Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	day_n	heart_n	know_v	2,574	5	3.3365	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56656	Divine arithmetick, or, The right art of numbring our dayes being a sermon preached June 17, 1659, at the funerals of Mr. Samuel Jacomb, B.D., minister of the Gospel at S. Mary Woolnoth in Lumbardstreet, London, and lately fellow of Queens Colledge in Cambridge / by Simon Patrick ...	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1659 (1659)	Wing P792; ESTC R11929	59,678	90

more in our hearts for the heavenly Country The travell and toyl here would make us have a care top rovide for our rest with the people of God and these black nights of affliction for the eternall day that knows no night at all We should not be so much in love with life if we did reckon upon the evils of it nor so much in fear of death if we considered how many wayes we die daily What pleasure is there in living when we are eighty year old when we are a burden to our selves and too oft to others what contentment can we have What chear can there be when those that look out of the window are darkned when the sound of the grinding is low and we rise up at the voice of every bird and al the daughters of musick are brought down i. e. when we have lost our eyes and teeth and voice and sleep and are but a little distance from a clod of earth what joy can we feel in our hearts And yet this is the time that we would fain live to though we creep to it upon our hands and feet through a world of mire and dirt Si vita humana esset 500 aut 600. annorum omnes desperatione vitam finirent Card. de vita prepria and swim through the waters of many afflictions to be more miserable I am of Cardans mind that if the life of man should last five hundred or six hundred years many a one would make away themselves out of madness and desperation there are so many miseries that befall them and yet we are now madly desirous to live till we be weary of life Let us think that life if it be long may be but a kind of death and nothing will comfort us then but the hopes of another life It was a sharp saying of Caesars to one of his Guard that by reason of his craziness asked his leave that he might cause himself to be put to death Dost thou think then that thou art alive Alas such a decrepit thing as man is when he comes to Old age is but a walking Carcase that is ready at every step to stumble upon its Graves Yea death is preying upon us every day he gets a mouth full of our flesh every moment and sometimes by a sickness even eats us to the very bone and then though we recruit again and repaire our bodies yet we do but make food for new diseases It is said to Adam In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye which teaches us that we are next dore to death every day and that we do not so much live as borrow something from death and if we live long it will make us pay intollerable usury for not paying our lives sooner As these things will correct our mistakes about the length and quality of our daies so I shall now adde some things that will teach us better the use of them 6. We must reckon our daies by our work and not by our time by what we do and not by what we are Let us account that the longest day which is best spent and that the oldest life which is most holy Plutarch Consol ad Apollon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A long life is not the best but a good life As we do not commend saith he him that hath played a great while on an Instrument 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or made a long Oration but him that hath played and spoken well and as we account those Creatures best that give us most profit in a short time and every where we see maturity preferred before length of age so it ought to be among our selves They are the worthiest persons and have lived longest in the world who have brought the greatest benefit unto it and made the greatest advantage of their time to the service of God and of Men. Let our Conscience therefore be the Ephemeris or Diary of our life Let us not reckon by the Almanack but by the Book of God how much we live And let us account that he who lives godlily lives long and that other men live not at all We must not say that a man hath lived seaventy years if he hath done nothing worthy of a man but that he hath been so long Diu fuit sed parum vixit he had a great many daies but lived few or none In one sense most men may count their lives by nights rather then daies for they are as men asleep and do nothing at all that is the business and intent of life They are as Childish in their desires as weak in their fears as unreasonable in their hopes as impertinently and vainly imployed as if they were but newly come into the world and had not attained to the use of their Reason Shall we think a man hath lived because he is a yard higher then he was is this enough to denominate us men that we have hair growing upon our Chin No there are more Children then those that are in Coats and while we look no further then the present life we are but great Infants and are at play with Babies And alas if we account the right way by our work and improvement of our selves in true understanding Conscience and godliness the best of us must reckon fewer years then eighty for how little of this time do we truly live When we do no good we may say as the Emperour did Diem perdidi I have clearly lost a day I had as good not have been to day you can scarce say that I was if you look at the purpose of being For to acknowledg God and get acquaintance with him to govern our selves in conformity to him to do good to others c. are the great businesses of life and of him that minds not these chiefly you may say that there is such a thing called by such a name and that hath an existence but you cannot say that the man lives Shall we say that he sailed much who was taken in a storme as soon as he put out to Sea who was tossed by contrary winds in a Circle to and fro and in conclusion is brought just where he was De Brev. vitcae cas 8. when he first launcheth forth Non ille multum navigavit sed multum jactatus est as Seneca well saith He did not Saile much but was tossed very much Shall we then say that a man hath lived much whose soul was filled with Aire and vanity as soon as he was born who had tumbled to and fro in variety of business in the Sea of this world and is never quiet in the pursuit of earthly affairs Alas when he comes to the end of his daies he is as far from his part as when he first began them Heaven is as far out of his reach and further too as when he lay in his mothers Womb. He was much busied but he did nothing He was much employed but he lived idly For as I told you

