in the prosecutioh of which I shall be a little more large Doct. 3. The third Observation is this That the right Art and Skill of numbring Dayes is a point of Divine teaching one have the wisdom to number their Dayes aright but those that have it from above and are taught it by God you must go to God and beg of him that he would teach you this lesson This appears from the Text that we have it expressed in the form of Prayer as if he had said though I have cast up the acount of my dayes in the 10th verse yet there is a further Mystery which I cannot discern without thy teaching without that Spiritual light and knowledg which must come from thee and here you have the Emphasis of the particle 10 I have been taught this lesson many a time and can say it over but I have not been so taught as they said of Christ that never man spoke like him so never any Man taught as God teaches I have often considered the 14. Acts comp v. 1. with 27. Where it is said that Paul and Barnabas so spake that a great multitude of the Jews and also of the Greeks Believed But when they came to give an account to the Church the Text saies that they rehearsed all that God had done with them and how he had opened a door of Faith unto the Gentiles If the Lord had not opened the door of the Heart all their knocking would have signified nothing if the Lord had not spoke with them all their so speaking would not have procured belief from our Souls it was God that so spake with them that made the door of the Heart to open If the Lord Jesus had only cryed Lazarus come forth and had not by a Powerful Hand communicated Life to him he had never stirred out of his Grave We read in Luke 24.27 That the Lord Jesus beginning at Moses and all theProphets he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself but observe is said in ver 45. then opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures It is not enough to have the Scriptures opened but we must have our understandings opened too If you had the knowledge of an angel and could discourse of Divine Truth with undeniable Evidence and Demonstration yet this will not amount to right Teaching without Divine Blessing and Influence I need not insist much upon the proof of this take that Text Psal 39.4 Lord make me to know mine end and the measure of my dayes what it is that I may know how frail Iam. When once he is taught this by God then he can say with sense and experience as it follows Behold thou hast made my dayes as an hand-breadth mine age is as nothing before thee verily every man at his best estate is vanity Selah Surely every man walketh in a vain shew surely they are disquieted in vain he heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them And now Lord what wait I for my hope is in thee deliver me from all my transgressions c. You see that when he is taught this Lesson of God how feelingly and sweetly he breaks out its only Faith and the Teachings of God that can give us to be under the power of things of Sense as by Faith we understand that the World 's were made so by Faith we must be taught that our time is short that our dayes are numbred that we must dye though we see persons daily carried to the Grave that never reached our years and we know we are made of the same Corruptible Materials subject to the same Diseases and Distempers to the same Casualties and Dangers that our Breath is in our Nostrils and may assoon be stopped as theirs Again The Apostle Paul when he comes in so with his But But this Isay brethren the time is short shews plainly that it was a Point that was not so well understood I shall endeavour to Demonstrate this further to you in these following Particulars 1. None can know the use of time without Divine Teaching and none can number his dayes aright unless he know what use they are for this has been already spoken to I shall only add this that as it is with a Merchant who Prepares his Ship for Sea he provides only so much Victuals as may serve for the Voyage he does not provide the Seaman soft Beds to lodge in but only makes such preparation as may serve the end of his sending his Ship to Sea the less burden she has the swister she sails and the swister she sails the less she will need Just so it is in this Case We are sailing through this World our Port is Eternity our business is only to provide our selves for quick sailing and lay in so much Provision only as will serve us for so many dayes Voyage as we shall be out the less Cumber of the World we have the sooner we shall be sit for Heaven and the faster we move thither the less we shall need 2. None can know the end of time sc that it will end but by Divine Teaching And none can number his dayes aright that does not know their end What made David pray as you have heard Lord make me to know mine end c. Every one thinks he may live a day longer When a man comes to dye and to be just within the view of Eternity then he sees what is the proper work for time and wishes he had his time to spend over again he would spend it otherwise then he has done Now it 's strange that Faith should not do what Sense will do we pretend to believe that we shall have a last day and why should not this Faith have such Effects as Sense and Feeling will have 3. None can know the Seasons Nicks and Opportunities of time without Divine Teaching and certainly none can number his dayes aright that understands not his Seasons that knows not that Sabbath dayes are Seasons to be improved that the present time is a Season that the Morning of the day is a Season that the time of youth is a Season that a time of affliction is a Season that times of Conviction are Seaons c. Now there is no Man can rightly know and make of these Seasons without Divine Teaching 4. None can know the excellency of time without Divine Teaching And sure I am that he that knows not the worth and preciousness of time never knew how to number his dayes aright Let us a little consider the excellency of time We read in the Old Law that if one man smote another he should not only pay for his Cure but for the loss of his time But more particularly 1. Dayes and times are such things as cannot be bought did you yet ever know any dayes to be sold or understood what a day might be worth if it were to be sold we count those things
