NOW OR NEVER The Holy Serious Diligent Believer Justified Encouraged Excited and Directed And the Opposers and Neglecters Convinced by the Light of Scripture and Reason By Richard Baxter To be Communicated by such as want ability or opportunity themselves to plead the Cause of Serious Holiness for mens Conviction Luk. 7. 35. But wisdom is justified of all her children Nihil est ad defendendum Puritate tutius nihil ad dicendum Veritate facilius Ambros LONDON Printed in the Year 1662. The Contents IN the Preface the Question resolved Whether a Man may be saved in any Religion that is serious in practising it No Religion will save a man that is not true to it serious diligent in practising it Why the Author rather publisheth such common necessary things than confutation of the many calumnies publisht against himself His expectations from men And answer with Tertullian about sufferings An Advertisement about a passage cited out of the Homilies His Justification for opposing scorners enemies of Holiness out of the Church Homilies A Passage about Philip Nerius the Father of the Oratorians The Text opened Doct. 1. The work of this life cannot be done when this life is ended Doct. 2. Therefore while we have time we must do the work of this present life with vigour and diligenee 1. Time cannot be recalled 2. Life shall never be here restored 3. There is no doing this work in the life to come What it is to do it with our Might some cautions Instances of the work to be done with our might Obj. What Might have we Answered How to rouse up our selves to seriousness What to think of them that oppose a holy serious diligence in the service of God The greatness of the sin Especially if they are Preachers What it is in Religion that Hypocrites hate Seneca's testimony for seriousness A terrible passage in our Homilies against Scorners at godliness The greatness of their sin Obj It is not Godliness but humour faction disobedience hypocrisie c. Answered Advice to the flocks Obj. Be not righteous overmuch Answered Exhortation to serious diligence Obj. 1. I have lost my Time Answered Obj. 2. I have opposition and hinderances Obj. 3. I am dull and cold Directions and Cautions Reasons for pleading this cause with Ministers The Exhortation re-inforced The Devils designe to make use of Differences in smaller matters against Christianity and Godliness it self Such differences sects divisions shall be no excuse to the ungodly but aggravate their sin as being against that which all Sects and Parties were agreed in What that Religion is that we call men to be serious and diligent in 1. To live according to the Principles of Faith that among Christians are past controversie Ten named 2. To do that Materially that all are agreed of Ten duties named 3. To do that in the very Manner of Gods service that all are agreed in Ten particulars mentioned Obj. I will never believe that God delights in long and earnest prayers or is moved by the words of man Answered Obj. Is not your strict observation of the Lords Day a Controversie Answered The Conclusion exhortatory The Preface IT is a question more boldly than accurately debated by many Whether a man may not be saved in any Religion that is faithful to the principles of it by serious diligent practice The true Solution is this Religion is that which men hold and do to serve and please God 1. If men make themselves a Religion of serving Idols or Devils instead of God 2. Or if they place their service to God himself in things that are evil as what evil is there that some men have not brought into their Religion and fathered upon God the more diligent such men are in their Religion the more they sin 3. Or if they make themselves a Religion of irrational ludicrous ceremonies their greatest diligence in this will not save them 4. Or if they hold all the Essentials of the true Religion except some one it cannot save them while one thing is wanting which is Essential to that Religion and so necessary to salvation which is the case of real Hereticks For they are not indeed of that Religion if they want that which is Essential to it 5. Or if they hold all that is Essential to the true Religion only Notionally and hold any thing with it practically which is contradictory and inconsistent with it the soundness of their Notional belief will not save them from the mortal poison of their practical Heresie or Error But 1. Whosoever holdeth all that is necessary to salvation and is serious and diligent in living according thereunto shall be saved whatever error he holdeth with it For if he be serious and diligent in the Practice of all things necessary to salvation he hath all that is necessary to salvation viz. in Belief and Practice And it must needs follow that his Errors are either not concontradictory to the things necessary which he holdeth and practiseth or that he holdeth not those Errors practically but notionally as an opinion or uneffectual cogitation in a dream which provokes not to action and in such a case the error keeps no man from salvation What is necessary to be believed by them that never hear the Gospel it so little concerneth us to know that God hath not thought meet to make it so plain to us as things that more concern our selves But as it is certain that without the Atonements Satisfaction and Reconciliation made by Christ and without new terms of Grace to be judged by and without his Grace for the performance of their part no man can be saved that hath the use of reason so there is so much knowledge necessary to salvation as is necessary to engage the heart to love God above all and sincerely to obey his revealed will and to prefer the life to come before the transitory pleasures of this life Now if any man can prove to me that those that never heard the Gospel can thus love God and the life to come and obey sincerely without the knowledge of the person life death resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Declaration of the attractive Love and Goodness of God in him and in the work of our Redemption then I should believe that such Negative Infidels may be saved For God cannot damn a sanctified soul that sincerely loveth him But if the discovery of the Love of God in our Redemption be so necessary a moral means to ingage the heart now corrupted by sin and creature-love to the true Love of God that this cannot be wrought without it or if Christ give not his Spirit to produce the love of God in any but those that hear the Gospel and believe in him then no such persons can be saved by their Religion For Christ is the way to the Father and no man cometh to the Father but by him and and the Love of God is absolutely and of its self necessary to salvation
