Post by Admin on Jan 12, 2024 18:59:47 GMT -5
Tit. 4. The Thieves or Time-wasters to he watchfully avoided
Thief I. One of the greatest time-wasting sins is idleness, or sloth.
The slothful see their time pass away, and their work undone, and
can hear of the necessity of redeeming it, and yet they have not
hearts to stir. When they are convinced that duty must be done, they
are still delaying, and putting it off from day to day, and saying still, I
will do it to-morrow, or hereafter. To-morrow is still the sluggard's
working day; and to-day is his idle day. He spendeth his time in
fruitless wishes: he lieth in bed, or sitteth idly, and wisheth, Would
this were labouring: he feasteth his flesh, and wisheth that this were
fasting: he followeth his sports and pleasures, and wisheth that this
were prayer, and a mortified life: he lets his heart run after lust, or
pride, or covetousness, and wisheth that this were
heavenlymindedness, and a laying up a treasure above. Thus the
"soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing: but the soul of the
diligent shall be made fat." "The desire of the slothful killeth him; for
his hands refuse to labour." Every little opposition or difficulty will
put him by a duty. "The sluggard will not plough by reason of the
cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothingn." "The
slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the
streets." "As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful
upon his bed. The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom; it grieveth
him to bring it again to his mouth." And at last his sloth depraves his
reason, and bribeth it to plead the cause of his negligence. "The
sluggard is wiser in his own conceit, than seven men that can render
a reasonp." Time will slide on, and duty will be undone, and your
souls undone, if impious slothfulness be predominant. "The way of
the slothful man is as a hedge of thorns; but the way of the righteous
is made plain" You seem still to go through so many difficulties, that
you will never make a successful journey of it. Yea, when he is in
duty, the slothful is still losing time. He prayeth as if he prayed not,
and laboureth as if he laboured not; as if the fruit of holiness passed
away as hastily as worldly pleasures. He is as slow as a snail; and rids
so little ground, and doth so little work, and so poorly resisteth
opposition, that he makes little of it, and all is but next to sitting still
and doing nothing. It is a sad thing that men should not only lose
their time in sinful pleasures; but they must lose it also in reading,
and hearing, and praying, by doing all in a heartless drowsiness!
Thus "he also that is slothful in his work, is brother to him that is a
great wasterr." If he "begin in the Spirit," and for a spirt seem to be
in earnest, he flags, and tireth, and "endeth in the flesh." "The
slothful roasteth not that which he took in hunting; but the
substance of a diligent man is precious." If he see and confess a vice,
he hath not a heart to rise against it, and resolutely resist it, and use
the means by which it must be overcome. "I went by the field of the
slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and,
lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face
thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw,
and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet
a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: so
shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an
armed man." Shake off then this unmanly sluggishness: remember
that you run for the immortal crown; and therefore see that you lose
no time, and look not at the things that are behind: that is, do not
cast an eye, or lend an ear to any person or thing that would call you
back, or stop you: heaven is before you. "We have seen the land, and
behold it is very good; and are ye still? be not slothful to go and to
enter, and possess the land, (as the five Danite spies said to their
brethrenu.) Abhor a sluggish habit of mind: go cheerfully about what
you have to do: and do it diligently, and with your might. Even about
your lawful, worldly business, it is a time-wasting sin to be slothful.
If you are servants or labourers you rob your masters and those that
hire you; who hired you to work and not to be idle. Whatever you are,
you rob God of your service, and yourselves of your precious time,
and all that you might get therein. It is they that are lazy in their
callings, that can find no time for holy duties. Ply your business the
rest of the day, and you may the better redeem some time for prayer
and reading Scripture. Work hard on the week days, and you may the
better spend the Lord's day entirely for your souls. Idle persons
(servants or others) do cast themselves behindhand in their work,
and then say, they have no time to pray of read the Scripture. Sloth
robbeth multitudes of a great part of their lives. "Slothfulness casteth
into a deep sleep: and an idle soul shall suffer hunger." You cannot
say, "No man hath hired you," when you are asked, "Why stand you
idley?" See how sharply Paul reproveth idleness, 2 Thess. 3
determining that "they that will not work should not eat;" and that
they be avoided, as unfit for Christian society. And 1 Tim. 5:13. he
sharply rebuketh some women that "learn to be idle, wandering
about from house to house." And Rom. 12:11. "Not slothful in
business, but fervent in spirit serving the Lord." A painful, diligent
person is still redeeming time, while he doth that which is good: and
a slothful person is always losing it.
Thief II. The second thief or time-waster is, excess of sleep. Necessity
cureth most of the poor of this: but many of the rich are guilty of it. If
you ask me, 'What is excess?' I answer, 'All that is more than is
needful to our health and business.' So much as is necessary to these,
I reprehend not: and therefore the infirm may take more than the
healthful; and the old more than the young: and those that find that
an hour's sleep more will not hinder them, but further them in their
work, so that they shall do the more, and not the less, as being unfit
without it, may use it is a means to the after improvement of their
time. But when sluggish persons spend hours in bed which neither
their healths nor labours need, merely out of a swinish love of sleep;
yea, when they will have no work to do, or calling to employ them,
but what shall give place to their sleepy disease, and think they may
sleep longer than is necessary, because they are rich and can afford
it, and have no necessary business to call them up; these think they
may consume their precious time, and sin more, and wrong their
souls more, because God hath given them more than others as if
their servant should plead that he may sleep more than others,
because he has more wages than others. O did these drowsy wretches
know, what work they have to do for God, and their poor souls, and
those about them, it would quickly awake them, and make them stir.
