who make no conscience of Relative duties of diligence in their Callings or of justice in their dealings who know not how to govern either their Souls or their Bodies by the Rules of Religion or the Laws of Sobriety what can we think of all these but that they are evidently the Sons of Death They are in a sad and miserable condition they live at random and must die at a venture for there can be no grounded assurance to such of an eternal well-being Such as these make a hard shift to please themselves in the course but will undoubtedly fool themselves in the issue of their Life they will one day wish they had not lived at all rather than to have lived thus A Life void of care commonly ends in a Death void of hope As ever therefore you would die the death of the righteous see that you live the life of the righteous and then and not otherwise your last end shall be like his Numb xxiii 10. Infer II. If we must be in the fear of the Lord every day much more on the Lords day We have shewn you how you must in a sound sense make every day a Sabbath by working for God and resting in him and diligent preparing for an eternal Sabbatism with him but you are not to pretend this in excuse for your neglect of sanctifying strictly the Christian Sabbath the first day of the week the day which the Lord hath made Psal cxviii 24. in which he calleth us to rejoyce and be glad In which we celebrate the memorial of our Lord's Resurrection and consequently of the whole work of our Redemption by him If we must walk with God every day much more on this day to which a special blessing is annexed and on which we have special advantages for the service of God and the salvation of our Souls The cavils of any against the strict observation of the Lord's day are easily answered by any one that observeth the dependence of the Life of practical Religion hereupon I will be bold to say it The power of Religion lives or dies according as Sabbath-sanctification is kept up or let fall in Churches Families or Souls Of other days you are to consecrate a part to Religious exercises Acts of Devotion and Worship but this day is wholly to be taken up therein Only God indulgeth us in works of true necessity and obligeth us to acts of Charity thereon giving mercy the preference even to Sacrifice I will here briefly heap together a few Directions for Sabbath-sanctification 1. Discern your obligntion to it in point of duty and value it as your Priviledge That God have a seventh part of our time for his Solemn Worship is the kernel of the fourth Commandment and of perpetual obligation and seems to have been a part of Gods Law to Adam even in the state of Innocence God appointed and blessed the seventh day of the week before Christ's coming in the flesh for a weekly Sabbath in commemoration of the worldly Creation and added a Law of Ceremonious Rest to the Jews as a part of their Paedagogy and a shadow of things to come now done away Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week and after his Ascension on that day poured forth his Spirit on his Apostles to qualifie them to declare his Will to Man-kind in all things concerning Salvation They held and setled Church Assemblies on the first day of the week and called it by way of approbation The Lords day Rev. i. 10. And the Vniversal Church as far as appears from Church History without the least contradiction till our times see Dr. Young's Dies Dominica and Mr. Baxter's Divine Appointment of the Lords-day kept this day and no other as the day of stated weekly Solemnities and God was with them and owned and honoured their Assemblies with his gracious presence And therefore it seems the effect of strange weakness or intolerable perverseness for any now in these last days to question what the Universal Church hath so long on so good reason practised The Lords-day as the Christian-Sabbath I take to have been instituted by Christ if not while personally on Earth yet by his Spirit in his Apostles And as an attentive Reader of the Scriptures may there discern clear intimations of this so the current practice of the Christian Church in all times and places doth fully confirm it Nor ought we to esteem it any other than a very great Priviledge that we may have a day in seven to study the Works and Word of God to praise his holy Name to worship him in the Assemblies of his Saints to learn his Will for our Salvation A holy Soul must needs reckon it self in the Confines of Heaven while thus employed and bless himself that he may sometimes retire thus from the World and enjoy a holy freedom for spiritual delights and gladsome preparations for Eternal Joy 2. Prepare for this blessed day before it come Think of it and long for it every day but especially the Evening before rid your hands in good time of worldly business and your hearts of worldly cares Read pray meditate catechise your Families call your selves and yours to an account of what you and they heard the Lords-day before and if it may be get to bed sooner that night than you use to do of other nights that so you may be under no temptation to snore away that precious morning on which our Lord in testimony of the accomplishment of our Redemption rose so very early 3. Be sure to be up as early on the Lords-day morning as is consistent with your fitness for the blessed Employments of it And let the thoughts of Redeeming Love season your hearts at first awaking 4. Redeem time that you may add something to your daily Devotions both in Family and Closet and not be put to cut them short 5. Go with the first to Publick Assemblies but go with hearts prepared and behave your selves there with Reverence Attention and Affection Pray in prayer hear as for the Life of your Souls and praise God with joy and alacrity stay the Blessing and rush not into or out of Church Assemblies in a rude and hasty manner Consider God's Angels are there 1 Cor. xi 10. and view your behaviour nay the God of Angels he looks on 6. After Publick Worship retire to examine how you have behaved your selves there Call to mind what you have heard digest it by prayer and meditation and when you have opportunity fix it on your hearts and memories by conferring of it especially with your inferiours Children and Servants whom you may command thereto 7. Watch Sabbath time in the Intervals of it especially at Meals that they run not waste Quicken your selves and others to thankfulness and joy with the serious mention of Redeeming Love Take heed of vain talk and idle unprofitable musings Let the variety of holy employments maintain your delight in them 8. Close the day in
