A Christian Directory

§. 23. Direct. 16. Consider what a senseless contradiction it is of you, to over-love your Lives, and ¹yet to cast away your Time. What is your Time but the duration of your lives? You are loth to dye, and loth your Time should be at an end: and yet you can as prodigally cast it away, as if you were weary of it, or longed to be rid of it. Is it only the last hours, that you are loth to lose? Are not the middle parts as precious, and to be spared and improved? Or is it only to have Time, and not to use it, that you desire? No means is good for any thing, but to further the attainment of the end: It is not good to you, if it do you no good. To have food or raiment without any use of them, is as bad as not to have them. If you saw a man tremble with fear lest his purse be taken from him, and yet take out his money himself, and cast it away, or give it all for a straw or feather, what would you think of that mans wit? And do not you do the like and worse, when you are afraid lest Death should end your Time, and yet you your selves, will idle it away, and play it away, and give it for a little worldly pelf? But I know how it is with you: It is for the present pleasure of the flesh, and for the sweetness of life it self, that you value life, and are so loth to dye, and not for any higher ends: But this is to be brutish, and to unman your selves, and simply to vilify your lives, while you idolize them: Such mad contradictions sin infers. You make your Life your ultimate end, and desire to Live but for Life it self, or the pleasures of life; and so you make it instead of God and Heaven, which should be intended as your proper end: And yet while you refer it not to these higher ends, and use it but for the present pleasure; you vilify your selves and it, as if man did differ from a Dog or other Brute, but in some poor degree of present pleasure.

§. 23. Direct. 16. Consider what a sensless contradiction it is of you, to over-love your Lives, and ¹yet to cast away your Time. What is your Time but the duration of your lives? You are loth to dye, and loth your Time should be at an end: and yet you can as prodigally cast it away, as if you were weary of it, or longed to be rid of it. Is it only the last hours, that you are loth to lose? Are not the middle parts as precious, and to be spared and improved? Or is it only to have Time, and not to use it, that you desire? No means is good for any thing, but to further the attainment of the end: It is not good to you, if it do you no good. To have food or rayment without any use of them, is as bad as not to have them. If you saw a man tremble with fear lest his purse be taken from him, and yet take out his money himself, and cast it away, or give it all for a straw or feather, what would you think of that mans wit? And do not you do the like and worse, when you are afraid lest Death should end your Time, and yet you your selves, will idle it away, and play it away, and give it for a little worldly pelf? But I know how it is with you: It is for the present pleasure of the flesh, and for the sweetness of life it self, that you value life, and are so loth to dye, and not for any higher ends: But this is to be bruitish, and to unman your selves, and simply to vilifie your lives, while you idolize them: Such mad contradictions sin infers. You make your Life your ultimate end, and desire to Live but for Life it self, or the pleasures of life; and so you make it instead of God and Heaven, which should be intended as your proper end: And yet while you refer it not to these higher ends, and use it but for the present pleasure; you vilifie your selves and it, as if man did differ from a Dog or other Brute, but in some poor degree of present pleasure.