The Day of Grace

    "Why stand ye here all the Day idle?" &c., Mt 20:6.

    "To-Day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts," &c., Heb 3:7.

    THE time that God alloweth men to repent, and provide themselves for another world, is called a Day: "Behold, now is the accepted time, behold, now is the Day of salvation." "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is Day;" that is, whilst the allotted season lasts, Joh 9:4. "To-day if you will hear his voice," &c., that is, before the time allotted you, or the space given you to repent, be expired.

    PARALLELS.

    I. A Day is a certain time, so many hours, &c. A natural Day is twenty-four hours an artificial Day contains twelve hours: so Grod allows a man a certain and prefixed time to repent. Jerusalem had a Day: "thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy Day, the things that belong unto thy peace."

    II. The Day is set in opposition to the night, and it signifies the time of light: so the time of God's patience, whilst the Gospel is preached to men, and God waits upon them, and strives with them, to bring them over to the knowledge of the truth, is the time of light: and when God takes away the means of Grace, and the Gospel, from a kingdom, nation, or particular soul, that is a time of darkness, and then it may be said, the Day is gone, and night is come upon them.

    III. It is Day when the sun rises, and night when the sun sets: so it is the sinner's Day, whilst the Gospel sun shines, and the means of grace are continued to them; but night then, when the ministration of the Gospel is taken away, and no more means of grace afforded to them.

    IV. The Day is man's working time! labourers in the field, when the Day is ended, go home, they can work no longer: so whilst God affords the Gospel, and means of Grace, shiners should, like faithful labourers, work hard, work out their own salvation, labour for the meat that perisheth not: for when that is gone, no man can work; then the things of their peace will be hid from their eyes, like as it fell out with Jerusalem.

    V. The Day brings great light with it, which makes great discoveries of persons and things; whilst the night lasts, men cannot see what is near them, neither the good they may receive, nor the evil they should refuse, and escape from; but the Day discovers all, and makes every thing manifest: so the Gospel-Day brings light, and the light thereof discovers the evil that is in the hearts, works, and lives of men; by this light they see their sins, and the danger they are in thereby, and also the way to be delivered from them. Christ is the Way which the Day-light makes manifest. In the night of Popery, men lost the blessed path to peace, and way of life, and ran to the merits of their own ways, and to Popish pardons, and what not; but the Day of the Gospel in England hath discovered then: mistake, and showed them the plain way to heaven, &c.

    VI. The Day is comfortable, it is a pleasant thing for the eyes to see the sun: Ec 11:7. So are the means of Grace, and the Day of Gospel light. 0, how sweet and pleasant a thing it is to see this Day, wherein the word of God is powerfully and plainly preached amongst us!

    VII. The Day sometimes is over-cast, and the light darkened; so the Gospel-Day is sometimes as a judgment upon a people or particular soul, darkened, and clouds seem to cover the glorious heavens, even as at this time. O what thick and black clouds seem to arise!

    VIII. Some Days prove stormy, and high winds arise: so sometimes the Day of Gospel Grace proves stormy, and high winds of persecution arise upon a people; nay, not only winds of persecution, but also strange whirlwinds of delusions abound in it, which make it very perilous.

    IX. A Day hath its morning, its noon, and its evening: so hath the day of Gospel Grace in a nation, and to a particular soul, who improves it not. God threatened his people of old, "That the sun should go down over the prophets, and the day should be dark over them," Mic 3:6.

    X. The Day suits not with some men, they are for the night; they are said to rebel against the light, they hate the light, the night is for them; such are the thief and adulterer: "The whorish woman waits for the twilight, even for the black and dark night," Pr 7:9. So many sinners love not the Day of Gospel light, they are for the night of darkness and errors. They had rather have Popery come, or any thing come, than to have the Gospel, or the powerful preaching thereof; it suits best with their carnal hearts, they love that religion that indulges them in their brutish lusts.

    XI. There are many ways to know when the Day draws towards an end, and night approaches: As, (1.) when the heat of the sun abates. (2.) When the shadows grow long, or are stretched forth. (3.) When the harvest-men begin to go home apace. (4.) When the evening-wolves begin to lurk out of their holes. Now when these signs are upon a people in a spiritual sense, their state is bad, they may fear night approaches upon them. 1. When the Gospel in its powerful preaching, abates in its heat, and blessed influences upon men's hearts, so that but a few are warmed, and effectually wrought upon by it. 2. When religion is more in show than in substance; when the shadow is long, and the substance little; men being more zealous for the form, than concerned for the power of it. 3. When many powerful or painful ministers and labourers are called home. 4. When the Romish wolves, who have lain long in their holes, and dark caverns, or lurking places, begin to come boldly abroad, and impudently show themselves, it is a sign of evening-tide, and that the Day is near expiring. Is not this thy state, O England!