Games is Like the Goods of thâ—â— which Dy of the Plague which commend bring a Fest with them Nor is it altogether unworthy to be considered That the more special Successes of your Tâ—â—rger Gamesters whereupon even â—ome oâ— Themselves do sometimes profanely â—ay 〈◊〉 Devil will make a Gamester of that Young Man do very terribly intimate a peculiar Interest of the Devil in Ruling the Chance of these Games 't is an Observation which my most Honoured Friend the Venerable Baxter has made in the close of his Book about The Worlds of Spirits Pray then have a care And if men may Sin by some sorts of Gaming in the Winter mayn't they do it in some kinds of READING too Not only Books of Debauching Jests and Songs are very unworthy to be our WINTER-ENTERTAINMENTS but the most of Romances too will then but create a Wast of Time to be Repented of And here also that I may not Impose my own Opinion I shall give you the Judgment of two Writers whom the World have not accounted Inconsiderable The One is The Author of The whole Duty of Man who Dehorting of Young Women from the Reading of Romances has these words 'T is very difficult to Imagine what vast mischief is done to the World by the false Notions and Images of things particularly of Love and Honour those Nobler Concerns of Humane Life 〈◊〉 resented in those Mirrours The other is the Incomparable Dr. Tuckney who likewise disswading of young Students from the Reading of Romances has these words Make this Trial whether when you have been Greedy in Reading such Books you have thereby any great wâ—nd to Read the Bible I am sure that when you have been Reading That you will have as little Delight iâ— Reading them as Paul had in the Thorn in his Flesh when he had been before caught up to Paradise All that I shall add is That when the Rules of Sobriety and Righteousness and Godliness are Transgressed Men instead of Knowing the Works of God are Doing the Works of Gods Great Enemy And I am sure The VVinter is not a Leisure for such Odious VVorks But then Secondly we may speak more POSITIVELY and it is to be now affirmed That the Liesure of the Winter is to be Employ'd in such Things as may be called A WISE REDEEMING OF THE TIME It is Enjoyned upon us in Eph. 3.15 16. VValk circumspecily now as Fools but as VVise Redeeming the Time because the Days are Evil. Thus about the VVinter Because the Days are now short and sharp therefore Let us now be so wise as to Redeem our Time in these Days When we have Least to do we should then be Best Employ'd About the Liesure of the VVinter we must own Deus nâ—bis hâ—â—c Otia fecit it is God that has made this Liesure for us and therefore it becomes us to Employ this Liesure for God We never have a Liesure-Day befalling us but we should Eye the Hand and End of God in ordering such a Day and think with our selves VVhy did my God send me this Day what would He have me to do this Day We are not VVise if on our VVinter-Days all such Thoughts as these Ly Frozen in our Minds But How is VVinter-Time to be Redeemed We will particularize I. In the VVinter we have Liesure to Reflect upon OUR OWN WORKS and the God of Heaven does then Expect that we should so Reflect There are some who take my Text in that sense He Seals up the Hand of every man that every man may know his own work We have Liesure in the Winter to fettle our Iemperal Affairs and we may then see whereabout our Work Lies what progress what success we have had in our Work and what further steps we are to take about our works The VVinter-time should accordingly be a Time of much Contrivance with us and a Time to State our whole Business for all the Year about But more than so our Spiritual and Eternal Affairs are those which the Winter gives us the host Liesure for and we should now settle those by Reflecting upon our work It was complaineâ— in Jer. 8.6 No man Repented him saying what have I done In the Winter we have Little to Do well but now 't is a Time for us to Reflect What have I been dâ—ing ever since I came into the World The great work of Self-Examination is â—ods Work 't is the Work whereto our God has called us We have a Precept so it in Hag. 1.5 Thus saith the Lord of Hosts consider your Wâ—â—s We have a Pattern for it in Psal 119.59 I thought on my Ways and I turned my Fed unto thy Testimonies VVe do the Work of God when we thus Try what our own Works have been VVhen the Winter then has driven us into Retirements Let us take Time for this Work even to See and Know what Work we have been doing since our God â—irst let us to work among the â—iâ—ing on the Earth 'T is now a Time for us to Enquire How have I answered the End which I came into the World upon God has Required us to work out our own Salvation well but what strokes have we struck at that more all this while Ask our selves How have I done the works Agreeable to Repentance and. How have I done the works of Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ And herewithal bring we all our works to such an Examination as may discover the Errors and Follies of our Works in order to our thorough Humiliation for them Why should not a Winter-day be sometimes made a PRAYING-DAY yea and a FASTING-DAY before the Lord No man will arrive to very high Attainments in the Grace of God who does not sometimes devote whole days unto a secret Communion with him Now let us have many such Dayes every Winter to Pray and Fast and Humble our Souls before the â—od of Heaven But on such a Day one very proper exercise would be for us to call over the Works of our lives and finding the Obliquity of our Works by Comparing them with the Holy Just Good Commanements of our God Let us then Judg ourselves that we may not be Judged of the Lord Behold a Catalogue of sins against the Commandments of God Reflect now distinctly exactly upon your works and find out whether you have not had such sins in your works Demand of Yourselves QUAESTION I. Have not I grievously forgotten the God that made me And have not I given to the World the Flesh and the Devil the Homage which is due to God alone Or have not let Creatures have the Affection and Obedience which God alone may lay claim unto Quest 2. Have I not Shamefully Neglected the Institutions wherein the Lord Jesus Christ has taught me to mentain a Fellowship with my God and have I not humoured the Superstitions of a Vain Conversation Quest 3. ‑ Have I not Irreverently treated the Names Attributes Hords Works and Ordinances whereby God
Indeed there is not One Day in the Year whereon we should not be In the fear of the Lord all the Day long but there are diverse Months in the Year wherein the Fear of God is to single out some special ways of Exercise That there are Special Duties of Christianity belonging to the winter iâ— intimated in the words now Read unto us and it is also intimated what those Christian Duties are T is Piety that the winter should advance any further upon us before we have had some discourse of these Duties To be minding one another of these things would be more Significant and more Profitable than our impertinent expence of time in telling one another That it is very Cold. T is possible that your Devotions here in this winter-season put you upon some Trial of your Patience But I have an occasion here to tell you You have heard of the Patience of JOB He was a Person of Quality who dwelt in Arabia the Desâ—rt and yet that Arabia could not but be the Happy while it enjoyed the Presence of such a Ruler But what a manifold Unhappiness overtook this Excellent person and Unhappiness wherein he fell at once from great Wealth and Health into Miseries that have made a Proverb all Ages have since heard with wonderment In these his Miseries he was visited by some of his Comfortable Neighbours who yet proved but Miserable Comforters Among these Visitants there were Three more Aged Men of God which Venerable Saints all took their Turns in dealing with him about his Condition before the Lord but at length it came to the Turn of a Fourth who tho' he were a Younger Person yet stood something longer than the rest in the Disputation This Elihis for That was his Name is in our Context proving That as there is a most Inscrutable and Unblemished Wisdom in all the Works of God so in the Afflictions which the Lord had now sent upon Job there was nothing to be at all complained of Whatever is done by our Great God either in the Great World or to the Little World we have cause to say He hath done ALL Things WELL and there is no Work of God whereof all Circumstances considered we have not cause to own His Wâ—rk is perfect Nothing in the World could be more Arrogant