A Christian Directory Volume I Part 60

_Direct._ XVII. Consider that in your loss of time, you lose all the mercies of that time. For time is pregnant with great, invaluable mercies. It is the cabinet that containeth the jewels. If you throw away the purse, you throw away the money that is in it. O what might you get in those precious hours which you cast away! How much better a treasure than money might you win! How much sweeter a pleasure than all your games and sports might you enjoy! You might be soliciting G.o.d for life eternal. You might be using and increasing grace. You might be viewing by faith the blessed place and company in which you may abide for ever.

All this, and more, you are losing while you are losing time. You choose as a pleasure that heavy curse, Lev. xxvi. 20, "Your strength shall be spent in vain." Why do you not also take it for a pleasure, to cast away your gold or health? I tell you, a very little time is worth a great deal of gold and silver. You cast away a more precious commodity.

_Direct._ XVIII. Think seriously how Christ, and his apostles, and holiest servants in all ages spent their time. They spent it in praying, and preaching, and holy conference, and in doing good, and in the works of their outward callings in subserviency to these: but not in cards, or dice, or dancing, or stage-plays, or pampering the flesh, nor in the pursuit of the profits and honours of the world. I read where Christ was "all night in praying," Luke vi. 12, but not where he spent an hour in playing. I know you will say, that you expect not to reach their degree of holiness. But let me remember you, that he is not sincere that desireth not to be perfect. And that he is graceless, who wilfully keepeth any beloved sin, which he had not rather be delivered from; and that wilfully refuseth any duty, and had not rather perform it as he ought. And that you are the more needy, though Christ, and his apostles, and servants, were the more holy. And that the poor have more need to beg, and work, and be sparing of what they have, than the rich. And therefore, if Christ and his holiest servants were sparing of their time, and spent it in works of holiness and obedience, have not you greater need to do so than they? Have not you more need to pray, and learn G.o.d's word, and prepare for death, than Christ and his apostles? Are you not more behindhand, as having lost much time? Let your wants instruct you.

_Direct._ XIX. Forget not that a spending time may come, when you will think all too little, that now you can provide, by the most diligent redeeming of your time. If a garrison expect a siege, so sharp and long as will spend up their provisions, they will prepare accordingly, that they perish not by famine. Temptations may be stronger, and then you will find that you should now have gathered strength to overcome them, and have bestirred you in the getting day, that you might be able to stand in the evil day, Eph. vi. 13. It is those that now loiter and lose their time, and gather not knowledge and strength of grace, who fall in trial: when sufferings for righteousness' sake, shall be as a siege to you, and when poverty, wrongs, provocations, sickness, and the face of death, shall be as a siege to you, then you will find all your faith, and hope, and love, and comfort to be too little; and then you will wish that you had now bestirred you, and laid in better provision, and "laid up a good foundation or treasure in store for the time to come," 1 Tim. vi. 19.

_Direct._ XX. Lastly, forget not how time is esteemed by the d.a.m.ned, whose time and hope are gone for ever; and how thou wilt value it thyself if thou sin thy soul into that woeful state. What thinkest thou would those miserable creatures now give (if they had it) but for one day's time, upon those terms of mercy which thou dost now enjoy it?[283] Would they sleep it away, or be at their games and merriments, while G.o.d is offering them Christ and grace? Dost thou think they set not a higher price on time and mercy, than sinners upon earth? Doth it not tear their very hearts for ever, to think how madly they consumed their lives, and wasted the only time that was given them to prepare for their salvation? Do those in h.e.l.l now think them wise, that are idling or playing away their time on earth? Oh no!

Their feeling and experience sufficiently confuteth all that time-wasters now plead for their sottish prodigality. I do not believe that thou canst at once believe the word of G.o.d, concerning the state of d.a.m.ned souls, and yet believe that thy idle and vain expense of time, would not vex thy conscience, and make thee even rage against thyself, if ever sin should bring thee thither! O then thou wouldst see, that thou hadst greater matters to have spent thy time in, and that it deserved a higher estimation and improvement. O man! beseech the Lord to prevent such a conviction, and give thee a heart to prize thy time before it is gone; and to know the worth of it, before thou know the want of it.

_t.i.t._ 2. _Directions contemplative for redeeming Opportunity._

Opportunity or season is the flower of time. All time is precious; but the season is most precious. The present time is the season to works of present necessity: and for others, they have all their particular seasons, which must not be let slip.[284]

_Direct._ I. Remember that it is the great difference between the happy saint and the unhappy world, that one is wise in time, and the other is wise too late. The G.o.dly know while knowledge will do good: the wicked know when knowledge will but torment them. All those that you see now so exceedingly contrary in their judgment to the G.o.dly, will be of the very same opinion shortly, when it will do them no good. Bear with their difference and contradiction, for it will be but a very little while.

