lay field to field he hath been loading himself with thick Clay he hath been very throng a getting that together that he knoweth not how soon he must leave behind him he cannot tell but before to morrow Ask another he will tell you he hath been at the Butterflies work painting his wings tricking and trimming and making himself fine and smooth and brisk and gay with a world of art and cost setting himself out to the view of beholders and to be thought handsom he was willing to wave all the real accomplishments of humanity and little thinks the poor spark how soon all his trimming must be laid aside and how courfly a fit of sickness and much more two or three days Lodging in the Grave will make him look Another or perhaps the same if you question him when he is in the right mood to give you an answer will tell you he has been Drinking Dancing Singing Feasting dallying all his days Ransacking all the avenues of pleasure and racking nature to make her confess some secret source of delight and trying untrodden Paths of Luxury that if it were possible some new mode of sensual gratification might be found on which the Preacher had not written Vanity of Vanities but know O fleshly wretch that for all these things God will bring thee into Judgment Eccl. xi 9. Another hath been climbing hard to reach the topmost Pinacle of Honour Cringing Bribing Flattering to get an opportunity to wrong others and ruine himself for man being in honour abideth not he is like the Beasts that perish Psal Lix 12. Now alas what poor employments are these for that time on which Eternity depends And yet how few even among Christians lay out their time to any better purposes Well Sirs all your time that is not laid out for God's glory the good of others and the Salvation of your Souls is lost time you had as good nay better all that time have been out of Being Oh what a World of time do the most give away to Death People complain of the shortness of Life and yet act as if they thought it too long What cause have most of us to sit down and sadly say What have I been doing hitherto Am I not even a dying before I have begun to live And Oh that men would sit down and think seriously of it there might be then some hope that they would at last in earnest begin to do that which they should have been doing all this while Infer VI. What need have we to implore the Grace and Spirit of Christ to encline and enable us to direct and assist us in this necessary work We have a great deal of work to do and it must be done and we cannot do it of our selves what more reasonable then than that we should speedily and carefully look out for help The great Gospel promise is the Promise of the Spirit we ought therefore to plead it in Christ's name with God the Father since he hath said he will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke xi 13. If we have not the Spirit of Christ we are none of his Rom. viii 9. And without special relation to him and interest in him we cannot groundedly hope for assistance from him without whom yet we can do nothing Joh. xv 5. We are dark we therefore need the Spirit to enlighten us we are weak we need him to strengthen us we are wavering we need him to settle and fix us we are oft dejected and discouraged we then need him to comfort and confirm us Since then we so greatly need this blessing on all accounts how earnest and importunate should we be for it How observant of all the blessed Spirits accesses to and recesses from our Souls How careful to cherish his blessed motions How loath to grieve our guide If our Baptism in his name were not a nullity which many at least of our scoffers are not yet arrived at the impudence to assert our pretensions to his assistance cannot be justly charged to be Enthusiastical provided our claims be proportioned to the ends of our Baptismal Covenant relation to the Holy Ghost and our holiness of Life and Conversation manifest their reality As Enthusiasm though it seem to look another way leads to Infidelity so Infidelity too often and never more than of late masks it self under the veil of a vehement zeal against Enthusiasm But a good understanding of our Baptism and a practical experience of the main vital principles of Christianity therein contained would be an effectual cure of both When we know what it is to have the Spirit of Life living and working in our Souls as our Souls in our Bodies then and not till then shall we know what it is to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long Some forced motions in the externals of Religion we may have before but it is the Spirit that quickeneth Joh. vi 23. And where the Spirit of the Lord is there and there only is true Liberty 2 Cor. iii. 17. Even such as whereby we run the ways of God's Commandments with enlarged hearts Psal Cxix 32. Infer VII What care should Parents take to begin in a way of holy Education with their Children betimes that the best course in the World may not seem difficult and uneasie to them by disuse The wise man bids train up a Child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it Prov. xxii 6. And undoubtedly one great reason why many frame so aukwardly in the matters of Religion is because