So let these Confiderations quicken you lest you be be-nighted and find too soon the Folly of your coming too late to enter into the City of God But Man hath a Door too into which God must enter and this will be shut at Night Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the Door and Knock if any Man open to Me I will come in and Sup with him and he with Me. There is a Door of Knowledge The Key of Knowledge Opens it When the Eyes of our Understandings are enlightned opened to know God in Christ and to receive the Knowledge of His Will God comes into the Heart through this Door when the Eyes of our Minds are so opened as to know God and Christ a right so as to Know them is Eternal Life Joh. 17.3 And a Door of Faith through which Christ comes when He enters to dwell in our Hearts by Faith Ephes 3.17 And there is a Door of Repentance by which Sin is turn'd out and God is admitted into our Souls And Lastly There is the Door of Holy Affections Love Desire Delight in God These are at least the Hinges upon which the Door of our Hearts turn Now these Doors may all be opened to let in God while the Day lasts and He will come in and make His Abode with us John 14.23 Jesus said If any Man love Me he will keep My Words And My Father will love him and We will come unto him and make Our Abode with him But when Night comes they will be shut for ever Hasten therefore to open them while you may lest when you would it prove too hard for you and be above both your Skill and your Power You know a Door that is opened dayly opens easily But Doors which stand long shut 't is hard to make them stir or open them without great Violence that shakes them and even breaks them in pieces The Timber will swell the Hinges will rust the Wards of the Lock will be cankered and the Bolts will even grow into the Staples And so will it by Proportion be with your Hearts if you keep the Door long shut against God Nay He may in Anger clap on a Padlock on the other side shut thee up Judicially in Unbelief and Impenitency nail and barracado up the Door for ever because He knock't and call'd so long and woo'd so earnestly in vain Cant. 5.2 Open to Me My Sister My Love My Dove My Vndefiled for My Head is fill'd with Dew and My Locks with the Drops of the Night Then after many idle Excuses for her Delay Vers 6. I opened to my Beloved but my Beloved had with-drawn Himself and was gone My Soul failed when He spake I sought Him but I could not find Him I called Him but He gave me no Answer Take heed lest this or worse be thy Case Refuse not to open at the first Knock the first Call the Motions of His Spirit the Checks of thy Conscience the Admonitions of the Word lest He Knock no more or refuse when thou shalt open at thy own Leasure to come near the Door The Servants which shall be blessed are They that wait for their Lord and when he cometh and knocketh open to him immediately Luk. 12.35 Rouze up your selves therefore and speak to your Souls in David's Language and as much as may be with David's Zeal Psal 24.7 9. which he witnessed by the Ingemination of them Lift up your Heads Oh ye Gates and be ye lift up ye Everlasting Doors and the King of Glory shall come in Who is this King of Glory The Lord of Hosts He is this King of Glory And take heed that dreadful Place be not fulfilled upon you Isa 6.10 the most dreadful Word God can speak till he say Depart ye Cursed Make the Heart of this People fat and their Ears heavy and shut their Eyes lest they be Converted and I Heal them A Place Six times repeated in the New-Testament to make us mind it lest by our sinful Shutting the Door we provoke God Judicially to shut it up for ever Sixthly No Man can work when this Night cometh because 't is an abiding Night There is no Day on the other side of it We say To Morrow is a New Day what we cannot do to Day we may do to Morrow But there is no Morrow beyond the Night of Death 'T is appointed to all Men once to Dye but once and after that the Judgment Heb. 9.29 No Second Day of Life allowed to them who have mis-spent and lost the First Job said long since There is Hope of a Tree that if it be cut down it will sprout again and that the tender Branch thereof will not cease Though the Root thereof wax old in the ground and the Stock thereof Dye yet through the Scent of Water it will bud and bring forth Boughs like a Plant. But Man dyeth and wasteth away yea Man giveth up the Ghost and Where is he As the Waters fail from the Sea and the Flood decayeth and dryeth up so Man Lyeth down and Riseth not till the Heavens be no more They shall not awake or rise out of their Sleep Job 14.7 12. And the Heathen Poet long ago observed the like of the Sun The Sun 's Set and Rise Set and Rise again But We when We Set are covered with Eternal Night No repeated Light or Day succeeds O therefore timely and wisely Improve the Present That had need be done well which can be done but once and admits no doing it again to remedy the Errours of doing ill at first And such above all things is the Work of Dying and finishing our Dayes Work before the Night surprize us The Proverb tells us Three Things require greatest Caution and most prudent Circumspection Marriage