consider thou hadst benefit by the Patience of God was not thou once wicked and it may be so wicked that others murmured at thee as now thou murmurest at them if thou art light in the Lord remember thy former darkness thou wouldest have God be hasty with others and little thinks what danger thou escaped by God's Patience towards thee because thou art got over the Bridge thou wouldest therefore have it drawn but if thou thy self did not put God to the expence of much time and hast been sanctified even from the womb yet hast thou not some Son or Daughter or Friend or brother whose wicked lives thou bewails and wouldest thou have God to destroy them to begin with them to make them the first examples of his present revenge Thou saies why does God bear with the wicked so long Why does God bear with thy Son with thy Brother with thy Kinsman Thou wouldest desire a little more time for them and further forbearance in hope of amendment that he would forbear them when they are young for hope of reclaiming when they come to Man's estate that he would forbear them then for hope of reclaiming when they grow old that he would forbear them when they are old yet one year longer for hope of reclaiming the next and so on and therefore look either upon thy self who once wert darkness but now art light in the Lord or upon Child or Friend who now are darkness but happily one day may be light in the Lord and then cease to be offended at any patience of God towards the wicked whatsoever To conclude this particular how many damned in Hell if they had had the time and the forbearance that others have had might have been in the places of some that are in Heaven and they in their places but for God's Patience see Mat. 11.21 4. For the excellency of Time consider the sweetness of it how comfortable do we reckon it when we can get a little time with a friend to enjoy him without interruption and not be called away how sweet to get a little time for retirement a little time to hear a little time to pray to read to meditate a little time for business a little time for business we are so posted from one exercise to another from one duty to another from one posture to another that we look upon it as a great happiness to get a little out of the hurry of time and that the Chariot-wheels of it seem to stand a little still and quiet that for a little space they do not drive on what a rest is it to a poor tossed hurried Soul a little communion with God a little freedom from the cares the noise the distractions the diversions the interruptions of the World to be able to sit down and be a little at quiet and take ones breath and if a Man be in sickness as Job speaks to have a little time to swallow down his spittle 5. The fifth particular is this none can know the Lord of time without Divine Teaching and certain it is that none can number his Time aright that does not understand this that our Time is not our own God is the Lord of Time we are but stewards of it we must be accountable for it we are not proprietors and for us to make bold as untaught Popple we too often do with that which is the Lord 's peculiar is high presumption and sawciness it 's injury and stealth for thee to meddle with thy fellow-creatures property without his leave what is it then at will and pleasure to dispose of thy makers right what Conscience or prudence is it for thee to say I will go to such a place such a day and buy and sell or meet with such a company and be merry who gave either you or them power to name the day you should say if the Lord give leave God permitting if God grant Life and Health Ah my Brethren if we asked leave of God about the day we should also he brought to acquaint him with work we intend to do that day and how many ill-done deeds and mispent time might this prevent you see what an interest the right considering of time has in every thing and how great an influence it has upon all actions and affairs What has thou to do to cut thongs out of another Man's hide or carve at another Man's table without his license What Prodigals are we of that which is none of our own canst thou say that thou was ever worth an hours time of thy own in all thy life and how is it that thou hast spent so much and wasted so much thou hast no authority to appoint dayes or hours let me come closer to thee thou hast not only robbed God of that time which he has lent thee for thy own business but thou hast taken from him that time which he has separated and inclosed and reserved for his own work and Glory review thy Sabbaths and think with thy self how much holy time thou hast spent upon thy own thoughts thy own words thy own actions what great snippets of time thou hast cut out of the Lord 's holy dayes canst thou justify all this is this the fruit of the Divine Teaching No such matter our times are in God's hands and power our times are not our own any more than our tongues God is the Lord both over them and us let us therefore when ever we have occasion for any time be it never so little or seemingly never so near at our hand not dare to reach it and use it without first going to God and