interest of the Lord Jesus we have practised that in our selves which we have condemned in others and never any People had more pretious opportunities and improved them less we have put Death far from us and lived as if this world would never have an end and as if the World to come would never have a Beginning c. Now for others to lay these things to our charge makes us odious and ugly But for us to charge our selves will make us look lovely and Beautiful there is a vast difference between others speaking of us and our own speaking of our selves though the words be the very same The story of Jonah if another had writ it would have made Jonah appear very deformed but as he writes it himself it rendershim a true penicent let us lament our not doing our work in our day our not minding our work and season and making them meet what a deal of work might we have done more than we have if we had forted and counted and numbred our work aright we have been confounded as the Builders of Babel We have done much that needed not have been done and we have been doing of one thing when we should have been doing another we have been repenting when we should have been believing and believing when we should have been repenting we have been caring when we should have been trusting we have been weeping when we should have been rejoicing and rejoicing when we should have been mourning we have been doing and undoing and as a Man that has lost his way travels hard but is no nearer his journeys end may it may be comes to the place whence he first set forth I assure you it is matter of trouble to consider what confusion we have brought our selves into and upon our Spirits for want of this wisdom to number our work-daies we have been a disorderly People we have not put our general and particular callings into good method we do things in the first place which should be done in the second and that in the second which ought to possess the first let me tell you Earthly cares will not sit comfortably and thrivingly in the first nor Heavenly thoughts in the second because the one will be too high and the other too low for their elevation it is a deslowring of early morning-time to lodge the world with it and it is a disgraceing of the things of God to present them with the small reliques and stale afterlings of your time I am perswaded this is the very thing the Psalmist aimes at in this Text that he might have wisdom to know his time and his work and the proper work for the day that time might not be done before the work was done and that work might not be misplaced and mislaid it must needs therefore be our great folly and loss who are guilty of so much misplacing why must worldly thoughts come in in the morning as soon as thou art awake and defile blast and canker thy Soul when good thoughts would have edged it prepared it and put a savour upon it which would not have worn off all day why must thy counter come up stairs into thy closet the concerns of thy calling look upon thee whilst thou art praying and meditating and conversing with God and about the condition and state of thy Soul and its Everlasting well-being we should be Heavenly-minded in Earthly imployments and we are Earthly-minded in Heavenly imployments get as much of Heaven as ever thou canst to attened thee in thy wordly matters it will wonderfully facilitate and preosper thy work it will make it go on with ease and pleasure a Bible upon a loom or shop-board never hinders work Meat and Morning Prayer never hinder work holy ejaculations and good discourse will not weaken the hands that labour a serious thought in the midst of thy worldly business never causes interruption or disorder And as you must take heed of misplaceing your work so be careful you do not misplace the dispensations and providences of God to you for this belongs to the numbring of your daies for you are apt to call your good dayes your bad ones and your worst dayes your best The account will never come even when receipts are placed as disbursments do not expect a right ballance you have had many dayes of Affliction Sorrow and pain your hands have been alwaies full now if you reckon all these dayes as bad dayes you do not number right Again you have had a few Sun-shine dayes you have enjoyed prosperity and you call these good dayes whereas it may be these have been ensnaring and straitning to your Souls and the former have been quickning purging cleansing and inwardly comforting the dayes which the Children of Israel spent in the Wilderness were not their worst dayes for there the Lord fed them with manna bread which came down from Heaven The wilderness-grape is the sweetest grape the best vineyards from thence Rock-water is the purest water and no honey so sweet as that which came out of the Lyon though no affliction for the present seems joyous but grievous but the peaceable fruits of Righteousness which it yieldeth afterwards to them that are exercised therein make amends for all it may be when thou considers it well those dayes of thy youth when the secret of God was upon thy Tabernacle thy Children about thee when thou washed thy steps with butter the Rock poured thee out rivers of Oyl c will not be accounted numbred for the best dayes thou wilt see cause upon due reflection to confess that thy Spirit was more dull and heavy and slothful thou was not so lively in duty didst not enjoy so much Communion with God as thou hast done in some other dayes that were more dark and cloudy and at great deal more pinching and painful to go through thou mayest remember in those shining dayes what expence thy watchfulness