proper and great ends of Living To assist you herein I shall do these two Things 1. I shall remind you of this certain and important Truth That the Life of Man in this World is very short and transitory And then 2. Shew you what Practical Inferences may be Drawn from the consideration of the shortness and instability of our Lives 1. The Life of Man in this World is very short and Transitory This is matter of sense and one of the most obvious Truths that ever Nature or Experience taught us The Grave every time it opens its mouth gives us a sensible Demonstration of it It shews us of what Mold we are made what we are and what we must shortly be As soon as the vigour and gaiety of Youth are gone before we come to the borders of Old-age we many times grow sensible of the the Decays of this drooping Life and begin to feel our selves Wearing and Dying And still the longer we live and the wiser and fitter we are to pass our Judgment upon things the more Apprehensive we are of the shortness and fallacy of Life Our first years indeed seem to pass slowly on because they are the years of discipline of curbing our Phansies and correcting our Errours we are then commonly very eager in pursuit of Vanity and we often meet with stops and interruptions in it from our Tutors and Governors and this makes us almost think that our time stands still the while and we shall never be our own Men i. e. have the command of our time and the liberty to squander and throw it away as we please But when once we have past the age of discipline have had some experience of Life and lived long enough to reflect upon the first Stage of it we certainly see our mistake and chide time no more for not mending its speed and passing away so heavily from us when we look upon the reverse of our Lives upon the years that are past we have almost nothing left in view but the greater Sins and Follies we committed in them Then they appear but as a few days then we are apt enough to say how soon are Twenty or Thirty years fled and gone How insensibly are they slipt away And were we to live twice as many more the Case would be the very same and as soon as they are gone we should be at our old complaint again that our time in this World is very short and be ready to saywith good Old Jacob when he had lived neare twice as long as the Long-livers of our days generally Few and evil have the days of the life do of my Pilgrimage been Gen. 47 9. When we come to the use of our reason and begin to look abroad into the World to observe the Monuments and peruse the Annals and Histories of ancient times we miss all the Generations of Men that peopled the World in former Ages Our Fathers where are they Zech. 1 5. and the Prophets do they live for ever Where are all the Founders and Inhabitants of ancient Kingdoms all the Great Princes and Philosophers the Shrewd Polititians the Mighty Generals and the Numerous Armies the Wise and the Foolish the Holy and Profane All that ever Lived and Breathed till this present Age Is there none left to Answer the Question Then considering the Age of the World at this day and the many Successions of Men that have been before us there is Nothing more Demonstrable than that the Days of Men are few upon the Earth One Generation passeth away Eccles 1.4 and another Generation cometh We are always upon the Remove making Room for our Successors and for new Scenes of Providence which wait for our Departure out of this World and the Coming of a better or a worse Generation into it We have but a short Part to Act and when that is done we must clear the Stage and give Place to those that are Coming after Us because a short Work will the Lord make upon the Earth Rom. 9.28 God has set us our Bounds which we cannot Pass and he has set them so near us that it is strange we should Overlook them or Dream of an Immortality here while they stand so fairly in our View The days of our Years saith the Psalmist are threescore Years and ten and if by reason of Strength they be fourscore Years yet is their Strength Labour and Sorrow for it is soon out off and we fly away Psal 90.10 This was a mighty Fall from the Age of the Patriarchs before the Flood after which the Life of Man shorten'd apace till it came so low as Seventy or Eighty Years which is now the ordinary Measure and probably was so ever since the Murmuring of the Israelites in the Wilderness at the Relation which the Spies brought them of the Land of Promise But when the Psalmist tells us that our Age is reduced to threescore and ten or fourscore Years we must not presently Reckon that so many Years will come to our shares We cannot promise our selves another day for we know not what shall be on the morrow and therefore can make no certain Reckoning of it All the time we can call our own is that which we hve lived already So much God has given us and so much we must answer for and we cannot be sure that he will give us a day more Nemo tain Divos habuit faventes Crastinum ut sibi possit polliceri Some are gone in a moment from the Cradle to the Grave and very many before they understand the consequence of Life and Death we Die many times when we think of nothing less in the flower and vigour of our Age before we have any Symptoms of Death upon us But because some there are that rub on to threescore and ten or fourscore Years and very few that exceed them seventy or eighty Years at a moderate computation may well pass for the utmost Period ofour Lives This we generally esteem a full Age and yet when we Draw towards it are ready to complain of the scantness and shortness of it And if we think it short when we see it drawn out to its utmost length what are we to Judge of it when it is cut shorter by forty or fifty Years than the ordinary Measure What is the life of Children who Die hanging at their Mothers Breasts How short is the Race of young Men who expire while their Blood boils in their Veins and yet have as deep an interest in Eternity as the longest Livers upon Earth But since the longest Life by our own Confession is short I need not ask how little the shortest is to be accounted of But you will say then what need is there of this Discourse Why must we be taught a Truth which we are ready to Seal with our Tears and every time we contemplate upon do sadly bewail the certainty of I answer Tho it is evident that our Lives are short
