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
Divine Arithmetick OR THE RIGHT ART Of numbring our DAYES Being a SERMON preached June 17. 1659. at the Funerals of Mr Samuel Jacomb B. D. Minister of the Gospel at S. Mary Woolnoth in Lumbardstreet London and lately Fellow of Queens Colledge in Cambridge By Simon Patrick B. D. Minister of the Gospel at Batersea in Surrey 1 COR. 7.29 30 31. The time is short It remaineth that both they that have wives be as they that have none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not c. for the fashion of this world passeth away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in Critone LONDON Printed by R. W. for Francis Tyton at the Sign of the three Daggers in Fleet-street 1659. Reader be pleased before thou readest to Correct these Mistakes of the Presse EPist line ult read your shops p. 7. l. 25. r. the daies p. 9. l. 27. r. unto Eut he p. 10. l. 4. r. lesse p. 13. l. 12. r. evil c. l. 17. deserve p. 20. l. 26. r. 3dly p. 22. l. 20. r. any mind p. 36. l. 24. r. his Port. p. 38. l. 17. r. good thoughts p. 43. l. 10. r. they spend p. 63. l. 25. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 65. l. 11. r. his manners p. 68. mar g. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 78. l. 15. r. bonds p. 79. l. 27. r. as he saith l. 31. r. Shall I say p. 80. l. 7. Did I think l. 10. after Funeral adde To my Worthy Friend Mr Thomas Jacomb Minister of the Gospel at Martins Ludgate Sir I Know that I shall but revive your grief by sending this Sermon to your hands but it is a trouble which you have drawn upon your self by desiring to see that which you heard It was not meet that I should resist your request because he whom I had reason to love as my self used to deny you nothing yet if I had obtained leisure to have considered these things over again more deeply you might have seen them it is possible pressed with more weight of argument and put into a more exact order But since you were desirous that I would dispatch them to the Press speedily these Papers come to you to entreat you that you will be content to bear a share in the faults that by reason of haste may it is likely be discerned in them And if I could requite you in a greater matter by alleviating your griefs and helping you to bear your sorrows I should readily lend you my hands yea my shoulders But thanks be to God you need not my assistance but have learnt to bear patiently this sad providence It is an easie matter to be pleased with Gods providences when he doth what we would have him but to rejoyce in adverse things and to suck some sweetness out of gall and wormwood is very hard Every body can thresh corn out of full sheaves and fetch water out of the Thames but to bring an harvest out of the dry stubble and to draw water out of a rock is the work only of a divine power which can bring good out of evil I need not doubt but you are indued with it and that God will comfort you with the same comforts wherewith you comfort others and that you will say Even this is good too Let me have a share in your prayers that it may be sanctified to me also who ought to think my self concerned in it and I shall ever remain Your true Friend to serve you Simon Patrick June 28. 1659. To the Right Worshipfull THOMAS VINER Alderman of the City of London and the rest of the inhabitants of the Parish of Mary Woolnoth Lumbardstreet WHEN the soul is set in sad circumstances and cloathed with black and mournfull thoughts it is very apt to hearken to sober Counsels and to entertain pious purposes and resolutions I imagine it possible that the sight of the Corps of your beloved Pastor might open a wider gate then ordinary for the truths which were then propounded to enter into your hearts and that in that sad silence of your souls they might have more of your attention and better audience If they found any good acceptance with you then they come now again to ask you whether you still stand so affected and continue in the same mind and can find in your heart upon a second motion to renew your good resolutions For when the soul that hath been shut up in it self shall but open again to let in some light of mirth and gladness all our sad and serious purposes are ready to run out at the same door unless we take good heed and give an express command for their stay by laying fast hold upon them When the souls grows gay and pleasant again it is apt to look upon its former resolves but as Melancholy fancies or to retain only such a weak remembrance of them as we do of the shadow of a dream or they seem as things do that we are run a great way from and have left far behind us which when we were present lookt as big as a Church Steeple but now at a distance seem no bigger then the stump of a Tree And therefore it is necessary that you ask your selves how the truths that were then plainly represented appear unto you at ten or eleven dayes distance from them Ask your selves I say whether now they appear so great and weighty as its possible they might when you were very near unto them and whether now that you are counting your money and about your trades you have as good a mind to reckon your dayes aright as perhaps you had when God and you were reckoning together If you would know your souls aright and be acquainted with your own temper you must take your selves in all moods both when you are merry and when you are sad when you are in health as well as when you are sick and if you like the same truths alike at all times it is an argument of a healthful constitution So some of the Persian wise men advised that a man should consider of a business both when he had drunk liberally and when he was fasting in the night and in the day when he was angry and when he was well pleased and he might be sure it was a reasonable thing if it appeared so from whatsoever station he looked upon it In like manner I advise and intreat you to consider whether you like these things not only when you were swallowed up with sorrow but now that you have dried your eyes Do they appear the same now to your sight that they did when you lookt upon them through tears can you like these things in shops as you did in the Church Now that they are presented to your eyes as when they struck your ears Ask your souls whether they are at so much leisure as to consider once more of them Tell your selves
