The Necessity of Perseverance

In the words we have necessity of perseverance —having done all.  Doctrine. He that will Christ’s soldier, must persevere to the end of his life in this war against Satan.  This, having done all, comes in after our conflict with death.  That ye may be able to withstand in the evil day; then follows, having done all.  We have not done all till that pitched battle be fought.  ‘The last enemy is death.’  The word imports as much as to finish a business, and bring a matter to a full issue, so Php. 2:12, where we translate it well, ‘work out your salvation,’ that is, perfect it.  Be not Christians by halves, but go through with it; the thorough Christian is the true Christian.  Not he that takes the field, but he that keeps the field; not he that sets out, but he that holds out in this holy war, de­serves the name of a saint.  There is not such a thing in this sense belonging to Christianity as an honour­able retreat; not such a word of command in all Christ’s military discipline, as fall back and lay down your arms; no, you must fall on, and stand to your arms till called off by death

First. The necessity of perseverance, because we are all under a covenant and oath to do this. Formerly soldiers used to take an oath not to flinch from their colours, but faithful to cleave up to their leaders; this they called sacramentum militare—a military oath. Such an oath lies upon every Christian.  It is so es­sential to the being of a saint, that they are described by this: ‘Gather my saints together,  those that have made a covenant with me,’ Ps. 50:5.  We are not Chris­tians till we have subscribed this covenant, and that without any reservation.  When we take upon us the profession of Christ’s name, we list ourselves in his muster-roll, and by it do promise that we will live and die with him in opposition to all his enemies.  ‘Every nation will walk in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of our God;’ and what is it to walk in the name of our God, but to fight under the banner of his gospel, wherein his name is displayed, by giving an eternal defiance to sin and Satan?  If a captain had not such a tie on his shoulders, he might have them to seek when the day of battle comes.  There­fore Christ tells us upon what terms he will enrol us among his disciples.  ‘If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and fol­low me.’  He will not entertain us, till we resign up ourselves freely to his disposal, that there may be no disputing with his commands afterwards, but as one under his authority, go and come at his word.

Second. Perseverance is necessary, because our enemy perseveres to oppose us.  There is no truce in the devil's heart, no cessation of arms in our enemy’s camp.  If an enemy continue to assault a city, and they within cease to resist, it is easy to tell what will follow.  The prophet that was sent to Bethel did his errand well, withstood Jeroboam's temptation, but in his way home was drawn aside by the old prophet, and at last slain by a lion.  Thus many fly from one temptation, but not persevering, are vanquished by another; those that at one time escape his sword, at another time are slain by it.  Joash was hopeful, when young, but it lasted not long.  Yea, many precious servants of God, not making such vigorous resistance in their last days as in their first, have fallen foully, as we see in Solomon, Asa, and others.  Indeed, it is hard when a line is drawn to a great length, to keep it so straight that it slacken not, and to hold a thing long in our hand, and not to have a numbness grow in our fingers so as to remit of our strength; therefore we are bid so often to hold fast the profession of our faith.  But when we see an enemy gaping to catch us when we fall, methinks this should quicken us the more to it.

Third. Perseverance is necessary, because the promise of life and glory is settled upon the perse­vering soul.  The crown stands at the goal, he hath it that comes to the end of the race.  ‘To him that over­cometh will I give,’ not in prœlio, but in bello—not in a particular skirmish, but in the whole war.  ‘Ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise,’ Heb. 10:36.  There is a remarkable accent on that henceforth, which Paul mentions, II Tim. 4:7, 8 ‘I have fought a good fight, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.’  Why, was it not laid up before? yes, but having persevered and come near the goal, being within sight of home, ready to die, he takes now surer hold of the promise.  Indeed, in this sense it is, that a gracious soul is nearer its salvation after every victory than it was before, because he approacheth nearer to the end of his race, which is the time promised for the receiving of the promised salvation, Rom. 13:11.  Then and not till then the garland drops upon his head.

And having done all, to stand, Eph. 6:13

We come now to the second argument the apostle useth further to press the exhortation; and that is taken from the glorious victory which hovers over the heads of believers while in the fight, and shall surely crown them in the end.  This is held forth in these words, and having done all, to stand.  The phrase is short but full.

First.  Observe, that heaven is not won with good words and a fair profession; having done all.  The doing Christian is the man that shall stand, when the empty boaster of his faith shall fall.  The great talkers of religion are oft the least doers.  His religion is in vain whose profession brings not letter testi­mon­ial of a holy life. Sacrifice without obedience is sacri­lege.  Such rob God of that which he makes most account of.  A great captain once smote one of his sol­diers for railing at his enemy, saying, that he called him not to rail on him, but to fight against him and kill him.  It is not crying out upon the devil, and de­claiming against sin in prayer or discourse, but fighting and mortifying it, that God looks chiefly upon.  Such a one else doth but beat the air.  There are no marks to be seen on his flesh and unmortified lusts that he hath fought.  Paul was in earnest.  He left a witness upon his body, made black and blue with strokes of mortification. 