accept of a short Repentance in the room of it when the Gospel makes them equally necessary to Salvation and we undertake for them alike in our Baptism Faith indeed and Repentance are sufficient to bring us within the verge of the Covenant but when we are in a Covenant-state and have solemnly engaged to walk in the Commandments of God all our days as we expect the fulfilling of the Promises to us nothing less than the practice of Piety and Virtue can justifie our Pretences to them This is the Tenour of his Covenant with us and we must not think that God will be put off with the renewing of those Vows at our Death which our Lives have been a continual violation of To which may be added 3. That the sincerity of a Death-bed Repentance can never be tried and therefore to us it cannot be known to be that Repentance which the Gospel requires Some Instances we hope there are of men that have made good the Vows which they made in their Sickness But alas how many of those that have out-lived their own fears of Death have out-lived the Promises too which they made under the Terrours of it How often have men recovered into a wickeder Life than ever their Sorrows been but as a Morning Cloud and their Penitent Tears as the Early Dew which soon passeth away And now from what hath been spoken upon this Head it is evident that the Device of a Death-bed Repentance hath no Foundation in the Gospel Nay so far is it from that that it tends to ruin the very design of its appearing unto men to Debauch the Christian World and to make Salvation cheaper after the Direful sufferings of our Blessed Lord than the vilest Lust that is practised in it And if this pass for Gospel I confess I am to learn what Powerful Arguments the Gospel has left to prevail with the generality of its Professors who notwithstanding their Baptismal Vow do hardly seem to be half persuaded to be Christians to close entirely with the Precepts of it The best we can offer to them are that the Religious and Virtuous Man lives a Nobler Life and is in a safer state than he that drills off his Repentance and thinks it time enough to Reform when he is Dying because he may be surprised by Death which is a chance the other is provided against But suddain Death happens so very seldom and the Excellency of the Christian Life is so little understood that considering the Guise of this World the hardness of an Impenitent Heart and the subtilty of the Great Deceiver of Mankind and the violent and outragious Affections by which habitual Sinners are hurried on to their several Delights and Pleasures no man that hath any insight into the Principles of Human Actions can promise any competent success if we have no better Arguments to urge than these And indeed when the necessity of Holiness is gone the thing which is struck at by all the Projectors of easie ways to Heaven Christianity must be a very precarious thing a matter of Good-will or at most of very Ordinary Prudence having lost its great Power and Efficacy to Reform the World For if the Gospel will secure me of Heaven and excuse me for not obeying the Commandments of God all my life-long it plainly leaves me to my liberty to do as I list which is the thing my unhappy Nature desires And while I find my self easie and believe my self safe in this way I must be under an invincible prejudice against any other that can be recommended to me 'T is not Arguing that will reach me now 't is not Dry Reason that will work upon me Oh Blessed Jesus how many ways have men invented to shift off their Obedience to thy Commandments But how can I think that thou cam'st to turn me from my sins if parting sorrowfully with them when I die be enough to bring me into the Joys of thy Heavenly Kingdom It is time now to draw to a Conclusion But I fear you will hardly excuse me if I should not stay to answer a Question or two in behalf of poor Dying Penitents 1. First then May not God in a moment dissolve the hardest and most impenitent Heart and cast it into a new Frame whenever he is pleased to shew the Riches of his Grace towards the Vessels of Wrath fitted for Destruction And whom he Sanctifies will he not Save These I grant are undeniable Truths But then we are not speaking of what God can do or may have done in some extraordinary cases But the Question is What he has Promised And when he has given us a Rule to walk by and declared he will Judge us according to it whether he will think fit to vary from this Rule If he will not 't is sadly evident that a Late Repentance is the most Desperate Adventure in the World and that he will he has no where told us and therefore we can have not Reason to Presume upon it But 2. Did not the Penitent Thief go immediately from the Cross into Paradice True but did not Judas also Repent and restore the Mony he had taken to Betray his Master and after that go to his Own Place Was not Judas a Profest Disciple and the Crucified Thief a Stranger to the Covevant of the Gospel And which of these does most resemble the case of Delaying Penitents They are I grant in no danger of being guilty of Judas his sin but neither are they in condition of making so Glorious a Confession as the Penitent Thief did when he saw the Saviour of the World hanging upon the Cross Both these are extraordinary cases one of which may serve indeed to ballance the other but then we cannot certainly conclude our Good or Bad Condition from either 3. Lastly If the state of Dying Penitents be thus Disconsolate what roome is there to offer any Advice or Comfort to them I answer it does not become us to limit the Grace and Mercy of God which is the Foundation of all our Hopes or to say that he cannot extend it beyond the Terms of his Covenant with us He hath shewed thee O Man what is Good but break not thou into his Secrets He has probably more Mercy in store than he has promised to bestow and it is to be hoped the Penitent Thief has not exhausted the whole Treasure Nor do I know any Reason we have to think that extraordinary Grace is more inconsistent with the End and Honour of the Divine Government and Perfections than it is with the Honour and Good Government of Pious and Merciful Princes when they find reason to over-rule the Sentence of their own Just and Righteous Laws And me-thinks it is some comfort that Good Men are generally disposed to hope well of those whose Repentance at any time is signal and extraordinary And tho all this does not mount to a sure Ground of Hope yet it is such a one as ought to
