Have been] OUr life but daycs, our dayes are butfew, our fewdayes but evil, and now when a!\ IS done we find a!IIS out of_date. Em and ev•l h..ve] the dayqof m;tlifebeen] This !all word is the leafes explfatJOn : and whyh"ve bem ? If you wtll needs know the reafon: The lime that is pafl: is befl: known to '}acob, And the life of ]Mob is butas the time that is pall. Fir!!, the 11me that IS pafl: ts bell kaown to ] acob : old meR can tell old flories, and Olim rnemin;;J' fomething it delights them to remember the flormes gone over them. We all know i~tvabit. V1•g. M h 1· d I:! \ any years we ave 1vc . QW ) Great miferies we have fulfered. J<¥ob tells you, as. you may tell each other, our years have been few our few yearf E" !tf. 11 • 6 • have beenevil. To make this good, H"ve they not been[ e1•? Let me ask fome old m~l\ whofc hairs are dipt in fnow, whofegolden e>ver is brok!n, whqfejilver c 0 ,-d i& lengthePfal 90. 1o. ned; Ho.w m~ny be thy years? It may be thou wilt anfwer, as Mofes gives the nul}1ber, a matter of threcf<"ore ye,.rs andten, or f ourfcore years. I cannot fay but it is a long time to come; but alas, what are thefa fourf<;ore years. now they are gone? Tell01e you that have fecn the many chauges both ofMoon and Sun, arc they not fwiftly run~· way ? You may remember your manhood, childhood ; and. I pray what think ye? \~'1:1 it not yell:erday? is it no.t a while lince? who will not wo~det to fee how quickly it is gone, and yet ho.w long it was a·coming ! The time to come feems tedious, efpecially to ~man in hope ofbliffe; the time no.w pall: is a very nothing, efpccially to a man. Wi[d S· •>· in fear of danger: go dQwn to thofe cafl-away fouls that now fuffer in hell flames; an.4 what fay they of their life, bnt af[oon as we were born, we beg4n to draw to QJtr end. Go down to thofe putrified bodies, and find amongll: them the dufl:s of Ad<!m, Serh, Enojh Kenan, Mehalalecl, Jere,d, Enoch, Methujhalem, Every one of whom li'le.d neat to the number of a thoufand years, are they not dead? and what is their Epitaph, bur, They lived and died! Gen. 5. To fumme up all in one, and to make this one ferve fot all, Jacob is"'' h11ndred apd t.hirry_years old (for fo you fee itregill:red in Gods book,) yet now being demanded to tell h1s age, he anfwers but Dayes, and his dayes are bur Fm;how !hould they be many that now are gone already? thefe few daycs, theyhave Gen. s. Gen. 47· 9· been.] Scribil in mar. Secondly, and as time pafr tells our dayes, fo it counts all our miferies, Who r.Annot "'"' l•f•<· remember the miflrieshe dnrhJuffer ?· 'Fhe poor, the lick, the bani!hed, the: imprifoned, the traveller, the fouldier, every one can write a Chronicle of his life, :r.nd 01ake up large volums of their fcveral changes. What is the Hifl:ory of the Bible but aH holy brief Chronicle of the Saints grievous fufferings? See the miferies of the Patriarchs defcribed in the books of Mofes: fee the warres of the lfraelites fct down inthe books of Jojlma : fee the afllictions of David in the books of s,unuei,Ez.ra,Nehemiah, Ejlher, . Job, ever one hath a book of their feveral calamities ; and if all our miferies were but thus abbreviated, I Juppofc the world lVOitld not contain the bookJ that Jho<tld be l•ritten.]. There is no man fo cunning to know his future cbndition ; but for thofe things which have bem, every one can read them. Look then ( beloved) at the time now pafl, and will you not fay with Jacob, your dayeshave been evil! Evil for your fins, and evil for your fufferings : if you live more dayes, what do you but increafe more evils?The jull:man fins fcvcn times a day,and every oneof us perhaps feventy times feven times a day, do we thus multiply !ins? and think we to fubtraCl: our forrows ? think but of thofe !lorms that already have gone over our heads,famincs, fores,fickneifes, plagues; have we not fcen many feafons unfeafonable, becaufe we could finde no fea~ f"on to repentance? Our Springs have been graves rather than cradles, our Summers have not !hot up, but withered our graife; out Autumns have took away the flocks! of our fheep, and for our latefl: Harvell:, the heavens themfclves ha-.e not ceafe<i weeping for us,that never yet found time to weep for our fel\'es. And as this procured the famine,fo famine u!hered the pell:ilence. 0 the miferable miferies that at this time Jell upon us! Were not our houfes infected? our towns depopulated1our gardens made ·our graves? and many a grave a bed to lodge in it a whole family ? Alas, what an 'hideous rtoife was heard about us? In every Church bcllG tolling, in every. Hamlet · fome
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=