~8o 2 Per. 3. 10 2 Kings 20 longirutlinem huju~ VH<f lt.n;;ui non fa:cir, nif1 (pes vivend i: nam n1h1l vide!ur tilt cclerhn qlllffi l)'lic– (lUid in ~a jam pra:rcriturn eft. Aug in l'fal. 6. Ccne vlderes vuam tuam non fuiffc diu.. ru1nam. Aut in ·r fa!. 36 JLtfesJLenfc. wor/z} therein jlu.tl be brrm up, 2 Peter 3· I o. Where then is the life of Plato, \\ henall thcfe things !hall turn to nothing ? we may now for his learning praife him wherehe is not, and he may then for his errour be damned and tormented where he is. Is there any man with s~ill or power can call back but :tefierrlay? onc<'.\ Only we read of fuch a miracle, but it was only by the hand of God Almighty. H ez.ckjah was fick, 2 King. 20 • and to confirm the news that he mufi recover, herequ,ircs a figne, What jhal/ be theJigm that the L ord wdl hcal111c, and that I jl~tt!l go np mto me houfl of the L ord the thirdday ? this was no temptation, for you fee how tlie Prophet gives him fatis fad ion , This jtgne jl~alt thou have <1 the Lord;. !Vt!t thou that thejhadow go f orward ten degrees, 01 ·go back_ ten degrees? H ez.< l,_yth thmks of death , and the Prophet refl:ores his life ; not only a time of fifteen years to come, but of ten degrees now gone , and tr.us it was obfcrved in the D ial of Aha<.. This was.a miracle that but once happened fince the beginning of the world; He then that lleeps away his time in expeClation of H ez.tk!_ahs :: un, may lleep till his death, and then not recall one minute of his life; as the time, fo our 1 1 j e. if once paft, it is irrevoc:able, irrecoverable. , 2. And as is cannot be recalled again, fo fuddenly is it vanifhed. N othing mnkts lzfc long , b~tt our hope to live long: ta~mvay thof e tholtghtJofthe time to come, 11nd tlu,·e is 11othmg jiviftc>· than the life that is g one. Suppofe then thou halt lived fo long, as from A aam to this time; as Austin faith, Certainly thou wouldff think thy life but jhcrt: and if that were fhort, which we think fo long; how long is our life, which in compa– rifon of that is fo extreamly fhort? The time once pall:, we think it fudclcnly pa!l, and fo is life gone in a momc:'nt, in the twinckling of an eye, fo foon indeed, before it con be faict, This it is.] In every one ofus death hath ten thoufancl times as much as life; the life that is gone is deaths, and the life yet to come is deaths, our now is but an in· fl:ant; yet this is all that belongs to life; and all the life which any of us all is at once polfcffed of: her~ is·a life indeed, that fo foon is vanifhcd, before it can be numbred or meafured; it is no time but now, yft /byes not till the fyllablc no1v may be written, or fpoken: what can I fay? the life that I had when I began to fpeak this word, it is now gone fincc I began to fpe~k this word. May we call this life that is ever polling towards death . Do we what we can, and could we do yet more, all we do, and all we could do, were to no purpofc to prolong our life: fee how we fhore this ruinous houfe ofour body with fvod, with raiment, with cxercife, with lleep,yet nothing can preferve it from returning to its earth : we go, and we go (uddenly, witnelfe thofe two c,fnrs, who put offthemfelves whilefl: they put on their fhooes; Fabius ( fl:yled Mllximm for his exploits, and CunClator for his delaying) yet could not delay death, till notice might be taken he was fick ; but how many examples in this kind have we daily amonglt us 1 you know how fome lately have gone fafe to bed, and yet in the morning were found dead anrl cold: others in health and mirth laid down by their wives, and yet ere mid– night fou11d breathlefs by their fides. What need we further infl:nnccs? You fee how we go before we know where we are; the life that we had, what is it but a nothing? the life that we have, what is it but a moment? and all that we can have , what is it' but a fleeting winde, begun and done in a trice oftime, before we can imagine it. In a word, our Sunne now fets, our day is don~ ;ask Jacob(the Clock-keeper of our time) this Text tells the hour, and now flruck, you hear the found; our dayes are gone, Few and evil they have been, The Conclufion. owfimed by the death of CHARLES BR ID G EMA N, whg decufed about the age of twelve, in the year ofour Lord, 163 2. he was amofl piofls fon of amofl pi9tts mother, both now with G 0 D. H:E:re I thought to have finifhed my Text and Sermon; But here is a fad accident to confir111 my faying ; and whilefi I fpcak ofhim, what can I fay of his !late, his perfon, his birth, his life, ofall he had, and of all he was, but that they h~ve been ? ~weet rofc, cropt in its bloffome; no foo11er budded, but blafied ; how !hall we re- . member
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