Slothfulness this makes men heedless or careless of their time As it is with the sluggard Yet a little more sleep Cor. 6.10 a little more slumber a little more folding of the arms is sleep So it is with the idle person Let this hour and this day be spent in doing nothing O the many golden hours and days and years that many thousands spend and yet cannot give the least account wherein either they have glorified God or served their generations 3. Love of fleshly liberty Alas what care they for redeeming time who are set on their lusts and liberties to sin All the care they have it is meerly to eat and drink and play sensual pleasures are the whole study of these men and if they can but enjoy them let time slip away as it will they never regard it 2. A recompensing of some former unfruitfulness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath this interpretation it is a redeeming as it were of that jewel of time that hath been formerly lost As a travailer that hath long stayed at an Inne when he finds the night comming upon him he mends his pace and goes as many miles in an hour or two as he did before in many This me thinks comes nearest to the word Redimo to redeem or to buy back again It is taken say some from the custom and practice of wise Merchants or Trades men who uie to buy their commodities while fit time of buying serves and while the market holds and having haply had great losses or formerly spent their time idly or unthriftily they do by their after diligence seek to redeem and as it were to buy back again the time that is past 3. An embracing of all occasions for acting graces and doing good and this agrees with the reason following for the dayes are evil q. d. Look to your selves for these are hard and dismal times now is much corruption and great persecution and the opportunity of good is exceedingly straitned and therefore it is very needful to catch at time and to lay hold on an opportunity both to exercise graces and to be doing as much good as you may while the time permitteth I must work the works of him that sent me John 9.4 while it is day saith Christ the night cometh when no man can work And John 12.35 yet a little while and the light is with you walk while ye have the light lest darkness come upon you Gal. 6.10 And as we have opportunity let us do good unto all men especially to them who are of the houshold of faith Mark these sayings while it s called to day and while the light is with you and while you have opportunity Thus you see what it is 3. But why must time be redeemed what necessity for that I answer 1. In respect of time past Alas many a golden season have we lost how many hours and dayes and months and years have we spent idly and done little good Is it not time then to lay hold of every opportunity to redeem time past When God brought us forth into this world his commands were upon us to work in his vineyard and to that purpose he designed to every one his time thus many dayes or months or years shall you every one live and while you live be imploying these and these talents it is my command upon all the sons of men in the sweat of thy face i. e. of thy brow or of thy brain shall thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground Gen. 3.19 and why then do ye stand all the day idle why are ye not in the work and especially in the work of the Lord Now if this be so that there is such a command and that we have broke this command at such a time and such a time is it not our duty and is there not cause to redeem the time A fellow that hath loytered a great part of the day in his business and yet must needs finish his work will he not toyl and sweat at it towards night will he not double his pains and put all his strength to it So we having not onely been slack in our business about Gods service and slow in the way towards Heaven but even for many yeares having perhaps run in a quite contrary course and done the Devils work how should we now towards the night of our natural life and in the conclusion of the short span thereof spare no paines double our diligence press hard to the price of the high calling with an holy kind of violence lay hold upon the Kingdom of Heaven with all zeal courage and resolution labour to redeem past because it is past This our reason 2. In respect of time present It is but a moment on which depends eternal bliss or woe if we have lost time past and if we do lose time present we may be undone for ever In this respect may we say of time as Boaz said to his kinsman concerning Ruth If you will redeem it redeem it never think of redeeming it tomorrow Ruth 4.4 2 Cor. 6.2 or the other day or hereafter for no time is properly yours but the present time Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation now while I am speaking and you hearing now ere the night be done or the next day comes on Oh why should we trifle away the time which is properly ours and promise to our selves great things in a time which is none of ours Luk 19.42 When Christ mourned over Jerusalem he bemoans it thus If thou hadst known even thou at leas in this thy day the things belonging to thy peace So may I mourn over you if thou hadst known even thou at lest in this thy day when 's that while Ministers call and you hear this is your day and therefore he that never heard effectually let him hear now it is now high time to awake out of that cursed security wherein you lie the Lord is now come near Christ Jesus is calling mercy is intreating and wisedom is even hoarse with crying after you if you lose this time this hour of grace who knows whether ever you shall enjoy such another season Oh take time by the forehead post est occasio calva it will be too late soon Now the Lord calls and now it concerns us to bestirr our selves upon these grounds 1. Because now are evil dayes the very reason in the Text these are the last times which the Apostle calls perillous times and why perillous Tim. 3.1.2 For men shall belevers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers c. One would think it rather an History than a Prophecie of our dayes Oh is it not time now if ever to reedeem the time 2. Because now are dayes of light notwithstanding the evils of some or most in comparison yet many glorious truths do now appear the Devil I know now brings forth his ware but withal