It was not a little vapouring in sight of the Philistines that got David his wife, but shedding their blood; and is it so small a matter to be son of the King of heaven, that thou thinkest to obtain it without giving a real proof of thy zeal for God and hatred to sin?  ‘Not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work; this man,’ saith the apostle, ‘shall be blessed in his deed,’ James 1:25. Mark! not by his deed, but in his deed.  He shall meet blessedness in that way of obedience he walks in. The empty professor disappoints others, who seeing his leaves expect fruit, but find none, and at last he dis­appoints himself.  He thinks to reach heaven, but shall miss of it.  Tertullian speaks of some that think satìs Deum habere si corde et animo suspiciatur, licèt actu minus fiat—‘God hath enough,’ they think, ‘if he be feared and reverenced in their hearts, though in their actions they show it not so much;’ and therefore they can sin, and believe in God, and fear him never the worse. 

This, saith he, is to play the adulteress, and yet be chaste; to prepare poison for one’s father, and yet be dutiful.  But let such know, saith the same father, that if they sin and believe, God will pardon them with a contradiction also; he will forgive them, but they shall be turned into hell for all that.  As ever you would stand at last, look you be found doing the work your Lord hath left you to make up, and trust not to lying words, as the prophet speaks, Jer. 7.

Second.  Observe, that such is the mercy of God in Christ to his children, that he accepts their weak endeavours, joined with sincerity and persever­ance in his service, as if they were full obedience; and therefore they are here said to have done all.  O who would not serve such a Lord!  You hear servants sometimes complain of their masters as being so rigid and strict that they can never please them, no, not when they do their utmost; but this cannot be charged upon God.  Be but so faithful as to do thy best, and God is so gracious that he will pardon thy worst. David knew this gospel-indulgence when he said, ‘Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments,’ Ps. 119:6—when my eye is to all thy commandments.  The traveller hath his eye on or towards the place he is going.  Though he be yet short of it, there he would be, and is putting on all he can to reach it.  So stands the saint's heart to all the commands of God; he presseth on to come nearer and nearer to full obedience.  Such a soul shall never be put to shame.  But woe to those that cover their sloth with the name of infirmity, yea, that spend their zeal and strength in the pursuit of the world or their lusts, and then think to make all up when charged therewith, that it is in their infirmity, and they can serve God no better.  These do by God as those two did by their prince, Francis I. of France, who cut off their right hand one for another, and then made it an excuse they were lame, and so could not serve in his galleys, for which they were sent to the gallows.  Thus many will be found at last to have disabled them­selves, by refusing that help the Spirit hath offered to them, yea, wasted what they had given them, and so shall be rewarded for hypocrites as they are.  God knows how to distinguish between the sincerity of a saint in the midst of his infirmities, and the shifts of a false heart.  But we will waive these, and briefly speak to four points which lie clear in the words.

first. Here is the necessity of perseverance —having done all.

second. Here is the necessity of divine armour, to persevere till we have done all.  Wherefore, else, bids he them take this armour for this end, if they could do it without?

third. Here is the certainty of persevering and overcoming at last, if clad with this armour: else it were small encouragement to bid them take that armour which would not surely defend them.

fourth. Here is the blessed result of the saints’ perseverance, propounded as that which will abun­dantly recompense all their pain and patience in the war—‘having done all, to stand.’

From these we have four distinct doctrines.  First. He that will be Christ’s soldier, must persevere.  Second. There can be no perseverance without true grace in the heart.  Third. Where true grace is, that soul shall persevere. 

Fourth. To stand at the end of this war, will abundantly recompense all our hazard and hardship endured in the war.

