|
|
Post by Admin on Jan 12, 2024 17:22:13 GMT -5
CHAPTER V
Further Subordinate Directions, for the next great Duties of Religion;
necessary to the right performance of the former.
Directions for Redeeming or well improving Time
TIME being man's opportunity for all those works for which he
liveth, and which his Creator doth expect from him, and on which his
endless life dependeth: the redeeming or well improving of it, must
needs be of most high importance to him: and therefore it is well
made by holy Paul, the great mark to distinguish the wise from fools.
"See then that you walk circumspectly; not as fools, but as wise,
redeeming the time." I shall therefore give you special Directions for
it, when I have first opened the nature of the duty to you, and told
you what is meant by Time, and what by Redeeming it.
Time, in its most common acception, is taken generally for all that
space of this present life, which is our opportunity for all the works of
life, and the measure of them. Time is often taken more strictly, for
some special opportunity which is fitted to a special work; which we
call the season or the fittest time: in both these senses time must be
redeemed.
As every work hath its season which must be taken, so have the
greatest works assigned us for God and our souls, some special
seasons besides our common time.
1. Some times God hath fitted by
nature for his service. So the time of youth, and health, and strength
is specially fit for holy work.
2. Some time is made specially fit by
God's Institution; as the Lord's day above all other days.
3. Some
time is made fit by governors' appointment: as the hour of public
meeting for God's worship; and lecture-days; and the hour for family
worship, which every master of a family may appoint to his own
household.
4. Some time is made fit by the temper of men's bodies:
the morning hours are best to most, and to some rather the evening;
and to all, the time when the body is freest from pain and disabling
weaknesses.
5. Some time is made fit by the course of our necessary,
natural, or civil business; as the day is fitter than the sleeping time of
the night, and as that hour is the fittest wherein our other
employments will least disturb us.
6. Some time is made fit by a
special shower of mercy, public or private: as when we dwell in godly
families, among the most exemplary, helpful company, under the
most lively, excellent means, the most faithful pastors, the most
profitable teachers, the best masters or parents, and with faithful
friends.
7. Some time is made fit by particular acts of providence: as a
funeral sermon at the death of any near us; as the presence of some
able minister or private Christian, whose company we cannot
ordinarily have: or a special leisure, as the Eunuch had to read the
Scripture in his charioto.
8]And some time is made specially fit, by the
special workings of God's Spirit upon the heart; when he more than
ordinarily illuminateth, teacheth, quickeneth, softeneth, humbleth,
comforteth, exciteth, or confirmeth. As time in general, so especially
these seasons must be particularly improved for their several works:
we must take the wind and tide while we may have it, and be sure to
strike while the iron is hot.
9. And some time is made fit by others'
necessities, and the call of God: as it is the time to relieve the poor
when they ask, or when they are most in want; or help our neighbour
when it will do him most good: to visit the sick, the imprisoned, and
afflicted, in the needful season. Thus are the godly like trees planted
by the river side, which bring forth fruit in their seasonq. So to speak
in season to the ignorant or ungodly for their conversion, or to be
sorrowful for their consolation.
10. Our own necessity also maketh
our seasons: so the time of age and sickness is made by necessity the
season of our special repentance and preparation for death and
judgment.
11. The present time is commonly made our season,
through the uncertainty of a fitter, or of any more. "Withhold not
good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thy
hand to do it. Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and
to-morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thees." "Give a portion to
seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon
the earth." "Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not
what a day may bring forthu." "As we have therefore opportunity, let
us do good to all men; especially to them who are of the household of
faith." These are our special seasons.
To Redeem Time supposeth,
1. That we know what we have to do
with time, and on what we ought to lay it out, and of how great worth
the things are, for which we must redeem it.
2. That we highly value
time in order to this necessary work.
3. That we are sensible of the
greatness of our sin and loss, in our negligent and wilful losing so
much ms we have done already.
4. That we know the particular
season of each duty.
5. And that we set less by all that which we must
part with in our redeeming time, than we do by time itself, and its
due ends: or else we will not make the bargain.
And as these five things are presupposed, so these following are
contained in our redeeming time.
1. To redeem time is to set that we
cast none of it away in vain; but use every minute of it as a most
precious thing, and spend it wholly in the way of duty.
2. That we be
not only doing good, but doing the best and greatest good which we
are able and have a call to do.
3. That we do not only the best things,
but do them in the best manner and in the greatest measure, and do
as much good as possibly we can.
4. That we watch for special
opportunities.
5. That we presently take them when they fall, and
improve them when we take them.
6. That we part with all that is to
be parted with, to save our time.
7. And that we foreeast the
preventing of impediments, and the removal of our elogs, and the
obtaining of all the helps to expedition and success is duty. This is
the true redeeming of our time.
The Ends and Used which time must be redeemed for are these.
1. In general, and ultimately, it must be all for God, Though not all
employed directly upon God, in needitating of him, or praying to
him; yet all must be laid out for him, immediately or mediately: that
is, either in serving him, or in preparing for his service; in mowing,
or in whetting; in travelling, or in baiting to fit us for travel. And so
our time of sleeping, and feeding, and needful recreation is laid out
for God.
2. Time must be redeemed especially for works of pubic
benefit: for the church and state; for the souls of many: especially by
magistrates and ministers, who have special charge and opportunity;
who "must spend and be spent" for the peoples' sakes, though
rewarded with ingratitude and contempt.
3. For your own souls, and your everlasting life: for speedy conversion without delay, if yon be
yet unconverted: for the hilling of every soul-endangering sin,
without delay: for the exercise and increase of young and
unconfirmed grace, and the growth of knowledge: for the making
sure our calling and election: and for the storing up provisions of
faith, and hope, and love, and comfort, against the hour of suffering
and of death.
4. we must redeem time for the souls of every
particular person that we have opportunity to do good to; especially
for children, and servants, and others whom God hath committed to
our trust.
5. For the welfare of our own bodies, that they may be
serviceable to our souls.
6. And, lastly, for the bodily welfare of
others. And this is the order in which those works lie, for which and
in which our time must be redeemed.
The price that time must be redeemed with, is,
1. Above all, by our
utmost diligence: that we be still doing, and put forth all our
strength, and run as for our lives; and whatever our hand shall find
to do, that we do it with our might, remembering that there is no
work, nor device, not knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither
we go. Our sluggish ease is an easy price to be parted with for
precious time. To redeem it, is not to call back time past; nor to stop
time in its hasty passage; nor to procure a long life on earth: but to
save it, as it passeth, from being devoured and lost, by sluggishness
and sin.
2. Time must be redeemed from the hands, and by the loss
of sinful pleasures, sports and revellings, and all that is of itself, or by
accident unlawful: from wantonness, and licentiousness, and vanity.
Both these are set together. "And that, knowing the time, that now it
is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation neares
than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let
us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the
armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and
drunkenness, not in chambering and wantomness, not in strife and
envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision
for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof."
3. Time must be redeemed
from things indifferent and lawful at another time, when things
necessary do require it. He that should save men's lives, or quench a
fire in his house, of provide for his family, or do his master's work,
will not be excused if he neglect it, by saying, that he was about an
indifferent or a lawful business. Natural rest and sleep must be
parted with for time, when necessary things require it. Paul preached
till midnight, being to depart on the morrowa. The lamenting church,
calling out for prayer, saith, "Arise: cry out in the night, in the
beginning of the watches pour out thy heart like water before the face
of the Lord." Cleanthes' lamp must be used by such, whose sun-light
must be otherwise employed.
4. Time must be redeemed from
worldly business and commodity, when matters of greater weight
and commodity do require it. Trades, and plough, and profit must
stand by, when God calls us (by necessity or otherwise) to greater
things. Martha should not so much as trouble herself in providing
meat for Christ and his followers to eat, when Christ is offering her
food for her soul, and she should with Mary have been hearing at his
feetc. Worldlings are thus called by him. "Ho every one that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. Wherefore do ye spend your money for that
which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not?
hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let
your soul delight itself in fatness."
5. Time must be redeemed from
smaller duties, which in their season must be done, as being no
duties, when they hinder greater duty which should then take place.