asking his good will by this means we shall not only please him but likewise engage his assistance and direction in together with his blessing upon that work we have to do in that time but if our work be naught them I confess we should be unwilling to go to him for time for it lest he ask us how we will imploy it and we shall be afraid and ashamed to tell him nor indeed has he allotted any time for bad deeds but let us know this that if we steal time for works of darkness the Lord will severely reckon with us both for our works and our time 6. The sixth particular is this none can observe the wasters and devourers of time without Divine Teaching and it is an undoubted truth that no Man can number his Dayes well that is not an observer of these these are Thieves and Robbers these are eaters and consumers of time that do very much perplex Christians and many times put them besides right numbring I Will name some of them to you 1. Unnecessary cares those are very great intruders upon time and will be cnotinually claiming a share in it though our Lord and Saviour has given positive order that no room should be lest for them take no thought for to morrow and why take ye thought c. How many cares have you in a
and please themselves to play upon the borders of that unpardonable sin they do deride the very Actings and Breathings of the Holy Spirit of God because of some that are but pretenders to it but never had it let me tell thee O thou that draws such consequences and conclusions that the Gospel is an Holy Gospel Religion is a real and substantial thing There are Ordinances of Chirist which we must be walking and waiting upon God in and if we that profess the Gospel do not walk according to it we must repent and sue out our pardon God will scourge and correct us severely as he has done in all Ages and we must justify him in it and he will make us know that it is an evil and a bitter thing to depart from God and to bring reproach upon Religion and the Name of God and to open the mouths of such as thou art I will not name thee but would willingly know by what name thou conceives thy self to be called in Scripture and would desire others that they would likewise consult Scripture and find out thy Character there but I would tell thee further before we part that if we do transgress we pay dear for our sin Repentance is too great a rate to be given for the most profitable Corruption upon Earth we are chastened of the Lord that we might not be condemned with the World Besides know this that if we be true Saints though we may have our infirmites and must repent of them consequently so antecedently we must be such as do sincerly resolve against all sin that do not allow or indulge our selves in the least evil that carefully avoid and shum the occasions of sins that hate every false way We must be such as must have respect to all Gods Commandements according to our Light in them and Knowledge of them not be found neglecting any thing that we know to be a Duty we should be very careful of our words how we spend our time and be continually preparing for our dying hour And if there be such as are indeed very Hypocrites among us as there has been in all Ages and will be to the end of the World and no avoiding it for we cannot know mens hearts and for external Worship and Holiness a wicked man may do them as well as a Saint nay a Hypocrite may possible do them better than a Saint because he does not carry weight with him he takes no heed to the heart which is the principal thing in a Duty I say grant there be such if they discover themselves in gross impieties and prove obstinate the Gospel has given Rules for Admonitions sharp and cutting Reproofs even to the quick for withdrawing from them for casting them out of the Society of Gods people and Gospel-Professors and delivering of them up to Satan and if they do remain covered and concealed till the Judgement of the great day then the Lord will discover them and them a portion in the lowest place in Hell The Scripture seems to make them the freeholders and first-born of Hell Mat. 24.51 He will appoint him his portion with the Hypocrites there shall be weeping and ganshing of teeth Well therefore thou mightest spare thy self the expence of a great many words for business is quickly summed up either thou calls a true Saint an Hypocrite because of his infirmites and some Hyporisite which discovers it self in him which he repents of which the Lord gives him a pardon for cleanses him from and at last receives him to his Glory and if this be thy Case I am much afraid thou wilt come under the last of that Scripture which I will take the pains to turn to it is in the Epistle of Jude ever 14 15. Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints to execute vengeance upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their bard speeches which ungodly sinner have spoken against him But Secondly If this be thy Case that thou calls those Hypocrites that are indeed so what need thou be so concerned both God and Man are against them they have shame here however the Lord does most severely tourment them to all Eternity thou might spare thy bad Language they are punished enough without it But Thirdly If this be thy mind to take occasion hence to speake evil of Religion and holy Profession the Graces and Fruits of the Spirit make a mock and derision of all these that because many men that pretend to Religion are very wicked men therefore to cast off all Religion and Zeal and Love to God and Faith in Christ Jesus and the workings of the Spirit as Fancies and Shadows having no substance or reality in them then I must needs say that thou art in the high way to Atheism and I do nor know how I am fallen upon it but I cannot possibly avoid it according to my casting up the Account it amounts to neither more nor less thou art a down-right Atheist I did not think I should have had occasion to have used this word for I do not love words that carry reflection with them I have been studying the ninth Verse of the Epistle of Jude railing Language does not become my Mouth I confess I may be mistaken in my casting up and I should be glad to see where my Errour lay that I may rectifie it I can say I love Truth better than Opinion or my own Conception and Imagination Methinks I hear thee disowning the name and thing pleading for Righteousness and Honesty and Worship and Sacraments c. The truth is thou hast now confimed me fully in judgment of thee for the Scripture is not more express in any thing than in discovering a sort of people that plead for a Form of Godlinese that they may more effectually oppose the power of it that use the name of God that they may fight against the Nature Word and Works of God that pretend to set up Christ that they may destroy his Person and all his Offices Men of corrupt minds reprohate concerning the Faith That profess they know God but in works deny him being abominable disobedient and to every good work reprobate Enemies to the Cross of Christ If so be then that thou art an Atheist the Scripture in plain terms calls thee a Fool Psal 14.1 Thou hast read the place but I will read it to thee again The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God He has no fear of God no awe of the great God upon his Spirit no sense of his Holiness Power Justice Omnisciency his Word his Will his Works what he hath done what he will do what joy he hath laid up for the Serious Sincure Humble seekers of him and that truly believe on the name of his Son and are careful to maintain good Works what torment he has prepared for the wicked and
interest of the Lord Jesus we have practised that in our selves which we have condemned in others and never any People had more pretious opportunities and improved them less we have put Death far from us and lived as if this world would never have an end and as if the World to come would never have a Beginning c. Now for others to lay these things to our charge makes us odious and ugly But for us to charge our selves will make us look lovely and Beautiful there is a vast difference between others speaking of us and our own speaking of our selves though the words be the very same The story of Jonah if another had writ it would have made Jonah appear very deformed but as he writes it himself it rendershim a true penicent let us lament our not doing our work in our day our not minding our work and season and making them meet what a deal of work might we have done more than we have if we had forted and counted and numbred our work aright we have been confounded as the Builders of Babel We have done much that needed not have been done and we have been doing of one thing when we should have been doing another we have been repenting when we should have been believing and believing when we should have been repenting we have been caring when we should have been trusting we have been weeping when we should have been rejoicing and rejoicing when we should have been mourning we have been doing and undoing and as a Man that has lost his way travels hard but is no nearer his journeys end may it may be comes to the place whence he first set forth I assure you it is matter of trouble to consider what confusion we have brought our selves into and upon our Spirits for want of this wisdom to number our work-daies we have been a disorderly People we have not put our general and particular callings into good method we do things in the first place which should be done in the second and that in the second which ought to possess the first let me tell you Earthly cares will not sit comfortably and thrivingly in the first nor Heavenly thoughts in the second because the one will be too high and the other too low for their elevation it is a deslowring of early morning-time to lodge the world with it and it is a disgraceing of the things of God to present them with the small reliques and stale afterlings of your time I am perswaded this is the very thing the Psalmist aimes at in this Text that he might have wisdom to know his time and his work and the proper work for the day that time might not be done before the work was done and that work might not be misplaced and mislaid it must needs therefore be our great folly