THese words of the Text , though few in number , yet comprehend in a manner halfe the bodie of Diuinitie , for the whole consisting vpon the knowledge of God and man , here is in three words so much deliuered concerning man , as threeskore and tenne yeeres , the age of man can expresse , Man borne of a Woman , Man short in continuance , and Man full of trouble . So Man 〈◊〉 Totum in toto , the life of the text , the generall subiect of the whole text , and diffused into euery part of it : and indeede what should Man studie so much to know as man ? He which found fault with Mans creation , for that God had made him two eyes looking outward , but had not made him one eye to looke into himselfe , hee did lay an vniust blame on God , but did iustly tax the curiositie of man : Saint Austin saith , it is a fault in men , Eunt homines mirari alt a montium , &c. Men run out a gadding , or ( as we call it ) a trauelling , to behold the height and vastnesse of the hils , the immeasurable bounds and limits of the Seas , the customes and strange fashions of all people and Countries , and yet no man truly lookes into himselfe , like Salomon which wrote of Birdes , Beasts , and Fishes , yea of trees and plants , from the Cedar to the Hyssop , and yet in the meane time fowly forgot himselfe : It is strange to see , what man by his wit hath deuised for the world , and yet witlesse to discerne what he is himselfe ; in the first beginning when the world as yet was naked of inuention , Jabal found out a way to herd and bring vp cattell ; but no mans policie yet hath found how to gouerne and order man : and Jabal deuised by art the musicall consent of harpes and organs , and to produce true vnity from variety ; but no man knowes or cares how to accord the iarres and discords of reason and affection in himselfe : The Artificer by true art hath inuented all things , both for necessity and for conuenience , which to find , hee hath not left so much as the bowels of the earth , or the bottomes of the sea vnsearcht ; but no man yet hath searcht or seeth sufficiently into himselfe ; yea looke into the schooles , where men should be wiseft . The Logician rifleth into matter , forme , efficient , all the causes , yet lackes true Logique to define himselfe : the Oratour like Orpheus makes stockes and stones to moue , but no man is eloquent enough to perswade himselfe to the true obedience and feare of God : The Astronomer by art hath gone about , yea and aboue the Sunne , and the Moone ; his speculations are transcendent to the first and highest moueable , that if yee will beleeue him , there is scarce a paper wall betwixt him and the Angels , he knoweth each starre in his bignesse , influence , motion and ecclipses , yet senselesse to vnderstand the the ecclipses of his own vnderstanding , the out-runnings & extrauagancies of his vnruly affections , the short and flying periods of this fugitiue and transitory life . Nay look into the schooles of the Diuines , and as S. Paul saith , 1. Co. ● . we haue all knowledge ; One prieth into , & describeth ( as he thinkes ) the vnsearchable mysterie of the Trinity , and that with as good warrār , as the men of Bethshemesh , when they lookt into the Arke : another as if hee had peeped in at heauen dores , takes vpon him to set down the Hierarchy of heauen , with al the seueral orders & offices of the Angels , which he telleth as distinctly & soberly , as if he knew what he said : another is much troubled about hell fire , as whether it be a materiall torment , or a spirituall torment , in which doing ( as the diuels said to Christ ) they torment themselues before the time ; and thus we know what God is , and what the Angels are , and we know al things from heauen to hell , and yet wee know not our selues , that wee had need of S. Paul still to ring in our eares , Let a man examine himselfe , or the text to bee written in great letters before vs , Man that is borne of a woman , &c.

In which text it is generally first to bee considered , that Job speakes not of man , as hee was in Paradise , the bright image of God , the commander of sea and land , the wonder of the world : Not as he was when God first made him , the creatures in their kind obeyed him , yea when sorrow , death and sicknesse were afraid to touch him ; but Job speaks here of man as lapped vp in fig-tree leaues , hidden among the bushes , throwne out of Paradise , made a slaue to misery and mortality , a scandall to the Angels , and a pray to the diuell : Thus in this place doth Iob speake of man .

