Sect in his Childhood and lived till he became a Christian exactly according to them as he tells King Agrippa in the hearing of the Jews at the fifth Verse of this Chapter And therefore what he charges himself with we are not to look upon as his own private perswasion only but rather as an instance of the general sentiment of the Men of his way and indeed as the Natural brood and Issue of Pharisaical Superstition By Superstition I mean a groundless Apprehension of pleasing God by doing things which he never commanded or forbearing those which he hath no where Forbidden And this was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great and leading Error of the Pharisees They added to the written Word of God and made more Duties and sins than ever the Law had made Their Traditions which had nothing to recommend them but the Custom of their Fathers they esteemed equal at least to the Divine Commandments Nay our Saviour expresly tells us They made the Commandments of God of no effect by their Traditions as if they thought to please him better in their own way than in His And Reckon'd they advanc'd themselves above others by what they did over and above their Duty as much in his asthey did in their own Opinion And hence Conformity to their Traditional Rites was their measure of Improvement and Perfection in Religion as appears by St. Pauls Character of himself Gal. 1.14 I profited in the Jews Religion above many of my Equals in my own Nation being more exceedingly Zealous of the Tradition of my Fathers Which words if we observe their connexion with those immediately before them seem to come in as the Reason why beyond measure as he there tells us he Persecuted the Church of God and wasted it i.e. His mighty Zeal for the Unscriptural Doctrines of the Pharisees was the true ground of his Bitter and furious Zeal against the Professors of the True Religion And this is the rather to be noted because it shews us the Spirit and Genius of that Sect that had the chief hand in bringing our Saviour to his Cross and first conspired the ruine of Christianity From the Words thus explained the matter I would crave leave to Propose to your serious considerations is this That the Consciences of Men may be so far mis-guided by Erroneous Principles and an Affectation of things in which Religion does not consist as to encourage them to the fiercest opposition to the express Revelations of God and the truths of Jesus Or more briefly thus That Christianity is liable to the sharpest Opposition from Men under the highest Pretence of Zeal and Conscience towards God and Religion In speaking to this Subject my Design is 1. To confirm the truth of this Observation 2. To shew whence it is that Men are liable to be thus Misguided by Erroneous Principles and transported with this Extravagant and Destructive Zeal 3. To make some Inferences that may be Useful to our felves 1. For the confirmation of this Truth That the Consciences of Men may be thus Misguided and their Spirits Inflamed by Erroneous Principles against the Truth may appear from our Saviours Character of his and his Churches Enemies and from many plain and undeniable Instances Parallel to this of the Confessor in the Text. 1. From our Saviours Character of His and his Churches Enemies Our Blessed Lord fore-seeing what a zealous Opposition his Church and Doctrine would assuredly meet withal after his decease takes occasion a little before his Passion to fore-warn his Disciples of it He had often told them in the general That they must look for Troulbe and Persecution from Men. Now the time of Tryal drawing on to prevent the damp of a Surprisal he Describes the temper and Spirit of their Enemies and shews them what hard measure they and their Followers must expect from them They shall put you out of the Synagogues i.e. excommunicate and curse you for Hereticks yea the time cometh That whosoever Killeth you will think that he doth God service John 16.2 It seems to kill a Disciple for his Religion was in the judgment of these Men like the Worshiping of God by Sacrifice They shall think by it saith our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to perform a grateful Service or Sacrisice to God As if they knew no better way of pleasing him than by takeing a Lamb out of his own Flock and making it an Oblation to him Now this is certainly a very strange way of servig God and such as men would never have thought of if they had not Deify'd something more than him and changed the Glory of the Holy and Merciful God into a direful Image of their own Temper and Complexion whom they Worship instead of him And as I doubt not but the Jews were primarily intended in this Prophecy so to the Infinite Scandal of Christianity there is unanswerable Reason to think that many that shelter themselves under the Sacred Profession of it are very deeply concerned in it sure I am that all the Marks of this Prophecy the same Religious zeal exprest by the same rage rancour and cruelty are very fresh and easie to be seen upon them 2. By many plain and Undeniable Instances Parallel to that we meet with in the Text. The Apostles Confession was indeed a sinular thing But for the Crimes which he taxeth himself with