moneths yet we shall one day pay to God the shot of time in the strict account of our houres when our poore soules shall bee committed to torments and bodie and soule shall bee cast into hell This should make vs enter into a trembling consideration with our selues about our great arrerage of time as to thinke how much is vpon the booke for excessiue sleepe for immoderate gaming for our carnall fellowship for much idle talke vaine thoughts and inordinate worldlinesse and finding so much lost and spent already do as wise husbands in such a case should do that is grieue for that which is past and bee better husbands hereafter of all our houres redeeming the time behind and beginning prouidently to saue before all be gone Seuenthly let vs consider and call to minde the example of Christ whose doings as our light wee should follow and to whose person as our best precedent wee should conforme hee saith Iohn 9.4 I must worke the workes of him that sent mee while it is day he saith hee must and it is sure he did for hee spent the day in teaching and the night in prayer Luke 6.12 21.37 Let vs eightly consider that as God hath appointed that good should be done so he hath set the opertunities and seasons wherein to doe it and therefore hath made euery thing beautifull in the time thereof Eccles 3.11 Now if wee neglect this time with Ierusalem what can we looke for but that the line of Ierusalem should be spred ouer vs for such our negligence and more then brutish contempt of good houres Luke 19.42 43 44. And now to cast vp the reckoning of all that hath beene spoken let vs put these together the nothing of our flight time the price it carieth with the children of wisedome how little of it is in our owne power how short and flitting it is how much Sathan to teach or shame vs setteth by it for his owne ends that houres and minutes must be accounted for that Christ for our imitation lost no houre of time for his Fathers seruice and Glory and that good is to bee done in that time and season that God most wise hath appointed to it and hauing made this account let vs denie if wee can that time is to be redeemed O then let vs not suffer any good occasion of doing good to slip away from vs but let vs lay sure hold of it exhorting one another while it is called to day Hebr. 3.13 Euery moment of our life is the opportunitie giuen for amendment of life it is that acceptable time and day of saluation spoken of 2 Cor. 6.2 that time of life wherein God visiteth vs with his Word and Gospel speaking to vs by his Word and knocking at our hearts by his mercies and iudgements Oh let vs not suffer the blessing of these golden times to bee lost or in vaine to bee bestowed vpon vs. Some good things reach not vnto nor may bee done at all times as the hearing and reading of the Word the reading of good bookes conference solemne and set prayer admonition reproofe almes For these must haue and enioy their owne oportunities but euery time is a time of turning to God all times are fit times for the exercise of our faith for repentance of sinnes for amendment of life and for reconciliation with God Oh therefore let these seasons and oportunities of times in Gods mercy bee euer deere vnto vs let vs deferre no meanes or time that the Lord shall offer fitly to vs for these dueties but redeeme them with our present industrie and labour of loue not receiuing so much grace in vaine Let vs consider our mispent time and by greater diligence in well doing fetch as much of it as we can backe againe by running the way of Gods Commaundements Psal 119.32 Let Saul runne to the harpe of his pleasures and they that are drunken with the delights of life as with that wine wherein is excesse let them make themselues musicke with mery fellowship to driue away dumpes but let vs to whom God hath giuen a better minde and another spirit take heede how we forfeite the oportunitie of repentance for such vaine matters and let vs remember that time well past is the best pastime in the World Hee that other wayes passes his time turnes his pastime into sinne And because as was said our time goes away fast enough faster then a Post and as soone as a thought what neede wee so much and ordinarily in vaine sports to seeke remedies against it The yeeres we haue seene are gone the few that are behind will not tarry long after and one end shall bee vnto all This end is death the common end of the liuing and the happy end of the righteous Let it bee our care therefore to redeeme time not to cast it away and our soules with it vpon the pleasures of sinne as they who doe more seruice to their bellies in one day then they doe in a whole yeere of dayes to God Wary wel-thriuing husbands hauing had some great losse will watch all Markets and oportunities to recouer it Now what greater losse can come to a truely and wel-thriuing Christian then his great losse of the time of the Gospel which is the time of repentance and should not this force him to follow earnestly and continually all the Markets and oportunities of Religion that he can heare of thereby to make vp his former great losse at such Christian assemblies The way-faring man hauing slept too long in bed or sate too late at dinner will make amends for it by making more haste afterwards in his way so we that trauell to our owne Countrey of heauen hauing before either slept out our good time in an idle life or sate it out in pleasures should be by so much the more carefull hereafter