t up, that we may employ it as it becomes suitable
to eternity that is posting on. And then, as the shortness of it makes it
the more precious and considerable, in regard of the end of it,--eternity;
as the scantiness of a thing increases the rate of it, so that same
consideration should make all worldly things, that are confined either in
their being or use, within it, to be inconsiderable, as Paul, (1 Cor. vii.
29-31), shows. Seeing the time is short, it remaineth, that we should
rejoice, as not rejoicing; weep, as not weeping; buy, as if we possessed
not; use the world, as not abusing it. Seeing all its worth is to be
esteemed from the end of it, eternity, never ending; then certainly
whatsoever in time doth not reach that end, and hath no connection with
it, we should give it but such entertainment, as a passing bird, that is
pleasant to the eye, gets of a beholder, while it is in its flight. The
shortness of the day should make us double our diligence, and push on the
harder in our walk or race, that so we may come in time to our place of
rest; and that same should make the passenger give an overly(180) and
passing look to all things that are by the way, and which he must of
necessity leave behind him. Seeing these things, then, are so important,
let us draw our hearts together to consider what the Lord speaks to us in
this word; for in it you have two ways and two ends, opposite and contrary
ways and walks, and as contrary ends; the ways are, walking "after the
flesh," and walking "after the Spirit;" the ends to which they lead, are
death and life. We spoke something of the ways, and the wide difference
that is between them, what excellency is in the one beyond the other; but
truly it is hard to persuade to leave off your accustomed ways and walks,
because your inward sense and the inclination of your hearts are wholly
perverted and corrupted by nature. You know the moving faculty is
subordinate in its operations unto the knowing, feeling, and apprehending
faculties: the locomotive power is given for a subsidiary and help to the
apprehensive and appetitive powers, because things are convenient and
disconvenient, good or evil, to the nature of the living creature, without
it; and it could not by mere knowledge, or desire, or hatred of things,
either come into possession of them, or eschew them. Therefore God hath
given them a faculty of moving themselves to the prosecution and
attainment of any apprehended good, or to