many and great Mercies of God towards you and yours and all Mankind are you bound to recount and to be affected with on this Day Ought you not still on this Day to remember and consider and solemnly and heartily to bless God and Christ for the capital Mercies of Creation and Redemption and for the gracious seasonable Sending of the Holy Ghost and to spend some Time in speaking highly and honourably of these Benefits to the Praise of your Maker and Glory of your Redeemer Are not you ignorant of many Things in which you ought to be informed and have not you need then to spend some Part of the Lord's-day in reading the Bible and some select Books of sound Divinity in hearing the Word preach'd and in Conference with godly understanding and well-experienced Christians Are you not too great Strangers to God and your selves and have not you need then to improve some Portion of this Seasonn in Meditation and Self-examination that you may get more Acquaintance with God and your own Hearts Have not you the Sins of the whole Week past to confess to God in secret and to beg the Pardon of every Lord's-day when you have leisure from your bodily Labour is it not fit you should take some pains in conquering the Corruptions and mortisying the Lusts of your own Hearts and in wrestling with God in Praier for his Strength and Grace Can you idle away your Time and take your Pleasure on the Lord's-day when you have Families to inform and Children and Servants to catechize and instruct Let your Consciences tell me whether it be better on the Lord's-day to spend your Time in unnecessary Divertisements in fruitless Visitations in vain and frothy Discourses to talk freely together of worldly Businesses to judg the Preacher to censure your Christian Neighbour Or to commune with your selves and to labour to edify your own Families To teach your Children the Doctrine of Adam's Fall and of the Redemption wrought by Christ To acquaint them what Sin and Corruption they brought with them into the World and how they have encreased it since they came into the World That the Wages of Sin is Death To tell them what Christ has done and suffered to free and deliver them from Sin and Death and what they must do to be capable of partaking of Christ's saving Benefits To ground your Servants in the Principles of Religion To take account what they remember of the Sermons they heard that Day and to examine how they have profited by the publick Ordinances You see what a great deal of Work you have to do and what a little Time you have to do it in You have but one whole Day in seven It concerns you then to be very saving of this whole Day [c] Quicunque hisee sacris ita seriò se excicent ut ipsorum familiae necessitas plani postulat locum nullum relictum esse quaestioni ists carn â—liter de larantium invenient An licitum sit die Dominâ—co aut oftari aut ludere aut epu is aut inanabus aut mundanis non planè necessariis tempus sacrum conterere Et qui serpsum alaos werè novit ut diei negotia commoda oblata verbo divino de rebus sparitio libus aeternis verè credit ipsius altorum ex vera necessitate ut â—â—â—tate interesse percepiet diem totum quantùm fieri potest in sacris colocare neque frustra sine fruge horae moment um essluere sinet Neque niâ—â—ges quaestionem movebit An liceat ludis vel aliis manibus ad perdere quà m An laceat sanguinent sâ—um inaniter fundere aurum oblasum respâ—ere in canum projicere Carnalis quippe pe animus sui rerum spiritualium ignarus disputationum talium author est plerumque promus-condus Baxter Method Theol. part 3 c. 14. P. 172. To be as far from disputing whether it be not lawful to use Recreations and Sports on some Part of it or to employ some Hours of it in any unnecessary worldly Businesses as from putting the Question Whether it be not lawful vainly to spill your own Blood or to make a refusal of Gold that is offer'd you and to cast it contemtuously into the Dirt. 'T will but little avail you to make the utmost worldly Advantage of all the other six Daies if you make not a sufficient spiritual Improvement of this which is more considerable than all the rest What would it profit you if as God made the World in six Daies so you could gain the whole World by working hard the six Daies if by gross neglect of the Lord's-day you at last lost your own Souls The Church of England in her pious and useful Homily of the Time and Place of Praier declares that in the fourth Commandment God has given express Charge that his obedient People should use our [d] And truly it is strange that some who have a dearness yea fondness for some VVords of Jewish Extraction Altar Temple and the like should have such an Antipa by against the Sabbath Fuller's Church-Hiâ—â— B. 11. p. 144. Sabbath-day which is now our Sunday holily and rest from their common and daily Businesses and also give themselves wholly to heavenly Exercises of God's true Religion and Service And in his Majestie 's Royal Proclamation for the Observation of the Lord's-day all his Majestie 's Subjects are bid to take notice that by the Law the resorting to divine Service enjoined on that Day does comprehend the entire Day and entire Service both Morning and Evening Yea every Lord's-day Morning you your selves make this open Confession and publick Praier in the Congregation after the Reading of the fourth Commandment Lord have Mercy upon us and encline our Hearts to keep this Law As much as to say Lord we acknowledg we have neglected this thy Day We pray thee pardon all our unchristian Sabbath-breaking for the Time past and give us Grace to observe the Christian Sabbath better for the future Now will you confess in the Fore-noon and transgress in the After-noon Will you beg pardon in the Morning and sin again the very same Sin before Night Will you open your Mouths to ask God's Grace to sanctify and keep holy the Sabbath-day and it may be profane it in a graceless manner as soon as you are out of the Congregation If the Lord's-day ought to be observed at all it is to be kept both Parts of the Day And for those that commonly stay away in the After-noon I would ask them what their Employment is at home in the mean Time Do not some of them spend the After-noon in sleeping or walking or talking or drinking or gaming while others are jointly confessing and praying and praising and hearing If God requires a Day is this to sanctify a Day to the Lord to worship God in the Morning and to dishonour God and serve the Devil and divers Lusts in the Afternoon
