dealt so graciously with thee as to transfer the Punishment from thee upon his Son and so bountifully with thee as to give his own Son for thee and to thee O bless and praise God by studying to do such good Works as may provoke others to bless and glorify him And when you come home from the publick Ordinance take heed you do not entangle your selves with Businesses or Recreations which have as much Power to render the publick Duties ineffectual after as before their Performarsce But carefully spend that which is not Church-time in Meditation Praier Reading savoury Speeches heavenly Discourses and the conscionable Performance of such Duties as tend to your own and others Edification Let Magistrates redeem the Lord's-day by personally frequenting open owning and countenancing the publick Worship of God and Ordinances of Christ and by improving the utmost of their Power for the Glory of God and Honour of Religion in the zealous Prevention or speedy Reformation of the horrid Prosanation of the Lord's-day and vigorous promoting the general Sanctification of it out of serious Consideration and a strong Conviction that the Preservation and Continuance of Religion doth much depend upon the due Observation of the Lord's-day And that a Disesteem and Neglect of the Sanctification of that Day does quickly cause a lamentable Decay of Christian Piety and hasten the infliction of [s] It is somewhat remarkable and not altogether to be neglected that even in this Nation upon the publick Allowance of Sports and Recreations upon the Lord's-day which is our Christian Sabbath Civil and bloody VVars and Ruin of the Royal Family should so shortly follow and that the Hand of God should be most against those who by VVriting VVords or Practice had maintained the lawfulness of that Doctrine Lawson's Theo-Polit p. 181. fearful Judgments upon a Land and Nation Let them do this in imitation of the brave and holy-spirited * Nehem. 13. from 15. to 22. Nehemiah who testified against and contended with the notorious Profaners and Violators of the Sabbath-day and would not suffer the open selling of Victuals and Wares the trading with Commodities and carrying of Burthens and doing the servil Works of their ordinary Callings on that Day Did not your Fathers thus saies he and did not our God bring all this Evil upon us and upon this City yet ye bring more Wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath Let Magistrates see to the Observation and look to the Sanctification of this Day and so become the happy Instruments and blessed Means of the subsisting and flourishing of Religion in the World of keeping up in the Minds and Hearts of Men a Sense of God a Sense of Sin a Sense of Duty to God and Man a Sense or believing Apprehension of a certain Reward or Punishment a Sense of Heaven and Hell a Sense of Eternity of begetting and preserving a Tenderness and Quickness in Men's Consciences which are apt to be roused and awakened under every Ordinance of maintaining the Life of Religion and the Power of Godliness of upholding the outward Worship and Service of God and heightning and increasing the inward Honour and hearty Love and Fear of him All which depend in a great measure upon Magistrates securing what lies in them the due and sacred Observation of the Lord's-day Let Ministers redeem the Lord's-day not by composing their Sermons or committing them to their Memories on that Day which Toil and Task is fitter to be the Labour of other Daies but by striving to work their Sermons and Discourses upon their own and others Hearts and Consciences Let them spend that Day in [u] Dexteriùs loquentur cum hominibus qui priùs totá mente cum Deo fuerint collocuti Erasm wrestling with God in secret for Assistance in and a Blessing upon their publick Employment In first confessing their own Sins in their private Closets and in begging divine Gifts and Graces to make them able Ministers of the New Testament in setting right their aims and ends in all their Exercises and Undertakings and in imploring the special spiritual gracious powerful Presence of God with his own Ordinances And then in humbly consessing the Sins of the People in the publick Congregation in earnestly praying for their Souls and praising God for his wonderful Mercies in the Mediator for the happy Restauration of sinful and miserable Mankind and the Communications of himself to the lost World by Jesus Christ In propounding and pressing the most sound and solid Reasons the most convincing cogent Arguments to engage them to their Duties and in giving with the greatest Expression of Affection the most proper Directions and seasonable Counsels to guide them in the Way to Heaven And Let the People redeem the Lord's-day by privately reading or hearing read some Part and Portion of Scripture which would season their Hearts and make them more teachable when they hear the Word publickly read or preach'd By praying for themselves to the Shepherd and Bishop of their Souls and by praying for their Minister to the chief Shepherd that Shepherd both of Shepherd and Sheep of Pastor and People that great Prophet and Teacher of his Church that he would teach their Teacher instruct their Instructor and so lead and guid him by his Word and Spirit that he may safely conduct them by sound and seasonable Doctrine and winning Example in the Way everlasting Yea Let them redeem the lord's-Lord's-day by attending on the Lord without Distractions by joining in the publick Prayers by being present at publick Baptism that they themselves may be minded and remembred of their own Baptismal Vow and Covenant By worthy and frequent receiving the holy Communion of the body and Blood of Christ By diligent hearing the Word preacht By serious Meditation on it and conscionable Practice of it and by charging themselves and humbly desiring God to help them to walk worthy continually of the Means Mercies and Priviledges they enjoy By maintaining heart-warning Conference By charitable Visitation of and Ministration of seasonable suitable Counsel and Comfort to any sick and weak afflicted or distressed Persons By acknowledging all their Offences to God and Amendment of the same and by endeavouring heartily to reconcile themselves charitably to their Neighbours where any Difference or Displeasure has been You that are Masters and Governours of Families redeem the lord's-Lord's-day for your selves and cause your Families to redeem it The Lord of the Sabbath commandeth that thou and thy Son and thy Daughter thy Man-servant thy Maid-servant and all within thy Gate keep that Day holy Set not suffer not your Servants to work nor your Children or Servants to play on this Day Be as much ashamed to see your Child or Servant steal and take God's Time to themselves as you would be to find them pilfering or stealing from your Neighbour You can keep your Servants close to your own work all the Week-daies See that they neglect not the Work of God on the Lord's-day
go in the Strength of the Lord and work out your Salvation with fear and trembling 3. Take heed of the Prophanation and beware of a partial formal observation of the Lord's-Day Where it is partial it is likely to be formal Read attentively and frequently the earnest Exhortation to a thorough Redemption of the Lord's-Day Chap. 2. pag. 32 to 73. There you are inform'd that a due Redemption of the whole Lord's-Day is the way to redeem all other Days to the greatest Advantage * See p. 66 67. as to Spirituals and as to Temporols too And in reference to this latter I shall here confirm what is said there by proposing the Experience and producing the notable considerable Testimony of a wise and learned a great and very good Man the worthily renowned late Chief Justice Hale who was as Seneca says of good Men natus ad exemplar born to be an Example to others In a short Discourse of his about Redemption of Time I find these Words [m] Sir Mat. Hale's Contempl. Mor. and Div. 1 Part pag. 258 259. Be sure says he to spend the Lord's-Day intirely in those Religious Duties proper to it and let nothing but an inevitable Necessity divert you from it It is that which will sanctify and prosper all the rest of your Time and your secular Employments I am not apt to be superstitious says he but this I have certainly and infallibly found true that by my deportment in my Duty towards God in the Times devoted to his Service especially on the Lord's-Day I could make a certain conjecture of my success in my Secular Occasions the rest of the Week after If I were loose and negligent in the former the latter never succeeded well if strict and conscientious and watchful in the former I was successful and prosperous in the latter And again in a Godly Letter to his Children * Gal. 4.19 of whom he travail'd in birth that Christ might be formed in them he freely opens his mind in these remarkable Words to them [n] In his Directions for keeping the Lord's-Day in a Letter to his Children Ibid. p. 324. I now write something to you says he of your observation of the Lord's-Day because I find in the World much Looseness and Apostacy from this Duty People begin to be cold and careless in it allowing themselves Sports and Recreations and Secular Imployments in it without any necessity which is a sad spectacle and an ill presage And he there makes this Profession and Declaration to them I have found by a strict and diligent Observation that a due Observation of the Duties of this Day has ever had joined to it a Blessing upon the rest of my time and the Week that has been so begun has been blessed and prosperous to me And on the other side when I have been neglignet of the Duties of this Day the rest of the Week has been unsuccessful and unhappy to my own Secular Imployments so that I could easily make an estimate of my successes in my own Secular Imployments the Week following by the manner of my passing of this Day And this I do not write lightly or inconsiderately but upon a long and sound Observation and Experience You see how this was much upon his Heart and how ready he was to remark this upon all Occasions 4. Let me charge and press it upon your Consciences that on a lord's-Lord's-Day you would be so kind and charitable so true and faithful to your Souls as not to lose the Season of a Sacrament if you can by any means redeem it Let none among you live in a sinful shameful Disuse and an unwarrantable inexcusable Neglect of the holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Let me solemnly invite you in the moving pathetical Words of the devout Herbert [o] The Invitation Come ye hither all whose taste Is your waste Save your cost and mend your fare God is here prepar'd and drest And the Feast God in whom all dainties are I do not call you to a Prophanation but to a worthy Participation of this sacred Ordinance They that do customarily live unholily must needs receive unworthily Are they fit to partake of the Lord's Supper who allow themselves in the Love and Practice of any known Sin Are they dispos'd to eat Christ's Flesh who will not abstain from fleshly Lusts but usually walk after the Flesh Are they prepar'd to drink Christ's Blood who commonly drink in Iniquity like Water and frequently drown themselves and others in Drink Are they that walk unworthy of their Baptism in a condition to venture upon the holy Communion I invite you to all that is duly previous and preparatory to the Duty and to a right and requisite manner of the performance of it Come but take God along with you whenever you intend to come By the help of God you may receive this Sacrament as you ought Excuse not your Aâ—stinence and Forbearance by pretending your Vnfitness but set your selves in good earnest with an honest willing resolved Mind under God to fit your selves and you shall quickly find that God will readily assist and enable you promote and further you in the way of your Duty Come but competently understand the nature and ends of this Ordinance and impartially try and examine your selves before you come Come with a hearty willingness to part with your Sins for him who lost his Blood and laid down his Life for you and with a firm Resolution to live to him that died for you Labour by habitual Devotedness to God and by continual circumspect walking and holy living to be in a general disposition for worthy Receiving A well-ordered Conversation is the best Preparation for the Communion and will most certainly make all other Preparations more easy Come for I tell you plainly it is not at your own liberty and choice to come or keep away There is a special Mandate for your coming * Luke 22.19 1 Cor. 11.24 25. This do in remembrance of me says Christ. He does not only simply allow or barely recommend it to his Church but as a Lawgiver strictly commands and requires it and as a dying Testator orders and enjoins the Observance of it Christ says as clearly and expresly Do this as God in any Precept of the Decalogue says Thou shalt not do this Now the Law of Christ should be more forcible and prevalent with you than any Statute or Law of the Land to accelerate the Practice of this Duty There is as much Danger in an unworthy Refusing this Sacrament as there is in an unworthy Receiving it You can go for no more than Half-Christians if you totally abstain from this Ordinance which is equally with the reception of the Sacrament of Baptism a Badg and Cognizance Note and Character of your Discipleship an Evidence and Demonstration Sign and Expression Token and Testimony of your Profession of Christianity To live in a constant Neglect of this Sacrament is a manifest
though the Apostles preached and celebrated the Lord's Supper on other Dates of the Week yet why are the4se Things mentioned as done on that Day particularly and remarkably unless it were for some singular Eminency of this above any other Day and because they were bound to do those Duties on this Day more than on any other And the Apostle gave express Order that †1 Cor. 16. 1 2. the Collection for the Saints a Work especially fit for a Sabbath-Day should be made particularly on the first Day that is [d] Beza in loc every first Day of the Week which was the fore-ordain'd and customary Day of the Christian religious Church Assemblies Vpon or [e] Bp. of VV. Opuse Speech against Mr. Trask p. 73. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the VVord is used Mark 15.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sense is against the Feast against the first Day of the Week every Person was to lay apart what God should move and encline him to offer The Preparation and Separation of it was to be at home every Week but the Collation and Contribution to be in the Publick Congregation every Lord's Day For [f] Hammond's Par. it was not reasonable for any to come to the Lord * Exod. 23.15 Deut. 16.16 empty upon the Day of the most solemn Christian Assembly And this Day was appointed for the Oblation of their Alms because of the inestimable Benefits and infinite good Things we this Day had bestowed upon us And the Church of Christ has constantly observ'd this high Day ever since the Apostles Daies and spent it in Reading Exhortation Praier Sacraments [g] Si die Solis laetitiae indulgemus alia longe ratione quà m religione Solis secundo loco ab eis sumus qui diem Saturni otto victus â—ecernunt exorbitantes ipsi à Judaico more quem ignorant Tertul. Apol. c. 16 The Primitive Christians were suspected to worship the Sun because they used to celebrate the Sunday It was an [h] Bp. of VV. Speech in the Star-Chamber Opusc p. 74. usual Question put of old by the Heathen to the Christians before ever they offer'd to torture and martyr them Num Dominicum servasti Did you keep the Lord's Day To which they answer'd Christianus sum intermittere non possum I am a Christian and dare not omit or give over the Observation of it This is a Day in which God is to be solemnly worshipped and served and Christ to be pbulickly magnified and glorified A special Season to be laid hold on a particular Opportunity to be improved for our Soul's Good This is a special Day of Grace in which as I may say the Mint is going and in which we may take our Stamp of Holinefs [i] VVhole duty of man Partit 2. sect 18. This is the gainfullest the joyfullest Day of the Week a Day of Harvest wherein we are to lay up in store for the whole Week nay for our whole Lives This is a Market-day for our Souls in which we may trade for Eternity This is a Day in which we may hear and understand the Things that belong unto our Peace Pious and pathetical is that of the divine and holy Mr. Herbert Sunday O Day most calm most bright The Week were dark but for thy Light Thy Torch doth show the way Sundaies They are the fruitful Beds and Borders In God's rich Garden that is bare Which parts their Ranks and Orders On Sunday Heaven's Gate stands ope Blessings are plentiful and rife More plentiful than Hope This is a Day in which the most precious Commodities that ever the World saw or heard of are set forth in which the Riches and Treasures of the Gospel are opened Christ himself offered his Merit and Spirit tendred Pardon and Grace Light and Life Strength and Comfort held out and exhibited This is a Day in which no Pandora's Box is opened but in which the Cabinet of God's Jewels is unlocked and his precious Gifts and Graces dispensed This is a Day in which a spiritual Mart a divine Fair is publickly kept in which with the wise Virgins we may buy Oil for our Lamps buy spiritual Eye-salve to anoint our Eyes that we may see as our Saviour counsels excellently buy the Truth as the wise Man advises us and be perswaded so well to like it as never to sell or part with it buy Wine and Milk and Bread to fill and satisfy our empty hungry and thirsty Souls buy white Rainment that we may be clothed and that the Shame of our Nakedness may not appear buy the Christian 's compleat Armour that we may be furnished for our Warfare and well provided against the Assaults of our Spiritual Enemies buy Gold tried in the Fire that we may be rich yea in which we may buy the Pearl of Price in which we may receive and lay hold on Christ and all his Benefits and embrace and apply the great and precious Promises of the Gospel This is a Day in which the Word of God's Grace is opened and applyed and the holy Sacraments the Seals of the Covenant frequently administred in which we have the Priviledg of hearing God speaking unto Sinners and wooing and beseeching Rebels to be reconciled and in which we may enjoy the glorious Liberty of speaking our selves to God with an holy Boldness at the Throne of Grace and pouring out with one Accord our Supplications and Souls in Praier to him This is a Day of solemn Rest from servile Offices and worldly Works A Time of drawing nigh to God and of meeting the Lord in his own Ordinances of joining with the Saints and Servants of God in the Worship of God in Praiers to God and the Praises of him of having Communion and Fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ through the blessed Spirit and of enjoying a kind of Heaven here upon Earth The Lord's Day you see is a special Season of Grace and Mercy O let 's be spiritually thrifty of this Opportunity Let 's not live as if we were of the same Mind with the modern carnal Jews who think as the learned [k] Tempore Sabbati matutino non tam citò quà m solent alias cubitu surgentes in lucem multam voluptatis certè magis quà m Sabbati debitè colendi causâ stertunt Quantò enim voluptatis isti plus percipiunt tantò se devotrùs Sabbatum colere statuunt Buxtorf Synag Judaic c. 11. initio Buxtorf tells us that sleeping excessively on their Sabbath is a great Honour dòne to God Let 's not content our selves with an idle Rest Let our Rest be the Rest [l] Lawson's Theo-Pol p. 179. of Men and not of Beasts and the Rest of holy Men as holy Let 's not only cease from secular Works but exercise our rational and spiritual Faculties in heavenly and divine Employments and set our selves to Works of Piety Charity and Mercy Let us redeem this Time out of the Hands of