put thee to How thou was continually upon thy guard lest thou should be ensnared and thy affections be carried beyond due bounds it 's difficult case where we are so desirous to drink much and yet can but bear little to resist is troublesome to yield is dangerous to love the Creature no more than it should be and to love God as much as he ought to be thou canst tell likewise that in those other daves of straitness and want and sicknese and disgrace and perplexity though they were very ungrateful and unpleasing to the outward man thou had frequent visits from God corruption did not so work and stir in thy heart Satan was not so busie to defile thee with his temptations thou hadst many a comforable half-hour which no body saw or took notice of thou couldest pray then thou couldest pour out Prayer thou wast all Prayer thy Prayers came from thee like hot burning sparks out of a flaming furnace or like darts out of a Gyants Hand with such a jerk
may flow in at their Doors and carry some of them as way into Ocean of Everlastingness there is no fenceing against Death no capitulating with it it is usually though not alwaies so civil as to knock before it comes in but it seldom stayes till you open the Door to let it in and say welcome Death now Lord lettest 〈◊〉 thy Servant depant in Peace it will not be prevailed with for the least delay pray thee suffer me to go bury my Father to set my House in order to give some directions about my Children and Estate no I cannot stay come away ay but let me first Pray to God and deal with him about my Soul no thou must come now as thou art this is the fourth and Last Reason why the Life of a Man is to be reckoned by the Day I now come to the Application Vse 1. Is it so then that our Lives must be reckoned by the Day I note in the first place that every Christian is to do all he can do and all he has to do upon the present Day and leave nothing to be done tomorrow What saies Solomon Whatever thine hand findeth to do do it with all thy might for there is no Work nor Device nor Knowledge nor Wisdom in the Grave whither thou goest be sure thou even accounts daily do every thing thou dost as if it were the last time thou should do it how heartily how carefully will thou do it then let me pray now as if I should never have time to pray more hear now as if this were the last opportunity of hearing leave nothing to do to morrow that possible can be done to day what true Christians should we be if we did not reckon of a Morrow To Day is God's Day to Morrow is Satan's Day how many would have been good to Day if thay had not though of being good to Morrow but see what a grand Deceit lies here by putting it off till to Morrow we gratify Conscience in this that we intend to do it hereafter but most of all please Corruption in this that we do not do it to Day Consider then thus with thy self I will set all right with God now I may be gone before Morning I may be taken away in my sleep and awake in Eternity Nulla Dies sin◠linea we have been many Dayes but we have lived but few well then this is the first Use do all thou canst do and all thou hast to do Day and leave nothing undone till tomorrow 2. Let this put a check to the Cares and Pleasures of this Life my Life is but short why should my Care and Delight be long it is not much we need nor long that we shall need any thing we have but a Body a piece and that is a small one and a Mortal one long Reaches and Designs are very unsuitable to a Man that has but a Dayes time Famous is the Instance of the Fool in the Gospel Luk. 12.19 20. I will pull down my Barns saies he and I will build greater and I will say to my Soul Soul thou hast goods laid up for many Years Eat Drink and be Merry But God said unto him thou Fool this Night shall thy Soul be required of thee c. If he had only reckoned of this Day he had not heard that dreadful Word of this Night or at least would not have been dreadful to him to have heard it Vse 3. Hence we see what little cause we have either to fear or envy any man in the World any wordly great Man's what saies the Psalmist Surely thou didst set them in slippery places how are they brought into Destruction as in a Moments c. For this matter consult further those places Job 21.13.30 and 24.19 20 24. Rev. 18.10.17.19 Ezek. 34.27 c. We use to say of some Men in a way of Reproach and Scron that they are but Yesterday-Men and we may say truly of the Greatest and Highest and Happiest in this World that they are but Men of to Day no Morrow-Men come to seek them in the Mornings and they may not be Persecutors and Oppressors many threaten what they will do but it may be to Morrow they may be Sick the next Week you may find them Cold in their Graves I remember a Passage in Story of one Libanius a great Favorite of Julian ther Apostate Julian was gone in an Expendition into the East against some that had made an insurrection against him and resolved at his returned destroy all the Christians and utterly to root them out saied this Libanius to one the Christians in a Scoffing manner where is now your Carpenters Son meaning Christ what will he now do for you to save you from the Emperour to whom the Christian replied Boldly this Carpenter as you call him made the World a Work above any Carpenter and he is now making a Coffin for Julian and so it proved for Julian was slain before his return I will pursue I will overtake saies proud Pharaoh the next News we hear of him he is in the Bottom of the Sea as Mute as the Fishes that seed upon his Dead Carcase Oh that Oppressors would consider this Vse 4. Let this teach us Patience under