thee and therefore teach me so to use my dayes that I may not lose both them and thee God cannot resist such importunate and unfeigned desires He seeks such Scholars as have a mind to learn and he will teach them to make a right use of what I have said What Use should that be may some say What will a pious mind and praying heart learn from hence I will tell you how it will shape its life according to this reckoning which I have made and thereby briefly suggest many good Rules of life unto you A wise man will learn to be diligent because the time is short To be watchfull and alway prepared because the end may be sudden in every moment To be fearfull of sinne because the anger of God cut sinners off in the midst To think much of time because it passeth most swiftly when we think of something else To remember our Creator betimes because evil dayes will come wherein nothing else will please us To do good because that is the work of life To work together with God and zealously improve opportunities because all times are not alike To be very exict in our actions because they must stand upon record to Eternity To â—nnounce unto all unnecessary things because we may have no time nor leisure for them To seek first the Kingdom of God because that is the only thing we are sure to attain To die daily because death makes the best and truest reckoning To be constant in self-examination because this day may be our last To look back to our beginning because the more we have lived the less we have to live In a word A wise heart will learn to be a very good Husband of its time and make it serve the most noble design And he is a wise man indeed that of a few days can make an eternal advantage by the improvement of a short life gain endless felicities He would be accounted a wise man who had an art by a peny in a little space of time to raise an estate of many thousand pounds But he is far wiser and hath a greater reach who by the good use of this moment obtains the inheritance of Angels yea of the Son of God gets possession of the ever-living Good and settles himself in the joyes of a never-dying life Let me conclude with a brief Exhortation to you in the words of the Text as they lie in our Translation Pray unto God earnestly that he would so teach you to number your dayes that you may apply your hearts unto wisdome Do you seriously indeavour and then intreat of him to give you such an effectual grace that there may some good arise to you out of your labour Pray till you feel your heart inclining unto wisdom till it apply it self to understanding Till you seek for it as for silver and dig for it as for hid treasure Never leave importuning the Father of mercies through Christ the wisdom of the Father till you be made wise unto salvation Let us never cease numbring and taking every consideration several by it self and beseeching God to impress them on our hearts till we find this effect and fruit of it that our hearts are brought to the wisdom of the just till we judg of things as doth God and chuse that which he loves and follow the thing that good is and altogether become of the same mind with him Let us number and pray till we find these considerations taking down the heights of Pride and the heats of lust the huge desires of a covetuous mind and the humorous desires of a fond fancy till we find them quieting our passions moderating our affections and bringing our wills to the measures of God Till we have found a place in another Countrey a Kingdome that cannot be shaken a house not made with hands eternall in the Heavens Till we can live as well in poverty as in riches in hardship as in soft injoyments without distrust or envy without fear or cares without perplexed or careless thoughts in short till we have learned to live the life of Men and the life of Christians till we make God our only joy and love our Neighbours as our selves and look death in the face as a friend Let us every day call our selves to an account and think that we have one day less to live and one day more to reckon for We every day make our account greater and have less time to make it in and therefore let us make it alwaies as we go along And suppose my Brethren that God should come this night and say to any one of us as he did to Belshazzar by a hand writing on the Wall in the Chaldee tonge Mene mene it is numbred it is numbred which Daniel applies to his Kingdome thy dayes are told God hath counted them up and finished them thou shalt not live to see a morrow Are thy accounts and Gods even do they not differ very much dost not thou reckon for a great many years longer and shall he not cut them short in the midst of those dayes which thou hast told out for thy self dost not thou tell twenty when he tels but one or not so much Are not thy thoughts a huge way off from eternity hast thou not most of thy great work to do art thou not in the midst of a designe as building an house or the like while thy soul lies in its ruines and rubbish If they be not the same if thy reckoning do not agree with his then it will make thee shake and tremble as it did him to see thy self so much mistaken in thy numbring to behold so much of thine account stricken of by the hand of God so many of the dayes which thou reckoned wiped quite out of the Book of the Living If thou dost account as he doth and thinks that thou maist dye to night then how canst thou live otherwise then as a dying man how canst thou quietly lay thy self on thy Pillow for to sleep with the Conscience of any guilt upon thy soul why dost thou not say every night as the Philosopher could direct Vixi quem dederit cursum fortuna peregi I have lived and finished my course which providence hath assigned me to run Then if God give thee a morrow thou wilt look upon it as a new life and be more thankfull for it He that tels his time by ones and by moments will think that if he donot live now he may live never he will betake himself to the most serious and strictest course of Piety knowing that that life is long enough which is good and that is too long or rather none at all which is bad Truly there is nothing so much to be lamented as the folly of men whereby they think they live but do not and whereby they desire alway to live but cannot Weep for the dead saith the Sonne of Syrach 22. Eccl. 11. for he hath lost the light and weep
past and gone though God may lengthen them to many more years but if he do we must remember that they will flie away as swiftly as the rest have done and therfore we must lay hold upon them and fly away with them that they may not go away without us Let us not be left behind by our time but let us be going on as fast we can along with it til we and it end comfortably both together That we may not still call for life when that cals for death but we may be fit to die when our time of life is done But how shall we learn all these good lessons will you say Who shall teach us to number aright Death you say is a good accountant but who will lead us unto these deep thoughts The fourth Observation which I shall briefly open and commend to your Meditations will give you some Answer to this Enquiry Observ 4. We may best learn this right numbring of our dayes by a praying heart and a pious mind The prayer herein the Text is directed to God that he would teach them and for their part they promise to bring an heart of wisdom Prov. 28.9 that is a godly and religious mind The prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord saith the Wiseman If a man will not hear Gods Law it is no wonder that God will not hear his prayer When we come in a complement and for fashion sake having no great mind that God should do that for us that we ask it cannot be expected that God should regard us If we have no heart to number our daies according to the account that I have laid before you though we say Lord teach us to number our