abundance of time given unto them through their grofs improvidence and mispense are utterly undone and whine like beggars as if they had had none whereas carefull and diligent persons so improve a little that thanks be to God they are rich in good works and say it is enough let God call for them when he pleaseth Tenthly Let us reckon death to be the best accountant and so number our daies now as we shall do when we come to dye Then a day will appear a pretious thing then will a covetous man offer all that he hath got in his whole life for one day then will a voluptuous man be ready to purchase a day with any pains though it were all rainy and he were forced to spend it in tears But it is a sad reckoning when a man must reckon twice and one of them must be when he hath no time to mend his errors and mistakes It will go very ill with us if we make one account in our life and another at our death If we should see then that there are as many faults as there are daies and that so many lines as there are in our life so many blots we must make how fearfully shall we be amazed in what perplexity of spirit shall we see our selves so foul and black in the midst of such grosse and damnable errors Let us therefore see and consider now what account dying men make of their time and take their reckoning as most certainly true Though men now be lavish of their time and play away their houres though they give all or most to the world and little or nothing to God yet come to a dying man and he will tell you that daies were good for something else then for a man to eat and drink and trade in he will tell you of feeding and nourishing the Diviner part or providing for a soul of dressing it for the Bride-groome by constant acts of godliness besides all those of temperance and sobriety of justice and mercy He will tell you of a Book more worth your reading and studying then all that ever you turned over And as for a day of grace at what rate would he purchase such a pretious season He will tell you he is ashamed that he ever sate at his dore talking vainly among his neighbours on the Lords day He will tell you that he cannot sleep now for the aking of his heart that he should sleep at a Sermon He praies that he might but live and Pray with his Family Evening and Morn Yea let him be a good man that hath made a good use of his time yet he will tell you that such an houre he might have spent better in such a company he might have done more good at such a time he might have been more solicitous and industrious about Heavenly things and he will Pray as a good Bishop did Lord pardon my sins of omission â—p Vsher And therefore let us now judg as sensible and good men do when they are taught by death that cannot flatter That is a sterne Master but very just and faithfull he speaks with a dreadfull voice but things that are infinitely true and serious He cuts their very heart whose accounts they leave him to write but he will truly state them Let us then learn of those that he teaches and not stay till we be taught when perhaps we shall be past Learning Let us imagine that the roome is darkned that the Physician stands by our bed side that we hear our friends sigh and groan that we feel the approaches of death and then conceive that our Books of account are brought to us and we have our pen in our hand What now shall we write Let us eat and drink and be merry Let us take our ease for we have goods laid up for many years will you reckon thus our time is long enough let us take care for nothing but to please our selves why not thus now I pray you when perhaps two or three daies agon this was your language Oh! but now eternity eternity appears and therefore set down so many houres for prayer to God if we live write down so much pains to understand the Word of God and we make account that so much time must be spent in meditating of the will of God Make a golden letter at the Lords Day for that must be more pretious time c. Whosoever thou art that readest this do the same now that thou maist do perhaps three daies hence Do that which now thou canst which ere long thou wilt wish to do and canst not This may be more then an imagination before the morning and be sure one day it will be a reality unless thou shalt be struck dead without any warning and have no leave for one deliberate thought and therefore now reckon after the same sort set down the same things in thy resolution yea ingrave them and cut them upon thy heart that so thy death beds account may agree with that in thy life Be sick now in thy thoughts that thou maist find thy self well then And seeing then we shall think that we have lived so much as we have done good and as we have designed the glory of God let us now think that we do not live unless these be in our hearts and lives Eleventhly If we would number aright let us every day cast up our accounts Let us so number our daies as at the foot of every day to write the total Summe Let us say thus long have we lived perhaps we may live no longer nor turn over another leaf let us see therefore how our accounts stand Say as Pythagoras taught his Scholars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. What sinne have I committed What good have I done What good have I neglected What stand all these actions for Are they