Heaven Upon Earth, Sermon · Direction 10
X. DIRECTION.
If you would be acquainted with God, look after it ſpeedily, defer not a moment, your enemy 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 behind; 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; Remember 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 beſt 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 another, 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, and ſet, and ſet it again, and what with one thing or other they could not be at leaſure to repent till they came to Hell; and there indeed they have leiſure enough to repent, and they do repent too, if Hell-Repentance would do any thing: I believe that all that come there do repent 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 morrow, 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 enough 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 ſleep 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 morrow, 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 Pardon 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 matter with you: but believe it, the caſe will be altered 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 asked 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 paſtimes, 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 ſpeaking 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 people, 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 teeth! with what horrour do they think of paſt mercies, and future miſeries! Men fear generally 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 huſband 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 imprudence in theſe affairs, yet, how do we at the ſame time juſtifie them, by being as profuſely expenſive 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 unhandſome 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 ſhall do to get a Pardon for your ſins, get God reconciled to you. Methinks you ſhould be enquiring what you ſhould do to redeem your time, & to ſpend every moment of it ſo to the beſt advantage, 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 neceſſary, 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 capacity 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 upon 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 another, 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 morrow? 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? Reſolve 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? Although a man may with reaſon good enough be afraid of that which may make his happineſs far more uncertain, and his miſeries more intollerable. 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 very 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 working 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?