than the Speech uttered by the King of Arrageâ— That he could have contrived a better shaped World nor more worthy to be Rebâ—ked with such Burning Thunderbolts as the Spanish Annals tell us brought that haughty Monarch unto Repentance But among those Excellent Works of the God who is Excellent is working such Works as are every Winter to be seen have a Remark most particularly here set upon them In our Text First We have some Accidents of the Winter He saith to the Snow Be thou on the Earth 〈…〉 to the Small Rain and is the Great Rain of His Strength In the Winter we have plenty of Snow and Rain and those Notable Productions of the Mâ—â—e râ—us Kingdom as the come from the Word so they shew forth the Strength of our God Not only such Snows as those that fall upon Caucasus whereof such is the Quantity that Strabo tells us whole Regiments of Men have perished therein overwhelmed but the ordinary Snows of every Winter Not only such Rains as thâ—se that fall near Mexico whereof Johnston reports that sometimes the Drops are so â—ig and fierce as to kill the very people with their fury but the ordinary Rains of every Winter these have much of God appealing in them And one thing therein done by our God is this He seals up the Hand of every man That is By hâ—d Weather he binds up their Hands from doing any Work abroad But indeed there are more than those who work chiefly with their Hands that feel these Obstructions of the 〈◊〉 Wherefore the French Version so carrys it 〈…〉 fait que chacun se Renferme that is Then he makes every man shut himself up and it is very Expressive There is an Impious Interpretation that some have made of these words as if being In mâ—nu Omnium Hominum signa posuit they countenanced Chiromancy a foolish and absurd Science which pretends from the Lines in our Hands to read the Fates of our Lives As for that curious Vanity I shall say but thus much of it The Lines in our Hands are mostly formed by the Accidental Uses and Motions of our Hands and may accordingly by the like means be altered Opinions about our future Circumstances and Contingencies cannot be drawn to any purpose from these Lines unless they be done meeâ—ly by Impulse and the Impulse which has often darted many true Predictions into the Minds of Ungodly Fortune tellers when they have been poâ—ing on the Hands of others is ordinarily from some of the Demons who are at Hand always to Encourage such Impieties and of the Predictions which the Demons have thus perhaps Litt upon but as probable Conjectures they immediately Employ all their Interest which in This world is very great for the Accomplishment Of the â—iâ—ine Vengeance leaving such wretched Fortune tellers unto the more than ordinary power of the Devil we have in our own I and lately seen most horrid Instances Away then with all such Diabolical Communions Let us with a Christian Resignation wait upon God in a willing and a wiâ—ohome Ignorance of The Secret Things which being unto the Lord. But then Secondly we have some Employments for the VVinter Men are Seal'd from their work when the Winter comes But what Have they no work then to mind Yes All men are then to know his work To Know that work is according to thâ—â— imâ—ort and Fulness of the Hebrew Phrase to â—â—aâ—n the work to Love the work to Do the Work Why The work is Gods work the Work that God would have to he known and therefore most worthy to be known Well There is an Important CASE wherewith I would hence take occasion to give you some WINTER ENTERTAINMENTS It is The CASE What Special Works for the Glory of God may and should be 〈◊〉 by the Children of Men when by the hard we â—her of the Winter He shuts them up or Hinders them from their Ordinary Businesses They are not only Commoda or Profitable Things but also Accommoda or Seasonable Things which are to be Preached among you Our Winter is our Liesure and as it will be a Profitable so 't is but a Seasonable Undertaking to Lay before you How the Liesure of the Winter may be most Improved for the Glory of God Now without any further Preface First that we may speak more Negatively it is to be asserted That the Liesure of the Winter must not be Abâ—sed as if it were a Liesure to work Abominations or 〈◊〉 is were a Liesure for any Superstitious or Prohibited Sensualities 'T is not in the Slothful and Frothy Diversions of Bad Company nor in things which will wrong our Souls that our
makes Himself known unto us and have I not been without awful Apprehensions of His Majesty under His various Dispensations Quest 4. Have I not been Carnal Careless Weary in the Ordinary Sabbath of God and have I not been Indisposed unto the Extraordinary Ones Quest 5. Have I not been Perverse and Haughty towards my Superiours Unkind and Foolish towards my Interiours Envious towards my Equals and miserably Selfish in my conduct of my self Quest 6. Have I not Impaired my own Health by Intemperancies or been towards others Passionate Revengeful and Contentious Quest 7. Have I not been Unchast in my Acts my Thoughts my Words Or â—â—en a Companion of the Fools that are so Quest 8. Have I not by Fraud nor Force wronged my Neighbour Or been too Prodigal when I should not have spent but when I should have spent then too Niggardly Quest 9. Have I not uttered nor fomented what has been contrary unto Truth or given Countenance unto a False Report Quest 10. Have I not been Discontent with my own Condition Or harboured in my Heart a Roving and a Craving Lust after an undue Alteration of it Quest 11. Have not I Despised the Offers of the Lord Jesus Christ in the New-Covenant and the wonderful provition therein made for unhappy Sinners And have not I permitted my Earthly Affairs to keep me at a Distance from the Lord-Redeemer who has been waiting to give me Repentance and Remission of Sins Quest 12. Is not the Fountain of all these bitten and cursed Streams the Corrupt Nature which I have Derived from my First Parents A Nature deprived of the Divine Image depraved with abominable Inclinations Upon these Articles Let us Interrogate our selves concerning our Works and thus in a Winter-Asâ—â—â—es let us pass a due Judgment upon our selves for our own miscarriages that so we may in the End of the Year make ready for the Judgment which is to come in the End of the World II. The Great God requires our Contemplation to observe ALL HIS WORKS and the Liesure of the Winter should very much go to that Contemplation We should now Know the Work of God and Study as far as we can every one of His Works There has been that Invitation unto us in Psal 46.8 Come Behold the Works of the Lord what Desolations He hath made in the Earth Truly there are in every Winter many Desolations made upon the product of the Earth but we should then Behold All as well as Those works of God We are Endued with Rational Faculties capable of Beholding the Works of our God and He made us After all His other works on purpose that we might be the Beholders of all the Rest Now particularly First There is an Humble Acknowledgment of God wherewith we are to behold his works of CREATION and the winter may be our liesure for it The Psalmist having mentioned the Evening when men lay by their labour he presently adds in Psal 104.24 O Lord how manifold are thy Works in wisdom hast Thou made them all As if then were a liesure for such a meditation Truly thus in the winter when we throw up our other Labour we should then Behold these manifold works of God We should not in the winter become such Recluses as to forget that we are The Citizens of the world but then take a Range about the works of our God in the World The very name of The World in the Language of the Bible signifies Beautiful and altho' in the winter it looses much of its Beauty yet we are then more at Liesure to behold its Beauty It was the Demand of the Psalmist in Psal 148.7.8 Praise the Lord ye Hail Snow and Vapour and Stormy wind fulfilling his word Why The Snow and Vapour and stormy wind and the rest of the Winter do demand of us to Praise the Lord for what of The Lord is to be seen in them and not in them alone but in all other Creatures It is a most Glorious Variety of Objects which we have to behold on this little Terraqueous Globe we are at present sojourners There to pass over the Numberless Fossils in the Bowels of the Globe which probably contains above Ten Thousand Millions of Cubic German Leagues with how many Animate Bodies are we Entertained Of Beasts including Serpents we may reckon about an Hundred and Fifty Species The Volatils or Birds have been reckoned about Five Hundred The Aquatils or Fish have also been reckoned