they were so long suffered to be utterly unacquainted with them O what a difference do Ministers usually find as to the Success of their Preaching between catechised and uncatechised youth Oh how hard is it to get people in years that have been left in ignorance till then to learn to understand but the most plain and common principles of Religion through want of early instruction when we tell men of being in the fear of the Lord continually the most know nothing what we mean tell them of the necessity of Repentance Faith and Holiness in order to Eternal Life and they understand not what they hear speak to them of the blessed Trinity in whose name they were baptized of the necessity of the Spirits help and of regeneration and it is all one as if we spoke to them in Greek or Arabick their minds have never been used to such matters O you that desire it should be otherwise with yours take care of their early instruction tell them betimes of their duty in order to Salvation and Eternal happiness and acquaint them with the holy Scriptures teach them to pray set before them briefly and plainly the order of their daily duty to God their Neighbours and themselves help them to govern their appetites and passions by reason and the Word of God tell them what Christ hath suffered in their stead what benefits he hath
what a World of Time do vain Thoughts that lodge within us rob us of how many covetous proud sensual thoughts crawl in our Hearts in a day How do we act over again our former Sins by Contemplation How many study and project wickedness and contrive in their thoughts how to bring wicked devices to pass Remember God sees thy heart and will reckon with thee for thy thoughts See therefore that they be pure holy charitable humble Do not look upon thy self as at liberty to think what thou wilt He is a Christian indeed that governs his Thoughts 2. When you are in Company look to your Tongues consider your speech Weigh what you are a going to say before you speak it Do not throw about fire brands arrows and death and say Am I not in sport Prov. xxvi 18 19. Remember Life and Death are in the Power of the Tongue Prov. xviii 21. The prodigious licentiousness of the Professors of this Age in this matter makes it needful to use more than ordinary Caution that we catch not the infection How common is it in all places to hear people speaking evil of the things and persons that they know not Jude ver 10. Sure we do not understand the genius spirit and temper of the Christian Religion whereof we make profession Does not Christ say By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shâ—lt be condemned Mat. xii 37. Doth not the Apostle James say If any man among you seem to be Religious and bridieth not his Tongue but deceiveth his own Heart this mans Religion is vâ—in Jam. i. 26. Alas alas that so few that are called Christians do indeed believe their Bibles to be the Word of God or take any care to frame their Lives by the Rules of it Let your Speech be alwayâ— with grace seasoned with salt that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man Col. iv 6. O Sirs where shall one find the company that converses by this Rule If talking of fashions if telling tâ—les of our Neighbours if aspersing the Govâ—â—nment be this gracious savory speech we have a great deal of it every where besides the lying swearing ribaldry c. of the openly prophane These things are a Lamentation and should be for a Lamentation O let us be more wise consider Sirs you may do more mischief by your tattling of things that you understand not and that do not concern you in a few minutes than the bâ—st endeavours of your whole life may ever be able to repair Remember your Tongues are your glory turn them not into shame but glorifie God with them Go and visit your sick Neighbours or such as are troubled in mind and instruct and comfort them Go and reprove plainly those that are prophane and wicked and beseech them to have some mercy on their own Souls stir up such as are able to relieve them that are in want and distress Consider one another to provoke to love and to good works Heb. x. 24. And of this you will have joy in the day of accounts 8. Let the main part of every day be spent in the labours of your particular Calling unless as now and then it may happen but cannot ordinarily there be very good reason to the contrary Look upon your Calling as a main part of the service of your Generation which God and your Countrey expects from you and of which you are to be accountable Diligent labour is a Duty and there is a blessing belongs to it It keeps the Mind from rust the Body from diseases Idleness is the source of wickedness Quem otiosum invenit Diabolus occupat Little do men think what miseries and mischiefs they expose themselves to when they grow remiss and negligent in their particular Callings The Apostle bids us study to be quiet and do our own business 1 Thes iv 11. They that neglect their own business often grow pragmatical and must be medling with other folks the consequences whereof are dreadful No man fouls his fingers with doing his own Work is an Out-landish Proverb that has its weight and is worth our thinking of when we are idle or ill employed Adam where art thou is a question we should think we hear God asking us every day Obj. It may be thy Calling is mean Sol. Be content it is that which the Providence of God hath chosen for thee and he knows best what is good for every one of us and he will accept a day-labourer that is diligent in his Calling as well as a Knight or a Lord. Obj. Aye but mine is the toilingest drudging slavish Life in the World Sol. The harder labour thy Calling puts thee upon so it be consistent with thy health and proportionate to thy strength the better it is for thee the Body is an unruly masterly Servant that needs taming Labour kills Lust But if indeed thy Calling be above thy strength or endangering to thy health as the Apostle saith in another case 1 Cor. 7. 