cause were it possible to cancel and blot our every day of his Life each day having been only spent in treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of God's righteous Judgment Rom. ii 5. R. 10. By such a holy improvement of the short and troublesom days of time we shall secure to our selves an happy being thorowout the long and endless days oâ— Eternity If we sow to the Spirit we shall of the Spirit reap Life Everlasting Gal. vi 7 8. If we suffer with Christ we shall reign with him 2 Tim. ii 12. The good and faithful Servant shall enter into the joy of his Lord Mat. xxv 21. Wherefore my beloved Brethren be stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. xv 58. God suffereth none of his faithful Servants to be losers by him or any thing they do for his honour and glory Our light afflictions which are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory while we look not at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen for the things that are seen are Temporal but the things that are not seen are Eternal 2 Cor. iv 17 18. Surely if we believe an eternity of happiness for holy Souls we shall not think any pains in duty or any patience in suffering too much for it Our discouraging apprehensions of the difficulty of duty proceed much from the Wavering and Weakness of our Faith concerning the Reality and Excellency of the heavenly glory If we lived as seeing him who is invisible Heb. xi 27. And as foreseeing that glory which is eternal we should lead other manner of lives both in respect of grace and comfort than now we do Who would not Watch and Pray Toil and Labour Suffer and Wait that did soundly apprehend and firmly believe that the result of all would be the Souls being for ever with the Lord 1 Thes iv 17. Oh the glory purchased with the redeemers blood and which he hath as our forerunner taken possession of what will it not excite and enable us to undertake and perform Did we believe that the fervent effectual Prayer of a righteous man availeth much Jam. v. 16. to the gaining of Eternal blessedness we should not so often omit nor so lazily perform that duty as we do Did Faith enliven our Meditations of Heaven we should be oftner in them and continue at them longer and with more delight Did we look upon every alms given by us to the poor as a laying up treasure in Heaven we should labour to be rich in good Works Did we reckon that the more of the sufferings of Christ are fulfilled in us now the more of the glory of Christ shall be revealed in us hereafter we should even be ambitious of Martyrdom and esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt Heb. xi 26. But alas we think Heaven may be had with less ado or else we think so poorly of it as if it were scarce worth having So that there is too much cause to take up concerning us the complaint of one of the Ancients Aut hoc non est Evangelium aut nos non sumus Evangelici either this that we have in our Bibles is not the Gospel or we are not the Gospellers so wide is the difference between the Gospel of Christ and the Lives of Christians But be assured my friends we must bring our hearts and lives to the Gospel and make that the Rule of them if ever we will be happy For Christ will never bring down his Gospel to our hearts and lives If we will be saved it must be in his way and on his Terms and he hath said Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. xii 14. And the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. vi 9. For without are Dogs c. Rev. xxii 15. Consider therefore whether you will live a life of present ease and be hereafter cast out into eternal Torments or you will now painfully exercise your selves unto godliness and approve your selves Christ's Servants that you may hereafter be for ever with him and behold his glory John xvii 24. and share in that Rest that remaineth for the People of God Heb. iv 9. Having now shewn you what it is to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long and given you the Reasons which oblige every one of us to take care that we daily be so III. It remains that I point out to you those Inferences and practical Conclusions that follow upon and flow from the Truths we have hitherto been discoursing Inference I. Must we as you have heard be in the fear of the Lord all the day long What then shall we think of them that have no fear of God before their eyes that are so far from making Religion their daily business that they live every day as without God in the World Eph. ii 12. They say unto God Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways Job xxi 14. If it be so necessary to our present peace and future happiness as hath been shewn to walk with God continually what a condition are they in that never took one step in Heavens way or so much as once set their faces Sion-ward Jer. L. 5. What shall we think of the Atheistical Crew that call in question God's Being and boldly deny his Providence The Infidel-scoffers that deny Jesus to be the Son of God and ridicule the sacred Records of Eternal Life that deride all pretensions to the assistance of the Holy Spirit and hold the intercourse and communion of Souls with the Father of Spirits to be no better than meer fancy and delusion How are we to account of the Hypocritical Race of pretenders to that Religion they never felt the power of upon their hearts who oft turn Infidels themselves and draw others into the same condemnation The malignant Enemies of practical Religion who profess to love God while they hate their Brethren to the very death for no other reason but because they indeed love him The lovers of this World Mammons Idolatrous Worshippers who know no godliness but gain 1 Tim. vi 5. and who have no end of living but to be rich and to compass that will deny God damn themselves and destroy their Brethren The sond admirers of ease and pleasure that are dead while they live 1 Tim. v. 6. and are willing to purchase a dying Life with eternal Death and exchange Angels fare for that of Swine lovers of Pleasures more than lovers of God 2 Tim. iii. 4. The eager hunters after applause that value themselves by what others think of them without staying to consider what they ought to think of themselves Those who seldom worship God so much as in outward appearance and never in spirit and truth