many and great Mercies of God towards you and yours and all Mankind are you bound to recount and to be affected with on this Day Ought you not still on this Day to remember and consider and solemnly and heartily to bless God and Christ for the capital Mercies of Creation and Redemption and for the gracious seasonable Sending of the Holy Ghost and to spend some Time in speaking highly and honourably of these Benefits to the Praise of your Maker and Glory of your Redeemer Are not you ignorant of many Things in which you ought to be informed and have not you need then to spend some Part of the Lord's-day in reading the Bible and some select Books of sound Divinity in hearing the Word preach'd and in Conference with godly understanding and well-experienced Christians Are you not too great Strangers to God and your selves and have not you need then to improve some Portion of this Seasonn in Meditation and Self-examination that you may get more Acquaintance with God and your own Hearts Have not you the Sins of the whole Week past to confess to God in secret and to beg the Pardon of every Lord's-day when you have leisure from your bodily Labour is it not fit you should take some pains in conquering the Corruptions and mortisying the Lusts of your own Hearts and in wrestling with God in Praier for his Strength and Grace Can you idle away your Time and take your Pleasure on the Lord's-day when you have Families to inform and Children and Servants to catechize and instruct Let your Consciences tell me whether it be better on the Lord's-day to spend your Time in unnecessary Divertisements in fruitless Visitations in vain and frothy Discourses to talk freely together of worldly Businesses to judg the Preacher to censure your Christian Neighbour Or to commune with your selves and to labour to edify your own Families To teach your Children the Doctrine of Adam's Fall and of the Redemption wrought by Christ To acquaint them what Sin and Corruption they brought with them into the World and how they have encreased it since they came into the World That the Wages of Sin is Death To tell them what Christ has done and suffered to free and deliver them from Sin and Death and what they must do to be capable of partaking of Christ's saving Benefits To ground your Servants in the Principles of Religion To take account what they remember of the Sermons they heard that Day and to examine how they have profited by the publick Ordinances You see what a great deal of Work you have to do and what a little Time you have to do it in You have but one whole Day in seven It concerns you then to be very saving of this whole Day [c] Quicunque hisee sacris ita seriò se excicent ut ipsorum familiae necessitas plani postulat locum nullum relictum esse quaestioni ists carn â—liter de larantium invenient An licitum sit die Dominâ—co aut oftari aut ludere aut epu is aut inanabus aut mundanis non planè necessariis tempus sacrum conterere Et qui serpsum alaos werè novit ut diei negotia commoda oblata verbo divino de rebus sparitio libus aeternis verè credit ipsius altorum ex vera necessitate ut â—â—â—tate interesse percepiet diem totum quantùm fieri potest in sacris colocare neque frustra sine fruge horae moment um essluere sinet Neque niâ—â—ges quaestionem movebit An liceat ludis vel aliis manibus ad perdere quà m An laceat sanguinent sâ—um inaniter fundere aurum oblasum respâ—ere in canum projicere Carnalis quippe pe animus sui rerum spiritualium ignarus disputationum talium author est plerumque promus-condus Baxter Method Theol. part 3 c. 14. P. 172. To be as far from disputing whether it be not lawful to use Recreations and Sports on some Part of it or to employ some Hours of it in any unnecessary worldly Businesses as from putting the Question Whether it be not lawful vainly to spill your own Blood or to make a refusal of Gold that is offer'd you and to cast it contemtuously into the Dirt. 'T will but little avail you to make the utmost worldly Advantage of all the other six Daies if you make not a sufficient spiritual Improvement of this which is more considerable than all the rest What would it profit you if as God made the World in six Daies so you could gain the whole World by working hard the six Daies if by gross neglect of the Lord's-day you at last lost your own Souls The Church of England in her pious and useful Homily of the Time and Place of Praier declares that in the fourth Commandment God has given express Charge that his obedient People should use our [d] And truly it is strange that some who have a dearness yea fondness for some VVords of Jewish Extraction Altar Temple and the like should have such an Antipa by against the Sabbath Fuller's Church-Hiâ—â— B. 11. p. 144. Sabbath-day which is now our Sunday holily and rest from their common and daily Businesses and also give themselves wholly to heavenly Exercises of God's true Religion and Service And in his Majestie 's Royal Proclamation for the Observation of the Lord's-day all his Majestie 's Subjects are bid to take notice that by the Law the resorting to divine Service enjoined on that Day does comprehend the entire Day and entire Service both Morning and Evening Yea every lord's-Lord's-day Morning you your selves make this open Confession and publick Praier in the Congregation after the Reading of the fourth Commandment Lord have Mercy upon us and encline our Hearts to keep this Law As much as to say Lord we acknowledg we have neglected this thy Day We pray thee pardon all our unchristian Sabbath-breaking for the Time past and give us Grace to observe the Christian Sabbath better for the future Now will you confess in the Fore-noon and transgress in the After-noon Will you beg pardon in the Morning and sin again the very same Sin before Night Will you open your Mouths to ask God's Grace to sanctify and keep holy the Sabbath-day and it may be profane it in a graceless manner as soon as you are out of the Congregation If the Lord's-day ought to be observed at all it is to be kept both Parts of the Day And for those that commonly stay away in the After-noon I would ask them what their Employment is at home in the mean Time Do not some of them spend the After-noon in sleeping or walking or talking or drinking or gaming while others are jointly confessing and praying and praising and hearing If God requires a Day is this to sanctify a Day to the Lord to worship God in the Morning and to dishonour God and serve the Devil and divers Lusts in the Afternoon
and delightful Communion with God to exercise thy Graces in this holy Duty and to feel thy Heart warm'd and inflam'd and thy Soul refresh'd and repair'd before thou departest out of God's Presence To [e] Oratio clavis diei sera nâ—ctis begin and end with God every Day to be with the Lord first and last to call upon God Morning and Evening In the Morning to praise him for the Mercies of the Night past to ask Wisdome of God to order our Conversation aright to beg his Favour Presence Guidance Spirit Grace and Strength his Protection of us his * Psal 90 17. Beauty on glorious Blessing upon us and his establishing and [f] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pythag Aur. Cam. prospering the Works both of our Heads and Hands the whole Day following And in the Evening to bless and praise God for the Mercies and Favours of the Day past to confess our Faults and Failings in it and so to lie down with no heavy Guilt of any unrepented Sin lying upon us To pray for the hPardon and Healing of the Miscarriages of that Day and to commit our selves and ours to the Divine Keeping the Night following beseeching God to prevent any sinful Dreams which might proceed from the Corruption of our Natures and Constitutions Hearts and Imaginations Conversations and Actions and to spiritualize and sanctify our Thoughts and Cogitations in the vacant Spaces and broken Hours of our Sleep To keep and maintain the set Times of personal secret Closet-Prayer and the stated Times of Oeconomical Houshold Family-Prayer this is a well-spending so much of our Time as is employed in that Duty and this is the right and ready way to redeem and improve every Day to the Honour and Glory of God and to our own and others Profit and Benefit Satisfaction and Comfort This is a likely hopeful good way to prevent or remove Miscarriages in our selves and Disorders in our Families to keep every Member of our Family in their Station and Duty to season them all with a religious Fear and high Respect to God and his Waies and to train and bring up Children and Servants to a competent Ability to express their Desires in Prayer to God for themselves and others to teach our Servants with * Gen. 24.12 Eliezar Abraham's good oand faithful Servant to follow their earthly Master's Business with hearty Prayers to their heavenly Master for a Blessing upon it Be careful and diligent wise and prudent to redeem Time for Prayer that you may redeem Time by Prayer Find Time sufficient to work this Work of God and so to workout your own Salvation as well as to follow the Works and Businesses of your particular Callings to attend and wait upon God in Prayer as well as to wait upon your Customers and to attend your secular Occasions and Concerns Let not worldly Cares and civil or domestick Affairs hinder and divert thee from due Performance of Prayer in thy Family and in thy private Closet Though David had the Care of the Kingly Government upon him yet his usual Course and Practice was to pray to God †Psal 55.17 Evening and Morning and at Noon yea ‖ 119.154 seven times a day did he praise God as he himselfe professes If he did not exactly and punctually observe so many Hours but a certain Number is put here for an uncertain yet the meaning must be that he did it very often Love sweetned the Duty to him and caused him to praise God * Ps 71.14 more and more to be nover weary of praising him here as knowing that it would be his sole Employment to praise him hereafter for evermore Though Daniel was deeply engag'd in Publick Business and State Affairs yet he took not any Occasion from these to neglect his daily Duty and wonted Service to his God He kept his former Course and Order for every day and constantly †Dan. 6.10 three Times a Day he kneeled upon his Knees and prayed and gave thanks before his God though he knew he hazarded his high Preferment and endanger'd his very Life by it So Cornelius a Centurion taken up with many Martial Occasions yet suffer'd not himself to be taken off from his Devotion thereby but ‖ Acts 10.2 prayed to God alway He did not do it only by fits but daily and constantly observ'd his usual Seasons It is reported of the famous [g] In the Serm. preached at his Fun. at the end of his Sermons p. 21. Bp. Andrews that though he had many weighty Employments as Bishop of Winchester and Privy Counsellor yet his Life was a Life of Prayer and a great part of five Hours every day did he spend in Prayer and Devotion to God The holy and excellent [h] His Life written by Dr. Bernard p. 58. Bp. Vsher had Prayer in his Family four times a day In the Morning at six in the Evening at eight and before Dinner and Supper in the Chappel at each of which he was alwaies present [i] His Life written by Mr. Clark Mr. William Whately Minister of Banbury had much Work lying upon him continually catechising and preaching twice every Lord's-day and a weekly Lecture besides well studying and usually penning his Sermons at large and yet his constant Practice was besides Family-Prayer twice a day and sometimes catechizing to pray also with his Wife and alone both Morning and Evening And with what shew of Reason can any of you excuse your selves Have you Time to eat and drink and sleep and not only to labour and works but to play and sport Leisure to recreate your selves and visit your Friends and take your pleasure a Spare-Hour to spend in discourse and it may be to waste in empty and idle talk with another Have you Time to do nothing Time to do Evil and have you no Time to serve and worship God in your Families no Time for religious Retirements and hidden Repairs to God in your privy Chambers and secret Closets Have you so many Sins and Wants Corruptions and Temptations and can no Time be spared and set apart to seek God for the Pardon of your Sins and the Supply of all your spiritual Wants and to pray to him for Strength and Power to mortify the Corruptious with which you are infested and to resist the Temptations with which you are assaulted 2. We should moreover betake our selves to solemn continued Prayer when we have Place and Space for such a Duty upon the Emergency of any weighty important Business or on any special extraordinary occurrent and urgent Occasion to beg of God the prudent Conduct of our Affairs Success in and a Blessing upon our lawful and honest Undertakings Strength to go through Trials Afflictions and Temptations Freedom and Deliverance from Evils and Sufferings felt or feared or to return God thanks for the receit of his Mercies in any such particulars and to engage our selves to walk answerably and to
Care for the things of the World on the other side these or such things as these have got the Possession of our Time at present or at least are ready to seise and lay hold upon it Now we should not suffer them to engross it but by all means strive to keep it out or else to recover it out of their hands that we may make a special Use and Benefit of it Our Time must be gain'd out of the hand of the World yea out of the hand of the very Devil who is continually busie to get Possession of it Since the World is so corrupt the Devil seems saies [r] Calvin in loc Calvin to exercise such a Tyranny that our Time cannot be consecrated and devoted to God unless it be after a sort redeemed 4. The learned [s] Annotat on Ephes 5. not e Dr. Hammond saies that the Phrase of Redeeming the Time of gaining or buying the Season seems to be a Proverbial Expression which use had made to signify more than the very Letter of the Words imported and he produceth several Instances out of Authors from which he gathers that the meaning of redeeming or buying out or gaining the Time is this for Christians to use good Caution and Cunning Wisdom and Dexterity to save themselves from Spiritual Dangers and the Snares that are near their Souls to use all prudent artificial Devices to preserve themselves from the evil Time in which they live Times of carnal Sensuality and high Corruption and so of great Temptation and present Danger to their Souls Besides this primary meaning of the Phrase he saies it may be applied also to that other Prudence for avoiding of Persecutions as those are expressed in Scripture by evil Daies not to throw our selves upon Dangers unseasonably where there is no probable Advantage in our Prospect but to speak and exhort when it is likely to prosper and at other Times to refrain And this saies he may properly be styled gaining the Time watching Opportunities and when interposing would prove gainless then to hold the peace and expect some fitter Season And in this latter Sense the most learned [t] Grotius in loc Grotius expounds the Phrase Redeem the Time saies he that is by any Pains and Labour and by all fair Language and respective Speeches and innocent condescending Carriages avoid the Dangers of the Times you live in and lengthen out your own Tranquillity Thus I have opened the First Term and shewn you what is meant by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commonly translated redeeming the Time The Phrase may signify these four Things to buy back the Time that is past to buy up the Time that is present that is to forgo and part with any thing for it and so to make it our own and use it for our spiritual and eternal Advantage Again not only to buy it up but to buy it out to get it out of the hands of the Devil and the World and the distracting Cares and tempting Pleasures of it And lastly to use all Wariness and Wisdom of Behaviour all prudent and pious Arts to secure our selves from Snares and to preserve our selves from spiritual Dangers and from running rashly and unseasonably into any temporal Suffering and Calamity CHAP. II. What the Time is that ought to be redeemed largely explained Opportunity more than Time 't is Time with an Aptness and Fitness it has for some good The Opportunity to be redeemed is either General or Particular The General is all the Time of our Enjoyment of the glorious Light of the blessed Gospel The Particular Opportunity five-fold 1. The Morning of our Age. The well-redeeming your younger Daies will be most acceptable to God will make you more serviceable to others and prove most profitable to your selves They that redeem the Time of their Youth are likely to redeem their riper Years Instances of those that have redeemed their youthful Daies 2. The Morning of the Week the first Day of every Week Magistrates Ministers People Masters and Servants Poor and Rich should study to redeem this Opportunity and take heed they redeem it not by halves Our Observation of the Lord's Day a good help to the Redeeming of all the six Daies following both as to Temporals and as to Spirituals 3. The Morning of every Day that 's an Opportunity of giving God the first and best of our Time by redeeming the Morning we are likely to redeem the whole Day following 4. The Society and Company of the most Religious and Godly in which we have an happy Occasion both of doing and of receiving good 5. The special Seasons of practising and performing Particular Duties of getting and encreasing acting and exercising Particular Graces must be observed embraced and improved by us II. WHat is the Time that is to be thus redeem'd What is meant here by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Word is sometimes used largely and indifferently to note Time in common which is only the Succession of so many Minutes Hours Daies or Years one after another from the Beginning of a Man's Life to the End thereof So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But most properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken in a narrower Sense than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is used to denote not Time simply but [a] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tempus actionis opportunum Graecè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latâ—nè appellatur Occasio Modestia ut prudentia est scientia opportunitatis idoneorum ad agendum temporum Cic. l. 1. de Ossic Vbique in opportunitate multum est situm plurimum prodest suo rem quamque facere tempore quemadmodum alieno eandem facere saepe etiam nocet Certè vel primum est prudentiae officium vel inter prima occasionem videre non praetermittere Crellius Eth. christ p. 33. Opportunity Time with Advantage Opportunity is the Cream of Time the Flower of Time And in this Sense we must take the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here in the Text not only for the passing away of Hours and sliding away of Minutes for the bare Space and mere Leisure of any thing but for proper Seasons fair Occasions good Hours and fit Opportunities Opportunity is Time with an Aptness and Fitness that it has for some good with a suitableness and serviceableness to our use and Advantage 't is a meeting of Time and means together for the accomplishing of our End and the effecting of any Work or Business Now Opportunity is either General or Particular The General Opportunity to be redeemed The whole Course of our Lives is a General Opportunity of doing and receiving good We are to look upon all our Time which we live under the glorious light of the blessed Gospel as an happy Opportunity of laying out our selves for God and for our own and others Advantage When God continues the Gospel among us when he daily calls us to Faith and Repentance
and eminently holy Mr. Joseph Allein that when but a School-Boy he was observed to be so studious that he was known as much by this Periphrasis the Lad that will not [p] Bibentibus colludentibus aliis ipse sumto libro iâ— sylvulam vicinam sese proripuit tantisper in illa vel ad legendum considens vâ—l ad meditandum deambulans donec ipsum hora coenae domum revocaret Melch. Adam in vit Musculi p. 369. Bishop Andrews from his first going to Merchant-Taylor's School accounted all that Time lost that he spent not in his Studies He studied so hard when others plaied that if his Parents and Masters had not forced him to play with them also all the Play had been marr'd His late studying by Candle and early rising at four in the Morning procured him Envy among his equals yea with the Ushers also because he called them up too soon The Serm preached at the Fun. of Bp. Andrews p. 17. play as by his Name And when in the University he so demeaned and carried himself that he deserved to be called the Scholar who by his good Will would do nothing else but pray and study Yea so early as about the eleventh Year of his Age he was noted to be very diligent in private Praier and so fixed in that Duty that he would not be disturbed or moved by the coming of any Person accidentally into the Places of his Retirement And 't is remarkable what is storied [q] Mr. James Janeway's token for Children p 30 35. of a young Child who died about five or six Years old that he would so beg and expostulate and weep in Praier that sometimes it could not be kept from the Ears of Neighbours so that one of the next House was forced to cry out The Praiers and Tears of that Child in the next House will sink me to Hell because the forward Piety and Devotion of the Child did reprove and condemn his neglect of Praier or his slight Performance of it And to what a Degree of good Understanding and holy Affection had [r] Mr. White 's little Book for little Children p. 106 107. that child of Mr. Owen the Minister arrived who was but about fourteen Years old when he died and in his Life time would often write very serious Godly Letters to his Brother which shewed his great Piety and happy improvement And how savourily and spiritually he exerCised himself in Meditation notably appear in this Instance that though he much delighted in young Lambs yet one Day his Mother bringing a Lamb newly fallen of an Ewe of his and shewing a little Displeasure that he should take no more notice of her bringing it to him He told her that as he saw the Lamb in her Arms he was thinking of the Lamb of God how he presented him to the Father and that the Lamb his Mother brought him was but a poor thing for him to rejoice in for he had far higher Matters for his Joy Some young ones have redeemed the Time of their Youth O do you so too Be able to say upon better Grounds than the young Man in the Gospel that all God's Commands you have kept from your Youth up The Time of Youth is a special Season of doing and receiving good That 's the first The second Particular Opportunity to be redeemed 2. As the Mâ—rning of our Age so the Morning of the Week the first Day of the Week is a special Time to be redeem'd Let this Day be religiously observed by us which was applied and consecrated separated and appropriated to sacred Uses and holy Offices by the blessed Apostles who were either commanded by Christ to do it when for forty Daies after his Resurrection he instructed the Apostles and * Acts i. 3. spake to them of the Things pertaining to the Kingdom of God Or having received the holy Ghost Christ's Agent or Advocate promised and sent to inspire their Minds to teach and shew them how to manage Affairs and order Matters relating to the Church were extraordinarily guided and divinely directed by the Spirit of Christ in this weighty Business of the Surrogation and Substitution of the first Day in the place of the Jewish seventh Day Sabbath which was partly a Ceremonial Rest and was joined with the Ceremonial Law [a] Lawson's Theo-Polit p. 182 183. the Services and Rites whereof were to be observed in the Tabernacle and Temple upon this Day and was a distinguishing Sign and Part of that Partition-wall whereby the Jews were separated from the Gentiles and was therefore fit to be now removed and laid aside And were moreover plainly lead to it by the Providence of God which imprinted and put a most not able Character and signal Honour on this Day and made it more excellent than any other by Christ's Resurrection and Apparitions and the Spirit 's Mission upon it which were a remarkable pointing and special singling out of this Time and a clear Intimation that this very Day should be publickly kept and universally observed in perpetual Honour of the Lord Christ [b] Words that have their Termination in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signify actively As the Sacrament is called * 1 Cor. 11.20 23 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord's Supper not only because it is kept in Remembrance of the Lord's Death till his coming again but because it was instituted by the Lord himself So the first Day of the week is expresly stiled †Rev. i. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord's Day not only because it is observed by the Church in Memory of the Resurrection of the Lord Christ but because it was appointed by the Lord Christ because he was the Author and Ordainer of it either immediatly by himself or mediatly by his Apostles And we cannot imagine that there shall ever occur a sufficient Reason for the [c] VVho that is well instructed would endure to hear of a Pope Sy vester that durst presume to alter the Day decreeing that Thouâ—dâ—y thould be kept for the Lord's Day through the whole Year because on that Day Christ ascended into Heaven and on that Day instituted the blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood Bp. Huâ—â— Peace-maker p. 198. ex Hospinian de festis Christ Alteration of this to any other Day for we can never look to receive a richer Benefit in this World than Redemption by Christ who rose from the Dead and Sanctification by the Spirit sent down from Heaven on this very Day We can never have greater Blessings to remember on another Day and therefore the Sanctification of this Day must be perpetuated to the End of the World On this Day especially the Apostles performed those Offices which are most proper and most agreeable to a sabbath-Sabbath-Day sabbath-* Acts 20.7 There was a Convention and Congregation of the Disciples on the first Day of the Week to break Bread and St. Paul preacht to them the same Day And
the Devil the World and our own carnal cozening corrupt Hearts Do not offer to work the Works of your Calling the Works of the Flesh the Works of the Devil on the Lord's Day Take heed of serving the Devil more upon the Lord's Day than on any other Day than on all the Days of the Week besides Let not the Lord's Day be leisure for the Devil as if the first Day of the Week were Daemoniacus potiùs quà m Dominicus the Devil 's and not the Lord's Day Let not any Temptations or Delusions of Satan keep and detain us from the publick Ordinance divert our Attention at it and hinder our Spiritual Benefit by it Let not any Recreations and sensual Pleasures upon this Day especially hinder the Performance or Family-Duties and private religious Exercises Let not vain Thoughts this Day lodge within us and justle out heavenly Meditations Let not worldly impertinent Discourses upon this Day shut out more profitable Christian Conferences The Lord's Day it is the most considerable Advantage the most notable Opportunity that is afforded us and the best Price that is put into our Hands all the Week long You have several Market-daies in the Week for civil Affairs and worldly interests but you have this one only for spiritual and eternal Interests and Advantages O do not neglect so great Salvation as is this Day offered and tendred to you Having such an excellent Price in your Hands O be not such Fools as not to make a good and a right Use of it [m] Mr. Valentine Marshal in his Preface before Capel's Remains Mr. Richard Capel pressing the strict Observation of the Lord's Day would usually say that we should go to sleep that Night with Meat in our Mouths as it were The Lord's-day being our best Opportunity if we mis-spend that we cannot be said to redeem the Time Now that we may redeem the Lord's-day to good Effects and useful Purposes let us not be wanting to put our selves in a sit Preparation for the due Observation of it not only by previous Meditation of the Day and the Duties of it but by ordering aright the constant Course of our Conversation and labouring for habitual Sanctification Let us every Day live as those that expect to have Communion with God the next Lord's-day Let us act so regularly all the Week that nothing may be done by us which may breed any strangeness between God and us and hinder our delightful Converse with him on his own Day that on that sacred separated Day we may not bring the fresh Guilt of any gross and wilful Sin along with us which may make us blush and be ashamed to come into his Presence Let us walk so circumspectly every Day that upon the Return of his own Day we may meet him with a pure and clear Conscience with clean Hands and clean Hearts and may be made joyful in his House of Praier That we may keep the Lord's-day holy let us strive and study to live holily all the Week and be so provident and diligent as to finish and dispatch in the six Daies all kinds of secular Works and common Employments that no Sin committed on the one hand nor any Business of our Calling omitted on the other may disturb and slacken our Attention distract and discompose us in the Exercise of our Devotion but that we may cheerfully and fruitfully spend the lord's-Lord's-day in the Lord's Work Let us every Day carry our selves so spiritually and perform our Closet and Family religious Duties so conscionably and constantly that we may be the fitter and readier to spend this choice select Day in the solemn Worship and Service of God and may go through the several Duties of it with less Tediousness and more Delight Let us be with God some part of every Day that so we may grow into Acquaintance with him and may taste the Sweetness and experience the Gainfulness of Communion with him and long for the return of the Lord's-day that we may meet and enjoy him in the publick Ordinances and have Opportunity of larger and freer Converse with him Let us pray to God every Day that so by using our selves to the Duty we may be the better disposed to join in Praier with the Congregation on the Lord's-day Let us read the Bible every Day and daily do whatever we know to be our Duty and this will make us more apt to hear and the better prepared to receive the Word that is preached on the Lord's-day And when the Lord's-day comes let us get up as early as may be that so we may have the more Time before us to work the Work of God in And take some Pains to prepare our selves in private for our better Attendance upon the publick Ordinances and timely [n] Quisquis incolit civitatem in qua extat Synagoga inibi non precatur cum coetis publico is est qui meritò dicitur malus vicinus Dictum Maimonidis resort to the Place of publick Meeting Follow the Counsel of holy Mr. Herbert [o] The Church-porch p. 14. Sundaies observe think when the Bells do chime 'T is Angel's Musick therefore come not late God then deals Blessings if a King did so Who would not haste nay give to see the Show O be drest Stay not for th' other Pin why thou hast lost A Joy for it worth Worlds Thus Hell doth jest Away thy Blessings and extreamly flout thee Thy Clothes being fast but thy Soul loose about thee And when thou art come into the Church watch over thy Behaviour there make thy self all Reverence and Fear Open thy Ears but shut thy Eies to all distracting Objects [n] The Church-Porch p. 15. Who marks in Church-time others Symmetry Makes all their Beauty his Deformity As the same Divine Poet pathetically expresses it Let God and Angels see your most devout Behaviour and serious Composure the whole Time of Praier And give all diligent close Attention to the Word of god read and preach'd Do not carp and catch jest and jear at the Preacher's Language or Expression Do not shew by your vain and prophane Carriage your ridiculous Gestures and unseemly Actions your Laughing and Whispering Toying and Talking that you slight and contemn the [o] God calleth Preaching folly Do not grudg to pick out Treasures from an earthen Pot. The Church-Porch p. 15. Foolishness of Preaching And when on the lord's-Lord's-day the Lord's Table is richly furnish'd with a spiritual Banquet make not needless and frivolous Excuses to absent your selves from this Marriage-feast If any croud in that have not a Wedding-Garment let not this make you stay out that have one Lose not your Portion of this heavenly Food because of others impreparation Though others eat and drink their own Damnation let your Faith feed on Christ to your own Salvation By your frequent receiving of this Sacrament shew your real Sense of your own need of it your high prizing and valuation of it your
