hadest with him during the time thou wast upon Earth what Apprehensions thou hadst of him what Adresses thou madst to him as a Mediatour an Advocate and Saviour what Faith thou hast had in him whether there was an agreement made between him and thee whil'st thy dayes were in being that thou wouldst give up thy Soul and Body and Sins to him thy Unrighteousness and Righteousness and that he would undertake to satisfie the Justice of God and appease his Wrath for thee and reconcile thee to his Father that he would cloth thee with his Righteousness and sanctifie thy Nature by his Holy Word and Spirit that he would make thee meet to be a partaker of Glory and present thee blameless and unreproveable in the sight of God and give thee a full possession of an everlasting Kingdom and Glory with himself what fear thou hadst upon thy Heart in thy dayes of the Great God whether in every thing thou didst in Natural Civil and Religious Actions thou didst design and aim at his Glory How thy Affections were placed and what kind of love passed between thee and the World during their abode there what acts of Self-denial and Mortification thou put forth what exercise of Heavenly-mindedness what Duties thou didst and how they were done how thou didst honour God in the Conditions he placed thee what patience and contentedness in a low condition what humility meekness and repentance in an high condition how thou bore sickness and straits and how thou used thy riches and how honest thou wast in thy dealings There will be no discourses there of such vain matters as are here below but as Paul discoursed of Temperance and Righteousness and the Judgment to come of Uprightness and Sincerity and unfeigned Repentance and a true and full closing with the Person of Christ the Son of the Living God equal with the Father the Mediatour for poor Sinners the Saviour of all that truly believe on his Name and come to him what Obedience thou manifested to his Laws how thou loved him and kept his Commandments how thou loved the Brethren and there by manifested thy being passed from Death to life how fruitful thou wast in all good works and thereby didst justify thy Faith to be sound and true and of the right kind how willing and desirous thou was to do much for God and how little thou didst esteem thy self the better for what thou didst but how much thou didst abhor thy self and hate thy self for thy daily defects manifold infirmities and much unsuitable carriage to such great goodness and loving kindness and unworthiness of such rich Grace and Mercy c. Of this Nature will be the Discourses then and the more thou hast been exercised in these thing the greater will be thy consolation Oh my Beloved where is that Professor that lives under the serious frequent and powerful meditation of these things this and the other work I am imployed in this and the other thing I am discoursing of if God should now cut off the threed of my Life what should I be advantaged hereby would it turn to my advantage when I come in the presence of the Great God shall I be glad that I was exercised or rather wish that I had never medled or been concerned in such affairs and matters our dayes are not intended to be the dayes of Noah and Lot wherein Men built and planted and bought and sold and married and were given in Marriage all these Lawful things and not one of them sinful that is that did do all these things as the work of the day for themselves and rested in them rejoiced themselves in them and did not do them with respect to another Life with such fear regularity moderation righteous principles and designs as would have yeelded them comfort when those dayes had been cut off in another world are we not fallen into such dayes as Noah's and Lot's were eating drinking c. Eating Drinking is an unlawful thing if you do not do it to the Glory of God and honour God in it observe it as there is no time allotted for sin so neither are there any dayes allowed for the doing of lawful and good actions if they have not a reference to Eternity thy Prayers and Almes and duties are not numbred aright if they be not numbred for God and another world if they be numbred for thy self and thy present interest they are quite lost and which is worse do become sin and so prove mortal and damning you see how necessary it is to number every day for Eternity if thou mindest this Rule thou wilt reap much fruit hereafter from thy common and worldly actions because hereby those actions which otherwise are but common and worldly actions as the actions of our ordinary and homliest callings we shall sanctifie them and translate them out of themselves and their own base Element into an higher Orb and Element viz. to go as for actions truly holy and Religious and parts of God's own worship before him and rewardable as so at his hand 's what a comfort might this be to Men in going about worldly callings to the very Shuttleman and Sheersman Spinster and Carder and the veriest drudge and droil in the servilest condition what a comfort this to consider that if they do but honestly and faithfully in obedience to God that hath set them in those callings go about them they might sanctifie those and the like actions and translate them out of