Idque notant Criticis, Medici evenisse Diebus.
The Phisicians observe these
accidents to have fallen upon
the criticall dayes.
I WOULD not
make Man worse than hee is, Nor his
Condition more miserable than it is. But could I though I would? As a man cannot
flatter God, nor over pravse him, so a man cannot
injure Man, nor
undervalue him. Thus much must necessarily be presented to his remembrance, that those
false Happinesses, which he hath in this World, have their times, and their seasons, and their critical dayes, and
they are Judged, and
Denominated according to the times, when they befall us. What poore Elements are our happinesses made of, if Tyme, Tyme which wee can scarce consider to be any thing, be an essential part of our happines! All things are done in some place; but if we consider Place to be no more, but the next hollow
Superficies of the Ayre, Alas, how thinne, and fluid a thing is Ayre, and how thinne a filme is a Superficies, and a Superficies of Ayre! All things are done in time too; but if we consider Tyme to be but the
Measure of Motion, and howsoever it may seeme to have
three stations,
past,
present, and
future, yet the first and last of these are not (one is not, now, and the other is not yet) and that which you call
present, is not now the same that it was, when you began to call it so in this Line, (before you sound that word, present, or that
Monosyllable,
now, the present, and the Now is past), if this
Imaginary halfe-nothing, Tyme, be of the
Essence of our Happinesses, how can they be thought
durable? Tyme is not so; How can they bee thought to be? Tyme is not so; not so, considered in any of the parts thereof. If we consider
Eternity, into that, Tyme never entred; Eternity is not an everlasting flux of Tyme; but Tyme is a short
parenthesis in a longe period; and Eternity had been the same, as it is, though time had never beene; If we consider, not Eternity, but
Perpetuity, not that which had no Tyme to beginne in, but which shall outlive Tyme and be, when Tyme shall bee no more, what A Minute is the life of the
Durablest Creature, compared to that! And what a
Minute is Mans life in respect of the Sunnes, or of a Tree! and yet how little of our life is Occasion, opportunity to receyve good in; and how litle of that occasion, doe wee apprehend, and lay hold of! How busie and perplexed a
Cobweb, is the Happinesse of Man here, that must bee made up with a Watchfulnesse, to lay hold upon Occasion, which is but a little peece of that, which is Nothing, Tyme! And yet the best things are Nothing without that.
Honors,
Pleasures,
Possessions, presented to us, out of time, in our
decrepit, and
distasted, and unapprehensive Age, loose their Office, and loose their Name; They are not Honors to us, that shall never appeare, nor come abroad into the Eyes of the people, to receive Honor, from them who give it: Nor pleasures to us, who have lost our sense to taste them; nor possessions to us, who are departing from the possession of them. Youth is their Criticall Day; that
Judges them, that
Denominates them, that
inanimates, and
informes them, and makes them
Honors, and
Pleasures, and
Possessions; and when they come in an
unapprehensive Age, they come as a
Cordial when the bell rings out, as
a Pardon, when the
Head is off. We rejoyce in the Comfort of fire, but does any man cleave to it at Midsomer; Wee are glad of the freshnesse, and coolenes of a Vault, but does any man keepe his
Christmas there; or are the pleasures of the Spring acceptable in Autumne? If happinesse be in the season, or in the Clymate, how much happier then are Birdes than Men, who can change the Climate, and accompanies and enjoy the
same season ever.
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Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions