woful miserable and deplorable he saw their condition to be and how sad will it be with you if once Christ should come to say over you that dismal word now they are hid from your eyes 5. Is it an easie matter think you to set things right in your souls and to make all things ready for a dying hour Suppose my Beloved that you should live yet many days and withall your helps and advantages for the good of your souls should be continued to you yet is it an easie work which you have to do and shall you have time and days to spare Believe it Sirs all will be little enough to set things right to make things ready for a dying hour Pray consider with me these few things as to this 1. Consider in what a woful disorder all things are at present with you and how utterly unready for a dying hour I will give you the Scripture state of your case you are dead in trespasses and sins under whole loads and mountains of scarlet crimson guilt without Christ without hope without God in the world alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works yea enmity it self against God and Christ full of sin both within and without and nothing but sin having no good dwelling in you void of all grace all true spiritual life under the power and predominancy of lust serving divers lusts and pleasures and carried Captive by the Devil at his will Closely glued to and deeply in love with this World ignorant of God and of the great Mystery of the Father and of Christ at least having no saving knowledge of them No savour of Heaven no relish of spiritual things in your souls wallowing in your blood and gore being filthy and abominable to every good work reprobate the heart strongly averse from God and all good and vigorously bent to sin and vanity nothing of Heaven within but full of Hell full of the Spirit and Image of the Devil under the Law of Sin strangers to the Law of Grace no Union with Christ no Oyl in the Vessel poor miserable blind and naked at most having but the form and denying the power of godliness This is your condition O what disorders are these And what an unready posture are you in for Death and Eternity 2. Consider how great a thing it is to be ready for Death ready indeed and to have all things set right and in order against a dying hour comes and how much is requisite in order thereunto 'T is a great saying of an holy man No one saith he can joyfully welcom Death but he that has been long composing his Spirit and making ready for it O my beloved to be indeed ready to quit the World to go into the Divine Presence the great the holy glorious presence of God to be ready to enter upon the Beatifical Vision to possess a Mansion in the Father's House to joyn with an heavenly Host of Angels and Spirits of just men made perpect in eternal praising admiring and adoring of Father Son and Holy Ghost Believe it this is a great thing and great things are requisite thereunto This calls for a near Union with Christ a firm peace with God clear Evidences for Heaven for much grace and holiness much heavenliness and spirituality of mind much weanedness from this World much holy deadness to sin self and the Creature much Victory over Corruption much Soul-cleansing much purity of heart and affections much diligence and faithfulness in Duties And my Beloved are these little things or things easie to be accomplished and attained unto O Sirs The Scripture speaking of these things calls upon us to strive Luke 13.24 to give all diligence in the pursuit of them 2 Pet. 1.5 10. To manage and dispatch them with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 All which tells us that they are great things and not easily to be accomplished and attained unto Therefore we had need look after this and neglect no longer 3. Consider what lets and hinderances difficulties and oppositions you must expect to meet withall in your minding and managing this Work Not only is the Work it self great but you must also expect many lets and hindrances much difficulty and opposition in the managing of it You must expect lets and oppositions from the Devil he is the Enemy of Souls and you must expect that he will make use of all his wiles methods and devices all his craft and cunning all his Artifices and that he will stir up all his wrath and malice against you he is your Enemy and he is a subtil Enemy a potent Enemy an indefatigable Enemy an Enemy that always goes about seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5.8 You must expect lets and oppositions from the World too from the men of the world from the things of the world from the smiles of the world from the frowns of the world The world is your Enemy as well as the Devil So much is intimated 1. Joh. 5.4 and you must expect opposition from it The men of the world will discourage you the things of the world will divert you the troubles of the world will mightily depress you the enjoyments of the world will miserably ensnare and entangle you The world is of a marvellous bewitching ensnaring and entangling nature it is indeed opposite to God and all goodness and so to the whole interest of our souls The friendship of the world is enmity to God Jam. 1.4 The world will plead for and take up your time your strength your thoughts Oâ— the hinderance that the World is to thousands and ten thousands in the work of their souls truly this ruines multitudes for ever This ruined him we read of Matth. 19.32 And saith Paul Demas hath farsaken us having embraced this present World 2 Tim. 4.10 You must expect lets and hinderances also from your own hearts yea from them above all others The heart the Holy Ghost tells us is deceitful above all things and disperately wicked Jer. 17.9 And who of us does at all observe it and the workings of it does not find it to be so Now it will openly oppose you then it will secretly seduce and ensnare you Now it will carry you off and draw you back from God and Duty Hebr. 3.12 then it will turn you aside to sin and vanity Isai 44.20 Now it will divert you from Duty then it will make you dead and slothful in Duty 'T is indeed wholly set against all that is good and it has a thousand wayes to hinder you in your Great Work and you must expect that it will do its utmost to hinder you This is a close Enemy it is alwayes at hand there is no end of its opposition till life it self ends One of the Ancients I remember breaks out into a sad exclamation against his own heart thus My heart saith he is a wicked heart a vain heart a roving a wandring heart My mind is exceeding light wonderful unconstant a