he might as justly have charged his Nation with them the main Body of the Jewish Church especially the governing part of it being strangely Leavened with this Sowre and Destructive zeal They had a zeal for God as St. Paul himself Testifies of them but not according to knowledge for they knew not his Immence Goodness and Benignity to Mankind nor his only begotten Son when he was amongst them They had a zeal for the Law but so they presumed to call what ever they had made Law by their Glosses and Traditions and directed it against those that had a zeal against them And a very fierce and fatal zeal it was A zeal that Crucifyed the Lord of Life That threw the Apostles into Prisons That cleared the Synagogues of them and their Disciples That Crampt and Loaded them with Chains and Fetters and for a good work gave forty Stripes save one A zeal that suborned Witnesses and breathed out Threatnings and slaughter against Men of whom the World was not worthy a zeal that listed Men into Conspiracies and bound them under an Oath to Kill an Innocent Person An outragious zeal it was that made Men exceedingly Mad as one that had too much experience of it tells us v. 11th of this Chapter so mad as to think they ought to d many things contrary to the clearest Revelations of God and the Name of Jesus Nor is this kind of Zeal Peculiar to the temper of the Jewish Nation There are those in the World that would be thought the only Good Christians who roundly Excommunicate all other Churches for not complying with their
proper and great ends of Living To assist you herein I shall do these two Things 1. I shall remind you of this certain and important Truth That the Life of Man in this World is very short and transitory And then 2. Shew you what Practical Inferences may be Drawn from the consideration of the shortness and instability of our Lives 1. The Life of Man in this World is very short and Transitory This is matter of sense and one of the most obvious Truths that ever Nature or Experience taught us The Grave every time it opens its mouth gives us a sensible Demonstration of it It shews us of what Mold we are made what we are and what we must shortly be As soon as the vigour and gaiety of Youth are gone before we come to the borders of Old-age we many times grow sensible of the the Decays of this drooping Life and begin to feel our selves Wearing and Dying And still the longer we live and the wiser and fitter we are to pass our Judgment upon things the more Apprehensive we are of the shortness and fallacy of Life Our first years indeed seem to pass slowly on because they are the years of discipline of curbing our Phansies and correcting our Errours we are then commonly very eager in pursuit of Vanity and we often meet with stops and interruptions in it from our Tutors and Governors and this makes us almost think that our time stands still the while and we shall never be our own Men i. e. have the command of our time and the liberty to squander and throw it away as we please But when once we have past the age of discipline have had some experience of Life and lived long enough to reflect upon the first Stage of it we certainly see our mistake and chide time no more for not mending its speed and passing away so heavily from us when we look upon the reverse of our Lives upon the years that are past we have almost nothing left in view but the greater Sins and Follies we committed in them Then they appear but as a few days then we are apt enough to say how soon are Twenty or Thirty years fled and gone How insensibly are they slipt away And were we to live twice as many more the Case would be the very same and as soon as they are gone we should be at our old complaint again that our time in this World is very short and be ready to saywith good Old Jacob when he had lived neare twice as long as the Long-livers of our days generally Few and evil have the days of the life do of my Pilgrimage been Gen. 47 9. When we come to the use of our reason and begin to look abroad into the World to observe the Monuments and peruse the Annals and Histories of ancient times we miss all the Generations of Men that peopled the World in former Ages Our Fathers where are they Zech. 1 5. and the Prophets do they live for ever Where are all the Founders and Inhabitants of ancient Kingdoms all the Great Princes and Philosophers the Shrewd Polititians the Mighty Generals and the Numerous Armies the Wise and the Foolish the Holy and Profane All that ever Lived and Breathed till this present Age Is there none left to Answer the Question Then considering the Age of the World at this day and the many Successions of Men that have been before us there is Nothing more Demonstrable than that the Days of Men are few upon the Earth One Generation passeth away Eccles 1.4 and another Generation cometh We are always upon the Remove making Room for our Successors and for new Scenes of Providence which wait for our Departure out of this World and the Coming of a better or a worse Generation into it We have but a short Part to Act and when that is done we must clear the Stage and give Place to those that are Coming after Us because a short Work will the Lord make upon the Earth Rom. 