the only behaviour that will fecure you thoroughly, is keeping clear of every thing bad; but at least do not go lengths to which you are not tempted; do not go every length to which you are tempted. If you will be debauched, why will you be injurious too? If you will be both diffolute and difhoneft, why need you be profane alfo, and scorn and ridicule virtue and piety, as well as neglect them? Or, on the other hand, however you act in relation to things of the next world, why should you abandon yourself to profligateness and folly in respect of this, and be wretched before your time? Fear not in the leaft, but there will be guilt and mischief full enough in thofe kinds and degrees of fin, from which you imagine you cannot abstain; so that you will have no occafion to increase the lift of them wantonly. And be affured, that however painful it may be to retreat, or ftop short where you are, going farther on will be much more fo, probably in this life, but affuredly hereafter. For if God will at all diftinguish then between good and bad (as he must and will, if he be juft, or wife, or true), he will as certainly distinguish, and to purpose too, between bad and worfe. But abfurd as it would be to reckon one fin as dangerous as many (against which, notwithstanding, it was needful to give a strong caution, because the text, at first fight, may appear to favour it), ftill the oppofite error is equally abfurd, which yet, in fpite of the text, the whole fcripture, and the plaineft dictates of common reafon, great multitudes will perfift in; that, I mean, of thinking or acting, as if they thought, that fince every one is peculiarly inclined to fome fault or other, he will be difpenfed with in that, provided he performs but the reft of his duty tolerably well. And therefore, 2. The principal inference to be drawn from St. James's words, is, that no one fin whatever can be wilfully indulged, without forfeiting our falvation. Indeed if it could; if our obedience may fafely fail juft where alone it is, properly fpeaking, tried; that is, where we find ourfelves peculiarly tempted to difobey; what proof do we give of any regard to virtue, or what must become of the interefts of it in the world? Few people have above one or two faults to which they are much addicted; fo that allowing them these, is allowing them all; and giving them leave to be as wicked as they they want to be. Or fuppofing they have several bad inclinations; yet, if one of them is to be forgiven, because it is a favourite, why not the reft, if they can make the same pleą? And further, if your faults are to be overlooked in the day of judgment, why not the different faults of every one else? One perfon is prone to intemperance, another to lewdness, a third to falfehood and difhonesty, a fourth to malice and revenge. If inclination, and conftitution, and what we are pleased to call nature, is to be a warrant for any of these, why not for all? But you will plead it perhaps only for fmall fins. And so one is indulged first, because it is a little one; then another, because it is not much bigger; and where fhall we ftop, or in what will this end? Every one's fin is fmall in his own opinion, and none is fo in reality. For, be it in what inftance it will, difobeying our Maker, violating our confciences, and breaking through the facred bonds of truth and duty, can never be deemed a flight matter, nor will it hereafter be found fo. But is there no allowance then to be made for human weakness, and the ftrength of temptation? Undoubtedly great allowance, in all fuch failings as we watch, and strive, and pray against, and perfevere in oppofing: but then, whoever doth this in earneft, will certainly gain ground of his failings; and therefore whoever gains little or no ground, doth not do it in earneft. Wishing now and then that we were better; being grieved a little when we think how bad we are; and, in a sudden fit of goodness, making a faint effay towards reformation, and laying it afide again; this is far from performing what, by the affiftance of Heaven, we might, if we would. And whoever can think that no more is expected of him, must think at the same time, that God hath very little attention to the obfervance of his laws, and that his laws are of very little ufe towards the government of the world. All perfons therefore, who have a proper regard to fome branches of their duty, but not to others, ought seriously to confider, that they are doing a great deal, without doing any thing to effect, for want of doing the whole; that it must be peculiarly grievous to them in the next life, to come fo near the kingdom of heaven, and yet to fall fhort of it; to be al moft, but not altogether Chriftians *. Since they take pains to correct part of their bad inclinations, it cannot but be worth their while to correct the rest. Either it will not be very difficult, or the difficulty will not continue very long, or the reward will be very ample: And