Life to come God discharges the part of a Just and Faithful Creator as he will do that of a Righteous Judge by calling every man to an account only for the Talents he was intrusted with all that is more than this is meer Grace and Bounty to which we have no Plea of Right or Equity and therefore have no wrong done us if it pleases God to withhold it from us And this I presume is enough to clear the Justice of Providence as to the various Dispensations of the Means of Grace and Happiness To which I shall only add that if we rightly consider things the case of Ignorant Heathens may not perhaps appear so very hard and deplorable above other mens as we are apt to make it For certainly the Disobedient Jews will have a greater Account to give than they as having sinned against Greater Light And a bad Christian will have a much heavier Charge against him than either of them And tho it be true that there is no other Name under Heaven whereby men can be saved but only the Name of Christ yet it does not follow that the Heathens shall be never the better for Christ because they knew nothing of his Dying for Sinners For this the Apostles themselves seemed not to know till after his Resurrection and then it is not to be thought that all the pious Jews that lived before them should know it who yet we doubt not were all saved by the merit of his Death However it does not become us to judge the whole Heathen World till God himself has done it and the rather because we are assured that he has Ordained the same Person to be Judge both of Us and them Rom. 2.16 and that he will judge according to the Gospel i.e. sutably to the Mild and Gracious Temper of it And since the Heathens were included in the first Promise of a Saviour made to all Mankind in Adam Gen. 3.15 who knowsm but those of them that worshipped the One true God according to the Light which he gave them may be included also in the Common Salvation I proceed now to the Second Observation which is this 2d Obser That the same Means of Grace which are unprofitable to some Persons would surely have been effectual to the Reformation of others if they had enjoyed them Of this we have a plain Instance in the Text Tyre and Sidon who have the character both in Scripture and Heathen Authors of a very Dissolute People if they had enjoyed the Preaching and been so happy as to have seen the Mighty Works of our Saviour would assuredly have yielded to the Natural Impressions of them and embraced the Gospel-condition of Repentance which the Jews rejected and spurned at And the same Observation God himself makes concerning the Temper of his own People and other Nations in former Ages Ezek. 3.4 5 6. where we find when God gave a Charge to Ezekiel and fent him to Prophesie against the House of Isael he tells them before hand that the same Admonition would certainly have prevailed with some other People but he must not expect the like success amongst those he was going to for they were hardned in their Impieties and resolved to have their way tho they could seo nothing but Destruction before them Thou art not saith God sent unto a People of a strange Speech and an hard Language but to the House of Isrrel Not to many People whose words thou canst not understand Surely had I sent thee to them they would have hearkned unto thee for they will not hearken unto me For all the House of Israel are Impudent and Hard-hearted Now what is plainer in these Instances than that God did foresee that other Nations would have taken the Warnings and embraced the Messages which he sent the Jews in divers Manners and Ages by the Prophets and at last by his Son Jesus Christ And which for the most part they as scornfully rejected as they were kindly offered and propounded to them And accordingly we find when the Apostles after our Saviours Ascension preacht the Gospel to the Gentiles that it Ran and was Glorified amongst them while the Jews did their utmost to oppose it and put all the Disgrace and Ignominy they could devise upon it And the Truth is this is the very thing that hastned the Gospel into the Gentile World The barrenness of the Soil it was planted in through the wilfull hardness and infidelity of the Jews and the plentiful Harvest there was like to be in other Countries occasioned the Lord of the Harvest to send the Labourers abroad in expectation of better Returns for all his Expence and Kindness 'T was not sit they should sit still when they might be better employed and had the Conversion of the whole World upon their Hands And therefore when Paul and Barnabas preacht at Antioch Act. 13.45 46. and the Jews contradicted and blasphemed their Doctrine while the Gentiles flockt in great multitudes to hear it the Apostles applying themselves to the Jews told them it was necessary that the Word of God should have been first spoken to you But seeing ye put it from you and judge your selves unworthy of Everlasting Life loe we turn to the Gentiles And a happy turn it was for by this Means the Gospel had a free and speedy passage into the World and where-ever it came turned men from Darkness unto Light and from he Power of Satan unto the Living God And upon this account St. Paul tellls us that the Fall of the Jews was the Riches of the World and the Diminishing of them the Riches of the Gentiles Rom. 11.12 i.e. The Poor Ignorant Heathens that were hitherto destitute of the Best Means of Saving Knowledge were mighty Gainers by the infidelity of the Jews as succeeding immediately to the same Rich and Glorious Priviledges the same Powerful means of Grace and Salvation which the Jews had forfeited But that which I chiefly aim at is this The Conversion of the Gentiles by the Preaching of the Gospel which the Jews rejected undeniably proves that the same Means of Grace are both Profitable and Ineffectual to several Persons and Nations according as they are disposed to use them But why do I insist on so plain a Truth when every Society of Christians in the World is an ample and visible Demonstration of it Now if the same Means of Grace may have such Different Success as to be rejected by some whilst others are reformed and converted by them from hence we may gain these two Instructions 1. That the Grace of God is not wrought in men by Means which they cannot resist Nothing is plainer than that our Saviour upbraided the Jews for resisting the same Kind and Measure of Grace which would have wrought Repentance in Tyre and Sidon And this we may safely say was not Irresistible Grace for then it could not be the same which the Jews resisted Besides Christs upbraiding the Jews for not
