The Gale of Opportunity, Title page – Dedication
THE GALE OF OPPORTUNITY.
OR, A SERMON Preached (at Lidbury-North) at the Funerall of the Worſhipfull HƲMPHREY WALCOT, of Walcot, Eſq; JUNE 8th. 1650.
And now Publiſhed, by Thomas Froyſell, Miniſter of the GOSPEL at Clunne in Shrop-ſhire.
As we have therefore opportunity, let us doe good unto all men, eſpecially to them that are of the Houſhold of Faith, Gal. 6. 10.
Exhort one another daily, while it is called to day, leſt any of you bee hardned through the deceitfulneſſe of ſin, Heb. 3. 13.
Filij hominum uſquequo gravi corde? ut quid diligitis vanitatem et quaeritis Mendacium? Tempus hocanimabus non corporibus enim aſſignatum, dies ſalutis utique non voluptatis. Omnia tempus habent: Animabus nunc operam dare neceſſe eſt; nam in carne qui ſeminat, ſolum exinde metet corruptionem. St. Bernard in declamat.
LONDON, Printed by M. S. and are to be ſold by H. B. at the Signe of the Caſtle in Corne-hill.
1652.
To the truly vertuous and his much Honored, Miſtris Anne Walcot of Walcot.
IT was your Husbands deſire (when alive) that I ſhould preach His Funerall, and 'tis yours, that I ſhould Print it; Elſe (for ought I know) it had never ſeen the light: For I count not any of my Grapes worth the Preſſe: Therefore ſince it is your pleaſure to ſee this Sermon in a Printed dreſſe, I pray accept of it.
When your deare Husband was alive, Yee were Two precious Diamonds ſet in the Ring of Marriage; God hath taken him away to ſhine in another World, and hath left you to ſhine a while in this world; It is but a while, and therefore ſpread forth all your beams, before you ſet in the Weſt of Death, and be ſeen here no more.
If we would ſhine with God in Heaven, we muſt ſhine for God on Earth: Let this Sermon of opportunities make you improve your opportunities: Shall the men of this world hugg their opportunities for the world, and ſhall not we Husband our opportunities for Heaven?
Society with Jeſus Chriſt even on this ſide Heaven, is a kinde of Heaven; and thoſe Chriſtall ſtreams of Joys which we might ſuck from God here, outid all the pleaſures and braveries of this world; which made Bonaventure (when the Devil tempting him, told him, he was a Reprobate, andSi Non datur frui Deo et virtute poſt hanc vitam, fruamur eo in praeſenti. therefore perſwaded him to drinke in the preſent pleaſures of this life, for (ſaith he) Thou art excluded from the future joyes with God in Heaven) Anſwer, No, not ſo, Satan, If I muſt not injoy God after this life, yet let me injoy him as much as I can in this life: Oh that drooping Soules would thus quench Satans ſuggeſtions! This were enough to rebound all his temptations back againe upon him. Fruition of God a far off in this life (though we ſhould never injoy him in the next) is much better, then all the pleaſures of the world below him: Ah! What then will our fruition of him in Heaven be? Joy in him here, and you ſhall enjoy him hereafter: Live to him here, and you ſhall live with him hereafter: And to this …nd God gives you all your opportunities, to this high and happy end, that you may attaine him. That himſelfe, and all that he is worth may be yours: And let me tel you, 1 That a Sermon of opportunities is almoſt as neceſſary to be preached, as to preach Chriſt himſelfe: becauſe the opportunity to receive Chriſt is (in its kinde) as neceſſary as Chriſt to be received: as Chriſt is called Salvation; ſo our opportunity is called the Day of Salvation: Behold now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of Salvation. We looſe Salvation it ſelfe, if we looſe the day of Salvation; we looſe Chriſt himſelfe, if we let paſſe the day of Chriſt, If thou hadſt knowne, in this thy day, the things which belong unto 2 Cor. 2. 6. Luke 19. 42.thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes. A man that is to have a ſumme of money tendred him upon ſuch a day, muſt be ſure to watch and wait the day, if he would receive the money: He that hath a ſuite at Law, muſt obſerve the Terme-time; if he looſe the Terme he will looſe his ſuite: as Luther ſaid, that Much of Religion conſiſts in Adverbs: ſo ſay I, That much weight of our Salvation lyeth in circumſtances, in the circumſtance of time and opportunity: As the whole weight of our Salvation is laid upon Chriſt, ſo the whole weight of our getting Salvation is layd upon our time, our opportunity: 2 Let Faith give you a preſentiality of things to come, of Death to come, of your Account to come: Faith gives them a preſent Exiſtence: ſet the Period of your Time neer unto you, behold it is at hand, when you ſhall live no longer, pray no longer, have the helpe of Ordinances no longer; We know not how few ſands are left in our Glaſſe of opportunity, and when they are once ſpent, God will not turne the Glaſſe againe for us: 'Tis this that affects the heart: 'Twas this that awaked Niniveh to repentance: Yet forty dayes, and Niniveh ſhall be deſtroyed: How did this Alarum ſtirre