding their hire nor in being spare in his Contributions towards their relief as he saw need nor was he injurious to any other in any of his dealings with them no man being able to charge him in any instance with the least tinctures of oppression wrong or fraud If we take him as to his carriage among men we might see him of a meek and quiet spirit neither making contention nor delighting in it He was assable and courteous to his inseriours and though he had fair advantages above many others in this world yet was not he proud nor his heart lift up to despise those that were meaner and below himself He was a friend that was faithful and trusty and one that was willing to do good and to be helpful to others His friend needed not to extort a kindness from him by importunities or repeated requests but he was ready where it lay in his power to prevent his asking by doing him good As to his Morals they were such as deserve a peculiar remarque in these licentious times wherein Diogenes were he alive might take his Candle and Lanthorn again at noon day to go seek for a sober temperate young Gentleman He was one amongst those few that wanted nothing to make him run with the herd and to be debaucht as the most are but an inclination to it For he wanted neither youth nor wealth his years were not such as made him past those extravagances and he had a purse better able to bear it than many of them have and associates to allure to and encourage in such courses could not long be wanting in so degenerous an age as ours But yet for all these inducements he kept himself pure from the pollutions of the age wherein he lived being managed by a spirit free from that sordidness that rules too much now in the most that can relish no pleasures but what are sensual and too plainly bruitish I have heard him often take occasion to discourse concerning the pleasures and advantages of a holy life of the comfort and serenity of a good conscience against the clamors and troubles and scoffings of this World And to one that told him how much piety and vertue and the serious practice of religion was discredited in the world and accounted ridiculous and foolish his answer was Let them stay till the end and see who is the fool then And to that end he is now arrived where I question not but he enjoys the benefit and reward of his works and knows by experience that what-ever the mad world esteems it to be 't is neither ridiculous nor foolish to be sober or pious and that 't is not onely our duty but also highly worth the while to work the works of him that sent us while it is day Thus far I have been able to speak of him from my own observations and to give this account of him from my own knowledge having been beholding to the relations of others but for three instances in all that I have said Had I call'd in help or made it my business to make Collections or studied to set him out to the full I might have given a larger Character and a much fairer Encomium of him and yet perhaps not have said more than the subject would well bear But let this suffice But now of what use is all this that hath been spoken of him or to what purpose Is it for his sake that is dead and departed from us Alas he needs it not 't is no advantage to him now that we think or speak well of him 'T is no addition to his glory above that his ashes are perfumed with the odour of a good name or that his memory is valuable or precious amongst us The design of all this that I have said of him is your benefit and he being dead yet speaketh to you and reads you a useful Lesson In that he so lived and so died lived so well and died so soon there is matter of direction for your practice in both of them in the one he is a pattern and in the other a monitor and so both by his life and by his death he speaketh to you 1. By his Life Here is offered to you a fair pattern for your imitation for therefore are the dead commended and a recital made of their vertues that the living may be provoked thereby and encouraged to do well A good name is a blessing that is promised to good actions and the Wise-man tells us Prov 10. 7. That memory of the just is blessed when the name of the wicked shall rot But this as I said cannot reach to the state of glorified souls the greatest use of their good name is for those that survive that others may be encouraged to do as they have done This the Apostle calls upon the Philipians to do and this is our duty also as well as theirs Phil. 4. 8. Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are
them to run to their utmost Extent and therefore David Psalm 39. 5. compares their length to a Span but of this little how much is liable to be cut off by Accidents and Incertainties or by the determinations of an all-wise and over-ruling providence that though we may be sure that at their longest they are but as a Span long yet no man can be sure that they shall be so much as a Span long to him Both which brevity and uncertainty of our Lives the Scriptures teach us while it compares our time to things that are soon done or that are very incertain in their durance The Shepheards Tent or the Weavers shuttle are fit Emblems of the shortness of our dayes and St. James tell us our life is even a vapour and the Prophet Isaiah proclaims that all flesh is Grass to shew how uncertain and unstable our continuance even in this short time is And this Incertainty of our Lives must needs be evident to him that shall but consider either the Principles we are composed of or the Accidents we are liable to or the daily Experiences we have of it The Principles we are composed of are different in their Nature and repugnant one to another hot and cold moist and dry by the Wisdom and Power of God are tempered together in the dust that makes up our Frame these discordant Humors are alwaies at variance amongst themselves and there is an Intestime War continually maintain'd that threatens the ruin of the whole