'T is now an accepted time a day of Salvation 2 Cor. 6. 2. A time to accept or a time to be accepted a golden and glorious time indeed Behold now there is a broad and clear way to the Mercy seat the flaming sword is gone the partition wall is down all Bars and Gates are removed an Act of indempnity is proclaim'd and there is a free admission for all to come and be saved pardons are ready Isa 55. 6 7. Isa 45. Sinners your dear Lord Jesus the great Peace-maker is now an impotant Suitor unto your perishing souls namely an inviting knocking waiting promising Christ Prov. 22. 9. 4. Isa 65. 2. Math. 11. 28. Rev. 3. 20. Cant. 5. 2. John 6. 36. The treasures of grace are opened and offered to sale upon easie terms without money and without price Isa 55. 1. Rev. 3. 17. O make speed and come make the purchase buy the pearl of price that 's better then Rubies and you shall have a treasure in heaven The favour of Gods precious blood white raiment tryed gold and the eternal life of your never dying souls is worth the having Consider also that now the Holy Ghost calls and offers his assistance to close the bargain to tye the marriage knot between Christ and Souls Heb. 3. If you lose this opportunity you may never have the like The Spirit and the Bride say come Rev. last 17. 5. The time of the Sabbath or Lords day must be redeemed we must have a specially care of sanctifying that day it being the Sabbath of the Lord our God This golden day from morning to night must be spent in the service and worship of our Lord either in publick private or secret duties and no part of it must be lost Take no liberty upon that day for frothy vain and unprofitable discourse or recreations or to ride buy sell or work This dreadful God provoking sin of Sabbath-breaking is a sin in fashion hundreds in this Nation serve the Devil more upon the Lords day then on other dayes Then men are at leisure to serve the Devil and satisfie their lusts to go to the Ale-house or to exercise themselves in sports and pastimes O that Magistrates Ministers Masters of Families and Parents would look to it Neh. 13. 17. The Lord of the Sabbath commandeth thee that thou and thy Son thy Daughter thy man servant and all within thy gate keep that day holy The Sabbath is called a holy convocation Lev. 23. 2. and the Lord of the day is an infinitely holy just and jealous God The Sabbath heretofore was called Regina dierum the Queen of days in the New Testament it is called the Lords day Rev. 1. 10. a day in which we commemorate the greatest mercy viz. the glorious Resurrection of our crucified Lord and that which the purest Christians in the purest times did carefully observe In the Primitive times a serious and strict observation of the Lords day was a trial or badge of Christianity When the question was propounded Servasti Dominicum hast thou kept the Lords day the answer was turn'd Christianus sum intermittare non possum I am a Christian and cannot intermit it It was a saying of an eminent Divine that he would judge of a mans Religion according to the reverence and care he had of keeping the Sabbath Christians you are to keep your Lords rest and perform the holy duties of his worship chearfully reverently spiritually Joh. 4. 24. If ever you think to celebrate an eternal Sabbath with God in glory be careful of this duty To enforce it consider 1. How strictly the holy God imposeth it and to what end it is Remember the Sabbath day to keep it Holy Exod. 20. 8. This blessed day for communion with God is to be premeditated upon before it cometh therefore in the evening before the Sabbath let all your necessary occasions be done up that you may have nothing but what becometh the work of that day Be like David's good man Ps 112. 5. ordering your affairs with discretion especially your Spiritual affairs If you expected the company of some worthy friend would you be found in a sluttish posture or sweeping and cleansing your houses on that day and all out of order On the Lords day you should vehemently expect the approach and presence of the King of glory therefore make all ready to entertain him 2. Remember the excellent Epithetes and Titles of this blessed day it is called a High day a Holy day the holy of the Lord honourable Isa 58. 13. Therefore let it be redeemed lose no more Sabbaths 3. Consider the blessings and soul benefits of that day if it be rightly observed It is your Lords Market day in the which you have the precious Oyl the Golden Mines and treasures of grace opened that day There are spiritual dainties for your hungry souls to which you are by Christ invited that day Isa 54. 1. The Holy Ghost doth breath and blow that day by the secret and sweet gales whereof Saints mount up toward Heaven The great God comes down and gracious souls ascend that day Rev. 1. 10. And the Eunuchs that keep Gods Sabbaths have the promise of a name in his house for ever Isa 56. 