The Christians labour and reward, or, A sermon, part of which was preached at…

And if the highest measures of the most fruitful Saints, which have done God more service, than an hundred such as thy self, shrink into nothing, in their own eye at such a time, and leave them full of shame and sorrow for their unsuitable actings, to their high and glorious hopes; how much more will it afflict thee with unspeakable grief and sorrow in the like hour (if thou hast a dram of Sincerity in thine Heart) to remember thy more palpable negligence and barrenness. Oh what then wilt thou say of thy past life, which is so thin sown with Holy Actions? now thou thinkest thy self Religious enough, with thy infrequent Devotions; if thou canst get to the Church once in a week, and into thy Closet, for a few moments, ⟨p. 116⟩once in a day, it is well: But when thou comest to dye, thou wilt then complain, how thou hast starved thy Soul, and robbed thy God of much time, which might, and ought to have been employed in Communion with him, and working out thy own Salvation. Now a few Pence out of thy great Estate, passeth for Charity; but when death comes to sweep all away at once, then thou wilt complain thou hast been a niggard of thy Purse, and didst not honour God with thy Substance. Now though thou speakest, but once or twice in a Moon of God, and Heaven in thy Family; and very seldom dost Catechise thy Children, and that but formally, without any affection, or with little desire to affect them, with the concernment of those Truths, thou instructest them in, yet thou pleasest thy self, in having done thy duty to them so well. But when death's cold sweat shall warn you of your approaching Dissolution, then thou wilt bewail, that Religion was so seldom the subject ⟨p. 117⟩of thy discourse, in your Family, that you did not more constantly instruct your Children and Servants; and when you did, that you did not more passionately endeavour to move their affections, and draw their hearts to the love and liking of Religion in its Truths, and the practice of them.

And if the highest measures of the most fruitful Saints, which have done God more service, than an hundred such as thy self, shrink into nothing, in their own eye at such a time, and leave them full of shame and sorrow for their unsutable actings, to their high and glorious hopes; how much more will it afflict thee with unspeakable grief and sorrow in the like hour (if thou hast a dram of Sincerity in thine Heart) to remember thy more palpable negligence and barrenness. Oh what then wilt thou say of thy past life, which is so thin sown with Holy Actions? now thou thinkest thy self Religious enough, with thy infrequent Devotions; if thou canst get to the Church once in a week, and into thy Closet, for a few moments,