Downame - Puritan-02038 v2

P Ofthefhortnefe and frailty ofmantlofe. 643 they both make alike (peed; fo men are ready to thinke that though others run towards death with polling hafle, yet they in the meane time (laud at a flay,& remaine immoueable : then the which nothing can bemore abfurd,feeing we are all caft in the fame mould,and are of the fame natureand condition,in fo much as there cannot be a more liuely &perfedt looking glatfe wherein we may fee our owne frailtie and tnortality,then other men which are ofthe fame quality: fo that ifwebe not made blind,deafe,& quite fenfelefhe,we cannot daily want examples, and as it were fchoole- maflers which may teach vs this leffon ; for who can walk in the Church or places ofburial,& not think that healto mull be buried? who can fee anothers fimerals,who is ofthe fame nature and condition,and not conclude his own e mortalitie? who can heare the knels and palling pealesfor his neighbours,who were force ofthem yonger,& much fironger, and not thinke them heraulds Pent ofGod, to fummon him by death to make his appearance ? But though it were fuppofed,that we could now hue the age §,Set7,7, of Methrefelah;and were exempted from all outward accidents, Thatfromour and inward infirmities, which might (horten our daies; yet all birth to our this were nothing in comparifon of eternitie; in regard wherof death,our likes that cannotmaybe faid to be long,which one day (hal haue an a"'""""" end ; neither dowe (lowly attaine vnto that end, from whence s uoallconjkmp- we (hall neuerreturne,when we are once come vnto it: for how Nemo ad idler, can that be truly long,which is continually in fpending,and the venit,vnde more daies areadded vnto it, the more it is fhortened ? what nunquam pox firmenes is in that, which in holding flippeth out ofour hands, isms rekertiPse and is loft in keeping ?But fuck is mans life,from which fo much nee. in Here. is detraóted,as is added vnto it,and the longer it bath lafted,the furen. more it is walled, and the fleeter it approchethto it end. Now what can be called long,which by it continuing and being,wa- fleth and ceafeth to be? orhow can our daies be many, which grow fewer & fewer by daily multiplication?how can our hues be flow in pafling,when that time which feemeth to flay them, driueth them forward to their iorneyes end ? In which refpe6t mans life is fitly compared to a weauers web; for as the wouen web continually encreafeth by the addition of threeds, fo our age by the additionofdaies; but as the more is added to the cloth,the lef%is vpon the beame,and the more the one increa_ T t 2 feth,