will use all Diligence and good Conscience in their Calling and Trading on the Week-day And their Pains-taking and honest Dealing is likely to bring God's Blessing on their outward Estates Besides They that faithrully worship God on the Lord's-day will seek to God for a Blessing on the Week-day and they that seek it are likely to find it Once more God won't be wanting to those who would not be wanting to him God will bless you six Daies for your Blessing and Serving him one whole Day in seven 2. Our Observation of the Lord's-day as it is a spiritual wise redeeming of that special Season so it is a good Help to the spiritual Redeeming of all the six Daies following The more Liberty Men allow themselves upon the Lord's-day the more loose their Hearts are and negligent of good Duties and religious Exercises all the Week after They that pray not on the Lord's-day will hardly so much as say a Praier all the Week long They that hear not a Sermon on this Day will searcely read a Chapter the whole Week They that rob God of his due on the Lord's-day will rarely deal justly and honestly with their Neighbour on the Week-day But if we keep holy the Lord's-day then every Week-day will have a Tincture and Savour of the Lord's-day Our being Spiritual on the Lord's-day will put us into a very good Frame of Heart will awaken Principles of Conscience compose our Minds six our Wills call in and set in order our Assections Our Sanctification of this Day will season and sanctify us sit and dispose us for a close and holy Walking with God all the Week after If we attend upon God and converse with him on this special Day of his own Appointment we shall find a sensible spiritual Vigour a divine Power and heavenly Strength to carry us through all the Duties of the whole Week following relating either to God or Man If we earnestly redeem the Lord's-day the Observation of that Day will have a strong and mighty Influence on our Lives on other Daies too We shall endeavour to carry our selves after it suitably to it to live and walk and act continually as those that have newly or lately enjoyed so blessed and happy an Opportunity as those that have heard of God heard from him spoken to him had to do with him we shall labour to live in pursuance of the End and Design of the work and Business of the Lord's-day Mot. 2. Our Sanctification and good Improvement of the Lord's-day will fit and prepare us to keep and enjoy a blessed Rest and eternal Sabbath in Heaven They that delight in God here will much more delight in him hereafter and those whom God delights in here he will delight in for evermore They that keep holy the Christian Sabbath here shall be translated and admitted to sanctify and celebrate an everlasting Sabbath in Glory hereafter [g] The Church-porch p. 15. He that loves God's Abode and to combine With Saints on Earth shall one Day with them shine But on the other side your gross continued Neglect and wilful resolved Profanation of the Lord's-day will unfit and unqualify you to keep a glorious festival and a joyful happy Holy-Day in Heaven God can take no Complacency and Delight in you if you can take no Complacency in him no Delight in his Sabbaths no Pleasure in his Worship and Service They that refuse to sanctify a Sabbath and totally to rest on that Day from their worldly Labours and secular Negotiations have reason to fear lest God sware in his Wrath that they shall never enter into his Rest. They that will not rest from their Works and Pleasures on this Day have cause to conclude that in Hell they shall have no Rest neither Day nor Night They that will do their own Works on the Lord's-day may expect to suffer for their evil Deeds in the Day of the Lord. They who wilfully absented themselves from God's House on God's Day have no ground to hope that God will receive them to Communion with himself in his heavenly Kingdom And as God can take no delight in you so if you pollute and profane break and violate the Lord's-Day neglect Religion contemn the Worship and despise the Service of God if you changed your place you would there no more delight in God than you do here Heaven would be a Burden Heaven would be an Hell to the unsuitable Spirit of an irreligious profane voluptuous Person Thou that art weary of Praiers and Praises here what wouldst thou do in Heaven tro there is nothing else there You that are sick of a Sabbath here and long till it be over and can't endure to think of spending a whole Day in Religious Exercises what wilt thou do in Heaven where there is a perpetual Sabbath to be kept for ever Thou that hatest the Communion of Saints here I wonder what thou wouldst do in Heaven where next to the Fruition and Enjoyment of God in Glory the best Entertainment will be the Company and Society of the holy Angels and of the blessed and glorified Saints to all Eternity I have given you some Motives to perswade and engage you to the due Observation and right Redemption of the Lord's-Day Now what are you resolved upon Shall your former Profanation of this Day be the present Burthen of your Spirits and Sadness of your Souls Will you live as those that are convinced that Religion depends upon the Sanctification of this Day and your Salvation upon Religion Will you forbear any more to break into God's Inclosure to encroach upon God's Propriety sacrilegiously to engross God's Day to your selves or to make bold with any Part of it for worldly Employments or vain Pleasures or such Recreations as are apt to prove Lets and Hindrances of your Duties and Devotions and be careful to give God that Portion of Time which is his due Will you for the future sequester your selves from worldly Cares Affections Affairs on this Day and henceforth dedicate the Lord's-Day to the Honour of God and Christ Will you not only cease to censure those serious Christians who dare not lose this choice Time and precious Opportunity as profanely and desperately as formerly you have done But will you so consider the Worth of this Time and so far weigh the great Consequences and weighty Concernments of the well or ill spending of it as to count it honourable and keep it holy without intermixing of secular Matters or indulging profane Thoughts and introducing inconvenient improper Discourses in any part of it Will you labour to walk accurately exactly precisely on this Day and not be afraid of being [h] He keeps the Lord's-day best that keeps it with most Religion and with most Charity Bp. Taylor 's Rule and Exerc. of Hol. Lif chap. 4 sec 6. rul 8. Hypocrites are out disputing the Obligations to their Duty and asking How do you prove that it is a Duty to pray in my Family
or a Duty to observe the Lord's-day or to come constantly to the Congregation or to repeat Sermons and the like If these ungodly Wretches had one spark of spiritual Life within them and any taste and feeling of the matters that concern their own Salvation instead of asking How can you prove that I must pray with my Family or that I must keep the Lord's-day they would be readier to say How can you prove that I may not pray with nay Family and that I may not sanctify the Lord's-day and that I may not have Communion with the Saints in Holiness I can perceive in many that I converse with the great difference between an Heart that loâ—es God and Holiness and an Heart that seems religious and honest without such a Love The true Conveit perceiveth so much sweetness in holy Duties and so much spiritual advantage by them to his Soul that he is loch to be kept back he can not spare these Ordinances no more than he can spare the Bread from his Mouth or the Clothes from his Back yea or the Skin from his Flesh no not so much He loveth them he cannot live without them And therefore if he had but a bare leave from God without a Command to sanctify the Lord's-day and to live in the holy Communion of the Saints he would joyfully take it with many thanks for he need not be driven to his Rest when he is weary nor to his spiritual Food when he is hungry But the unsanctified Hypocrite that never loved God or Godliness in his Heart he stands questioning and enquiring for some proof of a Necessity of thâ—se Courses And if he can but bring himself to hope that God will save him without so much adoe away then goes the Duty He never was Religious from a true Predominant love to God and an holy Life but for fear of Hell and for other inferiour respects Mr. Baxter's Direct and Perswas to a sound Convers from p. 372 to 376. too strict of being too holy on this holy Day 'T is an excellent Saying of Tully Nemo pius est qui pietatem cavet The plain English of which is this No man is truly godly who is afraid of being too godly Will you so observe the lord's-Lord's-day as you were ready to promise you would when you lay last upon a Sick-Bed and as careless Sinners commonly wish they had when they come to lie upon a Death-bed Will you make every Sabbath here on Earth resemble in some Degree that eternal Rest which you hope to hallow more perfectly in Heaven Seriously consider how many lord's-Lord's-daies you have lost already and what reason you have to observe and improve those that remain Do you know how few such Daies you shall ever enjoy more It may be this lord's-Lord's-day may be the last Before the next Sabbath comes thou maiest be called to a reckoning for neglecting and mis-spending all that are past Thou art not sure that ever thou shalt pray in publick more that never the Liberty shall again be afforded thee of hearing another Sermon preach'd to thee Thou maiest never enjoy such a blessed Opportunity to take pains with thy Family and to save their Souls from Death before thou diest If God shall please to put such Prices into thy Hands God give thee an Heart to make use of them Carefully redeem the Lord's-day and every Day after shew in thy Life that thou hast redeem'd it Make it appear by the Frame of thy Actions and Course of thy Life all the Week long that thou hast been under spiritual powerful quickening Ordinances the last Lord's-day You that enjoyed Communion with God on the Lord's-day have no parley with Satan no familiarity with Sin no fellowship with the unfruitful Works of Darkness on any of the Week-daies following Be sure you every Day avoid those Sins which you solemnly confess'd the last Lord's-day and live over the Praiers you made that Day and live up to the Sermons you heard that Day and obey from the Heart that Form of Doctrine which that Day was delivered to you Perform every Day those Resolutions and Promises which you made to God on the Lord's-day and keep the Covenant you renewed at the Sacrament on that Day and maintain the Warmth that was wrought on your Souls by the Word and Spirit on that Day Use every Day the Grace you ask'd obtain'd and receiv'd on the Lord's-day and act in the Strength and Power of Christ which was communicated and given in to you in your Attendance upon him in his own Ordinances on his own Day This is the second particular Season and special Opportunity that is to be carefully redeem'd by every Christian The Morning of the Week the Lord's Day And I have purposely treated so largely concerning the Redemption of the Lord's-day because it is so despised in the Judgment and disregarded in the Practice of the confident Men of this dissolute and degenerate Age. The third Particular Opportunity to be redeem'd As the Morning of every Week the first Day of the Week so the [i] Dr. Gouge was very conscientious in the expence of his Time from his Youth to the very Time of his Death His custom was to rise very early both in the Winter and Summer In the Winter-time he constantly rose so long before Day as that he alwaies perform'd all the exercises of his Private Devotions before Day-light And in the Summer-time he rose about four a Cleck in the Morning by which means he had done half his Work before others began their Studies If he happen'd to hear any at their Work before he began his Studies he would say as Demosthenes spake concerning the Smith that he was much troubled that any should be at the Works of their Calling before he was at his In his Life among Mr. Clark's Lives of ten Em Div. p. 116 117. He continued in King's Colledg for the space of mine Years and in all that Time except he went forth of Town to his Friends he was never absent from Morning-Praiers in the Chappel which used to be about half an Hour after five a Clock in the Morning yea he used to rise so long before he went to the Chappel as that he gained Time for his Secret Devotions and for reading his Morning-task of the Scriptures Ibid p. 97. Morning of every Day is a special Season that ought to be redeem'd and improved by a Christian to spiritual Advantage The Morning is an Opportunity of giving God the very first and best of the Day and the chief of our Life Spirits and Strength In the Morning our Spirits are recreated and repair'd and our Bodies strengthned and refresh'd with the Rest and Sleep of the Night past and our Minds are vacant and not disturb'd with those Images and Representations of Things which the variety of worldly Employments in the Day usually fill and possess us with In the Morning our Minds are most free and our Affections most lively as