9.28 God has set us our Bounds which we cannot Pass and he has set them so near us that it is strange we should Overlook them or Dream of an Immortality here while they stand so fairly in our View The days of our Years saith the Psalmist are threescore Years and ten and if by reason of Strength they be fourscore Years yet is their Strength Labour and Sorrow for it is soon out off and we fly away Psal 90.10 This was a mighty Fall from the Age of the Patriarchs before the Flood after which the Life of Man shorten'd apace till it came so low as Seventy or Eighty Years which is now the ordinary Measure and probably was so ever since the Murmuring of the Israelites in the Wilderness at the Relation which the Spies brought them of the Land of Promise But when the Psalmist tells us that our Age is reduced to threescore and ten or fourscore Years we must not presently Reckon that so many Years will come to our shares We cannot promise our selves another day for we know not what shall be on the morrow and therefore can make no certain Reckoning of it All the time we can call our own is that which we hve lived already So much God has given us and so much we must answer for and we cannot be sure that he will give us a day more Nemo tain Divos habuit faventes Crastinum ut sibi possit polliceri Some are gone in a moment from the Cradle to the Grave and very many before they understand the consequence of Life and Death we Die many times when we think of nothing less in the flower and vigour of our Age before we have any Symptoms of Death upon us But because some there are that rub on to threescore and ten or fourscore Years and very few that exceed them seventy or eighty Years at a moderate computation may well pass for the utmost Period ofour Lives This we generally esteem a full Age and yet when we Draw towards it are ready to complain of the scantness and shortness of it And if we think it short when we see it drawn out to its utmost length what are we to Judge of it when it is cut shorter by forty or fifty Years than the ordinary Measure What is the life of Children who Die hanging at their Mothers Breasts How short is the Race of young Men who expire while their Blood boils in their Veins and yet have as deep an interest in Eternity as the longest Livers upon Earth But since the longest Life by our own Confession is short I need not ask how little the shortest is to be accounted of But you will say then what need is there of this Discourse Why must we be taught a Truth which we are ready to Seal with our Tears and every time we contemplate upon do sadly bewail the certainty of I answer Tho it is evident that our Lives are short
consider these easie and obvious things and they will assuredly find but small reason to build their hopes of Eternal Life upon any struggle or remorse of Conscience at their Death which few bad men that have any tolerable sense of another World are and even Judas himself was not exempted from 4th Prop. The fourth and last Proposition is Were we sure that the hiring of Labourers at the eleventh hour did signifie the late calling of Particular Christians to the Faith and Obedience of the Gospel yet this will not reach the case of a Death-bed Repentance There is a manifest disparity between them in several respects For 1. They that were called so late as the eleventh hour were guilty of no delays but embraced the first opportunity they had of labouring in the Vineyard The reason they gave why they stood so long Idle in the Market viz. because no man had hired them implies that they were ready to be imployed V. 7. and that they chearfully closed with the first invitation that was offered to them and so doing they were not to be blamed that they were not earlier at work For this is as much as Abraham the Father of the Jewish Church or the Apostles the first Labourers in the Christian did They came as soon as their Lord called them tho they were not in the Vineyard till the middle age of their Lives And I doubt not if a poor Indian that never heard of Christ till he entred upon the last stage of his Life shall then become a serious and faithful Christian but that his reward will be great in Heaven But this is not the case of those who were devoted to the Service of God in their Infancy who have lived many years under the ministry of his Sacred Word and the obligations of the Holy Sacraments Who have resisted the motions of the Blessed Spirit and the admonitions of Parents and Friends never hearkning unto any till the Rough Messenger of Death comes and tells them roundly in their Ears that now they must die and away to Judgment And 't is no wonder they are then sorry that they spent their time so ill while Hell and Destruction look them in the Face but they cannot but say they had fair and frequent Warnings to have used it better 2. They who came so late into the Vineyard had yet one hour of Trial and this in proportion to the Day which God allows us to work out our Salvation in is the twelfth part of our Lives 'T is true this is but a short time considering what engagements we are under of serving our Creator and Redeemer all the days of our Lives but still it is much longer than a Sinner who defers his