redound to your profit and edification For this purpose I have chosen these words of the Psalmist which are no less suitable to the occasion then they will seem perhaps to some of you to be to the times wherein we live The Title of the Psalm tells us that they are part of a prayer of Moses the man of God and as the Chaldee Paraphrase saith of a prayer which he made when the children of Israel sinned in the wilderness and many of them were suddenly cut off and the rest wasted away in that barren place He begins his address to God with an acknowledgement of his eternity and everliving goodness and of mans dependence on him even as a word doth upon the mouth of him that speaks it so that if he do but say to man Return he presently goes unto his dust ver 1 2 3 4. And more especially he acknowledgeth how obnoxious men have made themselves to God by contumacy and rebellion against him and how they shorten too often their own lives by kindling the anger of God against them from ver 5. to ver 10. where he shews how he sweeps them away as a torrent that bears all before it ver 5 6. how he surprizeth them suddenly when they never dream of it and makes them wither away like a flower by some unexpected nipping blast that causeth it to hang down its head and die The reason of which severity and sharp proceeding is from their sins whereby they dar'd him to his face and openly contemned his sacred Government ver 8 This was the very case of the Israelites in the wilderness when the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them and smote down the chosen men among them as it is Psal 87.31 But how inconsiderate foolish man is in thus sinning against God the Psalmist seems to confess when he saith ver 10. The dayes of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow c. i.e. There is no need to stir up thy wrath for our dayes are short enough of themselves we have much ado to crawle to eighty years and if we do the very weakness and infirmities of our age will breed us sufficient trouble and sorrow without any additional griefs from the just displeasure of the Almighty And yet for all this he sadly complains that very few minded or considered the power of Gods anger which is as great as men can possibly fear or imagine it to be and greatest of all toward those that profess to fear him but yet rebell against him ver 11. Who knows the power of thy anger c. Alas very few that consider how often they provoke God how jealous he is of his name and consequently how short their dayes are like to be who do dishonour unto it In the words of my Text therefore he heartily beseeches the Lord that he would teach them to number their dayes as they ought and promises that after all these corrections they will bring a heart of wisdom For so the words run in the Hebrew as obviously as may be to any ones observation shew us so i. e. so as we should to number our dayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And we will bring a heart of wisdom or a wise heart According to this rendring of them they contain A Frayer to God and A Promise of mans He first prayes for some thing that he would have God to do Teach us so to number our dayes and Secondly he promises something that they will do We will bring a wise heart Or according to the ordinary translation the words are an intire petition First for grace to teach us to number our dayes aright Secondly for effectual grace that may so teach us that good may come of it so that there may be some good effect of the account and it may amount to some valuable consideration I shall neglect neither of these translations nor any else that shall appear to be genuine and unforced but shall speak to them in these following Observations or in the use and application of them First That we are very apt to misreckon and in nothing more then in the business of life Secondly That our life is very short if we take it at the best Thirdly That the right numbring of our dayes is earnestly and diligently to be inquired out Fourthly That the best disposition to attain this true Art of numbring is a praying heart and a pious mind For the first it is most plainly supposed in that we need a Master to teach us to reckon right It would be worth my pains to shew you how much we are out in our accounts about the things of this world What a summ do we make these Cyphers these empty nothings amount unto What a rate do we set upon riches at what huge summs do we purchase honours c. How vainly do we think that such an enjoyment will make an addition to our contentment how do we multiply our hopes without any certainty c. And in the mean time heaven and all the great realities of another world stand for nothing in our account So in reference to our selves I might shew you how few sins or miscarriages we take any notice of if ever we happen which is but seldom to call our selves to an account and how many good deeds we very falsely reckon up But I shall confine my self to the bad Arithmetick of men in numbring of their days which the Text most naturally leads me unto and in a few words I shall shew you how men misreckon in the business of life First They are very much out in their reckoning if we look upon the account it self And secondly if we examine the rule by which they number For the account that is very false which men make First About the length of their days they tell to so many thousands and are very loth to make an end when perhaps their life may be sum'd up in one figure Yea the rich fool in the Gospel would rather tell by many years then many days Luke 12.19 saying Soul thou hast goods laid up for many years Eat drink and be merry He that could not tell truly to one for that night his soul was required tels till he came to a million What an huge mistake what an irrrecoverable error was this that could never be amended But thus do all men generally miscount in the days of their health and which is most strange even dying men oft-times think of nothing but recovering and living still in the world They number by years and not by days or reckon all days to be long and none short Secondly Their account is very false about the quality of these days You shall scarce meet with any man but he reckons so much pleasure in such a condition which shortly he hopes to attain and accounts upon so much joy from every
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
