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that here is half an hour, or a quarter, or more, or less to come; but I cannot guess, what proportion of time remains in the hour-glass of my life: only I know it is short, but I know not how short it is

whether a year, or a week, or a day, or an hour; and yet upon this little uncertain portion of time, and the due use of it, depends my everlasting happiness or misery. It is my seed-time, and if I sow not my seed here, it is too late to think of that husbandry after death; and if I sow, and sow not good seed, my crop will be thereafter in that other world, that immediately expects upon the issue of this. And I have a thousand diversions, that rob me of much of this little portion of time, and yield me no account in order to my great concernment. When I cast out from the account of my time the unprofitableness of my childhood and youth, the hours spent in eating, drinking, sleeping, recreations, travels, and other things that carry no sin in them, there remains but a small portion of a short life for concernments of everlasting importance; a great business to be done, great difficulties and impediments in the doing of it, and but a little portion of time, of a short and uncertain life, to do it in. And yet this life of mine was by thee given, not to be trifled or squandered away, either in sin or idleness; not to gain riches, honour, or reputation: for when sickness comes, these will appear insipid and vain things; and when death comes, they will be merely useless. But it was for a higher end, viz. a time, to trade for the most valuable jewel of eternal happiness; a time, to sow such seed, as might yield a crop of blessedness in the next world; a time, to secure a title to an everlasting inheritance; such a time as, if once lost,

the opportunity is lost for ever, lost irrecoverably: for the night cometh, wherein no man can work; There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest:

And upon this consideration of the great end of my life, the great importance of the business that is to be done in it, the brevity and great uncertainty of this life, and the utter impossibility after death to redeem the neglect of the proper and important business of my life-I have endeavoured to husband this short, uncertain, important talent as well as I can:

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1. By a careful avoiding of sinful employments, which at once waste this precious talent, and contract a farther debt upon me, render me in arrears for the time mis-spent and the guilt contracted.

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2. By avoiding idleness, burning out my candle to no purpose.

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3. By avoiding unnecessary consumption of time by long feastings, excessive sleep, impertinent visits, seeing of interludes, unnecessary recreations, curious and impertinent studies and inquiries, that when attained serve to no purpose.

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4. By applying, directing, and ordering even my studies of human learning, histories, natural or moral philosophy, mathematics, language, laws, to an end beyond themselves; viz. thereby to enable me to understand and observe thy excellent wisdom and power, to maintain and uphold thy cause against atheism, idolatry, and errors; to fit me for serving of thee and my country, in the station wherein I live.

5. By exercising myself in the very business of my calling, as an act of duty and obedience to thee,

Eccles. ix. 10.

acting in it those virtues of Christianity that might be honourable to thy name, of good example to others, of improvement of grace unto myself: using in it diligence without anxiety, dependence upon thee without presumption, contentedness, patience, thankfulness, honesty, justice, uprightness, plain-dealing, liberality; and, by these means, translating my secular employment into an exercise of Christian duty: serving thee while I served myself, and converting that very employment and the time spent therein to the use, honour, and advantage of my Lord and Master, the good example of others, and the increase of my spiritual advantage as well as my temporal.

6. By religiously observing those times that have been set apart to religious duties, especially the Lord's Day; not mingling with it secular thoughts or employments, but with much attention, strictness, and care laying hold of those times and opportunities, and carefully applying them singly to the proper business of the times.

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7. By dedicating and setting apart some portion of my time to prayer and reading of thy word, which I have constantly and peremptorily observed, whatever occasions interposed, or importunity persuaded to the contrary.

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8. By making the magnum oportet, the great and one thing necessary, the choice and principal business of my life, and the great design of it; and esteeming that time spent most naturally, profitably, and suitably, that was spent in order to it: observing thy great works of wisdom and power; contemplating upon thy goodness and excellency; hearing and reading thy word; calling upon thy name; crucifying

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my corruptions; exercising thy graces; humbling myself for my sins; returning thanks for thy mercies; studying the mystery of God manifest in the flesh ; striving to bring myself conformable to my Pattern, and to have him found in my heart, and his life in mine; crucifying myself to the world, and the world to me; fitting myself for death, judgement, and eternity. These, and the like employments I esteemed the flower, the glory, the best of my spent time, because they will be carried over with glory in the life to come; and therefore this I reckoned my business, and accordingly I made it. Other matters, that only served for the meridian of this life I used either barely for necessity of my present subsistence, or as a divertisement and sparingly, or in order to those great ends. Those were the business, these only the parerga* of my life.'

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10. Touching thy Creatures, and the Use of them, and the Dominion over them.'

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1. I have esteemed them as thine: in propriety thou hast committed unto me the use, and a subordinate dominion over them; yet I ever esteemed myself an accomptant to Thee for them with thankfulness unto Thee, the great Lord of both them and me: when the earth yielded me a good crop of corn or other fruits, when flocks increased, when my honest labours brought me in a plentiful or convenient supply, I looked up to Thee as the giver, to thy providence and blessings as the original of all my increase. I did not sacrifice to my own art, or industry, or pru

* Recreations.

dence; but I received all, as the gracious and bountiful returns of thy liberal hand: I looked upon every grain of corn that I sowed as buried and lost, unless thy power quickened and revived it. I esteemed the best production would have been but stalk and straw, unless thou had'st increased it; I esteemed mine own hand and industry but impotent, unless thou had'st blessed it; for it is thy blessing that maketh rich, and it is thou that givest power to get wealth.*

2. I esteemed it my duty to make a return of this my acknowledgement, by giving the tribute of my increase in the maintenance of thy ministers, and the relief of the poor; and I esteemed the practice injoined to thy ancient people, of giving the tenth of their increase, a sufficient not only warrant, but instruction to me under the Gospel to do the like.

3. I have not only looked upon thy blessings and bounty, in lending me thine own creatures for my use; but I have sought unto Thee, for a blessing upon them in my use of them. I did very well observe, that there is by my sin a curse in the very creatures that I receive, unless thy blessing fetch it out; an emptiness in them, unless thy goodness fill them; though thou should'st give me quails and manna from heaven, yet without thy blessing upon them they would become rottenness and putrefaction to me: and therefore I ever begged thy blessing upon thy blessings, as well as the blessings themselves, and attributed the good I found, or was to expect in them, to the same hand that gave them.

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4. I received and used thy creatures as committed to me under a trust, and as a steward and

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