Man unto the Measure of the Stature of the Fulness of Christ. CHAP. IX V. and ANother Effectual Way of Redeem-Lastly Aing our Time is To spend as much as may be of the remainder of it upon Devotion especially upon the Solemnities of Publick Devotion in the House of God A Day in thy Courts is better than a thousand saith the devout Psalmist Psal 84. 10. It is better spent and will turn to better Account than all the Years that Vice and Vanities consume To withdraw our selves from the World to take away as it were by Reprisal that Time which the World usually steals from us to Dedicate Offer up Appropriate that Time to God and to bestow it upon God This is such a plain way to recover our lost Hours as is obvious to all who have a true Sense of Religion But because there are many Duties which we own in the Theory to be Good and yet are wanting to in point of Practice to encourage our Endeavours as to this Particular Two Things require our serious Consideration I. First That to attend diligently upon the Ordinances and Institutions of our Religion is an excellent way for us to do the Great Work for which the redeeming of our best Time is prescrib'd and intended II. Secondly That it is a ready way to keep us from losing our time for the Future 1. First To attend diligently upon the Ordinances and Institutions of our Religion is an excellent way for us to do that great Work for which the Redeeming of our Lost time is prescribed and Intended By the Ordinances of our Religion I mean the Listning to and Meditating upon the Word of God the use of the holy Sacrament and the lifting up of our Hearts in Prayers and Thanksgivings and the like And by the great Work we are to do I understand the preparing and fitting our Souls for a Blessed Eternity Now for the effectual doing of this nothing serveth as a more proper and direct means than diligent attendance upon those Religious Offices For it is by the constant use of these Ordinances that the Spirit of God is Ministred unto us and worketh in us that our Lusts are gradually mortified that our Hearts are transform'd and changed as God would have them that the Virtues which are necessary to qualifie us for an heavenly State are confirm'd and increased in us and that we grow in Grace and in the saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ To illustrate this Matter particularly Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God Rom. 10. 17. Whether this Word be Preach'd or Read it is an instrument of Grace to all whose Hearts are open to receive and obey it Therein the most precious Promises are exhibited and the most terrible Threats denounced against all Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of Men especially against such as hold the Truth in unrighteousness Therein all those Doctrines are contained which are according unto godliness the whole Counsel of God is declared and all those Things revealed which are profitable for instruction in Righteousness that every Man may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good Works Therein are given those divine Laws which are apt to renew our Minds and to cleanse us from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit that we may perfect Holiness in the fear of God Therein also we see a great cloud of Witnesses who by their Exemplary Lives have taught us to lay aside every weight and the Sin that doth so easily beset us and to run with patience the Race that is set before us Above all therein we behold the Example of the Lord Jesus whose most holy Life was intended for a Pattern unto us that we should follow his steps and whose ignominious and most painful Death was intended partly to Frighten us from Sin that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works All these things we find in the Scriptures and by these means the Scriptures if duly considered and meditated upon are of vast use to us and serve to produce in us Faith Hope Charity and all manner of Righteousness and true Holiness Upon which account it must needs be a very necessary and profitable way of Redeeming our Time to bestow as much of it as we can upon Learning Hearing Reading and inwardly digesting the good word of God which is thus able in all respects to save our Souls In like manner the frequent Participation of Christ's Body and Blood is a vast help towards those Spiritual improvements which should take up the greatest part of our time For as that heavenly Ordinance puts us in mind of God's adorable Perfections especially his Wisdom Righteousness and Mercy which shined so bright in the complicated Mystery of our Redemption so it serves to raise our Hearts into the highest Admirations of God and stirs us up to stand in awe of his Justice to rely upon his Compassions to express all possible Gratitude for Mercies so undeserved so stupendious to submit with all Humility to his Commands and Providence to shew the Sense we have of his great Goodness by suitable returns of Affection and to love one another because God hath so loved us all In short by preparing our selves duly for this Blessed Sacrament and by a Reverent and Religious use of it our Faith becomes the stronger our Hope 's the more vigorous our Charity the more Ardent our Minds the more Circumspect our Care and Caution the more strict and all the ordinary Gitfs and Graces of God's Spirit are thereby the more Exercised Confirmed and increased in us This shews what an admirable way of Redeeming our lost time this is to attend diligently upon the Institutions of our Religion because the great work we are to do in order to a blessed Eternity and to fit us for it is thereby carried on with constant Dispatch and with the quicker Hand But we should consider moreover how profitably we may employ our time and recover in some measure what is lost by daily setting aside some part and portion of the time we have for the Ordinance of Prayer alone even when we are not Communicants at the Altar nor hearers of the Word after the most solemn manner Every day will I bless thee saith the Psalmist Ps 145. 2. And indeed the thing is grounded upon an eternal Law of Reason For we stand in Need of his Goodness and Receive of his Goodness daily and therefore it is necessary and equal that we should address our selves to him daily with Supplications and Thanksgivings Now if we would do this I mean do it with such devout Hearts as ought to be applied to so sublime a Duty besides the advantage we get by attending Weekly and Monthly upon other Ordinances our daily attendance upon This would be of infinite use to us For hereby we do not only fit and prepare our Souls for an heavenly State but are indeed a Doing the works of Heaven
