Use 2. Well, but that is not all. We are to be accountable to God for the time and means we enjoy here -in our generation. If we be not the better for it, we shall be so rmtch the ivorse. It had been better for us to have been born in times of popery and darkness, in places of ignorance, than livingi n the glorious times of the gospel, and in places where the light is discovered, and to be naught in the midst of such light. Those that are bad now are very bad. We see by experience, that of all men, the most outrageous wretched persons are those that are ill in good places ; for God gives them up to more than an ordinary measure of profaneness. A man shall have better and more civil usage. He shall see better carriage in a pagan than in many Christians that are not good under the means. There be degrees of those that are naught. Some God gives up to a pro- fane spirit in the midst of the means, a fearful brand. Those that are bad now in the glorious times of the gospel, their sins are presumptuous sins. They are not damned simply for sinning, so much as for sinning against the means, for sinning against such light, for sinning in these times. Those that lived in darkness they could do no better. What, to be swearers now ! to be licentious, disordered persons now ! to contemn holy things now ! to be corrupt in our callings now ! in this generation, when the light of the gospel hath so gloriously shined ! \Vhat excuse can men have for their sins now ? Certainly it shall aggravate their damnation, that they were children of darkness in the midst of light. Nothing will trouble their consciences so much as that they have oifended against so many means, and so many helps as they had in the days they lived in. I beseech you, therefore, as we should bless God for reserving us for these times and places of knowledge and Hght, so let us take heed lest they be a means of aggravating our damnation afterward, that we shall wish that we had never been born in such times, but rather in times of darkness. It shall go better with our forefathers that lived in darker times, than with us, if we live in profane and ungodly courses.
Use 3, Now there is no generation so good, but there be gross sins in all times and generations, therefore let every man be careful (as to consider the good of the generation, to take good by it, so likewise) to consider the sins of the times wherein he lives, that he be not tainted with the sins of that generation. God's children have a counter-motion, a contrary motion to the motion of wicked persons in every generation ; therefore in our gene- ration let us do as David did in his generation, stand against the ills of the times, go against the stream in that which is ill. It is the commendation you see in the Old Testament. ' Noah was a good man in his generation,' Gen. vi. 9, and such and such were good men in their generations. ' David in his generation served God,' and yet the times were naught. 'Help, Lord,' saith he, 'for godly men perish from the earth,' Ps. xii. 1. The
496 KING David's epitaph.
times were naught when he lived. There was Docg, and Ahithophel, and Shimei, and other wicked men ; yet David * was a good man in his gene- ration.' He was not carried with the stream of the times.
A godly man considers who are good and who are naught in his genera- tion, and he walks to heaven with those that are good, though they be never so few. He goes in a contrary motion to others. He doth not conform to the world, Rom. xii. 2, ' he fashions not himself according to the world,' according to the wicked men in the generation he lives in ; but he fashions himself to them that are of another world, that go a contrary way to the world.
Use 4. Every generation hath a genius both for manners and study ; former times they were given to barbarism ; now these times are more refined for outward respects. So for sins : ei-eri/ atjc hath particular sitis that re'ujn ; superstition in former times, but now the clean contrary : pro- faneness, atheism, hardness of heart against the light, presumption, loose- ness, and the like. Now these being the sins of our times, we should go so much the stronger against the stream of profaneness and atheism. The devil discovers himself in divers shapes, in divers generations. Sometimes he prevails with ignorance, and then he is a spirit of darkness, sometimes he is a spirit of profaneness and looseness. Now consider by what sins the devil hath most advantage, and be sure to set ourselves against them.
Use 5. And let eveiy one in his place labour to make the f/eueration we live in as good as ive can. Wh}' doth God speak thus honourably of David ? ' He served God in his generation.' That time was the better for him. We have all cause to bless God for such men, they are blessed men. Let every one of us in our generation carry ourselves so, that when we are gone, it may be said. Such a man did much good in his time and place, and hindered much ill. What a blessed thing is it when in our generation we hinder all the ill and do all the good we can, that others may say to our comfort and credit. The times and place was the better for such a man. Beloved, eveiy one of us hath his generation. Some have a longer gene- ration, some a shorter ; some have a longer glass appointed to run out, some their glass is run out in a shorter time. Well, be it longer or shorter, let us be careful that we trifle not out our generation and time wherein we live unprofitably. That little part of time that God hath given us to work in, let us be sure to bestir ourselves in our generation, we know not how long or short our generation is.