vapour which appeareth for a little season and is gone James 4.14 O how soon may one or another or all of us be among the dead How soon may death approach us 3. What infinite mercy is it that God has spared us thus long and still does spare us to set all things right to make all ready for a dying hour O my Beloved how great is the sparing mercy of God towards us We have had some forty some fifty some sixty years in the World and still God spares us still he lets us live and enjoy good and why all this think you smely to set things right in our souls to make ready for a dying hour and shall we yet neglect it God forbid O Sirs think a little I beseech you with your selves how long since the Grave might have swallowed us up and the Bottomless Pit have shut its mouth upon us How long since might time and dayes have been at an end with us and our souls stated in a miserable Eternity But still God spares us and we are yet in the Land of the Living with a door of mercy and grace yet open unto us at least a possibility left us of knowing the things of our peace in our day of making provision for Death and Eternity And O what mercy is this I would fain a little quicken both you and my self by this consideration And in order thereunto let me plead a little particularly with you 1. Consider how long God hath spared and does spare you beyond what he does and has thousands and ten thousands of others God does not spare all at that rate which he has spared and does still spare us Alas How many thousands are there now free among the dead who came into being long since we did Their Glass is run their Sun is set their day is over their hopes and expectations are all at an end their souls are stated in an eternal condition a condition that will admit of neither change nor period for ever and yet we are spared still They came into the World long after us and are gone into Eternity long before us Yea how many are there that never arrived to the one half of those years that we have arrived unto their Sun has set in the morning How many of us have out-lived our yoke-fellows our children our servants our friends and acquaintance And yet we stand our ground and all this that we might prepare for a dying hour This patience of God should lead us to repentance Rom. 2.5 And O that it might so do 2. Consider how much we have provoked God and what advantage we have given him in Justice against us I would fay here as Christ speaks in another case Luke 13. begin Suppose ye that those Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their Sacrifices were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Or those eighteen upon whom the Tower of Siloah fell and slew them think ye they were sinners above all the men that dwelt in Jerusalem I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish So say I here suppose ye that those that are gone down to the gates of the grave and the bars of death before us were greater sinners than we I tell you nay but except we repent we must all likewise perish We have sinned as well as they and possibly in many regards more than they To be sure we have all over and over deserved long since to have been covered with the shadow of the Night of eternal darkness O how has the patience of God been tried and his long-sufferings put to it by us What a burden have we been to his Soul Some of us have cause to think that we have been as great a burden to God as most that ever lived How justly may the blessed God complain of many of us That we have made him to serve with our sins and wearied him with our iniquities as he did of them of old Isa 43.24 that we have broke his heart with our whorish heart whereby we have departed from him Ezek. 6.9 that our sins have pressed him down as a Cart is pressed that is full of Sheaves Amos 2.13 Alas Alas How have we wallowed in our pollutions and acted out the enmity and rebellion of our natures against him How have we rejected his Word resisted his Spirit despised his Grace trampled upon his Son refused many and many an offer of love and many a sweet Call and blessed invitation to come to the Marriage-supper of the Lamb And yet that he should still spare us O what mercy is this In the 1 Pet. 3.20 we read that the long-suffering of God waited in the dayes of Noah And truly my Beloved it waits as much in our dayes our provocations being as many and as high against him as theirs of that Generation were O Sirs why are we not in Hell Why are we not sealed and shut up among the damned Why have we one Call more one offer more one season of Grace more Verily 't is all rich Mercy O that it might lead us to Repentance 3. Consider how sad it had been with us had the Lord taken that advantage against us which we have over and over given him Suppose my Beloved God had not spared us but had cut us off as he might long since what now had been become of us And where now had we been Had you died of such and such a sickness you have been in when possibly a sentence of Death was passed upon you both by your selves and others and there was really but a step between death and you where and how miserable had you now been Had you not been now in the flames eternally separated from God and Christ Being Godless and Christless Have you not now cause to fear you had been in as irrecoverable a condition as the Devils themselves are in sealed up under wrath and condemnation past all hopes and possibility of mercy for ever Whither had I gone saith Austin if then speaking of the time that he was in his sins I had gone hence Whither had I gone but into the flames and into eternal torments answerable to my sins May not we say the like But blessed be God it is yet time and season with me and you we are spared to this hour that we might provide for death and Eternity O Sirs suppose you or I were now among the damned suppose we were as they are sealed up under wrath and separated from God left under an utter impossibility of ever seeing his face how sad then would our condition be Why thus it might have been with us O what mercy then is it that God has spared us and doth-spare us as he does And how should it awaken us to our work 4. Consider how much more sad it may and will yet be with us in case we provide not for
