Imatges de pàgina
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to reflect as we ought on the important concerns of the other.

Come we then to the laft and clofing fcene; when the hot fummer of life is over, we enjoy a fickly and fhort autumn, and quickly drop into the winter of our days. And here we cannot help obferving that vice, which in youth is pitiable, which in manhood is inde. cent, becomes in age moft fnameful and moft deteftable. One would think the approach of death, the decay of nature, and the infirmities always attendant on this period, might teach men at leaft to reflect and to repent; that when the glafs runs low, we fhould watch every grain of fand as it flows out. But thofe who have least health and ftrength, are often more careless of it; and men of experience in the world will tell us, none are fo prodigal as bankrupts; as thought and reflection become more neceffary, they grow alfo more diftafteful; when our little ftore of days is almost exhaufted, we are afraid to look into the account, left we should difcover our poverty, and, like fick men, would fhun the mirror which too faithfully points out their decay, and makes them ftartle at their own deformity.

If fuch there be, and fuch there doubtlefs are amongst us, dangerous indeed is their condition. Where the disease of vice has grown to fuch a malignancy, and become habitual to the conftitution, common medicines have not the power to act; the ufual remedies are applied in vain. The grace of God indeed may intervene, may fave our eyes from tears, and

our

our feet from falling into everlafting deftruction. If we can once ftrike out of the paths of vice, and turn into the road of virtue, a wil ling mind will carry us a great way on in a very little time, and it is never too late to begin to be happy. In youth, therefore, in manhood, and in age, in every fhort portion of this uncertain ftate, let us now and then reflect on our condition, let us number our days, and apply our hearts unto wisdom. Short as our lives are, and uncertain as their end, yet are we none of us without warning given. For what, I befeech you, are the calamities, what are the diseases and the deaths of our friends, but angels fent to us from the Almighty, on a meffage of love and tendernefs fent, for our warning and for our inftruction. What, indeed, are all those friendly admonitions of our approaching diffolution which God gives us, but the ftrongeft proofs of his unbounded and unfpeakable mercy towards us! to wean our affections from things below, by rendering life day by day lefs defirable. Every year steals away fomething from us: in one we lofe a relation, in the next a friend; health grows more precarious, and pleasure lefs alluring, till by degrees the whole little mafs of happiness we had been gathering drops from us infenfibly; and that grave which we had once looked on with fo much horror, becomes at laft our refuge and our shelter. Surely, then, to change these kind admonitions, these paternal chastisements defigned to restrain our follies, and engage us in the practice of virtue, into incentives of

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vice, and allurements to fin and wickedness, is a mark of the greateft depravity which human nature is capable of falling into. There are men who reverfe the excellent precept of my text, who number their days, that they may apply their hearts not unto wifdom, but unto folly; let us eat and drink, fay they, for to-morrow we die. Come, let us enjoy the good things that are prefent, being extinguished, our bodies fhall be turned into afhes, and our Spirit fhall vanifh as the foft air. Let us fill ourselves with coftly wine, and let no flower of the Spring pafs by us; let us crown ourselves with rofe-buds before they be withered. Thus the terrors of death, and the dark profpect of the grave, inftead of exciting us to a ferious preparation for them, only ferve as foils to fet off the charms of pleafure, which are already but too engaging.

But what unmanly, what low and irrational pleasure will not men ftoop to, the better to fhake off the infufferable load of time! How induftrious have we grown of late in filling up every vacuity, left a moment's thought or reflection fhould drop into our cup of folly, andembitter the whole draught! Whence arifes the plentiful field diverfions, the gaudy fhifting fcene of entertainments, which the fashionable world is every day employed in? It is not that we are richer, happier, or wifer than our ancestors; no, it is the direct contrary; it is because we are poorer, fillier, and more miferable. Our large stock is reduced to a morfel, and penury has made us careless of it; we are poor, and to forget our

poverty,

poverty, we lavifh away the fmall remainder. Vicious, and that we may not reflect that we are fo, we plunge deeper into vice; we are, in short, as extravagant as if we were rich, and just as gay as if we were innocent. In this manner we go on, forgetful of the great business and defign for which we were created, in a continual round of fatal and deftructive pleafures. Though life is every day changing, the change is unperceived; though we are every hour approaching nearer to the grave, yet the defcent is fo gradual, the decay fo imperceptible, that we scarce know we are going down hill, till we are almoft at the bottom: till age and infirmity, thofe unwelcome meffengers, come to inform us of a difagreeable truth we are very loth to give credit to; whilft inftead of purfuing our journey, like thoughtful travellers, we turn afide into every by-path that invites us, and let our eyes wander after every object that can amuse them; the day closes in; night comes upon us on a fudden, and we are quickly fwallowed up in darkness and the fhadow of death. When the estate indeed is almost spent, then nothing appears fo amiable as frugality; when we are just upon the point of lofing our treasure, we begin to know the value of it; we repent too late, and then would fain ftep back, as it were, to do that great bufiness which we had all our lives neglected. O that men would therefore be wife! that they would confider their latter end! Delay is a fubtile and dangerous thief, which cheats us both of present and future happiness. Let us,

then,

then, redeem the time; not idly throw away our youth, our health, and our fpirits on idle amufements, and leave the vaft concerns of eternity to the mercies of a moment. Let us confider, that though God hath promifed pardon to our repentance, he hath not alfo promised life till we repent. We have much to do, and but little, very little time to do it in. Let us count over our small ftock, and hufband it with the utmoft caution, ever remembering that idle hours, as well as idle words, muft one day be accounted for; and that heaven is not referved for the flothful and indolent, but for thofe only, who work out their own falvation. Let us not flatter ourfelves that, because the debt of nature is not yet required of us, we are therefore entirely discharged of it: though we cannot tell the time, the time will infallibly come; but of that day and hour knoweth no man.

What remains, then, but that we bid adieu to our fins, that we break their bonds afunder, and caft away their cords from us; now that we have time, now that we have health, vigour and activity, before thofe days come when we shall fay, we have no pleafure in them. Let us employ our time, then, in the fervice of God, and of our fellow-creatures, that at the laft and great day, thofe fellow-creatures may intreat for us, and that God reward us. Let us fpend our youth in the fearch of truth, and our riper years in the practice of it. To conclude, let us alfo number our days in this world, that they may be crowned with glory and happiness in that which is

to come.

SERMON

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