Againe , it is spoken generally , by man vnderstanding all mankinde , euen so many as were begot and borne of Adam and Eue ; It mattereth not for your life , how good or euill you be ; it mattereth not for your condition , how high or low you be , nor yet for your estate how rich or poore you be ; here is nothing respected in man , but onely that he bee man ; and then let him bee what hee will , euen from the King to the begger , from the Prince to the prisoner , from him that sits vpon a throne , to him that hanges vpon a tree , yea from the first man Adam , to the babe last borne , all is true of him which heere is said , Man borne of a woman , &c. Therefore is any man yet proud of himselfe ? that is , doth any man yet not know himselfe ? then let him come hither , and here he shall learne . And here he shall learne three points of true humiliation , the first his lamentable , entrance or comming into the world , Borne of a woman ; the next his swift and speedy passage out of the world , short in continuance : the last his wofull pilgrimage and miserable endurance in the world , full of trouble .

For the first ; it may be said to mankind , as the King said to his euill guest , Quomodo huc intrasti ? How came you in hither , By what meanes or passage gat you into the world ? you will answere out of the text , Natus de muliere , I was borne of a woman : Well , be it so , yet haue you therein confessed two things against your selfe ; first that you were borne , and then that you were borne of a woman : Were you borne ? Exore tuo conuincam : You haue told a tale against your self ; for whatsoeuer was borne , had once a beginning , and whatsoeuer had beginning , there was once a time wherein it had no being in the world ; and what were you , or where were you , when you had as yet no being in the world ? Here is much adoe amongst vs about eldership and antiquitie , for euery man will be like God : Dan. 7. Esa 19. Mat. 3. Antiquus dierum : The ancient of daies ; and Pharaoh was the sonne of ancient Kings : and the Iewes had Abraham to their father , and he is no man now that is not a kin to so many Kings , & came not in before the Conquest ; and hee is much better borne then he ; and she is of an elder house then she ; O vanity of vanities ; is not this a meere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a field picht of frogs and mise , when vanity hath such place in haroldrie , and we which were borne but yesterday , yet go to law for eldership ? The Iewes had Abraham , to their father : Abraham was but late and low , they might haue gone farre higher , they might haue fetcht themselues from Adam , if they would ; but yet stil remembring , that the beasts of the field , euen horse and hogs were made before their father Adam . And if it should now be asked of one of vs , as somtimes it was of Job , Iob 38. Where wast thou when God laid the foundations of the earth ? Hee would thinke himselfe mockt , because hee was not borne as yet : Or if hee should bee asked yet lower ; Where wa st mould thou when Noah and his company were floating in the Arke ? Or if yet lower , where wast thou when God gaue the Law to Moses on the Mount ? he would answere straight , Nondum natus , he was not yet borne : yea examine him yet lower ; Where wast thou , when Christ and his twelue Apostles walked vpon the earth ? yea aske him but of foure score yeeres ago , or but of threescore and ten , and he ( alas ) was not yet borne ; now sure this is late and young indeed .