a Worldly into an Heavenly Orb and Element and Glorifie God and by that thou providest for Eternity as well in their proportion by those actions as the Angels that stand continually before God do by their standing and praising and singing Hallelujahs to him The poor Servants that in obedience to God do faithful and honest service be it in never such drudgeries to their Master are said to adorn thereby the Doctrine of God Titus 2.10 And is not this a working a numbring time and work for Eternity those that honour him and his Gospel he will honour them another day What a comfort is this that meer drudgeries and Worldly Actions that might seem only to smell of the World and this present life and time that these being gone about in the Obedience and Fear of God baulking iniquity and injustice in them may go for Holy and Heavenly actions The actions of the vertuous Woman Prov. 31. a Man would think were the actions only of a meer worldling she seeketh wool and flax c. yet those and such-like are all the actions for which she is called a vertuous Woman in the Beginning and to have done vertuously above all in the latter end Many Daughters have done vertuously but thou excellest them all and the next verse shews the reason because she did these in the Fear of the Lord A Woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised shall have praise at the end of dayes
old puritan one of his hearers One story relates the conversion of King Edwink about the year 600 together with his Kingdom which contained especially Yorkshire Thus a wise Courtier of his when he heard of a Christ that promiseth Eternal happiness was preached unto him reasoned with him This present life of our's O King sayes he in regard of the uncertain time that was before us and shall be after us is but like the flying of a Bird here through your entry in at one door and presently out at another whilst you and your Nobles in a stormy blustering day sit warm here about your Hall-fire the poor bird for small moment of time whilst she was in your entry felt not the cold and stormy weather but that was for a very short moment and presently she did but as it were dart through from storm to storm so this present life of our's is but a very short thing but a Bird's flight through your entry what went before and what follows after we utterly know not and therefore if this new Doctrine bring us any more certainty and after a short flight through this entry can tell us how and where we shall live happy for ever by all means let us imbrace it this was a great motive to his conversion as also of his People The other passage is of the Son of an Heathen Emperour whom his Father for fear he should turn Christian laboured by all means to keep from entertaining a thought of future happiness or of Death or of the shortness of this Worldl's pleasures lest hereby he should be driven to embrace the Christian Religion that promiseth after this Life an Happiness Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us The Emperour that his Son should never think of any such future happiness cansed him to be brought up in a most Glorious Palace and attended there with gallant attendants fresh and comely and youthful and that he should never see nor ' bear of the miseries of this Life as Death old Age Sickness Poverty c. to the end that he should think of nothing but the present happiness afterwards the young Man desiring to recreate himself with going abroad his Father appointed that the officers should take order that all things irksome and unpleasant should be removed out of the way and that there should be nothing but Song and Musick and Danceing and delightful sights in his way but upon a time through the negligence of his Officers he espyed an old decayed writhen Man ready to drop into his Grave whereupon being somewhat moved he demanded what would become of that Miserable Creature Answer was returned that he should shortly Die and be Buried in the Earth and what shall all Men Die likewise saies he or some only nay all say they all must Die and within how many Years Eighty or an hundred at most and when he had heard this it would never out of his thoughts but still he was mourning out these Words and what shall Death also seize within such a time upon me shall I within such a time bid sarewel to all my pleasures why then Laughter than art mad and Mirth what dost thou and why should Madness be in my Heart whilst I live and after that go to the Dead and then to have a Living Dog to be better than I a Dead Lyon and thus his troubled Heart coursed him with these thoughts and would never let him res till Christianity brought him to a lively hope of that other Happiness Now it were good as this made him of a pagan a Christian so our Hearts would course us thus to make same of us that are Christians only in shew to be Christians in Power and to be Sanctified by the Spirit of Regeneration that when we fail we may be received into Everlasting Habitations what a Madness is it counted in the foot in the Gospel to say Soul set up thy Rest when he was removed before he bad well warmed his seat One of the Ancients tells a Story of one whom the World did strive as it were to make Happy he had an Healthful Body he had