figures or cyphers Have I lived or only been Doth my work go on or am I running in arrears Do I live as if I were going to die Is eternity in my thoughts and the great account that I must give If we could call our selves to such a reckoning then we might correct any fault we find betime before it be grown to such a number that it will be beyond our thoughts and give up our account more fair and in order when God calls for them and might hope they would be accepted by him And for the doing of this it is necessary that we account every day as if it were our last Which is a maxim in this divine art of numbering that flows from the first Proposition Seeing our time that is to come is in Gods hand therefore we must live this day as though we had no more dayes to live And a Heathen could say That it is impossible for a man to live the present day well Musonius apud Stob. Serm 1. Epist 52. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That doth not propose to himself to live it as his last And so Seneca
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
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
spend it all for him Let not a croud of thoughts in our studies nor a croud of company here in the City thrust God away from our souls but let them frequently retire unto him as the fountain of all light and good Prayer before our studies is the key to unlock the secrets of God and prayer afterward is the turning of the key to lock them safe into our hearts Dexterius loquentur cum hominibus qui prius tota mente cum Deo fuerint collocuti l. 3. derat Concion Prayer sharpens our appetite after truth and when we have found it it sets an edg upon the truth and makes it more cutting and penetrating into the heart And as Erasmus well said We shall speak more dexterously to men when with our whole hearts we have first spoken with God Secondly Let us look to our ends in our work This was another of his counsels without which indeed our labour will be in vain Let us believe our selves what we speak and then we should mind the glory of God and not our selves Alas what is the applause of men when we are gone but like a sound in a dead mans ear And what is it when we are alive but an empty breath that is lost sooner than got and is got ofttimes by idleness sooner than taking pains And what is there else that can tempt an ingenuous mind Our very breeding doth teach us to despise money and gain but the example of our Lord and his Apostles will make it seem a sordid thing to be trampled under our feet Let the good of men therfore and the glory of God be the mark at which we aim And the Lord in Heaven hear our prayers and bless our preaching Secondly Then to you of this Parish let me say a few things And first Pray earnestly among other Petitions for these two things That God would pardon your unprofitableness which perhaps you may have been guilty of under such means and that he would bless you with another Minister of such a temper as he was and that will design so seriously the good of your souls He desired you should know that he loved you and he prayed God to bless you I hope God will so hear his desires and you will so remember his instructions and those you have received from former Lights that I may spare that prayer which Mr Udal used at the Funeral of Mr Shute viz. That God will neither let you fall into the hand of a dark Lanthorn nor be led by an Ignis fatuus The Jews have a saying God grant it be true That never doth there die any illustrious man but there is another borne as bright on the same day God loves the world so well that when one Sun sets another arises To which they accomodate that place in Eccles 1.5 The Sun ariseth and the Sun goeth down Nay they observe further That he makes some starre or other arise before a Sun be set As Joshua began to shine before Moses his light was darkned and before Joshua went to bed Othniel the son of Kenaz was risen up to judg Eli was not gathered to his fathers before Samuel appeared to be a most hopefull youth And among the other Sex they also note That Sarah was not taken away till Rebekah was ready to come in her stead The Lord grant that you may find this true and that as now the nights are at the shortest so you may have but a very short night before another Sun arise in this place But if we be so unworthy that God will not bless us with such a favour May it please him but to let posterity twenty year hence fit under such a burning and shining Light May it please his goodness and mercy that the day of his Death may be but the Birth-day of some eminent person to illuminate this City Secondly Let me beseech you to write down any memorable thing that you have heard from him and hath much affected you that it may be engraven upon your heart and do you good for ever By this means you will cause the lips of the dead to speak and you will not lose all converse with him now that he is gone from you For a mans discourses are the picture of his soul which is himself O my Beloved how sad an account will you have to make if you be not truly Religious who have had so many Lights in your Candlestick that have spent themselves to illuminate you How will you appear before the Judgement seat of God when not onely one but foure or five Ministers shall witnesse against