can be returned to those that should Object against the Author of it that either our Sactification was not the thing he really design'd or if it was that he has taken effectual care considering our natural averseness to it and the fierce and rampant inclinations to Vice of those that stand in greatest need of it to disappoint himself of his end that he has left us all the gains and delights of Sin and himself the honour only of Pardoning our ungodly and malitious Lives that we may dabble and bemire our selves in all the Pollutions of the Flesh and of the World and wash off all with a few Penitential Tears when we die that we may be extreamly wicked with good management to the last and tho we never glorified God in our Lives be sure to receive a Crown of Glory from him at our Death 2. That the Gospel gives no such encouragement is certain because it expresly requires Holiness and Obedience to the Precepts of it as a necessary condition of future Happiness As it designs the Professors of it should be excellent men holy in all manner of Conversation so it excludes them out of Heaven who frustrate its design by wicked and unworthy Practices and expose its Blessed Author to Open Shame Meb 12.14 Without Holiness saith the Apostle i. e. purity of Heart and Life no man shall see the Lord. Mat. 19.17 If thou wilt enter into Life saith our Saviour keep the Commandments Mat. 7.21 Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven But he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven Rom. 8.13 For if ye live after the Flesh ye shall die But if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live Rom. 2.7 8 9. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality God will render Eternal Life But to them that are contentious and obey not the Truth but obey Vnrighteusness Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of man that doth evil These and many other Texts which we must own have nothing of the shade or dimness of a Parable in them do undeniably prove the indispensable necessity of a Holy Life to fit and qualifie us for Eternal Bliss and Happiness And then to apply the Promises of Heaven to men that have lived a wicked and are past living a godly Life is plainly to expound the Gospel into a direct contradiction to it self For can a man that is dying be said to have lived holily only because he is sadly troubled for a very sinful Life Or hath he kept the Commandments that has lived in a constant violation of them and of his own Covenant to keep them and only promises over again to keep them when it is too late Can we can him a Mortifiect Man that after he has gorg'd himself with the pleasures of Sin and sinned away the power of Lust resolves yet to be very chaste and temperate upon his Death-bed Or can we say that he seeks for Glory and Immortality by his Patience and Constancy in Well-doing who at the end of his Natural is to begin the whole Christian Life and has always been a perfect Stranger to the Conversation of Heaven 'T is true those that have made it their business to please God have lived soberly and kept a Good Conscience towards Men need not doubt the pardon of their Offences upon their Repentance for them because their Repentance is ever accompanied with actual Holiness and where Holiness is the Fruit of Repentance the End will be Everlasting Life But the case is vastly different in those that have left themselves no time to reform their lives and are forc'd to spend that little they have left in fruitless Vows and Wishes Because these men have neglected the main condition of the Covenant the great End of the Gospel and of their Lives I mean the Glorification of God by the Purity and Holiness of them A thing in its own nature necessary to their Happiness without which no man can see the Lord. But perhaps you will say tho those pangs of Sorrow and Devotion which men that have lived wretched and profligate Lives discover on their Death-beds cannot be called a Holy Life yet they are good signs of Repentance and Faith in Christ and are they not sufficient to intitle them to Pardon and Eternal Life To this I Answer 8. 'T is certain that no true Penitent and Believer in Christ shall finally perish But then the Question is whether the Gospel will allow that to be true saving Faith or Repentance which is destitute of the Fruits of Rigteousness after a fair season and opportunity for them And here it is but fair the Gospel should speak for it self Bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance Mat. 3.7 8. and think not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our Father Luk. 3.9 Every Tree which bringeth not forth Good Fruit is hewn down and cast into the Fire Mat. 16.2 For the Son of Man shall come in the Glory of his Father and then he shall reward every Man according to his Works What doth it profit Jam. 2.14 my Brethren tho a man say he hath Faith and hath not Works If a fruitless Faith and Repentance cannot profit I am sure they cannot save us Vers 17. If Faith without Works as St. James tells us is dead how sad is the condemnation of a dying Sinner whose Faith is dead before him and whose time of working is over tho' he seek it with Tears If sorrow for Sin may be without amendment of Life and then will not pass for true Repentance it can be no certain sign of it And if Christ will render to every man according to his works how sorrowful is the case of that man who has worn out his whole Life in Sin and hardly left himself the least remnant of time to amend it 2. No man can plead any Title to the Mercy or Favour of God but by virtue of his Covenant with him in Baptism 'T is by Baptism that we are made Parties in the Covenant which includes all the Promises God hath made to us in his Son and therefore ought to be the Standard of our expectations from him And whereas there are Conditions on our part and we vow Obedience to Christi's Commands as well as Faith and Repentance from Dead Works if we fail in any of these Conditions we bar our Title to the Promises which depend upon them We cut our selves off by our own Act and Deed from the Hopes of Pardon and Eternal Life For where a Promise is made upon more Conditions than one the keeping of all but one will not inable us to claim the Promise And why should we think that God will abate us the Righteousness of Faith as the Apostle styles Obedience to the Gospel or that he will
