who make no conscience of Relative duties of diligence in their Callings or of justice in their dealings who know not how to govern either their Souls or their Bodies by the Rules of Religion or the Laws of Sobriety what can we think of all these but that they are evidently the Sons of Death They are in a sad and miserable condition they live at random and must die at a venture for there can be no grounded assurance to such of an eternal well-being Such as these make a hard shift to please themselves in the course but will undoubtedly fool themselves in the issue of their Life they will one day wish they had not lived at all rather than to have lived thus A Life void of care commonly ends in a Death void of hope As ever therefore you would die the death of the righteous see that you live the life of the righteous and then and not otherwise your last end shall be like his Numb xxiii 10. Infer II. If we must be in the fear of the Lord every day much more on the Lords day We have shewn you how you must in a sound sense make every day a Sabbath by working for God and resting in him and diligent preparing for an eternal Sabbatism with him but you are not to pretend this in excuse for your neglect of sanctifying strictly the Christian Sabbath the first day of the week the day which the Lord hath made Psal cxviii 24. in which he calleth us to rejoyce and be glad In which we celebrate the memorial of our Lord's Resurrection and consequently of the whole work of our Redemption by him If we must walk with God every day much more on this day to which a special blessing is annexed and on which we have special advantages for the service of God and the salvation of our Souls The cavils of any against the strict observation of the Lord's day are easily answered by any one that observeth the dependence of the Life of practical Religion hereupon I will be bold to say it The power of Religion lives or dies according as Sabbath-sanctification is kept up or let fall in Churches Families or Souls Of other days you are to consecrate a part to Religious exercises Acts of Devotion and Worship but this day is wholly to be taken up therein Only God indulgeth us in works of true necessity and obligeth us to acts of Charity thereon giving mercy the preference even to Sacrifice I will here briefly heap together a few Directions for Sabbath-sanctification 1. Discern your obligntion to it in point of duty and value it as your Priviledge That God have a seventh part of our time for his Solemn Worship is the kernel of the fourth Commandment and of perpetual obligation and seems to have been a part of Gods Law to Adam even in the state of Innocence God appointed and blessed the seventh day of the week before Christ's coming in the flesh for a weekly Sabbath in commemoration of the worldly Creation and added a Law of Ceremonious Rest to the Jews as a part of their Paedagogy and a shadow of things to come now done away Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week and after his Ascension on that day poured forth his Spirit on his Apostles to qualifie them to declare his Will to Man-kind in all things concerning Salvation They held and setled Church Assemblies on the first day of the week and called it by way of approbation The Lords day Rev. i. 10. And the Vniversal Church as far as appears from Church History without the least contradiction till our times see Dr. Young's Dies Dominica and Mr. Baxter's Divine Appointment of the Lords-day kept this day and no other as the day of stated weekly Solemnities and God was with them and owned and honoured their Assemblies with his gracious presence And therefore it seems the effect of strange weakness or intolerable perverseness for any now in these last days to question what the Universal Church hath so long on so good reason practised The Lords-day as the Christian-Sabbath I take to have been instituted by Christ if not while personally on Earth yet by his Spirit in his Apostles And as an attentive Reader of the Scriptures may there discern clear intimations of this so the current practice of the Christian Church in all times and places doth fully confirm it Nor ought we to esteem it any other than a very great Priviledge that we may have a day in seven to study the Works and Word of God to praise his holy Name to worship him in the Assemblies of his Saints to learn his Will for our Salvation A holy Soul must needs reckon it self in the Confines of Heaven while thus employed and bless himself that he may sometimes retire thus from the World and enjoy a holy freedom for spiritual delights and gladsome preparations for Eternal Joy 2. Prepare for this blessed day before it come Think of it and long for it every day but especially the Evening before rid your hands in good time of worldly business and your hearts of worldly cares Read pray meditate catechise your Families call your selves and yours to an account of what you and they heard the Lords-day before and if it may be get to bed sooner that night than you use to do of other nights that so you may be under no temptation to snore away that precious morning on which our Lord in testimony of the accomplishment of our Redemption rose so very early 3. Be sure to be up as early on the Lords-day morning as is consistent with your fitness for the blessed Employments of it And let the thoughts of Redeeming Love season your hearts at first awaking 4. Redeem time that you may add something to your daily Devotions both in Family and Closet and not be put to cut them short 5. Go with the first to Publick Assemblies but go with hearts prepared and behave your selves there with Reverence Attention and Affection Pray in prayer hear as for the Life of your Souls and praise God with joy and alacrity stay the Blessing and rush not into or out of Church Assemblies in a rude and hasty manner Consider God's Angels are there 1 Cor. xi 10. and view your behaviour nay the God of Angels he looks on 6. After Publick Worship retire to examine how you have behaved your selves there Call to mind what you have heard digest it by prayer and meditation and when you have opportunity fix it on your hearts and memories by conferring of it especially with your inferiours Children and Servants whom you may command thereto 7. Watch Sabbath time in the Intervals of it especially at Meals that they run not waste Quicken your selves and others to thankfulness and joy with the serious mention of Redeeming Love Take heed of vain talk and idle unprofitable musings Let the variety of holy employments maintain your delight in them 8. Close the day in