by their Affections encouraged by their Examples recovered by their Reproofs directed by their Counsels assisted by their Praiers instructed strengthned and comforted by their Experiences When you come in company with able godly Ministers or knowing experienced Christians you may put Cases and have them resolved propound Doubts and have them satisfied you may light your Candle by their's you may kindle your Coal at their Fire and stay and warm your self well before you go away Godly Company is an Opportunity to be prized and improved Whenever you enjoy good Company make the best of it Let not carnal Bashtulness nor a vain and worldly Heart which is apt to seek idle and unprofitable Discourse hinder and deprive you of the Profit and Benefit which may be reaped by godly Society The last Particular Opportunities to be redeemed 5. And lastly The particular Seasons of practising and performing particular Duties of getting and encreasing acting and exercising particular Graces these have a special commodious Fitness for the doing or receiving some particular Good and ought accordingly to be embraced and improved by us When we know a Person a good Man especially to be in real Necessity and great Extremity then is an Opportunity of exercising Charity in giving liberally according to our Ability When another has wronged and injured us then we have gotten a good Occasion of exercising Charity and shewing Mercy in free and full Forgiveness When a Brother is fallen into Sin at any Time then it is a Season to * Gal. 6.1 restore such an one in the Spirit of Meckness When any Person is flexible and tractable yielding and pliable being melted and mollified by an afflictive Providence or moved and enclined to hearken to us by Dependance on us Expectation from us or any Relation and Obligation to us we have a fair Opportunity to deal with such an one at such a Time for the furthering of his spiritual and eternal Good When any are cast upon Sick-beds and are somewhat awakened and softned by God's Hand then they are prepared for your Hand you may the more easily work upon them When any have newly received a Benefit from us or hope to be shortly beholden to us and so are ready to think well of us and to take all well from us then we may reprove admonish exhort them with a comfortable Hope of happy Success and good Effect The Conscience of a Man is a nice and sullen Thing and if it be not taken at fit Times there is no meddling with it And so likewise in respect of our selves when we have received any fresh Mercy from God or are actually enjoying the Blessings of God and tasting how good and gracious the Lord is then is an Occasion of stirring up our selves to Praise and Thanksgiving When we lie under an heavy Affliction then it is a Season of acting and exercising Faith Repentance Patience a convenient Season for Self-Examination sound Humiliation earnest Supplication and thorough Reformation When we find a secret Chearfulness of Spirit then it is a Season to spiritualize our Joy and Gladness to think upon God's Mercies to recount his Benefits to set forth the Praises of our Creator Preserver and Redeemer * Jam. 5 13. Is any merry let him sing Psalms When we find any Sadness growing upon our Spirits then it is a Season to spiritualize our Sorrow and Sadness to mourn and grieve for our Sins especially to weep in secret for them to confess and acknowledg them and pray against them Once more When at any Time [p] We must not measure our Time by the length but by the weight not by its greatness but by its worth Let us not in asure our Daie◠as we do by the motion of the Sun which we see but by the shining of the Sun of Righteousness upon our Souls not by the celestial Bodies but by the celestial Inspirations As to the purposes of Holiness and getting nearer to Heaven one moment when the Spirit of God is upon us and strongly possesses our Mind with good Things and breaths into us holy Affections is worth many Hours yea Daies and Years when that is not with us or doth not so powerfully incite us D. Patrick's Div. Arithm. p. 37 38. the holy Spirit of God joining with the good Word of God or concurring with the Providences and remarkable Works of God does strongly work upon our Minds and sweetly and powerfully move and stir our Hearts and Affections When the Spirit instills any good Motions into our Souls and kindles any good Desires in our Hearts and kindly draws us on to holy Purposes and good Resolutions This is a special Opportunity indeed This is Temporis Articulus the very Nick of Time which must be taken on a suddain or it 's presently lost to our great Disadvantage Do not fail to strike while the Iron is hot Step into the Pool whenever the Angel stirs the Water Lanch out immediately whiles Wind and Tide serve When you feel any gentle Gale spread open your Sail This Wind blows when and where it listeth You know not how soon this Wind may turn Whenever the Spirit knocks open the Door [q] Rara hora brevis mora O si durâsset Bernard you know not how soon he may have done how quickly he may be gone Delicata res est Spiritus Sanctus saies Tertullian The Spirit of God is a nice and delicate Thing it is soon offended and quickly grieved And therefore subject your selves to the Working of the Spirit and work with the Spirit while the Spirit is at work Gladly receive every Impression of this immediate gracious free Operator Welcome every Suggestion of this blessed Monitor Let every Inspiration find thee as the Seal does the Wax or the Spark the Tinder Kindly entertain all its Visits and readily obey all its Motions follow them home don't check and quench them stifle and smother them Never suffer them to die and decay to languish and perish and come to nothing Do the Particular Duties the Spirit calls you to Get and grow in the special Graces which the Spirit is ready to beget and encrease in you Run freely and willingly so soon as ever you feel and perceive that the Spirit draws you If you don't stir when the Spirit moves and act when it works you may drive and chase away the Spirit and so lie dull and dead graceless and helpless and hopeless for ever And thus I have open'd and explain'd the Duty and shewn you particularly both what it is to redeem the Time and what the Time is that is to be redeemed The Sum of all is briefly this that our whole Life-time and every particular Occasion afforded us in it must whatever it cost us by all means be laid hold on and improved by us for the Glory of God and our own and others spiritual Advantage CHAP. III. The Grounds and Reasons why we ought to redeem the Time The Special Reason laid down in the
