[ 425] The brevity of our life, may moderate our life.
IF a company that are bound out for some long Voyage, should strive who should be Master, and who Masters mate, and who should have this or that Office, they were not too much to be blamed; But vvhen they are almost at home vvithin sight of Land,* 1.1 vvhen they shall begin to strike sail, to tack in all, and go ashore; then if they shall fall a quarrelling for places, and use all the means they could make, it vvere a ridiculous thing and folly: So it is vvith us, Time vvas, vvhen the world vvas in beginning, and then vvhen a man came into the world, by the course of Nature he might vvell say, I have a matter of six, or seven, or eight hundreth years to go on in my Pilgrimage, before I shall end my journey, and then if a Man should be∣stovv a little time to think vvith himself, Well, if I can but live to see my self the ••ather of a thousand children, and so might come to people a Country, &c. then if a man should greet the VVorld,* 1.2 he might be excused; But novv since God hath contracted the time of our age, so that as soon as vve begin our Voyage, vve are ready to strike sail presently, that vve have but a little time to continue here, and a great deal of work to do for hereafter, and novv to stand striving vvho shall be great∣est, vvho shall rule all, to cry out of afflictions, just vvhen vve are going ashore, vvhen vve have (as it vvere) one foot in our graves, is extreamly folly and madnesse.