Did they but know how earnestly they will shortly wish, that they had
all those hours to spend again, they would spend them better now
than in drowsiness. Did they but know what a woeful account it will
be, when they must be answerable for all their time, to say, we spent
so many hours every week or morning, in excess of sleep; they would
be roused from their sty, and find some better use for their time,
which will be sweeter in the review, when time is ended, and must be
no more.
Thief III. The next thief or time-waster is, inordinate adorning of the
body. The poor may thank God that they are free also from the
temptations to this; and can quickly dress them and go about their
business: but many ladies and gallants are so guilty of this vice, that I
wonder conscience is so patient with them. O poor neglected,
undressed souls! O filthy consciences, never cleansed from your
pollutions, by the Spirit or blood of Christ! Have you not better use
for your precious hours, than to be washing, and pinning, and
dressing, and curling, and spotting, and powdering, till ten or eleven
o'clock in the morning, when honest labourers have done one half of
their day's work? While you are in health, were not six o'clock in the
morning a fitter hour for you to be dressed, that you might draw near
to the most holy God in holy prayer, and read his Word, and set your
souls, and then your families, in order for the duties of the following
day? I do not say that you may go no neater than poor labouring
people, or that you may bestow no more time than they in dressing
you: but I say, that for your souls and in your callings, you are bound
by God to be as diligent as they: and have no more time given you to
lose than they, and that you should spend as little of it in neatifying
you as you can: and be sensible that else the loss is your own: and
that abundance of precious hours which your pride consumeth, will
lie heavy one day upon your consciences: and then you shall confess,
—I say you shall confess with aching hearts, that the duties you owed
to God and man, and the care of your souls, and of your families,
should have been preferred before your appearing neat and spruce to
men. If you have but a journey to go, you can rise earlier and be
sooner dressed: but for the good of your souls, and the redeeming of
your precious time you cannot. O that God would but shew you what
greater work you have to do with those precious hours: and how it
will cut your hearts to think of them at last! If you lay but hopelessly
sick of a consumption, you would be cured it is like of this proud
disease, and bestow less of your time in adorning the flesh, which is
hasting to the grave and rottenness. And cannot you now see how
time and life consume? and what cause you have with all your care
and diligence, to use them better before they are gone? I know they
that are so much worse than childish, as prodigally to cast away so
many hours in making themselves fine for the sight of men, and be
not ashamed to come forth and shew their sin to others, will scarce
want words to excuse their crime, and prove it lawful, (be they sense
or nonsense.) But conscience itself shall answer all, when time is
gone, and make you wish you had been wiser. You know not, ladies
and gallants, how precious a thing time is! You little feel what a price
yourselves will set upon it at the last: you little consider what you
have to do with it: you see not how it hasteth, and how near you
stand to vast eternity! You little know how despised time will look a
wakened conscience in the face! or what it is to be found unready to
die! I know you lay not to heart these things: for if you did, you could
not, I say, you could not, so lightly cast away your time. If all were
true that you say, that indeed your place and honour requireth, that
your precious morning hours be thus spent, I profess to you, I should
pity you more than galley-slaves, and I would bless me from such a
place and honour, and make haste into the course and company of
the poor, and think them happy that may better spend their time.
But indeed your excuses are frivolous and untrue, and do but shew
that pride hath prevailed to captivate your reason to its service. For
we know lords and ladies, as great as the rest of you, (though alas,
too few,) that can quickly be up and dressed, and spend their early
hours in prayer and adorning their souls, and can be content to come
forth in a plain, and incurious attire; and yet are so far from being
derided, or thought the worse by any whose judgment is much to be
regarded, that they are taken justly for the honour of their order: and
if it were not that some few such keep up the honour of your rank, I
will not tell you how little in point of morality it would be honoured.
Thief IV. Another time-wasting thief is, unnecessary pomp and
curiosity in retinue, attendance, house, furniture, provision and
entertainments; together with excess of compliment and ceremony,
and servitude to the humours and expectations of time-wasters. I
crowd them altogether, because they are all but wheels of the same
engine, to avoid prolixity. Here also I must prevent the cavils of the
guilty, by telling you that I reprove not all that in the rich, which I
would reprove if it were in the poor: I intend not to level them, and
judge them by the same measure. The rich are not so happy as to be
so free as the poor, either from the temptation, or the seeming
necessity and obligation: let others pity the poor: I will pity the rich,
who seem to be pinched with harder necessities than the poor: even
this seeming necessity of wasting their precious time in compliment,
curiosity and pomp; which the happy poor may spend in the honest
labours of their callings; wherein they may at once be profitable to
the commonwealth, and maintain themselves, and meditate or
confer of holy things: But yet I must say, that the rich shall give an
account of time, and shall pay dear for that which unnecessary
excesses do devour: and that instead of envying the state and
curiosity of others, and seeking to excel or equal them to avóid their
obloquy, they should contract and bring down all customs of excess,
and shew their high esteem of time, and detestation of time-wasting
curiosity; and imitate the most sober, grave and holy; and be a
pattern to others of employing time in needful, great and manly
things; I say manly; for so childish is this vice, that men of gravity
and business do abhor it: and usually men of vanity that are guilty of
it, lay it all on the women, as if they were ashamed of it, or it were
below them. What abundance of precious time is spent, in
unnecessary state of attendance, and provisions? What abundance
under pretence of cleanliness and neatness is spent in needless
curiosity about rooms, and furniture, and accommodations, and
matters of mere pride, vain-glory, and ostentation, covered with the
honest name of decency! What abundance is wasted in
entertainments, and unnecessary visits, compliments, ceremony, and
servitude to the humours of men of vanity? I speak not for nastiness,
uncleanness, and uncomeliness: I speak not for a cynical morosity or
unsociableness. When conscience is awakened, and you come to
yourselves, and approaching death shall better acquaint you with the
worth of time, you will see a mean between these two; and you will
wish you had most feared the time-wasting prodigal extreme.
