fand Artificial Amufements, which Softness and Luxury, Vanity and Idlenefs have found out to beguile the Time, make commonly fuch Impreffions on them, that Religion and the thoughts of another World are laid afide, as melancholy Imployments that damp their Spirits and fink their Mirth, and gives a mighty check to their Senfual Liberty. It is a handfome Defcription given us by the Author of the Book of Wisdom of the fenfe of fuch. Come on, let us enjoy the Chap. 2. good things that are prefent, and let us Speedily ufe the Creatures as in Youth; let us fill our felves with coftly Wine, and let no Flower of the Spring pass by us; let us Crown our felves with Rofe buds before they be withered; let none of us go without his part of Voluptuousness, let us leave Tokens of our Joyfulness in every place, for this is our Portion, and our Lot is this. Which Words are a part of the Defcription of the Voluptuous Atheist, and fuits but too well with the fenfe of our Modern Voluptuaries; who, although they may profefs to believe a God and another World, are yet very unwilling, to have their Thoughts interrupted with any

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any serious Reflections: I don't deny but Men may fometimes take the liberty

of Innocent Diverfions; for God, who gave us our Bodies and natural Appetites, never defigned to debar us of a reafonable Freedom and Ufe of them, nor does our Religion tye us up, with a touch not, tafte not, handle not, no! all that I affert is this, that too fond an Appetite to fenfible Pleasures, too great an Indulgence of bodily Ease and Diverfions, are inconfiftent with the Love of God and Religion, and unbecoming thofe that are Profeffors of Chriftianity, who are to walk by Faith, and not altogether by Senfe.

And thus I have briefly confidered, the common and chief Obftacles to this Duty of numbring our Days. It remains now, in the fourth and laft place, that I fhow the great Neceffity and Obligation we are under to perform this Duty, To number our Days, and apply our Hearts unto Heavenly Wisdom; and this I hope to make appear from the following Particulars. First, From the Confideration of the great and real value of Time in it felf. Secondly, The great lofs that every Man does fuftain and fuffer of

it in this Life. Thirdly, The great Recompence that is promifed for the well spent Remainder of it.

And first the Neceffity and Obligation of numbering our Days appears from this Confideration, The great and real value of Time in it felf. Among that variety of Bleffings which Almighty God hath given us in this Life, to make it ufeful and comforta ble to us, that of our Time is not the leaft; for by this it is, that we poffefs and enjoy all our Priviledges and Benefits. It is this that mea fures out our Life, our Health, our Profperity, and our Pleasure; and indeed there is nothing we can fet our felves about, but muft come within the compaís and Dimenfions of it. How then can we be too careful and provident of that Time, or fet too great a price on that Bleffing, without which all our other Bleffings muft cease and vanish? That Bleffing which God confers on us in fuch proportions, as, if duly confidered, muft enhance and raise our Efteem of it. Many we fee enjoy abundance of other Bleffings together, Health, Riches, Profperity, &c, and if any them fhould fail, they may again be estored,

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reftored; but never did any Man poffefs two Minutes of time together; he must enjoy the one with the lofs of the other, and with fuch a lofs as is not to be recovered, never to be retriev'd and yet tho' it be thus, alafs! how prodigal and profufe are too many of their Time, as if they had an entire command of it, or it were abfolutely at their difpofal? How frequently do they iavifh away thofe precious Minutes in Sin and Folly, Vanity and Idlenefs, as if they had Eternity in their own Hands? From hence then, we may learn, the neceffity of numbering our Days, viz. from the real value of that precious talent of Time whereof they are compofed, and which divine Providence meafureth out to us in unequal Proportions, to teach us the uncertainty of our Lives, and the certainty of Mortality.

Again, a fecond Confideration towards the performance of this Duty, is the great lofs of Time that every Man doth fuftain, and muft fuffer in this World: If we fhould fuppofe our Life to be long, which I have already fhewn to be fhort, yet

this must be granted, That several large portions of that Time, are utterly loft as to the great Bufinefs, for which God created us. How many Scenes, and Stages of Life, do we pafs through, before we arrive to maturity, and are capable to think, to any good purpofes, of the great End of our Creation? when we are first born, we continue a long while in the ftate of Infancy and Childhood, fo feeble and impotent, that we are able then to do nothing almoft, without Direction and Affiftance of others ; the next Stage that we proceed to is Youth, an Age that is very much imploy'd in Education and Difcipline, or in fervile and manual Occupations; then we advance at length perhaps to a state of Manhood, and here our Time is variously engaged, in the Affairs, Cuftoms, Fashions and Pleasures of the World; and all thefe Periods of our Life, are in a great measure fpent in weak and fruitlefs Performances; to which, if we add the portions of Time that, are confumed in our daily Refreshments, and other decent and needful Concernments for the Body, befides the time that is

taken