at last upon this as the greatest felicity of humane life and the only good use that is to be made of a prosperous and plentiful fortune Eccl. 3.12 I know that there is no good in them but for a man to rejoyce and do good in his life And a greater and a wiser than Solomon hath said that it is more blessed to give than to receive Thirdly To employ our selves in doing good is to imitate the highest Excellency and Perfection It is to be like God who is good and doth good and to be like him in that which he esteems his greatest glory and that is his Goodness It is to be like the Son of God who when he took our nature upon him and lived in the World went about doing good It is to be like the blessed Angels whose great employment it is to be ministring spirits for the good of others To be charitable and helpful and beneficial to others is to be a good Angel and a Saviour and a God to men And the Example of our blessed Saviour more especially is the great Pattern which our Religion propounds to us And we have all the reason in the World to be in love with it because that very Goodness which it propounds to our imitation was so beneficial to our selves when we our selves feel and enjoy the happy effects of that good which he did in the World this should mightily endear the Example to us and make us forward to imitate that love and kindness to which we are indebted for so many blessings and upon which all our hopes of happiness do depend And there is this considerable difference between our Saviour's charity to us and ours to others He did all purely for our sakes and for our benefit whereas all the good we do to others is a greater good done to our selves They indeed are beholden to us for the kindness we do them and we to them for the opportunity of doing it Every ignorant person that comes in our way to be instructed by us every sinner whom we reclaim every poor and necessitous man whom we relieve is a happy opportunity of doing good to our selves and of laying up for our selves a good treasure against the time which is to come that we may lay hold on eternal life By this principle the best and the happiest man that ever was governed his life and actions esteeming it a more blessed thing to give than to receive Fourthly This is one of the greatest and most substantial Duties of Religion and next to the love and honour which we pay to God himself the most acceptable service that we can perform to him It is one half of the Law and next to the first and great Commandment and very like unto it like to it in the excellency of its nature and in the necessity of its obligation For this commandment we have from him that he who loveth God love his brother also The first Commandment excels in the dignity of the object but the Second hath the advantage in the reality of its effects For our righteousness extendeth not to God we can do him no real benefit but our charity to men is really useful and beneficial to them For which reason God is contented in many cases that the external Honour and Worship which by his positive commands he requires of us should give way to that natural duty of Love and Mercy which we owe to one another And to shew how great a value he puts upon Charity he hath made it the great testimony of our Love to himself and for want of it rejects all other professions of love to him as false and insincere If any man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a liar For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen Fifthly This is that which will give us the greatest comfort when we come to die It will then be no pleasure to men to reflect upon the great estates they have got and the great places they have been advanced to because they are leaving these things and they will stand them in no stead in the other world Riches profit not in the day of wrath But the conscience of well-doing will refresh our Souls even under the very pangs of death With what contentment does a good man then look upon the good he hath done in his life and with what confidence doth he look over into the other world where he hath provided for himself bags that wax not old a treasure in the heavens that faileth not For though our estates will not follow us into the other world our good works will though we cannot carry our riches along with us yet we may send them before us to make way for our reception into everlasting habitations In short works of Mercy and Charity will comfort us at the hour of death and plead for us at the day of Judgment and procure for us at the hands of a merciful God a glorious recompence at the resurrection of the just Which leads me to the Last consideration I shall offer to you which is the reward of doing good both in this world and the other If we believe God himself he hath made more particular and encouraging promises to this grace and virtue than to any other The advantages of it in This World are many and great It is the way to derive a lasting blessing upon our estate Acts of charity are the best Deeds of Settlement We gain the prayers and blessings of those to whom we extend our charity and it is no small thing to have the blessing of them that are ready to perish to come upon us For God hears the prayers of the destitute and his ear is open to their cry Charity is a great security to us in times of evil and that not only from the special promise and providence of God which are engaged to preserve from want those that relieve the necessities of others but likewise from the nature of the