Our days are sufficient for our duties, had we grace to number them, and to apply our hearts to wisdom; but there is no overplus of time to be abused to fleshly or worldly lusts, or to be lavished away in idle and unnecessary things. A good man that liveth all the day long in the fear of his God, and husbands his time to the best advantage of his soul, finds it so sufficient for his work, that he is always ready to be called to an ⟨p. 522⟩account, and when ever he dieth, he dieth full of days, and hath had his fill of living; but men waste their time in vanity and folly, sacrifice their youth to frowardness, and unprofitableness, their manhood to pleasure and passion, their old age (if they live so long) to earthly-mindedness and Atheism, nay, they will set down and contrive sports, or send for, or go into idle company, to pass away the time, and then complain that time is little, and life is short, and they have not enough to provide for death and eternity in. The Moralist observeth truly;1 Non exiguum temporis habemus, sed multum perdimus; It is not a little time that we have, but it is much which we waste. God i• bountiful in allotting us time, but we are lavish of it, and then grumble that it is no more. The largest possessions in a Country, though worth thousands per annum, are nothing in the hands of a Prodigal Heir, who useth to throw away thousands at a cast, and must pay the Bills which Pride, and luxury, and gluttony, send him in daily; but a twentieth part of those revenues were a large estate in the hands of a frugal person. The vast incomes of Egypt, and all the Eastern Provinces, were but a small sum, when they were gathered to maintain the pomp and ambition of Antony; and the riot and fleshly lusts of Cleopatra; when some prudent provident Emperors have lived freely and nobly a whole year, with less then they consumed in a day. Foolish men that are riotous and prodigal of their time, as if it were given them only to sport, and play, and roar, and revel in, pine and whine at last that they are lost, ⟨p. 523⟩because their time is so short;
Our days are sufficient for our duties, had we grace to number them, and to apply our hearts to wisdom; but there is no overplus of time to be abused to fleshly or worldly lusts, or to be lavished away in idle and unnecessary things. A good man that liveth all the day long in the fear of his God, and husbands his time to the best advantage of his soul, finds it so sufficient for his work, that he is always ready to be called to an ⟨p. 522⟩account, and when ever he dieth, he dieth full of days, and hath had his fill of living; but men waste their time in vanity and folly, sacrifice their youth to frowardness, and unprofitableness, their manhood to pleasure and passion, their old age (if they live so long) to earthly-mindedness and Atheism, nay, they will set down and contrive sports, or send for, or go into idle company, to pass away the time, and then complain that time is little, and life is short, and they have not enough to provide for death and eternity in. The Moralist observeth truly;1 Non exiguum temporis habemus, sed multum perdimus; It is not a little time that we have, but it is much which we waste. God i• bountiful in allotting us time, but we are lavi•h of it, and then grumble that it is no more. The largest possessions in a Country, though worth thousands per annum, are nothing in the hands of a Prodigal Heir, who useth to throw away thousands at a cast, and must pay the Bills which Pride, and luxury, and gluttony, send him in daily; but a twentieth part of those revenues were a large estate in the hands of a frugal person. The vast incomes of Egypt, and all the Eastern Provinces, were but a small sum, when they were gathered to maintain the pomp and ambition of Antony; and the riot and fleshly lusts of Cleopatra; when some prudent provident Emperours have lived freely and nobly a whole year, with less then they consumed in a day. Foolish men that are riotous and prodigal of their time, as if it were given them onely to sport, and play, and roar, and revel in, pine and whine at last that they are lost, ⟨p. 523⟩because their time is so short;
- 1Sen. de brevit. vit. cap. 1.
