who make no conscience of Relative duties of diligence in their Callings or of justice in their dealings who know not how to govern either their Souls or their Bodies by the Rules of Religion or the Laws of Sobriety what can we think of all these but that they are evidently the Sons of Death They are in a sad and miserable condition they live at random and must die at a venture for there can be no grounded assurance to such of an eternal well-being Such as these make a hard shift to please themselves in the course but will undoubtedly fool themselves in the issue of their Life they will one day wish they had not lived at all rather than to have lived thus A Life void of care commonly ends in a Death void of hope As ever therefore you would die the death of the righteous see that you live the life of the righteous and then and not otherwise your last end shall be like his Numb xxiii 10. Infer II. If we must be in the fear of the Lord every day much more on the Lords day We have shewn you how you must in a sound sense make every day a Sabbath by working for God and resting in him and diligent preparing for an eternal Sabbatism with him but you are not to pretend this in excuse for your neglect of sanctifying strictly the Christian Sabbath the first day of the week the day which the Lord hath made Psal cxviii 24. in which he calleth us to rejoyce and be glad In which we celebrate the memorial of our Lord's Resurrection and consequently of the whole work of our Redemption by him If we must walk with God every day much more on this day to which a special blessing is annexed and on which we have special advantages for the service of God and the salvation of our Souls The cavils of any against the strict observation of the Lord's day are easily answered by any one that observeth the dependence of the Life of practical Religion hereupon I will be bold to say it The power of Religion lives or dies according as Sabbath-sanctification is kept up or let fall in Churches Families or Souls Of other days you are to consecrate a part to Religious exercises Acts of Devotion and Worship but this day is wholly to be taken up therein Only God indulgeth us in works of true necessity and obligeth us to acts of Charity thereon giving mercy the preference even to Sacrifice I will here briefly heap together a few Directions for Sabbath-sanctification 1. Discern your obligntion to it in point of duty and value it as your Priviledge That God have a seventh part of our time for his Solemn Worship is the kernel of the fourth Commandment and of perpetual obligation and seems to have been a part of Gods Law to Adam even in the state of Innocence God appointed and blessed the seventh day of the week before Christ's coming in the flesh for a weekly Sabbath in commemoration of the worldly Creation and added a Law of Ceremonious Rest to the Jews as a part of their Paedagogy and a shadow of things to come now done away Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week and after his Ascension on that day poured forth his Spirit on his Apostles to qualifie them to declare his Will to Man-kind in all things concerning Salvation They held and setled Church Assemblies on the first day of the week and called it by way of approbation The Lords day Rev. i. 10. And the Vniversal Church as far as appears from Church History without the least contradiction till our times see Dr. Young's Dies Dominica and Mr. Baxter's Divine Appointment of the Lords-day kept this day and no other as the day of stated weekly Solemnities and God was with them and owned and honoured their Assemblies with his gracious presence And therefore it seems the effect of strange weakness or intolerable perverseness for any now in these last days to question what the Universal Church hath so long on so good reason practised The Lords-day as the Christian-Sabbath I take to have been instituted by Christ if not while personally on Earth yet by his Spirit in his Apostles And as an attentive Reader of the Scriptures may there discern clear intimations of this so the current practice of the Christian Church in all times and places doth fully confirm it Nor ought we to esteem it any other than a very great Priviledge that we may have a day in seven to study the Works and Word of God to praise his holy Name to worship him in the Assemblies of his Saints to learn his Will for our Salvation A holy Soul must needs reckon it self in the Confines of Heaven while thus employed and bless himself that he may sometimes retire thus from the World and enjoy a holy freedom for spiritual delights and gladsome preparations for Eternal Joy 2. Prepare for this blessed day before it come Think of it and long for it every day but especially the Evening before rid your hands in good time of worldly business and your hearts of worldly cares Read pray meditate catechise your Families call your selves and yours to an account of what you and they heard the Lords-day before and if it may be get to bed sooner that night than you use to do of other nights that so you may be under no temptation to snore away that precious morning on which our Lord in testimony of the accomplishment of