may flow in at their Doors and carry some of them as way into Ocean of Everlastingness there is no fenceing against Death no capitulating with it it is usually though not alwaies so civil as to knock before it comes in but it seldom stayes till you open the Door to let it in and say welcome Death now Lord lettest 〈◊〉 thy Servant depant in Peace it will not be prevailed with for the least delay pray thee suffer me to go bury my Father to set my House in order to give some directions about my Children and Estate no I cannot stay come away ay but let me first Pray to God and deal with him about my Soul no thou must come now as thou art this is the fourth and Last Reason why the Life of a Man is to be reckoned by the Day I now come to the Application Vse 1. Is it so then that our Lives must be reckoned by the Day I note in the first place that every Christian is to do all he can do and all he has to do upon the present Day and leave nothing to be done tomorrow What saies Solomon Whatever thine hand findeth to do do it with all thy might for there is no Work nor Device nor Knowledge nor Wisdom in the Grave whither thou goest be sure thou even accounts daily do every thing thou dost as if it were the last time thou should do it how heartily how carefully will thou do it then let me pray now as if I should never have time to pray more hear now as if this were the last opportunity of hearing leave nothing to do to morrow that possible can be done to day what true Christians should we be if we did not reckon of a Morrow To Day is God's Day to Morrow is Satan's Day how many would have been good to Day if thay had not though of being good to Morrow but see what a grand Deceit lies here by putting it off till to Morrow we gratify Conscience in this that we intend to do it hereafter but most of all please Corruption in this that we do not do it to Day Consider then thus with thy self I will set all right with God now I may be gone before Morning I may be taken away in my sleep and awake in Eternity Nulla Dies sin◠linea we have been many Dayes but we have lived but few well then this is the first Use do all thou canst do and all thou hast to do Day and leave nothing undone till tomorrow 2. Let this put a check to the Cares and Pleasures of this Life my Life is but short why should my Care and Delight be long it is not much we need nor long that we shall need any thing we have but a Body a piece and that is a small one and a Mortal one long Reaches and Designs are very unsuitable to a Man that has but a Dayes time Famous is the Instance of the Fool in the Gospel Luk. 12.19 20. I will pull down my Barns saies he and I will build greater and I will say to my Soul Soul thou hast goods laid up for many Years Eat Drink and be Merry But God said unto him thou Fool this Night shall thy Soul be required of thee c. If he had only reckoned of this Day he had not heard that dreadful Word of this Night or at least would not have been dreadful to him to have heard it Vse 3. Hence we see what little cause we have either to fear or envy any man in the World any wordly great Man's what saies the Psalmist Surely thou didst set them in slippery places how are they brought into Destruction as in a Moments c. For this matter consult further those places Job 21.13.30 and 24.19 20 24. Rev. 18.10.17.19 Ezek. 34.27 c. We use to say of some Men in a way of Reproach and Scron that they are but Yesterday-Men and we may say truly of the Greatest and Highest and Happiest in this World that they are but Men of to Day no Morrow-Men come to seek them in the Mornings and they may not be Persecutors and Oppressors many threaten what they will do but it may be to Morrow they may be Sick the next Week you may find them Cold in their Graves I remember a Passage in Story of one Libanius a great Favorite of Julian ther Apostate Julian was gone in an Expendition into the East against some that had made an insurrection against him and resolved at his returned destroy all the Christians and utterly to root them out saied this Libanius to one the Christians in a Scoffing manner where is now your Carpenters Son meaning Christ what will he now do for you to save you from the Emperour to whom the Christian replied Boldly this Carpenter as you call him made the World a Work above any Carpenter and he is now making a Coffin for Julian and so it proved for Julian was slain before his return I will pursue I will overtake saies proud Pharaoh the next News we hear of him he is in the Bottom of the Sea as Mute as the Fishes that seed upon his Dead Carcase Oh that Oppressors would consider this Vse 4. Let this teach us Patience under the Greatest Afflictions they are but for a Day or if you will but for a Night no Man ought to think that he shall be miserable to Morrow our Dayes are but few and therefore our Dayes of Sorrow cannot be many It is an hour of Temptation if it grieve you that your Comforts stay with you so little a while they are but Day-Comforts you cannot prevail with them to Lodge with you Why let this relieve you that your Troubles are but Night-Troubles they will be gone in the Morning they will not abide in your House why should I complain much of that which for any thing I know may be ended before my complaint be at an end For a Conclusion let us Labour to live under the Power of this Doctrine if this Truth were Believed as it should Oh what abundance of thoughts and Cares and Fears would be getting out of the meeting before you and you would never feel them more how would the Face of your Affairs and Families be changed you would let alone and lay by a great many things that you were very busie about before and set upon doing some things you never did before or if you did them before you would do them so now as you never did them before you would say this thing must be done and done to day too or else I may be undone for ever for other things if I have time I may do them but if they be never done it will be no great loss to me resign up your Lives into God's Hand 's every Evening and take them again from him by a new Lease every Morning I come now to the second Observation which is this Doct. 2. That every Day has
hadest with him during the time thou wast upon Earth what Apprehensions thou hadst of him what Adresses thou madst to him as a Mediatour an Advocate and Saviour what Faith thou hast had in him whether there was an agreement made between him and thee whil'st thy dayes were in being that thou wouldst give up thy Soul and Body and Sins to him thy Unrighteousness and Righteousness and that he would undertake to satisfie the Justice of God and appease his Wrath for thee and reconcile thee to his Father that he would cloth thee with his Righteousness and sanctifie thy Nature by his Holy Word and Spirit that he would make thee meet to be a partaker of Glory and present thee blameless and unreproveable in the sight of God and give thee a full possession of an everlasting Kingdom and Glory with himself what fear thou hadst upon thy Heart in thy dayes of the Great God whether in every thing thou didst in Natural Civil and Religious Actions thou didst design and aim at his Glory How thy Affections were placed and what kind of love passed between thee and the World during their abode there what acts of Self-denial and Mortification thou put forth what exercise of Heavenly-mindedness what Duties thou didst and how they were done how thou didst honour God in the Conditions he placed thee what patience and contentedness in a low condition what humility meekness and repentance in an high condition how thou bore sickness and straits and how thou used thy riches and how honest thou wast in thy dealings There will be no discourses there of such vain matters as are here below but as Paul discoursed of Temperance and Righteousness and the Judgment to come of Uprightness and Sincerity and unfeigned Repentance and a true and full closing with the Person of Christ the Son of the Living God equal with the Father the Mediatour for poor Sinners the Saviour of all that truly believe on his Name and come to him what Obedience thou manifested to his Laws how thou loved him and kept his Commandments how thou loved the Brethren and there by manifested thy being passed from Death to life how fruitful thou wast in all good works and thereby didst justify thy Faith to be sound and true and of the right kind how willing and desirous thou was to do much for God and how little thou didst esteem thy self the better for what thou didst but how much thou didst abhor thy self and hate thy self for thy daily defects manifold infirmities and much unsuitable carriage to such great goodness and loving kindness and unworthiness of such rich Grace and Mercy c. Of this Nature will be the Discourses then and the more thou hast been exercised in these thing the greater will be thy consolation Oh my Beloved where is that Professor that lives under the serious frequent and powerful meditation of these things this and the other work I am imployed in this and the other thing I am discoursing of if God should now cut off the threed of my Life what should I be advantaged hereby would it turn to my advantage when I come in the presence of the Great God shall I be glad that I was exercised or rather wish that I had never medled or been concerned in such affairs and matters our dayes are not intended to be the dayes of Noah and Lot wherein Men built and planted and bought and sold and married and were given in Marriage all these Lawful things and not one of them sinful that is that did do all these things as the work of the day for themselves and rested in them rejoiced themselves in them and did not do them with respect to another Life with such fear regularity moderation righteous principles and designs as would have yeelded them comfort when those dayes had been cut off in another world are we not fallen into such dayes as Noah's and Lot's were eating drinking c. Eating Drinking is an unlawful thing if you do not do it to the Glory of God and honour God in it observe it as there is no time allotted for sin so neither are there any dayes allowed for the doing of lawful and good actions if they have not a reference to Eternity thy Prayers and Almes and duties are not numbred aright if they be not numbred for God and another world if they be numbred for thy self and thy present interest they are quite lost and which is worse do become sin and so prove mortal and damning you see how necessary it is to number every day for Eternity if thou mindest this Rule thou wilt reap much fruit hereafter from thy common and worldly actions because hereby those actions which otherwise are but common and worldly actions as the actions of our ordinary and homliest callings we shall sanctifie them and translate them out of themselves and their own base Element into an higher Orb and Element viz. to go as for actions truly holy and Religious and parts of God's own worship before him and rewardable as so at his hand 's what a comfort might this be to Men in going about worldly callings to the very Shuttleman and Sheersman Spinster and Carder and the veriest drudge and droil in the servilest condition what a comfort this to consider that if they do but honestly and faithfully in obedience to God that hath set them in those callings go about them they might sanctifie those and the like actions and translate them out of a Worldly into an Heavenly Orb and Element and Glorifie God and by that thou providest for Eternity as well in their proportion by those actions as the Angels that stand continually before God do by their standing and praising and singing Hallelujahs to him The poor Servants that in obedience to God do faithful and honest service be it in never such drudgeries to their Master are said to adorn thereby the Doctrine of God Titus 2.10 And is not this a working a numbring time and work for Eternity those that honour him and his Gospel he will honour them another day What a comfort is this that meer drudgeries and Worldly Actions that might seem only to smell of the World and this present life and time that these being gone about in the Obedience and Fear of God baulking iniquity and injustice in them may go for Holy and Heavenly actions The actions of the vertuous Woman Prov. 31. a Man would think were the actions only of a meer worldling she seeketh wool and flax c. yet those and such-like are all the actions for which she is called a vertuous Woman in the Beginning and to have done vertuously above all in the latter end Many Daughters have done vertuously but thou excellest them all and the next verse shews the reason because she did these in the Fear of the Lord A Woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised shall have praise at the end of dayes