but what I make within my self Does not he command me to believe and is not this my proper work that I shoud be found labouring in is there one in the Book of God that does incourage me to question either his ability or willingness to save me it is the work of Satan to make obstructions in a Man 's own self and then to lay them at God's door but is it any part of my work to believe him of regard him it is thy every dayes work to believe with all thy Heart and if thou canst say that thou art willing to give up thy self to the Lord Jesus be saved and sanctified by him to be pardoned and purged by him to bring nothing to him to keep nothing from him to deny thy sinful self thy righteous self and if he call for it thy natural self thou mayest conclude thou art in thy proper work which is suitable for every season and that thou art observing the order of God and appointment the Lord Jesus for This is the work of God saith our Lord that ye believe on him whom he hath sent And what ever it is that does obstruct and hinder this work comes from Satan and not from God it is a work that was never numbred out by God for thee to do for it is according to his mind and pleasure that every one should say as his Apostle Paul did the Life that I live it is by Faith in the Son of God and the work that I do is to be alwaies exercising and putting forth Acts of Faith upon the Lord Jesus And as for the concerns of my Body is it any part of my work or duty according to Gospel-rule to be carking and caring and vexing my self how I shall maintain that what I should Eat and Drink and wherewithal I should be Cloathed has not he engaged his Providence for me is not his express word and is it not my proper work to believe it be content with such things as ye have For be hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Hath he given me a Kingdom and will not he give me a staff to walk to that Kingdom as I have heard it well observed by a worthy Minister will he give me Heaven and will not give me Earth will he give me an inheritance and will he not give me spending money can I trust him for my Soul and can I not trust him for my poor frail Body Is not food and ralment within the Covernant as well as life and Salvation Did he ever put me upon such work as this as to get my own Breads and leave me to my own Hands It s true as he has told me that in the sweat of my Brows I must eat my Bread but he never said I should do it in the care and trouble and grief of my Heart I must work indeed but the care of me lies with him he is bound to maintain me it is not my labour but his blessing that must do it I am but a journy-man the work is not mine but his I must be at his allowance he has set me my dimensum my task and it is purely in his disposal how I must be maintained what he will give me of these outward things whether much or little he knows best my constitution what I can bear what may be convenient for my passage what may be helping and not clogging in my journey to Heaven and if I have but little of the present World I must not call it Poverty but Discipline I conclude therefore it was never intended by the Lord to be any part of my work or to take up any part of my time to sret and perplex my self how I should have provisions to carry me or my Family through the wilderness of this World But to proceed this very thing of not numbring the work to the day and so answering the design of God in giving the day is that which proves fatal to Persons and People and becomes their utter ruine How does our Saviour weep over Jerusalem and breaks out into these mournful expressions Sayings If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes For the day shall come upon thee that thine Enemies shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee round and keep thee in on every side and shall lay thee even with the ground and thy Children within thee and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another Good Lord what is the cause of all this misery why will thou deal so severely with thine own and only People surely there is some great things in the bottom What have they done Dost thou ask what have they done It is for something they did not do when they had an opportunity on purpose given for doing of it Because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation God gave them his Ordinances the means of Grace he waited a great while upon them to see whether they would profit under them and prove an holy and reformed People but they not minding the Lord's end in being at such charge with them continued a careless formal worldly contentious and a very unholy sinful People yea grow worse and worse therefore c. The Lord help us my Brethren to know the day of our visitation our tranquillity is lengthened out our liberties continued we enjoy Sabbaths and Sermons and Ordinances one Exhortation and Admonition after another precept upon precept warning after warning we have also some lesser corrections and chastisements intermingled and what is all this for that we should bring forth fruit to God that we should become an heavenly and serious People that our Faith might grow exceedingly and the charity of every one of us all towards each other might abound But if we go on as we do bringing forth so many truits of the flesh remain carnal frothy so lukewarm indifferent in the things of Religion dead under the opportunitie of life with so much formally in Duties under Ordinances turning as a door upon the hinges neither well with the means of Grace nor well without them with so much outside in our services and performances so little presling after inward communion with God with so little zeal for the Name and Honour and Truths of God so little sence of the sins of others to mourn over them reprove them of the suffering of others to mourn with them and bear their burthens so great lovers of the World so desirous of having much so little contented with our conditions what never an Heart moved yet at the hearing of all this is there none cry guilty so unjust equivocating overreaching and unwatchful over our tongues in trading and bargaining so little thinking of the Royal rule to do as we would be done by so vain in our Discourses so upcircumspect in our Conversations so sensual and unmortified such
the ground Reason 2. Our times are in God's hands and in our own and we have no assurance of another day therefore no reason why we should reckon of it My times are in thy Hands and so Job Is there not an appointed time to Man upon Earth are not his dayes like the dayes oftan Hire ling the dise of Man is measured by the will of God hitherto shall â—iy time come and not further As thou canst not add one Cubit to thy Stature so not one Minute to thy Dayes It 's well observed by one as Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath so God is the Lord of time and they who dye in a time when God forbids yet dye in a time that God appoints Some men nay most men live as if they were Masters of their own time as if they had made a Covenant with Death and Articles with the Grave How does the Apostle James reprove and cheek with all sevrity this great Pride and Arrogandy in Men that would be cutting out snippets large threeds of time when it was not at all in their own power but was anothers Right and this they would do without asking any leave we say leave is light see Jam. 4.13 14 15. Go to now ye that Jay to Day or to Mrrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain Where as ye know not what shall be on the Morrow for what is your Life it is even a Vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away For that ye ought to say if the Lord will we shall live and do this or that After the like manner does the Prophet Esay Tax the Wretchedness of this Temper To Morrow shall be as this Day and much more abundant Time is God's peculiar and if he will not hold them Guiltless that meddle with his Name and Worship and People c. no more will be those that take his time and spend it upon their Lusts Friend who gave you leave to promise and Design and contrive and lay Trains for so long a time did you come and ask me for my advice both about the thing and the time I 'le cut you short I 'le give a nick in your time and all your thoughts with all the links of them shall perish and fall to the ground Reason 3. Because Satan and his Instruments are so Malicious and Bloody and are so bent against the Lives of Christians that is a markable Expression in Job 24.22 He riseth up and no Man is sure of his Life Wicked Mens Lives are cut short by the Lord 's just Hand so that do not live out half their Dayes and Righteous Mens Lives are cut off by evil Mens unjust Hands so that they do not live out half their dayes nor a quater witness the many Bloody Massacres that have destroyed the Lives of Thousands of Men Women and Children Infants and Sucklings The Devil and his Instruments would not have you Live a Day if they could help it if Satan were let loose in a few minutes there would not be a Person alive in this Congregation and if the rage of the wicked was permitted to do its utmost none of us could easily escape long with our Lives whilst we are in this world Among the Men of the World we should walk with our Lives in our Hands It s Dangerous Travelling in some places because of Wolves and Bears and Wild Beasts I know no place in the World but is infested with such Creatures as the Scripture calls Beasts Lyons Wolves Dogs Foxes destroyers of the Earth every Saint of God may safely say that he is afraid of Bodily harm whilst he lives here Let me tell you God has Wonderfully curbed the Egyptian Dogs that no more Lives have gone than there has the Curs have been still barking their Tongues have kept moving but their Hands have been pretty well tyed up Blessed be the Name of our God but that by the way Observable to this Purpose is that Passage of Cain and Abel And Cain talked with Abel his Brother and it came to pass when they were in the Field that Cain rose up against Abel his Brother and slew him There is the same rising at Heart the same murdering Humor and Sprite in every Cain against every Abel though there be not the same rising up see for this and mark diligently 1 Job 3.12.15 The ground of the hatred will alwaies remain whilst there are good and bad upon Earth and therefore we may be expecting the Fruits he that hateth is a Murderer hatred is the Embryo of Murder But further Jobs Sons should have reckoned their Lives by the Day upon this account whether they were good Men or only a good Mans Children needs not be discoursed here if only the latter it was enough to entitle them to Satans malice who having a little lether-length given him presently brings the House about their ears and Kills every Man and Woman that was there see Job 1.19 He was not long of doing it he smote the four Corners of the House he did it to purpose Reason 4. The Irruptions and Inundations of the Ocean of Eternity which once in an hundred years overflows the whole Country and carries away every living Creature It was said upon that great Judgment of the Death of the first-born in Egypt that there was not in House where there was not one death not to mention those great inundations of the Plague and Pestilence which sometimes sweep away an Hundred Thous and out of our City in one Year not yet those eruptions of the Sword which in a very few hours sinks Thousands into the Deep and sends them into the great Gulph of Eternity do but take notice of those over flowings that are usual and common which do not cause wonder Oh that they might procure more Observation than they do what Day is there especially great Places wherein there is not one or more found Dead how frequently is the Passing Bell founding in thine Ears how many Spectacles of Mortality Old and Young daily carried to the Graved yet who layes it to Heart Burials are so frequent in Cities that they are not regarded and so seldom in the Countries that they are not taken notice of How many has thou known Buried out of the House where thou lives if none be sure thou Reckon of one every Day and that is of thy self as well as of other go over the city into every House and set whether you can find the same Persons sitting by those fire-sides and lying in those Beds that sate and lay there twenty Years ago thou will not find many Houses from whence some have not been snatched where Death has not crept in at Windows and carried away an Husband a Wife a Child a Servant a Friend if thou find a free house bid them look to it for the next stood that comes the Water
and please themselves to play upon the borders of that unpardonable sin they do deride the very Actings and Breathings of the Holy Spirit of God because of some that are but pretenders to it but never had it let me tell thee O thou that draws such consequences and conclusions that the Gospel is an Holy Gospel Religion is a real and substantial thing There are Ordinances of Chirist which we must be walking and waiting upon God in and if we that profess the Gospel do not walk according to it we must repent and sue out our pardon God will scourge and correct us severely as he has done in all Ages and we must justify him in it and he will make us know that it is an evil and a bitter thing to depart from God and to bring reproach upon Religion and the Name of God and to open the mouths of such as thou art I will not name thee but would willingly know by what name thou conceives thy self to be called in Scripture and would desire others that they would likewise consult Scripture and find out thy Character there but I would tell thee further before we part that if we do transgress we pay dear for our sin Repentance is too great a rate to be given for the most profitable Corruption upon Earth we are chastened of the Lord that we might not be condemned with the World Besides know this that if we be true Saints though we may have our infirmites and must repent of them consequently so antecedently we must be such as do sincerly resolve against all sin that do not allow or indulge our selves in the least evil that carefully avoid and shum the occasions of sins that hate every false way We must be such as must have respect to all Gods Commandements according to our Light in them and Knowledge of them not be found neglecting any thing that we know to be a Duty we should be very careful of our words how we spend our time and be continually preparing for our dying hour And if there be such as are indeed very Hypocrites among us as there has been in all Ages and will be to the end of the World and no avoiding it for we cannot know mens hearts and for external Worship and Holiness a wicked man may do them as well as a Saint nay a Hypocrite may possible do them better than a Saint because he does not carry weight with him he takes no heed to the heart which is the principal thing in a Duty I say grant there be such if they discover themselves in gross impieties and prove obstinate the Gospel has given Rules for Admonitions sharp and cutting Reproofs even to the quick for withdrawing from them for casting them out of the Society of Gods people and Gospel-Professors and delivering of them up to Satan and if they do remain covered and concealed till the Judgement of the great day then the Lord will discover them and them a portion in the lowest place in Hell The Scripture seems to make them the freeholders and first-born of Hell Mat. 24.51 He will appoint him his portion with the Hypocrites there shall be weeping and ganshing of teeth Well therefore thou mightest spare thy self the expence of a great many words for business is quickly summed up either thou calls a true Saint an Hypocrite because of his infirmites and some Hyporisite which discovers it self in him which he repents of which the Lord gives him a pardon for cleanses him from and at last receives him to his Glory and if this be thy Case I am much afraid thou wilt come under the last of that Scripture which I will take the pains to turn to it is in the Epistle of Jude ever 14 15. Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints to execute vengeance upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their bard speeches which ungodly sinner have spoken against him But Secondly If this be thy Case that thou calls those Hypocrites that are indeed so what need thou be so concerned both God and Man are against them they have shame here however the Lord does most severely tourment them to all Eternity thou might spare thy bad Language they are punished enough without it But Thirdly If this be thy mind to take occasion hence to speake evil of Religion and holy Profession the Graces and Fruits of the Spirit make a mock and derision of all these that because many men that pretend to Religion are very wicked men therefore to cast off all Religion and Zeal and Love to God and Faith in Christ Jesus and the workings of the Spirit as Fancies and Shadows having no substance or reality in them then I must needs say that thou art in the high way to Atheism and I do nor know how I am fallen upon it but I cannot possibly avoid it according to my casting up the Account it amounts to neither more nor less thou art a down-right Atheist I did not think I should have had occasion to have used this word for I do not love words that carry reflection with them I have been studying the ninth Verse of the Epistle of Jude railing Language does not become my Mouth I confess I may be mistaken in my casting up and I should be glad to see where my Errour lay that I may rectifie it I can say I love Truth better than Opinion or my own Conception and Imagination Methinks I hear thee disowning the name and thing pleading for Righteousness and Honesty and Worship and Sacraments c. The truth is thou hast now confimed me fully in judgment of thee for the Scripture is not more express in any thing than in discovering a sort of people that plead for a Form of Godlinese that they may more effectually oppose the power of it that use the name of God that they may fight against the Nature Word and Works of God that pretend to set up Christ that they may destroy his Person and all his Offices Men of corrupt minds reprohate concerning the Faith That profess they know God but in works deny him being abominable disobedient and to every good work reprobate Enemies to the Cross of Christ If so be then that thou art an Atheist the Scripture in plain terms calls thee a Fool Psal 14.1 Thou hast read the place but I will read it to thee again The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God He has no fear of God no awe of the great God upon his Spirit no sense of his Holiness Power Justice Omnisciency his Word his Will his Works what he hath done what he will do what joy he hath laid up for the Serious Sincure Humble seekers of him and that truly believe on the name of his Son and are careful to maintain good Works what torment he has prepared for the wicked and