REDEMPTION OF TIME The Duty and Wisdom of Christians in EVIL DAYS OR A Practical Discourse Shewing what SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES Ought to be redeem'd What MISSPENCES of TIME Are to be avoided with convincing REASONS Quickning MOTIVES And proper DIRECTIONS For the right Improvement of pretious Time By J. W. London Printed for Nathanael Ranew at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard 1683 To the Gentlemen and Inhabitants of HAMMERSMITH Honoured Worthy and Well-beloved Friends THe great and good God made Man Lord of the * Gen. 1.28 Psal 8.6 115.16 whole Earth but this is not the highest Preferment and utmost Advancement that he is capable of and destin'd to The incorporeal and diviner Part of him sufficiently discovers and evidently demonstrates that he pertains and belongs to another World Tully brings in Cato delivering this high point of Philosophy that this [a] Est animus coelestis ex altissimo domicilâ—o depressus quasi demersus in terram locum divinae naturae aternitaiâ— que contrarium cic in Cat. Maj. seu de senect Earth and earthly Body into which the Soul is sunk at present is a place extreamly contrary to a divine Nature and to Eternity This Earth is but our [b] Ex vita ista discedo tanquam ex hospitio non tanqu im ex domo Commorandi enim natura diversorium nobis non habitandi dedit Id. ib. Inn saies he in which as Travellers we are to lodg in our Journey hastening through Time to Eternity not our House and Home in which we are to dwell continually This World is appointed only as a Passage to a better place and state We are now in a way of Preparation for it This World as [c] Sir Mat. Hale's Contempl. M. and D. 1 part p. 263. one saies well is the great Laboratory for perfecting of Souls for the next We are here indeed to make but a short stay yet we must not repine at the brevity of this Life but ought to be content with that space of time which is allowed us for our Life on Earth and to take care that in [d] Neque enim histriont ut placeat peragenda est sabula modo in quocunque fuerit actu probetur nec sapientis sque ad plaudite vivendum Breve enim tempus aetatis satis est longum ad bene honestéque vivendum Cic. lib. cit whatsoever Act we are appointed to appear we perform our particular parts well though they prove but short ones that are assigned and committed to us in the great Comedy acted in the Theater of this inferiour World for as the forementiond Philosopher acknowledgeth a short time of Life is long enough to serve us to live well and honestly It concerns us only to endeavour to use and improve what time God pleases to afford us in doing those things which will fit and dispose us for a happy Eternity and make our Translation and Removal hence gainful and advantageous comfortable and desirable to us God hath prescribed a course of convenient means to be observed and used by us in this Probation-state [e] Non per difficiles Quaestiones ad beatam vitam nos ducit Deus Hilar. He does not lead us to a Life of Blessedness as St. Hilary tells us truly through thorny difficult Controversies and knotty hard Questions He would have us not dispute but live for as the * Mic. 6.8 Prophet informs us He hath shewed thee O Man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love Mercy and to walk humbly with thy God And as the ‖ Tit. 2 11 12. Apostle expresses it The Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all Men teaching us that denying Vngodliness and worldly Lusts we should live soberly righteously and godlily in this present VVorld He requires us to believe in order to Practice and Obedience God has given us but a [f] Pauca credenda multa facienda Cosid Mod. Pac. in epist Praef. few things to be believed as Bp. Forbes was wont well to observe but he has plainly ordered and appointed a great many necessary things to be done by us We must †Rev. 22.14 do his Commandments that we may be blessed and have right to the Tree of Life and enter in by the Gates into the City We mmst * Rom. 2 7. by patient Continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality The Scope and Drift of the following Treatise is to shew you particularly and fully how to redeem the Time of this Life so as to gain a glorious Immortality As for the Matter of it it is useful to instruct you in the Divine Arithmetick to make you wiser than [g] The Philosopher affirms that Man is therefore the wisest of all Creatures because he alone can number and they note this as an essential difference between them that Bruta non numerant Brure Creatures cannot number I am sure this is most true of that Divine Arithmetick which the Psalmist prays for Lord teach us so to number our Days that we may apply our Hearts unto Wisdom Dr. Stoughton's Heavenly Conversat p. 80. brutish Sinners that know not how to number their Days It is apt to engage you upon an early present Industry a diligent speedy Care of your Time and of your Souls and is a Manuduction to the Exercise of a great part of Practical Religion The Style of it is plain familiar and easy to be understood by all which renders the Treatise the more generally useful Some affect a Language so gaudy as is not consistent with the Gravity of Theology Others discourse in so strong a Style that by their lofty Words and Expressions they shoot quite over the Heads and so miss the Hearts of too too many of their Auditors Some paint the Glass till they darken the Window and keep out the Light Seneca professes that he does not approve of any jejune and dry Discourses about the great and weighty matters of Morality for Philosophy says he does not renounce all Wit and Ingeny but he does not allow much labour to be laid out upon Words [h] Non quaerit aeger medicum eloquentem sed sanantem c. non erit quare gratuletur sibi quòd inciderit in medicum etiam disertum hoc enim tale est quale si peritus gubernator et tam formosus est Quid aures meas scalpis quid oblectas aliud agitur urendus secandus abstinendus sum Ad haec adhibit us es curare debes morbum veterem gravem â—ublicum Tantum negotii habes quantum in pestilentia medieus circa verba occupatus es jamdudum gaude si sufficis rebus Sen. ep 75. A sick Man says he does not seek a Physician that is eloquent but that is able to cure his Disease no more than the Passenger regards and enquires whether the skilful Pilot or Governour of a Ship be a
to God p. 24. will make you more serviceable to others and prove most profitable to your selves p. 26. They that redeem the Time of their Youth are likely to redeem their riper Years p. 27. Instances of those that have redeemed their youthful Daies p. 28. 2. The Morning of the Week the first Day of every Week p. 32. Magistrates p. 47. Ministers p. 48. People p. 49. Masters p. 50. and Servants p. 52. Poor and Rich p. 54. should study to redeem this Opportunity and take heed they redeem it not by halves p. 55. Our Observation of the Lord's-Day a good help to the Redeeming of all the six Daies following both as to Temporals and as to Spirituals p. 66. and a means to prepare us to keep an eternal Sabbath in Heaven p. 68. Carefully redeem the Lord's-Day and every Day after shew in thy Life that thou hast redeem'd it p. 72. 3. The Morning of every Day p. 73. That is an Opportunity of giving God the first and best of our Time p. 74. By redeeming the Morning we are likely to redeem the whole Day following p. 76. 4. The Society and Company of the most Religious and Godly in which we have an happy Occasion both of doing and of receiving good p. 78. 5. The special Seasons of practising and performing Particular Duties of getting and encreasing acting and exercising Particular Graces must be observed embraced and improved by us p. 79. CHAP. III. The Grounds and Reasons why we ougth to redeem the Time The special Reason laid down in the Text because the Daies are evil p. 83. What to be understood by evil Daies Daies are said to be evil not inherently but adherently or concomitantly by reason of any sinful or penal Evil that befalleth in them The Evil of the Day is either General or Special General the Shortness and Trouble which does accompany the Time of this Life p. 84. The Particular Evil of the Day is when any special Evil takes place in such a Time The particular Evil of the Apostles Times threefold It stood 1. in dangerous Errours and false Doctrines p. 85. 2. In the vicious and wicked Lives of scandalous Professors of the Gospel p. 94. 3. In sharp and hot Persecutions p. 109. How far these several Evils are to be found in these our Daies p. 86 95 123. Our redeeming of the Time and endeavouring to grow better our selves is the ready way and only means to make the Evil Daies better p. 108. CHAP. IV. Six other Reasons added to that in the Text. We ought to redeem the Time 1. Because our Time is afforded us by God to this very End and Purpose p. 128. 2. Because we have all of us lost much Time already p. 137. 3. Because the Time that remains is very short and uncertain and our Special Opportunities far shorter and more uncertain and the Work we have to do very great p. 141. 4. Because we can neither bring Time back when once it is past unimproved nor any way prolong and lengthen out the Daies of our Lives when Death comes to put an End and Period to them p. 158. 5. Because we shall all be certainly called to an Account for our Time p. 161. 6. Because this Time is all we can redeem and upon this short Moment of Time depends long Eternity p. 165. CHAP. V. The Vse and Application of the Doctrine Ought we to redeem the Time Then 1. Let not the Men of the World think strange that serious and conscientious Christians do not lose their Time as desperately as they do Good Men know the Worth of Time and understand the great Consequences and weighty Concernments of well or ill husbanding of it p. 171. Vse 2. Let us all examine our selves and see whether we have redeem'd our Time or no bewail and bemoan our Loss of Time p. 172. Vse 3. A seasonable sharp Reproof of several Persons who are grosly guilty of misspending their Time 1. A Reproof of those that misspend their Time in Idleness and Lasiness p. 179. Idleness a Sin against our Creation p. 180. against our Redemption p. 182. against our Bodies and Souls against our Neighbour p. 283. and an Inlet to many other Sins p. 186. 2. Such Persons are justly censurable who misspend their Time in excessive Sleep and Drousiness which wastes not only much of our Time but the best of our Time too p. 190. Immoderate sleeping naught on any Day but worst of all upon the Lord's-Day p. 191. 3. Many misspend their Time in impertinent Employments p. 192. 4. Many lose much precious Time in vain Thoughts p. 194. 5. In vain Speeches p. 195. 6. In vain Pleasures p. 205. In Curiosity about Dressing and Trimming the Body p. 206. In making dainty Provision for the Belly p. 207. In using unlawful p. 210. or abusing lawful Recreations either using them unseasonably or else immoderately p. 211. 7. In excessive immoderate worldly Cares p. 219. 8. Some Persons are to be reproved for misspending their Time in Duties 1. By performing them unseasonably p. 224. 2. By doing them formally p. 226. Time lost in Duties by unseasonable Performance two Waies 1. When one Duty thrusts and justles out another and so the Duty is mistimed p. 224. 2. When Duty is perform'd at such a Time when we are most unfit for it p. 225. CHAP. VI. The fourth and last Vse is of Exhortation p. 229. to Magistrates Ministers p. 230. the People in general p. 231. Six quickening Motives to press the Duty of Redemption of Time 1. Consider how notably Jesus Christ redeem'd the Time when he was here in the World 1. He redeemed the Time to save us p. 232. 2. He redeem'd the Time to be an Example to us p. 233. 2. Consider further that as Christ did once redeem the Time to save us So the Devil does daily redeem the Time to destroy us p. 236. 3. Consider how very notably many of the Saints and Servants of God have improved and redeemed their Time p. 241. 4. Consider that it is an Act of Spiritual Wisdom to redeem the Time p. 252. and meer Madness and gross Folly not to redeem the Time p. 253. 5. Consider that if now thou losest and squanderest away thy Time thou wilt at last be forced thy self to condemn thy foolish Negligence and to justify the Care and Diligence of others that were wiser for their own Souls than thy self p. 257. 6. Consider that do what we can to redeem our Time we shall never repent at last of any Care we have had to redeem it but shall certainly blame and find fault with our selves for being so careless of our Time so negligent of good Opportunities as we have been p. 259. Serious considerative Christians do blame themselves for their Loss of Time even in their Life-time p. 260. But they are especially sensible of it and exceedingly ashamed of themselves for it at their Death p. 262. CHAP. VII Direction 1. If ever we would redeem
intimate Communion and Fellowship with the Wicked but rather to reprove their evil Deeds and wicked Works from the seventh to the fifteenth verse And to that end to walk circumspectly and wisely and to express their Circumspection and Christian Wisdom by this excellent good Effect of it the Redeeming of their Time in the 15th and 16th verses See then that ye walk circumspectly not as Fools but as wise redeeming the Time because the Daies are evil The Words of my Text do easily break into these two Parts 1. A Duty redeeming the Time and 2. a special Ground and Reason of the Duty because the Daies are evil I begin with the former It is the Duty of a Christian to redeem the Time For Explication of the Duty I shall shew I. What it is to redeem the Time II. What the Time is that is to be redeemed I. What it is to redeem the Time The Word in the Original imports and signifies several things 1. The greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is commonly rendred redimentes redeeming Now to redeem Time is properly to buy back the Time that is past to regain Time formerly misspent to recover as it were the Jewel of Time that has been formerly lost Time once let slip is indeed physically irrecoverable We can never truly and properly live one Day one Hour of our Lives over again But in a moral Consideration Time is accounted as regained 1. When we seriously consider and [a] Oportebat quidem si fieri posset revivere me ut it a loquar denuò quod malè vixi sed quia hoc non possum faciam recogitando quod reoperando non possum Bernard serm de Cantic Ezechiae Regis sadly think upon our former evil Waies [b] Tempus redimimus quando anteactam vitam quam laserviendo perdidimus flendo reparamm Gregorius lib. 5. Eposit Moral c. 28. weep and wall over our past Sins lament and repent of all our lost and misspent Time and wish with all our Hearts and Souls that we had ordered aright the whole Course of our Conversations and lived and acted alwaies as we ought and by condemning our selves for our old Follies undo as far as in us lies whatever formerly we have ill done And 2. when by double Diligence and extraordinary Care and Endeavour we do that in the remaining Part of our Life which should have been in some good measure done before and which is ordinarily work enough for a Man 's whole Life As a Traveller that has staied too long by the Way when he sinds the Day is far spent and that it is not long to Night he puts on and makes all haste and speed and goes as many Miles in a few Hours as he did before in many Or as a Merchant who has suffered very great Losses doubles his Diligence in his future Traffic and so gets up his Estate in which Sence both the Traveller and Merchant are said to redeem their Time Thus the Christian by his Activity and Industry extraordinary does as it were recover his lost Time he does in effect redeem it To live much in a little Time is in a manner as good as if the very Time past were really lived over again it is in some sence as much as if the