Senn. CXXXIV. confädering our latter End. 2 3 of them the precife End and Term of his Life ; that might fees to favour of too, much Prefumption or Curiofity : But frnce they knew that according to the ordinary Courfe of Nature, the Life of Man was then reduced to Threefcore and ten. or Fourfore rears 5 and fnce God by a peremptory Sentence had pro- nounced, that, two Perfons only excepted, all tharvaft Number which came out of Egypt, and even Mofes himfelf, fhould die within the Compafs of forty Tears ; it was a very, pious and proper Requeft, which Mofes here puts up for himfelf and the reft of that People, that God would give themWifdom to make a right Life of the Notice which they had of their End, fence it might hap- pen at any .Time, but could not reach beyond forty rears, reckoning from the Time of their coming out of Egypt. To know the determinateTime of our Life, or to know certainly that our Life (hall not exceed filch a Term, (which was the Cafe of the Ifraelites in the Wildernefs) is a very awakening Thing, and does commonly route Men more than the general Confideration of our own Frailty and Mortality. And yet to a wife and confiderate Man, it ought in Reafon to be the fame : For that which will certainly be, ought to be reckoned upon and provided for; and if it be uncertain when it will be, whether at force Diftance, or the next Moment, we ought prefently to take Care about it, and to be always in aReadinefs for it, left we fhould be furprized and overtaken. And then this Prayer is as proper for us, as it was for Mofes and the Ifraelites, tho' we are not juft under the fame Circumftances that they were. They were under a peremptory Sentence of Death within forty Tears, and none of them knew how much fooner they might be taken away : And this is not much dif- ferent from our Cafe ; for we are liable to Death at anyTime, everyDay, every Moment; and how few of us in this Congregation can reafonably either hope or expe& to have our Lives prolonged beyond the Terni of forty Tears? Nay, it is very probable, that not one of us in an Hundred will hold out fo long. And then this Prayer may be as fit for us, as it was for Mofes and theIfraelites, that God would teach us fo to number our Days; that is, to make fuck an Ac- count of the Shortnefs and Uncertainty of our Lives, and fo to confider and lay to Heart our latter End, that roe may apply our Hearts unto Wifdom; that is, that we may manage and condu& this frail, and (hort, and uncertain Life, in the belt Man- ner, and to the wifeft Purpofes. And this Confideration of our latter End was always efteemed by the wirer} Men, a principal Part and main Point of VYifdom. Socrates, who was by the general Confent of wife Men (a more infallible Oracle than that of Apollo) efteem'd the wifeft of all the Philolophers, gives us this Definition of Philofophy, that it is the Meditation or Study of Death; to intimate to us, that this is true Wifdom to be much in the Thought of our latter End, and in a conftant Readi- nefs and Preparation for it. And this a greater than Socrates had long before him obferved tó be a chief Point of Wifdom, I mean Mofes the Man of God, that Divine Perron and Prince of the ancient Prophets, not only in this Pfaltn, but alto in his laft Divine Song, a little before his Death ; in which he makes this the Sum of all his Wifhes for the People of Ifrael, that God would endow them with this high Point of Wifdom, Deut. ;2. 29. 0 that they were wife, that they underflood this, that they would confider their latter End! This is true Wifdom and Philofophy to confider our latter End. « And this, by God's Affiance, !hall be the Argument which I intend to handle from there Words; namely, to thew what Influence and Effe& the ferions Confideration of our latter End, and of the Shortnefs and Uncertainty of this prefent Life, ought in Reafon to have upon us. And of this I (hall give you an Account in there following Particulars : I. TheMeditation of our latter End fhould make us to take into Confederation our whole Lives, and our whole Duration, that we mayrefolve and a& accord- ingly. And this is a main Point of Wifdom, to underhand our felves, and the Nature ofour Beings, of what ,ve confift, and for what I)yrátionwe are defign'd whether we confift only of Matter a little better fafhibn'd and moulded, and 3 made
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