Signs of sensuality.
V. The signs of a flesh-pleaser or sensualist are these (which may be gathered from what is said already): 1. When a man in desire to please his appetite, referreth it not (actually or habitually) to a higher end, viz. the fitting himself to the service of God; but sticketh only in the delight. 2. When he looks more desirously and industriously after the prosperity of his body, than of his soul. 3. When he will not part with or forbear his pleasures, when God forbiddeth them, or when they hurt his soul, or when the necessities of his soul do call him more loudly another way; but he must have his delight whatever it cost him, and is so set upon it, that he cannot deny it to himself. 4. When the pleasures of his flesh exceed his delights in God, and his holy word and ways, and the forethoughts of endless pleasure; and this not only in the passion, but in the estimation, choice, and prosecution. When he had rather be at a play, or feast, or gaming, or getting good bargains or profits in the world, than to live in the life of faith, and love, a holy and heavenly conversation. 5. When men set their minds to contrive and study to make provision for the pleasures of the flesh; and this is first and sweetest in their thoughts. 6. When they had rather talk, or hear, or read of fleshly pleasures, than of spiritual and heavenly delights. 7. When they love the company of merry sensualists, better than the communion of saints, in which they may be exercised in the praises of their Maker. 8. When they account that the best calling, and condition, and place for them to live in, where they have the pleasure of the flesh, where they have ease, and fare well, and want nothing for the body, rather than that where they have far better help and provision for the soul, though the flesh be pinched for it. 9. When he will be at more cost to please his flesh, than to please God. 10. When he will believe or like no doctrine but libertinism, and hateth mortification as too strict preciseness. By these, and such other signs, sensuality may easily be known; yea, by the main bent of the life.
Counterfeits of mortification.
VI. Many flesh-pleasers flatter themselves with better titles, being deceived by such means as these: 1. Because they are against the doctrine of libertinism, and hold as strict opinions as any. But flesh-pleasing may stand with the doctrine of mortification, and the strictest opinions, as long as they are not put in practice.
2. Because they live not in any gross, disgraced vice. They go not to stage-plays, or unseasonably to alehouses or taverns; they are not drunken, nor gamesters, nor spend their hours in unnecessary recreations or pastimes; they are no fornicators, nor wallow in wealth. But the flesh may be pleased and served in a way that hath no disgrace accompanying it in the world. May not a man make his ease, or his prosperity, or the pleasing of his appetite, without any infamous excesses, to be as much his felicity and highest end, and that which practically he taketh for his best, as well as if he did it in a shameful way? Is not many a man a gluttonous flesh-pleaser, that maketh his delight the highest end of all his eating and drinking; and pleaseth his appetite without any restraint, but what his health and reputation put upon him, though he eat not till he vomit or be sick? Even the flesh itself may forbid a sensualist to be drunk, or to eat till he be sick; for sickness and shame are displeasing to the flesh. Many a man covereth a life of sensuality, not only with a seeming temperance, unreproved of men, but also with a seeming strictness and austerity. But conscience might tell them, where they have their good things, Luke xvi. 25.
3. Some think they are no sensual flesh-pleasers, because they live in constant misery, in poverty and want, labouring hard for their daily bread; and therefore they hope that they are the Lazaruses that have their sufferings here. But is not all this against thy will? Wouldst thou not fare as well as the rich, and live as idly, and take thy pleasure, if thou hadst as much as they? What thou wouldst do, that thou dost in God's account. It is thy will that thou shalt be judged by. A thief doth not become a true man when the prison or stocks do hinder him from stealing, but when a changed heart doth hinder him.