will use all Diligence and good Conscience in their Calling and Trading on the Week-day And their Pains-taking and honest Dealing is likely to bring God's Blessing on their outward Estates Besides They that faithrully worship God on the Lord's-day will seek to God for a Blessing on the Week-day and they that seek it are likely to find it Once more God won't be wanting to those who would not be wanting to him God will bless you six Daies for your Blessing and Serving him one whole Day in seven 2. Our Observation of the Lord's-day as it is a spiritual wise redeeming of that special Season so it is a good Help to the spiritual Redeeming of all the six Daies following The more Liberty Men allow themselves upon the Lord's-day the more loose their Hearts are and negligent of good Duties and religious Exercises all the Week after They that pray not on the Lord's-day will hardly so much as say a Praier all the Week long They that hear not a Sermon on this Day will searcely read a Chapter the whole Week They that rob God of his due on the Lord's-day will rarely deal justly and honestly with their Neighbour on the Week-day But if we keep holy the Lord's-day then every Week-day will have a Tincture and Savour of the Lord's-day Our being Spiritual on the Lord's-day will put us into a very good Frame of Heart will awaken Principles of Conscience compose our Minds six our Wills call in and set in order our Assections Our Sanctification of this Day will season and sanctify us sit and dispose us for a close and holy Walking with God all the Week after If we attend upon God and converse with him on this special Day of his own Appointment we shall find a sensible spiritual Vigour a divine Power and heavenly Strength to carry us through all the Duties of the whole Week following relating either to God or Man If we earnestly redeem the Lord's-day the Observation of that Day will have a strong and mighty Influence on our Lives on other Daies too We shall endeavour to carry our selves after it suitably to it to live and walk and act continually as those that have newly or lately enjoyed so blessed and happy an Opportunity as those that have heard of God heard from him spoken to him had to do with him we shall labour to live in pursuance of the End and Design of the work and Business of the Lord's-day Mot. 2. Our Sanctification and good Improvement of the Lord's-day will fit and prepare us to keep and enjoy a blessed Rest and eternal Sabbath in Heaven They that delight in God here will much more delight in him hereafter and those whom God delights in here he will delight in for evermore They that keep holy the Christian Sabbath here shall be translated and admitted to sanctify and celebrate an everlasting Sabbath in Glory hereafter [g] The Church-porch p. 15. He that loves God's Abode and to combine With Saints on Earth shall one Day with them shine But on the other side your gross continued Neglect and wilful resolved Profanation of the Lord's-day will unfit and unqualify you to keep a glorious festival and a joyful happy Holy-Day in Heaven God can take no Complacency and Delight in you if you can take no Complacency in him no Delight in his Sabbaths no Pleasure in his Worship and Service They that refuse to sanctify a Sabbath and totally to rest on that Day from their worldly Labours and secular Negotiations have reason to fear lest God sware in his Wrath that they shall never enter into his Rest. They that will not rest from their Works and Pleasures on this Day have cause to conclude that in Hell they shall have no Rest neither Day nor Night They that will do their own Works on the lord's-Lord's-day may expect to suffer for their evil Deeds in the Day of the Lord. They who wilfully absented themselves from God's House on God's Day have no ground to hope that God will receive them to Communion with himself in his heavenly Kingdom And as God can take no delight in you so if you pollute and profane break and violate the Lord's-Day neglect Religion contemn the Worship and despise the Service of God if you changed your place you would there no more delight in God than you do here Heaven would be a Burden Heaven would be an Hell to the unsuitable Spirit of an irreligious profane voluptuous Person Thou that art weary of Praiers and Praises here what wouldst thou do in Heaven tro there is nothing else there You that are sick of a Sabbath here and long till it be over and can't endure to think of spending a whole Day in Religious Exercises what wilt thou do in Heaven where there is a perpetual Sabbath to be kept for ever Thou that hatest the Communion of Saints here I wonder what thou wouldst do in Heaven where next to the Fruition and Enjoyment of God in Glory the best Entertainment will be the Company and Society of the holy Angels and of the blessed and glorified Saints to all Eternity I have given you some Motives to perswade and engage you to the due Observation and right Redemption of the Lord's-Day Now what are you resolved upon Shall your former Profanation of this Day be the present Burthen of your Spirits and Sadness of your Souls Will you live as those that are convinced that Religion depends upon the Sanctification of this Day and your Salvation upon Religion Will you forbear any more to break into God's Inclosure to encroach upon God's Propriety sacrilegiously to engross God's Day to your selves or to make bold with any Part of it for worldly Employments or vain Pleasures or such Recreations as are apt to prove Lets and Hindrances of your Duties and Devotions and be careful to give God that Portion of Time which is his due Will you for the future sequester your selves from worldly Cares Affections Affairs on this Day and henceforth dedicate the Lord's-Day to the Honour of God and Christ Will you not only cease to censure those serious Christians who dare not lose this choice Time and precious Opportunity as profanely and desperately as formerly you have done But will you so consider the Worth of this Time and so far weigh the great Consequences and weighty Concernments of the well or ill spending of it as to count it honourable and keep it holy without intermixing of secular Matters or indulging profane Thoughts and introducing inconvenient improper Discourses in any part of it Will you labour to walk accurately exactly precisely on this Day and not be afraid of being [h] He keeps the Lord's-day best that keeps it with most Religion and with most Charity Bp. Taylor 's Rule and Exerc. of Hol. Lif chap. 4 sec 6. rul 8. Hypocrites are out disputing the Obligations to their Duty and asking How do you prove that it is a Duty to pray in my Family
or a Duty to observe the Lord's-day or to come constantly to the Congregation or to repeat Sermons and the like If these ungodly Wretches had one spark of spiritual Life within them and any taste and feeling of the matters that concern their own Salvation instead of asking How can you prove that I must pray with my Family or that I must keep the Lord's-day they would be readier to say How can you prove that I may not pray with nay Family and that I may not sanctify the Lord's-day and that I may not have Communion with the Saints in Holiness I can perceive in many that I converse with the great difference between an Heart that loâ—es God and Holiness and an Heart that seems religious and honest without such a Love The true Conveit perceiveth so much sweetness in holy Duties and so much spiritual advantage by them to his Soul that he is loch to be kept back he can not spare these Ordinances no more than he can spare the Bread from his Mouth or the Clothes from his Back yea or the Skin from his Flesh no not so much He loveth them he cannot live without them And therefore if he had but a bare leave from God without a Command to sanctify the Lord's-day and to live in the holy Communion of the Saints he would joyfully take it with many thanks for he need not be driven to his Rest when he is weary nor to his spiritual Food when he is hungry But the unsanctified Hypocrite that never loved God or Godliness in his Heart he stands questioning and enquiring for some proof of a Necessity of thâ—se Courses And if he can but bring himself to hope that God will save him without so much adoe away then goes the Duty He never was Religious from a true Predominant love to God and an holy Life but for fear of Hell and for other inferiour respects Mr. Baxter's Direct and Perswas to a sound Convers from p. 372 to 376. too strict of being too holy on this holy Day 'T is an excellent Saying of Tully Nemo pius est qui pietatem cavet The plain English of which is this No man is truly godly who is afraid of being too godly Will you so observe the Lord's-day as you were ready to promise you would when you lay last upon a Sick-Bed and as careless Sinners commonly wish they had when they come to lie upon a Death-bed Will you make every Sabbath here on Earth resemble in some Degree that eternal Rest which you hope to hallow more perfectly in Heaven Seriously consider how many Lord's-daies you have lost already and what reason you have to observe and improve those that remain Do you know how few such Daies you shall ever enjoy more It may be this Lord's-day may be the last Before the next Sabbath comes thou maiest be called to a reckoning for neglecting and mis-spending all that are past Thou art not sure that ever thou shalt pray in publick more that never the Liberty shall again be afforded thee of hearing another Sermon preach'd to thee Thou maiest never enjoy such a blessed Opportunity to take pains with thy Family and to save their Souls from Death before thou diest If God shall please to put such Prices into thy Hands God give thee an Heart to make use of them Carefully redeem the Lord's-day and every Day after shew in thy Life that thou hast redeem'd it Make it appear by the Frame of thy Actions and Course of thy Life all the Week long that thou hast been under spiritual powerful quickening Ordinances the last Lord's-day You that enjoyed Communion with God on the Lord's-day have no parley with Satan no familiarity with Sin no fellowship with the unfruitful Works of Darkness on any of the Week-daies following Be sure you every Day avoid those Sins which you solemnly confess'd the last Lord's-day and live over the Praiers you made that Day and live up to the Sermons you heard that Day and obey from the Heart that Form of Doctrine which that Day was delivered to you Perform every Day those Resolutions and Promises which you made to God on the Lord's-day and keep the Covenant you renewed at the Sacrament on that Day and maintain the Warmth that was wrought on your Souls by the Word and Spirit on that Day Use every Day the Grace you ask'd obtain'd and receiv'd on the Lord's-day and act in the Strength and Power of Christ which was communicated and given in to you in your Attendance upon him in his own Ordinances on his own Day This is the second particular Season and special Opportunity that is to be carefully redeem'd by every Christian The Morning of the Week the Lord's Day And I have purposely treated so largely concerning the Redemption of the Lord's-day because it is so despised in the Judgment and disregarded in the Practice of the confident Men of this dissolute and degenerate Age. The third Particular Opportunity to be redeem'd As the Morning of every Week the first Day of the Week so the [i] Dr. Gouge was very conscientious in the expence of his Time from his Youth to the very Time of his Death His custom was to rise very early both in the Winter and Summer In the Winter-time he constantly rose so long before Day as that he alwaies perform'd all the exercises of his Private Devotions before Day-light And in the Summer-time he rose about four a Cleck in the Morning by which means he had done half his Work before others began their Studies If he happen'd to hear any at their Work before he began his Studies he would say as Demosthenes spake concerning the Smith that he was much troubled that any should be at the Works of their Calling before he was at his In his Life among Mr. Clark's Lives of ten Em Div. p. 116 117. He continued in King's Colledg for the space of mine Years and in all that Time except he went forth of Town to his Friends he was never absent from Morning-Praiers in the Chappel which used to be about half an Hour after five a Clock in the Morning yea he used to rise so long before he went to the Chappel as that he gained Time for his Secret Devotions and for reading his Morning-task of the Scriptures Ibid p. 97. Morning of every Day is a special Season that ought to be redeem'd and improved by a Christian to spiritual Advantage The Morning is an Opportunity of giving God the very first and best of the Day and the chief of our Life Spirits and Strength In the Morning our Spirits are recreated and repair'd and our Bodies strengthned and refresh'd with the Rest and Sleep of the Night past and our Minds are vacant and not disturb'd with those Images and Representations of Things which the variety of worldly Employments in the Day usually fill and possess us with In the Morning our Minds are most free and our Affections most lively as
those strong Waters are fullest of Spirits which are first drawn and our Hearts not so entangled and encumbred with the Things of the World In the Morning we are clearest and sittest for any thing and therefore to be sure sittest for God and the Worship of God freest and freshest for holy Duties spiritual Services and religious Exercises The Morning is as much a Friend to the Graces as to the Muses As the Morning is a special Time for Study so for Duty As it is the best studying Time so it is the best praying Time The People of God have ever accounted the Morning the fittest Season for Devotion And therefore we find that holy [k] Job 1.5 See Mr. Caryl on the place Job rose up early in the Morning and offer'd Burnt-offerings Thus did Job continually Not only in the Morning but early in the Morning in the very Beginning or first of the Morning We read how God commanded that * Exod. 23.19 the first of the first Fruits of the Land should be brought into the House of the hLord So here Job gave God not only the first Fruits of the Day but the earliest Time in the Morning which is the first of the first Fruits of the Day the Morning of the Morning as I may so speak So David chooseth the Morning-season †Psal 5.3 My Voice shalt thou hear in the Morning O Lord in the Morning will I direct my Praier unto thee It is a good Thing to ‖ Psal 92.2 shew forth thy loving-kindness in the Morning (*) Psal 119.147 I prevented the drawning of the Morning and cried And again (†) Psal 139 18. When I wake I am still with thee saies he He gave God the first of his fixed and settled Thoughts Is is recorded of our blessed Saviour that he (‖) Mark i. 35. rose up in the Morning a great while before Day to go into a solitary Place to pray And 't is said of the Apostles that they [*] Acts 5.21 entred into the Temple early in the Morning So we should enter into our Closets early in the Morning and make it our first business and employment to converse with God and commune with our own Hearts to betake our selves to Praier and to [l] Who reade a Chapter when they rise Shall ne'er be troubled with ill Eyes Herbert's Poem-charms and Knots Reading of the Scripture and to give our selves to Meditation And surely as a [m] Dr. Jackson V 3. p. 92. great Divine saies excellently If Men would give some divine Precepts or Sentences full possession of their Morning Thoughts these would serve as so many Armed Men to keep out the Suggestions of the Devil the World and the Flesh from entring into their Hearts [n] Et ni Posces ante diem librum cum lumine si non Inten les animum studiis rebus honestis Invidia vel amore vigil torquebere Horat. Ep. l. 1. ep 2. The filling our Minds and possessing our Hearts with serious holy Thoughts in the first place as soon as ever we wake in the Morning is an excellent Means to prevent those frothy vain Thoughts which are apt to arise in empty Hearts As you know the taking a good Draught in the Morning is the way to keep out the Wind which would offend and troubled an empty Stomach When we first open our Eyes in a Morning as a [o] Dr. Tho. Guodwin of the Van. of Thoughts p. 32. worthy Doctor does well illustrate this matter many Vanities and Businesses stand like earnest Suiters or as diligent Clients at Lawyers Doors waiting to speak with our Thoughts and ready to press and croud in upon us but let us speak with God first and he will say something to our Hearts will fix and settle them for all Day The Morning is a special Opportunity to be carefully redeemed and the rather to be redeemed because by redeeming the Morning we are likely to redeem the whole Day following If a Watch or Clock be wound up well in the Morning 't will go right and keep true all the Day after So tho winding up of our Hearts by devout Meditation in the Morning will be a means of our regular Proceeding to the Close and End of the Day following If we awake with God in the Morning we are likely to walk with God all the Day long Our doing God service in the Morning will stand us in stead all the Day after will engage and oblige us dispose and encline us to keep a Decorum all the Day and to do nothing unworthy of our Morning's Work The serious Consideration of the Goodness and loving Kindness of God towards us his Watchfulness over us Protection Preservation Refreshment of us the very Night past will make us study to render suitably to such a Mercy and to live to him all the Day who gives us as it were a new Life every Morning Our labouring to get our Minds and Hearts early and throughly poslest in the Morning with quick and lively Apprehensions and powerful deep Impressions of the glorious divine Attributes and Perfections of God's Greatness Holiness Justice Omniscience Omnipresence will keep us close to God and our Duty all the Day Our being with God in the first place as soon as we are up every Morning this will season our Hearts spiritualize our Affections aw our Consciences and be a means to regulate our Actions and to sanctify our Employments Carriages and Converses the whole Day following Whereas if we neglect God in the Morning God may justly leave us to our selves all the Day after If we venture to go into the World before we have first goâ—â— to God we rashly rush into Danger because we take not God along with us whose Presence Guidance Grace and Strength is our only Safety and great Security against the Malignity and Evil of the World If we don't in the Morning and Beginning of the Day implore the divine Presence and Assistance and beg God's Providence over us Direction of us and Blessing upon us If we seek not God before we seek the World before we seek our selves we are likely to do nothing but mis-carry in every Thing all the Day We are apt to be caught in every Snare to be overborn by every Corruption and overcome by every Temptation and therefore be sure to redeem the Morning-Season The fourth Particular Opportunity to be redeemed 4. The Society and Company of the most Religious and Godly is another Special Opportunity to be presently laid fast hold on and faithfully made good Use of You have here an occasion of doing good by your serious and savoury Speeches Honest Hearts will presently close with them receive and embrace them entertain and accept them and not slight and reject them scoff and mock at them Further You have here an occasion of receiving good from other's suitable and seasonable Discourses you may be edified by their Gifts profited by their Graces quickned