pleasant Friends fruitful Grounds good Succes s in all things and what else might make for his pleasure and yet was miserable because he feared still left all these might quickly have an end now he was well but he could not tell whether he might not be Sick ere to morrow now his Friends were Faithful but c. The Sea is not to be trusted no not when it smiles upon us in a moment it is all in a Storm and the same Day Ships are swallowed up there where they played at Anthor before How much does it concern us to learn the meaning of that Eccles 7.2 It is better to go to the House of Mourning than to the House of Feasting for that is the End of all Men namely Death and the Living will lay it to Heart At the sight of the Spectacle of Mortality we will happily begin to consider how vain all the Hopes and Purposes and Desires of Men here are that now at Death will have an End and thereupon begin to think of some more solid and enduring Heppines how shuld we Prize the Gospel our Religion that teach us how in this small pittance of time we may make good Provision for an Eternal and Everlasing state how should our Faith and Repentance and Holy Meditation and Communion with God and Heavenly Mindedness be furthered by this and whatever it is that hath a tendency to our well-being in the World that is to come which shall never have an End Consult Heb. 11.8 9 10. In the 32. of Ezekiel there are reckoned up the flourishing and mighty Kings and Kingdoms of the Earth Egypt and Elam c. and still it is added and expressed of them that though they cause their terrour in the Land of the living yet they are gone into the Nethermost Parts of the Earth though by our Greatness and Riches we may cause a little envy in the World by our Parts of body or mind beauty wit strength or policy cause a little admiration in the land of the living yet one Day ere long we shall go down into the nethermost parts of the Earth It 's said in the 27 ver of that Chapter That the mighty Men are laid in their Graves and their Swords Under their Heads the phrase as a Learned Man observes is borrowed from the Heathenish manner of burying their Warriours and great Worthies with their Weapons or Conquering Swords under their Heads the Wealthy ones that buy and sell and get gain shall be laid in the Grave with their Bags and Bonds and Evidences under their Heads they that Glory in Titles of Honour shall be laid in their Grave with their Coats and Scutcheons laid under their Heads the fair and beauteous that now rejoice in their fresh and lovely complexions shall
of the Spirit after them that they fell not a whit short of Heaven what wrestling was there then of Faith what strugling then of hope what working and striving of patience then thou came to know effectually the meaning of those Scriptures Hope maketh not ashamed we are saved by hope in patience possess ye your Souls thou then felt more charity more bowels more compassion more fellows-feeling of others troubles then thou came to know better the meaning of that Text which perhaps in thy fair Dayes thou never considered so much Remember them that are in Adversity as being your selves also in the Body having paslible weak Bodies subject to all the like miseries which you see in others and what the Preacher intended when he exhorts to give a portion to seven and also to eight for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the Earth whether such evil may not be in the World that may bring thee to like need How was thou then weaned from the world how didst thou contemn it the pleasures honours and riches of it thou did experience the mutable and tranfitoty Nature of them thou gave earnest heed to our Saviour's Counsel Lay not up for your selves treasures on Earth where moth and rust corrupt and where thieves break through and steal but lay up for your selves treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust can corrupt nor thieves dig through and steal and then thou conned over the Apostle Pauls hard lesson and got it pretty perfect That they that had Wives should be a though they had none they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not they that buy as though they possessed not for the fashion of this World passeth away Thus though there was a decay upon thy outward-man by reason of Affliction yet the inward man was renewed day by day those dayes which helped thee nearer Heaven and made thee more fit and more willing to die were good dayes now painful and tormenting so ever they were in the passing through them and those dayes which delighted thy fleshly desires and carnal part which were very pleasant to the outward-man but did make thee neglect duty or slubber it over did deaden thy Spirit in it and caused a decay in thy zeal and Love and delight in God and made thee less mindful of the great concerns of thy pretious Soul those dayes though seemingly happy and blessed in their spending were not so good dayes be careful therefore of reckoning and numbring right about your conditions and out ward states and beings in the World and mourn over the disorder thou hast put thy self into by not placing thy condition right and placing thy self aright in it but by bustling and quarrelling at some times with thy state