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IX.

any wife favour our fiery zeals, fierce paffions, or s ER M. unjust partialities about matter of opinion and cere mony, or can do otherwife than deteft all factious, harsh, uncharitable, and revengeful proceedings, of what nature, or upon what ground foever; or that he can be fo inconfiftent with himfelf, as to approve any thing but what is like himself, that is, righteoufnefs, fincerity, and beneficence.

viii. 35

Laftly, wifdom attracts the favour of God, purchaseth a glorious reward, and fecureth perpetual felicity to us. For God loveth none but him that dwell-wif.vii. 28. eth with wisdom. And, Glorious is the fruit of goodii. 15. labour and the root of wisdom shall never fall away. And, Happy is the man that findeth wisdom: and, Prov. iii. Whofo findeth her, findeth life, and shall obtain favour of 13. the Lord. Thefe are the words of wife Solomon, in the book of Wisdom, and in the Proverbs. God loveth her, as most agreeable to his nature; as refembling him; as an offspring, beam, and efflux of that wildom which founded the earth, and established the heavens; as that which begetteth honour, love, and obedience to his commands, and truly glorifies him; and as that which promotes the good of his creatures, which he earnestly defires. And the paths the leads in are fuch as directly tend to the promited inheritance of joy and blifs.

Thus have I fimply and plainly prefented you with part of what my meditation fuggefted upon this fubject; it remains that we endeavour to obtain this excellent endowment of foul, by the faithful exercise of our reason, careful obfervation of things, diligent ftudy of the divine law, watchful reflection upon ourselves, virtuous and religious practice; but efpecially, by imploring the divine influence, the original fpring of light, and fountain of all true knowledge, following St. James's advice: If any man lack wifdom, let him afk it of God, who giveth freely. Therefore, O everlasting Wisdom, the Maker, Redeemer, and Governor of all things, let fome com

fortable

SER M. fortable beams from thy great body of heavenly IX. light defcend upon us, to illuminate our dark minds,

and quicken our dead hearts; to inflame us with ardent love unto thee, and to direct our fteps in obedience to thy laws, through the gloomy fhades of this world, into that region of eternal light and bliss, where thou reignest in perfect glory and majesty, one God ever bleffed, world without end. Amen.

SERMON

SERMON X.

The Confideration of our latter End.

PSAL. XC. 12.

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

T

X.

HIS Pfalm is upon feveral peculiar accounts S ER M. very remarkable; for its antiquity, in which it perhaps doth not yield to any parcel of Scripture; for the eminency of its author, Mofes, the man of God, the greatest of the ancient Prophets (most in favour, and, as it were, moft intimate with God): it is also remarkable for the form and matter thereof, both affording much useful inftruction. In it we have a great prince, the governor of a numerous people, fequeftering his mind from the management of publick affairs to private meditations; from beholding the present outward appearances, to confidering the real nature and fecret caufes of things; in the midst of all the fplendour and pomp, of all the ftir and tumult about him, he obferves the frailty of human condition, he difcerns the providence of God juftly ordering all; this he does not only in way of wife confideration, but of ferious devotion,

moulding

X.

SER M. moulding his obfervations into pious acknowledgments and earnest prayers to God: thus while he cafts one eye upon earth viewing the occurrences there, lifting up the other to heaven, there feeing God's all governing hand, thence feeking his gracious favour and mercy. Thus doth here that great and good man teach us all (more particularly men of high eftate and much bufinefs) to find opportunities of withdrawing their thoughts from those things, which commonly amuse them (the cares, the glories, the pleasures of this world), and fixing them upon matters more improvable to devotion; the tranfitorinets of their condition, and their fubjection to God's juft providence; joining alfo to thefe meditations fuitable acts of religion, due acknowledgments to God, and humble prayers. This was his practice among the greatest encumbrances that any man could have; and it fhould alfo be ours. Of thofe his devotions, addreffed to God, the words are part, which I have chofen for the fubject of my meditation and present difcourfe; concerning the meaning of which I fhall firft touch fomewhat; then propound that obfervable in them, which I defign to infift upon.

4.

The Prophet David hath in the 39th Pfalm a prayer very near in words, and of kin, it feems, in Pfal. xxxix. fenfe to this here; Lord, prays he, make me to know my end, and the measure of my days, what it is, that I may know how frail I am concerning the drift of which place, as well as of this here, it were obvious to conceive that both thefe Prophets do request of God, that he would difcover to them the definite term of their life (which by his decree he had fixed, or however by his univerfal prefcience he did discern; Job xiv. 5. concerning which we have thefe words in Job, Seeing man's days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou haft appointed his bounds, that he cannot pass); we might, I fay, at firit hearing, be apt to imagine, that their prayer unto God is (for the comfort

of

X.

of their mind burthened with afflictions, or for their S E R M. better direction in the management of their remaining time of life), that God would reveal unto them the determinate length of their life. But this fense, which the words feem fo naturally to hold forth, is by many of the Fathers rejected, for that the knowledge of our lives' determinate measure is not a fit matter of prayer to God; that being a fecret referved by God to himself, which to enquire into favours of prefumptuous curiofity: the univerfal validity of which reafon I will not debate; but shall defer fo much to their judgment, as to fuppofe that the numbering of our days (according to their fenfe) doth here only imply a confufed indefinite computation of our days' number, or the length of our life; fuch as, upon which it may appear, that neceffarily our life cannot be long (not, according to the account mentioned in this Pfalm, the fame with that of Solon in Herodotus, above 70 or 80 years, efpecially as to purposes of health, ftrength, content); will probably, by reafon of various accidents, to which it is exposed, be much shorter (7 or 10 years, according to a moderate efteem); may poffibly, from furprises undiscoverable, be very near to its period; by few inftants removed from death (a year, a month, a day, it may be fomewhat lefs). This I fhall allow to be the arithmetick that Mofes here defires to learn; whence it doth follow, that teaching (or making to know, fo it is in the Hebrew) doth import here (as it doth otherwhere frequently in Scripture) God's affording the grace to know practically, or with ferious regard to confider this state and measure of our life (*for in fpeculation no man can be ignorant of human lives' brevity and uncer

* Οὐ γάρ ἐσι φρένας ἔχοντος ἀνθρώπε ἀγνοεῖν ὅτι ἄνθρωπος ζῶον ἐςὶ θνη τὸν ἐ δ ̓ ὅτι γέγονεν εἰς τὸ ἀποθανεῖν. Plut. ad Apoll. p. 202.

Quis eft tam ftultus, quamvis fit adolefcens, cui fit exploratum. fe vel ad vefperum effe victurum. Cic. de Sen.

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tainty;

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