to quit the way faster by giuing all diligence to make our calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 for it is sufficient for vs that we haue spent the time past of our life after the lust of the Gentiles walking in wantonnesse 1 Peter 4.3 Now it is high time that wee bestow that well and carefully in Gods seruice that is to come redeeming with our bodies goods and life if neede were that which is past We heard how our Sauiour Christ bestowed all his houres to the glory of his Father and good of mankinde at great feasts hee would loose no time and at one feast how many things taught he concerning the feasts of Christians and bread of heauen Luk 14.15 16. c. At Iacobs Well when he talked with the woman that was a harlot how did hee forget his owne neede of the water of the Well to satisfie her necessitie with the waters of the Well of life Iohn 4.7 10 11 12. c. how after did he neglect his owne meat to doe that which was his meat and drinke the will of his Father Iohn 4.34 What occasion did hee omit to doe
they opened the schoole besides that most of them who spake as though they hated vice did liue as though they hated vertue it was the iudgement of those whose iudgement was most receiued that the nature of good and of that which we call honest was not so much in deed as in opinion and custome Yet could they not deny that to be true which Tully in one of his bookes de natura Deor. Of the nature of Heathen gods speaketh of that many did summâ improbitate vti non sine summâratione that is commit notorious crimes but not without great helpe of reason Neither could they but erre in other matters who erred so much in that which was chiefe to wit the end of mans life as that there were scarce two found of one opinion But wee vpon whom it hath pleased God in the riches of his mercy to shed the beames of his louing and bright countenance and to lighten the darkenesse of our reason with the day-starre of his grace haue learned out of the schoole of Christ that the naturall man whose members are weapons of vnrighteousnesse and foolish heart is full of darkenesse Rom. 1.21 doeth not perceiue the things of the spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.14 And seeking wee haue found that his life is vanitie his vnderstanding blindnesse his iudgement opinion his reason foolishnesse and his being in the World but a kind of being in a Wildernesse wherein hee is estranged from the Citie of the liuing God For euer since hee was not onely cast out of the garden of God but kept out by the Cherubim Gene. 3.24 hee hath beene a stranger to Heauen hauing had no other accesse or entrance thereunto then it hath pleased him that cast him out to giue him by effectuall vocation Now what it is in this sense to bee a stranger or banished man to be denied the priuiledges and libertie of our naturall soile and to goe exile into flat Atheisme and opposition to the true God it may bee somewhat discerned by the bitter and heauy dayes that goe ouer their heads who are but put out of their earthly countrey by Tyrants and but for some short time The naturall affection that euery man feeles toward his owne countrey and proper home may sufficiently teach vs what it is to bee strangers from our countrey of Heauen and not for a short time or life but for euer In other banishments wee may finde some remedy one place to vs may be as good as another and we are all Socrates his countrey men that is as he was wont to say Citizens of the World and therefore banished but out of one part of our countrey into another but hee that is thrust out of this Citie is thrust out of all and though he dwell in the fairest Cities of the World yet doeth he but liue the life of one that wanders in a Wildernesse and hath no Citie to dwell in Againe whereas in other banishments we are denied but a temporall freedome and suffer onely the losse of goods and liuings in this our banishment from heauen we are put from an euerlasting freedome and loose not vncertaine but true riches nor some temporall but an eternall inheritance nor liuing onely but life also and not this short life but the life that endureth euer the life of saluation and the blessed life of the Saints in glory And where in other cases our banishment may bee vniust and our exile for righteousnesse and so wee the banished may haue for the supply of our naturall soile the pleasant paradise of our good conscience to walke in in this case to be cast out of Heauen is worthy to be cast out and in the punishment of it selfe what good conscience can releeue vs when it is iust and deserued And now as the state of them who are strangers from the citie of the blessed is miserable enough seeing they are denied the libertie that is so much worth so is their misery doubled by this that they haue made themselues worthy of it being depriued of the glory of God because they haue sinned Rom. 3.23 partly by not vnderstanding which was the darkenesse of their minde partly but principally by not seeking after God which was the frowardnesse of their will and because they would haue it so Rom. 3.11 For they gaue themselues ouer to worke all vncleanenesse euen with greedinesse Ephes 4.19 But what this is we shall better vnderstand if we examine those titles with the which the Apostle in this Chapter doth describe stile those Christians that were Gentiles where hee calleth them first Gentiles in the flesh Ephes 2.11 which name though it were a common name to