Fourthly,1 all of us generally fail in the bad husbanding of time, we are a dying ere we know for what end we live; imagine a master send his servant to a great City with a written paper containing businesses of great concernment, having allotted to him the space of ten sand glasses to dispatch them all, should he for the space of the first nine hours fall a drinking with his drunken companions, and go up and down to behold all the novelties of the City, he should break trust; Alas! is not this world like a great Exchange? our Paper containeth the business of a great kingdom up above, the honour and glory of our Lord, our redemption through Christ, a treaty for everlasting peace; the time of infancy and childhood slippeth over, and we know not the end of our creation; youth-head and mans age like a proud meadow, green, fair, delightful to day, and to morrow hay, casteth blossoms and flowers, and with one little stride skippeth over our span-length of time, and we go through the Exchange to buy frothy honour, rotten pleasure, and when the last hour is come, we scarce read our masters paper, we barter one nothing-creature with another; alas! it is but a poor reckoning that a natural man can make, who can say no more at his death, but I have eaten, drunken, slept, waked, dreamed and sinned, for the space of sixty or seventy years, and that is all. Time like a long swift sliding River runneth through the City from the creation, when God first set the horologe a going, to the day of Christs second coming, this River slideth through our fingers, we eat, drink, sleep, sport, laugh, buy, sell, speak, breathe, die in a moment, every gasp of air is a flux of our minute's time sliding into eternity; within a few generations there shall be a Parliament of other faces, a new generation of other men in the Cities, Houses, Assemblies we ⟨p. 8⟩are now in, and we a company of night-visions shall fly away, and our places shall know us no more: and though this should not be, the world is not eternal, being a great body made up of corruptible pieces, of little dying creatures, standing upon nothing, if God take the legs from them; at length God shall remove the passes of the watch, and time shall be no more, the wheels of time shall be at a stand.
Fourthly,1 all of us generally faile in the bad husbanding of time, wee are a dying ere wee know for what end wee live; imagine a master send his servant to a great Citie with a written paper containing businesses of great concernment, having allotted to him the space of ten sandglasses to dispatch them all, should hee for the space of the first nine houres fall a drinking with his drunken companions, and goe up and downe to behold all the novelties of the Citie, hee should break trust; Alas! is not this world like a great Exchange? our Paper containeth the businesse of a great kingdome up above, the honour and glory of our Lord, our redemption through Christ, a treaty for everlasting peace; the time of infancy and childhood slippeth over, and wee know not the end of our creation; youth-head and mans age like a proud meadow, greene, faire, delightfull to day, and to morrow hay, casteth blossomes and flowers, and with one little stride skippeth over our span-length of time, and wee goe through the Exchange to buy frothy honour, rotten pleasure, and when the last houre is come, wee scarce read our masters paper, we barter one nothing-creature with another; alas! it is but a poore reckoning that a naturall man can make, who can say no more at his death, but I have eaten, drunken, sleeped, waked, dreamed and sinned, for the space of sixtie or seventie yeares, and that is all. Time like a long swift sliding River runneth through the Citie from the creation, when God first set the horologe a going, to the day of Christs second comming, this River slideth through our fingers, wee eate, drinke, sleepe, sport, laugh, buy, sell, speake, breathe, die in a moment, every gaspe of ayre is a fluxe of our minuts time sliding into eternitie; within a few generations there shall bee a Parliament of other faces, a new generation of other men in the Cities, Houses, Assemblies wee ⟨p. 8⟩are now in, and wee a company of night-visions shall flie away, and our places shall know us no more: and though this should not bee, the world is not eternall, being a great body made up of corruptible peeces, of little dying creatures, standing upon nothing, if God take the legges from them; at length God shall remove the passes of the watch, and time shall bee no more, the wheeles of time shall bee at a stand.
- 1A general fail of all in the care less improvement of time.A generall faile of all in the care lesse improvement of time.
