A62047:186
The fading of the flesh and flourishing of faith, or, One cast for eternity…
The fading of the flesh and flourishing of faith, or, One cast for eternity with the only way to throw it well : as also the gracious persons incomparable portion / by George Swinnock ...The fading of the flesh and flourishing of faith, or, One cast for eternity with the only way to throw it vvell : as also the gracious persons incomparable portion / by George Swinnock ...
London: printed for Tho. Parkhurst, 1662
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Chapter 6: Three Motives more. A Dying Hour, will he a Trying Hour: The misery of the unprepared:…
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 must needs be a trying hour upon this twofold account.
1. Because all thy temporal mercies will then leave thee. When the hand of death shakes the tree of life, all those fair blossoms will fall off. We brought nothing into the World, and it is certain that we shall carry nothing out of this World, 1 Tim. 6.7. The Hedgehog gets to a pile of Apples, and gathers as many as she can up upon her prickles, but when she comes to her resting place, her Hole, she throweth them all down, and carrieth not one in with her. Thus men walk in a vain shadow, and disquiet themselves in vain, heaping up riches which die with them; naked they come into the World, and naked they go out of the World. Plutarch wisely compareth great men to Counters, which one hour stand for thousands, and the next hour for nothing. Hermocrates being unwilling that any man should enjoy his estate after his death, made himself in his Will, his own heir. Athenaeus reports of a covetous Wretch, that on his Death-bed swallowed many pieces of Gold, and sowed up others in his coat, commanding that they should be buried with him; but who doth not laugh at such folly?
1. Because all thy temporal mercies will then leave thee. When the hand of death shakes the tree of life, all those fair blossoms will fall off. We brought nothing into the World, and it is certain that we shall carry nothing out of this World, 1 Tim. 6.7. The Hedghog gets to a pile of Apples, and gathers as many as she can up upon her prickles, but when she comes to her resting place, her Hole, she throweth them all down, and carryeth not one in with her. Thus men walk in a vain shadow, and disquiet themselves in vain, heaping up riches which die with them; naked they come into the World, and naked they go out of the World. Plutarch wisely compareth great men to Counters, which one hour stand for thousands, and the next hour for nothing. Hermocrates being unwilling that any man should enjoy his estate after his death, made himself in his Will, his own heir. Athenaeus reports of a covetous Wretch, that on his Death-bed swallowed many peices of Gold, and sowed up others in his coat, commanding that they should be buried with him; but who doth not laugh at such folly?