be preferred in your estimation love and service and all that is done for man must be done for his sake You must not set up duties of Piety against duties of Justice Charity and Sobriety It is not true Piety that will not bring forth these God must be loved above all and our neighbours as our selves and these two sorts of love are inseparable Do all the good you can to all while you have opportunity especially to them of the houshold of faith Gal. 6. 10. What good you would hear of in the day of your accounts that do now speedily diligently and sincerely according to your power Say not I may come to want my self but cast thy bread upon the waters for thou shalt find it after many dayes give a portion to seven and also to eight for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth Eccles 11. 1 2. and whether all may not quickly be taken from thee and then thou wilt wish thou hadst done good with it whilst thou hadst it and lent it to the Lord and trusted him with thy remainder who entrusted thee with his blessings and hadst made thee friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when all fail they might receive thee into the everlasting habitations Drop not now and then a scant and grudging alms as if thou were a loser by it and God must be be beholden to thee but believe that the greatest gain is to thy self and look after such bargains and do good as readily and gladly liberally as one that verily expecteth a ful reward in Heaven This is part of the service of God that we exhort you to even to visit and relieve and love Christ in his members and brethren Mat. 25. and is there any thing of doubt or controversie in all this 8. Moreover God will be served with Love and willingness and delight It is the most gainful honourable blessed and pleasant work in the world which he hath appointed you and not a toilsome task or slavery And therefore it is not a Melancholy pining troublesom course of life that we perswade you to under the name of Godliness but it is to rejoyce in the Lord and to live in the joyful expectations of Eternal Life and in the sense and assurance of the Love of God If you could shew us any probability of a more pleasant and joyful life on Earth then that which serious Holiness doth afford I should be glad with all my heart to hearken to you I am ready to tell you what is the ground of our comforts which faith revealeth If you will come and soberly debate the case and shew us the matter and ground of your comforts which you have or hope for in any other way if yours prove greater and better and surer then the joys of faith we will hearken to you and be of your mind and side The matter of the joyes of a Believer is that all his sins are pardoned that God is reconciled to him in Christ that he hath the promise of God that all things even the greatest sufferings shall work together for his good that he is always in the love and care and hands of God that he hath leave to draw near him by holy prayer and open his heart to him in all his straits and wants that he may solace himself in his Praises and Thanksgiving and in other parts of holy worship that he may read and hear his holy Word the sure discovery of the will of God and revelation of the things unseen and the Charter of his Inheritance that he may exercise his soul in the serious believing thoughts of the Love of God revealed in the wonderful work of our Redemption and of the person and office and grace of Jesus Christ our Redeemer and that he may love that God that hath so wonderfully loved him that he hath the Spirit of God to quicken and actuate his soul to supply his spiritual defects and kill his sins and help him to Believe to Love to Rejoyce to Pray that this Spirit is Gods Seal upon him and the earnest of everlasting life that Death shall not kill his hopes nor end his happiness but that his felicity and fullest joy beginneth when that of worldlings hath an end and their endless misery begins that he is delivered from everlasting torment by the redemption of Christ and the sanctification of the spirit that Angels will attend his departing soul into the presence of his Father that he shall be with his glorified Redeemer and behold his Glory that his body shall be raised to everlasting life that he shall be justified by Christ from all the accusations of the Devil and all the slanders of the malicious world that he shall live with God in endless Glory and see and enjoy the Glory of his Creator and shall never more be troubled with enemies with sin or sorrow but among his holy ones shall perfectly and most joyfully love and praise the Lord for ever These are the matter of a Believers joy These purchased by Christ revealed in his Word sealed by his Miracles his Blood his Sacraments and his Spirit are our comfort This is the Religion the labour that we invite you to It is not to despair nor to some dry unprofitable toil nor to self-troubling grieving miserable melancholy nor to costly Sacrifices or idle Ceremonies or irrational Service such as the Heathens offered to their Idols it is not to cast away all mirth and comfort and to turn unsociable and morose and sower but it is to the greatest joys that the world alloweth and nature is here capable of and reason can discern and own It is to begin a truly merry sociable life It is to fly from fear sorrow in flying from sin and Hell and from the consuming wrath of God It is to the foretastes of everlasting joys and to the beginnings of eternal life This the labour the Religion which we would have you follow with all your might If you have better things to seek and follow and find let us see them that we may be as wise as you If you have not for your souls sake make not choice of vanity which will deceive you in the day of your necessity But you must not think to make us believe that a great house or a horse or a whore or a feast or a flatterer or fine cloaths or any childish toys or brutish filthiness are more comfortable things then Christ and Everlasting Life or that it is sweeter and better to love a harlot or lands or mony then to love God and Grace and Glory nor that any thing that will go no further then the Grave with you is as good as that which will endure to Eternity nor that any pleasure which a dog or swine hath is equal to the delights of the Angels of Heaven If you would have us of your mind you must not be of this mind nor perswade us to such horrible things as
words of the most subtile disputant Christianity being an affecting practical Science must practically and affectionately be declared according to its nature Arguments do but paint it out And pictures do no more make known its excellency then the picture of meat and drink makes known its sweetness When a doctrine so holy is visibly exemplified and liveth and walketh and worketh in serious Christians before the world Either this or nothing will convince them and constrain them to glorify our Lord and say that God is among us or in us of a truth Mat. 5. 16. 1 Cor. 14. 