Repentance to his Death allows himself to do the whole work of Religion to break the habits of Vice to exercise all the virtues of the Christian Life and to put himself into a posture for Eternity He vows perhaps and declares upon the word of a Dying-man what great things he would do but alas his Breath goes away with his Vows and gives him not a minute to prove his Sincerity in 3. The last Comers into the Vineyard wrought an hour and therein performed the whole Duty they contracted for But what is this to the purpose of men that work not at all For furely to ask pardon for what they have not done to be sorry for what they have or to resolve to do better if they had opportunity will not bring them within the notion of Labourers and then it cannot intitle them to the reward This is the state of Dying Penitents their whole work lies upon their hands and that 's the ground of all their Sorrow and resolution to work if it were not too late which therefore are not working and to suppose that God will accept them as if they were is to say that the Master of the Vineyard who was all the day hiring Labourers into it was very indifferent what they did there and would surely have been as Bountiful if there had been occasion to those that did him no service as to them that did the most provided they were but sorry they had not serv'd him at all and were willing to work just when Night came and forbid them And thus I think I have sufficiently proved that this Parable has no Relation to the Case of a late or Death-bed Repentance which was the First General propounded to be spoken to The second was 2. That there is no other ground of Assurance in the Gospel that the Repentance of a Dying Christian after a whole Life spent in Sin and an obstinate Violation of his Baptismal Vow and Covenant will secure him of Eternal Salvation That the Gospel gives no such Encouragement to Men that Trifle with the Grace of God we may be as sure as we can be that the Gospel does not contradict it self and that not in trivial Instances but in the great and most essential parts of it I mean the design of its being revealed to men and the conditions it requires of them in order to Eternal Life and Happiness For 1. Did the Gospel assure us that God will accept of Dying Vows and sorrows instead of a Life of Virtue and Holiness it would shew us a notable way to evade and overthrow its own great and admirable Design the very end for which it appeared unto men which was to teach and oblige us to lead holy and virtuous Lives to deny Vngodliness and Wordly Lusts and to live Soberly Tit. 2.11 12. Righteously and Godlily in this present World while we are resident here and capable of doing Service to God and Men. This is the end of all the Institutions of the Gospel and particularly of our Baptism by which we are amitted into Covenant with God For therefore saith St. Paul we are buried with Christ by Baptism into Death that like as Christ was raised from the Dead by the Glory of the Father Rom. 6.4 even so we also should walk in newness of Life i. e. From our first entrance into Christianity till we have finisht our Course and are got beyond the Dangers and Temptations of this sinful World But where is this New Life when we are just a Dying Do we answer the end of our Baptism tho we never set a step in our Christian Race till our Life is run out Or does the Gospel whatever it obliges us to do dispence with us for not doing it This perhaps in some mens Opinion would advance the Grace but surely no man will say it commends the Wisdom of the Gospel For who does not see that the design of making us Holy is lost should the Gospel once declare that we may be dispensed with for not being Holy or that it is enough to secure us of Heaven to be truly sorry at the last that we have lived wickedly all our days And were this the true sense of the Gospel I cannot see what Answer
any Gratitude in us any Ingenious Sense of the Infinite Debt that lyes upon us will strongly engage us to make the best Returns and Acknowledgments we are able knowing that when we have done all Luk. 17.10 we are but Vnprositable Servants And then the Danger of Forfeiting the Grace of God by our Wilful Negligence and of Driving away his Grieved Spirit from us and so Clouding and Shortning our Day of Grace How should this Quicken our Diligence and Inflame our Endeavours after Grace to serve God in a more Lively and Acceptable manner with Reverence and Godly Fear But there will be an occasion of enlarging upon this Argument in the Next Particular which is this 5. The stronger we Grow in Grace the better we shall be able to hold out unto the End without which all our Pains and Diligence in Religion will be thrown away A constant Proficiency in Virtue and Goodness is the best Security against Apostacy While we go on and Persevere in Well-doing there is no Danger of our Falling away All the danger is while we are at a stand and are strongly Tempted to Return to our former Courses of Sin and Folly By pressing forward to the Mark for the prize of our high Calling we are continually getting ground for our Spiritual Enemies And the more we keep before them the less Danger we are in of being Surpriz'd and Overtaken