Methinks you should freely give me leave to say, that though Martha
had a better excuse than you, and was cumbered about many things
for the entertainment of such a guest as Christ himself, (with all his
followers,) who looked for no curiosity, yet Mary is more approved of
by Christ, Who neglected all this, to redeem the time for the good of
her soul, by sitting at his feet to hear his word: she chose the better
part, which shall not be taken from her. Remember, I pray you, that
one thing is necessary: I hope I may have leave to tell you, that if by
you or your servants, God, and your souls, and prayer, and reading
the Scriptures, and the profitable labours of an honest calling, be all
or any of them neglected, while you or they are neatifying this room,
or washing out that little spot, or setting straight the other wrinkle,
or are taken up with feminine trifling, proud curiosities, this is
preferring of dust before gold, of the least before the greatest things:
and to say, that decency is commendable, is no excuse for neglecting
God, your souls, or family, or leaving undone any one greater work,
which you or your servants might have been doing that while: I say,
any work that is greater all things considered. O that you and your
families would but live, as those that see how fast death cometh! how
fast time goeth! and what you have to do! and what your unready
souls yet want! This is all that I desire of you: and then I warrant you,
it would save you many a precious hour, and cut short your works of
curiosity, and deliver you from your slavery to pride, and the esteem
of vain time-wasters.
Thief V. Another time-wasting sin, is needless and tedious feastings,
gluttony, and tippling: which being of the same litter, I set together. I
speak not against moderate, seasonable, and charitable feasts: but
alas, in this luxurious, sensual age, how commonly do men sit two
hours at a feast, and spend two more in attending it before and after,
and not improving the time in any pious or profitable discourse: yea,
the rich spend an hour ordinarily in a common meal, while every
meal is a feast indeed; and they fare as their predecessor, Luke 16
deliciously or sumptuously every day. Happy are the poor, that are
free also from this temptation. You spend not so much time in the
daily addresses of your souls to God, and reading his Word, and
taking an account of the affairs of conscience, and preparing for
death; as you do in stuffing your guts, perhaps at one meal. And in
taverns and alehouses among the pots, how much time is wasted by
rich and poor! O rémember, while you are eating and drinking, what
a corruptible piece of flesh you are feeding and serving; and how
quickly those mouths will be filled with dust? and that a soul that is
posting so fast unto eternity, should find no time to spare for vanity:
and that you have important work enough to do, which if performed,
will afford you a sweeter and a longer feast.
Thief VI. Another time-wasting sin, is idle talk: what abundance of
precious time doth this consume. Hearken to most men's discourse
when they are sitting together, or working together, or travelling
together, and you shall hear how little of it is any better than silence:
(and if not better, it is worse.) So full are those persons of vanity who
are empty, even to silence, of any thing that is good, that they can
find and feed a discourse of nothing, many hours and days together;
and as they think, with such fecundity and floridness of style, as
deserveth acceptance if not applause. I have marvelled oft at some
wordy preachers, with how little matter they can handsomely fill up
an hour! But one would wonder more to hear people fill up, not an
hour, but a great part of their day, and of their lives, and that without
any study at all, and without any holy and substantial subject, with
words, which if you should write them all down and peruse them,
you would find that the sum and conclusion of them is nothing. How
self-applaudingly and pleasingly they can extempore talk idly and of
nothing a great part of their lives! I have heard many of them marvel
at a poor unlearned Christian, that can pray extempore many hours
together in very good order and well-composed words: but are they
not more to be marvelled at, that can very handsomely talk of
nothing ten times as long, with greater copiousness, and without
repetitions, and that extempore, when they have not that variety of
great commanding subjects to be the matter of their speech? I tell
you, when time must be reviewed, the consumption of so much in
idle talk, will appear to have been no such venial sin, as empty,
careless sinners now imagine.
Thief VII. Another thief which by the aforesaid means would steal
your time, is vain and sinful company. Among whom a spiritual
physician that goeth to cure them, or a holy person that is full and
resolute to bear down vain discourse I confess may well employ his
time, when he is cast upon it, or called to it. But to dwell with such,
or choose them as our familiars, or causelessly, or for complacency
keep among them, will unavoidably lose abundance of your time. If
you would do good, they will hinder you: if you will speak of good,
they will divert you, or reproach you, or wrangle and cavil with you,
or some way or other stop your mouths. They will by a stream of vain
discourse, either bear down, and carry you on with them, or fill your
ears, and interrupt and hinder the very thoughts of your minds, by
which you desire to profit yourselves, when they will not let you be
profitable to others.