There is not one man that now is the furious enemy of holiness, but will confess ere long that holiness was best. Do they now despise it as tedious, fantastical hypocrisy? They will shortly know that it was but the cure of a distracted mind, and the necessary duty to G.o.d, which religion and right reason do command. Do they now say of sin, What harm is in it? They will shortly know that it is the poison of the soul, and worse than any misery or death. They will think more highly of the worth of Christ, of the necessity of all possible diligence for our souls, of the preciousness of time, of the wisdom of the G.o.dly, of the excellencies of heaven, and of the word of G.o.d and all holy means, than any of those do that are now reproached by them, for being of this mind.

But what the better will they be for this? No more than Adam for knowing good and evil. No more than it will profit a man when he is dead, to know of what disease he died. No more than it will profit a man to know what is poison, when he hath taken it, and is past remedy. The thief will be wise at the gallows; and the spendthrift prodigal when all is gone. But they that will be safe and happy, must be wise in time. The G.o.dly know the worth of heaven, before it is lost; and the misery of d.a.m.nation, before they feel it; and the necessity of a Saviour, while he is willing to be a Saviour to them; and the evil of sin, before it hath undone them; and the preciousness of time, before it is gone; and the worth of mercy, while mercy may be had; and the need of praying, while praying may prevail. They sleep not till the door is shut, and then knock and cry, Lord, open to us, as the foolish ones, Matt. xxv. They are not like the miserable world, that will not believe, till they come where devils believe and tremble; nor repent, till torment force them to repent. As ever you would escape the dear-bought experience of fools, be wise in time; and leave not conscience to answer all your cries, and moans, and fruitless wishes, with this doleful peal, Too late! too late!

Do but know now by an effectual faith, what wicked men will know by feeling and experience, when it is too late, and you shall not perish.

Do but live now as those enemies of holiness will wish that they had lived when it is too late, and you will be happy. Now G.o.d may be found: "Seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our G.o.d, for he will abundantly pardon," Isa. lv. 6, 7. Read but the doleful lamentation of Christ over Jerusalem, Luke xix. 41, 42; and then bethink you, what it is to neglect the season of mercy and salvation: "He beheld the city and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hidden from thine eyes!"

_Direct._ II. Remember that the neglecting of the season is the frustrating and destroying of the work. When the season is past, the work cannot be done. If you sow not in the time of sowing, it will be in vain at another time. If you reap not, and gather not in harvest, it will be too late in winter to hope for fruit. If you stay till the tide is gone, or take not the wind that fits your turn, it may be in vain to attempt your voyage. All works cannot be done at all times: Christ himself saith, "I must work while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work," John ix. 4. Say not then, The next day may serve the turn: the next day is for another work; and you must do both.

_Direct._ III. Consider that if the work should not be impossible, yet it will be difficult out of season; when in its season it might be done with ease. How easily may you swim with the tide; and sail with the wind; and form the iron if you hammer it while it is hot! How easily may many a disease be cured, if it be taken in time, which afterwards is uncurable! How easily may you bend a tender twig, and pluck up a plant, which will neither be plucked up nor bended when it is grown up to be a tree! When you complain of difficulties in religion, bethink you whether your loss of the fittest season, and acquainting yourselves no sooner with G.o.d, be not the cause?

_Direct._ IV. Consider that your work out of season is not so good or acceptable, if you could do it.[285] "Every thing is beautiful in its season," Eccles. iii. 11. To speak a "word in season to the weary," is the skill of the faithful messengers of peace, Isa. 1. 4. When out of season good may be turned into evil. Who will thank you for giving physic, or food, or clothing to the dead? or pitying the poor when it is too late? In time all this may be accepted.

_Direct._ V. Remember that if thou omit the season, thou art left to uncertainties both for time, and means, and grace. Lose this time, and for aught thou knowest thou losest all. Or if thou have time, it may be curst with barrenness, and never more may fruit grow on it. Preachers may be taken from thee; and gracious company may be taken from thee: helps and means may be turned into hinderances, and opposition, and strong temptations: and then you will find what it was to neglect the season! Or if you have the continuance of all helps and means, how know you that G.o.d will set in by his grace, and bless them to you, and move your hearts? He may resolve that if you resist him now, his Spirit shall strive with you no more. If while it is called to-day, you will harden your hearts, he may resolve to leave you to the hardness of Pharaoh, and to get himself a name upon you, and use you as vessels of wrath, prepared by your neglect and obstinacy for destruction.

_Direct._ VI. Bethink you how all the creatures keep their proper seasons, in the service which G.o.d hath appointed them for you.[286] The sun riseth and setteth in its season, and keepeth its diary and annual course, and misseth not a minute. So do the celestial motions. You have day and night, and seed-time and harvest, summer and winter, spring and fall, and all exactly in their seasons. "Yea, the stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed time, and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow observe the time of their coming: but my people know not the judgment of the Lord," Jer. viii. 7. Shall only man neglect his season?

