in your ears as thorns darts and swords in your flesh as poyson in your bowels as fire in your bones to compel and force you speedily tocurb and check the reins of your hellish lusts that you so might five from wrath to come Did you but view that dark and cold grave and hot hell that is so neer you would rather starve or dye then run to that excess of riot you could not sleep and snort dance and sport upon the pits brink under such a consideration But forget all this banish the thoughts of God death and hell and you will run and rush into sin as the horse into battel Luk. 12. 45 crying peace peace till danger death and destruction cometh 1 Thes 5. 3. This was that mighty sin that ripened Jerusalem for ruine and brought her down wonderfully her filthiness is in her skirts she remembreth not her last end The Lord complaineth by the Prophet Isaiab of the same thing Israil doth not know my people doth not consider but what follows ah sinful Nation a people laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers they have forsaken the Lord they have provoked the holy one of Israel compare Lam. 1. 9. Isa 1. 3. 4 But he that doth that which is lawful and right shall save his soul alive who is that he that considereth and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed he shall save his soul whosoever doth perish that man shall never perish Ezek. 18. 14. 28. Reas 4. The consideration of your latter and will be a powerful incentive to make you exert and put forth the greatest industry in a way of duty yea it will certainly have an influence upon all our duties and upon all our graces for considering and doing are frequently joyn'd together Psal 41. 1. Prov. 31. 16. she considereth a field and buyeth it I thought on my wayes or considered my wayes and turned my feet unto thy testimonies Psal 119. 59. Lam. 3. 40. Heb. 10 This if any thing will make you serious diligent and constant in any duty and to work while it is day before the night cometh wherein no man can work The Apostle exhorts to consider one another to provoke to love and good works and so much the more as ye see the day approaching Heb. 10. 24 25. The remembrance of the day of our death and of our passing into eternity with a deep impression of it upon the heart will be as a voice of thunder speaking to the secure sensless sinner awake awake thou that sleepest open thine eys stand upon thy feet and behold and see what a sea of blood and wrath is here See and beleive beleive and consider consider and fear fear and fly and make hast in thy work Thy work is great and weighty diversions are many adversaries are strong thy strength is small thy time is short thy account is great death and judgement are at the door therefore up and be doing now or never You slow and slothful souls Let your apparent and inevitable danger suddenly provoke and spur you unto your duty to seek the Lord in a time accepted before the door of life beshut God with-drawn and mercy quite gone The prophanest Sea-man will sigh mourn pray promise vow if death and danger looks him in the face when the ship was like to be broken and death threatned immediately to surprize them the Marriners were sore afraid and cryed every one to his God And this the very light of nature dictated to the ship-master though a Heathen that then it was no season to sleep what meanest thou O sleeper arise and call upon thy God if so be that God will think upon us that we perish not Joneh 1. 6. and the most notorious thieves and murderers will pray in prison or when they come to the Gallows the place of execution When the most righteous Judge sent his destroying Angels to the City of London and other places in the year 65. for the dreadful fear of which many thousands did flye and many thousands did fall viz. the carkases of men like dung upon the ground and as handfuls after the Harvest man When death did knock at a thousand doors in one night Owhat confessing of sin fastings crying and importunate knocking was there at the throne of grace and it may be by many persons families that prayed but little before or since that God would pity pardon and remove that amazing sweeping judgement which is now almost forgotten Upon an unwakening apprehension of Ninevehs fatal ruine the King and his Nobles decreed and proclaimed a Fast and injoyned every one to cry mightily to God Jonah 3. 7. Sinners were you but truly sensible of your peril you would pray to purpose viz. more ardently more in wardly more deeply more affectionately then ever you have done It was a supposed danger and that of death that caused Jacob to weep and make supplication for Esau hated Jacob and said in his heart the dayes of mourning for my Father are at hand then will I stay my brother Jacob Gen. 27. 42. and Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed Gen. 31. 7. Which made him so importunate with God for deliverance and he prevailed Gen. 31. 11. Hos 12. 4. Poor sinners your case is dangerous I will not say desperate but you are ignorant of it you do not know that you are poor miserable blind and naked were you but sensible that you are liable to the wrath of God the stroke and sting of death every moment it would constrain you to cry mightily to God for pardon Holy Job when he considered of Death and Judgement set prayer to work and said Why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquity for now shall I sleep in the dust O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave that thou wouldest keep me secret until thy wrath be past that thou wouldest appoint me a set time and remember me Job 7 21. 14. 13. This also made those two gracious Kings Hezekiah and David to weep and pray in the bitterness of their souls In those dayes was Hezekiah sick unto death and Isaiah the Prophet came unto him and said thus saith the Lord set thine house in order for thou shalt dye and not live then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and wept sore and prayed to the Lord Isa 28. 1 2 3. David when the sorrows of death compassed him and paines of hell got hold of him then said he I called upon the Lord O Lord I beseech thee deliver my soul Psal 116. 3 4. Jonah that could sleep in the ship prayed in the Whales belly Out of the belly of hell I cryed and thou heardest my voice Jonah 2. 2. The Apostle Peter and Christ himself presseth prayer from the consideration of the end of the world The end of all things is at hand be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer 1 Pet. 4. 7. and pray saith Christ that you may escape
TIME AND THE End of Time OR Two Discourses The first about Redemption of Time the second about Consideration of our latter end By John Fox Psal 90. 12. So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom â—am 1. 9. Her filthiness is in her skirts she â—â—membreth not her last end therefore she 〈◊〉 down wonderfully â—…pudet te reliquias vitae tibi reservare id solum tempus bonae menti destinare 〈◊〉 in nullam rem conferri possit Quam serum est tunc vivere incipere cum desinendum est Sen. de brev vit London Printed for George Calvert and Sam. Sprint at the Sign of the Ball in Duck-lane 1670. Ephes 5. 16. Redeeming the time because the days are evil IN the beginning of this Chapter the Apostle exhorts Christians to holiness in general by setting before them a perfect pattern Be ye followers of God as dear Children and walk in love The favourites of Heaven must imitate their Father and like Gideons brethren resemble the Children of a King The precept is Be ye holy be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect Then he goes on to press this great duty more particularly upon all their several relations which he urgeth by many Arguments And in the Text he seemeth to point out the opportunity to put those and other Christian duties into practise See that you walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise redeeming the time Explication of the Words Time is taken under a double notion there is the space of time and there is the opportunity of time Tempus longum and tempus commodum time and opportunity differ time is the duration or succession of so many minutes hours days or years one after the other from the beginning of a mans life to the end thereof Job 7. 1. 14 14. Is there not an appointed time for man upon Earth Opportunity is the time apted and fitted in order to this or that work or business viz. a meeting of time and means together to effect the end This is called the season or tempestivity of time when time tide and wind meet and clasp together Eccle. 3. 1. To every thing there is a season or opportunity of doing time may be continued when the season of time is ended the sails of time may be a lost when the gale of opportunity is lost Every time is not a spring-time a seed-time a gaining time Manna was not to be had but in the morning The beauty of time is the opportunity of time Eccles 3. 11. He hath made every thing beautiful in his time this part of time we are to redeem Redeeming denotes the excellent worth and preciousness of time a commodity to be valued above the Gold of Ophir Solomon bids us buy the truth Prov. 23. 23. Our dear Lord counselled a miserable Church to buy Gold and white rayment Rev. 3. 18. And Paul exhorts us to buy the time a Jewel of that price which must be redeemed at any rate Base or vile things are not wont to be redeemed but things of worth namely mens Liberties Estates Lives c. So our precious time Redeeming the time because the days are evil The words contain two general parts 1. An Exhortation to a duty Redeemeth time 2. The reason of it because the days are evil From the words we may observe this Doctrine which shall be the subject of my ensuing discourse Doct. The best of Saints or the redeemed of God have need to redeem the time This Epistle was written to a very famous flourishing Church in the purest times of the Gospel amongst whom they were called Saints and faithful in Christ Jesus Chap. 1. 1. and chosen of God in Christ before the foundation of the world Vers 4. and really converted and brought into a state of life Moreover they had learned the duty of Mortification one of the hardest lessons in Christianity Chap. 4. 22. And were also sealed unto the day of Redemption Chap. 1. 13. 4 30. and had the earnest of their Heavenly Inheritance And yet they whose attainments were so high must redeem the time The same thing is prest in different terms Eccles 9. 10 It 's called a working while it is day Jo. 9. 4 In the handling of this position I shall shew you 1. First When time may be said to be redeemed 2. What time must be redeemed 3. How time must be redeemed 4. Why time must be redeemed 5. Motives and Directions to help you First When is time redeemed Answ When time and duty like those two twins Jacob and Esau take hold one of another or as two loving yoak-fellows go hand in hand when duty attends time as the shadow the body or as the Maiden her Mistress This is to fill up time with duty and to take opportunity by the fore-lock or in Scripture phrase to do the work of the day in the day And to this end opportunities or seasons are to be desired as they offer an occasion of service and of doing our duty This we may see in holy David Psal 122. 1. I was glad when they said unto me come let us go up to the house of the Lord. When there was a way open to Worship God in the beauty of Holiness David rejoyced to see the true Worshippers improve their opportunity to go to that City the name of which was Jehovah Shammah the Lord is there Eze. 48. 38. And the Prophet Zechariah brings in the Saints of God rejoycing in the same things Zech. 8. 20 21 22. Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem I will go also The Saints of old were wont to rejoyce when the Sabbath came because of the holy and heavenly duties of that day Opportunities and duty are always to be joyned Gal. 6. 10. This is to live according to the wil of God 1 Pet. 4. 2. and to walk cirspectly redeeming the time Eph. 5. 15 17. 2. When we are truly careful to make up former negligence with double diligence redeeming the time we recover our loss Time according to this phrase seemeth to be taken captive and we must redeem it Redemptions are made by purchase to redeem a thing is to buy it for a price the price we redeemed it with is labour travel faithful and serious diligence and greater activity and vigour in the prosecution of our duty When what of time or seriousness hath been wanting in one day or duty is made up and supplied in the next this is the way to repair our sad soul-damages For the time past of our lives may suffice us to have wrought the will of the will of the Gentils 1 Pet. 4. 3. Christians our sins have been many and mighty but our services few and mean therefore put the best leg before Be not as the sluggard like the door upon the hinges but as the Sun in the heavens that rejoyceth to run his race The hand
