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 thanks." 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. Tit. 4. The Thieves or Time-wasters to be watchfully avoided. Thief 1. 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 kil h 1 Thess. v. 17, 18. i Phil. iv. 6. * Prov. xiii. 4. 66 leth 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 nothing"." "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 reason P." 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 waster'." 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 mant" Shake off then this unmanly sluggishness: remem ber 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 brethren ".) 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 or 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. iii. determining that "they that will not work should not eat ;" and that they be avoided, as unfit for Christian society. And 1 Tim. v. 13. he sharply rebuketh some women that "learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house." And Rom. xii. 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 11. The second thief or time-waster is, excess of t Prov. xxiv. 30-34 y Matt. xx. 3. 6. บ Judges xviii. 9. * Prov. xix. 15. 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 as 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, un * Nosti mores mulierum? Dum moliuntur, dum comuntur, annus est. Terent. Heaut. Act. ii. dressed 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 |