_Direct._ VII. Consider how you know and observe the season for your worldly labours, and should you not much more do so in greater things?

You will not plough when you should reap; nor do the work of the summer in the winter. You will not lie in bed all day, and go about your business in the night. You will be inquisitive, that you may be skilful in the seasons, for your benefit or safety in the world; and should you not much more be so for a better world? "O ye hypocrites!

ye can discern the face of the sky, but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" Matt. xvi. 3. As at harvest you look for the fruit of your land, so doth G.o.d in season expect fruit from you, Mark xii. 2; Luke xx. 10. The "G.o.dly" are "like a tree that is planted by the river's side, which bringeth forth its fruit in season," Psal. i. 3.

Shall worldlings know their season, and shall not we?

_Direct._ VIII. Consider how vigilant the wicked are to know and take their season to do evil. And how much more should we be so in doing good! Seducers will take the opportunity to deceive. The thief and the adulterer will take the season of secrecy and darkness. The ambitious and covetous will take the season for profit and preferment. The malicious watch their seasons of revenge. And have we not more need and more encouragement than they? Is it time for them to be building their own houses, and growing great by covetousness and oppression, and is it not time for you to be honouring G.o.d, and providing for endless life?[287] They "cannot sleep unless they do evil," Prov. iv.

16; and can you sleep securely while your time pa.s.seth away, and your work is undone?

_Direct._ IX. Remember that the devil watcheth the season of temptation to destroy you. He prevaileth much by taking the time; when he seeth you disarmed, forgetting G.o.d, in secure prosperity, fittest to hearken to his temptations. The same temptations out of season might not prevail. And will you let your enemy outdo you?

_Direct._ X. Consider how earnest you are with G.o.d in your necessities and distress, not only to relieve and help you, but to do it speedily and in season.[288] You would rather have him prevent the season, than to let it pa.s.s. You are impatient till deliverance come, and can hardly stay the time till it be ripe. When you are in pain and sickness, you would be delivered speedily: you are ready to cry, "How long, Lord, how long?"[289] And as David, "The time, yea, the set time is come," Psal. cii. 13. "Make no longer tarrying, O my G.o.d!" Psal.

xl. 17. It would not satisfy you if G.o.d should say, I will ease you of your pain the next year. Why then should you neglect the time of duty, and use so many delays with G.o.d? He giveth you all your mercies in their season; why then do you not in season give up yourselves to his love and service? when you have his promise, that you shall "reap in due season if you do not faint," Gal. vi. 9.

_t.i.t._ 3. _Directions practical for redeeming Time._

_Direct._ I. The first point in the art of redeeming time, is, to despatch first with greatest care and diligence the greatest works of absolute necessity, which must be done, or else we are undone for ever. First see that the great work of a sound conversion or sanctification be certainly wrought within you. Make sure of your saving interest in Christ: get proof of your adoption and peace with G.o.d, and right to everlasting life. Be able to prove to your consciences from the word of G.o.d, and from your regenerate, heavenly hearts and lives, that your souls are justified and safe, and may comfortably receive the news of death, whenever it shall be sent to call you hence. And then, when you have done but so much of your work, you will incur no such loss of time, as will prove the loss of your souls or happiness. Though still there is much more work to do, for yourselves and others, yet when this much is soundly done, you have secured the main. If you lose the time in which you should be renewed by the Spirit of Christ, and in which you should lay up your treasure in heaven, you are lost for ever. Be sure therefore that you look first to this: and then if you lose but the time in which you might have grown rich or got preferment, your loss is tolerable; you know the worst of it; you may see to the end of it. Yea, if you lose the time in which you should increase in holiness, and edify others, the loss is grievous; but yet it will not lose you heaven. Therefore, as Solomon directeth the husbandman, "Prepare thy work without and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house,"

Prov. xxiv. 27; so I advise you, to see first that the necessary work be done; when that is done, and well done, you may go quietly and cheerfully about the rest: "Seek first the kingdom of G.o.d and his righteousness;" oh what a deal is done when this is done!

_Direct._ II. Learn to understand well the degrees of duties, which is the greater and which the less, that when two seem to require your time at once, you may know which of them to prefer. Not only to know which is simply and in itself the greatest, but which is the greatest for you, and at that season, and as considered in all the circ.u.mstances. A great part of the art of redeeming time, consisteth in the wise discerning and performing of this; to give precedency to the greatest duty. He loseth his time, who is getting a penny when he might get a pound; who is visiting his neighbour, when he should be attending his prince; who is weeding his garden, when he should be quenching a fire in his house, though he be doing that which in itself is good. So is he losing his time, who is preferring his body before his soul; or man before G.o.d; or indifferent things before necessary; or private duties before public; or less edifying before the more edifying; or sacrifice before necessary mercy. The order of good works I have showed you before, chap. iii. direct. x. which you may peruse.

_Direct._ III. Be acquainted with the season of every duty, and the duty of each season; and take them in their time. And thus one duty will help on another; whereas misplacing them and disordering them, sets them one against another, and takes up your time with distracting difficulties, and loseth you in confusion. As he that takes the morning hour for prayer, or the fittest vacant hour, shall do it quietly, without the disturbance of his other affairs; when if the season be omitted, you shall scarce at all perform it, or almost as ill as if you did it not at all: so is it in point of conscience, reproof, reading, hearing, meditating, and every duty. A wise and well-skilled christian should bring his matters into such order, that every ordinary duty should know his place, and all should be as the links of one chain which draw on one another; or as the parts of a clock or other engine, which must be all conjunct, and each right placed. A workman that hath all his tools on a heap or out of place, spends much of the day in which he should be working in looking for his tools; when he that knoweth the place of every one, can presently take it, and lose no time. If my books be thrown together on a heap, I may spend half the day in looking for them when I should use them; but if they be set in order, and I know their places, it spares me that time. So is it in the right timing of our duties.

_Direct._ IV. Live continually as under the government of G.o.d; and keep conscience tender, and in the performance of its office; and always be ready to render an account to G.o.d and conscience of what you do. If you live as under the government of G.o.d, you will be still doing his work; you will be remembering his judgment; you will be trying your work whether it be such as he approveth: this will keep you from all time-wasting vanities. If you keep conscience tender, it will presently check and reprehend you for your sin; and when you lose but a minute of time, it will tell you of the loss: whereas a "seared conscience" is "past feeling," and will give you over to "lasciviousness," Eph. iv. 19; 1 Tim. iv. 2; and will make but a jest at the loss of time; or at least will not effectually tell you either of the sin or loss. If you keep conscience to its office, it will ask you frequently, what you are doing? and try your works; it will take account of time when it is spent, and ask you, what have you been doing? and how you have spent every day and hour? And (as Seneca could say) "He will be the more careful what he doth, and how he spends the day, who looks to be called to a reckoning for it every night." This will make the foreseen day of judgment have such a continual awe upon you, as if you were presently going to it; while conscience, with respect to it, is continually forejudging you. Whereas they that have silenced or discarded conscience, are like school-boys that bolt their master out of doors, who do it with a design to spend the time in play, which they should have spent in learning: but the after-reckoning pays for all.

[Sidenote: Rules to know what time must be spent in.]

Here, for the further direction of your consciences, I shall lay you down a few rules, for the right spending of your time. 1. Spend it in nothing (as a deliberate moral act) which is not truly, directly, or remotely an act of obedience to some law of G.o.d. (Of mere natural acts, which are no objects of moral choice, I speak not.) 2. Spend it in nothing which you know must be repented of. 3. Spend it in nothing which you dare not, or may not warrantably pray for a blessing on from G.o.d. 4. Spend it in nothing which you would not review at the hour of death, by an awakened, well-informed mind. 5. Spend it in nothing which you would not hear of in the day of judgment. 6. Spend it in nothing which you cannot safely and comfortably be found doing, if death should surprise you in the act. 7. Spend it in nothing which flesh-pleasing persuadeth you to, against your consciences, or with a secret grudge or doubting of your consciences. 8. Spend it in nothing which hath not some tendency, directly or remotely, to your ultimate end, the pleasing of G.o.d, and the enjoying him in love for ever. 9.

Spend it in nothing which tendeth to do more hurt than good; that would do a great hurt to yourself or others, under pretence of doing some little good, which perhaps may better be done another way. 10.

Lastly, Spend it in nothing which is but a smaller good, when a greater should be done.

_Direct._ V. Do your best to settle yourselves where there are the greatest helps and smallest hinderances to the redeeming of your time.

And labour more to accommodate your habitation, condition, and employments to the great ends of your life and time, than to your worldly honour, ease, or wealth. Live where is best trading for the soul: you may get more by G.o.d's ordinary blessing in one year, in a G.o.dly family, or in fruitful company, and under an able, G.o.dly minister, than in many years in a barren soil, among the ignorant, dead-hearted, or profane, where we must say, as David, "I held my peace even from good, while the wicked was before me," Psal. x.x.xix. 1, 2. And when we must do all the good we do through much opposition; and meet with great disadvantages and difficulties, which may quickly stop such dull and backward hearts as ours. If you will prefer your profit before your souls in the choice of your condition, and will plunge yourselves into distracting business and company, your time will run in a wrong, unprofitable channel.