our selves and the Love of our selves is the Standard of our Love to him it follows that we have as great Obligations to the full to be tender of our own Lives as of his and therefore if it be Murther to Kill our neighbour it must be at least as great a crime to Kill our selves Nay in some respects it exceeds all the instances of Inhumanity and Vice and transcends the most cruel and Crying Sins For 1. To Kill our selves is the most unnatural Murther that can be if we consider how deeply the principle of Self-preservation is planted in our Nature and that it is a Law in our Minds teaching us to abhor the Destruction of our selves and to take the best care we can to preserve our own Life and Being there can be no such unnatural Murther as the putting of our selves to Death There is no Natural Union in the World so dear and intimate as that of the Soul and Body nor any that hath greater Interest depending upon it both in reference to this and the Future State And therefore nothing can be more contrary to the voice and dictate of Nature than the wilful Distruction of it by the same Person that is most nearly concerned to Preserve and Enjoy it 2. It is of any Sin the most directly opposite to the saving condition of Repentance which is a remedy for all other Sins but this Self-Murther is a Sin of that quick dispatch and that desperate Nature that it leaves a Man no time to Repent of it We may be Guilty of many other Sins and may live to Repent of them But he that Murthers himself is fure to Dye in his Sin and to be hurried away in the Reek and Guilt of his own Bloud to the Tribunal of God without allowing himself time to ask the forgiveness of it or at least to purge his Conscience from so deep and indelible a stain as this And therefore if we cannot be saved without Repentance as the Gospel assures us we can not he that Destroys his own Life cannot be saved according to the Gospel-Covenant because he dyes in a Sin that cannot be Repented of T is true God may have more Mercy for Sinners than he makes us acquainted with which may be just enough to keep our hopes alive at the Death of such Persons but the Gospel being the last Revelation of the Grace of God it is an infinite Presumption in expectation of unrevealed Grace to venture upon a Sin which all the Grace and Truth that came by Jesus Christ is too little to secure the Forgiveness of These are great Aggravations of the Sin of Self-Murther And I fear the excuses which are made for it will prove no better since they all center in a high discontent at the Providence of God NO man offers to make away himself that thinks himself well in this World or that submits to the Troubles and Calamities which befall him as coming from the just and overruling Hand of God And for men to throw away their Lives in a Pet and to grow so utterly weary of them that they cannot endure to live a few day's longer or wait for Gods Permission to Depart in peace is a very high Reflection upon the wisdom and goodness of his Providence As if he had thrust them into a World that was not fit for them to live in as if hey knew better when and how to deliver themselves out of the Miseries of this Mortal Life than he dos As if God had no Regard to their Sufferings or had left it to their discretion to leave the World and discharge themselves from his Service when they pleas'd or had not provided a better World to requit them for it As if an Eternal Weight of Glory was not a sufficient Recompence for their Patience under the heaviest Afflictions of this present Life which are but for a Moment This is so false and insolent a Charge against the Providence of God that it is enough to spoil the best-designed Action in the World and therefore cannot excuse so bloudy and unnatural an one as Self-Murther is I shall close all with a caution or two concerning this desperate unnatural Sin and the rather because it has been observed by those that have Travell'd into foreign Countries that Self-Murther is far more common in this than in any of the Nations about us 1. First then let us be very cautious of those Doctrines which have occasion'd many and some very serious Persons to despair of the Mercy and goodness of God and in the Anguish of their Souls to fling away themselves into the dreadful Abyss of Eternity There is no ground that I know of from the Gospel to believe that God had no good-will to any particular Man from Eternity and much less to the far greater part of Mankind or that the Generality of Men are bound over to destruction with the Iron Chain of an Irrespective Decree or that Christ dyed to save but very few of those that are called by his Name And methinks the effects which these and the like Doctrins have had upon Poor Melancholy Souls should be no Arguments to recommed them to any serious and impartial Judgment We ought to be very tender of narrowing the infinite Goodness of God who would have all men to be Saved Or laying the Damnation of Men upon any thing but their own wilful Oposition to the Grace and Goodness of God which leadeth to Repentance 2. It concerns us to be very cautious of all the methods and degrees of this Sin Such as piercing our Hearts with worldly Cares poisoning our Health and surfeiting our Bodies with Excess and Dying the Martyrs of Intemperance or Lust How many owe their Death to the Revels of a Night Drink away their reason and drown themselves in Rivers of Wine Game high and when they have lost their Money or engaged their Estates or Honours sell their Lives to Redeem them These Men do as certainly Kill themselves and very often as suddenly too as he that strangles himself or sheaths the Fatal Poyniard in his sobbing and despairin Breast And is not this to Dye as a fool Dyes without any consideration of the Life he has led or of the Everlasting State he is launching into That man that is not fond of Distruction and in love wih Misery would venter his Life and Soul upon such hazards as these Were there no other Life than this a prudent Man would not be prodigal of it but to throw it away at one Cast or to stake it against the Pleasure of a Debauch when all Eternity depends upon it is an astonishing instance of the Madness of Folly Oh that ment were Wise Deut. 32.9 that they understood this that they would consider their latter end That in kindness to their Souls which must live forever they would frequently entertain themselves with the serious thougths of Death and Judgment Eternal Happiness and Misery and not suffer their Lusts and