21. If thou maisâ— be free use it rather And then in your Calling see that you sincerely aim at Gods glory and publick service and not meerly and chiefly at your own wealth and gain or the raising of your Selves and Families in the World That is all lost labour that terminates ultimately in self 9. Look to the exercise of Justice and Charity in buying and selling And here our Saviours Golden Rule may serve instead of all particular Rules Mat. vii 12. All things whatsoever ye would that men should dâ— unto you do ye even so to them Therefore Draw not immoderately from them to your selves make no advantage of their ignorance or necessity count not every man you deal with a Knave which is a Rule in Commerce that some people value themselves much upon who yet I suppose would think it very hard to have the same measure meted unto them Lie not at catch for an advantage impose not ill wares for good break not your day for delivery of goods or payment of moneys strive not to make a great figure in the World when you know you have not wherewith to support it which is indeed to set up for a common Cheat exact not upon your poor Brethren in cases of Forfeitures Mortgages c. Consider the equity of Gods Laws to the Jews in such cases and remember that Christianity requires of us a more large and extensive Charity In a word digest the above-mentioned Precept of our Lord and ever and anon quicken Conscience to attend to it and take your measures of acting thence 10. Maintain Sobriety Temperance and a serious thankful frame of spirit in eating and drinking Take direction not from appetite but from reason both for the quantity and quality of your Food Do not study too much to please and do not at all pamper the flesh Make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lust thereof Rom. xiii v. 14. Consider the end of the rich glutton that fared sumptuously
partakers of a Divine Nature but that we should cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God and shewing forth the virtues and praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous Light 2 Pet i. 4. 2 Cor. vii 1. 1 Pet. ii 9. All which we can never do but by denying Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts and living Righteously Soberly and Godly in this present World Tit. ii 12. So that while we live not to God we live beside the end of our being we lose our time and provoke God to strip us of a blessing we no better know how to value R. 2. This is the way to secure our present peace and future happiness There is no way to a setled grounded tranquillity of mind but by a holy Life Sin is the great make-bate in Kingdoms Churches Families and it will never let that Soul enjoy peace in which it resides unpandoned and unmortified And these two always go together unmortified sin is ever unpardoned sin and guilt still makes the Soul uneasie He must be an Atheist or a Brute that can be secure and jolly while sin lieth at the door Gen. iv 7. like a Bailiff ready to drag him before the Supreme Judge at whose Bar being condemned he must be forth with abandoned to Eternal Torments What comfort can Pleasures Honours or Profits yield to that man who is awake and knows not but he must be in Hell to morrow Besides it is easie to demonstrate that the happiness of rational Creatures consists in Communion with God of which we are altogether uncapable whilst we lie wallowing in the mire of sin God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity scil with approbation Evil shall not dwell with him Hab. i. 13. The conviction sinners have of this appears in their shiness to approach the Sovereign Majesty especially in secret acts of Worship after the commission of any grosser sin And if we be in such a case that we dare not come to God our Life must needs be very uncomfortable Hence the Prophet Isa Lvii. 21. There is no peace saith my God to the wicked And the Psalmist Psal Lxxiii 27 28. All they that are far from thee shall perish but it is good for me to draw nigh to God Many complain of their present restless uncomfortable condition but they neglect the true Method of cure they would have peace but they will not crucifie the flesh with its affections and lusts Sinner thou must either leave thy sinful courses or be a continual torment and vexation to thy self unless for a while thou shouldest in Judgment be given over to a spirit of slumber and then thou wilt shortly awake in unsufferable terrours But the way to peace is to walk humbly with God to be constant in the daily practice of true Piety See Psal cxix 165. Great peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them Gal. vi 16. As many as walk according to this Rule peace be on them and on the Israel of God And as this is the wav to present peace so it is also to future everlasting Glory To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory honour and immortality God will render Eternal Life Rom. ii 7. There remains a Rest for the people of God Heb. iv 9. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. xii 14. They only who live to God here are capable of living with him for ever hereafter As ever therefore you value peace here or glory hereafter let it be your constant care to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long R. 3. Vnless we thus make Religion our daily delightful Employment we are ungrateful to God who daily loadeth us with his Benefits Who gave thee thy Being Who redeemed thy Life from Destruction and thy Soul from Damnation By whom are all the hairs of thy head numbred that not one of them fall to the ground without his will To whose care and kindness dost thou owe thy health liberty peace plenty quiet habitation comfortable Relations Gospel opportunities thy share in Publick National and Church Deliverances Is it not God that holds thy Soul in Life and suffers not thy feet to be moved Psal Lxvi 9. Is it not the Father of mercies that crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies Psal ciii 4 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities and healeth all thy diseases v. 3. Is it not his hand that holdeth thee out of Hell and supporteth thee from sinking into the bottomless Pit Is it not he that hath rescued thee as well as others of late from the devouring Jaws of bloody Papists from an horrible slavery of Body Soul and Conscience to such as worship graven Images from being compelled first to worship and then to chew and swallow a bit of Bread or a thin Wafer under the title and denomination of thy Lord God Maker and Redeemer And what return thinkest thou is due to God for such Mercies as these Can any less suffice than that which the Apostle exhorts unto Rom. xii 1. I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service And if we have once sincerely given up our selves to God we shall then walk with him and be in his fear all the day long and if we refuse this we are the most ungrateful wretches breathing What Monsters of Ingratitude are we if when God hath made us and redeemed us and still preserveth us we deny him our service especially when his service is perfect freedom and in keeping his Commandments there is great Reward Psal xix 11. God hath made nothing our Duty but what is equally our Priviledge And when as an acknowledgment of former kindnesses God only requires that we should receive more at his hands and yet we will not we thereby render our selves such a composition of folly and ingratitude as is beyond parallel Among Heathens Ingratitude to Benefactors is esteemed one of the most hainous crimes a man can be guilty of So that it 's become a common Proverb among them Ingratum dixeris omnia when you have called a man ungrateful you have said your worst of him And if Ingratitude to fellow-creatures deserve so black a brand what shall we think then of Ingratitude against our Sovereign Lord the great Creator and common Parent of Mankind Shun therefore this foul blot by diligence and constancy in a holy walk R. 4. By walking thus with God we set others a good Example and recommend Religion to the World Thus we become the Salt of the Earth the Lights of the World a City set on an Hill which cannot be hid our Light so shines before men that they see our good conversations and glorifie our Heavenly Father Mat. v. 13 14 16. A holy Life is a continual Sermon Thus you may all be
tune When Death knocks at the doors and looks in at the Windows and out at the Eyes of these brisk merry Blades these boon Companions when nature fails and their strength is gone and their departing Soul presageth irresistibly it 's everlasting duration Oh how will they then befool themselves How will their Consciences reproach them How freely will they give themselves the Lie How heartily will they retract their censures of the Godly and with that they were not only almost but altogether such as they Acts xxvi 29. And that they might die the death of the righteous and their last end be like his Numb xxiii 10. Assure your selves Sirs there is none of you that when you come to die will repent that he hath praised so much or lived so exactly or mortified his flesh and subjected his appetite to his reason with so much diligence none repenteth then of the sufferings and scorns he hath undergone for Christ and a good Conscience Men then cry out of their Gluttony and Swearing and Sabbath-breaking and Hypocrisie and not of their holiness and circumspection and sincerity but wish it had been a thousand times more than it was And what thou wilt shortly wish thou hadst been methinks if thou art wise it should be thy hearty study and chiefest care now to be R. 7. We shall thus make evil