_Direct._ VI. Contrive beforehand, with the best of your skill, for the preventing of impediments, and for the most successful performance of your work. If you leave all to the very time of doing, you will have many hinderances rise before you, and make you lose your time, which prudent forecast might have prevented. As for the improving of the Lord's day, if you do not beforehand so order your business, that all things may give place to holy duties, you will meet with so many disturbances and temptations, as will lose you much of your time and benefit: so for family duties, and secret duties, and meditation, and studies, and the works of your callings; if you do not forecast what hinderance is like to meet you, that you may prevent it before the time, you must lose much time, and suffer much disappointment.

_Direct._ VII. Endure patiently some smaller inconvenience and loss, for the avoiding of greater, and for the redeeming of time for greater duties: and let little things be resolutely cast out of your way, when they would draw out your time by insensible degrees. The devil would cunningly steal that from you by drops, which he cannot get you to cast away profusely at once; he that will not spend prodigally by the pounds, may run out by not regarding pence. You shall have the pretences of decency, and seemliness, and civility, and good manners, and avoiding offence, and censure, and of some necessity too, to draw out your precious time from you by little and little; and if you are so easy as to yield, it will almost all be wasted by this temptation.

As if you be ministers of Christ, whose time must be spent in your studies, and pulpits, and in conference with your people, and visiting them, and watching over them; and it is your daily groans that time is short and work is long, and that you are forced to omit so many needful studies, and pa.s.s by so many needy souls, for want of time; yet if you look not well about you, and will not bear some censure and offence, you shall lose even the rest of the time, which now you do improve. Your friends about you will be tempting and telling you, O this friend must needs be visited, and the other friend must be civilly treated; you must not shake them off so quickly; they look for more of your time and company: you are much obliged to them; they will say you are uncivil and morose. Such a scholar comes to be acquainted with you; and he will take it ill, and misrepresent you to others, if you allow him not time for some familiar discourse. It is one that never was with you before, and never took up any of your time: and so saith the next and the next as well as he. Such a one visited you, and you must needs visit him again. There is this journey or that which must needs be gone; and this business and that which must needs be done. Yea, one's very family occasions will steal away all his time, if he watch not narrowly: we shall have this servant to talk to, and the other to hear, and our relations to respect, and abundance of little things to mind, so little as not to be named by themselves, about meat, and drink, and clothes, and dressing, and house, and goods, and servants, and work, and tradesmen, and messengers, and marketing, and payments, and cattle, and a hundred things not to be reckoned up, that will every one take up a little of your time; and those littles set together will be all. As the covetous usurer, that to purchase a place of honour, agreed for a month to give a penny to every one that asked him; which being quickly noised abroad in the city, there came so many for their pence, as took all that he had, and made him quit his place of honour, because he had nothing left to maintain it. So perhaps you are an eminent, much valued minister; and this draweth upon you such a mult.i.tude of acquaintance, every one expecting a little of your time, that among them all, they leave you almost none for your studies; whereby not only your conscience is wounded, but your parts are quenched, and your work is starved and poorly done, and so your admirers themselves begin to set as light by you as by others, for that which is the effect of their own importunity. And as in our yearly expenses of our money, there goeth near as much in little matters, not to be named by themselves, and incidental, unexpected charges, of which no account can be given beforehand, as doth in food, and raiment, and the ordinary charges which we foreknow and reckon upon; just so it will be with your precious time, if you be not very thrifty and resolute, and look not well to it: you will have such abundance of little matters, scarce fit to be named, which will every one require a little, and one begin where the other endeth, that you will find in the review, when time is gone, that Satan was too cunning for you, and cheated you by drawing you into seeming necessities. This is the grand reason why marriage and housekeeping are so greatly inconvenient to a pastor of the church, that can avoid them; because they bring upon him such abundance of these little diversions, which cannot be foreseen. In this case a conscionable man (in what calling soever) must be resolute: and when he hath endeavoured with reason to satisfy expectants, and put by diversions, if that will not serve he must neglect them, and cast them off, and break away, though he lose by it in his estate, or his repute, or his peace itself, and though he be censured for it to be imprudent, uncivil, morose, or neglective of his friends. G.o.d must be pleased, whoever be displeased: we must satisfy our minds with his alone approbation, instead of all: time must be spared, whatever be lost or wasted; and the great things must be done, whatever become of the less: though where both may be done, and the lesser hinder not the greater, and rob us not of time from necessary things, there we must have a care of both.