It is a duty in its time and place to shew respect to neighbours and
superiors, and to those about us, and to look to our family affairs: but
not when we should be at prayer to God, or when a minister should
be preaching, or at his necessary studies: private prayer and
meditation, and visiting the sick, are duties: but not when we should
be at church, or about any greater duty which they hinder.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jan 12, 2024 17:32:20 GMT -5
Tit. 1. The Directions comtemplative for redeeming Time
Direct. I. 'Still keep upon thy heart, by faith and consideration, the
lively sense of the greatness and absolute necessity of that work,
which must command thy time; remembering who setteth thee on
work, and on what a work he sets thee, and on what terms, and what
will be the end.' It is God that calleth thee to labour: and wilt thou
stand still or be doing other things, when God expecteth duty from
thee? Moses must go to Pharaoh when God bids him go: Jonas must
go to Nineveh when God bids him go: yea, Abraham must go to
sacrifice his son when God bids him go. And may you go about your
fleshly pleasures, when God commandeth you to his service? He hath
appointed you a work that is worth your time and all your labour; to
know him, and serve him, and obey him, and to seek everlasting life!
How diligently should so excellent a work be done! and so blessed
and glorious a master be served! especially considering the
unutterable importance of our diligence! we are in the race
appointed us by our Maker, and are to run for an immortal crown. It
is heaven that must be now won or lost: and have we time to spare in
such a race? We are fighting against the enemies of our salvation; the
question is now to be resolved, whether the flesh, the world and the
devil, or we, shall win the day, and have the victory. And heaven or
hell must be the issue of our warfare: and have we time to spare in
the midst of such a fight? when our very loss of time, is no small part
of the enemy's conquest? Our most wise omnipotent Creator hath
been pleased to make this present life to be the trying preparation for
another, resolving that it shall go with us all for ever, according to
our preparations here: and can we play and loiter away our time, that
have such a work as this to do? O miserable, senseless souls! do you
believe indeed the life everlasting, and that all your lives are given
you now, to resolve the question whether you must be in heaven or
hell for ever? Do you believe this? Again I ask you, do you believe
this? I beseech you, ask your consoiences over and over, whether you
do indeed believe it? Can you believe it, and yet have time to spare?
What! find time to play away, and game away, and idle and prate
away, and yet believe that this very time is given you to prepare for
life eternal? and that salvation or damnation lieth on the race which
now, even now, you have to run? Is not such a man a monster of
stupidity? If you are asleep, or mad, it were the more excusable to be
so senseless: but to do thus awake, and in your wits! O where are the
brains of those men, and of what metal are their hardened hearts
made, that can idle and play away that time, that little time, that only
time, which is given them for the everlasting saving of their souls!
Verily sins, if sin had not turned the ungodly part of the world into a
bedlam, where it is me wonder to see a man out of his wits, people
would run out with wonder into the streets to see such a monster as
this, as they do to see madmen in the country where they are rare;
and they would call to one another, come and see a man, that can
trifle and sport away his time, as he is going to eternity, and is ready
to enter into another world! Come and see a man that hath but a few
days to win or lose his soul for ever in, and is playing it away at cards
or dice, or wasting it in doing nothing! Come and see a man that hath
hours to spare, and cast away upon trifles, with heaven and hell
before his eyes. For thy soul's sake, consider and tell thyself, if thy
estate in the world did lie upon the spending of this day or week, or if
thy life lay on it, so that thou must live or die, or be poor or rich, sick
or well as thou spendest it, wouldst thou then waste it in dressings,
or compliment, or play? and wouldst thou find any to spare upon
impertinent triflings? Or rather wouldst thou not be up betime, and
about thy business, and turn by thy games, and thy diverting
company, and disappoint thy idle visiters, and let them find that thou
art not to be spoken with, nor at leisure to do nothing, but wilt rather
seem uncivil and morose, than be undone! And wouldst thou do thus
for a transitory prosperity or life, and doth not life eternal require
much more? Will thy weighty business in the world resolve thee, to
put thy friends, thy play-fellows and sports, and to shake off thy
idleness? and should not the business of thy salvation do it? I would
desire no more to confute the distracted time-wasters, when they are
disputing for their idle sports and vanities, and asking, what harm is
in cards and dice, and stage-plays, or tedious feasts or
complimenting, adorning idleness, than if I could help them to one
sight of heaven and hell, and make them well know what greater
business they have to do, which is staying for them while they sleep
or play. If I were just now in disputing the case with an idle lady, or a
sensual belly-slave or gamester, and he were asking me scornfully,
what hurt is in all this? if one did but knock at his door and tell him,
the king is at the door and calls for you, it would make him to cast
away his game and his dispute: or if the house were on fire, or a chiId
fallen into the fire or water, or thieves breaking in upon them, it
would make the ladies cast by them the other lace or ribbon? Or if
there were but a good bargain or a lordship to be got, they could be
up and going, though sports and game and gaudery were cast off;
and yet the forerunner of heaven and hell, though one of them is
even at the door, will not do as much for them: because heaven is as
nothing to an unbeliever, or an inconsiderate, senseless wretch; and
as it is nothing to them when it should move them, it shall be nothing
to them when they would enjoy it. Say not, recreation must be used
in its season: I know that necessary whetting is no letting: but God
and thy own conscience shall tell thee shortly, whether thy
recreations, feastings, long dressings, and idleness, were a necessary
whetting or refreshment of thy body, to fit it for that work which
thou wast born and livest for; or whether they were the pastimes of a
voluptuous fleshly brute, that lived in these pleasures for the love of
pleasure. Verily, if I look but on this one unreasonable sin of timewasting,
it would help me to understand the meaning of Luke, Ἐις
ἱαυτὸν ἐλθὼν, that the prodigal is said 'to come to himself;' and that
conversion is the bringing a man to his wits.
Direct. II. 'Be not a stranger to the condition of thy own soul, but
look home till thou art acquainted what state it is in, and what it is in
danger of, and what it wanteth, and how far thou art behindhand in
thy provisions for immortality: and then be an idle time-waster if
thou canst.' Could I but go down with thee into that dungeon heart of
thine, and shew thee by the light of truth what is there! could I but let
in one convincing beam from heaven, which might fully shew thee
what a condition thou art in, and what thou hast to do with thy
remaining time, I should have no need to dispute thee out of thy
remaining fooleries, nor to bid thee, be up and doing for thy soul, any
more than to bid thee stir if a bear were at thy back, or the house in a
flame about thy ears, Alas, our ordinary time-wasters are such, as are
yet unconverted, carnal wretches, and are all the while in the power
of the devil, who is the chief master of the sport, and the greatest
gainer. They are such as are utter strangers to the regenerating,
sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost; and are yet unjustified, and
under the guilt of all their sins, and certain to be with devils in hell
for ever, if they die thus before they are converted! (This is true,
sinner, and thou wilt shortly find it so, by grace or vengeance, though
thy blind and hardened heart now rise against the mention of it!)
And is this a case for a man to sit at cards or dice in, or to sport and
swagger in? The Lord have mercy on thee, and open thy eyes before
it is too late, or else thy conscience will tell thee for ever in another
manner than I am telling thee now, that thou hadst need to have
better improved thy time, and hadst greater things to have spent it
in. What, for a man in thy case! in an unrenewed, unsanctified,
unpardoned state, to be thus casting away that little time, which all
his hopes lie on! and in which, if ever, he must be recovered, and
saved! O Lord, have mercy on such senseless souls, and bring them
to themselves before it be too late! I tell thee, man, an enlightened
person that understandeth what it is, and hath escaped it, would not
for all the kingdoms of the world, be a week or a day in thy condition,
for fear lest death cut off his hopes and shut him up in hell that very
day. He durst not sleep quietly in thy condition a night, lest death
should snatch him away to hell, and canst thou sport and play in it,
and live securely in a sensual course? O what a thing it is to be
hoodwinked in misery, and to be led asleep to hell? Who could
persuade men to live thus awake, and go dancing to hell with their
eyes open! O! if we should imagine a Peter or a Paul, or any of the
blessed, to be again brought into such a case as one of these
unsanctified sinners, and yet to know what now they know! What
would they do? would they feast, and game, and play and trifle away
their time in it? or would they not rather suddenly bewail their
former misspent time, and all their sins, and cry day and night to
God for mercy, and fly to Christ, and spend all their time in holiness
and obedience to God! Alas, poor sinner, do but look into thy heart,
and see there what thou hast to do (of greater weight than trimming
and playing): I almost tremble to think and write what a case thou
art in, and what thou hast to do, while thou livest as if thou hadst
time to spare! If thou know not, I will tell thee, and the Lord make
thee know it: thou hast a hardened heart to be yet softened; and an
unbelieving heart to be brought to a lively, powerful belief of the
word of God and the unseen world: thou hast an unholy heart and
life to be made holy, if ever thou wilt see the face of God. Thou hast a
heart full of sins to be mortified and subdued: and an unreformed
life to be reformed: (and what abundance of particulars do these
generals contain!) Thou hast a pardon to procure through Jesus
Christ, for all the sins that ever thou didst commit, and all the duties
which ever thou didst omit: thou hast an offended God to be
reconciled to, and for thy estranged soul to know as thy Father in
Jesus Christ! What abundance of Scripture truths hast thou to learn
which thou art ignorant of? How many holy duties, as prayer,
meditation, holy conference, &c. to learn which thou art unskilful in?
