It is very proper to leave the World, before we are removed out of it, that we may know how to live without it, that we may not carry any Hankerings after this World with us into the next; and therefore it is very fitting, that there should be a kind of middle State between this World and the next; that is, That we should withdraw from this World, and wean ourselves from it, even while we are in it; which will make it more easy to part with this World, and make us more fit to go to the next. But it feems ftrangely undecent, unless the Neceffities of their Families, or the Neceffities of the Publick call for it, and exact it, to fee Men who are just a going out of the World, who, it may be, bow as much under their Riches as under their Age, plunging themselves over Head and Ears in this World, courting new Honours and Preferments, with as much Zeal as those who are but entering into the World. It is to be fear'd, fuch Men think very little of another World, and will never be fatisfy'd with Earth, 'till they are buried in it.

SECT. IV.

What Use to make of the Shortness of human

II.

A

Life

S the general Period of human Life is fix'd and determined by God, fo this Term of Life, at the utmoft Extent of

it, is but very fhort. For what are threefcore and ten, or fourfcore Years? How foon do they pass away like a Dream; and when they are gone, How few and empty do they appear? The best way to be fenfible of this, "is not to look forward; for we fancy Time to come, to be much longer than we find it; but to look backward upon the Time which is paft, and as long as we can remember; And how fuddenly are thirty or forty Years gone? How little do we remember how they are paft? But gone they are, and the reft are going apace, while we eat, and drink, and fleep; and when they are gone too, we shall be fenfible, that all together was but very fhort. Now from hence I fhall observe feveral things, of very great Use for the Government of our Lives.

1. If our Lives be fo very fhort, it concerns us to lofe none of our Time: For does it become us to be prodigal of our Time, when we have fo little of it? We either ought to make as much of our Lives as we can, or not complain that they are fhort; for that is a greater Reproach to ourselves, than to the Order of Nature, and the Providence of God: For, it seems, we have more Time than we care to live in, more that we think neceffary to improve to the true Ends and Purposes of living; and if we can fpare fo much of our Lives, it seems they are too long for us, how fhort foever they are in themselves. And

when

when our Lives are too long already for the Generality of Mankind to improve wifely, Why fhould God give us more Time to play with, and to fquander away? And yet let us all reflect upon ourselves, and confider, how much of our Lives we have perfectly loft, how careless we have been of our Time, which is the most precious Thing in the World; how we have given it to every body that will take it, and given away fo much of ourselves, and our own Being with it.

Should Men fit down, and take a Review of their Lives, and draw up a particular Account of the Expence of their Time, after they come to Years of Difcretion and Undertanding, what a fhameful Bill would it be? What unreasonable. Abatements of Life? How little Time would there be at the Foot of the Account, which might be called living?

So much extraordinary for eating, and drinking, and fleeping, beyond what the Support and Refreshment of Nature requir'd; fo much in Courtship, Wantonnefs and Luft; fo much in Drinking and Revelling; fo much for the Recovery of the last Night's Debauch; fo much in gaming and Masquerades; fo much in paying and receiving forinal and impertinent Vifits, in idle and extravagant Difcourfes, in cenfuring and reviling our Neighbours or our Governors; fo much in dreffing and adorning our Bodies; fo many blank and

K 4

long

long Parentheses of Life, wafted in doing nothing, or in counting the flow and tedious Minutes, or chiding the Sun for making no more hafte down, and delaying their Evening Affignations. But how little would there appear in most Mens Account, fpent to the true Ends of living?

The very naming of these things is fufficient to convince any confidering Man, that this is really a mifpending of Time, and a flinging away great Part of a very short Life to no Purpose: But to make you all fenfible of this, confider with me, when we may be faid to lofe our Time; for Time paffes away very swiftly, and we can no more hold it, than we can stop the Chariot-Wheels of the Sun: But all Time that is past, is not loft; indeed no Time is our own, but what is past or prefent; and its being past makes it never the less our own, if ever it were fo. But then we lose our Time,

1. When it turns to no account to us when it is gone; when we are never the better for it in Body or Soul. This is the true way of judging, by our own Senfe and Feeling, whether we have spent our Time well or ill, by obferving what Relish it leaves upon our Minds, and what the Effects of it are, when it is paft: How vainly foever Men spend their Time, they find fome Pleasure and Diverfion, and Entertainment in it, while it Jafts, but the next Morning it is all vanished,

as

as their Night Dreams are; and if they are not the worse for it, they find themselves never the better. And this is a certain Sign, that our Time was vainly and foolishly spent ; that when it is gone, it can be brought into no Account of our Lives, but that of idle Expences. Whatever is good, whatever is in any Degree useful, leaves fome Satisfaction when it is gone; and Time so spent, we can place to our Account, and all fuch Time is not loft: But Men who spend one Day after another, in Mirth and Jollity, and Entertainments, in Vifits, or Gaming, &c. can give no other Account of it, but that it is a pleasant Way of spending Time. And that it is the true Name for it, not living, but fpending Time, which they know not how otherwise to pass away; when their Time is spent, they have all they intended, and their Enjoyments pafs away with their Time, and there is an End of both; and it were somewhat more tolerable, if they themselves could end with their Time too. But when Men muft out-live Time, and the Effects of Time muft laft to Eternity, that Time, which if it have no ill, yet has no good Effects more lafting than itfelf, is utterly loft.

2dly, To be fure that Time is doubly loft, which we cannot review without Amazement and Horror; I mean, in which we have contracted fome great Guilt, which we have not only spent vainly, but wickedly, which we ourfelves