4 5. I might add the severe threatnings and Gods signal judgements upon the prophaners of the Sabbath or Lords day The man that was found gathering sticks upon the Sabbath by an immediate command from God was stoned to death Numb 15. 32 34 35 36. How time must be redeemed 1. By taking and improving all opportunities for the glorifying of God 2. By laying hold on the present time and now a day of grace for settling and securing your everlasting state 3. By improving the present means of grace for your speedy growth in grace 4. By doing all the good you can to others while you may 5. By labouring to keep up constant communion with God in holy duties 6. By improving every providence and outward cross for inward and spiritual advantages 7. By casting up your accounts every day that you may make even with God 8. By labouring to order every days work in reference to your last day that having finished you work you may be fit to leave this World 1. By taking and improving all occasions for the glorifying of God Dear Christians this is your Fathers business and the great Errand for which you had your being You were born and new born to serve the interest of the holy and blessed God in the World this is that glorious end for which you should spend your strength and time and lay out your selves to the very utmost That which is the chief end of your life viz. to display and propagate Gods glory in the World must not be neglected other things are infinitely inferiour and must be subordinated unto this For the thoughts and designs of serving the Interest of your Lord is that which you must be always driving on in this evil
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
it your great business to secure an interest in Christ getting your evidences for heaven bright and clear Christians till you have gotten the pledges and tokens of Gods love to your souls till you are assured of the truth of your faith and the sincerity of your repentance and hereby of the pardon of sin and of your interst in the Lord Jesus you can have little comfort in your souls or boldness towards God Therefore with might and main work out your salvation Phil. 2. 12. Make your calling and election sure that upon certain grounds you may say as the Church Lam. 3. 24. The Lord is my portion faith my soul Doubtless thou art our Father Isa 63. 16. Or as holy Job in his deep affliction Job 19. 25. I know my Redeemor liveth I am thine save me Psal 19. 91. Truely I am thy Servant I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine Cant. 2. 16. Christians this assuring-Faith is attainable pray for it and vigorously press after it that you may be sealed up unto the day of redemption that so an entrance may be ministred unto you into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1. 10 11. And O how well have they redeem'd their precious time that have secured their never-dying Souls Know this that assurance requires both diligence and perseverance therefore you must be constant in the use of means and lay hold on every opportunity of enjoying the Gospel This your Lord commendeth in Mary calling her attendance on the Word preached a chusing the good part Luke 10. 42. There you will taste the Chrystal streams and view the golden Mines of sound Doctrine and Wells of Salvation This is the place of spiritual wonders where the Dead are raised the Lepers cleansed the eyes of the Blind opened and the Devils ejected Gospel Ordinances are the Golden galleries where the King of glory Walketh The Bed where immortal souls are begotton unto God and in which the broken hearts do travel till Christ be formed in them Through these Golden Pipes the Water of Life is poured out upon thirsty panting souls for the chearing of their spirits Here is the Doctrine preach'd and words whereby thou must be saved Acts 10. Here Christs Mother found him it being the place where the Bridegoom and the Bride meet and solace themselves together Do not forsake the solemn Assemblies remember what Thomas lost by being absent when Christ came O come to the Posts of Wisdom's doors and with empty Pitchers set your selves under the Spouts of the Sanctuary 'T is upon these waters the Angel moves and souls are healed This is the School where all Gods children are taught of God and instructed unto the Kingdom of heaven 3. By improving the present means of Grace for your speedy growth in Grace that so the grain of Mustard-seed might become a great Tree Math. 13. 52. The Christian course is compared to a Race a walk to the morning light 1 Cor. 9. 24. Rom. 8. 1. and therefore you must go on and be progressive whilst you live Believers should be as greedy of grace as the men of the World are of gain because one grain of Grace is more worth then a house full of Gold yea better then Rubies You are compared to Stars to fruitful Trees planted by the Rivers of Water and you should glister and shine in this dark night of hellish profaneness and live down and convince this accusing debauched generation The Trees of the Lord should be full of sap Psal 104. 