and to perform when thou hast learned them? How many works of
justice and charity to men's souls and bodies hest thou to do? How
many needy ones to relieve as thou art able? and the sick to visit, and
the naked to clothe, and the sad to comfort, and the ignorant to
instruct, and the ungodly to exhort? What abundance of duty hast
thou to perform in thy relations? to parents or children, to husband
or wife, as a master or a servant, and the rest? Thou little knowest
what sufferings thou hast to prepare for! Thou hast faith, and love,
and repentance, and patience, and all God's graces, to get and to
exercise daily, and to increase! Thou hast thy accounts to prepare,
and assurance of salvation to obtain, and death and judgment to
prepare for: what thinks thy heart of all this work? Put it off as lightly
as thou wilt, it is God himself that hath laid it on thee, and it must be
done in time, or thou must be undone for ever! And yet it must not
be thy toil, but thy delight: this is appointed thee for thy chiefest
recreation. Look into the Scripture and into thy heart, and thou wilt
find that all this is to be done. And dost thou think in thy conscience,
that this is not greater business than thy gaudy dressings, thy idle
visits, or thy needless sports? which is more worthy of thy time?
Direct. III. 'Remember how gainful the redeeming of time is, and
how exceeding comfortable in the review?'
In merchandise, or any trading, in husbandry, or any gaining course,
we use to say of a man that hath grown rich by it, that he hath male
use of his time! But when heaven, and communion with God in the
way, and a life of holy strength and comfort, and a death full of joy
and hope is to be the gain, how cheerfully should time be redeemed
for these? If it be pleasant for a man to find himself thrive and
prosper in any rising or pleasing employment, how pleasant it must
be continually to us, to find that in redeeming time the work of God
and our souls do prosper? Look back now on the time that is past,
and tell me which part is sweetest to thy thoughts? However it be
now, I can tell thee, at death, it will be an unspeakable comfort, to
look back on a wellspent life; and to be able to say in humble
sincerity, my time was not cast away on worldliness, ambition,
idleness, or fleshly vanities or pleasures; but spent in the sincere and
laborious service of my God, and making my calling and election
sure, and doing all the good to men's souls and bodies that I could do
in the world: it was entirely devoted to God and his church, and the
good of others and my soul! What a joy is it when going out of the
world, we can in our place and measure say with our blessed Lord
and pattern, "I have glorified thee on earth: I have finished the work
which thou gavest me to do: and now, O Father, glorify me with
thyself." Or as Paul, "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of
my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished
my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge shall
giveg." And, "For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our
conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly
wisdom, we have had our conversation in the world." It is a great
comfort in sickness to be able to say with Hezekiah, "Remember
now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee, in truth
and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy
sightl." O! time well spent is a precious cordial to a soul that is going
to its final sentence, and is making up its last and general accounts:
yea, the reviews of it will be joyful in heaven: which is given, though
most freely by the covenant afitecedenlty, yet as a reward by our
most righteous Judge, when he comes to sentence men according to
that covenant.
Direct. IV. 'Consider on the contrary how sad the review of ill spent
time is, and how you will wish you had spent it when it is gone.' Hast
thou now any comfort in looking back on thy despised hours? I will
not so far wrong thy understanding, as to question whether thou dost
know that thou must die. But thy sin alloweth me to ask thee,
whether at thy dying hour it will be any comfort to thee to remember
thy pastimes? And whether it will then better please thee, to find
upon thy account, so many hours spent in doing good to others, and
so many in prayer, and studying the Scriptures and thy heart, and in
preparing for death and the life to come; so many in thy calling
obediently managed in order to eternity? or to hear, so many hours
spent in idleness, and so many in needless sports and plays, hawking
and hunting, courting and wantonness; and so many in gathering
and providing for the flesh, and so many in satisfying its greedy lusts.
Which reckoning doth thy conscience think would be most
comfortable to thee at the last? I put it to thy own conscience, if thou
wert to die to-morrow, how thou wouldst spend this present day!
Wouldst thou spend it in idleness and vain pastimes? Or if thou wert
to die this day, where wouldst thou be found, and about what
exercises? Hadst thou rather death found thee in a playhouse,
gaminghouse, an alehouse, in thy fleshly jollity and pleasure? Or in
in a holy walking with thy God, and serious preparing for the life to
come? Perhaps you will say, that, 'If you had but a day to live, you
would lay by the labours of your calling, and yet that doth not prove
them sinful.' But, I answer, there is a great difference between an
evil, and a small unseasonable good. If death found thee in thy
honest calling, holily managed, conscience would not trouble thee for
it as a sin: and if thou rather choose to die in prayer, it is but to
choose a greater duty in its season: but sure thou wouldst be loath on
another account to be found in thy time-wasting pleasures! And
conscience, if thou have a conscience, would make thee dread it as a
sin. Thou wilt not wish at death that thou hadst never laboured in thy
lawful calling, though thou wouldst be found in a more seasonable
work: but thou wilt wish then, if thou understand thyself, that thou
hadst never lost one minute's time, and never known those sinful
vanities and temptations which did occasion it. O spend thy time as
thou wouldst review it!
Direct. V. 'Go hear and mark how other men at death do set by time,
and how they wish then that they had spent it.' It is hardly possible
for men in health, especially in prosperity and security, to imagine
how precious time appeareth to an awakened, dying man! Ask them
then whether life be too long, and men have any time to spare? Ask
them then whether slugging or working, playing or praying be the
better spending of our time? Both good and bad, saints and
sensualists, do use then to be high esteemers of time. O! then what
would an ungodly, unprepared sinner give for some of the time
which he used before as nothing worth? Then the most holy servants
of Christ are sensible how they sinned, in losing any of their time! O!
then how earnestly do they wish, that they had made much of every
minute! And they that did most for God and their souls, that they
had done much more! Now if they were to pray over their prayers
again, how earnestly would they beg! And how much more good
would they do, if time and talents were restored! I knew familiarly a
most holy, grave and reverend divine, who was so affected with the
words of a godly woman, who at her death, did often and vehemently
cry out, 'O call time again! O call time again!' that the sense of it
seemed to remain on his heart, and appear in his praying, preaching
and conversation to his death. Now you have time to cast away upon
every nothing: but then you will say with David, "Remember how
short my time is!" And as "Hagar sat down and wept when her water
was spentl," so then you will lament when time is gone or just at an
end, that you set no more by it, while you had it! O sleepy sinner! thy
heart cannot now conceive how thou wilt set by time, when thou
hearest the physicians say, 'You are a dead man!' And the divine say,
'You must prepare now for another world!' When thy heart saith, 'All
my days are gone! I must live on earth no more! All my preparing
time is at an end! Now what is undone must be undone for ever!' O
that thou hadst now but the esteem of time, which thou wilt have
then, or immediately after! Then, 'O pray for me, that God will
recover me and try me once again! O then how I would spend my
time!' And is it not a most incongruous thing to see the same
persons, now idle and toy away their time, and perhaps think that
they do no harm, who know that shortly they must cry to God, 'O for
a little more time, Lord, to do the great work that is yet undone: a
little more time to make sure of my salvation!' May not God then tell
you, you had time till you knew not what to do with it. You had so
much time that you had many and many an hour to spare for
idleness and vanity, and that which you were not ashamed to call
pastime.
