easie to prevail with men to practise as 't is obvious to be discovered would alone save us or put a blessing upon what ever else might be innocently propounded to bring us unto safety and no good man need be afraid or ashamed to propound it and he must be a very bad man who will not be ashamed to reproach it or reject it And 't is what Christ gives to the Church of Laodicea Rev. iii. 19. Be zealous and repent 'T is that which St. John Baptist gave when wrath was coming apace and the Axe was laid to the Root of the Tree St. Matth. iii. 8. Bring forth fruits meet for repentance 'T is that which our present Parable suggests If it bear fruit Well this will cause an Arrest of Judgment this will procure the Repeal of the pronounced Sentence In what words shall I propound this Counsel with what Arguments may I so press it as to render it effectual with what Motives shall I inforce it that it may be prevalent I have many things to say when I come to apply the Parable personally to urge you to repent to save your souls And surely 't is a great word to save our Souls but may I not say 't is a greater word to save a Church to save our Religion in which and by which our Souls must be saved and thousands and millions of Souls may be saved if that be saved and may humanely speaking be lost for ever if true Religion be lost and if it be lost by our default where shall the loss of all those souls be charged How warmly how Pathetically doth the great Apostle warn his dear Timothy in this affair in a case of like concernment And how doth he reiterate the charge to make all sure O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust 1 Tim. vi 20. And 2 Tim. i. 13 14. Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love And That good thing which was committed to thee keep by the holy Ghost And he must transmit to others what was committed unto him 2 Tim. ii 2. The things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also We owe to Posterity what we received from our Progenitours He leaves his name as a blot nay as a curse to his descendents who intercepts and robs them of the Care and Providence and noble acquisitions of their common Ancestours And he deserves in the Prophets Phrase to be esteemed the Tayl and not the Head whose Lusts cut off what the Wisdom and Industry of great Grand-Fathers intayled of late and far removed Nephews for support and Honour And how shall we answer it to God our Consciences and the succeeding Ages If we sin away that Holy Truth that excellent Religion which God vouchsafed to Plant in this Nation with his own Right Hand and those from whom we had our lives transmitted to us verdant and flourishing being watered by their Pious Tears and fatned with their dearest Blood A Religion not patcht up of cunningly devised Fables nor devised by cunning men to gratifie their Lusts and serve their base and worldly Interests But the Everlasting Gospel brought by the Eternal Son from the bosom of him who is Truth it self and the Fountain of it and adapted to the promoting of his Glory and the true Interest of Souls the repairing and restoring them to their highest perfection Conformity to the Divine Image participation of the Divine Nature and full and endless injoyment of God A Religion founded upon the Prophets and Apostles having Jesus Christ for the chief Corner-Stone A Religion that dare bear the test of the true Lydian-Stone The Law and Testimony because it is not conscious to it self of any counterfeit metal stampt and imposed on unwary minds by its Authority to pass for good Coyn and currant mony A Religion which takes not away the Key of knowledg nor deprives its Children of the Scriptures the only Records of Divine Truth and Rule that God hath given mankind of Faith and Manners That cryes not up Ignorance for the Mother of Devotion seeing Solomon hath told us that without knowledg the heart cannot be good And a greater than Solomon That life eternal is to know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent And one of his Apostles hath informed us that The new man is renewed in knowledg and another hath described the Beasts Kingdom by its being full of Darkness And our Lord in the beginning of his Ministry laid down this early Aphorism to direct his Followers to distinguish betwixt Truth and Falsehood the way of Salvation and condemnation John iii. 19 20 21. This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil For every one that doeth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved But he that doth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God A Religion that blots out none of Gods Commandments for fear the very Children should drink in with their Catechism an Antidote against that gross Idolatry which diffuses it self through more than half the Worship they are called to practise all their lives A Religion which directs your Prayers to him whose title is A God hearing Prayer and your Worship to him to whom alone it appertains and whom only we must serve if either Moses or Christ are to be believed in such matters And that teaches you to Pray to him in his name whom Saint Paul calls the One Mediatour betwixt God and Man being both in his own person A Religion that allows you to serve this God with reasonable service as becomes reasonable Creatures Praying with your Spirits and your Vnderstandings not like Pyes or Parrots not with noise and sounds of a Language you understand not A Religion that delivers Christs Institutions as his Apostles received them from him not disguising a Sacrament appointed for the living into an expiatory Sacrifice for the dead nor bidding you Worship what Christ bid you eat Nor giving the lye to all your Sences your Reason and your Faith together For Gods word which is the object of our Faith calls it Bread most frequently after Consecration nor robbing you of one half the Cup with a non obstante that Christ Instituted and the Primitive Church Administred in both Kinds And so avowing their presumption with an impudence as villanous and hateful as their theft A Religion which hath no Mint-house to Coin new Articles of Faith or make that needful to be believed in order to Salvation this year which the year before and ever before that was never thought on A Religion which dares neither add nor detract from our Lords Will. Nor clap seven Seals to that Testament to which he annexed but two Labels A Religion which will
way but what leads down to Hell To Sum up this plain Explication in the easiest Words I can We are indispensably bound and it infinitly concerns us to make hast to Believe Repent get our Peace made with God and to be ready to Dye while God spares our Lives and continues the Gospel and the means of Grace amongst us and offers us his Help by the frequent motions of his Spirit For as this Work may be happily done by Day that is while these Mercies are continued so if they be taken away and Night over take us before our Work be done it is impossible it ever should be done and we must be undone for Ever I now return to the Observation into which I graspt the scope and substance of the Text which was this The Consideration of the Work we have to do and the Season allowed and limited for the doing of it in oblige us indispensably to utmost speed and diligence in the doing of it The Holy Scripture is very copious and full in pressing both speed and diligence upon the accounts this Observation intimates it shall suffice to name a few at present for Confirmation Isa 55.6 Seek ye the Lord while He may be found Call upon Him while he is near which supposeth what Psal 32.6 expresses there is a Time in which there 's no coming near Him Like 13.24 Strive to enter in at the straight Gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able when once the Master of the House is risen and hath shut the Door Joh. 12.35 Yet a little while is the Light with you walk while ye have the Light lest Darkness come upon you for he that walketh in Darkness knoweth not whither he goeth While ye have Light believe in the Light Eccles 9.10 Whatever thy Hand findeth to do do it with thy Might for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the Grave whither thou goest And of how much greater consequence thy Work is so much greater in Reason should be both thy Speed and Diligence I now proceed to the proof of the Observation and to shew the Reasons why 't is so necessary to be Speedy and Diligent about this Work and because those Reasons are usually most cogent and forceable which are drawn from the Nature of the thing which is to be confirmed by them I will take them all from the Text it self which is like some well-stor'd Mansion or noble Seat which is Furnish't with all needful Provisions within its own Bounds And First Because 't is Work Secondly Because a Convenient Season is allowed to do it in Thirdly Because this Season is of Vncertain Continuance will not last always and may slip from us suddenly ' ere we be aware First 'T is Work Work with an Emphasis our main-business not our by-business though too many make it so The great Errand upon which God sent Us into this World Moses tells Us 't is not a vain thing but 't is our Life our Life is lent Us for it and our Life depends upon it Deut. 32.47 The Comfort of it here and the Safety of it hereafter another manner of Work than heaping up Riches for that 's a vain thing Psal 39.6 with Job 't is the only Work of true Wisdom Job 28.28 And unto Man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from Evil is Vnderstanding A Man a Wise Man who only deserves the name of a Man should count nothing else comparatively worth his Care 't is David's Vnum petii Psal 27.4 The one thing he desired of God to injoy Opportunities to help him in this Work 'T is