CHRISTIAN Geography and Arithmetick Or a True Survey of the WORLD Together with the right Art of numbring our dayes therein Being the Substance of some SERMONS Preached in Bristol By THOMAS HARD CASTLE Minister to a particular Congregation there 1 Cor. 7.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 opportunity is furled up as a sail Psa 39.4 5. Lord make me to know mine end and the measure of my dayes what it is that I may know how frail I am Behold thou hast made my dayes as an hand breadth and mine age is as nothing before thee every Man at his best Estate is altogether vanity London Printed for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in Pauls Church Yard 1674. To my Honoured and worthy Friends Mr. John Smith and his beloved consort Mrs. Anne Smith at Battersee BY prefixing your names the World will easily suppose me under great obligations to you though it is as far from my design to give as I know it is from your desire to receive flattering expressions A few Weeks ago I thought my self far enough from making use of your Names or any ones else in this kind The sence of that Providence which you met with when you were last at Bristol which did so suddenly bring you even to the Gates of Death and almost as speedily restored you again did give conception to the most of these meditations and because your urgent affairs prevented you of the opportunity of hearing them Preached I was willing you should have a sight of them that they might be your monitor and keep you company the best stand in need of their Memento Mori's for whichpurpose I began to transcribe them intending nothing more than your private view but continually sternuously followed with these considerations which daily increased upon me and would not be avoided viz. That I had many Friends in Yorkshire where I drew my first Natural and Spiritual Breath for whom I have endeared affections and whom I have daily in my remembrance that the first fruits of my Ministry was sown among them that I had spent some years there in several Places Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom the Lord having made my poor Endeavours useful to some and especially that I ought not to forget how Satan envying the Conversion of Souls and that the Lord Jesus should have any Publick Worship did stir up some of his Instruments Persecutors and Apostates several times for some Years together to Molest us Fine us Imprison us and Impoverish us also how Graciously the Lord was pleased to manifest himself in our Assemblies and so by his Spirit wonderfully to support strengthen and incourage us under losses long confinements that through Divine assistance we were enabled to hold on in the Lord's way to the last those that gave us trouble being in the issue either weary of their own Work or convinced of the honesty of our's and the integrity of our Hearts therein that these my Fellow-sufferers together with all the rest that did sympathize with us and remember us in our bonds as bound with us should be under some visible Character of my cordial Love and seeing the Providence of God had for the present set me at so great a distance from them that I was utterly disabled from doing or receiving good among them I should put something into their hands which might stir up their pure minds by way of remembrance I knew no more Useful Lesson to recommend to them than this of Right Numbring their Dayes which may put them upon a serious consideration of their dayes past a due improvement of the present and an Holy preparation for those few and evil ones that are remaining I am also made in this small undertaking to have a sincere respect to the Members of that Antient and Honourable society whereof you are now a member formerly walking with Mr. Henry Jessy where for some time I did enjoy Comfortable Communion till the Providence of God removed me thence And now I know that you will not be troubled that you have been the occasion and made way for me that I might discover some of that true Love I have for my old Friend and Native Countrey whose Souls I hope I could serve with laying down my own Life But that I may not grow tedious to you I shal only further tel you what I latly heard of you from the mouth of a Judicious Christian who hath many years been intimately acquainted with you both before and since your signal Conversion more need not be said of the best Saint in the World and less cannot be said of the weakest I confess I was much taken with the expression and therefore mention it not only because it is inoffensive having neither flattery nor reflexion in it both which I loath but because it may be of use to some if he had said you had been an honest Manwithout faults or but with a few or if he had said that he is a Man blessed with rare accomplishments admirable endowments he can speak with the tongue of Angels he hath the gift of Prophecy and understands all Mysteries and all Knowledge he is willing to bestow all his goods to feed the Poor and is ready if need be to give his Body to be burned c. 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3. But he hath one Fault I should have liked it leaft of al for it would have looked like that in 2 Kin. 5.1 Now Naaman Captain of the Host of the King of Syria was a great Man with his Master and honourable because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria he was also a mighty Man in valour but be was a Lepert Or like the young Man in the Gospel whom Jesus kissed and his Neighbours applauded but he lacked one thing Mark 10.21 It seems the Righteous Man with his seven falls a day remains an upnight Man for he doth not fall willingly he rifeth again speedily by Repentance and he mourns daily over his many humane frailties and infirmities David and Job and peter Were honest men with all their faults though if the least iniquity be allowed and indulged no Man can be an honest man with all his good Works and Religicus performances But Sincerity is a Grace of that excellent Nature and universal inflaence that it gives Life reality and a beautiful complexion to all other Graces it unstings infirmities in the sight of men and through the merits of Christ gives boldness to transgressing Sinners to draw near to the King of Heaven not only with expectation of acceptance but of complacency and great delight Lastly For you my dear Friend I have only this to say to you that I am perswaded your Soul 's in a good state for all your fears and complaints of a treacherous and unbelieving Heart which are incident to the best of Saints and which the Lord somtimes for reasons suffers them to be attended with more than some
weaker Christians That you both may grow in Grace and especially in the Life of Believing and be found still in the exercise of those good Works as the Lord shall enable you of Gospel Hospitality of entertaining Prophers and Saints though strangers and exiles with your liberality and bounty to the poor Saints and People of God and that under that very consideration and denomination without more private and narrow respects that you with all your faults and you with all your fears may be presented blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and When your little time is expired in this troublesome restless Earth whereas a Man uncannot find a place to set his foot easily be safely landed in unconceivable and immense Eternity shal be the constant Prayer vvhilst time lasts of Your Faithful true Friend in Him that is true T. H. To my loving Friends the Members and Hearers of that Congregation which I stand related to as Minister Dearly beloved Friends IT would seem strange if I should leave you out in this affair since what is here published was Preached among you and they were your Sermons in the Preaching I have not much to Communicate to you in this manner having so many sfeasons of speaking to you blessed be God or the continuance of them only meeting with this fair opportunity I cannot but make mention of that Universal and continued Affection I have met with from you since the Lord by his Providence brought me among you I cannot likewise but take notice to the praise of our Lord and your incouragement of that union Love and moderation there is among you notwithstanding some difference in apprehension your soundness and stedfastness in the Faith of the Gospel your zeal and Love to the Name Honour Offices and standing Ordinances of the Lord Jesus in this Age wherein he hath so many sorts of Enemies appearing against him your peaceable dispositions together with your readiness to suffer for rather than run from the discharge of your Duties and Consciences towards God when Persecution and trouble threatned you c. Let me exhort you to Bless the Lord for and improve your present liberty pray that those whom the Lord hath made to see it their interest not to fall out with Religion may come to see it their chief concern to fall in with it prepare for worse times and endeavour to see your own sins to be the procuring cause of them make trial what influence the right measuring and spending of time will have upon the power of Godliness which is so much decayed Be careful to grow in Grace and go on as it is your true desire to strengthen Christianity yet more in its more principal and vital parts keeping up Communion with God in serious meditation and servant Prayer giving Religion an honourable and chief respect in your Families daily renewing Acts of Faith and Repentance watching carefully over the Tongue looking well to the Hand 's that they over-reach not nor withhold more than is meet to the feet and conversations that they be preserved without grieving and offending slips and falls c. Finally pray for me earnestly that I may approve my self a Work-man that need not be ashamed If you would feel my Sermons let me feel your Prayers and be helpt by them I shall conclude with that needful admonition Revel 16.15 From which I have lately Discoursed largely to you Behold I come as a thief blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his Garments lest he walk naked and men see his shame That you may stand compleat in all the will of God and be kept by his Power through Faith unto Salvation is the constant prayer and through Divine assistance shall be the Hearty Endeavour of Your faithful though unworthy Servant in the Work of the Gospel T. H. To Young Men. THis little piece may be of use to you to carry in your pockets and read a few lines in it every day you that think your time is before you may yet have out-lived and left your season behind you You have had many powerful Sermons Preached to you many excellent Treatises dedicated to you many servent Prayers put up to the Lord on your behalf many loud calls and grave admonitions from God your Parents Masters and Relations and if you could but see your time to be pretious it would make all effectual for the welfare of your Souls and Bodies your true Honour here and Glory hereafter Are not you found sometimes in the practice of some things for which the Lord of time never created any time save a reckoning time can you rationally conceive that God ever made any time for Idleness for Drinking for Gaming for vain sporting and pleasure for dancing for frothy or filthy communication for unruly passions or any uncomely behaviour I shall only recommend those two known words of Solomon Rejoice at your utmost peril and Remember for your unspeakable benefit The Lord help you to give to him your early and morning time and strength he will take it kindly and reward you Honourably Farewel A PREFACE TO THE READER Christian Reader IF the shortness swiftness and importance of time were well weighed what a change should we see in the World That Men may make truer and better measures of it than they have done is the honest design of this small Treatise I have sometimes thought that if persons would consider their words before they speak them and view their Actions before they do them and value their time before they lay it out what examplary Christians would they be found Thou wilt find herein some account of that expression of Job Man that is born of a Woman is of few dayes and full of trouble some discoveries of that large influence the right numbring of our dayes has upon true Godliness in all the parts of it the Discourse is calculated in an special manner for such sincere Souls as more affect matter than phrase who desire to know only that they may practise and place happiness not in speaking hearings or knowing but in doing and therefore I have gone in a plain and familiar way consulting the weakest capacities What good fruit should we bring forth if we laid this ground that the pleasures of sin and worldly grievances are but for a season what good seed would be sown for our Eternal welfare and being in the World to come I could tell thee of strange effects which the true consideration of the transitoriness of this Life the certainty of Death together with the duration of Eternity hath had upon Men to put them upon laying up a good foundation for time to come I would take the liberty to recommend unto thee one or two passages of a story made use of by an eminent Minister long since with God which together with some other remarkable observation and hints of his which I have quoted in the following work were communicated to me by a good
knows c. He that made you knows what you stand in need of what your Constitutions do require how much will serve how little Nature requires and how much less Grace needs if you have but little do not call it Poverty but Discipline he is your Father 7. Motive is a proprio medio from the proper and most effectual way and means to secure a competency and that is by seeking first of all the kingdom of God Ver. 33. He that would make Earth sure must first of all make Heaven sure shall I be taking thought what to eat and drink here and never fear begging a drop of water hereafter shall I be solicitous for Clothes and do not know but my Soul and Body may lie naked in the scorching flames of the wrath of God to all Eternity besides I have a Promise of God for outward things if I make it my business to seek after Heavenly it is a very needless care God provides meat for me that I may not be taken off my work to seek after it 8. Ground lies in my Text and it is taken from the Consideration of that sufficient trouble that each day is filled with you need not fetch the misery of another day unto this day it hath enough full enough of its own some read it The day hath enough with his own grief I now came to the Observations Doct. 1. Which is implyed The life of a Christian is to be reckoned by the day Sufficient unto the Day not to the Week or Month or Year but to the Day I need not insist upon the proof of the Point What saies old Jacob Fen and evil have the dayes of the years of my life been It is observable that dayes is four times repeated in that verse So Job Man that is born of Woman is of few dayes His dayes are determined Turn from him that he may accomplish as an Hireling his day Take a third witness of this and it is no other than a King and a Prophet David The dayes of our years are threescore years and ten c. But a greater than all these is our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who tells us in the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard that they were hired for a day which is the time of life and he calls his own life a day Abraham rejoyced to see my day There is a Natural day and there is a Metaphorical day a day of time and a day of opportunity season and dispensation mark the expression of our Saviour I must work the works of him taht sent me whilst it is Day the Night cometh when no man can work whil'st I have time time and whil'st I have opportunity So we read of the dayes of his flesh I might make this further appear by shewing to you 1. That we are taught to beg our Bread for the day Give us this day our daily Bread and forbid to take thought for to morrow for why should I take thought for Meat when I know not whether I shall have a Mouth to put it in or for Clothes when I know not whether I shall have a Body to put them on 2. We are to beg our pardon for the day and to forgive our Brother to day forgive us our Trespasses this day for as Jacob sayes Thou may'st seek me in the morning and I shall not be and for our Brother The Sun which is the measure of the day must not go down upon our wrath And if we come to the Altar and there remember that our Brother hath ought against us we must leave the Gift before the Altar c. we must not say that we will do it to morrow 3. Every night is a resemblance of Death Death is called a Sleep and the Grave is called a Bed the Sun rises and sets which measures time 4. The Commands and Promises in Scripture run for the present day and none for to morrow Heb. 3.7 To day if ye will hear his voice Ver. 13. Exhort one another daily whil'st it is called to day now is the accepted time But to conclude the Proof of this Point I shall and this that our whole life-time is very fitly compared to a Natural Day 1. As a day is but a short space of time so is our life what is a day to a thousand years what is our time to Eternity 2. As a day is cut off by the night so is our life cut short cut off somtimes sooner somtimes later some dayes are longer than others but none very long some mens lives are longer than others but never a long life among them all of them cut short all of them cut off 3. The day is succeeded by the night so is this life by the darkness the dayes of darkness which shall be many There is a day which shall not be succeeeded by night and there is an evening which shall be succeeded by light but it is not this day I now come to the Reasons of the Point Why must our lives be reckoned by the day and they are principally these four Reason 1. Because our Breath is in our Nostrils our Lives hang by a small Threed how soon are our Countenances changed and we sent away how many that have been well in the morning have been dead before evening gone out in health and a dead Carcase brought home or else they have died and been buried abroad and never came within their own doors more how many ways may a mans breath expire and how quickly is it done Ah my Brethren how little is this considered though nothing is more ordinary than to say I little thought such an one would have been gone so soon what an healthful lusty Man was he it was but such a day I saw him and I thought he never looked better since I knew him I thought I should have died long before him was not he at such a place at such a Meeting but a few dayes ago c. Oh Friend Know his Breath was in his Nostrils and so it is with thee there may not be a step between thee and Death for any thing thou knows a lurking Distemper in thy Body may rise up and pull thee by the Throat and all thy friends stand about thee and none be able to rescue thee and save thee from that deadly Hand A slip a fall a cross accident a Surfeit c. presently the health is gone As it is with a Venice-Glass very useful whil'st it is whole but one fall upon the ground breaks it and than it 's good for nothing but the broken pieces are thrown out to the Dungbild So whilst breath is there thou art very useful for many things can walk and work and advise and manage Affairs but when once thy breath is gone and thy life like water spilt upon the ground which can not be gathered up again thy dead Carcase must be taken up and carried out and laid in