their Hearts! what (ſay they) but forty dayes? Are our dayes ſhut up into ſo narrow a roome? What are Forty dayes? How ſoon will they ſee an end? This frighted them into a fit of Repentance: It is time for us (ſay they) to faſt and pray, and riſe out of ſin, if our Sun be ſo neer ſetting: I am perſwaded if God had ſent Jonah with this meſſage, Yet forty years and Niniveh ſhall be deſtroyed, it had made no worke at all upon them: it might have amazed them, but not ſtarted them up to ſuch a preſent repentance: It is the neer approach of our end that drives the worke home in us: Tell a Scorner in his ruffe and jollity, that he muſt dye one day; He receives it careleſly, and makes nothing of it: but tell him, yet forty dayes, and you muſt be called to judgement, Nay Sir, but two or three dayes hence, and dye you muſt; This goes to the quick, at this news the proud Ruffler is ſodainiy diſmounted, and his courage degraded, he looſes his blood in his cheeks, and ſhivers at the heart, like the leaves of the forreſt that are ſhaken with the winde: Ah then, ſee death upon us: Look upon our end as ſtanding by us; as neer as are the ſhadow and the ſubſtance, ſo neer are Life and Death; our life is but the ſhadow, death brings ſubſtance with it, ſubſtantiall woes, or ſubſtantiall joyes in the boſome of it.
Cato Had oftentimes ſpoken in the Senate, that the City Carthage muſt be deſtroyed, being too neer a neighbour to the City of Rome: For a long time together he formed no Oration in the Senate, but he uſherd in that ſtill as the concluſion: yet he could not carry it, becauſe Scipio Naſica being made up of a contrary opinion, alwayes pleaded on the other ſide, that it was for the good of the Romane Common-wealth that Carthage ſhould ſtand: At laſt, Cato on a day brought a green Fig into the Senate among them, and told them, that this Fig was growing in Carthage but three dayes agoe: and thereby warned them that a Navy might within three dayes arrive from Carthage, and lay fiege to their City: When they heard this, The neerneſſe of the danger, made ſuch impreſſion on their thoughts, that whereas before they could never be won upon to aſſent, now they voted not to give over till they leveld Carthage to the ground: And ſhall not eternity affect us? the neerneſſe of it write deep Characters of feare and care upon our hearts? Within three dayes, and death may lay ſiege to our City, to our Soul: beware of evill at hand, of death at hand, of Judgement at hand. Thou Fool (ſaith Chriſt) This night thy Soule ſhall be required of thee: ah then let us Act betimes, let not the night take us in a night, let not the night of Death take us in a night of ſin and ſecurity, then we ſhall have a double night at once upon us.
3 Opportunities are very precious: Every one according to the objects they lay out for, value their opportunities: ther's no Prince or great perſon in the world, hath more Clients and attendants, then opportunity hath: All ſorts Court her, and wait with humbleſt ſervice on her: The Husbandman waits opportunity to plow, and ſow, and reap: The Tradeſman attends opportunity to make his bargains at loweſt rate, and ſell off his wares at higheſt price: The Ambitious man ſtands at the door of opportunity to raiſe himſelfe: All (but fools) according to their occaſions runne out to meet, and bow the knee to opportunity, and ſhall not the deareſt opportunities be precious to us? ſhall we not take the beſt opportunity by the hand? Opportunity to gaine the moſt precious things is the moſt precious opportunity; opportunity to get the beſt treaſures is the beſt opportunity: Godlineſſe is great gaine. Heaven is the higheſt advancement, The Soule is the Crowne and Maſter-piece of man, ſurely then the opportunity to get and ſave theſe ſhould be counted precious opportunity: All things here (that are of the world) are but nothings, but Idols and ſhadows of the beſt things (and an Idol is nothing.) Time is1 Cor. 8. 4. Tempus foreign. but the Idol of Eternity, and things Temporall, but the Idol of things Eternall: Our eſtate and our dayes here are but an Idol: Ther's no divinity nor immortality in them: but God is an abſolute and eternall Being, the ſpring of all Divine ſatisfactions, They that live in him, live at an high rate, and live for ever: How can he complaine to want light, that lives in the midſt of the Sun? How can he complaine of Thirſt, out of whoſe belly flow rivers of living water? Surely then opportunity to injoy God, is the moſt precious opportunity.John 7. 38.
Your Importunity hath ſetcht out this Sermon of Opportunity from me: and I have given you here more then I preach't, the time being too narrow to deliver all at once, and therefore I was faine to omit many things in the Pulpit, which I had in my papers: The Spirit of the Lord Preach it all over againe to our hearts: I commend you to the Lord,
Who am Yours moſt deeply obliged to Honour and Serve you, Tho. Froyſell. Clunne Octob. 8. 1651.