God gasping and panting after the Lord Jesus Christ Psal 42. 1 2. O labour for such a frame of heart and bewail a narrow and contracted spirit Do not perform duties for duties sake so as to make duties the end of duties but as the medium by which thy soul may draw nigh to God and meet with him The countenance and presence of God in a duty is the very Suburbs of glory yea the very gate of Heaven Gen. 2â— 17. Let this be in thy thoughts and the very purpose of thy heart and expect it vehemently in every access to God Let thy soul follow hard after God and say One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life Psal 27. 4. Psal 84. 2. Duties are only the outward Court but the form shell and carkass of Religion as Pipes without Water Breasts without Milk as Sails without Wind or as a Body without a Soul that hath no life The encrease of your grace and holiness depends upon your acquaintance and communion with the God of grace It was Mose his being in the Mount that made his face to shine and the Kings being at his Table that caused the Churches Spikenard to send forth the swell thereof Cant. 1. 12. The presence of the glorious God on a Sabbath the presence of God in prayer or at a Sacrament will be unto thy soul as marrow and fatness and that which will make thy hands to drop with Myrrh and thy fingers with sweet-smelling Myrrh Thus it was with the Spouse when her Beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door Cant. 5. 4 5. 6 By improving every Providence every Comfort every Cross for Gods glory and our own spiritual advantage God doth nothing in vain for he hath a peculiar respect unto the good of his people in all his dispensations he doth time measure and order every dark and afflicting providence for his Churches advantage Jer. 24. 5. Rom. 8. 24. Heb. 12. 10 11. God's chastning and teaching commonly go together therefore it is we must hear the Rod and who hath appointed it Mic. 6. 9. The Rod hath a Voice Beasts may feel the rod but the believer hearts the rod. God's rod should make us like Aaron's rod bud blossom and to bring forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness Heb. 12. 11. Now if you would be bettered by affliction endeavour to do three things 1. To understand the meaning or mind of God in them for what sins committed or duties neglected they are sent Afflictions are Gods Messengers and we should never be quiet till we know their Errands Job 10. 2. 2. See the hand of God in all those afflictions So did David Psal 39. 10. and holy Job 1. 11. Hos 6. 1. 3. Labour to answer the end of God in your straits and troubles that you might be made more humble more holy more heavenly before that we may say and find that it hath beed good for us to be afflicted We have as much reason to seek unto God for a blessing upon our daily Rod as upon our daily Bread 7. Time must be redeemed by casting up your accounts every day and so to make even with God and not get further into his debt This will be the way to get an acquittance to procure a pardon before you are called and forced to an account Secret duties if well done are the sweetest duties and yet sadly neglected by Saints themselves You should retire every night and spend a little time in self-examination and when you sit alone commune with your hearts and call over the passages and actions of the day past We read Gen. 24. 63. That Isaac went out in the evening tide to meditate a precious duty but rarely practised Christians should spend void spaces of time in ejaculatory Prayer and holy Meditation And O how hard it is to ascend this Mount of heavenly Meditation 'T is very easie and delightsom to think of the World the pleasures of Sin Friends Riches Worldly business but to Meditate on God Heaven Eternity the insufficiency and vanity of the creature the bitterness of sin the certainty of death and judgement the very inwards of Religion is very difficult Before you lye down upon your beds at night call your selves to an account by such questions as these 1. I have lived many years in the world What have I been doing all my days have I answered the end of my being 2. Have I had a holy awe of God in the midst of my Worldly business this day What thoughts of death and Judgement have I had Where hath my heart been 3. How have I performed duties this day What hath been the sins of this day the mercies of this day that I may beg the pardon of the one and bless God for the other 4. What assistance and communion with God have I had this day in the duties of his worship have not God and my soul been strangers this day and many days together 5. What have I done or spoken for God and his Glory this day in my Family or else-where have I demean'd my self like a child of God this day this is to make Religion our business or to walk in the fear of the Lord all the day 8. Improve your time by endeavouring to order every days work with reference to your last day The end of every duty and the great reason of redeeming time lies here namely that we may be fit to dye and stand before God Therefore must we glorifie the infinitely holy God and make him our friend Hence it is that we must secure our souls and speedily get into Jesus Christ and grow in grace do good to others call our selves to an account and clear our title unto heaven that all our work may be done up while it is day and none left to do let death call when it will The reasons why our precious time must be redeemed are 1. Because the days are evil 2. Because 't is a considerable part of our Christian wisdom Reas 1. Because the days are evil This is the Apostles own argument to enforce the duty Precious time and evil days run parallel therefore no part of a little time must be lost I shall instance in a few particulars to make it appear 1. The Tares of false Doctrine or Diabolical Blasphemous Damnable Opinions do abound How do the Devils Agents endeavour to raise and undermine the very foundations and principles of the Christian faith Those old and damnable heresies that have been condemned and expunged out of the Church of God are greedily embraced and swallowed down by more then a few 2 Tim. 3. 1. and 4. 3. 2 Pet. 1. 12. Ye therefore Beloved seeing ye knew these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness 2 Pet. 3. 17. 2 Tim. 1. 13. 2. Mens flagitious