burnt Incense to the Idol he went out without Prayer It 's ill going into infectious places fasting and it 's dangerous going into an infectious World prayerless Truly I cannot but look upon him as an unreasonably bold man that dares go out into the World without Prayer Dost thou know but Death may meet thee before thou comest in again Dost thou know but God may leave thee to do that that shall bring upon thee an infamous death and everlasting damnation Take heed to thy self therefore and go not out till thou hast prayed But then see also that thou pray in Faith and with Fervency Do not content thy self to have said a few words by rote that thou callest a Prayer but pray with understanding and pray with Feeling and Affection Confess thy sins both of Nature and Life and beg of God the Pardon of them for Christ's sake be earnest for Grace and Sanctification for guidance and direction to lead a holy Life and Support and Comfort that thou maist die in Peace Pray for the Church of Christ yea for the Heathen World for the Land of thy Nativity especially for the Continuance and Success of the Gospel therein Pray also for thy Relations for thy Friends yea and for thy Enemies And remember with thy Confessions and Prayers to join Praises and Thanksgivings adore the Divine Excellencies and Perfections and acknowledge thankfully the Favours and Benefits you receive from his hand Express an hearty sense of Creating Preserving and Redeeming Love Recount the personal family and publick mercies you have received or shared in and as you have the Use and Comfort so let God have the Praise and Glory of them If thou be Weak and Ignorant get some one that is able and willing to instruct thee Pray as thou canst make use of some good form till thou canst do better but take heed of formality and resting in the work done narrowly watch and observe thy heart thou givest God nothing if thou givest him not thy Heart 6. Join reading of the holy Scriptures and when time will permit especially on the Lords days the choicest practical Books with your morning Devotions For daily reading the Scriptures it is of absolute necessity and no more to be omitted than Prayer it self It is the Word of God you have Christ's command to search the Scriptures Joh. v. 39. It is the Godly man's Character that his delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate day and night Psal i. 2. It is the food of your Souls without daily supplies whereof you will famish Read with deliberation with intention of mind labour to understand what you read and to feel it read it as God's Word and above all bring to it a serious resolution of practising what you read Obj. But I cannot read Sol. The more shame for you if you be grown up and have your Eye-sight If you cannot read do your best to learn and that speedily If there were Lands to be settled upon all that could read the Conveyances of them we should see people learn apace will you do more for Pelf than for your Souls However till you can read or such of you as having been able to read may now be disabled through blindness or weakness of sight c. Get others to read to you and attend to the Word read with your utmost diligence as for your Life If you refuse this Counsel Remember when you come to die or when your ignorance and folly shall have thrust you into Hell that you were warned of the time when you would cry out Oh! how have I hated instruction and refused to be reformed For good Books I shall only say we have great choice of them and you will do well to redeem what time you can for the reading of them especially where there is seldom or sorry Preaching and age or sickness keeps any from the Publick Assemblies God is pleased to bless these to be the means of much good to many Souls Only take heed of erroneous Books of Antinomians Quakers Papists c. And of opposing private reading to hearing of the Word publickly Preached For my part I would hear the weakest Minister supposing him a true Minister that ever spake with a Tongue rather than stay at home to read the best Book that ever was written For God says Faith cometh by hearing Rom. x. 17. And though he can work Faith by reading and it may be hoped will do where people are deprived of opportunities of hearing yet that is not to be expected where they are slighted And here for the sake of beginners in Religion who are oft imposed upon to the loss of their time and the danger of their Souls by ill chosen Books I will venture to name a very few and those not bulky which I take to be exceeding sound and I will add a few hints how you may read them to best purpose I will name but these eight 1. The Assemblies Confession and Catechisms with the proofs at large lately reprinted in Octavo 2. Mr. Daniel Burgess 's four little Tracts Call to sinners Questions c. Twelves 3. Showers Reflections on Time and Eternity Twelves 4. Joseph Alleins Alarm to the Vnconverted Octavo 5. Richard Alleins Vindication of Godliness three parts Octavo 6. Steel 's Trades-mans Calling Octavo 7. Ford 's Practical use of Infant Baptism Octavo 8. Doolittel on the Lord's Supper two parts Twelves I would have you read these Books in the order I have named them one at once always continuing the joint reading of the Scriptures with and before all Books of humane composure read one thorow yea I would advise thrice over before you begin another with a Pen or Pencil mark weighty and affecting passages and at leisure write some of them out if you can write else read them the oftner over Now to such as are grown Christians I commend to you A Discourse concerning Old Age tending to the Instruction Caution and Comfort of aged People By Rich. Steel Minister of the Gospel And A Word to the Aged by Will. Bridge Minister of the Gospel Begin and end every reading with Prayer to God for his blessing and interline what you read with frequent pauses of Prayer and Meditation set your self heartily and speedily to the practice of every Duty and Direction you meet with and depend on God by Faith for Assistance and Acceptance thorow Christ These few Books thus read will yield you more comfort in a dying hour than Kings will then be able to fetch from their Crowns Misers from their Bags or hypocritical dogmatists from all their aiery speculations contentious wranglings or haughty and confident tho' empty and groundless pretensions and expectations 7. When you go out into tht World be watchful against it Remember you walk among snares consider what variety of Temptations you are daily exposed unto and be upon your guard especially look well 1. When you are alone to your Thoughts O