God is now a communicating many blessed truths In respect of us our fathers before and since the Reformation were in great darkness the candle of God now shines upon this Nation with extraordinary light And what then Why therefore it concernes us to redeem the time This is the Apostles argument Act. 17.30 The time of this ignorance God winks at but now he commandeth every man every where to repent This is another reason 3. In respect of time to come I shall instance onely in time of death and time of judgment 1. Death is at hand and then we cannot redeem the time So the Preacher Eccles 9.10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to doe doe it with thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisedom in the grave whither thou goest q. d. If there be any thing to be done if there be any duty God requires doe it in life for when death shall come there shall be no more preaching praying hearing Isa 38.18.19 The grave cannot praise thee death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth the living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day 2. Our doom for eternity of joyes or woes drawes on apace and is even at the door Then I am sure account must be given for time as well as for all other things Come will Christ say give an account of thy stewardship of all things done in the flesh and of every moment of time how didst thou spend such a day such a Sabbath was not such a day spent sinfully or very unprofitably and was it ever redeemed Here 's a reason indeed to force on us this duty But of this and other reasons I shall speak more in the motives when I exhort you to it Well then Vse 1. is it so that time must be redeemed this may reprove several sorts of persons as 1. The idle that are so far from redeeming time that they are perpetually losing time This was the sin of Sodom pride fulness of bread and abundance of idleness was in her Ezek. 16. Give me leave a little to lay open this sin Surely this sin is the fountain of all sins by doing nothing we shall be sure to learn how to doe ill It is said of Rome that during the time of their Wars with Carthage and other enemies in Africa they knew not what vice meant but no sooner had they got the conquest than through idleness they came to ruin Rust you know will fret into the hardest Iron if it be not used so vice will infect the best heart if given to idleness Standing Water is sooner frozen than the running stream and he that fitteth is more subject to sleep than he that walketh so the idle man is far more subject to temptation than he that is profitably exercised Idleness is the Devils special opportunity and we have an instance in David's idleness who at that time was set on by the Devil to commit other sins of Adultery and Murder But this is a sin that very boyes in Schools can declame against and if it were not that I see many amongst us spend their time so very unprofitably I had not once named it Oh think of it If a Master should set a light upon a Candlestick and give his servant food and time and all things convenient wherewith to work yet when he comes to see if his task be finished he finds that the meat is wasted the time is ended the Candle to the very socket burned and little or nothing of the work is furthered how would such a servant excuse himself unto his Master And is it not so with many of you God hath given you meat drink and time he hath given you Candle Fire and matter but what have you done Is not the lamp of your life almost consumed and yet you have not finished the work that was given you to doe Marth 20.6 Oh why stand ye here all the day idle 2. The voluptuous these mispend their time as ill as the former They take the timbrel and harp and Job 21.12 13. rejoyce at the sound of the organ they spend their dayes in mirth They waste the fat and marrow as it were of precious time even the flower of their age in froth and folly Lord that men should live upon earth as Liviathan in the Sea onely to take their sport and pastime therein We have seen the sad Catastrophe of some who have led such lives and I believe still there is a generation of men that except they be continually exercised in variety of pleasures they are sore troubled with time what else is the meaning of all those passe-times as they call them but onely a concatenation of such delights as please the flesh that time may not be ro tedious wearisome unto them Little doe these men consider that saying of Chrysostome Presens tempus non effundendi gaudu sed tribulationum c. The present time is not for melting into mirth but for lamentation and mourning the Devil omits no time to hurt you for he knowes his time is short still is he laying his snares to intrap mens souls he goes about like a roaring Lion to devour he roars and fumes and flashes out fire against your Salvation Chrys in cap. 5. ad Ephes Ser. 17. and doe you sit still and jovially jest it out Hark in your ears the present time is not for mrith saith Chrysostome no no the present time is for vertuous actions to do the great business for which you were born to mourn and sorrow and sue out your pardon and not to spend it in jollity and fleshly delights If a condemned man had two or three dayes granted him to sue out his pardon were that a time for pleasure and sports Gen. 2.17 Surely the sentence of death is upon all flesh In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die onely a little uncertain time is granted to sue out our pardon in the name of Christ why then doe you slip away your time sinfully and will not redeem it 3. The godly themselves Alas the best are short in this duty of redeeming the time Did not the Lord complain against his own people Jer. 8.7 the Stork in the Heaven knoweth her appointed times 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. Certainly God's own people doe not so improve as they ought those many gracious seasons of love which the Lord affords them O the omissions of Duties and commissions of evils whereof we all stand guilty of how many good hours have we been ill Husbands I shall not need to reckon up our times of infancy when we knew nothing nor of childhood when we knew very little nor of youth when we knew not much of that we ought to know but since our riper