Men there is no greater Pleasure in the World than a generous holy Contempt and rational religious Disdain of excessive sensual Pleasures A Life of Recreation is an absurd and ridiculous Thing to make that our constant Business which should only fit us for Business For a Man to make mere Recreations his main Actions and grand Employments is full as foolish and unreasonable as if he should make all his Diet of Physick or Sauces and his whole Garment of nothing but Fringes As we must not begin with Recreation in the first Place so when we take it we must not hold and continue it [t] Sunt exercitationes faciles breves quae corpus sine morae laxent tempori parcant cujus raecipua ratio habenda 1st Quicquid facies cito redi à corpore ad animum illum dicbus ac noctibus exerce Dandum aliquod intervallum antrno it a tamen ut non resolvatur sed remittartur Sen. op 15. too long It may seem a severe Rule but well deserves our very serious Consideration that the [u] In his serm of Red. of Time p. 20 21. Worthy Mr. Whately has given us to direct us in this Particular 'T is not lawful for man says he in an ordinary Course to spend more Time in any Recreation than he has or shall that very Day spend and employ in some Godly and chiefly private religious Exercise The Reason he gives is this We must * Mat. 6.33 first seek the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness first in respect of Time and first in respect of Affection primarily and principally Now he that does so can never use to bellow more Time in any Recreation whatsoever than in those Things which do directly make for the obtaining of eternal Life and that Righteousness which will certainly bring one thereunto And surely this is a most equal Thing that the most needful Duty should have the most Time bestowed upon it How very faulty then are many that spend whole Daies and Nights at Cards and Dice and in idle Pas-times who never allotted one Hour of any one Day to be spent in secret in that main Work and principal Employment for which all their Life-time was allowed them Take need of giving too much of your Time to any Recreations You may quickly lose not only your Time but your Hearts too in immoderate Recreations and may thereby so hugely unfit and indispose your selves for Duty that you may find it an hard Task and difficult Work to bring back your Hearts to their usual Temper and wonted Frame again As School-Boys after a Breaking up or Time of any extraordinary Play have much ado to settle and fall hard and close to their Books again Some good men have been so tender that they have blamed themselves for the Use of those Recreations which are apt to consume and devour to eat and swallow up too much Time And the Remembrance of Time mis-spent in immoderate Recreations has been no small Trouble nor light Burthen to the considering Minds and sensible Spirits of some very holy and eminent Christians I find in Mr. Fox his Acts and Monuments that John Huss a famous Reformer and worthy Martyr in his last Letter wrote in his Imprisonment to one Mr. Martin has these Words You know how before my Priesthood which grieveth me now I have delighted to play often-times at Chess and have neglected my Time and unhappily provoked both my self and others to Anger many Times by that Play wherefore besides other my innumerable Faults for this also I desire you to invocate the Mercy of the Lord that he will pardon me If the Recreation you use be lawful seasonable moderate then you are certainly well employed and never trouble and torment your selves with the Thoughts that you might be better employed for as one says truly if we were alwaies bound to do that which is best we could never tell whether we pleased God or no but should be engag'd and involv'd in needless Jealousies perpetual Fears and endless Doubts And here moreover without making it a distinct Head of Discourse I think among vain Recreations I may well reckon idle and needless fruitless and unprofitable Visits Man indeed is a sociable Creature made and fitted for Converse And the Comfort and Pleasure of humane Life does much consist in the desirable Enjoyment of the Familiarity and Society of prudent discreet Christian Friends And great Advantages are to be given and gotten by wise and good Discourses And due Respects and civil Kindnesses are to be paied to Friends and Neighbours and all Occasions and Oportunities to be taken and chosen of doing any considerable good Offices to them either in respect of their Souls or Bodies or Estates But as [w] Nemo se sibi vendicat c. de brev vit c. 2 Seneca complains we vainly spend and wear one our selves one upon another This Man waits upon one that Man upon another but no Man gives diligent and due Attendance upon himself and I fear there are too many to be met with whose [x] Nemiuem ex omnibus difficilius domi quâmse convenit Ex hoc malo depender illud teterrimum vitium anscultatio publicorum secretorumque inquisitio multarum verum scientia qua nec tutò narrantur nec tutò audiuutur Sen. de tranquil animi c. 12. Feet abide not in their own House as the * Prov. 7.11 wise Man speaks that wander about from House to House being Tatlers and Busie-bodies speaking Things which they ought not which is the Character the †1 Tim. 5.13 Apostle gives of them who go from Place to Place to spread any flying Report or Rumor to carry any uncertain and unconcerning News and if they may be so happy to tell the first Story of some little Accidents and petty Circumstances of Things who run here and there out of a gossiping tatling Temper or a pragmatical prying Humour and a greedy Desire to make Observations of the Affairs and Concerns of other Folks Families Or to shew their own Dresses and Tires and to see the new Fashions of others Or to drink or game and play away several Hours of the Day There are too many that are weary of their Time and weary of themselves and hate the Work and Employment they are called to in their Families and the Exercises of Devotion that should be used in their private Closets and gad abroad for a Diversion from Duty for the Prevention of melancholick Self-reflection and for avoiding or drowning the disquicting Clamours and troublesome Noises of their own guilty and stirring Consciences These weary and tire out their Neighbours that they may not be a Burthen at home to themselves never remembring or not considering that sober Advice and solid Counsel of the * Prov. 25.17 wise Man [y] Docet vitandam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non amici consuetudinem Withdraw thy Foot from thy Neighbour's House lest he
