A supplement to The Morning-exercise at Cripple-Gate, or, Several more cases of conscience practically…

2. It is a day; and therefore that which cannot be recalled when it is spent ⟨p. 98⟩and done. The loss of a day is an irrecoverable loss. Who can restore the loss of a day? nec cursum supprimit, nec revocat, tempus: Time doth neither suppress it's course, nor recall it; neither doth it slack it, nor revoke it. As time stops not, so time returns not. If thy House be burnt, or thy goods stolen, or thy Lands forfeited, Friends can make a supply of those losses: but if all thy Friends, nay Creatures in Heaven and in Earth, should conspire to make thee happy, they cannot with all their combined industry and united forces restore thee to one of those good hours in the day of Grace that thou hast foolishly misspent. Esau lost his day and he could not recall it with tears. The knocking of the foolish Virgins could not break open the shut door of Heaven. When thy sun is set and thy day completely ended, thy sun will never rise more. I have heard of one that wantonly threw a Jewel into the Sea; and they say the Jewel was brought to him in the belly of a fish that was served up to his table. I know not how true this is; but who, or what shall ever bring back to thee the Jewel of thy lost day? none shall ever bring back this Jewel to thy table, if thou wilt throw it away by wantonness and negligence. God will not turn thy glass when it is once out. What the fall was to Angels, that is death to man.

2. It is a day; and therefore that which cannot be recalled when it is spent ⟨p. 98⟩and done. The loss of a day is an irrecoverable loss. Who can restore the loss of a day? nec cursum supprimit, nec revocat, tempus: Time doth neither suppress it's course, nor recall it; neither doth it slack it, nor revoke it. As time stops not, so time returns not. If thy House be burnt, or thy goods stoln, or thy Lands forfeited, Friends can make a supply of those losses: but if all thy Friends, nay Creatures in Heaven and in Earth, should conspire to make thee happy, they cannot with all their combined industry and united forces restore thee to one of those good hours in the day of Grace that thou hast foolishly mispent. Esau lost his day and he could not recall it with tears. The knocking of the foolish Virgins could not break open the shut door of Heaven. When thy sun is set and thy day compleatly ended, thy sun will never rise more. I have heard of one that wantonly threw a Jewel into the Sea; and they say the Jewel was brought to him in the belly of a fish that was served up to his table. I know not how true this is; but who, or what shall ever bring back to thee the Jewel of thy lost day? none shall ever bring back this Jewel to thy table, if thou wilt throw it away by wantonness and negligence. God will not turn thy glass when it is once out. What the fall was to Angels, that is death to man.