25. But it is unchristian lives that darkneth the glory of the Christian Faith When men that profess such glorious hopes shall be as sordidly earthly and sensual and ambitious and impotent and impatient as other men they seem but fantastical dissembles And yet shall there be found such a perfidious wretch under the heavens of God as a professed Minister of Christ that shall subtilly or openly labour to make an exact and holy and heavenly conversation a matter of reproach and scorn and that under pretence of reproving the sins of Hypocrites and Schismaticks shall make the exactest conformity to the Christian rule and faithfullest obedience to the Almighty Soveraign to seem to be but hypocrisie or self-conceitedness or needless trouble if not the way to sedition and publick trouble and turning all things upside down that cannot reprove sin without malicious insinuating slanders or suspitions against the holy law and holy life that are most contrary to sin as life to death as health to sickness and as light to darkness For any man especially any professed Christian any where to oppose or scorn at godliness is a dreadful sign as well as a heinous sin But for a Preacher of Godliness to oppose and scorn at Godliness and that in the Pvlpit while he pretendeth to promote it and plead for it in the name of Christ is a sin that should strike the heart of man with horrour to conceive of Though I cannot subscribe my self to that passage in the second part of the tenth Homily Tom. 2. pag. 150. however I very much love and honour the book of Homilies yet for their sakes that not only can subscribe to it but would have all kept out of the Ministry that cannot and that take it for that Doctrine of the Church of England which they will believe and Preach I will recite it to the terror of the guilty not to drive to despair but to awake them or to shame them for their opposition to the wayes of godliness Expounding Psal 1. 1. Blessed is the man that hath not walked after the counsel of the ungodly nor stood in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of the scornful having shewed who are the ungodly and the sinners it addeth these words The third sort he calleth scorners that is a sort of men whose hearts are so stuffed with malice that they are not contented to dwell in sin and to lead their lives in all kind of wickedness but also they do contemn and scorn in others all godliness true Religion all honesty and vertue Of the two first sorts of men I will not say but they may take Repentance and he converted unto God Of the third sort I think I may without danger of Gods judgement pronounce that never any yet were converted unto God by Repentance but continued still in their abominable wickedness heaping up to themselves damnation against the day of Gods inevitable judgement Though I dare not say but some such have Repented yet let the scorners that believe this remember that they subscribe the sentence of their own condemnation Though I look upon this sort of the enemies of Holiness as those that are as unlikely to be recovered and saved as almost any people in the world except Apostates and Malicious Blasphemers of the Holy Ghost yet in compassion to the people and themselves I shall plead the cause of God with their consciences and try what Light can do with their understandings and the terrours of the Lord with their hardened hearts 1. A Preacher of the Gospel should much excel the people in understanding And therefore this sin is greater in them then other men what means what light do they sin against Either thou knowest the necessity of serving for salvation with the greatest diligence or thou dost not If not what a sin and shame is it to undertake the sacred Office of the Ministry while thou knowest not the things that are necessary to salvation and that which every Infant in the Faith doth know But if thou dost know it how dost thou make shift maliciously to oppose it without feeling the beginnings of Hell upon thy Conscience When it is thy work to read the Scriptures and meditate on them dost thou not read thy doom and meditate terrour How canst thou choose but perceive that the scope of the word of God is contrary to the bent of thy affections and suggestions Yea what is more evident by the Light of Nature then that God and our salvation cannot be regarded with too much holy seriousness exactness and industry Should not the best things be best loved and the greatest matters have our greatest care And is there any thing to be compared with God and our eternal state O what overwhelming subjects are these to a sober and considerate mind what toyes are all things in comparison of them And yet dost thou make light of them and also teach men so to do As if there were something else that better deserved mens greatest care and diligence then they What a Preacher and not a Believer Or a Believer and yet not see enough in the matters of Eternity to engage all our powers of soul and body against all the world that should stand in competition 2. Is it not sinful and terrible enough to be thy self in a carnal unrenewed state Rom. 1. 13. and to be without the Spirit and life of Christ v. 9. but thou must be so cruel as to make others miserable also Psal 50. 16 17. But to the wicked saith God What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee Matth. 5. 19. Whosoever shall break one of the least Commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven But whosoever shall do and teach the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven 3. What an aggravation is it of thy impiety and soul-murder that thou art bound by office to teach men that life of holiness which thou oppoposest and to perswade them to that with all thy might which thou endeavourest closely and cunningly to disgrace And wilt thou be a Traytor to Christ in the name of a Messenger and Preacher of the Gospel Wilt thou engage thy self to promote his interest and to use all thy skill
cannot be his Disciples Joh. 16. 33. Luk. 14. 27 33. Would you be soldiers on condition you may not fight or fight and yet have no opposition Follow the Captain of your salvation If mocking or buffeting or spitting in his face or hanging him upon a Cross or piercing his side would have made him give up the work of your Redemption you had been left to utter desperation The opposition that is conquerable should serve but to excite your courage and resolution in a case of such necessity where you must prevail or perish Have you God himself on your side Rom. 8. 31. and Christ your Captain and the Spirit of Christ to give you courage and the Promise to invite you and Heaven before you and Hell behind you and the examples of such an Army of conquering Believers and shall the scorns or threats of a crawling Worm prevail against all these for your discouragement You are not afraid lest any man should pull down the Sun or dry up the Sea or overturn the Earth And are you afraid that Man should conquer God Rom. 8. 37. or take you out of the hands of Christ Joh. 10. 28. 39. Mark how they used David Psal 56. 3 4 5 6. Every day they wrest my words all their thoughts are against me for evil They gather themselves together they hide themselves they mark my steps when they wait for my soul But what did he therefore fear or fly from God No What time I am afraid I will trust in thee In God will I praise his word In God have I put my trust I will not fear what flesh can do unto me Isa 51. 