you will be eternally undone Whilst it is called to day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts Do not spend so freely of this swift and precious stream of Time every drop of which hath an influence upon Eternity Knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep The night is far spent the day is at hand cast off therefore the work of darkness and put on the Armour of light Let us walk honestly as in the Day not in Rioting and Drunkenness not in Chambering and Wantonness not in Strife and Envying but put you on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the Flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Rom. 13. 12 13 14. 6. If Time and every part and moment of it must be improved this serves to confute those that reproach serious diligence in Duty as a needless thing If the business of our immortal soul did not require great care and diligence why doth Paul here enjoyn us to walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise Christians 't is your wisdom to know your work and the time to do it There 's no trifling about eternity now is the day for the things of your peace let it not be hid from your eyes It will be very sad when you are passing into the other World to see that you have all your life time been sowing the wind Use 2. Examination Try whether you are redeemers of time or not Reflect upon what I have said and thy Conscience will tell thee thou hast spent more of thy time in sin and vanity How fruitful are thy duties Are thy hours for God Do Time and Duty go hand in hand Maist thou not cry out many a time Diem perdidi daily I lose a day Examine your selves don't silence stop the mouth of Conscience if so it will cry aloud another day Let me ask you these few questions 1. Have you seriously bewail'd the loss of time and begg'd the pardon of it 2. Have your souls sincerely closed with Jesus Christ and freely and fully given up and resigned your selves to him to be his for ever 3. Do the great concerns of Gods glory and your salvation bear down all before them Canst thou say though I follow my Calling and take care for my Family yet I am most solicious about my everlasting condition whether they be pleasures or profits I can say Pleasures of sin be gone world stand by There is a God to serve and honour I have a soul must be sanctified and saved I have a short time to redeem I have a debt to pay an account to give a Sentence to receive an Eternity to live This is not to be slighted I must and will save my soul Hell iI most intollerable and eternal 4. Will you now promise and stand to it that for the future you will trade more for eternity and get better evidences for Heaven Go about the work of Faith and repentance speedily lest death should call and you not ready Use 3. Of Lamentation That Professors should bo so far from redeeming of time or of doubling their diligence that they neglect their duty I may cry out with the Prophet call for the mourning women for who is not guilty in this kind Amos 5. 16. Sirs for this should our souls mourn in secret places the serious consideration of which is enough to fetch blood from our hearts and flood of tears from our eyes How little care is taken in spending that well which when it is gone we have no hope it can be restored to us again Do not you complain of the want of time seeing you waste time There are many poor frivolous excuses the Servant will say that he hath a hard cruel Master the wife complains of her wicked Husband the Child of his Ungodly Father another of the poverty of his Family he can spare no time Whoever pretends the want of time let me tell thee Thou hast a carnal dead sinful slothful heart the cause of all Hast thou not time for every other thing namely a time for eating drinking sleeping potting piping playing and none for Heaven Can you rise early go to bed late and eat the bread of carefulness to get the meat that perisheth and find no time for God and your Souls will this excuse thee another day thou careless ignorant deluded soul Your Corn Cattel your Sheep your Swine your Hawks your Horses and Dogs are cared for but for the better part there 's no care at all Wilt thou tell the great and terrible Judge at the last day I would have been saved but I had no time There are many that eat their bread by the sweat of their brows that take time for their souls who will be brought in as witnesses against you at the last day Will you squander away your time and the days evil and opportunities for your souls hardly come at O consider it 's high time to awake out of sleep Exhortation to redeem Time Use 4. You have heard what it is to redeem time and how time must be redeemed Now let all resolve without delay to put this so necessary a Duty into practise Let young ones resolve upon it and the middle-aged with the hoary-heads Tender unto thy God the cream and flower of thy age and time and think it not too soon In things of far less moment you are for hast and speed If you were starving for want of bread you would think every hour long till you had a supply If your bodies were tortured and tormented with pain and sickness would you think that ease and health might come too soon If a man were in the Sea near sinking can a Boat come to soon Or can a condemned Malefactor receive his pardon too soon hast thou lived without God and Satan's Slave and in danger of dropping into Hell fifteen or twenty years and canst thou get into Christ to secure thy immortal soul too soon Hast thou not been the Devils too long already Suppose thou hadst dyed in thy Christless state where had thy soul been Is is not better to be the Lord's servant then Satan's Slave Ask the Godly man that hath made tryal and he will tell thee The sooner thou art in a state of Grace the fitter thou wilt be for glory Make speed in thy work do thy spiritual business thy wages is sure and thou shalt be blessed Consider there was never any one repented living or dying that they were the Lords and converted betimes And for you that have past the time of youth in the satisfying youthful lusts and liv'd it may be thirty forty or fifty years in a course of sin and vanity is it not more then time for you to bethink your selves In so many years you have made sad work who can tell how often you have offended that have been profane Swearers Drunkards Lyars Sabbath-breakers so long if you were certain of living so many years to come yet the Devil the