God's fear Reckon your Sabbaths gains consider your actions and the frame of your Souls in them fix the Word of the day upon your hearts and resolve by the Grace of God to be found in the sincere and speedy practice of it He who thus regardeth a day unto the Lord Rom. xiv 6. shall comfortably experience that the Lords-day hath the seventh days blessing transferred unto it and an additional blessing of its own conferred upon it Infer III. Seriousness in Religion is not more ado than needs Strictness is not Fanaticism Religion in all its parts is our reasonable service Rom. xii 1. We do not serve God for nought that true enough though once said by the Father of Lies Job i. 9. In keeping Gods Commandments there is great reward Psal xix 11. All this work you have heard laid open is of God's setting us and we may be sure he will not suffer us to be losers by our care to please him And besides the variety of Employments allotted to us which sinners count their burden and their cumber is indeed that which sweetens Religion unto holy Souls It is not the hardness of the work in it self but the unsuitableness of it to our Spirits that maketh it so uneasie to the most and when Grace hath removed that the Soul goes on with chearfulness in those ways which sinners cannot endure to tread and do all they can to discourage others from walking in When therefore sinners entice thee from the ways of godliness and tell thee What needeth so much ado sure God is more merciful than to damn men for neglect of secret prayer for vain thoughts for foolish speeches for taking now and then a Cup of Nimis for making the best of their own c. Sure God won't shut all out of Heaven but a few Puritans and Precisians so much reading and praying c. will but mope you or make you melancholy or mad take care of thy Body and make sure of thy Estate and trust God with thy Soul When I say sinners do thus entice thee consent thou not Prov. i. 10. Let no man deceive you with vain words Eph. v. 6. Tell them God knows better who he will save and who he will damn than any of they and he hath said Without holiness no man shall see the Lord He will pour out his fury upon the Families that call not upon his Name Life and Death are in the power of the Tongue Drunkards among others shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Covetousness is Idolatry It is a little Flock our Heavenly Father will give his Kingdom to The Righteous are scarcely saved The Kingdom of God consists in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost What is a man profited if he gain the whole World and lose himself or be cast away Tell them these are the true sayings of God see Heb. xii 14. Jer. x. 25. Prov. xviii 21. 1 Cor. vi 10. Col. iii. 5. Luke xii 32. 1 Pet. iv v. 18. Rom. xiv 17. Luke ix 25. And you should be a Fool indeed if you should believe the silly sayings of blind Earth-worms and prejudiced unexperienced Sots before the Word of the Living and True God the Infinite and Eternal Wisdom Infer IV. What cause have we to lament the Fall of our First Parents by which we are disabled for this excellent Life God Created Man holy and happy with wisdom to know his Duty and power to do it and holy Love to encline him to the performance of it It was easie for Adam to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long though it was possible for him by a faulty omission of Reasons government over the inferiour powers of the Soul to depart there-from And such was the mutability of his Will that being assaulted by Temptation he wretchedly yielded and so betrayed himself and his Posterity into a forlorn state of wretchedness and impotency so that now we have none of us by nature light enough to discern nor ability to perform aright our Duty in the most ordinary instances of Life Certain it is we have lost that Moral Liberty of Will which was the glory of Innocent Adam and had been our glory had he stood and remained in his Integrity But now the Crown is fallen from our Heads woe unto us that we have sinned Lam. v. 16. We may well name ours Ichabod for the glory is departed from us 1 Sam. iv 21. We are all shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin Psal Li. 5. In our flesh dwelleth no good thing when we would do good evil is present with us O wretched ones that we are who shall deliver us from the body of this death Rom. vii 18 21 24. By one man sin entred into the World and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Rom. v. 12. We have cause to look our hearts and lives in the glass of God's Law and cry out as once a good Man did after a long Sickness looking his Face in a Glass and beholding his pale Cheeks and meager Visage Ah! Adam saith he Adam what hast thou done Oh! what a condition are we who sinned in Adam fallen from and what a sad estate are we fallen into our Minds are dark our Wills perverse our Affections froward c. we cannot of our selves think one good thought if we might have Heaven and Eternal happiness for our pains 2 Cor. iii. 5. We cannot pray nor read nor hear nor do any spiritual Duty aright We have an hereditary Sickness that threatens us with death in that it makes us loath the means of Life Oh what a averseness to and unfitness for secret prayer and meditation and examining themselves do even awakened sinners find and feel till special Grace come in to their aid What shifting what shufling what excuses what slightness what slubbering over of Duties is there In a word Adam's Fall hath rendered us all utterly unable of our selves to do aright any duty to God our Neighbour or our selves Infer V. What cause have we all to lament our past days because they have been in too great a measure lost days If you look back upon the description that hath been laid before you of the everyday work and walk of a serious practical Christian and consider how every day of your Life hath been spent since you came to the use of reason I fear you will most of you have cause to cry out not only with the Emperour Augustus Hem amici diem perdidi Alas my Friends I have lost a day But Heu vitam perdidi Alas I have lost my whole Life Alas How have our days been squandered away and our time lavished out upon unprofitable vanities Ask one man what he hath been doing ever since he came into the World And he must if he say true tell you he hath been labouring for the meat that perisheth he hath been toiling and drudging to add house to house and
THE BELIEVER's Daily Exercise OR The Scripture Precept of being in the Fear of the Lord all the day long Explained and urged in Four Sermons By John Billingsley Minister of the Gospel Gen. 5. 24. And Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him 1 Tim. 4. 7. Exercise thy self unto Godliness 2 Pet. 3. 11. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns the lower end of Cheapside near Mercers Chapel 1690. To his Beloved Auditors the Inhabitants of S. in the County of N. and the Villages adjacent My very dear Friends THese Sermons were first Preached in your hearing at your desire they become thus publick which I should never have suffered them to have been had I not hoped your spiritual good might be some way advanced thereby For I am conscious that the World is already full of Books yea that divers have written on this very Subject and that I am no ways capable of doing it so well as it is done already But your extraordinary affection to my unworthy Person and Labours may by Gods blessing make a meaner thing from me more acceptable and so more useful to you than the more Learned Labours of others that you are less acquainted with My many infirmities both of body and mind tell me I am like to be of little use in the World but what little I am capable by Divine Assistance of doing for the glory of God and the good of Souls I am very desirous if God see it good it may henceforth be among you For this little Book I desire you will make it your Pocket companion read it frequently and practise it and I shall have no cause whatever censure it expose me to to repent