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their help and exhortations no more; we will hate them and drive them away from our houses and towns no more. Once more let us have thy word and ordinances, and try whether we will not believe them, and use them better than we did. Once more let us have the help and company of thy saints, and we will scorn them, and abuse them, and persecute them no more. O for the great, invaluable mercy of such a life as once we had! O try us once more with such a life, and see whether we will not contemn the world, and close with Christ, and live as strictly, and pray as earnestly, as those that we hated and abused for so doing! O that we might once more be admitted into the holy assemblies, and have the Lord's days to spend in the business of our salvation ! We would plead no more against the power and purity of the ordinances: we would no more call that day a burden, nor hate them that spent it in works of holiness, nor plead for the liberty of the flesh therein.'

It makes my heart even shake within me, to think with what cries those damned souls would strive with God, and how they would roar out, ' O try us once again,' if they had but the least encouragement of hope! But it will not be; it must not be! They had their day, and would not know it. They cannot lose their time and have it. They had faithful guides, and would not follow them: teachers they had, but would not learn. The dust of their feet must witness against them, because their entertained obeyed message cannot witness for them. Long did Christ wait with the patient tenders of his blood and Spirit: his grace was long and earnestly offered them, but could not be regarded and received. And they cannot finally refuse a Christ, and yet have a Christ; or refuse his mercy, and yet be saved by it. He that would have Lazarus sent from the dead to warn his unbelieving brethren on earth, no doubt would have strongly purposed himself on a reformation, if he might once more have been tried. And how earnestly would he have begged for such a trial, that begged so hard for a drop of water! But, alas! such mouths must be stopped for ever with a " Remember, that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things h.

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So that" it is appointed for all men once to die, and af

h Luke xvi. 24, 25. 27, 28.

ter that the judgment." But there is no return to earth again. The places of your abode, employment, and delight shall know you no more. You must see these faces of your friends, and converse in flesh with men, no more! This world, these houses, this wealth and honour, as to any fruition, must be to you as if you had never known them. You must assemble here but a little while! yet a little longer, and we must preach, and you must hear it no more for ever. That, therefore, which you will do, must presently be done, or it will be too late. If ever you will repent and believe, it must be now. If ever you will be converted and sanctified, it must be now. If ever you will be pardoned, and reconciled to God, it must be now. If ever you will reign, it is now that you must fight and conquer. O that you were wise, that you understood this, and that you would consider your latter end. And that you would let those words sink down into your hearts, which came from the heart of the Redeemer, as was witnessed by his tears: "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace. But now they are hidden from thine eyes1." And that these warnings may not be the less regarded, because you have so often heard them, when often hearing increaseth your obligation, and diminisheth not the truth, or your danger.

3. And as there is no return to earth, so there is no doing this work hereafter. Heaven and hell are for other work. If the infant be dead-born, the open world will not revive him. That which is generated, and born a beast or serpent, will not, by all the influences of the heavens, or all the powers of sun or earth, become a man. The second and third concoction presuppose the first; the harvest doth presuppose the seed-time, and the labour of the husbandman. It is now that you must sow, and hereafter that you must reap. It is now that you must work, and then that you must receive your wages. Is this believed and considered by the sleepy world? Alas, sirs, do you live as men that must live here no more? Do you work as men that must work no more, and pray as men that must pray no more, when once the time of work is ended? What thinkest thou, poor besotted sinner! will God command the sun to stand k Deut. xxxii. 29.

i Heb. xix. 27.

1 Luke xix. 41, 42.

still while thou rebellest or forgettest thy work and him? Dost thou look he should pervert the course of nature, and continue the spring and seed-time till thou hast a mind to sow ? or that he will return the dead-born, or mishapen infant into the womb, that it may be better formed or quickened? Will he renew thy age and make thee young again, and call back the hours that thou prodigally wastedst on thy lusts and idleness? Canst thou look for this at the hand of God, when nature and Scripture assure thee of the contrary? If not, why hast thou not yet done with thy beloved sins? Why hast thou not yet begun to live? Why sittest thou still, while thy soul is unrenewed, and all thy preparation for death and judgment is yet to make? How fain would satan find thee thus at death. How fain would he have leave to blow out thy candle, before thou hast entered into the way of life. Dost thou look to have preachers sent after thee, to bring thee the mercy which thy contempt here left behind? Wilt thou hear and be converted in the grave and hell? or wilt thou be saved without holiness? that is, in the despite of God, that hath resolved, it shall not be? O ye sons of sleep, of death, of darkness, awake and live, and hear the Lord, before the grave and hell have shut their mouths upon you! Hear now, lest hearing be too late! Hear now if you will ever hear! Hear now if you have ears to hear! And O ye sons of light, that see what sleeping sinners see not, call to them, and ring them such a peal of lamentations, tears, and compassionate entreaties, as is suited to such a dead and doleful state; who knows but God may bless it to awake them?