dayes yet he cannot but turn away his ear from us Prov. 15.8 29. But on the contrary That God who is farre from the wicked heareth the prayer of the righteous and delighteth in it If our heart apply it self to wisdom if we come with a serious resolution and a sincere deliberate desire to be what we say God will answer our requests and fullfill our petitions If we bring but a heart of wisdom we should presently by the help of God reckon right and make the best use of our life By an heart of wisdom here in the Text is meant a wise heart as an heart of stone or flesh signifies an hard or soft heart And it is made up of these things First We must bring a serious heart for a spirit that is vain and trifling that acts like one in jest cannot be wise We must all labour to take off that lightness and giddiness that agitates our spirits and to bring our souls to some composure and settlement by a reverence unto God yea and unto our selves We must resolve to be in good earnest about our salvation and to preferre this art of numbring our daies aright before all the fancies of riches and pleasures and such like things that are apt to tosse and whirl our minds we know not whither Secondly We must bring considering hearts For he will never number and cast accounts well whose mind is not fixed and whose thoughts cannot put things together We many times think but we do not consider Let us therefore raise observations unto our selves and let us weigh them and give them their due value Let us consider which is more and which is lesse in all things let us balance things in our thoughts and well mind what equality and what disproportion there is between them Say is not a soul like to live longer than a body Had I not more need tell its dayes and take care of it then labour thus about a dying thing What compare is there between Time and Eternity How soon have I done telling the dayes of my life And how am Host and even drowned in that vast Ocean But I need not teach a serious man to consider And I need not tell you that an heart that minds nothing that layes nothing as we say to heart must needs be ignorant and bruitish in its knowledg And therefore this is a piece of wisdom acceptable to God to labour in good sadnesse to take things into our thoughts till our hearts be touched by them We are gone a great way to learn any thing of God and particularly this great business how to live when we are once made inquisitive and thoughtfull in a serious sober manner Thirdly A wise heart is such an one as designs something to it self and intends to improve the knowledge it gets to some purpose The heart of a fool looks no further than the beginning of a thing and thinks not of what shall follow and therefore we must bring such a serious disposition as is determined to deduce some good out of every thing that is propounded to our consideration Many truths lie by men but they cannot be said properly to know and skill them because they are contented with the bare notion of them They know the number of their dayes the shortnesse of their lives and the rest that I have said but they make no use of it at all it is as meer a speculation as that twenty and fourty make sixty or the like And therefore we must not only number and tell how short they are and whither they are running and what use they are for but we must conclude in some resolution and set down something that results from the whole account for the good of our souls All these things are but means to something else reading praying considering and examination are but the beginnings of Religion not the end they are the way only and therefore we must not rest in them but let our souls go further till we are carried to something else by them As when we account but one day to our life when we tell so many evil days if we live long c. We must ask our souls What then will you do Cast in your minds and speak what course do you mean to take And by such like Questions bring your work to some good issue And Fourthly A truly wise heart is that which designs holiness to be like to God and eternally to enjoy him For the fear of the Lord that is wisdome and to depart from evil is that understanding Job 28. ult And this therefore is it we must intend to this issue we must bring our souls and if we do consider and contrive this heartily then we may be encouraged to pray to God that we may know how to take the right measure of our dayes We may say to him Lord teach me what my life is for else I am afraid I shall not live Lord affect me with the shortness of my time for else I am in danger to want thy self And thee it is that I seek thou knowest it is the desire of my soul to be godly I am resolved it shall be my work and imploiment in the world that I may be friends with
the pillars and supporters of his body tremble Your hopes were even at the last gasp when God gave his life to your Prayers and teares and let him breath a little longer among you Now which of you can think upon his excellent Sermons since his recovery without thankfulnesse to God that he lent him to you a while longer Who can be impatient even for his death who remembers those words of our Saviour with his Comment in many Sermons Joh. 18.11 The Cup which my Father hath given unto me shall I not drink it And who can be prodigal of his time and loose in his life that felt any of those Arrows which he took out of the Apostles quiver See that you walk circumspectly Eph. 5.15 16. not as fools but as wise redeeming the time c. It would be a good work for every one of you to examine if you have not been carelesse in following those Directions which might provoke God to stop the breath of this sweet Organ of his and cut off the thred of his life by another sharp sicknesse which arrested him on the first day of this moneth Then God put a bitter cup into his hand and he drank it off to the bottom with such an admirable patience as he himself had preached Then he felt the comfort of a holy walking and good use of his time so that as he was not heard to murmur or repine that God should thus soon take hold of his rod again neither did he call for time to come back again as if he were loath to die by this rod. I cannot but remember a few things that I observed in this sicknesse which will be partly for our imitation and partly for our comfort First His resignation in the beginning of his disease God is wise said he to me and his will is guided by wisdome and therefore let him do as seems him good for I am indifferent Secondly The Expression of his Faith When his disease began to make some offers at his head and a little to obscure his mind he said to me Truly this is the only thing that troubles me that I fear I shall loose my understanding But my Saviour intercedes in Heaven He doth he doth Thirdly His patience and quietnesse under the violence of his Disease For when he was desired either not to speak or not to stirre his Answer still was Well I will not So that I might say of his Feavour as Diogenes did when he was sick of the same disease Nazian Epist 64. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ib. It was nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wrestling of the soul with the body as two Combatants use to do in the Olympick Games and his soul got the better by patience and lying still When Epictetus broke his leg they say he talkt and discoursed as if he had been in another mans body and when the bones of our deceased Brother were sore vexed me thought he lay as if his soul were somewhere else and was gone out to God For Fourthly God was pleased to blesse him with a quietnesse and peace in his conscience Though he had no raptures and excesses of mind which he never affected yet he thanked God he had a solid peace and a sweet calm and he passed out of the world just as he lived in an even temper And Fifthly According to his Faith in the Mediation of Jesus Christ so it was unto him God was very good to him in giving him his understanding unto the last even when the cunning Adversary of man-kind made an attempt upon him toward his latter end when his strength declined and he was least able to resist an assault He would have slily conveyed such thoughts into his mind that he had been a stranger to practical godlinesse but he had so much understanding as to consider that he was not himself nor fit to be a judge when he could look but at a few things And truly I told him that it was the best way for one that had setled a well-grounded hope in his life to give the Devil no other Answer at such a time but Satan thou lyest and enter into no further dispute with him Whereupon he said Thou cowardly Devil take me now Why didst thou not come sooner if thou hadst any thing to say This expression he had more then once and was troubled no further but to give testimony afterward to some that stood by that thanks be to God we have the victory through Christ Jesus And Lastly He had such an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the greatest man once in the world wished for and he placidly and quietly without being torn by force out of his body slept in the Lord on the Lords day the twelfth day of this moneth And considering the time of his end I think it is not a meer fancy to remark upon these three things which made his death just proportionable to his life First That as he died in the noon of his age so he died in the noon of the day That may seem but an inconsiderable circumstance unlesse we joyn it with the rest For secondly He went to receive his Reward upon that day wherein he most laboured From the communion of Saints on earth he went to the consort of Saints and Angels in Heaven And it was one of the last words that he spake There remains a Rest for the people of God Thirdly He died on one of the longest daies in the year as if God would tell us that he had lived long enough as long as was fit and that being now come to his full height he was at his Tropick and must return to him that sent him forth Men Brethren and Fathers you will pardon it to the affection I bear to his memory that I have given you this long though I hope not tedious Narration And if any think it is too short which I may rather suspect let them be pleased to consider that his life consisted but of a few dayes and that it is no small part of virtue to conceal ones virtues And therefore they may believe without danger that the greatest part of what I have told you is but the least part of that worth which lay latent in him And now as you have had the patience to bear with me thus long out of your love to him so let your love to your selves bestow so much patience upon you as to suffer a little longer till I speak a few words to every one in this Assembly And first of all to you my Brethren of the Ministry I shall not take upon me to speak any words of my own but acquaint you with two words of his to the dearest relation he had in his former sickness First Let us be much in private prayer Our time is short as well as other mens and many times shorter though our account be greater therefore let us spend much time with God as we indeavour to
see now the corps of one before you that is gathered in the flowr of his age and yet which of you is there that doth not think that he shall be at the choice of another Minister that he shall hear him preach a great many Sermons because some in the Parish are grown so old as to have seen the Funerals of three Ministers besides this I wish heartily men would but a little ponder upon this common mistake and when they think of the large extent of some mens lives they would likewise cast their eyes upon the shortness of others and see whether they will not over-ballance the former account Sixthly Some mens rule is that all mens dayes are numbred by a fatal decree and therefore they need not number them They measure their dayes by the stars and fetch their rule from Astrology and some secret fate or rather they do not measure them at all nor make any reckoning how they live whether piously or wickedly temperately or lewdly thinking that the one cannot naturally prolong nor the other naturally shorten men dayes This is the Turkish way of account who think that every mans fortune as they call it and the length of his dayes is written in his forehead by the Angel that stands by when he is born And so one of them not many years ago when he was hanged in the Low-Countreys pointed to his forehead as though it was his destiny and not his fault A barbarous brutish opinion fit to nourish bloody Souldiers and make men desperate and was no Question cunningly devised by the Impostor to make them fear no danger But whatsoever is determined above concerning our lives it is plainby Scripture and reason that our wisdome care and good behaviour is required and that by wickedness we may cut short those dayes which nature hath assigned unto them Though there be an appointed time beyond which we shall not go yet we may never come up to that time but be taken away in the midst of our dayes Many such false rules there are but it is no wonder if you do but consider First what a great love men have to this world The pleasure and fine things that tickle their senses possess them with a fond desire of long life that they may enjoy all the kindnesses which the world offers them and this most ardent desire will let them think of nothing else but many days to entertain her courtships and answer her love when she seems to smile look with a pleasing countenance upon them Or if she begin afterwards to frown they are loth to think of death because they hope to mend their fortune or are wholly unprovided for any better company in another world Facile credimus quod volumus we would fain live long and therefore we will not be of any other belief but that we shall And the thoughts of death are unwelcome because we love the dalliances of the flesh so well which will certainly by it be broken off This false numbring proceeds not so much from the weakness of mens understanding as from the wickedness of their wills and distempered affections They have no mind that it should be true that our dayes may be short and therefore they will think so as seldom as they can And Secondly the love of our selves that is in us is of no less power to blind us and make us very fools This will not let us think that we may die presently though many others do As when two Ships meet at Sea they that are in the one think that the other sails exceeding fast and that they themselves go fairly and easily or rather stand still even so it is in this case Though men see the days of another to run away like a Post and fly after the manner of a swift Ship that saileth by as Job speaks yet they think that they themselves scarce stir at all Job 9.25 26. and that their time runs on more slowly and they seem to be now no older nor nearer unto their graves then they were a year or two ago They feel their blood doth dance as pleasantly through their veins and the light sparkles as clearly in their eyes and their flesh is as warm and moist as formerly they used and so they think their life is no shorter then it was because they feel no sensible decays in their nature A third reason of which mistake is that the shortness of their thoughts will not let them number aright Most men look but at a few things and those few they consider of by halfs and that half they search not to the bottom and so they mistake lamentably and call those years which are but days and think they live when they lie rotting in their graves I conceit such men who seldom seriously think to be like to a child that knows not how much twenty is who imagines it is a number that can scarce be told If they think of living twenty or thirty years their short thoughts makes them seem to be