Redeem the Time, because the days are evil.

St. Aug. in his 24th Sermon upon the words of the Apostle, observes there are two things which render our days evil, the misery and the wickedness of Men. But since misery is only the punishment of wickedness, and wickedness the cause of misery, it is the mis-spending and not re­deeming our Time, which denominate the days evil: Mis-spending, relates to the present, and to [Page 6]the future when it becomes present; not re­deeming, regards what is past; so that both to­gether infect the whole Stream, and render our days guilty of a double iniquity. For it is no small aggravation of every sin, (tho so little re­flected on, and made so light of by People now a-days,) that in the perpetration of evil is inclu­ded the omission of doing well; that the same par­cels of Time we dedicate to Vice, ought to be consecrated to the exercise of Vertue; that the contrary practice, besides its proper and specifick wickedness, is guilty of Injustice and Robbery. In fine, That in the day of Judgment a separate account will be demanded of what we have, and what we have not done. This is evident from the Bill which shall be brought in and found a­gainst the Delinquent, and is already declar'd by our Blessed Lord, Mat. 25. where every Article of the Inditement is Negative, You did not feed me, you did not cloath me, you did not visit me, and the rest. But here is not alledg'd so much as the breach of a Commandment; then Irreli­gion, Luxury, Detraction and Extortion are smaller Crimes, which will bear no Action. But since lesser Articles cannot supersede the greater, it follows, These are upon another Rule, unless such gross offenders shall be ranged with Infidels, who are already judg'd, and carry their Sentence in [Page 7]their Faces, jam judicati sunt. But for the rest of Christians, who think themselves innocent because they abstain from these blacker Crimes, it is necessary another Inditement should be pre­par'd, setting forth the Omission of good Works, and convicting them of mispending their Time, which, as appears from our Saviours words, is alone sufficient to plunge them into everlasting Flames, Quia non fecistis. Therefore, because you did not, for no other reason, go you cursed in­to everlasting Fire.

And after all this, amidst so much knowledge in a Point which concerns us so highly, and which we firmly believe, is it not a Subject rather of Tears than of Expostulation and Discourse, that nothing is so little consider'd by Man, as the true value of Time? I know the Divine, the Philoso­pher, the Lawyer, the Trades-man, and even the Libertine unanimously agree that Time is the most pretious thing in the World, but all of them upon different Motives. The Philosopher prizes it in order to Science, the Lawyer manages it to improve his Fortune, the Trades-man to procure a Subsistence, the Libertine to indulge his Appetites, but the Divine teaches it to be on­ly valuable, as leading to an happy Eternity. To value Time upon the account of Speculation, is meerly Heathenish; to value it for a Temporal [Page 8]advantage, is meerly Human; haec Gentes requi­runt; to value it for the abuse of it, is diabolical; but to value it for the true end, is the estimate of a Christian. Wherefore, all the manegery of Time, or rather the applying of it otherwise than to the true end, for which it was given, and to which it naturally tends i. e. to Eternity, is an unjust alienation, because it turns the Means into the end, and frustrates the Design of God and Nature.

It is not my business to subtilize upon the na­ture of Time, or Metaphysically enquire what it is, whether the revolution of the Heavens, or the measure of the motion and rest of Bodies, or a particle of Eternity which we now use, Cic. I. 1. de In­vent. Rhet. as the Ora­tor calls it? Let us leave this disquisition to Phi­losophers. There is a certain Definition which every Christian carries in his Breast, that it is a Term assign'd us by Providence, to work out our Salvation in it. This Term is diversify'd ac­cording to the several Men it affects; and what is many Years to one, is but a few Months, or Days, or Hours to another. Yet this shorter Pe­riod, is a Mans whole Time, his whole Course; as the Moon and other Planets compleat their Revolution and fulfil their Motion, as well as the Sun and Superior Heavens, which are much longer in performing theirs. Wherefore, it is a [Page 9]astrange Folly, and little less than Impiety, which is so common in every bodies mouth, that such an one came to an untimely end, or was cut off in the Flower or middle of his Age, when that very Person so lamented as un­ripe for the Sythe, had liv'd out his whole time as well as Mathusalem; and so has the Infant who is taken in the Womb, or having but one day upon the Earth, as much as the Child of an hundred years, as the Scripture most properly stiles those who end their days in such Puerili­ties as they began them, with as little consi­deration why they came into the World, what they are to do in it, what Account will be de­manded after it; Their Divertisements and what they call Pleasures, being as silly, and wanting nothing of the Child, but Innocence.