you not imagine that they esteemed time more then thousands of gold and silver Alas their senses are all lockt up they are fast asleep though they thus speak not one syllable of this comes from their hearts but they talk of dying and the grave as if they had seen nor thought of either If they had a thousand years still to live in the world they could not be more drousie about their souls nor more expensive and wastefull of their precious hours then they are in this short moment of which they talk Awake Awake for the sake of your poor souls Let it feel it self I beseech you and shake off these heavy and sleepy thoughts that hang upon its mind O let it not talk like the soul of a bird that prattles according as it is taught but let it look into a grave let it reason with it self about the true number of our dayes let it speak its sense to the full and state things so that thou mayst not only resolve to live but make account that thou must either live now or never for any thing thy soul can tell If I could see any soul looking forth out of its Tomb and mind lifting up its head and demanding leave of the body that it may live how blessed an hour should I count this I would reckon it among the best times of my life and it would turn all my present sorrow into joy that God hath got a friend when I lost one O let us not wound the air with noises of death and judgement and your hearts remain insensible and unmoved Let us not seem as fools that fill the world with sounds and clamours which no body heeds or gives ear unto Who do we preach unto but men what do we preach for if you will not beleive to what purpose do we call for belief if you will not consider and how should it come to pass that a thing of daily occurrence as death is should work no more if men did consider We could find no worse entertainment from a herd of beasts then we do from many men if we should preach unto them And we shall be as unsuccessfull upon inconsiderate men as upon the Birds that fly over our heads for men that will not consider will not be men Therefore I beseech you resolve to take things into your more retired thoughts and whosoever he be that lays his eyes upon these Papers let him well consider what I have to say upon the third Observation which is chiefly intended and it is this The right numbring of our dayes is earnestly and diligently to be enquired out Obser 3 It is plain enough from the prayer of this man of God For his prayer for learning shewes that we are highly concerned in the numbring of our dayes and his prayer to be taught So signifies that he desires to be taught as is before expressed in the Psalm or else So signifies right or well without any mistake For we find the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here rendred So taken for right and well as Numb 27.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. right have the daughters of Zelophedad spoken c. and 2 Kings 7. 9. the lepers say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We do not well this day is a day of good tydings And therefore thus we may render the Psalmists words Teach us aright and well to number our dayes or Teach so as we should c. But the sense will be the same every way because we shall reckon aright if we number So as he spoke before in the Psalm How is that will you say what is the right and good account I shall spare the labour of giving you reasons why you should so diligently inquire in hope that you are a little awakened by what hath been said and in fear that I should extend this discourse beyond the length of a Sermon And answer to the Question as distinctly as I can with some reference unto what you find in this Psalm The word numbring is a word of consideration and signifies a meditating or casting in our mind a serious thinking with our selves what our dayes are and for what end and purpose our life is given unto us And if we would not mistake in our accounts of which there is such danger Then Let us number by ones Let all our account be pure addition and that but by unites Let us not multiply our dayes too fast in our own thoughts nor venture to add one moment to another till God add it I mean we must reckon only upon what is present and account that all our time that is to come is in gods hands which we must not number to our selves because it is none of our own And so ver 3. the Psalmist saith Thou turnest man to destruction c. i.e. Man is wholly in thy power and he hath no more then thou givest him and the next moment if thou saist return he gives up the Ghost This now therefore is only ours and so we must set that down and there stay till God bestow another moment upon us He may be poor enough that will value his estate by what he hath only in hopes and yet such an one is he that reckons his stock of time by what is future He was a distracted man who stood at the Key at Athens and took a note of all the goods in the Ships that came into the port and made account that they were his yet just such is the vanity of a man that puts more time into his accounts then this present instant for he reckons anothers goods not his own he takes that which is in the hands of God only who was is and is to come to be his own proper possession He that numbers thus must reckon over again before he reckon right and if he will account what is his he must take great heed that he set not down in the summ that which is Gods and none of his yet Let him say Now I am and I shall be as long as God pleaseth in whose hand is the breath of my nostnls He that is hasty and quick in casting of accounts you know is frequently mistaken and the surest way is to proceed leisurely and slowly that we may mind the figures and comprehend the numbers clearly in our thoughts There is no less danger in letting our thoughts run too fast when we are about these sacred accounts let us stay and pause let our minds go along with the moments that number our time but not outrun them for then all our accounts will be but a fancy because we have put into them more then is our own If we could reckon thus and tell no faster then God adds unto our dayes and increases our stock of time then God would be more in our thoughts we could not but be more sensible of our dependence upon him and acknowledge him more feriously in all our wayes we should be apt at