about Five Hundred The Shell-Fish more than as many more The Vegetables or Plants of our Universe have been counted about Six Thousand and the Insects both Terrestrial and Aquatil more than Ten Thousand But there are many other Animals to be also Beheld by us which never could have been Beheld until â—t Instruments were Invented for the doing of it The Whales those moving Islands of more than an Hundred Foot in Length are not of a Structure so Exquisite so Stupendous as those Animals whereof our Microscopes infallibly assure us that many Thousands together would not equal the least Grain of our common Sand. But yet our Erect Figure instructs us to Raise our Looks unto the Stars among which if we were Lodged we should quite Loose our Sight of this Globe tho' it be above Twenty Six Thousand Italian Miles in the compass of it We have the fairest and fullest view of the Stars in the Winter even the Cloud in Cancer has been sometimes then see full of little Stars but what are those Few for they are not many more than a Thousand of the Stars which we see without a Telescope compared unto the Innumerable Miâ—â—â—ns wherewith from That we justly suppose the Aether to be replenished The Wandring Stars the Fixed Stars and the Satellites of each how inexplicably circumstanced are they How Regular to the Hundredth part of a Minute are they in their Motions and how more â—ulky than our Earth an hundred times over in their Dimensions If at last we Descend into the Sun that vast Fiery Globe which is the Center and the Support of the whole Visible World Besides The Philosopher thought himself Made and Born for nothing so much as to Behold this Heavenly Fire ball 't is by the Ancient and Soberest Computation at least an hundred sixty times bigger than That Planer whereof we are the Inhabitants whereas indeed such more Accurate Astronomers as the Incomparable Heveliâ—s have aâ—lerred the Sun to be three thousand four hundred and sixty two times bigger than this Earth which is given to the Children of Men but how much does it then Declare the Glory of God and shew forth His Hand work Let the Winter when we see least of him give us Liesure to be most Apprehensive of it The Jews have a Fancy among them That when the Almighty first bespangled the Heavens with Stars He left a Spot near the North Hole unfinished and unfurnished that so if in after Ages any other should be set up for a GOD he
might have this Trial made of them Go fill up if you can that part of Heaven which is yet left imperfect But indeed without any such Suppositions we may see enough in the Heavens to proclaim this unto us Lift up your Eyes on High and Behold who has Created these things None but an Infinitely Glorious God could be the Creator of them Secondly There is a profound Adoration of God wherewith we are to Behold His Works of REDEMPTION and for this likewise we have the Liesure of the Winter When our Lord was undergoing some of His Last Agonies for the Redemption of Lost Man 't is said in Joh. 19.18 They made a Fire of Coals for it was Cold and they warmed themselves Accordingly when we have a cold Winter upon us Let us warm our Souls by thinking on what our Lord Endured in the latter end of the Winter for us When we are in our Warm Houses O Behold that Hot Love of our Lord unto our Souls which tho' He Lay in a Winter night groveling on the cold Ground yet made Him Sweat yea to Sweat Clotters or Globules of Flood more terrible to Behold than those Bloody Sweats which Diodorus Siculus tells us befel the people of the East when their Serpents had bitten them When we are in our Warm Garments O then Behold the Heat of our Lords Love wherein He Hung Naked on the Cross in the Cold Air for Six Hours together of a Winter-Day The Unfathomable Mysteries of Redemption are the Raptures of the Angels all the Year about it is said of those Cherubims conversant about the Mercy-Seat in 1 Pet. 1.12 These Things they Desire to Look into Let us make the same Things our Study especially in that part of the Year the Winter when we have most of Liesure for the Study We find in Eccl. 11.7 Truly the Light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the Eyes to behold the Sun Tho in our Winter we have less Light than at other Times yet we may then have more Time to Behold the Sun of Righteousness and how pleasant a Task should we Esteem it Let us now take a Time to Behold the Matchl is Glories of our Lord Redeemer and hear that Call of God Behold the Lamb of God! There is a bright Constellation of Miracles that Unite in our Blessed Mediator and glitter wonderfully Let us now Behold those Miracles of God manifest in the Flesh and of that Child Born to us that Sun given to us who is the Everlasting Father that Man who is the Mighty God and whose Name is therefore Wonderful But now also let us take a Time to Behold the Glorious Methods of our Salvation by this Lord Redeemer Behold the most admirable Contrivance of our Salvation in the New-Covenant It is wonderful that God should so Love the World as to give His only Begotten Son that whosoever Believeth in Him should not perish but have Everlasting Life It is wonderful that the Only Begotten Son of God should ever take on Him the Form of a Servant that we might become the Children of God It is wonderful that He who knew no Sin should be made Sin for us that we might be made the the Righteousness of God in Him The Wayes of the Holy Spirit in Applying the Redemption thus obtained for us are yet further WONDERFUL The MYSTICAL BODY of our Lord Jesus Christ with regard unto the manner and effect of our being brought into an Union with Him we are told It is fearfully and wonderfully made Well we should now Behold these Wonders and continue to do so till we have no more Winter yea till we have no more Spirit Left Thirdly There is an Hearty Admiration of God wherewith we are to behold his works of PROVIDENCE and for this also we have the Liesure of the winter It is noted concerning the Wheels of Providence in Ezek. 10.12 The Wheels were full of Eyes When the winter comes about in the wheel of the year we should have our eyes open and be full of eyes to behold the motion of those wondrous wheels The Government of the World is maintained in the winter as well as all the rest of the year about but we have in the Winter more of Liesure to behold the Spotless and Exact Administration of that Government We behold many storms in the Winter but it is then also a time to behold the Power and Wisdom and Goodness of God in managing all the Storms wherewithal the world is Ruffled and causing them all to be subservient unto his own Designs and Interests It is said in Psal 107.43 Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the Loving kindness of the Lord. There are Illustrious Dispensations wherein the Almighty God acts as a Rewarder unto the children of men and we shall be very well Rewarded for all the Confinements of the Winter if we take our Liesure now to acquaint our selves with such Dispensations Our Confinement will become our Liberty There are the Dispensations of the Most High towards His People His Protecting them His Directing them His increasing them When the Church of God was Represented unto Moses as a Burning Bush it is said He drew near to Behold the Sight And when we are by our Fire-side in the Winter we may have Liberty to behold that Burning Bush There are also the Dispensations of the Most High towards His Enemies His Confounding of then â—is Destroying of them The Winter was hardly out when Israel Beheld the Great Work which the Lord â—â—d upon the Egyptians And we may then also behold how terribly Egyptians are punished by the Hand of God When our Lord had been Talking with His Disciples about those performances of Providence wherein the Scriptures had Received their Accomplishment they could say in Luk. 24.32 Did not our Hearts then Burn within us Why when we are e'en ready to â—â—â—â—ze with the Vapours of the Winter the Disciâ—lâ—â— of our Lord should then be Talking together about His Doing in the World The News of Great Occurrents are then to be Enquired after not as by Aâ—henians having only an Itâ—h of Nowlty to prompt those Enquiries but as by Disciples inquisitive after the Fulfilments of the Scriptures and after the Illustrations of the Divine Attributes in those Fulfilments Thus are we to Talk till our Hearts Burn within us And hence also Church-History is a very suitable Study for the Winter Martyâ—ologies and the Lives of Eminent Persons and the Stories of Eminent Reformations Difficulties and Deliverances attending the Church of God are now very fitly Studied Finally As it was said in Job 37.14 Stand still and Consider the wondrous works of God When the Winter comes we can't Go out as at other times Well since we must Sit still now let us more than ever Consider the Wondrous Works of God III. In the very CONSTITUTION OF THE WINTER it self There are very sensible Works of God and our God requires