to be hid in a Napkin much less to be spent and wasted in riotous Living And the longer Time God gives us the more Daies and Weeks and Months and Years and Seasons and Opportunities he affords us to work the Work of God to abound in the Work of the Lord to repent of our Sins to work out our own Salvation to do good to others to be Helpers of their Faith and Furtherers of their Salvation the more Advantages he affords us to these Purposes the greater Improvement he looks for from us And we find him complaining for want of it * Rev. 2.21 Christ says concerning Jezebel I gave her [r] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch de his qui ser ò puniuntur à Numine Spacé to repent of her Fornication and she repented not And he speaks to Jerusalem even weeping †Luke 19.42 If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy Day the Things which belong unto thy Peace And in the Parable he that planted the Fig-tree in his Vine-yard complain'd ‖ Luke 13.7 Behold these three Years I come seeking Fruit on this Fig-tree and find none That is the first Reason We must redeem the Time and whatever it cost us use and improve it to all possible Advantages to our selves and others because our Time and Opportunities are afforded us by God to this very End and Purpose The second Additional Reason We should carefully and faithfully redeem the Time because we have all of us [a] Animus si unquam illi respirare recedere in se vacaverit ò quà m sibi ipse verum tortus à se fatebitur ac dicet Quidquid feci adhud infectum isse mallem quidquid dixt cùm recogito mutis invideo quidquid optavi inimicorum execrationem puto quidquid timui dti toni quantò leviù fuit quà m quod concupivi Cum multis inimiciuias gessi in gratiam ex odio si modo ulla inter malos gratia est redii mihi ipss nondum amicussum Sen. de vit beat cap. 2. lost much Time already It is to be feared that some of us have lost our whole Time ever since we came into the World have stood idle all the Day long hitherto have done nothing at all for God's Glory or for the Salvation of our own and others Souls have made no riddance at all of our Work but only made our selves more Work to do There are some I fear so far from having finished their Work that they know not as yet what Work they have to do that are as yet grosly ignorant of the Terms and Conditions of the New Covenant And of those that have known and understood them how few have considered and consented to them sincerely kept and faithfully perform's them How many among us have liv'd in practical Atheism in habitual Non-atendance upon God and in a gross Neglect of their future Welfare and eternal Good liv'd without any Sence and Taste and Feeling of God or of divine Things lived a very brutish sensual flesh-pleasing Life And such of us as have not quite lost our Time yet how much of it have we wasted how considerable a Part of it have we fool'd and trifled away Might we not have minded God and Religion a State of Immortality and a glorious Eternity more than we have done How little Knowledg have we got of God how sinall Acquaintance with him how little Communion and Fellowship have we enjoyed with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ through the blessed Spirit What Degrees of Affection do we still retain to the Things of the World which we might have become more mortified to and weaned from How too too frequently predominant and masterly are our Senses how strong and impetuous are our Passions how violent and unruly are our Lusts and Corruptions How short and narrow how flat and low how weak and impotent is our Reason which might have been heightned and improved widened and enlarged and grown more strong and masculine sober and solid How insirm and infantile is our Faith how feeble our Graces how mean our Experiences how small our Comforts Let 's reflect back a little and seriously consider what Opportunities we have let slip what Advantages we have lost of doing and receiving good in the World Might not we have relieved the Poor and Christ in the Poor and visited the Sick and Christ in the Sick oftener than we have done Might we not have been the happy Instruments of much more good in the Parishes and Places where we have lived in composing Differences and making Peace among our Neighbours in warning the unruly in awakening convincing converting recovering the Ungodly Might we not have been as the Angels to Lot hastening some out of Sodom and have saved some with Fear pulling them out of the Fire Might we not have shined as Lights as Torches as Stars in the World Might we not have been more useful and serviceable more exemplary and imitable in our Lives more conscientious in our Dealings more faithful in our Relations more strict and holy in our Families than we have been How well might we have spared Time to have instructed our Families to have catechised our Children and Servants to have admonished and exhorted one another more frequently than we have done How many precious Hours have idly slipt away from us and run waste which might have been well bestowed in reading Hearing Prayer Confession Meditation Self-examination holy Society and Christian Communion Yea many a Time when the holy Spirit of God has secretly mov'd and prompted us to perform a particular Duty When we have had sometimes though in in a more tacite Way such an hint as that of [b] Oborta est procella ingens ferens ingentem imbrem lachrymarum flebam amarissim â contritione cordis mei ecce audio vocem de vicina domo cum cantic dicentis crebro repetent is quasi pueri an puellae nescio Tolle lege tolle lege Staâ—inque mutato vultu intentissimus cogitari eoepi utrumnam solerent pueri in aliquo genere ludendi cantare tale aliquid nec occurrebat omnino audivisse me uspiam Depressoque imâ—etu lachrymarum surrexi nihil aliud interpretans nisi divinitus mihi juberi ut apertrem codicem legerem quod primum capitulum invenissem Aug. Consel l. 8. c. 12. §. 1 2 3. St. Austin's was Tolle lege tolle lege take up the Bible and read in it get into thy Closet and pray to thy Father in secret we have sinfully diverted and sought an Occasion and studied an Excuse to turn off from it The more we have hitherto neglected golden Opportunities the better let us now improve them Have we been idle formerly why now let 's be so much the more busily employed Have we loiter'd away a great Part of the Day in the Lord's Vineyard let us now work so much the harder the remaining Part of the Day Have we
grow pale to sweat again and to call out to his Son [c] Maxime curre Maxime curre nunquam tibi aliquid mali feci in fidem tuam me suscrpe Maximus to come quickly to save and help him When his Son and Servants came they could see nothing but he himself turn which way he would could see nothing else but those evil Spirits which he could not endure to see and in a despairing Manner at last cried out Inducias vel usque manè inducias vel ujque manè Let me have respite but till to morrow respite but till to morrow Morning And in this Perplexity he died immediatly The same Father makes this Use of it The Vision did him no good says he but let it do good to us upon whom God's Patience waits yet a while longer [d] Nos ergo sratres chartssimt nunc solicitè ista cogitemus ne nobis in vacuum tempora pereant tunc quaeramus ad bene agendum vivere cùm jam compellimur de corpore exire Let us seriously think upon 't that we may not lose our Time says he and then beg to live that we may do our Duty when we are forc'd to die whether we will or no. The fifth Additional Reason We should diligently redeem the Time because we shall be certainly call'd to an Account for our Time Eccles 11.9 Rejoice O young Man in thy Youth or because thou art young healthy and strong the wise Man here speaks Ironically and let thy Heart cheer thee in the Daies of thy Youth and walk in the Waies of thy Heart and in the Sight of thine Eyes take thy Course do what thou pleasest live as thou listest lay no restraint upon thy self deny thy self nothing that Heart can wish please thy Eye gratify thy Phansie satisfy thy Appetite and let thy sensual Heart give Law to thy whole Man take thy Swing thy Fill of Lust and Pleasure get Gain heap up Riches acquire Honour grow great in the World enjoy thy self take thine ease eat drink and be merry But take along with thee this sad and severe yet seasonable Premonition Know thou that for all these Things God will bring thee into Judgment Know thou that is consider an think well of it till thy Heart be warmed with the Thoughts of it Let this so necessary weighty Doctrine not only enter into and then slip out of thy Head almost as soon as in it but let this Truth take up and dwell in thy Thoughts and move and stir thy Heart and Affections and rule and govern thy Life and Actions Thus know thou that for all these Things for all the Vanities and Excesses Follies and Extravagancies of thy Youth for all those Things which are now so grateful and delightful to thy Senses God [c] Bp. Reynolds in loc whose Word and Fear thou now despisest from whose Eye thou canst not hide thy Sins from whose Tribunal thou canst not absent thy self This God will bring thee bring thee perforce whether thou wilt or no send his Angels to hale and drag thee when thou shalt in vain call and cry to Mountains and Rocks to hide and cover thee Bring thee into Judgment to a particular Judgment immediatly after Death and to the general Judgment the Judgment of the great Day as St. Jude speaks call'd by St. Paul the Terrour of the Lord. Thou fond and foolish thou daring venturous Sinner know that there is an After-reckoning a Time when thou must come to an Account when thou must think and hear of what thou hast done and left undone and must surely pay very dear for all They that live their Time in the Flesh to the Lusts of Men says * 1 Pet. 4.2 5. St. Peter they shall give Account to him that is ready to judg the Quick and the Dead [d] Bp. Taylor 's Serm. 1. Vol. p. 294. We are as sure to account for every considerable Portion of our Time as for every Sum of Money we receive [e] Qus unum capillum capitis non dimittit non numeratum unum momentum temporis dimittes non computatum If the very †Mat. 10.30 Hairs of our Heads and †Mat. 10.30 all our Hairs are numbred then certainly our very Hours and all our Hours too And above all our special Hours our Sermon-Hours and all providential Opportunities with all our Neglects and Non-improvements are exactly computed and reckoned up by God our Judg. God puts down in his Catalogue this is the first this the second this the third time that I have warn'd that I have woed such an one He strictly observes how long he has waited upon us how often he has treated with us by his Mercies by his Judgments by his Word by his Spirit by his own Ministers by our own Consciences or our Christian Friends God counts and casts up every Minute of Patience spent upon us He reckons and registers every Sand of Long-suffering run out by us God now takes special particular punctual Notice of all in order to a future final and full Account We must one Day reckon for all those Hours which now we idle and tride away and make so little and light of Time is now a Burthen to many of us and lies upon our Hands and we know not almost how to spend it or which way to get rid of it And therefore sometimes we use evil Arts to pass it away But oh what an intolerable Burthen will the Guilt of mâ—s-spent Time be when it shall be charged home upon a Soul at the great and dreadful Day What have you done with all your Time will God then say Is it true that you have spent so much in Dressing so much in Revelling so much in Dressing your self every Day Were these the Things I gave you Time for what will the Sinner be able to answer to these Things When our righteous Lord who delivered the Talents of Time and manifold Opportunities to us shall come to reckon with us he will require and call for some answerable good Improvement of every such Talent And the more of these Talents were concredited and committed to us the richer Return and greater Improvement will be expected and demanded of us [f] Crescunt dona crescunt rationes donorum Our Reckoning will rise according to the Largeness of our Opportunities and Receits And the longer it is before God calls us to a Reckoning our Account will certainly be the sadder and our Doom and Punishment much the heavier if we have been unfaithful Stewards of our Time and Talents What Account will the old Sinner give of three or four-score Years spent in Vanity Sin and Folly What will he be able to say for himself that his gray Hairs were found in the Way of Vnrighteousness It will be a fearful Audit when God shall call the inconsiderate careless Sinner to appear before his great Tribunal Then he that has but hid his Talent shall hear that sad and
dismal Voice Serve nequam * Mat. 25.19 26 30. thou wicked and slothful Servant and shall find and feel a Retribution accordingly 'T will surely then be said concerning him * Mat. 25. 19 26 30. Cast the unprofitable Servant into outer Darkness there shall be Wecping and Gnashing of Teeth O let 's not put that evil Day far from us but let that Voice be alwaies ringing in our Ears which was ever sounding in [g] Quoties diem tillum considero toto corpore contremisco sive entm comedo sive bibo sive aliqutd facio semper videtur mihi tuba illa terrtilis sonare in auribus meis Surgite mortus ventte ad judicium Hieron St. Jerom's Arise ye Dead and come to Judgment Our Time must be strictly reckon'd for and therefore we should thriftily husband if possible every Minute of it The sixth and last Additional Reason Sixthly and lastly We should be sure to redeem the Time Because this Time is all we can redeem and upon this short Moment of Time depends long Eternity We shall never have any more Time or Space to redeem either in this or in another World 1. As we cannot live this same Life over again so when once we die and leave this World we shall never return to this Earth again to converse in Flesh with Men any more nor be suffer'd to live another Life here in this World to mend and correct what we did amiss heretofore * Job 14.14 If a Man die shall he live again says Job Some understand this Interrogation as flat denial an absolute Negation He shall live a natural Life on Earth no more †Job 7.9 10. As the Cloud is consumed and vanisheth away So he that goeth down to the Grave shall come up no more He shall return no more to his House neither shall his Place know him any more ‖ Job 26.22 Job 10. 21. When a few Years are come then I shall go the Way whence I shall not return 2. And as we shall have no new Time in this So no Space will be given or granted us for Repentance and Purgation of our Souls nor will any Offer of Mercy be made us in the other World No new Covenant will ever there be tendred to us no Ambassadours of Peace be sent to beseech us to pray us there n Christ's stead to be reconcil'd to God God will then be irreconcilable Sin unpardonable and unremovable Heaven unattainable and lost Souls uncurable and irrecoverable If we do not do our best here we shall have no other Game to play nor Part to and in any other Region or Mansion We shall not be [h] Quoad animae separatae statum nun itâ—rum sit Viator neque in probationis stain posita ad foe scitatein â—ahue acquirendam sed in statu ponitur hnals resurrections mutationibus expectatis Baxter Methodus Theologiae Christianae part 4. cap. 4. Probationers in the other World We shall not be suffered to begin there upon a new Score [i] In quo quemque invenerit suus novissimus dies in hoc eum compiehendet munds novissmas dies Quoniam qualis in die isto qutsque moritur talis in die illo judicabitur August Epist 80. Qualis exieris de hac vita talis redder is illi vitae August in Psal 36. Our Souls at Death will enter into a sixed unchangeable State and continue for ever such as they went out of this World The very same Frame and Temper Qualities and Assectious as we carry with us out of this Life we shall keep and retain in the next Such good Dispositions as were begun here will indeed beintended and perfected in Heaven And such ill Dispositions as took place and got Root here will be strongly setled and fully confirm'd in the damn'd hereafter But the [k] See Dr. Tillotson 1. vol pag. 29â— Dr. More 's Mystery of Godliness pag. 441. Dr. Dowler's Design of Christianity pag. 122. main State of any either good or bad will never be varied or altered in the other World As the Tree falls so it lies As Time leaves us so Eternity will find and continue us God will never trie us more with Opportunities and Helps of Conversion and Reformation with the Means of Grace and Life in another Place and State And therefore let 's now improve Providences and Ordinances Aids and Assistances as those that shall never hereafter meet with such Advantages and do all the Duties and Offices of Religion as those that are going to that World where there is no room for such Performances no place for Confession Praier Repentance and Amendment of Life in order to the Pardon of our Sins and Salvation of our Souls no occasion of running wrestling striving watching fighting any more in order to obtaining of a Prize and receiving of a Crown All that is now left undone must be undone for ever This is the only Space allotted us and Opportunity afforded us wherein to build and prepare our Ark to get Oil sufficient into our Vessels and to provide a competent Measure or Portion of Manna We can only gather the spiritual Manna in the six Daies of this Temporal Life there is no finding no getting of it on the Sabbath of Eternity As we must do all our worldly Business before the weekly Sabbath comes So we must quite finish our spiritual Business in the working Daies of the Life present for there is no working on the eternal Sabbath when once this earthly Lise is ended Then we must labour and work preparatory Work no longer but receive from our great Lord and Master the Reward or Punishment of our former Works The Life to come it is no Seed Time but only a Time of Harvest We must reap in the future State the Fruit of our own present Doings whether good or bad As we do use the Time of this Life so shall we be used treated and dealt with in the other Life We shall certainly fare happily or miserably to all Eternity according to our Carriage and Behaviour here According to our Choice and Election Affection and Action in this World will be our everlasting Lot in the World to come So that the right Improving or Misimproving the well or ill spending and husbanding of our Time is of infinite Consequence and Concernment to us Let us therefore in this Time of Life get all Things ready that are necessary to a joyful Entrance into eternal Life Let our Work and Business in Preparation for an endless Happiness be dispatch'd and done before we go hence and be no more seen * Eccles 9.10 Whatsoever our Hand findeth to do let us do it with our Might for there is no Work nor Device nor Knowledg nor Wisdome in the Grave whither we are going There is no Hope or Expectation of working out our Salvation in an after State and Condition If this Work be not effected before this mortal Life is ended it can never be done