USE OR APPLICATION OF: That ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all, to stand Eph. 6 13 3/3

2. Betroth thyself to Christ.  The covenant of grace is the jointure which God settles only upon Christ’s spouse.  Rebekah had not the jewels and costly raiment till she was promised to become Isaac’s wife, Gen 24:53.  ‘All the promises of God are yea’ and ‘amen’ in Christ.  If once thou receivest Christ, with him thou receivest them.  He that owns the tree hath right to all the fruit that is on it.  Now, that thou mayest not huddle up a marriage between Christ and thee, so as to be disowned of Christ, and it prove a nullity at last, it behoves thee to look to it, that there be found in thee what Christ expects in every soul that he espouseth.  First, therefore, consider whether thou canst heartily love the person of Christ.  Look wishly on him again and again, as he is set forth in all his spiritual excellences.  Are they such as thy heart can close with?  Doth his holy nature, and all those heavenly graces with which he is beautified, render him desirable to thee? or couldst thou like him better if he were not so precise and exactly holy?  Yea, is thy heart so inflamed with a desire of him, that thou canst love him with a conjugal love?  A woman may love one as a friend, whom she cannot love so as to make him her husband.  A friendly love may stand with a love of some other equal to it, yea, superior, but a conjugal love is such as will bear neither.  Canst thou find in thy heart to forsake all other, and cleave to Christ?  Does thy heart speak thee ready, and present thee willing, to go with thy sweet Jesus, though he carry thee from father, and father’s house? Is thy confidence such, of his power to protect thee from all thy enemies—sin, wrath, and hell—that thou canst resolvedly put the life of thy soul into his hands, to be saved by the sole virtue of his blood, and [by the] strength of his omnipotent arm; and of his care to provide for thee for this life and the other, that thou canst acquiesce in what he promiseth to do for thee?  In a word, if thou hast Christ, thou must not only love him, but for his sake all thy new kindred, which by thy marriage to him thou shalt be allied unto.  How canst thou fadge to call the saints thy brethren? canst thou love them heartily, and forget all the old grudges thou hast had against them?  Some of them thou wilt find poor and persecuted, yet Christ is not ashamed to call them brethren, neither must thou.  If thou findest thy heart now in such a disposi­tion as suits these interrogatories, I dare not but pro­nounce Christ and thee husband and wife.  Go, poor soul—if I may call so glorious a bride poor—go and comfort thyself with the expectation of the Bride­groom’s coming for thee; and when the evil day approaches, and death itself draws nigh, look not now with terror upon it, but rather revive, with old Jacob, to see the chariot which shall carry thee over unto the embraces of thy Husband, whom thou hearest to be in so great honour and majesty in heaven, as may assure thee he is able to make thee welcome when thou comest there.  Amongst the ‘all things’ which are ours by being Christ’s, the apostle forgets not to name this to be one, ‘Death is ours.’  And well he did so, or else we should never have looked upon it as a gift, but rather as a judgment.  Now soul, thou art out of any danger of hurt that the evil day can do thee.  Yet there remains something for thee to do, that thou mayest walk in the comfortable expectation of the evil day. We see that gracious persons may for want of a holy care, fall into such distempers as may put a sting into their thoughts of the evil day.  David, that at one time would not fear to ‘walk in the valley of the shadow of death,’ is so affrighted at another time when he is led towards it, that he cries, ‘Spare me,’ O Lord, ‘that I may recover my strength, before I go hence,’ Ps. 39:13.  The child, though he loves his father, may do that which may make him afraid to go home.  Now, Chris­tian, if thou wouldst live in a comfortable expectation of the evil day,

(1.) Labour to die to this life, and the en­joyments of it, every day more and more.  Death is not so strong to him whose natural strength has been wasted by long pining sickness, as it is to him that lies but a few days, and has strength of nature to make great resistance.  Truly thus it is here.  That Christian whose love to this life and the contents of it, hath been for many years consuming and dying, will with more facility part with them than he whose love is stronger to them.  All Christians are not mortified in the same degree to the world.  Paul tells us he died daily.  He was ever sending more and more of his heart out of the world, so that by that time he came to die, all his affections were packed up and gone, which made him the more ready to follow:^[7] ‘I am ready to be offered up,’ II Tim. 4:6.  If it be but a tooth to pull out, the faster it stands the more pain we have to draw it.  O loosen the roots of thy affections from the world, and the tree will fall more easily.

(2.) Be careful to approve thyself with diligence and faithfulness to God in thy place and calling.  The clearer thou standest in thy own thoughts concerning the uprightness of thy heart in the tenure of thy Christian course, the more composure thou wilt have when the evil day comes.  ‘I beseech thee, O Lord,’ saith good Hezekiah, at the point of death as he thought, ‘remember now, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight,’ II Kings 20:3.  This can­not be our confidence, but it will be a better compan­ion than a scolding conscience.  If the blood be bad, the spirits will be tainted also.  The more our life has been corrupted with hypocrisy and unfaithfulness, the weaker our faith will be in a dying hour.  There is a great difference between two children that come home at night, one from the field, where he hath been diligent and faithful about his father’s work, and another that hath played the truant a great part of the day; the former comes in confidently to stand before his father, the other sneaks to bed and is afraid his father should see him, or ask him where he hath been.  O sirs, look to your walking.  These have been as trying times as ever came to England.  It has required more care and courage to keep sincerity than formerly.  And that is the reason why it is so rare to find Christians—especially those whose place and calling have been more in the wind of temptation—go off the stage with a plaudite—praise ye—of inward peace in their bosoms.