its Publication nor you the Perusal of it That your best good may be effectually promoted by this and all my poor endeavours is the hearty prayer of An affectionate desirer of your Soul-prosperity John Billingsley The Believers Daily Exercise Prov. ch xxiii v. 17. Let not thine heart envy sinners but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long THE firmest Believers have their fits of Vnbelief and the strongest Faith has some intermissions and abatings of its vigorous exercise Peter that had Faith to leave the Ship and set his feet on the Waves to give his Lord the meeting yet when the Winds grew boisterous his unbelief had sunk him had not Jesus lent him a hand and by one word of his mouth stilled a double Tempest that of the Winds and Waves without and that of his Disciples Fear within Matth. ch xiv from v. 22 to 33. The People of God are a thinking People They are apt to take notice of and observe those passages of Providence which an unthinking World let slip unregarded And in their first thoughts of the Ways of God they are sometimes mistaken and often at a stand And in nothing are they more ordinarily at a loss or sooner surprized than in the consideration of the state of good and bad men here in this World They believe a just and holy Providence governs the Affairs of this lower World and this puts them sometimes to wonder how it comes to pass that the Righteous should be so often persecuted and perplexed while the wicked are in peace and safety flourishing like a green Bay-tree having more than heart can wish Psal xxxvii 1. Psal Lxxiii 3. And while they are thus intent upon the consideration of the present glory of the wicked and the poor and dejected state of the godly no wonder if the Tempter pursue his advantaâ—es against them and they feel in their hearts some motions of envy and emulation thinking the wicked's prosperity too much and inordinately wishing themselves a share of it This the wise men here warns us against Let not thine heart envy sinners q d. Let not their Prosperity seem a great matter in thine Eye entertain no thought of wishing to change places with them remember in whose choice and appointment both their and thine own Lot is Fear God and thou wilt not fret at or envy sinners The great Preservative against this as well as all other vices is to have the fear of God always before our Eyes Envying sinners is a disease the Godly are sometimes apt to fall into the Antidote prescribed by the best Physician is to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long This indeed is a Panpharmacon an All-heal the fear of God is an effectual remedy as against Envy so against Pride Covetousness Sensuality Hypocrisie and whatever distempers else our Souls are Subject and Liable to It is meet therefore that we should always be provided of it and carry it about with us continually Be thou This necessary Precept is directed to every one in particular Be we Young or Old Rich or Poor Learned or Vnlearned Superiours or Inferiours Bond or Free of whatever Rank or Condition we be this Precept belongs to us and we ought every one to take it to our selves In the fear of the Lord. Have a lively sâ—nce of the Being Attributes Presence and Providence of God that he beholds all thy actions and that he will render to thee according to thy works Fear in this place implies Reverence Love and Obedience Let a Principle of Religion possess thy Soul and be the Governor and Director of thy Life and Actions Walk with God Live by Rule order thy Conversation aright this is to be in the fear of the Lord. All the day long Continually throughout thy whole life every day and in every part of the day Religion is to be our whole employment we are not to own or allow our selves in any one action that is not Religious From our waking in the morning to our lying down it night we are to see that we be in the fear of the Lord. I do not say that we must turn Euchites and spend all our time in acts of immediate Worship Praying Hearing Meditation c. But we must do no deliberate act that for its principle and end does not deserve to be denominated a Religious action Our very Eating Drinking Sleeping Buying Selling Visiting Recreating of our selves must be a walking according to the Gospel Rule if we would have peace and a blessing from Heaven upon us The Doctrine I shall give you from the words is this Doct. That it should be the continual study and endeavour of every one of us to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long Or The Religious spending of our whole time should be our daily exercise The Method of handling this important truth shall be 1. To shew you what the nature of this exercise is to open to you this being in the fear of the Lord all the day long 2. Why we must be daily taken up and exercised in the religious
employment of our whole time And here I shall lay down the Reasons and Motives that are proper to enforce this Practice upon us and perswade us to it 3. I shall conclude with some Inferences and Practical Remarks upon the whole 1. To open to you this being in the Fear of the Lord all the day long And this I shall do by laying before you the several parts of your daily duty that so you may be directed in the orderly performance of it Many neglect the great business of Christianity because they do not well understand what it is or if they know something of it in general yet their notions are but confused and they know not how to place and order their duties For your help in this I shall lay before you the following Scheme of good employments for every day which whosoever Prudently Sincerely Cheerfully and Constantly observes does in some good measure come up to this Divine Rule of being in the fear of the Lord all the day long 1. If you will be in the fear of the Lord all the day long you must see that the fear of the Lord be in you Look well that a principle of Grace and Regeneration be wrought in your Soul A dead man cannot work or walk you must make the tree good or the fruit will be naught A graceless Soul cannot do a gracious action much less is it to be expected that he should engage and persist in a course of holiness How many in a pang of Conviction and under present fears of Death and Hell resolve that they will lead new lives they will be drunk no more they will leave their loose Companions they will Pray and Read and Hear and do no body knows what But their goodness is but like a morning Cloud and early Dew that soon passeth away they dream of leading new lives without getting new hearts Whereas if you will to purpose reform your lives you must begin with your hearts Get a deep sense of sin see your need of Christ cry to God for Pardon and Grace be restless till you feel your Souls possest with the Spirit of a holy Life Light and Love till you be made partakers of a Divine Nature new creatures in whom all old things are passed away and all things are become new A new heart is virtually a new life inasmuch as it will certainly produce it whereas a seeming new Life while the old unsanctified heart with its unmortified Lusis remains is but a dead Image a painted carkass a thing that as it does not live so it cannot last 2. Begin every day with God When I awake saith the holy Psalmist I am still with thee Psal 139. 