Frame How easily may one Humor get the upper hand of all the rest and yet our safety consists in the equal temperature of them and if one prevail the Body is destroyed by the Tyranny and Praedominance of that one Humor so that our Lives depend upon the success of a scuffle and are uncertain as the chance of War But besides these how numerous and various are External accidents who knows what a Night may produce or what may be in the Womb of a Morning Who can say that his path is secure or that no Creature has received a Commission to day to take away his Life the very Inanimate Creatures are sufficiently armed against our Lives if God does but give the Word and the wayes to effect it are too many and too different for our Wisdom or Prudence to fore-see or prevent And to all this the undeniable proof of Experience may be added our dayes are uncertain beyond dispute for almost every day we have Instances that confirm it Death does not wait upon the course of Nature nor observe the order of Birth but shoots his arrows hood-winkt among the Herd He snatches the tender Infant from its Mothers breast and cuts off the Young-man in the midst of his strength and dayes as well as gathers the Hoary head like a Shock of Corn in his season into the Grave The Young and Old the Weak and Strong are huddled together in the Dust and there is no Age or State that can secure and make us free from Deaths arrest Here he fells the full grown Oak and there he cuts up the tender Speers and every dayes Experience makes the Proverb good viz. As soon goes the green Tree to the Fire as the dry What should man do then whom Scripture and Reason and Experience daily convince of the incertainty of his life Or to what end is he made so palpably sure that he is at no certain stay here but that he might lift up his thoughts to what is more firm and improve the present Seasons which only weare sure of to the obtaining an Eternal and Unchangeable state For since this Life as incertain as it is is in order to a Future state which once entred upon admits of no alteration that our Lives are uncertain does earnestly call upon us to hasten our Work and improve our time that we may be ready for our Change whensoever it comes That we must dye and come to Judgment makes it necessary for us to prepare for death but since we know not but that we may dye to morrow it 's necessary that we provide for its coming to day This then is the Use we should make of all the Memento's we have of Mortality or of the incertainty or frailty of our Lives and we should never see or hear of any snatcht away from us but it should hasten us in our Work and make us more diligent to prepare for our turn for who knows whose is next And to this end I have been desired to apply this sad and amazing providence that has lately befallen one of the Chiefest Families in our Parish that seeing a Young-man cut off near the midst of his dayes those that are left both Young and Old may lay it to heart and be awakened to consider by this Instance how uncertain our time is that they may be stirred up to mind their Work in the present time lest their End prevent their Preparations for it And to this end I have been directed to this Portion of Scripture as giving a sufficient Ground to build such an Exhortation upon I must Work the Works of him that sent me while it is day the night cometh when no man can Work Words that are capable of a Two-fold Application as they are the Reason of our Saviours practice and as they are Rule of ours As they are the reason of our Saviours acting so they were spoken by our Saviour of himself and have a peculiar Relation to himself but the Reason they are founded upon makes them a Rule to us and from that they are an argument reaching ever to us to be diligent and sedulous in our business Our Saviour was sent into the World to work the great work of our Redemption and as he came into the world and the Word was made Flesh that he might dye so was he while he was upon Earth to prove his Mission from the Father and by the works he wrought convince the World that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Messiah he that was to come And therefore having here found a Subject fit to manifest his power upon and by a Miracle to manifest his Mission he does not stay to dispute or debate the impertinent and erroneous Quaere of his Disciples Who sinn'd this man or his Parents that he was born blind but denying both parts of the Question hastens to the Cure and that upon this Reason I must work the works c. that is I must take all opportunities to do the Works about which I am sent into the world and make use of my present time for my death is coming by which these works must have an end Where his reason of working while it is day being founded upon the general reason of approaching death the words will be found to be of equal extent with the Reason they are built upon and are a strong Argument for the like diligence to every one that is under the like circumstances of Mortality If therefore there
be the same reason for us to be diligent in minding and hastning our work that we have to do that there was for him to mind and hasten his these words will be found to concern us and be to us as well as to our Saviour an undeniable reason of diligence in our work while we have life and time And this a short Enquiry into the sense and importance of the words will prove And in them we may consider these three things 1. That our Saviour had works to do I must work the works of him that sent me 2. That he took the present time and lay'd hold upon every opportunity that offered it self to do these Works in I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day 3. That the Reason why he did thus and so carefully lay'd hold on every season to do his Works in was least the night should prevent him the night cometh when no man can work 1. The first Consideration I shall wholly wave for thought it be