disabled to do any Work and wholly unfit for Labour and Service What baseness is it to deal worse with God than fair condition'd and ingenuous Men deal one with another * Prov. 3.28 Say not unto thy Neighbour saies Solomon Say not unto God say I Go and come again and to morrow I will give when thou hast it by thee Thou hast thy Endeavours and thy Heart and Affections more by thee now than thou art likely to have hereafter and therefore do not causlesly and trislingly put God off The †Lev. 19.13 Wages of an hired Servant were not to abide with an Israelitish Master all Night until the Morning Nor may we defer the Payment of the Debt which we all ow to our great Landlord when it is at present justly demanded and he cannot in honour remit or forbear it Shall we unworthily and wickedly oppose our Wills to the Wisdom and Will of God who best understands what is the fittest Time and has Right to appoint and Authority to determine the Time of our Work as well as the Work it self When God so plainly saies To day Is it meet for us to say To morrow Shall we continue to delay when we promise so often to break off our Delaies Shall we make God wait who so pathetically calls and cries ‖ Deut. 5.29 O that there were such an Heart in them (*) Jer. 13.27 When shall it once be 'T is unworthy to deal worse with God than we would deal with Men. But how highly unworthy is it to deal worse with God than we have dealt with Sin and with the Devil himself To come on in the Service of God as slowly as a Snail when we used to * Jer. 8.6 turn to our sinful courses as engerly and violently as the Horse rusheth into the Battel To deny God continually what he requires and reasonably expects when we have so frequently satisfied and fulfilled the Desires of the Flesh and not once said Nay to the Devil's Temptations To linger and delay to keep God's Commandments who have made the greatest haste and speed and never in the least delayed to do the Lusts and Works of the Devil Once more What shameful Vnworthiness is it to deal worse with God than God himself deals with us When we stand in need of God God makes no unnecessary Delay Christ is represented as †Cant 2.8 coming leaping upon the Mountains and skipping upon the Hills [e] Bp. Reyn. in loc When the Time of Deliverance is come Christ makes haste and rejoiceth to save and no Mountains nor Hills either of Sin or Misery can stop him And shall we secretly justify maintain and plead for our Delaies by objecting the many Mountains of Difficulties that stand in the waies of Christ's Commands When at any time we want any thing it does not content and satisfy us that God at last will give us the Mercy but we are impatient till he does it We are ready to cry with David ‖ Ps 40.13 17. O Lord make haste to help me make no tarrying O my God We would be loth to be serv'd so by God as we do usually serve God When God himself has no delight to put us off what unworthiness is it for any of us to find in our Hearts to put God off God makes indeed many great and very long Delaies with relation to the Execution of his Judgments But here it is highly disingenuous for us to delay because God delaies Is it not an indication of an ill Nature a plain discovery of a bad Temper for any to defer their Repentance because God defers their Punishment and by prolonging and lengthning out our Disobedience to make God suffer from us because we do not suffer from him What wretched baseness is it to take liberty and encouragement to continue still in an evil way and run on presumptously in a course of Sin because God is merciful patient and long-suffering and * Eccl. 8.11 Sentence against an evil Work is not executed speedily whenas the Goodness and Patience of God should lead and oblige us to speedy Repentance And nothing in the World can possibly appear more unbecoming and a more ungrateful return to the Kindness of Heaven than to be bold to be evil because God is good What can be more contrary to all Ingenuity than to say in your Hearts and signify in your Lives though you will not for shame speak out such a thing that you earnestly desire to have some further Time afforded you to live in Sin and offend God yet a while longer by abusing his Mercies and disobeying his Commands and when all is done to receive at last a general Pardon upon a short and slight Repentance and Confession and without the Trouble of a holy Life or taking any pains in working out your Salvation to be freely and fully made Partakers of the Riches and Treasures of Mercy and Glory Shall we shew our selves so monstrously disingenuous as to delay to repent and obey when in the case of his Judgments God is so gracious as to delay But in the case of his Mercies he is so kind as not to delay to give what he sees we are fit to receive 2. Delaies are unworthy in respect of our selves For 1. The very Act of deferring plainly discovers a false rotten corrupt unsound and unsincere Heart Some are so weak as to think there is somewhat of Goodness in them because they resolve to redeem the Time by becoming penitent and obedient hereafttr But I think it is a Sign of great Baseness A Man that purposes to keep God's Commandments hereafter and delaies to keep and observe them at present the plain truth of it is he has no real honest good Mind to keep them at all He is just like a cheating Debter that puts off the Payment from day to day with good Words and fair Promises not because he really designs to discharge the Debt at the Time appointed but because he never intends to pay it if he can possibly shift and avoid it That which makes you now desirous to defer the Redemption of your Time will make you loth to redeem it hereafter as well as now 2. To delay the Redemption of our Time is very unworthy in respect of our selves because it infers the misimprovement and misemployment of our rational Faculties and the great Abuse of our bodily Members during our Delaies When every one of us have Souls capable of doing God and our Generation good Service what an unworthy thing is it either not to employ or to misemploy the noble Powers of our reasonable Souls which are alwaies fit for higher Services and better Uses than the dilatory Sinner puts them to Does it not too plainly speak a mean and low and base Spirit to chuse to continue a Slave to Sin a Drudg and Bondman to the Devil when thou might'st be busied and set a-work in God's Service and very honourably and gainfully