18. Labour that your first thoughts may be of God and Christ and Heaven Use your Souls upon their first release from the Fetters of sleep to work towards God in thankful acknowledgments and deep admirations of his goodness with very humbling reflections on your own frailty and vileness Say Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him or the Son of Man that thou visitest him Psal viii 4. Lift up a Prayer for protection from sin and danger throughout the new day God is pleased to give you Think how many have passed the night in Pain and Misery and how many Souls may be this night gone into Eternity while you have slept sweetly and safely and bless God for his mercy to you and labour to make a wise and holy improvement of it Good thoughts at our first waking season our hearts for all day 3. Waste no time in needless sleep or waking sloth How many that are horribly afraid to die yet make no matter of giving away a vast proportion and that of the very best the flower of their time to deaths Image and Brother Sleep O think how many are suing out obtaining their pardon and making sure their Salvation while you lie Sleeping and Snoring and have not you Souls as well as they Have not you as much need of Christ and Grace and Heaven as they Remember excessive Sleep is neither good for Body nor Soul All cannot do with the like measure of Sleep but there are very few but might do with a great deal less than they do And of those that are not guilty of indulging the Body in this respect how many more are there that abridge themselves for the World than that do it for God and their Souls And is the World a better Master think you than God and Christ And is Gold a better purchase than Grace And then when you are awake slugg not as many do turning upon their beds like a door upon its hinges much less contrive not mischief upon your Beds let not contemplative wickedness find that time to steal into your hearts But shake off sloath and as soon as true necessity will give leave be stirring Remember morning hours are the cream of time more precious than the filings of Gold or dust of Pearl therefore throw them not away 4. Be not long in dressing and lose not even that time but think of some apparel for the Soul Be not like the gaudy Butter-flies and gay Peacocks of our days that spend their best hours between the Comb and the Glass and so their Bodies be but fine care not how filthy their Souls are Remember Cloaths came in to cover that nakedness of which sin had made us ashamed and therefore they should be a constant memorial to us of the fall of our first Parents and ours in them and to be proud of them or to make a great deal of stir and do about them is very foolish and absurd as well as wicked Count that fashion of apparel the best that being sufficient for Warmth and Decency truly so called requires least time in putting on To spend an hour every morning in Tricking and Trimming the Body and to think half an hour for Reading and Prayer too much is to me no very good sign than he or she whose ordinary practice is such is a real hearty Christian. And you whose apparel is really Grave and Decent the time that is spent in putting it on let it not be wholly taken up in that but let your minds be employed in suitable Meditations Think of putting oâ— the Lord Jesus Christ he is the only cloathing for your Souls that the shame of your nakedness may not appear You would be ashamed to go naked into the Company of your Neighbours O be ashamed of sin which is the Souls nakedness While you are dressing think what Temptations you are like to meet with in the day and labour to fence against them forelay the employments of the day meditate on some Scripture promise or the like 5. Go not out of your Chamber or Lodging Room without urgent necessity till you have offered up your morning Sacrifice of Prayer and Praise unto God He that is to travel among Thieves had need go armed Origen Complains that that day he
every day Luke xvi 19 24. Think how many want what you waste Remember their end is destruction whose God is their Belly Phil. iii. 19. Take heed of being bewitched with the love of strong drink Wine is a mocker strong drink is raging whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise Prov. xx 1. Remember what it did to Noah Gen. ix 21. And then be not content with meer Temperance in which it may be when you have done all you can some Heathens have out-stripped you but mix your meals with good discourse own God in bodily provisions beg his blessing on them and seriously bless him for them Whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do let all be done to the glory of God 1 Cor. x. 31. 11. Be moderate in Recreations subordinate them to the great ends of your Life and see they be lawful and sâ—asonable Two Rules * Mr. Whateâ—â—y Redemption of Time an Eminent Divine gives about Recreations among others specially worth our notice 1. Never allow your selves any Recreation till you be come to some degree of weariness in some pious or honest employment Begin not the day with Recreation 2. Spend no more time in Recreation any day than you spend in the private or secret duties of Religion And this Rule though to some it may seem severe he thinks sufficiently warranted by that of our Saviour Mat. vi 33. Seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness I add Take heed of passion and the lâ—ss of Time Remember Recreation is no Mans business God hath not placed us in the World as Leviathan in the Sea to play therein We must but sip not drink of these dangerous sweets tanquam canis ad nilum a lap and away Take them as that we need not as that we love When once Recreations begin to inveigle our affections though in themselves they be never so lawful it is time to lay them aside 12. Every day rejoice with trembling Mix a humbling sense of our own sins with a thankful sense of Gods mercies Indulge not a sullen sorrow neither let our Joy degenerate into frothiness and levity Maintain an evenness of spirit between the immoderate carefulness of such as are swallowed up of over-much sorrow and the carnal jâ—llity of such as on light occasions are transported into ravishment or on greater ones forget the causes they have not to be puffed up but to be humbled rather When God gives you the greatest mercies think how little you deserve and when he exerciseth you with the greatest afflictions think he is before hand with you both in what he hath bestowed upon you what he offers to you and what he hath laid up for you 13. Let no day pass without some serious heart-affecting thoughts of your last day Pray Lord teach me so to number my days as to apply my heart unto wisdom Psal xc v. 12. One being asked what Philosophy was gave it this definition Philosophia est meditatio mortis and undoubtedly the thorow consideration of Death has a large place in the Christian Philosophy The Gospel Doctrine is Ars moriendi the Art of Dying viz. in and to the Lord. And how unpleasant soever this study may seem to corrupt nature there is none more necessary for us than it Serious thoughts of Death are very powerful to convince of the evil of sin of the vanity of the World of the excellency of Grace and the wisdom of laying up Treasure in Heaven O! did men think as they ought of their latter end they would not raise such a dust as they do in