The Application of Redemption, Book 5
BOOK V.
MATTH. 20. 5, 6, 7.
Again he went out about the sixt and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, why stand ye all the day idle? He saith unto them, Go also into the Vineyard, and whatsoever is right, that ye shall receive.
WE have done with the Season of Salvation in regard of the means, consider we now the time which the Lord takes in regard of the Parties, upon whom it is wrought who do yet enjoy their lives, and the means of Grace: Amongst these the dispensation of the Lord is divers, dealing as it seems best to his Heavenly Wisdom; some he calls, and converts in their yonger, some in their older, but most usual it is to bring home sinners to himself in their riper age.
For the scanning of this Point, we have made choyce of this Parable of the Vineyard: which presents to us four things at the sirst view.
1 The … of the Vineyard, who owed it.
2 The …, who drest it.
3 The …, when they were hired.
4 The Reward here promised and given for their …. Under the Letter or which words, this … … is …, … ought to be conceived.
The … is the Church, Isai. 5. 7. The Master and Housholder, is the Lord Christ: The … …, are his redeemed ones, whom he cals by the effectual operation of his blessed Spirit in the … of his Word, to be painful and fruitful in good works as in Christ they are created unto, and …. 2. 8… or dained they should walk in. The diversity of the time of their hiring, shews the difference of the times wherein they are converted, some sooner, and some later, and for the right and ready … of this Circumstance, let it be remembred that it was the received manner amongst the Jews to divide their Nights into four Watches, and their Daies … of twelve hours, into four Stations…, 1 … …, 2. …. … 27 …, 6 or Portions, designing three hours to each part; so … from … to …, was the Third hour; from … to twelve, the Sixt hour; from twelve to three, … … hour; from thence to five, the Eleventh …, one hour before the ending of the day.
To apply: The Day is as it were our Life; God … some of his Servants in the morning of their youth; some at mid-day, in their middle age; some at the eleventh hour, in their aged and declining time, when their Sun is neer setting, and they drawing on to the end of their daies, not long … their death, not long before their souls depart out of their bodies, and they depart from the Land of the Living.
I am not ignorant that some Interpreters run another way, and conceive by Laborers, … only to be understood, whether they be good or bad; and their …, their calling unto that … in the Church: He that is a Demas and seeks … World, his penny, his praise, and applause, if …; his profit and wealth, if Covetous, and for that he makes his agreement with the Lord, when first he makes entrance upon the work of the Ministry: When he that is sincere hearted, and seeks the things of Christ, the penny for which he indents, and the hire he would have, is the hearts of poor …, the conversion of souls, and … of the body of Christ are instead of all the Tythes and …, Livings, and Benesices he desires to look after: though the sence is pleasant and spiritual, yet I do not think it suits with the Scope … this place, nor here intended by the Spirit. For of those … Parable must be understood, of whom that conclusion in the last verse of the 19. chapter was spoken, Many that be first shall be last, and many that be last, shall be first: This Parable being inferred for the opening and proving of that, as the first words of the first … of this 20. chapter, do plainly evidence, For the Kingdom, &c.
But they are without question, the … only who are there meant, such who have left all for Christs sake, such who shall inherit … life, vers. 29. alwaies with this proviso, Many that are first called, if they bear up themselves somwhat too much upon their own worth, shall be last rewarded; they who are last called, if yet they do renounce all confidence in their own excellency and sufficiency, and depend upon the free mercy of God, they shal be amongst the chiefest that shal be recompenced: Following then the sense which the Scope of the Text, and the best Interpreters give; the Point which fits our purpose, and offers it self to consideration without any forcing from the Words, is this:
God calls his Elect at any age, but theDoctor. most of his, he converts before old age.
He comes at any hour, but once only at the Eleventh hour, and that somwhat unexpectedly.
There be two Parts in the Doctrine: we wil handle them severally, that they may be more easily and distinctly conceived.