what a World of Time do vain Thoughts that lodge within us rob us of how many covetous proud sensual thoughts crawl in our Hearts in a day How do we act over again our former Sins by Contemplation How many study and project wickedness and contrive in their thoughts how to bring wicked devices to pass Remember God sees thy heart and will reckon with thee for thy thoughts See therefore that they be pure holy charitable humble Do not look upon thy self as at liberty to think what thou wilt He is a Christian indeed that governs his Thoughts 2. When you are in Company look to your Tongues consider your speech Weigh what you are a going to say before you speak it Do not throw about fire brands arrows and death and say Am I not in sport Prov. xxvi 18 19. Remember Life and Death are in the Power of the Tongue Prov. xviii 21. The prodigious licentiousness of the Professors of this Age in this matter makes it needful to use more than ordinary Caution that we catch not the infection How common is it in all places to hear people speaking evil of the things and persons that they know not Jude ver 10. Sure we do not understand the genius spirit and temper of the Christian Religion whereof we make profession Does not Christ say By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shâ—lt be condemned Mat. xii 37. Doth not the Apostle James say If any man among you seem to be Religious and bridieth not his Tongue but deceiveth his own Heart this mans Religion is vâ—in Jam. i. 26. Alas alas that so few that are called Christians do indeed believe their Bibles to be the Word of God or take any care to frame their Lives by the Rules of it Let your Speech be alwayâ— with grace seasoned with salt that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man Col. iv 6. O Sirs where shall one find the company that converses by this Rule If talking of fashions if telling tâ—les of our Neighbours if aspersing the Govâ—â—nment be this gracious savory speech we have a great deal of it every where besides the lying swearing ribaldry c. of the openly prophane These things are a Lamentation and should be for a Lamentation O let us be more wise consider Sirs you may do more mischief by your tattling of things that you understand not and that do not concern you in a few minutes than the bâ—st endeavours of your whole life may ever be able to repair Remember your Tongues are your glory turn them not into shame but glorifie God with them Go and visit your sick Neighbours or such as are troubled in mind and instruct and comfort them Go and reprove plainly those that are prophane and wicked and beseech them to have some mercy on their own Souls stir up such as are able to relieve them that are in want and distress Consider one another to provoke to love and to good works Heb. x. 24. And of this you will have joy in the day of accounts 8. Let the main part of every day be spent in the labours of your particular Calling unless as now and then it may happen but cannot ordinarily there be very good reason to the contrary Look upon your Calling as a main part of the service of your Generation which God and your Countrey expects from you and of which you are to be accountable Diligent labour is a Duty and there is a blessing belongs to it It keeps the Mind from rust the Body from diseases Idleness is the source of wickedness Quem otiosum invenit Diabolus occupat Little do men think what miseries and mischiefs they expose themselves to when they grow remiss and negligent in their particular Callings The Apostle bids us study to be quiet and do our own business 1 Thes iv 11. They that neglect their own business often grow pragmatical and must be medling with other folks the consequences whereof are dreadful No man fouls his fingers with doing his own Work is an Out-landish Proverb that has its weight and is worth our thinking of when we are idle or ill employed Adam where art thou is a question we should think we hear God asking us every day Obj. It may be thy Calling is mean Sol. Be content it is that which the Providence of God hath chosen for thee and he knows best what is good for every one of us and he will accept a day-labourer that is diligent in his Calling as well as a Knight or a Lord. Obj. Aye but mine is the toilingest drudging slavish Life in the World Sol. The harder labour thy Calling puts thee upon so it be consistent with thy health and proportionate to thy strength the better it is for thee the Body is an unruly masterly Servant that needs taming Labour kills Lust But if indeed thy Calling be above thy strength or endangering to thy health as the Apostle saith in another case 1 Cor. 7. 21. If thou maisâ— be free use it rather And then in your Calling see that you sincerely aim at Gods glory and publick service and not meerly and chiefly at your own wealth and gain or the raising of your Selves and Families in the World That is all lost labour that terminates ultimately in self 9. Look to the exercise of Justice and Charity in buying and selling And here our Saviours Golden Rule may serve instead of all particular Rules Mat. vii 12. All things whatsoever ye would that men should dâ— unto you do ye even so to them Therefore Draw not immoderately from them to your selves make no advantage of their ignorance or necessity count not every man you deal with a Knave which is a Rule in Commerce that some people value themselves much upon who yet I suppose would think it very hard to have the same measure meted unto them Lie not at catch for an advantage impose not ill wares for good break not your day for delivery of goods or payment of moneys strive not to make a great figure in the World when you know you have not wherewith to support it which is indeed to set up for a common Cheat exact not upon your poor Brethren in cases of Forfeitures Mortgages c. Consider the equity of Gods Laws to the Jews in such cases and remember that Christianity requires of us a more large and extensive Charity In a word digest the above-mentioned Precept of our Lord and ever and anon quicken Conscience to attend to it and take your measures of acting thence 10. Maintain Sobriety Temperance and a serious thankful frame of spirit in eating and drinking Take direction not from appetite but from reason both for the quantity and quality of your Food Do not study too much to please and do not at all pamper the flesh Make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lust thereof Rom. xiii v. 14. Consider the end of the rich glutton that fared sumptuously
