render them yet more difficult by affected and habitual impieties these methods are directly opposite to a perswasion of the brevity of life such a thought would be productive of diligence and watchfulness and would make us vigilant in catching at and improving every opportunity that Providence is pleased to afford us of making our calling and election sure we should account it unexcusable folly to waste our pretious time in the serving of our lusts in the jollities of extravagance or the Supinity of sloth and idleness we should then conclude that we ought at least to employ our time well if we could not prolong it that we should make some progress in our spiritual race press on daily nearer and nearer to perfection and be therefore more active because we find we have not long to run but above all we should dread the going backward in our course by vice and licentiousness and the fettering our selves in the sinful pleasures of the world and loading our minds with the clogs of wicked affections and vicious desires Whoever is truly sensible that his hours are few will not dare to be prodigal of them and he that wisely considers that his work is great and that it must be done will tremble at the thoughts of idly neglecting it remissly engaging in it or foolishly swelling its bulk or obstructing its progress 3. The numbring our days will convince us that this short life is yet shorter to us that its period is uncertain and unknown and what must necessarily end quickly by the common laws of nature is frequently by our own follies by chance and accident and by an over-ruling providence suddenly broke off and concluded or which is equal to us render'd useless to our main design the preparing for another life We may perhaps arrive to the age of man which the Psalmist assigns that of threescore years and ten we may possibly by a gentle hand of God be called from the hurry of business the vanities of the world and the temptations of pleasures and have leisure upon a bed of retirement without acute or discomposing sickness to think and prepare for Heaven and make our peace with God these advantages 't is possible the divine clemency may afford some of us but we are to reflect that these are extraordinary advantages that God does not generally vouchsafe to men but is pleased to indulge only to some few as particular expressions of his Paternal love The present occasion of our meeting must divert us from such expectations and if we turn our thoughts upon the usual methods of mens departure we see that the most are taken off when they least think of it some suddainly without time to reflect some by acute diseases that disturb the mind and take away either its sense or the calm which is necessary for divine thoughts and in some the vigor of the understanding wears away with the strength of the body and dotage takes up that time which they had destin'd for the work of their Conversion thus we see we are not rationally to expect that our years should grow to their possible extent or that they should be useful to us if they did and therefore we should constantly be apprehensive of what may always happen and be still prepared for what may every day arrive This reflection then must necessarily awaken us from the lethargy of security and shew us the fatal imprudence of putting the evil day far from us Have I not begun my preparation for death till this day and yet for ought I know this may be the very last day of my life I may perhaps this hour be called to give up my accompts and wretched man than I am I have scarce yet had it in my thoughts that I have an accompt to make must not such a consideration as this terrify the sinner discover the egregious folly of a wicked life the necessity of repentance and that a speedy one is it possible that a man could take any pleasure in the most delightful of all his sensual enjoyments if he reflected that in that very moment he were to expect death as the reward of it this he knows he deserves and he does not know but he may feel and therefore he can never be easy or satisfied while he remembers it till he has made his peace with that God in whose hands are his life and death Nothing sure can be a more rational inducement to draw off our dependance on the world than to think we do not know how soon we may quit it nor is there a more natural consequence of the uncertainty of death than the absolute necessity of a present and certain preparation 4. The last suggestion I shall offer from the numbring our days which carries with it one of the strongest motives to a true use of life is that the same moment that terminates our days puts an end likewise to all opportunities of conversion or reconciliation to God As the tree falls so it lies and as the grave receives us so will it deliver us to judgment Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation but in death no man can remember God or make his peace with him in the pit Were there a middle state where we might have a double prospect backward on the vanities and follies of the world and forward on the two portions of endless bliss or torment and might we be there admitted to sue out our pardon and to make attonement for the errors of our life it would possibly not be reckon'd folly to defer our preparations for another world till we had done with this but Sacred writ assures us that there is no such middle state or opportunity of reconcilement but that as certainly as 't is appointed for all men once to die so certainly after death succeedeth the judgment and we shall not be judged according to any future thoughts we may have hereafter but every man shall receive according to what he has done in the flesh whether it be good or evil Is there then no thought or labour in or beyond the grave is there nothing that can avail us towards joy in the world to come but our passing of our days on earth in a conscientious discharge of our duty and can we live here as if we had nothing to do or nothing but what we might defer till a future state is this life our only stage of probation and tryal and must the other receive us as we are qualified when we go out of it and can we think we are not concerned how we behave our selves here or deliver our selves up to our Iudge if when we depart hence spotted and polluted with unrepented sins there is no fountain left to purge our pollutions but a devouring fire only to punish them sure we cannot be so stupid as not to wash away speedily our habitual vices in repentant tears and a bitter humiliation and labour mightily in this our day