the World for applause and preferment there would not be such pride and pomp such bribery and oppression such luxury and sensuality among professed Christians as there is Serious thoughts of Death would be one of the most effectual cures of Hypocrisie in the World for who would very much care what men say or think of him that considers how soon he must lye buried out of their sight and forgotten by them as if he had never been When Hypocrites see they must die it makes them in earnest and if they had been so in time they had been sincere Who would trifle with God that knows and considers how soon he must be at his Bar It were impossible for men to live as they do did they but once every day seriously think they must die this thought would either reform them or torment them And that sinners seem to be aware of whence because they have no mind of either they do all they can to put Death out of their thoughts 14 Observe and improve the Methods of Providence and Grace every day and record your Experiences for future guidance and encouragement It is a great point of spiritual wisdom to notice aright Gods dealings in his Providence with our selves and others so as to make just Inferences therefrom and none but such And also to observe the secret approaches of the Divine goodness to our Souls in the way of gracious influence from the Spirit of Holiness Whatever God does in the ways of common providence or special grace he expects we should regard and consider and improve it when sin finds our selves or others out we should lye thereby warned how we meddle with that which Experience assures us will cost us dear when Obedience is rewarded we are to observe it for our encouragement to walk in such ways as God owns and in what ways we have found God approaching our Souls with the influences of special grace and spiritual consolation we are to be excited still to wait on him therein 15. Let no special opportunity of furthering your Salvation glorifying God or benefiting your Neighbour slip you unobserved or unimproved This is to redeem time Every hour of every day is to be made the best of but some are capable of a special improvement like a fair Wind to a Mariner or a fair day when we are at harvest-work if we let this slip such another may not come Post est occasio calva It may be now Christ stands at thy door in the person of a poor Beggar send him not away without an Alms see Mat. xxv at the latter end Perhaps a poor ignorant sinner is by providence cast into thy Family or thou meetest with such a one upon the Road or thou hast him upon a sick-bed willing to hearken to instruction O do thy utmost to save a Soul from Death and cover the multitude of sins Jam. v. 20. It may be thou art light into the Company of debauched Sensualists profane Ranters Infidel Scoffers now give a proof of thy loyalty and fidelity to thy great Lord and Master Perhaps thou art under a Cross and thou feelest thy heart sensible and tender now set to confessing thy sins and making supplication for the Life of thy Soul now thou hast a Sabbath a Market-day for Heaven store thy self with Soul-provision sic de caeteris 18. Share in the sufferings of the
with sincerity and alacrity instead of those forced shews and that feigned Devotion that now alas too generally corrupts yea even nullifies the Christian Worship 20. Lastly Close the day as you began it with God Retire e're you be too sleepy and examine your selves how you have spent the day Look over the foregoing Rules and think how you have complied with them or wherein you have come short Thus ask what State and Condition is my Soul in Am I truly regenerate or no Did I this day awake with God What were my first Thoughts upon Have I not wasted morning hours or even minutes in needless sleep or sloth in vain imaginations or contemplative wickedness Have I not been too long in dressing my body too curious in my apparel proud of it Have I not lost that time or have I redeemed it by holy Meditations Spiritual Projects and wise fore-casting how I might best serve God the ensuing day Have I solemnly sought God in fervent and believing Prayer and diligent study of his holy Word And has not Spiritual Life been wanting in my closet-duties Was it as much and more to me that God was by than if all the World had seen me Have I looked strictly this day whatever Company I have been in both to my Thoughts and Speeches that neither were Light Vain or Wicked but Serious Spiritual Heavenly becoming my high calling and honourable profession of Christianity Especially have I carefully avoided that common and hateful sin of Tale-bearing and Pragmatical medling with other mens matters Have I been diligent in my particular calling and that not for Covetousness but Conscience towards God Have I done to others as I would be done by Have I defrauded nor over-reached none Have I been sober and temperate in the use of bodily refreshments Have I referred them to Gods glory and seasoned my use of them with the reverent mention of his name Have I medled with no recreations but what were certainly lawful and have I used them lawfully Have I neither been cast down with causeless or excessive grief nor lifted up with carnal jollity and frothy merriment Have I this day very seriously thought of my last day and how have those thoughts affected me Have I duly noticed and improved the Occurrence of Providence and the influences of Grace this day What special seasons of doing or receiving good have I had this day and how have I laid hold of them or let them slip What sense have I had of Sions sufferings what Sympathy with afflicted brethren Have I done my utmost to relieve and help those that are in want and distress Have I been careful to keep up Family Religion and conscionable in the discharge of relative duties this day Has sincerity and cheerfulness rendred Christ's Yoak easie and his burden light in all the variety of employments wherein I have this day served him Thus take Conscience to task about your daily behaviour and labour to be rightly affected with all the discoveries you make of your State Frame and Way Further examine what temper and disposition of Soul you arâ—â—ow in whether fit in some measure to draw nigh to God or not Read the Scriptures meditate on what you read or on some other heart-affecting Subject and leave not till you feel your heart suitably moved therewith then pour out your Souls again to God in Prayer and commit your Souls and Bodies with Faith and Confidence to his Love and Care As you undress you think As I now put off my Cloaths so I must ere long this Body As I now lie down in my bed so shortly must I in the Grave Think what an Image sleep is of death and how easie if God give the word the passage is from the Image to the reality and how sure the sleep of death is to be followed with the morning of the Resurrection when we shall awake never to sleep again With such Meditations close your â—yes and lock out vanity from your hearts and let your beloved Jesus Christ lie all night as a bundle of Myrrh betwixt your Breasts Cant. i. 13. Thus will there be a setled correspondence betwixt your Souls and Heaven you will be its care and it will be your hope and days so spent will not be to be repented of at last 2. Having thus opened to you what it is to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long and how Christians are to be daily taken up in the Religious employment of their whole time I now proceed to shew you Why they are so to do and what are the reasons and motives enforcing this Practice upon us We are to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long and every day to make Religion our business Reas 1. Because this is to answer the Ends and Purposes for which God hath given us Life and Time Wise agents propound to themselves valuable ends in all they do the infinite wisdom therefore cannot be thought to have made this lower World and to have placed man made after his own Image therein but upon very valuable considerations not those indeed of profit to himself the absolute and compleat perfection of his nature barring all Impotency or defect to be assisted or supplied Job xxxv 6. 