7 8. Hearken to me ye that know righteousness the people in whose heart is the Law Fear ye not the reproach of men neither be ye afraid of their revilings For the moth shall eat them up like a garment and the worm shall eat them like wool but my Righteousness shall be for ever and my Salvation from generation to generation You deserve to be shut out of Heaven if you will not bear the breath of a fools derision for it 3. But saith the self-accusing soul I am convinced that I ought to be laborious for my salvation and that all this is too little that I can do but I am dull and cold and negligent in all I am far from doing it with my might I hear and read and pray as if I did it not and as if I were half asleep or my heart were away upon somewhat else I fear I am but a lazy hypocrite Answ I shall first speak to thy doubt and then to direct thee against thy sin And first you must be resolved whether your sloath be such as is predominant or Mortifi'd such as proveth that you are dead in sin or onely such as proveth you but diseased and infirm And to know this you must distinguish 1. Between the dulness and coldness of the Affections and the unresolvednesse and Disobedience of the soul 2. Between a sloathfulness that keepeth men from a godly life in a life of wickedness and that which only keepeth them from some particular act of duty or abateth the degree of their sincere affection and obedience 3. Between that sloath that is the vicious habit of the Will and that which is the effect of age or sickness or melancholy or other distemper of the body And so the case lieth plain before you 1. If it be not only your affections that are dull but your will through sloath is unresolved and this not only in a temptation to the abatement of some degrees and the neglect of some particular duty but against a holy life and against the forsaking of your reigning sin and this be not only through some bodily distemper disabling your Reason but from the vicious Habit of your Wills then is your sloath a mortal sign and proves you in a graceless state But if the sloath which you complain of be onely the dulness of your affections and the backwardness of your wills to some high degrees or particular duties and the effect of some bodily distemper or the weakness of your spiritual life while your wills are habitually resolved for God and a holy life against a worldly fleshly life This is your infirmity and a sin to be lamented but not a mark of death and gracelessness You will have a backward sloathfull heart to strive with while you live but bless God that you are offended with it and would fain be delivered This was Paul's evidence Rom. 7. 24. You will have flesh and flesh will plead for its interest and will be striving against the Spirit but bless God that you have also the Spirit to strive against the flesh Be thankfull that you have life to feel your sickness though you languish under it and cannot work as healthfull men and that you are in the way to Heaven though you go not so fast as you should and would 2. But yet though you have Life it is so grievous to be diseased and languish under such an infirmity as sloath that I advise you to stir up your selves to the utmost and give not way to a lazie temper and that you may serve the Lord with all your might I recommend these few Directions to your observation Dir. 1. When you would be quickened up to seriousnesse and diligence Have ready at hand such quickning Considerations as are here before propounded to you and set them before you and labour to work them upon your hearts Powerful truths would have some power upon your souls if you will but soberly apply your reasons to them and plead them with your selves as you would do with another in any of your reproofs or exhortations Dir. 2. Take heed lest any worldly design or interest or any lust or sensual delight divert your minds from God and duty For all the powers of your soul will languish when you should set them on work on spiritual things and your hearts will be abroad when you should be wholly taken up with God if once they be entangled with worldly things Watch therefore over them in your Callings lest the creature steal too deep into your affections For if you be alive to the world you will be in that measure dead to God Dir. 3. If it be possible live under a lively Ministry that when your hearts go cold and dull unto the Assemblies they may come warm and quickned home Life cherisheth life as fire kindleth fire The Word and Ordinances of God are quick powerful and sharper then any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the hearts Heb. 4. 12. and therefore it may do much to make you feel Many a thousand hath it pricked at the heart and sent them home alive that before were dead Acts 2. 37. Much more may you expect that it should excite the principles which you have already Dir. 4. If it
it then to hear and think that you lost wilfully lost such an opportunity Look about you then and see what is to be done Are there not Ale-houses to be supprest and drunkards riotous persons to be restrained Preaching and Piety to be promoted Do it with your might For it must be Now or Never 6. To come yet a little nearer you and speak of the work that is yet to be done in your own souls Are any of you yet in the state of unrenewed nature born only of the flesh and not of the Spirit Joh. 3. 3 5 6. minding the things of the flesh and not the things of the Spirit Rom. 8. 1 5 7 9 13. consequently yet in the power of Satan taken captive by him at his will Act. 26. 18. 2 Tim. 2. 26 27. Vp and be doing if thou love thy soul If thou care whether thou be in Joy or misery for ever bewail thy sin and spiritual distress Make out to Christ cry mightily to him for his renewing and reconciling pardoning grace plead his sactisfaction his merits his promises Away with thy rebellion thy beloved sin Deliver up thy soul entirely to Christ to be sanctified governed and saved by him Make no more demurs about it it is not a matter to be questioned or trifled in Let the earth be acquainted with thy bended knees and the air with thy complaints and cries men with thy confessions and enquiries after the way of life and heaven with thy sorrows desires and resolutions till thy soul be acquainted with the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8. 9. and with the new the holy and heavenly nature and thy heart have received the transcript of Gods Law the impress of the Gospel and so the Image of thy Creator and Redeemer Ply this work with all thy might For there is no Conversion Renovation or Repentance unto life in the grace whither thou goest It must be Now or Never And Never saved if Never sanctified Heb. 12. 14. 7. Hast thou any prevailing sin to mortifie that either reigneth in thee or woundeth thee and keepeth thy soul in darkness and unacquaintedness with God Assault it resolutely Reject it speedily Abhor the motions of it Turn away from the persons or things that would entice thee Hate the doors of the Harlot and of the Alehouse or the gaming house and go not as the Ox to the slaughter and as a bird to the fowlers snare and as a fool to the correction of the stocks as if thou knewest not that it is for thy life Prov. 7. 22 23. Why thou befooled stupid soul wilt thou be tasting of the poysoned cup wilt thou be glutting thee with the bait Hast thou no where to walk or play thee but at the brink of Hell Must not the flesh be crucified with its affections and lusts Gal. 5. 24. Must it not be tamed and mortified or thy soul condemned Rom. 8. 13. 1 Cor. 9. 