God more honour the truth more credit and our selves more ease by musing upon mercies by comparing eternals with temporals by considering the shortnesse of thy life and so confesse and praise the Lord for thy short afflictions unlesse thou wilt in foolish peremptorinesse say a Iob 1 5 9 thou wast the first man that was borne and wast made before the hills sufferedst ever since and resolvest to suffer for ever after thy departure hence Thirdly have we but short daies heere to spend What shall we doe better then to strive with God in prayer and our selves in practise First with God in commending our requests to him in these daies of our flesh after our Saviours example he alone is the meats-man of our daies b Iob 7.1 setting forth an appointed time to man upon the earth Pray him in Davids words with Davids spirit to c Ps 85.47 remember how short our time is and to remove all hinderances of mispending and improve all his owne offred meanes and furtherances for the well-spending our short abode heere and for our selves let 's often season all outward passages with thoughts of our approaching end mixe them with our marriages tradings purchases journeyes all field en and domestick labours especially with our recreations and delights take heed of engrossing and griping after more time or temporall things then the Lord affords bethink how fraile thy selfe art how short thy time of what manner thy abode thy daies as David told thee are but of a d 1 Cron. 29.15 pilgrim thy mansion is not thy home thy house but an Inne thy family and neighbours are but fellow-passengers if thy corruptions within or Satan and the world without beare thee in hand with enough layed up for many yeeres give them all the lie with the tongue of this Text and be sure that though thou must converse in the world yet to keepe thy selfe free from the e 2 Pet 1.4 corruptions of the world as Saint Paul stiles them It s hard Bernard but much discourse of temporall things will gnaw the conscience as the rivers fret their bancks but holy circumspection and moderation will ease that difficulty the blinde want though versed all in the earth still preserves its velvet coat faire from the filth of the earth thou hast thy eyes about thee nor needst thou delve so deepe so converse thou in earthly matters that thy conscience be not defiled and beware thou suffer not the earth so to bury thy soule before thy body die but that thou maist use thy eyes to discrie death peeping over thy shoulder whiles thou lookest upon thy worldly matters or if farther off to ken it in its full gallop and flight to overtake thee and that 's the second part of this taske viz. the swiftnesse of mans life in the Post hast or rather flying of the same My daies are swifter then a Post they flee away from whence who cannot spell forth this lesson Doct. 2 Mans life is swift as well as short Our daies seeme wing-footed Iob seemes doubtfull whether they run or flee The swiftest rider is too slow to make expressure the fowles wings best Emblems forth lifes quick dispatch and that when it makes to the prey and that of the f Iob 9.26 Eagle not only for swiftnesse but strength which no humane obstacle of either youth wit wealth honour or physick can stay or hinder from its appointed goale The proverb drops too short that saith Time and Tide stay not Tides creepe on but slowly and have their interstices stay somwhat when they have their stints chalenge their returnes Time is neither so nor so The Prophet speakes more home Our time yea the g Ps 90.80 strength of it is soone cut off we flee yea we flee away and that without either h 1 Chron. 29.15 abiding saith David i Iob 7.9 returning as Iob hath it The Holy Ghost is ample for comparisons as before resembling mans sliding state to things ever upon the rode of hast To a k Es 40 7. floure that fades apace To l Ps 12.14 water that runs apace To a m Iob 9.26 ship that sailes apace To a Post and an Eagle as ye see that rides and flees apace There 's no keeping pace with time but upon the wings of the n Iob 7.7 Winde that whirles apace But how comes this to passe that man in his best estate though in honour is thus altogether a flying vanity and abideth not Reason 1. If natures reason may carry it the subject and foundation of time runs as it were all on wheeles the heavenly Orbs of swifter motion then of any flying bullet from the strongest Ordenance whirle the times about amongst which the uncessant circuits of the Sunne and Moone are appointed by him that o Es 40.22 sits upon the circle of the earth and meteth out Heaven by the span to measure forth these earthly yeeres p Vers 12. moneths and dayes till all time be swallowed up into eternity and these heavens be no more How then can our daies be slow 2. Doe not sinne and sinners make quicke worke in the world How speedily do men breake into it Even q Ps 58.3 from the wombe With what eager pursuit doe men follow sinne Even like Iehues furious march swiftly r Pro. 6.18 their feet are swift in running to mischiefe some faster some slower all too fast How would wickednesse tyrannize might it in this heat have while to roote and spread and seed according to the lust of sinfull men And who shall