A14095:270
A discovery of D. Jacksons vanity. Or A perspective glass, whereby the admirers of…A discovery of D. Iacksons vanitie. Or A perspective glasse, wherby the admirers of…
A discovery of D. Jacksons vanity. Or A perspective glass, whereby the admirers of D. Jacksons profound discourses, may see the vanity and weakness of them, in sundry passages, and especially so far as they tend to the undermining of the doctrine hitherto received. Written by William Twice, Doctor of Divinity, as they say, from whom the copy came to the pressA discovery of D. Iacksons vanitie. Or A perspective glasse, wherby the admirers of D. Iacksons profound discourses, may see the vanitie and weaknesse of them, in sundry passages, and especially so farre as they tende to the undermining of the doctrine hitherto received. Written by William Twisse, Doctor of Divinitie, as they say, from whom the copie came to the presse
Amsterdam: printed by the successors of Giles Thorp, 1631
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
It is a paradox if not a manifest untruth, rather to say that the motions of things themselves, and their endeavours, to enjoy or entertain time approaching is that which doth wast and consume them; For albeit in man sometimes you find such causes of consumption, yet in all other creatures inferior unto man, as beasts of all sorts, how can you make it good that ⟨p. 149⟩they out of a desire and endeavour to entertain time do wast themselves, who know not so much as what time is? How much less will you be able to make it good in vegetables of all sorts, as plants and trees, and in all sorts of mixed bodies? Nay, how will you make it good in man? Some die by course of nature, and that either through age or sickness; when a man of 100. years old dieth, what motion or endeavour is there in him to entertain that wasted him? and how will you prove, that had not this motion or endeavour of his been (as all endeavours are voluntary and free) he might have lived longer.
It is a paradox if not a manifest untruth, rather to say that the motions of things themsselfes, and theyr endeavours, to enjoy or enterteyne time approching is that which doth wast and consume them; For albeit in man sometimes you find such causes of consumption, yet in all other creatures inferior unto man, as beasts of all sorts, how can you make it good that ⟨p. 149⟩they out of a desire and endeavour to enterteyne time doe wast themselfes, who know not so much as what time is? How much lesse will you be able to make it good in vegetables of all sorts, as plants and trees, and in all sorts of mixt bodies? Nay, how will you make it good in man? Some die by course of nature, and that eyther through age or sicknes; when a man of 100. yeares old dieth, what motion or endeavour is there in him to enterteyne that wasted him? and how will you prove, that had not this motion or endeavour of his bene (as all endeavours are voluntary and free) he might have lived longer.
When God sent a pestilence among the Israelites, that in the space of 3. days swept away 70. thousand; was it a motion of theirs, or an endeavour to entertain time, that consumed them? Nay, when any disease proves mortal, how can it appear that when one man died of an Ague, another of the Dropsy, another of the squinancy, another of the pleurisy, another of the consumption, that all of them died of a certain disease, called their motions and endeavours to enjoy and entertain time approaching: A disease, that I think was never known to Hippocrates or Galen, or any Physician before or since. I should think the disease of Pastime should wast us more then the disease of enjoying Time. Others come to their ends by violent deaths, some in war, some by course of justice, others by private malice: In all these I find my self in the briers, and cannot possibly conceive, how mens own motions and endeavours to enjoy time should wast or consume them: or in case a man makes a way with himself by hanging drowning or poisoning. Not altogether so wild is that conceit of yours which followeth, in saying we naturally seek to catch time. Yet wild enough; for it is untrue that men catch. Time; they catch opportunity, which is [Greek or Hebrew], and not a little differing from [Greek or Hebrew]. Now opportunity is only an advantage of doing something conveniently offered to us in the course of Time. As it is good to make hay while the sun shineth, ergo; I will roundly set my self to the making of Hay, while this opportunity is offered, wherein I catch not