of the Residue of my Years Mine Age is departed and is removed from me as a Shepherd's Tent And this he immediately ascribes to the special Hand of God the Sovereign Lord of Life and Death He will cut me off with Pining Sickness from Day even to Night thou ilt make an end of me Thus also our Bodies are styled Tabernacles which are no durable Habitations no certain Dwelling-places The Spirit that lodges within them knows they were never designed for its constant Abode and Residence Knowing saith S. Peter that shortly I must put off this my Tabernacle 2 Pet. 1.14 even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me We know these Sorry Tenements cannot stand long We cannot tell how soon we may be Devested of these Earthly Bodies but when Death comes to undress us we certainly put them off and very often before they are worn out with Age or are almost ever the worse for Wearing We have no lease of our Lives but are every day liable to a Discharge For tho' God hath set us a Term that we cannot pass yet he hath left it in his own Power to cut off as much of it as he Pleases and accordingly our Lives are frequently much shorter than the common Measure 5. The Life of Man is so very frail and short that it is resembled to the vainest and most insignificant Things In Seripture it is said to flee away as a Dream Job 20.8 Psal 73.20 a meer Delusion of the Fancy which vanishes at the chace of a waking Thought and is nothing but Ramble and Contradiction when the Mind recovers the scatter'd Ideas of it The Psalmist also compares it to the Telling of a Story Ps 90.9 We bring our Years to an End as it were a Tale that is Told As we are talking and jesting Death intrudes into our Company and our Life is gone in a Trice dicto Citius before we can bring out the saying we were upon or as some Paraphrase the Words recording to the Arabie Version our Years are reputed as a Spiders Web whose curious Frame and Contexture signifies nothing to its own preservation having no strength or solidity to support it By such familiar Emblems as these do's the Spirit of God in whom we live breath and have our beings admonish us of what we are very apt to Forget the frailty and uncertainty of this present Life And this it do's to cure us of our Heat and Passion for this World and the great Vanity of reckoning upon time to come which at present we are sure is none of ours and perhaps never shall be and to excite and quicken us to secure our everlasting Interests and to take care of the whole compass of our Beings of which the longest Life in this World is a very small and inconsiderable portion And as this shews the great concernment of our Creator for our well-being and happiness so it is reasonable to think that the thoughts of it should stir and affect our Minds and that while we are hear we have but a short time to live we should be willing to understand the best way of Living and Dying of making a good hand of this present Life and of ordering our Steps as behoves those that Tread upon the Brink of Eternity I come now to the Second Thing proposed which was to shew what practical Inferences may be drawn from the consideration of the shortness and instability of our Lives And as unpleasant as this Argument is if we will but deal faithfully with our selves impartially weigh the consequences of it I doubt not but we may learn a great deal of Wisdom from it both for the regulation of our Lives and reconciling our Minds to the shortness of them First then we should hence learn to lay aside all expectation of meeting with true and real Happiness in this World For true Happiness is the most constant and durable thing that can be And then we may be sure that the Happiness of this World from which we must part so soon and without which we must live a whole Eternity in the Other is not true and proper Happiness We come into this World to conquer not to court or enjoy it so long as we are conversant with it and lye upon its border's it will be always tempting and troubling us ever and anon presenting us with new occasions of shewing our virtue and improving our conquest over it and till we have compleated our Victory we cannot expect our Triumph And it is well for us that our Triumph is not assign'd us in this World where the greenest Laurels do quickly Fade and the Head that wears them is soon laid in the Dust Now let us digest this Principle well that this Life is not a State of Rest and Happiness and it will surely cool our Affections to the present World and save us a great deal of trouble and vexation in persuing the Vanities of it for that is the proper Name of things which appear but for a little time and then vanish away And this is a good step towards a discovery of the Place and Nature of Happiness and engaging our Minds in the Prosecution of it Here it is not to be found and therefore I must seek for it in the next World where I shall dwell for ever and where all things are firm and everlasting And since it lyes not in fading Pleasures or in any of the perishing delights of fense I will look for it in things of a better and more permanent Nature in Spiritual and Divine Enjoyments I will expect my happiness in Heaven only as the place and in God as the Fountain of it And let the World smile at me for this as it is like it will my Life will be suddenly gone and 't is my Interest to make the best of it that I can and much better to be jear'd into Happiness than decoy'd into Misery Thus as the Shortness of our Lives is a plain Argument that we are not capable of being truly Happy in this World so the serious consideration of it will both lessen our esteem of its Delights and Treasures and strongly move us to aspire after a more lasting and blessed State And this was it that made those excellent Men Hebr. 11 16. who confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth here to day vers 13. and to morrow gone to their Everlasting home despise this Worlds transitory Glory and desire a better Country that is an Heavenly a more assured and enduring State a place of undisturbed Rest and Joy of endless and never-fading Happiness 2. The consideration of the shortness and uncertainty of our Lives should silence our complaints and comfort us under the greatest Evils and Troubles that are incident to us in this World The Miseries of this present Life besides that they are Checquer'd with innumerable Mercies cannot be very great because they must be short and a little time and patience will
