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A66682
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The great evil of procrastination, or, The sinfulness and danger of defering repentance in several discourses / by Anthony Walker ...
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Walker, Anthony, d. 1692.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing W304; ESTC R39412
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176,678
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430
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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
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