the Greatest Afflictions they are but for a Day or if you will but for a Night no Man ought to think that he shall be miserable to Morrow our Dayes are but few and therefore our Dayes of Sorrow cannot be many It is an hour of Temptation if it grieve you that your Comforts stay with you so little a while they are but Day-Comforts you cannot prevail with them to Lodge with you Why let this relieve you that your Troubles are but Night-Troubles they will be gone in the Morning they will not abide in your House why should I complain much of that which for any thing I know may be ended before my complaint be at an end For a Conclusion let us Labour to live under the Power of this Doctrine if this Truth were Believed as it should Oh what abundance of thoughts and Cares and Fears would be getting out of the meeting before you and you would never feel them more how would the Face of your Affairs and Families be changed you would let alone and lay by a great many things that you were very busie about before and set upon doing some things you never did before or if you did them before you would do them so now as you never did them before you would say this thing must be done and done to day too or else I may be undone for ever for other things if I have time I may do them but if they be never done it will be no great loss to me resign up your Lives into God's Hand 's every Evening and take them again from him by a new Lease every Morning I come now to the second Observation which is this Doct. 2. That every Day has
its proper evil and peculiar Trouble attending it and enough of it I need not stand much upon the Proof of it every ones experience bids me save my self this Labour our daily complaints discover our daily troubles where is the Person that ever could say this Day have I lived and met with no Cross no Trial no Disappointment no Grief no Perplexity every thing every circumstance has been to my Hearts desire I could not have wished it otherwise but however take a taste of Scripture-Judgment in this matter Old Jacob that tells you his years were few tells you with the same Breath that they were Evil too Job that saies that Man that is Born of a Woman is of few Daies does at the same time say that they are full of Trouble and indeed seeing they are so full of Trouble it s well for us they are so few and David that speaks of the shortness of our Dayes added this yet is their Strength Labour and Sorrow the best of them have Trouble enough in them I shall endeavour further to make it appear and evident to you in four Instances 1. Daily Temptations cause daily Troubles how canst thou expect to be quiet one moment that hath such an active and diligent Enemy who goes about night and day seeking whom he may devour he sleeps not in the night time much less on the day time he is upon thee continually either as a Tempter or a Troubler what a quiet World should we have if it were not for the Devil and his Instruments what brave living will there be when they shall be chained up There is no place but the Devil is there he is constantly at Meetings and is one of the first there who-ever come late he is there betimes how should this shame you for your late coming what comes he for but to disturb and distract with vain unruly worldly wandring thoughts if thou go into thy closet thou canst not shut him out thence for he is there before thee and assoon as ever thou hast shut thy Door down he sits with thee and presents thee sometimes with one sort of thoughts sometimes with another sort sometimes he bids make haste get thee down get thy Chapters read and thy Prayers said such a business stayed for thee such an one is to be spoken with and you must not fail your Family wants you a Customer waits c. be but shout now you may be longer another time God is a God of mercy if thou be indisposed now God is a God of pity he will pass it by he knows the flesh is weak c. Sometimes again with other thoughts if he sees thee sit down to consider in good earnest about thy Soul why Soul what dost thou mean to make thy life so uncomfortable Godliness is a chearful thing thou comes into thy Closet and thou thinks many a sad thought and weeps a great many tears and puts up so many Petitions and spends so much time and thou art never the better this is but to turn as a Door upon the Hinges this life is not to be led this is not to be endured here comes no fruit at all it might even be as well not to make so much ado and make Religion a burden you may do your duty to God and please him as much with a great deal less trouble to your self how comfortably does many a good Christian live that do not spend so much time alone nor so many sorrowful thoughts and yet are careful not to neglect their Duty put away these troubled thoughts and try how it will be c. This is Satan's Language and by the way let me observe four Deceits Fallacies and lies in these few Words he has spoken First It is a most false insinuation as if too much time and care could be spent in good service Secondly The good Christian he means is the careless formal Professor that is much a stranger to the Power of Godliness Thirdly Here is a means to make thy thoughts more sad and perplexed than they should be that so he may provoke thee to throw all away all seriousness all Godly Sorrow as a Temptation Fourthly He would put this quite out of thy Mind that the Soul that diligently waits at the foot of Christ Weeping and Mourning though for a while Sorrow may rather seem to increase than abate yet shall certainly at last meet with full assurance with abundance of comfort peace and satisfaction