the Nations of the Earth yet was it now and was holden a name of as great reproach to them of Gods citie as the name of Barbarian to a Grecian and the name of Turke to a Christian. The reason was the Gentiles were great Idolaters and the things which they sacrificed they did sacrifice to Deuils and not to God 1 Cor. 10.20 Also for that world of wickednesse which they were giuen vnto it was such as might not bee named that is which they could not speake of for shame 1 Cor. 5.1 And when our Sauiour Christ would put them to the worst that would not heare the Church the worst name he gaue them as the worst that could be giuen them was the name of a Heathen Mat. 18.17 So the Apostle in this Epistle exhorting these Ephesians to watch ouer their liues and themselues with some care and diligence forbids them to walke as other Gentiles that is as the worst sort of men Ephes 4.17 No lesse opprobrious was the name that the Apostle gaue them in the second place Ephes 2.11 by calling them the vncircumcision it being the marke by which they were distinguished and knowne from Gods peculiar people And therefore it is said that no stranger that is vncircumcised in heart or vncircumcised in flesh shall enter into the Sanctuary of God accounting all to be strangers from God and Gods peculiar inheritance that are such Ezech. 44.9 For this cause doeth Dauid call Golijah the vncircumcised Philistim 1 Sam. 17.26 and Saul desired his Armour-bearer to kill him least hee should fall into the hands of the vncircumcised Philistims 1 Sam. 31.4 and Steuen drawing a Metaphore from hence Act. 7.51 calleth the desperate Iewes men of vncircumcised hearts and eares Thirdly he calles them when they were Heathen men without Christ Ephes 2.12 that is without the hope and grace of the blessed Seed in Christ and not so onely but alienes from the common Wealth of Israel that is from the externall profession and outward fellowship of the Church and thereby strangers from the Couenant of Promise because they knew not his iudgements Psalm 147.20 And hereof ensueth that which is reckened in the last place that they were not onely without hope because without the Law and Word in which were the Promises by which Hope
benefits of God are so much more then we can deserue or conceiue not to receiue so great grace in vaine nor to thinke where we can deserue nothing we can serue more or better then wee ought or to play the vnthrifts with so rich a treasure committed to our keeping and vse He that hath committed to vs our life and his money to be recalled at his pleasure and hath diuided amongst vs his blessings and his talents to occupie till hee come will one day most certainely require againe his coine of life that he lent vs and reckon with vs particularly for the seuerall peeces of his stocke of grace both which we haue ill imployed and which we haue not imployed to their best end which is his glory then neither the hiding of our talent in the ground by an vnprofitable life shall be able to deliuer vs from our account to damnation nor the smalnesse of his gift and of our receit as it were the single talent excuse vs if we haue bin vnfruitfull in the least matters nor others ill vsing of greater graces be a cloake for vs but the secrets of all hearts as it were the bookes of the Lords accounts shall be laid open euery leafe of them and hidden thing in them and a iust I doe not say equalitie but proportion of increase shall be exacted at our hands according to the measure of grace which wee haue receiued for as it is in the fift of the second to the Corinthians ver 10. We must all appeare before the iudgement seat of God that euery man may receiue the things which are done in his body according to that hee hath done whither it be good or euill and therefore they doe not a little deceiue themselues who hauing a greater measure of grace dealt vnto them and more of the Lords money in their hands then others doe abuse all that bountisulnesse of the Lord and turne his grace into wantonnesse and yet thinke they shall as easily passe their accounts as they who haue receiued smaller summes both of time and spirituall riches to answer for as if to receiue much were rather a priuiledge to greater securitie then the charge of a greater burthen But it fareth not with the heires of heauen as it doth with the Lords of the earth who because they are borne to greater rents and possessions then others are thinke they may liue more idlely then others and as they vse the matter more wickedly but the more that euery one receiues here the more will be required of him and the better his calling is the more seemely must his walking be in it for wee are all of vs vnprofitable seruants euen the best of vs when we haue done our best are so and if wee were many degrees better then we are we were many more degrees worse then we should be And in this respect we are called stewards of God not owners of his gifts and therefore not to abuse them to our pleasures but to answer for not vsing them in his sernice But as we are to take heede to our Christian life that it be godly and righteous in respect of the causes that should moue vs so to doe so in regard of the many occasions that stand in our light and way to withdraw vs from a good course we should take this paines for the ordering of our Christian life much more for how many are they and how many wayes offered I would we were as willing to preuent them as wee are sure they doe daily