though the Apostles preached and celebrated the Lord's Supper on other Dates of the Week yet why are the4se Things mentioned as done on that Day particularly and remarkably unless it were for some singular Eminency of this above any other Day and because they were bound to do those Duties on this Day more than on any other And the Apostle gave express Order that †1 Cor. 16. 1 2. the Collection for the Saints a Work especially fit for a Sabbath-Day should be made particularly on the first Day that is [d] Beza in loc every first Day of the Week which was the fore-ordain'd and customary Day of the Christian religious Church Assemblies Vpon or [e] Bp. of VV. Opuse Speech against Mr. Trask p. 73. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the VVord is used Mark 15.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sense is against the Feast against the first Day of the Week every Person was to lay apart what God should move and encline him to offer The Preparation and Separation of it was to be at home every Week but the Collation and Contribution to be in the Publick Congregation every Lord's Day For [f] Hammond's Par. it was not reasonable for any to come to the Lord * Exod. 23.15 Deut. 16.16 empty upon the Day of the most solemn Christian Assembly And this Day was appointed for the Oblation of their Alms because of the inestimable Benefits and infinite good Things we this Day had bestowed upon us And the Church of Christ has constantly observ'd this high Day ever since the Apostles Daies and spent it in Reading Exhortation Praier Sacraments [g] Si die Solis laetitiae indulgemus alia longe ratione quà m religione Solis secundo loco ab eis sumus qui diem Saturni otto victus â—ecernunt exorbitantes ipsi à Judaico more quem ignorant Tertul. Apol. c. 16 The Primitive Christians were suspected to worship the Sun because they used to celebrate the Sunday It was an [h] Bp. of VV. Speech in the Star-Chamber Opusc p. 74. usual Question put of old by the Heathen to the Christians before ever they offer'd to torture and martyr them Num Dominicum servasti Did you keep the Lord's Day To which they answer'd Christianus sum intermittere non possum I am a Christian and dare not omit or give over the Observation of it This is a Day in which God is to be solemnly worshipped and served and Christ to be pbulickly magnified and glorified A special Season to be laid hold on a particular Opportunity to be improved for our Soul's Good This is a special Day of Grace in which as I may say the Mint is going and in which we may take our Stamp of Holinefs [i] VVhole duty of man Partit 2. sect 18. This is the gainfullest the joyfullest Day of the Week a Day of Harvest wherein we are to lay up in store for the whole Week nay for our whole Lives This is a Market-day for our Souls in which we may trade for Eternity This is a Day in which we may hear and understand the Things that belong unto our Peace Pious and pathetical is that of the divine and holy Mr. Herbert Sunday O Day most calm most bright The Week were dark but for thy Light Thy Torch doth show the way Sundaies They are the fruitful Beds and Borders In God's rich Garden that is bare Which parts their Ranks and Orders On Sunday Heaven's Gate stands ope Blessings are plentiful and rife More plentiful than Hope This is a Day in which the most precious Commodities that ever the World saw or heard of are set forth in which the Riches and Treasures of the Gospel are opened Christ himself offered his Merit and Spirit tendred Pardon and Grace Light and Life Strength and Comfort held out and exhibited This is a Day in which no Pandora's Box is opened but in which the Cabinet of God's Jewels is unlocked and his precious Gifts and Graces dispensed This is a Day in which a spiritual Mart a divine Fair is publickly kept in which with the wise Virgins we may buy Oil for our Lamps buy spiritual Eye-salve to anoint our Eyes that we may see as our Saviour counsels excellently buy the Truth as the wise Man advises us and be perswaded so well to like it as never to sell or part with it buy Wine and Milk and Bread to fill and satisfy our empty hungry and thirsty Souls buy white Rainment that we may be clothed and that the Shame of our Nakedness may not appear buy the Christian 's compleat Armour that we may be furnished for our Warfare and well provided against the Assaults of our Spiritual Enemies buy Gold tried in the Fire that we may be rich yea in which we may buy the Pearl of Price in which we may receive and lay hold on Christ and all his Benefits and embrace and apply the great and precious Promises of the Gospel This is a Day in which the Word of God's Grace is opened and applyed and the holy Sacraments the Seals of the Covenant frequently administred in which we have the Priviledg of hearing God speaking unto Sinners and wooing and beseeching Rebels to be reconciled and in which we may enjoy the glorious Liberty of speaking our selves to God with an holy Boldness at the Throne of Grace and pouring out with one Accord our Supplications and Souls in Praier to him This is a Day of solemn Rest from servile Offices and worldly Works A Time of drawing nigh to God and of meeting the Lord in his own Ordinances of joining with the Saints and Servants of God in the Worship of God in Praiers to God and the Praises of him of having Communion and Fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ through the blessed Spirit and of enjoying a kind of Heaven here upon Earth The Lord's Day you see is a special Season of Grace and Mercy O let 's be spiritually thrifty of this Opportunity Let 's not live as if we were of the same Mind with the modern carnal Jews who think as the learned [k] Tempore Sabbati matutino non tam citò quà m solent alias cubitu surgentes in lucem multam voluptatis certè magis quà m Sabbati debitè colendi causâ stertunt Quantò enim voluptatis isti plus percipiunt tantò se devotrùs Sabbatum colere statuunt Buxtorf Synag Judaic c. 11. initio Buxtorf tells us that sleeping excessively on their Sabbath is a great Honour dòne to God Let 's not content our selves with an idle Rest Let our Rest be the Rest [l] Lawson's Theo-Pol p. 179. of Men and not of Beasts and the Rest of holy Men as holy Let 's not only cease from secular Works but exercise our rational and spiritual Faculties in heavenly and divine Employments and set our selves to Works of Piety Charity and Mercy Let us redeem this Time out of the Hands of