a dying hour Truly the longer God spares us if we answer not his end in his sparing mercy the more miserable shall we be for ever It will be sad to perish at all but it will be doubly sad to perish under the long-suffering of God under the abuse of much goodness and long patience O to have many dayes and many years patience and goodness come in to witness against a man at last how sad will this be Think of and seriously lay to heart that Scripture Rom. 2.4 5. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous Judgment of God Every day which God in his patience affords us if we be not led to repentance is a day of treasuring up wrath heaping up to our selves wrath against the day of wrath when wrath shall come upon us to the uttermost Well think then what a mercy it is that God spares you as he does and what an Obligation this sparing mercy of his is upon you to set all things right in the matters of your souls against a dying hour comes 4. Are you sure that those helps and advantages which now you enjoy to further you in your work will alwayes last and be injoyed by you Suppose my Beloved that God should yet spare you and prolong your dayes in the Land of the Living Yet O how soon may all your helps and advantages to further you in this great Work be withdrawn from you Now blessed be God you injoy many blessed helps and advantages for your furtherance in this great Work but how quickly may they all be gone 1. How soon may the Reproofs the Counsels the Holy Examples of your godly Friends Ministers and Relations be withdrawn from you now you injoy the loving Reproofs the wholesome Counsels the Holy Examples of such and such Friends and Relations one reproves you for sin another quickens you to duty one dehorts you from the World and carnal pleasure another perswades you to close with Christ and walk with God to pursue after Heaven and eternal life one wooes and beseeches you another charges and commands you to labour to know God and to live to him to provide for another life and they all shew you the path of Life they tread the way to Heaven in your sight All which are great helps and advantages to further you in this Great Concern of yours But how soon may all these be withdrawn thy Friends thy Ministers thy Relations will speedily be lodged in the dust and thou shalt never have a word of reproof a word of counsel a word of quickning a word of encouragement or a pattern of faith and holiness set before thee by them any more for ever which would be a dreadful thing Now thy godly Father Mother Yoke-fellow Master Friend and Acquaintance is plying thee with counsels and instructions for the good of thy Soul to morrow it may be he or she goes down to the Gates of the Grave and then no more of this for ever 2. How soon may the Word and Ordinances of God which you now enjoy be withdrawn from you Now you enjoy the Word and Ordinances of God you go from Ordinance to Ordinance you have line upon line precept upon precept as it is Isa 28.10 Yea let me tell you you see and hear those things which many Prophets and righteous men have desired to see and hear but saw and heard them not Matth. 13.16 O how is Light and immortality brought to light to you How is the Way of Salvation made plain and manifest before you What glorious discoveries What blessed revelations What sweet and frequent tenders of Christ are made to you How freely are you called to the Marriage-supper of the Lamb How lovingly does Christ invite you to himself How kindly does he stand knocking at the Door of your souls O my Beloved I may now say to you as Paul to the Corinthians 2 Cor. 6.2 Behold Now is the accepted time now is the day of Salvation O what helps and advantages are these But how soon may they all be gone How soon may the Word of God be withdrawn How soon may your light be put out and your souls left in darkness not knowing whither to go Remember that word of Christ and lay it to heart John 12.35 Yet a little while is the light with you walk while ye have the light least darkness come upon you and he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth While you have the light believe in the light that you may be the Children of the light It is a great question whether we may not lose Gospel-Ordinances and all and where are we then 3. How soon may the motions and strivings of the Spirit of God be withdrawn from you Now you have the motions and strivings of the Spirit of God in you and with you he moves upon the face of the waters in your souls he moves and strives in and by the Word and Ordinances Mercies and afflictions now you have enlightening and then you have quickening influences from him now he shews you your work and then he tenders you his assistance now he discovers the odiousness of sin to you and then he displays the beauty sweetness and excellency of Christ and holiness before you But alas How soon may all this be at an end Think of that terrible word Gen. 6.3 My Spirit shall no more strive with man God may possibly the next day yea the next hour say to his Spirit concerning one or another of us let him alone strive no more with him move no more in him convince him no more perswade him no more draw and allure him no more he is addicted to his lusts and to this World let him alone he has no mind to Heaven no desire to make any provision for another World let them alone he is unwilling to see beyond time to eternity he is given to his carnal pleasures let him alone he has a resisting gain-saying spirit let him alone O how soon these and all other helps and advantages you now enjoy may be withdrawn who knows You have all these together in one Scripture which I desire you to lay to heart Luke 19.41 42. When he was come near he beheld the City speaking of Jerusalem and wept over it saying If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong to thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes They had had a day they did injoy the things of their peace they might and should have improved their day and the things of their peace by securing their eternal state But they neglected it and now all these are withdrawn from them which caused the Lord of Glory the Joy of the whole Earth to weep over them so