1 The Lord can, and somtimes doth, call at any Age.
2 But the most of his, and that most usually, he converts in their riper years.
God calls several of his Servants at sundry times,Part I. some yong, some old, some in their tender, some in their riper years, there is no season excepted; he that is the God of all times, can, and will do his own work at any time: Timothy knew the Scriptures from a child, 2 Tim. 3. 15. and drew in the sincere … of the Word, as Milk from the Breasts of his Mother, and therefore is said to be nourished up in the wholsom words of Truth, 2 Tim. 1. 5. Obadiah feared God from his youth, 1 Kings, 18. 12, Lydia and the Jaylor in Acts, 16. Paul in Acts, 9. 7. and Zacheus, Luke, 19. 9. it's most propable they were in their middle age, as their places and imployments together with their accustomed experience, and practice therein do …; Paul indeed is called a yong man, Acts, 7. 58. yet his bringing up at the feet of Gamaliel, the largeness and depth of his Learning and Knowledg in Arts and Tongues, 1 Cor. 14. 18. together with the Commission he was betrusted by the High-Priest, for the persecuting of the Saints, evince undeniably that he must be of ripe years: Abraham was upon his seventy fifth year when God called him, Gen. 12. 5. compared with Josh. 24. 2. Manasseth was converted near upon his death, about sixty yeers of age, 2 Chron. 33. 19. But in the case of old Age, the matter is so difficult, and so unusual, that there are very few examples of old men converted, recorded in Scripture, as though the Lord had reserved it in his own hand as a special exception, that the Sons of men should not ordinarily expect it. That which is usually observed with some probability (besides the pregnant testimony of the Text in hand) is, Amongst the many thousands, who were pricked in their hearts at Peters Sermon, Acts, 2. 36. Amongst all those who came to hear with Cornelius, Acts, 10. 44. It's said, the Holy … fell upon all that …; it's probable some among such numbers were stricken in years: As for the Thief upon the …, it's most agreeable to good reason by all the leading circumstances in the Text, that he was in his best strength. The Lord takes these times in the dispensation of his Mercy, for a double End.
To shew the freeness of his Grace, that there is nothing that he respects either in person or place, no excellency that at any time any man hath, no work that at any time any man can do, why he should fit and prepare any for Grace and Christ, or bestow them upon the … Sons of Adam, and therefore takes every season, that it may appear it is in his good pleasure to take what season he will. If the work of Grace had been … to any time of Life, either Youth, …-hood, or Old Age, alone, it would … been concluded … carnal grounds, that there was somthing in the Creature, upon condition … it had been given; either the tenderness of the yong ones had moved the Lord to … them, or the excellency of the parts and abilities of men of riper years, could have procured it: or the policy and experience of the aged could alone have contrived this great work of preparation and conversion unto God: but when the Lord chuseth some out of all …, and pass by others, it's … evident it's not any thing in the persons years or condition, but meerly in the compassion of the Lord that doth all: This is the … which the Lord himself renders of his dealing in this kind, when he would suppress the murmuring of some of the Laborers, …. 20. 14. who … that they had no more than others, because they had been longer in the Vinyard, and had born more of the burden, and heat of the day than others: The Lord answers, May I not do what I will with mine own?
Again, This God doth to shew his Power, even the Omnipotent and All-sufficient work of his …, to whom nothing is hard or impossible, who hath hardness at command, and therefore as he doth … he will both in Heaven and Earth, Psal. 1 15. 3. … also in the hearts of his people; when the … and … of the little … … deprive them of this favor, when the boisterous head-strong distempers of yong men cannot hinder; … … … … of the aged in their cankered corruptions, cannot … … … Grace and Salvation; but be they never so weak God can …; be they never so stout, God can bend, be they never so fast rooted in their rebellions, God can, and doth separate betwixt sin and their souls, and recover them: Behold, this is the Finger of the Almighty. When the Disease hath entred … the Bowels, and rotted in the bones of the sick, the Physick then to cure, the Physitian then to recover, that is skill more than ordinary by the confession of all: So here in the soul, to make the Black-more to change his hew, the Leopard his spots, to make a gray headed sinner, whose corruptions like a canker hath eaten up his heart by dayly custom, to bring him to sound contrition and broken heartedness, therein the outstretched arm of the Lord is expressed in his utmost strength, My Power is made perfect in weakness, saith the Lord, 2 Cor. 12. 9. It's the perfection of Power to prevail over such difficulties. Thus of the First Part; the Second follows.
