moment which we have continually provoked we had perisht irrecoverably Oh how great and wonderful is thy Patience and Goodness in continuing and supporting and watching over such provoking Sinners We admire we praise thee for thy Long-suffering towards us and since thou hast given space to do it we repent of all our past Sins we purpose and desire to lead a new and good Life and we humbly sue for thy pardoning Mercy When we with Sorrow and Shame confess our Sins do thou we pray thee forgive our Sins and cleanse us from all Unrighteousness Give us a true and unfeigned Repentance and the Grace to amend our Lives according to thy Holy word Teach us that denying all Ungodliness and worldly Lusts we may live soberly righteously and godly in this present World spending the rest of our Days to thy Honour and Glory In this way make us to seek an Inheritance in the World to come that since we have here no long abode no certain Duration no abiding State we may have a Treasure in Heaven an Inheritance in the next World that fadeth not away Make us so sensible of the short and uncertain condition of this our present Life that our Affections may be wean'd from this World and set upon the things to come teach and inable us so to pass through things Temporal that we finally lose not the things that are Eternal We pray thee let not this day be utterly lost to us but give us Comfort and good Fruit of our Attendances upon thee O Let thy Ordinances be to us the means of a Glorious and Eternal Life Grant us to lie down this Night in Peace while thou makest us to dwell safely Let our waking Thoughts in the Night-season instruct us Give us cause in the Morning to rejoyce in thy Goodness and Lord Comfort this our wretched mortal Life with thy Blessings let us see thy Goodness in the Land of the Living We beseech thee to have mercy upon all Men Grant them to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent to their eternal Salvation Save thy People O Lord and bless thine heritage govern and lift them up for ever We pray thee Bless these Nations wherein we live be thou as a Wall of Fire round about us and our defence against all thine Enemies and ours O purge and cleanse us from our Sins that we may be meet for the Favours of thy Providence Grant our King and Queen a long and happy Reign over us give them great Prosperity and Peace Direct all our Magistrates so to govern themselves in their several places as may be to thy Glory the good of thy Church among us and to the Safety Honour and Welfare of their Majesties and their Kingdoms Teach all our People duely to fear thee to be subject and obedient to those that are over them in Church or State and to live in brotherly Love and Unity one among another We humbly recommend to thy Goodness O Father of Mercies all that are in any Trouble or Affliction give them Patience and Submission to thee and in due time deliver them We pray thee bless all our Friends and Relations do good to our Enemies and make them to be at Peace with us All this we humbly ask in the Name of Jesus Christ and further whatever he himself hath taught us to pray saying Our Father c. The USEFULNESS of EARLY RELIGION TO Old-Age demonstrated Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen ECCLES 12. 1. Remember now thy Creatour in the days of thy Youth while the Evil days come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them NOtwithstanding the great uncertainty of humane Life and though none of us can tell how short his appointed time may be Though we see persons of every Age descend into the Grave some in their early Infancy and some in Youth in their full strength as well as some in an old Age Yea which is very strange though we see that a great many more die young than there are that live to any great Age yet do Mankind commonly promise themselves a long Life on Earth All expect this almost though but few attain it We believe that we may live as long as the oldest Persons that we see or know And this vain Imagination proves a fatal and mischievous snare to a great many For because they may live long as they think they will not trouble themselves betimes to prepare to die though it is as true that they may not live long They set the practice of Religion and the concern of their Souls aside for the present because they shall have as they suppose time enough to mind them hereafter They apply themselves wholly now to the Business and Pleasures of this Life and refer their Reformation and Religion to old Age. And thus while they think they have much time to spend they squander away and lose much from their main concern and with their time they lose Eternity and their Souls too Their time is spent and their Day of Salvation is over before they have secured and wrought out their Salvation And Death snatches many of them away in the midst of their worldly Cares and Pleasures and so they are undone for ever To meet with and cure if it may be this Errour I shall insist a little upon these words of Solomon Wherein he intimates the Unreasonableness and Folly of delaying to repent and be religious till old Age though it be supposed that we may or though it could be certain that we shall live to old Age. We may reckon that the latter part of this verse is a reason and argument to enforce his advice in the former part of it and that his meaning is this Remember now thy Creatour in the days of thy Youth because the latter end of a long Life will be Evil days and such as you shall say I have no pleasure in them To be religious in youth will be the best preparation against the evil days to come and in those days you will need those consolations and advantages which a religious and vertuous Course that has been before them will then afford Many other arguments are commonly insisted upon by those that handle this Text to persuade young Persons to mind Religion and Vertue but I shall set them all aside and insist upon this alone which seems chiefly if not only intended in the Text. To do this with the better success if it may please God I shall divide the following Discourse into three parts 1. To shew what is meant by Remembring our Creatour in the days of our Youth Because 't is usually thought that Youth may
