easie to prevail with men to practise as 't is obvious to be discovered would alone save us or put a blessing upon what ever else might be innocently propounded to bring us unto safety and no good man need be afraid or ashamed to propound it and he must be a very bad man who will not be ashamed to reproach it or reject it And 't is what Christ gives to the Church of Laodicea Rev. iii. 19. Be zealous and repent 'T is that which St. John Baptist gave when wrath was coming apace and the Axe was laid to the Root of the Tree St. Matth. iii. 8. Bring forth fruits meet for repentance 'T is that which our present Parable suggests If it bear fruit Well this will cause an Arrest of Judgment this will procure the Repeal of the pronounced Sentence In what words shall I propound this Counsel with what Arguments may I so press it as to render it effectual with what Motives shall I inforce it that it may be prevalent I have many things to say when I come to apply the Parable personally to urge you to repent to save your souls And surely 't is a great word to save our Souls but may I not say 't is a greater word to save a Church to save our Religion in which and by which our Souls must be saved and thousands and millions of Souls may be saved if that be saved and may humanely speaking be lost for ever if true Religion be lost and if it be lost by our default where shall the loss of all those souls be charged How warmly how Pathetically doth the great Apostle warn his dear Timothy in this affair in a case of like concernment And how doth he reiterate the charge to make all sure O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust 1 Tim. vi 20. And 2 Tim. i. 13 14. Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love And That good thing which was committed to thee keep by the holy Ghost And he must transmit to others what was committed unto him 2 Tim. ii 2. The things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also We owe to Posterity what we received from our Progenitours He leaves his name as a blot nay as a curse to his descendents who intercepts and robs them of the Care and Providence and noble acquisitions of their common Ancestours And he deserves in the Prophets Phrase to be esteemed the Tayl and not the Head whose Lusts cut off what the Wisdom and Industry of great Grand-Fathers intayled of late and far removed Nephews for support and Honour And how shall we answer it to God our Consciences and the succeeding Ages If we sin away that Holy Truth that excellent Religion which God vouchsafed to Plant in this Nation with his own Right Hand and those from whom we had our lives transmitted to us verdant and flourishing being watered by their Pious Tears and fatned with their dearest Blood A Religion not patcht up of cunningly devised Fables nor devised by cunning men to gratifie their Lusts and serve their base and worldly Interests But the Everlasting Gospel brought by the Eternal Son from the bosom of him who is Truth it self and the Fountain of it and adapted to the promoting of his Glory and the true Interest of Souls the repairing and restoring them to their highest perfection Conformity to the Divine Image participation of the Divine Nature and full and endless injoyment of God A Religion founded upon the Prophets and Apostles having Jesus Christ for the chief Corner-Stone A Religion that dare bear the test of the true Lydian-Stone The Law and Testimony because it is not conscious to it self of any counterfeit metal stampt and imposed on unwary minds by its Authority to pass for good Coyn and currant mony A Religion which takes not away the Key of knowledg nor deprives its Children of the Scriptures the only Records of Divine Truth and Rule that God hath given mankind of Faith and Manners That cryes not up Ignorance for the Mother of Devotion seeing Solomon hath told us that without knowledg the heart cannot be good And a greater than Solomon That life eternal is to know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent And one of his Apostles hath informed us that The new man is renewed in knowledg and another hath described the Beasts Kingdom by its being full of Darkness And our Lord in the beginning of his Ministry laid down this early Aphorism to direct his Followers to distinguish betwixt Truth and Falsehood the way of Salvation and condemnation John iii. 19 20 21. This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil For every one that doeth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved But he that doth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God A Religion that blots out none of Gods Commandments for fear the very Children should drink in with their Catechism an Antidote against that gross Idolatry which diffuses it self through more than half the Worship they are called to practise all their lives A Religion which directs your Prayers to him whose title is A God hearing Prayer and your Worship to him to whom alone it appertains and whom only we must serve if either Moses or Christ are to be believed in such matters And that teaches you to Pray to him in his name whom Saint Paul calls the One Mediatour betwixt God and Man being both in his