for the things that belong to our peace before they are hid from our eyes And if those only are addmitted into the company of the lamb who are sanctified by his blood and cloathed with innocence will not common sense tell us that we ought to lay hold on the merits of his blood and passion by a zealous performance of the duties of that covenant which was sealed by it and by a careful preservation of our integrity and an affectionate doing of his Will while we are in the flesh make our selves meet to be received into his glory cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of flesh and Spirit and perfect holiness in the fear of God that when we come to die we may do it with joy and embrace our dissolution as that which will crown the pious life on earth with an immortal one in Heaven These are the genuine applications of some of the most considerable reflections that arise from the numbring our days whereby it appears that this lesson furnishes us with excellent motives to a holy life I come now to shew II. That the applying of them to this end is the highest piece of wisdom And that whether wisdom be taken for judging aright or for the doing what is most for our interest and advantage 1. If wisdom be taken for judging aright or deducing just consequences from evident truths what can be more evident than the wisdom of these conclusions if we must quit this world and then enter upon an eternity of joy or misery is it not rational to take care how we steer our present course that we do not make a fatal mistake at last if the time we have to stay be but short is it not just and fit that we be cautious of loosing and misapplying it if its duration be uncertain and futurity be out of our knowledge does it not highly become an understanding creature to be prepared for what may happen and if this opportunity being once lost there be no other to retrieve our hopes does not common reason urge us immediately to embrace and employ it and do we not all act thus in those affairs that relate to our temporal concerns and how then should it not be prudence to judge alike with reference to our eternal ones the contrary judgments which Libertinism raises how unconclusive and absurd are they life must end therefore 't is no matter how we spend it 't is short therefore 't is not worth our improving 't is uncertain and therefore 't is in vain to design any thing in it and 't is our only opportunity and therefore what that we must neglect pervert and abuse it O senseless folly and unmanly stupidity we pretend in vain to reason if we can judge no better we have no pretence to understanding no not so much as to that of the beasts that perish 2. But then if we take wisdom for the doing of that which is most for our interest and advantage one should think there were no need of proof to evince that to spend our life in goodness and piety is the most useful deduction we can make from the vanity and brevity of it for what do we loose by it or what do we gain by the contrary if there be certainly a future judgment an eternity of bliss and a lake of everlasting fire we are then sure nothing but piety can bear the one can be admitted into the other or delivered from the last And I would ask a prophane and impenitent person how he thinks he can bear the pomp of the last tribunal what thoughts would be raised in him from the sight of a distant Heaven and what sense he would have of the torments of a present Hell if these things must be sure reason as well as religion must make the Apostles reflection what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness But what if these things were only probabilities and conjectures what if we were not fully assured that there were to be a future state but only apprehended and dreaded it a pious life would still be the most advantageous conclusion we could deduce from this for what do we loose by it nothing but some of the deceitful pleasures of sense which alwasy fall short of our hopes end in dissatisfaction and never fully gratify and yet we gain in exchange the delights of vertue which are deep real and lasting And what great pleasure is it that we have from vice is it enough to make amends for the fears and dread we have least the checks of our conscience and the voice of reason and religion should prove true at last does it ballance the dismal apprehensions we have upon a sickbed or upon approaching death No I am fully perswaded that as there is no one so wicked but he would die the death of the righteous and wishes it whilst he lives so there is not any so profligate but when he sees his last hour is coming he would most willingly choose to have had all his years confin'd to a bed of weakness and debar'd all the sensual delights of the world so that he might die like the good man and have that peace of conscience and comfortable assurance of happiness which the pious Christian has when he departs this life I shall therefore make no question but that every one that hears me is fully convinced of the wisdom of applying the thoughts of death to the reformation of life and so may be all mankind are when they do but reflect and yet we see these reflections are like man himself short-lived uncertain and too often fruitless and therefore that they may not be so with us let us if we can find out the causes of this unhappiness in order to avoid them and this I am to endeavour in my third General III. Where I am to enquire how it comes to pass that these things have generally so little influence on the minds of men as not to engage them seriously to constant and habitual piety Now to omit others I conceive it generally owing to one of these two reasons 1. Men do not generally consider seriously or reflect on these truths with that attention and meditation as is proper for a matter of so great importance the world is most commonly taken up with interest and pleasure and mens thoughts are habitually possest with contrivances of another nature and when a person is so overbusy in raising his fortune gratifying his appetite or combating with necessity matters of religion and particularly preparation for death may wait long before they are admitted and when they are they have but a short hearing and are presently dismist with a be gone for this time and when I have a convenient opportunity I will resume ye Now inconsideration is a certain obstruction to the most excellent rules or motives that can be given a man the Doctrine I now press is a soveraign medicine indeed but it must be applied and