time that will never have an end wherein they may accomplish all their desires And though they know that they may fall far short of such an age yet they only know it and think no longer of it then a little child with whose thoughts the next object runs away It is one of the great mischiefs of the world that so few love to consider and of all other things they least love to consider themselves and of all parts of self-knowledge they least know what to do with themselves Many can tell what life is who know not how to live many that confess how short it is who throw it away as if they had too much This mistake is of so evil and dangerous consequence that we had all need make great speed to correct it Else we shall begin to think of living when it is too late and some will never think of it at all and the best will cry out O mihi praeteritos c. O that God would give me again that time which is flown away O that I could call back a day that I might spend it better And that I may quicken you to reform this erroneous account Let me give a brief touch upon the second Observation and the Lord make it to touch your hearts Our life is but very short if we take it at the best Obser 2 separate from all those dangers which are continually impendent over us You all know this and are apt to be guilty of another mistake which is to account this Doctrine of the brevity of mans life but a dry and trite theam and therefore believe it and be affected with these two things in the text which do point to this observation which are all that I shall mention 1. Our life is but dayes He doth not say Teach us to number our years for it is not safe for us to account upon too much least we should we be deceived in our computation
Yea Job saith that man who is born of a woman is but of few dayes and full of trouble he comes up like a flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not Job 14.1 2. Seneca makes the same observation from his Poet that I do here from the divine Psalmist Optima quaeqne dies miseris mortalibus aevi Prima fugit De brev vit◠cap. 9. He saith not aetas saith he but dies he speaks not of an age but a day that thy thoughts might not be infinite Why then dost thou promise to thy self as he goes on moneths and years and whatsoever thy inordinate desire of life listeth De die tecum loquitur hoc ipso fugiente He speaks to thee of a day and that is upon the wing too hasting very fast away So may I say the Psalmist speaks to thee of dayes it will not be long ere one Sun be set and then thou liest in the arms of the Brother of death If another day shine upon thy head Job 9.26 yet it flies likewise as an Eagle that hasteth to his prey and it will be a greater wonder if thou out-live all the accidents and dangers of one day then that rhou diest and descendest to thy grave Yet some of the Heathens will not allow us such a large measure for our lives as a day nor suffer us to account above an hour or a minute or if there be any thing less then the least minute such a diminutive expression hath Plutarch somewhere concerning it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Punctum est quod vivimus adbuc punct◠minus All our life is but a point of time which Seneca well interprets when he saith It is but a point yea less then a point that we live If we believed this we should not draw so long a line of life as we do in our Phansie nor describe such a large circle wherein we make a thousand figures and have infinite contrivances as though it were without any end 2. Our dayes may be numbred and therefore they are but few If he had said years yet seeing every body can count them we could not justly look upon them as long That which every man can reckon is but little and that is infinite which no man can number As who can tell the dayes of eternity What thought can conceive the duration of God who ever was and is and will be But every fool can tell what the dayes of man is if he will but set his mind to the account You can say of man no more but that he hath been so many years and that he is and no body can tell whether he shall be Here you are at a stop unless you will at random speak of a few dayes that perhaps shall never come or if they do Moses dare let his pen run no further then eighty year and these pass away as a tale that is told Or if you will venture to tell by the Son of Sirachs account they are but a hundred according as you read in Eccles 18.9.10 The number of mans dayes at the most are but an bundred years as a drop of water to the Sea and a gravel stone in comparison of the sand so are a thousand years to the dayes of eternity Which if we did seriously believe then first we should not desire love or design any thing in this world as though we should live to the years of Methusaleh or be like Melchizedeck without end of dayes How soon might we tell what would content us if we could but tell our dayes aright what a just measure should we set to all our affections if we had but once measured our time and drawn it into a narrow compass innumerable designs would vanish out of our minds even as a shadow doth when the Sun shrinks in his head if we did but look upon our selves as a shadow and our lives as a vapour that goes out of our mouths And secondly if we did seriously think what a few figures will serve to number our years when we have their total sum and how many of them are spent before we can do any more then a Beast and how many we cast away without considering after we are men and how many necessary refreshments by meat and drink and sleep will still devour we would not be so prodigal and lavish of the small number that remains but save them for good uses and the service of our souls We would never indure to be such spend thrists of that of which only we can be honestly covetous but rate our time at such a price that one minute of it would seem more valuable then all the world The belief of these things that men account so common that they scarce think of them would not suffer men to be so late before they begin to live They would instantly step beyond resolution and labour to do their work lest they should have no time to do it in It is a wise and good saying of Seneca Male vivunt qui semper vivere incipiunt They never live well who are always beginning to live Yet this is the state of most men in the world who are at all awakened they resolve to live too morrow or the next week when their business is over and then they resolve again and set another day or perhaps they pray and read and begin a better life for a few dayes at the end of which some occasion breaks off all And then they are to begin again and new resolutions come into their minds and if God be content to stay their leisure a few dayes hence he shall hear more of them As if they had their times in their own hands and could make death wait upon them till they thought good to come to their graves How strangely do men forget themselves how dead do many good notions lie in their minds one would think they were in a dream for like men in a sleep they say yea and no to all the questions we ask and yet remember nothing that is said Ask them if their life be short and their dayes uncertain they will fetch a sigh say that all flesh is grass or as the flower of grass that soon fadeth away Ask them if they have no work to do but may take their pleasure and they say that all eternity depends on this moment that their work is great and their time is little and their account is dreadful Ask them if God will take the dregs of their time and be content with the bottom of their dayes and they will judge it unreasonable Yea ask them if it be fit that he should let such live that do nothing for him and they cannot but say that we kill vermin caterpillers and such like things that destroy Gods Creatures but bring no good to the world Would you not expect now that they who make such acknowledgements should be busie about their salvation would