Thief VIII. Another notorious time-wasting thief, is needless,
inordinate sports and games, which are commonly stigmatised by the
offenders themselves, with the infamous name of pastimes; and
masked with the deceitful title of recreations; such as are cards and
dice, and stage-plays, and dancings, and revellings, and excesses in
the most lawful sports, especially in hunting, and hawking, and
bowling, &c. Whether all these are lawful or unlawful of themselves,
is nothing to the present question: but I am sure that the precious
hours which they take up, might have been improved to the saving of
many a thousand souls, that by the loss of time are now undone and
past recovery. Except malicious enemies of godliness, I scarce know a
wretcheder sort of people on the earth, and more to be lamented,
than those fleshly persons, who, through the love of sensual pleasure,
do waste many hours day after day, in plays and gaming, and
voluptuous courses; while their miserable souls are dead in sin,
enslaved to their fleshly lusts, unreconciled to God, and find no
delight in him, or in his service, and cannot make a recreation of any
heavenly work. How will it torment these unhappy souls, to think
how they played away those hours, in which they might have been
pleasing God, and preventing misery, and laying up a treasure in
heaven? And to think that they sold that precious time, for a little
fleshly sport, in which they should have been working out their
salvation, and making their calling and election sure. But I have
more to say to these anon.
Thief IX. Another time-wasting thief, is excess of worldly cares and
business. These do not only as some more disgraced sins, pollute the
soul with deep stains in a little time, and then recede; but they dwell
upon the mind, and keep possession, and keep out good: they take
up the greatest part of the lives of those that are guilty of them. The
world is first in the morning in their thoughts, and last at night, and
almost all the day: the world will not give them leave to entertain any
sober, fixed thoughts of the world to come; nor to do the work which
all works should give place to. The world devoureth all the time
almost that God and their souls should have: it will not give them
leave to pray, or read, or meditate, or discourse of holy things: even
when they seem to be praying, or hearing the word of God, the world
is in their thoughts; and as it is said, "They come unto thee as the
people cometh; and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear
thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew
much love; but their heart goeth after their covetousness:" In most
families there is almost no talk nor doings but all for the world: these
also will know, that they had greater works for their precious time,
which should have always had the precedency of the world.
Thief X. Another time-waster is vain ungoverned and sinful
thoughts. When men are wearied with vain works and sports, they
continue unwearied in vain thoughts; when they want company for
vain discourse and games, they can waste the time in idle, or lustful,
or ambitious, or covetous thoughts alone without any company. In
the very night time while they wake and as they travel by the way, yea
while they seem to be serving God, they will be wasting the time in
useless thoughts: so that this devoureth a greater proportion of
precious time, than any of the former: when time must be reckoned
for, what abundance will be found upon men's accounts, as spent in
idle, sinful thoughts! O watch this thief; and remember, though you
may think that a vain thought is but a little sin, yet time is not a little
or contemptible commodity, nor to be cast away on so little a thing as
idle thoughts: and to vilify thus so choice a treasure is not a little sin:
and that it is not a little work that you have to do in the time which
you thus waste. And a daily course of idle thoughts doth waste so
great a measure of time, that this aggravation maketh it more
heinous, than many sins of greater infamy. But of this more in the
next part.
Thief XI. Another dangerous time-wasting sin, is the reading of vain
books, playbooks, romances, and feigned histories; and also
unprofitable studies, undertaken but for vainglory, or the pleasing of
a carnal and curious mind. Of this I have spoken in my book of Self denial.
I speak not here how pernicious this vice is by corrupting the
fancy and affections, and breeding a diseased appetite, and putting
you out of relish with necessary things: but bethink you before you
spend another hour in any such books, whether you can comfortably
give an account of it to God: and how precious the time is, which you
are wasting on such childish toys. You think the reading of such
things is lawful: but is it lawful to lose your precious time? You say
that your petty studies are desirable and laudable; but the neglect of
far greater things, is not laudable; I discourage no man from
labouring to know all that God hath any way revealed to be known.
But I say, as Seneca, 'We are ignorant of things necessary, because
we learn things superfluous and unnecessary.' Art is long and life is
short; and he that hath not time for all, should make sure of the
greatest matters; and if he be ignorant for any thing, let it be of that
which the love of God and our own and other men's salvation, and
the public good, do least require, and can best spare. It is a pitiful
thing to see a man waste his time in criticising, or in growing wise in
the less necessary sciences and arts, while be is yet a slave of pride or
worldliness, and hath an unrenewed soul, and hath not learned the
mysteries necessary to his own salvation. But yet these studies are
laudable in their season. But the fanatic studies of those that would
pry into unrevealed things, and the lascivious employment of those
that read love-books, play-books, and vain stories, will one day
appear, to have been but an unwise expense of time, for those that
had so much better and more needful work to do with it. I think
there are few of those that plead for it, that would be found with such
books in their hands at death, or will then find any pleasure in the
remembrance of them.
Thief XII. But the master-thief that robs men of their time, is an
unsanctified, ungodly heart; for this loseth time whatever men are
doing: because they never truly intend the glory of God: and having
not a right principle or a right end, their whole course is hell-wards;
and whatever they do, they are not working out their salvation: and
therefore they are still losing their time, as to themselves, however
God may use the time and gifts of some of them, as a mercy to
others. Therefore a new and holy heart, with a heavenly intention
and design of life, is the great thing necessary to all that will savingly
redeem their time[/font][/font]
Thief I. One of the greatest time-wasting sins is idleness, or sloth.
