SERM. tue is acquired in an instant, but by degrees, step by step; XLVII. from the feeds of right inftruction and good refolution it

springs up, and grows forward by a continual progrefs of customary practice; it is a child of patience, a fruit of Rom. ii. 7. perfeverance, that úroμový egys άyadoũ, enduring in doing well, St. Paul speaks of, and confequently a work of time; for enduring implies a good space of time. Having therefore fo much to do, and of fo great concernment, and fo little a portion of time for it, it behoves us to be careful in the improvement of what time is allowed us; to embrace all opportunities and advantages offered; to go the nearest way, to use the best compendiums in the tranfaction, of our business; not to be slothful and negligent, but active and intent about it; (for as time is diminished, and in part loft by floth or flacknefs; fo it is enlarged, and, as it were, multiplied by industry; my day is two in respect of his, who doeth but half my work:) not, alfo, to confume our time in fruitless pastimes, and curious entertainments of fancy; being idly busy about impertinences and trifles; (we call it sport, but it is a serious damage to us;) not to immerse ourselves in multiplicities of needlefs care about fecular matters, which may diftract us, and bereave us of fit leifure for our great employment; that which our SaLuke x. 40.viour calls тupbágeσdai πepì noλλà, to keep a great deal of do and ftir (to be jumbled about as it were, and confounded) about many things; and, περισπᾶσθαι περὶ πολλὴν διακονίαν, to be distracted and perplexed about much cumbersome service; 1 Tim. ii. which St. Paul calls περιπλέκεσθαι ταῖς τοῦ βία πραγματείαις, to be implicated and entangled, as in a net, with the negociations of this prefent life; fo that we shall not be expedite, or free to beftir ourselves about our more weighty affairs. The spending much time about thofe things doth fteal it from these; yea doth more than so, by discompofing our minds fo that we cannot well employ what time remains upon our fpiritual concernments. But efpecially we should not prostitute our time upon vicious projects and practices; doing which is not only a prodigality of the present time, but an abridgment of the future; it not only doth not, promote or set forward our business,

4.

but brings it backward, and makes us more work than we SERM. had before; it is a going in a way directly contrary to our XLVII. journey's end. The Scripture aptly refembles our life to a wayfaring, a condition of travel and pilgrimage: now he that hath a long journey to make, and but a little time of day to pass it in, must in reason strive to set out soon, and then to make good speed; must proceed on directly, making no ftops or deflections, (not calling in at every fign that invites him, not standing to gaze at every object seeming new or strange to him; not staying to talk with every passenger that meets him; but rather avoiding all occafions of diverfion and delay,) left he be surprised by the night, be left to wander in the dark, be excluded finally from the place whither he tends: fo muft we, in our course toward heaven and happiness, take care that we fet out foon, (procrastinating no time, but beginning instantly to infist in the ways of piety and virtue,) then proceed on speedily, and perfift conftantly; nowhere staying or loitering, fhunning all impediments and avocations from our progress, left we never arrive near, or come too late unto the gate of heaven. St. Peter tells us, that the end of all things doth approach, and thereupon advises us to be fober, and to watch unto prayer; for that the lefs our 1 Pet. iv. 7. time is, the more intent and induftrious it concerns us to be. And St. Paul enjoins us to redeem the time, because Eph. v. 15. the days are evil; that is, fince we can enjoy no true quiet or comfort here, we should improve our time to the best advantage for the future: he might have alfo adjoined, with the patriarch Jacob, the paucity of the days to their badnefs; because the days of our life are few and evil, let Gen. xlvii. us redeem the time; man that is born of a woman is of 9. few days, and full of trouble: fo few indeed they are, that it is fit we should lofe none of them, but ufe them all in preparation toward that great change we are to make; that fatal paffage out of this ftrait time into that boundless eternity. So, it seems, we have Job's example of doing; All the days, fays he, of my appointed time will I wait, till Job xiv. 14. my change come. I end this point with that fo comprehenfive warning of our Saviour: Take heed to yourselves, 34.

Job xiv. 1.

Luke xxi.

SERM. left at any time your hearts be overcharged with furfeiting, XLVII. and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and fo that day come

upon you unawares. Watch ye therefore, and pray, that ye may be counted worthy to escape-and to ftand before the Son of man.