motive should work and now that we have a little time it should prevail with us to redeem the time 5. Our time hath been a very sinful time Ah my brethren think over your Ignorance unbelief worldliness covetousness pride malice lusts lukewarmness impatience discontentedness vain-glory self love wandring and wicked imaginations in a word all your pollutions distempers estrangedness from God in the time of your unregeneracy oh were not those sinful abominable and rebellious times or be it so that your gracious God hath since those times wrought in you effectually his saving grace have you not since then lost your first love or at least grown remiss and cold and lukewarm in it Say then speak out your hearts and tell me is it not time now to remember from whence you are fallen and to repent and to do your first works Blessed Mr. Bolton hath a saying that if it were possible that any uncomfortable passion were incident to a glorified Saint in Heaven he would be sorry and transported with extream anger and indignation against himself that he was not a meer greedy ingrosser as it were and improver of time for doing excellently upon Earth and that every hour especially after his Conversion was not Crowned with some rare and more remarkable exploit with some more special and noble service for the glorifying of that most bountiful and ever-blessed God who hath now honored him with such unspeakable glory in the Kingdom of Heaven But if no such passion is in glorified Saints I am sure we have all cause enough to loath our selves in our own fight for our iniquities and for our abominations O come let this be a motive to spur us on and to quicken us in this duty of Redeeming the time because our dayes were evil 6. The Scriptures speak of a remarkable set time of grace a time of visitation Luke 19.44 a time of Salvation 2 Cor 6.2 a time whilest God may be found Psal 32.6 a time when he holds out the Golden Seepter Esther 5.2 a time wherein the Fountain runneth and the spirit proclameth Ho every on that thirsteth come ye to the Waters Isa 55.1 Thus Jerusalem had her time and all the several Churches in Asia had their time and now England Scotland and Ireland have their time and if we mis-improve this time and walk unworthy of this grace and Gospel of Christ this time will have an end Psal 95.11 this Sun will go down at Noon and set upon our heads This day if you will hear my voice harden not your hearts said God to Israel but they hardned their hearts and therefore God sware to them in his wrath that they should never enter into his rest If it be so with us as it was with Israel in the wilderness we doe not know but this very day the Lord may clap an Oath upon our heads that we shall never enter into his rest Oh then that we would learn of the Ant that gathereth her meat in the Summer time Oh that while we have this time of grace we would redeem the time in praying reading hearing meditating and treasuring up the things belonging to our peace This time is a set-time that hastens away and we cannot with Joshua bid the Sun stand still O then let us say This is our time and therefore what we will do for our Souls we will do it now Surely better it is to redeem it now than to wish in pain and torment for the time again when it is past redemption 7. The time is a coming yea it is near even at the door when time shall be no more This is the voice of the seventh Angel Rev. 10.5.6 And the Angel which I saw standing upon the Sea and upon the Earth lifted up his hand to Heaven and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever that there should be time no longer Who was this a man no an Angel and what did he say it no he sware it how sware it by himself no he sware it by him that lives for ever and what that time should be little no it should be no longer time should be no more Needs must this time come that hath all these circumstances to confirm it And what if this time should come even in your time what if now the seventh Angel should lift up his hand to Heaven and take this Oath If this time be far off as to the general Judgment which I cannot think yet sure I am and without all peradventure that it is not far off to thee and me It may be before this year this month this week this night be done that God may say to his Angel Go to such a man and such a woman I will give them no more time bring them hither and here let them give an account what they have done with all their time for I must have a reckoning of all time past And then comes in Imprimis so much time in Drinking and Revelling Item so much time in Idling Sporting playing c. Oh will God say were these things I gave you time for no no it was for Heaven and Salvation you had your time and if that time be mis-improved away away time and now enter Eternity upon these Souls Is not here a motive to make us look about us Oh my brethren now now if ever redeem the time for anon time will be gone and then succeeds eternity eternity eternity But what are the means for redeeming time I answer They are so many that I may have no time to enumerate the Particulars shall we instance in some you must pray read hear the Word meditate and watch over your hearts with extraordinary industry mortifie your members which are upon the Earth as pride covetousness lusts c. grow up in grace clear up your evidences against that day when all shall stand naked before that great and glorious Judge c. And these and all other Duties of which anon must be done while the day lasteth Here 's a great work and a little time doth it not concern you to bestir your selves If a man have much to write and but a little Paper to write on he must write small and thick and close as ever he can So must you do I verily believe there 's not one Soul amongst us but he may find out hundreds and thousands of sins to repent him of he may find out many and many a Particular Duty that he should be exercised in from morning to evening and from evening to morning so that 't is a wonder how he can spare any time at all for any thing else Well then up and be doing lose not a minute but be in the use and exercise of some of these Dutys These are the means and in the use of these means you may by the Lords help and grace concurring redeem your time One Objection I would remove It may be the day of grace is done the gate of mercy is already shut