hinder swift sinners from bringing upon themselves swift destruction 3. Neither is experience so senselesse of the reason a parte post as they say by a touch of after-wit that perceives every minute of time so flight that it prevents the quickest catch gives the heedfullest attention the slip and out-strips the speediest chase The time to come is but only in conceit the time is fled in instants who can say of any time present now it is sith it out-runs thy thought Vse 1 This shreds off the superfluous desires of many men male-contented with their present states who like infants after youth and youth after riper age are ever liquering after future times Oh were such a quarter day come or such a yeere or time expired they were made Why what hadst gotten by this catch if thou couldst finger some thred of time before the Sun can spin it First thou shouldst get but a wilde foule a shadow a puft whose hasty vanishing would more vexe then its approach did please Secondly is the thing for which thou so over-reachest good or evill If thou hast such a greedy worme under thy tongue for that which is evill that like ſ Gē 85.30 Esau for the pottage or Elies sonnes for the flesh thou wilt needs have it t 1 Sam. 2.16 Now or in a sort wilt take it by force hearken what the next verse
say which is sooner longer So grace advertiseth Christians by most significant comparisons expressing their short abode in this g Ps 146. â— their dust The Apostle Iames would scarce vouchsafe it any comparison h Iam. 4 1â— What 's your life saith he twiting us with our false conceit of long life by a holy flout if it be saith he of any subsistence at all it s but like a vapour that appeareth for a litle time and then vanishes away What saith David to our daies They are saith he i 1 Chron. 29 15. as a shadow and ther 's no abiding And what is Hezekiahs opinion Aâ— k Es 38.12 A shepheards tent of no long stay l Iob 7.6 A weavers shuttle is of no long race m 2 Cor. 5.1 a pilgrims tabernacle soone flitted So vaine a thing is man How long is wax in melting n Ps 22.14 So is life in the middest of its fortresse How durable is the state of o Es 40.7 grasse p Ps 90.5 We fade away suddenly like the grasse What 's a tales grace Shortnesse q Ps 90.9 Our yeeres passe away as a tale that is told a thing gone and past Yea as if these comparisons were yet defective the Prophet addeth a sleighter manner of similitude resembling mans life to a r Ps 73.20 dreame and that when its past when a man awaketh a thing gone before you can collect what it was and when it was it was but a thing or rather a just nothing of meere imagination But how is it that mans life is thus scantled Reason 1. The principall cause is God Å¿ Ps 39.5 Thou hast made my daies as it were a span in length saith David 2. The provoking cause is sinne That 's a sudden waster t Gen. 2.17 The same day thou eatest c. thou shalt surely die God hath sealed it with an oath surely 3. The working cause the consuming effects of sinne sorrow and misery both inward and outward a house of u Iob 4.19 clay so strongly beleagured cannot hold out a long siege 4. The materiall cause x GeÌ„ 3.19 dust he was appointed no long standing whose y Iob 4.19 foundation was laid in dust 5. The procreating cause of mankinde necessitateth a very short stay z Iob 14.1 Man that is borne of a woman hath hut a short time If he stand to his pedegree it cannot be that shee that hath no fee simple nor leasse of one houre can make over any long entale of time to her posterity The truth of our short abode thus confirmed rather by way of meditation upon a thing much usefull then for proofe of a point so plaine what better application shall we make then Vse 1 First by way of checke to rayne backe the outrunners of time in this luxuriant age of dingthrifts of time wastfull lavishers of their small allowance how many lay about them as if all their exhibition this way were flong them by talents and therfore spend it with like profusenesse as giddie yongsters newly leapt into their lands squandring away by pounds the comming in whereof they never knew by pence such licentious merchants of time trade in every countrey so wastfully as if they had more time then can be spent whiles good so prodigall of daies moneths yeares some upon doing nothing others upon nothing to the purpose many upon what 's contrary to what they should doe till they turne starke bankrupt both for time and grace Alas it s but winde they feed upon when they thinke they fat their senses with a conceit of living as long as such and such a long liver of their progeny forgetting * Gen. 11. â—8 Harans case and thousands more that die before their parents Foolish men that neither with all their wealth can purchase one minute of time nor with all their strength procure an houre of health nor with all their wit differ death much lesse prevent judgement yet will never season their thoughts with any meditation of weaknesse death or judgement Well the evill day is never the more distant for their putting it off sicknesse may come at an instant weakenesse will come death must come the longer the shadow of life seemes to be the neerer their sun is to setting their glasse is running