thing which makes way for its own reward in this world He that is charitable to others provides a supply and retreat for himself in the day of distress For he provokes mankind by his example to like tenderness towards him and prudently bespeaks the commiseration of others against it comes to be his turn to stand in need of it Nothing in this World makes a man more and surer friends than charity and bounty and such as will stand by us in the greatest troubles and dangers For a good man says the Apostle one would even dare to die 'T is excellent counsel of the Son of Sirach Lay up thy treasure according to the Commandment of the Most high and it shall bring thee more profit than gold Shut up thy alms in thy store-house and it shall deliver thee from all affliction It shall fight for thee against thine enemies better than a mighty shield and strong spear It hath sometimes happened that the obligation that men have laid upon others by their Charity hath in case of danger and extremity done them more kindness than all the rest of their Estate could do for them and their Alms have literally delivered them from death But what is all this to the endless and unspeakable Happiness of the Next life where the returns of doing good will be vastly great beyond what we can now expect or imagine For God takes all the good we do to others as a debt upon himself and he hath estate and treasure enough to satisfie the greatest obligations we can lay upon him So that we have the Truth and Goodness and Sufficiency of God for our security that what we scatter and sow in this kind will grow up to a plentiful harvest in the other World and that all our pains and expence in doing good for a few days will be recompensed and crowned with the Joys and Glories of Eternity FINIS Bishop Sanderson Juven Vell. Patere Seneca * Tully * Aristides Antonin lib. 10.
tarrying 6. Lastly consider what an unspeakable happiness it is to have our minds settled in that condition that we may without fear and amazement nay with comfort and confidence expect death and judgment Death is never far from any of us and the general Judgment of the world may be nearer than we are aware of for of that day and hour knoweth no man And these are two terrible things and nothing can free us from the terror of them but a good conscience and a good conscience is only to be had either by innocence or by repentance and amendment of life Happy man who by this means is at peace with God and with himself and can think of death and judgment without dread and astonishment For the sting of death is sin and the terror of the great day only concerns those who have lived wickedly and impenitently and would not be perswaded neither by the mercies of God nor by the fear of his judgments to repent and turn to him But if we have truely forsaken our sins and do sincerely endeavour to live in obedience to the Laws and Commands of God the more we think of death and judgment the greater matter of joy and comfort will these things be to us For blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he comes shall find so doing Let us therefore as soon as possibly we can put our selves into this posture and preparation according to that advice of our blessed Saviour Luke 12.35 36 Let your loins be girded about and your lamps burning and ye your selves like unto men that wait for their Lord. And now I hope that enough hath been said to convince men of the great unreasonableness and folly of these delays nay I believe most men are convinced of it by their own thoughts and that their consciences call them fools a thousand times for it But O that I knew what to say that might prevail with men and effectually perswade them to do that which they are so abundantly convinced is so necessary And here I might address my self to the several ages of persons You that are young and have hitherto been in a good measure innocent may prevent the Devil and by an early piety give God the first possession of your souls and by this means never be put to the trouble of so great and solemn a repentance having never been deeply engaged in a wicked life You may do a glorious I had almost said a meritorious thing in cleaving stedfastly to God and resolving to serve him when you are so importunately courted and so hotly assaulted by the Devil and the World However you may not live to be old therefore upon that consideration begin the work presently and make use of the opportunity that is now in your hands You that are grown up to ripeness of years and are in the full vigor of your age you are to be put in mind that the heat and inconsiderateness of youth is now past and gone that reason and consideration are now in their perfection and strength that this is the very age of prudence and discretion of wisdom and wariness So that now is the proper time for you to be serious and wisely to secure your future happiness As for those that are old they methinks should need no body to admonish them that it is now high time for them to begin a new life and that the time past of their lives is too much to have spent in sin and folly There is no trifling where men have a great work to do and but little time to do it in Your Sun is certainly going down and neer its setting therefore you should quicken your pace considering that your journey is never the shorter because you have but little time to perform it in Alas man thou art just ready to dye and hast thou not yet begun to live Are thy passions and lusts yet unsubdued and have they had