The slothful see their time pass away, and their work undone, and
can hear of the necessity of redeeming it, and yet they have not
hearts to stir. When they are convinced that duty must be done, they
are still delaying, and putting it off from day to day, and saying still, I
will do it to-morrow, or hereafter. To-morrow is still the sluggard's
working day; and to-day is his idle day. He spendeth his time in
fruitless wishes: he lieth in bed, or sitteth idly, and wisheth, Would
this were labouring: he feasteth his flesh, and wisheth that this were
fasting: he followeth his sports and pleasures, and wisheth that this
were prayer, and a mortified life: he lets his heart run after lust, or
pride, or covetousness, and wisheth that this were
heavenlymindedness, and a laying up a treasure above. Thus the
"soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing: but the soul of the
diligent shall be made fat." "The desire of the slothful killeth him; for
his hands refuse to labour." Every little opposition or difficulty will
put him by a duty. "The sluggard will not plough by reason of the
cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothingn." "The
slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the
streets." "As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful
upon his bed. The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom; it grieveth
him to bring it again to his mouth." And at last his sloth depraves his
reason, and bribeth it to plead the cause of his negligence. "The
sluggard is wiser in his own conceit, than seven men that can render
a reasonp." Time will slide on, and duty will be undone, and your
souls undone, if impious slothfulness be predominant. "The way of
the slothful man is as a hedge of thorns; but the way of the righteous
is made plain" You seem still to go through so many difficulties, that
you will never make a successful journey of it. Yea, when he is in
duty, the slothful is still losing time. He prayeth as if he prayed not,
and laboureth as if he laboured not; as if the fruit of holiness passed
away as hastily as worldly pleasures. He is as slow as a snail; and rids
so little ground, and doth so little work, and so poorly resisteth
opposition, that he makes little of it, and all is but next to sitting still
and doing nothing. It is a sad thing that men should not only lose
their time in sinful pleasures; but they must lose it also in reading,
and hearing, and praying, by doing all in a heartless drowsiness!
Thus "he also that is slothful in his work, is brother to him that is a
great wasterr." If he "begin in the Spirit," and for a spirt seem to be
in earnest, he flags, and tireth, and "endeth in the flesh." "The
slothful roasteth not that which he took in hunting; but the
substance of a diligent man is precious." If he see and confess a vice,
he hath not a heart to rise against it, and resolutely resist it, and use
the means by which it must be overcome. "I went by the field of the
slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and,
lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face
thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw,
and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet
a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: so
shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an
armed man." Shake off then this unmanly sluggishness: remember
that you run for the immortal crown; and therefore see that you lose
no time, and look not at the things that are behind: that is, do not
cast an eye, or lend an ear to any person or thing that would call you
back, or stop you: heaven is before you. "We have seen the land, and
behold it is very good; and are ye still? be not slothful to go and to
enter, and possess the land, (as the five Danite spies said to their
brethrenu.) Abhor a sluggish habit of mind: go cheerfully about what
you have to do: and do it diligently, and with your might. Even about
your lawful, worldly business, it is a time-wasting sin to be slothful.
If you are servants or labourers you rob your masters and those that
hire you; who hired you to work and not to be idle. Whatever you are,
you rob God of your service, and yourselves of your precious time,
and all that you might get therein. It is they that are lazy in their
callings, that can find no time for holy duties. Ply your business the
rest of the day, and you may the better redeem some time for prayer
and reading Scripture. Work hard on the week days, and you may the
better spend the Lord's day entirely for your souls. Idle persons
(servants or others) do cast themselves behindhand in their work,
and then say, they have no time to pray of read the Scripture. Sloth
robbeth multitudes of a great part of their lives. "Slothfulness casteth
into a deep sleep: and an idle soul shall suffer hunger." You cannot
say, "No man hath hired you," when you are asked, "Why stand you
idley?" See how sharply Paul reproveth idleness, 2 Thess. 3
determining that "they that will not work should not eat;" and that
they be avoided, as unfit for Christian society. And 1 Tim. 5:13. he
sharply rebuketh some women that "learn to be idle, wandering
about from house to house." And Rom. 12:11. "Not slothful in
business, but fervent in spirit serving the Lord." A painful, diligent
person is still redeeming time, while he doth that which is good: and
a slothful person is always losing it.
Thief II. The second thief or time-waster is, excess of sleep. Necessity
cureth most of the poor of this: but many of the rich are guilty of it. If
you ask me, 'What is excess?' I answer, 'All that is more than is
needful to our health and business.' So much as is necessary to these,
I reprehend not: and therefore the infirm may take more than the
healthful; and the old more than the young: and those that find that
an hour's sleep more will not hinder them, but further them in their
work, so that they shall do the more, and not the less, as being unfit
without it, may use it is a means to the after improvement of their
time. But when sluggish persons spend hours in bed which neither
their healths nor labours need, merely out of a swinish love of sleep;
yea, when they will have no work to do, or calling to employ them,
but what shall give place to their sleepy disease, and think they may
sleep longer than is necessary, because they are rich and can afford
it, and have no necessary business to call them up; these think they
may consume their precious time, and sin more, and wrong their
souls more, because God hath given them more than others as if
their servant should plead that he may sleep more than others,
because he has more wages than others. O did these drowsy wretches
know, what work they have to do for God, and their poor souls, and
those about them, it would quickly awake them, and make them stir.