wages c. Hear what Observations one of Jobs friends made Job 20.4 5.6 Ever since man was placed upon the earth it was a known rule that the triumphing of the wicked is short and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment though his excellency mount up to the heavens and his head reach unto the clouds yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung they which have seen him shall say where is he He shall flee away like a dream and shall not be found he shall be chased away like a vision of the night And Job himself doth assent to the truth of the Observation when he saith cap. 21.17 18. How oft is the Candle of the wicked put out And how oft cometh their destruction upon them God distributeth sorrows in his anger They are as stubble before the wind and as chaff that the storm carrieth away This Consideration might a little stop men in their violent pursuit of sinfull and unlawful desires If they would but think that every sin may strik off a figure or two from their lives that every act of it may cut their dayes some moments shorter what heart could they have to sin With what pleasure could they drink if they thought that it were poyson how could they indure passion and revenge if they thought it would send a fire into their bones and yet there is all reason that we should expect it should be so unless God think fit to alter the course of things for what ends he sees best in his Government of the world seeing none are such a trouble and burden to mankind as wicked men He that is so prodigal of his time hath little reason to think that God should give him more in whose hands it only is He knows not what to do with that he hath already and therefore how can he with any face come to begg for a day longer to dishonour God! Wonder in thy self that Gods lets thee live who knowst not how to live Admire that he should give thee any time who knowest not how to use it And let this one thing lead thee to repentance and not make thee presume to continue in the same unreasonable mispence Me thinks every sinner when he is sick should think of nothing but dying and yet they think the least of it Me thinks they should be in a horrible fright and never imagine to escape seeing they do no good unless they have less reason then the Hogg in the Arabick fable That tells us that a Butcher carrying three creatures upon his Horse Locman a Sheep a Goat and a Hogg the two former lay very quiet and still but the Hogg kickt and cried and never rested Thereupon the man said Why art thou so impatient when the other two are so quiet The Hogg answered Every one knows himself and the Sheep knows that he is brought into the City for his Wools sake and the Goat for the sake of his Milk and so they need take no care but I alas know very well that I have neither Wool nor Milk but that assoon as I come into the City I must be killed for that is all that I am good for A wicked man must be worse then such a Swine that doth not think every plague will sweep him away and that when there is a great mortality he shall be one of the dead for he is good for nothing else but to be killed and to make some room for a better person to stand up in that place which he takes up in the world But if God be pleased for the punishment of others and to punish them worse hereafter to let them stay still here Let them know that a sinfull life is a meer death as the Apostle saith of the lascivious Woman 1 Tim. 5.6 and they can expect nothing hereafter but such a state as will make them wish they had died sooner here 4. Reckon that no mans life seems shorter then his that thinks not often how short it is Time never seems to pass away so swiftly as when we are thinking of something else then our time I told you life is very short of it self and we must reckon it by minutes rather then years or by fractions rather then whole numbers and yet it is still shorter in our thoughts because we mind not how these minutes run away They are as a steep saith the Psalmist ver 5. and in sleep you know there is no observation of time at all but a night seems as one moment How soon is an hour gone when we are in any pleasure Yea in business or any imployment which takes up our mind how quickly is a day flown away A day seems but as an hour to him that thinks not at all of his day Just as a man that is in a journey who talks or reads or thinks is come to the end of it before he thought that he was near the place so it is with every one of us our life is gone and we know not how while we think of all things but only of our life He seems to himself not to have lived at all that minds not how his time passes away because it slips through his fingers and he feels it not His thoughts being busied alwayes about other things a year to him is but as a day and he complains miserably when he comes to die that God hath given him no longer time If we did consider this we should often think how our time spends and that would make us labour to spend it well We should think what our life is and how it goes and that would make us prolong it by doing of Good For life seems long to no man so much as to him that minds how it passes on and how many hours he hath for to imploy and who doth some thing in those hours His very work will tell him that he hath lived or else he could not have done so many things 5. We must account that in our life there will be some nights as well as days We must not expect all kind usage from the world but look to meet with much trouble and sorrow So ver 10. the Psalmist tells us That if we live till Eighty years our strength will be but labour and sorrow and besides you see from what hath been said that we must indure much grief before that from the loss of our friends and relations that God takes away besides all the vexation that will be apt to arise from other accidents It is a foolish flattery of our selves to think that all ours must be Halcyon daies and that no disgust shall wrinkle our foreheads nor no black vail be cast over our faces We had better reckon truly and put down more black daies than white in our Calendar and then if they be fairer than we expect our contentment will be the greater and howsoever the thoughts of trouble will make us desire more after our Fathers house and long
more in our hearts for the heavenly Country The travell and toyl here would make us have a care top rovide for our rest with the people of God and these black nights of affliction for the eternall day that knows no night at all We should not be so much in love with life if we did reckon upon the evils of it nor so much in fear of death if we considered how many wayes we die daily What pleasure is there in living when we are eighty year old when we are a burden to our selves and too oft to others what contentment can we have What chear can there be when those that look out of the window are darkned when the sound of the grinding is low and we rise up at the voice of every bird and al the daughters of musick are brought down i. e. when we have lost our eyes and teeth and voice and sleep and are but a little distance from a clod of earth what joy can we feel in our hearts And yet this is the time that we would fain live to though we creep to it upon our hands and feet through a world of mire and dirt Si vita humana esset 500 aut 600. annorum omnes desperatione vitam finirent Card. de vita prepria and swim through the waters of many afflictions to be more miserable I am of Cardans mind that if the life of man should last five hundred or six hundred years many a one would make away themselves out of madness and desperation there are so many miseries that befall them and yet we are now madly desirous to live till we be weary of life Let us think that life if it be long may be but a kind of death and nothing will comfort us then but the