worth our Enquiry what the Works were he had to do and by whom he was sent and how he that was in his own Nature God blessed for evermore could be sent by any since being God he could have no Superâ—or to send him and so upon the same Reason how the works he did he being God could be the works or by the appointment of any other but himself which may all be answered by considering the distinction of his Nature and his Office yet since the considering these is not pertinent to my present purpose the force of the words as to the business in hand lying in his diligence in working and in the reason he gives of it it may suffice to have observed that he had works to do without entring into any discourse concerning the nature of them or the accounts upon which he was obliged to perform them I shall pass therefore from this to what is more pertinent to the present purpose and consider 2. That he took the present time to do his works in and this is implyed in that expression I must work while it is day To wave here the curious Criticisms and Conjectures of some upon the day here mentioned by day here I understand the time of this life here upon earth and so our Saviour saying I must work while it is day the meaning is I must be doing the works of him that sent me now while I am upon earth now while I am in the flesh So Theophylact the day is this present life And Pisâ—ator to the same sense he compares the course of his life upon earth to a day and therefore is the time of Life called a day with an especial respect and relation to working The day is a time and the only time for work the night is appointed for rest and so is our life the only time of doing what is to be done in order to our Eternal state in death we rest from our Labours Our Saviour therefore would let no opportunity pass of doing good while it was day that is while the time of his life upon Earth lasted and that for the Reason which he gives in the next words The night cometh when no man can work And that is the thing which comes next to be considered to give an account why he was so diligent in working and the Text tells us 3. That the Reason why he did thus and so carefully lay'd hold on the present season was lest the night should prevent him the night comes when no man can work In what sense the night is here to be taken is easie to understand by what has been said of the day to which this answers For if that means the time of this life then by Night must here be meant the time of death for this Reason then our Saviour says he must work while he lived because death was coming in which we have a twofold Reason couched 1. From the nearness of it the night cometh it is not said it will come but it does come in that implying that it was now approaching and already upon his Journey towards him 2. From the effect of it when come No man can work As if he had said I must now do what I have to do while I have time and life my time is not long my death cometh and is at hand and when that 's once come these Works of mine must cease for in death no man can work parallel to which Resolution and Reason is the advice and argument of the Wise man Eccles 9. 10. Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do do it with all thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledg nor wisdom in the Grave whither thou goest And having thus briefly cleared the sence and importance of the Words and considered the reason and foundation they stand upon there is no man but at the very first sight must needs conclude that the Case is ours We are under the same Circumstances that he was and the same Reason that prevailed with him to diligence in his Work is much more urgent upon us Had he Works to do so have we Was death approaching to him and was he mortal as he was a man certainly and undeniably so are we If then it was a good Reason for him to make hast to do his Work because he must dye undoubtedly the Reason is as strong towards us for we must dye too and after death there is no more working for us in our Works than there was for him in his It cannot be denied then but the words belong to us and are a necessary Rule of our practice and a strong Reason to spur us on to diligence in the work we have to do in this present Life I shall therefore take them since they cannot be denyed me and apply the meaning of them to our practice in this Doctrinal Proposition Doct. That we ought to be Diligent in doing our Work that we have to do while we have time and life because Death cometh where no Work can be done A Lesson needful to be learn't because it is of great importance to us in order to our Eternal welfare and so much the rather needful because the practice of too many tells us that they understand not this Lesson nor are convinc'd of the necessity of it Some do not understand their Work and so though they take much pains and are very busie their Work turns to no account because though they have done much they have done nothing at all of what God sent them to do Some understand not their time and though they may know their Work yet alwayes think it too soon to set about it yet and so drive off and delay till their day be done before they begin their work Both these ought to consider and weigh this truth that we ought to be diligent in doing our work while we have time the one to consider that we ought to be employed about
said of it is that it cometh this makes the thing certain but there is no determination when it comes and this leaves the time of it uncertain as to us 'T is true it may be coming and yet may be a great way off and it is as true it may be at hand and just now at the door And this is a thing so daily made good to us by Experience that it justly becomes matter of great wonder that men regard and lay it to heart no more we see daily men likely to live long on a sudden cut down and their days are come to an end when we thought they had been scarcely arrived at the middle of them And we have now another fresh instance of it set before us and here is one gone to his long-home who according to the course of Nature had lived but half the Age of a man And this still adds more force to the Reason To be mindful of our business and to hasten our Work for we know not how so on we may dye Instances of sudden and unexpected Mortality are not rare which makes it the more to be admired that those that remain will flatter themselves with the hopes of a longer time here when they see so great experiences to the contrary How mad are we then that put off the doing of that Work which is so necessary to be done to that time which it is absolutely uncertain whether we shall ever have or no. That our Work be done is necessary that if we neglect the present time we shall have another to do it in is uncertain so that we venture our Souls upon a Contingency and hang our Eternal Happiness upon that which may very possibly fail us A piece of Imprudence that were ridiculous in our Worldly affairs and yet men are not ashamed thus to act in a case that concerns Eternity The Plow-man will take his Season and the Marriner his Wind and Tide the Trades man will not let slip his Market and every man thinks it wisdom to take a good Offer while we may have it for fear we should miss of the like again and yet in things of far greater Concern than these we are not aware that we egregiously play the fool's in turning off our business till hereafter and in letting slip the fair proffers and opporrunities of the present season So sad and miserable a thing it is to be blind in Spiritual things and to be habituated to Evil. An ordinary prudence would teach us to act more like men and to be more diligent in our Work in the time we have since we are not sure of any more for the night cometh and death is sure but the time is uncertain and no man knows how soon it may come And thus the consideration of Death is and ought to be a Motive to us to improve our time and work while we may for we must dye and that ere-long and who knows how soon but then we have to enquire into the reason or strength of this Motive which makes the consideration of death to come an Argument for our present diligence and that lies in these words When no man can Work 2. This is then the Second and strongest part of the Reason When the night is come no Work can be done in it We had need be diligent in our Work while we have time for if death comes it will be too late to do it or to set about it we must work now in this life or not at all Psalm 6. 5. In death says the Psalmist there is no remembrance of thee All our VVorks there cease death puts an end to every contrivance and design and whatsoever remains to do when we come to die remains undone to all Eternity for the state of death is an unalterable state As the Tree falls so it lies and as death leaves us so judgment finds us what we are then such we continue for ever for the night being once come no man can work Now our working may be considered as it is employed either 1. In doing what was never done before or 2. In mending what was ill done and in both Cases the night comes when no man can work our state is fixt by death and our works are at an end both wayes and then we can neither begin any work nor pollish nor finish what was before begun 1. VVe work in doing what was never before done but no man can work thus in death If we have not begun to serve God in this life it will be too late to set to that VVork when we are dead for that state and time is all appointed for reward and nothing at all for Work it will be too late then to begin to love or serve God for then it will be only enquired what we have already done and not what we would now do This is the time that is given us in order to Eternity and upon the improvement of this the determination of that Eternity whether it be to happiness or misery do's depend After death succeeds the Judgment and every man shall be judged according to his Works Our VVorks then are done when we die and after death nothing more remains but to receive our judgment according to them This is the time of our VVork that the time of our VVages here is our Seed time there is our Harvest Gal. 6. 7 8. And whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting This then strongly enforces upon us the duty of working while it is day for if we dye and leave our VVork undone there is no finishing of it in the Grave Let us weigh them and consider how sad their state how miserable their condition must needs be who are prevented by death and die and their work is undone VVho can lie down in Everlasting burnings and who can stand before an incensed God for our God is a consuming fire How sad would it be to see a Soul rouling in endless flames and too late cursing its own negligence and folly how sad would it be to hear him wishing in vain for the time that was idled away and mispent and to see the anguish of his Soul because his work is undone and now remains no time to do it And let us suppose this to be our case for if we are not wise betimes it will certainly be so Let us suppose our Souls in such a state as this is that we may awaken our selves betimes and while we have yet a day upon Earth may be wise to employ and lay it out for God For happy are they that see their folly betimes and are betimes convinc'd that that their work is yet to do while the time yet lasts in which it may be done Sad and unspeakably miserable are those convictions which are first found in Hell for