7. If thou sinnest what dost thou against him or if thy transgressions be multiplied what dost thou unto him If thou be righteous what givest thou him or what receiveth he of thine hand But the complacency of his own Will in the Communications of his Beneficence to his Creatures in proportion to their capacities of receiving To enlarge therefore our receptive capacities that so we may reflect more of the lustre of the divine goodness is the great end of our being and likewise of our continuance and support therein Now by nothing are our capacities more enlarged than by such a continual being in the fear of the Lord as I have before described For by doing Gods Wâ—ll we become enlarged in Divine and Spiritual Knowledge and our understanding will and active Powers receive a joint improvement He that doth the will of my Father saith our Saviour shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak it of my self Joh vii 17. and this is Life Eternal to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent Joh. xvii 3. Knowledge is the ground-work of Holiness and Holiness advanceth Knowledge and to be thus daily improving in holy Light Life and Love is that very end for which God made us at first again new made us redeeming us when we were lost and undone and for which his providential care still continues and supports us in the World Why were we not swallowed up of Death and Damnation when we had sinned but that the dead praise not God Psal cxv 17. Wherefore are we redeemed by the blood of Christ but that we should be a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. ii 14. Why are we made
Preachers without invading that Office which it is the will of God should be peculiar to those whom he hath specially qualified for it and visibly separated to it When you are constantly and delightfully busied in the duties of Holiness you manifest to others that Religion is not an impracticable notion a meer pleasing speculation but that the Rules of it may be complied with Our Sermons here in the Pulpit would be much more effectual if you would but live them over in your Closets Shops Fields Families and mutual converses in the World O what a joy is it to Ministers what a glory to the Gospel of Christ when we can point with our Fingers as it were and say There and there and there are the Seals of our Ministry There an ignorant man or woman instructed a drunkard or swearer or sabbath-breaker or unclean person reformed a covetous muck-worm made free-hearted and open-handed a hypocritical Formalist awakened to thorow seriousness in Religion one that was formerly prayer-less of whom we can now say Behold he prayeth a Family of the Devils Slaves and Servants and the Worlds Drudges that is now become a Church of Christ having stated orderly Worship and ringing with the praises of God in emulation as it were of Heaven it self God's will being done in it as there it is done The holy Conversation of the Professors of Religion is an Instituted Means of the conversion of the Atheistical Infidel Impenitent World And if we deny them the benefit of this Means we little know what we have to answer for the Blood of how many Souls may be found in our Skirts Whereas on the other hand if by our holy Life and good Example we turn many to righteousness we shall shine as Stars or as the Sun in the Kingdom of our Father Dan. xii 3. Mat. xiii 43. By converting sinners thus from the evil of their ways we shall save Souls from death and cover the multitude of sins James v. 20. This going before others with the light of a good Example is a cheap yea a gainful way of promoting their Salvation which is certainly the best work we can do in the World and will yield us the most solid comfort in a dying hour Oh! be not content to give others a verbal commendation of Religion but let your lives tell them what an excellent thing it is R. 5. We had need thus to improve every day because we know not which shall be our last day Therefore if we would not lose our last day let us take heed that we do not lose any day We always carry as it were our lives in our hands Psal cxix v. 109. Our breath is in our nostrils and God can easily change our countenances and send us away Isa ii 22. Job xiv 20. We all know we must die but none of us knoweth the particular time the year month week day or hour when Our Lord 's coming in this respect is uncertain whether at evening or at midnight or at the Cock-crowing we ought therefore always to watch that we may be in readiness Mark xiii 35. How would we spend that day which we knew before hand would be our dying day Would we not be very serious Would we not labour to keep our minds very composed our hearts fixed our thoughts and affections heavenly I do not say we should spend the same time every day in immediate acts of Devotion as we would do if we knew it to be our dying day nor that we should converse always with the same solemnity as if we were under that apprehension But we should every day take as much care to keep our selves from all known sin and to be diligent in every positive instance of our duty as if we knew we must end the day and our life together for we do not know but it may be so Now tell me sinner couldst thou be content to die a drunken Beast so totally deprived of the use of thy reason as not to be able to utter with sense and seriousness but so much as Lord have mercy upon me Would it not be a terrible thing to go into Eternity as some have done with an Oath or Curse in thy Mouth What a case shouldst thou be in thinkest thou if the Dart of Vengeance should strike thorow thy Liver whilst thou art in the very act of filthy Lust and wallowing in impure Embraces If thy Breath should be stopped as thou art uttering a Lie or a dead Palsie should benum thy Limbs while thou art driving a cheating or oppressive Bargain Surely there is no man so brutish but he would most earnestly deprecate so sad a doom and yet sinners boldly venture on these courses daily notwithstanding they know not but they may thereby expose themselves to so dismal a calamity Whereas if Death find us in the way of our duty whatever that duty be let it lye in never so ordinary or mean an Employment we have cause of rejoicing and not of fear or sorrow When we have been most diligent in spending a day for God we shall then be most willing if the good pleasure of the Lord so be to die at night The weary Labourer hastens to receive his Wages and cheerfully lyes down to