no other mortification than what age hath given them 'T is strange to see how in the very extremities of old age many men are as if they had still a thousand years to live and make no preparation for death though it dogs them at the heels and is just come up to them and ready to give them the fatal stroke Therefore let us not put off this necessary work of reforming our selves in what part and age of our lives soever we be To day whilst it is called to day least any of you be hardened thorough the decitfulness of sin Nay to day is with the latest to begin this work had we been wise we would have begun it sooner 'T is Gods infinite mercy to us that it is not quite too late that the day of Gods patience is not quite expired and the door shut against us Therefore do not defer your repentance to the next solemn time to the next occasion of receiving the blessed Sacrament Do not say I will then reform and become a new man after that I will take leave of my lusts and sin no more For let us make what haste we can we cannot possibly make too much properat vivere nemo satis No man makes haste enough to be good to cease to do evil and to learn to do well Be as quick as we will life will be too nimble for us and go on faster than our work does and death will go nigh to prevent us and surprize us unawares Do do sinner abuse and neglect thy self yet a little while longer till the time of regarding thy soul and working out thy own salvation be at an end and all the opportunities of minding that great concernment be slipped out of thy hands never to be recovered never to be called back again no not by thy most earnest wishes and desires by thy most fervent prayers and tears and thou be brought into the condition of prophane Esau who for once despising the Blessing lost it for ever and found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears To conclude Art thou convinced that thy eternal happiness depends upon following the advice which hath now been given thee Why then do but behave thy self in this case as thou and all prudent men are wont to do in matters which thou canst not but acknowledg to be of far less concernment If a man be travelling to such a place so soon as he finds himself out of the way he presently stops and makes towards the right way and hath no inclination to go wrong any farther If a man be sick he will be well presently if he can and not put it off to the future Most men will gladly take the first opportunity that presents it self of being rich or great every man almost catches at the very first offers of a great place or a good purchase and secures them presently if he can least the opportunity be gone and another snatch these things from him Do thou thus so much more in matters so much greater Return
take away his life Whatever he said or did though never so innocent never so excellent had some bad interpretation put upon it and the great and shining Vertues of his life were turned into Crimes and matter of accusation For his casting out of Devils he was called a Magician for his endeavour to reclaim men from their vices a friend of Publicans and Sinners for his free and obliging conversation a wine-bibber and a glutton All the benefits which he did to men and the blessings which he so liberally shed among the people were construed to be a design of Ambition and Popularity and done with an intention to move the people to Sedition and to make himself a King Enough to have discouraged the greatest goodness and have put a damp upon the most generous mind and to make it sick and weary of well-doing For what more grievous than to have all the good one does ill interpreted and the best actions in the world made matter of calumny and reproach And then Lastly If we consider how chearfully notwithstanding all this he persevered and continued in well-doing It was not only his business but his delight I delight says he to do thy will O my God The pleasure which others take in the most natural actions of life in eating and drinking when they are hungry he took in doing good it was his meat and drink to do the will of his Father He plyed this work with so much diligence as if he had been afraid he should have wanted time for it I must work the work of him that sent me while it is day the night cometh when no man can work And when he was approaching towards the hardest and most unpleasant part of his Service but of all others the most beneficial to us I mean his Death and Sufferings he was not at ease in his mind till it was done How am I straitned says he till it be accomplished And just before his Suffering with what Joy and Triumph does he reflect upon the good he had done in his life Father I have glorified thee upon earth and have finished the work which thou hast given me to do What a blessed Pattern is here of diligence and industry in doing good how fair and lovely a copy for Christians to write after And now that I have set it before you it will be of excellent use to these two purposes To shew us our Defects and to excite us to our Duty I. To shew us our Defects How does this blessed Example upbraid those who live in a direct contradiction to it who instead of going about doing good are perpetually intent upon doing mischief who are wise and active to do evil but to do good have no inclination no understanding And those likewise who though they are far from being so bad yet wholly neglect this blessed work of doing good They think it very fair to do no evil to hurt and injure no man but if Preachers