World and your Hellish lusts have had half your time O let the time past suffice Know your times are in Gods hands Psal 31. 15. So that you are not certain of a day to come therefore begin and make speed in you work And for the gray-headed against whom death hath raised his batteries you can have but a few sands in your glass your departing hour cannot be far your Candle is within the socket and it may be is come to a stinking snuff Do you not see the Keepers of the old rotten house begin to tremble and the strong men bow themselves Expect the next blast the house to fall If you that are leaning on your staves and looking through your spectacles being ready to enter upon Eternity don't mind your work immediately Wo wo be unto you for ever If God should work a spiritual Miracle in converting and pardoning an old grey-headed Sinner that hath been idle till the leventh hour Mat. 20. 6. would it not be matter of amazement and wonder to Men and Angels For the Devil to be cast out of possession after he hath an Inhabitant threescore years and more for such an one to be born again would be strange indeed I have heard of an old man who being really converted not long before his death caused this to be written on his Tomb Here lyeth a very aged man of Three Years Old He reckoned all his time and life before as lost and worth nothing Now that you that have put off God and hazarded your souls so long already might lose no more time consider these motives 1. The present time is Gods time and must be yours 2. God the Righteous Judge will reckon with you for your time 3. You have solemnly promised to redeem it 4. Men take and improve opportunity for other things 5. Satan your deadly enemy is always busie and will lose no time 6. Saving-grace is an active and springing principle 7. Time once had and lost cannot be recalled 8. Cons How they prize time that have lost it 9. God hath joyned Time and Duty together 10. On this moment of Time Eternity depends Motive 1. Consider The present time is Gods and it must be yours Don't you hear the Holy Ghost say It is now high time to seek the Lord and calling to you Come away make speed Hos 10. 12. Delayes and Laziness are the two great Gulphs in which multitudes of souls are drowned and perish How many are now in Hell that purposed and promised to turn to God as you do hereafter O fear and tremble lest it should be your case To enforce this take these few hints 1. The present time hath most Precepts and Gods Commands like warrants in the Kings name must be obeyed on sight thereof We say Must is for the King If thou art young read Eccles 12. 1. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts Psal 95. 6. First seek the Kingdom of God Mat. 6. 33. You must not stay long Hos 13. 13. Bless God and wonder the golden thread of precious time is spin'd out so long 2. It hath most promises and they are great and precious I will receive you saith the Lord. They that seek me early shall find me The present time is an accepted time in which God may be found Psal 32. 6. Now God calls Heb. 3 7. and you may come and welcome John 6. 37. And it will be matter of unspeakable comfort to a man dying looking into Eternity to know he hath done the work for which he had his life and time 3. You have the hest examples And 't is our duty to imitate and follow them who are gone to Heaven before Your dead Lord would lose no time I must do the work of him that sent me while it is day When faithful Abraham was to offer his Son Isaac he made hast Gen. 22. 31. He rose up early in the morning Mary Magdalan came early in the morning to enquire after and to see the Lord Jesus whom her soul loved Mark 16. 2. Motive 2. God the righteous Judge will reckon with you for your time Not onely for your health wealth strength parts graces memories but for every minute of your time If at the day of judgement we must give an account for every idle word much more for so great a Talent so rich a Treasure as Time A Heathen could say that every wise man must tam otii quam negottii rationem reddere give an account of his business and of his idleness You may like fools waste your time neglect your duty and stand out against the call of God but it will cost your dear Eccl. 11. 9. Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thine heart chear thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou for all these things God will bring thee unto judgement The great Landlord of your time is at great expence to continue it Those Luminaries of Heaven over your heads and principally the Prince of all the lights of Heaven the Sun that glorious and mighty Gyant the Prince and Crown of all corporal Creatures do tire and waste as it were their Celestial vigour to beget and give Time Time is so rich a Jewel that God would have one man value it to another If one man had hurt another he was to pay both for his cure and loss of time Exod 21. 18 19. So must you at the great day of account for all your time for every Sermon you have heard for every Sabbath and Sacrament you have had all your days Motive 3. You have all promised to redeem your time The Vows of Jehovah are upon you Say with David I will pay my Vows If the Godly man will perform his promise to his hurt Psal 15. 4. Much more should you for your profit Take the Counsel of the Wise Man Eccles 5. 4 5. When thou vowest a vow unto God defer not to pay it pay that which thou hast vowed better it is that thou should not vow then to vow and not pay How often you have engaged your selves to leave your known sins and to live soberly and righteously and Godly in this present World let Conscience witness If you that have resolved to read pray sanctifie the Sabbath c. should still waste and trifle away the time it will not only be a breach of promise but a sin against light for which thy heart will reproach thee and if thine heart condemn thee God is greater then thine heart and knoweth all things 1. John 3. 20. Remember the promises thou didst make at such a Sacrament or when struck at the heart by such and such a Sermon or when death was at thy Family or thy self near unto it and defer not to perform thy Covenant God who is a God of truth will not be mocked and