they that sow in Tears shall reap in Joy But yet a little further Satan is in the shop in the Ware house counting house medling with buying and selling egging on to lying Equivocation bad Wares false Weights Over-reaching Defrauding and presently after to anger and discontent with Servants and it may be at last to murmuring this Trade will not do we cannot make both ends meet so many bad Debts so much Damaged Goods such bad Markets but if he be on the encreasing and thriving Hand then he Tempts to a self-pleasing proud humour Thou hast found the Life of thine Hand therefore thou wast not grieved and now thoughts come crouding in how to keep up and enlarge Trade Satan sits down with thee at thy Table and there he is Tempting to forgetfulness of God drawing fear off keeping down thankful Spirit prompting to sensuality and gratifying appetite c. He lies down with thee and is impatient whilst thou art bidding God good night and has other Work for thee other Meditations than those of the Name and Word of God and assoon as ever thou awakes in the Morning he is with thee to distract thee and trouble thee say now whether Satan alone be not enough to fill every day with trouble Secondly No condition free from temptations the rich and the Poor the high and the low Satan is in Kings Courts and Beggars Cottages he is with the sick Man and the Healthful the Freeman and the Imprisoned the Honoured and the Reproached no place free no Condition free 2. Daily wants cause daily Griefs to want is an Evil a Misery now the Body and Mind are alwaies wanting something consider the restlesness of the Body in a kind of tedious wearisomness stealing upon us in the very Reflections the interchangeable Reflections of the Body we must Sleep a while till we be Weary of that and then we must Wake another while till we come to the former again we must Eat a while till we be weary of that and Fast another while till we come to the former again we we must stand c. Whatsoever we turn to for our Ease there again we find our wearying these Bodies of ours are like wayward crying Children that are no sooner quieted with one thing but presently complaining again so I must walk I must sit I must cool I must warm my self again like the Nurses toil dress and undress how long the very same things Again consider the trouble of Laborious toiling and
Bowels and causes me to make Faces and groan and cry out What is the Sins name what do you call that Iniquity of mine that has laid me under this great distress is not the name of it Self-Love Back-sliding falling from the Fear of God decay of love to God unprofitablness under the means I have heard that such kind of seed does use to bring forth Friut with such a taste or may not the Name of it be Love of the World Covetousnes or may it not be Idolatry have not I set up something or other in my Affections and esteem above God have not I made an Idol of some comfort for I hava read that God is very jealous of his Glory and cannot endure that any thing should be in the throne of the Heart equal to him much less above him and upon this account I have know a him sometime Kill a Child in the Mothers bosom a Wife in the Husbands bosom an Husband in the Wifes bosom to the amazement and astonishment and even overwhelming of the survivor and all this because he was robbed of that love he ought to have had and he will not give his Glory to another if the living have been the Idol the Dead shall he thy punishment Those that have trusted in their Wealth and the abundance of their Riches that have pleased and prided themselves in them he has all on a sudden sent his Serjeants and distreined and recovered all from them by Fire or Water or Thieves or that little moth his secret curse and blasting those that have lived carelesly and wantonly he has brought them to Pinching Peverty some the Lord paies with ready Money and lets them see their Fruit assooh as ever they have sown their seed let me not think therefore to want my troubles daily while I am committing sin daily there is none that lives and sinneth not the Righteous Man falls seven times a day into sin and let him not wonder if he get as many hurts as falls Moses and Aaron were Men as holy as the most yet what sais the Psalmist Thou wast a God that forgavest them though thou tookest vengeance on all their inventions they had their crooked Affections their daily Infirmities their continued Irregularities for which the Lord thought fit to give them daily correction and chastifement and this was consistent enough with his forgiving them for therefore they were chastned that they might not be condemned with the World and so instead of a daily correction have incurred Eternal destruction To conclude this wonder not at Suffering whilst you see sinning They that Plow Iniquity and sow Wickedness reap the same if you see the Corn come up in rank clusters you conclude the seed has fallen too plentifully there Reason 2. The Lord fills our dayes with trouble for Discipline and the Exercise of Grace if the Sea was not rough Grace would be becalmed there would be no motion Faith Hope Self-denial Mortification c. cannot live but in hard and rough and stormy Weather the more tempeltuous the Sea is the better Faith works Faith has but little employment where there is much enjoyment No Grace honours God so much as Faith doth and the exercise of it and nothing gives Faith that exercise as trouble doth The Ships are safest in the Harbour and the Seamen quiet and out of danger in their Beds at home But there is nothing to be gotten and they may starve at home unless they venture forth