Solomons Totum hominis the whole of Man's Duty and Happiness Eccles 12.13 Let us hear the Conclusion of the whole Matter fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole of Man 'T is St. Paul's great Race His hic labor hoc opus 1 Cor. 9.24 So Run that ye may obtain so Fight against your Spiritual Enemies as Men that are in earnest make not vain Florishes only to beat the Air So strive that you may Win and Wear an incorruptible Crown in a word from our Lords own Mouth 't is primum quaerendum Mat. 6.33 Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and the unum necessarium St. Luke 10.42 But one thing is needful Signally and Eminently the Work of God which He hath given Us to do Joh. 6.29 Now this Consideration that Religion the Glorifying God the Saving of our own Souls is Work our great Work implyes these Five things 1. It 's necessity it must be done 2ly It 's priority it must not be postpon'd but first done 3ly It 's difficulty it must not be trifled in but done with all our Skill and Might 4ly It 's perfection it must not be done by halves 5ly It 's certain Reward all Work shall have it's Wages All which Mighty Weights one would think might stir a quick and vigorous Motion in the most rusty Engine I mean the most restive lazy Soul if we would hang them on with due and frequent Meditation Let Us consider them a little one by one First Because 't is our Work it must be done what ever else be left undone or we must be undone Eternally by and for neglecting it Remember the Doom of the Sloathful Servant who neglected to get what he knew he should have had and had Opportunity to have provided St. Mat. 22.13 Bind him Hand and Foot and Cast him into utter Darkness You may Read his Fault in his Punishment one is the Anagram of the other He bound his own Hands and Feet with Cords of Sloath and Negligence and now His Master causes them to be bound with Chains of Vengeance He Slept away the Light vouchsaft him as if it had been Night and now he shall have Darkness to extremity but such as will never yield him Rest or Sleep This being our Work it is so necessary it must not be neglected by any means upon any pretence whatever though it were to give outward Attendance on Christ himself as he told Martha plainly preferring Maries sitting at His Feet to hear His Word and minding this one needful thing before all Martha's troublesom Diligence in which she was Cumbred with much Serving to make Provision for Him 't is more necessary then to Eat therefore Job esteemed God's Words more not only than his Dainty but his Dayly his Necessary Food Job 23.12 St. Paul but to promote this Work in others saith Necessity is laid upon me and Woe be unto me if I Preach not the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.16 And may not we should not we all say Necessity is laid upon us and Woe be unto us if we Believe not if we Obey not the Gospel 'T is more necessary than to Live Holy Men of God have willingly spent their Lives to help others in this Work Neither count I my Life dear to me
Work effectually in others Convince them thou believest thy self the Truth and the Necessity of what thou pressest on them Secondly Ye that are Parents labour to season early the tender Hearts of your Children with a Sense of Religion and their Great Work Youth is the Age of Discipline and the Seed-time for their whole Life Train up a Child in the Way wherein he should go and when he is Old he will not Depart from it The First Impressions are most Lasting 'T is a great Honour to be entrusted with the Education of one Child and to have Opportunity to form it for God's Service As you were the means of their being Born and the Occasions of their being Born in Sin you owe them both in Love and Justice your Best Endeavours that they may be Born again and made Saints The Third and Last Branch of the Exhortation is to All in general though more especially to Young Persons 1. To a Speedy Setting about their great Work 2. To a Diligent Progress in it when it is Begun First To a Speedy Setting about this Work Young Man I say unto thee Arise And Oh! that Christ would vouchsafe to accompany this Word with such a Power of His Spirit as might render it as effectual to some Dead Soul as they were upon the Dead-Son of the Widdow of Naim Luk. 7. Awake thou that sleepest stand forth from the Dead and Christ shall give thee Light Suppose thou heardest God say to thee as in the Parable Son go work to day in my Vineyard this present Day and though thou hast neglected His Call heretofore yet now Repent and go But because it often is with Young Persons if I may make such an Allusion as it was with Lazarus when Christ call'd him forth of his Grave Joh. 11.44 He that was Dead came forth bound Hand and Foot with Grave-Cloaths and his Face bound about with a Napkin Therefore Jesus said unto them Loose him and let him go When they begin to be quickned and have some Sense of the Necessity of speedy Walking in the Wayes of God yet their Heads are bound about they are muffled and blind-folded with Prejudices and cannot see their Way and bound Hand and Foot with Grave-Cloaths hamper'd and shackled with former Customs and Objections that they can neither walk in God's Way nor work for Him I will endeavour to loose them and knock off their Fetters and remove the Lets and Hinderances of their Motion and their Speed and I shall do it briefly For though there may be many Foolish Cavils there can be neither wise nor strong Objections against the present Setting about God's Work that they should either need much Time or Pains to Remove them First then 't is Objected That Religion is too serious a Work for Young People as the Philosopher said Young Men were not fit Hearers of the Precepts of Morality but Postquam deferbuit aetas after the Heats of Youth are boyl'd over after their Lusts and Passions have spent themselves and they have Sow'd their Wild Oats as your Common Phrase is The Heat of Youth is a kind of Sickness and no wise Physitian administers in the Heighth of the Paroxisme but stayes till the Fit be over 'T is a Degree of Drunkenness and we Reprove not the Drunkard 'till he be Sober and come to himself Answer These Comparisons prove nothing and are as easily sleighted as produced For the main Objection 'T is true Religion is a very serious Thing and therefore the fitter to restrain the Extravagancy of Youthful Lusts which by how much the more Impetuous they are by so much the stronger Curbs they need to restrain and keep them in Order And 't is the Excellency of the Word of God and its high Commendation that 't is an Antidote strong enough to purge out such a Poyson Where-with-all shall a Young Man cleanse his Ways By taking heed thereto according to thy Word Psal 119.9 For a Man to indulge his Lusts and profess Religion I confess were a way to desecrate and pollute so Holy a thing But Religion minded in Sincerity will subdue and mortify them And give Subtilty to the Simple to the Young Man Knowledge and Discretion Prov. 1.4 Though Youth hath its Inconveniences which Religion will Correct it also hath its Advantages which Religion will Improve 'T is more Vigorous and Active more Susceptive and Retentive more Free and Dis-engaged more Unprejudiced and Dis-incumbred than the following Stages of Life And therefore most acceptable to God and fittest to be Consecrated to His Work Religion will Relieve against the Incommodities of Youth and give the Prerogatives of Age and make them Men in Knowledge and Gravity who are but Youths in Years For Honourable Age is not that which standeth in Length of Time nor that is measured by Number of Years But Wisdom is gray Hair unto Men and an unspotted Life is Old Age. Wisd 4.8 9. yea gives Prerogatives above it For Young David was Wiser than his Teachers and had more Vnderstanding than the Antients because he kept God's Precepts Yea the Wise King carries the Disproportion very high when he tells us Eccles 4.13 That a Poor and Wise Child is better than an Old and Foolish King Religion therefore is not too serious even for a Child seeing it can make a Child Serious nor in danger to to be prejudiced by the Levity of Youth seeing it can Cloath even Youth with Gravity Secondly A Second Objection against Early Piety is suggested by Superstitious Fear that they shall Dye presently if they grow Devout as some Fools think they must if they once make their Wills Answ How absurdly do Sinners suffer themselves to be abused by the Devil and their own vain Hearts They now begin to be fit to Live therefore they must presently Dye How inconsequent is this Conclusion How Unreasonable such Reasoning As if God would suffer none but Fools and Knaves to Live and those Wicked Men with whom He is Angry every Day and for whom He hath Prepar'd the Instruments of Death and Hath whet His Sword and bent His Bow and made all ready for speedy Execution if they turn not Psal 7.11 12 13. God calls the Righteous Lights and he hath more use for them to Shine in the World than to whelm them Vnder the Bushel of Death as soon as he hath set them up to Shine in a Crooked and Perverse Generation 'T is Bloody and Deceitful Men against whom the Sentence is pronounc't That they shall not Live out half their Dayes But of Wisdom it is said that Length of Dayes is in her Right Hand and in her Left Hand Riches and Honour Prov. 3.16 And St. Peter 1.3 10. He that will love Life and see good Dayes let him refrain his Tongue from Evil and his Lips from speaking Guile Let him eschew Evil and do Good Finally We find this Encouragement given to the Good Man Job 5.26 That he shall come to his Grave in a