27. Run not therefore as at uncertainty fight not as one that beats the air ver 26. seeing this must be done or thou art undone delay and dally with sin no longer Let this be the day resolve and resist it with thy might It must be Now or Never when death comes it is too late It will be then no reward to leave thy sinne which thou canst keep no longer No part of Holiness or happiness that thou art not drunk or proud or lustful in the grave or hell As thou art wise therefore know and take thy Time 8. Art thou in a declined lapsed state decayed in grace Hast thou lost thy first desires and love do thy first works and do them with thy might Delay not but remember from whence thou art fallen and what thou hast lost by it and into how sad a case thy folly and negligence hath brought thee say I will go and return to my first husband for then was it better with me then now Hos 2. 7. Cry out with Job 29. 2 3. 4 5. O that I were as in moneths past as in the dayes when God preserved me when his candle shined upon my head and when by his light I walked through darkness As I was in the dayes of my youth when the secret of God was on my Tabernacle when the Almighty was yet with me Return while thou hast day lest the night surprize thee Loyter and delay no more thou hast lost by it already thou art far behind hand Bestir thee therefore with all thy Might 9. Art thou in the darknesse of uncertainty concerning thy conversion and thy everlasting state Dost thou not know whether thou be in a state of life or death and what should become of thee if this were the day or hour of thy change If thou art careful about it and enquirest and usest the means that God hath appointed thee for assurance I have then no more to say to thee now but wait on God and thou shalt not be disappointed or ashamed Thou shalt have assurance in due time or be saved before thou wouldst believe thou should be saved Be patient and obedient and the light of Christ will shine upon thee and yet thou shalt see the days of peace But if thou art careless in thy uncertainty and mindest not so great a business be awakened and call thy soul to its account Search and examine thy heart and life Read and consider and take advice of faithful Guides Canst thou carelesly sleep and laugh and sport and follow thy lesser business as if thy Salvation were made sure when thou knowest not where thou must dwell for ever Examine your selves whether you be in the faith prove your selves know ye not your own selves that Christ is in you except you are reprobates 2 Cor. 13. 5. Give all diligence in time to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1. 10. In the Grave and Hell there is no making sure of Heaven you are then past enquiries and self-examinations in order to any recovery or hope Another kind of tryal will finally resolve you Up therefore and diligently ply the work it must be Now or Never 10. In all the duties of thy Profession of Piety Justice or Charity to God thy self or others up and be doing with thy might Art thou seeking to inflame thy soul with love to God plunge thy self in the Ocean of his love admire his mercies gaze upon the representations of his transcendent goodness O taste and see that the Lord is gracious Remember that he must be loved with all thy heart and soul and might canst thou pour out thy love upon a creature and give but a few barren drops to God When thou art Fearing him let his Fear command thy soul and conquer all the fear of man When thou art Trusting him do it without distrust and cast all thy care and thy self upon him Trust him as a creature should trust his God and the members of Christ should trust their Head and dear Redeemer When thou
as they that are asleep Wilt thou do in the day-light as they do in the dark shall Freemen live as Satans slaves shall the living lie as still useless as the dead Work then while it is day for the night is coming when none can work John 9. 4. It is not the works of the Mosaical Law nor works that are conceited for their proper value to deserve any thing at the hands of God that I am all this while perswading you to But it is the works prescribed you by Christ in the Gospel according to which you shall be shortly judged to joy or misery by Christ himself that will call you to account These must be done with all your Might Object But you 'l say perhaps alas what Might have we We have no sufficiency of our selves without Christ we can do nothing And this we find when it comes to the trial Ans 1. It is not a might that is Orignally thine Own that I am calling thee to exercise but that which thou hast already received from God and that which he is ready to bestow Use well but all the Might thou hast and thou shalt find thy labour is not in vain Even the strength of nature and of common Grace are Talents which thou must improve 2. Art thou willing to use the Might thou hast and to have more and use it if thou hadst it If thou art thou hast then the strength of Christ Thou standest not and workest not by thy own strength His promise is engaged to thee and his strength is sufficient for thee But if thou art not willing thou art without excusâ—â— when thou hadst Heaven and Hell set open in the word of God to make thee willing God will distinguish thy wilfulness from unwilling weakness 3. There is more Power in all of you then you use or then you are well aware of It wanteth but awakening to bring it into act Do you not find in your Repentings that the change is more in your Will then in your Power and in the awaking of your Will and Reason into act then in the addition of meer abilities and that therefore you befool your selves for your sins your neglects wonder that you had no more use of your understandings Let but a storm at Sea or violent sickness or approaching death rowse up and waken the powers which you have and you will find there was much more asleep in you then you used I shall therefore next endeavour to awaken your abilities or tell you how you should awaken them When your souls are drowsie and you are forgetting your God and your latter end and the matters of Eternity have little force and savour with you when you grow lazie and superficial and religion seems a lifeless thing and you do your duty as if it were in vain or against our wils when you can lose your time and delay repentance and friends and profit and reputation and pleasure can be heard against the Word of God and take you off when you do all by the halves and languish in your Christian course as near to death Stir up your souls with the urgency of such Questions as these Qu. 1. Can I do no more then this for God! Who gave me all Who deserveth all Who seeth me in my duties and my sins When he puts me purposely on the trial what I can do for his sake and service Can I do no more Can I love him no more and obey and watch and work no more Qu. 2. Can I do no more then this for Christ For him that did so much for me that lived so exactly obeyed so perfectly walked so inoffensively and meekly despising all the baits and honours and riches of the World that loved me to the death and offereth me freely all his benenefits and would bring me to eternal Glory Are these careless cold and dull endeavors my best return for all this mercy Qu. 3. Can I do no more when my salvation is the prize when Heaven or Hell depend much on it when I know this before-hand and may see in the glasse of the holy Scriptures what is prepared for the diligent and the negligent and what work there is and will be for ever in Heaven and Hell on these accounts Could I not do more if my house were on fire or my estate or life or friend in danger then I do for my salvation Qu. 4. Can I do no more for the souls of men