every day Luke xvi 19 24. Think how many want what you waste Remember their end is destruction whose God is their Belly Phil. iii. 19. Take heed of being bewitched with the love of strong drink Wine is a mocker strong drink is raging whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise Prov. xx 1. Remember what it did to Noah Gen. ix 21. And then be not content with meer Temperance in which it may be when you have done all you can some Heathens have out-stripped you but mix your meals with good discourse own God in bodily provisions beg his blessing on them and seriously bless him for them Whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do let all be done to the glory of God 1 Cor. x. 31. 11. Be moderate in Recreations subordinate them to the great ends of your Life and see they be lawful and sâ—asonable Two Rules * Mr. Whateâ—â—y Redemption of Time an Eminent Divine gives about Recreations among others specially worth our notice 1. Never allow your selves any Recreation till you be come to some degree of weariness in some pious or honest employment Begin not the day with Recreation 2. Spend no more time in Recreation any day than you spend in the private or secret duties of Religion And this Rule though to some it may seem severe he thinks sufficiently warranted by that of our Saviour Mat. vi 33. Seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness I add Take heed of passion and the lâ—ss of Time Remember Recreation is no Mans business God hath not placed us in the World as Leviathan in the Sea to play therein We must but sip not drink of these dangerous sweets tanquam canis ad nilum a lap and away Take them as that we need not as that we love When once Recreations begin to inveigle our affections though in themselves they be never so lawful it is time to lay them aside 12. Every day rejoice with trembling Mix a humbling sense of our own sins with a thankful sense of Gods mercies Indulge not a sullen sorrow neither let our Joy degenerate into frothiness and levity Maintain an evenness of spirit between the immoderate carefulness of such as are swallowed up of over-much sorrow and the carnal jâ—llity of such as on light occasions are transported into ravishment or on greater ones forget the causes they have not to be puffed up but to be humbled rather When God gives you the greatest mercies think how little you deserve and when he exerciseth you with the greatest afflictions think he is before hand with you both in what he hath bestowed upon you what he offers to you and what he hath laid up for you 13. Let no day pass without some serious heart-affecting thoughts of your last day Pray Lord teach me so to number my days as to apply my heart unto wisdom Psal xc v. 12. One being asked what Philosophy was gave it this definition Philosophia est meditatio mortis and undoubtedly the thorow consideration of Death has a large place in the Christian Philosophy The Gospel Doctrine is Ars moriendi the Art of Dying viz. in and to the Lord. And how unpleasant soever this study may seem to corrupt nature there is none more necessary for us than it Serious thoughts of Death are very powerful to convince of the evil of sin of the vanity of the World of the excellency of Grace and the wisdom of laying up Treasure in Heaven O! did men think as they ought of their latter end they would not raise such a dust as they do in the World for applause and preferment there would not be such pride and pomp such bribery and oppression such luxury and sensuality among professed Christians as there is Serious thoughts of Death would be one of the most effectual cures of Hypocrisie in the World for who would very much care what men say or think of him that considers how soon he must lye buried out of their sight and forgotten by them as if he had never been When Hypocrites see they must die it makes them in earnest and if they had been so in time they had been sincere Who would trifle with God that knows and considers how soon he must be at his Bar It were impossible for men to live as they do did they but once every day seriously think they must die this thought would either reform them or torment them And that sinners seem to be aware of whence because they have no mind of either they do all they can to put Death out of their thoughts 14 Observe and improve the Methods of Providence and Grace every day and record your Experiences for future guidance and encouragement It is a great point of spiritual wisdom to notice aright Gods dealings in his Providence with our selves and others so as to make just Inferences therefrom and none but such And also to observe the secret approaches of the Divine goodness to our Souls in the way of gracious influence from the Spirit of Holiness Whatever God does in the ways of common providence or special grace he expects we should regard and consider and improve it when sin finds our selves or others out we should lye thereby warned how we meddle with that which Experience assures us will cost us dear when Obedience is rewarded we are to observe it for our encouragement to walk in such ways as God owns and in what ways we have found God approaching our Souls with the influences of special grace and spiritual consolation we are to be excited still to wait on him therein 15. Let no special opportunity of furthering your Salvation glorifying God or benefiting your Neighbour slip you unobserved or unimproved This is to redeem time Every hour of every day is to be made the best of but some are capable of a special improvement like a fair Wind to a Mariner or a fair day when we are at harvest-work if we let this slip such another may not come Post est occasio calva It may be now Christ stands at thy door in the person of a poor Beggar send him not away without an Alms see Mat. xxv at the latter end Perhaps a poor ignorant sinner is by providence cast into thy Family or thou meetest with such a one upon the Road or thou hast him upon a sick-bed willing to hearken to instruction O do thy utmost to save a Soul from Death and cover the multitude of sins Jam. v. 20. It may be thou art light into the Company of debauched Sensualists profane Ranters Infidel Scoffers now give a proof of thy loyalty and fidelity to thy great Lord and Master Perhaps thou art under a Cross and thou feelest thy heart sensible and tender now set to confessing thy sins and making supplication for the Life of thy Soul now thou hast a Sabbath a Market-day for Heaven store thy self with Soul-provision sic de caeteris 18. Share in the sufferings of the