moiling in several Callings and Vocations to get a little supply for the wants of the Body since the time it was said in the sweat of thy Brows thou shal Eat thy Bread the World is become a great Correction of Work-house a General Bridewel to task us all to our Labours the very Bread we put into our Mouths the very Cloaths we put upon our Backs the very Houses we put our Heads into what are they but evident Arguments of Mans great labour and pains As for the House consider what a deal of labour must needs come between the Timber standing uncut in the Mountains and the Stones unhewn in the Quarry and the making of them now in the form of a fit House to dwell in as for thy Cloaths thou puttest on consider but all the labour that comes between the Sheeps wearing them on their Backs and thy wearing them on thine As for the Bread also which thou puttest into thy Mouth consider besides the Plowing up the Ground the great labour that comes between the Seed-Mans hand casting it into the Ground and thy Hand putting it into thy Mouth consider well but these and then thou wilt acknowledge many great labours every Day I might add likewise the great Trouble that comes in regard of Sores and Sicknesses and Infirmities they know well what this trouble means that tell the Clock whilst others sleep that have wearisome Dayes and Nights appointed for them that are seldom free from Pains and Weakness and griefs as much as they can well bear Consider also the manifold troubles of the Mind by reason of disappointments and discontents from Friends from Enemies from Children from Servants c. will you now say that our daily wants and troubles that flow from thence are not sufficient to fill every Day with as much Affliction as ever it can hold 3. Daily fears bring daily perplexities have you a Day without its fears fears about the state of your Souls whether your Faith be right your Repentance unfeigned your Duties accepted your Works wrought in God whether you have savingly closed with Jesus Christ upon Gospel-terms whether you have brought all to him and take all from him whether you are truly Married to him and can groundedly say my Beloved is mine and I am his I hare every false way I have respect to all God's Commandments so far as I am acquainted with his will Again fears about holding out my Corruptions are strong my temptations are pressing I shal one Day fall by the Hands of my strong Lusts and unruly Affections if Persecution should come I should do as Peter did I should want Courage I should dishonour God I know not how to suffer Imprisonment or be a Martyr for the Gospel and Waies of Christ Again Fears of Death which keep some in Bondage all their dayes every day they do uprise what shall I do when I come to Dye I cannot think of it but with amazement I cannot look that King of Terrours in the Face I neither know how to part with my Comforts nor yet how to endure the Pains and Pangs of Death and least of all to meet with God who I have caufe to Fear is not at peace with me and then what will become of me to fall into the Hands of a Living God who is a Consuming Fire Again fear of outward Want how the World will hold out how I shall maintain my Family and bring up my Children such Fears as these are daily companions to some though by the way let them consider that fear Want that they want nothing so much as Faith a little more Trusting God and a little less sinful foresight and needless care would do very well Now tell me whether all these Fears and a great many such like be not enough to spoil the comfort of our Day 4. Daily defects and disappointments procure daily Misery and Vexation The shortness that is in every Creature-comfort and which the Soul cannot but be every day sensible of must needs cause Trouble I thought to have had such an easy seat and the stool breaks under me I promised my self so much comfort in this Child How are my hopes and expectation frustrated I reckon'd that this design would have prospered and have done my Work and I see it has failed me I see these Worldly enjoyments are but dreamish things they are but shadows they can feed the hunger of the Soul but they cannot feed the hungry Soul I have been Labouring for the Wind I never plcased my self in any thing but to be sure I met with a Cross in it these outward enjoyments promise more than they can perform I never leaned upon them but they deceived me I never trusted them but they failed me Riches and Friends and Relalations make themselves Wings and they flee away I was at the merry meeting but some things were wanting and some passages did not please me and thus you have the proof of the Doctrine I now come to give you the Grounds and Reasons of the point how it comes to pass as you have already heard how it does appear that every day should be so full of Trouble What is the matter why will God have it so Take these three Reasons in special Reason 1. The Lord does it for Correction of Sin daily Sins must have daily chastisements there is a necessary connexion between Sin and Punishment as between sowing and reaping we are fowing and reaping every day It is worthy your observation that some kind of grain comes up sooner a great deal than others but the Husband-man does so order his sowing that commonly he reaps all together some sins that are committed are not punished till a great while after again some sins are reckoned for immediately upon the Commission some sad sinful seed comes up quickly sown in the morning reaped the same day some not till a Week or a Month or a Year or many years after but it is so ordered that there is reaping work for every day I may be reaping this week what I sowed the last and sowing this week for the next I may this year be teaping what I sowed last Or twenty years ago as Joseph's Brethren did their cruelty to their Brother I may in old Age be reaping the Sins of my Youth Thou writest bitter things against me and makes me possess the Sins of my Youth saith Job The Fathers sow for the Children God punishes the Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children and I may be reaping the Fruit of my Fore-Fathers transgression and I may now be sowing that seed that my posterity may taste the bitter fruit of and set their teeth on edge When I meet with any remarkable Affliction more bitter than ordinary then should I be thinking with my self what seed was this of what is the name of the seed that this Fruit came from what is the name of the Apple it is a very sowre one it wrings me by the
is I this dispensation has Love in it it is for thy good it wil not hurt thee be not so afrighted not an hair of thy Head shall perish by thy affliction thou shall lose nothing but what would have done thee harm to have kept how afterwards the Lord quieted composed and satisfied his Soul made him see how much need there was of such a severe Providence such a sharp Passage such a bitter Dispensation as also how much Love and Goodness there was in it which at first sight carried so much of the Face of enmity disturbance and destruction so that he comes to say this Affliction this Loss this great Trial though I thought at first I could not have born it yet I now see I could not have been without it as he said once I had been undone if I had not been undone I had perished if I had not perished and lastly how he no sooner had got through one Affliction but the Lord brought him to the borders of another he was no sooner Landed and safe in his Harbour but God bids him prepare for another Voy age in those dayes was Hezekiah seek unto Death see Isa 38.1 comp with 3 last verses of 37. cha To hear him tell you how gladly now he would have taken a little rest and was thinking surely he should now meet with no more Troubles so dismal when presently another messenger came to tell him that the Lord did intend to try him again the first chapter of Job did not conclude his combate and bid him make ready for a new on-set either in the same or another kind how he treated the Messenger and spake wisely and kindly unto him in such language as this it is but lately that my Lord laid an heavy and an amazing Affliction upon me it found me much unready and unprepared I did storm and rage at it I was as a Bullock unaccustomed to the Yoke I was cast down and dejected I did murmur and repine many an hard thoght had I of my maker and several unhandsom and unbecoming expressions came from me some that favoured of despair Oh I shall never have a comfortable day more my good dayes are gone better for me that I had never been Born than to live to see this Trouble why does the Lord let me live why does he not destroy me it would be an happiness for me if some would come and take a Knife and cut my throat its happy for them that are Dead they endure no such tormenting pain they sustain no such losses they know not tht meaning of such piercing Heart-breaking Sorrows c. But it plesed the Lord by degrees to bring me to more sober expressions he began to convince me that I had deserved a great dealmore it is a wonder I was out of Hell he set my sins in order before mine eyes and then I saw that he had Puhished me less than mine Iniquities did deserve that if I had my Due I should be in Endless Easeless and Remediless Torment and then I came to acknowledg him his Justice his Mercy and to fall down at his Feet he then began to speak some comfortable Words to me to give me a little reviving a little Faith and Hope in himself and to let me see his end and design ih Afflicting me he shewed me my work and my transgressions wherein I had exceeded he opened my ear to Discipline and commanded me to depart from Iniquity and now he has recovered me and made me to live in his sight if it be his pleasure to bring me into the fire again I know it is for the purging away of my Iniquity I desire I may not dishonour him and then let him do with me what he pleases I hope he will lay no more upon me than he will enable me to bear and then his will be done thus you see what great experience is to be got by Affliction how needful it is for the exercise of Grace Reason third The Lord fills our day with trouble for distinction sake that we may know Earth from Heaven and God from the Creature To Know the meaning of that text there remaineth therefore a rest for the People of God if it were not so we should be apt to say it is good being here There are two things the World is hardly brought to Believe First That quietness and peace and rest cannot be obtained here And Secondly That it is to be enjoyed hereafter and in himself Now it is impossible that we should ever meet with any full contentive good under Heaven if one could show me that which the Tempter shewed our Saviour even all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them they are too beggarly a good to give content excellently to this purpose one of the Antients O Lord saies he thou hast made us for thy self and our Hearts cannot be at quiet till they come to rest in thy self I tumble and toss this way and that way upon Back and Belly this side and that side and every way to get a little ease and yet I find every thing to be hard and God is the only true Rest No satisfaction to he had from any thing here below look but upon the several Conditions of Men in City Court and Country and see if every one would not be a little higher a little Richer and a little bettered in estate or else what means their endless carking and caring what means so many hands working and Heads hammering about this thing and that thing there is not the veriest frock and apron but by little and little it would hirstle up to the Rob and Purple not the poorest Friars cowle but by step and step have at the Popes mitre This unsatisfied desiring of one thing after another which Is very troublesome and grieving the Preacher elegantly calls the walking of the desire better saies he is the sight of the Eyes that is the comfortable beholding and enjoying these things we have then the walking of the desire the rambling of it after the things we have not or as some render it the walking Soul a walking Soul is very uncomfortable to be haunted night and day with a Spirit of greediness and unsatisfiedness to have its company going out and coming in lying down and rising up nay to have disturbing and troublesome dreams too The Lord never intended that the world should be a quiet place do you know any place upon Earth that a man may go to have one day of rest and freedom from care and trouble within and without I would go many miles to see that place and enjoy such a Day he that kept the key of such a place would quickly heap up Treasures what flocking would there be thither from all quarters of all sorts of People you would see great numbers of Great-one and Noble-men posting thither The Apostle dehorts us from seeking things that are upon the Earth the reason is
how with safety to turn private man complained that fortune had set him a Cock-height and then took away the ladder that he could not come down when he would And above all Solomon that had so flourishing a Kingdom as the best and sought good so accurately and universally what might be that good for the Sons of Men which they would so fain lay hold of under the sun and what can the man do that comes after the King yet after all this search the sum is this all is vanity and vexation this is proof enough of my Doctrine if I had no other He went about to cause his Heart to despair of all the labour which he took under the Sun King's Palaces say that peace and quietness is not in them the Crown and Purple say they have not heard of it but on the contrary trouble and vexation and anguish and sorrow and enough of it why should we then not think that it is no-where to be found if great Men that have so many fences against Affliction cannot escape how shall poor infirm naked Men avoid the dint of it I remember an answer of one Apollonius Thyaneus to one who asked him whether he believed the story of the Cup made of an Unicorns-horn that he who should drink out of it should be priviledged from all Diseases wounds and poisons I will believe it saies he if I shall know that the King of the Country where the Unicorn lives shall be immortal and escape Death he thought if any then the King would procure that Cup and enjoy the Benefit so if there be any that could free their Dayes from trouble or so much trouble as others may have King 's and Great-ones would surely hit on it but we find it is quite otherwise The Doctrine standing thus clear with the grounds and reasons of it I come now to draw some Inferences from it Vse 1. In the first place I note this that every man thinks he has trouble enough and would not willingly bear more than he has take any man in the World and come to him what day you will chuse and what time of the day you will and say to him Sir do you want any trouble no saies he I have trouble enough if it be a duty I must take it though troublesome but cares and crosses I want none come to the King and say Sir do you want any trouble he will tell you he has enough of his own the Crown of gold has thorns in it every man you meet with if you would sit down and hear him he will give you a large catalogue of his griefs and tell you either of some inward trouble from the fear and sense of the wrath of God from the temptations and bufferings and assaults suggestions and injections of the wicked one or else arising from the corruption and deceitfulness of his own Heart or he will acquaint you with some outward trouble full of discontent it may be from Superiors by putting up many a wrong and injury at their hands from inferiours by back-biting slander and detraction from equals by much unsociable fallings out or being in every thing our rivals or emulous copemates to give us the check at every turn from Friends by unkind falling away or treacherous disclosing of secrets or failing in the time of need like Jobs friends For now ye are nothing saies he ye see my casting down are afraid My Brethren have dealt deceitfully with me as a brook and as the stream of brooks they pass away From enemies also by doing us as we look for no other all the despite they can from Wife or Husband by many frowns or unkind fits between them from servauts by common negligence and unfaithfulness c. And as from all sorts of People so in all sorts of conditions in the married estate discontents sometimes for want of Children but much more for having unthriving Children and little less from having good and hopeful ones sometimes untimely taken away or that they must leave such to the wide World without leaving any thing to such pretty Babes The married body hath discontents in being put to care for others and the single person is not without it that he hath none to care for him Masters complain of bad Servants and Servants think that Masters are very cross and froward see the Apostle Paul's Catalogue of his Troubles 2 Cor. 11.23 c. There is trouble in getting the World trouble in keeping it and trouble in parting with it I shall conclude this with that of the Wise-Man who spoke by experience and there 's nothing like it What hath Man of all his labour and of the vexation of his Heart wherein he hath laboured under the sun For all his dayes are Sorrow and his travel grief yea his Heart taketh not rest in the Night This is also vanity Vse 2. I note the goodness of God that seeing the day hath trouble enough he has so ordered it that trouble is but for a day if many dayes and many troubles met together it would be sad it s well that Dayes of trouble and extream misery are shortened In Hell there is a Life without end and trouble without end seeing it is sharp it is a comfort it is so short Vse 3. I note the great difference between this life and the Life to come many Dayes and full of joy for few Dayes and full of troubles In thy Presence is fulness of joy at thy right Hand are pleasures for evermore Vse 4. The great mistake of promising a better morrow if you have not the same trouble to morrow which you had to day you shall have another in the room of it and full as bad to morrow may not be and if it be it will not be better it is looked upon as great vanity and wickedness in them that said to Morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant Vse 5. The great Mercy of God that has been pleased to order suitable support and sufficient supply for the day As thy day is so shall thy strength be Vse 6. There is comfort in this that we canot expect a worse morrow more than enough cannot be fear of a worse makes this the worst The Lord will lay no more upon you than he will enable you to bear if thou shalt have burthen enough for thy bearing so thou wilt have strength enough for thy burden if thou hast but little trouble thou has but little strength and the burden is enough for thy strength so if thou hast great troubles thou hast proportionable strength and so the strength is enough for the burden To conclude this Text my care will not make to morrow's trouble less and therefore why should it make this day's trouble more I am resolved to part with a great many thoughts and cares which have been very chargeable to maintain have eaten up my strength and comfort and I have got
