Babes desire the sincere Milk of the Word that your Souls may grow thereby You must hear it with great reverence and attention and with humble and tractable minds you must study to have it ingrafted in your Hearts that it may abide there as a Scion in a stock and may grow and bear fruit unto everlasting life You must reflect on what you hear when you leave the Church you must not lay aside all further thinking on what has been read or preached to you you are to talk a little with your own hearts about those things and to call to mind any thing you heard which tends to make you wiser and better Endeavour to have it deeply imprinted on your Souls that it may prove unto you the Power of God unto Salvation the savour of life unto life If you find that you have been too often guilty of singing the Praises of God with your mouths only without any melody in your Hearts without any real sense of the greatness and power of the kindness and love of the patience and long-suffering of the truth and faithfulness of him whom you praise and celebrate Endeavour to be more devout and serious in that part of Worship sing unto God not only with your Voice but with your Heart which is the chief thing that God looks to Study to raise your Souls to him as well as to lift up your Voices when you sing his praises Stir up all within you to bless his holy Name who forgiveth all your Iniquities and healeth all your diseases who crowneth you with loving kindness and tender mercies who prevents you every Morning and follows you all the day long with many signal instances of his Fatherly care and love giving you richly all things to enjoy for life and godliness If you find that you joyn in the Publick Prayers without any due Sense of God upon your Souls and without any real impression of those things to which you say Amen if you find that you repeat some words as do others but in the mean time your minds are busie in pursuing shadows in thinking of your Trades your Sports and Pastimes c. be ashamed that you do thus lose your precious time that you are guilty of such trifling in the most serious and sacred action Endeavour to be more affected with a right sense about what you do that you may offer up unto God the Sacrifices of broken and contrite Hearts that you may pour out your Hearts before him and may worship him with all your Soul and Mind Bid farewel to your Worldly Cares and to your Pleasures and Vanities when you come into his presence to pay your homage to him Serve him with your best affections with the strength and vigour of your desires and with all your power and might If you do this you may then expect with great assurance and confidence that God will give ear unto you and satisfie your longing Souls with good things he will make you taste and see how good he is But if you pray without being in good earnest your Sacrifices will be an abomination to him he will not regard your Prayers nor take any notice of you He will answer you according to the multitude of your Idols If you find that you lose time by your communicating in a careless and formal manner without considering the end and design of that holy Institution and without endeavouring to prepare your selves as you ought to do that you may eat and drink worthily at the Table of the Lord study to redeem this loss by partaking of this Sacrament for the time to come in a more devout and religious manner Be careful to approach with greater love and gratitude unto the Table of your Lord who not only allows you to come but kindly and lovingly invites and encourages you to do so Come with your Souls burning with love to him who dyed for you and who appointed you this Sacrament that therein you might remember his wonderful love and his astonishing compassion and mercy which he hath testified in laying down his life for sinners that he might purchase to them everlasting Life and Glory even to as many as repent and believe the Gospel Come with your Hearts deeply wounded and pierced with sorrow for your sins and follies which were the cause of so shameful so painful and so cursed a death to your dearest Lord and Saviour Come with your Souls full of sincere and hearty purposes and resolutions of being new Creatures not to live any more unto your selves or unto the World but to him who dyed for you Come with your Souls likewise enlarged with thoughts of kindness and unfeigned Charity to all Men with your minds delivered from all bitterness and wrath from all malice and envy that you may eat and drink at this Feast of Love with sutable dispositions of universal Love and Charity Come with a great desire to obtain strength from the God of your Salvation that you may be able to fight the good fight of Faith and may at last lay hold on Eternal Life In this manner you ought to endeavour to redeem the time by doubling your care and diligence in all those Duties of Religion in the performance whereof you have been formerly faulty and defective Thus you are to do likewise in every other Action which you perform to the glory of God When you find that you have been too formal and careless in what you have done and said for God for Example in admonishing others in instructing them in reproving them in comforting them c. endeavour to redeem time by doing those things with greater sincerity and zeal with a more pure regard to the Glory of God with a greater desire to approve your selves unto him who gives you the opportunity of doing somewhat for his Honour and with greater Charity to the Souls of Men. Depend on God for a Blessing in all your endeavours beg of him that he would direct and assist you to do that which is good and well pleasing unto him and that he would so dispose the hearts of those whom you admonish instruct reprove or comfort that what you speak to them may not be lost but may have the desired effect for the glory of God and their happiness and welfare From what hath been said you may see how you ought to redeem your time The next thing which I proposed to speak to was to suggest to you some Considerations to excite you to do so Some Motives to excite you to do these things 1. Motive from the shortness of your Time First Consider how short your time is Your life is compared to a Vapour which appears for a little time and then vanisheth away Jam. 4.14 It makes a little shew and appearance for a while and then it is gone It is compared to a Post to the Swift Ships and to the Eagle that hasteth to the Prey Job 9.25,26 And to the Wind and to a Weaver's