same Time were return'd into our hands because the same thing which should have been done in the whole course of our Life is effectually done in some one Part of it better employed than the rest of it Neither is this any Encouragement to a wicked Person to loose and let go the present Time because it may be redeem'd again after a sort for they that thus redeem it must pay fall dear for it and 't is very uncertain whether he that now lets it slip shall ever have the happiness to redeem it hereafter though at the highest Rate that can be That is the first particular it is to buy back the Time that is past and this comes nearest to the Latin Word redimentes redeeming the Time 2. The Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not necessarily suppose a former Possession of what is now bought but properly signifies [c] A Lapide in loc buying only or the parting with one Thing for the purchasing of another The word is properly rendred emercantes and may be well translated buying the Time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then may signify not only to buy back the Time that is past but to buy up the Time that is present and this is rather intended by the Apostle in the Text. Now if we take redeeming here to signify no more than buying or purchasing it speaks then these [d] Bayne in loc two Things 1. Redeeming the Time is the forgoing of any thing that would any way hinder us from taking the Time 2. The making it our own by using and improving it to all possible Advantages as in buying a thing 1. we pay the Price of it then take it into our Possession and Use 1. Redeeming or buying the Time it is the forgoing of any thing that would any way hinder us from taking the Time For if you part with nothing says [e] Perde aliquid ut Deo vaces Ex eo quod perdis pretium est temporis c. August in text Hom. 10. inter 50. St. Austin and yet get something you had not before you either found it or had it given you or got it by Inheritance but when you part with somewhat to purchase somewhat then you buy a Thing Beza upon the Place makes the Redeeming here to be a Metaphor taken from Merchants who very curiously and carefully consider what the several Wares and Commodities be and ever prefer a little Profit before much Pleasure and choose a small Gain before great Delights We daily see that they who use Markets and Fairs will lay aside their Pleasures and Recreations and often lose their sleep and their set meals and deny themselves many Conveniencies for the present that so they may closely attend their Businesses and know and take their Advantages and may not lose any good Bargain but be sure to meet with the best [g] A Lapide in loc Wares and to lay out their Money for the choicest Commodities Thus in a spiritual Sence we should be greedy and covetous Buyers of the Time we should be wise [h] No Man is a better Merchant than he that lays out his Time upon God and his Money upon the Poor Bp. Taylor 's Rule of Hol. Lif. c. 1. p. 3. Merchants let any thing go to gain the Time be willing to bestow our Care Pains [i] To redeem the Time is properly to buy the security of it at the Pate of any Labour and honest Arts Id. ib. cap. 1. sec 1. Rule 20. Labour Diligence which is as it were our Money which we give for the Commodity of an opportunity of doing or receiving good be ready to forgo and part with our Ease or Pleasure our Profit and
Will you make them labour for you six Daies together and will not you cause them to serve God one Day in seven Be at least as much concern'd in Case of neglect of God's Service as you are at any Time when your own Work and Family-business is neglected Do it for God's sake Shew that you love the Honour of God and not only respect your own Commodity and look to your own Advantage Do it for your Servant's sake Make it their Business to do God Service that they may be approved and rewarded by him Yea do it for your own sake Make your Servants God's faithful Servants that so they may prove more faithful to you and that God may bless them in your Service and that your Work may thrive and succeed in their Hands On this Day especially call thy Family thy whole Family to Family-duties prepare them for and hasten them to the publick Ordinances It is reported of [w] M. Clark in his Life Dr. Chaderton the first Master of Emmanuel-Colledg that he was married three and fifty Years and yet in all that Time he never kept any of his Servants from the Church to dress his Meat saying that he desired as much to have his Servants know God as himself And it was the Custome of the Reverend and pious [x] See his Life among Mr. Clark's Lives of ten Em. Div. Dr. Gouge to forbear providing of Suppers the Eve before that Servants might not be occasioned thereby to sit uplate neither would he suffer any [y] Die Dominicâ ut in festis licet etiam ciborum lautiorem apparatum habere quamvit in eis parandis ne majora impediantur servorum animae detrimentum non necessarium iucurrant summopere curandum est Baxter Meth. Th. part 3. c. 14. p. 172. Servant to stay at home for dressing any Meat upon the Lord's-day for the Entertainment of Friends whether they were mean or great few or many Take your Family to Church along with you and when you return home again examine catechize inform instruct them recapitulate the Sermon read the Scripture and good Books to them whet practical profitable necessary saving Truths on them sing Psalms among them and pray most heartily and affectionately with and for them And you that are Servants who have little leisure most of you on other Daies and who live too many of you in such profane and ungodly Families where you hear not so much as one Praier put up to God nor one Line of the Word of God read nor one serious Word spoken of God all the Week long what reason have you carefully to redeem the Lord's-day to redeem it in publick by devoutly attending to the Prayers that are made and the Word that is both read and preacht in the publick Congregation And to redeem it in private by taking all possible Occasions to retire and go aside by your selves to consider in secret the needs of your Souls to examine your Hearts and States to review your Lives and Actions to humble your selves in Confession of Sin and to pour out your Souls in Prayer for Pardon and Grace to read the Bible and some instructive practical Writings of the most judicious experimental Divines apt to inform your Judgments and to work and prevail upon your Affections to set your selves to meditate of God to draw out and engage your Hearts to God rather than to lavish out and throw away those precious Hours in foolish Talk and frothy Discourse or in gadding abroad and walking idly in the Fields and recreating your Bodies rather than your Souls and in thrusting God and turning Religion wholly out of your Minds and Hearts and nourishing your selves in Ignorance of God and Unacquaintance with him and in Encreasing the Atheism of your Hearts and Lives and hardening your own and others Hearts through the Ensnarements of the World and the Deceitfulness of Sin But it may be you will say you are hard wrought all the Week long and you have reason to take your ease and pleasure and to rest and recreate your tired Bodies one Day in seven that so you may endure your Labour and go through all your Work the better I answer that your very Cessation in any measure from your wonted Labour is an ease and relief to your weary Bodies and that the very change of your Work and Occupation from secular servile Employment to spiritual divine Worship and Service and the Diversion of your Minds from worldly Businesses to the Offices and Exercises of Religion if you would but acquaint your selves with them and use your selves to them would be delightful and refreshing to you And the Peace and Quiet Joy and Comfort of a good Conscience in the faithful Discharge of your Duty to God and a tender Care of your immortal Souls would strengthen and hearten you to bear all the Burthen of the hardest Labours of your domestick Ministeries in consideration that your heavenly Father Lord and Master will accept and reward your Works of Piety and bless and prosper the Works of your Hands in the Houshold-businesses and Family-employments incumbent on you and belonging to you Rather break your Sleep to rise the earlier than lose the Opportunities of that Day Or chuse to leave and live out of those Families in the which you are forced to live without God are debarr'd from his Service and can have no Liberty allowed you to mind God and your Souls on a Day that was purposely ordained and appointed for your spiritual Proficiency and Improvement Let the Poor of this World redeem this Day by taking this Opportunity to labour spiritually for the Meat which perisheth not but endureth to everlasting Life and by hearing the Gospel preach'd in this Season to them to become rich in Faith rich in Grace to know and to partake of the Grace and Favour the Love and Kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ who though he was rich yet for our sakes became poor that we through his Poverty might be made rich You that are poor and mean and low in the World and who cannot take so much Time as others to worship and enjoy God on the Week-Daies see that you well improve this Day Now you are released from secular Businesses and common Services and your Bodies rest from their hard Labours be sure that you spiritually busie and holily employ your selves in the Service of God Let me likewise charge them that are rich in this World to redeem this choicest Part of their Time and in it to endeavour to be rich toward God rich in God to lay up for themselves a Treasure in Heaven to obtain the true certain durable Riches which when they fail will never leave them but when they remove will bear them company into the other World And here let me hint to you of the Gentry what [z] Fuller's Church-Hist B. 11. p. 146. Dr. Paul Michlewait once urged and pressed in a Sermon at the Temple that Gentle-folk of all
People are obliged to a strict observation of the Lord's-day The Gentry in comparison rest all the Week long their Cheeks are not moistened with Sweat their Hands are not hardened with hard Labour they are not tired and wearied out with pains-taking They who take their Pleasure and recreate themselves every Day in the Week have nothing to plead for Recreations on the Lord's-day Though for my own part I should be far from indulging a Liberty to any to take such Recreations as hinder the Devotions due to any part of the Lord's-day and are Impediments to the Sanctification of it aright Let all industriously redeem the Lord's-day And take we heed we redeem it not by halves but let 's religiously observe and covetously redeem the whole Lord's-day We are bound in justice to God to do it because God has set a Day not a Piece of a Day apart for himself and requires this Portion and Tribute of Time to be paied to him who has graciously given us all our Time We should be as much yea more afraid to steal God's Time than Mens Goods Do not only observe the former Part of the Day repairing to the Church or Chappel in the Morning but commonly and customarily absenting your selves and growing quite weary of any such Duty in the After-noon for God has allotted and appointed a seventh Part of our Time for his own Worship and Service but if you keep only one half of the lord's-Lord's-day you give God but a fourteenth Part of your Time Nay of one Day in seven I fear too many spare him no more than that Time only which their Morning-Attendance takes up in publick on the lord's-Lord's-day And here I appeal to their own Reason whether it be a meet and fit Thing that rational Persons created by God and redeemed by his Son should afford to the Worship and Service of God and Christ and the great concerns of their immortal Souls but two Hours at most of the whole Lord's-day and it may be no more of the whole Week and shall spend those Hours in a formal customary cold and heartless Worship of an infinitely holy and just Deity the tremendous impartial Judg of Angels and Men. Grudg not to give God one whole Day in seven who largely and liberally grants and allows six whole Daies in seven to you and who designs a greater Benefit and Advantage to you by your Observation of this one Day than possibly can accrue to you by the carefullest and painfullest worldly Improvement of all the rest O believe and consider that the taking out of this one Day and setting it apart for such an excellent Service and high Employment as you are called to in it is certainly the greatest Gift of all How can you be loth to spend one Day in seven in Familiarity with Heaven in communion with your Maker and Fellowship with your Saviour Let us all call the Christian Sabbath the Lord's-day a Delight take as much Contentment and Satisfaction in doing on this Day the Exercises of Religion as Men usually take in doing the Works of their ordinary Calling take as much Pleasure in God's Service as others take in Sin and Vanity Let us spend the Lord's-day as becomes those who profess that they love God better and delight in him more than in any Thing in the World Spend it as they that are glad of so honourable and profitable and pleasurable an Employment as the publick and private Worshiping of God Let us go to the House of God with Joy Let the Church on the Lord's-day be a Banquetting-house and not a Prison to us Do but bring your selves to spend the Lord's-day with Delight and then you will keep it to the End of it The Jews were bound to keep a whole Day holy in a grateful Memory of the lesser Benefits of the Creation and their Deliverance out of Aegypt And shall not we solemnly observe the whole Lord's-day in a thankful Remembrance of greater Blessings not only of the Goodness of God in our Creation but of his Grace and Mercy in our Redemption and Deliverance from Hell and Death eternal We have greater Engagements to do it than they not only greater Motives but greater [a] See Mr. Cawdrey's Sabbathum redivivum p. 563 564. Means too We have greater Variety of publick Exercises on the Lord's-day than they had on their Sabbath We have more Scripture to reade in private than they had We have the Old and New Testament many Expositors upon them many good Practical Theological Tractates written We have more Knowledg afforded us than they had more Grace offer'd us to do the Duties incumbent on us Now we that have more Means and Helps how can we offer to put God off with less Duty and smaller Service and shorter Performance Nay the very Heathens guided by the Light of Nature held it reasonable that the Daies consecrated to their Gods should be devoutly and totally observed with Rest and Sanctity [b] Saturn l. 1. c. 7. Macrobius tells us that on their holy Daies the People came together to spend the whole Day in learning Fables to be conferred upon and will you that call your selves Christians refuse to come together on the Lord's-day to spend one Hour in the Morning another in the After-noon in learning the Mysteries of the Gospel and in receiving saving Instructions out of the Word of God You that give your Bodies two Meals every Day will you feed your Souls but once on the Lord's-day Give me leave to deal with you in the winning Words of that sweet Singer of our Israel Speaking of the Lord's-day saies he [a] Church-porch p. 14. Twice on the Day his due in understood For all the Week thy Food so oft he gave thee Thy cheer is mended bate not of the Food Because 't is better and perhaps may save thee Thwart not th' Almighty God O be not cross Fast when thou wilt but then 't is gain not loss Consider that your own and your Families spiritual Necessities do require and call for a most strict Observation of the whole Lord's-day and a faithful Improvement of all the Helps and Advantages of it The Works of your Callings and your worldly Occasions and Employments do in a manner take up six Daies of the Week and you have but one whole Day in seven to provide for the Needs of your immortal Souls Now the Necessities of your Souls are far greater than those of your Bodies your spiritual eternal Estate is of nearer and higher Concern than your outward and temporal Estate And will you not labour then to improve every Hour and endeavour to redeem every Minute of this one Day Do but seriously think with your selves how much work you have to do in this one Day and then tell me whether in reason and Prudence you can spare any Part of it yea or no. What have you to do for God for your selves What for your Families for your Children and Servants How
