NOW OR NEVER. 167 · DocTRINE 2.-" Therefore, while we have time, we must do our best: or do t!le work of thi.'l present life with vigour and diligence." I. It is from an unquestionable and commonly acknowledged truth, that Solomon here urgeth us to diligence in duty; and therefore to prove it would be but loss of time. As there are two worlds for man to live in, and so two lives for man to live, so each of these lives hath its peculiar employment. This is the life of preparation: the next is the life ofrewards or punishments. Wearenowbut in the womb ofeternity, and must live hereafter in the open world. We are now but sent to school to learn the work that we must do for ever: this is the time of our apprenticeship; we are learning the trade that we must live upon in heaven. We nm now, that we may then receive the crown; we fight now, that we may then triumph in victory. The grave hath no work; but heaven hath work, and hell hath suffering: there is no repentance unto life hereafter; but there is repentance to torment and to desperation. There is no believing of a happiness unseen in order to the obtaining of it; or of a misery unseen in order to the escaping of it; nor believing in a Saviour in order to these ends. But there is the fruition of the happiness which was here believed; and feeling of the misery that men would not believe; and suffering from him as a righteous Judge, whom they rejected as a merciful Saviour. So that it is not all work that ceaseth at our death; but only the work of this present life. And indeed no reason can show us the least probability of doing our work when our time is gone, that was given us to do it in. If it can be done, it must be, 1. By the recalling of our time. 2. By the return of life. 3. Or, by opportunity in another life. But there is no hope of any of these. 1. Who knoweth not that time cannot be re- . called? That which once was, will be no more. Yesterday will never come again. To-day is pass-
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