own person A Religion that allows you to serve this God with reasonable service as becomes reasonable Creatures Praying with your Spirits and your Vnderstandings not like Pyes or Parrots not with noise and sounds of a Language you understand not A Religion that delivers Christs Institutions as his Apostles received them from him not disguising a Sacrament appointed for the living into an expiatory Sacrifice for the dead nor bidding you Worship what Christ bid you eat Nor giving the lye to all your Sences your Reason and your Faith together For Gods word which is the object of our Faith calls it Bread most frequently after Consecration nor robbing you of one half the Cup with a non obstante that Christ Instituted and the Primitive Church Administred in both Kinds And so avowing their presumption with an impudence as villanous and hateful as their theft A Religion which hath no Mint-house to Coin new Articles of Faith or make that needful to be believed in order to Salvation this year which the year before and ever before that was never thought on A Religion which dares neither add nor detract from our Lords Will. Nor clap seven Seals to that Testament to which he annexed but two Labels A Religion which will
to you all the Aâ—mour of God that you may resist the battery of this worst of Satans Engines and defeat the most dangerous of all his stratagems to involve you in Procrastination by giving up your selves speedyly to God and Christ according to what ever convictions have been upon you that you ought and resolutions that you would so do and be ready quickly I would add no more did not one word remain which may seem fit to clinch and rivet that Nail I have been forcing home with so many blows And I shall take it out of your own mouths Methinks I hear some say why so many Arguments in so clear a case and others ready to make the number occasion of their laughter and others 't was good if it had not been so long but it was cruel tedious Well be it so admit it had been delivered at this length which yet by the way it was not let me in cool blood debate the case with these Objectors before we part Is the case so clear in thy opinion that 't is superfluous to multiply Arguments to prove it Out of thy own mouth shalt thou be judged thou sloathful servant Why dost thou continue to Rebel against thy light Why dost thou still delay That 's enough which doth the work it is designed to but that 's too little which doth it not The Motives may be enough to leave thee inexcusable but they are not enow for thee till they effectually persuade thee to leave thy sin and escape thy danger And for the next must I bear your petulent scorn for remembring you of returning to God with such a number and shall it cost you nothing to forget him days without number Do you now laugh because the Motives are so many And what will you do when God shall laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh because these many were too few to make you take warning To make you wise to prevent them and escape them Is it so tedious to you to hear your sins Arraigned and Condemned a long hour And what is it to God to be dishonoured and provoked by them all thy life long Is it a load which breaks the back of thy Patience to hear Motives multiplyed to turn thee Speedily And is it no dangerous tryal of Gods Patience to load him with thy multiplyed sins as a Cart is loaden with Sheaves and pressed down If it be wearisome to hear thy sins reproved How much more Just is Gods complaint They have wearied me with iniquities and made me serve with their sins In a word if I have been thought long in calling you to turn to God how long doth God think your refusing to return And how tedious will it be to bear the eternal reproaches of thy own heart and lashes of thy own enraged Conscience for that refusal Which nothing can exempt thee from but taking the Councel I have so plainly given Consider what I have said and the Lord give us understandings and hearts to close with it that when ever Christ comes He may find us Ready Amen A DISCOURSE Shewing the Sinfulness and Danger of Putting-off our Great WORK BEING The Substance of a Sermon deliver'd at the Funeral of Mr. David Geer at St. Botolph's Aldgate Upon St. JOHN ix.iv. I must work the Works of Him that sent me while it is Day The Night cometh when no Man can work THis Chapter contains the History of one of the chief Miracles which our Blessed Saviour wrought whil'st He was in this World That is His opening the Eyes of the Man which was born Blind And it is Recorded more largely than any of his wonderful Works except his Raising Lazarus from the Dead for it fills a whole long Chapter to declare the Occasion of it the Work it self and what followed upon it and affords Matter of so many useful and choyce Observations 't is some difficulty to pass them by For it did not only Confirm his Mission and Doctrine to be from God but the very Miracle it self was Doctrinal the Man 's being born Blind figuring that Spiritual Blindness under which we are all Born and Christ's Healing him and the Manner of it shewing from whence we must expect the true Eye-Salve But I must confine my self to what the present