whichfoever is the cafe, it must evidently be their intereft to make their lives eafy, by walking in every ordinance of the Lord blameless† ; for fo fhall we not be confounded, if we have respect unto all bis commandments ‡. But then we must ever understand this, not only of moral duties, not only of the duties of natural religion, but of revealed alfo; and particularly of that great and leading commandment, that we believe on the name of his Son Jefus Chrift §; believe in him practically, as well as fpeculatively; believe in him as our Redeemer and Mediator, no lefs than our inftructor; trufting in his merits for pardon and acceptance; in his grace for strength and comfort; and feeking to be found in him, not having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is of God by faith ||. For we have all offended in every point; and having recourfe to this one, of penitent faith in Chrift, working by love, is our only cure for past fins, our only means of future obedience. By the deeds of the law fhall no flesh be justified ¶; but whofoaver believeth in him, fball not be afbamed **. THE JUST ESTIMATE OF THE SHORTNESS OF HUMAN LIFE, AND OUR PROPER EMPLOYMENT HERE, PSALM XC. 12. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. TH 'HERE are not many fubjects recommended fo often from the pulpit to your ferious confideration, as the fhortnefs and uncertainty of human life: indeed there are very few that deferve it fo well. For our bufinefs is, not to entertain the curiofity of our hearers with learned discoveries, refined fpeculations, or uncommon remarks, but to remind them continually of fuch truths as are most useful to direct their practice, by mending their hearts. And how impoffible foever it may appear, that any one should be ignorant of fome of them, yet if men will forget or neglect them, and live as if they knew them not, they must be ftill repeated and inculcated. The wisdom of our gracious Maker hath provided, that the greatest part, not only of our duties, but of the motives to perform them, fhall naturally and frequently fuggeft themfelves to our minds. And amongst the latter, one should think there was none more obvious, more unavoidable, than the confideration of our own mortality. But as those objects, which are continually prefent to our fenfes, are apt, for that reason, scarcely to affect us more than if they were abfent; fo this truth, being familiarized to us by daily examples, about which we are indifferent, makes almoft as little impreffion upon us as if the cafe were otherwise. It is a fact, which we have no doubt of, and no pleasure in; we therefore turn our thoughts to fomewhat else, with such unhappy fuccefs, 2 fuccefs, that, though the confequences of it are the most interefting to us all, that poffibly can be, multitudes of us live, as if we neither believed nor fufpected any thing of the matWhen indeed the voice of exhortation, or the unexpect ed decease of a friend or acquaintance, forces us to attend, we acknowledge, for that moment, and perhaps with fome con cern, that we must expect to die foon; but quickly proceed again to act, as if we hoped to live for ever. And therefore it was a wife prayer of Mofes, that God would condefcend to help our infirmity in this important point. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. Or, as the words may be translated, without any material change in the fenfe: Teach us to number our days thus; to count them, as the preceding part of the pfalm had done, like the fleep of a night, like the grafs, which in the morning flou risheth, but by the evening is cut down and withered: or again, Teach us to number our days aright; and we will bring, that is, in order to learn, or, we shall acquire, an beart of wisdom. The expreffion of numbering our days, carries in it an implication that they are not many. For in fcripture, as being without number denotes a large multitude*, fo the contrary phrafe hath of course the contrary fignification. Thus, when Mofes mentions the continuance of the cloud only a few days upon the tabernacle, it is in the Hebrew days of number+. When he threatens, The Lord fhall Scatter you amongst the nations, and ye fhall be left few in number, it is again only men of number ‡. And when Belfhazzar is told, that God bath numbered his kingdom, the meaning is, that its conclufion was near at hand f. Yet we cannot fay, that life is too short for us to enjoy the proper happiness of it. For in our prefent fallen condition, all things confidered, we have much reafon to be contented, nay thankful, that the duration of man upon earth is no longer; and fhould have fufficient caufe to be weary of it if it were. For furely threefcore years and ten is full space enough to be fpectators of, and sharers in, the follies, the fins, the fufferings, of fuch a world as this. And both Gen. xli. 49. Numb. xxiii. 10. Judges vi. 5. vii. 12. 'Job v. 9. ix. 10. xxxiv, 24. Eccl. i. 15. > 1 Kings iii. 9. † Numb. ix. 20. |