Did they but know how earnestly they will shortly wish, that they had
all those hours to spend again, they would spend them better now
than in drowsiness. Did they but know what a woeful account it will
be, when they must be answerable for all their time, to say, we spent
so many hours every week or morning, in excess of sleep; they would
be roused from their sty, and find some better use for their time,
which will be sweeter in the review, when time is ended, and must be
no more.
Thief III. The next thief or time-waster is, inordinate adorning of the
body. The poor may thank God that they are free also from the
temptations to this; and can quickly dress them and go about their
business: but many ladies and gallants are so guilty of this vice, that I
wonder conscience is so patient with them. O poor neglected,
undressed souls! O filthy consciences, never cleansed from your
pollutions, by the Spirit or blood of Christ! Have you not better use
for your precious hours, than to be washing, and pinning, and
dressing, and curling, and spotting, and powdering, till ten or eleven
o'clock in the morning, when honest labourers have done one half of
their day's work? While you are in health, were not six o'clock in the
morning a fitter hour for you to be dressed, that you might draw near
to the most holy God in holy prayer, and read his Word, and set your
souls, and then your families, in order for the duties of the following
day? I do not say that you may go no neater than poor labouring
people, or that you may bestow no more time than they in dressing
you: but I say, that for your souls and in your callings, you are bound
by God to be as diligent as they: and have no more time given you to
lose than they, and that you should spend as little of it in neatifying
you as you can: and be sensible that else the loss is your own: and
that abundance of precious hours which your pride consumeth, will
lie heavy one day upon your consciences: and then you shall confess,
—I say you shall confess with aching hearts, that the duties you owed
to God and man, and the care of your souls, and of your families,
should have been preferred before your appearing neat and spruce to
men. If you have but a journey to go, you can rise earlier and be
sooner dressed: but for the good of your souls, and the redeeming of
your precious time you cannot. O that God would but shew you what
greater work you have to do with those precious hours: and how it
will cut your hearts to think of them at last! If you lay but hopelessly
sick of a consumption, you would be cured it is like of this proud
disease, and bestow less of your time in adorning the flesh, which is
hasting to the grave and rottenness. And cannot you now see how
time and life consume? and what cause you have with all your care
and diligence, to use them better before they are gone? I know they
that are so much worse than childish, as prodigally to cast away so
many hours in making themselves fine for the sight of men, and be
not ashamed to come forth and shew their sin to others, will scarce
want words to excuse their crime, and prove it lawful, (be they sense
or nonsense.) But conscience itself shall answer all, when time is
gone, and make you wish you had been wiser. You know not, ladies
and gallants, how precious a thing time is! You little feel what a price
yourselves will set upon it at the last: you little consider what you
have to do with it: you see not how it hasteth, and how near you
stand to vast eternity! You little know how despised time will look a
wakened conscience in the face! or what it is to be found unready to
die! I know you lay not to heart these things: for if you did, you could
not, I say, you could not, so lightly cast away your time. If all were
true that you say, that indeed your place and honour requireth, that
your precious morning hours be thus spent, I profess to you, I should
pity you more than galley-slaves, and I would bless me from such a
place and honour, and make haste into the course and company of
the poor, and think them happy that may better spend their time.
But indeed your excuses are frivolous and untrue, and do but shew
that pride hath prevailed to captivate your reason to its service. For
we know lords and ladies, as great as the rest of you, (though alas,
too few,) that can quickly be up and dressed, and spend their early
hours in prayer and adorning their souls, and can be content to come
forth in a plain, and incurious attire; and yet are so far from being
derided, or thought the worse by any whose judgment is much to be
regarded, that they are taken justly for the honour of their order: and
if it were not that some few such keep up the honour of your rank, I
will not tell you how little in point of morality it would be honoured.
Thief IV. Another time-wasting thief is, unnecessary pomp and
curiosity in retinue, attendance, house, furniture, provision and
entertainments; together with excess of compliment and ceremony,
and servitude to the humours and expectations of time-wasters. I
crowd them altogether, because they are all but wheels of the same
engine, to avoid prolixity. Here also I must prevent the cavils of the
guilty, by telling you that I reprove not all that in the rich, which I
would reprove if it were in the poor: I intend not to level them, and
judge them by the same measure. The rich are not so happy as to be
so free as the poor, either from the temptation, or the seeming
necessity and obligation: let others pity the poor: I will pity the rich,
who seem to be pinched with harder necessities than the poor: even
this seeming necessity of wasting their precious time in compliment,
curiosity and pomp; which the happy poor may spend in the honest
labours of their callings; wherein they may at once be profitable to
the commonwealth, and maintain themselves, and meditate or
confer of holy things: But yet I must say, that the rich shall give an
account of time, and shall pay dear for that which unnecessary
excesses do devour: and that instead of envying the state and
curiosity of others, and seeking to excel or equal them to avóid their
obloquy, they should contract and bring down all customs of excess,
and shew their high esteem of time, and detestation of time-wasting
curiosity; and imitate the most sober, grave and holy; and be a
pattern to others of employing time in needful, great and manly
things; I say manly; for so childish is this vice, that men of gravity
and business do abhor it: and usually men of vanity that are guilty of
it, lay it all on the women, as if they were ashamed of it, or it were
below them. What abundance of precious time is spent, in
unnecessary state of attendance, and provisions? What abundance
under pretence of cleanliness and neatness is spent in needless
curiosity about rooms, and furniture, and accommodations, and
matters of mere pride, vain-glory, and ostentation, covered with the
honest name of decency! What abundance is wasted in
entertainments, and unnecessary visits, compliments, ceremony, and
servitude to the humours of men of vanity? I speak not for nastiness,
uncleanness, and uncomeliness: I speak not for a cynical morosity or
unsociableness. When conscience is awakened, and you come to
yourselves, and approaching death shall better acquaint you with the
worth of time, you will see a mean between these two; and you will
wish you had most feared the time-wasting prodigal extreme.