he took to Wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite which were a grief of mind to Isaac and to Rebekah As to such undutiful Children who do thus bestow themselves against their Parents will and consent it is very remarkable that they seldom live happily and comfortably they bring upon themselves very often a great deal of sorrow and trouble lasting Misery and Woe They live to eat the fruit of their foolish doings and wish when it is to little purpose that they had never done so mad and wicked a thing 6. Duty to submit to their Parents Reproofs and Chastenings 6thly They are meekly and patiently to submit to their Reproofs to their Chastenings and Corrections It is a Power that God hath given Parents over their Children to correct and chasten them for their Faults This is necessary for Childrens good and therefore when Parents do correct them they ought not to be angry with them or grumble at their severity which they use for reforming of them much less are they to resist and rebel against them Heb. 12.9 We have had Fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them Reverence Yea tho' Parents sometimes exceed the bounds of Prudence and Discretion in chastising their Children tho' they indulge a little to their own Passion yet Children are bound patiently to bear and suffer their Corrections They are not to fly out into indecent and irreverent words and actions but with all the submission and respect that 's possible ought to endeavour to mitigate the wrath and passion of their angry Parents and afterwards they are to study all that ever they can to prevent their anger and displeasure by a most humble reverend and dutiful carriage Against Rebellious Children How much may this serve to reprove those who are so far from taking in good part their Parents correcting and chastening of them that they refuse to submit thereto They resist them and rebel against them Can there be any thing more unnatural and monstrous than to see those who owe their being to their Parents who have been brought up by them who have met with so many testimonies of a tender care and of great kindness to rise up against them To fly into the faces of those who are the Authors of their being to lift up their hand against them This is a Sin of so crying a Nature that he who was guilty thereof was to be put to Death by the Law of Moses Exod. 21.15 He that smiteth his Father or his Mother shall be surely put to Death So sensible were some amongst the very Heathens of the greatness of this Sin that to shew their abhorrence of it they were wont to punish those who were Guilty of it in the following manner They sewed them in a Sack with a Dog Cat Viper and Ape and so drown'd them all together Hereby they singnified that such Persons were not any longer to be accounted Men or the Children of Men but were to be reckoned with the vilest and basest of Beasts and Vermine and in that Quality were to be cast out of the sight of all living How greatly does it aggravate this Sin when Children have met with no severe nor unmerciful dealing from their Parents But have been treated by them with all that gentleness and kindness that was possible And yet for such Children to rise up against their Parents is a Crime of so black a Nature that it is no wonder if the hand of God appear against them for it in a very signal manner as it did in the case of Absalom for whom his Father David had so great a fondness This unthankful and unnatural Son rose up against him and endeavoured by force and violence to pull him from the Throne and to usurp the Royal Dignity See how the hand of God appeared against him 2 Sam. 18.9 And Absalom met the Servants of David and Absalom rode upon a Mule and the Mule went under the thick Boughs of a great Oak and his Head caught hold of the Oak and he was taken up between the Heaven and the Earth and the Mule that was under him went away And ver 14. it is said that Joab took three darts in his hand and thrust them through the heart of Absalom while he was yet alive in the midst of the Oak And ver 15. Ten young Men that bare Joab's Armour compassed about and smote Absalom and slew him And ver 17. They took Absalom and cast him into a great Pit in the Wood and laid a very great heap of Stones upon him This was done as a lasting Monument of Absalom's sin and shame and of God's righteous Judgment upon him 7. Duty to love their Parents and how they are to express their Love 7thly Children ought to love their Parents and to express it by all those Offices which are in their Power to do for them by serving them readily by studying ways how to make them well pleased by sympathizing with them in all their troubles by assisting them and doing all they can to make their Lives joyful and comfortable by shunning every thing that may grieve them or make them uneasie They ought to refuse no labour nor pains to do them service especially when they are sick and weak oppressed with the Burden of Old Age or poor and indigent under any sort of necessity whatsoever then ought Children to be very ready to help them to comfort and to encourage them to do what in them lies to make their lives easie to them and to lighten their Burdens This is called 1 Tim. 1.4 A shewing Piety at home It is an act of Religion and Worship which God is well pleased with We see how Joseph nourished his Father and his Brethren and all his Fathers Household with Bread Gen. 47.12 How worthy of Praise was that Excellent Moabitess Ruth who not only gleaned for her poor Mother-in-Law Naomi but did also when Food was given her by Boaz for her own Refreshment reserve part of it and give it to her Mother See Ruth 2.18 It was an old Roman Law * Senec. Controv l. 1. Cont. 1.7 and 19. Let Children relieve their Parents or be put in Prison Which sheweth what was the Sense of that wise People concerning this Important Duty of Children towards their Parents they lookt upon them as unworthy of Liberty to converse amongst Men and to enjoy the common Priviledges of Society who were so far void of Humanity as not to relieve and assist their poor Parents 'T was likewise an Athenian Law * Diog. Laert. in Solone That if any did not relieve their Parents they should be esteem'd base and ignoble How many Examples have there been amongst the Heathens of Eminent Piety towards Parents Such was that Act of her Valer. Max. l. 5. Cap. 4. who when her Old Father was condemned to be put to Death in Prison visited him often and gave him suck