(3.) Familiarize the thoughts of the evil day to thy soul.  Handle this serpent often.  Walk daily in the serious meditations of it.  Do not run from them because they are unpleasing to the flesh; that is the way to increase the terror of it.  Do with your souls, when shy of and scared with the thoughts of affliction or death, as you used to do with your beast, that is given to bogle and start as you ride on him.  When he flies back and starts at a thing, you do not yield to his fear and go back, that will make him worse another time, but you ride him up close to that which he is afraid of, and in time you break him off that quality.  The evil day is not such a scareful thing to thee that art a Christian, as that thou shouldst start for it.  Bring up thy heart close to it.  Show thy soul what Christ hath done to take the sting out of it, what the sweet promises are that are given on purpose to overcome the fear of it, and what thy hopes are thou shalt get by it.  These will satisfy and compose thy spirit; whereas the shunning the thoughts of it will but increase thy fear, and bring thee more into bondage to it.

USE OR APPLICATION OF: That ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all, to stand Eph. 6 13 2/3

Use Third. This reproves those who—much against their will, and by reason of an awakened conscience, that is ever pinching of them, and preach­ing on Paul’s text before Felix to them, till it makes them tremble as he did—think indeed often of this evil day; yet such is the power of lust in their hearts, that it makes them spur on, notwithstanding all the rebukes conscience gives them, and affrighting thoughts they have of the evil day, yet they continue in their old trade of sin desperately.  These wretches are the objects of our saddest pity.  The secure sinner, that has broke prison from his conscience, is like a strong-brained drunkard, he swallows down his sin, as the other doth his drink, with pleasure, and is not stirred at all.  But here is a man that is stomach-sick, as I may say, his conscience is oft disgorging his sweet draughts, and yet he will sin, though with pain and anguish.  O consider, poor wretches, what you do! Instead of arming yourselves against the evil day, you arm the evil day against yourselves; you are sticking the bed with pins and needles, on which you must ere long be laid; you are throwing billets into that fiery furnace, wherein at last you shall be cast; and all this in spite of your consciences, which yet God mercifully sets in your way, that the prickings of them may be a hedge of thorns, to keep thee from the pursuit of thy lusts.  Know therefore, if thou wilt go on, that as thy conscience takes from the pleasure of thy sin at pres­ent, so it will add to the horror of thy torment hereafter.

Use Fourth. It reproves those who, though they are not so violent and outrageous in sin, [as] to make them stink above ground in the nostrils above others, yet rest in an unarmed condition.  They do not fly to Christ for covering and shelter against the day of storm and tempest, and the reason is, they have a lie in their right hand, they feed on ashes, and a deceived heart carries them aside from seeking after Christ.  It would make one tremble to see how confident many are with their false hopes and self-confidences. Daring to come up—as Korah with his censer, as un­dauntedly as Moses himself—even to the mouth of the grave, till on a sudden they are swallowed up with destruction, and sent to be undeceived in hell, who would not be beaten from their refuges of lies here. Whoever thou art, O man, and whatever thou hast to glory in, were it the most saint-like conversation that ever any lived on earth, yet if this be thy shelter against the evil day, thou will perish.  No salvation when the flood comes, but Christ; yea, being in Christ, hanging on the outside of the ark by a spe­cious profession, will not save.  Methinks I see how those of the old world ran for their lives, some to this hill, and others to that high tree, and how the waves pursued them, till at last they were swept into the de­vouring flood.  Such will your end be, that turn any other way for help than to Christ; yet the ark waits on you, yea, comes up close to your gate to take you in. Noah did not put forth his hand more willingly to take in the dove, than Christ doth to receive those who fly to him for refuge.  O reject not your own mercies for lying vanity.