bless us and keep us The Lord make his Face to shine upon us and be gracious unto us The Lord lift up his Countenance upon us and give us Peace both now and evermore Amen Our Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name c. Evening Prayers ALmighty God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Maker of all things Judge of all Men we acknowledge and bewail our manifold Sins and Wickedness which we from time to time most grievously have committed by Thought Word and Deed against thy Divine Majesty provoking most justly thy Wrath and Indignation against us We do earnestly repent and are heartily sorry for these our Misdoings the remembrance of them is grievous unto us the Burthen of them is intolerable Have mercy upon us most merciful Father for thy Son our Lord Jesus Christs sake forgive us all that is past and grant that we may ever hereafter serve and please Thee in Newness of Life to the Honour and Glory of thy Name through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen LIghten our Darkness we beseech thee O Lord and by thy great Mercy defend us from all Perils and Dangers of this Night for the Love of thy only Son our Saviour Jesus Christ Amen O Everlasting God who hast ordained and constituted the Services of Angels and Men in a wonderful Order mercifully grant that as thy Aoly Angels alway do thee Service in Heaven so by thy Appointment they may succour and defend us on Earth through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen GRant O Lord that as we are Baptized into the Death of thy blessed Son our Saviour Jesus Christ So by continual mortifying our corrupt Affections we may be buried with him and that through the Grave and Gate of Death we may pass to our joyful Resurrection for his Merits who Died and was Buried and Rose again for us thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen ALmighty and Everlasting God who art always more ready to hear than we to pray and are want to give more than either we desire or deserve pour down upon us the Abundance of thy Mercy forgiving us those things whereof our Conscience is afraid and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask but through the Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen Our Father which art in Heaven c. FINIS BOOKS Printed for and Sold by John Everingham at the Star in Ludgate-street A Further Enquiry into several Remarkable Texts of the Old and New Testament which contain some Difficulty in them with a Probable Resolution of them By John Edwards B. D. sometimes Fellow of St. John's Colledge in Cambridge Octavo A Discourse concerning the Authority Stile and Perfections of the Books of the Old and New Testament with a continued Illustration of several difficult Texts of Scripture throughout the whole Work By John Edwards Fellow of St. John's Colledge in Cambridge Octavo Miscellany Essays By Monsieur St. Euremont with a Character by a Person of Honour here in England Continued by Mr. Dryden In Two Volumes Octavo The True Royal English School for their Majesties Three Kingdoms being a Catalogue of all the Words in the Bible Together with a Praxis in Prose and Verses and Variety of Pictures all beginning with one Syllable and proceeding by degrees to Eight divided and not divided whereby all Persons both Young and Old of the meanest Abilities may with little Help be able to read the whole Bible over distinctly easily and more speedily than in any other Method with Directions to find out any Word Together with an Exposition on the Creed By Tobias Ellis late Minister of the Gospel Octavo Letters on several Subjects By the late Pious Dr. Henry Moore With several other Letters To which is added by the Publisher Two Letters One to the Reverend Dr. Sherlock Dean of St. Paul's and the other to the Reverend Mr. Bentley With other Discourses Published by the Reverend Mr. Elys Octavo An Answer to the Brief History of the Unitarians call'd also Socinians By Will. Basset Rector of St. Swithin London Octavo The Commonwealth's-man Unmask'd Or a Just Rebuke to the Author of the Account of Denmark In Two Parts Twelves A New Family Book Or The True Interest of Families Being Directions to Parents and Children and to those who are instead of Parents shewing them their several Duties and how they may be happy in one another Together with several Prayers for Families and Children and Graces Before and After Meat To which is Annexed A Discourse about the Right Way of Improving our Time By James Kirkwood Rector of Astwick in Bedfordshire with a Preface by Dr. Horneck The Second Edition Monarchia Microeosmi The Origin Vicissitudes and Periods of Vital Government in Man for a further Discovery of Diseases incident to Humane Nature By Everard Maynwaring M. D. Twelves The Gauger and Measurer's Companion being a Compendious Way of Gaging Superficies and Solids with the Reasons of most Multiplications and Divisions used in Measurations and all difficult Points made plain and easie with a Way to Gage all Quantities under a Gallon Also a Brief Description of the Gage-Point for Ale and Wine Gallons with Directions to find the same and the Contents of a Circle in all its Parts the exact Method of measuring Land Board Glass Pavement Stone be it of what Form soever together with a Globe and Round Timber both Decimals and Vulgarly With Useful Tables a Table of Cylinders and a Treatise of Weights and Measures To which is added at the Request of some Gentlemen a True Method of Brewing Strong Ale in London as well and as good as in any Place in the Country With Directions for Clarifying any Ale be it never so thick in few Hours with Thirty Cuts By James Lightbody Philomath Twelves Moral Maxims and Reflections In Four Parts Written in French by the Duke of Rochefoucault and now made English Twelves