nothing by them they shall now all be banished let the morrow take thought for it self each day hath enough with his own grief Christian Geography and Arithmetick Psalm 90.12 So teach us to number our Dayes that we may apply our Hearts unto Wisdom TO omit what might be spoken of the Pen-man Scope Division and principal matter of this Psalm I come presently to draw out the Observations and Doctrines which may be raised from the Text. Doct. 1. The dayes of Men are numbred it is appointed for all Men once to Die I shall endeavour to open the point and then apply it for the opening of it I shall enquire into the import of the phrase of numbring Dayes or what is implied in this expression of numbring our Dayes 1. This that our Dayes are numbred does denote the shortness of them Eternity cannot be numbred what ever is in God is incomprehensible and innumerable the Dayes of God are not to be numbred We say he is a Poor man that can number his Flock that can tell how many sheep and cattel he has the Dayes of a Man are soon told they are quickly reckoned up he that hath but a little skill in Arithmetick may cast up the number he that is but newly entered into the Table of Numeration may count them if he know Units and Tens he may do it he need not go as far as hundreds David tells us how the account went in his Dayes and since his time the number is not increased Sin has rather shortened them and cut them off The Dayes of our Years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we stee away 2. It holds forth the fixedness of the bounds of them the time of their ending is set and fixed and there is no passing beyond those bounds which the Lord hath made there is no altering no removing of them God is exact to his numbers he will not upon any consideration revoke his decree and determination in this kind Seeing his daies are determined the number of his Moneths are with thee purely in thy power thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass The time of the Israelites captivity was out in the Night and though in 430 years as we use to say a Day would break no square much less a piece of a Night yet that the Lord might be exact to his own prefixed time he will be at the charge to light them out rather than stay till the morning So Belshazzar was slain in the night because as some think then the Captivity was out If a man could give all the World he could not purchase one hour beyond his appointed time Death 's not to be delayed it will not be bribed it wil fetch a Man out of his bed at Midnight and not stay till Morning it will seize upon a Man when he is abroad and not suffer him to go home and take his leave of his Family and set his House in order it will not give a Man time to make his Will nor to speak a few words which might prevent abundance of trouble and Law-suits that fall out about the division of his Estate where-ever thou art what ever thou art doing when the minutes of thy Life are expired Death strikes thee and there is no avoiding it 3. It sets forth the transitoriness the slipperiness the swiftness of our Daies How does the Scripture labour for similitudes to set this forth certainly to know and believe this is of very great importance to our Faith or else the Spirit of God would never gather so many illustrations from sense it would be worth while to gather them up and open them but they are frequently done by others and ly so obvious to your search that I need not spend so much time about it only give me leave seeing it is a business of so great consequence and so very little minded to deal a little plainly and pathetically with you Alas alas where is that Professor that sits down and seriously thinks with himself how swiftly his time passes away who knows not that time is short and passes swiftly away away it is a theme for School-Boyes ay but let me tell you few consider it or live under the power of it it is a Meditation fit for the best Saint upon Earth and without dispute to live in the right belief of it would be an especial and principal means to recover the power of Godliness which is so much decayed in this last age Do you think that Professors could be so Formal and Secure and Worldly if they lived every day as their last and performed every Duty as their last would there not be more Zeal and Life and Love and Heavenly-mindedness Do you believe that we spend our years as a Tale that is told as a Word as a Meditation swifter than a Weavers Shuttle That our life is as wind and vanisheth away as the Cloud That our dayes are swifter than a Poste You know how swift a Poste is he passes by so fast you can take no notice of him you get but a glimpse of him you could not know him again if you saw him so do our dayes post away how are we hurried in haste haste post-haste from one thing to another poste to Bed at night put off your Clothes post-hast poste up in the morning and put them on again pst to your Meals and post from them again post to your business and post from it how do Sabbaths and Sermons and Opportunities post by and that in such hast that you cannot remember them when they are gone it may be in twenty four hours you have forgot all How many Sermons that you have heard have lived a moneth with you What was the Message of God to you this day moneth the Matter as it was passing by did much affect you you were much taken with it and thought you should have known and remembred that matter as long as you had lived but it seems it went by in such haste the time of the Meeting passed away so swiftly that it has happened to you as to a man that looks his natural Face in a Glass he beholdeth himself and goes away and straight way forgets what manner of man he was so you have forgotten what manner of matter it was that you heard that you were so affected with and melted under that your Soul did so fully close with you could so evidently witness to the truth of it how lively it was represented to you how experimentally you did receive it what goodness you tasted in it and thought that taste would have never gone out of your mouth now no impression remaining the Text and every word of the Sermon so posted away so far gone that they cannot be recalled or recovered If a Painter would take the Picture of a Man the Man must
sit in a steady posture but our Comforts perish in the using they are not sitting Comforts we are so interrupted crowded that we get little of the company and enjoyment of them Solomon had a mind to have the comfort of Wine and he got it alone for he acquainted his heart with Wisdom and was freed from those excesses extravagances and disturbances which commonly keep company with the drinkers of Wine but he concludes that all was vanity and vexation of Spirit and there was no profit under the Sun A man can have no time to sit with his comfort and enjoy them but he is either interrupted or the comfort is gone But to leave this Similitude he sayes his dayes are swifter than a Post It is well observed by Mr. Caryl that a Poste staies to change Horses but the Chariot of the Sun which is the natural measure of time never staies but is in continual motion I might add this also that the Artificial Measures of Time which are continued by men are in continual motion the Sands in the Hour-glass are always running or else it is of no use the Wheels in the Clock and Watch are alwayes moving or else they are of no use at all if the Watch be down it is good for nothing for it 's only use lies in motion You may see this Similitude of a Post excellently laid open by Mr. Caryl upon the place as also those two more which they find in Job 9.26 My dayes are passed away as the swift ships as the Eagle that hasteth to the prey Ships upon the Sea under sail before the Wind pass away very swiftly and leave no impression The Eagle is a Bird of the strongest Wing the swiftest Fowl and a greedy Fowl she soares alost and is quick-sighted and soares down upon her Prey as a Thunderbolt as a Bullet as an Arrow and she leaves no impression in the Air. Now saies Job My dayes are passed away as the Eagle that hasteth to the Prey I shall forbear the Prosecution of other Similitudes our dayes are compared to Smoke to a Dream to a Shepherds Tent to a Vapour to a Shadow to a Flower c. the aptness of which Similitude I leave to your own considerations 4. This that our dayes are numbered does likewise imply thus much that our work is numbred to our day our work is cut out for the day God makes no empty dayes as every day has its trouble so every day has its work To every thing there it a Season and a time for every purpose under the Sun and it is as true that there is a purpose for every Season as well as a Season for every purpose and happy is that man that knows his Season for his purpose and his purpose for his season that knows his day for his work and his work for his day and does his dayes work upon his day when our work is finished then our dayes shall be ended But alas for wicked men their dayes end before they begin their work they do work that God never allotted or allowed any time for There is a time to build and a time to plant and a time to morn c. but there is no time to sin Some know their work yet do not do it and these will be beater with many stripes The great Correction-house of Hell is prepared for those that would not work whil'st they had day and time and light and opportunity and assistance and whatever might have an influence upon the promoting of their work Be sure thou examine the work thou art about and ask thy self strictly these two Questions 1. Is this work for any time is it to be done at all 2. Is this work proper for this time does the work and the time correspond and suit one another it may be sinful thoughts arise when thou art at Duty let them know there is no time allotted for them much less at such a time it may be worldly thoughts come in about thy family and calling let them know there is a time for them but they must keep their place and due distance at such a season perhaps some good thoughts may come in which yet are not suitable to the work which thou art engaged in tell them they shall be encouraged in their proper time God is a God of order and not of confusion and distraction there is a time to Read a time to Hear a time to Meditate a time to Pray a time to confer about good things and these duties help one another in their place and order But it is not unusual for him that sometimes transforms himself into an Angel of light to inject even good things in an unseasonable manner which tend only to distraction and not to edification and promoting Communion with Gods and he is a Wise Christian that knows how to manage himself that there may be no interfering of duties I cannot but break out and tell you how hard a thing it is to be a right Christian a Chriitian indeed even-squared according to Gospel-rule and proportion The misery of Man is great upon him because he knows not his work and his time the Devil takes great advantage of poor Christians that have strong affections and but weak judgments and does so bewilder them and cast such mists in their way even upon this very account that we are speaking of that I begin not to wonder at the many complaints I daily hear from Christians of unbelief unprofitableness under ordinances and the means of grace discontentedness falling out with their conditions they are much unacquainted with their proper work in its proper season Satan is a Spirit of disorder and confusion and he knows how to entangle the belt duty thou doest and perplex the most regular exercise of thy Graces the only way thou hast to help thy sely is seriously to consider whether this and the other notion and suggestion comes from God is this according to rule does the Gospel bid me think this and speak this and do this to the Law and to the testimony Let me take my Bible into my hand and see whether I can find a fixed a stated rule for such imaginations for such perplexities for such becalmings for such expressions and actions what faith the Scripture and how readest thou my Lord and Saviour answered the Devil still with a Scriptum est it is written if I cannot tell him it is written I may ask him the question is it written Dost thou speak from the Word of God Dost not thou wrest the Word of God Dost not thou add nor diminish Does the Lord indeed require and call for this thing at my Hands is it any part of that work that he has appointed for me in my Day that I should at any time distrust him or look upon his care as insufficient either for my Soul or Body are not the alsufficient merits of the Lord Jesus tendered to me without any exception
disobedient and those that believe not and obey not the Gospel which he has revealed and sufficiently made it evident to be his will But I must leave thee and answer thee no more having respect to both those Rules of the Spirit of God given forth by Solomon Prov. 26 4 5. Answer not a fool c. What I have more to say about thee shall be only to God so as I am taught Jude 9. the last words of the verse I now return from whence I have digressed beyond my purpose and intention but sometimes we may be most in our way when we seem to be out of it the Lord has various methods a word out of course a word by the way sometimes does more good as God can bless it than that which seems to lie most direct and in order intended and prepared I am an admirer of Method and am no friend to Foolish Preachings to impertinencies and repetitions that proceed frorn emptiness and barrenness of matter but I must confess I have often thought what there might be in the foolishness of Preaching it pleases God by the foolishness of Preaching to save that do Believe When a gust of the Spirit comes when zeal and Affections are stirring and transport a Man he is driven out of his road But to the points I was telling you the great danger Men were brought into when they did not lay hold of their season and opportunity did not number their work for their day were not wise but foolish in letting time go and leaving work undone I have one Scripture more which I have promised you and that is in Rom. 2.4.5 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to Repentance But after thy hardness and impenitent Heart treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God The Lord did spare thee and continued thy life to thee day after day thou hadst much time and many advantage and thou didst not consider for what end God did this to thee he laid out time for thee and thou shouldest have laid out work for that time have filled the vessel of time with good actions the fruits of Righteousness that thou mightest have said with the Spouse Here are all manner of pleasant Fruits new old which I have laid up for thee O my Beloved But instead of this thou art laying a foundation for everlasting misery by thy hardness and impenitency thou art doing a work which thou wilt find wages for the wages of unrighteousness Because to every purpose there is a time and judgment therefore is the misery of Man great upon him For he knoweth not that which shall be for who can tell him when it shall be For Man knoweth not his time as the Fishes that are taken in an evil net and as the Birds that are caught in the snare so are the Sons of Men snared in an evil time when it falleth suddenly upon them I now come to the Application Vse 1. Are our dayes numbred in this sence as you have heard then it affords matter of Humiliation to Saints Churches that they have not numbred their Daies and their work better truly my Brethren we had better confess our own sins than have other folks to confess them to charge our selves is the way to be discharged both by God and Man I have sometimes thought that if the People of God had been more in condemning themselves they would not have been so much condemned by the World let us say as the Church of old As for our transgressions we know them I remember what I have met with in a learned Author who writing freely of the faults and miscarriages of Ministers comes to answer an Objection which Ministers comes to might make against his publishing their failings to the World who were so ready to be offended with them and to stumble at every thing or if he would have discovered them he might have writ in Latine and so they might have been concealed from vulgar notice he answers to this purpose saies he if we had sinned in Latine then our Sins might have been reproved in Latine but seeing our failings have been obvious let out acknowledgements Confessions and Repentace be so too it is no disparagement or lessening to any Man that is guilty to make confession but an effectual way to remove Reproach and Scandal and to silence accusers accusations have little place either with God or Man where persons are willing to accuse themselves though there are some that are come to that height of Wickedness in this Age which is so fruitful of Monsters that take occasion from the confessions of sin which God's People make to him to charge them as it were out of their own Mouths as the vilest Creatures on Earth to draw out an accusation against them out of their own Confessions a Bill of inditement against them from what they do acknowledge of themselves but these Men are little acquainted with the Scriptures and the Mystery of Godliness The Lord tells us that his waies are not as our waies nor his thoughts as our thoughts He that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find Mercy by God's own appointment confession is clearing Indeed I grant that among Men confession of the party is evidence in Law but in the Court of God at his Tribunal confession of the party takes away evidence there is no more danger of our confession of our sins to God in the World 's hearing than of doing it in private in Satan's hearing It s against all reason to charge a Man that is charging himself if you would take a way sins testimony joyn testimony with it among the Latines two Negatives make an affirmative but among the Greek's two affirmatives make a Negative if the World accuse us let us accuse our selves too and this is the way to be cleared a Christian is never so much in his Glory as when he is justifying God and condemning himself It will silence the railing Rashakehs of this Age for professors to charge themselves deeply and particularly before God we have sinned we have done foolishly we have broken thy Covenant we have sinfully complied we have been too much partakers with wicked men of their wickedness we have been unprofitable careless worldly covetous greedy after the World with our tongues have we dishonoured God and our Conversations have been such as have but given too much occasion to the Wicked to blaspheme we have given them just cause to open their mouths against Religion for our sakes we have not discovered that humility meekness impassionateness weanedness from the world mortification of fleshy lusts that might have been attractive and alluring of others to a good likeing of the professing of the Gospel and Christianity we have been seeking our selves and setting up our selves when we should have been seeking and setting up the