ease us of them Many of them are but Vmbrae Malorum Sen. Ep. 89. as Seneca calls them mere shadows and appearances of Evil such as we apprehend in our Dreams when our Fancies are troubled and when we awake have no real Mischief or Terrour in them And such are our Wants of all the unnecessary things of this Life we fancy we should live more pleasantly if we had more Estate or more Power and Applause in the World and it may be we should live worse than we do and not so long as we may do without them For we see that few Men that have them have virtue enough to make a good Use of them and that the Estate and the Owner do very often help to Ruine one another And for those Afflictions which are real and we cannot but feel the smart and inconvenience of such as Sickness Pain Ignominy and Oppression if they are moderate they are worth a Complaint if excessive and insupportable they cannot last long without mixtures of Ease and Comfort because we cannot bear them long The sharper they are the sooner will they cut our way through them and let in Death to release us from them And this comfort we have from the shortness of our Lives that there is a sure Remedy at hand against all our Maladies against all the deseases we contract in this unwholsom Climate and the inconvenience we endure in this troublesom and uneasy World Must I shortly Dye Why then I shall quickly have ease and in a little time shall never be Sick more after that I shall no more complain of restless Nights and tiresom Days I shall Sleep securely under the clods of the Valley and never mind what the busie and ungoverned Rout or the Malicious and Censorious World will be saying of me I shall no more be griped with Oppression or pincht with Want or stung with Reproaches or disturbed by the Folly and Madness of the people The Grave is a Sanctuary Job 3.17 18 19. There the Wicked saith Job cease from troubling and there the weary are at Rest There the Prisoners rest together they hear not the Voice of the Oppressor the small and the great are there and the Servant is free from his Master The poor Man lyes as easily in his Grave and wants as little there as the Monarch on his Throne And considering how full of trouble and disquiet the Life of Man is its Happy for us that we have not far to go to our Graves where we may Bury all our Griefs and be eased of every thing that is cross and burthensome to us in this World Since all the days of the afflicted are evil prov 15.15 Why should they repine that they are no more Why should the Mariner that is embarkt in a crazy Vessel amongst the Rocks and Pirates be troubled that the Haven is near 'T was a noble Answer that the Spartans returned to King Philip of Macedon when he threatned to distress them He cannot hinder us from Dying Death will give us a Writ of Ease in spite of the Angry Tyrant and if we take care to live well we may be glad to be dispatcht out of the storms and hurricanes of this threatning and tempestuous World 3. Since our Lives are very short we see what a fair proposal God is pleased to make us when he promises Eternal Life upon the spending of these short Lives in his Service What greater offer can we desire Or what better Advantage could we hope to make of our time if it were at our own disposal and there lay no other obligation upon us to employ it in God's Service We cannot but say that Religion teaches us to make the best use of our time because it teaches us to live like Men in a due subordination to our Maker and to do the best things for the World and for selves which is the Glory and Perfection of our Nature But suppose it were possible for us to be discharged from this Obligation to a Life of Virtue and Religion or that we might safely break it without drawing the displeasure of God upon us yet since Heaven is Promised us upon this condition that we live soberly Righteously and Godly for the little time we have to spend in this World how is it Possible that we should refuse it when we have the prospect of so glorious a Reward and may be sure to be completely Happy ever after Again suppose Religion had no Temporal Promises to invite us to it and which is the utmost that was ever Pretended against it suppose it were a tiresome thing to spend our lives in the Service of God and to be tyed up from the liberties which humane Nature so strongly desires yet surely when Eternal Joys are set before us we may well endure the uneasiness of it and chearfully dispence with a short trouble to possess our selves of Pleasures for evermore Alas what is this little Flash of Life when thou look st into a vast Eternity and are invited into a State of endless Bliss and Glory When it is almost spent we generally complain that it is quickly gone and they that have spent it best are best pleased with themselves and are only troubled that they have not spent it better and if they had a hundred lives more they would not chuse to spend one of them in the Service of Sin or on any account to want the comfort and Satisfaction which they find in serving and pleasing God Many of them have thought Heaven a cheap Bargain at the Price of Martyrdom and Persecution and gladly embrac't a Stake rather than enjoy the Pleasures of Sin for a season And certainly the testimony of good Men who have made Religion the business of their lives is far more credible than theirs that never had the Patience to examine its Principles or to make any competent Tryal of them Besides this if we substract all that time which God allows us to provide for our selves and Families to refresh our Bodies with Food and Rest and other lawful Diversions to serve and enjoy our Friends and exchange good Offices with our Neighbours and Acquaintance which for the most part passes away pleasantly enough with us the remainder of our Life is so small that we may be ashamed to grutch the Devoting of it to our great Benefactor at whose pleasure it is whether we shall live a moment or not After all were the Duties of Religion every where as sharp and difficult as some men esteem them yet surely they are much easier than Eternal Torments and it is nothing so irksom to serve God as it is to be damned and if we think so we cannot but allow that the spending a few years in his Service tho' it should prove a Pennance to us since we may both escape the Damnation of Hell and enjoy the Happiness of Heaven by it is so fair a demand that nothing can ever excuse the refusal of it 4.