and if so how is it possible for me to redeem the time I answer 1. By way of Concession I believe there is a day of grace indeed and if that Sun set it will never never rise again If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things belonging to thy peace but now are they hid from thine eyes Luk. 19 4â— q. d. Now is the gate of mercy shut there is no means of grace or Salvation for ever hereafter to be hoped for As there is no Market or fair-Fair-day that lasteth alwayes if the Country will not come in the Trades-man will at last put up his wares So the Lord's standing may be open and his shop set wide for such and such a time but if Souls will not come in and buy without mony and without price he will at last put up his wares all his jewels of grace and then be gone 2. Though it be true that there is a day of grace and that this day may set yet in respect of us the Ministers of Christ we cannot determine it and therefore so long as you live we call still oh repent oh redeem your time I may add in respect of your selves it is not in you to know the times and seasons which God hath put in his own power Act. 1.7 And the commandement of Faith standing in force on you so long as you live and thereforce you are still to look to your Duty of redeeming the time 3. It may be this day this night this Sermon this very hour may be thy day of grace Hearken is not Christ's Spirit now a knocking is not Christ himself now offering mercy to thy Soul O ye sons of men that have mis-improved your time will ye now at least in this your day he wise to Salvation why now I call to your hearts now I command you to open your everlasting doors that I the King of Glory may come in oh let this be the time of love Come give me your hearts and now redeem the time Away away with all objections scruples cavils that may hinder this Duty and now even now hearken to this voice of Christ or of the Spirit of Christ that your Souls may live 3. Must time be redeemed Then for some Rules or Directions how we must redeem it Rule 1. Vse 3. A void we every thing that would hinder us from taking the opportunity What those things are you have heard before as ignorance sloth and love of fleshly liberty Many other particulars might be enumerated but chiefly and especially foregoe we these Rule 2. Repent we of all former mis-improvings of our time There is no other way of recompensing former unfruitfulness but by repentance and after diligence This is the scond table after shipwrack in this way we may redeem or buy back again the time that is past The very word resipiscentia signifies to be wise again after all our former follies Oh that ever any should be so unworthy as to decry this godly-Gospel-golden Rule Rule 3. Live we every day as if every day were the last day we had to live This Rule or direction is so comprehensive that I must needs break it into particulars Suppose then I were to begin this day and that I look't on this day as the last day of my life how should I redeem my time or spend this day I answer 1. My first and morning-thoughts should be on God or on something in order to his service Psal 130.6 My Soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the Morning Isa 23.2 O Lord be gracious to me I have waited for thee be thou my arm every Morning Psal 59.16 I will sing of thy power I will sing aloud of thy mercy in thy Morning It is good to give thanks unto the Lord. Psal 92.1 2. and to sing praises unto thy name O most high to shew forth thy loving kindness in the Morning Psal 139.17 How pretious are thy thoughs unto me O God when I awake I am still with thee Now these Morning-thoughts may be spent either in a way of Meditation Isa 26. or of Prayer and my Duties lie in both 2. I should meditate I shall not determine whether Morning or Evening may be more suitable for set deliberate and solemn meditation onely this I affirm that either a solemn or an occasional meditation is a Morning-duty In some sort meditation and prayer should ever go together Psal 5.1 2.3 and David thus couples them Give ear to my words O Lord consider my meditation hearken to the voice of my cry My voice shalt thou hear in the Morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee Now these Morning-meditations if occasional or ejaculatory may be on such Objects as these 1. Upon my first waking I may think on that Morning of my Resurrection when the Lord will awake me from the dust it is but a while till the trump shall sound Awake Isa 29.19 and sing ye that dwell in the dust for thy dew is as the dew of herbs and then shall the earth cast out her dead 2. Upon sight of the Morning-sun I may think on that Sun of Righteousness that enlightens Heaven The Sun that shines on me was only created for this nether World and yet how glorious is it Oh then what light is there in that City above that hath no need of Sun Re. 21.23 or Moon or Star for the glory of God doth lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof 3. Upon the putting on of my apparel I may think on that garment of Righteousness where with my soul either is or should be cloathed Alas what is this outward Robe but a Rag or at best an excrement of dead worms of which I have little reason to be proud But my Souls Robe is as a garment cut out of the Sun Rev. 12.1 and put upon me And there appeared a great wonder in Heaven a woman cloathed with the Sun Oh that I may be cloathed with that Sun of Righteousness or with that Rightousness of the Son of God that I may appear before God as I am in him pure and spotless I shall not instance in any other objects of my Mornings meditation onely if I find my spirit most active and fit for meditation at such a time I should then go on and spare more time for set deliberate and solemn meditations 2. I should pray and to this Duty I may joyn the reading of the Word That this is a mornings Duty the Scripture is express Psal 5.3 In the Morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up Psal 88.13 And in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee And evening and morning and at noon will I pray and crie aloud Psal 55.17 and he shall hear my voice It is true that Prayer and reading of the Word are two distinct exercises