Direct. VI. 'Remember also that when judgment comes, God will call
you to account, both for every hour of your misspent time, and for all
the good which you should have done in all that time, and did it not,'
If you must give account for every idle word, then sure for every idle
hour. And if we must be judged according to all the talents we have
received, and the improvement of them required of us, then certainly
for so precious a talent as our time. And how should that man spend
his time that believeth he must give such account of all? Even to the
most just and holy God, who will judge all men according to their
works; and cause them all to reap as they have sowed. O spend your
time as you would hear of it in judgment!
Direct. VII. 'Remember how much time you have lost already: and
therefore if you are not impenitent, and insensible of your loss, it will
provoke you to redeem with the greater diligence, the remnant which
mercy shall vouchsafe you.' How much lost you in childhood, youth
and riper age? How much have you lost in ignorance? How much in
negligence? How much in fleshly pleasure and vanity? How much in
worldliness, and many other sins? O that you knew but what a loss it
was, if it had been but one year, or week, or day! Do you think you
have spent your time as you should have done: and as beseemed
those that had such work to do? If not, do you repent of it, or do you
not? If you do not, you have no hope to be forgiven. If you do repent,
you will not sure go on to do the same. Who will believe that he
repents of gaming, revelling, or other idle loss of time, who doth so
still while he professeth to repent? He that hath lost the beginning of
the day, must go the faster in the end, if he will perform so great a
journey. Can you remember the hours and years that you have
misspent, in the follies of childhood, and the vanities of
inconsiderate youth, and yet still trifle, and not be provoked by
penitent shame and fear, to diligence? Have you not yet cast away
enough of such a precious treasure, but you will vilify also the little
which remains?
Direct.VIII. 'Remember the swift and constant motion of your
neglected time.' What haste it makes! And never stays! That which
was here while you spake the last word, is gone before you can speak
the next! Whatever you are doing, or saying, or thinking of, it is
passing on without delay! It stayeth not while you sleep! Whether
you remember, and observe it, and make use of it or not, it glides
away! It stayeth not your leisure! It hasteth as fast while you play, as
while you work; while you sin, as when you repent! No monarch so
potent as to command it a moment to attend his will! We have no
more Joshuas to stop the sun. It is above the jurisdiction of the
princes of the earth: it will not hear them if they command or request
it to delay its haste, but the smallest moment! Crowns and kingdoms
would be no price, to hire it to loiter but while you draw another
breath! Your lives are not like the clothes of the Iaraelites in the
wilderness, that was not old; but like the provisions of the
Gibeonites, worn and wasted while you are passing but a little way!
And is time so swift, and you so slow? Will you stand still and see it
pass away, as if you had no use for it; no work to do; nor any account
to give?
Direct. IX. 'Consider also, how irrecoverable time is when it is past.'
Take it now, or it is lost for ever. All the men on earth, with all their
power and all their wit, are not able to recal one minute that is gone!
All the riches in this world cannot redeem it, by neversing one of
those hours or moments, which you so prodigally east away for
nothing. If you would cry and call after it till you tear your hearts, it
will not return. Many a thousand have tried this by sad experience,
and have cried out too late, 'O that we had now that time again which
we made so light of!' But none of them did ever attain their wish! No
more will you. Take it therefore while yon have it. It is now as liberal
to the poorest beggar as to the greatest prince! Time is as much yours
as his. Though in your youth and folly you spend as out of the full
heap, as if time would never have an end, you shall find it is not like
the widow's oil, or the loaves and fishes, multiplied by a miracle; but
the hour is at hand, when you will wish you had gathered the
fragments and the smallest crumbs, that nothing of so precious a
commodity had been lost; even the little minutes, which you thought
you might neglect and be no losers. Try whether you can stop the
present moment, or recal that which is gone by already, before you
vilify or loiter away any more; lest you repent too late.
Direct. X. 'Think also how exceeding little time thou hast, and how
near thou alway standest to eternity . "Is there not an appointed time
to man upon earth? Are not his days also like the days of an
hirelingn?" "Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of
trouble; he cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also
as a shadow and continueth not." "Now my days are swifter than a
post: they flee away: they see no good: they are passed away as the
swift ships, as the eagle that hasteth to the preyp." O, what is this
inch of hasty time! How quickly will it all be gone! Look back on all
the time that is past: if you have lived threescore or fourscore years,
what is it now? Doth it not seem as yesterday since thou wast a child?
Do not days and nights wheel on space? O man! how short is thy
abode on earth! How small a time will leave thee in eternity! What a
small and hasty moment will bring thee to the state, in which thou
must remain for ever! Every night is as the death or end of one of the
few that are here allotted thee. How little a while is it till thy mortal
sickness!—till thou must lie under languishing decays and pain!—till
thy vital powers shall give up their office, and thy pulse shall cease,
and thy soul shall take its silent, undiscerned flight, and leave thy
body to be hid in darkness, and carried by thy friends to the common
earth! How short a time is it betwixt this and the digging of thy
grave!—betwixt thy pleasures in the flesh, and thy sad farewell, when
thou must say of all thy pleasures, 'They are gone!'—betwixt thy cares
and businesses for this world, and thy entrance into another world,
where all these vanities are of no esteem! How short is the time
between thy sin, and thy account in judgment!—between the
pleasure and the pain!—and between the patient holiness of the
godly, and their full reward of endless joys! And can you spare any
part of so short a life? Hath God allotted you so little time, and can
you spare the devil any of that little? Is it not all little enough for so
great a work, as is necessary to your safe and comfortable death? O
remember, when sloth or pleasure would have any, how little you
have in all!—and out of how small a stock you spend!—how little you
have for the one thing necessary!—the providing for eternal life!—
and how unseasonable it is to be playing away time, so near the
entrance into the endless world!
Direct. XI. 'Remember also how uncertain that little time is, which
you must have.' As you know it will be short, so you know not how
short. You never yet saw the day or hour, in which you were sure to
see another. And is it a thing becoming the reason of a man, to slug
or cast away that day or hour, which for ought he knows may be his
last? You think that though you are not certain, yet you are likely to
have more: but nothing that is hazardous should be admitted in a
business of such moment. Yea, when the longest life is short; and
when so frail a body, liable to so many hundred maladies and
casualties, and so sinful a soul, do make it probable as well as
possible, that the thread of thy life should be cut off ere long, even
much before thy natural period: when so many score at younger
years do come to the grave, for one that arriveth at the ripeness of
old age; is not then the uncertainty of thy time a great aggravation of
the sinfulness of thy not redeeming it? If you were sure you had but
one year to live, it would perhaps make you so wise, as to see that
you had no time to spare. And yet do you waste it, when you know
not that you shall live another day? Many a one is this week trifling
away their time, who will be dead the next week; who yet would have
spent it better if they had thought but to have died the next year! O
man! what if death come before thou hast made thy necessary
preparation? Where art thou then? When time is uncertain as well as
short, hast thou not work enough of weight to spend it on? If Christ
had set thee to attend and follow him in greatest holiness a thousand
years, shouldst thou not have gladly done it? And yet canst thou not
hold out for so short a life? Canst thou not watch with him one hour?
He himself was provoked by the nearness of his death, to a speedy
dispatch of the works of his life. And should not we? He sendeth to
prepare his last communion-feast with his disciples, thus: "My time
is at hand: I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples."
And Luke 22:15. "With desire have I desired to eat this passover with
you before I suffer." So should you rather say, 'My time is short; my
death is at hand; and therefore it concerneth me to live in the
knowledge and communion of God, before I go hence into his
presence,' especially when, as Eccles. 9:12. "Man knoweth not his
time." Many thousands would have done better in their preparations,
if they had known the period of their time. "But know this, that if the
good man of the house had known, in what watch the thief would
come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house
to be broken up: therefore be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye
think not, the Son of man cometh." "Take ye heed, watch and pray;
for ye know not when the time iss."
Direct. XII. 'Never forget what attendance thou hast whilst thou art
idling or sinning away thy time: how the patience and mercy of God
are staying for thee: and how sun and moon and all the creatures are
all the while attending on thee.' And must God stand by, while thou
art yet a little longer abusing and offending him? Must God stay till
thy cards, and dice, and pride, and worldly, unnecessary cares will
dismiss thee, and spare thee for his service? Must he wait on the
devil, and the world, and the flesh; to take their leavings, and stay till
they have done with thee? Canst thou marvel if he make thee pay for
this? If he turn away, and leave thee to spend thy time in as much
vanity and idleness as thou desirest? Mutt God and all his creatures
wait on a careless sinner, while he is at his fleshly pleasures? Must
life and time be continued to him, while he is doing nothing that is
worthy of his life and time? "The longsuffering of God did wait on the
disobedient in the days of Noah." But how dear did they pay for the
contempt of this forbearance?