Methinks you should freely give me leave to say, that though Martha
had a better excuse than you, and was cumbered about many things
for the entertainment of such a guest as Christ himself, (with all his
followers,) who looked for no curiosity, yet Mary is more approved of
by Christ, Who neglected all this, to redeem the time for the good of
her soul, by sitting at his feet to hear his word: she chose the better
part, which shall not be taken from her. Remember, I pray you, that
one thing is necessary: I hope I may have leave to tell you, that if by
you or your servants, God, and your souls, and prayer, and reading
the Scriptures, and the profitable labours of an honest calling, be all
or any of them neglected, while you or they are neatifying this room,
or washing out that little spot, or setting straight the other wrinkle,
or are taken up with feminine trifling, proud curiosities, this is
preferring of dust before gold, of the least before the greatest things:
and to say, that decency is commendable, is no excuse for neglecting
God, your souls, or family, or leaving undone any one greater work,
which you or your servants might have been doing that while: I say,
any work that is greater all things considered. O that you and your
families would but live, as those that see how fast death cometh! how
fast time goeth! and what you have to do! and what your unready
souls yet want! This is all that I desire of you: and then I warrant you,
it would save you many a precious hour, and cut short your works of
curiosity, and deliver you from your slavery to pride, and the esteem
of vain time-wasters.
Thief V. Another time-wasting sin, is needless and tedious feastings,
gluttony, and tippling: which being of the same litter, I set together. I
speak not against moderate, seasonable, and charitable feasts: but
alas, in this luxurious, sensual age, how commonly do men sit two
hours at a feast, and spend two more in attending it before and after,
and not improving the time in any pious or profitable discourse: yea,
the rich spend an hour ordinarily in a common meal, while every
meal is a feast indeed; and they fare as their predecessor, Luke 16
deliciously or sumptuously every day. Happy are the poor, that are
free also from this temptation. You spend not so much time in the
daily addresses of your souls to God, and reading his Word, and
taking an account of the affairs of conscience, and preparing for
death; as you do in stuffing your guts, perhaps at one meal. And in
taverns and alehouses among the pots, how much time is wasted by
rich and poor! O rémember, while you are eating and drinking, what
a corruptible piece of flesh you are feeding and serving; and how
quickly those mouths will be filled with dust? and that a soul that is
posting so fast unto eternity, should find no time to spare for vanity:
and that you have important work enough to do, which if performed,
will afford you a sweeter and a longer feast.
Thief VI. Another time-wasting sin, is idle talk: what abundance of
precious time doth this consume. Hearken to most men's discourse
when they are sitting together, or working together, or travelling
together, and you shall hear how little of it is any better than silence:
(and if not better, it is worse.) So full are those persons of vanity who
are empty, even to silence, of any thing that is good, that they can
find and feed a discourse of nothing, many hours and days together;
and as they think, with such fecundity and floridness of style, as
deserveth acceptance if not applause. I have marvelled oft at some
wordy preachers, with how little matter they can handsomely fill up
an hour! But one would wonder more to hear people fill up, not an
hour, but a great part of their day, and of their lives, and that without
any study at all, and without any holy and substantial subject, with
words, which if you should write them all down and peruse them,
you would find that the sum and conclusion of them is nothing. How
self-applaudingly and pleasingly they can extempore talk idly and of
nothing a great part of their lives! I have heard many of them marvel
at a poor unlearned Christian, that can pray extempore many hours
together in very good order and well-composed words: but are they
not more to be marvelled at, that can very handsomely talk of
nothing ten times as long, with greater copiousness, and without
repetitions, and that extempore, when they have not that variety of
great commanding subjects to be the matter of their speech? I tell
you, when time must be reviewed, the consumption of so much in
idle talk, will appear to have been no such venial sin, as empty,
careless sinners now imagine.
Thief VII. Another thief which by the aforesaid means would steal
your time, is vain and sinful company. Among whom a spiritual
physician that goeth to cure them, or a holy person that is full and
resolute to bear down vain discourse I confess may well employ his
time, when he is cast upon it, or called to it. But to dwell with such,
or choose them as our familiars, or causelessly, or for complacency
keep among them, will unavoidably lose abundance of your time. If
you would do good, they will hinder you: if you will speak of good,
they will divert you, or reproach you, or wrangle and cavil with you,
or some way or other stop your mouths. They will by a stream of vain
discourse, either bear down, and carry you on with them, or fill your
ears, and interrupt and hinder the very thoughts of your minds, by
which you desire to profit yourselves, when they will not let you be
profitable to others.