have lost it and are come to the end of it and who with the loss of time have lost themselves We have many dreadful Examples that stand as so many Sea-marks to warn us to take heed The poor Jews were utterly undone by it The Lord only knowns how many of them are now in flames that suffer the vengeance of Eternal Fire for not improving the day of Grace Luke 19. 42. Matth. 23. 37. The foolish Virgins having lost the opportunity of buying Oyl came too late to the door And Esan staid too long to get the blessing Most do things when it is too late Men go to bed late rise late go to Market late come to Church late and make peace with God when it is too late The old Israelites marched towards Canaan when is was too late and so lost that good Land O how dreadful will mercy slighted and time lost be to the awakened soul when it comes to dye seeing it self in a Christless state It was a speech once of a woman in terror of Conscience when divers Ministers and others came to her in a way of comforting her she looks with a ghastly countenance upon them and gives them this answer Call back time again if you can call back time again then there may be hopes for me but time is gone Another great Lady upon her death-bed cryed out All too late all too late a World of Wealth for an inch of Time Another Gentlewoman of whom I have heard who was wont to employ this precious Talent of Time in playing at Cards and such like-Games coming from her sport late in the night finding her Waiting-maid that was religious reading in a good Book and casting her eyes in the Book over the Maids shoulder speaks these words or to this effect Thou poor melancholly soul whut always reading and spending thy time thus wilt thou take no comfort in thy life The Gentlewoman retiring to her Chamber went to bed The maid lodging in the same room perceived her Mistress under great dsquiet and perturbation of Spirit sighing and groaning bitterly The Servant hearing of it several times called to her to know the reason she could not sleep the Maid urging of her at last she cryed out said I read this word ETERNITY in thy Book which hath so pierced my heart that I believe I shall never sleep more till I have a better assurance of mine Eternity Another wanton Lady that hath wasted her time in sensuallity who dyed not many weeks past told her vicious Mother standing by her bed-side That it was too late to speak of God to her for you have undone me and I am going to Hell before and you will certainly come after It is common with men dying and going into the other World sadly to bewail the loss of time When they fear Mercy is going Patience expiring and the time respited for repentance over then they prize opportunities at another rate And O what would the damned in Hell give to be admitted into the World if they might but enjoy one day or hour to deliver themselves from that dreadful place of torment Luke 16. 27 28. Motive 9. Consider God hath joyned Time and Duty together that in two respects 1. In respect of Assistance 2. In respect of Acceptance 1. God hath joyn'd Time and Duty together in respect of Assistance and what Infinite Majesty hath joyned must not by any means be separated Work and Time Opportunity and Duty must go together Adam had his work in Paradice before the fall And second Adam was always in action to the end of his days His meat and drink was to do the will of his Father Nullus mihi per otium dies exit I have no day for idleness was the language of a Heathen Christians do your work in season and you shall have Assistance God's opportunity is as wind to the Sails or as Oyl to the Wheels which will make you glide through difficult duties with much facility If we work in God's time God will work with us and we shall be workers together with him Gospel-time is in order to gospel-Gospel-work spiritual Opportunities are appointed and continued for spiritual Duties The work of faith repentance mortification of sin the plucking out right eyes the chopping off right arms fighting and wrestling with the Powers and Prince of darkness are exceeding difficult but God whose arm is potent will give power and how easily will great work or service be done when there is great assistance in the doing of it A burden that is too heavy for one to lift by the help of another will come up easie This Paul witnesseth Phil. 4. 13. I can do all things through Christ which strengthneth me The feeble Jews by the help of Jehovah raised the Walls of Jerusalem from its very rubbish and that in spight of all opposition Neh. 3. 2 3. and 6. 15. they plying the work the Lord was with them by his great power and strong hand they made their prayer unto God when strength was almost decayed and laboured in the work from the rising of the morning till the Stars appeared and so the Wall was finished Let time be redeemed and then a great deal of work may be done in a little time God's opportunity will make believing and repenting easie Luke 19. 6. Acts 2. 37. 41. Acts 16. 14. 34. O therefore while it is day work out your Salvation for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2. 12 13. 2. God hath joyned Time and Duty in respect of Acceptance Every time is not an accepted time 2 Cor. 6. 2. The Isruelites that refused to march up to Canaan at Gods command lost their opportunity and afterward he would neither assist them nor accept them If thou stayest till God's time be past and gone art thou sure God will accept thee hereafter There is a time when God will not be found will not be spoken withal Isa 55. 6. Esau sought the blessing with tears and it was denied him Heb. 12. 17. Prov. 1. 29. Do not say what need so much speed what need so much improving of time so much reading hearing praying preaching but resolve upon thy now or never Motive 10. Lastly Consider That on the present moment of time eternity depends This deep and heart-affecting Meditation should even swallow us up and cause us to hasten unto our work Let go Time's opportunity and you will certainly be ruin'd to all Eternity The Painter being asked why he was so exact in drawing his Lines answered I paint for Eternity Consider that thou must believe and repent for Eternity hear and pray for Eternity fear love obey for Eternity A work of infinite moment depends on a moment of Time This day thou mayest throw thy last Cast for Eternity This swift Post will not stop no not for a moment Secure soul dost thou see Eternity before thee even at thy door and that there