Use Fifth. Let it put thee upon the inquiry, whoever thou art, whether thou beest in a posture of defence for this evil day.  Ask thy soul soberly and solemnly, ‘Art thou provided for this day, this evil day?’ how couldst thou part with what that will take away, and welcome what it will certainly bring? Death comes with a voider to carry away all thy carnal enjoy­ments, and to bring thee up a reckoning for them.  O canst thou take thy leave of the one, and with peace and confidence read the other?  Will it not affright thee to have thy health and strength turned into faint­ness and feebleness, thy sweet nights of rest into wa­king eyes and restless tossings up and down, thy voice that has so often chanted to the viol, to be now ac­quainted with no other tune but sighs and groans?  O how canst thou look upon thy sweet and dear rela­tions with thoughts of removing from them? yea, be­hold the instrument, as it were, whetting, that shall give the fatal stroke  to sever soul and body?  Think that thou wert now half dead in thy members that are most remote from the fountain of life, and death to have but a few moments' journey before it arrive to thy heart, and so beat thy last breath out of thy body. Possibly the inevitable necessity of these do make thee to harden thyself against them.  This might indeed, in some heathen, that is not resolved whether there be another world or no, help a little to blunt the edge of that terror, which otherwise would cut deeper in his amazed heart; but if thou believest another world, and that judgment which stands at death’s back, ready to allot thee thy unchangeable state in bliss or misery, surely thou canst not relieve thy awak­ened conscience with such a poor cordial.  O there­fore think what answer thou meanest to give unto the great God at thy appearing before him, when he shall ask thee, ‘What thou canst say, why the sentence of eternal damnation should not then be pronounced against thee?’  Truly we deal unfaithfully with our own souls, if we bring not our thoughts to this issue. If now you should ask how you should provide against the evil day, so that you may stand before that dread­ful bar, and live so in the meantime that you might not be under a slavish bondage through the fearful expectation of it, take it in a few directions.

1. If ever you would have a blessed issue of this evil day, so as to stand in judgement before the great God, rest not till thou hast got into a covenant-relation with Christ.  Dying David’s living comfort was drawn from the covenant God had made with him—this was all his desire, and all his salvation. How canst thou put thy head into the other world without horror, if thou hast not solid ground that Christ will own thee for his?  Heaven hath its heirs, and so hath hell.  The heirs of heaven are such as are in covenant with God.  The foundation of it was laid in a covenant, and all the mansions there are pre­pared for a people in covenant with him: ‘Gather my saints together that have made a covenant with me.’ But how mayest thou get into this covenant-relation? First break thy covenant with sin.  Thou art by nature a covenant-servant to sin and Satan.  May be thou hast not expressly in words, and formally, as witches, sealed this covenant, yet virtually, as thou hast done the work of Satan, and been at the command of thy lusts, accepting the reward of unrighteousness—the pleasure and carnal advantages they have paid thee in for the same—therein thou hast declared thyself to be so.  Now if ever thou wilt be taken into covenant with God, break this.  A covenant with hell and heaven cannot stand together.

USE OR APPLICATION OF: That ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all, to stand Eph. 6 13 1/3

Use First. It reproves those that are so far from providing for the evil day, that they will not suffer any thoughts of that day to stay with them.  They are as unwilling to be led into a discourse of this subject, as a child to carried into the dark, and there left.  It is a death to them to think of death, or that which leads to it.  As some foolishly think [that] they must needs die presently when they have made their will, so these think they hasten that sorrowful day by musing on it. The meditation of it is no more welcome to them, than the company of Moses was to Pharaoh.  There­fore they say to it as he to Moses, ‘Get thee from me, and let me see thy face no more.’  The fear of it makes them to butcher and make away all those thoughts which conscience stirs up concerning it. And at last they get such a mastery of their consciences, that they arrive at a kind of atheism.  It is as rare to have them think or speak of such matters, as to see a fly busy in winter.  Nothing now but what is frolic and jocund is entertained by them.  If any such thoughts come as prophesy mirth and carnal content, these, as right with their hearts, are taken up into the chariot to sit with them, but all other are commanded to go behind.  Alas, poor-spirited wretches! something might be said for you, if this evil day of death and judgement were such entia rationis—fictions of the imagination, as had no foundation or being but what our fancies give them.  Such troubles there are in the world, which have all their evil from our thoughts. When we are disquieted with the scorns and re­proaches of men, did we but not think of them, they were nothing.  But thy banishing the thoughts of this evil day from thy mind, will be a poor short relief. Thou canst neither hinder its coming, nor take away its sting when it comes, by thy slighting it.  Thou art like a passenger in a ship, asleep or awake thou art going thy voyage. Thou dost but like that silly bird, that puts her head into a reed, and then thinks see is safe from the fowler, because she sees him not.  Thou art a fair mark for God's vengeance; he sees thee, and is taking his aim at thee, when thou seest not him. Yea, thou puttest thyself under an inevitable necessity of perishing, by not thinking of this day.  The first step to our safety, is consideration of our danger.