Text because the Daies are evil What to be understood by evil Daies Daies are said to be evil not inherently but adherently or concomitantly by reason of any sinful or penal Evil that befalleth in them The Evil of the Day is either General or Special General the Shortness and Trouble which does accompany the Time of this Life The Particular Evil of the Day is when any special Evil takes place in such a Time The particular Evil of the Apostles Times three-fold It stood 1. in dangerous Errours and false Doctrines 2. In the vicious and wicked Lives of scandalous Professors of the Gospel 3. In sharp and hot Persecutions How far these several Evils are to be found in these our Daies Our redeeming of the Time and endeavouring to grow better our selves is the ready way and only means to make the Evil Daies better The Special Reason laid down in the Text. I Come now to the Grounds and Reasons of this Duty There is a special Reason laid down in the Text. I shall first fully speak to that and then I shall add some others to it The Apostle here presseth Christians to redeem the Time with this Reason or Argument because the Daies are evil Now what is here to be understood by evil Daies Daies are said to be good or evil saies [a] Bayne in loc Mr. Bayne according to that which befalleth in them As a good Time when matter of Commodity or Merriment is in hand and an evil Time when the contrary The Hebrews call those Daies evil which are full of Troubles and Dissiculties saies [b] Beza in loc Beza Daies are not morally evil They are said to be evil not inherently but adherently or concomitantly by reason of any moral and sinful or penal and troublesome Evil that prevails and takes place within the compass of them Now the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Evil of the Day as Christ * Matth. 6.34 calls it is either General or Special The General Evil of Daies or Times 1. The General Evil is the Shortness [c] Omnia ad quae gemimus quae expavescimus tributa vitae sunt Sen Ep. 96. Trouble and Misery which does accompany the Time of this Life Of this Jacob speaks †Gen. 47 9 Few and evil have the Days of the Years of my Life been In this sence saies [d] Dies malos duae res faciunt miseria hominum malitia c. Istos putros qui nascuntur interrogemus quare à ploratu incipiant qui ridere possunt Nascitur statim plorat post nescâ—o quet dies ridet Quando plorabat nascens propheta suae calamitatis erat Lachrymae enim testes sunt miseriae Nondum loquitur jam prophetat in labore se futurum in timore August in Text. Hom. 10. inter 50. St. Austin the Daies were ever evil since Adam Fall because Mankind has been subject to Misery ever since Let us ask the Children newly born saies he why they begin with weeping that are capable of laughing The Child is born and cries immediately he laughs not till I know not how many Daies after By crying as soon as it came into the World it became the Prophet of its own Calamity Its Tears are the Witnesses of its Misery Before it is able to speak a Word it foretells the manifold Labours and Sorrows it is born to go through in this World We may likewise reckon into the general Evil of Times and Daies that [e] Dies mali unt id est tempus hujus vitae plenum est tentationibus amp laqueis peccatorum Estius in loc common Wickedness which is to be found in the World in all Ages of the World No Time or Age but may be denominated evil from the [f] Mali sunt non à temporis vitio sed hominum qui in tempore vivunt Id. ib Non suá naturá sed propter hominum malitiam quae in iliis grassatur Sunt igitur mali i. e. pericâ—lorum ab impits hominibus plem Zanch. in loc evil Men and evil Manners thereof 2. The particular Evil of the Day is when any special Evil takes place in such a Time And thus we must understand the evil Daies in the Text of some Particular Evil that reigned in them because it is spoken with an Eminency of those Times Now the Evil of those Times was three-fold There was the Evil of Errour the Evil of Loosness of Life and Manners and lastly the Evil of Persecution The first Particular Evil of the Apostles Daics and ours 1. The Evil of those Times stood in the Errours and salse Doctrines which were vented and broached in the Church and began to spread like a Gangrene That which made those Daies Evil was the great Danger from Seducers by reason of their * Eâ—h 4.14 slight and cunning Craftiness whereby they lay in wait to deceive Lay in wait as a Thief to rob or as a Fowler to take silly Birds and †2 Pet. 2.3 made Merchandise of People with feigned Words And by good Words and fair Speeches by plausible Pretences and Discourses deceived the Hearts of the ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 16.18 Simple of easy and seducible Persons That which made those Daies evil was those (*) 2 Pet. 2.1 damnable Heresies slily brought in by false Teachers and the (†) 2 Pet. 3.17 Errour of the Wicked as it is called by St. Peter Such Errour in Judgment as disposed Men to Wickedness in their Conversations Now this Evil of Errour is to be found in ours as well as in the Apostles Daies The Times we live in are Times of Seduction erroneous Times What a strong Head has Atheism gotten in this our Land in these our Daies God governs the World now by Wisdom which might sufficiently convince Men of his Deity But because there are now no more visible sensible Appearances of his Power in the World in the immediate exemplary Punishment of Sinners therefore they fear and acknowledg him no more And how doth Atheism in Life and Affection lead too too many to a radicated Atheism in Judgment and Opinion How many of the Gentry of this Nation are miserably tainted and poisoned with it So that our Nation comes far short of the State and Condition of the Heathen Rome which Cicero thus describes [g] Pietate ac Religione atque hâc unâ Sapientiâ quod Deorum immortalium numine omnia regi gubernarique perspeximus omnes gentes nationésque superavimus In Piety and Religion and in this one piece of Wisdom that we have known and acknowledged that all Things are ruled and governed by the Power of the immortal Gods we have excelled all Nations and People in the World How far are we this Day from deserving such a Character as this When Atheism Socinianism Arminianism Antinomianism Quakerism Popery have broke in like a Floud when Errours and Heresies have made such an Inrode upon us and
and make a mock at Sin and hear the Relation of another's Wickedness with an inward Tickling and secret Delight As if the Reproach and Dishonour of God were a very good jest and the eternal Damnation of immortal Souls were a Thing fit to make sport with 4. Once more Let it make our very Hearts ake to take notice-of some who instead of vexing themselves with the unlawful ungodly Deeds of the Wicked do daily vex and afflict themselves with the lawful and godly Deeds of the Righteous Who miserably trouble and torment themselves with the Goodness and Holiness and not with the Vileness and Wickedness of others Who storm at others Strictness and fret and fume at others Forwardness in the Way of Holiness and are mad at heart that any that live among them refuse to run with them into all Excess of Riot To whom the very Presence and Company of a good Man is oftentimes as offensive and troublesome as would be the visible Appearance of the Devil among them Who heartily vex to hear at any Time any serious savoury good Discourse from them and are tormented before their Time by the gracious Lives and good Conversations of serious conscientious Christians 5. And after all Let it be no small trouble and grief to us to find so few troubling themselves with such Matters as these That Men too generally should only regard themselves and mind their own Bags and Backs and Bellies and Bodies and feel nothing but that which touches their outward Estates and nearly concerns their worldly Interests but wholly neglect and disregard the Cause and Interest of God and Goodness in the World That so many so patiently can see and hear and bear any open and common Wickedness and if they can be respected themselves matter it not much tho' God be dishonoured So they themselves be pleased care little or nothing though God be displeased and if they themselves can but get gain let God and Religion lose what they will for them That Men should count it a piece of over-much Righteousness to take any notice of others Faults and think it enough to cry God mercy for their own Sins without afflicting and tormenting themselves with the Sins of others That Magistrates should be so little sensible of daily Affronts done to God That Ministers should see their Flocks running on to Destruction and have no more Bowels of Compassion That Masters of Families should not at all lay to heart their Servants Offences and frequent Trespasses against their heavenly Lord and Master That Parents Hearts should even ake again if any little Hurt or Illness come to their Children's Bodies and their Bowels never yearn at all though mischief and Misery through Sin and Iniquity fall upon their Souls to all Eternity That Men should kindly do their Neighbours any friendly Offices in Civil Matters relieve them if in Want visit them if they be sick pull out their Ox or Ass if fallen into the Ditch and if their House be on Fire presently run and help to quench it and yet-never be affected with the sad and lamentable shiritual Estate of their Neighbours That Men should see and suffer those about them to make Shipwrack of a good Conscience to lose their Peace lose Heaven lose their God lose their Souls to be just falling into Hell-fire to grow violently sick of the Plague of the Heart to die in their Sins before their Eyes and perish in their Iniquities before their Faces without fetching one Sigh or dropping one Tear for them or speaking one Word to them or lending a seasonable Hand to help them How ought they to be ashamed that can be passionatly affected in other Matters and yet have no Passion no Trouble no Tears for the common and dangerous Sins of the Times and Places in which they live and to which they belong Let us be affected with their Want of Affection upon so great and urgent an Occasion Are the Daies evil in respect of evil Men and their evil Manners let us be troubled at the Evil of them That 's the first 2. Are the Daies thus evil Let us then see that we be not made worse by them Let 's * Eph. 51.11 have no Fellowship with the unfruitful Works of darkness as the Apostle adviseth †Philip. 2 15. Let 's be blanieless and hurmless the Sons of God without Rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation as the same Apostle exhorteth Where you see the Apostle argues from the ill Quality and bad Condition of those among whom they conversed for as [p] Erant enim eo tempore mores Judaeorum Gentium non conversarum ad Christum corruptissimi Grotius in loc Grotius observes the Lives and Manners both of the Jews and unconverted Gentiles were at that Time exceeding corrupt And here the Argument holds these two Waies 1. It concern'd the Philippians to be sincere and upright [q] Quod agerent inter maloi qui pro animi sui pravitate etiam bene facta criminarentur Estius in loc because they lived with such wicked Persons who were ready to slander that which was good and therefore would be sure to aggravate that which was bad So Estius And this same Duty greatly concerns our selves this Day for the same reason 2. It behoves us to be careful of our Conversation in the midst of a wicked and adulterous a crooked and perverse Generation [r] Vt nihil ab illis malitioe pravit at is nobis affricars sinamus Zanchius in loc that we our selves be not corrupted and depraved with the evil Manners of those among whom we live So Zanchy upon the Place Let 's be careful to avoid all Occasions of Sin and to resist all Temptations to tlie Sins which reign and abound in the Times and Places wherein we live Though we dwell among the Wicked let 's not communicate in their Sin nor give any countenance to their Wickedness But beg and use God's Grace and Help implore and employ the divine Strength for the overcoming and conquering the Temptations both of Men and Devils And heartily bless God that we are not left and forsaken of God and given up to the reigning Sins and Vices of the Times Let 's not be conformed to this World to the evil Customs and vicious Manners that generally prevail and take place in it nor follow a multitude to do evil If never so many should stab themselves at their very Hearts or drown themselves in the Thames or sore their Houses with their own Hands to consume and destroy themselves would this induce any wise Man to do the like Why then should any offer to * 1 Tim. 6.9 drown themselves in destruction and perdition to throw themselves into Hell-fire and to cast away their Souls for ever because many others do so When Vice grows into Fashion Singularity is a Vertue When Sanctity is counted Singularity happy is he that goeth in a Manner alone and walks