unto Cursing Hos 10.12 Lord It is Time for me to seek thee that thou wouldest Rain down Righteousness upon me Isa 44.3 Lord pour Floods of Celestial Water upon my Thirsty Soul pour and shower thy Spirit upon me Ezek. 22.24 Lord Let not our Land be a Land not Rained upon in the Day of Indignation Job 5.9 10 Lord Thou dost Marvellous Things without Number when thou givest Rain upon the Earth Isa 4.6 Lord give me in thy self a Place of Refuge and of Covert from Storm and from Rain Psal 84.6 7 Lord Tho' the Rain fill the Pools yet let me chearfully go thro' Wet and Dry to wait upon thee in the Assemblies of thy Zion Gen 7.2 Lord Rescue me and the World from the Sins that once provoked thee to make it Rain upon the Earth Forty Days and Forty Nights till a Desolating Flood came upon the World Ezr 10.9 Lord Let a great Rain cause me to Tremble at thy greater Judgments Prov 27.15 Lord Send not upon me an Affliction which may be as a continual Dropping in a very Rainy Day Prov 16.15 Lord Let thy Favour in the Favour of my Rulers be to me As a Cloud of the Latter Rain Hos 6.3 Lord Came unto me in a way of mercy As the Rain as the latter and the former Rain upon the Earth Jer. 5.24 Finally Let me now fear the Lord my God that giveth Rain Thus for the Rain But when the SNOW which is Frothed Rain lies about us our Wishes may be thus Formed Isa 55.10.11 Lord As the Snow comes down from Heaven returns not thither but waters the Earth makes it bring forth bud So let thy Word accomplish my being made fruitful before thee Prov. 25.13 Lord As the Cold of Snow or drink Snow-Cold in the time of Harvest is very acceptable so let my Fidelity render Me to all that are concerned in me Job 19.30 Lord help me to Consider that tho' I should wash my self with Snow-Water make my hands never so clean yet much Filthiness would cleave unto me whereby I deserve to be Abhorred Lam. 4.7 Lord let a Work of real Sanctification upon me render me like the Nazarites purer than Snow Numbers 12.10 Lord make me penitently sensible of the Leprosy upon my soul which is a Distemper worse than that Bodily one wherein persons have become Leprous White as the Snow Isa 1.18 Psal 51.7 Lord let my sins that have been like Scarlet become White like Snow by thy Free and Full pardon of them all O wash me in thy Blood of Sprinkling and I shall be whiter than Snow Dan. 7.9 Rev. 1.14 Lord prepare me for and hasten on the World the coming of that Ancient of Days whose Garments are white as the snow and whose Hairs are white as Wool as white as Snow Prov. 26.1 Lord let me not be like one of those Foâ—ls for whom Honour would be unseemly like the Snow in Summer Psal 147.16 18. Lord when thou hast given Snow like Wool thou sendest out thy word and meltest it and wilt not thou melt this heart of mine by thy word into the Resolutions of Repentance Jer 18.14 15 Will a man leave the Snow of Lebanon which comes from the Rock of the Fielâ—â— Would a Thirsty Traveller finding such a Supply of pure water slight it Neither let me Forget thee O my God This for the Snow But when the HAIL which is Frozen Rain Visits us it may Awaken these Wishes in us Hag. 2.17 Lord It was thy Complaint I Smote you with Hail yet ye turned not unto me Let not my Obstinacy in Sin give cause for that Complaint Rev. 16.21 Lord Hasten upon the Antichristian Babylon that Great Hail out of Heaven whereof every â—tone shall be about the weight of a Talent Isa 28.2 Lord Let not thy people be Invaded by any Enemy which as a Tempest of Hail and a Destroying Storm shall cast them down to the Earth Ezek. 13 13. Isa 28.17 Psal 18.12 Lord Let not my Refuges be such as there shall be an Overflowing Shower in thine Anger and Great Hail-stones in thy Fury to consume them Let them not be Refuges of Lies which the Hail shall sweep away Fit me for the Day when I shall see the Descending Jesus Alarum the World with Brightness Hailstones and Coals of Fire Isa 30.30 Lord Let me Tremble at thy Threatnings as they did in the Day when thou didst cause thy Glorious Voice to be heard and Show the Lighting down of thy Arm with Scattering and Tempest and Hailstones Josh 10.11 Blessed be God That He does not cast down such great Stones from Heaven upon us as to make us Dy with the Hailstones Exod. 9.20 The Epyptians being warned of a great Hail such as Feared the Word of the Lord fled into Houses for their Safety Lord Let me so Fear the Hailstorm of thy Judgments as to seek for Safety in the Lord Jesus Christ But it were Endless to Enumerate the Ejaculations of a Devout Mind on these Occasions Thus When 't is FAIR Clear Bright WEATHER how Agreeable were it for us to wish Lord may the Light of thy Countenance be Uplifted on my Soul and May I walk in that Light all the Day Long So when 't is Cloudy Weather how Agreeable to wish Lord When shall the Son of Man come in the Clouds of Heaven and O let it not be with my Soul a Day of Clouds and of thick Darkness The shooting of such Arrows up to Heaven is an Incomparable Exercise for a Soul that Looks to Eternal Invisibles to Invisible Eternals on a Winter-Day and of the man that on a Winter Day so Employs himself I say Blessed is the man that has a Quiver full of such Arrows IV. The Merciful Words of God which provides for our NECESSITIES IN THE WINTER are very manifold and it becomes us to take a most Thankful Notice of those many Mercies When our God Seals up our â—imâ—â— in the Winter He Opens His own Hand in our Literal Supplies for the Winter and we should so Know those Works of God as to be Thankfully Affected with them The Winter it self That is not without much of Mercy in it It is our Winter particularly which for divers Months in the Year 〈◊〉 a better Defence unto us against Forreign Invasions than all the Sconces and Castles wherewith we could be Fortify'd Doubtless the Polanders thought their Cold was a kindness unto them when in an Army of seventy Thousand Turks Invading them Forty Thousand suddenly perished by the Severity of the Cold tho' it were but the Month of November with them Truly in the Month of November the Cold begins none of the least preservatives also for us New-Enâ—â—anders And who can say How many Epidemical Diseases have by our Winter been Extinguished Our Cold precipitates the Vapours which would else Thicken and Poison our Air and by Freezing the Surface of the Earth iâ— keeps in many malignant Steams that otherwise would thence
Fire His Greatness and His Bounty may be seen Sparkling in it Be Thankful and at the same time Let us Entreat of our God That we may be Baptised with the Fire of His Holy Spirit which will make us Fervent in Spirit Serving the Lord. Let us be thankful for Our HOUSES too We are not left now to lodge abroad in the Cold with none but the Ground for our Bed the Snow for our Coverlid and the Sky for our Canopy nor are we obliged unto such Wretched Wigwams as were the best Habitations of the Barbarous Natives that were here before us How well are we lodged in the Winter and neither by Burnings nor by Earthquakes forced out of Doors Be thankful and at the same time let us entreat of our God that we have a Mansion in our Heavenly Fathers house forever The Keenest Winters in the world have been made very tolerable by peoples making some Rooms of their Houses under the Earth and keeping themselves in such subterraneous Rooms But let the Winters which call us to give thanks for our warm Houses on the Earth cause us to be Concerned for An house Eternal in the Heavens And let us be Thankful for our TABLES How many Warm Dishes have we to cherish us whereby we are strengthened against the Cold of the winter And how many Refreshing Draughts to Refocillate our Enfeebled Spirits Be thankful entreat of God that we may be admitted unto His Feast of Fat things full of Marrow and of Wines on the Lees well-Refined the least whereat There will be no taking away We have a Glorious Benefactor in the Heavens by whose Benignity upon Earth we live well all the Winter long and all the Expressions of that Benignity are to be Received with a most hearty Thankfulness I pray let us not be condemned by the very Jewes themselves with whom it has been customary still to make use of their Daily comforts with a Baruk Adonai or Blessed be the Lord. When Job was looking