4. Others think that they are no flesh-pleasers, because their wealth, and places, and degrees of honour allow them to live high in diet and delights. It is like the rich man, Luke xvi. who was "clothed with purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day," did live upon his own, and as he thought agreeably to his rank and place; and the fool, Luke xii. 19, 20, that said, "Soul, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry," did intend to please himself but with his own, which God had given him as a blessing on his land and labour. But no man's riches allow him to be voluptuous. The commands of taming and mortifying the flesh, and not living after it, nor making provision for it, to satisfy its lusts, belong as much to the rich as to the poor. Though you are not to live in the same garb with the poor, you are as much bound to mortification and self-denial as the poorest. If you are richer than others, you have more to serve God with, but not more than others to serve the flesh with. If poverty deny them any thing which might better enable their bodies or minds to serve God, you may so far go beyond them, and use with thankfulness the mercies given you; but you must no more be flesh-pleasers than they.
5. And some deceive themselves by interposing sometimes a formal fast, as the fleshly Pharisee, that"fasted twice a week," Luke xviii. 12, and then they think that they are no sensualists. I speak not of the popish fasting with fish and delicates (this is not so much as a show of mortification). But what if you really fast as oft as the Pharisees did, and quarrel with Christ's disciples for not fasting? Matt. ix. 14, 15. Will not a sensualist do as much as this, if his physician require it for his health? If the scope of your lives be fleshly, it is not the interruption of a formal fast that will acquit you; which perhaps doth but quicken your appetite to the next meal.
False appearances of sensuality.
VII. Yet many are wrongfully taken by others (if not by themselves) to be sensual, by such mistakes as these: 1. Because they live not as meanly and scantily as the poor, who want things necessary or helpful to their duty. But by that rule I must not be well, because other men are sick; or I must not go apace, because the lame can go but slowly! If poor men have bad horses, I may ride on the best I can get, to despatch my business, and redeem my time, so I prefer not costly, useless ostentation, before true serviceableness. 2. Others are accused as sensual, because the weakness of their bodies requireth a more tender usage, and diet, than healthful men's: some bodies are unfitter for duty if they fast; and some are useless through sickness and infirmities, if they be not used with very great care. And it is as truly a duty to cherish a weak body to enable it for God's service, as to tame an unruly, lustful body, and keep it from offending him. 3. Some melancholy, conscientious persons are still accusing themselves, through mere scrupulosity; questioning almost all they eat, or drink, or wear, or do, whether it be not too much or too pleasing. But it is a cheerful sobriety that God requireth, which neither pampereth the body, nor yet disableth or hindereth it from its duty; and not an unprofitable, wrangling scrupulosity.
Direct.I. The first and grand direction against flesh-pleasing is, that you be sure, by a serious, living faith, to see the better things with God, and to be heartily taken up in minding, loving, seeking, and securing them. All the other directions are but subservient to this. For certainly man's soul will not be idle, being a living, active principle: and it is as certain, that it will not act but upon some end, or for some end. And there are no other ends to take us up, but either the things temporal or eternal. And therefore there is no true cure for a sensual love of temporal things, but to turn the heart to things eternal. Believingly think first of the certainty, greatness, and eternity of the joys above; and then think that these may more certainly be yours, than any worldly riches or delights, if you do not contemptuously reject them. And then think that this is the time in which you must make sure of them, and win them, if ever you will possess them; and that you are sent into the world of purpose on this business. And then think with yourselves, how fleshly pleasures are the only competitors with the everlasting pleasures; and that, if ever you lose them, it will be by over-loving these transitory things; and that one half of your work for your salvation lieth in killing your affections to all below, that they may be alive to God alone. And lastly, think how much higher and sweeter pleasures, even in this life, the godly do enjoy than you; and you are losing them while you prefer these sordid pleasures. Do you think that a true believer hath not a more excellent delight in his forethoughts of his immortal blessedness with Christ, and in the assurance of the love of God, and communion with him in his holy service, than you, or any sensualist, hath in fleshly pleasures? Sober and serious meditation on these things, will turn the mind to the true delights.
Direct.II. Be acquainted with the range of sensual desires, and follow them, and watch them in all their extravagances. Otherwise, while you are stopping one gap, they will be running out at many more. I have given you many instances in my "Treatise of Self-denial." I will here briefly set some before your eyes.
