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
THE FLIGHT OF TIME Discerned By the dim shadow of Jobs Diall IOB 9.25 Explaned In certaine familiar and profitable meditations well conducing to the wise numbering of our daies in the sad time of this mortalitie As it was delivered to his charge at Bloxham in Oxford-shire by the Pastour thereof R. M. PSAL. 90.12 Lord So teach us to number our Dayes that we may apply our hearts unto wisdome LONDON Printed by George Miller for Edward Langham at Banbery 1634. TO THE HONOVRABLE M rs FRANCES FIENNES wife to the Right Worshipfull Mr. IAMES FIENNES Esquire Sonne and heyre apparent to the Lord Viscount Say and Seale and one of the daughters of EDVVARD Viscount WIMBLETON Grace and Peace c. Vertuously Noble THer 's nothing in this small module presented to your Religious view but what you know nor any thing which can be too well learned the Priests lips are as well to settle and rivet knowledge in the heart as to tender it to the eare and the most intelligent must be for knowledge as the Suppliant in the Gospell was for Faith and cry and say with teares Lord I know helpe thou my want of knowledge Both must endeavour the procuring such practicall and saving knowledge by the power whereof the judgement may be rightly enformed and the will and affections framed for the well ordering of the life and conversation Your knowne care and study in this holy practise inviteth and emboldneth towards your Godly acceptance these familiar and ever seasonable meditations the rather for that the partie whose late death occasioned the present task was in her lifetime an afflicted object of your much exercised and voluntary compassion many moneths your chargeable and much tendered patient too late for her body in respect of the desperatenes of her malady the care being yours but the cure Gods peculiar but not too soone for her soule which received no small confessed physick from your counsell prayers and example She lived a daughter of Iob her daies being short and painefull and dying a daughter of Abraham in faith and patience left nothing fitter to acknowledge her debt to you then this part of her funerall solemnity which therefore I am bold to present in her name to your noble desert Christians care and paines in doing good to all especially Faiths houshold hath sufficient reward with God who notwithstanding must be glorified by men in the view of his graces shining in his eminent servants which who so dare performe with flatterie let him look unto it for my part herein sincerity is conduct as far as my heart and I be best together acquainted If you or any for your sake reape any price of labour in reading this publish I know God shall not want his praise Prosper still with your noble consort as your soules prosper to your continuing rich in good workes the Kings high-way to your kingdome Be blessed with Booz and Ruth their blessing to do worthily and be famous and let your famous worthines as it doth shine long through your humility heere till both your graces be late crowned above in Glory Your Honours unworthy neighbour ever well-wishing you in Christ Iesus ROGER MATTHEVV THE FLIGHT OF TIME Discerned by the dim shadow of Iobs Diall Iob 9.25 IOB 9.25 Now my dayes are swifter then a Post they flee away they see no good THese words are a part of the ruthfull complaint of afflicted Iob who having taken to consideration Gods justice and power in his afflicting the sonnes of men commending the one to be impeachable and no way to be reproved especially vers 2. the other to be impregnable and no way to bee resisted particularly vers 19. drawes towards a conclusion well suting with his owne present condition and his friends partiall censure of the same viz. that the effects of Gods justice and power in trying men by afflictions are not simply sound arguments of Gods displeasure sith a Vers 22. the Lord brings to destruction both the perfect and the wicked So that whether b Vers 23. he pluck away the innocent suddenly or forbeare seeme to c Vers 24. give the earth by way of long possession to the wicked notwithstanding so past finding out shall his judgements be to us whether for tryall or for terrour that no man shall discover his intentions yea he covereth the faces of judges saith the Text the best discerners may as well finde out the furrow of a ship in the Sea or tracke the flight of an Eagle in the ayre as sound Gods insearchables in this kinde Iob desires to know the mans name and place that dare arrogate the contrary to himselfe d Vers 24. Who and where is he This setled that misery is no sound argument of Gods anger the Patriarke sticks not in this verse read unto you to declare the heavie hand of the Lord upon himselfe in a threefold degree of that infirmity and wretchednesse whereunto as all mortality is subject so himselfe was at this present severely subdued Now my dayes are swifter then a post c. Which words note unto us three remarkables of Iobs and all humane frailty First the shortnesse Secondly the swiftnesse Thirdly the sadnesse of the same 1. The shortnesse appeares in the small fragments of it being but Daies Large extents are measured by long dimensions furlongs miles leagues short by feet spannes ynches Daies yee know are no long durances and how can life eeked and pieced out by Daies be of any long continuance 2. The swiftnesse is discovered two waies First by a comparison to a messenger of state which notwithstanding his important hast rideth not so fast to his appointed boundary Secondly by a similitude as all metaphors in substance are in a word borrowed from the Fowler of quicker dispatch then any horse or dromedary they flee amplified by a terme of increasing distance away Swifter then a post they flee away 3. The sadnesse glimmers forth in the absence of comfort and prosperity delivered under the tearme Good and it s partly expressed by the strongest negative partly confirmed by the surest witnesse that of the eye they see no good The porch thus opened le ts enter into materials and first to the first condition of Jobs frailty and in him of all mankind in generall viz. Daies and small pittances of humane life teaching us this usefull observation Doct. 1 That Mans naturall life is but short short daies are all the limmes of mans time like a short line consisting but of pricks the whole body of his time cannot bee long When Iacob had well neere all his yeeres together he summes the totall into a e Gen. 47.9 few daies David could gripe all his daies into the compasse of a f Ps 39 5. Span. As nature nurtured the heathen in the cutted state of this mortality by a bladder and a bubble both sweld with a puffe and shrunk with a pricke by a breath whose being or vanishing who can
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