back upon the Good days which he had seen he said in Jâ—â— 29 2.4 O that I were as in membeâ— pasâ— as in the Days when God preserved me as I was in the dayes of my Youth Some render it 〈◊〉 A 〈◊〉 was in the days of my Winter Quarters 〈◊〉 when the Great Commander of the Universe does Command us into our VVinter Quarters He do's then preserve â—s and by his Light we walk thro' the Darkness of the winter And I would now say O that we were so thankful as we should be for such merciful months V. The Works which God his FORMERLY DONE TOWARDS OURSELVES ought always to be Remembred with us and the VVinter is a very proper Season for that Remembrance Here is the werk of God which we are to know when by the winter He sâ—â—ls up our Hand even the whole VVork of God in the whole course of our Life There have been SMITING VVorks of God which ought seriously to be Remembred with us As it is said in 〈◊〉 3.19.20 Remembring my Affliction and my 〈◊〉 the wormwood and the Gall my soul hath them still in Remembrance and is humbled in me Behold a fit work for the winter Have we not sometimâ—â— been in a winter of adversity wherein this and that Sâ—â—â—m of Affliction and misery has been hard upon us Now in the winter let it be part of our work to recount every such work of God Now bring to Remembrance all that VVormwood and Gall but what for Truly to see whether you have been such Gainers by all those Chastisements as you should have been and whether the weeds of the Corruptions in your Hearts and of the Disorders in your Lives have been duely Nipt by the Frest of such a Winter But there have also been SMILING Works of God which ought carefully to be Remembred with us It was the Language of a David in Psal 103.2 Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his Benefits To 〈◊〉 God is not the least of the Duties which the Ever blessed God requires of man and all true Davids or men Belov'd by God evermore Love to be Blessing of God If this is to be done At all times as the Psalmist elswhere speaks I am sure it may eminently be done in Winter-times But God is not Really Bless'd or Serv'd if not Heartily and in our Blessing of God the thing is Done to Halves if the whole Soul or all the Powers of the Soul be not engaged in it Indeed such is our Backwardness to the Blessing of God that we had need earnestly to stir and spur and rouse ourselves unto the Doing of it Let us then stir up ourselves till we have got ourselves into an heat at this work in our Winter and know that a Commemoration of Gods Benefits to us is to be one Main Ingredient of Our Thanksgivings to Him Well then Let this be one considerable Stroke of our Winter-work even To run over the Stories of our LIVES by reckoning up the Benefits of God and reflecting on that Goodness and Merry wherewith we have been followed all our Lives What if you should now and then spend whole DAYS OF THANKSGIVING not only when the Authority does usually once in a Winter call the whole Province to observe such a Day but â—lâ—o in secret places before God by yourselves 〈…〉 Children of God have doubtless Enjoyed 〈…〉 upon Earth by Devoting themselves 〈…〉 an Heavenly and Glorious Exercise and a 〈◊〉 to Devoted has 〈…〉 with some observable Mercy of God However 〈…〉 every Winter Set apart our Time to 〈…〉 the many Benefits of God unto 〈…〉 and utter our Just Hallelujah upon 〈◊〉 â—â—ticâ—e in that Commemoration Particularly The FIRST Article in our Commemoration may be The Benefits of God relating to the Protection which attended our FIRST PRODUCTION Our Formation in the Womb and Reception from the Womb. About our being Shaped in our Mothers we may say Lord I wiâ—â— praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully Made And about our being Taken from our Mothers we may say Lord Thou art He who took me cut of the Womb. As for our Bodies 't is impossible for any thing to be better contrived than they are in the whole Make of them What a sid thing would it have been if these had been monstrously Deformed or Defective in any One of all their Members Truly There are Thousands of Mercies and Wonders in one perfect Child And then as for our Spirits They are certainly the most Noble Things that inhabit this Lower World How doleful had been our plight if these had Lost any of their Faculties were we Fools or Mad But indeed we have Souls capable of a very vast Improvement in the Honouring Enjoying of our God! What shall I say That we are Arriv'd Alive among the Living on the Earth is a Thing full of Marvels if not of Miracles What if we had Expired Embryo's whereby all our Opportunities to Glorify God had been Lost
at those Times we had undoubtedly cast our selves over the most Irrecoverable Precipices but here was the Goodness of God who would not Suffer us to be Tempted above what we are Able 't is He that may now Remind us I witheld theâ— from sinning against me And we have been preserved from Sorrow too We have had that word fulfilled unto us The Lord shall preserve thee from all Evil the Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in Pause here a little I beseech you How many Sicknesses have we Escaped Either the Diseases never touch'd us or like Hezekiah and Epaphroditus we have been Restored from them How many Casualties have we also Evaded Let the Traveller Let the Marriner Let the Souldier now Enumerate his Deliverances One that Received a great Fall from an Horse but Received no Hurt by the Fall said of it I never had such a Deliverance in my Life but one well Reply'd Yea Sir you have as often as you Rode without Falling at all This I say Our Deliverances have been far from Inconsiderable even then when we have not had Sensible and Imminent Hazards to signalize them unto our Consideration In a word we have been surrounded with Evil Angels on every side of us every day and those Divels have always been Watching Wishing Snatching to Devour us But our God has muzzled those Hungry Lions and has granted us a guard of Good Angels whose Ministry has been useful to us in many Thousands of Good Offices whereof we shall never be exactly advized until we are Translated into their Innumerable Company And yet this is not all The EIGHTH Article in our Commemoration may be the Benefits of God relating to the Evident ANSWERS of our PRAYERS by the Merciful Hearer of Prayer May not you and I make this Relation This poor man has cry'd unto the Lord the Lord has heard and sav'd Cannot we lock upon one enjoyment and say This is a Naphtali I wrestled with my God for this and so I obtained it Can we not look upon another enjoyment and say This is a Samuel I asked it of my God and so I had it When Distresses have been upon our selves we have gone to our God and having Offered up our Prayers and Supplications we have been Heard in what we feared And when distresses have been upon others perhaps we have like Abraham like Moses like Samuel and like David and like Isaiah prevailed for the Remoual of them A Minister of the Gospel 't is probable may see the Faces of some Scores in his Congregation of whom he may say God gave that Soul from death to my poor unworthy prayers Yea 't is possible the very Divels have not been able to stand before our Prayers our Prayers have perhaps more than thrice dispossessed the Devils who had siezed upon some of our Afflicted Neighbours Let me tell you Psalms to bring unto Remembrance are to keep us from forgetting the Returns of our Prayers But further yet The NINTH Article in our Commemoration may be The Benefits of God relating to the Means of our SANCTIFICATION and the Success of those Means Let us now Declare unto ourselves and so make ourselves Ready to Declare unto others What the Lord has done for our Souls That we have the Means of Grace is a thing that lays us under Adamantin Obligations unto Thankfulness Have we The Word the Statutes the Judgments of God shoâ—n unto us What should follow but Praise ye the Lord For indeed He hath not so dâ—â—â—t with every Nation Yea But has Grace is 〈◊〉 also been convey'd unto us by these means His does make our Obligations unto Thankfulness to become truly infinite Has the Great God 〈◊〉 his Own Son to us and for us and with him Freely given all things Are we Invited unto a Jesus who serves his People from their sins A Jesus who delivers from the wrà th to come A Christ in whom there does all fitness swell O our Hallelujahs where are you Indeed we could never have come unto this Jesus without the Drawing of the Father But has he ' drawn us Has the Spirit of God made it a Day of his Power with us and have we been made willing in that memorable Day We were Dead in Trespasses