our Redemption rose so very early 3. Be sure to be up as early on the Lords-day morning as is consistent with your fitness for the blessed Employments of it And let the thoughts of Redeeming Love season your hearts at first awaking 4. Redeem time that you may add something to your daily Devotions both in Family and Closet and not be put to cut them short 5. Go with the first to Publick Assemblies but go with hearts prepared and behave your selves there with Reverence Attention and Affection Pray in prayer hear as for the Life of your Souls and praise God with joy and alacrity stay the Blessing and rush not into or out of Church Assemblies in a rude and hasty manner Consider God's Angels are there 1 Cor. xi 10. and view your behaviour nay the God of Angels he looks on 6. After Publick Worship retire to examine how you have behaved your selves there Call to mind what you have heard digest it by prayer and meditation and when you have opportunity fix it on your hearts and memories by conferring of it especially with your inferiours Children and Servants whom you may command thereto 7. Watch Sabbath time in the Intervals of it especially at Meals that they run not waste Quicken your selves and others to thankfulness and joy with the serious mention of Redeeming Love Take heed of vain talk and idle unprofitable musings Let the variety of holy employments maintain your delight in them 8. Close the day in
cause were it possible to cancel and blot our every day of his Life each day having been only spent in treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of God's righteous Judgment Rom. ii 5. R. 10. By such a holy improvement of the short and troublesom days of time we shall secure to our selves an happy being thorowout the long and endless days oâ— Eternity If we sow to the Spirit we shall of the Spirit reap Life Everlasting Gal. vi 7 8. If we suffer with Christ we shall reign with him 2 Tim. ii 12. The good and faithful Servant shall enter into the joy of his Lord Mat. xxv 21. Wherefore my beloved Brethren be stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. xv 58. God suffereth none of his faithful Servants to be losers by him or any thing they do for his honour and glory Our light afflictions which are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory while we look not at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen for the things that are seen are Temporal but the things that are not seen are Eternal 2 Cor. iv 17 18. Surely if we believe an eternity of happiness for holy Souls we shall not think any pains in duty or any patience in suffering too much for it Our discouraging apprehensions of the difficulty of duty proceed much from the Wavering and Weakness of our Faith concerning the Reality and Excellency of the heavenly glory If we lived as seeing him who is invisible Heb. xi 27. And as foreseeing that glory which is eternal we should lead other manner of lives both in respect of grace and comfort than now we do Who would not Watch and Pray Toil and Labour Suffer and Wait that did soundly apprehend and firmly believe that the result of all would be the Souls being for ever with the Lord 1 Thes iv 17. Oh the glory purchased with the redeemers blood and which he hath as our forerunner taken possession of what will it not excite and enable us to undertake and perform Did we believe that the fervent effectual Prayer of a righteous man availeth much Jam. v. 16. to the gaining of Eternal blessedness we should not so often omit nor so lazily perform that duty as we do Did Faith enliven our Meditations of Heaven we should be oftner in them and continue at them longer and with more delight Did we look upon every alms given by us to the poor as a laying up treasure in Heaven we should labour to be rich in good Works Did we reckon that the more of the sufferings of Christ are fulfilled in us now the more of the glory of Christ shall be revealed in us hereafter we should even be ambitious of Martyrdom and esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt Heb. xi 26. But alas we think Heaven may be had with less ado or else we think so poorly of it as if it were scarce worth having So that there is too much cause to take up concerning us the complaint of one of the Ancients Aut hoc non est Evangelium aut nos non sumus Evangelici either this that we have in our Bibles is not the Gospel or we are not the Gospellers so wide is the difference between the Gospel of Christ and the Lives of Christians But be assured my friends we must bring our hearts and lives to the Gospel and make that the Rule of them if ever we will be happy For Christ will never bring down his Gospel to our hearts and lives If we will be saved it must be in his way and on his Terms and he hath said Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. xii 14. And the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. vi 9. For without are Dogs c. Rev. xxii 15. Consider therefore whether you will live a life of present ease and be hereafter cast out into eternal Torments or you will now painfully exercise your selves unto godliness and approve your selves Christ's Servants that you may hereafter