X. DIRECTION.

If you would be acquainted with God, look after it speedily, defer not a moment, your ene∣my is marching on apace, you may be surprized, your soul is hasting upon it's Eternal state, your glass is almost run, there are but a few sands be∣hind; therefore seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near: Ere long it will be too late; wherefore what thou dost, do quickly. What is the voyce both of Scripture and Providence? Doth not the Word of God say Now, and commend the present time above all. Acquaint now thy self with him; Re∣member now thy Creatour; Turn now unto the Lord. Let a poor Heathen (Epict. En. c. 75.) shame you into greater speed in this necessary work. I shall translate his words into English: How long, saith he, will you defer the looking after the Page  346best things? How long will you abuse your reason? Have you not heard such Precepts which you ought to agree to, and you seemed very well to like of? What kind of Teacher is it that you stay for? For whose coming do you defer before you will mend and turn? You are come now to years of discretion (if I should say you were not, you would be angry) if you will neglect and delay, and add one delay to another, if you will add one put off to another, and make one resolution and purpose after another, and set one day after an∣other, in which you will think of these things; consider that all this will do you no good, for all your resolutions and promises, for all that I see, you are like to die a common man; therefore now live as a perfect growing man, and follow that which is most excellent unalterably. If any thing of difficulty intervene, remember that now is the time for you to shew what respect you have for your God and your soul. Remember the goal is not far off, and that now you must not falter, and that as you demean your self now, it may be you may be happy or miserable while you have a Being. This is the Language of that excellent Moralist. I add, what is it, O sinner, that thou stayest for? Is it for the day of Judgment? would you be taught by flames, the worth of time? You may then indeed learn; but believe it, your knowledg and learning will do you little good; you may then learn what it is to be miserable. but you can't learn how to get out of it; you will know what you have lost, but then will never know how to repair your Losses. How many Thousands of them which have set a day, in which they would return and repent, have set, Page  347and set, and set it again, and what with one thing or other they could not be at leasure to re∣pent till they came to Hell; and there indeed they have leisure enough to repent, and they do re∣pent too, if Hell-Repentance would do any thing: I believe that all that come there do re∣pent and believe too more than they did while they were alive; but then it's too late. They that are now in those dreadful Flames, many of them thought, it may be, of repenting before they died as well as you, and did just as you do. O that you would understand your selves before your state be like theirs! how infinitely doth it concern you to improve time, and to comply with the present tender of mercy that are made to you: for ere long it may be too late for you too. O know this therefore, that now thy God makes thee a gracious offer of pardon; and if you refuse now, this may be the last time, this may be the very cast for Eternity. God may say before to mor∣row, This night thy soul shall be required of thee. Go to therefore, you that talk of trading for the great things of Eternity, I do not know when, thirty or forty years hence, Do you not know that your life is but a blast? When your breath goes out of your Nostrils, you are not sure that you shall draw it in again. What then do you mean to talk of delay? have you not staid long e∣nough already? consider man what thou dost. He that saith he will be good to morrow, he saith he will be wicked to day. And what if God should say, thou shalt have the pleasure of sin to day & the sorrow of sin to morrow? Thou shalt be hardned to day, and damned to morrow? If your house were on fire, you would scare say, I will go and Page  348sleep four or five hours, and then I will rise and call my Neighbours to help to quench it. If your Child were a drowning, you would scarce say, I must needs stay till I have drunk a flaggon or two more, and about half an hour hence it may be I may go and see whether I can get a Boat to help him out. If you were condemned to dye to mor∣row, you would scarce say, I will have Musick, and Sack, and good company all night, and then I will send a Messenger if I can get one to ride a Hundred Mile to try whether he can get a Par∣don for me. Yet thus for all the world thou dost do in the great affairs of thy immortal Soul. O the folly of man (saith Seneca) who thinks to begin to live, when a thousand to one but he will be dead and rotten! I may say, O the madness of sinners, who make account to be looking after Heaven then, when it's likely their souls may be in Hell! Judge now whether this be wisdom. Now you think time one of the poorest commodities in the world, it's a very drugg which lies upon your hand, a day or two, a week, a year is no great mat∣ter with you: but believe it, the case will be alter∣ed with a witness ere long. Seneca wondred when he heard some asking one of his friends for to spend two or three weeks with them, when he saw how easily the request was granted, as if they ask∣ed as little as nothing, when they ask'd time of him: Thus (saith he) one of the preciousest things in the world is thrown away as little worth. When you come to lie upon your death-bed, we shall have you have other thoughts of time: then, a world, if you had it, for one of those hours, that you could not tell how to spend. You now study how to rob you self of your precious time, you invent Page  349pastimes, not considering how swiftly time flies, and how much you will prize it before long. O remember no body can give you a moment of that time when you want it, that you are now so prodigal of. When time is past, if you would give a world to recal it, it could not be: If you would give thousands for the renewing of this Lease, it would be refused. Therefore live quickly. Mans time runs away first. Optima quaequae dies miseris mortalibus aevi, prima fugit... Seneca: And then my Author Comments very bravely upon the whole verse.