see now the corps of one before you that is gathered in the flowr of his age and yet which of you is there that doth not think that he shall be at the choice of another Minister that he shall hear him preach a great many Sermons because some in the Parish are grown so old as to have seen the Funerals of three Ministers besides this I wish heartily men would but a little ponder upon this common mistake and when they think of the large extent of some mens lives they would likewise cast their eyes upon the shortness of others and see whether they will not over-ballance the former account Sixthly Some mens rule is that all mens dayes are numbred by a fatal decree and therefore they need not number them They measure their dayes by the stars and fetch their rule from Astrology and some secret fate or rather they do not measure them at all nor make any reckoning how they live whether piously or wickedly temperately or lewdly thinking that the one cannot naturally prolong nor the other naturally shorten men dayes This is the Turkish way of account who think that every mans fortune as they call it and the length of his dayes is written in his forehead by the Angel that stands by when he is born And so one of them not many years ago when he was hanged in the Low-Countreys pointed to his forehead as though it was his destiny and not his fault A barbarous brutish opinion fit to nourish bloody Souldiers and make men desperate and was no Question cunningly devised by the Impostor to make them fear no danger But whatsoever is determined above concerning our lives it is plainby Scripture and reason that our wisdome care and good behaviour is required and that by wickedness we may cut short those dayes which nature hath assigned unto them Though there be an appointed time beyond which we shall not go yet we may never come up to that time but be taken away in the midst of our dayes Many such false rules there are but it is no wonder if you do but consider First what a great love men have to this world The pleasure and fine things that tickle their senses possess them with a fond desire of long life that they may enjoy all the kindnesses which the world offers them and this most ardent desire will let them think of nothing else but many days to entertain her courtships and answer her love when she seems to smile look with a pleasing countenance upon them Or if she begin afterwards to frown they are loth to think of death because they hope to mend their fortune or are wholly unprovided for any better company in another world Facile credimus quod volumus we would fain live long and therefore we will not be of any other belief but that we shall And the thoughts of death are unwelcome because we love the dalliances of the flesh so well which will certainly by it be broken off This false numbring proceeds not so much from the weakness of mens understanding as from the wickedness of their wills and distempered affections They have no mind that it should be true that our dayes may be short and therefore they will think so as seldom as they can And Secondly the love of our selves that is in us is of no less power to blind us and make us very fools This will not let us think that we may die presently though many others do As when two Ships meet at Sea they that are in the one think that the other sails exceeding fast and that they themselves go fairly and easily or rather stand still even so it is in this case Though men see the days of another to run away like a Post and fly after the manner of a swift Ship that saileth by as Job speaks yet they think that they themselves scarce stir at all Job 9.25 26. and that their time runs on more slowly and they seem to be now no older nor nearer unto their graves then they were a year or two ago They feel their blood doth dance as pleasantly through their veins and the light sparkles as clearly in their eyes and their flesh is as warm and moist as formerly they used and so they think their life is no shorter then it was because they feel no sensible decays in their nature A third reason of which mistake is that the shortness of their thoughts will not let them number aright Most men look but at a few things and those few they consider of by halfs and that half they search not to the bottom and so they mistake lamentably and call those years which are but days and think they live when they lie rotting in their graves I conceit such men who seldom seriously think to be like to a child that knows not how much twenty is who imagines it is a number that can scarce be told If they think of living twenty or thirty years their short thoughts makes them seem to be time that will never have an end wherein they may accomplish all their desires And though they know that they may fall far short of such an age yet they only know it and think no longer of it then a little child with whose thoughts the next object runs away It is one of the great mischiefs of the world that so few love to consider and of all other things they least love to consider themselves and of all parts of self-knowledge they least know what to do with themselves Many can tell what life is who know not how to live many that confess how short it is who throw it away as if they had too much This mistake is of so evil and dangerous consequence that we had all need make great speed to correct it Else we shall begin to think of living when it is too late and some will never think of it at all and the best will cry out O mihi praeteritos c. O that God would give me again that time which is flown away O that I could call back a day that I might spend it better And that I may quicken you to reform this erroneous account Let me give a brief touch upon the second Observation and the Lord make it to touch your hearts Our life is but very short if we take it at the best Obser 2 separate from all those dangers which are continually impendent over us You all know this and are apt to be guilty of another mistake which is to account this Doctrine of the brevity of mans life but a dry and trite theam and therefore believe it and be affected with these two things in the text which do point to this observation which are all that I shall mention 1. Our life is but dayes He doth not say Teach us to number our years for it is not safe for us to account upon too much least we should we be deceived in our computation