But if it be agreed on, that Time is pretious, what Frenzy has seiz'd Mankind, and makes them so lavish of what they esteem so dear? What Spirit makes us so fond and careful of Temporal advantages, so greedy of what is not our own, and so negligent of the thing which only belongs to us? Omnes si qui­dem res aliena a nobus est, tem­pus autem no­strum est. Bern. l. Medit. c. 6. Senec. For as Seneca and St. Bernard admirably observe, all other things are Foreign, nothing is properly ours, but Time: Or supposing other things to be never so much our own, yet the value of Time ought in [Page 10]reason to be greater than the estimation of what we only owe to Time; and who squan­ders it away, tho he pretend to Prudence and Conduct in other matters, can deserve that stile no better, than one who receives his Rents with great exactness and circumspection, but keeps no account how he lays them out; or, another who busies himself about what be­longs not to him, or is exact in trivial mat­ters, but neglects the main; like that unfortu­nate Prince, who valu'd himself more upon the touch of the Lute, than the Art of Govern­ment.

All other things are Foreign to us, aliena à nobis sunt; they are beneath us; we now and then descend to them out of necessity or for diversion, but the management of Time is the business of Man. This only is our own, but it will not stay with us; it is short and swift, properties which inhaunce the value, and shew it was given us only for use. Part of it steals away from us before we reflect upon it, part others steal from us; and of that which we are actually using, a great deal runs at waste. For setting aside the Years of our undiscerning Childhood, and inconsiderate Youth, and unwel­dy Old Age, only the middle part of our Lives, which hardly make up a fourth, we think worth [Page 11]improving; and how few arrive to this term? Not the fourth part of Mankind; and of those that do, not the Hundreth part, I am afraid, ever think whereabouts they are, but trifle a­way the present, which is in their power, to build their hopes upon a future, in which it is at least probable they shall have no share, and in which for certain, they will be more unfit for labor. But of this riper and more di­gested part of our Lives, how much is taken up in necessary attendance on our Bodies and Fortunes, how much consum'd in rest and re­pasts, how much in refreshing the Spirits and unbending the Mind? And of the remainder, which amounts not to above a fifteenth pro­portion, how much is wasted in Disquisition and Error, and mistaking our business, in idle expectation, fond hopes and unactive fears? And after all this subduction, have we time to spend in useless Discourses, imperti­nent News, tedious Visits or unprofitable Stu­dies? But it seems we have so much plenty still, that every Sense and Appetite puts in for a share, and wantons away the select and more pretious hours. We have time for Drunken­ness, Cheating and Circumventing, Slander and Detraction, Luxury and Murder, and, as if the wickedness of the day were not sufficient [Page 12]for it, we take in great part of the Night. We suffer every one, who has a mind to lose his own time, to make bold with ours; and when all other Injuries and usurpation of our Goods is presently inform'd against, and prosecuted as far as the Crime will bear, even to death, for a Garment or a small Sum of Mony; there is no Man brings an Action against the Ag­gressor that robs us of so much time in formal Visits or unprofitable Discourse, nay, we are not sensible he has done us any wrong; but soon after we grow weary of the rest, and pre­pare to do the same injury to others, inviting them to spend an hour in this or that diver­tisement. To spend an hour? (cries St. Bernard,) Do you know what you say! To spend an hour, which the mercy of your Creator has indulg'd you to do Penance, to obtain Pardon, to acquire Grace and purchase Glory? O donec pertranseat tempus! To pass the time away in which you ought to ap­pease the Divine Justice, to hasten towards an Angelical Purity, to bewail your past offences; the Evangelical Treasure which you ought to buy with the expence of all you have. To spend the time! O absurdity of speech! O stupidity of mind! To quicken the speed of Time, which is ever upon the wing, and cannot be perswa­ded to stay with us. If we manage our Time [Page 13]to so much advantage, what pity it is we are confin'd to so small a compass, and our lives crowded into so narrow a space! Great pity indeed, that Men, who Husband a little so well, have not a larger Fortune to improve! a sad thing, that from amidst these laudable Exer­cises one must be snatch'd away on a suddain, as if our Industry and Application had not me­rited a longer term!