which there is no sort of necessity for them to wast other ways but to take off that time which hangs upon their fingers And yet to Redeem time the greatest remainder of it should be bestow'd upon doing of Good There is one place of Scripcure that directs us to break off our Sins by Righteousness and our Iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor Dan 4. 27. meaning that men should make reparation for what is past by doing eminent acts of Justice and Charity for the time to come There is another place that tells us He which converteth a Sinner from the errour of his way shall save a Soul from death and shall bide a multitude of sins Jerm 5. 20. And there is a third place that saith of Charity in general that it shall cover a multitude of Sins 1 Pet. 4. 8. Now though none of these Texts mean that the doing of Good Justifies a man or Necessitates his pardon by any natural Causality Efficiency or virtúe of the work done for that would be injurious to the doctrine of Gods free grace and to our Saviours Merits and satisfaction yet thus much they all imply that for Christ's sake God is pleased of his own great goodness to impute to us our good and charitable performances and to accept them as the Condition and means of that pardon which he freely gives unto all who bring forth fruits meet for Repentance This shews That to do all the Good we can is the ready way to redeem our Time effectually Which yet is to be understood of increasing our Diligence in doing what good we are able so as to delight in it and to make it the constant and urgent Business of that part of our Life which is left us There is no recovering of our lost Time without doubling at least our Labour and Industry For Charity is a standing Law of Christ the great Rule we should have all gone by as soon as we were past the things of Children At Twelve Years of Age the Lord Jesus was found sitting in the midst of the Doctors not so much to hear as to instruct them It was his Father's Business the necessary Work of doing Good he was then about Which noble Example of Charity teacheth all Mankind to begin betimes to do good Offices and it upbraids us all with our Neglects in losing so many fair Opportunities we have had from our Youth Therefore we should remember our great Omissions when we go about the Redeeming of our Time because those we are to make compensation for And considering this cannot be done by that ordinary Zeal and Industry which must have been express'd had we been useful in our Generation from the beginning it must needs be incumbent upon us to labour the more abundantly to make up those Defects for which in Conscience we are answerable For in this case we are to consider what is our standing Duty still and what we are behind hand in and to fill up the measure of our Good Works we should do as much in one Day as might have taken up two had we acted regularly all along For unless our Diligence be doubled however we may be supposed after our Repentance to spend our Time well we cannot be said to redeem it because a great part of it is yet in Arrear I observed before that St. Paul compares our Christian Progress to a Race and that single Comparison will be enough to illustrate this matter If the Combatants do not start together or though they do if all keep not on with equal Paces Time and Ground will soon be lost tho' none of them come as yet to stretching and straining for the Victory The Sluggard that loyters away his Minutes the Trifler that is willing to be diverted by impertinent Excursions and the unwary Wretch that strumble and falls by not looking to his Steps These ill Husbands of their Time who might have finished their Course laudably by constant treatable and moderate striving having fallen much short of the rest by their own Tardiness are now under a great Necessity of exerting their utmost Strength and Vigour to recover their Minutes what they can nor have they any other way left them but to signalize themselves by extraordinary Pressings on and by trying all their Abilities and Breath to the laft Why thus it is in our Christian Course in the Race that leadeth to Eternal Life or Death Some from the beginning run the way of God's Commandments with Patience and Alacrity and a constant Zeal And happy are they who remember their Creator from the Days of their Youth but these comparatively are but few Others neglect the business of their Salvation minding and loving the World only as if they were to stay in it for ever Others fly out into Extravagancies and Vanities as the Devil or the Flesh tempts them out of their way Others fall into Apostacy from Truth and Religion and of all these there is none that doth solid Good nor is likely to come to Good till either the Sense of God's Goodness leads them or the Fear of his Wrath and Justice drives them to Repentance Considering therefore what Time they have lost and how nearly it concerns them to Redeem it their only Course is To gird up their Loins with Resolution to set about it with Vigour to use their utmost Diligence to labour the more industriously to abound in all manner of Good Works and being converted themselves to apply all possible means to strengthen their Brethren as our Saviour told Peter in reference to the future Recovering himself from his Apostacy Luke 22. 32. And here People should consider well what sorts there are of Good Works that they may be the better able to Redeem their Time by doing Good indeed As to Inform and Teach the Ignorant and put them in often remembrance of their Duty in all things to admonish such as do amiss to be great Examples of Godliness Righteousness and Sobriety and by all Christian Arts to promote the True Power and the universal Practice of Religion to restore the Good Name that was unjustly taken away to make ample Reparation for all Violence and Fraud and to do this readily and heartily with the exemplary Zeal of Zachaeus restoring Fourfold even for False Accusations To rid ones Hands of Mammon gotten by Unrighteousness and to make Satisfaction for Wrongs and Injuries to forgive an Enemy to vindicate the Innocent to relieve the Oppressed to help those who are in Streights and Necessity to comfort the Afflicted to visit the Fatherless and Widow in their Distress to be Eyes to the Blind and Feet to the Lame to Feed the Hungry and Cloath the Naked and Assist the Sick to Pray for all and to reach out a kind Hand to all occording as their Wants and according as our Abilities and Opportunities are This is to Do Good And for the Redeeming of Time well it is necessary for those who have been slack or forgetful of