and thy over pleasedness again another time with it Thou hast been still disturbing and doing harm both to thy self and others what hard and loud words have passed between thee and thy adverse state have hot some over-heard thee saying that thou thought no Bodies condition was worse than thine none so straitned none so perplexed what sickness thou didst undergo what pain thou went through what poverty and pinching thou endured what crosses every way thou met with and wishing thou had had not been born or that thou might quickly die and be removed out of this troublesome World or that God would but be so kind to thee that thou might but live as such and such do though their conditions are not looked on as the best c And to answer this chiding temper has not that witness for God in thy own Conscience and of his kindness to thee in every condition made this smart reply Oh what a murmuring unbeleeving Creature art thou What nothing but complaints look about thee canst thou find nothing to thank God for is thy case so bad that all comfort is shut out of it thou art out of Hell which thou deserves every moment that 's a Mercy art not thou in health many would give thousands to enjoy as much of that as thou dost art thou harbourless knows not where to have a lodging to night that 's the condition of many a good Soul where cruelty and persecution Reigns art thou hungry and knows not where to get bread this day it's a great Mercy to have bread for the day and a greater to be able to beg and believe on God for bread for the day a lesson which I heard a worthy Minister say the Lord had taught him and an high piece of Learning it is The Apostle knew what he said and that it was a great degree he had attained to when he professed I have learned in the things wherein I am therewith to be self-sufficient there is a kind of self-sufficiency in every good contented mind he is rich not that has much but that does not desire much Art thou thirsty and knows not where to get some good water art thou cold and knows not where to get a covering to keep thee warm But for thy Spiritual estate art thou tempted so was Christ who was in all points tempted likeas we are that we might come boldly to the Throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find grace to help in time of need and has promised that he will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able and is it your misery that you are called to follow the Captain of your Salvation in the honourable path of suffering the highway to peace and rest and Glory Art thou under the tidings of his love did not the Lord Jesus cry out my God my God why hast thou forsaken me Art thou unwilling that the Lord should make a trial of thy Love and faithfulness to him whether thou will abide for him and that by endear himself more to thee and prepare thee for fuller manifestations and them for thee Dost thou complain of an hard unbelieving Heart its a mercy thou feels it to be so how many hard Hearts in the World that are not felt they that can say and cry out save us Master we perish shall never sink if there be sense there is life though that life may be a very sickly Life thy condition is sase though it it may be very uneasie where there is the root of the matter where there is the living substance if circumstances be a little troublesome it may be born better a little crying here than weeping and wailing hereafter pains and pangs and gripings here are kindly and not at all dangerous To conclude this wilt thou for the future keep a better account of thy condition wilt thou number and place the Providences of God towards thee in better order this right reckoning will reconcile thee to all the difpensations of God and make you long Friends this will be your Wisdom and this is your way to true Wisdom and so much for this Ufe of Lamentation and Humiliation It is much to be bewailed and that because
interest of the Lord Jesus we have practised that in our selves which we have condemned in others and never any People had more pretious opportunities and improved them less we have put Death far from us and lived as if this world would never have an end and as if the World to come would never have a Beginning c. Now for others to lay these things to our charge makes us odious and ugly But for us to charge our selves will make us look lovely and Beautiful there is a vast difference between others speaking of us and our own speaking of our selves though the words be the very same The story of Jonah if another had writ it would have made Jonah appear very deformed but as he writes it himself it rendershim a true penicent let us lament our not doing our work in our day our not minding our work and season and making them meet what a deal of work might we have done more than we have if we had forted and counted and numbred our work aright we have been confounded as the Builders of Babel We have done much that needed not have been done and we have been doing of one thing when we should have been doing another we have been repenting when we should have been believing and believing when we should have been repenting we have been caring when we should have been trusting we have been weeping when we should have been rejoicing