God doth call most of his, before Old Age. Andpart II. therefore when he went forth at the Eleventh hour, he reproves them, before he entertains them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? as who should say, You have lost the season of your work, and hope of your reward: the day is over, there is no time for you to labor, and there is no reason that I should either hire you or reward you; it's not my usual course nor custom; yet for once go you also into my Vineyard: Therefore the most usual time of Conversion, is betwixt the third and the ninth hour, in our middle Age, about twenty, and betwixt thirty and forty; many are before, some are after, but most, and most usually, are wrought upon at this time; There is (a good pleasure, as the Original hath it) a season for every thing, Eccles. 2. 1. and this seems to be the fittest time for this work whether we respect Man or God.
A man at this Age hath better Materials, as I may so say, wherein, or whereupon the frame of Conversion may be erected, or imprinted by the … of the Spirit; and that firstly, If we look at the composition of Nature, and the constitution of soul and body; for in Infancy, a man lives little … than the life of a Plant, or Beast, feeding and sleeping, growing and encreasing; or else he takes up himself with delights of outward objects most agreeable to his Sences, Walks after the sight of his own eyes, Eccles. 11. 9. both which exceedingly … the work of reason, but when these are towards … full perfection, and Nature hath attained her … work, then the Understanding begins to shew … self in her operations: Invention is then most … to apprehend, the Judgment to discern, Memory to retain, and the Affections tenderest and nimblest to imbrace any thing offered, and most pliable to be wrought upon: As it is with Wax, if it be made too soft, it cannot hold any impression, if too hard, it will receive none; but when it's in temper most pliable, then it's most fit to receive and retain the stamp. So Infancy is too weak and waterish, it's not able to fadom or fasten upon the depths of Argument; Age grows sturdy with …, and will not listen to the Reasons of those Truths its not willing to imbrace: only in the middle Age, when Reason is come to some ripeness, there is then some more convenient advantages to be taken for the Lord to imprint the stamp of Grace upon the soul, which the hand of his own Spirit can only do.
Look we again at Corruption: In this Age … Understandings are sooner …, as having not so long continued in the known practice of …; whenas the aged and decrepit who … … the burden of their sins, being setled long and … upon their …, wedged in their …, and incorporated into sinful customs, their hearts grow hard, their understandings blind, and their affections overcome with the deceitfulness of sin, difficult it is to perswade their Reason, to acknowledg the vileness of their sin, but almost impossible to have their hearts wrought to a deteftation of it. Trees withered and rotten, are altogether unfit to be transplanted; nor likely to prosper if they be: So is it with aged men, like these Trees, withered in their wickedness, yea, as Jude speaks, Corrupt Trees twice dead, Jude, 12. First by Original corruption; Secondly by a continued and setled custom in Actual …; who have taken … root in their rebellions, they are most unfit to be transplanted and ingrafted into the true Vine Christ Jesus by Conversion and Faith: The Bow that's often …, and stands long one way, is not bowed the other way, but with much violence: The soul (proportionably) which is turned from God, and hath … bent by long continuance in a base course, though it's possible it may be brought back again and put into a right frame, yet it will cost the setting on before it can be accomplished, and a world of difficulties must be gone through usually before it be done.
Thirdly and lastly, As this is the fittest Age in regard of the Subject that must receive it, so likewise in regard of the End why Grace is given, which is to … forth the praise of God, and the Power of his Grace, and by an holy Conversation to express the … of him who hath called us from darkness to his marvelous light, 1 Pet. 2. 9. for Grace destroyes not the powers and faculties of Nature, but … them; removes not abilities, but rectifies them, doth not take them away, but turns them to their … end and use; while then the parts of the body … powers of the soul are in their prime, & best … then may they be improved by the blessed Spirit … the Lord and his Grace, to the best advantage of … Name: Thus Grace damps not, deads not the … ction of love, if strong and lively, but directs it … God, his Truth, and Children: Grace abates not … edg of Courage and Resolution, but brings as stout, and yet stragling Soldier into his right … and Rank, to be imployed in the defence of the Gospel: Though God can work with any tool, yet … in he manifests his Wisdom, that he will chuse … to whom he gives great fitness to the performance … those great and honorable imployments unto … they are designed: Hence Paul might in many other, so in this respect also, be called a choyce … to carry Christs Name among the Heathens, … 9. 15. being his Zeal was fiery, his Love earnest, … Courage resolute, his Judgment deep, his Spirit undaunted, and fit for dispatch; all these faculties being as so many vessels filled with Grace, prepared and guided by the Power of Gods Spirit, might be fit Instruments to carry and convey the Gospel, and the glory of the unsearchable Riches of Christ, to the ends of the Earth; Who sitter to care for all the Churches, 2 Cor. 11. 28. than he that had … havock of them? Acts, 9. Who more fit to be … Messenger of Peace, and to breath out glad tidings … Salvation to fainting souls, than he who had … out threatnings against them? Acts, 9. 1. Who more … to pity the Saints, than he who cut of his madness had persecuted them, and that to the death before? Acts, 26. 11.