the Devil the World and our own carnal cozening corrupt Hearts Do not offer to work the Works of your Calling the Works of the Flesh the Works of the Devil on the Lord's Day Take heed of serving the Devil more upon the Lord's Day than on any other Day than on all the Days of the Week besides Let not the Lord's Day be leisure for the Devil as if the first Day of the Week were Daemoniacus potiùs quà m Dominicus the Devil 's and not the Lord's Day Let not any Temptations or Delusions of Satan keep and detain us from the publick Ordinance divert our Attention at it and hinder our Spiritual Benefit by it Let not any Recreations and sensual Pleasures upon this Day especially hinder the Performance or Family-Duties and private religious Exercises Let not vain Thoughts this Day lodge within us and justle out heavenly Meditations Let not worldly impertinent Discourses upon this Day shut out more profitable Christian Conferences The Lord's Day it is the most considerable Advantage the most notable Opportunity that is afforded us and the best Price that is put into our Hands all the Week long You have several Market-daies in the Week for civil Affairs and worldly interests but you have this one only for spiritual and eternal Interests and Advantages O do not neglect so great Salvation as is this Day offered and tendred to you Having such an excellent Price in your Hands O be not such Fools as not to make a good and a right Use of it [m] Mr. Valentine Marshal in his Preface before Capel's Remains Mr. Richard Capel pressing the strict Observation of the Lord's Day would usually say that we should go to sleep that Night with Meat in our Mouths as it were The Lord's-day being our best Opportunity if we mis-spend that we cannot be said to redeem the Time Now that we may redeem the Lord's-day to good Effects and useful Purposes let us not be wanting to put our selves in a sit Preparation for the due Observation of it not only by previous Meditation of the Day and the Duties of it but by ordering aright the constant Course of our Conversation and labouring for habitual Sanctification Let us every Day live as those that expect to have Communion with God the next Lord's-day Let us act so regularly all the Week that nothing may be done by us which may breed any strangeness between God and us and hinder our delightful Converse with him on his own Day that on that sacred separated Day we may not bring the fresh Guilt of any gross and wilful Sin along with us which may make us blush and be ashamed to come into his Presence Let us walk so circumspectly every Day that upon the Return of his own Day we may meet him with a pure and clear Conscience with clean Hands and clean Hearts and may be made joyful in his House of Praier That we may keep the Lord's-day holy let us strive and study to live holily all the Week and be so provident and diligent as to finish and dispatch in the six Daies all kinds of secular Works and common Employments that no Sin committed on the one hand nor any Business of our Calling omitted on the other may disturb and slacken our Attention distract and discompose us in the Exercise of our Devotion but that we may cheerfully and fruitfully spend the Lord's-day in the Lord's Work Let us every Day carry our selves so spiritually and perform our Closet and Family religious Duties so conscionably and constantly that we may be the fitter and readier to spend this choice select Day in the solemn Worship and Service of God and may go through the several Duties of it with less Tediousness and more Delight Let us be with God some part of every Day that so we may grow into Acquaintance with him and may taste the Sweetness and experience the Gainfulness of Communion with him and long for the return of the Lord's-day that we may meet and enjoy him in the publick Ordinances and have Opportunity of larger and freer Converse with him Let us pray to God every Day that so by using our selves to the Duty we may be the better disposed to join in Praier with the Congregation on the Lord's-day Let us read the Bible every Day and daily do whatever we know to be our Duty and this will make us more apt to hear and the better prepared to receive the Word that is preached on the Lord's-day And when the Lord's-day comes let us get up as early as may be that so we may have the more Time before us to work the Work of God in And take some Pains to prepare our selves in private for our better Attendance upon the publick Ordinances and timely [n] Quisquis incolit civitatem in qua extat Synagoga inibi non precatur cum coetis publico is est qui meritò dicitur malus vicinus Dictum Maimonidis resort to the Place of publick Meeting Follow the Counsel of holy Mr. Herbert [o] The Church-porch p. 14. Sundaies observe think when the Bells do chime 'T is Angel's Musick therefore come not late God then deals Blessings if a King did so Who would not haste nay give to see the Show O be drest Stay not for th' other Pin why thou hast lost A Joy for it worth Worlds Thus Hell doth jest Away thy Blessings and extreamly flout thee Thy Clothes being fast but thy Soul loose about thee And when thou art come into the Church watch over thy Behaviour there make thy self all Reverence and Fear Open thy Ears but shut thy Eies to all distracting Objects [n] The Church-Porch p. 15. Who marks in Church-time others Symmetry Makes all their Beauty his Deformity As the same Divine Poet pathetically expresses it Let God and Angels see your most devout Behaviour and serious Composure the whole Time of Praier And give all diligent close Attention to the Word of god read and preach'd Do not carp and catch jest and jear at the Preacher's Language or Expression Do not shew by your vain and prophane Carriage your ridiculous Gestures and unseemly Actions your Laughing and Whispering Toying and Talking that you slight and contemn the [o] God calleth Preaching folly Do not grudg to pick out Treasures from an earthen Pot. The Church-Porch p. 15. Foolishness of Preaching And when on the Lord's-day the Lord's Table is richly furnish'd with a spiritual Banquet make not needless and frivolous Excuses to absent your selves from this Marriage-feast If any croud in that have not a Wedding-Garment let not this make you stay out that have one Lose not your Portion of this heavenly Food because of others impreparation Though others eat and drink their own Damnation let your Faith feed on Christ to your own Salvation By your frequent receiving of this Sacrament shew your real Sense of your own need of it your high prizing and valuation of it your