hopes of another life It was a sharp saying of Caesars to one of his Guard that by reason of his craziness asked his leave that he might cause himself to be put to death Dost thou think then that thou art alive Alas such a decrepit thing as man is when he comes to Old age is but a walking Carcase that is ready at every step to stumble upon its Graves Yea death is preying upon us every day he gets a mouth full of our flesh every moment and sometimes by a sickness even eats us to the very bone and then though we recruit again and repaire our bodies yet we do but make food for new diseases It is said to Adam In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye which teaches us that we are next dore to death every day and that we do not so much live as borrow something from death and if we live long it will make us pay intollerable usury for not paying our lives sooner As these things will correct our mistakes about the length and quality of our daies so I shall now adde some things that will teach us better the use of them 6. We must reckon our daies by our work and not by our time by what we do and not by what we are Let us account that the longest day which is best spent and that the oldest life which is most holy Plutarch Consol ad Apollon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A long life is not the best but a good life As we do not commend saith he him that hath played a great while on an Instrument 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or made a long Oration but him that hath played and spoken well and as we account those Creatures best that give us most profit in a short time and every where we see maturity preferred before length of age so it ought to be among our selves They are the worthiest persons and have lived longest in the world who have brought the greatest benefit unto it and made the greatest advantage of their time to the service of God and of Men. Let our Conscience therefore be the Ephemeris or Diary of our life Let us not reckon by the Almanack but by the Book of God how much we live And let us account that he who lives godlily lives long and that other men live not at all We must not say that a man hath lived seaventy years if he hath done nothing worthy of a man but that he hath been so long Diu fuit sed parum vixit he had a great many daies but lived few or none In one sense most men may count their lives by nights rather then daies for they are as men asleep and do nothing at all that is the business and intent of life They are as Childish in their desires as weak in their fears as unreasonable in their hopes as impertinently and vainly imployed as if they were but newly come into the world and had not attained to the use of their Reason Shall we think a man hath lived because he is a yard higher then he was is this enough to denominate us men that we have hair growing upon our Chin No there are more Children then those that are in Coats and while we look no further then the present life we are but great Infants and are at play with Babies And alas if we account the right way by our work and improvement of our selves in true understanding Conscience and godliness the best of us must reckon fewer years then eighty for how little of this time do we truly live When we do no good we may say as the Emperour did Diem perdidi I have clearly lost a day I had as good not have been to day you can scarce say that I was if you look at the purpose of being For to acknowledg God and get acquaintance with him to govern our selves in conformity to him to do good to others c. are the great businesses of life and of him that minds not these chiefly you may say that there is such a thing called by such a name and that hath an existence but you cannot say that the man lives Shall we say that he sailed much who was taken in a storme as soon as he put out to Sea who was tossed by contrary winds in a Circle to and fro and in conclusion is brought just where he was De Brev. vitcae cas 8. when he first launcheth forth Non ille multum navigavit sed multum jactatus est as Seneca well saith He did not Saile much but was tossed very much Shall we then say that a man hath lived much whose soul was filled with Aire and vanity as soon as he was born who had tumbled to and fro in variety of business in the Sea of this world and is never quiet in the pursuit of earthly affairs Alas when he comes to the end of his daies he is as far from his part as when he first began them Heaven is as far out of his reach and further too as when he lay in his mothers Womb. He was much busied but he did nothing He was much employed but he lived idly For as I told you
must certainly live and therefore why do you not let your thoughts be more upon eternity than upon a few uncertain dayes in time Why do not your minds which love to count so unboundedly the dayes of this narrow life extend themselves into eternity which is without any limits at all Tell the torments of an everlasting fire tell the aking thoughts if you can of a burning soul number the sighs and groans of a heart that fries in the wrath of God to eternall ages Then reckon the joyes of Heaven number all the sweet notes of Heavenly quire tell all the Songs and Hymnes of Praise which they sing And if thou hadst an head as big as Archimedes and couldst tell how many atomes of dust were in the Globe of the Earth yet think that such a vast number is but as one little atome in compare with those endless sorrows and those endless joys Seeing thou canst look so far as to the very end of thy daies seeing thou art prone to run in thy thoughts as far as it is possible take one step further then eighty years and then thy thoughts are in eternity go a little further then the end of thy life and there let thy thoughts lose themselves Let this be thy Impress or Motto let this be writ upon thy mind that a Learned man writes upon all his Books Aeternitatem cogita Think of eternity Johan Meu sius This will make thine account more exact when thou lettest thy thoughts run thither whither thy time is running into all Eternity 9. Though our time be little yet let us account that it is great enough for what we have to do in time I said that our life was short of it self yet let us reckon that it is long enough to serve all the ends of living We have day enough to do our reall business We have time enough to prepare for eternity We must alwaies account that we have daies enough to number our daies and make up our accounts and what can we desire more If we will charge our selves indeed with unnecessary things to bring about some great design and accomplish some covetous desire and raise our estate to such an height we may not have time enough to execute out purpose But must we therefore whine and complaine and say nature hath dealt hardly with us No. Vita si scias uti longa est life is long enough if thou knowest the use of it If thou considerest what thou hast to do thou hast time enough to do it There is time enough to moderate those worldly desires to break off those impertinent imployments to throw away those designs to subdue thy passions to cultivate thy mind to submit thy will to God to know the intention of the Son of God his appearing in the world to work out thy salvation and to make ready for his coming again Though we have not time to resolve all Questions that are started in the world yet we have sufficient time to resolve this great one What shall we do to be saved Heaven may be got in that time that the world cannot Why then do we murmur at the shortness of life why do we sigh that we can number no more daies what would men do with them and to what use would they imploy them is it their souls they would save they need no more daies then God hath assigned them for that purpose Is it an estate they would get or pleasures they would enjoy they have too much time for such ends