_Direct._ VIII. Labour to go always furnished and well provided for the performance of every duty which may occur. As he that will not lose his time in preaching, must be well provided; so he that will not lose his time in solitariness, must be always furnished with matter for profitable meditation; and he that would redeem his time in company, must be always furnished with matter for profitable discourse: he that is full will be ready to pour out to others, and not be silent and lose his time for want of matter, or skill, or zeal; for in all these three your provision doth consist. An ignorant, empty person wants matter for his thoughts and words; an imprudent person wants skill to use it; a careless, cold, indifferent person, wants life to set his faculties on motion, and oil and poise to set the wheels of his soul and body a-going. Bethink you in the morning what company you are like to meet, and what occasions of duty you are like to have; and provide yourselves accordingly before you go, with matter and resolution. Besides the general preparative of habitual knowledge, charity, and zeal, which is the chief, you should also have your particular preparations for the duties of each day.[290] A workman that is strong and healthful, and hath all his tools in readiness and order, will do more in a day, than a sick man, or one that wanteth tools, or keeps them dull and unfit for use, will do in many. Psal. x.x.xvii. 30, 31, "The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment;" and no wonder, when "The law of his G.o.d is in his heart: none of his steps shall slide." "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh: a good man out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things," Matt.

xii. 34, 35. "Every scribe which is instructed to the kingdom of heaven, is like a man that is an householder, that bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old," Matt. xiii. 52.

_Direct._ IX. Promise not long life to yourselves, but live as those that are always uncertain of another day, and certain to be shortly gone from hence. The groundless expectation of long life, is a very great hinderance to the redeeming of our time. Men will spend prodigally out of a full purse, who would be sparing if they knew they had but a little, or were like to come to want themselves. Young people, and healthful people, are under the greatest temptation to the loss of time. They are apt to think that they have time enough before them, and that though it is possible that they may die quickly, yet it is more likely that they shall live long: and so, putting the day of death far from them, they want all those awakenings, which the face of death doth bring to them that still expect it; and therefore want the wisdom, zeal, and diligence which are necessary to the redemption of their time. Pray therefore as Psal. xc. 12, "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Dream not of rest and plenty for many years, when you have no promise to live till the next morning, Luke xii. 19, 20. When they perceive death is at hand and time is near an end, almost all men seem highly to esteem of time, and promise to spend it better if G.o.d would but try them once again. Do you therefore continually perceive that death is even at hand, and time near an end, and then it will make you continually more wise than death maketh the most; and to redeem your time as others purpose to redeem it when it is too late.

_Direct._ X. Sanctify all to G.o.d that you have and do, and let Holiness to the Lord be written upon all; whether you eat or drink, let it be intended and ordered ultimately to his glory. Make all your civil relations, possessions, and employments thus holy; designing them to the service and pleasing of G.o.d, and to the everlasting good of yourselves or others, and mixing holy meditation and prayer with them all in season.[291] And thus we are bid to "pray continually,"

and "in all things give thanks," 1 Thess. v. 17, 18. And "in all things to make known our requests to G.o.d, in prayer, supplication, and giving of thanks," Phil, iv. 6. And "all things are sanctified by the word and prayer." This sacred alchymy, that turneth all our conversation, and possessions, and actions into holy, is an excellent part of the art of redeeming time.

_Direct._ XI. Lastly, be acquainted with the great thieves that rob men of their time, and with the devil's methods in enticing them to lose it, and live in continual watchfulness against them. It is a more necessary thriftiness to be sparing and saving of your time, than of your money. It more concerneth you to keep a continual watch against the things which would rob you of your time, than against those thieves that would break your house, and rob you by the highway. Those persons that would tempt you to the loss of time, are to be taken as your enemies, and avoided. I shall here recite the names of these thieves, and time-wasters, that you may detest them, and save your time and souls from their deceits.

_t.i.t._ 4. _The Thieves or Time-wasters to be watchfully avoided._

_Thief_ I. One of the greatest time-wasting sins is idleness, or sloth. The slothful see their time pa.s.s away, and their work undone, and can hear of the necessity of redeeming it, and yet they have not hearts to stir. When they are convinced that duty must be done, they are still delaying, and putting it off from day to day, and saying still, I will do it to-morrow, or hereafter. To-morrow is still the sluggard's working day; and to-day is his idle day. He spendeth his time in fruitless wishes: he lieth in bed, or sitteth idly, and wisheth, Would this were labouring: he feasteth his flesh, and wisheth that this were fasting: he followeth his sports and pleasures, and wisheth that this were prayer, and a mortified life: he lets his heart run after l.u.s.t, or pride, or covetousness, and wisheth that this were heavenly-mindedness, and a laying up a treasure above. Thus the "soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat," Prov. xiii. 4. Prov. xxi. 25, "The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour." Every little opposition or difficulty will put him by a duty. Prov. xx. 4, "The sluggard will not plough by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing." Prov. xxii. 13, "The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets."