16. being grafted in the true Olive and under the sweet dews of Heaven you should flourish in the Courts of the Lord and bring forth fruit in old age Psal 92. 12 13 14. Christians keep your Lamps burning and hold on your way that the David of grace may wax stronger and stronger Make no stop but strain to get and keep before that you may win the prize Growth of Grace is required of the highest Gyants as well as the lowest Dwarf in Grace They say of the Crocodile he groweth as long as he liveth and when he ceaseth to grow he ceaseth to live How many poor creeping Christians are there who can hardly keep life and soul together being like the door upon the hinges Prov. 26. 14. and why but because they are come to a pitch and past growth as soon as sprung up above ground If there be the truth of grace there will be an endeavour after the strength of grace where is life there is growth 2 Pet. 2. 2. The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4. 18. Sirs up and be doing press toward the mark add to your faith vertue to vertue knowledge to knowledge temperance to tempirance patience to patience Godliness that ye be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Be ye therefore stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord. And if you do these things you shall never fall 1 Cor. 15. vers last 2 Pet. 1. 5 6 7 1. 4. By doing all the good we can to others while we have opportunity As we have therefore opportunity let us do good unto all men Hereby we imitate that character of divine goodness Ps 116. 88. Thou art good and dost good Let every one please his neighbour for his good to edification Rom. 15. 2. These four ways ye must do good to others 1. First This must be done especially in your Familiesâ— to them that are more immediately under your charge and for whom you must shortly give an account to the dreadful Judge of quick and dead If Christ be come to thy heart Let Religion be set up in thy house without delay If thou art really gracious be relatively good seeking the profit of many that they may be saved 1 Cor. 13. 33 Sirs if you would not be guilty of soul-blood soul-murther resolve to set up the worship of God in your Families and let Family-work stoop to Family-worship Endeavour to teach thy children and servants to know obey and serve the Lord who is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him If you are the Children of saithful Abraham do as he did and walk in his path John 8. 39. The holy heart-searching God witnesseth of Abraham Gen. 18. 19. I know him that he will command his Children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord. 'T is a great trust to have the care and charge of souls therefore let not your Children and Servants live as they list but command them out of the way of sin which will certainly bring them to Hell O that Parents and Masters of Families would take up holy Joshua's resolution Josh 24. 14. As for me and my House we will serve the Lord. But on the contrary many seem as it were to have banish'd God and the practice of Piety out of their houses as
Eternity O let not London nor England forget that and other tremendous judgments which our sins have called for lest a worse then any yet should come upon us The forgetting of our latter end is a deadly and provoking sin and that which will hasten judgement Her filthiness it in her skirts she remembred not her last and therefore she came down wonderfully she had no comforter Lam. 1. 9. 8. Consider That where death cometh to strike the stroake your souls are stated your Eternity is cast without change for ever Then your immortal souls are for salvation or damnation for an eternal life or eternal death for an eternal heaven or an eternal hell You sadly besotted souls know and remember while you have a day before the golden threed of life be cut that if you be found without Christ Faith Repentance Holiness but a moment after death you are undone to Eternity After death all means and hopes fail there is no work or device in the grave Eccles 9. God will be then irreconcilable sin unpardonable heaven not attainable and your souls lost irrecoverably And then the Devil your bloody adversary will have his designe upon you he knoweth that if you be his in life and death that you are his forever and that he and you shall never part Sinners this is certain as the tree falleth so it lyeth as is the seed so will be the harvest if you do the Devils work you must have the devils wages if you march under the command and conduct of the Prince of Darkness and suffer him to lead and hurry you hither and thither at his will whil'st you live you will be his prisoners and slaves in that dreadful dungeon of dismal darkness after you are dead Consider the Land of darkness is no place for service there 's no repenting in the grave no Lord have mercy on us written upon Hell Gates no Sabbaths no Sermons no Ministers there 'T is in the time of life that you are to labour and make preparation for life eternal because according to your work and choice in this world will be your everlasting lot in the world that is to come It is appointed for you once to dye and after death the judgement Heb. 9. 