their publick prophane Plaies and often uttering very false and proud and hard Words against them And according as they meet with Occasion and find any Opportunity how do they persecute with the Hand * Mich 7.3 Do evil with both Hands earnestly How ready are their Hearts to rise against them and their Hands to be lifted up to strike at them and to pull them down to the very Ground that so they may be trampled upon and troden under Foot Yea how do they persecute them by their Lives continually vexing their pious Souls with their unlawful Deeds grieving and wounding paining and piercing their very Hearts The wilful Wickedness of the bold and daring Sinners of the Times in their open dishonouring God and Religion is a cruel Torment to serious Souls and makes their Lives a wearisome pressing Burthen to them They that live godly do suffer daily the sad Persecution of wicked Mens offensive afflictive Lives and Manners What a Persecution is this to force good Men to cry out with David †Psal 120.5 Wo is me that I sojourn in Mesech that I dwell in the Tents of Kedar to cause ‖ Psal 119.136 Rivers of Waters to run down their Eyes as they did from David's because Men keep not God's Law Now since we live in such evil Daies in which there is such inveterate Enmity against the Practise of Piety and such a b Omne tempus Clodios non omne Catones feret Seneca Ep. 97. malignant persecuting Spirit reigning and raging in the Breasts of the Wicked against the Good let us keep a (*) Amos 5.13 prudent Silence in an evil Time Let us take care that we do not unnecessarily [c] Quia dies mali sunt h. e. quia periculosa sunt tempora bonis adversa ut cauè hî sit agendum ne crabrones quod dicitur urites Crellii Ethica Christiana pag. 32. provoke and exasperate them for we know not what their Malice may grow to nor give them any just Occasion of furious vexatious Opposition Let us see that we do not * 1 Pet. 4.15 suffer as Evil-doers from them nor as rash and heady imprudent and unwary Persons In evil Daies Evil will come soon enough upon us and we have no reason to accelerate and hasten our own Suffering Let 's labour therrfore by all discreet and wise direct and innocent Means to keep our selves out of their Hands to prevent their taking Advantage against us and endeavour to solace our selves in God and to preserve the Comforts of a good Conscience To be patient under and to glory in our Sufferings from them To consider with our selves that it is far better to be troubled by the Wicked than to be Troublers of the Good and to be thankful and joyful that we are not guilty of their Wickedness nor deserve such Usages at their Hands And let us study and endeavour to render †Rom. 12.17 21. 1 Thess 5.15 not Evil for Evil but still to return good for evil to the very Worst and Wickedest of them And whatever Measure we receive from them let us not be disheartned and discouraged and dish'd out of Countenance by them nor suffer our selves to give Way to their Wickedness to be wearied out of our Holiness to be laughed and jeered and sconed out of our Religion but let 's run the Race that is set before us though all the Dogs in the Street bark at us Let us with Zeal and Courage bear up against them and bear Witness against them and if we cannot win and gain them at least shame and silence them judg and condemn them by an holy unblameable exemplary Life as Noah * Eeb. 11.7 condemned the Old World Like Stars let us appear most clear and bright in the sharpest and coldest Night And let the Vexation we meet with from the Wicked here drive us the oftner to God to make our Complaint and Moan to him and cause us to long the more earnestly for Heaven where we shall be for ever out of the Reach of Satan and all his Instruments and out of all Danger of any Enemy Persecutor or bad Neighbour And so we have fully considered the Reason in the Text the Force of which even as to our selves lies plainly thus The Daies are such wherein yeare in Danger of Infection by the wicked Errours and damnable Heresies of the Times In Danger of Corruption by the common Sins and reigning Vices of the Times and in Danger of Persecution by the injurious Carriages and grievous wicked Lives of the profligate and desperate Sinners of the Times and therefore redeem the Time because the Daies are evil in these respects These various Evils must not make us give place to Unfruitfulness but make us much more careful and watchful to take every good Occasion [d] See Mr. Bayne on the Text. If an Harvest-Day be cloudy and windy or prove catching Weather as well call it Men will not therefore keep in but work more diligently and warily Good Opportunities in evil Times are [e] Qusa dies mali sunt hoc est quia tempus ab hominibus plerumque malis rebus transigitur it aut nonfacile sese opportunitas offerat eos arguends officii commonefaciendi Crell Eth. Christ p. 31. few and scare The more rare these Commodities grow the more we should engross them And as some kinds of good Opportunities are hard to come by so not like to abide and continue long with us in evil Times and therefore while the Occasion lasteth we should strive to make the utmost Advantage and Improvement of it CHAP. IV. Six other Reasons added to that in the Text. We ought to redeem the Time 1. Because our Time is afforded us by God to this very End and Purpose 2. Because we have all of us lost much Time already 3. Because the Time that remains is very short and uncertain and our Special Opportunities far shorter and more uncertain and the Work we have to do very great 4. Because we can neither bring Time back when once it is past unimproved nor any way prolong and lengthen out the Daies of our Lives when Death comes to put an End and Period to them 5. Because we shall all be certainly called to an Account for our Time 6. Because this Time is all we can redeem and upon this short Moment of Time depends long Eternity BUt besides the Reason in the Text I shall farther shew you that we ought to redeem the Time upon a six-fold Account The first Additional Reason We must redeem the Time because our Time is afforded us by God to this very End and Purpose that we should improve and apply it to rational and religious Vses [a] Ego non quaeram quae sint initia universorum quis rerum formator quis sit artisex hujus munde quâ ratione tanta magnitudo in legem ordinem venerit unde lux tanta fundatur Ego nesciam
to be hid in a Napkin much less to be spent and wasted in riotous Living And the longer Time God gives us the more Daies and Weeks and Months and Years and Seasons and Opportunities he affords us to work the Work of God to abound in the Work of the Lord to repent of our Sins to work out our own Salvation to do good to others to be Helpers of their Faith and Furtherers of their Salvation the more Advantages he affords us to these Purposes the greater Improvement he looks for from us And we find him complaining for want of it * Rev. 2.21 Christ says concerning Jezebel I gave her [r] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch de his qui ser ò puniuntur à Numine Spacé to repent of her Fornication and she repented not And he speaks to Jerusalem even weeping †Luke 19.42 If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy Day the Things which belong unto thy Peace And in the Parable he that planted the Fig-tree in his Vine-yard complain'd ‖ Luke 13.7 Behold these three Years I come seeking Fruit on this Fig-tree and find none That is the first Reason We must redeem the Time and whatever it cost us use and improve it to all possible Advantages to our selves and others because our Time and Opportunities are afforded us by God to this very End and Purpose The second Additional Reason We should carefully and faithfully redeem the Time because we have all of us [a] Animus si unquam illi respirare recedere in se vacaverit ò quà m sibi ipse verum tortus à se fatebitur ac dicet Quidquid feci adhud infectum isse mallem quidquid dixt cùm recogito mutis invideo quidquid optavi inimicorum execrationem puto quidquid timui dti toni quantò leviù fuit quà m quod concupivi Cum multis inimiciuias gessi in gratiam ex odio si modo ulla inter malos gratia est redii mihi ipss nondum amicussum Sen. de vit beat cap. 2. lost much Time already It is to be feared that some of us have lost our whole Time ever since we came into the World have stood idle all the Day long hitherto have done nothing at all for God's Glory or for the Salvation of our own and others Souls have made no riddance at all of our Work but only made our selves more Work to do There are some I fear so far from having finished their Work that they know not as yet what Work they have to do that are as yet grosly ignorant of the Terms and Conditions of the New Covenant And of those that have known and understood them how few have considered and consented to them sincerely kept and faithfully perform's them How many among us have liv'd in practical Atheism in habitual Non-atendance upon God and in a gross Neglect of their future Welfare and eternal Good liv'd without any Sence and Taste and Feeling of God or of divine Things lived a very brutish sensual flesh-pleasing Life And such of us as have not quite lost our Time yet how much of it have we wasted how considerable a Part of it have we fool'd and trifled away Might we not have minded God and Religion a State of Immortality and a glorious Eternity more than we have done How little Knowledg have we got of God how sinall Acquaintance with him how little Communion and Fellowship have we enjoyed with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ through the blessed Spirit What Degrees of Affection do we still retain to the Things of the World which we might have become more mortified to and weaned from How too too frequently predominant and masterly are our Senses how strong and impetuous are our Passions how violent and unruly are our Lusts and Corruptions How short and narrow how flat and low how weak and impotent is our Reason which might have been heightned and improved widened and enlarged and grown more strong and masculine sober and solid How insirm and infantile is our Faith how feeble our Graces how mean our Experiences how small our Comforts Let 's reflect back a little and seriously consider what Opportunities we have let slip what Advantages we have lost of doing and receiving good in the World Might not we have relieved the Poor and Christ in the Poor and visited the Sick and Christ in the Sick oftener than we have done Might we not have been the happy Instruments of much more good in the Parishes and Places where we have lived in composing Differences and making Peace among our Neighbours in warning the unruly in awakening convincing converting recovering the Ungodly Might we not have been as the Angels to Lot hastening some out of Sodom and have saved some with Fear pulling them out of the Fire Might we not have shined as Lights as Torches as Stars in the World Might we not have been more useful and serviceable more exemplary and imitable in our Lives more conscientious in our Dealings more faithful in our Relations more strict and holy in our Families than we have been How well might we have spared Time to have instructed our Families to have catechised our Children and Servants to have admonished and exhorted one another more frequently than we have done How many precious Hours have idly slipt away from us and run waste which might have been well bestowed in reading Hearing Prayer Confession Meditation Self-examination holy Society and Christian Communion Yea many a Time when the holy Spirit of God has secretly mov'd and prompted us to perform a particular Duty When we have had sometimes though in in a more tacite Way such an hint as that of [b] Oborta est procella ingens ferens ingentem imbrem lachrymarum flebam amarissim â contritione cordis mei ecce audio vocem de vicina domo cum cantic dicentis crebro repetent is quasi pueri an puellae nescio Tolle lege tolle lege Staâ—inque mutato vultu intentissimus cogitari eoepi utrumnam solerent pueri in aliquo genere ludendi cantare tale aliquid nec occurrebat omnino audivisse me uspiam Depressoque imâ—etu lachrymarum surrexi nihil aliud interpretans nisi divinitus mihi juberi ut apertrem codicem legerem quod primum capitulum invenissem Aug. Consel l. 8. c. 12. §. 1 2 3. St. Austin's was Tolle lege tolle lege take up the Bible and read in it get into thy Closet and pray to thy Father in secret we have sinfully diverted and sought an Occasion and studied an Excuse to turn off from it The more we have hitherto neglected golden Opportunities the better let us now improve them Have we been idle formerly why now let 's be so much the more busily employed Have we loiter'd away a great Part of the Day in the Lord's Vineyard let us now work so much the harder the remaining Part of the Day Have we
