When Men converfe much in this World, and are diftracted with the Cares and Bufinefs of it: When they live in a Crowd of Cuftomers or Clients, and are hurried from their Shops to the Exchange or Custom-Houfe, or from their Chambers to the Bar; and when they haye difcharged one Obligation, are preffed hard by another, that at Night they have hardly Spirits left to fay their Prayers; nor any Time for them in the Morning; and the Lord's Day itself is thought more proper for Reft and Refreshment than Devotion: I fay, what dull, cold Apprehenfions muft fuch Men have of another World? And after all the Care we can take, how will this World infinuate itself into our Affections,› when it employs our Time and Thoughts; when our whole Bufinefs is buying and felling, and driving good Bargains, and making Conveyances and Settlements of Eftates? How will this diforder our Paffions, occafion Feuds and Quarrels, give us a Tincture of Pride, Ambition, Covetoufnefs? That there is Work enough after a bufy Life, even for very good Men to wath out thefe Stains and Pollutions, and to get the Tafte and Relifh of this World out of their Mouths, and to revive and quicken the Senfe of God, and of another World.

This is a fufficient Rea on for fuch Men, as I obferv'd before, to think when it is Time to leave off, and if not wholly to withdraw from the World, yet to contract their Bufinefs, and to have the Command of it, that they may have more Leifure to take care of their Souls, before they have fo near á Call and Summons to Death; but much more neceffary is it, when Death is even at the Door, and. by the Course of Nature we know that it is fo.

It is very proper to leave the World, before we are removed out of it, that we may know how to live without it, that we may not carry any Hankerings

H 4

kerings after this World with us into the next; and therefore it is very fitting, that there fhould be a kind of middle State between this World and the next that is, That we fhould withdraw from this World, and wean ourselves from it, even while we are in it; which will make it more eafy to part with this World, and make us more fit to go to the next. But it seems ftrangely undecent, unless the Neceffities of their Families, or the Neceffities of the Public call for it, and exact it, to see Men who are just a going out of the World, who, it may be, bow as much under their Riches, as under their Age, plunging themselves over Head and Ears in this World, courting new Honours and Preferments, with as much Zeal as those who are but entering into the World. It is to be fear'd, fuch Men think very little of another World, and will never be fatisfy'd with Earth, till they are buried in it.

SECT. IV.

What Ufe to make of the Shortness of human Life.

II.

A

S the general Period of human Life is fix'd and determined by God, fo this Term of Life, at the utmoft Extent of it, is but very short. For what are threefcore and ten, or fourfcore Years? How foon do they pafs away like a Dream, and when they are gone, How few and empty do they appear? The best way to be fenfible of this, is not to look forward; for we fancy Time to come, to be much longer than we find it; but to look backward upon the Time which is paft, and as long as we can remember; And how fuddenly are thirty or forty Years gone? How little do we remember how they are paft? But gone they are, and the rest are going apace, while we eat and

drink, and fleep; and when they are gone too, we fhall be fenfible, that all together was but very fhort, Now from hence I thall obferve several things, of very great Ufe for the Government of our Lives.

1. If our Lives be fo very short, it concerns us to lofe none of our Time: For does it become us to be prodigal of our Time, when we have fo little of it? We either ought to make as much of our Lives as we can, or not complain that they are fhort; for that is a greater Reproach to ourselves, than to the Order of Nature, and the Providence of God: For, it seems, we have more Time than we care to live in, more than we think neceffary to improve to the true Ends and Purposes of living; and if we can fpare fo much of our Lives, it feems they are too long for us, how fhort foever they are in themfelves. And when our Lives are too long already for the Generality of Mankind to improve wifely, Why should God give us more Time to play with, and to fquander away? And yet let us all reflect upon ourselves, and confider, how much of our Lives we have perfectly loft, how careless we have been of our Time, which is the most precious Thing in the World; how we have given it to every body that will take it, and given away fo much of ourfelves, and our own Being with it.

Should Men fit down, and take a Review of their Lives, and draw up a particular Account of the Expence of their Time, after they came to Years of Difcretion and Understanding, what a fhameful Bill would it be? What unreasonable Abatements of Life? How little Time would there be at the Foot of the Account, which might be called living?

So much extraordinary for eating and drinking, and fleeping, beyond what the Support and

Refresh

Refreshment of Nature requir'd; fo much in Courtship, Wantonnefs and Luft; fo much in Drinking and Revelling; fo much for the Recovery of the laft Night's Debauch; fo much in Gaming and Mafquerades; fo much in paying and receiving formal and impertinent Vifits, in idle and extravagant Difcourfes, in cenfuring and reviling our Neighbours, or our Governors; fo much in dreifing and adorning our Bodies; so many blank and long Parentheses of Life, wafted in doing nothing, or in counting the flow and. tedious Minutes, or chiding the Sun for making no more hafte down, and delaying their Evening Affignations. But how little would there appear in moft Mens Account, fpent to the true End of living?

The very naming of thefe Things is fufficient to convince any confidering Man, that this is really a mifpending of Time, and a flinging away great Part of a very fhort Life to no Purpofe: But to make you all fenfible of this, confider with me, when we may be faid to lose our Time; for Time paffes away very fwiftly, and we can no more hold it, than we can stop the Chariot-Wheels of the Sun: But all Time that is paft, is not loft; indeed no Time is our own, but what is paft or prefent; and its being paft makes it never the lefs our own, if ever it were fo. But then we lofe our Time,

1. When it turns to no account to us when it is gone; when we are never the better for it in Body or Soul. This is the true way of judging, by our own Senfe and Feeling, whether we have fpent our Time well or ill, by obferving what Relish it leaves upon our Minds, and what the Effects of it are, when it is paft: How vainly foever Men spend their Time, they find fome

Pleasure

Pleasure and Diverfion, and Entertainment in it, while it lafts, but the next Morning it is all vanished, as their Night Dreams are; and if they are not the worfe for it, they find themfelves. never the better. And this is a certain Sign, that our Time was vainly and foolishly fpent; that when it is gone, it can be brought into no Account of our Lives, but that of idle. Expences. Whatever is good, whateyer is in any Degree ufeful, leaves fome Satisfaction when it is gone; and Time fo spent, we can place to our Account, and all fuch Time is not loft: But Men who fpend one Day after another in Mirth and Jollity, and Entertainments, in Vifits or Gaming, &c. can give no other Account of it, but that it is a pleafant Way of fpending. Time. And that is the true Name for it, not living, but fpending Time, which they know not how otherwife to pafs away; when their Time is fpent, they have all they intended, and their Enjoyments pafs away with their Time, and there is an End of both; and it were fomewhat more tolerable, if they themselves could end with their Time too. But when Men muft out-live Time, and the Effects of Time muft laft to Eternity, that Time, which if it have no ill, yet has no good Effects more lafting than itfelf, is utterly loft.

2dly. To be fure that Time is doubly loft which wecannot review without Amazement and Horror; I mean, in which we have contracted fome great Guilt, which we have not only fpent vainly, but wickedly, which we ourselves with had never been, which we defire to forget, and could be glad that both God and Men could forget it too. For is not that loft Time which lofes us, which undoes us, which diftracts us with guitly. Fears, which we could give all the World we could lofe

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