to Sea How canst thou trust God when thy Cupboard is full thy Barns and Garners full it's true thou mayest and ought to exercise Faith then in acknowledging God and depending upon the goodness and blessing of God in the enjoyment of them and using them in his fear but the exercise of Faith is much more difficult and much less visible in such a condition Faith that is seen is not Faith till the Stream be dryed up thou canst not so well take thy fill of the Fountain When the water in the Bottle is spent then the Well is best seen and discovered see Hab. 3.17 18. No such rejoying in God as when we have nothing else to rejoyce in no such Grape as the Wilderness-Grape God tastes the sweetest when the World is the most bitter so Repentance and Mortification will go on the most prosperously when the occasions and means and supports of Lust and Corruption are removed Sensuality is sooner curbed by want than by plenty and Pride better checkt by disgrace than Honours and a wandring vain perverse Spirit sooner brought down by sickness and pain than by health and the love of the World delight in it designs for it are more easily mortified by continual losses and crosses and fastings than by successes encrease and prosperous returns we shall more readily be brought to believe on God alone when we can see nothing but him the life of Sense and the life of Faith are quite contrary the one to the other Take a Christian that hath lived in a quiet serene calm and undisturbed condition for some years never meeting with any considerable trouble Take another that hath still been exercised with variety of afflictions almost never without some great distress upon him in one kind or another let them both have been under the same means of Grace and advantages in that kind compare these two Christians together and you will find how much the Weather-beaten Saint will excel the other in Liveliness Fervency Zeal Faith Humility yea even in a Spirit and expressions of thankfulness there will be no compare between them Prosperity is clogging Adversity is cleansing it 's an harder matter to endure than to enjoy any one can lie upon a Feather-bed but every One cannot lie under an Hedg it 's more easie to love a Child than part with a Child to seek and possess than part with an estate to love a good Wife or Husband than to bury them all Honourable things are difficult things difficilia quae pulcra Wisdom is Honourable the experienced man is the Wise Man and he cannot be an experienced man that was never tried but in one conditions he that has travelled through all quarters that there is scarce a Country but he has been in hardly an Affliction but he has been under that 's the Man that 's Company for a Prince it 's worth sitting by such a Man to hear him discourse of his travels how he passed from one Region to another from one condition to another how loth he was to enter into it with what amazement he was received into it with what difficulty distress and anxiety of Spirit he passed on under it how many times he had almost fainted how wonderfully good and kind the Lord was to him how seasonably supports and supplies came in once and again what ebbings and flowings he passed through how when he vehemently cried out save me Master I perish presently the Lord Jesus appeared and said be not afraid it
but what I make within my self Does not he command me to believe and is not this my proper work that I shoud be found labouring in is there one in the Book of God that does incourage me to question either his ability or willingness to save me it is the work of Satan to make obstructions in a Man 's own self and then to lay them at God's door but is it any part of my work to believe him of regard him it is thy every dayes work to believe with all thy Heart and if thou canst say that thou art willing to give up thy self to the Lord Jesus be saved and sanctified by him to be pardoned and purged by him to bring nothing to him to keep nothing from him to deny thy sinful self thy righteous self and if he call for it thy natural self thou mayest conclude thou art in thy proper work which is suitable for every season and that thou art observing the order of God and appointment the Lord Jesus for This is the work of God saith our Lord that ye believe on him whom he hath sent And what ever it is that does obstruct and hinder this work comes from Satan and not from God it is a work that was never numbred out by God for thee to do for it is according to his mind and pleasure that every one should say as his Apostle Paul did the Life that I live it is by Faith in the Son of God and the work that I do is to be alwaies exercising and putting forth Acts of Faith upon the Lord Jesus And as for the concerns of my Body is it any part of my work or duty according to Gospel-rule to be carking and caring and vexing my self how I shall maintain that what I should Eat and Drink and wherewithal I should be Cloathed has not he engaged his Providence for me is not his express word and is it not my proper work to believe it be content with such things as ye have For be hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Hath he given me a Kingdom and will not he give me a staff to walk to that Kingdom as I have heard it well observed by a worthy Minister will he give me Heaven and will not give me Earth will he give me an inheritance and will he not give me spending money can I trust him for my Soul and can I not trust him for my poor frail Body Is not food and ralment within the Covernant as well as life and Salvation Did he ever put me upon such work as this as to get my own