Play-house canst thou look that God with a Blessing should go with thee When thou art hunting after unjust Gain and hotly pursuing it all the Day long or using unlawful and indirect Courses to provide for thy self or Family canst thou expect that God should command a Blessing upon it Would the intemperate lustful covetous unrighteous Person proceed according to this Direction he would soon desist from his vicious Courses and unwarrantable Practices As the [i] Lukin's Pract. of Godliness p. 35. poor Man when he had stollen a Lamb to satisfy the hungry Bellies of his Family and having dressed it came of course to crave a Blessing upon it he was so disturb'd and troubled about it that he could find no Rest and Quiet in his Mind till he went and confess'd his Fault and promiss'd to make Satisfaction for the wrong he had done The Sixth Direction We must be sure to give our selves to Prayer as a special Way in which and principal Means and Help by which we may redeem and improve our Time a right And here 1. Be careful to keep up set and stated Times of ordinary Prayer 2. Be ready to betake thy self to Prayer upon special extraordinary emergent Occasions 3. Vse thy self to frequent sudden ejaculatory Prayers to God These three Particulars give the proper Sense and Meaning of those Scriptures * Eph. 6 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Praying alwaies in all Time or Opportunity as the Word is †1 Thess 5.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pray without ceasing ‖ Heb. 13.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pray continually 1. If we would well redeem the Time we must keep and observe our daily set and stated Times of earnest fervent Prayer to God and solemn serious Supplication Thus it is our Duty to pray continually not to employ the Whole of our Time in Prayer as of old the Euchites dream'd but to pray continually in the same Sense as [a] Ames de Conse cas l. 4. c. 14. q. 5. Mephibosheth was commanded to eat Bread at David's Table (*) 2 Sam. 9.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 70. continually that is not to cram and load himself with Meat and Drink day and night but to refresh himself there at the set and customary Hours of Dinner and Supper 'T is a general Duty incumbent on us to * Luke 1.75 serve God all the Daies of our Life and therefore with the Worship and Service of Prayer in particular which may be conveniently performed daily We are directed in the Lord's Prayer to pray every Day for our †Mat. 6.11 daily Bread and therefore we ought more earnestly to ‖ Verse 33. seek the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness every Day (*) Exod. 29.38 39. The Morning and Evening Sacrifice strictly [b] Matutino hoc vespertino sacrisicio agnoscitur Deus noctis diei Creator Grot. in loc Bis de die sacrisicium illud volunt repeti Deus ut populus assiduè in memoria future per Christum reconciliatiouis se exerceret Voluit Deus hoc victimae genus bis de die pom ante oculos ut populus reputaret sibi opus esse identidem reconciliari Deo reaâ—â—s ac damnationis suae admonitus à principio usque ad finem diet ad ejus misericordiam confugeret Rivetus in locum enjoyned under the Law to be publickly celebrated every Day is a plain Pattern and apparent Direction for double Devotion every Day for the legal Sacrifice as also the Incense joyned with it was a Type of Prayer Psal 144.2 Heb. 13.15 The Jews had their (†) Acts 3.1 10.2 3. set Hours of Prayer Our blessed Saviour has not only given us a plain Precept for (‖) Mat. 6.6 Closet-Prayer but has afforded us his own Example to lead us to the Performance of solitary secret Prayer both Morning and sEvening [*] Mark 1 35. St. Mark Informs us that in the Morning rising up a great while before Day or in the first Twilight he went out and departed into a solitary Place and there prayed And [†] Mat. 14.23 St. Mathew acquaints us that when he had sent the Multitudes away he went up into a Mountain apart to pray and when the Evening was come he was there alone * Col. 4.1 2. Masters of Servants as such are required and charged by the Apostle to continue in Prayer and to watch in the same with Thanksgiving Which Words considering the Context which is wholly taken up in setling and setting forth the Christian Oeconomy may well be interpreted and understood of performing daily Family-Prayer [c] Dr. Arrowsm Tact. Sacr. p. 247 248. Let Governours of Families who assume and exercise a kind of Kingly Authority in their own Families understand and consider that their Master in Heaven expects that they should execute the Offices and act the Parts of so many Priests in their own Families by offering before them the Sacrifices of Prayers and Praises to God day by day There are daily Personal and Family Sins to be confess'd and pray'd against daily Personal and Family Wants to be spread before God in order to a Supply thereof Personal and Family Mercies daily received and duely to be acknowledg'd every Day Morning and Evening We generally find that they that have any shew of Religion are very observant of stated Times of Devotion so are the Papists and so are the Mahometans Nay the very Heathen guided by the dim Light of Nature have approved and recommended this Practice Hesiod in particular gives this as a necessary Rule [d] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To the utmost of your Power perform your sacred Offices to the immortal Gods both when you go to Bed at Night and when the Morning-Light appears that they may bear a propitious Mind and carry a kind and loving Heart toward you And it is not unworthy of some remark that the Precepts of continuing in Prayer and redeeming the Time are so * Col 4.2 3 5. nearly and closely joined together in Scripture To pretermit and neglect to lay aside and cast off fixed determined Times and certain appointed Seasons of Prayer would be to lose our Time and quickly to lose our Religion too If you will not admit so much of the Form you are not likely to maintain the Power of Godliness If you reckon you have no call to pray but only when you find and feel a present inward strong Impulse and secret powerful Inclination to it you take a course to chase and drive away the Spirit from you and to deprive your selves of the holy and spiritual the sweet and seasonable Motions of it When the usual Times of Duty return pray though thou hast no present sensible Motion to perform it and pray till thou findest God's good Spirit sweetly and powerfully moving upon thee and working in thee enlivening and enlarging thy Heart in Prayer and enabling thee to enjoy some singular sensible joyful
but only Death for I did not think I should have died so soon How troublesome will it be to thee when thy Soul is about to be divorced from thy Body to be at best uncertain then what will become of thee To express thy self with dying Aristotle [u] Dubius morior quò vadam nescio I die doubtful not well knowing whither I am going Or with the Emperour Adrian [w] Animula vagula blandula Hospes com esque corporis Quae nunc abibis in loca Pallsdula frigidula nudula Nec ut soles dabis jocos Ah dear departing wandring Soul the old and sweet Companion of my Body into what Region art thou now going surely thou wilt never be so merry and pleasant as thou hast been How intolerably vexatious will it be to change for Vncertainties or to make a certain Change for the worse To die unsatisfied what will become of thee as to thy future unchangeable State Or sure and certain that thou shalt enter into a worse State and Place and shalt be miserable to all Eternity To see then but a Step but a Breath between thee and everlasting Death To have all the horrid and heinous sins of a whole misled and misspent Life fiercely fly in thy very Face and thy enraged furious guilty Conscience to be then most active to torment thee the nearer thou apprehendest thy self approaching to the End of thy mortal Life As usually bodily Aches and Wounds do prick and pain and shoot most the nearer it draweth unto Night What a lamentable sad Case was that of Cardinal Wolsey to cry out in his extreme unhappy Circumstances Had I been as careful and diligeut to please and serve the God of Heaven as I have been to comply with the Will of my earthly King he would not have left and for saken me now in my gray Hairs and old Age as the other has done So think what a doleful Case it will be for thee in thy last Hours to pour forth thy Soul in such Words as these If I had served my God as earnestly and unweariedly as I have constantly served the world served diverse Lusts and Pleasures served the Devil himself Had I been at Church when I was in Bed been in my Closet upon my Knees when I was sitting tippling upon the Ale-bench or was quaffing at Tavern and drinking of Healths upon my Knees Had I satisfied the Reason of a Man as I gratified my brutish Appetite and sensual Desire Had I done the Will of God and of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as I have done the Will of the Devil the Will of the Flesh and fulfilled my own carnal corrupt Will I had then been own'd by God and approv'd by my own Conscience inwardly strengthned and supported and sweetly comforted and refresh'd who now am deserted and rejected by God and miserably perplexed and disquieted rent and racked torn and tormented in my own Conscience Then thou wilt certainly count and call thy self unhappy and him the only happy Man who as dying [x] Beatus es Abba Arseni qui semper hanc horam ante oculos habuisti Bibl. Patr. Theophilus said of devout Arsenius has had the Hour of his Departure ever before his Eyes That is the first Conider what a dreadful Thing it is to be found unprovided at the Hou◠of Death When Friends and Physicians cannot keep thee and God and his good Angels will not take thee O then O then what will become of thee 2. Seriously think on the other hand what [y] Considera quà n pulchra res sit consummare vitam ante mortom deinde expectare securum reliquam tempor is sui part m◠Sen. ep 32. an happy and comfortable Thing it will be to find your Time well improved and your self prepared to die before you die 'T is a true Saying of the Wise Man that to a good man the * Eccl. 7.1 Day of Death is better than the Day of his Birth For is not that Day which perfectly frees and fully delivers a good Man from the many Vanities and great Vexations which the Life of Man is obnoxious to and the Troubles and Sufferings which the Life of a Christian is expos'd to far better than that Day which let 's him into the Possession of them Again The Time when a Person has attain'd the End of his Being made good the Hopes of others answer'd god's and Man's expectation concerning him walked himself in the Fear of the Lord brought up Children in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord walked worthy of his Vocation fill'd up every Relation with suitable Duties and Graces serv'd his Generation according to the Will of God liv'd and acted with reference to Eternity The Time when he most willingly leaves this wicked World and leaves an holy Seed to stand up in his room and stead leaves a good Name and a good Example behind him and goes to Heaven to the Spirits of just Men made perfect goes to God his heavenly Father and to Christ his Redeemer to receive the gracious and glorious Reward of all his Works and Labours and the Crown he has striven and contended for Surely the Day when this falls out which is the Day of his Death gives cause of more abundant Comfort than can the Day of his Birth together with all the Daies of his Life Is not that Day better wherein a Man has truly and really answered the Ends of Life than that in which he only began at first to live Is not that Day better in which he has fully and compleatly acted his Part well quitted and behav'd himself like a Man and Christian and is gone off the Stage of this lower world with Credit and Esteem Approbation and Applause of God himself good Angels and Men than the Day of his first appearing upon the Stage or Theater of this World in a way of Probation and Trial and in Hope of his future good Performance Is not the Day of his actual Admission and honourable Reception into a blissful Condition and happy Mansion far better than the Day of his Entrance into a State of Preparation for it Think well with thy self what a joyful Day what a [z] Cùm ecquid lumen molestiae afferret rogarent pectus tangens Oecolampadius abundè lucis est inquit Melch. Adam in vita Oecolamp p. 56. lightsome Hour what a Time of refreshing it will be to thee to be able to say with thy Saviour a little before thy Departure * Joh. 17.4 Father I have glorified thee on Earth I have finished the Work which thou hast given me to do And with the Apostle St. Paul †2 Tim. 4 6 7. The Time of my Departure is at hand I have fought a good Fight [a] Vixi quem dederat cursum fortuna peregi I have finished my course I have kept the Faith ‖ 2 Cor. 1.12 My rejoicing is this the Testimony of my Conscience that in
this present World Thy thinking of Judgment will make thee careful of thy Thoughts because God will judg the Secrets * Rom. 2.16 of Men and †1 Cor. 4.5 manifest the Counsels of the Hearts And render thee watchful over thy Words because of all thy ‖ Jude 15. hard Speeches and of every ‖ Jude 15. idle Word thou must give an account and ‖ Jude 15. by thy Words thou shalt be justified or condemned And will cause thee to be circumspect in all thy Waies and narrowly observant of all thy Actions because Christ vvill come to (†) Ibid. convince Men of all their ungodly Deeds and thou must be judged according to thy Works Didst thou faithfully mind thy self of a future Judgment thou wouldst not be so frothy and foolish in thy Speeches so vain and profane in thy Merriments so deceitful in thy Trade so formal in thy Duties thou wouldst not sottishly sleep or impertinently muse or irreverently talk out Sermons nor mumble and huddle over thy Praiers like so many Ave-Marie's Thou wouldst certainly think and speak and act buy and sell hear and pray carry thy self in thy Dealings with Men and in thy Devotions to God as one that must give an account of thy self to God O think and say at the End and Close of every Day Now I have one Day less to live and one Day more to reckon for It is [g] Apophthegms collected by George Herbert in his Remains reported of Ignatius Loyola that he used to say when he heard a Clock strike There 's one Hour more that I have to answer to God for Such a good Meditation concerning the past Hour would surely quicken thee to spend the following and succeeding Hour much better To conclude this particular Consider thou art to be judged by Christ and surely then thou wilt not be ashamed of him now lest he be ashamed of thee another Day Thou wilt wisely labour for an Interest in him who is to be thy Judg that when the Devil shall accuse thee thou maiest have an Advocate to plead for thee and the Judg himself to befriend thee and to deal according to the Mildness of the Gospel with thee Thou wilt hear and receive his Commands now that thou maiest hereafter hear the Sentence of Absolution from him Thou wilt endeavour so to live that thou maiest look upon the Day of Judgment as the Time of thy Refreshment and maiest * 2 Tim. 4.8 love the appearing of thy Lord and Judg. The eminently holy [h] In his Life written by his Brother Mr. James Janeway p. 95 96. Mr. John Janeway sometime Fellow of King's Colledg in Cambridg had very [i] At about 20 for he died between 23 and 24 and this was his Condition for about 3 Years before he died p. 97 120. early arriv'd and attain'd to such an high pitch and great measure of spiritual Readiness and heavenly Preparedness that when once there was much Talk that one had fore-told that Doom's-Day should be upon such a Day although he blamed the presumptuous Folly of the false Prophet