7. The pale horse death goeth before and hell followeth after Rev. 6. 8. there will be no change of your condition the eternal ruine or eternal welfare of your precious souls depends on those few minutes this swift stream of mans life after it once turneth or declineth ever runneth with a perpetual ebb never floweth again so that all that you leave undone now will be undone for ever If you die unbeleivers you will be unbeleivers for ever if you dye under the guilt and power of sin and wrath of God you will remain under the guilt of sin and wrath of God for ever but if you dye holy humble mortified sincere souls you will remain holy heavenly and in the favour of God for ever Rev. 21. He that is filthy will be filthy still and he that is holy will be holy still but the inpenitent unpardoned sinner though he live a hundred or a thousand years in satisfying his lust will be accurst at last Poor sinners that read this little Treatise let me beg you to up and be doing while it is day the night will come wherein you not no man can work John 9. 4. Then to your work with might and main while your candle is burning your Sun shining will you yet loiter and see your glass running your Sun setting your selves dying and your souls perishing O seek the Lord while he may be found Isa 55. 5. in an acceptable time 2 Cor. 6. 2. before the day pass as the chaff before the decree bring forth before the evil day cometh before they that look out of the windows be dark and the keepers of the house begin to tremble before the doors be shut in the streets and the silver cord be loosed or the Pitcher broken at the fountain before you are gone to your long home and the spirit return'd to God that gave it Consider with your selves are your fit to grapple with this mighty Monarch death are you fraughted for this long Voyage and ready and willing to pass through this dark Entry take heed and feare lest you be found unfit Think on the sadly deluded Virgins that had their Oyl to buy when their Lamps should burn and so came to the door but found it shut think upon poor Esan that was hunting for Vienson while he lost the blessing Poor perishing souls what do you intend to do if you will work it must be now or never Are you resolved to seek and secure the Kingdome of God first Mat. 6. 23. whilst it is called to day or will you bestow nothing but dregs and snuffs of rotten old age upon God and your immortal souls O that you might know in this your day the things which belong to your Peace before they be hid from your eyes 9. Lastly consider That it is the most dreadful and amazing sight on this side hell to see a Christless unbeleiver breathing out his last There are other sad sights viz. to see a man starving for want of bread or dying for want of a physitian or drowning for want of a boat or to see a man dead a dead corps a body without a soul but ah how sad and astonishing a spectacle is it to see a man near the coasts of Eternity viz. to behold a wretched sinner in his cold sweats and dying groanes with his precious immortal soul standing on his pale cold quivering lips and death the great Conqueror and the King of terrors marching furiously with his Writ of remove in one hand not to be reverst and his deadly dart and sting in the other hand conscience on the rack barking biting and tearing him like a Lyon the Devil Gods Executioner looking on and standing by the heart under dejecting and sinking despair the eyes dim and fixed his heart-strings ready to break with anguish his Wife Children Friends at the bed-side weeping sighing crying wringing their hands beating their breasts the Wife crying out alas my Husband the Child crying out alas my Father The poor perishing soul all this while looking backward upon his mispent time and by-past sins inward upon his own heart a dreadful sight where he seeth no Christ no grace no purity nothing but sin guilt death darkness Then looking upward to that God that hath been provoked to that Christ that hath been rejected to that Heaven and Eternity that he hath lost and looking down-ward to that dark and dreadful pit that must be his place and portion with a fearful looking for of judgement seeing the Devils come and ready to seiz upon him O what a dreadful out-cry and shriek will the soul make when it departs perceiving it self sinking down down to the burning lake and bottomless pit where he must take up his lodging with devouring