Breads and leave me to my own Hands It s true as he has told me that in the sweat of my Brows I must eat my Bread but he never said I should do it in the care and trouble and grief of my Heart I must work indeed but the care of me lies with him he is bound to maintain me it is not my labour but his blessing that must do it I am but a journy-man the work is not mine but his I must be at his allowance he has set me my dimensum my task and it is purely in his disposal how I must be maintained what he will give me of these outward things whether much or little he knows best my constitution what I can bear what may be convenient for my passage what may be helping and not clogging in my journey to Heaven and if I have but little of the present World I must not call it Poverty but Discipline I conclude therefore it was never intended by the Lord to be any part of my work or to take up any part of my time to sret and perplex my self how I should have provisions to carry me or my Family through the wilderness of this World But to proceed this very thing of not numbring the work to the day and so answering the design of God in giving the day is that which proves fatal to Persons and People and becomes their utter ruine How does our Saviour weep over Jerusalem and breaks out into these mournful expressions Sayings If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes For the day shall come upon thee that thine Enemies shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee round and keep thee in on every side and shall lay thee even with the ground and thy Children within thee and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another Good Lord what is the cause of all this misery why will thou deal so severely with thine own and only People surely there is some great things in the bottom What have they done Dost thou ask what have they done It is for something they did not do when they had an opportunity on purpose given for doing of it Because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation God gave them his Ordinances the means of Grace he waited a great while upon them to see whether they would profit under them and prove an holy and reformed People but they not minding the Lord's end in being at such charge with them continued a careless formal worldly contentious and a very unholy sinful People yea grow worse and worse therefore c. The Lord help us my Brethren to know the day of our visitation our tranquillity is lengthened out our liberties continued we enjoy Sabbaths and Sermons and Ordinances one Exhortation and Admonition after another precept upon precept warning after warning we have also some lesser corrections and chastisements intermingled and what is all this for that we should bring forth fruit to God that we should become an heavenly and serious People that our Faith might grow exceedingly and the charity of every one of us all towards each other might abound But if we go on as we do bringing forth so many truits of the flesh remain carnal frothy so lukewarm indifferent in the things of Religion dead under the opportunitie of life with so much formally in Duties under Ordinances turning as a door upon the hinges neither well with the means of Grace nor well without them with so much outside in our services and performances so little presling after inward communion with God with so little zeal for the Name and Honour and Truths of God so little sence of the sins of others to mourn over them reprove them of the suffering of others to mourn with them and bear their burthens so great lovers of the World so desirous of having much so little contented with our conditions what never an Heart moved yet at the hearing of all this is there none cry guilty so unjust equivocating overreaching and unwatchful over our tongues in trading and bargaining so little thinking of the Royal rule to do as we would be done by so vain in our Discourses so upcircumspect in our Conversations so sensual and unmortified such
best are but dreamish things and may prove much worse if you do them as they did them in the dayes or Noah and Lot I wish with all my heart the next Jog be not so hard and the cry so loud that instead of being kindly awakened they be not mazed and stunned and deaf and disabled from getting up and putting on their clothes 4. How irrecoverable they are and lever to be recalled If I would give all the World I cannot call yesterday back nor be placed where I was yesterday morning He that cries out Call time again call time again is as unlikely to be heard and answered as any man I know â—ay but cannot you set me one day or two backward place me where I was but t'other morning that I may pass over those three or tour hours as I did then No I cannot do it And this is the first Rule in this Christian Arithmetick Number the dayes that yon have past this will make you wise Rule 2. A second Rule in Arithmetick Number the dayes that you have lost this will be a special means to lead you to Wisdom What have your past days been filled with have not you lost weeks and moneths nay years Consider this well and you will be able to tell me I need not tell you what thoughts it will work in you and what wise Counsels it will put you upon have not many of thy dayes been filled with nothing but vanity some men do nothing at all many worse than nothing the most do something that is not their proper work to do but belongs to others canst thou say that any day of thy life has been as well filled with good as it ought to have been or as it might have been if thou had thy best spent dayes to spend over again couldest