and rejoicing when we should have been mourning we have been doing and undoing and as a Man that has lost his way travels hard but is no nearer his journeys end may it may be comes to the place whence he first set forth I assure you it is matter of trouble to consider what confusion we have brought our selves into and upon our Spirits for want of this wisdom to number our work-daies we have been a disorderly People we have not put our general and particular callings into good method we do things in the first place which should be done in the second and that in the second which ought to possess the first let me tell you Earthly cares will not sit comfortably and thrivingly in the first nor Heavenly thoughts in the second because the one will be too high and the other too low for their elevation it is a deslowring of early morning-time to lodge the world with it and it is a disgraceing of the things of God to present them with the small reliques and stale afterlings of your time I am perswaded this is the very thing the Psalmist aimes at in this Text that he might have wisdom to know his time and his work and the proper work for the day that time might not be done before the work was done and that work might not be misplaced and mislaid it must needs therefore be our great folly and loss who are guilty of so much misplacing why must worldly thoughts come in in the morning as soon as thou art awake and defile blast and canker thy Soul when good thoughts would have edged it prepared it and put a savour upon it which would not have worn off all day why must thy counter come up stairs into thy closet the concerns of thy calling look upon thee whilst thou art praying and meditating and conversing with God and about the condition and state of thy Soul and its Everlasting well-being we should be Heavenly-minded in Earthly imployments and we are Earthly-minded in Heavenly imployments get as much of Heaven as ever thou canst to attened thee in thy wordly matters it will wonderfully facilitate and preosper thy work it will make it go on with ease and pleasure a Bible upon a loom or shop-board never hinders work Meat and Morning Prayer never hinder work holy ejaculations and good discourse will not weaken the hands that labour a serious thought in the midst of thy worldly business never causes interruption or disorder And as you must take heed of misplaceing your work so be careful you do not misplace the dispensations and providences of God to you for this belongs to the numbring of your daies for you are apt to call your good dayes your bad ones and your worst dayes your best The account will never come even when receipts are placed as disbursments do not expect a right ballance you have had many dayes of Affliction Sorrow and pain your hands have been alwaies full now if you reckon all these dayes as bad dayes you do not number right Again you have had a few Sun-shine dayes you have enjoyed prosperity and you call these good dayes whereas it may be these have been ensnaring and straitning to your Souls and the former have been quickning purging cleansing and inwardly comforting the dayes which the Children of Israel spent in the Wilderness were not their worst dayes for there the Lord fed them with manna bread which came down from Heaven The wilderness-grape is the sweetest grape the best vineyards from thence Rock-water is the purest water and no honey so sweet as that which came out of the Lyon though no affliction for the present seems joyous but grievous but the peaceable fruits of Righteousness which it yieldeth afterwards to them that are exercised therein make amends for all it may be when thou considers it well those dayes of thy youth when the secret of God was upon thy Tabernacle thy Children about thee when thou washed thy steps with butter the Rock poured thee out rivers of Oyl c will not be accounted numbred for the best dayes thou wilt see cause upon due reflection to confess that thy Spirit was more dull and heavy and slothful thou was not so lively in duty didst not enjoy so much Communion with God as thou hast done in some other dayes that were more dark and cloudy and at great deal more pinching and painful to go through thou mayest remember in those shining dayes what expence thy watchfulness put thee to How thou was continually upon thy guard lest thou should be ensnared and thy affections be carried beyond due bounds it 's difficult case where we are so desirous to drink much and yet can but bear little to resist is troublesome to yield is dangerous to love the Creature no more than it should be and to love God as much as he ought to be thou canst tell likewise that in those other daves of straitness and want and sicknese and disgrace and perplexity though they were very ungrateful and unpleasing to the outward man thou had frequent visits from God corruption did not so work and stir in thy heart Satan was not so busie to defile thee with his temptations thou hadst many a comforable half-hour which no body saw or took notice of thou couldest pray then thou couldest pour out Prayer thou wast all Prayer thy Prayers came from thee like hot burning sparks out of a flaming furnace or like darts out of a Gyants Hand with such a jerk