will be so unreasonable as to require more and will never be satisfied till they have persuaded them out of their estate and to give to the poor till they have almost impoverish'd themselves they desire to be excused from this importunity But we are not so unreasonable neither We desire to put them in mind that to be charitable according to our power is an indispensable duty of Religion that we are commanded not only to abstain from evil but to do good and that our Blessed Saviour hath given us the example of both he did not only do no sin but he went about doing good And upon this nice point it was that the young rich man in the Gospel and his Saviour parted He had kept the Commandments from his youth Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not steal he had been very careful of the negative part of Religion But when it came to parting with his Estate and giving to the poor this he thought too hard a condition and upon this he forsook our Saviour and forfeited the Kingdom of heaven And it is very considerable and ought to be often and seriously thought upon that our Saviour describing to us the Day of Judgment represents the great Judg of the world acquitting and condemning men according to the good which they had done or neglected to do in ways of mercy and charity for feeding the hungry and cloathing the naked and visiting the sick or for neglecting to do these things Than which nothing can more plainly and effectually declare to us the necessity of doing good in order to the obtaining of eternal Happiness There are many indeed who do not altogether neglect the doing of this work who yet do in a great measure prevent and hinder themselves from doing it as they ought under a pretence of being employed about other Duties and parts of Religion They are so taken up with the exercises of Piety and Devotion in private and publick with Prayer and reading and hearing Sermons and preparing themselves for the Sacrament that they have scarce any leisure to mind the doing of good and charitable offices to others or if they have they hope God will pardon his servants in this thing and accept of their Piety and Devotion instead of all But they ought to consider that when these two parts of Religion come in competition Devotion is to give way to Charity Mercy being better than Sacrifice that the great End of all the Duties of Religion Prayer and reading and hearing the Word of God and receiving the holy Sacrament is to dispose and excite us to do good to make us more ready and forward to every good work and that it is the greatest mockery in the world upon pretence of using the means of Religion to neglect the end of it and because we are always preparing our selves to do good to think that we are for ever excused from doing any Others are taken up in contending for the Faith and spend all their zeal and heat about some Controversies in Religion and therefore they think it but reasonable that they should be excused from those meaner kind of Duties because they serve God as they imagine in a higher and more excellent way as those who serve the King in his Wars use to be exempted from Taxes and Offices But do those men consider upon what kind of Duties more especially our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles lay the great weight and stress of Religion that it is to the Meek and Merciful and Peaceable that our Saviour pronounceth Blessedness that pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction that the wisdom which is from above is full of mercy and good works These are the great and weighty things of Religion which whatever else we do ought not to be left undone Do they consider that a right Faith is wholly in order to a good Life and is of no value any farther
us to a vigorous and speedy resolution in this matter let us consider that we have engaged too far already in a bad course and that every day our retreat will grow more dangerous and difficult that by our delays we make work for a sadder and longer repentance than that which we do now so studiously decline Let us consider likewise that our life is concerned in the case that except we repent and turn we shall die and that the evil day may overtake us while we are deliberating whether we should avoid it or not that vice is so far from being mortified by age that by every days continuance in it we encrease the power of it and so much strength as we add to our disease we certainly take from our selves And this is a double weakning of us when we do not only lose our own strength but the enemy gets it and imploys it against us The deceitfulness of sin appears in nothing more than in keeping men off from this necessary work and perswading them to hazard all upon the unreasonable hopes of the mercy of God and the uncertain resolution of a future repentance I do not think there are any here but do either believe or at least are vehemently afraid that there is another life after this and that a wicked life without repentance must unavoidably make them miserable in another world and that to cast off all to a death-bed repentance puts things upon a mighty hazard And they have a great deal of reason to think so For alas how unfit are most men at such a time for so great and serious a work as repentance is when they are unfit for the smallest matters And how hard is it for any man then to be assured of the truth and reality of his repentance when there is no sufficient opportunity to make trial of the sincerity of it I deny not the possibility