therefore could not do it in Faith For what-ever is not of Faith is Sin Rom. 14. ult The Heart cannot be Good without Knowledge nor thy Work Good without a Good Heart Wisdom is the Principal Thing to direct thee in thy Work therefore Get Wisdom and with all thy getting get Vnderstanding Prov. 4.7 No Man can aim Right that Shoots blindfold Ignorance will blind thy Eyes that thou can'st not see thy Mark God's Glory and thy own Salvation The Text is express That in the Night no Man can Work And one Reason given to Confirm it was Because 't is too dark to see to work in The most thou can'st do in the Night of Ignorance is to grope like a Blind Man and how thou art like to Finish so curious a Work in such a case I leave it to thy self to Judge Therefore provide against so Real and so Great a Hinderance The Second Real Hinderance is The Indulging of the Flesh and a Desire to gratify it by the Inordinate Love of Ease and Pleasure If this Humour prevail and thou be Delicate Soft and Tender thou wilt shrink and give back at the first Difficulty which steps forth to meet thee He is not fit to make a Souldier that can endure no Hardship Thou therefore endure Hardness as a Good Souldier of Jesus Christ 2 Tim. 2.3 He that loveth Pleasure shall be a Poor Man Prov. 21.17 And who so loves his Ease Poverty shall come upon him as an Armed Man They can never serve God acceptably who serve their Lusts and Pleasures willingly And they Who are Lovers of Pleasures more than Lovers of God may possibly attain a Form of Godlyness but will certainly Deny the Power of it 2 Tim. 3.4 5. For the Pleasures of this World choak the Seed of the Word and they bring forth no Fruit unto Perfection Luk. 8.14 The Third Real Hinderance is Incumbrance with Multitude of Cares and Worldly Affairs This over-charges the Heart and distracts the Mind that it cannot wait on God No Man can serve God and Mammon Our Breasts are too narrow to lodge so many and so contrary Inmates We cannot look Upwards and Downwards both at once If Carmina secessum scribentis otia poscunt a Poet's Thoughts must be free and disintangled Religion requires it much more Enter thou into thy Closet and shut to thy Door to shut out Distractions I deny not but while we Live in this World wee need the things of this World and we may lawfully seek them and use them But then we must seek and use them lawfully which is done when we keep them at due Distance allow them at most but the Second Place Vse them as if we us'd them not remembring the Time is short and that the Fashion of this World passeth away If Hagar domineer and begin to despise her Mistriss Sarah she must be made to know she 's but a Bond-Maid and she must be cast out Next to them who cannot find an Heart to serve God they are to be pittyed who cannot find Time to serve Him And the truth is they therefore can find no Time for this Work because they can find no Heart to it and they therefore can find no Heart because the World hath stolen it away 'T is said by the Prophet Wine and Women take away the Heart Hos 4.11 And 't is as true Riches and Business and Multiplicity of Affairs and a Croud and Hurry of Employments take it away no less If some Men can scarce find time to Eat and Sleep as well as they love their Bodies What Time do you think they will find to Read and Pray and Meditate and search their Consciences and purify their Souls Of all Remote Advantages which Religion may have I esteem none Greater than Retirement Vacancy a Time to be still and Commune with our Hearts call our Wayes to Remembrance to think and consider and to have Leisure to Converse with God I acknowledge the Truth of Solomon's Vae soli Woe to him that is alone yet 't is as as true Vae nunquam soli Woe to him that will not Woe to him that cannot but most of all Woe to him that dares not be alone The Second Branch of this Vse is to Direct you to the Helps which will Promote your Diligence which amongst others are these Willingness Love Wisdom Speed Industry Courage Constancy or Perseverance First Willingness or a Good Will to your Work The willing Man will be a Diligent Man Willingness is the Rise or leading Step to Diligence 'T is not only Oyl to your VVheels but the very VVheels themselves And Men drive heavily like Pharaoh's Chariot's when the VVheels were taken off when they want a Willing Mind to what they are engaged in VVhen on the contrary Willingness makes them like the Chariots of Aminadab Cant. 6.12 sets them on the Chariots of my Willing People as the Margin there The First VVork upon the Soul is described Psal 110.3 Thy People shall be Willing in the Day of Thy Power In God's Offerings for the Tabernacle the Directions were to Receive them from them who brought them with a Willing Heart Exod. 35.5 21 29. And when they were Willing they bring more than enough Exod. 36.5 Willingness will need a Bridle rather than a Spur. That Picture of Diligence drawn by Solomon's Pen of the Virtuous Woman hath This inserted as the Soul of all the Rest She worketh