Cor.7,age EfaY38;rz. z P er.n p. The Vanity of the Creature. thy felfe to the throne of Grace, and befeech the Lord fotofanS)ifie his Creatures unto thee, asthat they may not be either theeves againft him to Ileale away his ho- nour, or fnares to thee to entangle thy fouled We will . conclude this fiat Direr 'tion with the words oftheApo- file : The time is- _Port : It remaineth that both they that have wives bee as though they had none, and they that weepe as though they weepednot, and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not, and they that buy as though they poffef- fed not, and they that ufe this world as not abufing it, that is, as not to be drowned and finothered in the bufinef es of this life, as if there were any fundamentall and folid utilitie in them i For, faith hee, 7 hefafhion of this world paffeth away.. The A.poIl les exhortation is to be fet at both ends with the fame enforcement from whence. I have raid ; mine. Firft, The time is fhort; The Apoffle, as the learned conceive, ufeth a Metaphor from Sailes or Curtens, or Shepheards tents (as Ezekiah makes the corn- pardon) fuch things as may bee gathered up together into narrow roomed Time is fhort, that is, That time which the Lord bath fpred over all things like a. Salle, bath now this fivethoufand: yeares beene rolling up, andtbe end is now at hand,as Saint Peter fpeakes; the day is approa- ching when time fhall bee no more. And fo the words in. the, originall, will. beare it, á xarpós owes. çvos 7o 4°1 741/ ;s". The remainder, of time is fhort, or time is fhort for fo much as yet remaineth of it to be folded up, ant} therefore wee ought fo to behave ourfelves as Men that have more ferions things to confider of, as men that are very-neare to that everlaílinghaven, where there (hall be no ufe of filch Sailes any more. And in the Apoftles clofe the fame reafon is farther yet enforced : For the fafhion of this world pafeth away ox7,12A, The figure,intimating that there is nothing of any. rmneffe or folid confiílencie in the Creature, it is but a furface,an outfide, an empty pro- traife, alithe b,eautieof it is but skinne deeper and then that
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