with sincerity and alacrity instead of those forced shews and that feigned Devotion that now alas too generally corrupts yea even nullifies the Christian Worship 20. Lastly Close the day as you began it with God Retire e're you be too sleepy and examine your selves how you have spent the day Look over the foregoing Rules and think how you have complied with them or wherein you have come short Thus ask what State and Condition is my Soul in Am I truly regenerate or no Did I this day awake with God What were my first Thoughts upon Have I not wasted morning hours or even minutes in needless sleep or sloth in vain imaginations or contemplative wickedness Have I not been too long in dressing my body too curious in my apparel proud of it Have I not lost that time or have I redeemed it by holy Meditations Spiritual Projects and wise fore-casting how I might best serve God the ensuing day Have I solemnly sought God in fervent and believing Prayer and diligent study of his holy Word And has not Spiritual Life been wanting in my closet-duties Was it as much and more to me that God was by than if all the World had seen me Have I looked strictly this day whatever Company I have been in both to my Thoughts and Speeches that neither were Light Vain or Wicked but Serious Spiritual Heavenly becoming my high calling and honourable profession of Christianity Especially have I carefully avoided that common and hateful sin of Tale-bearing and Pragmatical medling with other mens matters Have I been diligent in my particular calling and that not for Covetousness but Conscience towards God Have I done to others as I would be done by Have I defrauded nor over-reached none Have I been sober and temperate in the use of bodily refreshments Have I referred them to Gods glory and seasoned my use of them with the reverent mention of his name Have I medled with no recreations but what were certainly lawful and have I used them lawfully Have I neither been cast down with causeless or excessive grief nor lifted up with carnal jollity and frothy merriment Have I this day very seriously thought of my last day and how have those thoughts affected me Have I duly noticed and improved the Occurrence of Providence and the influences of Grace this day What special seasons of doing or receiving good have I had this day and how have I laid hold of them or let them slip What sense have I had of Sions sufferings what Sympathy with afflicted brethren Have I done my utmost to relieve and help those that are in want and distress Have I been careful to keep up Family Religion and conscionable in the discharge of relative duties this day Has sincerity and cheerfulness rendred Christ's Yoak easie and his burden light in all the variety of employments wherein I have this day served him Thus take Conscience to task about your daily behaviour and labour to be rightly affected with all the discoveries you make of your State Frame and Way Further examine what temper and disposition of Soul you arâ—â—ow in whether fit in some measure to draw nigh to God or not Read the Scriptures meditate on what you read or on some other heart-affecting Subject and leave not till you feel your heart suitably moved therewith then pour out your Souls again to God in Prayer and commit your Souls and Bodies with Faith and Confidence to his Love and Care As you undress you think As I now put off my Cloaths so I must ere long this Body As I now lie down in my bed so shortly must I in the Grave Think what an Image sleep is of death and how easie if God give the word the passage is from the Image to the reality and how sure the sleep of death is to be followed with the morning of the Resurrection when we shall awake never to sleep again With such Meditations close your â—yes and lock out vanity from your hearts and let your beloved Jesus Christ lie all night as a bundle of Myrrh betwixt your Breasts Cant. i. 13. Thus will there be a setled correspondence betwixt your Souls and Heaven you will be its care and it will be your hope and days so spent will not be to be repented of at last 2. Having thus opened to you what it is to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long and how Christians are to be daily taken up in the Religious employment of their whole time I now proceed to shew you Why they are so to do and what are the reasons and motives enforcing this Practice upon us We are to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long and every day to make Religion our business Reas 1. Because this is to answer the Ends and Purposes for which God hath given us Life and Time Wise agents propound to themselves valuable ends in all they do the infinite wisdom therefore cannot be thought to have made this lower World and to have placed man made after his own Image therein but upon very valuable considerations not those indeed of profit to himself the absolute and compleat perfection of his nature barring all Impotency or defect to be assisted or supplied Job xxxv 6. 7. If thou sinnest what dost thou against him or if thy transgressions be multiplied what dost thou unto him If thou be righteous what givest thou him or what receiveth he of thine hand But the complacency of his own Will in the Communications of his Beneficence to his Creatures in proportion to their capacities of receiving To enlarge therefore our receptive capacities that so we may reflect more of the lustre of the divine goodness is the great end of our being and likewise of our continuance and support therein Now by nothing are our capacities more enlarged than by such a continual being in the fear of the Lord as I have before described For by doing Gods Wâ—ll we become enlarged in Divine and Spiritual Knowledge and our understanding will and active Powers receive a joint improvement He that doth the will of my Father saith our Saviour shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak it of my self Joh vii 17. and this is Life Eternal to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent Joh. xvii 3. Knowledge is the ground-work of Holiness and Holiness advanceth Knowledge and to be thus daily improving in holy Light Life and Love is that very end for which God made us at first again new made us redeeming us when we were lost and undone and for which his providential care still continues and supports us in the World Why were we not swallowed up of Death and Damnation when we had sinned but that the dead praise not God Psal cxv 17. Wherefore are we redeemed by the blood of Christ but that we should be a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. ii 14. Why are we made
