A94156:951
The Christian-man's calling: or, A treatise of making religion ones business. Wherein the nature…
The Christian-man's calling: or, A treatise of making religion ones business. Wherein the nature and necessity of it is discovered. : As also the Christian directed how he may perform it in [brace] religious duties, natural actions, his particular vocation, his family directions, and his own recreations. / By George Swinnock ...
London: printed for T.P., 1662
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.
O how sordid a thing is it for men to use sports merely to pass away their time! hence they foolishly call them pastimes. Reader, art thou in haste to have some part of the thread of thy life cut off, as if it were too long? Wilt thou never consider that time is a silver stream, running along into the Ocean of eternity, and that eternity dependeth on the spending of this moment of time! Dost thou not believe that thy jovial companions now in Hell, would give a whole world if they had it for one hour; and that when thou thy self comest to dye, and to look into the other World, thou wilt say with the Roman General Sertorius (in answer to his Soldiers, who told him twas dishonourable to the Romans, to pay tribute to the barbarous people inhabiting the Pyrenean Mountain.) 1Time is a precious commodity to be taken up at any rate. Good God, how much wilt thou think a Week, a Day, nay an hour worth!
O how sordid a thing is it for men to use sports meerly to pass away their time! hence they foolishly call them pastimes. Reader, art thou in haste to have some part of the thread of thy life cut off, as if it were too long? Wilt thou never consider that time is a silver stream, running along into the Ocean of eternity, and that eternity dependeth on the spending of this moment of time! Dost thou not beleive that thy jovial companions now in Hell, would give a whole world if they had it for one hour; and that when thou thy self comest to dye, and to look into the other World, thou wilt say with the Roman General Sertorius (in answer to his Souldiers, who told him twas dishonourable to the Romans, to pay tribute to the barbarous people inhabiting the Pyrenean Mountain.) 1Time is a precious commodity to be taken up at any rate. Good God, how much wilt thou think a Week, a Day, nay an hour worth!
- 1Plut.
For thy souls sake weigh thy time, as it stands in relation to thine everlasting condition, and then I am confident thou wilt aim at another end in thy recreations. Though children go to school and work in hope of play, yet men play to fit themselves for work. Though wicked men have such sordid sinful ends in their delights, do thou