you go into a Potter's Shop and see a great Company of earthen Pots and should ask the Owner which of these would break first he would tell you Not that which was first made but that which first got a Fall 'T is common for them to go first to the Winding-sheet who came last from the Womb. We are earthen Vassels brittle Ware and may quickly get a Knock or Fall and crack and break How many Persons have lost their Lives by very strange and sad Accidents Some and great ones too have fallen suddainly by an Ehud's Dagger a Ravilliack or Felton's Knife A poisoned Torch did serve to light the Cardinal of Lorrain to his long home Fabius surnamed the Painter as [k] Bp. Taylor in his great Exemplar p. 557 558. See also Dr. Patrick's Div. Arithm. p. 26 27. a learned Bishop has with variety remarked out of History was choaked with an Hair in a Mess of Milk Adrian the fourth with a Flie Anacreon with a Raisin Drusus Pompeius with a Pear Casimir the second King of Polonia with a little Draught of Wine Tarquinius Priscus with a Fish-bone Lucia the Sister of Aurelius the Emperour playing with her little Son was wounded in her Breast with a Needle and died The great Lawyer Baldus playing with a little Dog was bitten upon the Lip instantly grew mad and perished So far that great and excellent Author A little Bruise on the Toe is said to have killed Aemilius Lepidus I have heard of several that have died by the cutting of a Corn upon their Toe a Place remote from the Heart and have read of a Person who after sixteen Years Travel and enduring much Hardness abroad returning home died of an Hurt in his Thumb [i] Mr. Edward Terry Mr. of Arts and Student of Christ's-Church in Oxford in his Voyage to the Eust-Indies Anno Christi 1615 ells us of a Nobleman in the great Mogul's Court who fitting in Dalliance with one of his Women had an Hair pulled by her from his Breast This little Wound made by that small and unexpected Instrument of Death presently festred and turning into an incurable Cancer killed him God needs no bigger a Lance than an Hair to kill an Atheist as this dying Lord acknowledged Purchas Pilgrims vol. 2. The plucking but a single Hair off the Breast of a Nobleman in the Great Mogul's Court caused an incurable Cancer in his Flesh and proved as mortal as the tearing out his very Heart [k] See Instances in the Gr. Exemplar p. 558. How many Persons have died in the midst of Sport and Merriment excessive Laughter and too great a Joy and what a Number have been found unexpectedly and suddenly dead in their Beds We are obnoxious to numerous perilous Diseases subject to various violent Passions and exposed to a thousand Casualties and Contingencies any one of which may quickly be the Death of us We are in Danger of perishing by falling into the Water or into the Fire by the firing or Fall of some Part of an House by the Fall of a Coach the Fall of an Horse or a Fall off an Horse We know not how soon a Vein may break and let out our Blood and Life How soon an Ague may shake us to Death as [l] 27. Jan. 1402. Knolles's Hist of the Turks p. 235. it did the great Tamerlane in the midst of his great Hopes and greatest Power when he was preparing for the utter rooting out of the Othoman Family and the Conquest and Overthrow of the Greek Empire We know not how soon a Dropsie may drown us how soon a Fever may burn us up how soon a Quincy may stop our Breath how soon an Apoplexy may bereave us of our Senses and of our Lives how soon we may groan under deadly Gripes how soon the Pestilence may smite us and cleave unto us till it has quite consumed us Every Pore in our Bodies is a Door at which Death may enter in If we had as many Hands as Hairs on our Heads they would not be able to stop up all those Passages at which Death may creep in unawares We know not but that some Disease is now breeding in our Bodies which will shortly make an End of us Blessed be God we are now free from Pain but ere long we may be even distracted with it To day we are well and in good Health but to morrow we may be sick heart-sick sick unto Death and the next Day laid in our Coffins and lodged in our Graves Many are gone before us who were likely enough to ontlive us and who knows but our turn may be the very next This Night mine thy Soul may be requied of us and to morrow Morning the Bell may give notice of our Death We are apt to imagine that we may continue in the World till we have effected all we design and yet we have no Promise of God's nothing but our own Presumption to secure us of longer Life And to be sure the Greatness and Multitude of our Sins give us Cause to fear the Fewness of our Daies and Shortness of our Lives to fear lest every Sickness should prove our Death and lest our Death should prove our Damnation If we consider how little need God has of us how many better than our selves go before us how useless and worthless how unprofitable and unserviceable we are in the World what an hgih Provocation our heinous Sins are unto God's infinite Holiness and Justice and how many Waies there are of snatching us away and removing us hence we cannot but confess that it is a thousand to one if ever we reach to an old Age. You that are old indeed have reason to conclude that your Time is sufficiently short your Pulse can beat comparatively but a few Strokes more your Sun draws low is almost set your Glass is almost run your Life is almost done you have one Foot in the Grave already you stand upon the Brink of Eternity and tread upon the borders of another World And will you be guilty of such prodigious inconsideracy still [m] San. de brev vit cap. 4. velut ex pleno abundanti perdere when you have but a few Daies or Hours remaining to spend as extravagantly as if you had all your Years before you You that are weak and infirm sickly and crasie have reason to reckon your Time uncertain and not to flatter your selves and say that threatned Folk live long You that are more eminently useful and holy zealous and forward in the Profession and Practice Maintenance and Defence of the Christian and Reformed Religion your very Religion which will save your Souls may possibly cause you to lose your Lives For your Activity in your Duty to God and your Country you may be [n] Preached on the lod's-Lod's-Day after the Discovery of the Murder of Sr. Edwund Berry Godfrey strangled or stabbed by the barbarous Hands of the butcherly bloody Papists But especially you that are
wilfully wicked and impenitent have reason to determine that you have not long to live How can you hope that God should put another Talent and trust a new Stock of time in the Hands of such Prodigals as you have been That he should give such Rebels longer Time to affront and dishonour him That he should suffer you to live who know not how to live and care not how you live who do not understand or consider for what it was you came into the World That he should allow you one Day more who never yet knew how to spend and improve any one Day as ye ought You have Ground enough to expect that the continuing and lengthening out of your Sins will extremely diminish and lessen curtail and shorten your Daies You have reason to fear every Hour the Loss of your Lives and of all Possibility of Repentance that you shall be removed and room made for worthier Persons to stand up in the Places which you so unprofitably and perniciously take up in the World Our Time is short and therefore let us lay present hold upon that small Remnant of [o] Cum celeritate temporis utendi velocitate certandum est velut ex torrente rapido nec semper casuro cito hauriendum est Sen. de brev vit cap. 9. hasty Time which posteth away whether we work or play Let 's take with us Words and say to God with the devout Herbert [p] Repentance O let thy Height of Mercy then Compassionate short-breathed Men. Oh! gently treat With thy quick Flow'r thy moment any Bloom Whose Life still pressing Is one undressing A steady aiming at a Tomb. Let 's daily prepare to die by earnest importunate Pleading with God for Pardon of Sin and Sanctification and Sence of Pardon and of our fitness for Heaven and Happiness that so we may certainly die safely and comfortably And by the Help of God let 's double our Diligence and Activity and endeavour to do a great deal of Work in a little Time You know Nature at the Approach of Death usually acts a double Part and puts forth all its Strength Bells when about ceasing strike thicker than before A Stone the nearer it comes to its Center the faster it moves When Night draws on the Traveller mends his Pace Considering we have but a few Daies let 's labour to live them all to lose none of them So to lead our Life that we may be able to enjoy our past Life by making sweet and comfortable Reflections upon it which is in a manner to [p] Ampliat aetatis spatium sibi vir bonus hoc est Vivere bis vitá posse priore frui Epigrammatograph Latin enlarge our Age and after a Sort to live twice [q] Nemo quà m bene vivat sed quam diu curat cùm omnibus possit contingere ut bene vivant ut diu nulli Sen. ep 22. in fine Quomodo fabula sic vita non quà m diu sed quà m bene acta sit refert Id. ep 77. Discendum quà m bene vivas refrie non quà m diu Id. ep 101. We have but a little while to live let us therefore study and strive to live well Our Life is just like a Comedy saies Seneca it matters not so much how long as how well it is acted [r] Let us account that the oldest Life which is most holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch conjol ad Apollon A long Life is not the best but a good Life As we do not commend saith he him that hath playâ—d a great while on an Instrument or made a long Oration but him that hath played and spoken well and as we account those Creatures best that give us most profit in a short Time and every where we see maturity preferred before length of Age so it ought to be among our selves They are the worthiest Persons and have lived longest in the World who have brought the greatest Benefit unto it and made the greatest Advantage of their Time to the Service of God and of Men. Let our Conscience therefore be the Ephemeris or Diary of our Life Let us not reckon by the Almanack but by the Book of God how much we live And let us account that he who lives Godly lives long and that other Men live not at all D. Patrick's Div. Arithm. p. 34 35. He lives long that lives well who in a few Years is very useful and serviceable unto God and geatly profitable and beneficial to the World The Author of the Book of Wisdom says concerning Enoch who was the shortest liv'd of the Patriarchs before the Flood but an eminent Pattern of Piety and a rare Exemplar of walking with God that he being perfected or consummated in a short Time fulfilled a long Time Chap. 4. Vers 13. For as the same Author a little before does well express it Vers 8 9. Honourable Age is not that which standeth in length of Time nor that which is measured by Number of Years But Wisdom is the gray Hair unto Men and an unspotted Life is old Age. Lucilius having in an Epistle to Seneca sadly lamented the immature untimely Death of Metronactes the Philosopher who might and in his Conceit ought to have lived longer The grave Moralist seasonably checks his causeless unjust Complaint of [s] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apud Poctas Minor p. 513. Providence and takes Occasion in his Answer to discourse usefully and excellently in this manner [t] Octoginta annis vixit nisi fortè sic vixisse eum dicis quomodo dicuntur arbores vivere Quemadmodum in minorâ— corporis habitu potest homo esse perfect us sic in mâ—nore temporis modo potest esse vita perfecta Qâ—aeris quod sit amplissimum vitae spatium Vsque adsapientiam vivere qui adâ—â—â—m pervenit attigit non longissimum sinem sed maximum Nem tam multis vixit annis quà m potuit Et paucorum versuum liber est quidem laudandus atque utilis Sâ—n. ep 93. Multis ille bonis slebilis occidit Horat. carm l. 1 Od. 14. de morte Quintilii Our Care should be saies he not to live long but to live enough Life is long if it be full What good do eighty Years do him that spends them all idly such a Person did not live but only linger in Life nor did he die late but was a long Time dead But you make your moan that he died young and green yet he performed the Offices of a good Citizen a good Friend a good Son he was deficient in no part that properly belonged to him Though his Age was imperfect his Life was perfect He liv'd yea he was here eighty Years unless you will reckon he liv'd no otherwise than Trees are said to live I pray thee my Lucilius let us endeavour says he that as precious Things so our Life though it be not of any great Extent and Length yet may be of much Weight and Worth Let us
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
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-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
Simplicity and Godly Sincerity I have had my Conversation in the World To say with Hilarion as St. Jerom reports in his [b] Egredere anima quid times Egredere quid dubitas Septuaginta prope annis servisti Christo mortem times Hier. in vita Hilar. Life Go out my Soul why art thou afraid go out why lingrest thou thou hast served Christ well nigh these seventy Years and dost thou now fear Death To see that it has been to thee * Phil. 1.21 to live Christ and to be able to look on thy Death as thy Gain And with good old [c] His Life inserted among Mr. Clark's Lives of ten emin Div. p. 123. When his good Sister said to him in his Sickness Brother I am afraid to leave you alone VVhy Sister said be I shall I am sure be with Jesus Christ when I die Ib. p. 123 124. Dr. Gouge in thy last Sickness to term Death thy best Friend next to Jesus Christ With †Phil. 1.23 St. Paul to desire to depart and to be ready to utter such Language as this Oh loose this Frame this Knot of Man unty That my free Soul may use her Wing Which is now pinion'd with Mortality As an entangled hamper'd Thing As the pious [d] Home Mr. Herbert pathetically expresses it in one of his sacred Poems Dwell upon these Considerations That the Loss and Misimprovement of Time will make a Death-bed uneasy to you and that the right redeeming of time will render a Death-bed comfortable to you And this will be very apt to move you to prepare for Death by dying to Sin dying to the World and living to Righteousness before you die 'T will help you to live every Day so indeed as others wish that they had liv'd when they come to lie upon a Death-bed To live so now that you may with comfort think of dying and may be freed from the slavish Fear of Death and be held no longer ‖ Heb. 2.15 in bondage by it 'T will cause you to live the Life of the Righteous that so you may die the Death of the Righteous die safely and die comfortably 'T will make you careful to set not only your House but your Heart in order your Life in order and so to dispatch your work and Business that when you come to die you may have nothing to do but to die and freely and cheerfully to resign your Spirit to the Father of Spirits and to surrender your Soul to your faithful Creator and gracious loving Lord Redeemer In a Word it will enable you so to live that you may have * Prov. 14.32 Hope in your own Death and that when Friends shall mourn for your Departure they may not sorrow without †1 Thess 4.13 Hope And so much shall suffice for your Direction as to your Meditation of Death your own particular Death in order to your Redemption of Time 2. Meditate here moreover of the general Dissolution of all Things at least in this inferiour World Think well of what (*) 2 Pet. 3.11 St. Peter informs you that all these Things shall be dissolved Consider that the Description which is there given of this Dissolution is too august and [e] Dr. ore's y st of Godl p 214. big by far