Doct. That serious diligence is required of christians in improving the present season in order to eternal life.
1. There is much work required of a christian. Christianity is not a loitering profession, but is always represented to us as a laborious thing : Phil. ii. 12, ' Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling ; ' John vi. 27, ' Labour not for the meat that perisheth, but for that meat which endureth to everlasting life ; ' 2 Peter iii. 14, ' Be diligent, that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.'
[1.] There is much diligence required to get into a state of grace : Luke xiii. 24, ' Strive to enter in at the strait gate ; for I say unto you, many shall seek to enter in, but shall not be able.' Therefore, if we are yet unconverted, we are to bestir ourselves, and use all means that we may not come short of converting grace. If we miss it, it is long of ourselves ; we forfeit it by our negligence and carelessness.
[2.] There is much diligence required to keep ourselves in a station of grace. There are many soul-endangering sins which we are apt to indulge ; therefore David saw need to beg, Ps. cxix. 133, ' Order my steps in thy word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me ; ' and the apostle warneth converted christians, Rom. vi. 12, ' Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal bodies, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. ' And there are many duties required to which we are backward and averse, at least remiss and cold ; therefore we need to be exhorted, Eom. xii. 11, ' Not to be slothful in business, but fervent m spirit, serving the Lord.' We cannot be zealous enough in our pursuit after eternal happiness. If it were about riches and honours, a cold desire and dull pursuit were not amiss ; but about God, and Christ, and heaven, coldness is a contempt.
[3.] There is much diligence required to get grace evidenced : ' Give diligence to make your calling and election sure,' 2 Peter i. 10. Providing comfort against the hour of death : 2 Peter iii. 14, 'Where-
8 SERMON UPON PROVERBS VI. 6-8,
fore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent, that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.'
[4.] There is much diligence required to keep up assurance, as well as to get it. It is gotten with diligence, and kept with watchfulness : Heb. vi. 11, 'And we desire that every one of you do show the same dili- gence, to the full assurance of hope unto the end.' So far as we abate in our qualification, so far doth our assurance abate. Well, then, you see from first to last that there is much work required of a christian.
2. That the opportunity of doing this work is confined to this life ; and when that is at an end, it presently ceaseth. There is no mending of errors in the other world. Now is the season, and therefore we should speedily, and without delay, set about our work : Isa. Iv. 6, * Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.' There is a time of finding, which, when it cometh to an end, all opportunity is lost. The Father's season is while he waiteth ; the Son's season while he offereth grace ; the Holy Ghost's season while he stirreth the waters. So, on the contrary, Luke xix. 42, ' If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace ; but now they are hid from thine eyes.' Men know not their day and time, and so show themselves more silly and brutish than the ant. A child of God is wise in time, and the sensual and brutish worldling is wise too late ; when he is in the other world, then he wisheth that he had minded God, his soul, and heaven more. What will it profit us to think of working when it is too late to work, and we are in termino, in our final estate ?
3. We have a guide, overseer, and ruler, to whom we must render an account of what we do, which is denied to the ant.
[1.] We have a guide. Our work is such as our Creator expects from us. Surely God made not such a creature as man for nothing. He sent us into the world, and hath appointed us our business, which we are to do here ; as our Lord telleth us, John vi. 38, ' I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.' So none of us come into the world to live to ourselves, but to God ; not to do our own will, but to finish his work ; to love, serve, glorify, and obey him. Many live in the world they know not why, and they go out of the world they know not whither.
[2.] We have an inspector or overseer, who observeth how we spend our time, and what we are continually doing : Ps. cxix. 168, 'I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies ; for all thy ways are before me.' God seeth what we do daily : he observeth with what posture of heart we rise in the morning, and converse all day, and go to bed at night.