thou not spend them a great deal better no such cause of mourning as for lost time was not thy Childhood and thy Youth vanity has not the World had many an hour that God and Christ should have had and should have been improved for the promoting of thine eternal welfare How many idle dayes and play-dayes hast thou made how many needless Journeyes Visits Walks and Discourses hast thou made How many unnecessary designs unprofitable labours May it not be said of much of thy business thou hast been imployed in as some said of the Womans pouring the Ointment on Christs Head why was this waste of time might it not have been made better use of Rule 3. Third Rule of Arithmetick Number the work you have done and how you have dont it what will this do you will tell me what it will do if you observe it you will find upon Examination that put all your good works together and allow for dammage for the Hay and the Stubble the Dregs and the Dross and they amount but to very little you will see how much mending all your work needs what mourning over and begging pardon for the defects and failings about it time runs and work sticks and that which we thought we had done well must be done over again how should this awaken us and quicken us when we have done all we can we are but unprofitable servants when we have done the best we can we have not done that which is our duty when we have done the most we can we have not done all we should still some work lies before us and it may be very little time will not this consideration to make men make much of time and not prodigally throw it away as they have done because so much is required to survey and mend old done Deeds Rule 4. Number the Sabbaths the Sermons the Opportunities which you have enjoyed This a fourth Rule in Christian Arithmetick and what will this tend to You will tell me when you have well considered it Reckon how many of Gods Embassadors have been sent to thee with several Messages and with the same message over and over again how many years of the dayes of the Son of Man you have seen how long you enjoyed such a Ministry in such a place and such a powerful Ministry in another and now what am I the better God will expect an account of me is it not high-time for me to consider what return I can make what profiting and progress I have made in the knowledg and fear of God and Faith in his Son Jesus Christ to what degrees and measures of patience Meckness Hope Love Heavenly Conversation crucifying the flesh looking for the appearing of Christ and aiming at his Glory in every thing I do c. Many an exhortation and motive and direction and encouragement have I had about all these and much more many a time and that with a great deal of pressing God may call me to even accounts with him the very next hour for any thing I know and how ready am I for it Oh for a little time for this work I have cause to be afraid that I shall be found much in arrearages to God and that there are some hundreds of Sermons I have heard that I can remember neither Text Doctrine Reason nor Use nor have any real impression remaining upon me from them a dram of habitual vertue or strength by them Oh that God would not clap me up and make me bankrupt that have taken up so many goods of him and am not able to make him any payment the goods are embezeled Oh that I had time to make my composition with him to sue out a release and discharge from him I am undone if I be arrested before this be done for I cannot pay twelve pence in the pound Lord spare me a little time that I may repent in and make money of all that I have that I may bring to thee I will not keep or conceal one peniworth from thee I will give thee a true account in whose hands they are whom I have traded with how I have been cheated by Satan by the World and most of all by a deceitful heart of my own that was bred up with me and which I have given much trust to I could no sooner have any of Heavens commodities come in but presently they were purloyned from me by the means of my deceitful hard vain idle foolish Heart for whilst I slept and was careless the wicked one came and catched them away or the cares of this World and the deceitfulness of Riches spoiled them and so I got no profit by them my base Heart did betray me to all this mischief and loss and now Lord be pleased to spare me a little that I may mourn over and bewail my great losses that I may call my treacherous wicked Heart to an account that I may seriously and severely examine and search it that I may bring it to confession and acknowledgment to deep sorrow and repentance to sincere and holy resolutions of a faithful improvement of any opportunity and season of Grace that he
objections God has allowed no time since Adam's fall to spend in conference with Satan his plain rule is to resist him and then he will flee from us how are poor Souls bewildred and spend much pretious time in hearing what he has to say against them their State their Duties their Comforts betake your selves to the strong hold of Scripture and there you will find safety rest and peace time spent in searching the Scriptures and meditating upon them is well-spent time and will cause Satan to depart from thee 4. Callings and necessary diversions and avocations take up much time a gracious Soul many times does begrudge the time he spends in eating and drinking and sleeping and in the necessary duties and labours of his calling he could wish with all his heart he had more time for God and that his business did not ly so hard upon him though this he cannot do without Divine Teaching the Men of the World and I