Well , yet at last this Mirrour of antiquity is borne ; but what hath he to boast of by his birth ? You will say , you were borne ; I could answere againe , Poteras & non nasci : you might haue died vnborne , you might haue died in the birth , or you might haue died so soone as you were borne : for so saith Job in the pangs of his impatience , Iob 3. Why hast thou brought me out of the wombe , or wherefore died J not in the birth ? Many are the perils which yet vnborne , and in our birth we passe , in which notwithstanding we are not onely helplesse , but also senselesse of the per ill ; this is all we can doe ; as hee that hath passed ouer a dangerous bridge , turnes backe and quakes to looke vpon the danger ; so wee when wee looke backe to our birth , and thinke on the dangers in it , onely we can say with Dauid , Thou O God ( and not our selues ) thou art he that tooke me out of my mothers wombe . Psal. 22. When we are borne , what then ? we fall , ( if not hand hold vs ) to the feete of her that bare vs , that is , wee fall from the wombe to the ground , from one earth to another ; So naturally at the first , doe wee finde the way to o r last home , euen as God said to Adam at the first , Out of earth wast thou taken , and to earth thou shalt returne . Gen. 3. And oh that wee might see , or could we but remember with what pompe and glory wee are borne into the world , Naked as wormes , crawling like snakes , that there is not amongst the creatures so weake and helplesse a creature as man : the mother ( a misery to thinke ) the mother that hath newly borne vs , lieth by vs indeed , but halfe slaine by our birth , and least able to helpe vs ; so we are borne like Beniamin , with hazard of her life that gaue vs life , and we seeme halfe murtherers so soone as we are borne ; when wee are taken vp , what then ? we fall a crying , as either repenting of our change , or wishing our selues vnborne againe ; or as if we did foresee the sequell of the text , the troubles which ensue . In the middest of this our moaning , wee are , as Ezechiel speakes , chap. 16. of his prophecy , we are washt , and bathed , and swadled in clouts ; No doubt goodly gallants , and great cause to bee proud , if wee thought of our selues in our first pollution ; when wee are thus swadle and prankt vp like puppets , a dainty lump of liuing earth : What pleasure feele wee ? nay what feele we ? what sense or feeling haue we , saue now and then of weakenesse and sicknesse , the pangs and smart of the parents sinne : We are then brought to the mother , to looke vpon , and she , as a theefe when he is pardoned lookes backe to the gallowes , or to the halter that had like to hangd him , so lookes shee on her son ; on her sonne , as on her death , if God in great mercy had not preuented it : when the mother hath lookt and kist , we are brought to the father too , and to looke vpon too ; and while the father looks , euery one cries out , Behold the father , looke vpon the child , see see , and behold , how like they looke , while indeede they looke more like then they should , and it were well for the child , if it were not so father-like , or mother-like as it is : and what get both father and mother by looking , but to looke ; as Salomon saith of the rich man and his money , Eccles. 5. What good comes to the owners thereof , but the beholding of it with their eyes ? So looke the carefull parents on a wofull child , sometime laughing with hope of that it may be , sometime distressed with feare of that it may bee , watching in the day , wakeing in the night , somtime merrie , somtime sorrie , sometime angrie , that it were not possible for them to passe through so much patience , if God had not infused animpregnable affection of loue to ouercome it ; thus are we borne in teares and sorrow to our selues , in perill and sorrow to her that beares vs , in nakednes and shame to all that looke vpon vs : here is nothing yet to boast on .