seeing they are not the goods of a man Would they know all the secrets and subtilties in Learning two or three Ages will not suffice for that and seeing that knowledg will dye it is not worth living so long for it Would they be able to determine all Controversies in Religion How absurd a thing is this for a wicked man to take up his time in disputes when he lets the Devill without any quarrell run away with his soul It is as preposterous a thing as for a man that is in a deep Consumption to consult with his Physician for the curing of a cut finger But this is the misery of it that the fashion of the world is not to mind Religion Most men and especially great persons are led by the opinion of the world now vulgar people do not expect that we should be godly and so they mind every thing but only that and then complain that they are straitned in their time People expect that we should keep open house and let them eat and drink their fill c. And so they tempt their Landlords to think that it is below them to live Let us correct our selves in this mistake and when we account the daies are short we must mean no more but this We have one thing necessary to be done To do the will of our Father to get ready for Heaven this must be constantly and seriously minded and we have no spare time to throw away without any reference to this business Our life runs away so fast that unless we take good heed we shall not be able to do the work for which we live It would be accounted a piece of madness if when the enemy is at the Walls when the storm is ready to be made when the Bullets fly about the Streets A man should sit considering whether a Bow will carry further then a Gun and whether more were killed by the Ancient weapons then by the modern Armes And yet just such is the folly of mankind When death is at their back and life flies before their faces when they are beset with evils in the world and have little strength to resist them when they are in the straits of time and yet have a huge deal of work to do they are thinking with themselves whether it is best to hunt to day or to Hawke whether they should visit a friend at this town or the next c. and then spend their time as though they had too much and yet at last cry out upon the brevity of life Come come let us be honest and reckon right De brev vitae cap. 1. Non exignum temporis habemus sed multum perdimus as Seneca well said It is not a little time that we have but it is not a little that we lose God hath not given a little but we throw away much Our portion is not small for what we are to trade but our mispense is exceeding great Non accepimus vitam brevem sed fecimus We did not receive a short life but have made it so Not God but we our selves have made our time little He is not niggardly and sparing but we are prodigall and make a lamentable wast of our houres Just as when a great estate and faire possessions come to an unthrifty Heir they are presently consumed and spent whenas a little Portion well husbanded increaseth to large demeans so it is with our life They that have
abundance of time given unto them through their grofs improvidence and mispense are utterly undone and whine like beggars as if they had had none whereas carefull and diligent persons so improve a little that thanks be to God they are rich in good works and say it is enough let God call for them when he pleaseth Tenthly Let us reckon death to be the best accountant and so number our daies now as we shall do when we come to dye Then a day will appear a pretious thing then will a covetous man offer all that he hath got in his whole life for one day then will a voluptuous man be ready to purchase a day with any pains though it were all rainy and he were forced to spend it in tears But it is a sad reckoning when a man must reckon twice and one of them must be when he hath no time to mend his errors and mistakes It will go very ill with us if we make one account in our life and another at our death If we should see then that there are as many faults as there are daies and that so many lines as there are in our life so many blots we must make how fearfully shall we be amazed in what perplexity of spirit shall we see our selves so foul and black in the midst of such grosse and damnable errors Let us therefore see and consider now what account dying men make of their time and take their reckoning as most certainly true Though men now be lavish of their time and play away their houres though they give all or most to the world and little or nothing to God yet come to a dying man and he will tell you that daies were good for something else then for a man to eat and drink and trade in he will tell you of feeding and nourishing the Diviner part or providing for a soul of dressing it for the Bride-groome by constant acts of godliness besides all those of temperance and sobriety of justice and mercy He will tell you of a Book more worth your reading and studying then all that ever you turned over And as for a day of grace at what rate would he purchase such a pretious season He will tell you he is ashamed that he ever sate at his dore talking vainly among his neighbours on the Lords day He will tell you that he cannot sleep now for the aking of his heart that he should sleep at a Sermon He praies that he might but live and Pray with his Family Evening and Morn Yea let him be a good man that hath made a good use of his time yet he will tell you that such an houre he might have spent better in such a company he might have done more good at such a time he might have been more solicitous and industrious about Heavenly things and he will Pray as a good Bishop did Lord pardon my sins of omission â—p Vsher And therefore let us now judg as sensible and good men do when they are taught by death that cannot flatter That is a sterne Master but very just and faithfull he speaks with a dreadfull voice but things that are infinitely true and serious He cuts their very heart whose accounts they leave him to write but he will truly state them Let us then learn of those that he teaches and not stay till we be taught when perhaps we shall be past Learning Let us imagine that the roome is darkned that the Physician stands by our bed side that we hear our friends sigh and groan that we feel the approaches of death and then conceive that our Books of account are brought to us and we have our pen in our hand What now shall we write Let us eat and drink and be merry Let us take our ease for we have goods laid up for many years will you reckon thus our time is long enough let us take care for nothing but to please our selves why not thus now I pray you when perhaps two or three daies agon this was your language Oh! but now eternity eternity appears and therefore set down so many houres for prayer to God if we live write down so much pains to understand the Word of God and we make account that so much time must be spent in meditating of the will of God Make a golden letter at the Lords Day for that must be more pretious time c. Whosoever thou art that readest this do the same now that thou maist do perhaps three daies hence Do that which now thou canst which ere long thou wilt wish to do and canst not This may be more then an imagination before the morning and be sure one day it will be a reality unless thou shalt be struck dead without any warning and have no leave for one deliberate thought and therefore now reckon after the same sort set down the same things in thy resolution yea ingrave them and cut them upon thy heart that so thy death beds account may agree with that in thy life Be sick now in thy thoughts that thou maist find thy self well then And seeing then we shall think that we have lived so much as we have done good and as we have designed the glory of God let us now think that we do not live unless these be in our hearts and lives Eleventhly If