A65610:26
The redemption of time, or, A sermon containing very good remedies for them that…
The redemption of time, or, A sermon containing very good remedies for them that have mis-spent their time showing how they should redeem it comfortably / by William Whately ... ; now published for general good by Richard Baxter.The redemption of time, or, A sermon containing very good remedies for them that have mis-spent their time shewing how they should redeem it comfortably / by William Whately ... ; now published for general good by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for Francis Tyton, 1673
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
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 ⟨image 13⟩arteries, nerves and veins, should be kept in order one year to an end? If you have no pains or sickness to admonish you, do you not know what a fragile thing is fl•sh? which as the flower fa•leth, doth hasten to corruption and to dust? How short is your abode in your present dwelling like to be, in comparison of your abode in dust and darkness? And can you have while now to waste so many hours, in the adorning, the easing and the pampering of such a lump of rottenness, and forget the part that lives for ever? Must you stay on earth so short a time, and have you any of this little time to spare? Yea so much of it as you daily waste, in idleness, play and vain curiosity?
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 crouding 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, whilest the bell is tolling, whilest the sick are groaning, whilest 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