be for ever with him and behold his glory John xvii 24. and share in that Rest that remaineth for the People of God Heb. iv 9. Having now shewn you what it is to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long and given you the Reasons which oblige every one of us to take care that we daily be so III. It remains that I point out to you those Inferences and practical Conclusions that follow upon and flow from the Truths we have hitherto been discoursing Inference I. Must we as you have heard be in the fear of the Lord all the day long What then shall we think of them that have no fear of God before their eyes that are so far from making Religion their daily business that they live every day as without God in the World Eph. ii 12. They say unto God Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways Job xxi 14. If it be so necessary to our present peace and future happiness as hath been shewn to walk with God continually what a condition are they in that never took one step in Heavens way or so much as once set their faces Sion-ward Jer. L. 5. What shall we think of the Atheistical Crew that call in question God's Being and boldly deny his Providence The Infidel-scoffers that deny Jesus to be the Son of God and ridicule the sacred Records of Eternal Life that deride all pretensions to the assistance of the Holy Spirit and hold the intercourse and communion of Souls with the Father of Spirits to be no better than meer fancy and delusion How are we to account of the Hypocritical Race of pretenders to that Religion they never felt the power of upon their hearts who oft turn Infidels themselves and draw others into the same condemnation The malignant Enemies of practical Religion who profess to love God while they hate their Brethren to the very death for no other reason but because they indeed love him The lovers of this World Mammons Idolatrous Worshippers who know no godliness but gain 1 Tim. vi 5. and who have no end of living but to be rich and to compass that will deny God damn themselves and destroy their Brethren The sond admirers of ease and pleasure that are dead while they live 1 Tim. v. 6. and are willing to purchase a dying Life with eternal Death and exchange Angels fare for that of Swine lovers of Pleasures more than lovers of God 2 Tim. iii. 4. The eager hunters after applause that value themselves by what others think of them without staying to consider what they ought to think of themselves Those who seldom worship God so much as in outward appearance and never in spirit and truth
every day Luke xvi 19 24. Think how many want what you waste Remember their end is destruction whose God is their Belly Phil. iii. 19. Take heed of being bewitched with the love of strong drink Wine is a mocker strong drink is raging whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise Prov. xx 1. Remember what it did to Noah Gen. ix 21. And then be not content with meer Temperance in which it may be when you have done all you can some Heathens have out-stripped you but mix your meals with good discourse own God in bodily provisions beg his blessing on them and seriously bless him for them Whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do let all be done to the glory of God 1 Cor. x. 31. 11. Be moderate in Recreations subordinate them to the great ends of your Life and see they be lawful and sâ—asonable Two Rules * Mr. Whateâ—â—y Redemption of Time an Eminent Divine gives about Recreations among others specially worth our notice 1. Never allow your selves any Recreation till you be come to some degree of weariness in some pious or honest employment Begin not the day with Recreation 2. Spend no more time in Recreation any day than you spend in the private or secret duties of Religion And this Rule though to some it may seem severe he thinks sufficiently warranted by that of our Saviour Mat. vi 33. Seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness I add Take heed of passion and the lâ—ss of Time Remember Recreation is no Mans business God hath not placed us in the World as Leviathan in the Sea to play therein We must but sip not drink of these dangerous sweets tanquam canis ad nilum a lap and away Take them as that we need not as that we love When once Recreations begin to inveigle our affections though in themselves they be never so lawful it is time to lay them aside 12. Every day rejoice with trembling Mix a humbling sense of our own sins with a thankful sense of Gods mercies Indulge not a sullen sorrow neither let our Joy degenerate into frothiness and levity Maintain an evenness of spirit between the immoderate carefulness of such as are swallowed up of over-much sorrow and the carnal jâ—llity of such as on light occasions are transported into ravishment or on greater ones forget the causes they have not to be puffed up but to be humbled rather When God gives you the greatest mercies think how little you deserve and when he exerciseth you with the greatest afflictions think he is before hand with you both in what he hath bestowed upon you what he offers to you and what he hath laid up for you 13. Let no day pass without some serious heart-affecting thoughts