their houre is at hand when they shall make audit before the impartiall judge for all these flatteries of themselves and for their intentions wherefore they thus deceived themselves for all the duties they have omitted for all the evills they have committed all the instructions they have neglected all the promises they have despised all the threatnings they have sleighted all the talents of youth health strength wit c. they have hidden and for all the creatures meanes and times they have presumptuously abused If any will surfet upon hopes of long joy and contentment in licentiousnesse and resolve upon that ground still to turne Gods grace of time yet afforded and meanes of conversion yet proffered into wantonnesse of sinning let him with his sweet conceits take this sorrow sop amids that his delights cannot be long and certaine whose life is but short and uncertaine God will shortly put an end to his pleasures and person death groans for him that sergeant is within one span of his bosome his judge begins to laugh as fast at his destruction as he laughes at his instructions time is at hand when his dullest sense shall feele to his woe what his faith now wil not beleeve that the joyes of this first life which he fansied to be eternall are but few and short but the miseries of the second death which he never dreamt of shall be numberlesse measurelesse easelesse remeadilesse and utterly endlesse In the second place this serves to reprove a generall fault in all whom the Lord pleases to afflict any whit more then ordinary it being the guise of impatient man to feed his melancholy distempers and to wast his spirits with meditations upon the length of his afflictions amongst whom a yeeres health is shorter then they can have while to feele but a moneths or weeks sicknesse is long and long and longer then they can beare If the Lord would glorifie himselfe in their faith in their assurance of eternall joyes for temporall short paines he shall not do it if he will gaine glory by their patience in any tedious durance he comes to the wrong house they had rather he lost his honour then they their ease No no benefits be of the shorter sise though they last moneths and yeares crosses of a day must be long though life it selfe be short What conceive we of those exquisite tortures which remaine the unrepentant idolater the impenitent blasphemer the resolved offenders of all sorts in eternall and inextricable wreck and misery without any ease or date And what intolerable impatience to murmure at the shorter when we deserve both these Mend this fault and do
telleth thee u Vers 17. Therfore thy sinne is very great before the Lord. But admit the thing bee good for which thou wouldst so faine steale upon the time to come assure thy selfe it would come so raw as Iacobs abortive blessing did that thou wouldst not relish the bitternesse that would accompany the tast of it for plucking Gods appointed season which onely ripeneth all to thy britle lusts besides so weake generally doe such men prove in the well-ordering of time so overgripâ—e that when it s come they are as unable to use it as to hold it Vse 2 Secondly this aggravates the vexation of a worse sort of men whose anxiety is most for that their youth slips away so fast and their age comes on so closse that they feare least they shall not have all their sports in all their cups in all their pleasures and profits in time enough Oh that they could realize that x Ps 49 1â—… inward thought of some that their houses shall continue for ever Oh that they could cause the shadow of their lifes diall to stand still two or three Methuselaes ages or goe backe to Adams time and take them along to eternity of pastime No no time is irrevocable for the past unstayable for the present their shadow is declining their glasse running their sunne setting apace Gods pursevant death is more then in poste-hast even like the Eagle towards its prey their pleasures swift as the Sunne and flie apace Gods wrath swift and comes apace swift death swift damnation treads upon the heeles of all impenitent hastening of evill workes and putting off of the evill day Vse 3 How much better to hasten with the time to a profitable instruction to redeeme the time past and improve the present If mis-spending of the time past be sufficient as that y 1 Pet. 4.3 Apostle saith what shall wee better set about then the z Eph. 5.16 redeeming it being suffered by us for want of due care and watchfulnesse to be carried captive by Satan to the servitude of sinne labour we by prayer and repentance and new obedience to make our evill daies good daies and so to rescue and recover our time into its liberty againe And for our present allowance of time if a Reu. 12.12 Sathan so much the more bestirs himselfe for evill by how much shorter time he knoweth he hath how much more should we bustle for good knowing how many hundred times shorter ours is in these cabbins of clay O then be we thriftie of our time being short and precipitate also and the faster we discerne our Sun to set the more hast like honest labourers and wise travellers le ts make to dispatch our worke and journey goe wee along with the day and let a day have a daies worke a weeke a weekes c. and proceed as fast in service as our daies in passage spend this speciall intrustment no faster then it comes in its best wisedome to take our daies before us not neglecting if young to remember our Creator b Eccle. 