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A40356 Time and the end of time, or, Two discourses, the first about redemption of time, the second about consideration of our latter end by John Fox. Fox, John, fl. 1676. 1670 (1670) Wing F2024; ESTC R10455 99,064 254

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God gasping and panting after the Lord Jesus Christ Psal 42. 1 2. O labour for such a frame of heart and bewail a narrow and contracted spirit Do not perform duties for duties sake so as to make duties the end of duties but as the medium by which thy soul may draw nigh to God and meet with him The countenance and presence of God in a duty is the very Suburbs of glory yea the very gate of Heaven Gen. 2● 17. Let this be in thy thoughts and the very purpose of thy heart and expect it vehemently in every access to God Let thy soul follow hard after God and say One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life Psal 27. 4. Psal 84. 2. Duties are only the outward Court but the form shell and carkass of Religion as Pipes without Water Breasts without Milk as Sails without Wind or as a Body without a Soul that hath no life The encrease of your grace and holiness depends upon your acquaintance and communion with the God of grace It was Mose his being in the Mount that made his face to shine and the Kings being at his Table that caused the Churches Spikenard to send forth the swell thereof Cant. 1. 12. The presence of the glorious God on a Sabbath the presence of God in prayer or at a Sacrament will be unto thy soul as marrow and fatness and that which will make thy hands to drop with Myrrh and thy fingers with sweet-smelling Myrrh Thus it was with the Spouse when her Beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door Cant. 5. 4 5. 6 By improving every Providence every Comfort every Cross for Gods glory and our own spiritual advantage God doth nothing in vain for he hath a peculiar respect unto the good of his people in all his dispensations he doth time measure and order every dark and afflicting providence for his Churches advantage Jer. 24. 5. Rom. 8. 24. Heb. 12. 10 11. God's chastning and teaching commonly go together therefore it is we must hear the Rod and who hath appointed it Mic. 6. 9. The Rod hath a Voice Beasts may feel the rod but the believer hearts the rod. God's rod should make us like Aaron's rod bud blossom and to bring forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness Heb. 12. 11. Now if you would be bettered by affliction endeavour to do three things 1. To understand the meaning or mind of God in them for what sins committed or duties neglected they are sent Afflictions are Gods Messengers and we should never be quiet till we know their Errands Job 10. 2. 2. See the hand of God in all those afflictions So did David Psal 39. 10. and holy Job 1. 11. Hos 6. 1. 3. Labour to answer the end of God in your straits and troubles that you might be made more humble more holy more heavenly before that we may say and find that it hath beed good for us to be afflicted We have as much reason to seek unto God for a blessing upon our daily Rod as upon our daily Bread 7. Time must be redeemed by casting up your accounts every day and so to make even with God and not get further into his debt This will be the way to get an acquittance to procure a pardon before you are called and forced to an account Secret duties if well done are the sweetest duties and yet sadly neglected by Saints themselves You should retire every night and spend a little time in self-examination and when you sit alone commune with your hearts and call over the passages and actions of the day past We read Gen. 24. 63. That Isaac went out in the evening tide to meditate a precious duty but rarely practised Christians should spend void spaces of time in ejaculatory Prayer and holy Meditation And O how hard it is to ascend this Mount of heavenly Meditation 'T is very easie and delightsom to think of the World the pleasures of Sin Friends Riches Worldly business but to Meditate on God Heaven Eternity the insufficiency and vanity of the creature the bitterness of sin the certainty of death and judgement the very inwards of Religion is very difficult Before you lye down upon your beds at night call your selves to an account by such questions as these 1. I have lived many years in the world What have I been doing all my days have I answered the end of my being 2. Have I had a holy awe of God in the midst of my Worldly business this day What thoughts of death and Judgement have I had Where hath my heart been 3. How have I performed duties this day What hath been the sins of this day the mercies of this day that I may beg the pardon of the one and bless God for the other 4. What assistance and communion with God have I had this day in the duties of his worship have not God and my soul been strangers this day and many days together 5. What have I done or spoken for God and his Glory this day in my Family or else-where have I demean'd my self like a child of God this day this is to make Religion our business or to walk in the fear of the Lord all the day 8. Improve your time by endeavouring to order every days work with reference to your last day The end of every duty and the great reason of redeeming time lies here namely that we may be fit to dye and stand before God Therefore must we glorifie the infinitely holy God and make him our friend Hence it is that we must secure our souls and speedily get into Jesus Christ and grow in grace do good to others call our selves to an account and clear our title unto heaven that all our work may be done up while it is day and none left to do let death call when it will The reasons why our precious time must be redeemed are 1. Because the days are evil 2. Because 't is a considerable part of our Christian wisdom Reas 1. Because the days are evil This is the Apostles own argument to enforce the duty Precious time and evil days run parallel therefore no part of a little time must be lost I shall instance in a few particulars to make it appear 1. The Tares of false Doctrine or Diabolical Blasphemous Damnable Opinions do abound How do the Devils Agents endeavour to raise and undermine the very foundations and principles of the Christian faith Those old and damnable heresies that have been condemned and expunged out of the Church of God are greedily embraced and swallowed down by more then a few 2 Tim. 3. 1. and 4. 3. 2 Pet. 1. 12. Ye therefore Beloved seeing ye knew these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness 2 Pet. 3. 17. 2 Tim. 1. 13. 2. Mens flagitious
lives and most prodigious sins makes the days still evil What execrable abominations are there committed upon the Stage of this evil World Iniquity abounds wickedness is in credit and Religion under disgrace Many hate the power of Godliness but are not asham'd to wear the Devil's Livery May we not complain with the Prophet and say as Hosea 4. 12. There is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the Land By Swearing and Lying and Killing and Stealing and committing Adultery they break out and blood toucheth blood therefore shall the Land mourn And as Isa 12. 15. For our transgressions are multiplyed before thee and our sins testifie against us and truth faileth and he that departeth from Iniquity maketh himself a pray And Amos 5. 10 12 15. They hate him that rebuketh in the gate it is an evil time 3 Many are back slidden and apostatised How are the mighty fallen the falling sickness hath been an Epidemical disease Matth. 24. 12. Because iniquity shall abound and the love of many shall wax cold Jer. 2. 2. 2 Tim. 1. 15. Rev. 2. 4. 4. Doth not God frown and threaten to remove the Candle-stick and leave us in darkness Rev 2. 5. Amos 8. 9 11. 5. How is the Family of God and friends of Christ devided and subdivided one from another Moab and Ammon Herod and Pilate can unite against Christ and his Interest when Christ's little Flock are at a distance one unto the other 1 Cor. 3. 3 4. And when it thus comes to pass the days are evil and our time had need be redeem'd Reas 2. Redeeming the time will render us truly wise See that you walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise redeeming the time Eph. 5. 15. Eccles 6. 5. The wise mans heart saith Solomon discerneth both Time and Judgement To work while it is day and to do a great deal of work in a little time commendeth the wisdom of the Agent Whatever Learning Parts Endowments men have they are not wise unless they redeem the time The men of Issachar were of great account with David because they had understanding of Times to know what Israel ought to do 1 Chron. 12. 32. The wise God in whose hands is our time taxes the Jews for fools not observing the Times Jer. 8. 7 8. and so doth our Lord Jesus the Pharisees Mat. 16. 2 3. Therefore redeeming the Time is called a walking in wisdom as the Apostle expresseth it Col. 4. 5. The APPLICATION Vse 1. FIrst If Time will be redeemed we may infer that sure then there is an Eternity Let all the wasters of time count upon it It is as certain as any thing in this world that there is another World You may venture your Lives your Souls and all upon the truth of it Why should the blessed Astle Paul press Believers so strictly to redeem time but in order to their everlasting welfare Assure thy self of it and believe it as firmly as if both eternities did now present themselves to thy bodily eyes and thou didst see the Devils and reprobates in their chains of darkness and hear them cry and roar in those eternal flames and also see Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Saints departed upon the Throne singing the Song of Moses and the Lamb. This is that which is either beleiv'd or fear'd by the best and worst of men O that it might have a deep and lasting impression upon all your hearts 2. The opportunity of time is a very precious privileage To have a gale of opportunity to convey us to glory or the white flag upon the wall inviting us unto our work to sue out our pardon before it is to late Time is a rich invaluable Treasure and yet a transient treasure Time Gods Post runs apace yea flyes as it were upon Eagles Wings and will be gone Time is compared to Golden Sands running between two Eternities and 't is an infinite mercy they are yet running that you have a day to work out your salvation to agree with the Adversary while he is in the way viz. to make up the breach between God and your souls Rev. 2. 21. The continuance of Time is very uncertain The time is short 1 Cor. 7. 29. The whole is but a span a very little space 'T is but a few days more and then thy last day a few hours more and then they departing hour a few breathings more and then thy last breath 3. Time as precious as it is and which should be redeem'd at any rate is often let slip What shall we do to pass away the time is common in some mens mouths it 's a commodity that lies upon their hands they know not what to do with it How profuse and prodigal are most of this great treasure who make no improvement of it How often hath opportunity come to us and waited on us but very few are found to lay hold upon it To how many time-wasters may that killing Text Luke 19. 41 42. be applyed And when he came near he beheld the City and wept he could not speak it without tears saying If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hidden from thine eyes 4. Spiritual Sloth whereby we lose so much of our precious time is a sore evil and very dangerous Slothfulness Solomon faith casteth into a deep sleep Prov. 19. 15. The slothful man is like the door on the hinges Prov 26. 14. The slothful is brother to the great waster Prov. 18. 9. Therefore be not slothful Rom. 12. 11. Heb. 6. 12. We read that Joshua said to the Sun Stand still but God never said to the soul Stand still Religion requires action labour diligence for it doth not consist in airy empty notions and speculations of the head but in the exercise of the mind and heart Habits must be exerted Grace improved Heaven that is all up-hill must be strived for and gotten as it were by force and victory 'T is a shameful and deformed sight to see a man professing Godliness in a Lethergy and not prose-Cast off thy lazy and dull spirit temper lest thou be found like that wicked slothful and unprofitable servant who must be cast into utter darkness Mat. 25. 26. 30. Let me say to you as the Danites to their brethren having spy'd out a good Land Judg. 18. 9. Are ye still arise and be not slothful to go and to possess the Land The Heavenly Countrey is before you arise and work and lose it not for want of labour Let not spiritual sloth by eating out your time hinder your work and rob you of your wages Rev 3. 11. 5. If the best of Saints should redeem their time what have sinners need to do You that have been slumbring and sleeping all your time and not gone one step in the way to Heaven but many in the way to Hell had need up and be doing or else