The works of the reverend and faithful servant of Jesus Christ M. Richard Greenham,…The workes of the reuerend and faithfull seruant af Iesus Christ M. Richard Greenham,…

A worldly man in this business would begin to add and to multiply, putting still to the times past that which is to come, and withdrawing from¹ time to come, times past: But we must know that all that is past, is to be subtracted, and to be counted nothing, and the days to come are not to be added, for an addition must be of a thing existent, but the time to come is not. But let us make a supposition of that to be which is not, that a man may write of 70 years, let us, I say, set that down as the gross sum. Half that time is spent they say in sleep, which then we may well detract from the great number, & then there remains but 35. years. From these we may deduct 14. years² in our youth, wherein we are unfit to glorify God, or do good to man, and so there remains sixteen years; and of these sixteen, to set down the days of sickness, or those times which we sinfully spend in yielding to anger, to our lusts, or to worldliness, wherein we are as unprofitably occupied, as though we were not, half of the number would be cut off, and so we should leave but seven or eight years. But now we have the sum, from whence we might take out, but not that time out, which is past we know, seeing now it is nothing; what is to come, we know not, and it cannot be added, time is but short, and therefore great need we have of God his spirit to teach us. To this we know, how suddenly death doth take from us time to come, Jobs children in the middest of their banquet were stricken dead; Ishbosheth died before night could come upon him, neither hath the strongest liver any surer charter of his life. The best way then to reckon aright,³ is to make the number, which we may take out, and that which we would subtract, all one, and that is none. If in the way we haply find something, we may take it for our advantage, and see that we use it to God his glory. For this being set down, that our days past are none, and the days to come none neither: so that no days past or to come can be counted part of our life, and consequently have none but the present time, which is very⁴ little, and as little as a thought, unless we could have a lease of our life, as Hezekiah in some so•t had of his by Isaiah, wherein he had very ill success. And so finding our time to be none, we shall be most bent to labour to attain to wisdom.