Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A42573
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Of the improvement of time a sermon preach'd before the Queen at White-Hall, August 7, 1692 / by Edward Gee.
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Gee, Edward, 1657-1730.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing G458; ESTC R23947
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12,116
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32
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us after our Success in the Conflicts we shall be engag'd in here below God has not been so liberal to us in the Term of our Lives that we should be so lavish and squander away such large Portions of it What a great share of our Time does Necessity force from us Our Sleep does almost cut our Life in two and take an equal part the satisfying of those daily returning Wants of Food and Nourishment does take up at least a third part of what remains and for the rest how much does lawful Recreation take for its share how much does want of Health or the Care of a weak and uneven state of Health take also for its certain part After such a Division one would think little could be left for worldly Concerns and none at all for other Matters and yet we see how much of their Time does the Business and Employments of Mankind require how much Care and Time and Diligence is necessary to procure but a tolerable Subsistance for the far greatest part in the World Indeed this Time is all spar'd to them who have these things left to their Hands that are born to large Estates and have no occasion to spend any of their Time this way but then alas Experience shews us that too many of these who have so much more Time to spare than others do generally make the least and worst Use of it Not only our own Affairs but those of Relations and of Friends nay of meer Strangers swallow up great part of our Time and would spend us more of it if Nature and Necessity would but give leave Let us then compute our Time and see what can remain when Sleep and Nourishment and Recreation and Health and Business have carried off such large Shares have we such a mighty Portion left for that our Great Work for the taking Care of our Last and Greatest Concern Would we but reflect a while on this account it would make us blush and be heartily asham'd for all the Time we have ever mispent in Sin and Folly for these alas crowd into the account of Impediments and make too too great a Figure there though we want no such Hindrances One would think Men could have no leasure for the Service of these that their manifold Business would have kept them always out of harms way if we did not to our Sorrow see that though Men do so often complain that their Business takes up their whole Time that they can get no part of the day to employ as they willingly should and own they ought in Holy Duties yet that they can and will rob their Business to spend upon their Lusts and Pleasures That they will borrow for a Boon Companion for a Wanton Harlot or a Drunken Club though they will not for Religious Matters Reading good Books or to dedicate it either to the Publick or Private Worship of their God Are not these then Hindrances big enough in our Great Work which our Necessities and our Business give us What must we say then when Wickedness comes in for a share and robs us most of all when it 's content with no mean share but insinuates more and more till all other Care is quite laid aside and it engrosses our whole Time Should not this persuade us should it not teach us that since the Business is really so great for which we were brought into this World and the Time so uncertain that we have to finish it in that want of Time will not pass for Excuse in the other World when our Sins and our Lusts have squander'd so much of it here that since God has so form'd our Nature and our Tempers that a great part of our Time must certainly be employ'd in the Care of these and a great deal more of it may be snatch'd from us by Sickness or uncertain Health we should never forget to employ well that Time which we can only call our own to emprove all those Seasons and Opportunities which God vouchsafes and Time does reach out to us to all the great and good Purposes for which our Lord did place us here But alas we forget all this we do not only forget that our Work is so great and that the Impediments we meet with in this our Journey are so many but which is altogether as unhappy we forget in the Third place 3 ly How short the Time of our Sojourning here in this World must be It has been an old and a great Complaint of the Shortness of Humane Life and if when the Lives of Men were far longer than they now are and they had lived twice as long as the Generality of the World now does they could complain that their days had been few Gen. 47.9 We must not wonder at any Complaints we hear now Our Life is fitly compar'd in Gods Word to the Grass of the Field to the more tender Flower which though it is sometime in growing up yet soon fades is withered and gone and as if this was not sufficient to Convince us of the Shortness and Vanity of our Lives the Scripture has thought fit to descend and make even a Vapour and a Shadow the Emblems of our short and fading Time and to use them often as the fittest Emblems to express it by Job's Friend pleads this in excuse for his Ignorance and it will serve for the rest of Mankind Job 8.9 For we are but of Yesterday and know nothing because our days upon Earth are a Shadow And Job himself concludes this as the common Lot to us all that we are but of few days and which is more Unhappy that they are full of Trouble That Man cometh forth indeed like a Flower but is cut down Job 14.1 2. that he fleeth also as a Shadow and continues not And the same Sense have the wiser part of the Heathen World had of the Condition of Mankind that his Life is very short too short in their Opinion for so Noble and so Wise a Creature They have compar'd it to a meer Point and indeed what is the longest Life more to the days of Eternity They have laught at the dividing this little Point into so many parts but most of all at Mankind for misimploying any part thereof And does it not appear the same to us all As for the Time past for all the Years we have lived hitherto how wonderfully short and inconsiderable does it appear to us How little a Time is it think we all since we were Children since we came abroad into the World It 's all gone as swiftly as a Shadow and is vanish'd as if it had been really but a Vapour The Time present of our Life which is all that we can justly call the time of Life how fleeting and uncertain is it also and how hasty to be gone How little will it stay for us It does not wait our leisure nor can attend till we 'll be pleased to employ it to its just and