The confideration of these particulars may be of great use to us all.

To those who are truly concerned for the happiness of another life, it will be matter of great comfort to confider, that short as their time is, yet by the favour of God, it is long enough to fit them for everlasting happiness.

To thofe who have spent their time well, it will be great fatisfaction to look back upon the years that are paft, and to fee that they have not quite misfpent a life, which at best is but short.

And lastly, to those who have but seldom thought of these matters, it may be of use to be put in mind, that here is one year more of a fhort life paffed over their heads; that the next, for ought they know, may be their last; and that it will be much for their advantage to begin a new year and a new life together. To come therefore to the matter before us.

Cuftom and civil refpect lead us, on this day, to wish one another an happy new year. But religion would have us to improve this ceremony to better purposes. To confider, for example, that the beginning of this year has put an end to another year: for which, and for all the time which we have spent, we are accountable to God. That it is, to us, utterly uncertain what this year, which we are now entering upon, may bring forth. But that this we are very fure of-within a few years, we, and all men now living, shall be in

another

another world, in a state of eternity, either of happiness or misery; and for ought we know, this great change may happen to you, or me -to be fure, to fome of us-before the end of this very year we are now entering upon.

Thus you fee, that the very mentioning of a new year will naturally put us upon many ferious thoughts.

To affift your meditations, therefore, I will put you in mind of a few particulars, which the words of the text will furnish us with; that you may make a good use of the day, and the season, which God has put into your power.

For the present day only, we may call our own; that which is paft is not to be recalled, and that which is to come, is in the hand of God, to give or to deny it us, as he thinks fit.

The particulars, therefore, which I would defire you to consider along with me, are these: I. Let us confider that our days are few, and therefore our time is precious.

And is not this acknowledged by us all, and complained of as a great misfortune,—That our lives are fhort; that we are no fooner come into the world, and to years of difcretion, but we are immediately called upon to prepare to go out of it; and that whether we are prepared or not, leave it we must, either with or against our wills? Yes; all this is acknowledged, and there would be no need of fpeaking of the shortnefs of our lives, but that

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the greater part of us live as if we did not really believe what we fo frequently acknowledge and complain of.

It would not become one (who himself has too many) to expofe the infirmities of mankind; but it is neceffary that we should not deceive ourselves, while we pretend to set a value upon that which in truth we do not regard.

If a man is very much concerned to prolong his life; if he spares no money, neglects no advice, confults his friends and physicians, and all this to add a few days to the number of his years; all this would look as if we did really value our time, and think it so short, that all coft and pains are too little that are bestowed upon prolonging it to its utmost period.

But do men indeed count their time precious? That will beft be feen by confidering how they use it while they have it; for if a man who takes great care of himself in the time of fickness, as foon as he recovers, fhall run into new disorders; if a man while he is under the apprehenfions of death, laments the shortness of his days, as having but a few to pend to any good purposes; if fuch a person, when he is out of fuch fears and danger, shall live at all adventures, and return again to his follies; it is a fign that he values a long life, not for any wife purposes; but to spend it upon his lufts.

Thus

Thus the worldling and covetous man complains of the shortnefs of life, because he has but a few years to get a great eftate in. The drunkard thinks that time paffes away, and that death is haftening on to interrupt his pleasures. And even those that are now careless, and have so much time upon their hands that they do not know how to spend it, will one day think it very fhort, when they come to confider how little ufe they have made of it.

And now you see the reason why men call time previous, and think life very short: Not that they would make good use of it, were it ten times as long; but that they might have more time,-one to idle and faunter away his life in vanity and trifles; another to leave a greater estate than a bleffing to his pofterity; another would have more time that he may fpend it upon his lufts. Some with a long life, that they may enjoy the eftates their anceftors have left them; others, that they may fpend them, and leave none to their pofterity. Those that are in eafy circumstances think life too short, and defire to live longer, that they may have all the good that this world can afford; and those that are poor and in want, would live longer to fee an end to their miferies, and a change for the better.

In fhort; all agree in this,-That our days are few, and our time precious; and but too few confider the true end of life, or refolve to make the best use of so precious a thing.

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If our days were fo many that we could not number them, a man would have some excuse, though he should fling fome of them away upon vanity and nothing; but when he that can count threefcore and ten, or fourfcore, can number the years of the longest life, it should not seem to be great wisdom to lose much of our time without confidering what may come hereafter.

If our days are but a fpan long, we may better fee to the end of them; and it is unpardonable not to confider our latter end, when we are complaining of it, as coming too fast upon us.

It was, perhaps, the long lives of those before the flood, that made them fo wicked as to deferve to be deftroyed by a general deluge. They reckoned upon four or five hundred years at least, and death at fuch a distance did not affect them with what must follow: they kept far from them the evil day, till at laft they forgot that such a time was ever to come, and this made them fecure and wicked beyond example. But for us to know and confefs that our days are few, and that we are, within a very short space of time, to leave this world, and to give an account of what we have done here, and yet to have no more concern upon our fpirits than if we were never to die, is fomewhat unaccountable: and if we complain of the shortness of our lives, and yet make no better use of them,

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