in comparison of them, all other things are impertinent and vain, if not defperately noxious and hurtful. There is no ne. ceffity for me to be Rich, and to be great in the World; to have fuch a title of Honour, fuch a place of Dignity or Profit; to leave fuch an Inheritance or titular Dignity to my Son; or to have fo many thousand pounds in my Inventory, when I die. But there are certain matters of abfolute neceffity to me, fuch as if I am without, I am undone and loft, and yet fuch as if not attained here in this life, can never be attained ; and therefore, as it concerns me in the highest degree to attain them, so it concerns me in the higeft degree to attain them in this Life, and to take all opportunities imaginable in order thereunto, and to redeem every minute of time for that purpose, left I fhould be for ever difappointed, and not be like the foolish Virgin, to be getting of Oyl when the door is ready to be fhut; and with the Truant-Scholar, to trifle away my time allotted me for my leffon,and then to begin to learn it when my Mafter calls for me to repeat it; and those bufineffes are fuch as thefe: the Knowledge of Chrift Jefus, and him Crucified; the attainment of Faith in God through him, the acquaintance of my felf with the Will of God, the comporting of my felf with that Will; the exercife of true and serious Repentance for fins paft; the fteady refolution of Obedience to his Will for the time to come; the attaining of the Pardon of my fins, and Peace with God through Chrift our Lord; the fubduing of my Lufts and Corruptions; the conformation of my will and life to the holy Will of God, and the perfect pattern of Holiness, Chrift Jefus; the working out my Salvation with fear and trembling; the giving all diligence to make my Calling and Eleation fure; the fitting and purging of my felf to be a Veffel of Glory and Immortality, and fitted for the ufe of my great Lord and Mafter; the cafting of my felf into fuch a frame and posture of mind and life, that I may be fitted and ready to die, and give up my account to my Lord with peace and chearfulness, and comfort; fo that if I fhould, either by the hand of fome difeafe or cafualty, or other providence receive this folemn meflage, Set thy Houfe in order, for thou shalt die, I might receive it with as much readiness, willingness and chearfulness, as a faithful and diligent Servant would receive P 3 this this command from his Mafter; You must take fuch a journey for me to morrow. Thefe, and fuch like bufineffes as thefe, befides the conftant tenour of a juft, vertuous, and pious life, are the most important bufineffes of a Chriftian. First, fuch as are of abfolute neceffity to him, he may not, he cannot be without them. Secondly fuch as cannot be done elsewhere than in his life; this world is the great Laboratory for perfecting of Souls for the next; if they are not done here, they ceafe to be done forever; death fhuts the door, and everlaftingly feals us up in that ftate it finds us. Thirdly, And every feafon of this life is not at leaft fo fuitable for it: fickness and pain, and wearisome and froward old Age have business enough of themselves to entertain us; and any Man that hath had experience of either, will find he hath enough to do to bear them, or to ftruggle with them. And fourthly; We know not whether the Grace and Opportunities that God hath lent us, and we have neglected in our lives, fhall ever be afforded again to us in the times of our Sickneffes, or upon our Death-beds, but a little portion of time in our Lives and Healths are furnished with thousands of invitations and golden opportunities for thefe great works. Let us therefore redeem thofe portions of time that our life and health lend us, for this great and one thing neceffary. And now, if a Man fhall take a furvey ofthe common Courfe, even of the Chriftian World we fhall find the generality of Mankind the veriest Children, Fools, and Madmen, that ever Nature yielded. The very folly of Children in fpending their times in Rattles, and Hobby.horfes, is more excufable than theirs, whofe reafon and experience should better inftruct them. There is not any Man fo fenfelefs, but he knows he muft die, and he knows not how foon he fhall hear of that fad Summons; and if he were fo brutish as not to think of it, or believe it, yet the Weekly Bills of Mortality give him daily inftances of it: and yet if we do but obferve the world of Men, they do for the most part wholly trifle away their time in doing that which is evil; or in doing nothing; or in doing nothing to any purpose, or becoming a reasonable Nature. One Man trifles One Man trifles away his time in Feafting and Jollity; another in Gaming or vain and unneceffary Recreations, in Hunting, Hawking, Bowling, and and other wafting expences of time; another in fine Cloths, Powderings, and Painting, and Dreffing; another in hunting after Honours and Preferments, or heaping up of Wealth and Riches, and lading himself with thick clay; another in trivial fpeculations, poffibly touching fome criticisin or Grammatical nicety, and all thefe Men wonderfully pride themselves as the only wife Men, look big and goodly, and when they come to die, all thefe prove either vexations and tortures of a mifpent time; or at leaft, by the very appear. ance of fickness and death, are rendred poor, empty, infipid, and infignificant things; and then the Minifter is fent for, and Sacraments, and nothing but penitence and complaints of the vanity of the World, the unhappy expences of time, and all the Wealth and Honour would be prefently facrificed for the Redemption of thofe mis-fpent hours, and days, and years that cannot be recalled, nor redeemed by the price of a World. But the great mifery of Mankind is this, they cannot, norwill not, in the times of health, anticipate the confideration of death and judgment to come; nor put on any apprehenfions or thoughts, that the time will come when things will be otherwife with them than now it is: or that they will be driven into another kind of eftimate of things than now they have, and this their way is their Folly. Man being in Honour, in Health, in Life, underftandeth not,but becomes like the Beafts that perifh. Pfal. 49. 