Battle Death Upon this Account Because their Consequents are like to last Yet the First of these excludes not all possible Relief Good Counsel may reclaim Patience may bear and Wisdom may improve the Inconvenience or the Death of the Party which makes the Yoke unequal and uneasy may take it off the Grieved Party's Neck that it shall not alwayes gall here And at farthest Death will Dissolve the Bond that it shall not be alwayes troublesome And the Second though dangerous is not wholly desperate He that hath lost a Battle suffer'd a Defeat and Rout may Rally and Recruit and though it cost him Dear may learn Experience for more wary Conduct and may expect a more Propitious Fortune But he that Dyes Unpardoned and Ungodly that is before his Work is done he is undone to all Intents and Purposes no Remedy or Hope of Remedy remains to all Eternity And as the fore-nam'd Reasons shew it impossible to Work when this Night hath actually overtaken us so the Last which follows should excite and quicken us to the uttermost to be before-hand with it For Seventhly This Night makes hast The Text tells you It cometh and I tell you and Experience tells you and Christ in effect
supposeth it when it bids ye be ready And another Text expresseth it which tells you The marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made her self ready Rev. xix 7. And both the Jaylers question Sirs what must I do to be saved Acts xvi 30. And the answer to it imply so much And that common saying of St. Austin hath obtained Universal consent That he who made thee without thy self will not save thee without thy self It being therefore taken for granted that we can and must do somewhat let us now enquire and so direct you what it is First Be throughly convinced of thy own unreadiness Sence of want is the first the most Natural and most effectual motive to seek supply Jacob would never have sent his Sons much less his Benjamin into Egypt to buy Food if the Famine had not pincht him and his Houshold in the Land of Canaan The full soul loatheth an Hony Comb but to the hungry soul even bitter things are sweet They who are whole care not for the Physitian but the sick will both send for him and Fee him willingly Christ calls those who are weary and heavy laden with the burden of sin Curse of the Law sence of Gods wrath and 't is well if these will come there is most hope of them but for others he may stretch out his hand all the day long and they regard it not There was enough said before to convince thee of thy unreadiness if thou beest an Vnsanctified man this is only added to persuade thee to consider it and to yield to conviction of thy sin and misery Secondly Be persuaded of the infinite concernment of this matter the water will rise no higher than the Spring Head and the motion will answer the weight which causeth it a small weight produceth but slow motion but a great and heavy one such as is quick and violent They that have slight thoughts of the concerns of another world 't is no wonder they are so little concerned about them But they that consider well what is the Consequence of not being ready when Christ comes what it is to have all the doors of Grace and Mercy Hope and Glory shut against them what it is to lose an Immortal Soul which the gain of an whole world could not compensate What it is to be driven from God and Christ and the Regions of Bliss with a depart ye Cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels to be shut up in that Dungeon of utter darkness where shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth under the gnawings of the Worm which shall never dye and in midst of a fire that shall never be quenched in a word they that wisely lay to heart this Truth that the injoyment or loss of infinite and everlasting happiness and the suffering or escaping endless and unconceivable torments infallibly depends upon being or not being ready for Christ when he comes by Death or Judgment will have other thoughts of these things and will be awakened by them to make ready in good earnest Which I heartily wish we all may Thirdly Get clear and distinct knowledg of the main Grounds of Religion Knowledg is a loading Grace the new man is renewed in knowledg Col. iii. 10. And without it the heart cannot be good tho it be too often without a good heart But of all Knowledg get as full and clear a Knowledg as you can of the Covenant of Grace by which alone the enmity is removed and reconciliation is made between an offended God and lost mankind And herein especially study to know the Mediator of this Covenant as to his Person Natures and Offices and the Efficacy of his Death Resurrection and Intercession with the terms upon which he will receive thee as one of his redeemed ones and what returns he expects from thee What be those sure Mercies of David that Covenant conveighs and what Obligations they are brought under who are received into it the Knowledg of these things is so useful so necessary so excellent comprehending the true knowledg of Salvation 't is hard to desist from farther inlarging upon it or pressing of it An Interest in this Covenant being the only means left us for our Eternal safety