Part 431

_Direct._ X. Think also how exceeding little time thou hast, and how near thou alway standest to eternity.[281] Job vii. 1, "Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? Are not his days also like the days of an hireling?" Job xiv. 1, 2, "Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble: he cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not." Job ix. 25, 26, "Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away: they see no good: they are passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that hasteth to the prey." Oh, what is this inch of hasty time! How quickly will it all be gone! Look back on all the time that is past: if thou have lived threescore or fourscore years, what is it now? Doth it not seem as yesterday since thou wast a child? Do not days and nights wheel on apace? O man! how short is thy abode on earth! How small a time will leave thee in eternity! What a small and hasty moment will bring thee to the state in which thou must remain for ever! Every night is as the death or end of one of the few that are here alloted thee. How little a while is it till thy mortal sickness!--till thou must lie under languishing decays and pain!--till thy vital powers shall give up their office, and thy pulse shall cease, and thy soul shall take its silent, undiscerned flight, and leave thy body to be hid in darkness, and carried by thy friends to the common earth! How short a time is it betwixt this and the digging of thy grave!--betwixt thy pleasures in the flesh, and thy sad farewell, when thou must say of all thy pleasures, They are gone!--betwixt thy cares and businesses for this world, and thy entrance into another world, where all these vanities are of no esteem! How short is the time between thy sin, and thy account in judgment!--between the pleasure and the pain!--and between the patient holiness of the godly, and their full reward of endless joys! And can you spare any part of so short a life? Hath God allotted you so little time, and can you spare the devil any of that little? Is it not all little enough for so great a work, as is necessary to your safe and comfortable death? O remember, when sloth or pleasure would have any, how little you have in all!--and out of how small a stock you spend!--how little you have for the one thing necessary!--the providing for eternal life!--and how unseasonable it is to be playing away time, so near the entrance into the endless world!