for so small a Work as [f] Of which Dr. Hammend in eâ—prets it the Destruction of the City of Jerusalem That the Scoffers arguing there against the Promise of christ's coming that (†) Verse 4. all Things continue as they were from the Beginning of the Creation does clearly shew that this Coming of Christ was not understood by them and consequently not by St. Peter of the Burning of a City by War a Thing which might as probably and easily happen to Jerusalem as it had already fallen out in many other Places of the World But of the final glorious Coming of Christ to judge the World which [f] Superest I 'e ultimus perpetuus judicis di s ille nationibus insperatus ille derisus cùm tanta secult vetusta tot ejus nativitates uno ignt haurientur Tertull. lib de Spectae cap 30. Judgment the Conflagration of the Earth is to attend Think very seriously with thy self that * Verse 7. the Heavens and the Earth which are now are reserved unto Fire How †Verse 10. the Heavens shall one Day pass away with a great Noise and ‖ Verse 12. being on Fire shall be dissolved and the (*) Verse 10 12. Elements or [g] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordine mitiari incedo The host of the Aethereal Heavgens are the Stars and Planets The Host of the Aereal Heavens are Clouds and Meteors Fowls and flying Creatures Hosts shall melt with fervent Heat the Earth also and the Works of Nature or Art that are therein shall be burnt up That though the superiour Aethereal starry Heavens may be exempted as [h] He that considereth both the super-eminent Nature and Immensity of the Aethereal Heaven and of those innum rable Bodies therein in regard of which the whole Sublunary VVorld is but a Point or Centre and that it no way can be prov'd that ever those Bodies received any Curse for Man's Sin or Contagion by the VVorld's Deluge or that any Enemies of God dwell in them to pollute them He that considereth this will not easily be induced to believe that the Fire of the Day of Judgment shall burn them It remaineth therefore that the Sublunary Heavens only with their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are to be the Subject of this Conflagration Mr. Mede's Works p. 614 615. some with probable Reason conceive yet that without dispute or doubt [i] Dr. More 's Myst of Godl p. 231. the Globe of the Earth and the circumjacent Air with all the Garnishings of them shall be burnt up That this Air and Earth shall be strangely and wonderfully alter'd though not annihilated That the present Order and comely Beauty of the Compages and Frame of this visible lower World shall be dissolv'd That this great House and goodly Building made for Man to dwell in shall be taken down and all the Furniture wherewith it was fitted for his Use and Service shall be destroyed That it will be an Act of Wisdom for God to abolish these Things when the Time appointed for Probation and Trial of immortal Spirits cloathed with Flesh is ended and expired and Men shall enter into so different a State in which there will be no need of any Thing that serves and ministers to this terrene and animal Life And though God think good to continue this World for a while that it may be a Theater whereon his Wisdom Goodness Mercy Patience and other his glorious Attributes may be displayed and made conspicuous yet it is convenient and reasonable that this Stage of God's Acts and Works of Providence when all is finished should be taken down And
Rel. p. 170. rule and govern the rational World by giving notices of future Rewards or Punishments which all must unavoidably be adjudged to And that God may one day salve the Honour of his own Attributes that though Things seem to be carried very unequally here in this World and Judgment be never fully executed here but the Wicked are often suffered to escape and the Good and Upright are frequently afflicted and evil-intreated yet all may be rectified and regulated at last and God may openly and evidently appear to be just in punishing the Wicked and Ungodly and good in owning and rewarding every truly vertuous and righteous Person And so may not only vindicate and right himself but justify and right his People too in the Eye and Face of all the World And then go on to think of Scripture-evidences and Testimonies That * Heb. 9.27 after Death the Judgment immediatly after Death a particular Judgment Think of that awakening startling Summons †Luke 16.2 Give an Account of thy Stewardship for thou mayest be no longer Steward Alcibiades in Plutarch coming to Pericles his Door and hearing that he was busie and solicitous about making his Accounts to the Athenians [c] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. Apophthegm p. 180. said It rather concer'd him to study how he might best put by his Accounts and avoid the giving of them up But assure thy self there is no declining of it here Consider that God has * Acts 17.31 appointed a Day a Day of general Judgment in the which he will judg the World in Righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained And that we †2 Cor 5.10 must all appear and ‖ Rom. 14.10 stand before the Judgment-seat of Christ not only appear in Person as those do that are cited into a Court but be laid open and made manifest as the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies have our Heart and Life ript up and all our Thoughts Words and Works presented to our own view and expos'd to the view of others disclosed and discovered before Men and Angels That (*) Rev. 20.12 the Books shall then be opened the Book of God's Omniscience and the Book of every Man 's particular Conscience That the Rolls or Records of all our Actions shall be produc'd and we shall be judg'd out of those Things that are written in the Books That we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive the Things done in his Body that is the due Reward of the Works done in his Body or in the State of Conjunction with the Body according to or by way of Retribution to what he hath done whether it be good or bad The sober serious Consideration of a most impartial Judicature and Tribunal will mightily awe thy Soul Felix himself trembled when St. Paul reasoned (†) Acts 24.25 of a Judgment to come I have read a [d] M. Marshal's Serm. on 2 Kings 23 25 26. p. 20 21. Story of a certain King of Hungary who being on a Time marvellous sad and heavy his Brother would needs know of him what he ailed Oh Brother saies he I have been a great Sinner against God and I know not how I shall appear before him when he comes to Judgment His Brother told him they were but melancholy Thoughts and made light of them The King replied nothing at the present but in the dead Time of the Night sent an Executioner of Justice and caused him to sound a Trumpet before his Brother's Door which according to the Custome of that Countrey was a Sign of present Execution This Royal Person hearing and seeing the Messenger of Death sprang pale and trembling into his Brother's Presence beseeching the King to let him know wherein he had offended O Brother replied the King thou hast loved me and never offended me and is the sight of my Executioner so dreadful to thee and shall not I so great a Sinner fear to be brought to Judgment before Jesus Christ The frequent Meditation of a Judgment to come will exceedingly move and affect thee and cause thee to live and act suitably and answerably to thy belief of it 'T will keep thee from spending thy Time and talk in rashly judging others * Mat. 7.1 lest God severely enter into Judgment with thee 'T will awaken thee to endeavour to do every Thing as one that is [e] Semper it a vivamus ut rationem reddendam nobis arbitiemur Tussius apud Lactant. de veto coltu l. 6. §. 24. accountable for all he does 'T will put thee upon examining and calling thy self to an Account and cause thee to get all thy Accounts ready against the great Audit 'T will help thee to judg thy self here that thou maiest not be judged and condemned hereafter at the great and last Day It will excite and stir thee up to Repentance and provoke thee to the Performance of a course of new and sincere Obedience to make that Law the Rule of thy Life which God will make the Rule of his Judgment The Wise Man makes this an Argument to induce Men to * Eccl. 12.13 fear God and keep his Commandments that God will bring every Work into Judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil St. Paul very earnestly press'd the Athenians to Repentance by this most powerful and cogent Argument drawn from the Certainty of a future Judgment †Acts 17.30 31. God now commandeth all Men every where to repent because he hath appointed a Day in the which he will judg the World in Rigteousness And this was the Reason of the Apostles Labour of all his Ambition and Design to be ‖ 2 Cor. 5.9 10 11. acceptable to God whether living or dying because we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ Yea this was the Ground of all his Industry and Painfulness in the Ministry Knowing therefore the Terrour of the Lord we perswade Men saies he Considering the Dreadfulness of this Appearance of God we strive to bring Men to embrace the Truth and to live as those that are thus to be judged And in Hope of a Resurrection to a Judgment of Absolution (*) Acts 24.15 16. herein did he exercise himself to have alwaies a Conscience void of Offence toward God and toward Men he knew if Conscience absolv'd him in this Life it would also under God acquit him in the other Thy †Tit. 2.12 13. earnest looking for the glorious Appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ is apt to engage and prevail with thee to deny Vngodliness and worldly [f] Nec me revoeabat à profundiore voluptatum carnalium gurgtte nisi metus mortis futuri judicit tut qut per varias quidem opiniones nunquam tamen recessit de pectore meo Aug. Conf. l. 6. c. 16. § 1. Lusts and to live soberly righteously and godlily in
before Death and Judgment and to live idly loosly and voluptuously all the Daies of thy Life till the very last But surely thou wilt reckon now That the great Vncertainty of Christ's coming is a notable Spur to Vigilancy and Watchfulness That now not being secure any one Moment 't is thy Wisdom to stand upon thy Watch continually lest Christ come at a Time when thou doest least expect him and find thee in a Posture uncapable of Mercy from him unqualitied to receive Benefit by his Coming Frequently and intently think that the Time of thy Death and particular Judgment is very uncertain That thou * Mark 13.35 knowest not when the Master of the House cometh at Even or at Midnight or at the Cock-crowing or in the Morning whether he will call thee in the Daies of thy Youth or in the Midst of thy Daies or in elder Years Whether he will take thee in thy Bed or at thy Table or in a Journey At what Time or by what Means he will cite and summon thee to leave this World and to come to Judgment Consider that thou maiest drop into thy Grave before the fall of the Leaf from the Tree Yea that though now in perfect Health thou maiest be dead [l] Qend in die judicii futurum est omnibus hoc in singulis die mortis impleter Hier. in c. 2 Joelis Tunc unicuique veniet dies ille don venerit ei dies ut talis hinc exeat qualis judicandus est illo die Aug. ep 80. and doomed and damned before the next Lord's-day that this very Day this Hour thy Soul may be required of thee and be presently judged to Heaven or Hell and pass immediatly into an unchangeable State and Condition And that the particular Judgment will consign thee over to the general Judgment which will be conform to and a Confirmation of the former for ever And this will raise and quicken thee to watch alwaies lest coming suddenly he find thee sleeping secure in thy Sins lest that Day come as a * Luke 21.35 Snare upon thee and when thon shalt †1 Tless 5.3 say Peace and Safety then sudden Destruction come upon thee as Travail upon a Woman with Child and thou canst not escape This will cause thee to take heed to thy self lest at any Time thy Heart be over-charg'd with Surfeiting and Drunkenness and the Cares of this Life and so that Day come upon thee unawares To dread the Thoughts of being surprized and taken unprovided by the great and just Judg of Angels and Men. This will help thee to be constantly careful as to thy Person that it be such as may find acceptance in that Day and careful as to thy Employment that it be such as is suitable to thy Expectation of Christ's Coming and sit to be approved by thy Lord To be alwaies in a readiness to receive thy Summons and give up thy Accounts To reason and argue thus with thy self It Christ's Coming should surprize me in such a Course of Sin what a woful Case should I then be in Shall I dare to live in that State which I shall tremble to be found in at the Day of Judgment Represent thy Judg as standing at the Door and this will excite thee to watch and pray alwaies that thou maiest be * Luke 21.36 accounted worthy to escape the Sentence of Condemnation and to stand before the Son of Man To pray God to make thee such a wise Virgin as may timely take care to trim thy Lamp to furnish thy Vessel with the Oil of Grace to put on the Wedding-garment and to get thy self arraied with that fine Linen which is the Righteousness of the Saints that so thou maiest gladly go out to meet the Bridegroom and when others are unprovided and miserably excluded thou being ready maiest be admitted by him and enter with him into the Marriage-Chamber The third of the four last Things proposed as the subject Matter of Meditation in order to the right Redemption of Time III. Let Heaven and its Joys be the subject Matter of thy Meditation And here 1. Think of the happy Condition of a pious Soul in the State of Separation Consider seriously that Christ hath †2 Tim. 1.10 brought Life and Immortality to Light through the Gospel [m] Hodie experiar an animà sit immortalis said Paulus Quintus when he was about to die A brave infallible judg indeed that doubted of the Soul's Immortality Nonne vobis videtur animus is qui plus cernat longius vidâ—rese ad meliora proficisci ille autem cujus obtusior sit acies non videre Cie de sen That thy Soul will subsist after the Shipwrack of this Body and that in the State of Separation it shall not droop in an unactive Lethargy nor be numm without Sence void of all Apprehension and Operation and in a drousy sleepy joyless comfortless Condition till the Resurrection An erroneous Opinion which Pope John the 22th was so stiff and peremptory in that he not only taught it himself but procur'd an Order in the Vniversity of Paris that none should take his Degree in Divinity unless he held it Do thou believe and consider that if thou beest a faithful Person thy Soul at its Departure shall change its State for the better and have a delightful Sense and joyful perception of its good Condition be * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 23.43 quickly with Christ in Paradise †2 Cor. 5.8 immediately present with the Lord and ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 14.13 forthwith blessed be (*) Luke 16.22 carried by a Convoy of Angels into Abraham's Bosom received to him and entertain'd with him That as Ambassadours when they arrive at forreign Courts are conducted thither by the Masters of Ceremonies so thy holy Soul shall be translated by good Angels into a blessed Mansion and with Lazarus be (†) Verse 25. comforted in that Condition That if thou art a just Person thy (‖) Heb. 11.23 Spirit shall then be made perfect thy Vnderstanding be cleared from Ignorance and Errour enlarged and illustrated at thy Departure thy Will be endowed with exact Conformity to the Will of God and with perfect Liberty from all Servitude of Sin and be troubled no more with doubtful Choice but fully embrace the Chief Good thy Affections be duely and firmly plac'd thy Spirit be [n] The Oracle told Amelius enquiring what was become of Polinus 's Soul that he was gone to Pythagoras and Socrates and Plato 'T was a comfort to Socrates that after Death he hoped to see Homer Hesiod O praeclarum diew cùm ad illud animor um concilium 〈…〉 sear cùm ex hac taròa colluvione discedam 〈…〉 seu de Sâ—n. Socrates Critoni Amicos inquit hinc diseedens in eniam vobis aut similes aut eâ—â—am meliores ne vestrà quid m 〈◊〉 diu curiturus quandoquidem ros 〈…〉 estis
