have to do a work that requires a great part of your time and worthy of all your time How hard is it to work out your Salvation to make your Calling and Election sure to strive to enter in at the strait Gate to be born again to be made new Creatures to be renewed in the Spirit of your mind to put off the works of darkness and to put on the armour of light to add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity To have the image of God renewed in your Souls to be made partakers of the Divine Nature to escape the corruptions which are in the World through lust to be conformed to the Example of your Blessed Lord and Master in those Virtues wherein you ought to imitate him to learn of him who was meek and lowly to go about as he did doing good to the Souls and Bodies of Men to be zealous for God and holy as he who called you is holy in all manner of Conversation How great a work is it to overcome your selves To become vile and base in your own eyes to think meanly of your selves and to be willing that others should think so of you too to be content with every state and condition of life wherein God does by his Providence place you to bear wrongs and injuries with meekness and patience not to be overcome with evil but to overcome evil with good to mortifie your sinful desires and sensual appetites to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts to purifie your selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit to cleanse your Hearts from all manner of wickedness that they may be fit Temples for the Spirit of God to dwell in to govern your eyes that you may not thereby betray your Souls into the hands of your Enemies to govern your Lips to take heed to your ways that you offend not with your Tongue to put away from you all lying flattery and dissimulation all evil speaking whispering and backbiting all foolish talking and jesting which are not convenient to be sober and temperate in all things to be just and sincere in all your dealings doing to others what you would have them do to you How great a work is it to overcome the World to despise its Pomps and Vanities not to be allured and charmed by its smiles nor yet frighted and cast down by its frowns not to suffer your selves to be possessed with the love of Riches to entertain just and fit opinions of the things of this World to consider them as vain uncertain and unsatisfactory enjoyments which are not capable to make you happy which are only so far to be desired as they are necessary in order to your accommodation and more easie subsistence in the World How hard is it to overcome the temptations of earthly pleasure and outward delights and not to suffer your minds to be too far transported by the love of them but to use even the most innocent pleasures with great moderation lest they lead the Soul Captive and render it unfit for the true pleasures How hard is it to live in the World as Pilgrims and Strangers ought to do to pass through this Wilderness without much regarding it but fixing your eyes on the happy Land the heavenly Canaan which you ought to look on as your only Country How hard is it to escape the danger of the evil Manners and Customs which are in the World The many temptations which you have to vanity and folly to pride and passion to gluttony and drunkenness to luxury and sensuality and to other Vices by the bad Examples of your Friends Neighbours and other Acquaintances How great and difficult a work is it to resist the Devil to quench his fiery darts to reject his suggestions to discover his wiles and stratagems to watch against all his assaults and vigorously to oppose his temptations that you may overcome him and triumph over him Now this is the work you have to do For we wrestle not saith the Apostle Eph. 6.12 against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places How hard and dangerous a Warfare must it needs be that makes it necessary for you to take the whole Armour of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand How hard a work is it to read and hear and meditate to examine your selves to pray to God and to praise him to partake of the holy Sacrament and to perform all other Acts of Devotion and Piety as you ought to do How great a work is it to love God above all things to love him with all your Soul and Heart and with all your strength and might and to keep your selves in the Love of God that it may be in you a powerful Spring and Principle unto all good actions that you may be thereby sweetly constrained to do and to suffer whatever is his holy Will and Pleasure Is it not a great work to perform aright all those Duties which you are bound to do in your several relations and capacities To instruct to admonish to reprove and to comfort others and to do every thing you can for the good of Mens Souls and Bodies Let no Man saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 10.24 seek his own but every Man anothers wealth And Chap. 13.5 Charity seeketh not its own that is not only its own it seeketh not its own to the prejudice of another but it endeavours to promote the happiness and welfare of others The charitable Person hath an eye to the good and benefit of other Men as well as his own gain and advantage And besides all this you ought to â—ave so much Zeal for the Glory of God and the good of Souls as to endeavour to do somewhat which may â—ave a lasting effect and influence not only in the present time but in the time to come You ought to contrive by all means to propagate Religion to do somewhat which may bear fruit for the honour of your Maker and Redeemer when you are laid in the Grave From all which you may see what a great and difficult work you have to do in the World and how great need you have to redeem time and to lose as little of it as is possible How necessary is it for you to begin your work betimes and to be constant in the pursuit of it In the Morning to sow your Seed and in the Evening not to withhold your hand What a madness is it to have your work to begin when your time is almost at an end when there are but a few sands in your Glass You who have so long a Race to run and so much bad Way to pass through and who are so weak and have so