you How will you look not only him but those that delivered the Lamp to him in the face Or rather how will you look God in the face when you shall think what means of obtaining salvation you have enjoyed and yet are not saved Remember therefore now all those wholsom counsels you have received from their mouths and if there be any beginnings of godliness in your hearts any tasts of Religion let me remember you of two Directions which were some of the last he gave you and write them upon your hearts He told me not long before his sickness that he had begun at his own house to give some short Exhortations to you his Communicants in which he intended I think once in a fortnight to insist upon the chief things that belong to the establishing a soul in grace He begun this course April 14. and lived to give but two Directions which I shall again commend to your thoughts First He desired you to beware lest you should be found in the number of the giddy or of the lazy Prefessours of this age and one Argument whereby he pressed to diligence was this Death is neer you like to a Mole it is digging your graves under you so was his expression therefore whatsoever your hand finds to do do it with all your might Eccles 9.10 My Beloved Death may be as near to you now as it was then to him and therefore take heed that you be not found idle and useless servants Secondly He advised you to give diligence not only to be sincere Christians but also growing Christians and at length excellent and very exemplary Here he directed you to lay the foundation well and then intended to show how to raise the building and superstructure upon it but God took him away before he could do that I beseech you labour to be true and real Christians though perhaps you may not live to grow to any great height no more than helived to direct you to it Look to your hearts lest there be any root of bitterness that may make you to backslide and remember as his very expression was That there is no such Antidote against Apostasie as real integrity and sincerity Yea remember all other good Discourses of his and your other Ministers that you may frame your lives according to them and grow taller if you live still by so
I wish they would think from whom it came that they may be ashamed not to practise it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. de aud poctis and it is that which Socrates used Wicked men live that they may eat and drink and good men eat and drink that they may live This one saying strikes I know not how many out of the number of the living and if this Heathen were alive he would take most to be dead men playing in the shape of the living But let us look a while upon the rule by which men reckon and you shall see more clearly how bad their accompts are 1. Some reckon by their age They account that the old must needs die before those that are yong and they reckon that the fewer dayes any one hath spent the more he hath to come and so few think of dying till they think it cannot be avoided Hence it is that one who is old saith I shall never live to see an end of these troubles but you that are young will behold the conclusion and perhaps that party drops into the grave in his youthful dayes And he that is young saith These will be fine things to talk of when we are old our Nephews will wonder when we tell them of such strange revolutions when perhaps the next week he is sent into the place of silence These are they that reckon by ages and who think when child-hood is past that Youth Manhood and gray hairs are all to come But they forget the vulgar proverb which some of the Jews elegantly express The old Ass very often carries the skin of the young one to the market Young men must not let their fancy be so brisk as not to make account that they are but men And what is that Man is like to vanity Psal 144.4 saith the Psalmist his days are as a shadow that passeth away 2. Others reckon by their strength and lustiness of body and imagine that their constitution is so healthful that they are able to wrastle a fall with the greatest sickness Their rule is that the best built house shall stand longest a very false and deceitful rule For on a sudden we see the fire of a feaver will burn up and consume the best timbred body in the world The flames of a Calenture will make him melt away as grease whose strength is as the strength of stones and whose flesh is like unto brass And who can hinder his spirits from catching fire who knows what vipers he nourishes within him by his meat and drink and especially his intemperance which will eat through his own bowels even while his breasts are full of milk and his bones moistned with marrow Job 21.23 24. who knows what rottenness there is at the core of the fairest fruit and who doth not know that the goodliest Oaks prove oft-times hollow and without heart within And therefore let us not stay till the Axe be laid at the root and the stroke of some terrible disease teach us to reckon better 3. Another sort reckon by the care they have of themselves They measure their dayes by temperance chastity and good use of their bodies by freedom from excess and riot whatsoever might be the matter and occasion of diseases To say the truth these men have a great many good rules ex gr Too much oyl puts