and loss who are guilty of so much misplacing why must worldly thoughts come in in the morning as soon as thou art awake and defile blast and canker thy Soul when good thoughts would have edged it prepared it and put a savour upon it which would not have worn off all day why must thy counter come up stairs into thy closet the concerns of thy calling look upon thee whilst thou art praying and meditating and conversing with God and about the condition and state of thy Soul and its Everlasting well-being we should be Heavenly-minded in Earthly imployments and we are Earthly-minded in Heavenly imployments get as much of Heaven as ever thou canst to attened thee in thy wordly matters it will wonderfully facilitate and preosper thy work it will make it go on with ease and pleasure a Bible upon a loom or shop-board never hinders work Meat and Morning Prayer never hinder work holy ejaculations and good discourse will not weaken the hands that labour a serious thought in the midst of thy worldly business never causes interruption or disorder And as you must take heed of misplaceing your work so be careful you do not misplace the dispensations and providences of God to you for this belongs to the numbring of your daies for you are apt to call your good dayes your bad ones and your worst dayes your best The account will never come even when receipts are placed as disbursments do not expect a right ballance you have had many dayes of Affliction Sorrow and pain your hands have been alwaies full now if you reckon all these dayes as bad dayes you do not number right Again you have had a few Sun-shine dayes you have enjoyed prosperity and you call these good dayes whereas it may be these have been ensnaring and straitning to your Souls and the former have been quickning purging cleansing and inwardly comforting the dayes which the Children of Israel spent in the Wilderness were not their worst dayes for there the Lord fed them with manna bread which came down from Heaven The wilderness-grape is the sweetest grape the best vineyards from thence Rock-water is the purest water and no honey so sweet as that which came out of the Lyon though no affliction for the present seems joyous but grievous but the peaceable fruits of Righteousness which it yieldeth afterwards to them that are exercised therein make amends for all it may be when thou considers it well those dayes of thy youth when the secret of God was upon thy Tabernacle thy Children about thee when thou washed thy steps with butter the Rock poured thee out rivers of Oyl c will not be accounted numbred for the best dayes thou wilt see cause upon due reflection to confess that thy Spirit was more dull and heavy and slothful thou was not so lively in duty didst not enjoy so much Communion with God as thou hast done in some other dayes that were more dark and cloudy and at great deal more pinching and painful to go through thou mayest remember in those shining dayes what expence thy watchfulness put thee to How thou was continually upon thy guard lest thou should be ensnared and thy affections be carried beyond due bounds it 's difficult case where we are so desirous to drink much and yet can but bear little to resist is troublesome to yield is dangerous to love the Creature no more than it should be and to love God as much as he ought to be thou canst tell likewise that in those other daves of straitness and want and sicknese and disgrace and perplexity though they were very ungrateful and unpleasing to the outward man thou had frequent visits from God corruption did not so work and stir in thy heart Satan was not so busie to defile thee with his temptations thou hadst many a comforable half-hour which no body saw or took notice of thou couldest pray then thou couldest pour out Prayer thou wast all Prayer thy Prayers came from thee like hot burning sparks out of a flaming furnace or like darts out of a Gyants Hand with such a jerk
best are but dreamish things and may prove much worse if you do them as they did them in the dayes or Noah and Lot I wish with all my heart the next Jog be not so hard and the cry so loud that instead of being kindly awakened they be not mazed and stunned and deaf and disabled from getting up and putting on their clothes 4. How irrecoverable they are and lever to be recalled If I would give all the World I cannot call yesterday back nor be placed where I was yesterday morning He that cries out Call time again call time again is as unlikely to be heard and answered as any man I know â—ay but cannot you set me one day or two backward place me where I was but t'other morning that I may pass over those three or tour hours as I did then No I cannot do it And this is the first Rule in this Christian Arithmetick Number the dayes that yon have past this will make you wise Rule 2. A second Rule in Arithmetick Number the dayes that you have lost this will be a special means to lead you to Wisdom What have your past days been filled with have not you lost weeks and moneths nay years Consider this well and you will be able to tell me I need not tell you what thoughts it will work