But is our case amended , or is our birth magnified by her that bare vs ? Man that is borne , of what ? of a woman , as much as to say , like nest , like bird ; like mother , like child ; but why not as well , Man begot of a man , as Man borne of a woman ? perhaps , because the woman is the weaker vessell , and the meaning chiefly was , to abase man in his owne might ; or perhaps because sinne was first inuested in the woman , and since wee stand so much vpon our antiquity , wee are only sinners by antiquity , rebels by prescription , and rebellion rooted in our first blood ; sinners by the father , but first by the mother , as by the surer side ; or perhaps it is because sinne hath more vniuersally preuailed ouer women , Eccles. 7. for Salomon counting a thousand women one by one , by that account to finde one good one , found one good man indeed , but that man was Christ , but not one good woman among them all . And whether by the woman wee vnderstand the first woman , the mother of mankinde , or else the mother of euery seuerall man , it comes all to one end , Iob 25. for how can hee bee cleane ( saith Bildad ) which is borne of a woman ? If wee looke to Eue , our great grandmother , what haue we to pleade for her ? Adam was called Pater viuentium , the father of al men liuing , and Abraham was called Pater credentium , the father of the faithfull , or of all the beleeuing , but Eue might as well bee called Mater peccantium , the mother of all sinners , and what receiue we by right of such a mother , but blushing at her pride , and feare of her confusion ? If wee looke backe to her that last bare vs , the rocke whereout wee are hewen , oh how little are wee amended by her ? for Jn iniquity was J borne ( saith Dauid ) and in sinne hath my mother conceiued me . Psal. 51. Sinne came from Eue , A longe , the date is so old , as wee haue forgot how we came by it ; but the mother that last bare vs , shee hath stampt it anew with her owne hands , shee hath powred it out into vs more naturally then milke out of her paps , yea euen as a poyson new tapt and fresh out of the vessel ; so by our grandmother wee haue sinne translated , and giuen as at the second hand , but by our mother wee haue sin reuiued and newly incarnate in vs ; and haue we not great cause then to be proud of her that bare vs : euery man thinkes deepely what good hee hath receiued by his parents , what inheritance , what countenance , what blood hee hath by them , yea the very name of our ancestors seemeth precious to vs , but yet no man considereth that all this is poysoned with sinne , and that the whole summe of the good doth not counteruaile the least part of the euill which commeth by them . You will say , you were borne of a woman , but what had you by her ? you receiued life by her ; true , a temporall life , but you receiued withall the reward of sinne , eternall death ; and it were better neuer to be borne , then to bee borne to such a death ; you sucked and receiued your foode from her , so did you your poison too : you receiued your wrapping , your clothes , and raiment by her ; so did you your nakednesse , your shame , and sinne too : summe vp your gettings with your losse , and see vpon the account what cleerely you haue gained : therefore vainly said the Iewes , wee haue Abraham to our father : and idly say you , you haue a princesse , a Countesse , or a Lady to your mother : Sonnes of men in Scripture are neuer spoken of but with reproch , The sonnes of men are vanity , the chiefe of men are liers , Psal. 62. and the harts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do euil , Eccles. 8. Thus we glory in our shame ; yea if we consider wel , what sinners our parents were , we shall be as much ashamed of them , as Adam and Eue were a shamed of themselues : wee haue nothing to boast of , but the grace of God , By the grace of God ( saith Saint Paul ) J am that J am , 1. Cor. 15. though otherwise of the tribe of Beniamin , an Hebrew of the Hebrewes , &c Though he had fought with beasts at Ephesus , and was rapt vp into the third heauens , yet he was nothing of himselfe , but all by the grace of God : yea as hee that findes a young Serpent , killes it for his very kind , though it haue done yet no harme , so may we feare damnation euen by our parents , though wee had done yet no actuall sinne of our owne , euen as the sonnes of the wicked Saul were hanged for the cruelty of their father vpon the Gibeonites , 2. Sam. 21. albeit they were not guilty of it ,

Well , here is our sicknesse , that wee are borne of a woman : what is the remedy ? that we be borne anew by Christ ; for as the woman with the bloodie issue , being ill handled by her Physitians , came vnto Christ to be physiqued anew , so we who be ill borne , and base borne at the first , must come vnto Christ to be borne anew . Naturally saith Saint John , we are borne of blood , supernaturally therefore wee must be borne of water ; ordinarily wee are borne of flesh , extraordinarily therefore we must be borne of the spirit ; Iohn 3. for except a man bee borne of water and of the spirit , hee cannot enter into the kingdome of God . Where by new birth , wee must not grosly fancy a retiring into our mothers wombe againe , as Nicodemus did : our mothers wombe gaue the matter of our first impurity , but wee must become new men , Ephes. 4. that is , we must haue new affections , another spirit , a better will , a loathing of the world , and a loue to God ; but this wee haue onely by the worke of God , and nothing at all from our mothers wombe .