12. 4. I come to the Reasons Why we ought thus to Redeem our Time, which may be thefe: 1. Our time is a Talent put into our hands by the great Lord of the whole Family of Heaven and Earth, and fuch whereof we are to give an account when our Mafter calls; and it will be a lamentable Account, when it thall confift only of fuch Items as thefe: Item, So much of it spent in Plays, and Taverns, and Gaming. Item, So much of it fpent in Sleeping, Eating, Drinking. Item, So much spent in Recreations and Paftimes. Item, So much fpent in getting Wealth and Honour, &c. and there remains fo much which was spent in doing nothing. 2. Our time is an Univerfal Talent, that every Man that lives to difcretion, hath. Every Man hath not a Talent of Learning, or of Wealth, or Honour, or Subtilty of Wit to P4 accou account for; but every Man that lives to the Age of Difcretion, hath Time to account for. 3. Every Man hath not only a Talent of Time, but every Man Eath a Talent of Opportunity, to improve his Talent in fome measure, put into his hand. The very works and light of Nature, the very principles of natural Religion_are lodged in the hearts of all Men; which by the help of his natural reafon, he might exercise to fome acts of Service, Duty, and Religion towards God. But the Chriftian hath much more. 4. The Redemption and Improvement of our Time is the next and immediate End why it is given, or lent us, and why we are placed in this life; and the wafting of our time is a disappointment of this very end of our being; for thereby we confequently disappoint God of his Glory, and our selves of our happiness. 5. Upon the management and difpofal of our time depends the everlasting Concernment of our Souls. Ex hoc momento pendet Eternitas. If it be redeemed, improved, and imployed as it ought to be, we fhall in the next moment after death, enter into an Immutable, Eternal, and Perfect ftate of Glory; if it be either finfully or idly spent, we fall into an Everlafting, Irrecoverable and Unchangeable state of Mifery. 6. The business we have to do in this life, in order to the cleanfing of our Souls, and fitting them for Glory, is a Great and Important Bufinefs, and the time we have to live hath two meft dangerous qualities in reference to that business. 1. It is fort: our longeft period is not above 80 years, and few there be that arrive to that Age. 2. It is very cafual and uncertain; there be infinite accidents, difeafes, and diftempers that cut us off fuddenly; as acute difeafes, fuch as scarce give us any warning; and confidering how many ftrings, as it were, there are to hold us up, and how fmall and inconfiderable they are, and how eafily broken, and the breach or diforder of any of the least of them may be an inlet to death, it is a kind of Miracle that we live a month. Again, there be many Diseases that render us in a manner dead while we live, as Apoplexies, Palfies, Phrenfies, Stone, Gout, which render our time either grievous, or very unufeful to us. -7. 7. Time once loft, it is loft for ever; It is never to be recovered; all the Wealth of both the Indies will not redeem nor recal the laft hour I spent; it ceafeth forever. 8. As our time is fhort, fo there be many things that corrode and waft that short time; fo that there remains but little that is ferviceable to our beft imployment. Let us take but out of our longest lives, the weakness and folly of Childhood and Youth, the impotency and morofity of our old Age, the times for eating, drinking, fleeping, though with moderation, the times of sickness and indifpofednefs of health, the times of Cares, Journeys and Travel, the times for neceffary Recreations, Interview of Friends and Relations, and a thoufand fuch expences of time, the refidue will be but a fmall pittance for our business of greateft moment, the bufinefs I mean, of fitting our Souls for Glory; and, if that be mifIpent, or idly spent, we have loft our Treafure, and the very Flower and Jewel of our time. 9. Let us but remember, that when we shall come to Die,and our Souls fit as it were hovering upon our lips, ready to take their flight, at how great a rate we would then be willing to purchafe fome of those hours we once trifted away, but we cannot. 10. Remember that this is the very Elixir, the very Hell of Hell to the damned Spirits, that they had once a Time, wherein they might upon eafie terms, have procured Everlafting Reft and Glory; but they foolishly and vainly mifspent that time and season which is now not to be recovered. The Great Audit: With the Account of the Good Steward. THE HE Great Lord of the World hath placed the Children of Men in this Earth as his Stewards; and according to the Parable in Matthew 25. He delivers to every Perfon his Talents, a Stock of Advantages or Opportunities: to fome he commits more, to fome lefs, to all fome. This Stock is committed to every Perfon under a Traft, or Charge, |