Preachers without invading that Office which it is the will of God should be peculiar to those whom he hath specially qualified for it and visibly separated to it When you are constantly and delightfully busied in the duties of Holiness you manifest to others that Religion is not an impracticable notion a meer pleasing speculation but that the Rules of it may be complied with Our Sermons here in the Pulpit would be much more effectual if you would but live them over in your Closets Shops Fields Families and mutual converses in the World O what a joy is it to Ministers what a glory to the Gospel of Christ when we can point with our Fingers as it were and say There and there and there are the Seals of our Ministry There an ignorant man or woman instructed a drunkard or swearer or sabbath-breaker or unclean person reformed a covetous muck-worm made free-hearted and open-handed a hypocritical Formalist awakened to thorow seriousness in Religion one that was formerly prayer-less of whom we can now say Behold he prayeth a Family of the Devils Slaves and Servants and the Worlds Drudges that is now become a Church of Christ having stated orderly Worship and ringing with the praises of God in emulation as it were of Heaven it self God's will being done in it as there it is done The holy Conversation of the Professors of Religion is an Instituted Means of the conversion of the Atheistical Infidel Impenitent World And if we deny them the benefit of this Means we little know what we have to answer for the Blood of how many Souls may be found in our Skirts Whereas on the other hand if by our holy Life and good Example we turn many to righteousness we shall shine as Stars or as the Sun in the Kingdom of our Father Dan. xii 3. Mat. xiii 43. By converting sinners thus from the evil of their ways we shall save Souls from death and cover the multitude of sins James v. 20. This going before others with the light of a good Example is a cheap yea a gainful way of promoting their Salvation which is certainly the best work we can do in the World and will yield us the most solid comfort in a dying hour Oh! be not content to give others a verbal commendation of Religion but let your lives tell them what an excellent thing it is R. 5. We had need thus to improve every day because we know not which shall be our last day Therefore if we would not lose our last day let us take heed that we do not lose any day We always carry as it were our lives in our hands Psal cxix v. 109. Our breath is in our nostrils and God can easily change our countenances and send us away Isa ii 22. Job xiv 20. We all know we must die but none of us knoweth the particular time the year month week day or hour when Our Lord 's coming in this respect is uncertain whether at evening or at midnight or at the Cock-crowing we ought therefore always to watch that we may be in readiness Mark xiii 35. How would we spend that day which we knew before hand would be our dying day Would we not be very serious Would we not labour to keep our minds very composed our hearts fixed our thoughts and affections heavenly I do not say we should spend the same time every day in immediate acts of Devotion as we would do if we knew it to be our dying day nor that we should converse always with the same solemnity as if we were under that apprehension But we should every day take as much care to keep our selves from all known sin and to be diligent in every positive instance of our duty as if we knew we must end the day and our life together for we do not know but it may be so Now tell me sinner couldst thou be content to die a drunken Beast so totally deprived of the use of thy reason as not to be able to utter with sense and seriousness but so much as Lord have mercy upon me Would it not be a terrible thing to go into Eternity as some have done with an Oath or Curse in thy Mouth What a case shouldst thou be in thinkest thou if the Dart of Vengeance should strike thorow thy Liver whilst thou art in the very act of filthy Lust and wallowing in impure Embraces If thy Breath should be stopped as thou art uttering a Lie or a dead Palsie should benum thy Limbs while thou art driving a cheating or oppressive Bargain Surely there is no man so brutish but he would most earnestly deprecate so sad a doom and yet sinners boldly venture on these courses daily notwithstanding they know not but they may thereby expose themselves to so dismal a calamity Whereas if Death find us in the way of our duty whatever that duty be let it lye in never so ordinary or mean an Employment we have cause of rejoicing and not of fear or sorrow When we have been most diligent in spending a day for God we shall then be most willing if the good pleasure of the Lord so be to die at night The weary Labourer hastens to receive his Wages and cheerfully lyes down to rest R. 6. The time is coming when we shall wish we had spent our days thus How irksom soever a Life of Strict Godliness may now seem to our carnal hearts and corrupted natures yet there is never a one of us but we shall shortly wish we had been as holy as the holiest that we had made Religion our business and been every day of our lives in the fear of the Lord all the day long You that are now strong and healthful and through the pride of your hearts forget God so that God is not in all your thoughts Who say to God depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways Psal x. 4. Job xxi 14. Who esteem fervent praying no better than whining and canting and conscientious strictness in the Government of our selves but needless preciseness and vain scrupulosity Who count him that feareth an Oath or refuseth an imposed Health a morose Melancholist an arrand Fanatick a silly Sneaksby Who pride your selves in the vainly assumed Titles of the Wits as being got above the fear of power invisible and disentangled from the Fetters wherewith Religion binds her Votaries Who can please your senses and gratifie your appetites in defiance of Almighty Justice the threatned Everlasting Torments and all the Jargon as with a sneering smile they are wont to call it of the man in black that as they would fain flatter themselves and glad are they at heart when they can meet with any one so vile as to give them a colour for it doth but talk vehemently against sin for an hour or two in the Week because it is his trade There is not one of all these I say but will shortly change his note and turn his
