they should live for ever although they see how little truly sufficeth and know not how soon far less may If therefore Christians were fully convinc'd That their Lives would not last for ever and if they believed That an endless state is to follow they would proportion their thoughts to their Interests a temporary concern should have a transitory Care and an Eternal concern should have their constant Care And therefore they would be mindful of the Present For though we are forbid to take thought for the Morrow we are not forbid to take thought for the immediate Day At first view this may seem too narrow a compass for the large and active Spirit of Man But if it be seriously considered it will appear That as the Evil so the Duty of the Day is sufficient for it For who is there that can say as in the presence of God that He hath during that short space ordered a-right his Thoughts his Words and his Deeds Who hath not offended in so few hours If an ancient Christian found it hard to practise one short lesson Socrat. l. 4. c. 23. that was read to him out of the Psal 39. 1. I said I will take heed to my ways that I offend not with my tongue If he was a long time before he could fulfil that Precept Surely then the guiding well the Lips and the Heart and its Imaginations that are set on Evil will not be an easie task to perform though but for so short a time Our Saviour reproach'd his Disciples that they could not watch with him one hour and even one hour well watch'd the Eleventh hour spent in God's Vineyard will not be without a reward The penitent Thief who employed well the last Moments of his Death rather than Life was that day with Christ in Paradise For God regards the sincerity of Conversion and Perseverance after it and not only the length of time wherein he is serv'd And therefore they are sure to be blessed who are faithful One Day if it be their Last A Heathen could cry out that One Day led according to the Precepts of Wisdom was to be prefer'd before a sinning Immortality How highly then ought Christians to value and employ well One the Present Day which shall be rewarded with a holy and happy Immortality And if after humble Adoration of God and praising Him who brings them to the beginning of another day which they could not promise themselves they seriously resolv'd by the assistance of His Grace religiously to serve Him that day in their Vocations and if in the Evening they examin'd themselves how they had past that day which may be their last and found they had walk'd before God in His fear and as looking to give an account to Him of their deeds with what comfort might they lay down their heads each night and wish they might wake in Eternity But when they review but one day's actions too many will find much cause of shame and grief many failings to be confest and much pardon to be ask'd And yet through God's blessing on this their inquiry as they would be more Strict in their Lives Faithful in their Callings Charitable in their Censures and Regular in their Devotions so they would find that they had little time to spare for unnecessary Thoughts of the Morrow Nay they would then be convinc'd That this World in which our stay is so doubtful and so full of disappointments whose joys are so false and so short and whose sorrows so true and so lasting is not worth their utmost seriousest concern for it and no way deserves their being mighty sollicitous for what shall befall them in it And therefore they would as Travellers look transiently on what past here having their hearts set chiefly on their Country which is above and on that blessed state of Glory that hereafter shall be revealed Since then we know that we dwell in Tabernacles of Clay carrying in our Bodies the Sentence of God and liable to all the Evils that any day hath brought on any distressed Person Family or Nation What is it that they who pretend so much to be concern'd for the future ought to mind but that Future which shall never end and to provide what will survive the great evil day All the good things of this Life however eagerly sought hardly obtain'd and carefully kept here must be left behind Onely our good Works Onely the Fruits of Faith in God and Conformity to the blessed Jesus Onely our Charity and participation of the Divine Nature will accompany us to and be of use at the Tribunal of Christ Hear we then our Lord teaching us while it is called to day to seek the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and to look on this Life only as a portion of Time assign'd us to work out in it our Eternal Salvation And if mindful of this happy end of a Christian Race we are sober and just humble and heavenly-minded if we constantly do each day the duty of the day as if at night we were to answer for it and live each day as not knowing that any more may be allow'd us but in it our Lord may come upon us We shall then with mighty assurance though the Earth be never so unquiet and the Powers of it tremble commit to God's guidance our Bodies Souls and Spirits our Country and His Church and shall find that God will govern all to His Glory and for our Everlasting Salvation To Him Father Son and Holy Ghost Three Persons and One God be Glory and Honour for ever Amen FINIS
the Soul that decency of behaviour that watching of fit opportunities that courtesie and eloquence of Speech which no pre-meditation could furnish and proves a kind of Inspiration Besides There is so great variety in the affairs which any day may produce that the wisest of men cannot foresee nor if they could can they provide against the evils thereof and therefore it is observ'd that they miscarry frequently in weighty concerns of Peace and War who are strictly tyed up by Commission and may not act as is plainly best but as they are directed by absent though Wise Superiours For there are Critical moments as in diseases so in all concerns of Life and the wisdom of Man consists not so much in deep fore-cast as in being watchful and ready to lay hold on the present advantages And accordingly God gives his blessing not to them who by profound thought pretend to fore-tell the designs of the Eternal Mind But to them who diligently observe and improve the