Prov. xxvi. 14-16, "As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed. The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom; it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth." And at last his sloth depraves his reason, and bribeth it to plead the cause of his negligence. "The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit, than seven men that can render a reason." Time will slide on, and duty will be undone, and your souls undone, if impious slothfulness be predominant.

Prov. xv. 19, "The way of the slothful man is as a hedge of thorns; but the way of the righteous is made plain." You seem still to go through so many difficulties, that you will never make a successful journey of it. Yea, when he is in duty, the slothful is still losing time. He prayeth as if he prayed not, and laboureth as if he laboured not; as if the fruit of holiness pa.s.sed away as hastily as worldly pleasures. He is as slow as a snail; and rids so little ground, and doth so little work, and so poorly resisteth opposition, that he makes little of it, and all is but next to sitting still and doing nothing.

It is a sad thing that men should not only lose their time in sinful pleasures; but they must lose it also in reading, and hearing, and praying, by doing all in a heartless drowsiness! Thus "he also that is slothful in his work, is brother to him that is a great waster," Prov.

xviii. 9. If he "begin in the Spirit," and for a spurt seem to be earnest, he flags, and tireth, and "endeth in the flesh." Prov. xii.

27, "The slothful roasteth not that which he took in hunting; but the substance of a diligent man is precious." If he see and confess a vice, he hath not a heart to rise against it, and resolutely resist it, and use the means by which it must be overcome. Prov. xxiv. 30-34, "I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: so shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man." Shake off then this unmanly sluggishness: remember that you run for the immortal crown; and therefore see that you lose no time, and look not at the things that are behind;[292] that is, do not cast an eye, or lend an ear to any person or thing that would call you back, or stop you: heaven is before you. Judg. xviii. 9, "We have seen the land, and behold it is very good; and are ye still? be not slothful to go and to enter, and possess the land" (as the five Danite spies said to their brethren).

Abhor a sluggish habit of mind: go cheerfully about what you have to do; and do it diligently, and with your might. Even about your lawful, worldly business, it is a time-wasting sin to be slothful. If you are servants or labourers, you rob your masters and those that hire you; who hired you to work, and not to be idle. Whatever you are, you rob G.o.d of your service, and yourselves of your precious time, and all that you might get therein. It is they that are lazy in their callings, that can find no time for holy duties. Ply your business the rest of the day, and you may the better redeem some time for prayer and reading Scripture. Work hard on the week days, and you may the better spend the Lord's day entirely for your souls. Idle persons (servants or others) do cast themselves behindhand in their work, and then say, they have no time to pray or read the Scripture. Sloth robbeth mult.i.tudes of a great part of their lives. Prov. xix. 15, "Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep: and an idle soul shall suffer hunger." You cannot say, "No man hath hired you," when you are asked, "Why stand you idle?" Matt. xx. 3, 6. See how sharply Paul reproveth idleness, 2 Thess. iii. determining that "they that will not work should not eat;" and that they be avoided, as unfit for christian society. And 1 Tim. v. 13, he sharply rebuketh some women that "learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house." And Rom. xii. 11, "Not slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." A painful, diligent person is still redeeming time, while he doth that which is good; and a slothful person is always losing it.

_Thief_ II. The second thief or time-waster is excess of sleep.

Necessity cureth most of the poor of this; but many of the rich are guilty of it. If you ask me, What is excess? I answer, All that is more than is needful to our health and business. So much as is necessary to these, I reprehend not. And therefore the infirm may take more than the healthful; and the old more than the young: and those that find that an hour's sleep more will not hinder them, but further them in their work, so that they shall do the more, and not the less, as being unfit without it, may use it as a means to the after-improvement of their time. But when sluggish persons spend hours in bed, which neither their health nor labours need, merely out of a swinish love of sleep; yea, when they will have no work to do, or calling to employ them, but what shall give place to their sleepy disease, and think they may sleep longer than is necessary, because they are rich and can afford it, and have no necessary business to call them up; these think they may consume their precious time, and sin more, and wrong their souls more, because G.o.d hath given them more than others. As if their servant should plead that; he may sleep more than others, because he hath more wages than others. Oh did these drowsy wretches know what work they have to do for G.o.d, and their poor souls, and those about them, it would quickly awake them, and make them stir. Did they but know how earnestly they will shortly wish, that, they had all those hours to spend again, they would spend them better now than in drowsiness. Did they but know what a woeful account it will be, when they must be answerable for all their time, to say, we spent so many hours every week or morning in excess of sleep, they would be roused from their sty, and find some better use for their time, which will be sweeter in the review, when time is ended, and must be no more.