you have no better improved Christian Fellowship and Communion no more awaken'd quicken'd comforted and spiritually served one another Grudg not to bestow a little Labour in watching over thy Friend and Neighbour this Work and Task will be quickly over And take not amiss anothers taking care of thee Count the Christian Religion lovely and amiable upon this Consideration that it makes such excellent and admirable Provision for the Welfare and Safety of Souls for the spiritual Security and eternal Felicity of the Professors of it Prize and value the rich Mercy and abundant Kindness of God to thee that he should appoint every Friend about thee to be a spiritual Help to thee and make it part of his Office and Business to take care of thy Soul And when you find any Friend faithful in the Exercise of his Duty and Discharge of his Conscience toward thee bless God that he is so And be truly thankful to him also for so high an expression of his charitable Affection Let his sincere and hearty Love to thee make him appear * 1 Sam 29.9 good in thy sight as an Angel of God and cause his †Rom. 10 15. Feet as well as Face to be truly [x] Quid tam alsurdum quà m delectari multis inanibus rebus ui honore ut glorià ut aedificio ut vestitu culiú jue cerporis animo autem virtute praedito eo qut vel amare vel ut enini remuneratione benevolentiae nthil vicissitudine studiorum essicier úmque jucundiù Lael apud Cic. de amic beautiful to thee Never be provoked with an ill Provocation against the Person of a Friend who sharpens and provokes you with a good Provocation Be not angry with any that provoke you to Love nor render evil for good to such as labour to provoke you to good Works If thy Friend and Companion rebuke thee know how to accept a great Kindness take his Love and Good-will well and shew that thou hast good Flesh to heal Say with holy David ‖ Ps 41.5 Let the Righteous smite me it shall be a Kindness and let him reprove me it shall be an excellent Oil which shall not break my Head And reckon this to be one of the saddest Strokes that God inflicts for God to say (*) Hos 4.4 Let no Man strive nor reprove another Be so wise and good natured as to [y] Plurimim in amicitia amicorum bene suadentium valeat autoritas eáque adhibeatur ad monendum non moaò aperrè sed etiam acriter si res postulabit autoritati adhibitae pareatur Id. ib. suffer a Word of Exhortation and Admonition from a truly loving Christian Friend When thou aut in Company with thy Friends do †1 Kings 20.23 as Benhadad's Servant did in the Presence of Ahab diligently observe whether any good thing will come from any and hastily catch it Shew thy self much pleased and delighted with any good Discourse that is started and labour to keep it up and maintain it But know that if now thou refusest to hearken to the Counsels and follow the Advices and submit * Eph. 5.21 thy self to the Reproofs and Reprehensions of prudent pious Christian Friends and art ready to strive against all their earnest passionate Strivings with thee then they that contended and laboured in vain with thee here shall surely †1 Cor. 6.2 judg thee at Last Day and bring in Evidence and Testimony against thee that they would have healed thee and thou wouldst not be healed that they by all means would have helped thee to Heaven and thou wouldst hasten and hurry to Hell ‖ Jer. 51.9 The eleventh Direction If we would earnestly redeem the Time we must remember and consider perform and answer our solemn Sacramental Vows Occasional Promises and Sick-bed Resolutions 1. Our solemn Sacramental Vows 1. Our Promise and [a] Of the Vow of Baptism see Dr. Hammond's Pract. Cat. l. 6. the latter part of sect 2 and 3. And his notions contracted in the VVhole Duty of Man partit 2. par 33 c. Vow made in Baptism Which Promise made by Persons baptized when adult or of full Age is called as some understand and interpret that Place the stipulation or * 1 Pet. 3.21 answer of a good Conscience towards God At the time of our Infant-Baptism we were dedicated to the Service of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and solemnly entred into a sacred Covenant Then we indented and engaged to renounce the Devil the †Eph. 6.12 2.2 Ruler ‖ Joh. 12 31. Prince and (*) 2 Cor. 4.4 God of this World And all his Works All that the Devil labours by any means to set us about and employ us in But especially and principally all those Sins which carry particularly the stamp and character the image and resemblance of Satan upon them and have (†) Joh. 8.44 from the beginning been practised by him such as Pride Lying Slandering Malice Envy Killing and Destroying Tempting and Soliciting others to Sin We covenanted expresly to abandon and abomine all Diabolical Works And to forsake and disclaim the Pomps and Vanities or Pompous Vanities the profane Spectacles the Luxury the ostentatious vain-glorious Bravery of this wicked World To abhor and avoid the evil Company and to resist the applauded vile vicious Customs and popular Temptations of the World To take care not to accompany the Ungodly in their Sins To deny Vngodliness and worldly Lusts and all the sinful Desires Affections Appetites of the Flesh◠to abstain from fleshly Lusts and from all the Works of the Flesh to make no provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof To endeavour to moderate and subordinate all our Desires to the Will of God And by God's Grace and under the influence of Divine Assistance according to our Abilities obediently to keep God's holy Will and Commandments and not only to take a few Steps but to walk in the same and that not only for a spurt or a few daies but all the daies of our Lives And since we came to years of Discretion and were of age sufficient to use our Reason and act understandingly we have personally owned openly and deliberately confirmed our Baptismal Vow taken the obligation in our own names by actual consent yielded and resigned devoted and delivered up our selves to become the teachable tractable Disciples the ready and voluntary Servants of the blessed Trinity Now to make this grand Promise good were to redeem the Time indeed Let 's never offer or dare to live as if we had been initiated in the impure Mysteries of the Heathen as if we had been baptized in the name of Bacchus or Venus baptized in the very Devil's name devoted to his Drudgery and deeply engaged against God and Christ and the Holy Spirit against the Gospel and Godliness against the Members of Christ and the People of God But look and see we live as those who
employed by the great and mighty Monarch of the World To yield your Members as Instruments of Unrighteousness unto Sin instead of yielding your selves to God and your Members as Instruments of Righteousness unto God 2. To delay the Redemption of our Time is hazardous and dangerous as well as unworthy and disingenuous For 1. The Time of our Life is very uncertain Seriously consider that if thou dost not take the present Time Time with thee may quickly be no more [f] Subito tollitur qui diu toleratur Gregor Hom. 12. in Euang. He that is long forborn is often snatcht away of a sudden * Job 21.13 Thou maiest go down to the Grave in a Moment Thou maiest be dead and buried thy Body be rotten in the Grave and thy Soul grievously tormented in Hell long before the Time comes which thou didst fix and set for thy Repentance and the amendment of thy Life [g] Maxima vitae jactura dilatio est Illa primum quemque extrahit diem illa eripit praesentia dum ulteriora promittit Maximum vivendi impedimentum est expectatio quae pendat excrastino Quò spectas quò te extendis omnia quae ventura sunt in incerto jacent protinus vive Sen. de brev vit cap. 9. Delay saies Seneca is the greatest Loss of humane Life It deprives us of that which is present while it Promises that which is future The greatest hindrance of living well saies he is Hope of living to morrow But it is a noted Saying of St. Gregory [h] Qui poenitenti veniam spopondit peccanti diem crastinuninon promisit Greg. Hom. 12. in Euang. He that hath promised Pardon to him that repents he has not promised to morrow to repent in And if God has not promised it to us we have no reason to promise it to our selves for 't is a Rule in Civil Law [i] Nemo potest promittere alienum No Person can promise that which is anothers He spake prudently and piously who when he was invited to come to morrow to a Feast returned this Answer I have not had a morrow for these many Years It was good Counsel which a wise Rabbi gave his Scholar that he should be sure to repent one Day besore he died But if you delay to be penitent and pious holy and religious the present Day you may never have the Benefit and Advantage of another Young Men too commonly lavish out the present in hope of redeeming the future Time But they build their Hope upon the greatest Vncertainty in the World [k] Quis est tam stultus quamvis sit adolescens cui sit exploratum se ad vesperum esse victurum Quinetiam aetas illae muliò plures quà m nostra mortis casus habet Faciliùs in morbos incidunt adolescentes graviùe aegrotant tristiùs curantur Ità que paùci veniunt adsenectutem Cicero in Cat. Maj. sen de Senect Young Men as Tully brings in Cato discoursing in some respects are in greater danger of Death than Old Men They fall into Diseases more easily sicken more violently and are cured more hardly and therefore there are but very few that reach to an Old Age. The Jews tell of Ben Syra yet a Child as [l] Dr. Stoughton's Heavenly Conversation p. 81 82. Dr. Stoughton relates the Story that he begged of his Master to instruct him in the Law of God who defer'd it and put him off saying he was too young yet to be entred into Divine Mysteries then he replied But Master said he I have been in the Church-yard and perceive by the Graves which I have lain down by and measured and find shorter than my self that many have died younger than I am and what shall I do then and if I should die before I have learned the Law of God what would become of me then Master The consideration of our short Life saies that worthy Doctor should cause us to [m] Ad haec quaerenda natus aestima quà m non multum acceperit temporis etiamsi illud totum sibi vendicet cui licèt nihil facilitate eript nihil negligendo patiatur excidere licèt horus avarissimè servet usque in ultimae aetatis his manae terminos procedat nec quicquam illi ex eo quod natura constituit fortuna concutiat tamen homo ad immortalium cognitionem nimis mortalis est Sen. de Otio sap c. 32. make haste to learn to know and serve God and to think we cannot begin to study that Lesson too soon that can never be learned too well And withal to use all Speed and Diligence lest as Children have usually torn their Books so we have ended our Lives before we have learned our Lessons * Joh. 9 4. Work while it is Day the Night cometh when no Man can work †12.35 Yet a little while is the Light of this Life with you walk while ye have the Light lest Darkness come upon you Do not carry your selves like idle Boies who play away their Candle and then are forced to go to bed in the dark Thy Life is uncertain and therefore with Apelles that curious Painter let no Day go without some Stroke or Line drawn to the Life Let no Day pass without dispatching some lawful Business without performing some good Work and doing some laudable vertuous Action Do every Day the Work of that Day Make Religion thy business every day of thy Life 2. Delaies and Prorogations are very dangerous because many other things are exceeding uncertain as well as our Lives Thou dost not know but that by some Disease thou maiest quite lose the use of thy Reason and the natural right Exercise of thy Rational Faculties and so become in a manner dead even while thou livest Or if still thou retainest the free use of thy Reason yet thou maiest be deprived of the means of Grace and helps to Salvation * Isa 30.20 Thy Teachers may be removed into a Corner Thou maiest be pinch'd with a †Amos 8 11 12. Famine of hearing the Word of the Lord and be ready to ‖ Prov. 29.18 perish for want of Vision Or through Sickness or some sad Providence thou maiest be hindred and detain'd from making use of those common Means which others comfortably and profitably enjoy Or if thou hast Liberty to attend on the outward means of Grace thou maiest (*) 2 Cor. 6.1 receive the Grace of God in vain not (†) Luk. 19 42. know and understand in this thy Day the things that belong unto thy Peace Thou maiest have a (‖) Prov. 17.16 Price in thy hand to get Wisdom and be such a Fool as to have no heart to it Thy Mind may become more unprepared and thy Will more indisposed to receive the Truth and embrace the Goodness of the Word Thou maiest be ready to * Acts 7.51 resist the working of the Spirit in the great Ordinances of the Gospel and maiest