Direct. XIII. 'Consider soberly of the ends for which thy life and time
are given thee by God.' God made not such a creature as man for
nothing: he never gave thee an hour's time for nothing. The life and
time of brutes and plants are given them to be serviceable to thee:
but what is thine for? Dost thou think in thy conscience that any of
thy time is given thee in vain? When thou art slugging, or idling, or
playing it away, dost thou think in thy conscience that thou art wisely
and honestly answering the ends of thy creation, and redemption,
and hourly preservation? Dost thou think that God is so unwise, or
disregardful of thy time and thee, as to give thee more than thou hast
need of? Thou wilt blame thy tailor if he cut out more cloth than will
make thy garments meet for thee, and agreeable to thy use: and thou
wilt blame thy shoemaker, if he make thy shoes too big for thee: and
dost then think thou God is so lavish of time, or so unskilful in his
works of providence; as to cut thee out more time, than the work
which he hath cut thee out requireth? He that will call thee to a
reckoning for all, hath certainly given thee none in vain. If thou canst
find an hour that thou hast nothing to do with, and must give no
account for, let that be the hour of thy pastime. But if thou knewest
thy need, thy danger, thy hopes, and thy work, thou wouldst never
dream of having time to spare. For my own part, I must tell thee, if
thou have time to spare, thy case is very much different from mine. It
is the daily trouble and burden of my mind, to see how slowly my
work goes on, and how hastily my time: and how much I am like to
leave undone which I would fain dispatch! How great and important
businesses are to be done, and how short that life is like to be, in
which they must be done, if ever! Methinks if every day were as long
as ten, it were not too long for the work which is every day before me,
though not incumbent on me as my present duty (for God reqaireth
not impossibilities,) yet exceeding desirable to be done. It is the work
that makes the time a mercy: the time is for the work. If my work
were done, which the good of the church and my soul reqaireth, what
cause had I to be glad of the ending of my time, and to say with
Simeon, "Lord; now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace."
Remember then that God never gave thee one minute to spend in
vain; but thy very ease, and rest, and recreations must be but such
and so much as fit thee for thy work; and as help it on, and do not
hinder it. He redeemed and preserveth us, that we "might serve him
in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our lives."
Direct. XIV. 'Remember still, that the time of this short, uncertain
life is all that ever you shall have, for your preparation for your
endless life.' When this is spent, whether well or ill, you shall have no
more. God will not try those with another life on earth, that have cast
away and misspent this.… There is no returning hither from the
dead, to mend that which here you did amiss. What good you will do,
must now be done: and what grace you would get, must now be got:
and what preparation for eternity you would ever make, must now be
made! "Behold, now is the accepted time! Beheld, now is the day of
salvationy." "Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, To-day if you will
hear his voice, harden not your hearts. But exhort one another daily,
while it is called to-day, lest any of you be hardened by the
deceitfulness of sin." Have you but one life here to live, and will you
lose that one, or any part of it! Your time is already measured out:
the glass is turned upon you. "And the angel—lifted up his hand to
heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, that time
should be no longera." Therefore "whatever thy hand frndeth to do,
do it with thy might: for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge,
nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goeat." What then remaineth,
but that "the time being short, and the fashion of these things
passing away," you use the world as if you used it not, and redeem
this time for your eternal happiness.
Direct. XV. 'Remember still that sin and satan will lose no time: and
therefore it concerneth you to lose none "The devil your adversary
goeth about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour ." "Be
sober" therefore and "vigilant to resist hime." If he be busy, and you
be idle if he be at work in spreading his nets, and laying his snarel for
you, and you be at play and do not mind him, it is easy to foretell you
what will be the issue. If your enemies be fighting, while you sit still
or sleep, it is easy to prognosticate who will have the victory. The
weeds of corruption are continually growing: sin, like a constant
spring, is still running: the world is still enticing: and the flesh is still
inclining to its prohibited delights. None of these enemies will make
a truce or a cessation with you, to sit still as long as you sit still. So
far are they from forbearing you, while you are idle, or gratifying the
flesh, that even this is the fruit and evidence of their industry and
success. Lose no time then, and admit of no interruptions of your
work, till you can persuade your enemies to do the like.
Direct. XVI. 'Consider what a senseless contradiction it is of you, to
overlove your lives, and yet to cast away your time.' What is your
time but the duration of your lives? You are loath to die, and loath
your time should be at an end: and yet you can as prodigally cast it
away, as if you were weary of it, or longed to be rid of it. Is it only the
last hours that you are loath to lose? Are not the middle parts as
precious, and to be spared and improved? Or is it only to have time,
and not to use it, that you desire? No means are good for any thing,
but to further the attainment of the end: it is not good to you, if it do
you no good. To have food or raiment without any use of them, is as
bad as not to have them. If you saw a man tremble with fear lest his
purse be taken from him, and yet take out his money himself, and
cast it away, or give it all for a straw or feather, what would you think
of that man's wit? And do not you do the like and worse, when you
are afraid lest death should end your time, and yet you yourselves
will idle it away, and play it away, and give it for a little worldly pelf?
But I know how it is with you: it is for the present pleasure of the
flesh, and for the sweetness of life itself that you value life, and are so
loath to die, and not for any higher ends: but this is to be brutish,
and to unman yourselves, and simply to vilify your lives, while you
idolize them. Such mad contradictions. sin infers. You make your life
your ultimate end, and desire to live but for life itself, or the
pleasures of life, and so you make it instead of God and heaven,
which should be intended as your proper end: and yet while you refer
it not to these higher ends, and use it but for the present pleasure,
you vilify yourselves and it, as if man did differ from a dog or other
brute, but in some poor degree of present pleasure.
Direct. XVII. 'Consider that in your loss of time, you lose all the
mercies of that time.' For time is pregnant with great, invaluable
mercies. It is the cabinet that containeth the jewels. If you throw
away the purse, you throw away the money that is in it. O what might
you get in those precious hours which you cast away! How much
better a treasure than money might you win? How much sweeter a
pleasure than all your games and sports might you enjoy? You might
be soliciting God for life eternal! You might be using and increasing
grace! You might be viewing by faith the blessed place and company
in which you may abide for ever. All this, and more, you are losing
while you are losing time. You choose as a pleasure that heavy curse,
"Your strength shall be spent in vain." Why do you not also take it for
a pleasure, to cast away your gold or health? I tell you, a very little
time is worth a great deal of gold and silver. You cast away a more
precious commodity.
Direct. XVIII. 'Think seriously how Christ, and his apostles, and
holiest servants in all ages spent their time.' They spent it in praying,
and preaching, and holy conference, and in doing good, and in the
works of their outward callings in subserviency to these: but not in
cards, or dice, or dancing, or stage-plays, or pampering the flesh, nor
in the pursuit of the profits and honours of the world. I read where
Christ was "all night in praying," but not where he spent an hour in
playing. I know you will say, that you expect not to reach to their
degree of holiness. But let me remember you, that he is not sincere
that desireth not to be perfect. And that he is graceless, who wilfully
keepeth any beloved sin, which he had not rather be delivered from;
and that wilfully refuseth any duty, and had not rather perform it as
he ought. And that you are the more needy, though Christ, and his
apostles, and servants, were the more holy! And that the poor have
more need to beg, and work, and be sparing of what they have, than
the rich. And therefore, if Christ and his holiest servants were
sparing of their time, and spent it in works of holiness and
obedience, have not you greater need to do so than they? Have not
you more need to pray, and learn God's Word, and prepare for death,
than Christ and his apostles? Are you not more behindhand, as
having lost much time? Let your wants instruct you.
Direct. XIX. 'Forget not that a spending time may come, when you
will think all too little, that now you can provide, by the most diligent
redeeming of your time.' If a garrison expect a siege, so sharp and so
long as will spend up their provisions, they will prepare accordingly,
that they perish not by famine. Temptations may be stronger, and
then you will find that you should now have gathered strength to
overcome them, and have bestirred you in the getting day, that you
might be able to stand in the evil day. It is those that now loiter and
lose their time, and gather not knowledge and strength of grace, who
fall in trial: when sufferings for righteousness' sake, shall be as a
siege to you, and when poverty, wrongs, provocations, sickness, and
the face of death, shall be as a siege to you, then you will find all your
faith, and hope, and love, and comfort to be too little; and then you
will wish that you had now bestirred you, and laid in better
provision, and "laid up a good foundation or treasure in store for the
time to come."
Direct. XX. Lastly, 'Forget not how time is esteemed by the damned,
whose time and hope are gone for ever; and how thou wilt value it
thyself if thou sin thy soul into that woeful state.' What thinkest thou
would those miserable creatures now give (if they had it) but for one
day's time, upon those terms of mercy which thou dost now enjoy it?
Would they sleep it away, or be at their games and merriments, while
God is offering them Christ and grace? Doat thou think they set not a
higher price on time and merey, than ainners upon earth? Doth it not
tear their very hearts for ever, to think how madly they consumed
their lives, and wasted the only time that was given them to prepare
for their salvation? Do those in hell now think them wise, that are
idling or playing away their time on earth? O no! Their feeling and
experience sufficiently confuteth all that time-wasters now plead for
their sottish prodigality. I do not believe that thou canst at once
believe the Word of God, concerning the state of damned souls, and
yet believe that thy idle and vain expence of time, would not vex thy
conscience, and make thee even rage against thyself, if ever sin
should bring thee thither! O then thou wouldst see, that thou hadst
greater matters to have spent thy time in, and that it deserved a
higher estimation and improvement. O man! beseech the Lord to
prevent such a conviction, and give thee a heart to prize thy time
before it is gone; and to know the worth of it, before thou know the
want of it.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jan 12, 2024 18:50:21 GMT -5
Tit. 2. Directions Contemplative for Redeeming
Opportunity
Opportunity or season is the flower of time. All time is precious; but
the season is most precious. The present time is the season to works
of present necessity: and for others, they have all their particular
seasons, which must not be let slip.
Direct. I. 'Remember that is the great difference between the happy
saint and the unhappy world, that one is wise in time, and the other
is wise too late.' The godly know when knowledge will do good: the
wicked know when knowledge will but torment them. All those that
you see now so exceedingly contrary in their judgment to the godly,
will be of the very same opinion shortly, when it will do them no
good. Bear with their difference and contradiction, for it will be but a
very little while. There is not one man that now is the furious enemy
of holiness, but will confess ere long that holiness was best. Do they
now despise it as tedious, fantastical hypocrisy? They will shortly
know that it was but the cure of a distracted mind, and the necessary
duty to God, which religion and right reason do command. Do they
now say of sin, What harm is in it? They will shortly know that it is
the poison of the soul, and worse than any misery or death. They will
think more highly of the worth of Christ, of the necessity of all
possible diligence for our souls, of the preciousness of time, of the
wisdom of the godly, of the excellencies of heaven, and of the Word
of God and all holy means, than any of those do that are now
reproached by them, for being of this mind. But what the better will
they be for this? No more than Adam for knowing good and evil. No
more than it will profit a man when he is dead, to know of what
disease he died. No more than it will profit a man to know what is
poison, when he hath taken it, and is past remedy. The thief will be
wise at the gallows; and the spendthrift prodigal when all is gone.
But they that will be safe and happy, must be wise in time. The godly
know the worth of heaven, before it is lost; and the misery of
damnation, before they feel it; and the necessity of a Saviour, while
he is willing to be a Saviour to them; and the evil of sin, before it hath
undone them; and the preciousness of time, before it is gone; and the
worth of mercy, while mercy may be had; and the need of praying,
while praying may prevail. They sleep not till the door is shut, and
then knock and cry, 'Lord open to us,' as the foolish ones, Matt. 25.
They are not like the miserable world, that will not believe, till they
come where devils believe and tremble; nor repent, till torment force
them to repent. As ever you would escape the dearbought experience
of fools, be wise in time; and leave not conscience to answer all your
cries, and moans, and fruitless wishes, with this doleful peal, 'Too
late! too late!' Do but know now by an effectual faith, what wicked
men will know by feeling and experience, when it is too late, and you
shall not perish. Do but live now as those enemies of holiness will
wish they had lived when it is too late, and you will be happy. Now
God may be found: "Seek the Lord while he may be found, and call
upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the
unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and
he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon." Read but the doleful lamentation of Christ over Jerusalem,
Luke 19:41, 42. and then bethink you, what it is to neglect the season
of mercy and salvation: "He beheld the city and wept over it, saying,
If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things
which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hidden from thine
eyes!"
Direct. II. 'Remember that the neglecting of the season is the
frustrating and destroying of the work.' When the season is past, the
work cannot be done. If you sow not in the time of sowing, it will be
in vain at another time. If you reap not, and gather not in harvest, it
will be too late in winter to hope for fruit. If you stay till the tide is
gone, or take not the wind that fits your turn, it may be in vain to
attempt your voyage. All works cannot be done at all times: Christ
himself saith, "I must work while it is day: the night cometh when no
man can work." Say not then, 'The next day may serve the turn:' the
next day is for another work: and you must do both.
Direct. III. 'Consider that if the work should not be impossible, yet it
will be difficult out of season; when in its season it might be done
with ease.' How easily may you swim with the tide? and sail with the
wind? and form the iron if you hammer it while it is hot? How easily
may many a disease be cured, if taken in time, which is afterwards
incurable? How easily may you bend a tender twig, and pluck up a
plant, which will neither be plucked up nor bended when it is grown
up to be a tree? When you complain of difficulties in religion, bethink
you whether your loss of the fittest season, and acquainting
yourselves no sooner with God, be not the cause?
Direct. IV. 'Consider that your work out of season is not so good or
acceptable, if you could do it.' "Every thing is beautiful in its season."
To speak a "word in season to the weary," is the skill of the faithful
messengers of peaceo. When out of season good may be turned into
evil. Who will thank you for giving physic, or food, or clothing to the
dead? Or pitying the poor when it is too late? In time all this may be
accepted.
Direct. V. 'Remember that if thou omit the season, thou art left to
uncertainties both for time, and means, and grace.' Lose this time,
and for aught thou knowest, thou losest all. Or if thou have time, it
may be curst with barrenness, and never more may fruit grow on it.
Preachers may be taken from thee: and gracious company may be
taken from thee: helps and means may be turned into hindrances,
and opposition, and strong temptations: and then you will find what
it was to neglect the season! Or if you have the continuance of all
helps and means, how know you that God will set in by his grace, and
bless them to you, and move your hearts? He may resolve that if you
resist him now, his Spirit shall strive with you no more. If while it is
called to day, you will harden your hearts, he may resolve to leave
you to the hardness of Pharaoh, and to get himself a name upon you,
and use you as vessels of wrath, prepared by your neglect and
obstinacy for destruction.
Direct. VI. 'Bethink you how all the creatures keep their proper
seasons, in the service which God hath appointed them for you.' The
sun riseth and setteth in its season, and keepeth its diary, and annual
course, and misseth not a minute. So do the other celestial motions.
You have day and night, and seedtime, and harvest, summer and
winter, spring and fall, and all exactly in their seasons. "Yea, the
stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed time, and the turtle, and
the crane, and the swallow observe the time of their coming: but my
people know not the judgment of the Lord." Shall only man neglect
his season?
Direct. VII. 'Consider how you know and observe the leason for your
wordly labours, and should you not much more do so in greater
things?' You will not plough when you should reap; nor do the work
of the summer in the winter. You will not lie in bed all day, and go
about your business in the night. You will be inquisitive, that you
may be skilful in the seasons, for your benefit or safety in the world:
and should you not much more be so for a better world? O ye
hypocrites! ye can discern the face of the sky! but can ye not discern
the signs of the times?" An at harvest you look for the fruit of year
land, so doth God in season expect fruit from your. The "godly" are
"like a tree that is planted by the river's side, which bringeth forth its
fruit in season." Shall worldlings knew their season, and shall not
we?