and Sins Has the Spirit of God quickened us We were Going astray in the greatness of our Folly 〈◊〉 the Spirit of God Reduced us We have been Pining away in our Iniquities Have we been Recovered by the Sanctifying the Strengthening the Comforting Spirit of our God O the Matchless loving kindness And pray what are the Means which God has devised for the bringing back of our Souls which have been Banished from His Paradise We have not only had the Ordinances of God made useful unto us for the changing of us into His Image from Glory to Glory but His Providences too Even those very Afflictions which have happened unto us have not come only by Hap there has been the Good Hand and the Good End of our God in all and tho' we had been ready to say All these things are against me we now see That all things have wrought together for our Good We shall have cause to magnify the Name of our God forever for the Restraints which he has laid upon us by our Afflictions and for the Right Thoughts which our Sad hours have Raised in us 'T is by these Means that we are now brought into the Covenant of Grace And now O most Highly Priviledged we The Great God is become our God God the Father is become our Father God the Son is become our Saviour God the Spirit is become our Strengthener All the Perfections of this God are now concerned for our Welfare We have now a Title to all the Promises of God we may have a continual Recourse to them as unto our Heritage and the Rejoycing of our Heart we may from them assure our selves of Grace of Glory of Every Good Thing Our Spiritual Enemies will all be Disappointed we have an Omnipotent Undertaker for our being made Conquerours and more than Conquerours over them And whither are we now a going Our Heavenly Shetherd is daily Leading of us in the Paths of Righteousness but whither Truly to another and a better World Every Day we are one Day nearer to the Inheritance of the Saints in Light We shall shortly be with our Lord Jesus Christ VVhere He is that we may Behold His Glory But O my God How Long How Long Now Are not here Articles of Commemoration enough to fill the Thoughts of one Winter Day And yet that the Musick may not be Impair'd by our missing of any Note that may belong unto it annex a TENTH Article to all the Rest Let That be upon the Benefits of God relating to the good Circumstances of the Countrey whereof we are Inhabitants Let the Health the Growth the Peace the Plenty and the Protection of our Countrey procure our Acknowledgments unto our God
And so coming to the Câ—â—â—e of a short Winter-Day spent in such Devotions as will a little Resemble and Antedate the Heavenly Exercises of our Long Eternity set us break off with a few Ingenuous Thoughts upon that Enquiry of a Thankful Soul What shall I Render to the Lord for all His Benefits Or What Special Service is there that I may Do for the God whose Goodness and Mercy has followed me all my Dayes Contrive Resolve and Execute accordingly Behold A Winter-Day well spent VI. However it may be as to the Works of our Particular Calling yet as to the Works of our GENERAL CALLING we should not let the Winter be our Hindrance Altho' we have a Seal'd Hand as to our Temporal Aâ—â—â—iâ—s in the Winter yet let us not then Deal with a slack Hand as to our Spiritual Theâ—e is a Work that we have to do in the Winter as well as in the Summer and it is the Work of God Salvation-work is to be no small share of our Winter-work Our Winter Prayers must not be our Coldest ones tho' 't is in a Cold Air that we make them Our Cares to make our Vocation and Election sure are not excused by the Winter That must not cool them Tho' the work of Laying in for the Winter be over with us yet the work of Laying in for Eternity is not over that is to be done all the Winter Long. The Word of God that is to be Read and to be Heard as well as Obey'd now no Less than formerly The Psalmist has joyned those things The Lord gives the Snow the Frost the Ice and Hee shewed His Word unto Jacob. Truly the Snow the Frost the Ice may not hinder us from the minding of that Word There is the work of Watching and Fighting against our Invisible Adversaries and this is to be done as much in the Winter as at any Time whatever Other Wars are ordinarily intermitted in the Winter by the Armies then retiring to their Winter Quarters But the Winter gives no Intermission unto these Wars of the Lord. In one of the Psalms we read The Dragons joyned with the Hall and the Snow and the Vapour whereof these are composed Why when the Vapours of the Winter are about our Ears we shall still have The Dragons also to conâ—â—ict withal Tho' our other Snaâ—es do all the Winter Ly Idle in their Holes yet the Old Serpent is as busy then as ever and we should then be as vigilant against the Spirits who go about Seeking whom they may Devour God make us like the Valiant Benajah who slew a Lion in a Pit in a Snowy Day Here is our work But now for the Obstruction of this work in the Winter there is a frequent Abuse of that Scripture in Mat. 9.12 I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice The Deceitful Hearts of Men pretend the Duties of Mercy to Plunge themselves into the most horrible Instances of Cruelty I mean they make themselves a Sacrifice to the terâ—icle Justice and Vengeance of God But I say Go ye and Learn what that meaneth It is true That Mercy to our selves may adjust the CIRCUMSTANCES of our Duties or the Exteâ—iours in the AFFIRMATIVES of Religion It is not pleasing to God that we should be really Cruel to our selves Gods Commands do not commonly oblige us to overthrow the Health of our own Bodies We cannot be Righteous at all except we Deny our selves but when we come to Destroy our selves by Excesses in the Manner of Doing what must be Done tho we should be Destroy'd for it then we become Righteous Overmuch However First Let us keep close to this Direction Tho' positive Commandments may be someâ—imes Invaded for the sake of Mercy yet Negative Commandments may never be so When we may do Less of that which is Good yet we may do Nothing of what is Ill. And then Let us keep this Distinction There is a Difference between Ungrateful Abatements and Well-pleasing Omissions of our Devotions on the score of Mercy pretended for 'T is one thing for us to be compâ—lâ—â—d against our Choice unto the Diminution of our Desired and Usual Measure in our pious Pâ—â—â—oâ—mâ—nces and another our Gladly accepting of an Occasion that we hope will set us at Liberty from doing any thing at all It is complained in Prov. 20.4 The Sluggard will not Plâ—ugh by reason of the Cold or of the Winter Gods Cold is oftentimes made an Excuse for our Sin Even so The sluggish Hearts of men will neglect those Exercises of Piety wherein we Plough for our Everlasting Welfare Why so Truly 't is the Cold of the Winter that hinders them We read concerning Peter that he was by the Cold hurried into the way of Temptation It is said in Joh. 18.18 They made a Fire of Coals for it was Cold and Peter stood and warmed himself and you know what follow'd Now 't is by the Cold that we are often burried into the way of Transgression too As he Dâ—ny'd his Lord partly thro' the Snares of the Cold so we often Forget our Lord because the Cold makes us be where we should not be They are not only those who fly to the Tavern in the Winter and who there do poyson their Souls with Drinking with Bad Company with Foolish Talking by the Fireside that Sin by reason of the Cold but it is also the fault of those who by reason of the Cold wiâ—â— not visit their own Closets or the Assembliâ—s of Good Men or the Worship of God as much as they can If you think it enough to stay at Home on a Winter Day and as you say Read a Chapter in Job I pray Let it be that Chapter where Job is told That the Messengers of God the Interpreters of His Word must be duely considered and consulted by those that would be delivered from going down to the Pit VVell But now Let us by a sacred Antiperistesis take more pains for the Serving of God in the VVinter than we did in the more Tolerable Seasons of the Year Yea and Let us do it with an Expectation That the more Pains we take to attend the Service of God the more will â—e Requite our Pains with such Incomes of Grace and perhaps of Joy into our Souls as will be better than the Merchandise of Silver or the Gain of the finest Gold The Apostle speaking of what he had Endured in Serving of God says in 2 Cor. 11.27 I have been in Cold and Nakedness It is Likely that he refers to what is Reported in Acts 28.2 That they were Shipwrack'd upon Malta and there The Barbarous People shew'd them no Little Kindness and kindled a Fire and Received them because of the Cold. Yea but our God ordinarily calls none of us to Endure a Cold so extreamly circumstanced We are to know That we are now in a State of Probation as to our Bodies if we now put our Bodies to necessary Trouble in the Serving of God and if now