Solemn Occasion directly minds us of The Words I have read were pronounced by our Lord as an Introduction to the Work when he address'd himself to the Performance of it and discover his Faithful Obedience and Excellent Wisdom in improving the Seasons for fulfilling the Works his Father sent him into this World for And commend to us a Truth of general Use and universal Obligation tho our Lord vouchsafes to apply it to Himself in this particular Case I confess the Words have not the Form of a Precept but they have the Force yea more than the Force of a single Command press the Duty more Home than if it had been said expresly Work while it is Day For First They are an Example given in the Person of him whom we are bound to imitate and follow whose Works are Vocal and whose Actions are our Instructions He being the Son of God and our Lord and Master saying I must work 't is as if a Son in the Family should say to the Servants or a Wealthy fore-handed Man to his poor Neighbours who have nothing but their Hands to Live on What ever you do I must mind my Business I must labour and not squander away one Day after another my Father will not suffer it in me and I should quickly be undone by such a Course Such Words spoken in their own Persons are more awakening more pungent than if they only bid them mind their Business For they smartly and sarcastically reproach their Sloath and upbraid them for their Loytering For if the Master of the Family will not bear it in a Son much less will he in a Servant and if he that 's well before-hand must be industrious to prevent Poverty and Want much more must he that hath but from Hand to Mouth But the quickning Influence of the Example is not all For Secondly The Reason by which it is inforced shews it extends to many For when He had said I must work c. while 't is Day when he comes to give the Reason of it he saith not The Night cometh when I can't work but When no Man can work 't is St. Chrysostome's Note thereby clearly implying that the Duty reaches all whom the Reason of the Duty reaches and amounts to thus much That every Man who hath Work to do which must be done by Day and cannot be done by Night must hasten to dispatch it while the Day lasts lest he be surprized and prevented by the Nights Approach Having thus briefly clear'd my Passage to what I design by shewing that the Words tho spoken by our Lord of Himself yet are fairly Applicable unto others and may have Efficacious Influence both upon
thy Quietus a Writ of Ease and when Night comes and it hastens apace thou may'st lay thee down in Peace and take thy Rest for thy God hath made thy Bed for thee and He will make thee dwell in Everlasting Safety Cast not away therefore your Confidence which hath great Recompence of Reward for ye have need of Patience that after ye have done the Will of God ye might receive the Promise For yet a little while and He that shall come will come and will not tarry Heb 10.35 36 37. And when He comes He will not come empty-handed And Be not weary in well-doing for in due time ye shall Reap if ye faint not And as Jos ph said after his Advancement God hath made me forget all my Toyl and my Father's House Gen. 41.51 so when the approaching Night overtakes thee and thou shalt be gathered to Abraham's Bosom and Sleep in Jesus not so much as a frightful Dream shall interrupt thy Repose or disturb the Satisfaction of thy everlasting Rest Let the Fore-sight and Belief of this quicken thy Industry while the Day continues And remember that of Solomon Eccles 5.12 The Sleep of a Labouring Man is sweet If thou hast done if thou hast lov'd the Work of God in the Day He will not only give thee the Sleep of his Beloved at Night but the harder thou hast wrought and the more thou hast been wearyed at it the more welcome the sounder and the sweeter will thy Rest be Secondly Night is Resting Time that is a Time when they shall have no farther Opportunity to finish their Work in Justice to the Loyterers Then Time shall be no more Rev. 10.6 Now that Night above described of Death of the Setting of the Gospel Sun or God's Departure from a Soul for what follows will respect sometimes one sometimes another of them will put a Period to their Working upon a seven-fold Account First By reason of its Darkness in which they cannot see to work He call'd the Darkness Night Gen. 1.5 The Sun went down and it was Dark Gen. 15.17 You know this to be so by Experience in every Revolution of the Natural Day Darkness is nothing but Privation of Light and when Light is withdrawn Darkness must needs follow When the Evening is shut in the Black and Dark Night as Solomon calls it succeeds presently spreading its sable Wings over the whole Hemisphere So that Men can neither see their Way to guide their Feet nor their Work to guide their Hands No Phrases or Expressions of Speech are more common than these The Way of the Lord The Path of Life Walking with God Coming to Christ Going to Heaven and such like implying Motion Now How can any of these be done in the Darkness of the Night How shall we keep the Right Path that is so beset with so many By-wayes on every side By-wayes of Errour on one hand and By-wayes of Wickedness