Use Second. It reproves those who, if they think of the evil day, yet [do] so [only as so] far off, that it is to little purpose.  They will be sure to set it at such a distance from them, as shall take away the force of the meditation, that it shall not strike them down in the deep sense and fear of it.  That cannon which, if we stood at the mouth of it, would shatter limb from limb, will not so much as scare them that get out of its reach.  The further we put the evil day, the weaker impression it makes on us.  It is true, say sinners, it cannot be helped.  We owe a debt to nature; it must be paid.  Sickness will come, and death follow on that, and judgment brings up the rear of both.  But, alas! they look not for these guests yet, they prophesy of these things a great while hence to come.  Many a fair day they hope will intervene.  Thus men are very kind to themselves.  First, they wish it may be long before it comes, and then, because they would have it so, they are bold to promise themselves it shall be so; and when once they have made this promise, no won­der if they then live after the rate of their vain hopes, putting off the stating of their accounts, till the winter evening of old age, when they shall not have such al­lurements to gad abroad from the pleasures of this life.  O then they will do great matters to fit them for the evil day.  Bold man! who gave thee leave to cut out such large thongs of that time which is not thine but God's?  Who makes the lease, the tenant or the landlord? or dost thou forget thou farmest thy life, and art not an owner?  This is the device of Satan, to make you delay; whereas a present expectation of the evil day would not let you sit still unprepared.  O why do you let your souls from their work, make them idle and rest from their burdens, by telling them of long life, while death chops in upon you unawares?  

O what shame will your whorish hearts be put to—that now say, your husband is gone afar off, you may fill yourselves with loves—if he should come before he is looked for, and find you in bed with lusts?  And let me tell you, sudden destruction is threatened, espe­cially to secure ones.  Read that scripture where it is denounced against that sort of sinners, who please themselves with their Lord’s delaying his coming, [declaring] that ‘the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour he is not aware of,’ Matt. 24:48,50,51.  Indeed God must go out of his ordinary road of dealing with sinners, if such escape a sudden ruin.  One is bold to challenge any to show a precedent in Scripture of any that are branded for security, that some remarkable, yea, sud­den judgement did not surprise.  [In the case of those in] Sodom, how soon after a sunshine morning the heavens thicken, and bury them in a few hours, by a storm of fire, in their own ashes?  Careless Laish is cut off before they almost think of it.  Agag, when he saw the clouds of his fears break, and fair weather was in his countenance, they return immediately upon him, and shut him up in death, he is presently hewn in pieces.  Amalek [is] slaughtered by David, before the triumph of their late victory was cold. Nebu­chadnezzar is strutting himself in his palace with this bravado in his mouth, ‘Is not this great Babylon that I have built?’ Dan. 4:30; and before he can get the words out of his throat, there is another voice falling from heaven, saying, ‘O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee.’ And, ‘the same hour was the thing fulfilled,’ ver. 32,33, and he sent to graze with the beasts.  Dives blesses himself for many years, and within a few hours the pillow is plucked from under his head, and you hear no more of him till out of hell he roar; yea, a whole world, few persons excepted, [is] drowned, and they ‘knew not till the day the flood came and swept them all away,’ Matt. 24:39.  And who art thou, O man, that promisest thyself an exemp­tion, when kings, cities, a whole world, have been ruined after this sort?

The day of affliction and death is evil, and in what respects 4/4

Second. In point of wisdom.  The wisdom of a man appears most eminently in two things.  1. In the matter of his choice and chief care.  2. In a due timing of this his choice and chief care.