my behaviour here this short Life has an influence upon the Eternal one If I have lived well and well used the Talents I was entrusted with here I shall enjoy better and more lasting good things there I may justly content my self to be denyed any of these things below if the wise disposer sees fit to do so since better things to full satisfaction are reserved for me But if I live wickedly I must expect that alittle time will put an end for ever to all my present ease and prosperity I must part with all my lov'd Enjoyments and bid a farewell to all mirth and pleasure All my portion of good is in this World and I can enjoy it no longer than while this short and transitory Life lasts It is but a small portion of good then that falls to my share if this be all I must have And it was not worth the being born to be exposed to so many evils to bear so many afflictions to feel the wrackings of so many violent passions as this mortal Life and vale of Tears are acquainted with for the sake of enjoying so little good so short and small a felicity And besides my pleasant Circumstances here will quickly end in Torments and Miseries that will continue for ever Let us I say think much of that other World and divert our thoughts from this That so our affections may be disengaged and we may not be entangled with the Charms and Allurements of this World to our everlasting perdition And having got our selves at liberty from those fatal snares and fetters let us earnestly apply our selves to prepare for and secure a happy State in the Life to come This ought to be our greatest care in this World and employ the most of our endeavours In every other care and endeavour this should be minded and should direct them We should so pursue this World as at the same time to pursue a better and so enjoy this World as that we at the same time may hope for a better Ought we not to be most concerned that we may be happy there where we must be longest Let us behave our selves always in this World as going out of this and going into another where we shall abide and stay Shall we be carefull about a few days to come of this Life and not much rather be solicitous what shall become of us to all Eternity Now to secure our happiness hereafter we must endeavour to make our peace with God to regain his favour by repenting truly of our former Sins by stedfastly purposing to lead a new Life by devoting our selves to Jesus Christ to be followers of him with whom the Father was well-pleased We must then deny all angodliness and worldly Lusts and live soberly righteously and godly in this present World We must cease to do evil and learn to do well and follow after holiness without which no man can see God no man can be admitted into that presence of God which makes Heaven Let us endeavour to grow reconciled to a very serious and religious Life to become acquainted with and to relish the joys and pleasures of devotion and communion with God To delight in him in meditating on his Nature and Works in praising adoring and worshipping of him Which things will be the great entertainment and happiness of Heaven and therefore till we are suited to such things till we can find the highest pleasure in them and in all acts of Vertue till we can satisfie our selves in such things even with the want of many worldly Enjoyments we are not fit for Heaven nor can be happy in another World But thus to prepare our selves for and secure a happy State hereafter is the best use we can possibly put this our mean Life to And though this Life be so short and transitory we shall have time enough for the securing a better if we do not cheat our selves of it by unnecessary delays and if we apply our selves diligently to this matter And how great an Improvement of our present Life is this How great a gain How much to advantage To employ this Life for the gaining a happy one hereafter is as if a man should lay out Pebbles for Pearls should exchange Dirt for Gold and short liv'd Sparkles for lasting and glorious Stars 'T is to lay out Earth for Heaven to spend time for the purchase of Eternity to use the Creatures so as to make them bring us to God to labour for a very few days that we may enjoy an Eternal rest to deny our selves in a few things and for a little while that we may ere long enjoy full satisfactions everlasting pleasures This is truly and greatly to redeem our time This if we do we shall not regret that our time on Earth was so short and transitory THE PRAYER O Eternal and Almighty God thou art always the same and thy years do not fail thou art the same yesterday and to day and for ever without Variableness or shadow of Change It is upon thee O Lord and thy unchangeable Power that all things else do depend in their Beings and in all their Operations thou fillest Heaven and Earth and thou workest all in all All thy Works praise thee O God and thy Saints bless thee The invisible Things of thee are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even thy Eternal power and Godhead And we O Lord are amongst the number of those whom thou hast Created and dost preserve thou in thy due time didst bring us into Being at our Birth and by thee we are hitherto sustained It is thou that supportest our frail Natures that they fall not into the Dust by thy careful Providence over us we have escaped many Dangers we have got through the weakness of Infancy and the Heedlesness of Childhood by thy Blessing has our Food nourisht and our Cloaths warmed us for we live not by these things alone but by the Word which proceeds out of the mouth of God We are in thy Hands then O thou the Sovereign Arbiter of Life and Death when ever thou pleasest we return to the Dust from whence we were Created We acknowledge it is of thy Mercy that we are not consumed and because thy Compassions fail not And we are afraid when we think how easily thou canst crush and destroy us how frail our Life is and how short and Transitory how little a distance we are from Eternity and how exposed our Lives are how many Evils and Dangers compass us about and how small a Matter is able to put an end to our Days These things when we consider them make us look upon our selves as always just at the brink of the Grave and Eternity And while we have liv'd careless of our Duty to thee while we have liv'd in Rebellion against thee we have been upon the brink of Hell and in continual Danger of falling into it Had thy wrath been kindled against us but for a