Willingly with her Hands Prov. 31.13 Willingness to your VVork will help your Diligence in it many wayes For it will make you Docible and Careful to learn your VVork You use to let Children chuse their Professions knowing they will learn that soonest they have most mind to 'T will make you Cheerful and Ready in the Undertaking it We use to say There is nothing to a Willing Mind What the Naturalist saith of the Hand the Moralist saith of the Will It is the Instrument of Instruments A Man treads that Path in which his Will leads him as if he did not feel the Ground he goes on 'T is the best Sauce all things Taste as it doth Season them And Things are Dear or Cheap according to the Ptice it sets upon them It will make Men Serious and in good Earnest they will netiher speak faintly nor act coldly about what they have engag'd their Wills in They will not trifle as those do who are in Bivio know not their own Minds nor what themselves would have Be Willing therefore to your Work that will make you Diligent at it Secondly Love to your Work will double your Diligence about it Love is the Flower the Cream of Willingness nay the Quintessence and Spirits of it If Willingness gives Feet Love will give Wings Jacob served Seven Years for Rachel and they seem'd but as so many Dayes because he Lov'd her The Servant that Lov'd his Master would refuse the Freedom the Law provided for him and would have his Ear bored at his Door-Post and be his
our All. And if it Honour Him so much it cannot Please Him a little and therefore shall not fail of a Sure an exceeding Great and an Everlasting Reward For that He is a Rewarder of them that Diligently seek Him is the First Principle and the very Corner-Stone on which Religion is Built Heb. 11.6 The Next Head from whence we might draw Motives to Diligence is the Evil of Sloath For Contraries expel each other Now Sloathfulness is out of measure Evil. The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Malus Wicked as we commonly render it in its Primary Signification is Ignavus Sloathful to intimate to us that Sloath is the Root and Mother of all Evil. Matth. 25.26 Thou Wicked and Sloathful Servant The Sloathful Servant is the Wicked Servant Sloath is the Devil's Anvil He Forges and Fashions all his Temptations on it And thence produceth and by it induceth Men into the greatest Sins and Dangers As of Idleness comes no Goodness so all Evil issues from it When the Devil had been cast out yet upon return finding the House empty he re-entred with Seven worse than himself Matth. 12.44 And the Last End of that Man is worse than the First If thou hast been Convinc'd and begun to leave thy wicked Wayes and set thy self to be Religious but art Cold Remiss Formal Sloathful in it the Devil will return upon thee with a kind of Revenge for quitting his Work and making an Escape and will clap more Bolâ—s and stronger Irons on thee If a Prisoner should break the Goal and as soon as he is out stand begging at the next Door fit tipling at the next Ale-house lye down and sleep by the High-way-side What would his Escape avail him but cause him to be lock't up faster and be watch't more narrowly and be us'd more hardly Tho thou hast escaped from them who live in Errour and beest of the True Religion and hast a Form of Godliness and resolvest to become a good Man yet if thou be either afraid or asham'd to be Zealous in Religion wilt not add the Power to the Form wilt not be true in thy Practice of thy true Principles it will avail thee nothing Read with Attention 2 Pet. 2. Three last Verses If after they have escaped the Pollutions of the World through the Knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again intangled therein and over-come The Later End is worse with them than the Beginning For it had been better for them not to have known the Way of Righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered to them But it is happened to them according to the True Proverb The Dog is turned to his own Vomit again and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the Mire I will touch the Evil of Sloath as I did the Good of Diligence with respect to Our Selves to Others to GOD. First 'T is most certainly Mischievous yea Destructive to thy Self to be Sloathful in Religion and deal in God's Work with a slack Hand Ther 's a Passage in Prov. 18.9 which well considered may mightily awaken us He that is sloathful in his Work is Brother to him that is a great Waster Let us understand this as a Spiritual Aphorism with respect to the Work which concerns our Souls and then it implys thus much By the great Waster is to be understood a Flagtious Wicked sinner who lives in Sinâ— which waste Conscience as the Schools expresly call gross scandalous Sins committed against common Light Peccata vastantia Conscientiam Blasphemy Swearing Damning Whoredom Debauchery Malicious Slandering