shuttle Job 7.6,7 All which Comparisons serve to express how short and swift our time is how suddenly it flies away and is gone Man that is born of a Woman saith Job Chap. 14.1 is of few days And Jacob when he was a great deal older than Men live to be now even 130 years old told Pharaoh saying Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been What are 40 or 60 or 80 years when a Man lives so long and looks back upon them all They appear to him but like a Shadow or as a Dream or like a Tale that is told Ought not this to move you to be good Husbands of your short time If it were in your own power to dispose of it according to your own humour and fancy you might then be pardoned to delay your great Work and Business till you thought good But now that it is not in your power to lengthen out your time one Minute what a madness is it for you to put off and neglect your greatest and chiefest Concern Therefore be so wise as to make good use of your present opportunities and occasions of doing good that you may work out your Salvation with fear and trembling and may make your calling and your Election sure Work while the day lasts for the night cometh wherein you cannot work If a Man who is guilty of Treason or Rebellion against his Prince or of any other great Crime which deserves death were allowed a few days to sue out his Pardon that he might secure his Life and Estate would he not improve with great care and diligence that little time To be sure he would not lose one moment of it And tho' perhaps at other times he was wont to give up himself to his pleasures and pastimes and to mind little else but the gratifying his Lusts and Passions and his Vanity and Folly yet now that his Life and Fortune lie at the stake you should see such a man changed in a moment You should see him with great application of mind with the utmost diligence imploying his time running from place to place from one person to another according as his great and important business and concern required How readily would such a Person redeem his time not only from Idleness from Gaming from impertinent Visits and from dressing and adorning of his Body and the like but even from eating and drinking and from his rest and repose in the night The desire of preserving his life would so fill his thoughts as to make him forget almost every thing else What would you think or say if you should see a man in such circumstances wholly unconcerned and careless spending his time in Gaming or Idleness in making impertinent Visits in rioting and drinking and the like and doing nothing at all to obtain his pardon and to secure his life and fortune Doubtless you would look upon such a man as void of common understanding fit only for Bedlam or not worthy to live who knew no better to make use of his short time to preserve his life which Nature teacheth all Men to do by all honest and lawful means It is easie for you to make application of all this to your selves You are by your Sins Enemies to God Rebels against your Lord and King whereby you are in danger of everlasting death and destruction But God in his infinite mercy gives you time to sue out your Pardon which he offers you upon the most just and reasonable conditions only believe and repent and you shall be saved he will have mercy upon you and blot out your iniquities Be therefore so wise as to husband well this short time which God bestows on you for this purpose Redeem it as much as you can from all vain and unnecessary things that you may obtain forgiveness of Sins and the assistance of the Holy Spirit to enable you afterwards to walk in newness of life But if instead of minding this great and important concern of your Souls you give up your selves to sin and folly and indulge your selves in your mad and wicked practices and thereby provoke God yet more and more against you how just will your Judgment and Condemnation be if you will not be saved if you will not turn to the Lord that you may live if you will not believe repent and amend what remains you shall certainly dye and be miserable for ever They that will not be happy shall not be happy The wrath of God shall abide upon them 2. Motive from the uncertainty of your Time Secondly Consider that as your time is very short so it is most uncertain What do you know whether your Sun shall decline leisurely or whether it may not go down suddenly when you think it is not yet come to the Noon-tide of the Day You are not sure to live till you come to a good old Age. How many sicknesses and distempers and how many sudden accidents are there in the way which may shorten your day and cause your Sun to set when you think it shines with its greatest force and lustre Sometimes a Candle is blown out by the Wind or snufft out undesignedly when it is not yet half burnt And so the life of Man is often extinguished by outward accidents when by the course of Nature it might have been prolonged much further How many come forth into the World and give great appearances of making a very considerable figure in it by their Wisdom and Sagacity their good Conduct and Address their Excellent Parts and useful Learning their Courage and Valour their Charming Eloquence and clear and distinct Reasoning or by their shining Piety and burning Zeal But do not you see how suddenly they are gone they are hurried away by death and you neither see them nor hear of them any more There is nothing certain as to your time but its shortness and uncertainty Nothing can secure you against an unexpected blow by death when God sees fit to give charge to the King of Terrors to knock you down Youth and strength cannot do it for how many die when their Breasts are full of milk and their bones are moistened with marrow Too great abundance of Blood and Spirits doth sometimes oppress and stifle the life of Man Wealth and Riches cannot secure you How many great and wealthy men have been suddenly carried away as with a Flood when their Coffers were full of Silver and Gold when they had all that heart could wish Even their Wealth proved the bait which allured idle covetous and desperate Persons to break into their Houses and rob them not only of their Treasure but of their Lives Greatness of Power and earthly Honour and Dignity are not able to do it Crowns and Scepters Castles and Palaces a wise Council and great Armies are not able to protect Princes from the violent and desperate attempts of Men who are prodigal of their lives How many of those who have been most