is but a step between thee and an endless state and wilt thou not be more industrious for thy Soul and Heaven If a man were to run or wrestle for his Life or for a Crown or Kingdom how would he strain and strive and that with all his might If a man were to go over Sea for his life and had but one gale of wind in his Life-time would he come to the water-side and lose it If a Malefactor had but a day appointed him to sue out his pardon would he not improve it This is all our cases God hath given us but a day to work when the day is ended it will be night for ever Luk. 19. 19 42. John 9. 4. Now it may be Christ is at the door offering thee help open to him lest he withdraw and come no more It s probable the spirit of Life and Power striveth to turn thee to God O refuse not to comply with it lest the Spirit serve thee as Samuel did Saul that came no more to him 1 Sam. 15. 35. I shall conclude the Motives with the words of the Psalmist to day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts left God swear in his wrath that you shall not enter into his rest Psal 91. 7. 11. Now if thou art resolved to put this duty into practice through the help of Heaven speedily and diligently observe these Directions Directions for the redeeming of Time 1. Take heed and beware of those things which rob you of your time 2. Labour to convince your selves of the worth of time and value it accordingly 3. Set apart a considerable portion of time for the most secret duties 4. Cast and compute your time 5. Maintain a holy fear upon thy heart of coming to the end of time before thy work be done Direct 1. First Take heed of those things which rob you of your time Now the thieves that will rob you of this exceeding rich Jewel are these six against which watch as for thy life 1. Vain Thoughts 2. Worldly Cares 3. Vnnecessary Visits 4. Vnprofitable Discourse 5. Excessive indulging of the outward man 6. Vnlawful or immoderate recreations 1. Vain Thoughts These are secret and subtile Thieves that insensibly rob us of our time every day and in every duty vain impertinent and wicked thoughts like Pharaoh's Frogs creep and crowd in upon us and thrust out good thoughts so that we cannot keep our mind steddy and compos'd Solomon saith Prov. 17. 24. The eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth so are our thoughts gadding wandring up and down here and there and every where These evil thoughts spring and rise from within us as naturally as sparks from the fire Gen. 6. 5. Matth. 15. 19. Out of the heart proceedeth evil thoughts And they follow us continually into every place and in every service as the Birds on Abraham's Sacrifices which Abraham did drive away They must not Lodge Jerem. 4. 14. Though we cannot hinder the Fowls from flying in the Air or over our heads we may hinder them from pitching on our heads Holy David had vain thoughts but he hated them Psal 119. 113. There is not a minute but many thoughts pass from us as in a minute sands do in an Hour-glass Psal 94. 19. Christians consider how much of that time is lost which you spend in holy duties by vain thoughts when we should draw nigh to God our hearts by our thoughts steal away And there are but a few awakened tender spirits truly sensible of this intrinsical secret evil though much of a Christian's duty and the very inwards of Religion lies in observing the thoughts and in watching the heart Therefore above all keeping keep thy heart Prov. 4. 23. and take heed to thy spirit Mal. 2. 15 16. 2. Worldly Cares are great wasters of our precious time The most do mind Earthly things Phil. 3. 19. Men heads hearts and thoughts are so intent about the things that perish that they do hardly entertain a serious thought of God and Eternity all the day God is not in all their thoughts They that are the flesh do mind the things of the flesh Rom. 8. 5. and not only the children of this World but Professors themselves are so eager and vehement in the pursuit of this poor Earth that almost all their time and strength is spent about it And while men are so careful and solicious about many things and in a very crowd and hurry of business it is impossible for them to redeem time for God and their souls As soon as their eyes are open and the things of the World stand as so many Suitors to invite and draw them Some have their hearts so over-charged and surfeited with the Cares and fears of this evil world that their abundance will not suffer them to sleep Luke 21. 4. Eccles 5. 12. Now when it is thus Opportunities are lost Souls are neglected Holy duties omitted or if used they are very unsuccessful Ezek. 33. 31. Math. 13. 22. Therefore take heed of the world so great a devourer of our time 3. Vnnecessary visits are great wasters of our time of which you must take heed it being no mark of Godliness but the contrary The wise man speaking of the vicious and vertous Woman giveth them this different Character viz. the one her feet abideth not in her House Eccl. 7. 11. the other looketh well to the wayes of her houshold and eateth not the bread of idleness Prov. 31. 27. And we read of some that wandred about from house to house being idle Tatlers and busie-bodies speaking things which they ought not 1 Tim. 5. 13. How many do trifile away the time in going from house to house to whom it may be said as Pharaoh to the oppressed Israelites Ye are idle ye are idle Let that time you have to spare from your Calling and Families be spent in Reading Prayer or other Religious exercises and in all your Visits intend and design the doing of good or the receiving of good and not the passing away of this precious time When your friends or neighbours are sick and under the hand of God go to them and give them counsel for their souls Rom. 15. 2. 4. Vnprofitable Discourse robbeth us of much time Some employ their Tongues in telling fabulous or filthy stories others in discoursing of Parties and Opinions and in talking of the Faults and Miscarriages of other men Some about the Times and enquiring after News Thus did the men of Athens who spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing Acts 17. 21. And the most when they come together pass away the time in discoursing of the World and the concerns of it But let Christians when they converse imitate their Lord the words that proceeded out of his mouth were gracious words Walk in wisdom toward them that art without redeeming the time Let your speech be always with Grace seasoned with Salt