those who are Good c. By the Sloathful in Business is meant one who though he be free from Prophaness and the open Excesses of the great Waster yet hath no Heart no Life no Love no Care to be Religious in good Earnest or mind the Work of God but goes on a Dreaming Pace performs a few Customary Duties of Religion for fashion-sake To be Brother to one signifies to be in the same Condition born to the same Inheritance Children of the same Father Members of the same Family Now the Result of this is to let us know that the Condition of both these is alike Miserable alike Hateful to God and Dangerous to themselves alike I mean for Kind though it may be not for Degrees He that is busy in the Devil's Work and he that is sloathful in GOD's Work The Tree which brings forth bad Fruit and the Tree which bears no good Fruit He that is against GOD and he that is not for GOD He that Prophanes His Name and he that will not Glorify His Name are both of the Black Regiment though they may be of different Degrees And their Pay may be more or less yet they have the same Quarters provided for them The One may go to Hell with more Infamy entring the Fore-gate in the View of all Men the Other may slip in at the Back Door with less Noise or Notice but they 'll certainly meet there They are own Brothers and have Title to the same Inheritance Though the Spiritual Hector which hath cast off all Restraints and Sense of GOD may be admitted to an Elder Brother's that is a Double Portion yet the Other will undoubtedly come in for a Child's Portion also Now this Negligence will hurt yea ruin Men Two wayes Naturally or Necessarily Morally or Meritoriously First The Natural and Necessary Consequent of Negligence is Poverty and Want The Desire of the Sloathful killeth him for his Hands refuse to Labour The Sluggard will not Plough by reason of Cold therefore shall he beg in Harvest and have nothing The Grashopper which sings away its Summer dyes for Hunger when the Cold comes I went by the Field of tke Sloathful and by the Vineyard of the Man void of Vnderstanding And lo it was grown over with Thorns and Nettles had covered the Face thereof and the Stone-wall thereof was broken down Then I saw and considered it well I looked upon it and received Instruction Yet a little Sleep a little Slumber a little Folding of the Hands to sleep So shall thy Poverty come as one that Travelleth and thy Want as an Armed Man Prov. 25.30 31 32 33 34. Secondly It ruins Meritoriously It provokes God to destroy as a Just Punishment of Disobedience to the Command that requires Diligence If any Man will not Labour neither let him Eat 2 Thes 3.10 He deserves to be burned who will not hasten out of that House which is on Fire about him There is a dreadful Place Jer. 48.10 Cursed be he that doth the Work of God deceitfully And Mal. 1. is so large and so full to this purpose as nothing can be more 'T is too large to Transcribe I intreat you to turn your Bibles and read it considerately to the End especially from the Sixth Verse It concludes thus after Rebuking them for despising His Name in offering polluted Bread and the
neither allow you to kill your King nor eat your God nor purchase Heaven for your mony nor flatter you with hopes that you may go to Paradise in the broad way and have that done for you by others when you are dead which should have been done by your self while you were alive In a word a Religion not made up of Tricks and Artifices of Pomp and Pageantry of a Fardle of unaccountable Rites and Ceremonies and unintelligible mystesteries and contradictions to comply with all mens humours tempers constitutions Severities for the Sowr and Melancholy Carnivals and Stews for the Airy brisk and Sanguine Whips and Austere Discipline as sharp as the Lancets of Baals Priests for the sullenly Superstituous And easie Indulgences and Commutations into gentle Penances for the soft and delicate A Religion tho profest and owned by many sinful men yet neither invented nor headed by the man of sin But a Religion holy and undefiled like its Author plain and simple like the Gospel which contains and teaches it Spiritual and Heavenly like the place it leads them to who love and practise it sincerely Such is the Religion we yet injoy through Gods great goodness but he threatens to bereave us of for our sins against it Let me therefore beseech you and adjure you by all that 's dear to you be zealous and repent speedily sincerely that you force not a jealous God to cut down this Tree to remove his Kingdom and take away his Candlestick because you would not bring forth the Fruits of the one nor walk in the Light of the other and deprive your selves and your Posterity of the greatest blessing God ever did or can bestow on this or any other Nation on this side Heaven But I shall rather chuse to inlarge my self in that Application of this Parable which is more