hope in God united to the society of the Saints in glory would with them more rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner than at panegyricks on himself and be more pleased at the improvement of others vertues than at the recital of his own Now in order to this end I shall in my discourse upon these words observe this following method I. I shall shew that the numbring our days furnishes us with excellent motives to a pious and holy life II. That the applying of them to this end is the highest piece of wisdom III. I shall enquire how it comes to pass that they have generally so little influence on the minds of men as not to engage them seriously to a constant and habitual piety IV. I shall conclude with an earnest exhortation to make that due application of our hearts to wisdom which the text directs us to pray for and the present occasion does so movingly recommend to us I. That the numbring our days furnishes us with excellent motives to a pious and holy life The numbring our days is the serious consideration of the brevity and uncertainty of life and the fatal necessity of a dissolution that we must die that it will not be long before we do that the time is not at our own disposal no not in our knowledge that the method of our ending our days is as uncertain as the time but that whenever or however it happens it opens a passage into an eternity of joy or misery Such reflections as these make up the work of numbring our days and at first apprehension they must strike the mind with attention and concern but they are too many to be considered all together and too fruitful of arguments to have them all at one glance deduced and attended to I shall therefore distinctly treat of some at least of the principal of them and shew the motives they afford to piety and a holy life 1. The numbring our days implies that we must die and that a period must be put to them whatever can be numbered must end 't is only infinity that is always durable The life of man is indeed properly eternal and his mortal life is but the prologue of it we were made principally for another world and this present one is but the journey that leads to it Let it be therefore never so durable we must at last come to our long home and its length will then be nothing when eternity is put in the balance with it how pleasant soever the objects of our senses may be however our affections may doat upon them and make us say within our selves as Peter did to our Saviour on the mount It is good for us to be here Yet the eternal Laws of mortality oppose their bent and cry aloud to us that we have here no abiding city Our bodies are tabernacles that cannot last long and nature it self by degrees moulders these our houses of clay to make way for death and that lands us upon immortality The consideration of this is sufficient to teach us that the business of this world is not to be our greatest care that what is needful for our temporary support is not of so great importance as what makes a provision for an endless life what if every thing here does not fall according to our wishes or what if it does what if the world frown upon us and we meet with disappointments in our designs necessity in our fortune and pains and diseases in our bodies what if all these join together to make our journey uneasy if we are sure in the end to find a lasting comfort to have all our tears wiped off and an admittance given us into the joy of our Lord and what if Fortune smile upon us here for a moment what if we are feared or envy'd caressed or loved by those about us what if we have health of body plentiful estates and fair reputations if in the mean time our hopes reach no farther and death is to put an end both to our grandeur and our expectation would not any man that reflects seriously on this be apt to say to himself shall I spend my thoughts or contrivance for that which profiteth nothing or for so short a time shall I loose my rest and my peace to be rich or great in the sight of my neighbours when I am poor and miserable in the sight of my God destitute of the riches of his grace and the Spiritual treasure of good works shall I gratify my own follies and vices and in the hurry of them fancy I live for a moment and so be carried away blindly into everlasting Death O stupidity and madness that can please it self with the gaiety of a mortal state and in the mean time not make provision for immortality 't is enough that this world passeth away to make us not value it and that our home is in another to perswade us to think of and provide for it 2. Another reflexion that the numbring of our days will afford us is that life is at best but short and of no considerable duration if we reckon it from our birth to the period of a good old age 't is no vast circuit when Iacob had lived near twice the common age of man and the days of his pilgrimage were 130 years he told Pharaoh that the days of the years of his life were but few as well as evil 'T is the usual complaint of those that spend their time in enquiries after Sciences in the search of Nature or the improvement of Arts that knowledge is of a vast extent and life is but short to work it out but if we measure the greatness of the work that most concerns us the subduing our corruptions the improving our graces and the study and practice of our Duty this short time will appear yet more inconsiderable the days fly swiftly and the night hastily approaches wherein no man can work I do not now mention that a great part of this life is spent before we come to any maturity of thought that another great portion is given to necessary employments and diversions and a third glides away insensibly in the silence of thoughtless Sleep for the present let us suppose that all of it were in our hands to husband and employ to our spiritual advantage and that we were sure it should not be suddenly snatcht from us yet alas it is easily measured we see how short it seems to ourselves when we look back upon what is past of it and if we do but compare it with eternity it quite disappears and vanishes into nothing Let us see then what use wisdom would make of such a consideration as this would it pass this little time it has given it to no purpose or to wicked ones would it study methods and contrivances to waste and mispend it would it neglect its work or add to it would it carelessly let slip the opportunities of repentance and amendment or