60o Chap. 7. AnExpofition upon the Bookof J O$, Verf. 6 hope. It is worfe tohave our hope fpent, then to.have our dayes fpent ; now ( faithhe ) mydayes arefpent, and that is not all, Cur, ¡nopia my hope isfpent ; Some tranflate fo, my dayes arefpent, and have pei,v ll efe . want or penury ofhope ; as I have fpent my dayes, fo f have fpent raw vita. my hope. And his hopelefnefs, may referr two wayes; Ihave ne hope, or my hope is fpent ; Firft, in regard of long life, I fee á 'r fo aflliE ed with this difeafe, that there is tm hope I fhould Hold out under it : Secondly, without hope, that is, without hope ing in a better condition, that is, of havingmy eftate reftored un- to me again ifI fhould have health reftored,and a longer life con- tinued. In both thefe fences, as he Caw the thredof his dayes cut off, fo he faw the thred ofhis hope cut off, he was near death,and his hope was dead. My dayes areRent without hope, or, there is no hope remaining.Thisalto is negative to both parts ofEliphaz his promife, either ofa longer life, or ofa better. We may obferve hence,íîrft,a common truth(which I fhall not infift upon) about that precious commodity, a commodity more precious then the gold of Ophir,Time. All time isPort, andwe have a very fhort efí ,rte in time. Man is not mafter ofone day, and afervant but offew dayes. The holy Ghofl givesus very many remembrances of this, which is an ar- gument, that we are very apt to forgetit. Man is flow to takeno- ticeof the fwiftnefs of time, and very dull inapprehending the fpeed ofhisdayes. It is a wonder that fuch a plaine common do- ¿trine,thould be handled fo often,and that the Holy Ghoft,fhould,. as it were, labour for fimilitudes, and fetch in all things that are more then ordinarily tranfitory in nature, to teach us the tranfi- torinefs ofour condition : We meet with many in this book, all hinting at the fudden,invifible motion of time :This is a point eafie tobe known,but very hard to bebeleived;every man affents to it, but few live it. And furely the holy Ghoft wouldnot fpend fo many words about it, nor gather up fo many illuftrations of it fromfenfe, ifit were not olio much importance to our faith. We 'dually flight the hearingofcommon principles; and a Sermon preacht upon this fubjec*, the fhortnefs of our lives, and the fpeed of time, is judg'd a needlefs fhortning of time -; and the houre feemes very long, which runs about the fpeed of time ; we think it an eafie dofrine,and aTheame forboyes. But the truth is, ifthe heart did well difgeft, how few-out dayes are, we fliouldhivebetter dayes ; and men would live holier, if they knew
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