If any of you be so far awakened, as to ask me, what I am calling you to do, my text tells you in general, Up and be doing. Look about you, and see what you have to do, and do it with your might.

1. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do;" that is, whatsoever is a duty imposed by the Lord, whatsoever is a means conducing to thy own or other's welfare; whatsoever necessity calleth thee to do, and opportunity alloweth thee to do.

"Thy hand findeth;" that is, thy executive power by the conduct of thy understanding is now to do.

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Do it with thy might.” Do thy best in it. 1. Trifle

not, but do it presently, without unnecessary delay. 2. Do it resolutely. Remain not doubtful, unresolved, in suspense as if it were yet a question with thee whether thou shouldst

do it or not.

3. Do it with thy most awakened affections, and serious intention of the powers of thy soul. Sleepiness and insensibility are most unsuitable to such works. It is a peculiar people, zealous of good works that Christ hath purchased to himselfm.

4. Do it with all necessary forecast and contrivance. Not with a distracting, hindering care; but with such a care as may shew that you despise not your master, and are not regardless of his work. And with such a care as is suited to the difficulties and nature of the thing, and is necessary to the due accomplishment.

5. Do it not slothfully, but vigorously, and with diligence. Stick not at thy labour, lest thou hear, "Thou wicked and slothful servant "." "Hide not thy hand in thy bosom with the slothful," and say not, "There is a lion in the way." The negligent and the vicious, the waster and the slothful, differ but as one brother from another P. As the self-murder of the wilfully ungodly, so also "the desire of the slothful killeth him, because his hands refuse to labour 9." "The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat "." "Be thou not slothful in business, but be fervent in Spirit serving the Lords."

6. Do it with constancy, and not with destructive pauses and intermissions, or with weariness and turning back. "The righteous shall hold on his way, and he that is of clean hands shall be stronger and stronger t." "Be steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord "." "Be not weary of well doing; for in due season we shall reap if we faint not." These six particulars are necessary, if you will observe the precept in my text.

But that misunderstanding hinder not the performance,

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I shall acquaint you further with the sense, by these few explicatory cautions.

1. The Might and Diligence here required, excludeth not the necessity of deliberation and prudent conduct. Otherwise, the faster you go, the further you may go out of the way; and misguided zeal may spoil all the work, and make it but an injury to others or yourselves. A little imprudence in the season, and order, and manner of a duty, sometimes may spoil it, and hinder the success, and make it to do more hurt than good. How many a sermon, or prayer, or reproof is made the matter of derision and contempt, for some imprudent passages or deportment? God sendeth not his servants to be jesters of the world, or to play the madmen as David in his fears: we must be wise and innocent, as well as resolute and valiant. Though fleshly and worldly wisdom be not desirable, as being but foolishness with God, yet the "wisdom which is from above, and is first pure, and then peaceable," and is acquainted with the high and hidden mysteries, and is "justified of her children," must be the guide of all our holy actions. Holiness is not blind. Illumination is the first part of sanctification. Believers are children of the light. Nothing requireth so much wisdom as the matters of God, and of our salvation. Folly is most unsuitable to such excellent employments, and most unbeseeming the sons of the Most High. It is a spirit of wisdom that animateth all the saints". It is the treasures of wisdom that dwelleth in Christ, and are communicated to his members." We must "walk in wisdom toward them that are without." And our "work must be shewn out of a good conversation, with meekness of wisdom "." Yet I must needs say, that it is more in great things than in small, in the substance than the circumstances; in a sound judgment and estimate of things, and suitable choice and prosecution, than in fine expressions or deportment, answering proud men's expectations.

2. Though you must work with your might, yet with a diversity agreeable to the quality of your several works. Some works must be preferred before others. All cannot be done at once. That is a sin out of season, which in sea2 Col. ii. 3.

y 1 Cor. iii. 19. ii
a Col. iv. 5.

6,7. Eph. i. 8. 17. Col. iii. 16.
b Jam. iii. 13.

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