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
abused Patience kindle into such Fury as shall burn to the nethermost Hell and none can quench it 'T is hard to stop my running Pen in such a Current but I will check it and refer you to the Sermons for more pressing Arguments These things have been often ecchoed in your Ears enough to make them tingle I now put them into your Hands and Houses and lay them before your Eyes read them attentively consider them Wisely practise them Faithfully and Pray earnestly that God would bless them to you as I shall not cease to do in your behalf and set this little Book in some conspicuous Place that it may be your Remembrancer when you do but glance your Eye upon it and as often as you see it ask your Consciences have I yet obeyed the Errand on which God sent that little Messenger Am I ready for Christ have I finished the work God sent me into this World for bear I such Fruit as God expects from every Tree he plants in the Vineyard of his Church Now the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has so loved us as to give us his dearly beloved Son to Dye for us and will speedily send him again to Judge us That great lover of Souls who hath sworn he desires not the Death of a Sinner but would have all Men to be Saved and come to the Knowledg of the Truth inable you in this your Day to know the things which belong to your Peace before they be hidden from you that when ever he shall come who hath said so often behold I come quickly you may lift up your Heads and not be ashamed and your Hearts may Eccho with Faith and Joy even so come Lord Jesus So Prayes dear Neighbours Your faithful Monitor and Willing Servant in the Things of Christ Anthony Walker Fyfield March 9 1680 1. THE CONTENTS Serm. I. AGainst the Neglect of present Readiness for our Lords Coming Upon St. Luke 12.40 Be ye therefore Ready also In which is shewed wherein our Readiness for Christs Coming consists and the Duty is prest by many Arguments Serm. II. AGainst putting off the finishing our great Work upon St. John 9.4 I must Work the Works of him that sent me while it is Day The Night cometh when no Man can Work In which is shewed what this Work is and Diligence urged because 't is Work and Speed with respect to the Time allowed and limited for the doing of it Serm. III. AGainst the want of present fruitfulness in our Lords Vineyard Upon St. Luke the 13.6 7 8 9. A certain Man had a Figtree planted c. In which the whole Parable is succinctly Opened and Applyed and speedy Fruitfulness proved the only means to prevent cutting down A SERMON PREACHED At St. Buttolphs Algate on Friday the 18th of February 1680 1 at the Funeral of Mr. Nathaniel Duckfeild Citizen of London and Inhabitant of the said Parish St. Luke 12.40 Be ye therefore Ready also T Is the great Design of every faithful Minister to save himself and them that hear him and nothing more naturally contributes to that good Work than a serious preparedness of Heart on the part of the Hearers and on the Preachers a Word seasonably fitted to the Occasion by which God calls them to attend to it And if any thing next to the Grace of God can awaken men to awful Apprehensions of the World to come 't is convincing Evidence of their uncertain Continuance in this World and unavoidable necessity of their certain Departure out of it And this is no where written in more legible Characters than on the Hearses of our Friends with whom we have had familiar and daily Conversation and were a few Days since as likely to have attended us to our long Homes as we were to follow them to their Beds of Silence And for this Reason the wise Man tells us it is better to go to the House of Mourning than to go to the House of Feasting For that is the end of all Men and thâ— Living will lay it to his Heart Eccl. 7.2 Supposing therefore that your Eye hath affected your Heart and that this solemn and mournful Object of our worthy and obliging Friend now shut up from us iâ— the close Confinement of a Coffin hatâ— disposed your Hearts to receive what iâ— Fit and Reasonable to be learn'd from it The Work on my part is to render my Discourse sutable That the Ordinance we are exercised in may answer the Providence which brought us to it That there may be an Harmony in the parts which are to be joyned into one piece For God hath two Books one of his Works another of his Word Both described by David in Psal xix and we are to turn a Page in either of them To learn a Lesson in the School of Nature and in the School of Grace And I desire these may answer each other as the Windows did in Solomons Temple Light over against Light Our Text our Lesson or if you will our Sermon from the Book of Providence is not only to view a man like our selves Mortal and actually dead But a man not past the vigour of his years and strength and t'other day in perfect health summoned to his