After our lamentable entrance & comming into the world , the next thing noted , is our speedy passage and going out , Short in continuance , or as it is originally , Short in daies : In which three words foure things are to be considered ; first that the daies of our life are short : secondly how they come to bee so short : thirdly , how being short , yet they seeme by errour to bee so long ; and fourthly what vse is to bee made of the shortnesse of our daies . The life of man is short , whether by the life of man we mean he life of nature , the age of euery particular man , or whether wee meane the life of fame , that life whereby wee liue , euen when wee are dead ; or whether else wee meane the life of all mankind , which is the age of the world : If wee speake of the life of nature , it is not here measured out vnto vs by yeeres , nor by monethes , nor yet by weekes or Sabbaths , but onely by daies , Short in daies : lest with the rich man Luk. 12. wee take our measure too long , and make account to liue out many yeeres , when the reckoning is , Hac nocte , no longer to liue , but to make an end at night . Euery man can tell , how many moneths go to a yeere , how many weekes to a moneth , and how many daies to a weeke , but no man knoweth iustly , how few or how many be the dates of his life ; My daies are but a span ( saith Dauid ) yea my daies are nothing in respect of thee : Psal. 39. yet let vs go to it by yeeres , and imagine from God a lease of the longest date , and see how we are deceiued in that ; Psal. 90. The time of our life is threescore yeeres and ten ( saith Moses ) or set it vpon the tenters , and racke it to fourescore , though not one in euery fourescore ariue to that account , yet can we not bee said to liue so long : for take out first ten yeeres for infancie & childhood , which Salomon calles the time of wantonesse and vanity , Eccles. 11. wherin we scarce remember what wee did , or whether wee liued or no , and how short is it then ? Take out of the remainder a third part for sleepe , short in daies , saith Job , hee speakes not of the night , the time of sleepe , wherein not like beasts , but like blocks , wee lie senselesse , if not liuelesse , and how short is it then ? Take out yet besides the time of our carking and worldly care , wherein we seeme both dead and buried in the affaires of the world , and how short is it then ? And take out yet besides , which must not haue the least allowance , our times of wilfull sinning and rebellion , for while we sinne , we liue not , but we are dead in sinne , Ephes. 2. and what remaineth of that ? yea how short is it then ? so short is that life which nature allowes , and yet wee sleepe away part , and play away part , and the cares of the world haue a great part , and sinne the greatest part , that the true spirituall , and Christian life hath a thing of nothing in the end .

If we speake of the life of fame , the Memoriall life , whereby euen dead men are said to liue , fame hath her wings , not onely to flie about the world , but suddenly to vanish and fly cleane away : for how many haue there been of wonderfull note in their times , yet now not remembred so much as by name ? that no man now can say , heere was their trace , here haue they trod , or set a foot . Where are they now that led the world in a string , they at whose becke both men and beasts , both sea & land did bow ? they that subdued kingdome after kingdome , and set one crowne vpon another : they that pitcht vp their Pyramyds and Images of fame vpon the earth , and set vp for perpetuall memory their brazen pillers in the sea : they who while they liued were adored as God , and thought when they were dead , to bee Calendred among the Gods , yet time and enuie hath eaten out their very names , and where are they now ? This is it we call eternall , and euerliuing honour , yet how soone doth it die , and we are gone : nay let worldly fame go , and let vs bee sought but in the mouthes and thoughts of our best , and dearest seeming friendes , and ( good God ) how soone are we forgotten , when we are once gone , that euen they who seemed while we liued to loue and honour vs , yet now haue buried their loue with our bodies : while you liue , oh how wise , how worthy , how wonderfull are you ! yea it is your matchlesse wisedome , your incomparable valour , your equitie , piety , and Princely Maiestie , your excellence and immortall honour ; but when the Lion once is dead , then euery Hare dare dance vpon his carkase , and dogs dare barke , and Poets then dare raile and rime with pen and tongue , and then this immortall honour dies , and is as mortall as your selues .

But come we to the life of mankind , the age of the world : Indeed of all the rest , that may seeme the longest ; but as to the longest day at last comes night , so is the world bounded within the termes of Creation and dissolution ; it had a beginning , though wee began not with it , and it shall haue an end , though wee liue not to see it ; and all time is short , when it commeth to his end . Wee are borne into the world , as some come to a play , yea rather as many come to a Sermon , which came not to the beginning , and happily stayed not the end , yet had it both beginning and end , and so hath the world to vs : yea the world it selfe is but A sea of glasse : Reuel. 4. and glasse is no mettall of long endurance ; but a time shall come , when the Almighty shal but blow vpon it , and it shal breake in pieces and as Saint Peter saith , it selfe and all therin shall be consumed with fire 2. Pet.