V. I fhall adjoin but one use more, to which this confideration may be fubfervient, which is, that it may help to beget and maintain in us (that which is the very heart and foul of all goodness) fincerity: fincerity in all kinds, in our thoughts, words, and actions. To keep us from harbouring in our breafts fuch thoughts, as we would be afraid or ashamed to own; from speaking otherwise than we mean, than we intend to do, than we are ready any where openly to avow; from endeavouring to seem what we are not; from being one thing in our expreffions and converfations with men; another in our hearts, or in our closets: from acting with oblique refpects to private interefts or paffions, to human favour or cenfure; (in matters, I mean, where duty doth intervene, and where pure confcience ought to guide and govern us;) from making profeffions and oftentations, (void of substance, of truth, of knowledge, of good purpose,) great femblances of peculiar fanctimony, integrity, fcrupulofity, fpirituality, refinednefs, like thofe Pharifees fo often therefore taxed in the Gofpel; as alfo from palliating, as those men did, defigns of ambition, avarice, envy, animofity, revenge, perverse humour, with pretences of zeal and conicience. We fhould indeed strive to be good (and that in all real strictness, aiming at utmost perfection) in outward act and appearance, as well as in heart and reality, for the glory of Rom, xii. God and example of men, (providing things honeft in the fight of all men ;) but we must not shine with a falfe luftre, nor care to seem better than we are, nor intend to ferve ourselves in seeming to ferve God; bartering spiritual commodities for our own glory or gain. For fince the Rom. ii. 16. day approaches when God will judge (τà xguæтà år‡gúñwv) Eccl. xii. the things men do fo ftudiously conceal; when God shall bring every work into judgment, with every fecret thing, 2 Cor. y. whether it be good or whether it be evil; fince we must all

17.

14.

ἁπλῶς δεῖ,

2, 3.

appear (or rather be all made apparent, be manifefted and SERM. discovered) at the tribunal of Chrift: fince there is nothing XLVII. covered, which shall not be revealed, nor hid, that shall not be oi yàg zaknown; fo that whatever is spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed on the houfetops: fince at length, and that within a very short time, (no man knows how foon,) the viva. Chryfoft. whispers of every mouth (the clofeft murmurs of detrac- Luke xii. tion, flander, and sycophantry) fhall become audible to every ear; the abftrufeft thoughts of all hearts (the clofeft malice and envy) fhall be disclosed in the most public theatre before innumerable spectators; the truth of all pretences fhall be thoroughly examined; the just merit of every person and every cause shall with a most exact fcrutiny be scanned openly in the face of all the world; to what purpose can it be to juggle and baffle for a time; for a few days (perhaps for a few minutes) to abuse or to amuse those about us with crafty diffimulation or deceit? Is it worth the pains to devise plaufible shifts, which fhall inftantly, we know, be detected and defeated; to bedaub foul defigns with a fair varnish, which death will presently wipe off; to be dark and cloudy in our proceedings, whenas a clear day (that will certainly difpel all darknefs and scatter all mists) is breaking in upon us; to make vizors for our faces, and cloaks for our actions, whenas we must very shortly be expofed, perfectly naked and undisguised, in our true colours, to the general view of angels and men? Heaven fees at prefent what we think and do, and our confcience cannot be wholly ignorant or infenfible; nor can earth itself be long unacquainted therewith. Is it not much better, and more eafy (fince it requires no pains or study) to act ourfelves, than to accommodate ourfelves to other unbefeeming and undue parts; to be upright in our intentions, consistent in our discourses, plain in our dealings, following the fingle and uniform guidance of our reason and confcience, than to fhuffle and shift, wandering after the various, uncertain, and inconftant opinions or humours of men? What matter is it, what clothes we wear, what garb we appear in, during this posture of travel and fojourning here; what for the pre

SERM. fent we go for; how men esteem us, what they think of XLVII. our actions? St. Paul at least did not much stand upon it; 1 Cor. iv. 3. for, with me, faid he, it is a very small thing (ẻλáx150v, the

13.

least thing that can come under confideration) to be judged of you, or of human day, (that is, of this present tranfitory, fallible, reversible judgment of men.) If we mean well and do righteously, our confcience will at present satisfy us, and the divine (unerring and impartial) sentence will hereafter acquit us; no unjuft or uncharitable cenfure fhall prejudice us: if we entertain bafe defigns, and deal unrighteously, as our confcience will accuse and vex us here, fo God will fhortly condemn and punish us; neither shall the most favourable conceit of men ftand us in ftead.

1 Cor. iii. Every man's work fhall become manifeft, for the day shall declare it; because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire (that is, a fevere and ftrict inquiry) fhall try every man's work, of what fort it is. I cannot infist more on this point; I fhall only fay, that, confidering the brevity and uncertainty of our prefent ftate, the greatest fimplicity may justly be deemed the trueft wifdom; that who deceives others, doth cozen himself moft; that the deepest policy, ufed to compafs or to conceal bad defigns, will in the end appear the most downright folly.

Τῦτο ἔχει ἡ τελειότης το

σαν ἡμέραν

I might add to the precedent discourses, that PhiloTo T. fophy itself hath commended this confideration as a progar huipa per and powerful inftrument of virtue, reckoning the pracTuía diğú- tice thereof a main part of wisdom; the greatest proficient y. Anton. therein in common efteem, Socrates, having defined phi

ὡς τελευ

ib. vii.

lofophy, or the study of wisdom, to be nothing else but μsλéty daváte, the study of death; intimating also, (in Plato's Phædon,) that this study, the meditation of death, and preparation of his mind to leave this world, had been the conftant and chief employment of his life: that likewise, according to experience, nothing more avails to render the minds of men fober and well compofed, than fuch spectacles of mortality, as do impress this confideration upon them. For whom doth not the fight of a coffin, or of a grave gaping to receive a friend, perhaps, or an ancient acquaintance; however a man in nature and state altoge