Metaphors, Allegories, Similes, Types, &c. •CONCERNING ''ifaE MEANS oF GRACE, PROVIDENCE and AFFLICTION. T H E D A y 0 F G R A c E. Why fland ye here all the Day idle? &c. Matt. xx. 6. ·5'o Day if you wilt hear his Voice, harden not your Hearts, &c. Heb. iii. 7· THE Time that God alloweth Men to repent, and provide themfelves for another World, is called a Day : Behold, .no·w is the accepted Time, behold, now is the Day .of Salvation. I mufl work the Works of him .that fent me, while it is Day; that is, whilfl: ·the allotted Seafon lafl:s, John ix. 4· To Day ifyou will htar his Voice, &c. that is, before the Time allotted you, or the Space given you to repent, be expired. P A R A L L E L ~ ].A Day is a certain Time, fo many Hours, &c. A natural Day is twenty-four Hours, an artificial Day contains twelve Hours: So God allows a Man a certain and pre– :£xed Time tq repent. Jerufalem had a Day: 0 that thou hadfi known, even thou, at .leafl in this thy Day, the Things that belo;tg unto thy Peace. II. T,he Day is fet in Oppolition to the Night, and it fignifies the Time of Light: So the Time of God's Patience, whiHt the Gofpel is preached to Men, and God waits ·upon them, and thives with them, eo 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 Gofpel, from a Kingdom, Nation, or particular Soul, that is a Ti me of Darknefs, and then it may be faid, the Day is gone, and Night is come upon them. Ill. It is Day when the Sun rifcs, r.nd Night when the Sun fets: So it is the Sinner's .Day, whiHl: the Gofpel 3un 01ines, and the Means of Grace are continued to them; ·but Night then, when the Mini!\racion of the Gofpd is taken away, and no more Means -of Grace afforded to them. IV. The Day i; Man's worl(ing Time; Laborers in the Field, when the Day is ended, go home, they can work no longer: So whilft God affords the Gofpel, and Means of Grace, Sinners fhould, like faithful Laborers, work hard, work out their own Salvation, labor for the Meat chat periOJeth 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 Jerufalem. V. The Day brings great Lie;hc with it, which makes great Difcoveries of Perfons .and Things; whilft the Night lafl:s, Men cannot fee what is near tbem, neither the Good they may receive, nor the Evil they fhould refufe, and efcape from ; but the Day difcovers all, and makes every Thing manifefl: : So the Gofpel-day brings Light, and the Light thereof difcoversthe Evil chat is in the Hearts, Works, and Lives of Men; by this Light they fee chw Sins, and the Danger they are in thereby, and alfo ,the Way to be delivered from them. Chrifl: is the Way which the Day-light makes manifeft. In the Night of Popery, Men loft the bleffed Path to Peace, and Way of Life, ond ran to the Merits of their own \Nays, and to Popifh Pzrdons, and what .not ; but the Day of the Gofpd in England bath dikovered their Miftake, and fhewed them the plain Way eo Heaven, &c. VI. The Day is comfortable, it is a pleafant Thing for the Eyes to fee the Sun: ,Ecc/ef xi. 7· So are the Means of Grace, and the Day of Gofpel Light. 0 how fweet .and pleafant a Th.ng it is to fee this Day, wherein .the Word of God is powerfully and ·plainly preached amongft us I VII. The Day lomni lles is over-call;, and the L1ght darkened : So 1 he Gofpel-day ;is fometimcs as a Judgment upon a People or particular Soul, .darkened, and Clouds · .1 feem
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