in our Bodies we Endure Hardness as Good Souldiers of Jesus Christ we shall be Rewarded in the Glory of these Bodies at the Resurrection of the Just For every pinch of Cold whereto we have Exposed our Bodies in the Serving of God all the Winter Long we shall be Recompenced in our Glorify'd Bodies when The Times of a Refreshing Coolness shall come by the Presence of the Lord. Wherefore now Let us do the more Works of PIETY rather than the Fewer for the Cold of our Winter It is noted concerning the Time of our Lords Coming up to the House of God in Joh. 10.22 23. It was the Feast of the Dedication and it was Winter And Jesus walked in the Temple It may be that yâ—â—â— have never yet given up your selves unto the Blessed God with so Explicit a Dedication as would be a no less Comfortable than Reasonable Service Then do it this Winter while you have so much Time to Dedicate unto such a Service But having so done Be sure to come up unto the Temple in the Winter as much as ever you can Possibly you have never yet come into any Evangelical CHURCH-FELLOWSHIP according to the Precept of the Holy JESUS No you are so far from Walking with Him in the Temple that you never yet Entred into His Temple of Believers Associated for the Designs of the Gospel I say then LET THIS WORK BE DONE BEFORE THIS WINTER BE OUT Having first Given your selves unto God in Christ with Full purpose To be for Him and not for another then Give your selves unto some Holy Society of His People that Worship Him according to the Order of the Gospel I pray Let the Lord this winter see you in His TEMPLE Yea Whatever work we have to do for our Souls Let not the VVinter give any Supersedeas to our Working out of our own Salvation Jacob thro the Love of Rachel could Encounter more than a Little Winter for more than One Seven Years together said he in Gen. 31.40 In the Day the Drought and the Frost by Night consumed me The sudden Changes from Heat unto Cold like those in our own Countrey it seems did sometime bring â—aâ—niâ—g Feavers and Agues upon the Patriarch But shall not we be willing to do as much for our own Souls O patiently undergo a Little Frost for the sake of their Deliverance from the Outer Darkness where there is Gnashing of Teeth for ever Ecclesiastical History has Embalmed the Memory of several Martyrs who chose the Fiery Anguish of being Frozen unto Death rather than they would Sin against God and incur the Fire of Damnation Methinks 't would Fire the Coldest Heart imaginable to read the Elegant Orations of the Eloquent Ancients in the Commendation of those Renowned Martyrs And shall we then think much sometimes to feel our selves a little VVinterish while we are doing the Things that must be done for our Getting out of our Sinâ— and for our Communion with that Lord who Saves His People from their Sins In â—ine Let us Get into our Hearts an Heat of Love to God that will carry us easily thro' all the Cold of the VVinter in the Serving of God Of Love 't is said in Cant. 8.7 Many waters cannot quench Love neither can the sâ—oâ—ds drown it Of this Love I may say Many VVinters cannot starve it neither can the Frost Nip it Said the Apostle The Love of Christ constraineth us Altho' they that would suitably Serve God in the winter must meet with many Difficulties yet if we had this Love in us that would Constrain us to Go Freely through them all VII There are many works of CHARITY whereto the Rigours and Horrors of a shâ—â—p winter may shaâ—pen our Inclinations and we should then â—ffecâ—uâ—lly Demonstrate our being thereto Inclined There are those which are Emphatically called GOOD WORKS altho' we have a Seal'd Hand in the winter yet we should not then have a close Fist for such works as those To Relieve and Support the Poor is the work of God and Let us now Know what it is to Do as much as we can of that work The charitable Job could say in chap. 30.24 VVas not my Soul grieâ—'d for the Poor Why Altho' we have an bundance of all things about us yet our winters are very pinching and piercing Things unto us well but now Let us think on the Poor that sit shivering over a VVidows Fire that are but thin clad and worse Fed and have those two Powerful Things VVinter and Poverty at once falling like Armed men upon them O think on these Poor Ones till our Souls are duely Grieved for them Let not our Charity be as Cold as the winter and Let none of us contribute unto the fulfilling of that Prophecy in Mat. 24.12 The Love of many shall wax cold Yea suppose our Charity were as cold as the water yet Let it be like the water for this one thing more the water in the winter will Expend and Extend it self unto almost an Eighth part of the Space it possessed before and this with such a Force as to Burst the very Substance of even Metalline Vessels which would have kept it in May nothing now Obstruct such a Spread of our Charity It is mentioned as the Lamentable Condition of some in Job 14.7 They have no Covering in the Cold. I beseech you Let our Liberality Cover those that are so miserable and therefore Let us Devise Liberal Things But now I speak of such Devising there is one charitable proposal which you shall permit me to urge upon you 'T is this VVhen winter is coming on our winter-stock of Necessaries is Laying in Let us then seriously consider with our selves Who of my Neighbours are there that want my Charity Let us LIBERALLY divide among them fit Proportions of the same Stores that we Lay up for our selves or otherwise Enable them to Lay up something of the Like Stores for their Sucour in the Necessities of the Advancing VVinter This I am sure of that all our Accommodations all the winter long will be very much the Sweeter if not also the Surer unto us for our having first Liberally Imparted a Share unto our Honest Neighbours that were altogether Destitute of such Accommodations We read in a certain place concerning The Treasures of Snow One of the Ancients does expound those Treasures to be Worldly Riches which the next Shower of Calamity will wash away like a Snow-Drift and leave only some dirt behind in the owners heart Why if we would not have our Treasures to melt and wast like those of the Snow employ those Treasures for the Consolation of the miserable whose miseries are encreased by the Snow CHRISTIANS If you answer your Worthy Name both the Word of CHRIST and the Day of CHRIST find awful Resentments with you Well then You are in that Word Informed and Assured with what Glories in that Day all your GOOD WORKS will be acknowledged This Winter feed a Starving
been your Impenitency And yet I am to tell you a very Glorious Thing That Interest may still be Secured There was once a pretty Old man in some Distress and it is said in Joh. 5 6. Jesus knâ—w he had been a Long Time Ill and said unto him Wâ—â—t thou be made Whole Even so The Lord Jesus Christ comes this Day to you Old men that have been a Long Time in your Sins and says Old man shall I yet be the Saviour of thy Soul O then with Conquered and Consenting Souls now give your selves unto that Glorious Lord. But know That if you do it not before the winter of This Year as well as of Your Age be out it will probably never be done at all And then alas you will Expire Accursed like a Sinner of an Hundred Years Old Unto All I say God forbid this winter should pass before you have made your Peace with Him And To Excite you hereunto As in some Wintry Countreys the Carpenters must Thaw their Wood before they can Cut it Let me assay to Thaw your Hearts in order to a better shaping and squaring of them I say then Consider that FIRE as well as that Cold which the Almighty God has to punish the Disobedient It has been said Who can stand before His Cold But it has also been said Who can stand before His Fire Thus in Isa 33.14 Who among us can dwell with the Devouing Fire who among us shall dwell with Everlasting Burnings We wonder at the strength of the Ice when we see a piece of it near three inches broad and a quarter of an inch thick laid over a frame three inches distant bear a weight of near twenty pounds for a long while together as Mr Boyl Experienced or when we read Olaus Magnus affirming That their Septentrional Ice is of such a Tenacity that when 't is two or three fingers thick it will bear an Armed man upon it when