of the thing but it is much to be feared that the repentance of a dying sinner is usually but like the sorrow of a malefactor when he is ready to be turned off he is not troubled that he hath offended the Law but he is troubled that he must die For when death is ready to seise upon the sinner and he feels himself dropping into destruction no wonder if then the mans stomack come down and he be contented to be saved and seeing he must stay no longer in this world be desirous to go to Heaven rather than Hell and in order to that be ready to give some testimonies of his repentance no wonder if when the rack is before him this extort confession from him and if in hopes of a pardon he make many large promises of amendment and freely declare his resolurion of a new and better life But then it is the hardest thing in the world to judg whether any thing of all this that is done under so great a fear and force be real For a sick man as he hath lost his appetite to the most pleasant meats and drinks so likewise his sinful pleasures and fleshly lusts are at the same time nauseous to him and for the very same reason For sickness having altered the temper of his body he hath not at that time any gust or rellish for these things And now he is resolved against sin just as a man that hath no stomach is resolved against meat But if the fit were over and death would but raise his siege and remove his quarters a little farther from him it is to be feared that his former appetite would soon return to him and that he would sin with the same eagerness he did before Besides how can we expect that God should accept of his repentance at such a time when we are conscious to our selves that we did resolve to put off our repentance till we could sin no longer Can we think it fit for any man to say thus to God in a dying hour Lord now the world leaves me I come to thee I pray thee give me eternal life who could never afford to give thee one good day of my life Grant that I may live with thee and enjoy thee for ever who could never endure to think upon thee I must confess that I could never be perswaded to leave my sins out of love to thee but now I repent of them for fear of thee I am conscious to my self that I would never do any thing for thy sake but yet I hope thy goodness is such that thou wilt forgive all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of my life and accept of this forced submission which I now make to thee I pray thee do not at last frustrate and disappoint me in this design which I have laid of sinning while I live and getting to heaven when I die Surely no man can think it fit to say thus to God and yet I am afraid this is the true interpretation of many a mans repentance who hath defer'd it till he comes to die I do not speak this to discourage repentance even at that time It is always the best thing we can do But I would by all means discourage men from putting off so necessary a work till then 'T is true indeed when 't is come to this and a sinner finds himself going out of the world if he have been so foolish and so cruel to himself as to put things upon this last hazard repentance is now the only thing that is left for him to do this is his last remedy and the only refuge he has to fly to And this is that which the Minister in this case ought by all means to put the man upon and earnestly to perswade him to But when we speak to men in other circumstances that are well and in health we dare not for all the world encourage them to venture their souls upon such an uncertainty For to speak the best of it it is a very dangerous remedy especially when men have designedly contrived to rob God of the service of their best days and to put him off with a few unprofitable sighs and tears at the hour of death I desire to have as large apprehensions of the mercy of God as any man but withall I am very sure that he is the hardest to be imposed upon of any one in the world And no man that hath any worthy apprehensions of the Deity can imagine him to be so easie as to forgive men upon the last word and intimation of their minds and to have such a fondness for offenders as would reflect upon the prudence of any Magistrate and Governour upon earth God grant that I may sincerely endeavour to live a holy and virtuous life and may have the comfort of that when I come to die And that I may never be so unwise as to venture all my hopes of a blessed eternity upon a death-bed repentance I will conclude all with those excellent sayings of the Son of Syrach Eccles 5.6 7.16.11 12.18.21 22 Say not
of any duty faithfully discharged the memory of any good we have done does refresh the soul with a strange kind of pleasure and joy Our rejoycing is this saith St. Paul the testimony of our consciences that in all simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world But on the other side the course of a vicious life all acts of impiety to God of malice and injustice to men of intemperance and excess in reference to our selves do certainly leave a sting behind them And whatever pleasure there may be in the present act of them the memory of them is so tormenting that men are glad to use all the arts of diversion to fence off the thoughts of them One of the greatest troubles in the world to a bad man is to look into himself and to remember how he hath lived I appeal to the consciences of men whether this be not true And is not here now a mighty difference between these two courses of life that when we do any thing that is good if