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A65750
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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 ... by J.W.
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Wade, John, b. 1643.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing W178; ESTC R34695
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377,547
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592
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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-Lord's-day Mot. 2. Our Sanctification and good Improvement of the lord's-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
go in the Strength of the Lord and work out your Salvation with fear and trembling 3. Take heed of the Prophanation and beware of a partial formal observation of the Lord's-Day Where it is partial it is likely to be formal Read attentively and frequently the earnest Exhortation to a thorough Redemption of the Lord's-Day Chap. 2. pag. 32 to 73. There you are inform'd that a due Redemption of the whole Lord's-Day is the way to redeem all other Days to the greatest Advantage * See p. 66 67. as to Spirituals and as to Temporols too And in reference to this latter I shall here confirm what is said there by proposing the Experience and producing the notable considerable Testimony of a wise and learned a great and very good Man the worthily renowned late Chief Justice Hale who was as Seneca says of good Men natus ad exemplar born to be an Example to others In a short Discourse of his about Redemption of Time I find these Words [m] Sir Mat. Hale's Contempl. Mor. and Div. 1 Part pag. 258 259. Be sure says he to spend the Lord's-Day intirely in those Religious Duties proper to it and let nothing but an inevitable Necessity divert you from it It is that which will sanctify and prosper all the rest of your Time and your secular Employments I am not apt to be superstitious says he but this I have certainly and infallibly found true that by my deportment in my Duty towards God in the Times devoted to his Service especially on the Lord's-Day I could make a certain conjecture of my success in my Secular Occasions the rest of the Week after If I were loose and negligent in the former the latter never succeeded well if strict and conscientious and watchful in the former I was successful and prosperous in the latter And again in a Godly Letter to his Children * Gal. 4.19 of whom he travail'd in birth that Christ might be formed in them he freely opens his mind in these remarkable Words to them [n] In his Directions for keeping the Lord's-Day in a Letter to his Children Ibid. p. 324. I now write something to you says he of your observation of the Lord's-Day because I find in the World much Looseness and Apostacy from this Duty People begin to be cold and careless in it allowing themselves Sports and Recreations and Secular Imployments in it without any necessity which is a sad spectacle and an ill presage And he there makes this Profession and Declaration to them I have found by a strict and diligent Observation that a due Observation of the Duties of this Day has ever had joined to it a Blessing upon the rest of my time and the Week that has been so begun has been blessed and prosperous to me And on the other side when I have been neglignet of the Duties of this Day the rest of the Week has been unsuccessful and unhappy to my own Secular Imployments so that I could easily make an estimate of my successes in my own Secular Imployments the Week following by the manner of my passing of this Day And this I do not write lightly or inconsiderately but upon a long and sound Observation and Experience You see how this was much upon his Heart and how ready he was to remark this upon all Occasions 4. Let me charge and press it upon your Consciences that on a Lord's-Day you would be so kind and charitable so true and faithful to your Souls as not to lose the Season of a Sacrament if you can by any means redeem it Let none among you live in a sinful shameful Disuse and an unwarrantable inexcusable Neglect of the holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Let me solemnly invite you in the moving pathetical Words of the devout Herbert [o] The Invitation Come ye hither all whose taste Is your waste Save your cost and mend your fare God is here prepar'd and drest And the Feast God in whom all dainties are I do not call you to a Prophanation but to a worthy Participation of this sacred Ordinance They that do customarily live unholily must needs receive unworthily Are they fit to partake of the Lord's Supper who allow themselves in the Love and Practice of any known Sin Are they dispos'd to eat Christ's Flesh who will not abstain from fleshly Lusts but usually walk after the Flesh Are they prepar'd to drink Christ's Blood who commonly drink in Iniquity like Water and frequently drown themselves and others in Drink Are they that walk unworthy of their Baptism in a condition to venture upon the holy Communion I invite you to all that is duly previous and preparatory to the Duty and to a right and requisite manner of the performance of it Come but take God along with you whenever you intend to come By the help of God you may receive this Sacrament as you ought Excuse not your Aâ—stinence and Forbearance by pretending your Vnfitness but set your selves in good earnest with an honest willing resolved Mind under God to fit your selves and you shall quickly find that God will readily assist and enable you promote and further you in the way of your Duty Come but competently understand the nature and ends of this Ordinance and impartially try and examine your selves before you come Come with a hearty willingness to part with your Sins for him who lost his Blood and laid down his Life for you and with a firm Resolution to live to him that died for you Labour by habitual Devotedness to God and by continual circumspect walking and holy living to be in a general disposition for worthy Receiving A well-ordered Conversation is the best Preparation for the Communion and will most certainly make all other Preparations more easy Come for I tell you plainly it is not at your own liberty and choice to come or keep away There is a special Mandate for your coming * Luke 22.19 1 Cor. 11.24 25. This do in remembrance of me says Christ. He does not only simply allow or barely recommend it to his Church but as a Lawgiver strictly commands and requires it and as a dying Testator orders and enjoins the Observance of it Christ says as clearly and expresly Do this as God in any Precept of the Decalogue says Thou shalt not do this Now the Law of Christ should be more forcible and prevalent with you than any Statute or Law of the Land to accelerate the Practice of this Duty There is as much Danger in an unworthy Refusing this Sacrament as there is in an unworthy Receiving it You can go for no more than Half-Christians if you totally abstain from this Ordinance which is equally with the reception of the Sacrament of Baptism a Badg and Cognizance Note and Character of your Discipleship an Evidence and Demonstration Sign and Expression Token and Testimony of your Profession of Christianity To live in a constant Neglect of this Sacrament is a manifest