12. â— in the daies of our youth It cannot be denied but that its possible for an old sinner to repent and turne howbeit he is likeliest to bee richest as in wealth so in grace that begins betimes besides how unlikely that a man should be able to catch repentance at pleasure in age and sicknesse who hath beaten backe the Lords proffered grace in youth and health the Lord is likely to bee well requited for all his favours to have all the blade and floure of a mans age cast to his vtter foes and the refuse and stumps reserved for him and it s very likely wee shall fight a goodly field when for very impotency wee are ready to be turned forth of th'campe Oh then learne better while we have strength and memory to number our daies more wisely and with Vespatian the Heathen prince plucke our selves by the eare for every lost day and redeeme the next What a feast will it be to a mans conscience when hee hath spent according to his exhibition of time and having a price put into his b Pro. 17.16 hand hath not wanted a heart to use it Resolve upon it howsoever thou hast failed in thy former beginnings this way thy constant proceedings in well imploying thy short time will quit the cost and bring in comfort in sicknesse distresse temptation death when world of preferments profits and pastimes shall stand but as vexations before thy conscience As that mans state upon his deaths couch is miserable whose conscience then most of all will embolden disputes against him what he hath done with time why he melted the fat of it to ennimble the wheeles of his lusts for quicker dispatch of sinne objecteth why done so much evill so little good and now after so much sinne contracted so little grace gleaned what will now become of him when his time and hee are both at last cast So on the contrary how happie hee whose walke can shew him and his conscience witnesse with him that ever since he knew what time meant and perceived how fast it passed hath beene no looser by the use of good opportunities but as he felt them slipping away so he layed on better holt casting how to imploy the smallest mites of time some about his honest vocation other some in hearing reading meditating conferring and especially praying some for his own particular some for his family some for others all for the working and atchieving some true good for himselfe and as many as he can with what courage shall he look temptation and death in th' face and after all his painefull daies works in courses of piety shut up the windowes of his life towards a blissefull rest in happy immortality The second comfort belongs to all Gods children under any affliction their daies passe apace their sorrowes cannot stay long paine shal not long vexe foes shall persecute but a while The c 2 Cor. 4.17 Apostle summes up the afflictions of this life into a moment What speake we of those nibbling crosses of the body The kill-cow of all sinne shall make no long havocke in their soules not long bane their peace nor shipwrack their security pluck they up their hearts these stormes will over these sad daies will have a night of joy the time flies towards us when we shall have no time nor heart to grieve the Lord no time to provoke him to grieve us the d 1 Sam 31 4. sword that pierced Sauls brest was nothing to the weapon wherewith our Lord Iesus Christ hath wounded Satans head his spirits and sins vitals are bleeding forth apace meane time all that Satan and sin can do to us is but to make us more heedfull and watchfull in our waies all that death can do is but to turne the key and open the dore before us to a heavenly mansion Comfort one another in these words that the time hies apace even
swifter then a Post that Satan and sin shall have no more to do with us heaven misseth us as much as we earne for it God will shortly call for us the Angels shall carry us Christ Iesus shall intertaine us his Spirit shall welcome us his e Ps 17.15 image shall satisfie us Let this mitigate the sadnesse of humane life especially of the Saints being the Third and last consideration from the Text. They see no good The word good is of easie explication by noting how the word evill its contrary is in Scripture distinguished There 's one evill in the roote as it were partaking of that f 1 Iob. 5.18 Evill one Satan and that 's the evill of sin in relation whereunto it s said of wicked times g Ephes 5.16 the daies are evill There 's another evill in the branches and that 's the effect and fruit of sin viz. misery in which respect daies of sorrow are termed h Eccles 12 1. Evill daies So according to the rule of Opposites the word Good hath a double sense drawne upon it First as it participateth of the Good God in holinesse and righteousnesse so Godly works are stiled i 1 Tim. 6.18 good works Secondly as it partakes of Gods bounty in the prosperity comfort of the creature in which respect k Ps 34.12 prosperous daies are called Good and this is the proper sense of the