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344
THE
END
OP
TIME.
[Disc.
r.
only
that
is
offered.
Every
day and every
hour
is
a
mercy
of
unknown importance to
sinful men
:
It
is
a
mercy,
O
sinners,
that
you
awaked
not
this morning in
hell,
and
that
you were
not
fixed
without remedy beyond
the
reach
Of
hope
and
mercy.
Reflection
V.
Learn
from this
discourse what
"
a
very
useful
practice it
would
be,
to set ourselves,
often before-
hand,
as
at the
end
of
time," to imagine
ourselves
just
under
the
sound of
the voice
of
this mighty angel,
or
at
the tribunal
of
Christ, and to
call
our
souls to
a
solemn
account,
in
what manner
we
have
past
away
all
our lei-
Sure
time
hitherto
:
I
mean,
all
that
time which hath
not
been laid
out
in
the
necessities
of
the
natural
life,
for its
support
and its needful refreshment,
or
in
the
due and
proper
employments
of
the
civil
life; both these are al-
lowed and
required
by
the
God of
nature, and
the
God
of
providence
who
governs the
world
;
but
what
hast
thou
done, O man
;
-O
woman,
what hast
thou
done
with
all
the hours
of
leisure, which might have been
laid
out
on
far better
employments,
and
to far
nobler
pur-
poses
?
Give
me leave
to
enter
into particulars
a
little,
for
generals
do
but
seldom convince the
mind,
or
awaken
the
conscience,
or
affect the
heart.
1.
Have
you
not
slumbered
or squandered
away
too
much time
without any
useful
purpose
or
design
at
all
?
How
many are
there
that
when they
have
morning hours
on
their
hands, can pass them off
on
their
beds,
and
lose
and forget
time
in a
little more
sleep
and a little
more
slumber; a
few
impertinences
with
breakfast and
dres-
sing,
wear
out
the morning without God.
And how
many afternoon and evening hours are worn
away
in
such
sauntering
idleness, as
I
have described,
that
when
the
night
comes, they
cannot
review
one
half
hour's use-
ful
work,
from the dawn
of
the morning
to the
hour
of
rest.
Time
is
gone and vanished,
and
as
they knew
not
what
to
do
with
it
while
it
was
present,
so
now,
it
is
past,
they
know
not
what,
they have
done
with
it
:
They
keep
no
account
of
it,
and are never
prepared'
to come
to
a
reckoning. But
will
the
great Judge of
all
take
this
for
an answer
to
such a
solemn
enquiry
?
2.
Have
you
never
laid
out
much more time;
than
was needful,
in
recreations, and pleasures of
sense
?
Recreations
are
not
unlawful,
so
far
as they
are
neces