there be any trouble in it it is soon over but the pleasure of it is perpetual when we do a wicked action the pleasure of it is short and transient but the trouble and sting of it remains for ever The reflection upon the good we have done gives a lasting satisfaction to our minds but the remembrance of any evil committed by us leaves a perpetual discontent And which is yet more considerable a religious and virtuous course of life does then yield most peace and comfort when we most stand in need of it in times of affliction and at the hour of death When a man falls into any great calamity there is no comfort in the world like to that of a good conscience This makes all calm and serene within when there is nothing but clouds and darkness about him So David observes of the good man Psal 112.4 Vnto the upright there ariseth light in darkness All the pious and virtuous actions that we do are so many seeds of peace and comfort sown in our consciences which will spring up and flourish most in times of outward trouble and distress Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart And at the hour of death The righteous hath hopes in his death saith Solomon And what a seasonable refreshment is it to the mind of man when the pangs of death are ready to take hold of him and he is just stepping into the other world to be able to look back with satisfaction upon a religious and well-spent life Then if ever the comforts of a good man do overflow and a kind of heaven springs up in his mind and he rejoyceth in the hopes of the glory of God And that is a true and solid comfort indeed which will stand by us in the day of adversity and stick close to us when we have most need of it But with the ungodly it is not so His guilt lies in wait for him especially against such times and is never more fierce and raging than in the day of distress so that according as his troubles without are multiplyed so are his stings within And surely affliction is then grievous indeed when it falls upon a galled and uneasie mind Were it not for this outward afflictions might be tolerable the spirit of a man might bear his infirmities but a wounded spirit who can bear But especially at the hour of death How does the guilt of his wicked life then stare him in the face What storms and tempests are raised in his soul which make it like the troubled sea when it cannot rest When Eternity that fearful and amazing sight presents it self to his mind and he feels himself sinking into the regions of darkness and is every moment in a fearful expectation of meeting with the just reward of his deeds with what regret does he then remember the sins of his life and how full of rage and indignation is he against himself for having neglected to know when he had so many opportunities of knowing them the things that belonged to his peace and which because he hath neglected them are now and likely to be for ever hid from his eyes And if this be the true case of the righteous and wicked man I need not multiply words but may leave it to any mans thoughts in which of these conditions he would be And surely the difference between them is so very plain that there can be no difficulty in the choice But now though this discourse be very true yet for the full clearing of this matter it will be but fair to consider what may be said on the other side And the rather because there are several objections which seem to be countenanced from experience which is enough to overthrow the most plausible speculation As 1. That wicked men seem to have a great deal of pleasure and contentment in their vices 2. That Religion imposeth many harsh and grievous things which seem to be inconsistent with that pleasure and satisfaction I have spoken of 3. That those who are religious are many times very disconsolate and full of trouble To the first I deny not that wicked men have some pleasure in their vices but when all things are rightly computed and just abatements made it will amount to very little For it is the lowest and meanest kind of pleasure it is chiefly the pleasure of our bodies and our senses of our worst part the pleasure of the beast and not of the man that which least becomes us and which we were least of all made for Those sensual pleasures which are lawful are much inferiour to the least satisfaction of the mind and when they are unlawful they are always inconsistent with it And what is a man profited if to gain a little sensual pleasure he lose the peace of his soul Can we find in our hearts to call that pleasure which robs us of a far greater and higher satisfaction than it brings The delights of sense are so far from being the chief pleasure for which God designed us that on the contrary he intended we should take our chief pleasure in the restraining and moderating of our sensual appetites and desires and in keeping them within the bounds of Reason and Religion And then It is not a lasting pleasure Those fits of mirth which wicked men have how soon are they over Like a sudden blaze which after a little flash and noise is presently gone It is the comparison of a very great and experienced man in these matters Like the crackling of thorns under a pot saith Solomon so is the laughter of the fool that is the mirth of the wicked man it may be loud but it lasts not But which is most considerable of all the pleasures of sin bear no proportion to that long and black train of miseries and inconveniences which they draw after them Many times poverty and reproach pains and diseases upon our