rest R. 6. The time is coming when we shall wish we had spent our days thus How irksom soever a Life of Strict Godliness may now seem to our carnal hearts and corrupted natures yet there is never a one of us but we shall shortly wish we had been as holy as the holiest that we had made Religion our business and been every day of our lives in the fear of the Lord all the day long You that are now strong and healthful and through the pride of your hearts forget God so that God is not in all your thoughts Who say to God depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways Psal x. 4. Job xxi 14. Who esteem fervent praying no better than whining and canting and conscientious strictness in the Government of our selves but needless preciseness and vain scrupulosity Who count him that feareth an Oath or refuseth an imposed Health a morose Melancholist an arrand Fanatick a silly Sneaksby Who pride your selves in the vainly assumed Titles of the Wits as being got above the fear of power invisible and disentangled from the Fetters wherewith Religion binds her Votaries Who can please your senses and gratifie your appetites in defiance of Almighty Justice the threatned Everlasting Torments and all the Jargon as with a sneering smile they are wont to call it of the man in black that as they would fain flatter themselves and glad are they at heart when they can meet with any one so vile as to give them a colour for it doth but talk vehemently against sin for an hour or two in the Week because it is his trade There is not one of all these I say but will shortly change his note and turn his
tune When Death knocks at the doors and looks in at the Windows and out at the Eyes of these brisk merry Blades these boon Companions when nature fails and their strength is gone and their departing Soul presageth irresistibly it 's everlasting duration Oh how will they then befool themselves How will their Consciences reproach them How freely will they give themselves the Lie How heartily will they retract their censures of the Godly and with that they were not only almost but altogether such as they Acts xxvi 29. And that they might die the death of the righteous and their last end be like his Numb xxiii 10. Assure your selves Sirs there is none of you that when you come to die will repent that he hath praised so much or lived so exactly or mortified his flesh and subjected his appetite to his reason with so much diligence none repenteth then of the sufferings and scorns he hath undergone for Christ and a good Conscience Men then cry out of their Gluttony and Swearing and Sabbath-breaking and Hypocrisie and not of their holiness and circumspection and sincerity but wish it had been a thousand times more than it was And what thou wilt shortly wish thou hadst been methinks if thou art wise it should be thy hearty study and chiefest care now to be R. 7. We shall thus make evil days good to us Days of abounding iniquity in the World days of sharp sufferings to our selves whether from persecuting malice or from the immediate hand of God as in one kind or other sufficient unto every day is the evil thereof Mat. vi 34. Yet whatever be the evil of the day it will be a good day to us if we be in the fear of the Lord all the day long for then we shall avoid much of the evil of the day and what of it is unavoidable God will turn it to our good for he hath said All things shall work together for good to them that love him Rom. viii 28. There is no Antidote against daily temptations like being in the fear of God nor no support or comfort under great troubles like this that they find us in the way of our duty Nothing stilleth murmuring and complaining under our sharpest trials like a holy awe of God and a sense of his presence and governing Providence He that is in the fear of God will not use sinful shifts to escape sufferings than which nothing sooner fills the Soul of any man that is not of an utterly seared Conscience with trouble and perplexity The fear of God will wean us from the Love of the World and will subdue those inordinate desires in us which since nothing that we can here compass can ever satisfie must necessarily make us a torment to our selves It will prick the bladder of pride quench our covetous thirst after the Mammon of Unrighteousness and blunt the Edge of our sensual Inclinations that we shall be so far from esteeming any of these our happiness that we shall count our selves much more happy in having grace to deny the immoderate gratifications of the animal Life than in being never so fully possessed of whatsoever might conduce to our compliance with them In a word the fear of God powerfully prevailing in our hearts would make prosperity safe and adversity easie to us it would make our worst days good and our best days better whereas he that lives and dies a stranger to this being in the fear of the Lord all the day long though he live an hundred years in prosperity yet it may be truly said he hath not had one good day R. 8. This will secure a blessing unto us and ours Religion entails a blessing upon Families upon Persons and their Posterity Blessed is every one that feareth God and that walketh in his ways Psal cxxviii 1. God blessed the house of Potiphar for Joseph's sake Gen. xxxix 5. It is a promise to the truly godly man that whatsoever he doth shall prosper Psal i. 3. Happy is the man that feareth always Prov. xxviii 14. The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked But he blesseth the habitation of the just Prov. iii. 33 Read the 28th Chapter of Deuteronomy what blessings are there promised to the careful observers of God's Law Those that are truly Godly God will pour out his Spirit upon their Seed and his blessing upon their Off-spring Isa xliv 3. If we sincerely consecrate and devote our selves in the beginning of every day to God we thereby entitle him to our Persons Possessions and Performances and thereupon all of ours doth immediately become his care He is as it were in equity bound to take care of his own He never yet cast off any that sincerely cast themselves upon him And when we consider how needful his blessing is to the Success of any thing that we go about We cannot but think them happy that by taking God along with them continually are secured of that without which all humane forecast and industry is in vain and to no purpose Psal Cxxvii 1 2. Whence come the Crosses Losses Vexations and Ruines that are in many Families but from mens neglect or distrust of God When we cast him out of our thoughts it is just with him to cast us out of his care R. 9. If we live thus though we die young we shall have lived long enough and if we die Old we shall not have lived too long What an excellent thing now is Holiness and the fear of God which reduceth short Life and long to an equality He that in the time of his Life hath learned to know God and Jesus Christ to Worship God in Spirit and in Truth to secure to himself an happy being for Eternity and to serve his Generation while he is in this World hath lived much though it be in a little time Such a Child hath lived longer than he that is as Old as Methusalem and yet remains ignorant of these things I mean as to the great ends â—nd purposes of living For there are those of whom we may say as Seneca non diâ— vixit sed diu fuit Many have been long that have lived but a little while And further if he whose walk and course we have been at large describing to you if such a one I say live long he hath no cause to repent of the time he hath sojourned here though he have met with many Temptations and Afflictions he hath thereby only had an opportunity of exercising and confirming his Faith Hope Love and other Graces his patience hath had it's perfect work and he hath brought forth fruit abounding to his account A long Life well spent is a resemblance of as well as a preparative to Eternal Life Gray-hairs found in the way of righteousness are a Type and Emblem of an happy Eternity Whereas the sinner of an hundred years old is accursed and hath cause Isa 65. 20. to lament that ever he had a being he hath
