nevertheless our own, if ever it were so; 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 sense and feeling, whether we have spent our time well or ill, by observing what relish it leaves upon our minds, and what the effects of it are, when it is past: how vainly soever men spend their time, they find some pleasure and diversion and entertainments in it, while it lasts, but the next morning it is all vanished, 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 some satisfaction when it is gone, and time so spent we can place to our account, and all such time is not lost; but men who spend one day after another in mirth and jollity, and entertainments, in visits or gaming, &c. can give no other account of it, but that it is a pleasant way of spending time: and that is the true name for it, not living but spending time, which they know not how otherwise to pass away; when their time is spent, they have all they intended, and their enjoyments pass away with their time, and there is an end of both; and it were somewhat more tolerable, if they

could end with their time too but when men must out-live time, and the effects of time must last to eternity, that time, which if it have no ill, yet has no good effects more lasting than itself, is utterly lost.

2ly, To be sure that time is doubly lost, which we cannot review without amazement and horror; I mean, in which we have contracted some great guilt, which we have not only spent vainly, but wickedly, which we ourselves wish had never been, which we desire to forget, and could be glad, that both God and men would forget it too: for is not that lost time, which loses us, which undoes us, which distracts us with guilty fears, which we would give all the world we could lose out of the account of our lives, and could loose the very remembrance of it? I think that somewhat worse than lost time, which forfeits a blessed eternity, and for which men must lose their souls for ever.

3ly, That is lost time too, which men must live over again, and tread back their steps like him who has mistaken his way; not that we can recal our past time, and those minutes that are fled from us, but we must substitute some of our remaining time in its room, and begin our lives again, and undo what we had formerly done. This is the case of those who have spent great part of their lives ill, whenever they are convinced of their folly and danger; they must give all their past lives for lost, and it may be,

when half, or two thirds, or more of their lives are spent, they must then begin to live, and to undo, by repentance and reformation, the errors, and follies, and impieties of their former lives: now I suppose all men will confess that time to be lost, which they must unlive again; to be sure penitents are very sensible it is, and I wish all those would consider it, who resolve to spend their youthful and vigorous age in sin, and to repent hereafter; that is, they resolve to fling away the greatest and best part of their lives, and to begin to live when they see themselves a dying this I am sure is no remedy against a short life, to resolve not to live one third of it.

2ly, Since our life is so very short, it becomes us to live as much as we can in so short a time; for we must not measure the length or shortness of our lives by days, or months, or years, that is the measure of our duration or being, but to live and to be, are two things, and of a distinct consideration and ac

count.

To live, when we speak of a man, signifies to act like a reasonable creature, to exercise his understanding and will upon such objects as answer the dignity and perfection of human nature, to be employed in such actions as are proper to his nature, and distinguish a man from all other creatures : and therefore though a man must eat and drink, and perform the other offices of a natural life, which are common to him with beasts; yet this is not to live

like a man, any otherwise than as these common actions are governed by reason and rules of virtue, but he who minds nothing higher than this, lives like a beast, not like a man: a life of reason, religion, and virtue, is properly the life of a man, because it is peculiar to him, and distinguishes him from all other creatures in this world; and therefore he who improves his knowledge and understanding most, who has his passions and appetites under the best government, who does most good, and makes himself most useful to the world, though he does not continue longer, yet he lives more and longer than other men; that is, he exerts more frequent and more perfect acts of a rational life.

But besides this, this life is only in order to a better life; it is not for itself, but only a passage to a state of trial and probation for immortality; and it were hardly worth the while to come into the world upon any meaner design and therefore he lives most, who improves the grace of God to make himself most fit for heaven, and qualified for the greatest rewards, for the richest and the brightest crown: who knows God most, and worships him in the most perfect manner, with the greatest ravishments and transports of spirit, who lives most above this world in the exercise of the most divine virtues, who does most service to God in the world, and improves all his talents to the best advantage; in a word, who most adorns and perfects his own mind, brings most

glory to God, and does most good to men: such a man at thirty years old, has lived more, nay, indeed may properly be said to have lived longer than an old decrepit sinner; for he has not lived at all to the purposes of a man, or to the ends of the other world. That man has lived a great while, how short soever the time be, who is old enough for heaven, and for eternity, who has laid up rich and glorious treasures for himself in the other world, who has answered the ends of this life, and is fit to remove out of it; this is the true way of measuring our lives by acts of piety and virtue, by our improvements in knowledge, and grace, and wisdom, by our ripeness for another world; and therefore if we would live a great while in this world, we must, 1. Begin to live betimes. 2. We must have a care of all interruptions and intermissions of life. 3. We must live apace.

1. We must begin to live betimes; that is, must begin betimes to live like men, and like christians, to live to God, and to another world, that is, in a word, to be good betimes: for those who begin to live with the first bloomings of reason and understanding, and give early and youthful specimens of piety and virtue, if they reach to old age, they live three times as long as those who count indeed as many years as they do, but it may be have not lived a third of their time, but have lost it in sin and folly. The first can look back to the very beginning of this life, and en