Yea Job saith that man who is born of a woman is but of few dayes and full of trouble he comes up like a flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not Job 14.1 2. Seneca makes the same observation from his Poet that I do here from the divine Psalmist Optima quaeqne dies miseris mortalibus aevi Prima fugit De brev vit● cap. 9. He saith not aetas saith he but dies he speaks not of an age but a day that thy thoughts might not be infinite Why then dost thou promise to thy self as he goes on moneths and years and whatsoever thy inordinate desire of life listeth De die tecum loquitur hoc ipso fugiente He speaks to thee of a day and that is upon the wing too hasting very fast away So may I say the Psalmist speaks to thee of dayes it will not be long ere one Sun be set and then thou liest in the arms of the Brother of death If another day shine upon thy head Job 9.26 yet it flies likewise as an Eagle that hasteth to his prey and it will be a greater wonder if thou out-live all the accidents and dangers of one day then that rhou diest and descendest to thy grave Yet some of the Heathens will not allow us such a large measure for our lives as a day nor suffer us to account above an hour or a minute or if there be any thing less then the least minute such a diminutive expression hath Plutarch somewhere concerning it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Punctum est quod vivimus adbuc punct● minus All our life is but a point of time which Seneca well interprets when he saith It is but a point yea less then a point that we live If we believed this we should not draw so long a line of life as we do in our Phansie nor describe such a large circle wherein we make a thousand figures and have infinite contrivances as though it were without any end 2. Our dayes may be numbred and therefore they are but few If he had said years yet seeing every body can count them we could not justly look upon them as long That which every man can reckon is but little and that is infinite which no man can number As who can tell the dayes of eternity What thought can conceive the duration of God who ever was and is and will be But every fool can tell what the dayes of man is if he will but set his mind to the account You can say of man no more but that he hath been so many years and that he is and no body can tell whether he shall be Here you are at a stop unless you will at random speak of a few dayes that perhaps shall never come or if they do Moses dare let his pen run no further then eighty year and these pass away as a tale that is told Or if you will venture to tell by the Son of Sirachs account they are but a hundred according as you read in Eccles 18.9.10 The number of mans dayes at the most are but an bundred years as a drop of water to the Sea and a gravel stone in comparison of the sand so are a thousand years to the dayes of eternity Which if we did seriously believe then first we should not desire love or design any thing in this world as though we should live to the years of Methusaleh or be like Melchizedeck without end of dayes How soon might we tell what would content us if we could but tell our dayes aright what a just measure should we set to all our affections if we had but once measured our time and drawn it into a narrow compass innumerable designs would vanish out of our minds even as a shadow doth when the Sun shrinks in his head if we did but look upon our selves as a shadow and our lives as a vapour that goes out of our mouths And secondly if we did seriously think what a few figures will serve to number our years when we have their total sum and how many of them are spent before we can do any more then a Beast and how many we cast away without considering after we are men and how many necessary refreshments by meat and drink and sleep will still devour we would not be so prodigal and lavish of the small number that remains but save them for good uses and the service of our souls We would never indure to be such spend thrists of that of which only we can be honestly covetous but rate our time at such a price that one minute of it would seem more valuable then all the world The belief of these things that men account so common that they scarce think of them would not suffer men to be so late before they begin to live They would instantly step beyond resolution and labour to do their work lest they should have no time to do it in It is a wise and good saying of Seneca Male vivunt qui semper vivere incipiunt They never live well who are always beginning to live Yet this is the state of most men in the world who are at all awakened they resolve to live too morrow or the next week when their business is over and then they resolve again and set another day or perhaps they pray and read and begin a better life for a few dayes at the end of which some occasion breaks off all And then they are to begin again and new resolutions come into their minds and if God be content to stay their leisure a few dayes hence he shall hear more of them As if they had their times in their own hands and could make death wait upon them till they thought good to come to their graves How strangely do men forget themselves how dead do many good notions lie in their minds one would think they were in a dream for like men in a sleep they say yea and no to all the questions we ask and yet remember nothing that is said Ask them if their life be short and their dayes uncertain they will fetch a sigh say that all flesh is grass or as the flower of grass that soon fadeth away Ask them if they have no work to do but may take their pleasure and they say that all eternity depends on this moment that their work is great and their time is little and their account is dreadful Ask them if God will take the dregs of their time and be content with the bottom of their dayes and they will judge it unreasonable Yea ask them if it be fit that he should let such live that do nothing for him and they cannot but say that we kill vermin caterpillers and such like things that destroy Gods Creatures but bring no good to the world Would you not expect now that they who make such acknowledgements should be busie about their salvation would