word in this Text Iobs daies saw no Good that is much misery much losse in state much feare in his children much paine in his body much discouragement from his friends much horrour in his soule all which as Iob suffered by way of triall so all are sufferable by demerit which takes us out a Doct. 3 Third profitable though hard lesson viz. Our short swift time is subject to great and sore affliction Short and sweet were some mitigation but our daies are as sowre as short Swift and pleasant were some qualification but they are knotty and sad as well as swift All our daies are not faire long sommer daies but many gloomy short winter nippy daies among Iobs whole story to the last Chapter what i st but a ruthfull Martyrologie of affliction Iacobs story well concurred with his confession that his daies were l Gen. 49.7 few and evill The Patriarke David had his stint this way being exercised with m Ps 71.20 great and sore troubles and if the righteous are recompensed upon earth with troubles for number n Ps 34.19 many for measure o Iob 2.13 great p Pro. 11.31 how much more saith Solomon the wicked and the sinner Speake experience of what condition is the vanishing vapour of our life When we have made a hard scape from stifling in the wombe what 's infamy but a brak of discontents what 's child-hood but a schoole of restraint from without a very bridewell of frowardnesse within What 's youth but a pitcht field of passions and distempers What 's age but a meere hospitall of infirmities Our whole life worse than a tragedy for that begins with some mixture of delight wherein the first act is crying the second grieving groaning is the last Catastrophe No marvaile then if Iob calculate mans time to be not only short but q Iob 14.1 full of misery Reason 1 For why The Lord hath so appointed it as David and Hezekiah upon their sick beds acknowledge God hath layed this heavie yoke upon all the sons of Adam either for punishment or for tryall and ther 's no escaping a thing decreed Were it any way avoideable wisdome might discry some prevention Were these stormes only upon the land or upon the sea alone the advantage of ease might be taken by the place were they only without dores one might house himselfe within but be he where he can be he cannot avoid what he is borne to Man is borne saith Iob to trouble r Iob 5.7 as the sparks flie upwards Reason 2 Affliction is sins native brood if this hang on the other will not fall off its sin that makes mans time narrow as a well for breadth deepe as hell for bitternes why els doth ſ Ps 18.4 David and Ionah t Ionah 2.2 complaine of hellish sorrowes whosoever therefore followes sin becomes afflictions prey neither have the law and the Prophets noted any other chace for afflictions hunting but only the sinner If no man can say he hath clensed his heart from sin no man shall be able to rid his soule or body from sorrow Truth is sin hath no fitter meanes wherby to execute its own ends then this What aimeth sin at Death and destruction What breaks and battereth downe more forcibly then affliction Man made mortall must downe iniquity is the axe miseries the ordinary severall strokes that lay the sinner along Vse 1 Do all suffer or deserve to feele these stormes that passe the sea of this mortality Then this must first resolve what to trust to heere This world is not a meadow full of flowers but a wildernesse of brakes and briars now this affliction catches at us now an other at sins sute arests us now a foe dogges us anon a sicknes laies us up waking sleeping dreaming cares atches feares crasinesses and distempers as thick as u Iob 1.14.16.17 18. Iobs ill messengers haunt us Dreame of what ease and comfort thou wilt after thy state and condition so and so altered to thy mind how thou shalt live as merrily as the day is long to as your proverbe runs after thy yoke-fellow obtained to thy minde after all thy reversions outlived all thy purchases compassed preferments atchieved children placed deceive not thy selfe even after all those thou wilt flote upon a sea of sin and therfore no lesse then a sea of waves and rocks and shelves and stormes and pirats shall annoy and continually endanger thee Art Gods tree thou must be pruned art Gods tilth thou must be bowelled up with plow and harrow els thou wilt be fruitlesse art Gods childe chastised thou must be or graceles Art Gods enemy he notes thy prancks and is providing sowre sauce for thy pleasant morsels His hand is taking holt of vengeance he is furbushing his * Deut. 32 41. glittering sword that his arrowes may drink the blood his sword eate the flesh of thē that hate him Finally be thou good or bad set not to thy heart any descant of pleasant ditty whiles all the tune of thy life runs upon discords of iniquity if any comforts appeare they are but as the gleames of a March day beaten with stormes as fast as they glimmer forth and therefore as thou dost not unslate thy house when the showre is past but keepest it to award another so put not away faith and patience and watchfulnesse at the departure of any crosse but taking a short farwell reserve thy selfe to welcome the same againe or worse sith this is not the haven but the Ocean 2. Neither