nay euery houre and moment of our life circumuent vs for who can open his eyes and not see his eares and not heare occasions of euill in all places who can thinke and not amisse walke and not walke in death or which is lesse but steppe out of doores and not steppe into a great puddle of sinne Not onely by the corruption of our vile nature by which we are carried to all euill but also by the subtile inticement of our old enemie who hath spred his nets of deceit ouer all the world and baited his hookes with euery part of our flesh and hath so many lures of imposture for our eyes charmes for our eares vaine thoughts for our hearts and by-wayes for our feet we are so engirt and beset daily on euery hand and side of vs that wee are easily caught and no sooner assailed then taken neither is he sure that thinkes hee commeth into this field of assaults best appointed for them the world what is it but a Sea which swelleth with pride fometh with lust boileth with desires and hath many contrarie tydes and tempests to turne vs from the port to which wee saile Our life what is it but a life of battels and a perpetuall warfare in the which we are to strine against the world and the Prince thereof yea against our owne flesh and the lusts therein and not to haue one minute of truce with them but in a calme to looke for a tempest and to be most distrustfull when the enemy seemeth most quiet and still for besides those many weapons which Sathan hath to assault vs the many occasions that he hath to withdraw vs his skill in vsing his weapons his policie in applying and taking his occasions he is well acquainted with the humours not of euery age onely but of euery estate also and therefore can fit euery one with and in that to which hee is most inclined He tempteth young men with beautie middle age with glory and old age with money he stirreth vp contempt in superiours enuie in inferiours and malice in equals If any be strong in faith hee will teach him to presume and if any be weake he will driue him to despaire He cloatheth his foule practises with tolerable names making lust but a tricke of youth ambition a spur to vertue desire of money honest prouision and whatsoeuer is of it selfe euill and for it selfe hatefull a thing meerely indifferent yea where he cannot hinder the course of godlinesse he will so aduance it in the followers that hee will make them proud of that they doe And to be short when he perceiueth that hee cannot worke so grosely in the children of light as to perswade them that darknesse is light and light darknesse hee fetches about vnder hand to perswade them that though they may not doe as the wicked doe yet it is no harme to keepe them company and though they be ashamed of many things in the light yet in the darke they neede not seeing no man sees them Further to this his skill and policie hee addes no lesse diligence and for this hee is said to be a Dragon that neuer sleepeth and Lyon that neuer lyes still seeking whom he may deuoure hee sowes tares in the night and attendeth their growing in the day he gaines the time that we loose and where we are carelesse he workes what wee scatter he gathers and what opportunities wee giue hee takes And what hee doth in
of the world first offered to them in Christs Preaching and Miracles but when they loued darkenesse more then light because their deedes were euill Iohn 3.19 their light was put out in deepe darkenesse in which they wander from the Lord of life to this day the day of saluation or acceptable day that was offered them they regarded not then came this long b Iohn 9.4 night of their banishment from the priuiledges of Gods people and God hath giuen them the spirit of slumber eyes that they should not see and eares that they should not heare Rom. 11.6 the darknesse that was vpon the Gentiles is cast vpon them and they are a people that know not whether they go Iohn 12.35 This came vpon them because they would not know by way of redemption in their day those things which belonged vnto their peace and now they are hid from their eyes Luke 19.42 Acts 13.46 The seauen Churches of Asia were seauen golden Candlestickes and had goodly lights burning vpon them but when by carelesse negligence they fell away from better to worse who should haue proceeded from good to better not redeeming time but making large penny-worths of it for pernicious errours and carnall loosenesse by which they fall away more and more Esay 1.5 their Candlesticks were remoued and their glorious light put out and they made a prey to the darkenesse of Mahomet It is an high point of wisedome therefore to keepe euen reckoning with our time and not to runne behinde hand with good houres for occasion is bald behinde and they that are wise will take hold of her fore-locke though the Lord be alwayes to be sought yet then specially while he may be found Esay 55.6 and though alwayes to be called vpon yet chiefely and most when he is neare ibid. There was nothing more importantly obiected to Ierusalem then that she remembred not her latter end Lam. 1.9 and God by Ierusalem reproueth his peoples negligence in taking hold of times and seasons for their turning to him making the simple creatures of the aire in their kinde to giue sentence against them for they know their appointed times and keepe the time of their comming saith the Lord hee speaketh of the Storke the Turtle Crane and Swallow that obserue this order but my people know not saith hee the iudgement of their God Ier. 8.7 Though hee that came at the eleauenth houre had his pennie Mat. 20.9 yet trust not to that for thou maist be in hell long before thou see that houre and that is set down to keepe vs from despaire not to harten vs to presumption As therefore wise Merchants take the present fittest time for the buying of their commodities so wise Christians the best Merchants of time should take the present season for the making of it theirs by well-doing and hauing neglected already many good houres and yet hauing more offered though they cannot call backe one minute of time past they should double their paines and diligence about the gainefull employment of those that are before them thereby to make as it were some amends or satisfaction for their losses before doing as much good now as they might haue done both now and then To moue vs to this let vs consider first how nimble and fleete time is and how soone it passeth away the time past is gone the time to come is not yet onely the present may be called time and what is it or of what continuance being no sooner come then it is gone againe Then what fooles are they that so much trouble themselues with the getting away of time that passeth so quickly nothing more But such thoughts wise men are eased of and fooles may spare time will go fast enough without driuing and therefore let our greatest care bee to gather vp the fragments and very crummes of time that nothing be lost Iohn 6.12 Secondly let vs consider how precious time is and therefore how worthy to be redeemed Good husbands know this who will loose no time for their wealth and markets And Philosophers who knew not any life hereafter how were they set for the redeeming of time in matters of no worth How loath were they to vnbend their vaine studies for their very meales and naturall rest And shall we thinke the time long and the husbandrie ill spent that is bestowed vpon wares of better nature then worldly riches that is that is laid out vpon heauenly wealth and the true treasure Shall the heathen so occupie time for vncertaine markets and shall we seeing the markets we deale in are of our certaine redemption tary at home in our idlenesse and loose so precious houres Thirdly let vs consider how little of our time is in our owne power onely the time present is ours and how small a thing that is wee haue heard the time past is gone from vs and for hereafter who hath power of that that may bee For our life is a vapour and in a moment wee may be taken away Fourthly let vs consider how short our time is and learne of Moses the man of God by so poore an Arithmeticke of our dayes to number them wisely not by the church-Church-booke but by the true feare of God Psal 90.12 Euery day windes vp some part of the thread of our life which is of no great length in the longest liuer The farther we passe from the first day of our birth the neerer we draw to the last houre of our life and so wee goe but to death and not a foote from it therefore saith the Apostle Saint Paul while you haue time doe good to all Gal. 6.10 As if hee had said you haue no such great abundance of it that you can spare any Fifthly let vs consider that our aduersarie the Diuell as a roaring Lion walketh about seeking whom he may deuoure 1. Pet. 5.8 that is the Diuell will loose no time to destroy vs and therefore let vs redeeme all houres of time to saue our selues and others I speake to such as haue the charge of others in the ministrie or more generally in the Gospell This Apostle of ours did so for writing to Timothie he saith These things write I vnto thee trusting to come shortly 1. Tim. 3.14 He was vnwilling to loose any time which he might husband profitably for Gods glorie and the Churches seruice else he might haue said because I meane to come shortly I will not write now But that that may bee done to day must not be put off till the morrow or the next day and the Apostle would loose no time that the diuell might not bee any gainer by him Which should stirre vp negligent Ministers who giue Satan time too much to spoile the Lords inheritance But looke what we loose the Diuell gets if we scatter time he will gather it and where we are idle he works Sixthly let vs consider that time must be reckoned for though here wee make no conscience to loose whole dayes and weekes and
blessings and here was a goodly Bay-tree but how soone they vanished and it was gone they saw and therefore hee addeth that suddenly they went downe to the graue verse 13. their bodies to the earth and their soules to hell And therefore though their prosperitie were as great as that of that famous Polycrates among the Grecians of whom it is written that all things went so well with him that when in despight of that which they called Fortune he cast a Ring of no small account into the Sea it was brought againe vnto him in the belly of a fish which was presented to him by a poore fisher-man yet the curse of God is in the meane while digging at their root and their house with all that they hold precious shall suddenly fall vpon themselues and of that house it shall be said the fall thereof was great Mat. 7.27 For further proofe in this point we shall not neede to goe farre Let vs but consider what hath bin done at home lately and it cannot but be fresh in our memories how that some great in fauour at Court and greatly feared for their Princes fauour in the Countrie though they were nestled among the Eagles