z 58 - Genera11 direaionsfor a Isimmarm.11111 the entertainment of them, we mull receive them , as men doe honey, with the tipof finger , not with a full hand. By no meanes ought we to engage, and as it were, to engulfe our aff.:6tions into their excefies and immoderation ; not fuller them fo to infinuate, as to (teak away our hearts unto a pleating infenfible thraldome ; fo creating neceffities of re- creations , which is an extreme miCery, and intollerable fla. very : wherein trot withftanding many truly unworthy and tumbleGallants miferably languifh , and come tonothing ; proove'onely unprofitable burthens of the earth; and in fieadof ableffing , the very baneof the Countrey that bred them. Let filch confiderations as thefe fcrve as fo many curbes, to rearatne us from an unfeafonable intrufion upon them: and fo many keene fpurres to poaft us out of them, before webe limed and entangledby them. Pugin' eff,quod T. Time is fhort. Oar life is but a fpan long, abubble, a vivimus,et pato min.. thought, a fmoake, a fhadow, a dreame, the very dreameof a fhadow ; or if you can name any thing more fading and fraile : and yet upon this moment depends eternitie. As we' behave ourfelves heere upon earth', either in conformitie to the wayes of God, walking with him, felfe. denial', &c. or in fafhionablenefle to the world , ferving the times, and our owne tames, &co fo fhall wee fare everlaftingly in another life : And either become moft glorious andhappie creatures, crowned with an exquifite confluence and quintefience, as it were,of fweeteft unmixed eternal! pleafures ; a very fhadow whereof, not the largeft naturall hearts of deepeft underflan- dingmen, from the Creation, to the laft day, were theyall united into one exa6teft height and excellency of conceit, could poffibly comprehend ; nay, in this one circumftance, at the least, the Saints thatl furpaffe even Angelical' felicitie they (hall behold, with incredible joy, their owne nature, in that refpea honoured and advanced above the brightelt Cherub , fhining for ever with infinite beautie andglorified fpendour, in the facred Perfonof the Sonne of God : or elfe fall irrecoverably into the mouth of inexplicable andreme- ,_,_ dileffe
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