yet supposing it were true What then said he What if the Day of Judgment were come as it will most certainly come shortly If I were sure the Day of Judgment were to begin within an Hour I should be glad with all my heart If at this very instant I should hear such Thundrings and see such Lightnings as Israel did at Mount Sinai I am perswaded my very Heart would leap for joy But this I am confident of through infinite Mercy that the very Meditation of the Day hath even ravished my Soul and the Thought of the Certainty and Nearness of it is more refreshing to me than the Comforts of the whole World Surely nothing can more revive my Spirits than to behold the blessed Jesus the Joy Life and Beauty of my Soul Would it not more rejoyce me than Joseph 's Wagons did old Jacob O let us labour to be like him Let 's love Christ's Laws that we may not dread but love his appearing when he shall come to reckon and call to an account for our Observation or Violation of them Let us love the Appearing and Manifestation of Christ in his Ordinances his Word and Sacraments love the Appearing Enlargement and Encreasing of his spiritual Kingdom in the World love his Appearing in the Hearts and Lives of his most saithful and obedient People love his Appearing in our Houses and Families and his being formed and inthroned in our own Hearts and in the Hearts of our nearest and dearest Friends and Relations and by earnest and ardent Desire even hasten the coming of the Day of God long for the second coming of the Lord Christ when he shall appear without Sin unto Salvation and very heartily pray and say * Rev. 22.17 20. Come Lord Jesus come quickly When wilt thou †Joh. 14.3 come again and receive us unto thy self that where thou art there we may be also Thus I have offer'd to your best Consideration the Certainty and Necessity of a future and final Judgment 2. I come now to lead you to the Meditation of the great Vncertainty as to us of the Time and Season of this Judgment O think with thy self that the Son of Man * Luke 12.40 cometh at an Hour when you think not That Christ saies †Rev. 16.15 Behold I come as a Thief That thou ‖ Mark 13.33 knowest not when the Time is That (*) Mat. 24.42 25.13 thou knowest neither the Day nor the Hour wherein (*) Mat. 24.42 25.13 your Lord (*) Mat. 24.42 25.13 the Son of Man cometh to particular Judgment at the Day of Death or to general Judgment at the End of the World That there are indeed Signs of the Times which shew when it is near which the Faithful are to observe and take notice of to be instructed by and to gather comfort from But that the punctual and precise Time is hid from us And that a considerable Latitude being to be allowed in the Accounts of Time both as to the Beginning and Ending of them we can therefore take no exact Measures nor six directly upon the very Time and Day that God hath set in his own purpose to judg the World in And here 't will be useful to thee to consider that as St. Austin speaks [k] Ideo later ultimus dies ut abserventur omnes dies The last Day is conceal'd and kept secret from thee that all other Daies may be observ'd well-spent and improved by thee and that there may be a due Trial of thy Faith and Patience and Obedience by a Course of holy Living Whereas if thou knewest certainly the just Term of thy Life and how long it would be before thou shouldst be called to be judged thou mightst too probably take Occasion from it to defer and put off thy Conversion and Repentance to a few Daies
before Death and Judgment and to live idly loosly and voluptuously all the Daies of thy Life till the very last But surely thou wilt reckon now That the great Vncertainty of Christ's coming is a notable Spur to Vigilancy and Watchfulness That now not being secure any one Moment 't is thy Wisdom to stand upon thy Watch continually lest Christ come at a Time when thou doest least expect him and find thee in a Posture uncapable of Mercy from him unqualitied to receive Benefit by his Coming Frequently and intently think that the Time of thy Death and particular Judgment is very uncertain That thou * Mark 13.35 knowest not when the Master of the House cometh at Even or at Midnight or at the Cock-crowing or in the Morning whether he will call thee in the Daies of thy Youth or in the Midst of thy Daies or in elder Years Whether he will take thee in thy Bed or at thy Table or in a Journey At what Time or by what Means he will cite and summon thee to leave this World and to come to Judgment Consider that thou maiest drop into thy Grave before the fall of the Leaf from the Tree Yea that though now in perfect Health thou maiest be dead [l] Qend in die judicii futurum est omnibus hoc in singulis die mortis impleter Hier. in c. 2 Joelis Tunc unicuique veniet dies ille don venerit ei dies ut talis hinc exeat qualis judicandus est illo die Aug. ep 80. and doomed and damned before the next Lord's-day that this very Day this Hour thy Soul may be required of thee and be presently judged to Heaven or Hell and pass immediatly into an unchangeable State and Condition And that the particular Judgment will consign thee over to the general Judgment which will be conform to and a Confirmation of the former for ever And this will raise and quicken thee to watch alwaies lest coming suddenly he find thee sleeping secure in thy Sins lest that Day come as a * Luke 21.35 Snare upon thee and when thon shalt †1 Tless 5.3 say Peace and Safety then sudden Destruction come upon thee as Travail upon a Woman with Child and thou canst not escape This will cause thee to take heed to thy self lest at any Time thy Heart be over-charg'd with Surfeiting and Drunkenness and the Cares of this Life and so that Day come upon thee unawares To dread the Thoughts of being surprized and taken unprovided by the great and just Judg of Angels and Men. This will help thee to be constantly careful as to thy Person that it be such as may find acceptance in that Day and careful as to thy Employment that it be such as is suitable to thy Expectation of Christ's Coming and sit to be approved by thy Lord To be alwaies in a readiness to receive thy Summons and give up thy Accounts To reason and argue thus with thy self It Christ's Coming should surprize me in such a Course of Sin what a woful Case should I then be in Shall I dare to live in that State which I shall tremble to be found in at the Day of Judgment Represent thy Judg as standing at the Door and this will excite thee to watch and pray alwaies that thou maiest be * Luke 21.36 accounted worthy to escape the Sentence of Condemnation and to stand before the Son of Man To pray God to make thee such a wise Virgin as may timely take care to trim thy Lamp to furnish thy Vessel with the Oil of Grace to put on the Wedding-garment and to get thy self arraied with that fine Linen which is the Righteousness of the Saints that so thou maiest gladly go out to meet the Bridegroom and when others are unprovided and miserably excluded thou being ready maiest be admitted by him and enter with him into the Marriage-Chamber The third of the four last Things proposed as the subject Matter of Meditation in order to the right Redemption of Time III. Let Heaven and its Joys be the subject Matter of thy Meditation And here 1. Think of the happy Condition of a pious Soul in the State of Separation Consider seriously that Christ hath †2 Tim. 1.10 brought Life and Immortality to Light through the Gospel [m] Hodie experiar an animà sit immortalis said Paulus Quintus when he was about to die A brave infallible judg indeed that doubted of the Soul's Immortality Nonne vobis videtur animus is qui plus cernat longius vidâ—rese ad meliora proficisci ille autem cujus obtusior sit acies non videre Cie de sen That thy Soul will subsist after the Shipwrack of this Body and that in the State of Separation it shall not droop in an unactive Lethargy nor be numm without Sence void of all Apprehension and Operation and in a drousy sleepy joyless comfortless Condition till the Resurrection An erroneous Opinion which Pope John the 22th was so stiff and peremptory in that he not only taught it himself but procur'd an Order in the Vniversity of Paris that none should take his Degree in Divinity unless he held it Do thou believe and consider that if thou beest a faithful Person thy Soul at its Departure shall change its State for the better and have a delightful Sense and joyful perception of its good Condition be * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 23.43 quickly with Christ in Paradise †2 Cor. 5.8 immediately present with the Lord and ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 14.13 forthwith blessed be (*) Luke 16.22 carried by a Convoy of Angels into Abraham's Bosom received to him and entertain'd with him That as Ambassadours when they arrive at forreign Courts are conducted thither by the Masters of Ceremonies so thy holy Soul shall be translated by good Angels into a blessed Mansion and with Lazarus be (†) Verse 25. comforted in that Condition That if thou art a just Person thy (‖) Heb. 11.23 Spirit shall then be made perfect thy Vnderstanding be cleared from Ignorance and Errour enlarged and illustrated at thy Departure thy Will be endowed with exact Conformity to the Will of God and with perfect Liberty from all Servitude of Sin and be troubled no more with doubtful Choice but fully embrace the Chief Good thy Affections be duely and firmly plac'd thy Spirit be [n] The Oracle told Amelius enquiring what was become of Polinus 's Soul that he was gone to Pythagoras and Socrates and Plato 'T was a comfort to Socrates that after Death he hoped to see Homer Hesiod O praeclarum diew cùm ad illud animor um concilium 〈…〉 sear cùm ex hac taròa colluvione discedam 〈…〉 seu de Sâ—n. Socrates Critoni Amicos inquit hinc diseedens in eniam vobis aut similes aut eâ—â—am meliores ne vestrà quid m 〈◊〉 diu curiturus quandoquidem ros 〈…〉 estis
our Health and Strength to resume our old-acquaintance Sins or to * Ps 85.8 turn again to Folly Did we but answer our sacred Vows and solemn Promises we should no longer be expensive and wasteful of our pretious Hours We should not be [f] Inter caetera mala hoc quoque habet stultitia proprium semper incipit vivere Epicuri dictum à Seneca laudatum ep 13 Considera quà m foeda sit hominum levitas quotidie nova vitae fundamenta ponentium novas spes etiam in exitu inchoantium Id. ib. Malè vivunt qui semper vivere incipiunt quia semper illis imperfecta vita est Non potest autem stare paratue ad mortem qui modò incipit vivere Id agendum est ut satis vixerimus nemo hoc putat qui ordetur cùm maximè vitam Id. ep 23. alwaies beginning to live but should live indeed and in good earnest We should in time make so sure of a blessed Eternity that we should never more have cause to fear either Sickness Death the Grave or Hell The twelfth and last Direction If we would effectually redeem the Time we must not give way to any Delay but strengthen and settle our Resolution against any farther Procrastination * Luke 19.44 Know the Time of thy Visitation †Verse 42. Know in this thy Day the things which belong unto thy Peace ‖ Is 55.6 Ps 32.2 Seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near (*) Job 22 21. Acquaint now thy self with God (†) Mat. 5.25 Agree with thine Adversary quickly whilst thou art in the Way with him (‖) 3.7 Flee from the Wrath to come Not go nor run but flee * Heb. 6.18 Flee for Refuge to lay hold upon the Hope set before you as of old the unwitting and unwilling Man-slayer was wont to hasten to take hold upon the Horns of the Altar and to †Exod. 21.13 Num. 35.6 Deut. 4.41 flee for safety to a Sanctuary or City of Refuge when hotly pursued by the enraged Avenger of Blood Be able to say with holy David ‖ Ps 119.60 I made [a] Properat vivere nemo sntis Martial l. 2. epigr. 90. haste and delayed not to keep thy Commandments Where the Prophet expresses it both affirmatively and negatively and so the more Emphatically after the manner of the Hebrews to shew his promptitude and readiness speediness and quickness in [b] Calv. in loc comparison of those dull and lazy Procrastinators who come not at all or come but softly and slowly to God And [c] Quanquam verba sunt praeteriti temporis continuum tamen actum notant Ibid. though the Words speak of the time past yet as Calvin observes they note a continual act I made haste and delayed not and I still make haste and now do not delay to keep thy Commandments Remember how Abraham rose up early in the Morning and without objecting or disputing or letting slip the first opportunity was ready to offer and forward to sacrifice his only Son at God's command Gen. 22.3 And how Christ's Disciples at his first Call immediatly left their Nets the Ship and their Father and followed him Matth. 4.20 22. And take Example by the wise Merchant in the Parable who dispatch'd his necessary business immediatly without cunctation or delay The account there given of him is express'd all in the present Tense He * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 13.44 goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth the Field in which the Treasure was hid †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 6.10 While you have opportunity do good to your selves and do good to all Let me say to you concerning Time and Opportunity as Boaz said to his Kinsman concerning the Land ‖ Ruth 4.4 If you will redeem it redeem it Stand no longer dallying and trifling in a matter that requires haste and speed For here consider 1. The sooner the better 'T is better 1. In respect of God 2. Of our selves 1. The sooner we redeem the Time the better it is in respect of God for God is abundantly more honoured and better serv'd by it He is more honoured by it Our making haste to redeem the Time prevents the doing of much Dishonour which by great and gross misspence of our Time would many waies be cast upon God by our affronting his Authority continuing in open Rebellion against him breaking his holy and righteous Laws abusing his Creatures and misemploying his Gifts from day to day And more than so It actually and positively does much honour to him as it is a ready present obedient Answer to God's Call who cries * Heb. 3.7 13. To day while it is called to day And a real demonstration and high expression of our ardent Love and hearty Affection to him and his Laws and Waies and an open and constant Justification of their Equity Bonity Suavity and Amability in the eye of the World And it is no small Honour done to God that by making haste and not delaying we devote the best of our Time to him and put him not off with the very dregs and refuse And further yet as God is more honoured so he is much better served by it The more haste we make to redeem the Time we shall be the better disposed more adapted and sitted for the Service of God become more meet Vessels for our Master's Vse and not only acquire greater Abilities but meet with larger more frequent and various Opportunities of doing God faithful and acceptable Service The sooner we enter in the longer we shall labour in our Lord's Vineyard and do the more work for our Heavenly Master 2. The sooner we redeem the Time the better it is in respect of our selves 'T is more honour able more pleasurable more profitable to do it sooner than later 1. It is more honour able to hasten and not to delay for this is a Sign that our Acts and Deeds are free and voluntary not forced and constrained That what we do in Religion we do of good will and choice On a Sick or Death-bed a Man is scared into a sudden and unchosen Piety and frighted into sits of involuntary Devotion He that never sets himself to redeem his Time till a mighty Fear forcibly drives and impells him to it till he finds he approaches and draws near to the Gates of Death and Hell and is ready to give up his unready and unallowable Accounts to the great and righteous Judg This Man acts dishonourably for he does nothing out of disaffection to his Sins nothing at all for the Love of God and for the sake of Vertue But it is an Honour and a Credit to a Christian to redeem the Time by his own Election and to act for God out of a free and ingenuous Principle of Love 2. The more haste we make to redeem the Time it is so much the more pleasurable