on the other if we have no Light to guide us In Reference to this is that Passage of our Saviour Walk while ye have Light lest Darkness come upon you For he that walketh in Darkness knoweth not whither he goeth St. John 12.35 Because Darkness hath blinded his Eyes 1 Joh. 2.11 And as there is great danger of losing and turning out of the Right Way so there is no less of stumbling and falling in it if we have not Light to shew us the Stumbling-blocks and Snares the Devil and his Instruments lay in our way that we may avoyd them If a Man walk in the Night he stumbleth because there is no Light in him Joh. 11.10 And we need the Light no less to guide our Hands in Working than our Feet in Walking Who but a Fool or Mad-man would attempt any curious Work in the Dark To Paint to Carve to make a Clock or Watch or but to write a Letter Now the Work we have to do for God and our Souls beyond all peradventure requires the clearest Light to see to do it well How can we believe repent obey or try these Graces by the Law or Gospel when we cannot fee the Rule by which they should be measured While Christ the Son of Righteousness shines in his Ordinances and by his Spirit there is a Day and you may see to work the Work God sets you But when that departs you are presently be-nighted and cannot take one Step or draw one Line aright The Naral Sun only enlightens the Medium discovers the Object but infuseth not a Visive Power into the Eye It opens not the Eyes it makes not blind Men see Though it makes things visible to them that can see yet make Night by setting But this Sun makes Day in an extraordinary manner it gives Light and Sight both When St. Paul was call'd and sent to Preach the Gospel his Commission ran thus I send thee to open their Eyes and to turn them from Darkness to Light Act. 26.18 How dismal a Night must therefore follow when this Sun is set which leaves Men both Blind and in the Dark That Light which discovers what our VVorks are can only direct how they may become such as they ought to be John 3.21 He that doth Truth cometh to the Light that his Deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God And it must be by that Light we must see to do God's Work Improve it therefore while you have it before the Night the time of Darkness overtake yea overwhelm you Secondly No Man can work in this Night because 't is incapable of any Light When the Natural Light of this World leaves us and Night draws the Curtains of Darkness round about our Habitations and the whole Space 'twixt Heaven and Earth is nothing but Obscurity we can relieve our selves with the Artificial Lights of Candles Lamps or Torches But this Night resists such Remedies and is Incurable 'T is gross Darkness like Egyptian Darkness which might be felt but not removed too thick for the faint Beams of any Candle to pierce through disperse or scatter If you lose and loyter out your Day you cannot redeem your Error or eke out your Working time by the borrowed Light of Art As in the New-Jerusalem there needs no Candle Rev. 22.5 so in the utter Darkness which seizeth on all without that Blessed Place of Light no Candle is allowed or would do any Good The Candle of the Wicked shall be put out Prov. 24. 20. 'T is observable God calls His Ministers Lights Ye are the Light of the World Matth. 5.14 John was a Burning and a Shining Light John 5.35 and the Station of his Gospel-Ordinances a Candle-stick Rev. 1.12 But Churches and Ministers and Ordinances are only for this Life there is no use of them hereafter Christ walks in the midst of them and when he with-draws they signify nothing O ye Loyterers think not to make Candle-Light-Work of your Eternal Concernments when the Sun is down Here the Candle the Sun shine both
neither allow you to kill your King nor eat your God nor purchase Heaven for your mony nor flatter you with hopes that you may go to Paradise in the broad way and have that done for you by others when you are dead which should have been done by your self while you were alive In a word a Religion not made up of Tricks and Artifices of Pomp and Pageantry of a Fardle of unaccountable Rites and Ceremonies and unintelligible mystesteries and contradictions to comply with all mens humours tempers constitutions Severities for the Sowr and Melancholy Carnivals and Stews for the Airy brisk and Sanguine Whips and Austere Discipline as sharp as the Lancets of Baals Priests for the sullenly Superstituous And easie Indulgences and Commutations into gentle Penances for the soft and delicate A Religion tho profest and owned by many sinful men yet neither invented nor headed by the man of sin But a Religion holy and undefiled like its Author plain and simple like the Gospel which contains and teaches it Spiritual and Heavenly like the place it leads them to who love and practise it sincerely Such is the Religion we yet injoy through Gods great goodness but he threatens to bereave us of for our sins against it Let me therefore beseech you and adjure you by all that 's dear to you be zealous and repent speedily sincerely that you force not a jealous God to cut down this Tree to remove his Kingdom and take away his Candlestick because you