daies and living are truly to be measured by the work of a man And therefore much less can you say that he hath lived who hath eaten and drank and got one of the same kind c. For so doth a Beast and therefore all you can say is that the Beast in him lived but not the man And if we did reckon thus and consider how much time this toy and that trifle this business and that service this man and that woman have devoured besides what every day will have for necessary uses Seâ— ib. cap. 3. Videbimus nos pauciores habere annos quam numeramus we shall see that we have fewer years than we number We say perhaps sixty years is our age but we may set down ten yea though we have seriously minded our great work Let us therefore hereafter when we ask our selves how old we are reckon from that time that we are born again And let us distinguish between time and what is done in time for all creatures have time as well as we and unless our work differ us from them our age will not O be ashamed to be a child with a great beard Blush to reckon forty or fifty years when thou knowest not for what thou camest into the world Let not the Sun see thee again so void of the knowledg of Jesus Christ as if thy soul were but newly dropt into thy body Be not twenty or forty years in learning to be sober and for very shame let it not be said that in so many years thou knowest not how to pray and represent thy needs to God How many years dost thou expect to live if in so many thou canst not learn to mortifie one lust If in the space of fifty years thou canst not get the victory over a cup of drink how many must God give thee to overcome all the rest of thy sinnes If so long experience will not teach thee humility or contentedness who can hope that thou shouldest live long enough to put on Jesus Christ and be conformed to all his Image O live live I beseech you as fast as you can for it is certain that is little or nothing that we have lived Seventhly We must not account all dayes alike or we must not measure our time by the length but by the weight not by its greatness but by its worth Let us not measure our dayes as we do by the motion of the Sunne which we see but by the shining of the Sonne of Righteousness upon our souls not by the coelestiall bodies but by the coelestiall inspirations Think that a long time wherein there are many dayes of grace and mind that time and improve it above all the rest Alwayes think that time is of a different value as to the chief use of time and in some dayes we have more of opportunity though but the same time This makes a great difference in our days if we well understand it and should make us very watchfull to lay hold upon this flower of time when it presents it self unto us A day of grace a Lords day when God shall move upon our souls such an opportunity as this if God affect our hearts is worth all our days beside when we are left unto our selves As to the purposes of holiness and getting nearer to Heaven one moment when the Spirit of God is upon us and strongly possesses our mind with good things and breathes into us holy affections is worth many hours yea days and years when that is not with us or doth not so powerfully incite us Let us therefore imploy such time well and set our selves to our business earnestly entreating more of such time and that Gods Spirit will visit us more frequently with its company Then our work will go on fast and if it be possible at all to recall the time past it must be by doing that in a few moments which naturally could not have been done in a whole Life We must value time hereafter as Mariners do at Sea by the wind that blows upon us and then we must hoise up our Sailes We must look at some as Harvest daies and then we must gather and lay up in store by hard labour or as Market daies and then we must buy what we want and lay in provision for the following daies Yea the blackest day of affliction if we were well skilled might be numbred among the best times of our life For God chastneth us for our profit that we may be made parkers of his holiness Eighthly Reckon time to stand in order to eternity Consider it not in the absolute notion but in the relative Look on it as a River running into the Ocean and account that time it self must be accounted for So number thy dayes as to think that they must be numbered again by God Think that time passeth and yet that it remain upon thine account Think that as thou art now so to eternity thou shalt be Do not look upon thy life as a few dayes to be passed and there is an end but reckon so many dayes I have lived and the next moment is eternity for any thing I can tell Everlastingness hangs upon this moment and the state of the one depends on the state of the other as time is used by us so shall we find our selves used in the other life I doubt we seldom look on these two as having a reference to each other but men live as if when time was trifled away they might begin upon a new score in Eternity Men live as if all should be forgotten that is done here and they should have something else to think of when they go from hence Remember therefore that both God and thy self will call thee to another reckoning all the dayes which thou hast never told but went away without any observation shall be recalled back unto thy mind Then the mind shall tell deliberately and run thee thorow at every thought how many hours thou satest with the cup at thy mouth how many dayes thou didst spend in sport how long the time seemed when the Preacher over-run his hour and how many motions of Gods Spirit thou didst send back and bid come at some more convenient time Yea all thy false accounts shall then be accounted for and thou shalt never have done numbring thy errours but shall tell them all over again with a new torment that thou shouldst be so wilfully mistaken O that you would let your souls which are apt to number so many dayes in this world and are loath to make an end let them lanch into the depths of eternity and there spread their thoughts Seeing they have such a mind to be telling out so many years for us let them runne into that vast Ocean Bring forth all your numbers wherewith your minds are pregnant heap million upon million lay one hundred thousand of millions upon another and they are all but as an unite to eternity In this vast eternity 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
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