out the Lamp Spare diet is the greatest cordial of nature Discreet fasting is the best Physick But they have one rule which spoils all Temperance must needs prolong our time The moderate man shall have many dayes It is pitty such men should never think of the chances the suddain accidents and unexpected surprizals which yet we have many instances of in the world Plagues and infections they say soonest seize on the finest tempers pestilent breaths do soonest choak the purest spirits And there are secret malignant causes which are unknown to the best of natures Secretaries Yea the most certain cures of known diseases have sometimes proved fatal to mens bodies So Gesner reports that one year he observed Omnes pleuriticos à secta vena expirasse that all those who were let blood in Plurisies gave up the Ghost The opening of a vein which useth to give the soul breath proved through the corruption of the air as he thinks to be but the gate of death 4. Others perhaps do reckon their dayes by their usefulness and the good which they do in the world There are a great many promises made to dutifull and obedient persons to such who are charitable and mercifull to others which may make them apt to promise to themselves a certainty of long life R. Nechonia a Jew when his Schollars asked him on his death-bed how he came to live so long He answered I never sought mine own honour by any mans disgrace I never reproached nor cursed my neighbour and I was a liberal dispenser of my riches to others c. alluding it is like to that in Psal 34.12 13 14. Who is he that would live long and see many dayes let him keep his tongue from evil But though there be some truth in this yet there are many exceptions and such men do count wrong if they have no other rule but this For sometimes by reason of one great sin as in the case of Moses sometimes for the sins of others who discern not such Iewels and sometimes that they may not live to see miserable and evil times which are the punishments of sin the good man is taken away You see the days of our dear Brother are summed up and we are taught to number aright by the brevity of his life If the King of terrors could have been affrighted by piety and usefulness to have let his dart faln out of his hand I had not been now here unless it had been to have offered Sacrifices of praise for his recovery to health again 5. A fifth sort there are that measure their own lives by the lives of others and that not of all others neither but of the longest livers They hope to attain to the days of the oldest man in the Parish and think not that they may go away in the company of the youngest And especially if they see drunkards and such sinners with gray beards upon red or rotten faces they think surely that they are many miles off from a grave I do not know what kind of dotage it is that possesses mens hearts but so it is that though they see many flowers cropt in their fullest beauty yet they mind not them so much though they be in their own hands as they do the rest that still flourish in the garden Though a wife be snatcht out of mens bosomes yet they think to live and embrace another Though a child be ravished out of their arms yet they think to live and get more as if death must be so kind as to let them grow old seeing he hath devoured their relations in their youth You
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
every breath to look upon him as the Sun that continues the shadow of our lives and likewise we should look upon our graves more then upon our houses or any thing else For as Lipsius well saith our houses are but Inns Cent. 4. Epist 30. and our graves are our houses 2. Yet let us count those things that may put an end to our dayes by greater numbers Or thus Let us reckon that there are more enemies to life then one Though we can tell but by ones when we number our dayes or moments rather yet we may tell by twenties or hundreds when we number those things that may conclude and put a period to our time Look over a Bill of mortality and there you may tell thirty or forty diseases Then add forty more to them and two or three hundred more to that forty and so proceed untill you come near to a thousand For according to the account of some of the Jews there are nine hundred and three diseases in the world * This they gather from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 68.20 the numeral letters of which are 103. And let us be sure in this account to put down more wayes to the grave then from a sick bed And above all take heed of that dotage to think that we must die of old age for there are fewer die of that disease then any other in the world We must think that our lives may suddenly be snatcht away and not carried off leisurely by the steps of many days ilness Some diseases do no sooner appear then we vanish and disappear An enemy sometimes gives no warning but strikes us dead at one stroak And our sickness doth not alwayes lay seige to our strength wherein we trust but we are blown up in a moment as the Israelites were ver 5.6 Thou carriest them away as with a flood c. They were swept away with plagues they fell before their foes they went quâ—ck into the pit and were gone out of the world as soon as a dream out of our mind And so still we see some are drowned in the water others are strangled suddenly in their own blood and a world of contingencies and casualties there are besides so that ten thousand things besides these nine hundred diseases may put an end to our days Anacreon the Poet was choaked with the kernel of a grape Aeschylus by the shell of a Tortoise which fell from an Eagles Talons who mistook as was thought his bald Head for a white Rock An Emperour died by the scratch of a comb Essayes l. 1. cap. 19. and a Duke of Britany as Lord Mountaigne tells us was stifled to death in such a throng of people as is now in this place one of the Kings of France died miserably by the chock of an Hogg and a Brother of that Lords playing at Tennis received a blow with a Ball a little above the right ear which struck him into his grave What serious considerations would these things breed in us if we thought of them we should often say in our mind What if now the house should fall What if my foot should slip what if I should be trodden under foot in this press or drowned in this sweat what if the Boat should overturn or the Horse should throw me What would become of me if my meat should choak me or my drink should quench my life What then if I be not well provided I go down in a moment to Hell And therefore I must alwayes live well that so I may never die suddenly V. Locman The Cock in the Arabick fable because he had overcome in a battle against another of his neighbouring Cocks thought he had now no enemy and therefore he got upon a top of the house and began to crow and clap his wings in token of his triumph when behold on a sudden a Vultur comes and snatches this great Conqueror away Just such is the state of silly man he overthrows some disease and gets the better of it he escapes in a battle and rejoyces as if now he were out of danger when some accident or other lies in ambush for him and strikes him dead upon the place We must not therefore be secure at any time the strong man must not glory in his strength nor the great man in the honour of his family and numerous progeny for all may be cut off in a moment I can not but here remember how three hundred of the Fabâ—i in Rome were slain in one day and but one man of the Family left that was not extinct And about five hundred years agone the whole family of the Justiniani in Venice perished in defence of their Countrey against Emanuel the Greek Emperor except one only who was a Priest Bâ—bâ— Comes Abusinuâ— And Aventinus relates of a Count in the time of Henry the second Emperour that had thirty Sons besides eight Daughters who attended on him to the Emperors court and were all preferred to offices by him and all died in a very short space of time And so in Scripture we find all Gideons children slain at once except one and the like of Ahabs a wicked family whom God intended to root out And yet which of us thinks that if we have nine or ten children they may all die before us Or who thinks that they may all die in a day nay we are apt to imagine not only that we may stay in the world till we have done all we design but that we shall go out of the world the ordinary way and not be let out at any new gate Let us reform this error and be verily perswaded that there is a vast uncertainty of life and all worldly things and that death is drest in a thou sand shapes and may be in every thing we see in the world 3. Make account that there is no greater enemy to life then sin Sin is not to stand for one thing in our account but for a thousand for all the miseries and evils that can be reckoned up The Stone the Gout the Plague c. all the pains and stinches and noisome evils that were ever heard of are in the Womb of sin and therefore reckon a sinfull life to be of all other the most uncertain and that which provokes the holy God to shorten our days So you read ver 7 8 9. of this Psalm that they were consumed in Gods anger and their dayes passed away in his wrath when he took notice of their rebellions and saw how heinous their crimes were If you will believe the wise man the years of the wicked shall be shortned Prov. 10.27 Or if you will believe his Father God shall shoot at them with an arrow suddenly shall they be wounded Psal 64.7 Or the Prophet Malachi by whom God saith I will be a swift witness against the Sorcerers and Adulterers and against false swearers and against those that oppress the hireling in his
more in our hearts for the heavenly Country The travell and toyl here would make us have a care top rovide for our rest with the people of God and these black nights of affliction for the eternall day that knows no night at all We should not be so much in love with life if we did reckon upon the evils of it nor so much in fear of death if we considered how many wayes we die daily What pleasure is there in living when we are eighty year old when we are a burden to our selves and too oft to others what contentment can we have What chear can there be when those that look out of the window are darkned when the sound of the grinding is low and we rise up at the voice of every bird and al the daughters of musick are brought down i. e. when we have lost our eyes and teeth and voice and sleep and are but a little distance from a clod of earth what joy can we feel in our hearts And yet this is the time that we would