would not bring forth the Fruits of the one nor walk in the Light of the other and deprive your selves and your Posterity of the greatest blessing God ever did or can bestow on this or any other Nation on this side Heaven But I shall rather chuse to inlarge my self in that Application of this Parable which is more sutable to so private an Auditory tho I cannot deny neither can any man deny the former in our circumstances to be very seasonable and therefore very necessary I shall therefore in what remains consider the Fig tree as a Figure and Type of particular persons Under which notion every individual man and woman is sentenced to be cut down and cast out of the Vineyard of the Church by some Temporal or Spiritual Judgment who hath been planted and admitted into it by Baptism and stands and grows in it injoying all the advantages and priviledges which belong to a Member of it under the Gospel and yet continues Fruitless or bears no good Fruit. Gets no saving Knowledg no true Faith no sound Repentance nor sincere Amendment of Life No real sence or favour of the things of God in a prevalency of Religion in Godliness and Holiness against and above Formality Prophaneness or the love of this present world No Justice Righteousness Truth and Honesty against Defrauding Cousenage Oppression Lying and Slandering of his Neighbours No Temperance Sobriety subduing of his sensual Lusts and Appetites against Uncleanness Drunkenness Debauchery and other defiling pleasures and sensualities in a word who are not foundly Converted and turned from placing their happiness and hopes in sin and creatures to fix them on God and Christ as their only blessedness and satisfying portion Or in St. Paul's express Language who will not learn that great Lesson which the Grace of God that is the Gospel was revealed from Heaven as the clearest light to teach the Sons of men that is To deny all ungodliness and worldly Lusts and to live Righteously Soberly and Godly in this present world in hope of a blessed immortality Nor heartily and in good earnest endeavour to become such as they are by their Baptismal Vow and Covenant obliged to be To every such man to every such woman I denounce this day in the name of the great the dreadful God of Heaven and Earth if thou turn not and that speedily and throughly That God the Lord of Hosts the supream the Omnipotent the Irresistible judg of all the Earth Hath prepared for thee the instruments of death He hath whet his Sword he hath bent and made ready his Bow his Arrows are upon the string suddenly will he shoot at thee and not spare or miss his mark The Ax is laid to thy very Root to cut thee down for fire unquenchable God already despiseth reproacheth and upbraideth thee for cumbring of his Ground hath actually pronounced the Sentence against thee to cut thee down the word is gone out of his mouth only in admirable Patience he hath reprieved thee one year more a little longer to try whether thou wilt yet at last sue out a Pardon return repent amend that thou mayst live Yet if thou do it not quickly he will compensate the former disappointments of his expectation whilst year after year he came looking for Fruit and found none together with the aggravated abuse of his long-sufferance which vouchsafes another year with a severer vengeance with a greater Damnation As for our parts who are Gods Ministers it is no pleasure nor delight to us to be Messengers of so heavy tydings to come on so harsh and terrifying an Errand We had rather be sent on Embassies of Peace and speak what might be more welcome and pleasing to you provided it might also be profitable for you But we must not chuse our own Message but the Word God puts into our mouths that must we speak What we have received from the Lord that must we deliver to you according to our Commission and our Instructions written in his Word must we proceed in the discharge and execution of our Office We must not sow Pillows under your Armpits nor dawb with untempered mortar at the Price at the Peril of our own Souls Nor promise Life where God hath threatned Death Nor speak Peace where God saith there is no Peace And there is no peace to the wicked saith my God Isa lvii 21. This were but to betray you and ruin our selves To lead you blindfold into the Ditch and plunge our selves in together with you into the Lake of fire and brimstone and to have the guilt of the blood of your souls added and heapt up upon that of our own to sink us deeper in the bottomless Gulph What we may do and what we can do that by the Grace of God we will do We will Pray to God to let you alone this year also Spare thy people good Lord spare this and that other Fruitless-Tree one year more try them O Lord a little longer it may be they will consider it may be they will bethink themselves it may be they will yet bear Fruit. And then it shall be no grief of Heart to thee O blessed Lord that thou didst not cut them off suddenly in thy sore displeasure Many have made some amends for an unfruitful youth by bringing forth more Fruit in their Age. Great Sinners have become great Saints What had thy Church lost what had thy Glory lost if thou hadst struck Saul dead when thou didst