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
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
digested if the patient will not receive and keep it 't is in vain to expect any benefit from it 'T is as plain an argument as sense and reason can invent against the worship of an image that it is a thing insensible and uncapable of adoration and yet not only the Gentile world but the Israelites themselves and I wish I could not add some Christians have been drawn into the folly and the Prophet Isaiah in his 44. Ch. and 19. Verse gives the reason for it And that is that none considereth in his heart I have burnt part of it in the fire and shall I make the residue of it an abomination shall I fall down to the stock of a tree And thus the certainty of death and the brevity and vanity of life are as strong motives to vertue and piety as can possibly be given to men but yet they can never have a due effect if Israel will not know if the people will not consider And therefore it is that the mercy of God breaks out into that pathetical wish in the 32. Deut. 29. O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end 2. If there are many that will not consider at all there are many likewise that baffle their consideration with the hopes of such advantages as possibly may happen They know and consider too that they must die and that their life is short and uncertain and they are not ignorant that they must make their peace with God before they depart this life or perish everlastingly but yet 't is possible they may live to a good old age and wear out by degrees may have leisure to think and be good when they are no longer able to enjoy the pleasures of life and then they resolve to lay aside all other business and think of eternity They see there are some that God blesses with a gradual and a sensible departure and therefore they hope for the same mercy which God vouchsafes to these some and do therefore abuse his patience and long sufferance because they hope for it I do not now urge the unreasonableness and ingratitude of such a carriage nor contend that the goodness of God should rather lead us to a speedy reformation I am only now noting that how unreasonable soever it be yet still this is a great cause of the backwardness and roerastination of repentance Hope is a flattering passion it will represent what is possible as if it were certain and what is sometimes given as if it might be always expected and so by pursuing these vain hopes men loose their real ones and are overtaken by evil when they promised themselves peace They hope death will not come quickly and so squander away life and by expecting a longer duration of their being in this world are not hasty in laying the well grounded expectation of bliss in a future one Now if there be any here present who have hitherto deferr'd their preparation for another world who are in the strength of their youth and resolve still to put off this work 'till old age I need not send them far for arguments to convince them of their folly Our deceased Brother God has called away in the vigor of his youth about the thirty third year of his age when the world was in expectation of great things from him and when possibly improvement in natural knowledge reputation in his profession and advancement in his fortune filled and employed his thoughts He had liv'd a vertuous and a sober life free from those extravagancies which men in the luxuriant bloom of youth and wit are too often carried into and by which they run into a hasty decay and yet God has been pleased to call him away in the midst of his course and to make him our warning of the uncertainty of life Thus his fate is one argument for us and if we regard his judgment in this matter that will be another for though he had been free from the debauches of the age yet what he seem'd most to lament at his death was that he had not been better prepared for it and that he had not employ'd more of that time which he spent in the search of nature and the entertainment of Philosophy in the more useful search into the state of his Soul and the concerns of a future life so that both the persuasion of his mind and his early departure strike in with my main design to press men to apply their hearts betimes to this piece of true wisdom the early preparing for eternity But before I come to the close application of this it will perhaps not be unacceptable to you to have some short account of his life and death who gives the occasion of this present Admonition He was born in Ireland and educated in the Communion of the Church of Rome and remained in his own Country as I am informed by his Friends till about the twentieth year of his age when in order to cultivate his Studies and to apply his mind to Physick and work out his fortune he betook himself to travel His parts and conduct were soon taken notice of in the Court of France where the Care and Government of the Sons of the high Chancellor of Poland who were then in that Kingdom was committed to him and he attended them in their travels into Italy Sicily Germany c. which gave him opportunity of making many considerable Observations in those Countries At his arrival in Poland whither he accompanied these Gentlemen in their return he was made Physitian to the late King and by him recommended to his Daughter the Electoress of Bavaria to have the care of her health After some stay at the Elector's Court he departed thence with several marks of esteem and favour as he had before done from the Court of Poland and he came through Holland into this City where he was admitted into the Royal Society and the Colledge of Physicians Whether it were only to perfect himself in Physick that he came into England where our Professors have deservedly the reputation of excelling those of our neighbouring Nations or whether his riper years gave him other Opinions in matters of Religion than would have been tolerated in the Courts whence he came I had not opportunity of informing my self In fact he had not been long in England but he became so far acquainted with our Doctrine and Discipline and approved of both so well that he professed himself a Member of our Church what were the main arguments and inducements to his conversion though I could wish they were publick I could not particularly examine for I knew not of his sickness till two days before his death when he was very weak and I was then ignorant of his having been bred up in the Roman Communion and had I known it I should still have thought it more necessary to employ that little time his weakness would enable him to