and welfare Fourthly Frequently reflect upon thy Baptismal Covenant I know no one thing in all the world more hopefully likely to restore the life of sollid Christianity to the world which is so miserably decayed and dead in it than this would be For first It would mightily restrain sin the bane of Christianity to remember how solemnly we have renounced all the temptations and inducements to it and no less provoke us to Faith and Obedience the two great Pillars upon which Christianity is built to think what Vows of God are upon us and make us say with David I have sworn and I wilâ— perform it that I will keep all thy Righteous Judgments Psal cxix 106. Secondly It would put warmth and Holy fire into all our Devotions which are mostly so formal cold and dead To consider what mutual engagements have past betwixt us and that God to whom that Mediator through whom and that blessed Spirit by whose assistance we perform them They being all by true interpretation farther inforcements oâ— those engagements as were easie to shew in all the particulars of Prayer Hearing the Word and Receiving the Holy Supper Thirdly It would heal our Divisions and close up our Breaches and restore that blessed Spirit of Love and Peace The Bond of Perfection and Badg of Christs Disciples and help us to keep and hold the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace as you may see from the Apostles arguing Eph. iv 4 5 6. To call to mind that we are all Baptised into one Body joyned to one Head received into the Family of one Father obliged by the same Laws made Candidates and Expectants of the same Jerusalem above which is the Mother of us all And what would have so beneficial an influence upon the life of Christianity cannot fail to prepare us for the coming of Christ I therefore again inforce my importunate requests to you that you would often and dayly meditate upon your Baptismal Engagements to the great God Fifthly Apply thy self sincerely and seriously to the use of all Gods means with an earnest expectation and design to receive from them what God hath appointed them to conveigh to those who use them aright Men for the most part use them customarily and for fashion sake expecting little from them and receive as little as they expect They proving dry Breasts and empty Channels But if thou wouldest use them as thou shouldest thou wouldest find it good to draw nigh to God and that he never bid the house of Jacob seek his face in vain 'T is the Nature of means to come in the middle between what a man can do and what he can not do to help him by what he can do to
together And when the Sun sets the Candle is put out for Ever You know I suppose where the Custome prevails of multiplying Tapers Torches Candles about the Herses and upon the Tombs and Graves of the Dead and singing Masses Dirges Requiems for them and there Last are just as profitable for their Souls as the First are serviceable to their Eyes when Death hath clos'd them Christians I beseech you as you love your Souls beware of these Cheats and venture not your eternal Estates upon such after-Games and Work out your own Salvation while you live and trust not to their Superstitious and Covetous Frauds who undertake to do it for you when you are Dead Thirdly Men cannot work when Night is come because the Night is Unfruitful If you think to work then or try to work then you will most certainly but lose your Labour I may use the Apostle's Expression at least allusively Vnfruitful Works of Darkness Eph. 5.11 If Men should Plow and Sow by Night and no Day follow no Fruit would come of all their Cost and Pains We need the Sun not only to see to work by but also to influence our Work He must warm and cherish and ripen all by his Heat as well as direct the doing of it by his Light When Night comes you cannot work to any Purpose or Advantage Suppose you could cry and knock as earnestly and loud as did those Foolish Virgins at Mid-night Matth. 25.10 it would prove as useless to you as it did to them or those you read of Prov. 1.28 Then when this Night is upon them Then they shall call upon Me but I will not answer they shall seek Me early as they think perhaps 't is spoken Ironically but they shall not find Me But they shall eat of the Fruit of their own way Oh bitter Fruit and be fill'd with their own Devices Vers 31. And as I touch't before the Folly of those who trust to the Prayers of others when they are dead So let me earnestly admonish and intreat you not to defer Praying for your selves 'till you are a Dying I use the word Praying Comprehensively for Penitential Devotion and being sincerely Religious I would not be too severe but I would be faithful to you and therefore I must tell you I think it extreamly dangerous to defer till then I know you are ready enough to remember the Old Proverb True Repentance is never too Late But I beseech you forget not the Second Part of it Late Repentance is seldome True How often have we seen the most earnest Penitential Vows of Men upon their Sick Beds grow Weak and Dye as those who made them grow Strong and Lively I would write nothing but what is most serious upon so weighty a Subject Yet because many