1. A wise man makes choice of that for the subject of his chief care and endeavour, which is of greatest importance and consequence to him.Fools and children only are intent about toys and trifles. They are as busy and earnest in making of a house of dirt or cards, as Solomon was in making of his temple.  Those poor baubles are as adequate to their foolish apprehensions, as great enterprises are to wise men.  Now such is the importance of the evil day, especially that of death, that it proves a man a fool, or wise, as he comports himself to it.  The end specifies every action, and gives it the name of good or evil, of wise or foolish.  The evil day of death is, as the end of our days, so to be the end of all the actions of our life. Such will our life be found at last, as it hath been in order to this one day.  If the several items of our life—counsels and projects that we have pursued —when they shall be then cast up, will amount to a blessed death, then we shall appear to be wise men indeed; but, if after all our goodly plots and policies for other things we be unprovided for that hour, we must be content to die fools at last, and [there is] no such fool as a dying fool.  The Christian goes for the fool, in the world's account, while he lives; but when death comes, the wise world will then confess they miscalled him, and shall take it to themselves: ‘We fools counted his life to be madness, and his end to be without honour.  But how is he now numbered among the children of God, and his lot is among the saints? therefore, we have erred from the way of truth,’ Wis. 5:4,5.  The place is apocry­phal, but sinners will find the matter of it canonical.  It is true, indeed, saints are outwitted by the world in the things of the world, and no marvel; neither doth it impeach their wisdom, any more than it doth a scholar’s to be excelled by the cobbler in his mean trade.  Nature, when it intends higher excellences, is more careless in those things that are inferior, as we see in man, who, being made to excel the beasts in a rational soul, is himself excelled by some beast or other in all his senses.  Thus the Christian may well be surpassed in matters of worldly commerce, because he hath a nobler object in his eye, that makes him converse with the things of the world in a kind of non-attendance. He is not much careful in these matters; if he can die well at last, and be justified for a wise man at the day of resurrection, all is well, Jude 15.  He thinks it is not manners to be unwilling to stay so long for the clear­ing of his wisdom, as God can wait for the vindicating of his own glorious nature, which will not appear in its glory till that day, when he will convince the un­godly of their hard thoughts and speeches of him. Then they shall, till then they will not, be convinced.
2. A wise man labours duly to time and his care and endeavour, for the attaining of what he pro­poseth.It is the fool that comes when the market is done.  As the evil day is of great concernment in respect of its event, so the placing of our care for it in the right season is of chief importance, and that sure must be before it comes.  There are more doors than one at which the messenger may enter that brings evil tidings to us, and at which he will knock we know not. We know not where we shall be arrested, whether at bed, or board, whether at home or in the field, whether among our friends that will counsel and com­fort us, or among our enemies that will add weight to our sorrow by their cruelty.  We know not when, whether by day or night, many of us [know] not whether in the morning, noon, or evening of our age. As he calls to work at all times of the day, so he doth to bed, may be while thou art praying or preaching, and it would be sad to go away profaning them, and the name of God in them; possibly when thou art about worse work.  Death may strike thy quaffing-cup out of thy hand, while thou art sitting in the ale-house with thy jovial mates, or meet thee as thou art reeling home, and make some ditch thy grave, that as thou livedst like a beast, so thou shouldst die like a beast. 
3. In a word, we know not the kind of evil God will use as the instrument to stab us; whether some bloody hand of violence shall do it, or a disease out of our bowels and bodies; whether some acute disease, or some lingering sickness; whether such a sickness as shall slay the man while the body is alive—I mean, take the head and deprive us of our reason—or not; whether such noisome troubles as shall make our friends afraid to let us breathe on them, or themselves look on us; whether they shall be afflictions aggra­vated with Satan’s temptations, and the terrors of our own affrighted consciences, or not.  Who knows where, when, or what the evil day shall be?  Therefore doth God conceal these, that we should provide for all.  Cæsar would never let his soldiers know when or whither he meant to march.  The knowing of these would torment us with distracting fear, the not knowing them should awaken us to a providing care. It is an ill time to caulk the ship when at sea, tumbling up and down in a storm; this should have been looked to when on her seat in the harbour.  And as bad as it is, to begin to trim a soul for heaven when tossing upon a sick bed.  Things that are done in a hurry are seldom done well.  A man called out of his bed at midnight with a dismal fire on his house-top, cannot stand to dress himself in order, as at another time, but runs down with one stocking half on, may be, and the other not on at all.  Those poor creatures, I am afraid, go in as ill a dress into another world, who begin to provide for it when, on a dying bed, conscience calls them up with a cry of hell-fire in their bosoms.  But alas! they must go, though they have no time to put their armour on.  And so they are put to repent at leisure in hell, of their shuffling up a repentance in haste here.  We come to the application of the point.

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Second Branch. This evil day is unavoidable.  We may as well stop the chariot of the sun, when posting to night, and chase away the shades of the evening, as escape this hour of darkness, that is coming upon us all.  ‘There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit, neither hath he power in the day of death, and there is no discharge in that war,’ Ecc. 8:8.  Among men it is pos­sible to get off when pressed for the wars, by pleading privilege of years, estate, weakness of body, protection from the prince, and the like; or if all these fail, pos­sibly the sending another in our room, or a bribe given in the hand, may serve the turn.  But in this war the press is so strict, that there is no dispensation. David could willingly have gone for his son—we hear him crying, ‘Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son;’ but he will not be taken, that young gallant must go himself.  We must in our own person come into the field, and look death in the face.  Some indeed we find so fond as to promise themselves immunity from this day, as if they had an insuring office in their breast.  They say they have made a covenant with death, and with hell they are at an agreement.  When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto them.  And now, like debtors that have fee'd the sergeant, they walk abroad boldly, and fear no arrest.  But God tells them as fast as they bind he will loose: ‘Your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand.’  And how should it, if God will not set his seal to it?  There is a divine law for this evil day, which came in force upon Adam’s first sin, that laid the fatal knife to the throat of mankind, which hath opened a sluice to let out his heart-blood ever since.  