opportunities his Providence offers And therefore the Wise are confounded in their Plots the Achitophels are disappointed in their Counsels are still baffled by somewhat which with all their skill they could not foresee God thereby shewing that not the shallow and bounded capacity of Man but an infinite Spirit only can comprehend what is to come For our Body is contained in a very narrow space and our Spirit moves in a very narrow sphere The entrances whereby we admit knowledge are streight suited to our minds which can perceive but by degrees easie orderly and simple and are overpowered with variety when not leisurely offered And therefore as our Eyes are very serviceable if their objects are presented successively and in a determined distance beyond which all is obscure and uncertain So that Spirit which God hath plac'd in Man perceives with much clearness what it considers singly and what nearly concerns it But is amazed and in confusion when it grasps at many things especially what regards futurities If therefore Christians will distract themselves with the apprehensions of what may and what may not happen if they will extend their sollicitousness to after Years and to what as yet lies hid in its Causes They will be convinc'd in time that their thoughtfulness increased their Sin and no way prevented what they feared and that therefore it is Wisdom to let the Day take thought for the things of it self and that the rather because as our Saviour urgeth for a Second Argument II. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof By Evil here is meant that Vaxation and Sorrow which every day may bring upon us not that Evil of guilt for which we must answer Is there any evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it Saith the Prophet Amos Amos iii. 6. He doth not mean any Blasphemy or Uncleanness any Rapine or Murther Far be it from God to be the Author of tho' he for a time permits such Crimes But the execution of Vengeance the Viols of Wrath poured out on Nations in Pestilence or War These are appointed by that God who declares I make peace and create evil I the Lord Isai xlv 7 do all these things Forasmuch then as the heart of Man is on that Evil of Sin continually which God will certainly visit with the Evil of Affliction therefore as sure as wickedness increaseth so surely will Tribulation and sore Distress For as God hath declared he will send it So Vice of its Nature begets misery and anguish of Mind as it doth sickness of Body variance with Men and confusion in Affairs For this cause since we cannot foresee That truly Holy Day in which no Sin against God shall be committed and by it his vengeance provoked who can promise himself that any day shall pass without some Visitation The ancient Heathens imagined that every one who entred this Life had a Cup of Good and Evil mingled given to him and that though some had a larger measure of Sorrow than others yet none escaped without a Dose of Evil enough to embitter all their enjoyments We know from better Authority that Man that is born of a woman hath but a short Job xiv 1 5 7. time to live and is full of misery and that He is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward And we may judge by past experience that no particle of our Life can pass but may have in it vexation sufficient to discompose the quiet and poison the comforts of so frail and perishable Creatures as we are And therefore since we are so weak and so transitory and nothing consumes our strength more than anxious care for the future It is very unadvisedly done of us to anticipate our Sorrows which will be grievous enough in their proper time They who must drink up a very nauseous potion are not counsel'd to taste of it often before-hand and be disgusted at many parts of that draught which they need but once take and but once know its offensiyeness Therefore as we esteem them very indiscreet who having plenty for many years waste all they have in one riotous entertainment or any moment any voluptuousness So we may look on them as extremely unhappy who having allotted them a portion of trouble in this World which is to be taken by degrees and at several times through Fears and jealousies and over inquisitiveness bring all their Evil on themselves at once and are over-whelmed with a burden which divided might have been easily supported If by much thinking and repining beforehand the sorrow that is feared may be prevented if by taking the cares that belong to the Morrow on this Day they are ended then sollicitousness for the future will be singular Prudence But saith S. Chrysostome if you are never so thoughtful for the Morrow you must nevertheless bear its weight when it is laid on you and have also the grief of having bore it in vain Why then do you so greedily gain so great a loss Why do you give way to Fears which like untimely preventive Physick makes you actually ill least it may be hereafter you should be so Be content with what is at present laid on you that is enough for a Creature who is but of vesterday and it may be will not be here till tomorrow We know that there is no sort of affliction which befalleth one man but may befal another None have any exemption privilege or prerogative whereby they are secured against Sickness however painful or loathsome against disgraces in their persons or relations or the slanders or violence of wicked Men No one knows but he may be the next object of pity by sudden death For it is appointed for all men to die Heb. ix 27. and no one can tell how soon But how few in health disquiet themselves with the apprehensions of what is most certain and how wretched would they be who should go about seriously to provide against all the casualties of Life