are prone to retain such a Passage who would forget a graver Sentence give me Leave without Offence or Censure to add the Translation of those Proverbial Verses which signify that the very worst of Men are ready to pretend Reformation when they are Sick though they never intend it when they are Well They were fitted to the Times in which they were made when the Name of a Monk signifyed a Devout Man The Devil was Sick the Devil a Monk would be The Devil was Well the Devil a Monk was he Trust not your deceitful Hearts to so deceitful a Time neither defer your Repentance till you are so unfit to perform it But while your Strength is firm and your Reason sound and all your Faculties in their Vigour set upon this Work which you 'll find hard enough for your best Abilities lest it prove like Day-Work attempted in the Night altogether Fruitless Fourthly You cannot work when this Night comes because it will strip you of your Furniture and Tools with which you should perform it When Morning-Light appears Men Rise and Dress themselves and take their Tools and go forth unto their Work and Labour But like that Old Man at Gibeah Judg. 19.16 They come out of the Field from their Work at Even and then they strip themselves set by their Tools and go to Bed to take their Rest While the Day of your Life and God's Grace are continued you have Talents to trade with and Tools to work with but when Night comes they must be all laid by Use them therefore while you have them Suppose a Man had borrowed of his Neighbour some useful or necessary Instrument for a Work he is much concerned to finish or a Schollar a Book which he is much concerned to Read but both were lent but for a Day and must be return'd at Night How hard would One Labour how closely would the Other fit to his Study Concluding thus I must not Loyter now for this Work must be done and I cannot do it without this Instrument and this is but lent me till Night and then 't will be fetch 't away While the Day lasts God furnishes you with Tools fitted to your Work You have Ministers you have Bibles you have Sermons you have Sacraments you have all appointed Means of Grace and you have Eyes to read and Ears to hear Reason to understand consider and judge Consciences to check you Affections to excite and quicken you But when Night comes all will be taken from you Then the Lord will say Take the Talent from him Mat. 25.28 And if you do not your work while you are furnished with all these Helps What can you hope to do when all are gone Fifthly No Man can work after this Night is come because this Work is express'd by entring into a Gate or Door and Night is a Time of shutting Doors Josh 2 5. About the Time of Shutting the Gate when it was Dark All the Day the Gates of the Cities stand wide open to afford free Ingress and Egress to all Comers and the Doors of your Houses stand open or but upon the Latch and yield an easy Entrance but when the Day is shut in you Lock and Bolt and Bar and make all fast that none can enter Now there are Two Sorts of Gates or Doors which must be entred before the Sun set and they be shut 1. God's Gate into which Man mâ—st enter 2. Man's Door into which God must enter First God's Gate Open to me the Gates of Righteousness This is the Lord's Gate Into which the Righteous shall enter Psal 118.20 Enter in at the Streight-Gate Matth. 7.13 Now God's Gate stands open all the Day But at Night the Door is shut as the Foolish Virgins found to their Shame and Sorrow St. Matth. 25.10 God hath Four Gates which stand open to Returning Sinners all Day long but shall be all shut up at Night The Gates of Grace of Mercy of Hope of Glory First The Gate of Grace Grace is God's Free Favour that Perfection of the Divine Nature which inclines Him to do Good to Men without any External Motive of His own Accord This Gate stands open all the Day God waits
to be gracious and stretches out his Hand all the Day long to invite to plead with Sinners and to beseech them to accept His Grace and Favour But if they despise His Goodness and will not be perswaded to come in He will cast off for ever and be favourable no more He will even forget to be Gracious and in Anger shut up His tender Mercies For so I find the Psalmist expressing his Fear of this Doom Psal 77.79 Secondly The Gate of Mercy Mercy is that Attribute of God by which His tender Compassions are stirred up to pitty His Creatures in their Misery and as it were to sympathize with them to be afflicted in all their Afflictions This Gate stands also open all the Day and it even grieves Him to His Heart to see the Misery Men hasten towards by their Sin and Folly And He warns and calls them most pathetically Turn ye turn ye Why will ye Dye Ezek. 33.11 And is in a Merciful Contest with Himself as you may read Hos 11.8 How shall I give thee up Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah How shall I set thee as Zeboim My Heart is turned within Me My Repentings are kindled together And resolves that as yet He will not execute the Fierceness of His Anger nor as yet Return to Destroy them because He is God and not Man But if all His Weeping over them will not make them Mourn if all His Relenting