and we all pretend to know it yet it is certain that our Memories are short too and that our fondness of this World is such that we are apt to Forget where we are upon what Terms we are here how suddenly we must Remove and what is Requisite to procure us a safe and easy Passage into that Eternal World where we must dwell in perfect Bliss or Anguish for ever We are so much enamour'd with this present World that like Passionate Lovers we seem not to remember what we say or do while we are conversing with it It fetters our Memories while it captivates our Affections And while it subdues our Hearts it bereaves us of the best use of our Reason which certainly is to set our affections on Things Above where we hope e're long to be And not on Things on the Earth where were it worth our while we are sure we cannot stay long to enjoy them This is our great Unhappiness It is the inordinate love of this World that makes us forget our selves and the design of our Creator in sending us hither And the proper Remedy against it is to keep our Minds as much awake as we can with frequent and serious Thoughts on the suddenness of our Departure hence For it is not being of the opinion that our Lives are short when we hear a Discourse about it or follow a hearty Man to his Grave that will cure us of our Dotage on present Things Nothing less will do this than a quick and lasting Sense of the shortness and uncertainty of our Lives The power of Conviction lasts no longer than it is present to the Mind or become habitual and familiar to it as appears by the vanishing of those solemn Vows which Men commonly make in their Sickness and which nothing else could extort from them as soon as the Danger is over and they begin to flatter themselves with new Hopes of a long and pleasant Life And therefore as Melancholy a Thought as it is that our Lives are short besides that it is never unseasonable it is one of the most useful Thoughts that we can carry about us For it is certain we can never over come this flattering and enchanting World without it and then we can never arrive to the Glory and Happiness of that to come As cold a Truth as it is that we must shortly Dye and leave this delicious World it will mightily help to quicken our Devotions and inflame our Affections to Heavenly things It will thereby prevent a World of Sin and Folly It will excite us to hasten our Repentance to make the best of our little Life and improve all advantages we hold by it for a Blessed Eternity And for these Reasons the Scripture often recommends this serious Meditation to us And to keep it fresh in our Memories presents us with great variety of affecting Emblems and lively Representations of the shortness and uncertainty of Humane Life Such as are most obvious to our Senses and apt to raise a new Passion in our Minds every time we think of them For instance 1. Our Life is compared in Scripture to things of the most transitory and fading Nature St. James calls it a Vapour that appears for a little time and then vanisheth away Such is the Life of Mortal Men even the Greatest and Gallantest of them It is up down in a moment It is a Vapour very often in the civil as well as in the natural sense and commonly the greater Ostentation it makes the sooner it disappears and is gone and the Eye that saw it sees it not more And on the same account it is compared to a Shadow 1 Chron. 29.15 and to the Grass and Flower of the Fields for its weak and fading Nature Psalm 103.15 16. Vers As for Man his Days are as Grass as a Flower of the Field so he flourisheth for the Wind passeth over it and it is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more So Job 14.1 2. Man that is born of a Woman is of few Days and full of Trouble he cometh forth like a Flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not 2. The shortness of Humane Life is represented by things that are smallest in number and extension in their Kinds Thus the days of Man are said to be like the Days of an Hireling Job 7.1 Which are few and precarious in comparison of those which the Children of the Family enjoy in their Fathers House as our Saviour himself observes John 8.35 The Servant abideth not in the House for ever but the Son abideth for ever And so the Psalmist measures the Life of Man by the breadth of his hand which bears no proportion to the vast circumference of the Earth or Heavens Behold saith he Thou hast made my days as an Hand-breath Psal 39 6. Thou hast enclosed my Life in a very narrow Compass And then he adds as if he had spoken too lavishly of it and mine Age is as nothing before thee A mere cypher or nullity if compared to thy Eternal Duration Whereupon he concludes verily every Man at his best Estate is altogether Vanity 3. Our Life is also compared to things of the speediest and swistest Motion to remind us that it is Hastening away apace and will be too nimble for us if we delay the proper Work and Business which God hath assign'd us in this World My Days saith Job are swister than a Weavers shuttle Job 7.6 7. Oh remember that my Life is Wind. We read in Scripture of the Wings of the Wind which denote the wonderful swiftness of it And such is our Life It is always upon the Wing It makes all possible hast to be gone It keeps pace with the Wings of the Wind It is a Wind saith the Psalmist that passeth away Psal 78.29 and cometh not again Our time is ever in motion and always keeps the same speed what ever we are doing the while And since we have but a little time and that little however spent is always lessening and drawing to a Period it cannot be long e're the whole stock be exhausted tho' we should Husband it to the best advantage and live out which perhaps not one of a thousand do's to the utmost stretch and possibility of Living 4. The shortness and instability of this present Life is set forth by allusions to things which are moveable at Pleasure Implying that as short as the ordinary Term of Life is it is always subject to the Providence of God and often lessened by him in whose Hands our Times are In this respect our Life is compared to a Shepherd's Tent and our Bodies to Tabernacles i. e. Extempore Houses or Receptacles that are presently set up and taken down or removed at the Pleasure of the Owner And in this Language Hezechiah complains upon the sad tidings the Prophet brought him of his approaching Death Isa 38. v. 10 12. I am deprived