interest of the Lord Jesus we have practised that in our selves which we have condemned in others and never any People had more pretious opportunities and improved them less we have put Death far from us and lived as if this world would never have an end and as if the World to come would never have a Beginning c. Now for others to lay these things to our charge makes us odious and ugly But for us to charge our selves will make us look lovely and Beautiful there is a vast difference between others speaking of us and our own speaking of our selves though the words be the very same The story of Jonah if another had writ it would have made Jonah appear very deformed but as he writes it himself it rendershim a true penicent let us lament our not doing our work in our day our not minding our work and season and making them meet what a deal of work might we have done more than we have if we had forted and counted and numbred our work aright we have been confounded as the Builders of Babel We have done much that needed not have been done and we have been doing of one thing when we should have been doing another we have been repenting when we should have been believing and believing when we should have been repenting we have been caring when we should have been trusting we have been weeping when we should have been rejoicing and rejoicing when we should have been mourning we have been doing and undoing and as a Man that has lost his way travels hard but is no nearer his journeys end may it may be comes to the place whence he first set forth I assure you it is matter of trouble to consider what confusion we have brought our selves into and upon our Spirits for want of this wisdom to number our work-daies we have been a disorderly People we have not put our general and particular callings into good method we do things in the first place which should be done in the second and that in the second which ought to possess the first let me tell you Earthly cares will not sit comfortably and thrivingly in the first nor Heavenly thoughts in the second because the one will be too high and the other too low for their elevation it is a deslowring of early morning-time to lodge the world with it and it is a disgraceing of the things of God to present them with the small reliques and stale afterlings of your time I am perswaded this is the very thing the Psalmist aimes at in this Text that he might have wisdom to know his time and his work and the proper work for the day that time might not be done before the work was done and that work might not be misplaced and mislaid it must needs therefore be our great folly and loss who are guilty of so much misplacing why must worldly thoughts come in in the morning as soon as thou art awake and defile blast and canker thy Soul when good thoughts would have edged it prepared it and put a savour upon it which would not have worn off all day why must thy counter come up stairs into thy closet the concerns of thy calling look upon thee whilst thou art praying and meditating and conversing with God and about the condition and state of thy Soul and its Everlasting well-being we should be Heavenly-minded in Earthly imployments and we are Earthly-minded in Heavenly imployments get as much of Heaven as ever thou canst to attened thee in thy wordly matters it will wonderfully facilitate and preosper thy work it will make it go on with ease and pleasure a Bible upon a loom or shop-board never hinders work Meat and Morning Prayer never hinder work holy ejaculations and good discourse will not weaken the hands that labour a serious thought in the midst of thy worldly business never causes interruption or disorder And as you must take heed of misplaceing your work so be careful you do not misplace the dispensations and providences of God to you for this belongs to the numbring of your daies for you are apt to call your good dayes your bad ones and your worst dayes your best The account will never come even when receipts are placed as disbursments do not expect a right ballance you have had many dayes of Affliction Sorrow and pain your hands have been alwaies full now if you reckon all these dayes as bad dayes you do not number right Again you have had a few Sun-shine dayes you have enjoyed prosperity and you call these good dayes whereas it may be these have been ensnaring and straitning to your Souls and the former have been quickning purging cleansing and inwardly comforting the dayes which the Children of Israel spent in the Wilderness were not their worst dayes for there the Lord fed them with manna bread which came down from Heaven The wilderness-grape is the sweetest grape the best vineyards from thence Rock-water is the purest water and no honey so sweet as that which came out of the Lyon though no affliction for the present seems joyous but grievous but the peaceable fruits of Righteousness which it yieldeth afterwards to them that are exercised therein make amends for all it may be when thou considers it well those dayes of thy youth when the secret of God was upon thy Tabernacle thy Children about thee when thou washed thy steps with butter the Rock poured thee out rivers of Oyl c will not be accounted numbred for the best dayes thou wilt see cause upon due reflection to confess that thy Spirit was more dull and heavy and slothful thou was not so lively in duty didst not enjoy so much Communion with God as thou hast done in some other dayes that were more dark and cloudy and at great deal more pinching and painful to go through thou mayest remember in those shining dayes what expence thy watchfulness put thee to How thou was continually upon thy guard lest thou should be ensnared and thy affections be carried beyond due bounds it 's difficult case where we are so desirous to drink much and yet can but bear little to resist is troublesome to yield is dangerous to love the Creature no more than it should be and to love God as much as he ought to be thou canst tell likewise that in those other daves of straitness and want and sicknese and disgrace and perplexity though they were very ungrateful and unpleasing to the outward man thou had frequent visits from God corruption did not so work and stir in thy heart Satan was not so busie to defile thee with his temptations thou hadst many a comforable half-hour which no body saw or took notice of thou couldest pray then thou couldest pour out Prayer thou wast all Prayer thy Prayers came from thee like hot burning sparks out of a flaming furnace or like darts out of a Gyants Hand with such a jerk
of the Spirit after them that they fell not a whit short of Heaven what wrestling was there then of Faith what strugling then of hope what working and striving of patience then thou came to know effectually the meaning of those Scriptures Hope maketh not ashamed we are saved by hope in patience possess ye your Souls thou then felt more charity more bowels more compassion more fellows-feeling of others troubles then thou came to know better the meaning of that Text which perhaps in thy fair Dayes thou never considered so much Remember them that are in Adversity as being your selves also in the Body having paslible weak Bodies subject to all the like miseries which you see in others and what the Preacher intended when he exhorts to give a portion to seven and also to eight for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the Earth whether such evil may not be in the World that may bring thee to like need How was thou then weaned from the world how didst thou contemn it the pleasures honours and riches of it thou did experience the mutable and tranfitoty Nature of them thou gave earnest heed to our Saviour's Counsel Lay not up for your selves treasures on Earth where moth and rust corrupt and where thieves break through and steal but lay up for your selves treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust can corrupt nor thieves dig through and steal and then thou conned over the Apostle Pauls hard lesson and got it pretty perfect That they that had Wives should be a though they had none they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not they that buy as though they possessed not for the fashion of this World passeth away Thus though there was a decay upon thy outward-man by reason of Affliction yet the inward man was renewed day by day those dayes which helped thee nearer Heaven and made thee more fit and more willing to die were good dayes now painful and tormenting so ever they were in the passing through them and those dayes which delighted thy fleshly desires and carnal part which were very pleasant to the outward-man but did make thee neglect duty or slubber it over did deaden thy Spirit in it and caused a decay in thy zeal and Love and delight in God and made thee less mindful of the great concerns of thy pretious Soul those dayes though seemingly happy and blessed in their spending were not so good dayes be careful therefore of reckoning and numbring right about your conditions and out ward states and beings in the World and mourn over the disorder thou hast put thy self into by not placing thy condition right and placing thy self aright in it but by bustling and quarrelling at some times with thy state and thy over pleasedness again another time with it Thou hast been still disturbing and doing harm both to thy self and others what hard and loud words have passed between thee and thy adverse state have hot some over-heard thee saying that thou thought no Bodies condition was worse than thine none so straitned none so perplexed what sickness thou didst undergo what pain thou went through what poverty and pinching thou endured what crosses every way thou met with and wishing thou had had not been born or that thou might quickly die and be removed out of this troublesome World or that God would but be so kind to thee that thou might but live as such and such do though their conditions are not looked on as the best c And to answer this chiding temper has not that witness for God in thy own Conscience and of his kindness to thee in every condition made this smart reply Oh what a murmuring unbeleeving Creature art thou What nothing but complaints look about thee canst thou find nothing to thank God for is thy case so bad that all comfort is shut out of it thou art out of Hell which thou deserves every moment that 's a Mercy art not thou in health many would give thousands to enjoy as much of that as thou dost art thou harbourless knows not where to have a lodging to night that 's the condition of many a good Soul where cruelty and persecution Reigns art thou hungry and knows not where to get bread this day it's a great Mercy to have bread for the day and a greater to be able to beg and believe on God for bread for the day a lesson which I heard a worthy Minister say the Lord had taught him and an high piece of Learning it is The Apostle knew what he said and that it was a great degree he had attained to when he professed I have learned in the things wherein I am therewith to be self-sufficient there is a kind of self-sufficiency in every good contented mind he is rich not that has much but that does not desire much Art thou thirsty and knows not where to get some good water art thou cold and knows not where to get a covering to keep thee warm But for thy Spiritual estate art thou tempted so was Christ who was in all points tempted likeas we are that we might come boldly to the Throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find grace to help in time of need and has promised that he will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able and is it your misery that you are called to follow the Captain of your Salvation in the honourable path of suffering the highway to peace and rest and Glory Art thou under the tidings of his love did not the Lord Jesus cry out my God my God why hast thou forsaken me Art thou unwilling that the Lord should make a trial of thy Love and faithfulness to him whether thou will abide for him and that by endear himself more to thee and prepare thee for fuller manifestations and them for thee Dost thou complain of an hard unbelieving Heart its a mercy thou feels it to be so how many hard Hearts in the World that are not felt they that can say and cry out save us Master we perish shall never sink if there be sense there is life though that life may be a very sickly Life thy condition is sase though it it may be very uneasie where there is the root of the matter where there is the living substance if circumstances be a little troublesome it may be born better a little crying here than weeping and wailing hereafter pains and pangs and gripings here are kindly and not at all dangerous To conclude this wilt thou for the future keep a better account of thy condition wilt thou number and place the Providences of God towards thee in better order this right reckoning will reconcile thee to all the difpensations of God and make you long Friends this will be your Wisdom and this is your way to true Wisdom and so much for this Ufe of Lamentation and Humiliation It is much to be bewailed and that because
shall hereafter be pleased to put into my hands and now consider beloved whether the making up accounts do not require some time how needful it is to be done considering how large our receipts and credits are and lastly how little assurance we have of time to do it in Rule 5. The fifth Rule of Christian Arithmetick is number and compare your dayes with the daies of those that liv'd in the first age of the World compare the length of thy time with the Patriarchs lives and what will this do thou wilt see it will have very good influence on a wise improving of time they lived six seven eight or nine hundred years and thou wilt never reach one hundred it may be not half an hundred a serious meditation of this will work in you one of those two useful considerations 1. How long a time had they to glorify God in in comparison to what I have how did they live to his praise and honour in proportion hundreds of years as it were before I had a being and hundreds of years after my being ended how many opportunities had they of serving God more than I have how much work did they do in their generation for God more than I what large returns did they make from Earth to Heaven above what I do what need have I to ply my work that have not one day for their seven to work in time is short with me for though they had much yet they had none too much and how should I look to it that I have not too little for my business 2. How long a time were they kept in this World and out of Heaven above what I shall be how tedious was their journey and how was their pilgrimage lengthened out they had but as it were newly set forth in the time that I am got to my journeys end in their work was much greater their stay in the vineyard protracted and drawn out their sitting in Heavenly places adjourned prorogued and suspended one generation of Saints in these latter daies after another passes to Heaven even fourteen Generations in the time that some of them got thither how did they expect the accomplishment of the promise one hundred years after another their daies were many and evil they were sinfully evil and they could not chuse but be penally evil The flood came upon the old World and drowned it because of ungodliness how long were they made to wait for the inheritance now in our daies the World is soon weary of us and we are soon weary of it and we are quickly gone out of it we ride Poste through it from one stage to another through Child-hood Youth middle Age old Age some ride but one or two of them and are presently caught up to Heaven Rule 6. The sixth Rule of Christian Arithmetick is this number and compare the certainty of your works with the uncertainty of your time I am sure my work will last as long as my time lasts but I know not whether my time will remain as long as my work lasts and therefore I have no need to spend time without work seeing I have work enough to spend my time in but may not have time to finish my work in Rule 7. The seventh Rule in this Christian Arithmetick is number and compare thy dayes with Eternity an age breaks no square in Eternity for a moment of time is more unto all that time that hath been since the Beginning of the World and shall be unto the end of it than all that time is unto Eternity because a moment by repetition will measure all that time but all that time will never by any repetition whatsoever measure Eternity it is not the least part of it a Man that should have sinned the first moment of the Worlds Creation and should have had his punishment deferred till the last moment of the Worlds duration his punishment should have been swifter in regard of Eternity than his punishment in regard of all that time of the World's continuance that should have sinned the first moment of time and have been punished the very next or second moment Observe that expression of Peter Beloved saies he be not ignorant of this one thing and what is this one thing that is so special a thing that of all other they should not be ignorant of namely this that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day in the point of Eternity a day and a thousand years are all one and that which happens in a thousand years is all one as if it happened within a day and so on the contrary to him that stands upon the pinacle of Eternity and loooks down thence below upon the shreds and snippets of time and therefore mark but that the Prophet Ahijah saies in regard of the festination of God's Judgment upon the house of Wicked Jeroboam The Lord saies he shall raise up a King over Israel who shall cut off the House of Jeroboam that day but what â— even now He stood upon the pinacle of Eternity and therefore that snippet of time which seemed to the World a great while was nothing to him which made him when he had spoken of cuting off the House of Jeroboam that day to use the revocation but what even now that day and even now is all one to Eternity And the seeming contradiction of the Preacher tending to illustrate this very thing is well worth the observing He had spoken of the not speedy executing sentence against an evil work that it encouraged sinners to go on in their sins but in the next verse he answers thus Though a Sinner do evil an hundred times and his dayes be prolonged yet surely I know it shall be well with them that fear God but it shall not be well with the wicked neither shall he prolong his Daies which are as a shadow How is it true that he may prolong and not prolong his dayes How but only that though they may be prolonged in regard of us that have but a few ends of time yet they are nothing in regard of the Ball of Eternity which is alwayes winding and never unwound in this regard he shall not prolong his dayes which are as a shadow as as meer vanity to this Eternity and answerable to this is that like place of the Prophet Habbakuk The vision saies he is yet for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak it shall not lie though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come it will not tarry How but only that which is a long tarrying to time is no tarrying to all Eternity and this is the seventh Rule which if it be well observed will make us quickly remove our dwellings out of the hurry of time unto the borders of Eternity still waiting every hour when we shal lanch forth into that Sea and be swallowed up of that Ocean Rule 8.