renders you unfit for all Sacred and serious Performances the mind being thereby filled with the images and reflections of what you said and heard of what you and others did at your Games Your hopes and your fears your joys and your uneasiness your victories and losses your surprises and disappointments your little debates and contentions your indignation and resentments and a great many other things too common at Gaming so distract and fill your mind for a great while afterwards that when you would be serious and employ your selves to better purpose you cannot bring your minds to that fixedness and stayedness that is necessary you remain as it were drunk with your Pastimes and Divertisements your thoughts reel to and fro and cannot settle you have a great desire of returning again to your Recreations that you may gratifie your fancy and may gain more profit or praise and applause That you may not fall under those inconveniencies your best way is to keep out of such Company as makes Gaming their Business And if at any time it be fit for you to indulge your selves a little in Gaming it will not be amiss that you set Bounds to yourselves both as to your time how long to play and as to the quantity of money you intend to play for that you may not either in one or t'other respect exceed those limits which Christian Prudence requires It is very advisable either not at all to play for money which oft-times occasions great strivings and quarrellings or great uneasiness of thought or to play for so very little as may be next to nothing which may not afterwards occasion any uneasie reflections and dissatisfaction of mind And if at any time you be disposed and find it expedient to play for a little more than ordinary still observing the Rules of discretion and Christian Prudence it would not be unfit to make it a condition in your Game that the Winner apply what he gains to some charitable use which you may either then expresly determine or you may resolve to give the money which shall be gained to some discreet and charitable Person who will be sure to bestow it to good purpose As this would afford a great pleasure and joy to those who reap some fruit and benefit by your Recreation and Pastime so it would afford your selves a greater delight and satisfaction than otherwise you could expect by your Divertisements And besides this would prevent covetous desires and other evil passions and dispositions which usually attend those who game only or chiefly for profit and advantage As for those who are apt in gaming to be transported into violent passion and to break out into indecent heats it is necessary for such Persons to give over all such Divertisements as use to cause this excessive fermentation of their Spirits and which put them upon the fret Or if at any time they think good to play at some Game they ought to do it in the presence of those who by their Authority are able to restrain them from every thing that is indecent and extravagant that by degrees they may get the Victory over themselves and may habituate themselves to mildness and gentleness of Spirit and may be preserved from all the sad consequences of unruly passions 5. Time to be redeemed from Visiting Fifthly Redeem time from Visiting Too many throw away their time in making vain and unnecessary Visits employing themselves on these occasions in vain and impertinent chat and foolish talking and jesting which are not convenient in making their Observations and passing their Censures upon the Words and Actions the Modes and Customs of others in slandering and back-biting in sowing vain and false Reports in causing Jealousies and Contentions and doing other such like bad Offices Visiting is either good or bad according as it is managed In some cases it is very fit and necessary to visit your Friends and Neighbours to keep up thereby a friendly and neighbourly Correspondence to offer your help and service to them when there is need of it to sympathize with them when they are in any sort of trouble or distress and to assist them to bear their burdens whether of Body or Mind or outward Estate Sometimes the Laws of Civility and Discretion require that you visit those who have witnessed great Civility and Respect towards you Sometimes the good Offices and generous Favours of some Persons to you require that you should express your grateful sense of their kindness and generosity by all possible instances of affection and esteem and particularly by visiting of them now and then which is a very easie and a small return for those Obligations they have laid upon you You must beware of visiting or frequenting the company of those who are very lewd and wicked by whose conversation you are in great danger of being corrupted whose example is ready to infect you When you see a House marked for the Plague you are careful not to go into it you keep your selves at a good distance from it that you may not run the hazard of infection The Love which you have for life makes you do all you can to preserve it Ought you not then to be as careful to keep out of the company of prophane persons whose Throat is an open Sepulchre whose Mouths are full of Blasphemy and Cursing whose Breath is very infectious whose Words and Actions are full of most deadly Poison whereby your Souls are in danger of being corrupted and destroyed for ever Enter not into the path of the wicked saith Solomon and go not in the way of evil men Avoid it pass not by it turn from it and pass away Prov. 4.14,15 And Chap. 5.8 He adviseth young men to remove their way far from the strange woman and not to come nigh the door of her House As you ought to avoid all sorts of Debauched Company so especially of those who are Mockers of Religion who scoff at all that is called Sacred or looks like serious They who sit in the Seat of the Scornful are mentioned by the Psalmist Psal 1. as the chief of Sinners the highest Rank of them Such Persons are Satan's principal Instruments and Ministers Their scoffs and flouts do unspeakable mischief to Religion A great many who have stood firm against Arguments and Perswasions have proved too weak to hold out against the Impious Raillery and Prophane Jesting of such whose business is to turn the most serious things of Religion into Ridicule You ought to beware of such Wretches as the very pests of Mankind It is true sometimes your necessary Affairs and your Relation wherein you stand to some Persons may make it your Duty to be often in the company of those who are very wicked but then you ought to be First possessed with a great abhorrence of what is evil in them and in no manner to approve their sin and folly Have no Communion with their unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove