Downame - Puritan-02038 v2

d36 Of theJhortnef and frailtie enemy:life. what Phew ofreafon had they by deferring their repentance, to hazard their eternall faluation ? why fhould they let their hearts vpon the things of this life,& prefer them before euer- latling happines ? why do they who thinke it folly tobeflow great cot+ in building vpon a leafe,ofone and twenty yeeres, grow exceíliue in thefe charges, and ere& fiately houles, ha- uiug no pofteritie vnto whom they may kaue them? whydo they not prepare themfelues to meet the Lord,and take force paines to let flraight their accounts ;if they thought thatcuen, this day they might die,and be called to a reckoning ?but the true caufe of all thefe errors and negligence is this, becaufe they dreame oflong life, and put the euill day far from them. Now as this opinion and vaine hope oflong life is an vCual The breuitie of caufe ofimpenitencie, and of the committing and lining in mans life pre_ all maser offinne, fo efpecially of the loue of the world, and ued by Plain worldly vanities: for becaufe men thinke to continue long reRimonses of with them,they accordingly efleeme and let their hearts vp- Scripsrre. onthem; whereas if they beleeued and remembred that not only the things which they fo affe&are momentany andmu- table,but alto that they themfelues are mortali, and of finali continuance vpon the earth, and that euen this fhort time is moll vncertaine; theywould neuerpreferre thefe tranfitorie trifles before their eternallpatrimonie. And therefore feeing it is a forcible argument to moue all men to the contempt of the world and worldly vanities, becaufeour hues are fo mo- mentany and fraile, for though they were neuer fo conflant andpermanent, yet we cannot long enioy them, feeing we are mortall,and ofihort abode on earth; let vs a little further confider.ofthis point;andfhew the momentanie fhortnes of mans life both by teflimonies ofScripture; andalto by expe. lob 54.1. rience and reafon.The holy Ghofl in the Scriptures dotham. ply and plainly let forth,the breuity and vncertainty ofmans life,and that byliimple afíìrmation,and alfo by comparifons. For theformerthe teflimony.oflobisplaine, who affsrmeth that man who re borne ofa woman bath but albor: timeto line, Gene(47 y. and is full of trouble, So the Patriarch lato6, fpeaking of his ownelife, which muchfurmounted the vfuali age ofmen in there daies,fai h,thathisdaicrwersfewandneill: and it is or. dinarie