in the prosecutioh of which I shall be a little more large Doct. 3. The third Observation is this That the right Art and Skill of numbring Dayes is a point of Divine teaching one have the wisdom to number their Dayes aright but those that have it from above and are taught it by God you must go to God and beg of him that he would teach you this lesson This appears from the Text that we have it expressed in the form of Prayer as if he had said though I have cast up the acount of my dayes in the 10th verse yet there is a further Mystery which I cannot discern without thy teaching without that Spiritual light and knowledg which must come from thee and here you have the Emphasis of the particle 10 I have been taught this lesson many a time and can say it over but I have not been so taught as they said of Christ that never man spoke like him so never any Man taught as God teaches I have often considered the 14. Acts comp v. 1. with 27. Where it is said that Paul and Barnabas so spake that a great multitude of the Jews and also of the Greeks Believed But when they came to give an account to the Church the Text saies that they rehearsed all that God had done with them and how he had opened a door of Faith unto the Gentiles If the Lord had not opened the door of the Heart all their knocking would have signified nothing if the Lord had not spoke with them all their so speaking would not have procured belief from our Souls it was God that so spake with them that made the door of the Heart to open If the Lord Jesus had only cryed Lazarus come forth and had not by a Powerful Hand communicated Life to him he had never stirred out of his Grave We read in Luke 24.27 That the Lord Jesus beginning at Moses and all theProphets he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself but observe is said in ver 45. then opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures It is not enough to have the Scriptures opened but we must have our understandings opened too If you had the knowledge of an angel and could discourse of Divine Truth with undeniable Evidence and Demonstration yet this will not amount to right Teaching without Divine Blessing and Influence I need not insist much upon the proof of this take that Text Psal 39.4 Lord make me to know mine end and the measure of my dayes what it is that I may know how frail Iam. When once he is taught this by God then he can say with sense and experience as it follows Behold thou hast made my dayes as an hand-breadth mine age is as nothing before thee verily every man at his best estate is vanity Selah Surely every man walketh in a vain shew surely they are disquieted in vain he heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them And now Lord what wait I for my hope is in thee deliver me from all my transgressions c. You see that when he is taught this Lesson of God how feelingly and sweetly he breaks out its only Faith and the Teachings of God that can give us to be under the power of things of Sense as by Faith we understand that the World 's were made so by Faith we must be taught that our time is short that our dayes are numbred that we must dye though we see persons daily carried to the Grave that never reached our years and we know we are made of the same Corruptible Materials subject to the same Diseases and Distempers to the same Casualties and Dangers that our Breath is in our Nostrils and may assoon be stopped as theirs Again The Apostle Paul when he comes in so with his But But this Isay brethren the time is short shews plainly that it was a Point that was not so well understood I shall endeavour to Demonstrate this further to you in these following Particulars 1. None can know the use of time without Divine Teaching and none can number his dayes aright unless he know what use they are for this has been already spoken to I shall only add this that as it is with a Merchant who Prepares his Ship for Sea he provides only so much Victuals as may serve for the Voyage he does not provide the Seaman soft Beds to lodge in but only makes such preparation as may serve the end of his sending his Ship to Sea the less burden she has the swister she sails and the swister she sails the less she will need Just so it is in this Case We are sailing through this World our Port is Eternity our business is only to provide our selves for quick sailing and lay in so much Provision only as will serve us for so many dayes Voyage as we shall be out the less Cumber of the World we have the sooner we shall be sit for Heaven and the faster we move thither the less we shall need 2. None can know the end of time sc that it will end but by Divine Teaching And none can number his dayes aright that does not know their end What made David pray as you have heard Lord make me to know mine end c. Every one thinks he may live a day longer When a man comes to dye and to be just within the view of Eternity then he sees what is the proper work for time and wishes he had his time to spend over again he would spend it otherwise then he has done Now it 's strange that Faith should not do what Sense will do we pretend to believe that we shall have a last day and why should not this Faith have such Effects as Sense and Feeling will have 3. None can know the Seasons Nicks and Opportunities of time without Divine Teaching and certainly none can number his dayes aright that understands not his Seasons that knows not that Sabbath dayes are Seasons to be improved that the present time is a Season that the Morning of the day is a Season that the time of youth is a Season that a time of affliction is a Season that times of Conviction are Seaons c. Now there is no Man can rightly know and make of these Seasons without Divine Teaching 4. None can know the excellency of time without Divine Teaching And sure I am that he that knows not the worth and preciousness of time never knew how to number his dayes aright Let us a little consider the excellency of time We read in the Old Law that if one man smote another he should not only pay for his Cure but for the loss of his time But more particularly 1. Dayes and times are such things as cannot be bought did you yet ever know any dayes to be sold or understood what a day might be worth if it were to be sold we count those things
rare and excellent that though some Men have them yet there are none of them to be got for Money Let me therefore make much of my day for if I lose it there is not one to be had if I would give all the World for it a Man need not desire more wealth than would by some be given him for one day if he had it to sell This puts me in mind of a passage concerning a worthy and Religious Lady which I do well remember she had for several years been exercised with a sore distemper of shortness of breathing and did for a great while long to be dissolved and to be with Christ which she did from that assurance of his Love to her Soul which the Lord had been pleased graciously to give unto her A Person coming to the Gate that had several Wares to sell desired that the Lady might have notice of it she very gravely and seriously asked if he had any Graves to sell for faith she I know nothing I want in this World so much as a Grave and I have been long seeking for one but cannot yet get it It is true Graves are dear Commodities at some times as Job tells us plainly There are some that long for death but it cometh not and digg for it more than for bid Treasures which rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they can find the Grave But Graves are not so dear as Dayes for a Grave may be found and will be found at last but a day can not be purchased Thus time cannot be bought 2. Consider the singleness and smalness of it for those that have it Pearls are called Vniones for their rarity and scarceness It is but the present time we have and that is so little it can hardly be discerned for it 's gone as soon as present Time is such a piece such a pretious Commodity that there is not any man in the World has two of them to shew that if he lose one time he can say he has another or if he lose one day he can say he has another Time past is not our's that 's gone irrecoverrably time to come is out of our reach it lies alwayes in God's hand time present is only ours and that 's so little that a man must have a quick Eye that can behold it and I never heard of more forts of time than that which is past present and to come 3. For the excellency of time and dayes take notice of the absolute necessity of it whatever is done for God or for a Man 's own Salvation must be done in time Many Graces cannot have either Being or Exercise but in time what need have we of the Apostle Peters advice Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear What would have become of thousands that are now in Heaven but for time if they had not had time see Rom 2.4 Or despisest thou the riches of his forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God that leadeth thee unto Repentance So Peter alluding as it is very likely to this very place Account saith he that the long-suffering of the Lord is Salvation even as our beloved Brother Paul also according to the Wisdom given unto him hath written unto you These two Apostles Peter and Paul were very good accomptants and it seems they both were of this mind that there was much forbearance giving a little time towards the working out of a Man's Salvation and setting his matters right with God and indeed they might say something by experience especially Paul for where had he been if he had been taken away when he was persecuting the Church and breathing out threatnings against it and for Peter he would have been in no good case if he had been taken away when he was cursing and denying his Master where had Mary Magdalen been but a for little forbearance time if she had been taken away when she was a Prostitute playing the Harlot Where had Austin been but for the patience of God if he had been taken away when he was both a perverse Manichee and a dissolute young Man Whither should I have gone then saies he if at that time I had been removed hence but into everlasting flames and torments which my wicked deeds had justly deserved at the Hands of God Where also had many of your selves been who now with Hearty thanksgivings can laud and praise the goodness of God in giving Time and Patience that hath led you to Repentance if you had been taken away in your Sins before the work of Grace had been wrought in you finally where had most of those been who now have their Crowns in Heaven but for Time and a few dayes Patience had not long-suffering waited for their Conversions they had been smoking firebrands in Hell that are now shining lights and glorious Saints in Heaven unless the Lord saies one of the Ancients should first a long time spare the wicked in his Mercy he should not find any Righteous whom he might afterwards Crown in his justice Without Divine Teaching we shall never come to understand what that clause of the Apostle means which many a time I have sat down and admired Whom God saies he hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the remission of Sins that are past through the forbearance of God Those last words through the forbearance of God cannot be known without teaching from above what need there is of a little time for Men that would would go to Heaven that it was God's great forbearance that they were not taken away in their past sins till they came to believe in Christ for the remission of their sins that were past Go and learn what that means of the good Vineyard-dresser Lord let it alone alone this year also he that gets a Reprieve time may work him a pardon also God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance How many are called and saved at the sixth hour which had they been taken away at the third hour where had they been How many at the ninth which had they been taken away at the sixth hour where likewise had they been How many at the eleventh which if they had been taken away at the ninth where also had they been the good Thief upon the Cross had he been taken away when he was robbing by the high-way side what had become of him in stead of this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise that very day and hour be had been in Hell with the Devil and the damned And here let it not seem an impertinent solly if I hence take occasion to reprove a Spirit of murmuring and discontent because of the Lord's Patience towards wicked Men and suffering them to continue so long in their rebellions against him and injuries towards their fellow-Creatures
consider thou hadst benefit by the Patience of God was not thou once wicked and it may be so wicked that others murmured at thee as now thou murmurest at them if thou art light in the Lord remember thy former darkness thou wouldest have God be hasty with others and little thinks what danger thou escaped by God's Patience towards thee because thou art got over the Bridge thou wouldest therefore have it drawn but if thou thy self did not put God to the expence of much time and hast been sanctified even from the womb yet hast thou not some Son or Daughter or Friend or brother whose wicked lives thou bewails and wouldest thou have God to destroy them to begin with them to make them the first examples of his present revenge Thou saies why does God bear with the wicked so long Why does God bear with thy Son with thy Brother with thy Kinsman Thou wouldest desire a little more time for them and further forbearance in hope of amendment that he would forbear them when they are young for hope of reclaiming when they come to Man's estate that he would forbear them then for hope of reclaiming when they grow old that he would forbear them when they are old yet one year longer for hope of reclaiming the next and so on and therefore look either upon thy self who once wert darkness but now art light in the Lord or upon Child or Friend who now are darkness but happily one day may be light in the Lord and then cease to be offended at any patience of God towards the wicked whatsoever To conclude this particular how many damned in Hell if they had had the time and the forbearance that others have had might have been in the places of some that are in Heaven and they in their places but for God's Patience see Mat. 11.21 4. For the excellency of Time consider the sweetness of it how comfortable do we reckon it when we can get a little time with a friend to enjoy him without interruption and not be called away how sweet to get a little time for retirement a little time to hear a little time to pray to read to meditate a little time for business a little time for business we are so posted from one exercise to another from one duty to another from one posture to another that we look upon it as a great happiness to get a little out of the hurry of time and that the Chariot-wheels of it seem to stand a little still and quiet that for a little space they do not drive on what a rest is it to a poor tossed hurried Soul a little communion with God a little freedom from the cares the noise the distractions the diversions the interruptions of the World to be able to sit down and be a little at quiet and take ones breath and if a Man be in sickness as Job speaks to have a little time to swallow down his spittle 5. The fifth particular is this none can know the Lord of time without Divine Teaching and certain it is that none can number his Time aright that does not understand this that our Time is not our own God is the Lord of Time we are but stewards of it we must be accountable for it we are not proprietors and for us to make bold as untaught Popple we too often do with that which is the Lord 's peculiar is high presumption and sawciness it 's injury and stealth for thee to meddle with thy fellow-creatures property without his leave what is it then at will and pleasure to dispose of thy makers right what Conscience or prudence is it for thee to say I will go to such a place such a day and buy and sell or meet with such a company and be merry who gave either you or them power to name the day you should say if the Lord give leave God permitting if God grant Life and Health Ah my Brethren if we asked leave of God about the day we should also he brought to acquaint him with work we intend to do that day and how many ill-done deeds and mispent time might this prevent you see what an interest the right considering of time has in every thing and how great an influence it has upon all actions and affairs What has thou to do to cut thongs out of another Man's hide or carve at another Man's table without his license What Prodigals are we of that which is none of our own canst thou say that thou was ever worth an hours time of thy own in all thy life and how is it that thou hast spent so much and wasted so much thou hast no authority to appoint dayes or hours let me come closer to thee thou hast not only robbed God of that time which he has lent thee for thy own business but thou hast taken from him that time which he has separated and inclosed and reserved for his own work and Glory review thy Sabbaths and think with thy self how much holy time thou hast spent upon thy own thoughts thy own words thy own actions what great snippets of time thou hast cut out of the Lord 's holy dayes canst thou justify all this is this the fruit of the Divine Teaching No such matter our times are in God's hands and power our times are not our own any more than our tongues God is the Lord both over them and us let us therefore when ever we have occasion for any time be it never so little or seemingly never so near at our hand not dare to reach it and use it without first going to God and asking his good will by this means we shall not only please him but likewise engage his assistance and direction in together with his blessing upon that work we have to do in that time but if our work be naught them I confess we should be unwilling to go to him for time for it lest he ask us how we will imploy it and we shall be afraid and ashamed to tell him nor indeed has he allotted any time for bad deeds but let us know this that if we steal time for works of darkness the Lord will severely reckon with us both for our works and our time 6. The sixth particular is this none can observe the wasters and devourers of time without Divine Teaching and it is an undoubted truth that no Man can number his Dayes well that is not an observer of these these are Thieves and Robbers these are eaters and consumers of time that do very much perplex Christians and many times put them besides right numbring I Will name some of them to you 1. Unnecessary cares those are very great intruders upon time and will be cnotinually claiming a share in it though our Lord and Saviour has given positive order that no room should be lest for them take no thought for to morrow and why take ye thought c. How many cares have you in a