God, to prevent all escape, hath sown the seeds of death in our very constitution and nature, so that we can as soon run from ourselves, as run from death.  We need no feller to come with a hand of violence, and hew us down.  There is in the tree a worm which grows out of its own substance that will destroy it; so in us, those infirmities of nature that will bring us down to the dust.  Our death was bred when our life was first conceived.  And as a woman cannot hinder the hour of her travail—that follows in nature upon the other—so neither can man hinder the bringing forth of death with which his life is big. All the pains and aches man feels in his life are but so many singultus morientis naturœ—groans of a dying nature; they tell him his dissolution is at hand.  Beest thou a prince sitting in all thy state and pomp, death dare enter thy palace, and come through all thy guards, to deliver the fatal message it hath from God to thee, yea, runs its dagger to thy heart.  Wert thou compassed with a college of doctors consulting thy health, art and nature both must deliver thee up when that comes.  Even when thy strength is firmest, and thou eatest thy bread with a merry heart, that very food which nourisheth thy life gives thee withal an earnest of death, as it leaves those dregs in thee which will in time procure the same.  O how unavoidable this day of death be, when that very staff knocks us down to the grave at last, which our life leans on and is preserved by!  God owes a debt to the first Adam and to the second.  To the first he owes the wages of sin, to the second the reward of his sufferings.  The place for full payment of both is the other world, so that except death come to convey the man thither, the wicked, who are the posterity of the first Adam, will miss of that full pay for their sins, which the threat­ening makes due debt, and engageth God to perform. The godly also, who are the seed of Christ, these should not receive the whole purchase of his blood, which he would never have shed but upon the credit of that promise of eternal life which God gave him for them before the world began.  This is the reason why God hath made this day so sure.  In it he dischargeth both bonds.

Third Branch. It behoves every one to prepare, and effectually to provide for this evil day, which so unavoidably impends us: and this upon a twofold account.  1. In point of duty.  2. In point of wisdom.

1. In point of duty.

(1.) It is upon our allegiance to the great God, that we provide and arm ourselves against this day. Suppose a subject were trusted with one of his prince’s castles, and that he should hear that a puis­sant enemy was coming to lay siege to this castle, and yet he takes no care to lay in arms and provision for his defence, and so it is lost.  How could such a one be cleared of treason? doth he not basely betray the place, and with it his prince's honour into the ene­my’s hand?  Our souls are this castle, which we are every one to keep for God.  We have certain intelli­gence that Satan hath a design upon them, and the time when he intends to come with all his powers of darkness, to be that evil day.  Now as we would be found true to our trust, we are obliged to stand upon our defence, and store ourselves with what may enable us to make a vigorous resistance.

(2.) We are obliged to provide for that day, as a suitable return for, and improvement of, the oppor­tunities and means which God affords us for this very end.  We cannot without shameful ingratitude to God, make waste of those helps god gives us in order to this great work.  Every one would cry out upon him that should basely spend that money upon riot in prison, which was sent him to procure his deliverance out of prison.  And do we not blush to bestow those talents upon our lusts and Satan, which God gra­ciously indulgeth to deliver us from them, and his [Satan’s] rage in a dying hour?  What have we Bibles for, ministers and preaching for, if we mean not to furnish ourselves by them with armour for the evil day?  In a word, what is the intent of God in length­ening out our days, and continuing us some while here in the land of the living?  Was it that we might have time to revel, or rather ravel out upon the pleasure of this vain world?  Doth he give us our precious time to be employed in catching such but­terflies as these earthly honours and riches are?  It cannot be.  Masters, if wise, do not use to set their servants about such work as will not pay for the candle they burn in doing it.  And truly nothing less than the glorifying of God, and saving our souls at last, can be worth the precious time we spend here. The great God hath a greater end than most think in this dispensation.  If we would judge aright, we should take his own interpretation of his actions; and the apostle Peter bids us ‘account that the long­suffering of our Lord is salvation,’ II Peter 3:15, which place he quotes out of Paul, Rom. 2:4, as to the sense, though not in the same form of words—‘Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?’  From both places we are taught what is the mind of God, and the language he speaks to us in, by every moment's patience and inch of time that is granted to us.  It is a space given for repentance.  God sees [that] as we are, death and judgment could bring no good news to us.  We are in no case to welcome the evil day, and therefore mercy stands up to plead for the poor creature in God’s bosom, and begs a little time more may be added to its life, that by this indulgence it may be provoked to repent before he be called to the bar.  Thus we come by every day, that is continually superadded to our time on earth.  And doth not this lay a strong obliga­tion on us to lay out every point of this time, unto the same end it is begged for?