in you and what wise Counsels it will put you upon have not many of thy dayes been filled with nothing but vanity some men do nothing at all many worse than nothing the most do something that is not their proper work to do but belongs to others canst thou say that any day of thy life has been as well filled with good as it ought to have been or as it might have been if thou had thy best spent dayes to spend over again couldest thou not spend them a great deal better no such cause of mourning as for lost time was not thy Childhood and thy Youth vanity has not the World had many an hour that God and Christ should have had and should have been improved for the promoting of thine eternal welfare How many idle dayes and play-dayes hast thou made how many needless Journeyes Visits Walks and Discourses hast thou made How many unnecessary designs unprofitable labours May it not be said of much of thy business thou hast been imployed in as some said of the Womans pouring the Ointment on Christs Head why was this waste of time might it not have been made better use of Rule 3. Third Rule of Arithmetick Number the work you have done and how you have dont it what will this do you will tell me what it will do if you observe it you will find upon Examination that put all your good works together and allow for dammage for the Hay and the Stubble the Dregs and the Dross and they amount but to very little you will see how much mending all your work needs what mourning over and begging pardon for the defects and failings about it time runs and work sticks and that which we thought we had done well must be done over again how should this awaken us and quicken us when we have done all we can we are but unprofitable servants when we have done the best we can we have not done that which is our duty when we have done the most we can we have not done all we should still some work lies before us and it may be very little time will not this consideration to make men make much of time and not prodigally throw it away as they have done because so much is required to survey and mend old done Deeds Rule 4. Number the Sabbaths the Sermons the Opportunities which you have enjoyed This a fourth Rule in Christian Arithmetick and what will this tend to You will tell me when you have well considered it Reckon how many of Gods Embassadors have been sent to thee with several Messages and with the same message over and over again how many years of the dayes of the Son of Man you have seen how long you enjoyed such a Ministry in such a place and such a powerful Ministry in another and now what am I the better God will expect an account of me is it not high-time for me to consider what return I can make what profiting and progress I have made in the knowledg and fear of God and Faith in his Son Jesus Christ to what degrees and measures of patience Meckness Hope Love Heavenly Conversation crucifying the flesh looking for the appearing of Christ and aiming at his Glory in every thing I do c. Many an exhortation and motive and direction and encouragement have I had about all these and much more many a time and that with a great deal of pressing God may call me to even accounts with him the very next hour for any thing I know and how ready am I for it Oh for a little time for this work I have cause to be afraid that I shall be found much in arrearages to God and that there are some hundreds of Sermons I have heard that I can remember neither Text Doctrine Reason nor Use nor have any real impression remaining upon me from them a dram of habitual vertue or strength by them Oh that God would not clap me up and make me bankrupt that have taken up so many goods of him and am not able to make him any payment the goods are embezeled Oh that I had time to make my composition with him to sue out a release and discharge from him I am undone if I be arrested before this be done for I cannot pay twelve pence in the pound Lord spare me a little time that I may repent in and make money of all that I have that I may bring to thee I will not keep or conceal one peniworth from thee I will give thee a true account in whose hands they are whom I have traded with how I have been cheated by Satan by the World and most of all by a deceitful heart of my own that was bred up with me and which I have given much trust to I could no sooner have any of Heavens commodities come in but presently they were purloyned from me by the means of my deceitful hard vain idle foolish Heart for whilst I slept and was careless the wicked one came and catched them away or the cares of this World and the deceitfulness of Riches spoiled them and so I got no profit by them my base Heart did betray me to all this mischief and loss and now Lord be pleased to spare me a little that I may mourn over and bewail my great losses that I may call my treacherous wicked Heart to an account that I may seriously and severely examine and search it that I may bring it to confession and acknowledgment to deep sorrow and repentance to sincere and holy resolutions of a faithful improvement of any opportunity and season of Grace that he