day come in to your minds that might well be spared and indeed Ought not to be admitted you cannot pray in quiet for them you cannot eat and sleep in quiet for them you ought to watch against them and beg of the Lord divine Teaching how you may suppress them 2. Unprofitable discourses are great devourers of time that tend to no good at all neither to information nor reformation nor to prepare or fit the mind for work and business much talk about others Mens affairs matters that we are not concerned in and are forbid to meddle with study to be quiet and to do your own business and yet you cannot but observe it with half an Eye How much time is spent among Christians when they meet together about other Mens Actions Trades Shops Families c. and its strange if there is not mixture or backbiting envy uncharitableness and evil speaking throughout such discourses He that considers time rightly and knows how to number his Dayes as he should will see cause to wave such needless chat and fill his time with better conference that may leave a more sweet savour and relish upon his own heart and the spirits of the company The Lord knows how much we are to blame in this matter that we cannot fit together or meet together but with Augustus Caesar we must be taxing all the World especially such as it may be differ from us a little in some smaller circumstances we cannot have a good word for them nor hear a good word of them but can be greedy and gape at half a word that is reflecting and disparaging at a semblance at an appearance true or false My Brethren these things ought not to be I profess I often think of that place James 3.2 In many things we offend all but if any Man offend not in word the same is a perfect Man and able also to bridle the whole Body and let me tell you he that can manage his time aright will quickly order his tongue aright Oh that I could perswade you and my self that redeeming time lies at the very bottom of the power of Godliness Again how much needless and unprofitable talk about future events and contingencies about the Lord's matters his dispensations and providences what may come to pass in the World besides murmuring and discontented speeches about them it does not become us to sit in consistory upon God's providences to judge and pass hard censures upon them no time appointed by the Lord for it It was no small impiety in Pompey to rail against the god's and condemn the Providence that suffered him to be soiled by Caesar his cause being as he thought far better than Caesar's was he standing for the defence of the Common-Wealth like a good Patriot and Caesar like an Usurper aiming at a Monarchy and those Queries in Tully are but the symptomes of Atheism That if God govern the World then Why should persidious Hannibal be suffered to slay Marcellus why the barbarous Carthaginians to torture Regulas why bloody Cinna to slay so many Citizens why Marius to command Catulus his head a man far better than himself c. This was a thing that much displeased God Mal. 2. in that some there said and wearisome words they were to God that because the wickedest were suffered to play such 〈…〉 icks and domineer over others that either God favoured the wicked or was no Judg of the World ye have wearied the Lord with your words yet ye say wherein have we wearied him when ye say every one that is evil does good in the sight of the Lord and where is the God of Judgment as if God could not make his Judgments good if he suffered the Wicked to be such Judges of the Earth to slay whom they would and whom they would to keep alive to fit up whom they would and whom they would to pull down as Daniel said of wicked Nebuchadnezzar When Anthony the great was troubled with this and the like questionings about the Providence It is said that he heard a voice saying Anthony Anthony look thou to â—hy self and to thy own duty and let God alone with Governing the World he 〈◊〉 wise and just and powerful enough to do what is to be done Gersoh And Austin well answers the questionist asking him Why God suffers the Wicked to slay the Innocent see saies he whether in the first place it be not your duty to consider such plain Texts as these that more concern your self Break thy Bread to the hungry and bring the poor that are cast out to thy houfse when thou seest the naked cover him and hide not thy self from thy own flesh That would be time well-spent and God would allow for it Wash you make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before your eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek Judgment relieve the oppressed Judge the Fatherless plead for the Widow come now and let us reason together you would be disputing saies he with God about Providence before you have made your self fit to dispute with him Come now and let us reason together now when you have done all the former that more nearly concern you and it were good that many of the questions of this overcurious age were also thus answered But besides this answer he goes on and tells him that perhaps the party whom he thought was innocent was not so for how could he pry into his Heart or search into all his Life to know whether he had not thought or done any thing amiss wherefore God might justly suffer him to be put to Death But again suppose he were innocent indeed what then Christ was innocent and yet we know God's counsel to have been good and just in suffering him to be put to Death by the wicked seeing therefore by God's revealment thou hast found out his counsel why he suffered the unjust to slay that just one and such counsel as thou likest of very well thy self believe also that in others God does the same upon good counsel but it is perhaps concealed from thee lay aside therefore such Discourses about God's Transactions or if thou will discourse do it as the Prophet Jeremie does chap. 12.1 Who layes down this for a ground that God is righteous in them all if thou does thus thou wil easily light upon this solution v. 3. pull them out lihe sheep for the slaughter and prepare them for the day of slaughter I might add in the last place vain and foolish talking and discoursing with jesting which is not convenient which has nothing but frothines and unsavouriness in it ministers no edification but tends to put the Soul in a careless posture and set it at a greater distance from the fear of God which should alwayes be maintained as the Souls watch and overseer 3. Confused musings and dark reasonings spending much time holding a parley with Satan's suggestions and
point when your bagging of God this holy Wisdom to number your daise aright be sure you be earnest with the Lord that when you number your daies he would still help you to make the number come even what is that that that you may see your good dayes to be as many and as long as your evil ones and your dayes to be full as good as any of your neighbours thus to number will exceedingly conduce to give you content in your daies which the Lord numbers out to you in this World and keep you from inordinate desires after the changing of them and having some other dayes in the room of them The Wisdom of God in ballancing Men's conditions in the World is much to be observed though it is but little taken notice of every day has it's suitable good as well as sufficient evil every Man may see in his own condition if he has but his eyes open as much cause of rejoicing as of mourning and he may likewise see his own condition take it all together to be as good as any other Man's what is the reason no Man is contented With his Lot and Portion it is because they do not reckon right they do not stand in right places to take a view and an estimate either of their own or others conditions you stand on the inside of your own and on the outside of another Man's and by this means your own seems to be much worse and his much better than indeed it is do but change your stand and go into the inside of his and the outside of your own and then you will set cause to change your Opinion we may see the neatness of the shew but we little know where it pinches and others at a distance will judge your state very happy which it may be you do not sit so easily in but might sit more easily if thou would not sit alwayes in one place and posture I am perswaded the Lord hath in his Wisdom so ordered Mens conditions in this world that there 's no ods not one better than another if we could but see the ends and sides of them no room left for choice and that condition which every Man is in ought to be concluded the best for him of any in the World the Beggar 's condition is as good as the King 's take it all together no state in the World can be an object either of meer pitty or meer envy none so bad but a great deal of good is to be seen in it none so good but a great deal of misery is to be found in it the Lord in Wisdom and Goodness has fitted every Man's condition for him that another would not fit him so well and it will be our Wisdom if the Lord will give it us to see our selves fitted to our conditions and to observe in every point how well they fit us Here a bunch of pride is growing straighten and check there saies God there sensual delight would come in stop that place here strength is ready to be running over to be imployed in vanity pinch there with a little sickness there a grace or two want imployment send a cross or two to give them some work and exercise here the Soul is ready to faint slacken a little and give a cordial and there the Soul is like to fall clap an hedge or a wall quickly in the way c. What happy lives should we lead in comparison of what we do if we did but know how well every thing we meet with fits us what fitty dayes we enjoy there is not the most cross crooked thing comes to thee but there is some part of thee that it will fit exceeding well now the skill lies in putting it to the right part a Man's shooe will not fit his head nor his glove his leg do not turn thy back to thy cross when thou should take it in thy armes nor yet take it up at arms end when thou should bear it upon thy back a little weight is heavy at armes end which will be scarce felt upon the back which is a fifty place for a burthen we must take up our Crosses as the Man did his sheep upon his shoulder and away with it trudging after the Lord Jesus some men lead their crosses gingerly as a Man leads his young Child by the hand and so make no way some take them by the wrong end and are not able to lift them up some leap over them some fall upon them and many fall under them and all for want of this blessed Teaching of the Lord let us therefore never leave this out of our Parayers that the Lord would teach us the even numbring of our dayes and give us to see that every day we live whatever falls out in it is a fitty day and that our condition take it all together is at any time of the day as good as any Man 's living and take his all together too If he have money I have health if he have Children I have wealth if he have power I have peace if he have prosperity I have grace c. And so much for the third observation I come now to the Doct. 4. Fourth and last Observation in which I shall be brief That the right numbring of our dayes is a special means to obtain true Wisdom I shall endeavour to give you cleâ—â— demonstration of the point in these following particulars 1. He is a wise Man that minds his greatest concern in the first place now he that numbers his dayes aright that reckons of shortness of time he makes it his first business to seek the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof he will take Maries part and leave Martha's till afterward if there be time for it Our Lord Jesus in his travel comes into a certain Womans House named Martha and falls a Preaching her sister Mary considers with her self that she might have time to provide food when she could not have an opportunity to hear a Sermon and therefore she sate Jesus feet and beard his Word Matha was very busie in serving and providing entertainment and complains of her Sisters sleight and disrespect to his person and unkindness to her to suffer her to serve alone our Saviour gives her a check and commends Mary's entertaining his Doctrine before Martha's entertaining his person Christ loves that Man should look after their Souls and not make such a bustle about their outward cordions to make them easie and splendid and delightful but be content with such things as you have such things as the house affords as Christ would have been well enough and have been better pleased with Martha if she had sit down with Mary to hear the Sermon if Christ gave such a check to Martha for her great love to his outward Man because she neglected the good of her own Soul What a severe censure will he pass upon many one day whose care and cumber and pains
and time and strength has been mostly imployed about their own outward Man and their Families and Children how to get them Bread and Livings and Portions and in the mean while have made no provision for their long home for Eternity for their precious Souls but let them lie at sixes and sevens hunger'd starved defiled naked and bare He that reckons of the fewness of his dayes reasons and resolves thus let me secure an interest for my Soul in the Lord Jesus let me be assured of a kind reception beyond the Grave and a mansion in Glory and then if I have time I may look a little after the World but if I leave the former undone I shall be undone for ever I may leave the latter undone and no great loss God will take care of my Children he is bound to it and for my self if I be in the meaner condition here as we use to say to Children no body will ask them or tell them when they come to be Men what cloaths they did wear when they were Children so when I come to Heaven it will be all one then whether I had two coats here or never a whole one whither I lived in plenty here or sometimes was in such a strait that I did not know where to get my dinner let my Soul be once in a safe condition and then I am sure there can be nothing much amiss in other things 2. It is a Point of Wisdom to foresee an evil and to avoid it the Wise-Man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself but the simple pass on and are punished He that numbers his dayes aright that knbws the shortness of time the certainty and suddenness of Death does prepare himself accordingly he gets himself hid in the rock the Lord Jesus he has got an hiding place so that when Death comes to strike and Satan watching for the Soul and the Grave which can never have enough gapeing for the Body all on a sudden the Soul is carried by Angels into Abraham's bosom and the Body laid as seed in the Earth not detained as a Prisoner under the grave's power to be raised again a Glorious Body at the Resurrection of the Just the Soul is continually whilst here fortifying it self by Faith and Repentance and humility and self-denial which are Armour of proof in every evih day 3. He is a Wise-Man that knows how to carry himself suitable to his condition The right numbring his dayes conduces much to this as you have already heard and therefore I need not enlarge upon this Head only this he reckons his time is so short that it never concerns him whether he be in an high or in a low condition it 's no matter where or how I fit I am not like to fit so long no matter what part I act I shal quickly be gone off the stage I can take any part that is allotted me it 's no matter how I buy and sell or pofesess for I must do all as though I did it not because of the shortness of time so that in short as numbring our dayes aright is the fruit of Divine Teachings so it is the way and means to obtain Divine Wisdom 4. He is a Wise-Man that is well-read in antient Records and History and has a good reach with him about what things may fall out hereafter and manages himself accordingly Now to number our dayes aright will put us upon a search of the dayes that are past what times have been before and that which is is but what hath been and is gone and past and so must what lies before us top and therefore we shall be looking after something that is lasting not so flitting and fading as these earthly things are a Man that knows no more than the present day will mind nothing else but the present things will be alwayes muddling and moyling and scraping in the World and never looks about him to see what has gone before him or what will come after him which if he once did he would quickly come out of his muddy hole and shake himself and seek about for some surer foot-hold some better standing some other imployment than what he is now engaged in and taken up with 5. He is a Wise-Man what knows things of deep reach and search of profound enquiry things that are out of other Mens thoughts that never enter into their head 's the right numbring of our dayes will much help to this knowledg for he that considers that time will quickly end and Eternity presently begin which will never end will begin to inquire what things are conversant and in use in the other world and when he finds that Communion with God beholding Christ in his Glory freedom from all sin the society of Saints c is the condition of the place he presently turns out Worldly thoughts and designs and discourses about Houses and Lands and Money and Pomp and Glory and Pleasures and dives into the Mystery of the Gospel the Word of reconciliation a Life of believing the work and sealing of the Spirit the priviledges of God's People c and falls upon studying the work of repentance of self-denial of mortification together with all those works of meekness love and charity by which Persons are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light and are prepared for an Eternal state and condition alas faies he why do you trouble me with these trifles as Eating and Drinking and Trading c. It 's true they are of use in and are calculated for this present infirm state and must have their place but the main work and business is quite another thing the usages and customes of this World are quite differing from and contrary to those of the next and therefore I must begin the life here that I expect to live in the next and must be practising Non-conformity to and living above this present evil World I must come out of it I must be out of Love with it I must keep it at due distance I must use it as not abusing it as if I used it not that I may be ready and fitted for the condition and company of the World to come when-ever the messenger of Death comes for me which I am to expect every hour For I am commanded to watch alwaies with my loins girt about and my light burning that when my Lord comes and knocks I may open to him immediatly 6. We count him a Wise-Man who is willing to be taught and nothing like the numbring of our dayes will further that it cures trewantry he that does a thing as his last will be willing to do it the best way he can and will be glad of any help persons that have difficult business to do which must be done in such a time are ready to receive advice and take it kindly and this does argue them to be wise for willingness to learn is a sign of Wisdom he is