But in the crazy and decayed estate of fainting Age, when the whol frame begins to shake and go … ruine, how unable are we to perform the meanest service, how … to be imployed in works of greatest weight? The members of a man converted are called Weapons of Holiness, and Servants of Righteousness, Rom. 6. 19. but doting heads, palsie hands, feeble knees, faultring tongues are but broken weapons, and lame Servants, utterly unworthy to be used in the fighting of Gods Battels, or performance of his Service; how shall those hands which hang down for faintness be able to work the works of God? how shall the feet that cannot stir walk in his waies? or that tongue tell of his praise that cleaves unto the … of the mouth, and cannot talk two ready words? To gripe the Sum of the Point in short.
If Nature be now most pliable to be prepared to receive Grace, corruption not now so … to … it, our abilities most able to improve it; then is it a reasonable Truth, that the God of Wisdom, though he call some at any Age, yet he should Convert most at this Age.
Learn we hence to take out a Lesson of Sobriety,… 1. not to be too rash and Censorious touching the final estate of any in this life, since it is never too … for the Lord to call, though at the Eleventh hour: It's the Apostles Counsel, Judg nothing before the time, that is, Judg nothing that is secret and uncertain: determine not of any mans final condition, because the time is not yet come; this life is a time of mercy, to some sooner, to some later, After death, comes Judgment, when God shall lay open the secrets, and … counsels of the heart; then judg and spare not, but … then refer al unto the Lord: and therfore if the question be touching the final estate of others, we should answer with modesty as the Prophet did to the Lord in another case, Ezek. 37. 2, 3. When … Lord had shewed him a field full of dead bones … dry, he asked him, Son of man, shall these dead bone live? the Prophet answers, Lord, thou knowest it rests in thine own wil to work this so great a work and in thine own Counsel to determine it. So, … the demand be, Shall this gray headed sinner … come to Grace? he that hath been an old Standardbearer in the Camp of the Devil, shal he ever … a faithful Soldier to the Lord Christ? can this seared Conscience ever be made sensible of its sin … …? The answer of the Prophet will … us, Lord, thou only knowest: It's not for us to judg, Secret things belong unto the Lord. For … to pry into the Ark of his privy and concealed Counsels, we cannot do it, without desperate pride, and apparent danger. Thus far indeed we may go without any breach of Charity, and the Word will … us sufficient warrant, to wit, Observing the lives … men, Of some (of some, I say) we may conclude, and that certainly, that as yet, they are in the state of Nature, in a miserable and damnable condition.
Object. If it be replyed, Doth any man know that heart? Who knows what is in man but the spirit of man? 1 Cor. 2. 11.
Answ. Can the spirit of a man pry into every corner of his Conscience, and know his own condition? After he hath told what he knows, I may know it as well as himself, and somtimes better: Thus the Practice of a man discovers his Spirit; A rotten Conversation (when the constant tenure and frame of a mans course is corrupt and …) it … to all the world, who have wisdom to …, there is a refuse, and an … disposition within, The fool (saies the wise man, Eccles. 10. 3.) … to every one as he … by the way, that he is a fool. After the … hath felt the Pulse, and heard … complaint of the Patient, what's the pain, and … the part affected, how the fits and returns of … distemper takes him, he knows the disease far … than the man that feels it; it may be it's … stone in the Reins, the inflamation of the Liver, Consumption of the Lungs, the parts are within, and … cause of the Disease also, but it discovers it self, … that undoubtedly many times by Symptomes: … thus it is with the sickness of the Body, it is so … the distempers of the soul; the Practice of a … is as the Pulse, if that be commonly uneven, … and irreligious, it argues, it's not the fit of a …, but even the very frame and constitution … a corrupt and irreligious heart: When a mans … carriage and communication leaves a noysom …, and scent, and … of prophaness behind …, it evidently proclaims to any who have but … Wisdom and Grace, that these dead works … from a rotten carkass of a Body of death …: it's, our Saviors direction and conclusion he … as never failing, Matth. 7. 16. 20. By their … you shall know them: An evil tree cannot … forth good fruits, and a good tree cannot … forth evil fruits, and therefore he doubles the … as that which is undeniable, by their … you shall know them. The holy Apostle is … peremptory, 1 John, 3. 10. In this are the children of God known, and the children of the Devil: … doth not righteousness is not of God, and … that loveth not his Brother. Where there be Three Particulars suit the Point in hand.