1. Watch your appetites as to meat and drink, both quantity and quality. Gluttony is a common, unobserved sin: the flesh no way enslaves men more than by the appetite; as we see in drunkards and gluttons, that can no more forbear than one that thirsteth in a burning fever.
2. Take heed of the lust of uncleanness, and all degrees of it, and approaches to it; especially immodest embraces and behaviour.
3. Take heed of ribald, filthy talk, and love songs, and of such incensing snares.
4. Take heed of too much sleep and idleness.
5. Take heed of taking too much delight in your riches, and lands, your buildings, and delectable conveniences.
6. Take heed lest honours, or worldly greatness, or men's applause, become your too great pleasure.
7. And lest you grow to make it your delight, to think on such things when you are alone, or talk idly of them in company with others.
8. And take heed lest the success and prosperity of your affairs do too much please you, as him, Luke xii. 20.
9. Take not up any inordinate pleasure in your children, relations, or nearest friends.
10. Take heed of a delight in vain, unprofitable, sinful company.
11. Or in fineness of apparel, to set you out to the eyes of others.
12. Take heed of a delight in romances, play-books, feigned stories, useless news, which corrupt the mind, and waste your time.
13. Take heed of a delight in any recreations which are excessive, needless, devouring time, discomposing the mind, enticing to further sin, hindering any duty, especially our delight in God. They are miserable souls that can delight themselves in no more safe or profitable things, than cards, and dice, and stage-plays, and immodest dancings.
Direct.III. Next to the universal remedy mentioned in the first direction, see that you have the particular remedies still at hand, which your own particular way of flesh-pleasing doth most require. And let not the love of your vanity prejudice you against a just information, but impartially consider of the disease and the remedy. Of the particulars anon.
Direct.IV. Remember still that God would give you more pleasure, and not less; and that he will give you as much of the delights of sense as is truly good for you, so you will take them in their place, in subordination to your heavenly delights. And is not this to increase and multiply your pleasure? Are not health, and friends, and food, and convenient habitation, much sweeter as the fruit of the love of God, and the foretastes of everlasting mercies, and as our helps to heaven, and as the means to spiritual comfort, than of themselves alone? All your mercies are from God: he would take none from you, but sanctify them, and give you more.
Direct.V. See that reason keep up its authority, as the governor of sense and appetite. And so take an account, whatever the appetite would have, of the ends and reasons of the thing, and to what itdoth conduce. Take nothing and do nothing merely because the sense or appetite would have it; but because you have reason so to do, and to gratify the appetite. Else you will deal as brutes, if reason be laid by (in human acts).
Direct.VI. Go to the grave, and see there the end of fleshly pleasure, and what is all that it will do for you at the last. One would think it should cure the mad desire of plenty and pleasure, to see where all our wealth, and mirth, and sport, and pleasure must be buried at last.
Direct.VII. Lastly, be still sensible that flesh is the grand enemy of your souls, and flesh-pleasing the greatest hinderance of your salvation. The devil's enmity and the world's are both but subordinate to this of the flesh: for its pleasure is the end, and the world's and Satan's temptations are both but the means to attain it. Besides the malignity opened before, consider,
The enmity of the flesh.
1. How contrary a voluptuous life is to the blessed example of our Lord, and of his servant Paul, and all the apostles! Paul tamed his body and brought it into subjection, lest, having preached to others, himself should be a cast-away, 1 Cor. ix. 27. And all that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts thereof, Gal. v. 24. This was signified in the ancient manner of baptizing, (and so is still by baptism itself,) when they went over head in the water and then rose out of it, to signify that they were dead and buried with Christ, Rom. vi. 3, 4, and rose with him to newness of life. This is called our being "baptized into his death;" and seems the plain sense of 1 Cor. xv. 29, of being "baptized for the dead;" that is, "for dead" to show that we are dead to the world, and must die in the world, but shall rise again to the kingdom of Christ, both of grace and glory.
2. Sensuality showeth that there is no true belief of the life to come, and proveth, so far as it prevaileth, the absence of all grace.
3. It is a homebred, continual traitor to the soul; a continual tempter, and nurse of all sin; the great withdrawer of the heart from God; and the common cause of apostasy itself: it still fighteth against the Spirit, Gal. v. 17; and is seeking advantage from all our liberties, Gal. v. 13; 2 Pet. ii. 10.
4. It turneth all our outward mercies into sin, and strengtheneth itself against God by his own benefits.
5. It is the great cause of our afflictions; for God will not spare that idol which is set up against him: flesh rebelleth, and flesh shall suffer.
6. And when it hath brought affliction, it is most impatient under it, and maketh it seem intolerable. A flesh-pleaser thinks he is undone, when affliction depriveth him of his pleasure.
7. Lastly, it exceedingly unfitteth men for death; for then flesh must be cast into the dust, and all its pleasure be at an end. Oh doleful day to those that had their good things here, and their portion in this life! when all is gone that ever they valued and sought; and all the true felicity lost, which they brutishly contemned! If you would joyfully then bear the dissolution and ruin of your flesh, oh master it, and mortify it now. Seek not the ease and pleasure of a little walking, breathing clay, when you should be seeking and foretasting the everlasting pleasure. Here lieth your danger and your work. Strive more against your own flesh, than against all your enemies in earth and hell: if you be saved from this, you are saved from them all. Christ suffered in the flesh, to tell you that it is not pampering, but suffering, that your flesh must expect, if you will reign with him.
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; Eph. v. 15, 16, "See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time;" so Col. iv. 5. 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.
What is meant by time.
Time, in its most common acceptation, 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.
What are the special seasons of duty.
As every work hath its season which must be taken, Eccles. iii. 1; 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 fitted for holy works. 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 the 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 faithfulest pastors, the profitablest 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 chariot, Acts viii. 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 specially these seasons, must be particularly improved for their several works: we must take the wind and tide while we may haveit, 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 to help our neighbour, when it will do him most good; to visit the sick, the imprisoned, and afflicted, in the needful season, Matt. xxv. Thus are the godly like trees planted by the river side, which bring forth fruit in their season, Psal. i. 3. So to speak in season to the ignorant and ungodly for their conversion, or to the sorrowful for their consolation, Isa. l. 4. 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. Prov. iii. 27, 28, "Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to-morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee." Eccles. xi. 2, "Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth." Prov. xxvii. 1, "Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." Gal. vi. 10, "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.
What redeeming time supposeth.
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 or wilful losing so much as 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.
What it containeth.
And as these five things are presupposed, so these following are contained in our redeeming time. 1. To redeem time is to see 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 forecast the preventing of impediments, and the removal of our clogs, and the obtaining of all the helps to expedition and success in duty. This is the true redeeming of our time.
To what uses time must be redeemed.
The ends and uses 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 meditating 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 sleep, and feeding, and needful recreation is laid out for God. 2. Time must be redeemed, especially for works of public 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 people's sakes, though rewarded with ingratitude and contempt, 2 Cor. xii. 14, 15. 3. For your own souls, and your everlasting life: for speedy conversion without delay, if you be yet unconverted; for the killing 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.
From what and at what price it 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, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither we go, Eccl. ix. 10. 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, Rom. xiii. 11-14, "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer 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 wantonness, 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, or 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 morrow, Acts xx. 7. 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," Lam. ii. 19. 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 feet, Luke x. 42. Worldlings arethus called by him, Isa. lv. 1-3, "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 show 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.
