SERMON XLVI.

THE CONSIDERATION OF OUR LATTER END.

PSALM XC. 12.

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

SERM. THIS Pfalm is upon feveral peculiar accounts very reXLVI. markable; for its antiquity, in which it perhaps doth not

yield to any parcel of Scripture; for the eminency of its author, Mofes, the man of God, the greatest of the ancient Prophets, (moft in favour, and, as it were, most intimate with God:) it is alfo remarkable for the form and matter thereof, both affording much ufeful inftruction. In it we have a great prince, the governor of a numerous people, fequeftering his mind from the management of public affairs to private meditations; from beholding the present outward appearances, to confidering the real nature and fecret caufes of things; in the midft of all the fplendor and pomp, of all the stir and tumult about him, he observes the frailty of human condition, he discerns the providence of God juftly ordering all; this he does not only in way of wife confideration, but of ferious devotion, moulding his obfervations into pious acknowledgments and earnest prayers to God: thus while he cafts one eye upon earth viewing the occurrences there, lifting up the other to heaven, there seeing God's all-governing hand, thence feeking his gracious favour and mercy. Thus doth here that great and good man teach us all (more particularly

men of high estate and much bufinefs) to find opportuni- SERM. ties of withdrawing their thoughts from thofe things, XLVI. which commonly amuse them, (the cares, the glories, the pleasures of this world,) and fixing them upon matters more improveable to devotion; the tranfitoriness of their condition, and their fubjection to God's juft providence ; joining also to these meditations fuitable acts of religion, due acknowledgments to God, and humble prayers. This was his practice among the greatest incumbrances that any man could have; and it should also be ours. Of those his devotions, addreffed to God, the words are part, which I have chofen for the fubject of my meditation and present discourse; concerning the meaning of which I fhall first touch fomewhat; then propound that obfervable in them, which I defign to infift upon.

The Prophet David hath in the 39th Pfalm a prayer very near in words, and of kin, it seems, in fense to this here; Lord, prays he, make me to know my end, and the pr. xxxix. measure of my days, what it is, that I may know how frail 4. I am concerning the drift of which place, as well as of this here, it were obvious to conceive that both these Prophets do request of God, that he would discover to them the definite term of their life, (which by his decree he had fixed, or however by his univerfal prefcience he did difcern; concerning which we have thefe words in Job, See- Job xiv. 5. ing man's days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou haft appointed his bounds, that he cannot pafs ;) we might, I fay, at first hearing, be apt to imagine, that their prayer unto God is, (for the comfort of their mind burdened with afflictions, or for their better direction in the management of their remaining time of life,) that God would reveal unto them the determinate length of their life. But this fenfe, which the words feem fo naturally to hold forth, is by many of the Fathers rejected, for that the knowledge of our lives' determinate measure is not a fit matter of prayer to God; that being a fecret referved by God to himfelf, which to inquire into favours of prefumptuous curiofity: the universal validity of which reason I will not debate; but fhall defer so much

SERM. to their judgment, as to fuppofe that the numbering of XLVI. our days (according to their sense) doth here only imply a

confufed indefinite computation of our days' number, or the length of our life; fuch as, upon which it may appear, that neceffarily our life cannot be long, (not, according to the account mentioned in this Pfalm, the fame with that of Solon in Herodotus, above 70 or 80 years, especially as to purposes of health, ftrength, content;) will probably, by reafon of various accidents, to which it is expofed, be much shorter, (7 or 10 years, according to a moderate esteem;) may poffibly, from surprises undiscoverable, be very near to its period; by few inftants removed from death, (a year, a month, a day, it may be fomewhat lefs.) This I fhall allow to be the arithmetic that Mofes here defires to learn; whence it will follow, that teaching (or making to know, fo it is in the Hebrew) doth import here (as it doth otherwhere frequently in Scripture,) God's affording the grace to know practically, or with ferious regard to confider this state and measure of our life, (for in fpeculation no man can be ignorant of human life's brevity and uncertainty; but most men are so negligent and stupid, as not to regard it sufficiently, not to employ this knowledge to any good purpose.) This interpreta tion I choose, being in itself plausible enough, and countenanced by fo good authority; yet the former might well enough (by good confequence, if not so immediately) ferve my defign; or be a ground able to support the difcourfe I intend to build upon the words; the fubjec whereof briefly will be this, that the confideration of our lives' certain and neceffary brevity and frailty, is a mean proper and apt to difpofe us toward the wife conduct of our remaining life; to which purpose fuch a confideration feems alike available, as the knowledge of its punctual or definite measure; or more than it, upon the fame, or greater reafons.