and yet to speak well of him now he is dead And therefore I should think my self unjust both to him and you should I be silent here Unjust to him if I should deny to give him that Elogy which is his due and unjust to you in denying to set before you so good a Pattern and example for your Imitation It is I confess an agravation to our sorrow and like grating upon a Sore to remember what a one we have lost yet since he is lost to us there is this comfort in it that he was such a one 'T is our sorrow that so good a man is dead for the greater is our losse yet t is an alleviation of our sorrow that he was so good that died since 't is his unspeakable advantage His death indeed was sudden and immature if we respect the time of his life having run but a little more then half the length of his Race but yet I have reason to believe that it was neither sudden nor immature as to his readiness and preparations for it For since death is never sudden indeed and so unwelcome but to those that have not done the works of him that sent them they may well wish the night farther off that have all their work to do I have reason to say that upon this account his death to him whatever it may be to us was neither sudden nor immature For to consider the works we have to do either relating immediately to God or as they concern our Neighbour we shall find him to have been a labourer in both and that no sluggish one and a Work-man that we hope is not now asham'd He was one that made a Conscience of honouring God in the duties of his worship and service and one whose attendance upon the ordinances we have reason to believe was for better ends then to make a shew and to be seen of men His attendance upon the publick worship was frequent and constant as could be expected from one so remote his hearing was with attention and diligence and his conversation shew'd that all was not lost that he heard but that the Seed sown was received into a good and honest heart He was a constant guest at the Table of the Lord rarely if ever missing of any opportunity to partake of that ordinance a thing the more remarkable in our times in which that ordinance is fallen under a great neglect and in most places this Table is but very thinly set with guests His behaviour there was with that reverence that became a creature in so near approaches to his God and his deportment was such as was to me a sign of his previous preparation But all this was publick and what was obvious to the eye of the world where the Hypocrite may strain hard to make as fair a shew And as to him I durst not build my hopes upon this alone if this were all the foundation I had for them Let us follow him then from the place of Gods publick Worship into his Family and observe his deportment there and there we might see that he left not his Religion at Church as having no use for it any where else but he made it his Companion at home as well as here and made it his business to serve God in his house as well as at the Church Besides his joyning in prayer with his Family he had his stated times for private prayer which he constantly attended to by himself and often took in his Wife to be a partner with him in them And his course and way of life and his discourse as occasion was offered shewed that these exercises of Religion were not counterfeit or forced or were meerly a mask put on for a shew but that they proceeded from a principle of piety within and from a heart seasoned with grace and a real desire after that which is good At the first entrance of that Disease into his Family of which he died I can bear him witness The Small Pox. that he took it as became a Christian to do neither slighting the providence nor slavishly afraid of it neither despising the chastnings of the Almighty nor fainting under his corrections but cheerfully casting himself into the arms of Providence contentedly resolv'd to abide by what God should determine concerning him As to the time of his last Sickness which was but short his Disease was such as sometimes took away the use of his understanding yet then when his tongue that unruly member was at liberty to walk at its own pleasure without the guidance of the understanding it was never heard to utter any thing that was unworthy of or unbecoming a sober or a Christian man An evident argument that it was so accustomed to the words of Soberness and Truth that it knew not how to go out of those paths when left to range at its own liberty He was not without serious apprehensions of his approaching end and then when the hypocrites hopes fail him and all false grounds of hopes or peace vanish his comfort then stood firm and though the Tempter was not wanting in his assaults yet he could not destroy his peace He call'd to those that were busie about him in helping him against his bodily distemper Come let us soberly think what Christ hath done for poor sinners and being told that the ground of hope was in the infinite mercies of God thorow Jesus Christ he reply'd There in is my comfort And another time he told them The Devil hath set upon me and hath struck me to the heart but I have overcome him and he is gone from me And if we consider the other part of his work in that relation that he stood in towards man the most part of you know as well as I that it was such as no man could blame And without descending to particulars it might be enough for his commendation but to observe that universal regret that is among all men of all sorts that had but any acquaintance with him for the loss of him For if we consider him in those particular relations in which God had set him as a Son as a Husband as a Father in those three he might well stand to very many as a pattern of obedience of kindness and of care He was a dutiful Son and possibly without injury to any it might be added as ever any man had and that not onely in his childhood and youth but when he was grown up and became a Father himself He never diminished his due respects to his aged Father when he became a man and was at his own disposal and by his tenderness and care of his health shewed that he was far from their sordid and unnatural mind who think that life though it be the life of a father too long that stands between them and an Estate He was the Staffe of his aged Fathers dayes and the delight of his eyes and was never known to be a grief to him