yet that they mutually help one another is most manifest and consequently are fit to be joyned together for the word ministers matter of prayer and is the ground of our petition who have no promise to be heard unless we ask according to God's word 1 Joh. 5.14 And the fitness of the morning for these exercises is evident not only because the first of time belongs unto God but also the heart being then most free from worldly thoughts it is therefore fittest for Holy exercises and withal when in the beginning of the day the heart of man is seasoned with Holiness and with the fear of God he shall find himself the better fitted to walk humbly with God all the day after 2. All the rest of the day till evening should I spend my time in the Duties of my particular calling nor know I the least reason why any man in the world high or low rich or poor should be herein exempted Adam must not eat his bread without sweat and labour Abel was a keeper of sheep Cain a tiller of the ground Gen. 3.19 Jabal was a Tent-maker Jubal the father of such as handle the harp Gen. 4.2 20.21 22. Tubal Cain an Artificer in Brass and Iron All the the Patriarchs of Israel were but Shepherds and Jesus Christ himself was a plain Carpenter But you may object may I not herein lose my time as to God's service One would think if this were my last day I should do no other work but pray or hear or read or meditate c. I answer 1. I grant there are such times wherein God calls us extraordinarily to such spiritual Duties all the day long as either in afflictions felt or feared or in some special mercies expected or received And there are those times we call the Lords dayes wherein we are to do no work ordinarily but of a Spiritual nature And there are such times wherein God holds forth an opportunity of exercising graces or of doing good and so to embrace the occasion is one piece or part of our redeeming time Gal. 6.10 As we have opportunity let us do good to all men And your care of me hath flourished again Phil. 4.10 said Paul to his Philippians but ye lacked opportunity It seems their care for the Apostle was intermitted for a season for want of oppertunity to send unto him but now they put forth again as flowers in Spring I doubt not but in such cases as these we may and must for the time dispense with our particular callings Yet 2. In my ordinary constant daily course I am to be in the exercise of my Particular calling with which I may either mingle some actings of grace or ejaculatory Duties as suddenly to look up to Heaven and to behold the face of God to whom I am to approve my self in my particular calling or if they clash I am solely to follow my particular calling and to leave other Spiritual actings till their appointed season Nor do I herein decline God's service For 1. I follow my calling out of an awful respect to the eye presence and command of God who hath said Six dayes shalt thou labour Yea I do what I do in civil business as the work of Christ so that I may say at that time now am I about the work of God and of Jesus Christ 2. Seeing my self thus working for him I may easily apprehend that for that time I honour God as much nay more by the meanest servile worldly act than if I should spend all that time in Prayer Meditation or any other Spiritual employment to which I had no call at such a time It is noted therefore by some of Peter's Wives Mother that when Christ had healed her of her Feaver she sat not down at Table with Christ in Communion with him which no question was sweet but she ministred unto them i.e. she ran to and fro and served him and acted for him wherein she shewed more love Mat. 8.15 and gave him more honour than if at that time she had enjoyed Communion with him in a nearer way But I hear others object May I not take up some little of this time in recreations what must I alwayes be on my calling Is there not a time to every purpose under Heaven Eccl. 3.1 4. a time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance I answer There is indeed a time to recreate but that time is then I say onely then when our bodies or minds are wearied with our other employments O what a sad thing it is to see many spend a whole day it may be a whole week in unnecessary sinful recreations What is this to redeem the time or dare I thus spend the last day of my life in this world Surely God's people that make conscience of their Duties should not meddle at any time with recreations though in themselves lawful without true cause and a just calling thereunto nor should they use them any longer nor to any other end but only to quicken their minds or to revive their bodies that so they may return with some lightsomness and alacrity to their callings again He that spends his time lavishly in recreations is like him whose Garments are made of fringes and his meat nothing but sauces I am not against recreations lawfully used but God forbid that we should trifle away our time more worth than worlds upon foolish vain empty end unnecessary toyes 3. The evening should be closed up with spiritual duties If you ask what Duties I answer 1. The evening is a time for prayer Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice Psal 141.2 To this of prayer I joyn reading the Scripture and good books for it is fit to close up the day with the same duties wherewith we began it 2. The evening was Isaac's time for meditation And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the even-tide Gen. 24.63 It may be in this Duty the morning is not so seasonable for some tempers but shall the evening pass without some spiritual Holy meditations Some conceive the evening to be the very season of set and deliberate meditation and in this case how fruitful might I be in the use of that Ordinance of Looking unto Jesus as he carries on the great work of our Salvation from first to last O that this Duty of meditation either on that or any other spiritual subject were not so neglected as it is by Christians themselves Jod 1.8 The Lord gave Joshua a charge that he should mediate on his Law day and night Psal 1.2 and David's character of the blessed man is that his delight is in the Law of the Lord Psal 63.6 and in his Law doth he meditate day and night And David's own practice was to remember God upon his bed 1 Tim. 4.15 and to meditate
years yea since the time of our regeneracy how prodigal have we been of this precious commodity of time those that keep exact diaries can easily tell you such an hour lost and such an hour ill spent this day I did little good and the other day I sinned against my God If in this case I may speak out my own experiences I must needs acknowledge that many and many a day I have lost such and such an opportunity and now that evil days come thick upon me wherein I would gladly redeem my days oh how flow and backward am I as yet in this Heavenly Duty My dear brethern I shall not onely reprove you but my self in this O why art thou so dull and listless and heavy O my soul Awake awake stirr up thy self and with redoubled diligence fall to the work of redeeming time while yet the time the day the season the opportunity of grace of Heaven or of Salvation lasteth 2. Must time be redeemed Vse 2. why then let me exhort you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ to be in the exercise of this Duty Oh redeem your time avoid all those hinderances that would take you off recompence your former unfruitfulness by after diligence embrace all occasions of acting grace and doing good I might dilate on all these particulars but I shall contract all in these very words Redeem the time oh redeem your time The motives besides the former reasons may be these 1. Time is ever on the wing and stayes for no man The Scripture is very full of this we meet with many similitudes hinting at the sudden invisible motion of time My dayes are swifter then a post they fly away Job 9.25 26. they are passed away as the swift Ships as the Eagle that hasteth to the prey See how Job here multiplies comparisons that if we will not learn by the first we might learn by a second or by a third Goe we to the land and there we see time on the spur in the swift riding post goe we to the Sea and there we see time upon the wind in the swift sailing Ship goe we to the aire and there we see time upon the wing in the swift flying Eagle Hence the Ancients emblem'd time with wings as if it were not onely running or sailing but flying Oh how sad it is to see men live as if time had leaden heels and not swift wings or as if time would any time stay our leasure and not be gone Be not deceived you that are weary of time either now redeem it or you will one day cry out What hath pride profited us or what good hath riches with our vaunting brought us All these things are passed away like a shadow Wisd 5.8 9.10.11 12 13. and as Post that passeth by or as a Ship or as a Bird or as an Arrow even so we c. 2. As time is swift so our time is short The Heavens indeed are said to be of swift motion but of long continuance but our time is otherwise When the Corinthians propounded divers cases of conscience after some answers the Apostle gives them in this But this I say brethren the time is short or time is cut off he alludes to Sea-fearing men that have almost done their Voyage and begin to strike sail 1 Cor. 7.29 Time was in the beginning of the World that men might say I may by course of Nature live a matter of six or seven or eight or nine hundred years but now God hath so cast out the time of our age that so soon as we begin our Voyage we are ready to strike sail we have but a little time If I should measure it out what is it but an Ell a Span an Inch a Point And is it not time then to redeem the time 3. Time is not onely swift and short but nothing I say a very nothing in comparison As some creatures are said to be nothing in comparison of others What is the Ant to the Elephant or the Shrimp to the Whale what is the whole body of the Earth to the body of the Heavens So is our time as nothing to all time and all time is as nothing to Eternity David that found out a short dimension of his time considered absolutely Psal 39.5 or in it self Behold thou hast made my dayes as an hand-breath yet he could find out no dimension little enough for his time compared with God Mine age is as nothing before thee God's being consists in one Eternal now but mans time is divided into past present and to come three nothings which being added together amount in the total to this Sum Mine age is as nothing before thee Oh that we would consider of this language of the Holy Ghost were it not enough think you to put us on this Duty of improving and trading our time while the time is ours and while this short time lasteth 4. Though time be swift and short and as nothing in comparison yet is it a commodity more precious than the Gold of Ophir If herein we might hear lost Souls to utter themselves Oh what would they say or what would they give for a little of that little time they had on earth If the Lord by Divine and Extraordinary dispensation would but grant them one months time to come hither again and to make a new trial do you think they would not prize this grant would they not esteem that little short Golden season of