of your last day Pray Lord teach me so to number my days as to apply my heart unto wisdom Psal xc v. 12. One being asked what Philosophy was gave it this definition Philosophia est meditatio mortis and undoubtedly the thorow consideration of Death has a large place in the Christian Philosophy The Gospel Doctrine is Ars moriendi the Art of Dying viz. in and to the Lord. And how unpleasant soever this study may seem to corrupt nature there is none more necessary for us than it Serious thoughts of Death are very powerful to convince of the evil of sin of the vanity of the World of the excellency of Grace and the wisdom of laying up Treasure in Heaven O! did men think as they ought of their latter end they would not raise such a dust as they do in the World for applause and preferment there would not be such pride and pomp such bribery and oppression such luxury and sensuality among professed Christians as there is Serious thoughts of Death would be one of the most effectual cures of Hypocrisie in the World for who would very much care what men say or think of him that considers how soon he must lye buried out of their sight and forgotten by them as if he had never been When Hypocrites see they must die it makes them in earnest and if they had been so in time they had been sincere Who would trifle with God that knows and considers how soon he must be at his Bar It were impossible for men to live as they do did they but once every day seriously think they must die this thought would either reform them or torment them And that sinners seem to be aware of whence because they have no mind of either they do all they can to put Death out of their thoughts 14 Observe and improve the Methods of Providence and Grace every day and record your Experiences for future guidance and encouragement It is a great point of spiritual wisdom to notice aright Gods dealings in his Providence with our selves and others so as to make just Inferences therefrom and none but such And also to observe the secret approaches of the Divine goodness to our Souls in the way of gracious influence from the Spirit of Holiness Whatever God does in the ways of common providence or special grace he expects we should regard and consider and improve it when sin finds our selves or others out we should lye thereby warned how we meddle with that which Experience assures us will cost us dear when Obedience is rewarded we are to observe it for our encouragement to walk in such ways as God owns and in what ways we have found God approaching our Souls with the influences of special grace and spiritual consolation we are to be excited still to wait on him therein 15. Let no special opportunity of furthering your Salvation glorifying God or benefiting your Neighbour slip you unobserved or unimproved This is to redeem time Every hour of every day is to be made the best of but some are capable of a special improvement like a fair Wind to a Mariner or a fair day when we are at harvest-harvest-work if we let this slip such another may not come Post est occasio calva It may be now Christ stands at thy door in the person of a poor Beggar send him not away without an Alms see Mat. xxv at the latter end Perhaps a poor ignorant sinner is by providence cast into thy Family or thou meetest with such a one upon the Road or thou hast him upon a sick-bed willing to hearken to instruction O do thy utmost to save a Soul from Death and cover the multitude of sins Jam. v. 20. It may be thou art light into the Company of debauched Sensualists profane Ranters Infidel Scoffers now give a proof of thy loyalty and fidelity to thy great Lord and Master Perhaps thou art under a Cross and thou feelest thy heart sensible and tender now set to confessing thy sins and making supplication for the Life of thy Soul now thou hast a Sabbath a Market-day for Heaven store thy self with Soul-provision sic de caeteris 18. Share in the sufferings of the
God's fear Reckon your Sabbaths gains consider your actions and the frame of your Souls in them fix the Word of the day upon your hearts and resolve by the Grace of God to be found in the sincere and speedy practice of it He who thus regardeth a day unto the Lord Rom. xiv 6. shall comfortably experience that the Lords-day hath the seventh days blessing transferred unto it and an additional blessing of its own conferred upon it Infer III. Seriousness in Religion is not more ado than needs Strictness is not Fanaticism Religion in all its parts is our reasonable service Rom. xii 1. We do not serve God for nought that true enough though once said by the Father of Lies Job i. 9. In keeping Gods Commandments there is great reward Psal xix 11. All this work you have heard laid open is of God's setting us and we may be sure he will not suffer us to be losers by our care to please him And besides the variety of Employments allotted to us which sinners count their burden and their cumber is indeed that which sweetens Religion unto holy Souls It is not the hardness of the work in it self but the unsuitableness of it to our Spirits that maketh it so uneasie to the most and when Grace hath removed that the Soul goes on with chearfulness in those ways which sinners cannot endure to tread and do all they can to discourage others from walking in When therefore sinners entice thee from the ways of godliness and tell thee What needeth so much ado sure God is more merciful than to damn men for neglect of secret prayer for vain thoughts for foolish speeches for taking now and then a Cup of Nimis for making the best of their own c. Sure God won't shut all out of Heaven but a few Puritans and Precisians so much reading and praying c. will but mope you or make you melancholy or mad take care of thy Body and make sure of thy Estate and trust God with thy Soul When I say sinners do thus entice thee consent thou not Prov. i. 10. Let no man deceive you with vain words Eph. v. 6. Tell them God knows better who he will save and who he will damn than any of they and he hath said Without holiness no man shall see the Lord He will pour out his fury upon the Families that call not upon his Name Life and Death are in the power of the Tongue Drunkards among others shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Covetousness is Idolatry It is a little Flock our Heavenly Father will give his Kingdom to The Righteous are scarcely saved The Kingdom of God consists in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost What is a man profited if he gain the whole World and lose himself or be cast away Tell them these are the true sayings of God see Heb. xii 14. Jer. x. 25. Prov. xviii 21. 1 Cor. vi 10. Col. iii. 5. Luke xii 32. 1 Pet. iv v. 18. Rom. xiv 17. Luke ix 25. And you should be a Fool indeed if you should believe the silly sayings of blind Earth-worms and prejudiced unexperienced Sots before the Word of the Living and True God the Infinite and Eternal Wisdom Infer IV. What cause have we to lament the Fall of our First Parents by which we are disabled for this excellent Life God Created Man holy and happy with wisdom to know his Duty and power to do it and holy Love to encline him to the performance of it It was easie for Adam to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long though it was possible for him by a faulty omission of Reasons government over the inferiour powers of the Soul to depart there-from And such was the mutability of his Will that being assaulted by Temptation he wretchedly yielded and so betrayed himself and his Posterity into a forlorn state of wretchedness and impotency so that now we have none of us by nature light enough to discern nor ability to perform aright our Duty in the most ordinary instances of Life Certain it is we have lost that Moral Liberty of Will which was the glory of Innocent Adam and had been our glory had he stood and remained in his Integrity But now the Crown is fallen from our Heads woe unto us that we have sinned Lam. v. 16. We may well name ours Ichabod for the glory is departed from us 1 Sam. iv 21. We are all shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin Psal Li. 5. In our flesh dwelleth no good thing when we would do good evil is present with us O wretched ones that we are who shall deliver us from the body of this death Rom. vii 18 21 24. By one man sin entred into the World and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Rom. v. 12. We have cause to look our hearts and lives in the glass of God's Law and cry out as once a good Man did after a long Sickness looking his Face in a Glass and beholding his pale Cheeks and meager Visage Ah! Adam saith he Adam what hast thou done Oh! what a condition are we who sinned in Adam fallen from and what a sad estate are we fallen into our Minds are dark our Wills perverse our Affections froward c. we cannot of our selves think one good thought if we might have Heaven and Eternal happiness for our pains 2 Cor. iii. 5. We cannot pray nor read nor hear nor do any spiritual Duty aright We have an hereditary Sickness that threatens us with death in that it makes us loath the means of Life Oh what a averseness to and unfitness for secret prayer and meditation and examining themselves do even awakened sinners find and feel till special Grace come in to their aid What shifting what shufling what excuses what slightness what slubbering over of Duties is there In a word Adam's Fall hath rendered us all utterly unable of our selves to do aright any duty to God our Neighbour or our selves Infer V. What cause have we all to lament our past days because they have been in too great a measure lost days If you look back upon the description that hath been laid before you of the everyday work and walk of a serious practical Christian and consider how every day of your Life hath been spent since you came to the use of reason I fear you will most of you have cause to cry out not only with the Emperour Augustus Hem amici diem perdidi Alas my Friends I have lost a day But Heu vitam perdidi Alas I have lost my whole Life Alas How have our days been squandered away and our time lavished out upon unprofitable vanities Ask one man what he hath been doing ever since he came into the World And he must if he say true tell you he hath been labouring for the meat that perisheth he hath been toiling and drudging to add house to house and