out our dajs, and continuing us some while here in the land of the living ? Was it that we might have time to revel, or rather ravel out upon the pleasure of this vain world? Doth he give us our precious time to be employed in catching such butterflies as these earthly honours and riches are ? It cannot be. Masters do not use, if wise, to set their servants about such work as will not pay for the candle they biun in doing it. And truly nothing less than the glorifying of God, and saving o\u' soids at last, can be worth the precious time we spend here. The great God hath a greater end than most men think in this dispensation : if we would judge aright, we should take his own interpretation of his actions ; and the apostle Peter bids us ' count that the longsuftering of the Lord is salvation,' 2 Pet. iii. 15; which place he quotes out of Paul, as to the sense, though not in the same form of words, which in Rom. ii. 4, are these : ' Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?' Fi-om both places we are taught what is the mind of God, and in this language he speaks to us by every moment's patience and inch of time that is granted to us. It is a space given for repentance. God sees, that as we are, death and judgment could bring no good news to us ; we ai'e in no case to welcome the evil day ; and therefore mercy stands up to plead for the poor creature in God's bosom, and begs a little more time may be added to his life, that by this indulgence he may be provoked to repent before he be called to the bar. Thus we come by every day that is continually superadded to our time on earth ; and doth not this lay a strong obligation on us to lay out every point of this time unto the same end it is begged for ?
Secondly, In point of wisdom. The wisdom of a man appears most eminently in two things.
First, In the matter of his choice and chief care.
Secondly, In a due time of this his choice and care.
First, A wise man makes choice of that for the subject of his chief care and endeavour, which is of the greatest importance and consequence to him : fools and children only are intent about toys and trifles ; they are as busy and earnest in making of a house of dirt or cards, as Solomon was in making of his temple. Those poor babes are as adequate to their foolish apprehensions, as great enter- prises are to wise men. Now such is the importance of the evil day, especially that of death, that it proves a man a fool, or wise, as he comports himself to it. The end specifies every action, and gives it the name of good or evil, of wise or foolish. The solemn day of death is, as the end of our days, to be the end of all the actions of our life. Such will our life be found at last, as it hath been in order to this one day. If the several items of our life, counsels and projects that we have pursued, when they shall then be cast up, will amount to a blessed death, then we shall appear to be wise men indeed : but if, after all our goodly plots and policies for other things, we be unprovided for that hour, we must be content to die fools at last ; and no such fool as the dying fool. The Chi'istian goes for the fool, in the world's account, while he lives; but when death comes, the wise world will then confess they miscalled him, and shall take it to them- selves. ' We fools counted his life to be madness, and his end to be without honour: but how is he now numbered among the children of God, and his lot is among the saints ! therefore have we erred from the way of truth,' Wisd. v. 4, 5. The words are apocryphal, but sinners will find the matter of them canoni- cal. It is true indeed, saints are outwitted by the world in the things of the world, and no marvel ; neither doth it impeach their wisdom any more than it doth a scholar's to be excelled by the cobbler in his mean trade. Nature, where it intends higher excellences, is more careless in those things that are inferior ; as we see in man, who, being made to excel the beasts in a rational sovd, is himself excelled by some beast or other in all his senses. Thus the Christian may well be surpassed in matters of worldly commerce, because he hath a nobler object in his eye, that makes him converse with the things of the world in a kind of non-attendance; he is not much careful in these matters: if he can die well at last, and be justified for a wise man at the day of the resurrection, all is well ; he thinks it not manners to be unwilling to stay so long for the clearing of his wisdom, as God can wait for the vindication of his own glorious nature, which will not appear in its glory till that day, when he will convince the
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ungodly of their hai-d thoughts and speeches against him, Jude 15. Then they shall, and till then they will not, be convinced.