* Où yag iei Quinns ¡ywes äidṣars ayınò in Hidgames (Oh is Særò, & îri yeyna så vi åárodník. Plat, að Apoll. p. 202.

Qus eft tam ftultus, quamvis fit adolefcens, cui fit exploratum fe vel ad vefperum etie vitturum? Cis, & Sen.

dit ufuram

cuniæ, nul

Quæft. i. p.

As for the latter claufe, that we may apply our hearts to SERM. wifilom; it is according to the Hebrew, and we shall bring XLVI. the heart to wisdom; implying, the application of our hearts to wisdom to be confequent upon the skill and practice (bestowed by God) of thus computing our days. As for wisdom, that may denote either fapience, a habit of knowing what is true; or prudence, a difpofition of choofing what is good: we may here understand both, efpecially the latter; for, as Tully faith of philofophy, Omnis fumma philofophiæ ad beate vivendum refertur, the De Fin. ii. fum or whole of philofophy refers to living happily; fo P. 95. all divine wifdom doth respect good practice. The word also comprehends all the confequences and adjuncts of fuch wisdom; (for fo commonly fuch words are wont by Natura de way of metonymy to denote, together with the things vitæ, tanprimarily fignified, all that naturally flows from, or that quam peufually are conjoined with them :) in brief, (to cease from la præftitumore explaining that which is in itself confpicuous enough,) ta die. Tufe. I fo understand the text, as if the Prophet had thus ex-326. preffed himself: Since, O Lord, all things are in thy hand and fovereign difpofal; fince it appears that man's life is fo fhort and frail, fo vexatious and miferable, fo exposed to the juft effects of thy displeasure; we humbly beseech thee, fo to inftruct us by thy wisdom, fo to difpofe us by thy grace, that we may effectually know, that we may seriously confider the brevity and uncertainty of our lives' durance; whence we may be induced to underftand, regard, and choose those things which good reafon dictates beft for us; which, according to true wisdom, it moft concerns us to know and perform. From which fenfe of the words we might infer many ufeful documents, and draw matter of much wholesome discourse; but paffing over all the reft, I fhall only infift upon that one point, which I before intimated, viz. that the ferious confideration of the shortnefs and frailty of our life is a proper instrument conducible to the bringing our hearts to wisdom, to the making us to difcern, attend unto, embrace, and profecute fuch things as are truly beft for us; that it is available to the prudent conduct and management of our

SERM. life; the truth of which propofition is grounded upon the XLVI. divine Prophet's opinion: he apprehended fuch a know

1 John i. 17.

Love not

for-the

and the de

ledge or confideration to be a profitable means of inducing his heart to wifdom; wherefore he prays God to grant it him in order to that end, fuppofing that effect would proceed from this caufe. And that it is fo in way of reafonable influence, I fhall endeavour to fhew by fome following reafons.

I. The ferious confideration of our lives' frailty and fhortnefs will confer to our right valuation (or esteem) of the world; things, and confequently to our well placing, and our world paff duly moderating our cares, affections, and endeavours eth away, about them. For as we value things, fo are we used to fire thereof. affect them, to spend our thought upon them, to be earnest in pursuance or avoiding of them. There be two forts of things we converfe about, good and bad; the former, according to the degree of their appearance so to us, (that is, according to our estimation of them,) we naturally love, delight in, defire, and purfue; the other likewise, in proportion to our opinion concerning them, we do more or lefs loathe and thun. Our actions therefore being all thus directed and grounded, to esteem things aright both in kind and degree, (ἑκάτῳ ἀποδιδοναι τὴν ἀξίαν, to aflign every thing its due price, as Epictetus fpeaks; quanti quidque fit judicare, to judge what each thing is worth, as Senecab,) is in order the firft, in degree a main part of wif dom; and as fo is frequently by wife men commended. Now among qualities that commend or vilify things unto us, duration and certainty have a chief place; they often alone fuffice to render things valuable or contemptible. Why is gold more precious than glafs or cryftal? Why prefer we a ruby before a rose, or a gilliflower? It is not because those are more serviceable, more beautiful, more grateful to our fenfes, than thefe, (it is plainly otherwise;) but because these are brittle and fading, those solid and

▷ Primium eft, ut quanti quidque fit judices; fecundum, ut impetum ad illa capias ordinatum temperatumque; tertium, ut inter impetum tuum, actionemque convenist, ut in omnibus iftis tibi ipfi confentias. Sen. Ep.