days good to us Days of abounding iniquity in the World days of sharp sufferings to our selves whether from persecuting malice or from the immediate hand of God as in one kind or other sufficient unto every day is the evil thereof Mat. vi 34. Yet whatever be the evil of the day it will be a good day to us if we be in the fear of the Lord all the day long for then we shall avoid much of the evil of the day and what of it is unavoidable God will turn it to our good for he hath said All things shall work together for good to them that love him Rom. viii 28. There is no Antidote against daily temptations like being in the fear of God nor no support or comfort under great troubles like this that they find us in the way of our duty Nothing stilleth murmuring and complaining under our sharpest trials like a holy awe of God and a sense of his presence and governing Providence He that is in the fear of God will not use sinful shifts to escape sufferings than which nothing sooner fills the Soul of any man that is not of an utterly seared Conscience with trouble and perplexity The fear of God will wean us from the Love of the World and will subdue those inordinate desires in us which since nothing that we can here compass can ever satisfie must necessarily make us a torment to our selves It will prick the bladder of pride quench our covetous thirst after the Mammon of Unrighteousness and blunt the Edge of our sensual Inclinations that we shall be so far from esteeming any of these our happiness that we shall count our selves much more happy in having grace to deny the immoderate gratifications of the animal Life than in being never so fully possessed of whatsoever might conduce to our compliance with them In a word the fear of God powerfully prevailing in our hearts would make prosperity safe and adversity easie to us it would make our worst days good and our best days better whereas he that lives and dies a stranger to this being in the fear of the Lord all the day long though he live an hundred years in prosperity yet it may be truly said he hath not had one good day R. 8. This will secure a blessing unto us and ours Religion entails a blessing upon Families upon Persons and their Posterity Blessed is every one that feareth God and that walketh in his ways Psal cxxviii 1. God blessed the house of Potiphar for Joseph's sake Gen. xxxix 5. It is a promise to the truly godly man that whatsoever he doth shall prosper Psal i. 3. Happy is the man that feareth always Prov. xxviii 14. The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked But he blesseth the habitation of the just Prov. iii. 33 Read the 28th Chapter of Deuteronomy what blessings are there promised to the careful observers of God's Law Those that are truly Godly God will pour out his Spirit upon their Seed and his blessing upon their Off-spring Isa xliv 3. If we sincerely consecrate and devote our selves in the beginning of every day to God we thereby entitle him to our Persons Possessions and Performances and thereupon all of ours doth immediately become his care He is as it were in equity bound to take care of his own He never yet cast off any that sincerely cast themselves upon him And when we consider how needful his blessing is to the Success of any thing that we go about We cannot but think them happy that by taking God along with them continually are secured of that without which all humane forecast and industry is in vain and to no purpose Psal Cxxvii 1 2. Whence come the Crosses Losses Vexations and Ruines that are in many Families but from mens neglect or distrust of God When we cast him out of our thoughts it is just with him to cast us out of his care R. 9. If we live thus though we die young we shall have lived long enough and if we die Old we shall not have lived too long What an excellent thing now is Holiness and the fear of God which reduceth short Life and long to an equality He that in the time of his Life hath learned to know God and Jesus Christ to Worship God in Spirit and in Truth to secure to himself an happy being for Eternity and to serve his Generation while he is in this World hath lived much though it be in a little time Such a Child hath lived longer than he that is as Old as Methusalem and yet remains ignorant of these things I mean as to the great ends â—nd purposes of living For there are those of whom we may say as Seneca non diâ— vixit sed diu fuit Many have been long that have lived but a little while And further if he whose walk and course we have been at large describing to you if such a one I say live long he hath no cause to repent of the time he hath sojourned here though he have met with many Temptations and Afflictions he hath thereby only had an opportunity of exercising and confirming his Faith Hope Love and other Graces his patience hath had it's perfect work and he hath brought forth fruit abounding to his account A long Life well spent is a resemblance of as well as a preparative to Eternal Life Gray-hairs found in the way of righteousness are a Type and Emblem of an happy Eternity Whereas the sinner of an hundred years old is accursed and hath cause Isa 65. 20. to lament that ever he had a being he hath