when they are undone for ever if they be not speedily delivered Is this my love and compassion to my neighbour my servant freind or child Qu. 5. Can I do no more for the Church of God for the publick good for the peace and welfare of the Nation and our prosperity in suppressing sin in praying for deliverance or in promoting Works of publick benefit Qu. 6. Can I do no more that have loytered so long and go no faster that have slept till the evening of my daies when Diligence must be the discovery of my Repentance Qu. 7. Can I do no more that know not now but I am doing my last That see how fast my Time makes haste and know I must be quickly gone that know it must be now or never and that this is all the time I shall have on which an endless life dependeth Qu. 8. Can I do no better when I know before hand what different aspects diligence and negligence will have to the awakened soul in the review What a comfort it will be at death and judgement to be able to say I did my best or loytered not away the time I had And what a vexatious and heart-disquieting thing it will then be to look back on time as irrecoverably lost and on a life of tryal as cast away upon impertinences while the work that we lived for lay undone shall I now by trifling prepare such griping and tormenting thoughts for my awakened conscience Qu. 9. Can I do no more when I am sure I cannot do too much and am sure there is nothing else to be preferred and that its this I live for and that life is for action and disposeth thereunto and holy life for holy action and that its better not live then not attain the ends of living when I have so many and unwearied enemies when sloath is my danger and the advantage of my enemy when I know that Resolution and Vigorous diligence is so necessary that all is lost without it will temptations be resisted and self denied and concupiscence mortified and fleshly desires tamed and subdued and sin cast out and a holy communion with Heaven maintained with idleness and sloath will families be well ordered and Church or City or Country well governed will the careless sinners that I am bound to help be converted and saved with sitting still and with some heartless cold endeavours Qu. 10. Can I do no more that have so much help that have mercies of all sorts encouraging me
him And its diligent seeking him that they hate and set themselves aâ—gainst 4. Do not they not judge Heaven to be less worth then Earth when they will do less for it and would have others to do so too 5. They would have us all unchristen and unman our selves as if there were no life to come or as if our reason and all our faculties were given us in vain For if they are not given us for greater matters then all the honours and pleasures of the world they are in vain or worse and the life of man is but a dream and misery Were not a beast less miserable if this were all 6. How base a price do these Cainites set on the immortal soul of man that think it not worth so much ado as the careful obedience of the Laws of Christ Not worth so much as they do themselves for their filthy sins and perishing flesh But would have us so mad as to sell Heaven and our Souls for a little sinful sloath and ease 7. These enemies of holiness would have men take their Mercies for their Hurt and their greatest Blessings for a Burden or a Plague and to run into Hell to be delivered from them Why man dost thou know what Holiness is and what it is to have access to God I tell thee it is the foretaste of Heaven on Earth It is the highest Glory and sweetest delight and chiefest commodity to the soul And art thou afraid of having too much of this What thou that haste none which should make thee tremble art thou afraid of having too much Thou that never fearest too much money nor too much honour nor too much health art thou afraid of too much spiritual health and holiness what shall be thy desire if thou loath and fly from thy felicity 8. You that are loyal subjects take heed of these ungodly scorners For by consequence they would tempt you to despise your King and make a mock at the obeying of his Commands and Laws For if a man perswade you to despise a Judge he implieth that you may despise a Constable No King is so great in comparison of God as a fly or worm is to that King He therefore that would relax the Laws of God and make it seem a needlss thing to obey him diligently and exactly implieth that obedience to any of the sons of men is much more needless And you that are children or servants take heed of the doctrine of these men Masters admit it not into your Families If he be worthy to be scorned as a Puritan or Precisian that is careful to please and obey the Lord what scorn do your children and servants deserve if they will be obedient and pleasing to such as you 9. All you that are poor Tradesmen take heed of the consequences of the Cainitès scorns lest it make you give over the labours of your Calling and turn your selves and Families into beggery For if Heaven be not worth your greatest labour your bodies are not worth the least 10. These Cainites speak against the awakened Consciences and the confessions of all the world Whatsoever they may say in the dream of their blind presumption and security at last when Death hath opened their eyes they all cry O that we had been Saints O that we might die the death of the righteous and that our last end might be as his O that we had spent that Time and Care and Labour for our souls which we spent on that which now is gall to our remembrance And yet these men will take no warning but now oppose and deride that course that all the world do wish at last they had been as zealous for as any 11. The enemy himself hath a conscience within him that either grudgeth against his malicious impiety and witnesseth that he abuseth them that are far better then himself or at least will shortly call him to a reckoning and tell him better what he did and make him change his face and tune and wish himself in the case of those that he did oppose 12. To conclude the Cainite is of the wicked one 1 Joh. 3. 12. of his Father the Devil Joh. 8. 42 44. and is his walking speaking instrument on Earth saying what he himself would say He is the open enemy of God For who are his enemies but the Enemies of Holiness of his Laws of our Obedience of his Image and of his Saints And how will Christ deal at last with his Enemies Luk. 19. 27. O that they knew that foreseeing they might escape This is the true the ugly picture of a Cainite or Enemy of a holy life that reproacheth serious diligence as a precise and needless thing when God commandeth us and death and the Grave and Eternity admonish us to do his work with all our might Now consider this ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver you Psal 50. 