But we are forbid that pining care which neither acquiesces in any tho' large provision already made nor in God's Providence Christ doth not forbid Industry nor laying up any store for another day For he himself had a bag though Judas carried it But Christ forbids that distraction and unsatisfiable distrust which never believes there can be enough heaped up nor that there is any wiser care than its own employed and watching over us For our Holy Faith requires Christians to Work that they may have wherewith to supply themselves and give Ephes iv 28. to them that need It forbids us not to sowe or reap or gather into barns as L. de Opere Monachorum c. 1. some vagabond Monks in S. Augustin's time interpreted the 26. ver imitating the Fowles of the Air But it requires us to believe that having done what lies in us we should expect the increase from God knowing that we live not by bread alone however multiplyed but by every word Matt. iv 4 that proceedeth out of his mouth and therefore we ought not to be thoughtful for the Morrow otherwise than we see Servants are who work for Masters whom they have found just and bountiful They question not their Wages and are therefore chearfully industrious Much more then ought Christians to banish all carking gnawing despairing Fears since they have already had such experience of God's goodness who hath so often filled their hearts with food and gladness This being premis'd We may consider that we ought I. To take no thought for the morrow for the morrow will take thought for the things of it self By the Morrow here our Saviour doth not strictly mean the following day but that time to come in which we may be concern'd And when he saith that to Morrow shall take thought for the things of it self He by a figurative expression as is observ'd supposeth the time or day to have a personal knowledge of what belongs to it Intimating that as certainly as the days come on and succeed each other regular in their varieties and true to their fix'd lengths in their several seasons So certainly there shall appear the same general steddy care that hath hitherto watch'd over the works of the Creation and more especially over the Church of Christ and we can have no more reason to doubt of the continuance of the same Providence in governing the World than we doubt of the return of Darkness or Light each Day or each Night If the Day it self were as the Heathens imagined the Sun to be a Deity or God it could not more orderly arise then during its revolution will be visible here an over-ruling Soveraign Power and Wisdom And therefore as we expecting the goings out of the Morning and Evening perform or design at least all the acts that our occasions may require as we do not in the least question that Summer and Winter seed-time and harvest Gen. viii 22. will be according to God's Promise Though all these Seasons may be sometimes longer or shorter more favourable or more unkind than other while As we see periods of Life and Governments continue So we ought not to doubt but that the things of to Morrow whether they concern our Bodies or our Souls our Families or our Countries will succeed as is appointed They will not happen as an unsteady blind fortune shall confusedly throw them together But as hath from everlasting been decreed by a much wiser Mind than any we can substitute in its place Some Poets fancy that when Man first saw the Sun he was mightily pleased at the sight of so glorious an Object and at its Light so charming But that when he beheld the Sun setting he followed looking after him as long as was possible and at the disappearing of the Light despair'd of day again Though this be but a fiction it too truly represents the practice of too many The beauty of Order and the blessings of Peace are so pleasing and desirable that some Christians can no sooner see them overcast or withdrawn but they believe them gone for ever and lament as if they could never be restored But as the first Man to his unspeakable Joy saw the Sun rising again where he did not look for him and afterwards perceiv'd that after darkness he would return after Eclipses he would Shine out again So Christians who submit their wills to the Will of God will to their comfort find that Joy will come after Sadness and that as all the inanimate Beings and Creatures move and act according to the simple Eternal Laws which God at first set down So Men with all their folly and Devils with all their rage can go no farther than was foreseen and is permitted are acted by their own malice yet execute God's decree and reign but for a fix'd time Generations shall go and Generations shall come Trouble and Sorrow shall be very great disorder shall seem to have got the full power over the World But though the Earth be never so unquiet the Lord ruleth over all And the fiercer and violenter confusions are the sooner they waste themselves Storms may arise so furious that young Mariners who never saw the like may imagine Heaven and Earth are quite lost and nothing be lookt for but another Chaos But when He that sits above the Antient of Days speaks the Word Let there be Light there shall be Light Let there be Peace there shall be Peace They therefore whose Faith is founded on this perswasion are best secured against fears and anxieties about the future Since they are sure that he who orders the present hath the same care of that which is to come and the same power over it in which belief they are confirmed by having been disappointed in former amazements God having by ways unthought of by Man restor'd safety when all humane help was despair'd of Therefore they cast their burdens upon him committing their Souls to him in well doing not doubting but he who fram'd them will watch over the work of his hands He who preserved them during their helpless infancy and heedless youth if they keep in his ways will be merciful to them when their strength fails and when the dayes come in which they have no pleasure Moreover God hath so ordered it that the Day may be said in an especial manner to take thought for the things of it self For the Day brings with it a disposition of mind suitable to its occasions Men need not distract themselves with thoughts of what they shall do if such or such Calamities befal them for time and place and immediate distress often suggest properer Counsels than any could otherwhile have been conceived Sickness of it self inclines the Spirit to a temper fit for that Tryal it makes it affect that privacy and silence which conduce to recovery and it causeth that seriousness and submissiveness to advice which is agreeable to the dangers that attend it So Necessity infuseth into