Now if any man aske the causes of this short life , sure it is that life and death are in the hands of God , and haue their date and destinie set by him , yet instrumentally this vanity and shortnesse of our daies proceedeth from our selues , our life being not onely short in nature , but also shortened by our selues . Indeed wee are not made of the lasting mettals , there is found in our mixture no ingredience of iron , brasse , or steele , but wee are made of flesh , which is as grasse , and all the glory of it as the flower of grasse ; so soone it fades , and wee are gone : but as if nature of it selfe were not fraile enough , wee post on to death by disorder of our life ; for sometime wrath and enuie fret & gnawes vs , that while we seek to kill other men , we kill our selues : sometime drunkennesse and gluttony consume and deuoure vs body and goods , yea our very meats eate vp our strength , as we our selues eate vp our meates ; and sometime incontinence and fleshly lusts doe wast and rot the bodies of men , that as Martha said of Lazarus , Lord hee stinkes , Ioh. 1 ● . for hee hath been foure daies dead : so it may bee said of some , that they stinke and putrifie halfe their daies , & yet they liue not halfe their daies : And thus as Babylon made her selfe a lease of eternity , A Lady sure for euer , Esa. 47.7 . and did eate and drinke in the cups of the Temple , and with her concubines , euen to the night of their destruction , Dan. 5. ● . 30 . So doe we glory in vanity , and triumph in intemperance , and do not only suffer mortality , but also hasten it vpon vs by our sinne .

Now , for the causes of this error : How comes it to passe , that our daies being so short and so few , yet they seeme to vs to be so many ? much like to him who standing in his gallery , takes a perspectiue glasse , and looketh down into his garden , & there sees alleyes and walkes , which seeme so many miles in length , as they are scarce discerned at their length , and yet when hee comes downe to walke , those many seeming miles make but short turnes , and are measured by a few paces . Sure the causes of this errour in the computation of our life are chiefly two : first for that wee neuer thinke how the time goes , till wee see it bee gone ; but as the Sunne , though it mooue most swiftly , yet because we see not how it moues , it seemeth to stand still ; so our daies though they passe away speedilie , yet because wee marke them not in the passage , they seeme to continue still : therfore happie is that man which euery night can say to himselfe , A day is gone , a part is cut off , so much lesse haue I left of a short and miserable life ; wee are in the world as Merchants in a ship , who whether they stand , or sit , or lie , or sleepe , yet are carried on by the motion of the ship ; so we , whether we eate or drinke , or wake or sleepe , yet grow on in age and wax old before wee bee aware , and when our time is once gone , then euerie man can say to himselfe , oh how short is this life , how soone is it gone ? and then it is all one to him who hath liued out his ful fourescore , as to him who hath liued but foureteene ; onely this is the oddes , as Saint Hierome saith , Quod senior peccatis onustior decedat , That the elder man , and the longer liuer hath still more sinnes to answere to God . The other cause of this errour is , for that men consider the time onely in it selfe , and not compared with eternity , which the diuell himselfe is not so foolish to doe , for the diuell knoweth saith Saint John , that hee hath but a short time , Reuel. 12.12 . A strange point of wisedome in the diuell , and of follie in vs : sixteene hundred yeeres agoe , the diuell thought that hee had but a short time , and we thinke a lease of three liues to bee a matter of eternitie . Now what is the reason of this ? because we thinke of no other life , then that which is present , whereas the diuell hath an eye to the world to come , the life that shall be , in respect whereof a thousand yeers is as nothing , yea what is ten thousand to eternity ? The world passeth away saith Saint John , and the lusts thereof , 1. Iohn 2.17 . The world it selfe passeth , the very frame of heauen and earth shall turne to vanity , and therefore the lust of it , that is , whatsoeuer is desired , admired , or loued in it , shall passe away with it , and happie is hee that hath not perisht in these vaine desires .