three or four Hands thick vast Armies will venture over it for their Winter-Wars But thy Heart O man is prodigiously harder than a piece of Ice if besides the weight of Sin upon it it can bear the Thought of the Fire that never shall be quenched Remember The Wrath of God like a Formidable Fire will at last with Exquisite Agonies and Anguishes Torture the Soulâ— of them that shall Dy in their Vnregeneracy One that felt some flashes of that Fire in the Troubles of his Conscience hearing oâ— some speaking about Burning to Death cry'd out O That is but a Metaphor to what I Endure And another that was broiling in the Fire of such Troubles Roared in this manner O might I have this mitigatiâ—n of my Toâ—ments to dy as a Backlog in the Fire on the Hearth for a thousand Ages Purge this when you are by the Fire-side this Winter think seriously with your selves Could I bear to Râ—ast in this Fire Alas This is but a painâ—â—d Fire to that wherein God will take vengeance on them that Know Him not and that Obey not His Gospel And if I can't bear the Metaphor nâ— not so much as for a minute How then shall I bear to remain under the Wrath of God in Hell for infinitely more milâ—ions of Ages than aâ— the Fires on Earth have madâ— Ashes in the world And O Let your Hearts be Thawed by such Considerations this winter immediately to mourn for and turn from all your Sins and Give your selves to God in Christ by a Covenant never to be Forgotten It is a work of God that is done After the winter is over whereof there is mention in Psal 104.30 Thou sendest forth thy Spirit and thou Renewest the Face of the Earth O that such a work as this may be done upon you while this winter is running Send forth thy Spirit O mâ—st Glorious Lord and nâ—w Renew the Hearts of them that have hitherto continued Vnregenerates In fine I now Leave these my poor Labours in the Hands of that Eternal Spirit with my Humblest Supplications That these my Endeavours may be made Profitable and Acceptable unto His People and assist my Neighbours in their Travels to that Countrey where the Winter shall for ever Cease from Troubling and the VVeary be at Rest FINIS
I why should not I endeavour that the Exercises of Devotion might so do both in my-self and others who â—eliâ—e to be As Green Olive-Trees in the House of our God The VVinter has been sometimes called Hâ—ews â—ners the â—â—uggish Winter but I would contribute what I can that it may be Iâ—eâ—â—s Sancra â—lâ—â— Pious Winter the Holy Winter the 〈◊〉 Winter a Winter devoted unto the Works of the God of Heaven To Sâ—â—â—p all Winter more befits a Bear than a Man and much more than a Saint It is very certain That there is more Time contained in a Natural Day of the Winter than there is in a Natural Day or the Summer for the Sun in its Animal Motion from the West unto the East thro' the Zodiac passes equal Arches in unequal Times the Winter Hall Year of the Suns passing from â—â—bâ—a to Aries is but an Hundred and Seventy a Fight Days whereas the Summer Half Year of his passing from Aries to â—â—bra is no less than an Hundred and Eighty Seven Days the Sun is Nine Days more in passing through the Semi-Eclipâ—ick of the Summer than he is thro' that of the Winter and accordingly an Hour upon the Sun Dâ—â— when the Sun is inclining to the VVinter-Tropick is longer than an Hour upon the Dial when he is advancing near the Summer Tropick Hereupon I could not but make that Reflection If there be more tho' it scarce be sensibly more Time in a Day now than at other Times in the Year why should I do less work for God for Christ for His People now than as other Times and as an effect of that Reflection Behold Reader some of my WINTER-MEDITATIONS 'T is as I remember Polydore Virgil who relates that when Mathildis was during the Depth of Winter straitly Besieged in Oxford She arrayed her self and her followers all in white the colour of the Snow upon the Ground and by the Advantage of that Colour escaped thro' the Besiegers unto a place of Safety That which I desire is a free passage for the Truths and the VVays and the VVorks of God into the minds of my Neighbours and I have therefore taken the Advantage of putting a VVinter Complexion upon them I have Clothed them in the Colours of the VVinter And in this ESSAY I have after a sort Moralized the Fable of Antiphanes That there is in a certain Scythian Region such a Frost that the VVords uttered in the VVinter there Congele so as to be not heard until the Summer following shall dissolve them for 't was at Boston-Lecture in the Month of December last that the Heads of these VVinter-Meditations were first Preached and it is now in the Month of November following that they are Printed on the same Designs of Religion that gave them their Original When the Excellent Bartholinus published his Book De Usu Nivis it was accompany'd with an Epigram something to this purpose Libros Authoris quieunque recenset et Amos Amos quot poterit tot Numerare Libros 'T is possible that now I am Composing my Book about The Use of the Winter I may find my self obliged to confess unto the World as a Great Fault what was indeed counted None at all in that Incomparable Person I do confess That I have written too many Books for one of my small Attainments and I would say to my Reader whom I now suppose by the Fire â—â—de If this or any Book of mine hinder men from acquainting themselves with the Bible that Book of God I wish as Luther in that case did about his own Books That they were all thrown into the Fire But I hope it will be otherwise whereto I would also add That all that Weariness of the Flesh as well as the various and humbling Temptation otherwise which I have undergone in the Study of Writing many Books has been abundantly Recompenced by the comfort of thinâ—ing That the Free Grace of my Good God will Accept of my poor Thoughts to be Serviceable unto the Interâ—â—ts of His Kingdom in the World And now I am Appendicing unto all the rest one Book upon the Winter I will not say as my newly mentioned Bartholinus did in the Preface of his Ego quidem ex hoc Niveo Labore preter Atram Invidiam nihil Expecto Or That I expect nothing but only to be Frost-bitten with Envy for what I do 'T is true There is a Froward Generation in every place whose Calumnies must Persecute all that Serve the Publick and I have had the Experience of both my Fathers as well as my own to convince me that this place has of those Frowards in it If this People could have had Greater which I know not yet all mankind will shortly know that it was impossible for any People to have Truer Juster and more Indefatigable Servants than some with whom I have the Honour to be well acquainted have been to This but the monstrous Depreciations that have attended Them have Taught Me That I also must Bene Agere et Male Audire Thâ—â—râ—â—â— if I will Do VVell and it will indeed be a life found that unto all Activity in well 〈…〉 persons for the Publick Wâ—â—l the Sport of 〈◊〉 itself is not a greater Freezer than 〈…〉 Usages Nevertheless I am so 〈◊〉 as to think That this is the Spirit 〈…〉 of at least That there are multitudes among us â—â—so when any Serviâ—e is done for them do â—â—aâ—tlly give Thanks to God for it and who â—iâ—â—â—â— Resent the Zeal with which they may see Almighty God inspiring of any to be labouring for their Good For the sake of such none of our Thoughts none of our Cares none of our weaâ—y Suâ—â—â—ies the too much and it is unto such That These of Mine are now humbly offered Winter-Meditations It is Written in JOB XXXVII VI VII He saith to the Snow be thou upon the Earth likewise in the Small Rain to the great Rain of His Strength He Seareth up the Hand of every Man that all Men may know his Work THat most Laborious and most Imitable Minister of the Gospel the Apostle Paul after he had been Travelling on the Designs of the Gospel all the Summer long had some affairs of the Gospel to manage in the Winter too Speaking about a City of Thrace he said in Tit. 3.12 I have determined there to winter and accordingly in the Acts of the Apostles we find this â—amous Doctor of the Gentiles once abode three months in Greece after he had given much Exhortation to the People as he went along It seems the Service of the Lord Jesus Christ and of His Gospel was not in the Three Months of the Winter to be laid aside As for Us we are now getting into our Winter-Quarters and we ought not only to continue our Cares about Religion Salvation and all the Works of the Gospel all the VVinter long but there are some singular Lessons of the Gospel to be in these Winter Months inculcated and entertained