1 There are but two sorts of men in the World, … Children of God, and the children of the Devil.
2 These may be known.
3 He that is a hater of the Saints, and a worker of iniquity, hath the Brand-mark of a child of the Devil, by which he may be discerned.
It is not then a breach of Charity to judg the tree by the fruits, the … by the Symptomes, yea; it was folly and little less than madness to do other; As the Word … I may judg, and so should.
But to … the Lord out of the Throne of Judgment, to sit upon the life and death of mens souls, to set down mens peremptory doom further than the Word warrants, as though we had been admitted into Gods secrets, and seen the Books of Reprobation and Election drawn, this is hellish impiety and presumption; we may boldly say, the tree is not a Vine that brings forth Thorns, nor that a Fig-tree that beareth Thistles; he who hath a naughty life, cannot have a good heart, He who serves 'Mammon, cannot serve God, Mat. 6. 24. He who walks after the lusts of the flesh, must be a stranger from the life of Christ, Rom. 8. 1. hath not yet his Spirit, is in the state of Condemnation, and that if he so continue, he shall perish, but whether he shall be converted and brought home at last by the Almighty Power of the Lord, it rests only in his own bosom, depends alone upon his good pleasure; leave we then the Sentence with the Lord, who will either recover him out of his sin, or most righteously judg him for it.
Of Consolation. Here's also a Cordial to keep… 2. up the fainting hearts of decrepit and aged sinners, whose noysom lusts plead prescription of continuance as though they were beyond the Authority of any Law to cast them out: I confess it indeed (Oh that ancient men would consider it) the case is very desperate, and brought to the last cast; Is it not a marvelous streight, that the great work of Everlasting Life lies upon the moment of an hour (as it …) to follow the words of the Parable, … considering it is not usual for men then to be … The little twig such may take hold on, is this, hath been done, and therefore there is hope it may done again, and this hope it is which keeps the … above water; never too late to forsake our …, the Lord accepts at the Eleventh hour: … must not then suffer our own fears, or Satans … to pluck up our resolutions and … by the roots, with any false shews of hopeless possibilities. When a decrepit sinner hath tired … in his ungodly courses, grows weary with … burden, of an accusing conscience, and … of an ill led life, and begins to bethink himself, is not in a right way; suddenly the Enemy … to his view the number and nature of his many …, and withal suggests the way so long, … the time to return so short; better not set out, … not to be able to get home. In vain now saies … to begin so great a work of Preparation, when … have so little opportunity, and so great an … thereunto. To what purpose is it to strive … we cannot overcome? to enter upon the … when in all likely hood we shall be benighted (see … Sun is but an hour high) and never come to the … of it?
Oh shake off those sluggish discouragements, sit … down and perish; there is yet hope in Israel … this thing; 'tis true, the work is hard, yet God … done as much for others, and therefore can do much for thee also. Thy time is short, thou hast … foot in the grave, but the Arm of the Lord is … shortened that he cannot help; thou hast ancient …, he hath ancient mercies, his loving kindness … been ever of old. When thou hast neither time … strength to relieve thy self, the Lord notwithstanding at the last hour, and when thou doest least expect it, and hast least deserved it, who knows but yet he may call thee into his Vineyard, listen therefore unto his voyce, make hast to answer his call, and leave the success with him.