fain live to though we creep to it upon our hands and feet through a world of mire and dirt Si vita humana esset 500 aut 600. annorum omnes desperatione vitam finirent Card. de vita prepria and swim through the waters of many afflictions to be more miserable I am of Cardans mind that if the life of man should last five hundred or six hundred years many a one would make away themselves out of madness and desperation there are so many miseries that befall them and yet we are now madly desirous to live till we be weary of life Let us think that life if it be long may be but a kind of death and nothing will comfort us then but the hopes of another life It was a sharp saying of Caesars to one of his Guard that by reason of his craziness asked his leave that he might cause himself to be put to death Dost thou think then that thou art alive Alas such a decrepit thing as man is when he comes to Old age is but a walking Carcase that is ready at every step to stumble upon its Graves Yea death is preying upon us every day he gets a mouth full of our flesh every moment and sometimes by a sickness even eats us to the very bone and then though we recruit again and repaire our bodies yet we do but make food for new diseases It is said to Adam In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye which teaches us that we are next dore to death every day and that we do not so much live as borrow something from death and if we live long it will make us pay intollerable usury for not paying our lives sooner As these things will correct our mistakes about the length and quality of our daies so I shall now adde some things that will teach us better the use of them 6. We must reckon our daies by our work and not by our time by what we do and not by what we are Let us account that the longest day which is best spent and that the oldest life which is most holy Plutarch Consol ad Apollon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A long life is not the best but a good life As we do not commend saith he him that hath played a great while on an Instrument 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or made a long Oration but him that hath played and spoken well and as we account those Creatures best that give us most profit in a short time and every where we see maturity preferred before length of age so it ought to be among our selves They are the worthiest persons and have lived longest in the world who have brought the greatest benefit unto it and made the greatest advantage of their time to the service of God and of Men. Let our Conscience therefore be the Ephemeris or Diary of our life Let us not reckon by the Almanack but by the Book of God how much we live And let us account that he who lives godlily lives long and that other men live not at all We must not say that a man hath lived seaventy years if he hath done nothing worthy of a man but that he hath been so long Diu fuit sed parum vixit he had a great many daies but lived few or none In one sense most men may count their lives by nights rather then daies for they are as men asleep and do nothing at all that is the business and intent of life They are as Childish in their desires as weak in their fears as unreasonable in their hopes as impertinently and vainly imployed as if they were but newly come into the world and had not attained to the use of their Reason Shall we think a man hath lived because he is a yard higher then he was is this enough to denominate us men that we have hair growing upon our Chin No there are more Children then those that are in Coats and while we look no further then the present life we are but great Infants and are at play with Babies And alas if we account the right way by our work and improvement of our selves in true understanding Conscience and godliness the best of us must reckon fewer years then eighty for how little of this time do we truly live When we do no good we may say as the Emperour did Diem perdidi I have clearly lost a day I had as good not have been to day you can scarce say that I was if you look at the purpose of being For to acknowledg God and get acquaintance with him to govern our selves in conformity to him to do good to others c. are the great businesses of life and of him that minds not these chiefly you may say that there is such a thing called by such a name and that hath an existence but you cannot say that the man lives Shall we say that he sailed much who was taken in a storme as soon as he put out to Sea who was tossed by contrary winds in a Circle to and fro and in conclusion is brought just where he was De Brev. vitcae cas 8. when he first launcheth forth Non ille multum navigavit sed multum jactatus est as Seneca well saith He did not Saile much but was tossed very much Shall we then say that a man hath lived much whose soul was filled with Aire and vanity as soon as he was born who had tumbled to and fro in variety of business in the Sea of this world and is never quiet in the pursuit of earthly affairs Alas when he comes to the end of his daies he is as far from his part as when he first began them Heaven is as far out of his reach and further too as when he lay in his mothers Womb. He was much busied but he did nothing He was much employed but he lived idly For as I told you