Tryal to stand at Christ's Tribunal to receive his final doom and sentence And I think no Text in Scripture Ecchoes more vocally to this than the words I have read Be ye therefore Ready also The illative Particle therefore hath an aspect also on the Context and it looks both backward and forward to what went before in the 37. and 39. verses and what follows after in this In the Verses pointed at before the Text are laid down the blessedness of the ready and the misery of the unready Rewards and Punishments are the Instruments of Government Hopes and Fears are the Spurs and Bridles to quicken to Good to restrain from Evil. Therefore if you would injoy the Good 't is Natural to hope for and desire or escape the Evil 't is Natural to fear and fly from Be ready The blessedness of the ready is described by the honour every such servant shall receive from his Lord and Master when he comes He will gird himself and make them sit down to meat and come forth and serve him And for greater assurance like Pharaohs dream 't is doubled v. 37. begins blessed are those servans and v. 38. ends blessed are those servants The misery of the not ready is described by the condition of an Housholder surprized by Robbers who break through his House with the supposed consequences take away his Goods and Life so that the sum is seeing such ready servants shall assuredly be blessed And such unprepared Housholder shall be miserably ruined Let others happiness be your incouragement And let others harms be your warnings that ye be ready But the duty is of such vast importance that 't is prest yet farther with a Reason at the back of it For the son
supposeth it when it bids ye be ready And another Text expresseth it which tells you The marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made her self ready Rev. xix 7. And both the Jaylers question Sirs what must I do to be saved Acts xvi 30. And the answer to it imply so much And that common saying of St. Austin hath obtained Universal consent That he who made thee without thy self will not save thee without thy self It being therefore taken for granted that we can and must do somewhat let us now enquire and so direct you what it is First Be throughly convinced of thy own unreadiness Sence of want is the first the most Natural and most effectual motive to seek supply Jacob would never have sent his Sons much less his Benjamin into Egypt to buy Food if the Famine had not pincht him and his Houshold in the Land of Canaan The full soul loatheth an Hony Comb but to the hungry soul even bitter things are sweet They who are whole care not for the Physitian but the sick will both send for him and Fee him willingly Christ calls those who are weary and heavy laden with the burden of sin Curse of the Law sence of Gods wrath and 't is well if these will come there is most hope of them but for others he may stretch out his hand all the day long and they regard it not There was enough said before to convince thee of thy unreadiness if thou beest an Vnsanctified man this is only added to persuade thee to consider it and to yield to conviction of thy sin and misery Secondly Be persuaded of the infinite concernment of this matter the water will rise no higher than the Spring Head and the motion will answer the weight which causeth it a small weight produceth but slow motion but a great and heavy one such as is quick and violent They that have slight thoughts of the concerns of another world 't is no wonder they are so little concerned about them But they that consider well what is the Consequence of not being ready when Christ comes what it is to have all the doors of Grace and Mercy Hope and Glory shut against them what it is to lose an Immortal Soul which the gain of an whole world could not compensate What it is to be driven from God and Christ and the Regions of Bliss with a depart ye Cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels to be shut up in that Dungeon of utter darkness where shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth under the gnawings of the Worm which shall never dye and in midst of a fire that shall never be quenched in a word they that wisely lay to heart this Truth that the injoyment or loss of infinite and everlasting happiness and the suffering or escaping endless and unconceivable torments infallibly depends upon being or not being ready for Christ when he comes by Death or Judgment will have other thoughts of these things and will be awakened by them to make ready in good earnest Which I heartily wish we all may Thirdly Get clear and distinct knowledg of the main Grounds of Religion Knowledg is a loading Grace the new man is renewed in knowledg Col. iii. 10. And without it the heart cannot be good tho it be too often without a good heart But of all Knowledg get as full and clear a Knowledg as you can of the Covenant of Grace by which alone the enmity is removed and reconciliation is made between an offended God and lost mankind And herein especially study to know the Mediator of this Covenant as to his Person Natures and Offices and the Efficacy of his Death Resurrection and Intercession with the terms upon which he will receive thee as one of his redeemed ones and what returns he expects from thee What be those sure Mercies of David that Covenant conveighs and what Obligations they are brought under who are received into it the Knowledg of these things is so useful so necessary so excellent comprehending the true knowledg of Salvation 't is hard to desist from farther inlarging upon it or pressing of it An Interest in this Covenant being the only means left us for our Eternal safety and welfare Fourthly Frequently reflect upon thy Baptismal Covenant I know no one thing in all the world more hopefully likely to restore the life of sollid Christianity to the world which is so miserably decayed and dead in it than this would be For first It would mightily restrain sin the bane of Christianity to remember how solemnly we have renounced all the temptations and inducements to it and no less provoke us to Faith and Obedience the two great Pillars upon which Christianity is built to think what Vows of God are upon us and make us say with David I have sworn and I wilâ— perform it that I will keep all thy Righteous Judgments Psal cxix 106. Secondly It would put warmth and Holy fire into all our Devotions which are mostly so formal cold and dead To consider what mutual engagements have past betwixt us and that God to whom that Mediator through whom and that blessed Spirit by whose assistance we perform them They being all by true interpretation farther inforcements oâ— those engagements as were easie to shew in all the particulars of Prayer Hearing the Word and Receiving the Holy Supper Thirdly It would heal our Divisions and close up our Breaches and restore that blessed Spirit of Love and Peace The Bond of Perfection and Badg of Christs Disciples and help us to keep and hold the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace as you may see from the Apostles arguing Eph. iv 4 5 6. To call to mind that we are all Baptised into one Body joyned to one Head received into the Family of one Father obliged by the same Laws made Candidates and Expectants of the same Jerusalem above which is the Mother of us all And what would have so beneficial an influence upon the life of Christianity cannot fail to prepare us for the coming of Christ I therefore again inforce my importunate requests to you that you would often and dayly meditate upon your Baptismal Engagements to the great God Fifthly Apply thy self sincerely and seriously to the use of all Gods means with an earnest expectation and design to receive from them what God hath appointed them to conveigh to those who use them aright Men for the most part use them customarily and for fashion sake expecting little from them and receive as little as they expect They proving dry Breasts and empty Channels But if thou wouldest use them as thou shouldest thou wouldest find it good to draw nigh to God and that he never bid the house of Jacob seek his face in vain 'T is the Nature of means to come in the middle between what a man can do and what he can not do to help him by what he can do to
on unto Perfection It must not be begun only and continued in a little but finish't or else as good ne'r a whit as ne'r the better As in a Race you must run to the End of it and come timely to the Goal or you had as good not start at the giving of the Signe You know the reproach and loss that Builder incurr'd in the Gospel-Parable who began to Build but was not carefull to Finish and the Galations though they ran well for some time yet because they gave over and made an unseasonable halt are called Fools and compared to Men bewitch't for stopping in so good a Course He that puts his Hand to the Plough must not look back Lot's Wife went out of Sodom yet she never reach't to Zoar. Christ had many Disciples Who Walkt with Him a while and then forsook Him and Walk't no more with Him Joh. 6.6 and their short Discipleship profited them nothing Beginning in the Spirit will not advantage those who End in the Flesh When the Righteous Man turns away from his Righteousness and committeth Iniquity and doth according to all the Abominations that the Wicked Man doth Shall he Live All his Righteousness which he hath done shall not be mentioned In his Trespass that he hath trespassed and in his Sin that he hath sinned in them shall he Dye Ezek. 18.24 He that 's but half a Christian shall be wholly Damn'd 'T is the End which Crowns the Work Rev. 3.11 Behold I come quickly hold fast that thou hast that no Man take thy Crown and 2.10 Be thou Faithful to the Death and I will give thee a Crown of Life if the Salt lose its Savour it is fit for nothing but the Dunghil Eternal Life is promised to them Who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory Rom. 2.7 Let us therefore endeavour to Perfect Holiness in the Fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 Remembring what Christ Wrote to the Church of Sardis who had a Name to Live and was Dead Rev. 3.2 Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to dye for I have not found thy Works perfect before God Thou can'st not be ready to dye in a good sence if the best things in thee be ready to dye in so bad an one Fifthly Because 't is a Work it shall be Rewarded This I add that you may not want incouragement amidst so many difficulties And I hope we may innocently speak God's Language without suspition or danger of poisoning it with the fond Opinion of Merit How often do we read thy Work shall be Rewarded and Who rendereth to every Man according to his Works and verily there is a Reward for the Righteous and the like Every Work shall have its proportionable Recompence The same Chapter which gives us this Rule He that cometh to God must believe that HE IS and that He is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him Heb. 11.6 gives us the Example of Moses having Respect to the Recompence of the Reward Vers 26. Every Work shall have its Wages If we do our Own Work we must be our Own Pay-Masters and if the Devil 's we must expect no better than he useth to give But if we be Speedy Faithful Diligent in this Work of God we may expect and shall not be disappointed of God's Reward yea that He Himself will be our Exceeding great Reward as He promised the Father of the Faithful Gen. 15.1 and will perform to all his Children Let us therefore not be weary in Well-doing for in due time we shall Reap if we faint not Gal. 6.9 Wherefore Whatsoever you do do it heartily as to the Lord knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the Reward of the Inheritance for ye serve the Lord Christ Col. 3.24 who is not Vnrighteous to forget your Labour of Love Heb. 6.10 If this were not a Work appointed and enjoyned of God all our Recompence might be Who hath required these Things at your Hands But seeing it is the Work of God we so run not as uncertain that is not as uncertain of Assistance for He will help us to do His own Work nor of Acceptance for He cannot but be pleased to see His own Work carryed on nor of a Gracious Reward for He is Faithful who hath promised and the Promise of Eternal Life is made by that God who cannot Lye Tit. 1.2 Therefore my Beloved be ye Stedfast and Vnmoveable alwayes abounding in the Work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your Labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 And This may suffice to provoke our Speed and Diligence from the First Consideration That 't is Work implying its Necessity its Precedency its Difficulty its required Perfection and its sure Reward I proceed to the Second Reason While it is Day that is because a fit Season and Opportunity is vouchsafed and allowed us to do this Work in A Day That is the Time of this present Life and the Enjoyment of the Means of Grace outwardly in the Gospel and inwardly by the Assistance of His Spirit And let us consider this as a Day 1. For Quality 2. For Quantity First For Quality God called the Light DAY Gen. 1.5 The Day is Tempus Lucis the Time of Light affording us necessary Help to see to do our Work Therefore the Day is appointed for Labour because 't is a fit time for it Psal 104.22 23. The Sun ariseth Man goeth forth unto his Work unto his Labour until the Evening If any Man walk in the Day he stumbleth not because he seeth the Light of this World But if a Man walk in the Night he stumbleth because there is no Light in him St. John 11.9 10. The Time of this Life is called Light in Opposition to Death which is a State of Darkness and the Grave which is the House of Darkness the Land of Darkness as Job describes it ch 10.21 22. Before I go whence I shall not Return even to the Land of Darkness and the Shadow of Death A Land of Darkness as Darkness it self and of the Shadow of Death without any Order and where the Light is as Darkness And Chap. 18.18 He shall be driven from Light into Darkness and chased out of the World Once more Chap. 33.28 30. He will deliver his Soul from going into the Pit and his Life shall see the Light To bring back his Soul from the Pit to be enlightned with the Light of the Living And the Season of Grace is call'd a Day from the Similitude of the Fitness of a Natural Day for the Works of this World and of the Day of Grace for the Works of the World to come and from the Likeness of the Causes of either of them The Rising of the Sun and its Presence makes Day and nothing but the Sun can make it not the Moon or Stars in their greatest Brightness So the Son of Righteousness as Christ is called Mal. 4.2 arising and shining