dying men and passing to receive the recompence of endless Joy or Wo. Christians if you would work while it is day If you would glorifie God on Earth If you would secure and eternally save your immortal souls If you would not be a prey to the Prince of Darkness If you would stand with comfort before the Lord Jesus at his dreadful Bar If you would not spend your days without hope Arise therefore and be doing and the Lord be with you Deut. 32. 29. O that they were Wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end IT is always seasonable to insist on such subjects as direct us to speak of another world especially in time of great Sickness and Mortality in which thousands of souls night and day have been crowding into Eternity witness the late dreadful Plague in sixty five I therefore made choice of this serious and heart-wakening subject that drowsie secure souls might be awakened to a deep consideration of the world to come The whole Chapter is stiled the Song of Moses his Swan-like Song or Song before his death the dying words of that eminent faithful servant of God and if the words of a dying man are to be regarded how much the words of a dying Moses This Moses being ready to go into the other world composeth this song of which the Text is apart and dying words are weighty and make the deepest impression This song is partly Narratory Minatory Promissory In the Narrative you have 1. A Narration of the infinite greatness and most glorious attributes of the God of Israel introduced with a pathetical and awakening acclamation Give ear O ye Heavens and I will speak and hear O Earth the words of my mouth 2. We have a Narration of their corruption ingratitude and rebellion verse 5. 6. They have corrupted themselves they are a perverse and crooked generation do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Notwithstanding the remarkable favours and rare indulgence of God toward them yet they forsook him provoked him to jealousie with strange Gods and sacrificed to Devils and not unto God Vers 16. 17. Because of which he threatens 1. To hide his face from them then which nothing more bitter to the soul Ver. 20. 2. To inflict variety of sore temporal judgements upon them then which nothing more burthensome to the body I will heap mischief upon them I will spend mine Arrows upon them they shall be burnt with hunger and devoured with burning heat and with bitter destruction the sword without and terrour within shall destroy both the young man and the Virgin with a man of gray hairs for a fire is kindled in mine anger and shall burn to he lowest Hell And Vers 27. God gives the reason why he would not utterly destroy them and make a full end of them Were it not that I feared the wrath of the envying c. And now the words of the Text seem to be the Application of the whole O that they would consider their latter end You may look upon these words as it were a Mount cast up by which the people of Israel might take a view of things to come and have a prospect of what should befal them in their latter end O that they were wise to be wise is opposit to that brutishness ver 28. They were a Nation â—oid of counsel for they wanted the right exercise of reason and that wisdom which is from above to observe and improve the gracious providences and dispensations of God That they would consider Consideration is a fixed act of the understanding or mind in order to practice for doing and considering are frequently joyned together Judg. 18. 14. Now therefore consider what ye have to do Heb. 10. 27. Let us consider one an other to provoke unto love and good works The same thing is variously expressed in Scripture viz. to look narrowly upon a thing to call to mind to know and consider in ones heart to call things to remembrance to commune with a mans heart Psal 77. 5 6. Their latter end By which we are not only to understand those tremendous and desolating judgements that should surprize them in this world but to remember the great things of the other as also old age death the grave erernity death with its antecedents concomitants and consequences The words contain a pathetical Option or wish O that they were wise In which observe 1. The person wishing viz. the most great and gracious God 2. The thing desired and that is Divine Wisdom a Jawel indeed a price far above Rubies 3. The person for whom God thus desireth viz. for Israel a people nigh unto the Lord and yet a bruitish inconsiderate and unwise people O that they were wise c. 4. What this wisdom is or wherein it doth consist viz. in the consideration of their latter end The Doctrines observable from the words are these Doct. 1. That God doth earnestly desire and long for the good of a people Doct. 2. That an inconsiderate people are a foolish and unwise people Doct. 3. That want of serious consideration is incident not only to the prophane but to men professing God and Godliness The Israelites were the onely Church of God then in the World and yet they were not wise to understand and consider their latter end I shall not handle these apart but speak to the chief scope and intent of the words in this one proposition Doct. That it is a duty and matter of high concernment to consider our latter end O that they were wise that they would consider viz. practically consider and live always in the belief of the other world so as to do up all their work while it is day This seems to be the great import of the spirit of God in this Text. Eternal souls whatever escapeth your thoughts this must not this should be your vade mecum It should rise up with you lye down with you walk with you where-ever you go are This Moses himself that precious and renowned servant of God desir'd seeing such a dreadful mortality in the Wilderness and so many sad spectacles of Divnie wrath Psal 90. 10. So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom And as Moses desir'd it so also holy David Psal 39. 4. Lord make me to know my end and the measure of my days what it is that I may know how frail I am And Solomon sets a better upon it Eccles 7. 2. It is better to go to the House of mourning then to the House of Feasting for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart And it is an Argument that men are dead when at a House of mourning they are not moved with compassion to a due and deep consideration of their doleful and dying condition I shall come now to show you what we are to consider concerning our latter end and O that it may