entertaining Covetousness instead of Prodigality spiritual Pride instead of carnal Security Envy Malice Sedition Faction in commutation for Lust or Drunkenness and Swearing And it deserves to be considered whether it be not most likely that the delaying Sinners repentance on a sick Bed will be false and dissembled When he has all his Life-time proposed to himself not to repent but when Death summons him into another World is it not very likely that he now keeps to that which has been his setled Resolution and that his Repentance has no other Principle now than his Apprehensions of the nearness of Death and Judgment Is it not very likely that he who would never fear punishment till he came to think it near does now fear it only because he thinks it near and that all the Principle of his Repentance is the fear of approaching Punishment This then is all the Repentance that such an one is likely to practice at such a time and such as this will never be accepted with God nor bring a man to Heaven with only such as this he may perish everlastingly How foolish and extravagant is it then for a man to put off his Repentance through all that time when it is most likely to be true and wherein he may have the proof of its truth in fruits meet for Repentance And that he should put it off to that time wherein it is most likely to be false and cannot be proved true by answerable Fruits 5. From what has been said last I may frame another Argument against our relying upon a Death-Bed Repentance and that is It is at the best but uncertain and uncomfortable The change of mind which God requires must proceed from a deep sence of the vileness of Sin in it self of that ingratitude injustice and rebellion which is in it towards the great God There must be a hatred of it upon these accounts and earnest resolutions to forsake all Sin for the future And this change must proceed to the loving of God more than this World to the chusing and preferring Heaven before Earth and the pleasures of Religion more than those of Sence and Sin And if the Principle of our Sorrows and Vows were such a change of mind as this they would then continue if life were continued and would be put in practice in the Course of a godly righteous and sober Conversation even when the danger and fright were over And in that case God will accept the will for the Deed if it be a firm and rectified Will Ham. Ib. though the man does not live to put his resolutions in practice when it is his misfortune not his fault that he does not live a good Life after it because he has no more time granted him to live not because he would not live well But now whether the dying Sinners repentance be such as this or not no man can tell This late repentance may prove sincere and sufficient to find favour with God who searches the Heart and tries the Reigns but it is very unlikely to be such as the former Argument has demonstrated and it very seldom does prove such and no man that dies in it can possibly assure himself or be assured by any one else that his Repentance is sincere and acceptable with God and therefore at the best it is uncertain and uncomfortable No man can tell the Truth of his Repentance till it is put to a Trial till it meets with Temptations and conquers them and brings forth the Fruits of Vertue and Holiness And since without Holiness no man can see God but the Holiness of the Heart must be demonstrated by the Life and Conversation as our Saviour says a Tree is known by its Fruitt it cannot then be certainly pronounced concerning any man what shall become of him who has lived a vitious and ungodly Life all his days and only comes to some Sorrows and good Protestations and Vows on his Death-Bed We may hope well in Charity but cannot determine And though we cannot positively say there is no hope in such a case yet we must say there is very small hope And this is according to the Sense of the Ancients in this matter whose opinions to confirm what has been said I shall produce Augustin lib. 50. Hom. H. 41. speaks thus He who in his last extremity of Sickness seems to repent and departs this Life I confess to you I do not deny him what he asks by which he means Absolution or the blessed Sacrament that is I treat him as a true penitent because he may be so for ought I know but I cannot presume to say positively that he has made a good departure A good man living well says he goes out of this World secure And he who practices repentance in his Health and afterwards lives well he may be secure but he that repents only at last at the point of Death whether he be secure or not I am not secure Again he says to this Case Wouldst thou be free from doubt would you avoid uncertainty in a matter of such importance then practice Repentance while thou art in health for if thou dost so thou art secure when thy last day comes upon thee If you ask why I say because thou hast then practised thy Repentance while it was yet in thy power to have sinned longer But if thou then do this when thou canst sin no more thy Sins have forsaken thee rather than thou them And he adds I therefore grant thee repentance because I know not what may be the will of God concerning thee If I certainly knew it would not profit thee I would not grant it If I certainly knew it would profit I would not thus admonish I would not terrifie thee Chuse then says he that which is certain and do not rely upon that which is uncertain Thus speaks he Another Isidorus de sum bono says thus if any man repents while he could go on in Sin and while he yet lives cleanses himself from all Iniquity there is no doubt but when he dies he shall be translated to Eternal Rest But if a man spends his whole Life in Wickedness and then comes to repent at the point of Death as his Damnation is uncertain so his Pardon is doubtful I shall only mention one more and that is Salvian de Avariâ— l. 1. cap 5. What to say in this case I know not says he what I may permit I am utterly ignorant To discourage and with hold a man from seeking and using this last Remedy were hard and impious but to promise and assure him any thing in so late a Repentance were also rash It is his best course in this condition to leave nothing untried rather than to do nothing towards helping himself especially because though I know not whether this may help at last yet we may be certain that to attempt nothing is pernicious Thus much they have said and thus much at least must be said to