offer'd to God and prove available to cross and cancel all the Debts and wipe off the many and great Guilts of a fifty or threescore Years Impiety and Iniquity And that the Pardon of all thy Sins will be comfortably sealed and thy Soul be certainly consign'd to the Joys of Paradise and Glory of Heaven by receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper immediatly before thy Departure That if thou canst but form and frame thy shortest Breath to call upon God with these five Words Lord have Mercy upon me but a little before thy last Gasp they will really [n] Dâ—ke prove as powerful and available for the happy Translation of thy Soul to Heaven as the mumbling over those five Words of Consecration Hoc est enim Corpus meum for this is my Body is by the Papists imagined to be effectual for the Transubstantiation of their Host Is this consistent with the use of Reason and Consideration to venture all upon a Death-bed Repentance to take a wilful Course to bring thy self into such a Condition in which thou shalt be utterly unable with all the help that can be afforded thee to find out one Promise or to meet with one Example in the whole Bible that will full reach or plainly and properly speak to thy particular case and afford thee sufficient support relief and Comfort in that dark and dismal Day and Hour Obj. No Promise may some object and say Why what do you make of those Words At what time soever a Sinner doth repent him of his Sins from the bottom of his Heart I will put all his Wickedness out of my Remembrance saith the Lord. Answ For answer give me leave to tell you what others make of these Words and those very great Divines too There are no such Words in the whole Bible saies the very Learned [l] Serm. of the Invalid of a Death bed Rep. part 2. Bp. Taylor nor any nearer to the sense of them than those Words of the Prophet Ezekiel chap. 18.21 But if the Wicked will turn from all his Sins that he hath committed and keep all my Statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not die Or those chap. 33.14 15. in which you shall find Repentance more fully described When I say unto the Wicked Thou shalt surely die If he turn from his Sin and do that which is lawful and right if the Wicked restore the Pledg give again that he had robbed walk in the Statutes of Life without committing Iniquity he shall surely live he shall not die Here only is the condition of Pardon to leave all your Sins to keep all God's Statutes to walk in them to abide to proceed and make progress in them and this without the interruption by a deadly Sin without committing Iniquity to make restitution Satisfaction for all Injury to our Neighbour's Fame all wrongs done to his Soul When this is done according to thy utmost Power then thou hast repented truly then thou hast a title to the Promise Thou shalt surely live thou shalt not die for thy old Sins thou hast formerly committed This Place of Ezekiel is it which is so often mistaken for that common Saying At what time soever c. Repentance as stated by the Prophet cannot be done at what time soever not upon a Man's Death-bed Let that Saying therefore no more deceive you or be made a colour to countenance a persevering Sinner or a Death-bed Penitent And it is observable what a free reflection the judicious Chillingworth in a [m] P. 337. Sermon preached before King Charles the First was bold to make upon that Passage which then stood in the entrance to our Common-Prayer-Book I would to God saies he the Composers of our Liturgy out of a care of avoiding mistakes and to take away Occasion of cavilling our Liturgy and out of Fear of encouraging Carnal Men to security in sinning had been so provident as to set down in Terms the first Sentence taken out of the 18th of Ezekiel and not have put in the place of it an ambiguous and though not in it self yet accidentally by reason of the mistake to which it is subject I fear very often a pernicious Paraphrase for whereas thus they make it At what time soever saith the Lord the plain truth if you will hear it is the Lord doth not say so these are not the very Words of God but the Paraphrase of Men The Words of God are * Ezek. 18.21 where I hope you easily observe that there is no such Word as At what time soever a Sinner doth repent c. and that there is a wide difference between this as the Word repent usually sounds in the Ears of the People and turning from all Sins and keeping all God's Statutes That indeed having no more in it but Sorrow and good Purposes may be done easily and certainly at the last Gasp and it is very strange that any Christian who dies in his right Senses and knows the difference between Heaven and Hell should fail of the performing it but this Work of turning keeping and doing is ordinarily a Work of Time a long and laborious Work but yet Heaven is very well worth it and if you mean to go through with it you had need go about it presently And I find the Reverend and Learned Mr. Robert Bolton expressing himself to the same purpose [n] Mr. Bolton's Instruct for a right coms Affl. Conse pag. 254 255. I marvel saies he that any should be so blindfolded and baffled by the Devil as to embolden himself to drive off until the last by that Place before Confession At what time soever c. Especially if he look upon the Text from whence it is taken which me-thinks being rightly understood and the Conditions well considered is most punctual and precise to fright any from that desperate Folly The Words run thus Ezek. 18.21 22 c. Hence it appears that if any Man expect upon good ground any portion in this pretious Promise of Mercy and Grace he must leave all his Sins and keep all God's Statutes Now what space is left to come to Comfort by keeping all God's Statutes when thou art presently to pass to that highest and dreadful Tribunal to give an exact and strict Account for the continual Breach of all God's Laws all thy Life long But I must desire the Objector to remember that when some Alterations were made by Authority in our Liturgy the Paraphrase was removed and the proper Words of Scripture put in the room of it and now the self-deceiving Procrastinator will not well know what to do for want of a What time soever c. which is nowhere now to be found or met with in all his Bible or Common-Prayer-Book Obj. But a Friend to Delaies may further object and say Though I confess I was out in alledging the Promise yet certainly there is an Example that affords sufficient ground of
course wherein every Act is a step to Perdition To restrain thee from great Sins especially Thou wilt not chuse to live without God in this World for fear thou shouldst be forc'd to live without God in the other World Thou wilt not dare to continue in wilful Ignorance or Disobedience considering that Christ will come * 2 Thess 1.8 9. in flaming Fire to take Vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of Christ Thou wilt not give way to Vnbelief considering it is the damning Sin Nor live and die in wilful Impenitency lest thou perish eternally Thou wilt not surely be boldly guilty of such open Profaneness and gross Impiety as to bid God damn thee damn thee Body and Soul and the Devil take thee Thou wilt never use such cursed Forms of Speech thy self and wilt tremble to hear such horrid and worse than hellish Words proceed from the Mouths of mad and desperate Sinners Nor wilt thou offer to cherish and nourish hidden Hypocrisy since Hell is prepar'd of purpose for Hypocrites and the Punishment of Hypocrites is made the Standard of the Infernal Sufferings of other Sinners whose * Mat. 24.51 portion shall be appointed with Hypocrites Thou wilt not indulge thy self in Sensuality and Voluptuousness which has a terrible †Isa 5.11 12 14. Wo denounc'd against it Thou wilt not destroy thy Soul for the Pampering of thy Body lose fulness of Joy for the pleasing of a single Sense rivers of Pleasures for a superfluous Cup of drink Pleasures at God's Right Hand for evermore for the Pleasures of Sin which are but for a season for a minute for a moment Thou wilt not take thy short Pleasure to pay so dear as to suffer eternal Pain for it Thou wilt not allow thy self in Intemperance Nor venture to walk after the flesh in the Lust of Vncleanness remembring that the Lord knoweth how to ‖ 2 Pet. 2 9 10. reserve such Persons chiefly unto the Day of Judgment to be punished And well knowing (*) 1 Cor. 6.9 10. that neither Fornicators nor Adulterers shall inherit the Kingdom of God Thou wilt not burn in the fire of Lust lest at last thou beest scorch'd in the slames of Hell Thou wilt set the Fire of Hell in opposition to the Fire of Lust that the one may abate and put out the other As it is storied of a vertuous Christian Woman that being tempted and earnestly solicited to yield to commit Folly with a certain Wanton who made profession of great Love to her and how ready he was to do any thing for her sake To convince him and to deliver her self out of the Temptation she strait requested this one thing of him that he would hold the Tip of his Finger in the Flame of the Candle for one Quarter of an Hour He shrunk and wondered at the Proposition But if you be loth said she at my desire to indure such Pain for a Quarter of an Hour how can you expect that I for your pleasure should expose my self to suffer for Ever in Soul and Body the Wrath of God and the eternal Flames of Hell-fire Thou wilt resolve deliberately and endeavour carefully to refrain bad Company Whenever idle and evil Companions tempt thee and say Come to thee thou wilt be ready to think presently how Christ will say at Last Day Depart from me Thou wilt take heed of doing the Devil's Work for fear of suffering the Devil's Punishment Thou wilt have no Intimacy and Familiarity with the Devil now thou wilt not give him heart-room nor house-room lest thou beest compell'd to bear him company in Hell-fire for ever hereafter Thou wilt by no means be of the Devil's Party nor side and associate with the Ungodly and so deserve to be kept and continued in that Society which was formerly chosen by thee and acceptable to thee Thou wilt also zealously flee Idolatry and hate and abominate that Religion wherein the practice of gross Idolatry is made necessary the Worshipping of Images of Bread and Wine in the Eucharist the Worshipping and Invocating of Saints and Angels Considering * 1 Cor. 6.9 that Idolaters are of the Number of those that shall not inherit the Kingdom of God but are appointed to have their †Rev. 21.8 part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone Nor wilt thou fall inconsideratly into damnable Heresy nor hold so grossly corrupt Opinions as may bring upon thee ‖ 2 Pet. 2.1 swift Destruction nor be deluded to believe the Lies of Antichrist to thy utter * 2 Thess 2.10 12. perishing and eternal undoing Thou wilt abhor wilful Lying to save thy Credit or get Gain and hate to set thy [t] Servum nolle mentiri nova religio est Plaut Servants to tell Lies to vend thy Wares and put off thy Commodities Thou wilt be loth by a gainful Lie to cheat thy Brother of Twelve-pence and to lose thy Soul by the bargain remembring that Lying is a damnable Sin and that †Rev. 21.8 all Liars shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone which is the Second Death Thou wilt be fearful of speaking any thing that looks like Detraction still minding thy self that ‖ Rom. 1.29 30 32. Whisperers and Back-biters are join'd in the Catalogue with Haters of God who are worthy of Death And that he that (*) Ps 15.1 3. Back-biteth with his Tongue and taketh up a Reproach against his Neighbour is not likely to dwell in God's holy City That if thou shouldst prove such a Devil incarnate thou wilt be fit to keep company perpetually with the Devil and his Angels That if thy Tongue should here be so set on Fire of Hell it would presage that without Repentance and Reformation it will surely be set on Fire in Hell Thou wilt watch against the rising of rash Anger which is a Sin that has Hell at the heels of it and be careful to prevent its breaking out in Expression or Action revolving in thy Mind that of thy Saviour (†) Mat. 5.22 Whosoever shall say Thou Fool to his Brother shall be in danger of Hell-fire Thou wilt dread the Thoughts of Vnfruitfulness under Means having fixed and imprinted this in thy Mind that * Mat. 3.10 every Tree which bringeth not forth good Fruit is hewn down and cast into the Fire †11.23 And that Capernaum which was exalted unto Heaven by her enjoyment of special Means was threatned for want of answerable Improvement to be brought down to Hell Thou wilt not harden thy Heart in Vnmercifulness pondering in thine Heart how Dives in Hell wanted the refreshment of a [u] Desiderabat guttam quia non dedit micam Aug. Drop of Water for refusing to give poor Lazarus the small comfort of a Crumb of Bread when he himself fared so sumptuously and feasted deliciously every Day Thou wilt not be unmerciful in not
giving Nor in not forgiving never forgetting how the wicked uncompassionate Servant in the Parable was delivered by his Lord to the Tormentors Thou wilt strive and labour against sinful [w] Mr. Latimer having in a Sermon at Court in Henry the Eighth's daies much displeased the King he was commanded the next Lord's-Day to preach again and make his Recantation He coming prefaced to his Sermon with a kind of Dialogism in this manner Hugh Latimer Do'st know to whom thou art this day to speak to the high and mighty Monarch that can take away thy Life if thou offend therefore take heed how thou speakest a Word that may displease his Majesty But as recalling himself Hugh Hugh saies he do'st know from whom thou comest and upon whose message thou art sent even the great and mighty God that is able to cast both Body and Soul into Hell-fire for ever and therefore take heed to thy self that thou deliver thy message faithfully and so came to his Sermon and what he had deliver'd the Day before confirmed and urged with more vehemency than ever The King that day called for him and taking him off from his Knees embraced him in his Arms saying he blessed God that he had a Man in his Kingdom that durst deal so plainly and faithfully with him Mr. Newcomen's Serm on Heb. 4.13 p. 37. Fearfulness and not be drawn to do any Evil or omit any Good against clear and full Light of Conscience for Fear of any outward Trouble or Danger recollecting in thy Thoughts that the ‖ Rev 21.8 Fearful shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone Thou wilt be ready (*) Mat. 10.28 Luke 12.5 to set the Fear of God and the Fear of Hell against all carnal Fear of Men or of any temporal Evil whatsoever As the Primitive Martyrs did who when they were solicited by Heathen Emperours to sacrifice to their Idols with these Arguments That then they should save their Houses and Lands and Liberties and Lives but should otherwise lose all They put off all with this Answer [x] Da veniam Imperator tu carcerem minaris ille gehennam Pardon us O Emperour you threaten a Prison to us but God threatens Hell to us So Biblis as [y] Eccl. Hist l. 5. c. 1. Eusebius relates the Story a Woman who having fainted before and renounced her Profession of Christianity out of fear of suffering Persecution and being brought to the Place where the Christians Bodies were burnt to Ashes that others might be drawn from their Profession by means of her expected publick blasphemous Denial and Recantation was at the very Hour of Suffering thoroughly awaken'd as out of a dead Sleep by the sight of those Flames which were the Instruments of the Martyrs Torments to consider the intolerable eternal Torture of Hell-fire which she must unavoidably suffer if she should dishonour Christ and his Religion and asperse the innocent and unblameable Professors of it And thus expelling the lesser Fear by the greater and happily returning unto her self she disappointed her Persecutors Expectation and by being faithful unto Death obtain'd the Crown of a Martyr of Jesus and animated others to endure the Cross with Christian Fortitude and the Patience of the Saints Fix thy Cogitations on the Infernal Flames and this will make thee resolve and determine to chuse rather to do or suffer any thing here than to suffer the sad and bitter Pains of Hell hereafter Concluding that the Pains and Difficulties of Duty are no way comparable to the troublesome uneasy Condition and piercing raging Pains of Hell yea that the Suffering of Martyrdom here is a light Affliction to the dreadful Suffering of Hell-fire hereafter The serious frequent Meditation of the exquisite Punishments and dolorous Torments of Hell will moreover powerfully perswade thee to be far from [z] De horribili eorum exitio admoniti fideles praesentem illis sortem non invideant Calv. envying the greatest Prosperity of wicked Men who shall one day change their present Felicity for extream Want and utmost Misery lose the Presence of God and Christ and the full Fruition of endless Pleasures in Heaven and suffer an Eternity of distracting Pains and racking heart-renting Torments in Hell for a few bitter-sweet transient Pleasures here on Earth Yea this will help thee to bear any outward Affliction patiently and quietly to accept of any temporal Punishment of thy Iniquity considering thou deservest Hell it self and that all thy present Straits and Sufferings are nothing to the Wants and Losses the Pains and Miseries of damned Persons That eminent Pattern of Christian Patience the holy [a] His Life among Mr. Clark's Lives of ten em Div. p. 178. Mr. Jeremy Whitaker did humbly adore God's Goodness in the midst of his sorest sharpest Sufferings and violent excruciating racking and grinding Pains which were caus'd and continued by a complication of acute Diseases the Stone Ulcer Gangrene and expressed himself with marvellous Meekness in such Words as these Lord thou givest me no occasion to have any hard Thoughts of thee O who would not even in Burnings have honourable Thoughts of God Blessed be God there is nothing of Hell in all this Again This will throughly awaken and quicken thee to take heed of beginning the Hell here which will be compleated and consummated hereafter of being now of an hellish frame and temper of Mind of departing from and living without God and Christ which is not only Man's Sin but Misery which is a very Hell upon Earth and will be a great part of the future Hell of contracting and strengthning vicious habits here and of exposing thy self to the Misery that naturally arises from Sin to the Rebukes and Upbraidings of a guilty Conscience Considering with thy self that an hellish Temper and Disposition if thou livest and diest in that Condition will surely continue and be confirm'd in the other World and that an hellish State will prepare thee for and bring thee to the place of Hell This will also engage thee to bless God for Christ for giving his only begotten Son to * 1 Thess 1.10 deliver thee from the Wrath to come by suffering Tribulation and Anguish for thee and †5 9. not appointing thee to Wrath but to obtain Salvation by Jesus Christ. And to be truly thankful to Jesus Christ who condescended to be forsaken of God that thou mightst not be totally deserted and eternally forsaken of him and endured the Fire of God's Wrath that thou mightst be perfectly freed for ever from Hell-fire This will provoke thee by Faith and Repentance and bringing forth Fruits * Mat. 3.7 8. meet for Repentance * Mat. 3.7 8. to flee from the Wrath to come and to seek to escape the Damnation of Hell And this will cause thee to hate and abandon the cursed Arts and wicked Waies of †23.15 making others the Children of Hell to dread the