Lastly, If the Lord put forth this work of PreparationUse 3. most ordinarily in our middle age, all those whom more especially it concerns who are yet in the flower of their years, whose Breasts run full of Milk, and their Bones full of Marrow, as Job speaks, they are to be exhorted in the Lord to take the safest and the easiest course for themselves, even the counsel of the wise man, Eccles. 12. 1. Remember now thy Creator in the daies of thy youth, before thy evil daies come; the time that God useth to bless most, let us be wary to improve most for our good. A wise Traveller useth to take the day before him, and … accounts the middle of the day most safe for his passage; the Rule is most true and useful also for us, while we are wildring onward towards the end … our hopes, rise we early, prevent the morning watch, to make speed to run the waies of Gods Cammandements, while the best of our Natural abilities are about us; the middle of our age like the middle … the day will be most safe for our spiritual Travel and endeavor, considering we carry such a charge about us, even our souls and the care of their Salvation and happiness, lest deferring till our old age and our evening shut in upon us, we be wholly spoyled of both; for Preparation put off untill our crazy time is like never to be, or very uncomfortable if … be attained.
It's not likely we shall ever share in so glorious a work, they who are setled so long upon their … are hardly ever removed, considering the company … common infirmities, troops and multitudes of sicknesses and sorrows, which seize upon old age, and surprize it as … prey, decay the Sences, enfeeble the Judgment, weaken the Memory, as though all the passages were now stopped, and gates shut whereby Grace should have any entrance. How shall Faith come to him by hearing, whose Ears are become deaf that he cannot hear? How shall he search the Scriptures in which Grace and Life are to be found, who hath not an eye able to see, much less to read them? How shall he be able to fatham the depths and mysteries of Salvation, who is become a child in understanding, not sufficient to conceive of the most common things? Hence it is the Prophet gives such a man for gone, past recovery as it were, Isa. 65. 20. The sinner of an hundred years old shall be accursed; a Curse is the Portion that is carved out unto him, he must look for nothing else, that's his allowance; an old rotten post is only fit to be chipped out for the fire, no waies prositable to be laid in the Building, no not to make pins for it: He that hath seen an hundred yeers, and yet never came to the sight and rellish of the saving work of Grace, farewell he (as we use to speak) I will not say it is impossible for him to avoid the Curse, I must say it is unusual.
For how justly may God deny to entertain him, who would not so many years give way and entertainment to his Word and Spirit? What Captain will entertain a Soldier that is not able to fight? What Master will hire a Servant that is not able to work in his Vineyard? Why should the Lord … wise, chuse such weaklings, aged and decrepit, who shall not be able to strike one stroke for him in the defence of his Truth, or set one foot forward in … waies of his Statutes? As Achish spake of David when he came to the … and seigned himself mad, 1 Sam. 21. 15. What … I need of mad men, that you have brought this man to me, shall he enter into my house? So the Lord may say, Have I any need of dead men that you have brought these aged … ruinous carkasses before me? shall they ever find acceptance or entrance into the Kingdom of Grace or Glory? Hath the Lord such need of Services that he must entertain in the worst? hath he such need of Sacrifices that the … and … must serve his turn? Let men judg, Go offer now the … and the … unto thy …, will be accept it? Mat. 1. 8. will he not loath thy Person and thy … and can the great and glorious God take pleasure … either? Yea, … others were silent, let thy own Conscience … … in this case, when these evil daies, these dog … come, thou thy self shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. Caust thou for … present that to the Lord which thou thy self …? Nay, not only thy self, but thy … may seem to be weary of thy service; thy pleasures have taken their leave, the world and the delights thereof … gone from thee: thy unclean lusts have forsaken thy … and languishing members, blasphemy is departed from thy speechless tongue, and shall the Lord have the Devils leavings? When thus thou art become a burden to thy self, a trouble to others, and fit for nothing but to be fuel for the fire of Hell, how … is it to desire it? how hard to conceive it? that the holy, wise, and blessed God will make choyce of thee: and therefore it is to be feared thou … never … ….