God's fear Reckon your Sabbaths gains consider your actions and the frame of your Souls in them fix the Word of the day upon your hearts and resolve by the Grace of God to be found in the sincere and speedy practice of it He who thus regardeth a day unto the Lord Rom. xiv 6. shall comfortably experience that the Lords-day hath the seventh days blessing transferred unto it and an additional blessing of its own conferred upon it Infer III. Seriousness in Religion is not more ado than needs Strictness is not Fanaticism Religion in all its parts is our reasonable service Rom. xii 1. We do not serve God for nought that true enough though once said by the Father of Lies Job i. 9. In keeping Gods Commandments there is great reward Psal xix 11. All this work you have heard laid open is of God's setting us and we may be sure he will not suffer us to be losers by our care to please him And besides the variety of Employments allotted to us which sinners count their burden and their cumber is indeed that which sweetens Religion unto holy Souls It is not the hardness of the work in it self but the unsuitableness of it to our Spirits that maketh it so uneasie to the most and when Grace hath removed that the Soul goes on with chearfulness in those ways which sinners cannot endure to tread and do all they can to discourage others from walking in When therefore sinners entice thee from the ways of godliness and tell thee What needeth so much ado sure God is more merciful than to damn men for neglect of secret prayer for vain thoughts for foolish speeches for taking now and then a Cup of Nimis for making the best of their own c. Sure God won't shut all out of Heaven but a few Puritans and Precisians so much reading and praying c. will but mope you or make you melancholy or mad take care of thy Body and make sure of thy Estate and trust God with thy Soul When I say sinners do thus entice thee consent thou not Prov. i. 10. Let no man deceive you with vain words Eph. v. 6. Tell them God knows better who he will save and who he will damn than any of they and he hath said Without holiness no man shall see the Lord He will pour out his fury upon the Families that call not upon his Name Life and Death are in the power of the Tongue Drunkards among others shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Covetousness is Idolatry It is a little Flock our Heavenly Father will give his Kingdom to The Righteous are scarcely saved The Kingdom of God consists in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost What is a man profited if he gain the whole World and lose himself or be cast away Tell them these are the true sayings of God see Heb. xii 14. Jer. x. 25. Prov. xviii 21. 1 Cor. vi 10. Col. iii. 5. Luke xii 32. 1 Pet. iv v. 18. Rom. xiv 17. Luke ix 25. And you should be a Fool indeed if you should believe the silly sayings of blind Earth-worms and prejudiced unexperienced Sots before the Word of the Living and True God the Infinite and Eternal Wisdom Infer IV. What cause have we to lament the Fall of our First Parents by which we are disabled for this excellent Life God Created Man holy and happy with wisdom to know his Duty and power to do it and holy Love to encline him to the performance of it It was easie for Adam to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long though it was possible for him by a faulty omission of Reasons government over the inferiour powers of the Soul to depart there-from And such was the mutability of his Will that being assaulted by Temptation he wretchedly yielded and so betrayed himself and his Posterity into a forlorn state of wretchedness and impotency so that now we have none of us by nature light enough to discern nor ability to perform aright our Duty in the most ordinary instances of Life Certain it is we have lost that Moral Liberty of Will which was the glory of Innocent Adam and had been our glory had he stood and remained in his Integrity But now the Crown is fallen from our Heads woe unto us that we have sinned Lam. v. 16. We may well name ours Ichabod for the glory is departed from us 1 Sam. iv 21. We are all shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin Psal Li. 5. In our flesh dwelleth no good thing when we would do good evil is present with us O wretched ones that we are who shall deliver us from the body of this death Rom. vii 18 21 24. By one man sin entred into the World and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Rom. v. 12. We have cause to look our hearts and lives in the glass of God's Law and cry out as once a good Man did after a long Sickness looking his Face in a Glass and beholding his pale Cheeks and meager Visage Ah! Adam saith he Adam what hast thou done Oh! what a condition are we who sinned in Adam fallen from and what a sad estate are we fallen into our Minds are dark our Wills perverse our Affections froward c. we cannot of our selves think one good thought if we might have Heaven and Eternal happiness for our pains 2 Cor. iii. 5. We cannot pray nor read nor hear nor do any spiritual Duty aright We have an hereditary Sickness that threatens us with death in that it makes us loath the means of Life Oh what a averseness to and unfitness for secret prayer and meditation and examining themselves do even awakened sinners find and feel till special Grace come in to their aid What shifting what shufling what excuses what slightness what slubbering over of Duties is there In a word Adam's Fall hath rendered us all utterly unable of our selves to do aright any duty to God our Neighbour or our selves Infer V. What cause have we all to lament our past days because they have been in too great a measure lost days If you look back upon the description that hath been laid before you of the everyday work and walk of a serious practical Christian and consider how every day of your Life hath been spent since you came to the use of reason I fear you will most of you have cause to cry out not only with the Emperour Augustus Hem amici diem perdidi Alas my Friends I have lost a day But Heu vitam perdidi Alas I have lost my whole Life Alas How have our days been squandered away and our time lavished out upon unprofitable vanities Ask one man what he hath been doing ever since he came into the World And he must if he say true tell you he hath been labouring for the meat that perisheth he hath been toiling and drudging to add house to house and