the place, the felicity and joys of that state and government, the excellency of the com pany, the glory of the discoveries made there, the noble employment that takes them up, and the eternity and immutability of all thefe.. Think then upon these few hints, my friends (where there are almost as many fubjects as words), and ye can never want matter for your thoughts to work upon. And now, feeing all our ftudy and meditation must be so managed, that we may receive fome real and abiding advantage, let us ever call ourselves to a ferious and impartial account as to the fpending of our time; for how can we fatisfy ourselves, without converfing with our own fouls, in order to know how it is with them? And how can we attain to know ourselves, if we never examine and try how it is with us? If merchants and men of bufinefs are fo careful to fet down every thing in their journals and books of account, that they may be able exactly to balance what they call their debit and credit, their loffes and gains; ought not Christians to mind their eternal concerns with the like exactness and accuracy? How wonderfully does Seneca speak on this head, when he tells us, us, that in imitation of one Sextius, whom he highly commends, he had been accustomed to examine himself every night. "When at 65 66 upon 66 66 66 night," fays he, "the candle is out, and "all is ftill and quiet, then do I look back and fearch all the day paft, by meafuring and running over all I have thought, "faid, or done. I hide nothing from myself; "I overlook and pafs by nothing. I fay to "myself, So and fo thou haft done unadvisedly; do fo no more. And again 1 afk myself, What evil have I healed? what ❝vice have I refifted? what paffion have I "moderated? what leffon have I learned? "and what good have I done? And O!" says he, "what a sweet fleep follows after "this recognition of a man's felf, when one "is conscious of his impartiality and serious"ness, in the review and censure of himself "and his own manners!" And to this purpose we find an excellent direction in the Golden Verses, as they are called, of old Pythagoras, which begin thus, μnd, &c. The fenfe of which I render thus: Before thine eyes to flumber feet give place, Survey Survey thy steps and actions all; then fay Which good? which bad? how ordered were they? Oh then, my friends, let it not be said of us that we live in the neglect of this duty, left Heathens rife up in judgment against us and condemn us. But fince we are not born for ourselves only, let us be concerned to promote the good of others alfo. Let us therefore improve time, by being useful in our stations to the church of God and good men, and to all as far as we can; for fo we are obliged, as we are members of communities, cities, and nations, and as we are inhabitants of the world. And in order to be thus useful, let us fet before ourselves the glorious example of Chrift, whofe meat and drink it was to do the will of his heavenly Father, and who always went about doing good. And therefore let us be ashamed to live as useless plants in the world, which do only cumber the ground. And in order to perform all these things aright, and fo to improve our time to the best advantage, let us be sure to spend as much of our time in prayer as poffibly we can: for P as as it is thus that we attain to most immedi ate and direct communion with God, fo it is this way that we attain to be strengthened and directed in the performance of all the duties we are obliged to be taken up in. Therefore let us remember, that it is not without just ground that we are commanded to pray always, and to pray without ceafing. The sense of which expreffions I take to be this, that as we are to keep up ftated times of folemn prayer to God, and to have recourse to him, in a more fpecial manner, upon extraordinary emergents and occurrences, in order to be peculiarly directed and affifted then from God; fo we are ever to keep ourselves, as much as poffibly we can, in a praying frame, and for this end to fill up all the vacuities of other affairs and ftudies with ejaculatory prayers and breathings. But befides all thefe things, there is one thing further that I never found any writer take notice of, that I look upon to be the principal defign of fuch expreffions: and this is, That we be careful to profecute the defign of our prayers from one time of our life to another, waiting for the anfwer of them, and improving the fame in praise, when received. e. g. If a Chriftian pray long for a full victory over fuch or fuch a temptation or luft, let him profecute this design in all his prayers until he receive an anfwer; which when he has got, let him turn this from the catalogue of his petitions to that of his thanksgivings. And fo let him act also with refpect to mercies to be received, promifes to be fulfilled, and miferies to be averted. And thus I have at length finished the first and principal rule I had to propose to you, with respect to the improvement of time in both the parts thereof. And now I am to hint to you two more, which are only fubfervient ones, though, at the fame time, worthy of your most serious thoughts. 1 es fo in The fecond rule, therefore, is this, That, in order to the right improvement and difpofal of time, we do both dedicate ou lemnly to God, ard as explicitly as ive order to spend our lives wholly in his fervice; and be concerned, in order to this, to kee a fecret and exact regifler or diary of all our own actions, and the providences of God in relation to us. But feeing I have hinted fomething in relation to both the parts of this rule in another P 2 discourse, |