Now as the perfection of wisedome is to draw good out of euill , so shall we come at last to be immortall , if we can make true vse of our mortality . We see heere a short time limited , and yet wee haue a long way to go , euen as far as it is from earth to heauen , and had wee not then need to pray , to haue our life in some measure prolonged ? It is an old and a true saying , Vita breuis , ars longa : wee haue a short time to liue , and a long Art to learne , euen the Art of repentance , and a few daies wherein to learne it . The basest Art hath full seuen yeeres , the tithe or tenth part of our life allowed to learne it , wherein the Master takes great paines to teach , the Apprentice takes great pains to learne , and yet happily after much instructing , often beating , early rising , and late downe lying , he proues a Non proficient too ; and are not we ashamed to thinke that where seuen yeeres are deuoted to a mechanicall craft or trade , we of all our life time put together , can scarce account of so many daies to learne Repentance , which is of such necessity , of so much difficulty and so much better ? or doe wee thinke repentance to bee but the worke of an houre , faith but a fancy , and all religion to bee of no art or labour ? euen Paul himselfe who so many yeeres had laboured himselfe to God , yet complaines and cries out , as if hee had done nothing , Wretched man that I am , who shall deliuer mee from this body of death ? Rom. 7. and yet we who haue done nothing , make our selues secure against sinne and Satan , as if one houre were enough to conquer all : vnto this had the righteous respect , when they complained of the shortnesse of their liues , and prayed to haue their daies prolonged , not for that they feared to die , or loued this fraile life for it selfe , wherin they saw nothing but misery and vanity , but because they feared lest death should preuent them before they were prepared , as thinking all their daies too few , to learne repentance in perfection . Vnto this had S. Paul respect , when he exhorted the Corinthians not to drowne themselues too deepe in the affaires of this life ; this I say , because the time is short 1. Cor. 7. that they which haue wiues be as if they had none , and they which buy as if they possessed not , and they which vse the world , as if they vsed it not , and all this he exhorted , because the time is short . It is a wonder to see , how men plant and build , and buy and sell , as if there were no other life but heere . It is fearfull to consider how prodigall men are of the time , and lose these golden daies , which they ought to redeeme , while in the meane time heauen flies away , and hell hastens on them . Sed sicut capillus de capite , sic nec momentum peribit de tempore , saith Bernard , God is so mercifull to vs , as to keep vs to a haire of our heads , hee shall also bee so iust with vs , as to presse our account to a moment of time , misimployed by vs .

The last point generall of the text is our miserable pilgrimage and endurance in the world , we come in poorely , we goe out quickly , and while we continue , wee continue carefully : it is not short and sweet , neither only short and swift , but it is short and sharpe : Full of trouble . Some translate and carie it thus , Satur ira , Man short in daies , full of wrath or anger , which may be ment either passiuely , by reason of the wrath of God vpon vs for our sinnes : for as it is Psal. 90. Wee are consumed by thine anger , and by thy wrath we are troubled : and what are all the plagues of this life , but the execution of Gods wrath vpon vs for our sinnes ? or or else it may bee vnderstood more actiuely by reason of the troubles which man himselfe , being a turbulent creature , moueth in the world , for wee rage at God himselfe , when he doth but a little punish vs , wee are still at warres and at law one with another , and as Balaams Asse could tell , the verie beasts are not free from our madnesse and crueltie ; and therefore Tremellius translateth it , Satur commotione , Man borne of a woman , short in daies , and full of commotion , as if all mankind were in a tumult and vp in armes : and so wee are indeed , at warres with God , Esa. 9. and at warres with one another , Ephraim against Manasses , and Manasses against Ephraim , and both against Judah . Wee are not quiet in the wombe , but as Jacob and Esau , wee spurne and kicke at one another : we are not borne into the world , but with a cry and exclamation , and when wee come into it , we stamp and stare like Furies on the stage , and with the King of Babylon , wee make the earth to tremble , Esa. 14.16 . and if there were no outward thing to trouble vs , yet we haue a pitcht field in our selues , still vexed and pained with our owne vnruly passions .