Direct. VIII. 'Consider how vigilant the wicked are to know and take
their season to do evil.' And how much more should we be so in
doing good! Seducers will take the opportunity to deceive. The thief
and the adulterer will take the season of secresy and darkness. The
ambitious and covetous will take the season for profit and
preferment. The malicious watch their seasons of revenge. And have
we not more need and more encouragement than they? ls it time for
them to be building their houses, and growing great by covetousness
and oppression, and is it not time for you to be honouring God, and
providing for year endless life? They "cannot sleep unless they do
evil," and can you sleep securely while your time passeth away, and
your work is undone?
Direct. IX. 'Remember that the devil watcheth the season of
temptation to destroy you.' He prevaileth much by taking the time:
when he seeth you disarmed forgetting God, in secure prosperity,
attest to hearken to his temptations. The same temptations out of
season might not prevail. And will you let your enemy outdo you?
Direct. X. 'Consider how earnest you are with God in your necessities
and distress, not only to relieve and help you, but to do it speedily
and in season.' You would rather have him prevent the season, than
to let it pass. You are impatient till deliverance come, and can hardly
stay the time till it be ripe. When you are in pain and sickness, you
would be delivered speedily: you are ready to cry, "How long, Lord,
how long?" And as David, "The time, yea, the set time is come."
"Make no longer tarrying, O my Godx!" It would not satisfy you if
God should say, I will ease you of your pain the next year. Why then
should you neglect the time of duty, and use so many delays with
God? He giveth you all your mercies in their season; why then do you
not in season give up yourselves to his love and service? when you
have his promise, that you shall "reap in due season if you do not
faint."
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jan 12, 2024 18:53:06 GMT -5
Tit. 3. Directions Practical for Redeeming Time
Direct. I. 'The first point in the art of redeeming time, is, to dispatch
first with greatest care and diligence, the greatest works of absolute
necessity, which must be done, or else we are undone for ever.' First
see that the great work of a sound conversion or sanctification be
certainly wrought within you. Make sure of your saving interest in
Christ: get proof of your adoption and peace with God, and right to
everlasting life. Be able to prove to your consciences from the Word
of God, and from your regenerate, heavenly hearts and lives, that
your souls are justified and safe, and may comfortably receive the
news of death, when ever it shall be sent to call you hence. And then,
when you have done but this much of your work, you will incur no
such loss of time, as will prove the loss of your souls or happiness.
Though still there is much more work to do, for yourselves and
others, yet when this much is soundly done, you have secured the
main. If you lose the time in which you should be renewed by the
Spirit of Christ, and in which you should lay up your treasure in
heaven, you are lost for ever. Be sure therefore that you look first to
this: and then if you lose but the time in which you might have grown
rich or got preferment, your loss is tolerable; you know the worst of
it; you may see to the end of it. Yea, if you lose the time in which you
should increase in holiness, and edify others, the loss is grievous; but
yet it will not lose you heaven. Therefore as Solomon directeth the
husbandman, "Prepare thy work without and make it fit for thyself in
the field; and afterwards build thine house:" so I advise you, to see
first that the necessary work be done; when that is done, and well
done, you may go quietly and cheerfully about the rest: "Seek first
the kingdom of God and his righteousness;" O what a deal is done
when this is done!
Direct. II. 'Learn to understand well the degrees of duties, which is
the greater and which the less, that when two seem to require your
time at once, you may know which of them to prefer.' Not only to
know which is simply and in itself the greatest, but which is the
greatest for you, and at that season, and as considered in all the
circumstances. A great part of the art of redeeming time, consisteth
in the wise discerning and performing of this; to give precedency to
the greatest duty. He loseth his time, who is getting a penny when he
might get a pound; who is visiting his neighbour, when he should be
attending his prince; who is weeding his garden, when he should be
quenching a fire in his house, though he be doing that which in itself
is good. So is he losing his time, who is preferring his body before his
soul; or man before God; or indifferent things before necessary; or
private duties before public; or less edifying before the more
edifying; or sacrifice before necessary mercy. The order of good
works I have shewed you before, Chap. 3. Direct. 10. which you may
peruse.
Direct. III. 'Be acquainted with the season of every duty, and the duty
of each season; and take them in their time.' And thus one duty will
help on another: whereas misplacing them and disordering them,
sets them against one another, and takes up your time with
distracting difficulties, and loseth you in confusion. As he that takes
the morning hour for prayer, or the fittest vacant hour, shall do it
quietly, without the disturbance of his other affairs; when if the
season be omitted, you shall scarce at all perform it, or almost as ill
as if you did it not at all: so is it in point of conscience, reproof,
reading, hearing, meditating, and every duty. A wise and well-skilled
Christian should bring his matters into such order, that every
ordinary duty should know his place, and all should be as the links of
one chain which draw on one another; or as the parts of a clock or
other engine, which must be all conjunct, and each right placed. A
workman that hath all his tools on a heap or out of place, spends
much of the day in which he should be working in looking for his
tools: when he that knoweth the place of every one, can presently
take it, and lose no time. If my books be thrown together on a heap, I
may spend half the day in looking for them when I should use them
but if they be set in order, and I know their places, it spares me that
time. So is it in the right timing of our duties.
Direct. IV. 'Live continually as under the government of God; and
keep conscience tender, and in the performance of its office; and
always be ready to render an account to God and conscience of what
you do.' If you live as under the government of God, you will be still
doing his work; you will be remembering his judgment; you will be
trying your work whether it be such as he approveth: this will keep
you from all time-wasting vanities. If you keep conscience tender, it
will presently check and reprehead you for your sin: and when you
lose but a minute of time, It will tell you of the loss: whereas a
"seared conscience" is "past feeling," and will give you over to
"lasciviousness," and will make but a jest at the lose of time: or at
least will not effectually tell you either of the sin or loss. If you keep
conscience to its office, it will ask you frequently, what you are
doing? and try your works: it will take account of time when it is
spent, and ask you, what you have been doing? and how you have
spent every day and hour? And (as Seneca could say) "He will be the
more careful what he doth, and how be spends the day, who looks to
be called to a reckoning for it every night." This will make the
foreseen day of judgment have such a continual awe upon you as if
you were presently going to it; while conscience with respect to it, is
continually forejudging you. Whereas they that have silenced or
discarded conscience, are like schoolboys that bolt their master out
of doors, who do it with a design to spend the time in play, which
they should have spent in learning: but the after teckoning pays for
all.
Here, for the further direction of your consciences, I shall lay you
down a few rules, for the right spending of your time. 1. Spend it in
nothing (as a deliberate moral act) which is not truly, directly, or
remotely an act of obedience to some law of God: (of more natural
acts, which are no objects of moral choice, I speak not.) 2. Spend it in
nothing which you know must be repented of. 3. Spend it in nothing
which you dare not, or may not warrantably pray for a blessing on
from God. 4. Spend it in nothing which you would not review at the
hour of death, by an awakened, wellinformed mind. 5. Spend it in
nothing which you would not hear of in the day of judgment 6. Spend
it in nothing which you cannot safely and comfortably be found
doing, if death should surprise you in the act. 7. Spend it in nothing
which fleshpleasing persuadeth you to, against your consciences, or
with a secret grudge or doubting of your consciences. 8. Spend it in
nothing which hath not some tendency, directly or remotely, to your
ultimate end, the pleasing of God, and the enjoying him in love for
ever. 9. Spend it in nothing which tendeth to do more hurt than
good: that would do a great hurt to yourself or others, under pretence
of doing some little good, which perhaps may better be done another
way. 10. Lastly, Spend it in nothing which is but a smaller good,
when a greater should be done.
Direct. V. 'Do your best to settle yourselves where there are the
greatest helps and smallest hindrances to the redeeming of your
time. And labour more to accommodate your habitation, condition,
and employments to the great ends of your life and time, than to
your worldly honour, ease, or wealth.' Live where is best trading for
the soul: you may get more by God's ordinary blessing in one year, in
a godly family, or in fruitful company, and under an able, godly
minister, than in many years in a barren soil, among the ignorant,
dead-hearted, or profane, where we must say, as David, "I held my
peace even from good, while the wicked is before me." And when we
must do all the good we do through much opposition; and meet with
great disadvantages and difficulties, which may quickly stop such
dull and backward hearts as ours. If you will prefer your profit before
your souls in the choice of your condition, and will plunge yourselves
into distracting business and company, your time will run in a
wrong, unprofitable channel.