_Thief_ III. The next thief or time-waster is inordinate adorning of the body. The poor may thank G.o.d that they are free also from the temptations to this, and can quickly dress them and go about their business; but many ladies and gallants are so guilty of this vice, that I wonder conscience is so patient with them.[293] O poor neglected, undressed souls! O filthy consciences, never cleansed from your pollutions by the Spirit or blood of Christ! Have you not better use for precious hours, than to be was.h.i.+ng, and pinning, and dressing, and curling, and spotting, and powdering, till ten or eleven o'clock in the morning, when honest labourers have done one half of their day's work?

While you are in health, were not six o'clock in the morning a fitter hour for you to be dressed, that you might draw near to the most holy G.o.d in holy prayer, and read his word, and set your souls, and then your families, in order for the duties of the following day? I do not say that you may go no neater than poor labouring people, or that you may bestow no more time than they in dressing you: but I say, that for your souls, and in your callings, you are bound by G.o.d to be as diligent as they; and have no more time given you to lose than they, and that you should spend as little of it in neatifying you as you can, and be sensible that else the loss is your own: and that abundance of precious hours which your pride consumeth, will lie heavy one day upon your consciences; and then you shall confess, I say, you shall confess it with aching hearts, that the duties you owed to G.o.d and man, and the care of your souls, and of your families, should have been preferred before your appearing neat and spruce to men. If you have but a journey to go, you can rise earlier and be sooner dressed; but for the good of your souls, and the redeeming of your precious time, you cannot. Oh that G.o.d would but show you what greater work you have to do with those precious hours! and how it will cut your hearts to think of them at last! If you lay but hopelessly sick of a consumption, you would be cured it is like of this proud disease, and bestow less of your time in adorning the flesh, which is hasting to the grave and rottenness! And cannot you now see how time and life consume? and what cause you have, with all your care and diligence, to use it better before it is gone? I know they that are so much worse than childish, as prodigally to cast away so many hours in making themselves fine for the sight of men, and be not ashamed to come forth and show their sin to others, will scarce want words to excuse their crime, and prove it lawful, be they sense or nonsense. But conscience itself shall answer all, when time is gone, and make you wish you had been wiser. You know not, ladies and gallants, how precious a thing time is: you little feel what a price yourselves will set upon it at the last: you little consider what you have to do with it: you see not how it hasteth, and how near you stand to vast eternity!

You little know how despised time will look a wakened conscience in the face! or what it is to be found unready to die! I know you lay not to heart these things; for if you did, you could not, I say, you could not so lightly cast away your time. If all were true that you say, that indeed your place and honour requireth, that your precious morning hours be thus spent, I profess to you, I should pity you more than galley-slaves, and I would bless me from such a place and honour, and make haste into the course and company of the poor, and think them happy that may better spend their time. But indeed your excuses are frivolous and untrue, and do but show that pride hath prevailed to captivate your reason to its service. For we know lords and ladies, as great as the rest of you, (though alas, too few,) that can be quickly up and dressed, and spend their early hours in prayer and adorning their souls, and can be content to come forth in a plain and incurious attire; and yet are so far from being derided, or thought the worse by any whose judgment is much to be regarded, that they are taken justly for the honour of their order: and if it were not that some few such keep up the honour of your rank, I will not tell you how little in point of morality it would be honoured.

_Thief_ IV. Another time-wasting thief is unnecessary pomp and curiosity in retinue, attendance, house furniture, provision and entertainments, together with excess of compliment and ceremony, and servitude to the humours and expectations of time-wasters.[294] I crowd them all together, because they are all but wheels of the same engine, to avoid prolixity. Here also I must prevent the cavils of the guilty, by telling you that I reprove not all that in the rich, which I would reprove if it were in the poor: I intend not to level them, and judge them by the same measure. The rich are not so happy as to be so free as the poor, either from the temptation, or the seeming necessity and obligation: let others pity the poor; I will pity the rich, who seem to be pinched with harder necessities than the poor; even this seeming necessity of wasting their precious time in compliment, curiosity, and pomp, which the happy poor may spend in the honest labours of their callings; wherein they may at once be profitable to the commonwealth, and maintain themselves, and meditate or confer of holy things. But yet I must say, that the rich shall give an account of time, and shall pay dear for that which unnecessary excesses do devour: and that instead of envying the state and curiosity of others, and seeking to excel or equal them to avoid their obloquy, they should contract and bring down all customs of excess, and show their high esteem of time, and detestation of time-wasting curiosity; and imitate the most sober, grave, and holy; and be a pattern to others of employing time in needful, great, and manly things; I say, manly, for so childish is this vice, that men of gravity and business do abhor it: and usually men of vanity that are guilty of it, lay it all on the women, as if they were ashamed of it, or it were below them. What abundance of precious time is spent in unnecessary state of attendance, and provisions! What abundance, under pretence of cleanliness and neatness, is spent in needless curiosity about rooms, and furniture, and accommodations, and matters of mere pride, vain-glory, and ostentation, covered with the honest name of decency!