22. BUt of all the opposers of serious Holiness in the world there are none more unexcusable and deplorably miserable then those that profess themselves Ministers of Christ Would one believe that had not known them that there are such men in the world Alas there are too many Though Education and the Laws of the Land engage them to preach true doctrine yet are they false Teachers in the Application For they never well learned the holy and heavenly doctrine which they preach nor digested it or received the power and impress of it upon their hearts and therefore retaining their natural corruptions impiety and enmity to the Life and Power and practice of that Doctrine they indirectly destroy what directly they would seem to build and preach both for God and against him for Christ and the Holy Spirit and against them for Godliness and against it both in the same Sermon In General they must needs speak for the word of God and a holy life But when they come to the particulars they secretly reproach it and condemn the parts while they commend the whole In General they speak well of Religious Godly Holy people But when they meet with them they hate them and make them Precisians a Sect that is every where spoken against pestilent fellows and movers of sedition as the Apostles were accused Acts 24. 5. 28. 22. and any thing that malice can invent to make them odious And what they cannot prove they will closely intimate in the false application of their doctrines describing them so as may induce the hearers to believe that they are a company of self-conceited Hypocrites factious proud disobedient turbulent peevish affecting singularity desiring to ingross the reputation of Godliness to themselves but secretly as bad as others And when they have thus represented them to the ignorant sort of people they have made the way of Godliness odious and sufficiently furnished miserable souls with prejudice and dislike so that because the persons are thus made hateful to them all serous diligence
them that entertained him that you were called on and warn'd as well as they but obstinately despised and neglected all That Life and Death were set before you and the everlasting joyes were offered to your choice against the charms of sinful Pleasures and you might have freely had them if you would and were told that Holiness was the only way and that it must be Now or Never and yet that you chose your own destruction These thoughts will be part of Hell to the ungodly They will wonder that Reason could be so unreasonable and they that had the common wit of man in other matters should be so far beside themselves in that which is the only thing that its commendable to be wise for that such sottish Reasonings should prevail with them against the clearest light and nothing should be preferred before all things and arguments fetcht from chaff and dung should conquer those that were fetcht from Heaâ—en O what heart-renting thoughts will these be when Eternity shall afford them leisure for an impartial review Yea that they should deceive others also with such a gross deceit and scorn at all that would not be as mad as they that being drunken with the worlds delusion they should abuse all that were truly sober that the one thing needfull should seem to them a needless thing That their tongues should plead for these delusions of their wicked hearts and they should be enemies to those that would not be enemies to God and to themselves and cast away their Time and Souls as they did They will wonder with self-indignation what could bewitch them into so great unreasonableness below a man against the light of nature as well as of supernatural revelation Honourable and beloved Hearers I beseech you do not take it ill that I speak so much of these matters that are so unpleasant and unwelcome to unbelieving careless carnal hearts It is that I may prevent all this in time by the awakenings of true Repentance And O that this might be the success That I might hear by your penitent Confessions and see by your universal speedy reformation that God hath so great Mercy for you that these perswasions might be the means of so much Happinesse to you and comfort unto me However this Assembly shall be witnesses that you were warned and Conscience shall be witness that if you wast the rest of your dayes in the pleasures and vanities of this deceitful world it was not because you could have no better and were not called to higher things That if you yet stand idle it is not because you could not be hired For in the name of Christ I have called you into his vineyard and told you of your work and wages and ashamed your excuses and objections this day Come away then speedily from the snares of sinners and the Company of deceived hardened men and cast away the works of darknesse Heaven is before you Death is at hand The Eternal God hath sent to call you Mercy doth yet stretch forth its arms You have staid too long and abused Patience too much already Stay no longer O now please God and comfort us and save your selves by Resolving that this shall be the Day and faithfully performing of this your Resolution Vp and be doing Believe Repent Desire Obey and do all this with all your Might Love him that you must Love for ever and Love him with all your Soul and Might seek that which is truly worth the seeking and it will pay for all your cost and pains And seek it first with all your Might Remembring still it must be Now or Never BEfore I conclude I have two messages yet to deliver to the servants of the Lord The One is of Encouragement The Other of Direction I know that many of you have a threefold trouble which requireth a threefold comfort and encouragement One is that you have done so little of your work but lost so much of your time already Another is that you are so opposed and hindred And the greatest of all is that you are yet so dull and slow The cure of which must be the matter of my Directions 1. For the first That you have lost your Time must be the matter of your Humiliation But that all is not lost before you see your sin and duty but yet the patience and mercy of the Lord are attending you and continuing your hope this is the matter of your comfort and encouragement Repent therefore that you came no sooner home But rejoyce that you are come home at last and now be more diligent in redeeming your time in remembrance of the time already lost And though it must be your grief that your Master hath been deprived of so much as his service and others of so much good which you should have done them and that time is lost that cannot be recalled yet it is your comfort that your own Reward may be equal with them that have born the burthen and heat of the day For many that are last in the time of their coming in shall be first in receiving their reward This is the meaning of that Parable in Mat. 20. which was spoken to encourage them that had stood out too long and to rebuke the envie and high expectations of them that came in sooner and it is no whit contradictory to those passages in Matth. 25. which intimate a different degree of glory to be given to them that have different degrees of Grace upon their industrious improvement The one Parable Matth. 20. shews that men shall not be rewarded differently for their longer or shorter continuance in the work but that those that came in late and yet are found with equal holiness shall be rewarded equally with the first And more if their holiness be more which the second Parable expresseth declaring Gods purpose to give them the greatest Glory that have improved their Holiness to the greatest Measure O therefore that the sense of your former unkindness might provoke you the more resolvedly to give up your selves in fervent love and full obedience and then you will find that your Time is Redeemed though it cannot be recalled and that Mercy hath secured your full reward O what an unspeakable Mercy is this that if yet you will devote your selves entirely to Christ and serve him with your might the little time that yet remains he will take it as if you had come in at the first hour of the day 2. And as for the Opposition and hinderances in your way they are no other then what your Lord foretold He hath gone before you and conquered much more then ever you will encounter from without though he had not a body of sin to conquer and in that respect the conquest of his Spirit in his members hath the preheminence of his personal conquest He hath bid you Be of good chear because he hath overcome the World If you will not take up your cross and follow him you