sutable to so private an Auditory tho I cannot deny neither can any man deny the former in our circumstances to be very seasonable and therefore very necessary I shall therefore in what remains consider the Fig tree as a Figure and Type of particular persons Under which notion every individual man and woman is sentenced to be cut down and cast out of the Vineyard of the Church by some Temporal or Spiritual Judgment who hath been planted and admitted into it by Baptism and stands and grows in it injoying all the advantages and priviledges which belong to a Member of it under the Gospel and yet continues Fruitless or bears no good Fruit. Gets no saving Knowledg no true Faith no sound Repentance nor sincere Amendment of Life No real sence or favour of the things of God in a prevalency of Religion in Godliness and Holiness against and above Formality Prophaneness or the love of this present world No Justice Righteousness Truth and Honesty against Defrauding Cousenage Oppression Lying and Slandering of his Neighbours No Temperance Sobriety subduing of his sensual Lusts and Appetites against Uncleanness Drunkenness Debauchery and other defiling pleasures and sensualities in a word who are not foundly Converted and turned from placing their happiness and hopes in sin and creatures to fix them on God and Christ as their only blessedness and satisfying portion Or in St. Paul's express Language who will not learn that great Lesson which the Grace of God that is the Gospel was revealed from Heaven as the clearest light to teach the Sons of men that is To deny all ungodliness and worldly Lusts and to live Righteously Soberly and Godly in this present world in hope of a blessed immortality Nor heartily and in good earnest endeavour to become such as they are by their Baptismal Vow and Covenant obliged to be To every such man to every such woman I denounce this day in the name of the great the dreadful God of Heaven and Earth if thou turn not and that speedily and throughly That God the Lord of Hosts the supream the Omnipotent the Irresistible judg of all the Earth Hath prepared for thee the instruments of death He hath whet his Sword he hath bent and made ready his Bow his Arrows are upon the string suddenly will he shoot at thee and not spare or miss his mark The Ax is laid to thy very Root to cut thee down for fire unquenchable God already despiseth reproacheth and upbraideth thee for cumbring of his Ground hath actually pronounced the Sentence against thee to cut thee down the word is gone out of his mouth only in admirable Patience he hath reprieved thee one year more a little longer to try whether thou wilt yet at last sue out a Pardon return repent amend that thou mayst live Yet if thou do it not quickly he will compensate the former disappointments of his expectation whilst year after year he came looking for Fruit and found none together with the aggravated abuse of his long-sufferance which vouchsafes another year with a severer vengeance with a greater Damnation As for our parts who are Gods Ministers it is no pleasure nor delight to us to be Messengers of so heavy tydings to come on so harsh and terrifying an Errand We had rather be sent on Embassies of Peace and speak what might be more welcome and pleasing to you provided it might also be profitable for you But we must not chuse our own Message but the Word God puts into our mouths that must we speak What we have received from the Lord that must we deliver to you according to our Commission and our Instructions written in his Word must we proceed in the discharge and execution of our Office We must not sow Pillows under your Armpits nor dawb with untempered mortar at the Price at the Peril of our own Souls Nor promise Life where God hath threatned Death Nor speak Peace where God saith there is no Peace And there is no peace to the wicked saith my God Isa lvii 21. This were but to betray you and ruin our selves To lead you blindfold into the Ditch and plunge our selves in together with you into the Lake of fire and brimstone and to have the guilt of the blood of your souls added and heapt up upon that of our own to sink us deeper in the bottomless Gulph What we may do and what we can do that by the Grace of God we will do We will Pray to God to let you alone this year also Spare thy people good Lord spare this and that other Fruitless-Tree one year more try them O Lord a little longer it may be they will consider it may be they will bethink themselves it may be they will yet bear Fruit. And then it shall be no grief of Heart to thee O blessed Lord that thou didst not cut them off suddenly in thy sore displeasure Many have made some amends for an unfruitful youth by bringing forth more Fruit in their Age. Great Sinners have become great Saints What had thy Church lost what had thy Glory lost if thou hadst struck Saul dead when thou didst