by them A State of Sin and Perfection being the two opposite Terms of our Christian Course so far as we advance towards the latter we leave the former behind us and by Consequence are at so much the greater Distance from Apostacy So that if we would secure our Perseverance it concerns us to get as Forward in Religion as we can and not Rest in any mean Attainments as if we thought our selves at any time good enough for Heaven and were sure of our Crown so soon as ever we had begun our Race We know not what Tryals we may be Exercised with or what degrees of Fortitude and Patience we shall need to support and carry us through them But certainly 't is a great Advantage to be well Prepared before hand And it therefore becomes us to be constantly Training and Exercising our Graces and Daily Reinforcing our Resolutions to break through all the Difficulties that obstruct our passage to Glory and Happiness If we Faint in the day of Tryal we shall very hardly recover our selves And if we fall away we shall loose all the Fruit of our former Labours and our latter End will be far Worse than our beginning I know there are those that take sanctuary at the supposed Impossibility of falling from Grace I will not dispute the Truth of this Doctrine I will only remind those who are too Flush and Confident of it for surely it is too much for Man to venture his salvation upon it that tho it should be true it may do them no service And that for this plain reason that many that have taken themselves to be in a State of Grace and had the Character of Good Men amongst those that were truly so have at last yeilded to the Charms of this Tempting World and Neglecting to Work out their Salvation with Fear have Outlived all the Evidences of their Good Estate and the Fair Opinion of the most Candid and Charitable persons And for this Reason we should be extreamly Cautious of Presuming too far upon the Grace of God and Dashing against the Rocks which many that have had the Steerage of a Religious Education and seemd to set out with all Advantages for Heaven have Fatally struck upon for want of that Diligence and Circumspection which is Requisite in so weighty an affair as that of our Eternal salvation There is no doubt but that Good Men may Grieve and Resist the Holy Spirit of God And that every Degree of Resistance is a New Provocation to him to withdraw his Grace from them And that the oftener he is Repulsed the more Danger there is of his Forsaking those that withstand his blessed motitions And whether this may or may not proceed to an utter Dereliction I am sure we have all the Reason Imaginable to be Cautious of it Considering the Dreadful End of some very Hopeful Beginners Who if once they were not Really Good were Deceived in themselves Nay were so Extreamly like those that are Good that they Deceived the best Judges of Sincerity and Goodness Let him therefore that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he Fall And let us all Endeavour by a sensible and constant Improvement in Grace and Piety to Grow Stedfast and Vnmovable alwaies abounding in the Work of the Lord And then we may be assured our Labour will not be in Vain in the Lord. 6. The Difficulty in Religion will Daily lessen and the Pleasures of it Increase the farther we proceed in the Practice of it The true Reason why any of God's Commandments appear Harsh and Grievous is because we are not used to obey it For use and diligence make any thing Easy and all Excellent things Delightful And hence we find by Experience that the seldomer we do any good the unwillinger we are to come to it again And the more faintly we set about it the less satisfaction we have in the performance of it But now let us but inure our selves to any part of our Duty and take care to do it but as well as we can and we shall quickly perceive that we are pleased with what we have done and that it is indeed but the same thing to Please God and our selves A Good Man is never Weary of Doing Good And it were strange if he should for it is the Nature of Goodness to give satisfaction to all that deal in it which I doubt not is the meaning of that saying of the Wise-Man A Good Man shall be satisfied from himself When he Prays Pro. 14.14 or Meditates on Heavenly things with due Attention and Devotion he is as it were in Heaven the while And never Enjoy's himself more than when he does any thing well which God requires of him He that is hardly persuaded to an Act of Charity and at last does it but with half a Consent is fain to struggle with himself before he proceeds so far and so loses all the Pleasantness of it Whereas he that gives freely and chearfully has no trouble in himself about it but is highly pleased with what he has done and finds it a more blessed thing to Give than to Receive And thus could I run through all the parts of Christian Practice I should not doubt to gain this Conclusion that every thing in Religion would be Easie and Pleasant if it were but done as it it should be And consequently the more we improve and the better we discharge our Duty the faster we overcome the Difficulties of a holy Life and make our progress the more easie and delightful to the End This is no Romantick Fancy