a fool that thinks he knows enough how glad is a serious Christian that values time of an opportunity of receiving good of being helped on his way of a little cordial in time of fainting of one that will take him by the hand when he gives a slip he that knows the most is the most receptive of knowledg and the ablest Christian readiest to take in more strength 7. He is a Wise-Man who is able to give advice and counsel and nothing does so much inable a Man in that as to number his dayes aright what 's the reason that we go to the Ancient for counsel but because they have had the experience of many dayes past and they reckon but of a few to come they look upon all the years they have lived but as yesterday and they reckon to Die to morrow were I to chuse a Man for my Life to give me counsel it should be one that makes Conscience how he spends his time that will not trifle and idle away his time The diligent good School-master does first of all teach the well-using of time when he is very severe if his Scholars do not come in the morning exactly at the time appointed 8. We count him a Wise-Man that is of few Words for even a fool when he holds his peace is counted wise now he that values time and knows the pretiousness of it is alwayes very thoughtful and studious what he must do in the next place he is not for talking but for doing his words are weighty and alwayes spoken in due place and season he has no superfluous time for supernumerary words 9. He is a Wise-Man that loves and keeps Wise-Mens company he that measures time has none to spare to spend with fools he that makes conscience of redeeming his time finds that he has not so much time as he would have with Saints he has none at all for sinners 10. We count him Wise that minds his own business and meddles not with other mens he that numbers his dayes sees that he has time little enough to manage his own matters in It is observable that walking wisely towards them that are without and redeeming time are put together Col. 4.5 Eph. 5.16 of all Men he gives the least offence Two things offend the World First When they observe your failings Secondly When you observe their's Now the Man that spends his time conscienciously minds his own Paths looks directly forward he neither stumbles nor looks on side to take notice of the falls of others he looks to his own place and work that the Lord left him to do Mark 13.34 11. He is a Wise-Man in Scripture-sence that fears God The fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom Job 28.28 The fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from evil that it understanding Now none is so prepared for the fear of the Lord as he that numbers his dayes it keeps the Soul in the continual awe and dread of the Almighty God and the reason is evident and plain for he looks upon the Lord as his Landlord and himself as his Tenant at will the rent he payes is but small and he is very careful to please his Landlord turning out is troublesome at the best and upon short warning it may be somewhat dangerous therefore he judges it very reasonable that he should continually stand in awe of him in whose power he absolutely is as to his being and wel-being as to his stay here and his dwelling place hereafter and thus much briefly for the proof of the point one word of Application and so I conclude this Text at this time Vse One General exhortation from the whole let us learn this Wisdom of numbring our dayes that we may be Wise has it been our evil that we have lost much time and have not put a due value upon it let us now redeem it repurchase it at any rate the word signifies to buy some things back a Metaphor taken from one that mortgageth his land and redeemeth it again or from the practice and custome of Wise Merchants who use to buy their commodities whilst fit time of buying serves and whilst the market holds and having haply had great losses or formerly spent their time idly or unthriftily do by their diligence seek as it were to buy back again the time that is past The truth is my Brethren we have been great unthrifts have squandred away a great stock and portion of time time is now grown a scarce commodity the price of it is risen we are fallen into those hard times mentioned 2 Tim. 3.1 hurtful heavy damaging times that as the Sea being infested by pirats the Earth being followed with male-influences from the Heaven make times hard for the Body so the scarcity of opportunities together with their ensnarements and molestations adding the great suspension of Heavenly influence renders the seasons of receiving good very difficult hard to come by and harder to be improved besides this the swifter motion of time now because nearer to its center meeting with an old crazy distempered World all Persons and Things being grown worse than they were every way does cause much detriment and spoil to both as the speedy motion of a Coach in bad wayes makes the passengers knock their Heads together and fall heavy upon one another that never intended it the hurry of this last time does wear and weary out Person and Things throws Men and breaks them one over another casts some into the grave and leaves others I know not where and causes such commotions mutation and inflammations that it is much to be feared that the axletree of the World may catch fire which may not so easily be quenched but increase to the general conflagration of that great day mentioned 2 Pet. 3.10 But the day of the Lord will come as a Thief in the Night in the which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with servent heat the Earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up I shall conclude my exhortation in the words of the same Apostle that immediatly follow seeing then all these things shall be dissolved that time will bring matters to this pass What manner of Persons ought we to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness looking for and halting unto the coming of the day of God wherein the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the Elements shall melt with servent beat wherefore Beloved seeing ye look for such things be diligent that you may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless and seeing ye know these things before Beware last ye also being led away with the errour of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness but grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ To him be Glory now and for ever AMEN FINIS * A dangerous fall at a Trap-door * Psa 90.12 * Bramham Toulston Oglethorp Ceeds Shadwel Wakefield Pontefract Hull Beverly Langlon Thoraby York Barwick in Elmet c. 2 Pet. 3.1 Now under the care of Mr. Jam. Fitten my old Friend Fellow sufferer and and Mr. Hen. Forte * Mr. Smith is an honest Man with all his faults Pro. 11.20 Heb. 10.22 Mrs. Smith Mat. 28.20 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 11.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eccl. 11.9 Eccl. 12.9 Job 4.1 Mr. Gar. Minister at Leea's Author of the Demonstration of the Resurrection of Christ Mr. Mansfield castle Et me more me a-liquando corripiet And the Earthy house of this Tabernacle shall be dissolved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eodem die lusrunt navigia sorbent sen. Jer. 45.4 5. Jon. 3.4 Ps 139.19 acupictus sum Gen. 47.9 Job 14.1.5 6. Psal 90.10 Mat. 21.2 Heb. 5.7 Job 7. last Eph 4.26 Mat. 5.2 3 Psa 31.15 Job 17.1 Isa 56.12 Gen 4.8 Exo. 12.30 London War and sea-Fights Eccle. 9.10 Mr. F. 〈…〉 〈…〉 Psa 73.18 19. Gen. 47.9 Job 14.1 Psa 90.10 Esa 57.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Job 13.26 Psal 98.9 periissem nisi periissem Job 36.8.9.10 Fecisti nos ad te cor nostrum inquictum estdonec re quiescat in te versa reversa in tergum in latera in ventrem dura sunt omnia tu solus requires Austin Mr. G. Eccles â— 9 1 Tim. 6. â— Hab. 2. De brev â—â—t Eccl. 2.20 Mr. G. Job 6.15.21 Eccles 2.22.23 Mat. 24.22 Psal 16.11 Deut. 33.25 pauperis est numer are pecus Psa 9.10 Job 13.5 Jam. 1.24 Eccles 3.1 Mat. 24 22. Job 6.29 Heb. 13.5 Eccles 2.1.3 Heb. 9.28 Pro. 7.4 Mr. W. Titus 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tim. 11.3 Titus 1.16 Phil. 3.19 Eccles 8.6 7 8 9.12 Heb. 12.11 Job 29.4 Heb. 13 Mat. 6â— 1 Cor. 7.29 Mr. B Phil. 4.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Job 21.7 Mat. 14.4 Mat. 13.19.22 25. Mr. G. 2 Pet. 3.8 1 King 14.14 Eccl. 8.12 Hab. 2.3 Kin. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 17.28 Mr. G. V. 13. c. V. 29. V. 30. Prov. 6.1 C. 27.23 1.7 1 Tim. 6.19 Joh. 4.23 24. Joh. 4.23 24. V. 5 6 7. Heb. 11. 1 Cor. 7.29 Mr. F. Exod. 29.19 Job 3.21 The Lady Barwick of Toulston in Yorkshire to whom I had the happiness to be Chaplain for several Years and must ever own my self to bemuch obliged and no less to the Right Honourable the Lord Henry Fairtax her Son in Law and my constant and Faithful friend in my sufferings for Christ Job 3.21 1 Pet. 1.17 2 Pet. 3.5 Quo irem sâ—â—tunc obtrem nisi in ignem tormenta digna factis mcis c. Cont. 5. * Nisi primo Deus per miscre cordiam parceret non inveniret ques per Judiesum câ—iona ret Rom 3.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 13.8 2 Pet. 3. 2 Timo. 2.25 Mr. G. Mat. 6.34 1 Thes 4.11 De Net Deor. 3. Dan. 5.17 Mr. G. Vide prus ne illud debeas-frange esurienti panem tuum c. Psal 61. Esa 58.7 Esa 1.16 17 18. Disputare vis anrequam facias unde dignus sis disputare c. Queritur Egystus quare sit factus adulter in promptu ratio est desidiosus erat Mat. 16 3. Ver. 12. Luk. 10.38 Prov. 22.3 Luk. 12.35 c. Prov. 1.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 5 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dura molesta v. 11 12 14 17 18
objections God has allowed no time since Adam's fall to spend in conference with Satan his plain rule is to resist him and then he will flee from us how are poor Souls bewildred and spend much pretious time in hearing what he has to say against them their State their Duties their Comforts betake your selves to the strong hold of Scripture and there you will find safety rest and peace time spent in searching the Scriptures and meditating upon them is well-spent time and will cause Satan to depart from thee 4. Callings and necessary diversions and avocations take up much time a gracious Soul many times does begrudge the time he spends in eating and drinking and sleeping and in the necessary duties and labours of his calling he could wish with all his heart he had more time for God and that his business did not ly so hard upon him though this he cannot do without Divine Teaching the Men of the World and I fear many Professours too think their time well enough spent in the forementioned affairs 5. Idleness is a great feeder upon time doing nothing or next to nothing though no Man can be idle for the Devil imployes every one whom he finds idle he that is imployed by the Devil he may be sure it shall not be about building of chappels and hearing of Sermons not about any good and godly imployment The old Monks of Egypt were wont to say that the working Monk had only one Devil haunting and tempting him but the idle Monk had a number of Devils still about him to tempt him the idle body is haunted and followed with a Kennel of Hell-Hounds still about him to tempt him to naughtiness the unclean Devil to tempt him to uncleanness the prodigal Devil to tempt him to wastfulness what wastfuller than Idleness two of the best labourers would have much to do to maintain one loyterer one drone would devour more honey in a day than two Bees could gather the proud Devil to tempt him to Pride for what Prouder than Idleness that hath nothing to do but to trick and prick up it self the slandersome detracting Devil to tempt him to slander and detraction for who runs over all their neighbours in passing consures on them but they that talk away time they are so idle see 1 1 Tim. 5.13 Where the idle the tattlers and busie-bodies are ranked together the ristous drunken Devil to tempt him to drinking and who so faulty that way as they that must drink away time the sins of Sodom are made to be fulness of Bread and abundance of idleness why is fulness of Bread and abundance of Idleness such great sins no but he mentions these as causes and occasions of a great many sins give me a place where there is abundance of Idleness and I will not doubt to say there is abundance of naughtiness too thus for the sixth particular the wasters and devourers of time 7. The seventh particular is this none can know the periods of time without Divine Teaching and none can number his natural Dayes aright that does not in some measure understand Metaphorical and Mystial dayes he cannot perform his duty aright that does not understand what dispensation he is under in some degree see Revel 13.18 Here is wisdom let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast for it is the number of a Man and his number is six hundred threescore and six Our Saviour blames the Pharifees that they did not discern the sings of the times the Men of Issachar are commended that they were men that had understanding of the times We read of seneral number of dayes and times in Daniel 9.25 and 12.11 12. and Revel 11.3.11 ans 12.6 14. and its true that several have been guilty og misses and mistakes in their calculations but all argee that we are fallen into the very last dayes of Antichrists reign perillous times wherein the Devil is come down in great rage and that the signs of the times recorded Mat. 24. and Luk. 21. are upon us and therefore we come to understand what our duties are that are required in such times as watchfulness Prayer c. which are likewise clearly laid down in both the forenamed chapters now to take out these lessons and live in the practice of them and not fall into that fatal security unbelief sensuality and those other sins which make the last times dangerous does require Teachings from above None can know the successor of time without Divine teaching 't is impossible for a Man to number his dayes aright that does not know time's successor 1. That time will certainly have a successor and that it will cease and be no more 2. What kind of successor it will be not of the same Nature with time Eternity is quite differing from time in the Resurrection there will be no eating nor drinking nor marrying nor giving in marriage nor buying nor selling no Turkish Paradise to entertain us with carnal plasures nor yet a Popish Purgatory to cleanse us from sins unrepented of in time Vse 1 For Application I note this in the first place how few there are that are under Divine Teachings in this point of numbring dayes aright We live bySense and not by Faith Oh what is time to endless conceiveless Eternity but alas alas where is the Soul that sits down and thinks of Eternity for half an hour together David's History of the Men of his day is a Prophecy of the Men of our day Psa 49.11 Their inward thought is that their Houses shall continue for ever and their dwelling places to all generations though Man being in honour abideth not but is like the beasts that perish Vse 2. Beg of God this blessed skill and art of numbring your daies aright do not think it a needless Petition thou does not know that thou shalt die unless God reveal it to thee thou does not know that time will end that there is an Eternity thou lives in this World very forgetful how transitory the state of all these things are the vulgar Proverb bears witness to vulgar practice I thought as much of it as of my Death as of the day of doom as of the worlds end I was much pleased with what I met with lately in the Book of wisdom chap 8.9 which though it be Apocriphal yet it is Canonical truth For I was a witty Child saies he and was of a good Spirit nevertheless when I perceived I could not enjoy her that is wisdom except God gave her that was a point of wisdom also to know whose gift it was I went unto the lord and besought him c. Witty Men Learned Men Old Men Holy Men unless they be all taught of God will be at a loss in the point of numbring their dayes of living under the powerfull perswasion of the shortness swiftness and determination of dayes and times Let me add one thing which was slipt in the proof of the