I think that Proverb, though it be an Italian one, is worth our remembring, He that will lodge well at night, must set out betimes in the morning. That which keeps us from living to day, is the thoughts of living to morrow, so that we lose this day while we expect the next. Comenius spea∣king of the Tyger, saith, That when he hears the sound of the Trumpet, he tears & bites himself. This will be the work of the merciless Tygers of the world, that spend their time (in which they should be providing for Eternity) in hunting Gods peo∣ple, and taking their pleasures; and it may be think to be a little more mild before they die; but of a sudden the Trumpet sounds, away, away, and O then what a lamentable taking are they in! how do they wish for time again, or that they had spent that which they had better? Wicked men never knew the worth of time, till they come to a Death-bed, or a while after. O then, they that made nothing of spending thirty or fourty years, would lay down all they are worth for one year, one month, one day, one hour, but it's then too late. O how do they gnash their Page  350teeth! with what horrour do they think of past mercies, and future miseries! Men fear general∣ly that Death will come sooner than they would have him; they bewail that their lives are short at the longest; whereas if men would wisely hus∣band that time that God hath given them, it would be long enough: O happy is that man that hath done his great Work before his Sun is set? O foolish men that complain of God for making their lives so short, and complain not at all of themselves for making them ten times shorter: For most men lives not at all the life of Religion, and may be called Dead. Others have a name to live, and yet are little better than the former. Most that live spiritually, begin their life after they have been many years dead: & though we sit and condemn others as guilty of great im∣prudence in these affairs, yet, how do we at the same time justifie them, by being as profusely ex∣pensive of precious time as they? O where's the man almost to be found, that doth improve time to as good advantage as he should? Among other Symptomes of a fool, this is none of the least, To be always beginning to live. What an un∣handsome sight is it to see an old man learning his Letters? O remember man thou hast a great work to do! O remember thy precious time runs away with an unspeakable swiftness! What do you mean, to sit with your hands in your bosoms? Look about thee, O sinner, 'tis not time a day for you to be sleeping or playing; Methinks a man in your condition should be up and doing with all the diligence that you could for your soul, & labouring to make your calling and election sure; methinks we should hear you asking, what you Page  351shall do to get a Pardon for your sins, get God reconciled to you. Methinks you should be enqui∣ring what you should do to redeem your time, & to spend every moment of it so to the best advan∣tage, as that you may appear chearfully before your Master at night. That I may inforce this weighty Direction, I shall propound a few serious Questions to you.

Quest. 1. Do you think that these things are ne∣cessary, or are they not? If they be necessary, why do you not mind them speedily? If they be not necessary, do not look after them at all.

Quest. 2. Do you expect to be in a better ca∣pacity to look after these things hereafter? do you hope for more strength, when you are worn out with sin and age, when your back begins to bend, and your joynts to shake? Do you think you shall be more at leisure, when your work will be much increased? Know this, that sin grows up∣on you daily, it preys upon your Vitals: He that is not fit to day, will be less fit to morrow. As for leisure, I must confess you may have leisure enough in another World, to think of these things. But I wish you well to consider whether it be great wisdom to repent in this world, or in another. I would be loath to be repenting in a∣nother, it's sad weeping indeed there, where tears shall never be dried up. I have told you oft that God faith, to day, and it is both wickedly and foolishly done of man to say, to morrow. I must tell you but so, that it is a dreadful hazard that every delaying Sinner doth run: It is a question whether God may not deny his Grace, stop the Preachers mouth, stop his ears, and stop your breath: And where are you then with your to Page  352morrow? delays in these affairs always cost dear, they have cost many thousands dear already, and if you make no more hast than you have done, they will cost you dear too.

Quest. 3. When would you get acquainted with God? When he hath shut up his door? When would you run this race? When you have lost your legs, or can but creep with Crutches? Is that the best time to do your work in, when it is next to impossible to do it?

Quest. 4. Who deserves best at your hands, the Devil, the World, and the Flesh, or God? Re∣solve me this I pray? Whom do you call your Master? Whom have you most reason to make hast for?

Quest. 5. How would you take it, if any of them which depend upon you, should serve you as you serve God?

Quest. 6. Do you think you can make too much hast? Who is afraid of being Rich too soon? Al∣though a man may with reason good enough be afraid of that which may make his happiness far more uncertain, and his miseries more intollera∣ble. Who fears to make too much hast when his Prince sends for him with speed? O that men did but know, who it is that calls them, and whether they are going, and what they have to do, when they come to their journies end?

Quest. 7. Are you sure you shall live till you are an hour older? You are strong and healthful it may be, but did you never hear that such have with a very little warning? Have you never known a man well one hour, and dead the next? If you have not, I tell you of one now, that was Page  353very well one moment, and dead the next, my self being an eye-witness of it. It's possible there may be but one small moment between a strong work∣ing healthful man, and a breathless Corps.

Quest. 8. What do you think will become of you, I ask again, if you put off till it be too late?

Quest. 9. What would you do, if you were sure you should dye, or the day of Judgment come before you were a week older?

Quest. 10. Do you think to get acquainted with God in another world, when you do not mind him here? Will God think you own them hereafter, that disown him here? Will he know them in Heaven, who would not know him upon the Earth?