and delightful Communion with God to exercise thy Graces in this holy Duty and to feel thy Heart warm'd and inflam'd and thy Soul refresh'd and repair'd before thou departest out of God's Presence To [e] Oratio clavis diei sera nâ—ctis begin and end with God every Day to be with the Lord first and last to call upon God Morning and Evening In the Morning to praise him for the Mercies of the Night past to ask Wisdome of God to order our Conversation aright to beg his Favour Presence Guidance Spirit Grace and Strength his Protection of us his * Psal 90 17. Beauty on glorious Blessing upon us and his establishing and [f] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pythag Aur. Cam. prospering the Works both of our Heads and Hands the whole Day following And in the Evening to bless and praise God for the Mercies and Favours of the Day past to confess our Faults and Failings in it and so to lie down with no heavy Guilt of any unrepented Sin lying upon us To pray for the hPardon and Healing of the Miscarriages of that Day and to commit our selves and ours to the Divine Keeping the Night following beseeching God to prevent any sinful Dreams which might proceed from the Corruption of our Natures and Constitutions Hearts and Imaginations Conversations and Actions and to spiritualize and sanctify our Thoughts and Cogitations in the vacant Spaces and broken Hours of our Sleep To keep and maintain the set Times of personal secret Closet-Prayer and the stated Times of Oeconomical Houshold Family-Prayer this is a well-spending so much of our Time as is employed in that Duty and this is the right and ready way to redeem and improve every Day to the Honour and Glory of God and to our own and others Profit and Benefit Satisfaction and Comfort This is a likely hopeful good way to prevent or remove Miscarriages in our selves and Disorders in our Families to keep every Member of our Family in their Station and Duty to season them all with a religious Fear and high Respect to God and his Waies and to train and bring up Children and Servants to a competent Ability to express their Desires in Prayer to God for themselves and others to teach our Servants with * Gen. 24.12 Eliezar Abraham's good oand faithful Servant to follow their earthly Master's Business with hearty Prayers to their heavenly Master for a Blessing upon it Be careful and diligent wise and prudent to redeem Time for Prayer that you may redeem Time by Prayer Find Time sufficient to work this Work of God and so to workout your own Salvation as well as to follow the Works and Businesses of your particular Callings to attend and wait upon God in Prayer as well as to wait upon your Customers and to attend your secular Occasions and Concerns Let not worldly Cares and civil or domestick Affairs hinder and divert thee from due Performance of Prayer in thy Family and in thy private Closet Though David had the Care of the Kingly Government upon him yet his usual Course and Practice was to pray to God †Psal 55.17 Evening and Morning and at Noon yea ‖ 119.154 seven times a day did he praise God as he himselfe professes If he did not exactly and punctually observe so many Hours but a certain Number is put here for an uncertain yet the meaning must be that he did it very often Love sweetned the Duty to him and caused him to praise God * Ps 71.14 more and more to be nover weary of praising him here as knowing that it would be his sole Employment to praise him hereafter for evermore Though Daniel was deeply engag'd in Publick Business and State Affairs yet he took not any Occasion from these to neglect his daily Duty and wonted Service to his God He kept his former Course and Order for every day and constantly †Dan. 6.10 three Times a Day he kneeled upon his Knees and prayed and gave thanks before his God though he knew he hazarded his high Preferment and endanger'd his very Life by it So Cornelius a Centurion taken up with many Martial Occasions yet suffer'd not himself to be taken off from his Devotion thereby but ‖ Acts 10.2 prayed to God alway He did not do it only by fits but daily and constantly observ'd his usual Seasons It is reported of the famous [g] In the Serm. preached at his Fun. at the end of his Sermons p. 21. Bp. Andrews that though he had many weighty Employments as Bishop of Winchester and Privy Counsellor yet his Life was a Life of Prayer and a great part of five Hours every day did he spend in Prayer and Devotion to God The holy and excellent [h] His Life written by Dr. Bernard p. 58. Bp. Vsher had Prayer in his Family four times a day In the Morning at six in the Evening at eight and before Dinner and Supper in the Chappel at each of which he was alwaies present [i] His Life written by Mr. Clark Mr. William Whately Minister of Banbury had much Work lying upon him continually catechising and preaching twice every Lord's-day and a weekly Lecture besides well studying and usually penning his Sermons at large and yet his constant Practice was besides Family-Prayer twice a day and sometimes catechizing to pray also with his Wife and alone both Morning and Evening And with what shew of Reason can any of you excuse your selves Have you Time to eat and drink and sleep and not only to labour and works but to play and sport Leisure to recreate your selves and visit your Friends and take your pleasure a Spare-Hour to spend in discourse and it may be to waste in empty and idle talk with another Have you Time to do nothing Time to do Evil and have you no Time to serve and worship God in your Families no Time for religious Retirements and hidden Repairs to God in your privy Chambers and secret Closets Have you so many Sins and Wants Corruptions and Temptations and can no Time be spared and set apart to seek God for the Pardon of your Sins and the Supply of all your spiritual Wants and to pray to him for Strength and Power to mortify the Corruptious with which you are infested and to resist the Temptations with which you are assaulted 2. We should moreover betake our selves to solemn continued Prayer when we have Place and Space for such a Duty upon the Emergency of any weighty important Business or on any special extraordinary occurrent and urgent Occasion to beg of God the prudent Conduct of our Affairs Success in and a Blessing upon our lawful and honest Undertakings Strength to go through Trials Afflictions and Temptations Freedom and Deliverance from Evils and Sufferings felt or feared or to return God thanks for the receit of his Mercies in any such particulars and to engage our selves to walk answerably and to