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; Jonah 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 consciences 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 were asleep, or mad, it were the more excusable to be so senseless: but to do thus awake, and in your wits! Oh 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, sirs, if sin had not turned the ungodly part of the world into a bedlam, where it is no 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 mad-men 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 betimes, and about thy business, and turn by thy games, and thy diverting company, and disappoint thy idle visitors, 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 by 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 child fallen into the fire or water, or thieves breaking in upon them, it would make the ladies cast by the other lace or riband? 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 foresight of heaven and hell, though one of them is even at the door, will not do as much with 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 looked but on this one unreasonable sin of time-wasting, it would help me to understand the meaning of Luke xv. 17, Εις ἑαυτον ελθων, 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, andwhat 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 show thee by the light of truth what is there; could I but let in one convincing beam from heaven, which might fully show 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 childish 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 and 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? Oh what a thing is it 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! Oh! 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 mispent 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 yet 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, Heb. xii. 14; Matt. xviii. 3; John iii. 3, 5, 6. 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 hast 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! Heb. iii. 13; x. 25; Eph. iv. 29. 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 made 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 must it 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 well-spent 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, John xvii. 4, 5, "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, 2 Tim iv. 6-8, "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 give." And, 2 Cor. i. 12, "For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, we have had our conversationin the world." It is a great comfort in sickness to be able to say with Hezekiah, Isa. xxxviii. 3, "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 sight." Oh! 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 antecedently, 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 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 play-house, a gaming-house, an alehouse, in thy fleshly jollity and pleasure? or 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 loth 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. Oh! 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! Oh! 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, Psal. lxxxix. 47, "Remember how short my time is." And as "Hagar sat down and wept when her water was spent," Gen. xxi. 15, 16; 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! Oh 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! Oh 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, Oh 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 mispent 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, Matt. xii. 36. 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, Matt. xxv. 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! Oh 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 thathe 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 mispent, 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 also vilify 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 Israelites in the wilderness, that wax 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 unrecoverable 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 recall one minute that is gone! All the riches in this world cannot redeem it, by reversing one of those hours or moments, which you so prodigally cast 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, Oh 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 you 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 recall 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.[281]Job vii. 1, "Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? Are not his days also like the days of an hireling?" Job xiv. 1, 2, "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." Job ix. 25, 26, "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 prey." Oh, what is this inch of hasty time! How quickly will it all be gone! Look back on all the time that is past: if thou 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 apace? 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 alloted 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 aught 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 athousand 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 despatch of the works of his life. And should not we? Matt. xxvi. 18, 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 xxii. 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. ix. 12, "Man knoweth not his time." Many thousands would have done better in their preparations, if they had known the period of their time. Matt. xxiv. 43, "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." Mark xiii. 33, "Take ye heed, watch and pray; for ye know not when the time is."
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, 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? Must 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 long-suffering of God did wait on the disobedient in the days of Noah," 1 Pet. iii. 20; 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 thou think that 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 despatch! 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 requireth 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 requireth, 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," Luke i. 74, 75.
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 mispent this.[282]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 will ever make, must now be made! 2 Cor. vi. 2, "Behold, now is the accepted time! Behold, now is the day of salvation." Heb. iii. 7, 13, "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. Rev. x. 5, 6, "And the angel—lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, that time should be no longer." Therefore "whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest," Eccles. ix. 10. 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, 1 Cor. vii. 29.
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," 1 Pet. v. 8. "Be sober" therefore and "vigilant to resist him," ver. 7, 9. If he be busy, and you be idle, if he be at work in spreading his nets, and laying his snares 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 fleshis still inclining to its prohibited delights. None of these enemies will make a truce or a cessation with you, to sit 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 over-love your lives, and yet to cast away your time. What is your time but the duration of your lives? You are loth to die, and loth 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 loth 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 loth 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, Lev. xxvi. 20, "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," Luke vi. 12, but not where he spent an hour in playing. I know you will say, that you expect not to reach 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 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, Eph. vi. 13. 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," 1 Tim. vi. 19.
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?[283]Would they sleep it away, or be at their games and merriments, while God is offering them Christ and grace? Dost thou think they set not a higher price on time and mercy, than sinners 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? Oh 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 expense 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.
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.[284]
Direct.I. Remember that it 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 while 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. xxv. 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 dear-bought 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 that 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," Isa. lv. 6, 7. Read but the doleful lamentation of Christ over Jerusalem, Luke xix. 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," John ix. 4. 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 it be taken in time, which afterwards is uncurable! 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?