But Secondly, I … thou dost attain. it, it will he very uncomfortable; when thou wilt be like …, that could not tast his meat for age; so you will not be able to tast the sweetness of the Promises of Grace and Christ little or nothing. A poor old man comes in, and gets as near the Pulpit as he …, and listens, but he saies he cannot hear; he asks … what was said? they tell him, Oh the great and precious Promises of Grace, and Mercy, and Christ: saies he, I did not hear them; where are they? and takes his Book, and then takes his … and looks; … child (saies he) I cannot see: tell him of them presently after, I cannot remember them. And so you will be unfit for any Service to God, as an old Journey-man that is but a …, so you will bungle at Prayer and Conference, and in all the duties of Obedience; and when God hath shewed mercy to you, you will wonder, and think, if I had a thousand lives what could I do again for God: but alas, he can do little, but sit down as a senceless spectacle of Gods everlasting compassions, a wonder to himself, and a warning to others not to defer … till old Age, it being then so uncomfortable, and he so unfit for it: And therfore … little ones that are growing up to years of understanding, you have the day before you, if you do not take and improve the first of your time, to repent and turn to God in, God will require it of you, beleeve it he will: you may read in 2 Kings, 2. 23, 24. of a company of wicked children who mock'd the Prophet, and the Lord sent two Bears amongst … that devoured two and forty of them: they might have said, my Father caught me, or I did not know what I did, or I was but yong; but none of all this would serve their turn; they had their time to repent in, but they spent that time in sin and wickedness, and the Lord sent Bears among them to devour them; and so he will deal with you that are careless, impenitent, wicked children, beleeve it he will, God hath thousands of Devils to torment you for ever, if you go on and continue in your Natural condition without Jesus Christ.
And you yong men, your glass is now running, and as yet you have the day before you, My heart in with you al, you that offer your selves willingly: Oh remember your Creator in the daies of your youth, before the evil daies of sickness, and sorrow, and age come upon you. … only say Three Things to you.
Consider what good you may do now: A yong …, and a glorious Christian: Your example may be leading to many that may know you, and … … … you all the daies of their lives; and … you shall be going to Heaven in your old age, … … be able to say, Lord, here am I, and the …, … Children that thou hast given me; you may … … means to convert others, and they will bless … … in the day of their visitation, 1 Pet. 2. … … smell of your gracious speeches, and holy … will be as Lebanon, that no man … meets you, but will be the better for you, and … you are going to Heaven every man wil mourn … … loss of you; He was a Father to me … … and he was a great help to me saies another: … was a means under God to bring my soul to Christ. Thus you will not only do good to your …, but you will do good to others also.
… your death you will have more than this … to, your Peace and Joy will be unspeakable … …, then you will go to Heaven … … Death, and Hell, and Devils and all: you … … be Fathers serving God in uprightness, you … … your children, I go to my God, and to … …, and I leave you to a better Father that … … well for you, and so he shakes hands … … …, saies he, we shall meet in Heaven again: so Paul 2 Tim. 4. 7, 8. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the Faith, henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord shall give unto me, he saw it before him, and was able to tell others of it. So David 2 Chron. 28. 9. And thou Solomon my Son, know thou the God of thy Father, and serve him with a perfect heart, and a willing mind, &c. Thus you will be able to give a change and a blessing to your Children, and to speak somthing suitable to the condition of all that come about you; as a man that hath been a good husband from his youth, he hath been a gatherer, he is able to give to every one about him somwhat; another that hath been a spend thrift can scarce pay his debts, and well if he do so. So here, a man that has been long a gathering of Promises, Commands, Directions, Consolations, when his friends come about him on his death bed, he knows the frame of every man, he knows one man is worldly, another hath good Parts and gifts, but he is proud, another under discouragements; and he will speak somthing suitable to every mans condition, and his dying words stick by them while they live.
And this is but the beginning, but what will the Crown of Glory be? He that begins betimes, shall have a …, weighty, Excessive, Exceeding Crown of Glory, he shall go loaded as it were to the Kingdom of Heaven, the Sufferings, Obedience, Commands, Promises, Counsels of so many years, all shal be rewarded; other men shall be honored and crowned but he especially, and when he is going to Heaven every man gives him a lift, when he is sick the Prayers go all the Town over for him; Lord, comfort him (saies one) he hath often done it to me; Lord, strengthen him saies another, he hath often strengthened me: I had almost said that a man shall encrease in Glory for the Prayers of Gods Servants here, but that they do not pray for the dead: But this is certain, A man hath counselled and prayed for such an one, he dies and goes to Heaven, it doth not work till afterward, then the Servant or the Child remembers, and they pray and bless God for him, and his Glory is augmented by it; even as the torments of the damned are encreased by the fruits of their ill examples after they are dead: So … as ever you desire to do good to your selves and others, to provide for your own Comfort at Death, and for your Eternal Glory in Heaven, to begin betimes for the carrying on of the Work of the Lord in your own Souls.