render suitably to the Lord for such undeserved and it may be unexpected Blessings and Benefits We reade of Abraham's Servant that when his Master sent him to take a Wife for his Son Isaac he sought God and said * Gen. 24.12 O Lord God of my Master Abraham I pray thee send me good speed this Day and shew Kindness unto my Master Abraham And when God had given him good Success †Vers 26 27 48. he worshipped and blessed God which had led him in the right Way When Jacob was greatly afraid of Esau's coming ‖ Gen. 32 9 10 11. he prayed to God to deliver him from the Hand of his Brother When Nehemiah understood the Misery of Jerusalem he (*) 1 Neh. 4.11 fasted and prayed before the God of Heaven and intreated God to proper him that Day and to grant him Mercy in the Sight of the King So when Esther was to make an extraordinary Suit to King Ahasuerus (†) Esth 4.16 she and her Maidens fasted and prayed for an happy Issue and good Event When David was troubled with slanderous Enemies (‖) Ps 109.4 he gave himself unto Prayer And upon the Receit of Sennacherib's blasphemous Letter [*] Isa 37.14 15 21. Hezekiah went up unto the House of the Lord and spread it before the Lord and prayed against Sennacherib King of Assyria Christ upon his approaching Passion [†] Matt. 26.39 42 44. prayed thrice in the Garden St. Paul likewise when there was given to him a Thorn in the Flesh the Messenger of Satan to buffet him * 2 Cor. 12.7 8. for this thing he besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from him How eminent have many pious Persons been for gaining Opportunities of Religious Addresses and for their Care to improve much Time in Prayer whether upon ordinary or extraordinary Occasions It is the worthy Commendation of [k] Knolles's Hist of the Turks p. 580. Philippus Villerius the Great Master of the Rhodes that all the Time he could spare from the necessary Cares of his weighty Charge from Assaults and the natural Refreshing of his Body he bestowed in Prayer and Serving of God He oftentimes spent the greatest Part of the Night in the Church alone praying his Head-piece Gorget and Gantlets lying by him so that it was often said that his devout Prayers and Carefulness would make the City invincible Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden would pray a Ship-board a Shore in the Field in the midst of a Battel 'T is a memorable Passage in the [l] Fox Acts and Mon. 2 vol. p. 1457. Life of Mr. John Bradford that his continual Study was upon his Knees and no doubt he mingled many holy Prayers with his hard Studies [m] Id. ib. p. 1579. Mr. Hugh Latimer in the latter Time of his Imprisonment which was at Oxford from April to October did oftentimes continue so long in fervent Prayer kneeling that he was not able to rise without Help And three special principal Matters which he ever mention'd in his Praiers at that Season were these That God would give him Grace to stand to his Doctrine until his Death that he might give and shed his Heart-blood in the Defence of the Gospel That God of his Mercy would restore his Gospel to England once again once again He also desired with Tears that God would preserve the Princess Elizabeth and make her a Comfort to his comfortless Realm of England All which Requests God graciously granted and in Answer to his first particular Desire it was very remarkable that his Body being open'd by the Force of the Fire his Blood which gather'd much to his Heart gush'd out of his Heart with Violence and ran out in Abundance [n] Eccl Hist l 2. c. 23. Eusebius out of Aegesippus tells us of James called Justus that his Knees were grown very callous hard and brawny benumm'd and berest of the Sense of Feeling by reason of his continual kneeling in Supplication to God and Petition for the People So Gregory relates of his Aunt Trucilla that her Elbows were as hard as an Horn by often learning on a Desk when she prayed And St. Jerome in an Epistle to Marcella mentions this in the Praises of Asella that by her frequent kneeling in Prayer she had contracted such an Hardness on her Knees as is to be found on the [p] Durities de genubus camelorum in illo sancto corpusculo prae orandi frequentia obcaluisse perspecta est Hier. ad Marcell de laudib Asellae Knees of Camels The same Father writes in the Life of Paul the Hermite that [q] Ac primum iâ—se vivere eum credens pariter orabat Postquam verò nulla ut solebat suspiria precantis at divit in flebile osculum ruens intellexit quod etiam cadaver Sancti Deum cui omnia vivunt officioso gestu precabatur Hier. in vit Pauli Eremitae Anthony entring into the Cave found there the dead Body of that Saint in a praying Posture upon its bended folded Knees with its Head listed up and its Hands stretched out on high [r] O ter belitam il'ius animam sine corpore cujus adâ—o venerabundum corpus sine anima Arrows Tact. sacr p. 273. How happy now is his Soul without his Body whose Body was in a worshiping Gesture without his Soul 3. If we would redeem the Time we must give our selves to frequent holy Ejaculation either mental or vocal inwardly lifting and darting up our Petitions and Heart's Desires or orally uttering them in some very short yet pithy Expressions of both which we have several Instances in Sacred Writ * Exod 14.15 Wherefore [s] In Dei auribus desiderium vehemens clamor magnus 〈◊〉 regione autem remissa iniontio vox submissa Bern sâ—rm 16. in Ps 90. criest thou unto me said God to Moses when Moses utter'd not a Word that we do reade of but only used strong Ejaculations inward ardent Desires and Groans †Nehem. 2.4 So I prayed to the God of Heaven said holy Nehemiah that is he dispatch'd and sent up some short Heart-prayers to Heaven that God would direct his Tongue and bend and [t] Qui preces ad Regem perferre vult priùs ad Deum perserat cujus in manu corda sunt Regum Grot. in loc incline the Heart of the King the King's Heart being in the Lord's Hand He could pray no otherwise at that Time for he was then in the Presence of the King and in Discourse with him And Nehemiah ‖ Nehem. 13.14 21 31. and (*) Mat. 11.25 John 12 27 28. our Saviour and others did use by an holy Apostrophe to turn their Speech to God in vocal Ejaculations The true Christian as a solid [u] Shaw's Immanuel p. 73. Divine saies well does not limit himself penuriously to a Morning and Evening Sacrifice and Solemnity as unto certain Rent-seasons wherein to pay an Homage of dry