and gat vp into the sides of the North with that Sonne of the morning though they ioyned land to land as if they would liue alone and builded houses as if they would liue euer making no conscience by the commodious lying of Naboths Vineyard to their owne faire demaines to take it from him 1 King 21.1 yet came downe suddenly and their nests with them in one day one day in the Court of prosperitie and the next day in the prison of sorrow or hand of death In the worlds opinion very strong and spreading very farre when in Gods doome they had their MENE written vpon the wall and their TEKEL told them in their eare Daniel 5.5 25. And how suddenly came they downe like Ionahs Gourd which grew in one night and withered in another Ion. 4.6 7. when their flatterers thought them eternall And no maruell for what was their strength and in whom were they strong in whose account With what armes spred they and from what root their strength it was not the strength of stones Iob 6.12 and they trusted in flesh and fooles onely thought them happy their armes were but armes of worldly largenesse and their root rottennesse their bagges were stuft with stolne wares their houses built vpon a ruinous soundation of violence and they enlarged their lands with spoile they flew to honour vpon wings of a proud and ambitious heart and rode poste as vpon some Pegasus or winged horse to promotion and in them the Prouerbe proued true soone ripe soone rotten for the poore they grinded their faoes that is they vsed them as cruelly as if they had taken a poore mans face and ground it vpon a grindle-stone and for the rich they fed vpon him as beasts in a fat pasture till all was bitten bare also as if they had learned of Neuissan a better Lawyer then honest man that he that will not venture his body shall neuer be valiant nor he that will not venture his soule be rich they made spare of neither for wicked greatnesse and execrable wealth They sought outward things but sought not the Lord in them which made them to thinke no way so neare and ready as by the steps of wickednesse to ascend vnto them and so as by euill they grew to be great so by greatnesse the childe of euill they grew to be worse Not content to be strong they must spread like a greene Bay or as some render it like a tree that groweth of it selfe hauing forgotten that root of princely grace out of which they first came How can such looke for any other end then some sudden cutting off though they be as strong as the strong Oakes of Bashan and as tall and spreading as the Cedars of Libanus how can it be but the Lord must needes destroy their fruit from aboue and their root from beneath and leaue them worth nothing as hee tooke them with nothing when hee first aduanced them Among these there are some ambitious Church-men who continually and altogether studie a rising by Ecclesiasticall dignities either shamefully begged or Simoniacally bought but when they are with Sathan vpon the pinacle of the Temple they tarrie not there long but downe they come not orderly by the staires but suddenly some other way Mat. 4.5 6. And so in their highest pitch of worldly increase Tolluntur in altum vt lapsu grauiore ruant they are lifted vp for a while but to their greater fall while that sweet morsell of greatnesse is in their mouthes the wrath of the Lord is kindled against them Psal 78.30 31. as it is against all who by such staires of pride will needes climbe to promotion Into the heart of this consideration if wee would indeede enter and impartially compare the vanitie of these things with the which they so swell with the sudden and vnlooked for losse and departure of them when they take them to their wings we would be so farre from enuying that we would rather pitie their prosperitie seeing that for the same abuses God will runne vpon them as with more furie because they haue couered their face with fatnesse and haue collops in their flankes Iob 15.26 27. That which we read in the Booke of Wisedome that the mightie shall be mightily tormented Wisd 6.6 can giue them but poore and small comfort if they dye without confession in their mouth and repentance in their hearts though they dye neuer so great and mightie And that we may not doubt of their fickle estate in these outward vncertaine things the Prophet therefore addeth VERS 36. Yet he passed away and loe hee was gone I sought him but he could not be found VVHere he sheweth both what his eyes saw and his experience got namely how hee found that the man who trusted to the weake staffe of worldly Pompe and greatnesse was suddenly gone and before hee could be knowne and vtterly so as he should neuer after bee remembred For howsoeuer that little time which was lent vnto him to slorish and spread in seemed so long in the iudgement of worldly men that they counted it answerable to the greenenesse of the Bay yet was it so short indeede and in the iudgement of wise men so quickly gone that it was liker I said it before and I say it againe liker to the greene grasse and the greene herbe that is mowen and suddenly withereth or as the corne that is blasted before it be growne 2 King 19.26 For this cause the wicked are compared in the Scriptures with things of smallest continuance as to the sat of Lambes which is cleane consumed and suddenly as smoake Psal 37.20 to waxe before the fire Psal 68.2 to a dreame when one awaketh Psal 73.20 and in Esa 41.11 to nothing The reioycing of the wicked saith Iob is short