Direct. VI. 'Contrive beforehand with the best of your skill, for the
preventing of impediments, and for the most successful performance
of your work.' If you leave all to the very time of doing, you will have
many hindrances rise before you, and make you lose your time,
which prudent forecast might have prevented. As for the improving
the Lord's day, if you do not beforehand so order your business, that
all things may give place to holy duties, you will meet with so many
disturbances and temptations, as will lose you much of your time and
benefit: so for family duties, and secret duties; and meditations, and
studies, and the works of your callings. If you do not forecast what
hindrance is like to meet you, that you may prevent it before the
time, you must lose much time, and suffer much disappointment.
Direct. VII. 'Endure patiently some smaller inconvenience and loss,
for the avoiding of greater, and for the redeeming of time for greater
duties: and let little things be resolutely cast out of your way, when
they would draw out your time by insensible degrees.' The devil
would cunningly steal that from you by drops, which he cannot get
you to cast away profusely at once: he that will not spend prodigally
by the pounds, may run out by not regarding pence. You shall have
the pretences of decency and seemliness, and civility, and good
manners, and avoiding offence, and censure, and of some necessity
too, to draw out your precious time from you by little and little; and
if you are so easy as to yield, it will almost all be wasted by this
temptation. As, if you be ministers of Christ, whose time must be
spent in your studies, and pulpits, and in conference with your
people, and visiting them, and watching over them, and it is your
daily groans that time it short and work is long, and that you are
forced to omit so many needful studies, and pass by so many needy
souls, for want of time; yet if you look not well about you, and will
not bear some censure and offence, you shall lose even the rest of the
time, which now you do improve. Your friends about you will be
tempting and telling you, 'O this friend must needs be visited, and
the other friend must be civilly treated; you must not shake them off
so quickly: they look for more of your time and company: you are
much obliged to them: they will say you are uncivil and morose: such
a scholar comes to be acquainted with you; and he will take it ill, and
misrepresent you to others, if you allow him not time for some
familiar discourse. It is one that never was with you before, and
never took up any of your time: (and so saith the next and the next as
well as he.) Such an one visited you, and you must needs visit him
again. There is this journey or that which must needs be gone: and
this business and that which must needs be done.' Yea, one's very
family occasions will steal away all his time, if he watch not narrowly:
we shall have this servant to talk to, and the other to hear, and our
relations to respect, and abundance of little things to mind, so little
as not to be named by themselves, about meat, and drink, and
clothes, and dressing, and house, and goods, and servants, and work,
and tradesmen, and messengers, and marketing and payments, and
cattle, and a hundred things not to be reckoned up, that will every
one take up a little of your time, and those littles set together will be
all. As the covetous usurer, that to purchase a place of honour,
agreed for a month, to give a penny to every one that asked him:
which being quickly noised abroad in the city, there came so many
for their pence, as took all that he had, and made him quit his place
of honour, because he had nothing left to maintain it. So perhaps you
are an eminent, much valued minister; and this draweth upon you
such a multitude of acquaintance, every one expecting a little of your
time, that among them all, they leave you almost none for your
studies, whereby not only your conscience is wounded, but your
parts are quenched, and your work is starved and poorly done, and
so your admirers themselves begin to set as light by you as by others,
for that which is the effect of their own importunity. And as in our
yearly expences of our money, there goath near as much in little
matters, not to be named by themselves, and incidental, unexpected
charges, of which no account can be given beforehand, as doth in
food, and raiment and the ordinary charges which we foreknow and
reckon upon: just so it will be with your precious time, if you be not
very thrifty and resolute, and look not well to it: you will have such
abundance of little matters, scarce fit to be named, which will every
one require a little, and one begin where the other endeth, that you
will find in the review, when time is gone, that satan was too cunning
for you, and cheated you by drawing you into seeming necessities.
This is the grand reason why marriage and housekeeping are so
greatly inconvenient to a pastor of the church, that can avoid them;
because they bring upon him such abundance of these little
diversions, which cannot be foreseen. In this case a conscionable
man (in what calling soever) must be resolute: and when he hath
endeavoured with reason to satisfy expectants, and put by diversions,
if that will not serve, he must neglect them, and cast them off, and
break away, though he lose by it in his estate, or his repute, or his
peace itself, and though he be censured for it to be imprudent,
uncivil, morose, or neglective of his friends: God must be pleased,
whoever be displeased: we must satisfy our minds with his alone
approbation, instead of all: time must be spared, whatever be lost or
wasted: and the great things must be done, whatever become of the
less: though where both may be done, and the lesser hinder not the
greater, and rob us not of time from necessary things, there we must
have a care of both.
Direct. VIII. 'Labour to go always furnished and well provided for the
performance of every duty which may occur.' As he that will not lose
his time in preaching, must be well provided; so he that will not lose
his time in solitariness, must be always furnished with matter for
profitable meditation: and he that would redeem his time in
company, must be always furnished with matter for profitable
discourse: he that is full will be ready to pour out to others, and not
be silent and lose his time for want of matter, or skill, or zeal; for in
all these three your provision doth consist. An ignorant, empty
person wants matter for his thoughts and words: an imprudent
person wants skill to use it: a careless, cold, indifferent person, wants
life to set his faculties on motion, and oil and poise to set the wheels
of his soul and body a-going. Bethink you in the morning what
company you are Iike to meet, and what occasions of duty you are
like to have; and provide yourselves accordingly before you go, with
matter and resolution. Besides the general preparative of habitual
knowledge, charity, and zeal, which is the chief; you should also have
your particular preparations for the duties of each day. A workman
that is strong and healthful, and hath all his tools in readiness and
order, will do more in a day, than a sick man, or one that wanteth
tools, or keeps them dull and unfit for use, will do in many. "The
mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom and his tongue talketh of
judgment:" (and no wonder, when) "The law of his God is in his
hearth: none of his steps shall slide." "Out of the abundance of the
heart the month speaketh: a good man out of the good treasure of his
heart, bringeth forth good things d." "Every scribe which is
instructed to the kingdom of heaven, is like a mam that is an
householder bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old."
Direct. IX. 'Promise not long life to yourselves, but live as those that
are always uncertain of another day, and certain to be shortly gone
from hence.' The groundless expectation of long life, is a very great
hindrance to the redeeming of our time. Men will spend prodigally
out of a full purse, who would be sparing if they knew they had but a
little, or were like to come to want themselves. Young people, and
healthful people, are under the greatest temptation to the loss of
time. They are apt to think that they have time enough before them,
and that though it is possible that they may die quickly, yet it is more
likely that they shall live long: and so, putting the day of death for
from them, they want all those awakenings, which the face of death
doth bring to them that still expect it: and therefore want the
wisdom, zeal and diligence which are necessary to the redemption of
their time. Pray therefore as "So teach us to number our days, that
we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Dream not of rest and plenty
for many years, when you have no promise to live till the next
morningg. When they perceive death is at hand and time is near an
end, almost all men seem highly to esteem of time, and promise to
spend it better if God would but try them once again. Do you
therefore continually perceive that death is even at hand, and time
near an end, and then it will make you continually more wise than
death maketh the most; and to redeem your time as others purpose
to redeem it when it is too late.
Direct. X. 'Sanctify all to God that you have and do and let Holiness
to the Lord, be written upon all;' whether you eat or drink let it be
intended and ordered ultimately to his glory. Make all your civil
relations, possessions and employments, thus holy; designing them
to the service and pleasing of God, and to the everlasting good of
yourselves or others, and mixing holy meditation and prayer with
them all in season. And thus we are bid, to "pray continually," and
"in all things give thanks." And "in all things to make known our
requests to God, in prayer, supplication, and giving of thanksi." And
"all things are sanctified by the word and prayer." This sacred
alchymy, that turneth all our conversation, and possessions, and
actions into holy, is an excellent part of the art of redeeming time.
Direct. XI. 'Lastly, be acquainted with the great Thieves that rob men
of their time, and with the devil's methods in enticing them to lose it,
and live in continual watchfulness against them.' It is a more
necessary thriftiness to be sparing and saving of your time, than of
your money. It more concerneth you to keep a continual watch
against the things which would rob you of your time, than against
those thieves that would break your house, and rob you by the
highway. Those persons that would tempt you to the loss of time, are
to be taken as your enemies, and avoided. I shall here recite the
names of these thieves, and time-wasters, that you may detect them,
and save your time and souls from their deceits.
|
|