Compassions will not melt them Their Hardyness will harden Him because His Softness did not soften them and His Mercy will be turn'd into Fury and in the Spring-Tyde of their Misery his Mercy will be in the Lowest Ebb. And instead of weeping any more over them He will Laugh at their Calamity and Mock when their Fear cometh Prov. 1.26 And His Mercy will be clean gone for evermore And though this Gate stood open to them till they Dyed yet He will not shew these Wonders of Mercy to the Dead the Dead shall not arise to have and praise him for them His loving Kindness shall not be declared in the Grave nor His Faithfulness in Destruction His Wonders shall not be known in the Dark nor His Compassions in the Land of Forgetfulness Psal 88.10 11 12. Oh therefore follow not after Lying Vanities to the forsaking of your own Mercies But while this Gate stands open fly into it as the Man-slayer would into the City of Refuge before God shut it up and shut out you as certainly He will when Night is come and you be left to the Cruel Mercies of that Avenger of Blood that Eternal Misery which presses after you so fast so close so hard Thirdly The Gate of Hope This stands open all the Day While Men live and enjoy the Means of Grace there remains Hope that they may obtain God's Favour and escape His Wrath. The Common Proverb is true in this Sence That while there 's Life there 's Hope as Sâ—lomon tells us To him that is joyned to all the Living there is Hope Eccles 9.4 We meet with this Expression in Hos 2.15 I will give her the Valley of Achor for a Door of Hope Which may admit these Interpretations amongst others Either that the Possession of this Valley being part of the Promis'd Land was as an Earnest and an Argument to hope they should possess the Whole Or that Achan being now stoned and the accursed Thing removed there was Hope that God would again be with them and drive out their Enemies before them So the Continuance of Day is a Door of Hope that He who hath given the Means of Grace will also give His Grace yea and Glory at the last and that He who spares our Lives after they have been forfeited may remit the Forfeiture that we may not Dye eternally And indeed it is the right Use of This that upholds God's People in all their Streights and Fears In their Affliction and Misery while they feed on Gall and Wormwood they recall to mind that God's Compassions fail not And because through the Lord's Mercyes they are not Consumed therefore have they Hope Lam. 3.20 21 22. And 't is the Abuse of this which holds up Wicked Men against the Gripes the Nippings and Warnings of their own Hearts those secret unseen Lashes and Wounds of their own Consciences are so frequently inflicting They know God is Merciful and Christ dyed for Sinners and they hope they may yet Repent and be Happy and partake of all this And this keeps their Hearts from breaking with Horror and succumbing under a Load which is truly insupportable But when Night comes this Door shall be shut so close no Beam of Hope will dart in so much as at the Key-hole But all their Hope will vanish and perish and be as the Spider's Webb and giving up the Ghost Their Hope shall be cut off for ever and the dreadful Terrors of Everlasting Despair shall seize upon them and multiply their Sorrows their Condition being as hopeless and helpless in their own Apprehensions and Misery shall come upon them in its Perfection because no Hope remains of ever escaping And this is the most invenom'd Sting of the never-dying Worm and that which makes the Pit of Hell to be what it is so truly called Bottomless Fourthly The Gate of Glory That stands open too till Night That is the Kingdom of Heaven in the highest Sense The Place in which God most fully and openly Communicates Himself to Saints and Angels and bestows the Compleatest Happiness the Reasonable Nature can be capable of into which who ever come shall never sin nor sorrow more but be made perfect in Holiness and Happiness by the clearest Vision and most intimate Fruition of God Blessed for ever But at Night a Door shall be shut to keep all those for ever out who were not ready to go in with the Bridegroom into the Marriage Matth. 25.10 In David's Language They shall never see Light they shall never Inhabit God's Holy Hill In St. Paul's They shall not Inherit the Kingdom of God In St. Peter's They shall have no Entrance administred into the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ nor attain the Salvation of their Souls In St. John's They shall in no wise enter into the New-Jerusalem In our Saviour's They shall never see the Face of God in Heaven nor be with Him to Behold His Glory nor Follow the Lamb upon Mount Zion nor Drink of the Rivers of Pleasure which are at God's Right Hand Nor be fill'd with those Joyes which are at His Right Hand for evermore Hasten therefore while these Gates are open And as Men who are Journeying to a City where at Even the Bridge is drawn and the Gates are shut and the Keys are carryed to the Governour will be sure to come before that Hour lest they be exposed to the Enemy or to the Coldness and Darkness of the Night without either safe Shelter or convenient Lodging