XXII. 116 On the death of the Righteous. SERM. be enabled to pass through life with inward peace and tranquility; thus fhall we every day become fitter for the last hour, expecting it without terror, and meeting it with courage and refolution; thus, and thus only, fhall we be enabled to die the death of the righteous, and our latter end fhall be like his. 119 SERMON XXIII. EZEKIEL XVIII. 31. Caft away from you all your tranfgreffions, and make you a new beart, and a new Spirit. IT XXIII. T hath long fince béén obferved by SERM. one of our best writers, that " men are always praying for and defiring long life, and yet abfurdly, at the fame time, wishing away the particular parts of it;" imploring the Almighty to extend their days, and yet lamenting the weight and tediousness of those which are already given them. The time paft, and the time to come, engrofs all our thoughts and affections, and the only time which SFRM. we can make ufe of, the time prefent, XXIII. is utterly neglected by us: in the mean while, thofe hours which we pass over unobserved and unimproved, feem as it were to resent our contempt of them; steal away infenfibly from us, and only by their lofs convince us of their va lue. The hour indeed is fo like unto the hour, the day unto the day, and the year unto the year, that we are betrayed by the resemblance to each other, and almoft, miftake them for the fame. But though the inactive and unthinking part of mankind are borne thus down the ftream of time without life or motion, the mind which is more awake, the understanding which is more enlightened, will roufe itself from this deftructive lethargy, from a serious reflection on the shortness of human life, will be ani mated |