we would number aright let us every day cast up our accounts Let us so number our daies as at the foot of every day to write the total Summe Let us say thus long have we lived perhaps we may live no longer nor turn over another leaf let us see therefore how our accounts stand Say as Pythagoras taught his Scholars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. What sinne have I committed What good have I done What good have I neglected What stand all these actions for Are they figures or cyphers Have I lived or only been Doth my work go on or am I running in arrears Do I live as if I were going to die Is eternity in my thoughts and the great account that I must give If we could call our selves to such a reckoning then we might correct any fault we find betime before it be grown to such a number that it will be beyond our thoughts and give up our account more fair and in order when God calls for them and might hope they would be accepted by him And for the doing of this it is necessary that we account every day as if it were our last Which is a maxim in this divine art of numbering that flows from the first Proposition Seeing our time that is to come is in Gods hand therefore we must live this day as though we had no more dayes to live And a Heathen could say That it is impossible for a man to live the present day well Musonius apud Stob. Serm 1. Epist 52. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That doth not propose to himself to live it as his last And so Seneca
spend it all for him Let not a croud of thoughts in our studies nor a croud of company here in the City thrust God away from our souls but let them frequently retire unto him as the fountain of all light and good Prayer before our studies is the key to unlock the secrets of God and prayer afterward is the turning of the key to lock them safe into our hearts Dexterius loquentur cum hominibus qui prius tota mente cum Deo fuerint collocuti l. 3. derat Concion Prayer sharpens our appetite after truth and when we have found it it sets an edg upon the truth and makes it more cutting and penetrating into the heart And as Erasmus well said We shall speak more dexterously to men when with our whole hearts we have first spoken with God Secondly Let us look to our ends in our work This was another of his counsels without which indeed our labour will be in vain Let us believe our selves what we speak and then we should mind the glory of God and not our selves Alas what is the applause of men when we are gone but like a sound in a dead mans ear And what is it when we are alive but an empty breath that is lost sooner than got and is got ofttimes by idleness sooner than taking pains And what is there else that can tempt an ingenuous mind Our very breeding doth teach us to despise money and gain but the example of our Lord and his Apostles will make it seem a sordid thing to be trampled under our feet Let the good of men therfore and the glory of God be the mark at which we aim And the Lord in Heaven hear our prayers and bless our preaching Secondly Then to you of this Parish let me say a few things And first Pray earnestly among other Petitions for these two things That God would pardon your unprofitableness which perhaps you may have been guilty of under such means and that he would bless you with another Minister of such a temper as he was and that will design so seriously the good of your souls He desired you should know that he loved you and he prayed God to bless you I hope God will so hear his desires and you will so remember his instructions and those you have received from former Lights that I may spare that prayer which Mr Udal used at the Funeral of Mr Shute viz. That God will neither let you fall into the hand of a dark Lanthorn nor be led by an Ignis fatuus The Jews have a saying God grant it be true That never doth there die any illustrious man but there is another borne as bright on the same day God loves the world so well that when one Sun sets another arises To which they accomodate that place in Eccles 1.5 The Sun ariseth and the Sun goeth down Nay they observe further That he makes some starre or other arise before a Sun be set As Joshua began to shine before Moses his light was darkned and before Joshua went to bed Othniel the son of Kenaz was risen up to judg Eli was not gathered to his fathers before Samuel appeared to be a most hopefull youth And among the other Sex they also note That Sarah was not taken away till Rebekah was ready to come in her stead The Lord grant that you may find this true and that as now the nights are at the shortest so you may have but a very short night before another Sun arise in this place But if we be so unworthy that God will not bless us with such a favour May it please him but to let posterity twenty year hence fit under such a burning and shining Light May it please his goodness and mercy that the day of his Death may be but the Birth-day of some eminent person to illuminate this City Secondly Let me beseech you to write down any memorable thing that you have heard from him and hath much affected you that it may be engraven upon your heart and do you good for ever By this means you will cause the lips of the dead to speak and you will not lose all converse with him now that he is gone from you For a mans discourses are the picture of his soul which is himself O my Beloved how sad an account will you have to make if you be not truly Religious who have had so many Lights in your Candlestick that have spent themselves to illuminate you How will you appear before the Judgement seat of God when not onely one but foure or five Ministers shall witnesse against you How will you look not only him but those that delivered the Lamp to him in the face Or rather how will you look God in the face when you shall think what means of obtaining salvation you have enjoyed and yet are not saved Remember therefore now all those wholsom counsels you have received from their mouths and if there be any beginnings of godliness in your hearts any tasts of Religion let me remember you of two Directions which were some of the last he gave you and write them upon your hearts He told me not long before his sickness that he had begun at his own house to give some short Exhortations to you his Communicants in which he intended I think once in a fortnight to insist upon the chief things that belong to the establishing a soul in grace He begun this course April 14. and lived to give but two Directions which I shall again commend to your thoughts First He desired you to beware lest you should be found in the number of the giddy or of the lazy Prefessours of this age and one Argument whereby he pressed to diligence was this Death is neer you like to a Mole it is digging your graves under you so was his expression therefore whatsoever your hand finds to do do it with all your might Eccles 9.10 My Beloved Death may be as near to you now as it was then to him and therefore take heed that you be not found idle and useless servants Secondly He advised you to give diligence not only to be sincere Christians but also growing Christians and at length excellent and very exemplary Here he directed you to lay the foundation well and then intended to show how to raise the building and superstructure upon it but God took him away before he could do that I beseech you labour to be true and real Christians though perhaps you may not live to grow to any great height no more than helived to direct you to it Look to your hearts lest there be any root of bitterness that may make you to backslide and remember as his very expression was That there is no such Antidote against Apostasie as real integrity and sincerity Yea remember all other good Discourses of his and your other Ministers that you may frame your lives according to them and grow taller if you live still by so