The redemption of time, or, A sermon containing very good remedies for them that…

But because in my Book called NOW or NEVER, I have already urged these to diligence, I shall only add this one request, to sportful Youth, to sensual Brutes, to the idle sort of the Gentry, to impenitent loiterers, to Gamesters, and to all that have Time to spare, that they will soberly use their reason in the answer of these following Questions, before they proceed to waste the little Time that is remaining, as vainly as they have done the rest. And I earnestly beseech them, and require them, as in the sight and hearing of ⟨image 12⟩their Judge, that they deny me not so friendly and reasonable a suit.

But because in my Book called NOW or NEVER, I have already urged these to dilige•ce, I shall only add this one request, to sportful Youth, to sensual B•uites, to the idle sort of the Gentry, to impenitent loyterers, to Gamesters, and to all that have Time to spare, that they will soberly use their reason in the answer of these following Questions, before they proceed to waste the little Time that is remaining, as vainly as they have done the rest. And I earnestly beseech them, and require them, as in the sight and hearing of ⟨image 12⟩their Judge, that they deny me not so friendly and reasonable a suit.

Quest. 1. Do you consider well the shortness and uncertainty of your Time? You came but lately into the world, and it is but a very little while till you must leave it. The glass is turned upon you: and it is uncessantly •unning. A certain number of motions your Pulse must beat, and beyond that number it shall not be permitted to strike another stroke. Whatever you are thinking or saying, or doing, you are posting on to your final state: And O how quickly will you be there! suppose you had seventy years to live, how soon will they be gone? But you are not sure of another hour. Look back on all your Time that is past, and tell me whether it made not haste? And that which is to come, will be as hasty. Will not the tolling of the Bell instruct you? Will not graves and bones, and dust instruct you? While many are hourly crowding into another world, will conscience permit you to be idle? Doth it not tell you what you have to do, and call upon you to dispatch it? Can you play away your time, and idle it away, whilst the bell is tolling, whilst the sick are groaning, whilst every pulse and breath is telling you, that you are hasting to your end? Do you consider what a wonder of providence it is, that all your humours, parts and organs, that so many