may be converse with lively active stirring Christians but especially have one such for a bosome Friend that will warm you when you are cold and help to awake you when you drop a sleep and will not comply with you in a declining lazie and unprofitable course Eccles 4. 9 10 11. Two are better then one because they have a good reward for their labour For if they fall the one will lift up his fellow but woe to him that is alone when he falleth for he hath not another to help him up Again if two lie together then they have heat but how can one alone be warm And if one prevail against him two shall withstand him and a threefold cord is not easily broken Dir. 5. Put not away from you the day of death Look not for long life It is the life to come that must be the life of all your duties here and distant things do lose their force Set death and judgment and eternall life continually as near at hand live in a watchfull expectation of your change do all as dying men and as passing to receive the recompence of endlesse joy or woe and this will quicken you To this end go often to the house of mourning and be not unseasonably or immoderately in the House of Mirth When you observe what is the end of all men the heart will be made better by it Eccles 7. 2 3 4 5 6. But excess of carnal mirth doth infatuate men and destroy their wisdom seriousness and sobriety Keep always a sense of the brevity of Life and of the preciousness of Time and remember that it is posting on whether you work or play Methinks if you forget any of the rest this one consideration that we have in hand should make you bestir you with your Might that It must be now or Never I shall only add two needful Cautions lest while we cure one disease we cause another as knowing that corrupted-nature is used to run from extream into extream 1. Desire and labour more for an high estimation of things spiritual and eternal and a fixed resolution and an even and diligent endeavour then for passionate feelings and affections For these latter are more unconstant in the best and depend much on the temper of the body are not of so great necessity as the former though excellent in a just degree and season For its possible that passions even about good things may be too much when Estimation Resolution and regular Endeavours cannot 2. Be suspicious when you have the warmest and liveliest Affections lest your judgments should be perverted by following when they should lead It 's very common for Zeal and strong Affections even to that which is good to occasion the mistakes of the understanding and make men look all on one side and think they can never go far enough from some particular sins till ignorantly they are carried into some perhaps as great on the other hand Be warned by the sad experience of these times to suspect your judgements in the fervour of your affections And observing these cautions let nothing abate your Zeal and Diligence but whatever Duty is set before you do it with your Might for it must be Now or Never THough I know that the enmity to a holy heavenly life is so radicated in corrupted nature that all that I have said is necessary and too little yet some I know will think it strange that I should intimate that any that preach the Gospel are guilty of any measure of this sin and will think that I intend by it to reflect upon some parties above the rest But again I profess that it is no party but the Devills party and the ungodly party that I mean and its hard if you will not beleve me concerning my own sense Nor is it my desire that any of the odiousness of Schism Sedition Rebellion or disobedience to Authority should be so much as diminished by any mens profession of godliness No I beseech you by how much the more godly you are by so much the more detest all these godlinesse tendeth to shame condemn these odious sins and not to be a cloak for them or any extenuation Nay what can more aggravate them then that they should be found in the professors of godliness I again profess that I have no design but to plead for serious diligence in the Religion which we are all agreed in and to stop the mouth of those that wickedly speak against it But alas it is too evident that I have too many to speak to that are not innocent why else doth Scripture tell us that such there will be still to the end of the world and that there is some that preach Christ of strife and envy to add affliction to the bonds of the afflicted And how came holy Mr. Bolton to find so much work for these rebukes so lately in his time as in his books you find And can we already forget what abundance of Antinomian Teachers were among us that turned out the very doctrine of practical diligence and crying it down as a setting up our selves and our own works and as injurious to free grace and under pretence of exalting Christ did set up an heartless lifeless doctrine that tended to turn out the life of a Christianity and take men off their necessary dili as a legal dangerous thing And what Ordinance of God hath not been cast out by Preachers themselves upon Religious pretences Family-Duties Catechising Singing of Psalms Baptism the Lords Supper and which not And if all these were down wherein should the practice of Religion consist And what abundance of Pamphlets had we that laboured to make the Orthodox faithfull Ministry a very scorn and deride them for their faithful service of God and their faithfulness to their Superiors inopposition to their unrighteous ways I am loath to blot my papers and trouble your ears with the names of the Martin-mar-priests and a multitude of such others which I mean And let no Papist or any enemy of our Church reproach us because such enemies to Holiness are found among us Can it be expected that our Church should be better than the Family of Adam that had a Cain or of Noah that had a Cham or of Christ that had a Judas And are there not far more enemies to serious godliness among the Papists themselves then among us One instance out of the Life of Philip Nerius the Father of the Oratorians I will put into the Preface because it is too long to be here inserted There is no place nor rank of men in the world where some of the enemies of an holy life are not to be found even among those that profess the same Religion in Doctrinals with those whom they oppose Christ and the Devil have their several Armies and if once the Devil disband his Souldiers and have none to oppose a holy life then tell me that its a needless thing to defend it