Thief VIII. Another notorious time-wasting thief, is needless,
inordinate sports and games, which are commonly stigmatised by the
offenders themselves, with the infamous name of pastimes; and
masked with the deceitful title of recreations; such as are cards and
dice, and stage-plays, and dancings, and revellings, and excesses in
the most lawful sports, especially in hunting, and hawking, and
bowling, &c. Whether all these are lawful or unlawful of themselves,
is nothing to the present question: but I am sure that the precious
hours which they take up, might have been improved to the saving of
many a thousand souls, that by the loss of time are now undone and
past recovery. Except malicious enemies of godliness, I scarce know a
wretcheder sort of people on the earth, and more to be lamented,
than those fleshly persons, who, through the love of sensual pleasure,
do waste many hours day after day, in plays and gaming, and
voluptuous courses; while their miserable souls are dead in sin,
enslaved to their fleshly lusts, unreconciled to God, and find no
delight in him, or in his service, and cannot make a recreation of any
heavenly work. How will it torment these unhappy souls, to think
how they played away those hours, in which they might have been
pleasing God, and preventing misery, and laying up a treasure in
heaven? And to think that they sold that precious time, for a little
fleshly sport, in which they should have been working out their
salvation, and making their calling and election sure. But I have
more to say to these anon.
Thief IX. Another time-wasting thief, is excess of worldly cares and
business. These do not only as some more disgraced sins, pollute the
soul with deep stains in a little time, and then recede; but they dwell
upon the mind, and keep possession, and keep out good: they take
up the greatest part of the lives of those that are guilty of them. The
world is first in the morning in their thoughts, and last at night, and
almost all the day: the world will not give them leave to entertain any
sober, fixed thoughts of the world to come; nor to do the work which
all works should give place to. The world devoureth all the time
almost that God and their souls should have: it will not give them
leave to pray, or read, or meditate, or discourse of holy things: even
when they seem to be praying, or hearing the word of God, the world
is in their thoughts; and as it is said, "They come unto thee as the
people cometh; and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear
thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew
much love; but their heart goeth after their covetousness:" In most
families there is almost no talk nor doings but all for the world: these
also will know, that they had greater works for their precious time,
which should have always had the precedency of the world.
Thief X. Another time-waster is vain ungoverned and sinful
thoughts. When men are wearied with vain works and sports, they
continue unwearied in vain thoughts; when they want company for
vain discourse and games, they can waste the time in idle, or lustful,
or ambitious, or covetous thoughts alone without any company. In
the very night time while they wake and as they travel by the way, yea
while they seem to be serving God, they will be wasting the time in
useless thoughts: so that this devoureth a greater proportion of
precious time, than any of the former: when time must be reckoned
for, what abundance will be found upon men's accounts, as spent in
idle, sinful thoughts! O watch this thief; and remember, though you
may think that a vain thought is but a little sin, yet time is not a little
or contemptible commodity, nor to be cast away on so little a thing as
idle thoughts: and to vilify thus so choice a treasure is not a little sin:
and that it is not a little work that you have to do in the time which
you thus waste. And a daily course of idle thoughts doth waste so
great a measure of time, that this aggravation maketh it more
heinous, than many sins of greater infamy. But of this more in the
next part.
Thief XI. Another dangerous time-wasting sin, is the reading of vain
books, playbooks, romances, and feigned histories; and also
unprofitable studies, undertaken but for vainglory, or the pleasing of
a carnal and curious mind. Of this I have spoken in my book of Self denial.
I speak not here how pernicious this vice is by corrupting the
fancy and affections, and breeding a diseased appetite, and putting
you out of relish with necessary things: but bethink you before you
spend another hour in any such books, whether you can comfortably
give an account of it to God: and how precious the time is, which you
are wasting on such childish toys. You think the reading of such
things is lawful: but is it lawful to lose your precious time? You say
that your petty studies are desirable and laudable; but the neglect of
far greater things, is not laudable; I discourage no man from
labouring to know all that God hath any way revealed to be known.
But I say, as Seneca, 'We are ignorant of things necessary, because
we learn things superfluous and unnecessary.' Art is long and life is
short; and he that hath not time for all, should make sure of the
greatest matters; and if he be ignorant for any thing, let it be of that
which the love of God and our own and other men's salvation, and
the public good, do least require, and can best spare. It is a pitiful
thing to see a man waste his time in criticising, or in growing wise in
the less necessary sciences and arts, while be is yet a slave of pride or
worldliness, and hath an unrenewed soul, and hath not learned the
mysteries necessary to his own salvation. But yet these studies are
laudable in their season. But the fanatic studies of those that would
pry into unrevealed things, and the lascivious employment of those
that read love-books, play-books, and vain stories, will one day
appear, to have been but an unwise expense of time, for those that
had so much better and more needful work to do with it. I think
there are few of those that plead for it, that would be found with such
books in their hands at death, or will then find any pleasure in the
remembrance of them.
Thief XII. But the master-thief that robs men of their time, is an
unsanctified, ungodly heart; for this loseth time whatever men are
doing: because they never truly intend the glory of God: and having
not a right principle or a right end, their whole course is hell-wards;
and whatever they do, they are not working out their salvation: and
therefore they are still losing their time, as to themselves, however
God may use the time and gifts of some of them, as a mercy to
others. Therefore a new and holy heart, with a heavenly intention
and design of life, is the great thing necessary to all that will savingly
redeem their time[/font][/font]