fear many Professours too think their time well enough spent in the forementioned affairs 5. Idleness is a great feeder upon time doing nothing or next to nothing though no Man can be idle for the Devil imployes every one whom he finds idle he that is imployed by the Devil he may be sure it shall not be about building of chappels and hearing of Sermons not about any good and godly imployment The old Monks of Egypt were wont to say that the working Monk had only one Devil haunting and tempting him but the idle Monk had a number of Devils still about him to tempt him the idle body is haunted and followed with a Kennel of Hell-Hounds still about him to tempt him to naughtiness the unclean Devil to tempt him to uncleanness the prodigal Devil to tempt him to wastfulness what wastfuller than Idleness two of the best labourers would have much to do to maintain one loyterer one drone would devour more honey in a day than two Bees could gather the proud Devil to tempt him to Pride for what Prouder than Idleness that hath nothing to do but to trick and prick up it self the slandersome detracting Devil to tempt him to slander and detraction for who runs over all their neighbours in passing consures on them but they that talk away time they are so idle see 1 1 Tim. 5.13 Where the idle the tattlers and busie-bodies are ranked together the ristous drunken Devil to tempt him to drinking and who so faulty that way as they that must drink away time the sins of Sodom are made to be fulness of Bread and abundance of idleness why is fulness of Bread and abundance of Idleness such great sins no but he mentions these as causes and occasions of a great many sins give me a place where there is abundance of Idleness and I will not doubt to say there is abundance of naughtiness too thus for the sixth particular the wasters and devourers of time 7. The seventh particular is this none can know the periods of time without Divine Teaching and none can number his natural Dayes aright that does not in some measure understand Metaphorical and Mystial dayes he cannot perform his duty aright that does not understand what dispensation he is under in some degree see Revel 13.18 Here is wisdom let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast for it is the number of a Man and his number is six hundred threescore and six Our Saviour blames the Pharifees that they did not discern the sings of the times the Men of Issachar are commended that they were men that had understanding of the times We read of seneral number of dayes and times in Daniel 9.25 and 12.11 12. and Revel 11.3.11 ans 12.6 14. and its true that several have been guilty og misses and mistakes in their calculations but all argee that we are fallen into the very last dayes of Antichrists reign perillous times wherein the Devil is come down in great rage and that the signs of the times recorded Mat. 24. and Luk. 21. are upon us and therefore we come to understand what our duties are that are required in such times as watchfulness Prayer c. which are likewise clearly laid down in both the forenamed chapters now to take out these lessons and live in the practice of them and not fall into that fatal security unbelief sensuality and those other sins which make the last times dangerous does require Teachings from above None can know the successor of time without Divine teaching 't is impossible for a Man to number his dayes aright that does not know time's successor 1. That time will certainly have a successor and that it will cease and be no more 2. What kind of successor it will be not of the same Nature with time Eternity is quite differing from time in the Resurrection there will be no eating nor drinking nor marrying nor giving in marriage nor buying nor selling no Turkish Paradise to entertain us with carnal plasures nor yet a Popish Purgatory to cleanse us from sins unrepented of in time Vse 1 For Application I note this in the first place how few there are that are under Divine Teachings in this point of numbring dayes aright We live bySense and not by Faith Oh what is time to endless conceiveless Eternity but alas alas where is the Soul that sits down and thinks of Eternity for half an hour together David's History of the Men of his day is a Prophecy of the Men of our day Psa 49.11 Their inward thought is that their Houses shall continue for ever and their dwelling places to all generations though Man being in honour abideth not but is like the beasts that perish Vse 2. Beg of God this blessed skill and art of numbring your daies aright do not think it a needless Petition thou does not know that thou shalt die unless God reveal it to thee thou does not know that time will end that there is an Eternity thou lives in this World very forgetful how transitory the state of all these things are the vulgar Proverb bears witness to vulgar practice I thought as much of it as of my Death as of the day of doom as of the worlds end I was much pleased with what I met with lately in the Book of wisdom chap 8.9 which though it be Apocriphal yet it is Canonical truth For I was a witty Child saies he and was of a good Spirit nevertheless when I perceived I could not enjoy her that is wisdom except God gave her that was a point of wisdom also to know whose gift it was I went unto the lord and besought him c. Witty Men Learned Men Old Men Holy Men unless they be all taught of God will be at a loss in the point of numbring their dayes of living under the powerfull perswasion of the shortness swiftness and determination of dayes and times Let me add one thing which was slipt in the proof of the