lay field to field he hath been loading himself with thick Clay he hath been very throng a getting that together that he knoweth not how soon he must leave behind him he cannot tell but before to morrow Ask another he will tell you he hath been at the Butterflies work painting his wings tricking and trimming and making himself fine and smooth and brisk and gay with a world of art and cost setting himself out to the view of beholders and to be thought handsom he was willing to wave all the real accomplishments of humanity and little thinks the poor spark how soon all his trimming must be laid aside and how courfly a fit of sickness and much more two or three days Lodging in the Grave will make him look Another or perhaps the same if you question him when he is in the right mood to give you an answer will tell you he has been Drinking Dancing Singing Feasting dallying all his days Ransacking all the avenues of pleasure and racking nature to make her confess some secret source of delight and trying untrodden Paths of Luxury that if it were possible some new mode of sensual gratification might be found on which the Preacher had not written Vanity of Vanities but know O fleshly wretch that for all these things God will bring thee into Judgment Eccl. xi 9. Another hath been climbing hard to reach the topmost Pinacle of Honour Cringing Bribing Flattering to get an opportunity to wrong others and ruine himself for man being in honour abideth not he is like the Beasts that perish Psal Lix 12. Now alas what poor employments are these for that time on which Eternity depends And yet how few even among Christians lay out their time to any better purposes Well Sirs all your time that is not laid out for God's glory the good of others and the Salvation of your Souls is lost time you had as good nay better all that time have been out of Being Oh what a World of time do the most give away to Death People complain of the shortness of Life and yet act as if they thought it too long What cause have most of us to sit down and sadly say What have I been doing hitherto Am I not even a dying before I have begun to live And Oh that men would sit down and think seriously of it there might be then some hope that they would at last in earnest begin to do that which they should have been doing all this while Infer VI. What need have we to implore the Grace and Spirit of Christ to encline and enable us to direct and assist us in this necessary work We have a great deal of work to do and it must be done and we cannot do it of our selves what more reasonable then than that we should speedily and carefully look out for help The great Gospel promise is the Promise of the Spirit we ought therefore to plead it in Christ's name with God the Father since he hath said he will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke xi 13. If we have not the Spirit of Christ we are none of his Rom. viii 9. And without special relation to him and interest in him we cannot groundedly hope for assistance from him without whom yet we can do nothing Joh. xv 5. We are dark we therefore need the Spirit to enlighten us we are weak we need him to strengthen us we are wavering we need him to settle and fix us we are oft dejected and discouraged we then need him to comfort and confirm us Since then we so greatly need this blessing on all accounts how earnest and importunate should we be for it How observant of all the blessed Spirits accesses to and recesses from our Souls How careful to cherish his blessed motions How loath to grieve our guide If our Baptism in his name were not a nullity which many at least of our scoffers are not yet arrived at the impudence to assert our pretensions to his assistance cannot be justly charged to be Enthusiastical provided our claims be proportioned to the ends of our Baptismal Covenant relation to the Holy Ghost and our holiness of Life and Conversation manifest their reality As Enthusiasm though it seem to look another way leads to Infidelity so Infidelity too often and never more than of late masks it self under the veil of a vehement zeal against Enthusiasm But a good understanding of our Baptism and a practical experience of the main vital principles of Christianity therein contained would be an effectual cure of both When we know what it is to have the Spirit of Life living and working in our Souls as our Souls in our Bodies then and not till then shall we know what it is to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long Some forced motions in the externals of Religion we may have before but it is the Spirit that quickeneth Joh. vi 23. And where the Spirit of the Lord is there and there only is true Liberty 2 Cor. iii. 17. Even such as whereby we run the ways of God's Commandments with enlarged hearts Psal Cxix 32. Infer VII What care should Parents take to begin in a way of holy Education with their Children betimes that the best course in the World may not seem difficult and uneasie to them by disuse The wise man bids train up a Child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it Prov. xxii 6. And undoubtedly one great reason why many frame so aukwardly in the matters of Religion is because they were so long suffered to be utterly unacquainted with them O what a difference do Ministers usually find as to the Success of their Preaching between catechised and uncatechised youth Oh how hard is it to get people in years that have been left in ignorance till then to learn to understand but the most plain and common principles of Religion through want of early instruction when we tell men of being in the fear of the Lord continually the most know nothing what we mean tell them of the necessity of Repentance Faith and Holiness in order to Eternal Life and they understand not what they hear speak to them of the blessed Trinity in whose name they were baptized of the necessity of the Spirits help and of regeneration and it is all one as if we spoke to them in Greek or Arabick their minds have never been used to such matters O you that desire it should be otherwise with yours take care of their early instruction tell them betimes of their duty in order to Salvation and Eternal happiness and acquaint them with the holy Scriptures teach them to pray set before them briefly and plainly the order of their daily duty to God their Neighbours and themselves help them to govern their appetites and passions by reason and the Word of God tell them what Christ hath suffered in their stead what benefits he hath