must certainly live and therefore why do you not let your thoughts be more upon eternity than upon a few uncertain dayes in time Why do not your minds which love to count so unboundedly the dayes of this narrow life extend themselves into eternity which is without any limits at all Tell the torments of an everlasting fire tell the aking thoughts if you can of a burning soul number the sighs and groans of a heart that fries in the wrath of God to eternall ages Then reckon the joyes of Heaven number all the sweet notes of Heavenly quire tell all the Songs and Hymnes of Praise which they sing And if thou hadst an head as big as Archimedes and couldst tell how many atomes of dust were in the Globe of the Earth yet think that such a vast number is but as one little atome in compare with those endless sorrows and those endless joys Seeing thou canst look so far as to the very end of thy daies seeing thou art prone to run in thy thoughts as far as it is possible take one step further then eighty years and then thy thoughts are in eternity go a little further then the end of thy life and there let thy thoughts lose themselves Let this be thy Impress or Motto let this be writ upon thy mind that a Learned man writes upon all his Books Aeternitatem cogita Think of eternity Johan Meu sius This will make thine account more exact when thou lettest thy thoughts run thither whither thy time is running into all Eternity 9. Though our time be little yet let us account that it is great enough for what we have to do in time I said that our life was short of it self yet let us reckon that it is long enough to serve all the ends of living We have day enough to do our reall business We have time enough to prepare for eternity We must alwaies account that we have daies enough to number our daies and make up our accounts and what can we desire more If we will charge our selves indeed with unnecessary things to bring about some great design and accomplish some covetous desire and raise our estate to such an height we may not have time enough to execute out purpose But must we therefore whine and complaine and say nature hath dealt hardly with us No. Vita si scias uti longa est life is long enough if thou knowest the use of it If thou considerest what thou hast to do thou hast time enough to do it There is time enough to moderate those worldly desires to break off those impertinent imployments to throw away those designs to subdue thy passions to cultivate thy mind to submit thy will to God to know the intention of the Son of God his appearing in the world to work out thy salvation and to make ready for his coming again Though we have not time to resolve all Questions that are started in the world yet we have sufficient time to resolve this great one What shall we do to be saved Heaven may be got in that time that the world cannot Why then do we murmur at the shortness of life why do we sigh that we can number no more daies what would men do with them and to what use would they imploy them is it their souls they would save they need no more daies then God hath assigned them for that purpose Is it an estate they would get or pleasures they would enjoy they have too much time for such ends seeing they are not the goods of a man Would they know all the secrets and subtilties in Learning two or three Ages will not suffice for that and seeing that knowledg will dye it is not worth living so long for it Would they be able to determine all Controversies in Religion How absurd a thing is this for a wicked man to take up his time in disputes when he lets the Devill without any quarrell run away with his soul It is as preposterous a thing as for a man that is in a deep Consumption to consult with his Physician for the curing of a cut finger But this is the misery of it that the fashion of the world is not to mind Religion Most men and especially great persons are led by the opinion of the world now vulgar people do not expect that we should be godly and so they mind every thing but only that and then complain that they are straitned in their time People expect that we should keep open house and let them eat and drink their fill c. And so they tempt their Landlords to think that it is below them to live Let us correct our selves in this mistake and when we account the daies are short we must mean no more but this We have one thing necessary to be done To do the will of our Father to get ready for Heaven this must be constantly and seriously minded and we have no spare time to throw away without any reference to this business Our life runs away so fast that unless we take good heed we shall not be able to do the work for which we live It would be accounted a piece of madness if when the enemy is at the Walls when the storm is ready to be made when the Bullets fly about the Streets A man should sit considering whether a Bow will carry further then a Gun and whether more were killed by the Ancient weapons then by the modern Armes And yet just such is the folly of mankind When death is at their back and life flies before their faces when they are beset with evils in the world and have little strength to resist them when they are in the straits of time and yet have a huge deal of work to do they are thinking with themselves whether it is best to hunt to day or to Hawke whether they should visit a friend at this town or the next c. and then spend their time as though they had too much and yet at last cry out upon the brevity of life Come come let us be honest and reckon right De brev vitae cap. 1. Non exignum temporis habemus sed multum perdimus as Seneca well said It is not a little time that we have but it is not a little that we lose God hath not given a little but we throw away much Our portion is not small for what we are to trade but our mispense is exceeding great Non accepimus vitam brevem sed fecimus We did not receive a short life but have made it so Not God but we our selves have made our time little He is not niggardly and sparing but we are prodigall and make a lamentable wast of our houres Just as when a great estate and faire possessions come to an unthrifty Heir they are presently consumed and spent whenas a little Portion well husbanded increaseth to large demeans so it is with our life They that have