grace at an high and mighty rate Would they not make use of every opportunity to lay hold of Heaven and to escape those fires wherein now they are burning frying and flaming O yes if you would then tempt them saying Come spend this hour merrily would they not answer alas we have but one months time to live here in this World and then we must either to Hell again or if we improve our time well we must to Heaven and what shall we trifle away this time of trial and of grace in offending God shall we cast away our Souls again to gratifie you or to please our own flesh for so little a time as we have now to live Oh God forbid avoid Satan avoid all Temptations welcome now all those messengers of Heaven that will bring us the glad tidings the tenders the offers of Christ and of Salvation let not one sand in the hour-glass run but let us be doing some good let this hour be spent in prayer and the next in meditation and the next in hearing of God's Word and the next in the exercise of this and that grace and so on but not one hour in sin Why surely thus would they prize and improve the time that know by woful experience what it is to lose the time And by this we may guess the worth of time oh it is pretious so pretious that if all the Earth were turned into Gold it could not purchase one minute of it Me thinks this
or flourishing time as I am a stranger to it so I believe she had or might have her failings in that time The temptations of honour riches prosperity and youth are stronger than most imagine and therefore prayed David Remember not the sins of my youth Psal 25.7 and all that are honourable may pray Remember not the sins of my honour nobility and greatness in the world For my part I shall not take notice of these things or of those times but rather speak of her redeeming the time since that time that forsaking the World in great measure she gave up her self in a more retired and solitary way to serve her God Now then if here I begin She hath for these many years redeemed her time as thus 1. In life 2. In Death 1. In life it will appear in her general and particular calling For the first ordinarily every Morning and every evening she was exercised in those duties of Meditation and Prayer This was her course not by fits and starts but daily in her pleasant Walks or private Chamber she spent both her early and later houres in Communion with God Nor speak I this by report onely for of her goodness and bounty she was pleased every Spring to invite me to her House and by this meanes I was acquainted with her constant course Indeed I was the more willing to embrace her welcome because her House seemed to me as a Colledge for Religion or as a retirement from the noises and more frequeent Temptations of the World and this gave her and me and all that pleased an happy opportunity to continue our devotions without interruption Some Books she had for contemplation others for an Holy conversation others for meditation others for devotion of all sorts some and of all these sorts she made some use but of all books for constant use and practice she preferred the Bible telling me often that other Books had their use and delight till with often reading they became more ordinary and then they seemed to lose of their former lustre glory and excellency but the Bible was in her often-reading ever fresh and green and new She found in it still such per petual streams of Holy Heavenly and Spiritual delights that as Teriullian said she could not but admire and a dore the fulness of the Scriptures 2. Ordinarily she spent the rest of the day in her works of the needle with her maids about her Or if other things of Houswifery had interposed she was never so transported with honour as to scorn her duty in the way of a particular calling Well she had learnt that idleness was the rust and canker of the soul the Devils cushion pillow chief reposal his very tide-time of Temptation and therefore with conscience and faithfulness she was diligent in her particular as well as general calling Now and then she would have visited poor cottages and relieved their necessities but ever was she courteous to the Neighbourhood and careful in the affairs of her own House Take all together and for ought I know she might be a pattern to most of the Ladies in our Nation or at least as a bright Morning-star amongst other stars 2. She redeemed her time in death or near her death now indeed she was taken off her particular calling and therefore this time she spent as she could for sickness in the exercise of spiritual duties and spiritual graces For duties she was much in them of which we speak before and for graces she shined and was most eminent in such as these As 1. In meekness She was of a meek and quiet spirit seldome have I seen her exorbitant in passions but often have I seen her amidst provocations quiet meek gentle and easie to be intreated In her sickness she carried it as a lamb not a word of passion or peevishness issued out of her lips so far as I observed The very Image of Christ was in this respect drawn fair within her Learn of me for I am meek Matth. 11.29 Christ a meek Christ and she a meek creature 2. In humility She was of high descent and sprung of Royal blood yet humble in heart and lowly in spirit She never scorned the poorest Creature but often stooped to wonderful condescentions as I conceived In her sickness as well as death she laid her honor in the dust She was far from the opinion of them that think humility a debasement and meekness a derogation from their repute no no she had othewise learned of Christ humility was her Ornament and therewith she decked her self in the Apostles language 1 Pet. 5.5 or cloathed her self both in health and in sickness when she could put on no other cloathing Hence she was stiled by some the humble harmless Lady 3. In patience submission and contentedness of spirit to be at God's disposal She had a sore sickness and because of her former health it was to her the sorer Of many years before she had not layn sick in Bed one day but many a turn had she took in her Walks and Gallery and through much exercise in that way she had the advantage both of her health and communion with God but now the Lord laid her on a Bed of sickness not for a day or two or three or four but for a long while together She that before had walked with God was now God's prisoner and such was the nature of the sickness that she could not stir nor move one foot yet was she patient and submisive to God's hand she kissed the rod she learnt the Churches lesson I will bare the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him Micah 7.9 She never murmured not repined one whit but as she was taught so she learnt and conformed to that frame of Eli and David Lord here I am do with me as seems good in thine own eyes 4. In faith She was ever and anon during her sickness acting faith often she acknowledged her own nothingness vileness wretchedness that she was of little faith and of no ability in respect of her self to help her self Indeed her weakness in faith in grace and in all performances was her constant complaint and this made me to mind her of that promise that he would not quench the smoaking flax nor break the bruised reed until he brought forth judgement unto victory Mat. 12.20 Some others I have seen most confident in their sickness of salvation whom though I dare not censure beause unacquainted with their grounds yet I ingenously acknowledge that I like dearly of an humble trembling self-condemning frame Sure I am that they who are vilest in their own eyes are persons in whom God most delighteth I remember how Paul in Scripture bespattered himself but are not those passages his beauty-pots Give me a man amongst you that will lick the dust of Jesus feet and I dare say of such a one that Christ will take him into his armes and lay him in his bosome it was
her condition she was all in confession of her spiritual poverty yet she cast her self into the blessed-bleeding armes of Jesus Christ yea she lay at his feet crying Lord I believe help thou my unbelief and again I rest upon Christ and upon Christ alone for Heaven and Salvation and again Though the Lord slay me yet will I trust in him and again He hath delivered and he doth deliver and I trust in him that he will deliver me still and again Hold out faith and anon thou wilt come to vision This last word hold out faith was one of the last words she spake on that last day of her life 5. In her love to Ministers Her heart was wholly set on Christ and as a true sign of it she loved Christs image especially in his Ministers And now I speak my own loss amongst others she was pleased to cast her affections on the unworthiest of all my Masters messengers In her life-time she preferr'd me to this place the Lord made her the first wheel of his providence in bringing me hither and it was some trouble to her spirit that I left this pastoral charge before she left the World Indeed she honoured all the Ministers of Christ yea the very function it self for Christ his sake Oh how will she rise up in judgement at the last day against those that make it their work to reproach vilifie and contemn the dispensers of Gods word 6. In her love and charity towards all Many discords have been in these sad times and she hath suffered much im many respects yet in her approaches near to the confines of Eternity I desired her to forgive others as she desired God to forgive her at which she proclamed it very affectionately that She freely forgave all the World and she desired all whom she had offended to forgive her Her children then kneeling about her she gave them a blessing as Jacob gave to Joseph and his children this blessing was pronounced with that cheerfulness heartiness and fervency of spirit that it melted hearts and caused aflood of tears round about her Bed in so much that she was forct to rouze up her self and to bespeak them as Christ did those weeping women Weep not for me but weep for your selves why should you weep for me that am going to my Christ and to those joyes prepared by Christ And then she gave a charge the subject of it was a relative respective duty to be performed by brethren it concern'd him most who was the begining of her strength or the excellency of her power Gen. 49.3 and so far as Justice or Religion calls I presume it will never be forgotten by him 7. In her desire to die and to be with Jesus Christ which was best of all Sometimes she cried Oh when will that good hour come And again sometimes Oh that I were dissolved that I might be with Christ But telling her of her duty that she must wait for waiting was a posture fit for servants Psal 123.2 Behold as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their Masters and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her Mistress so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until be have mercy upon us Why then said she I will wait why Lord I will wait until my change shall come Only she minded that promise Heb. 10.37 For yet a very little while and he that shall come will come and he will not tarry One thing was her trouble she was afraid that her strong heart would not yield without much strugling to the stroke of death of this she told me and others once and again her reasons were best known to her self but she prophesied truly for indeed when death came to her heart she uttered such groanes that she outgroaned all our prayers At last death by degrees overcame the strength of nature and then she calmly and quietly left the world in the midst of our prayers just in that passage that her soul might be taken up by the Lord Jesus Christ into the Bridegroom chamber You see now how she redeemed the time in life and death As Christ said to the Lawyer so I say to you Go thou and do likewise Luke 10.37 It is but a while that all of you have to live and therfore I beseech you improve time lay hold of every season to get to Heaven Live every day as if it were your last on earth Walk accurately exactly circumspectly not as fools but as wâ—se Redeeming the time because the dayes are evil Soli Deo gloria