But, Christians, let us once in our lives be serious, and consider in cold Blood what we are doing, whiles so great a Treasure slips between our fingers! Let us once in our lives tell true, and ingenuously confess what we are driving at, what we hope to gain by so pro­digious and irrecoverable an Expence? I dare not tell you St. Bernards opinion of your Proceedings, That all the time you have not God before your eyes, is to be reckon'd as lost: Bern. i [...] De­clam. Omne tempus in quo de Deo non cogitas, hoc te computes perdidisse. But this I am bold to affirm, that all Time not spent in order to Eternity, is mis-spent; if employed only upon things indif­rent, it is to be accounted for, if upon things criminal, it is to be satisfy'd for, if it be not re­deem'd; and even those Actions which pass for the most innocent, when not directed to the right end, become defective, and in some measure [Page 14]criminal; nay, even things necessary, when they exceed the limits of necessity, are put to the account of mis-spending. I need not speak of Time spent in those things, which even the corruption of this Age, with all its glosses can­not Varnish over, which appear in their own Colours, do what we can, and condemn us while they are acting. I need not speak of Time spent in santring up and down, hearing or relating News, Dancing, Gaming, which have not any other end than a short refresh­ment of the Spirits, beyond which, they are amusements, which we tolerate in Children, and nothing but want of Reason can excuse; For assure your selves, want of Reflection in a riper Age will not do it; for how can Not-Re­flecting excuse us, when Ignorance it self shall be reputed a Crime, and he that do's not know, shall not be known?

Now go and tell me your State and Condi­tion will not allow you to spend your Time better; if this be so, that State of yours de­serves very ill of you; it is unlawful in it self, and therefore to be abandon'd: And methinks, no one should be unwilling to quit that miserable Servitude where he has not lei­sure to be good. But if the State be good, it is sanctify'd by vertuous Practices; and if [Page 15]you supersede that Sanctification, you render that Criminal, which of it self is good and laudable. But the goodness of most States de­pends upon the execution of them.

It was a common Saying among the Philo­sophers, That every Man is the Artificer of his own Fortune; I am sure, every one is the Ar­tificer of his own Happiness, who by co-ope­rating with the Grace and Time which is given him, may improve the most ordinary Actions into vertuous and meritorious, or by neglect­ing this casie improvement, render himself accountable for the most indifferent things.

That Direction of the Apostle, Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the Glory of God, is a Precept (for so the Fathers stile it,) of a vast extent, and reaches not only the more remarkable, but also takes in the minutest Actions, and every moment of our Lives. In the Eyes of God a thousand Years are but a moment, and in the Service of God a moment may be worth a thousand Years; it may redeem an Age, it may purchase an Eter­nity. Unhappy Man! who neglects a moment, which may render him so for ever! à momen­to Aeternitas; Eternity depends upon a moment, because Eternity is the end of Time, which is nothing but a Flux of moments; and that fa­tality [Page 16]which will certainly happen in one, may happen in any one.

And now certainly, I have said enough of the due value of Time, which must be presup­pos'd, as well to the appretiation and esteem of the thing, as to the redeeming of it. If you are satisfy'd in the value of it, you cannot but be griev'd to the very heart, that you have part­ed with it so easily, pass'd it over so slightly, and spent it so idly and irreligiously, and by consequence, will be very glad to hear how you may redeem it, which is the Subject of my Second Part.

Redeem the Time.

The highest point of Wisdom that Man can arrive to by Philosophy, is to make use of his Time when it is in his hands; but to reco­ver it when it is gone, to retrieve it when it is lost; to rectifie the Errors and Miscar­riages of it when it is no more, is one of those Arcanums of Religion, which are hid from the Wise and reveal'd to Babes. It was the Saying of Pittacus, celebrated so much by Antiquity, and which entitled him to a place among the wisest of Men, [...], Learn to value your Time, but to redeem it was a Lesson [Page 17]that great Master never learn'd himself, and became only an Apostle of the Church to teach. But who is able to pay so great a Ransom? And what Exchange can one make for his Time, more than for his own Soul? The price is easie and obvious, and in every Mans power, Cautè ambulate, only walk warily, [...], circumspectly and watchfully; do now what before you ought to have done, and a guard upon your Actions for the future, shall repair the damages caus'd by your former negligence. But walking warily, implies not only a Cessation from Evil, but also a Repentance of it; To redeem the Time there­fore, saith St. Anselm, is to redeem the Offen­ces of a Mis-spent Life, with Tears and peniten­tial Works, Est anteactae vitae peccata, flendo, & poenitendo redimere.

If Sorrow then is a Tear, which cannot recover the smallest Temporal loss, so valuable in order to Eternity; and do our Hearts remain still without sense, and our Eyes without moi­sture? Will amendment for the future cross the Book? Will an humble acknowledgment of the Debt compound with our Adversary in the way? Will a present diligence, in performing what is otherwise our Duty, attone for so much negligence in managing the Talent deposited in our hands? And is the Price thought too dear [Page 18]with us? Or do we stand with our Hands in our Pockets, demurring upon the Bargain? Do's not Reason as well as Religion prompt us to lay hold of it immediately? And since the Mercy of our God is so liberal, to take him at his word, (as I may say,) and enter the Vineyard this very moment, tho at the 9th, tho at the 11th hour, when the short remainder of the time may make up the loss of all the rest! Oh! the unspeakable comforts of this Promise! Oh! the incredible stupidity of Man! which stands unmov'd at such large Invitations, such a general Amnesty, such unexpected Promises, as transcend not on­ly a reasonable Hope, but even the boldest Pre­sumption!

The Morning comes, Isa. 21.12. (says the Prophet,) and also the Night; tho your Day be far spent, there is still Time enough to enquire after the means of your Salvation; Si quaeritis, quaerite, If you seek, seek in earnest, return and come: And that we should not doubt of a merciful Reception, he gives us this assurance by another Prophet, That he will forgive our Iniquity, and that he will remember our sin no more. Jer. 31.34.

Surely, there is some unknown Pleasure and invincible Fascination in Idleness, which can­not be unti'd by such powerful Countercharms as these. Custom, (which is but standing Er­ror,) [Page 19]has prepossess'd our Minds, stupifi'd and im­mersed in Flesh and Blood; that to do nothing is easie, when indeed it is the greatest pain the reasonable Creature can endure; arguing either a childish Weakness, that we cannot act, or a shameful Ignorance, that we know not what to do. And I believe the Man of Reason will grant me, that Ignorance, as it is a punishment upon us for doing what we ought not, so is it the grea­test torment to a Soul, which is perpetually thirsting after Knowledge: And as for the more unthinking and grosser part of Mankind, they cannot deny, but all Pain comes from Weak­ness. Our own Notions therefore bear testimo­ny against us; and if what we call a gentile life, speaks either our Weakness or Ignorance, the gentile Liver is the most unhappy Creature in the World: For Happiness is so far from con­sisting in either of these, that both are essential­ly destructive to it; and whosoever hopes to compass this end by contrary means, will find himself at last in the other Extremity. To be plain, whosoever promises Happiness to him­self without much labor, sets it at too high a price, at which no wise Man would buy it, if it be not to be purchas'd but by living idly; for at this rate, one must be Miserable to become Happy.

But how unnatural a thing is it for that Crea­ture to be idle, Ambr. Praef. in Luc. Basil. ap. Mel. 89. who alone of all Creatures stands condemn'd to labor? as St. Ambrose observes: Up­on which consideration St. Basil doubts not to brand this Vice of so great reputation in the World, with the infamous Character of a sin against Nature; because there is nothing in the whole Frame of Nature idle or unactive. Our Blessed Saviour testifies of the Godhead it self, My Father (saith he,) John 5.17. still works, and I work; Pater meus usque modo operatur. All the Hier­arches of Angels (as one assures us, who had been in the third Heaven,) are Administring Spi­rits: The Prophet declares, they have no rest day nor night; but incessantly pour forth their harmonious Acclamation, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabbath: And what I should have mention'd before, The sacred Humanity of Christ came not to be serv'd, but to serve; Non venit ut Ministraretur, sed ut Ministraret. The Celestial Orbs have never had any respite from their perpetual motion; all things below are in a continual Tide, a regular Succession of Causes and Effects; Every Creature groans, and brings forth even till now, saith the Apostle: And if the invisible things of God are understood by those things which are made, The Operations of Nature are so many Emblems of the Diligence he requires [Page 21]at our hands towards the working out our Sal­vation; God having made them not only for our use, but also for our instruction. In fine, the whole World is a large Volum, as St. S. Athanas. in Vit. S. Ant. An­thony calls it, where we may read our Duty, and meet with it in every line. Nay, if Man would but take the measure of his Moral Actions from the observation of his Natural, the continual working of the Heart, circulation of the Blood, respiration of the Lungs, pulse of the Arteries and activity of the Fancy, will teach him Assi­duity in the exercise of those nobler Faculties, whose Actions depend upon the liberty of his Will; how constant and regular his Motion ought to be in the Service of God; And that his Soul is as much dead, when it is idle, and surceases from doing well, as the Body will be, when all these Vital Operations are at an end.

I know not any one, who would not esteem it a horrible Execration, to wish he had neither Hands nor Feet; yet, such is our misery, that while we make no more use of them in order to our own good, or that of our Neighbor, than if they were quite disabled; even in that res­pect we count our selves happy: For take away from the Lady, the Gentleman, the Courtier, &c. the power and convenience of doing nothing, and being not in the labors of Men, the subtilest [Page 22]Logician can scarce explain in what formality, their Happiness, i. e. the advantage of their Con­dition consists? Their priviledge seems to lie in an exemption from the general Malediction inflicted upon the rest of Mankind; In the sweat of their brows they shall eat their Bread: But then they must draw their Pedegree from some other Line than that of Adam; for no more is any Child of his free of this Obligation, than he is from the cause of it; and if we Inherit the one, we must necessarily be partakers of the o­ther. For as Holy Job expounds this Sentence, Man is born to labor; Labor being not only a necessary means to preserve his life, but one of the ends why it was given him. And our Bles­sed Saviour revives and inforces this Doctrin, in the Parable of the Master entrusting his Ser­vants with so many Talents, with a Negotiamini, Manage and improve them; and this not for a spirt, when the fit takes you, but donec veniam, without intermission till he calls them in, and you to give an account of your Stewardship; by which Servants, every body understands the whole Mass of Human Nature, without except­ing any State or Condition; and by the Talents, a necessity of working, according to the Abili­ties this great Master has dispensed to every particular.

Now if a Man who had well consider'd the weight and strictness of this Obligation, with­out knowing the Follies of Mankind, and their vain amusements, should look out into the World, he would tell me, I make a Discourse in the Air, and to the Walls; for every one is active in his respective Station, and employ'd in his Duty, when he should see their earnest­ness at such a distance, as not to discern the mat­ter they are so intent upon: How People hast along the Streets, and press one another like Waves, which are broken and sever'd with a contrary Tide: When he should behold some warmly disputing at a Table, others walking musing and solitary, some Reading, others discoursing with abundance of Gravity, others sitting in crowds, in recollection and silence; he would certainly bid me hold my peace, and not disturb these serious Men, with advising them to begin, what they are already doing. But if I should lead him nearer to them, within ken of their Actions, and hearing of their Discourse, when he should discover their Lives and their Talk to be all of a piece, Atheistical in good ear­nest; When he should see these People running to a Shew or to a Riot, to circumvent their Neighbor, or to oppress the Innocent; or cour­sing about the Streets, meerly to shew their [Page 24]Equipage or themselves: When he should find those silent and recollected People at the Theater, whom he thought at a Sermon; That Lady at her Glass, and in a profound contemplation of her self, whom he thought at her Oratory; that Gallant reading a Romance or a Novel, which he mistook for a Prayer-Book: When he should hear others talking profanely in the very Church, blaspheming the Divinity they pretend to wor­ship, pretending to Reason, and yet practising Debauchery. In fine, most Men acting and talking after such a manner, that what is count­ed the most innocent Discourse, is Murther, I mean, censuring their Neighbors Actions, and taking their Lives in pieces, as if they were dis­secting an Anatomy, to discover the root of a Disease.

In a word, When he should be satisfy'd, that the plurality of Men is busied in unlawful, or scandalous, or trivial things, and almost all be­sides their business, he would cry out, They want a Physician more than a Divine; and I spend my Time as unprofitably as the rest, with Preaching to Men in a Lunacy.

But if he should be commanded with the Prophet Ezekiel, Ezek. 8.8. to pierce the Wall, and view the Abominations that are done within, and all the Idols of the House of Israel, with the several [Page 25]sorts of Adorations which are paid to them; as the avaricious Man sacrificing his Soul to a lit­tle Gain, the voluptuous Man to his sensual Ap­petite, the Vindictive to a brutal Revenge, the Ambitious to the shadow of Honor, the Luxu­rious to the most infamous of Passion, the Flat­terer burning Incense to his Prince, and the Hy­pocrite to his God; he must needs conclude that true, what the Jews said in their Conventicle of Vice, The Lord hath forsaken the Earth, and the Fear of him is wholly extinguish'd.

But if amidst this Mans astonishment, one should bid him have a care what he says, for these are Christians, Men who make a Consci­ence of their Actions, People of Credit and Ho­nor, who would not do an ill thing for the World, who believe they shall account severe­ly for every idle word, and every moment spent unprofitably. In short, That they are redeem­ing their Time, and are heartily sorry for all their sins, tho they appear to be actually inflaming the reckoning; that they are executing their Pe­nances, and putting their morning Resolutions in practice, tho they seem to be at the Gaming-house, the Theater or Tavern; would not he turn upon me as one of the number of mad Men, or an impudent Cheat, endeavoring to impose upon his Senses, and obtrude the grosest [Page 26] impossibilities, and most palpable contradictions upon his certain Knowledge and Reason?

Yet whether this be not the present State of this Nation, I mean, the case of most People, Judicate domus Israel, your Judgment, O House of Israel! If God should once again send the Prophet Jeremy to search every Street, and en­quire out a just and sober Man, any one who seek­eth the Truth, I am persuaded, he would bring in the same Evidence he did before; Jerem 5.1. Thou hast stricken them, but they have not griev'd; Thou hast consumed them, but they have refus'd to hear cor­rection; They have made their faces harder than a Rock, they have refus'd to return. The more Time thou givest them to repent, the more Time thou allowest them to sin; they are so far from redeeming what is past, that there is like to be no end of the Score.

But perhaps they are poor and foolish, igno­rant of the ways of our Lord, and the Judgments and Law of their God; Vadam ergo ad Optimates, I will go therefore to the great, the most know­ing and discerning Men, the advantage of whose Birth and Education has rais'd them above the Level, and purg'd their Heads from that Gros­ness and Phlegm which stupifies the rest; for they cannot but know the way of the Lord, and the judgment of their God: Sed hi simul confrege­runt [Page 27]jugum, ruperunt vincula; But these have altogether broken the Yoke, and burst the Bonds. At their looking out into the World, their first business is to forget the Religious Education of their tender Age, and to efface the instructions of their Parents and Preceptors, by doing eve­ry thing they were forbid. The first Tincture they receive from the World, is Vanity, which as Job observes, soon ripens into Pride, [Vir vanus in superbiam erigitur,] and then they think them­selves born as free and lawless as a wild Ass-colt in the Desert. Because they have no necessity of sweating for their Living, they think themselves Masters of their Time; because Divine Provi­dence has provided so largely for them, as to exempt them from the Drudgery of the World, and set them apart for nobler Actions; they think their Business lies only where their Pleasures do. What a frightful Idea have these Men of Happi­ness, when their own Judgment places them in the State of corrupted and abandon'd Nature, endow'd only with a liberty to Sin, or rather in the State of Damnation, a Non-necessity of doing well?

But, my Noble Auditory, how can you en­tertain so mean or cruel a thought of God, as to fancy he has made a Law from which he ex­empts that sort of Mankind, which is the most [Page 28]able and best qualified to perform it? Or that he has singled out the best part of his Creation, Men and Women of most sense and reason, as the fattest Victims for Sacrifice, to spend their Time in silence and idleness, and not to be in the labors of Men, assigning them no Province, no Soil to cultivate, that they might have no means toward their Reprobation? If this be the end of your Creation, O ye Men of Greatness, of Riches and Honors! I cannot but acknow­ledge with Tears, that you so well correspond with it. But if the advantage of your conditi­on consists in a capacity of serving God and your Neighbor in a more excellent manner, as well through the great leisure you enjoy, as the plenty and power you have to do it with, your Time is so much more valuable, as it may be more beneficial; it is more easily redeemed, by the many Expedients which are before you, and the abuse of it so much more enormous and punishable; upon which that Comminati­on of the Holy Ghost is grounded, Potentes potenter tormenta patientur, The great shall suf­fer great Torments; and again, Quantum sese ex­altavit, &c. As much as he has exalted himself; and bin in delights, give him so much Torment and Grief.

My Time will not allow me to instance in every particular advantage of your State; but give me leave to conclude this Discourse with one which comprehends the rest, and seems to be the property of the Nobles and Gentry, De­votion. If this be a Duty incumbent upon all Men, so that no State, no Circumstance or Con­dition can prescribe against it, in capite Libri scriptum est de vobis, you are the first in the Role, as being Emancipated from those ties and in­cumbrances, in which the laboring, that is, the far greater part of the World is involv'd. If the Laborer, who moils all day to procure a small refreshment for his craving Appetite, or to support a Family, be not excus'd upon that account, from consecrating his Actions in the Morning by Prayer, and giving an account of them in an Evening Recollection; shall you be pass'd by as Extralineary, who may perform that almost every hour of the day, which the rest cannot but at set intervals, and borrowing Time from their Rest? If that complaint, which is so common in every bodies mouth, That they have not Time to say their Prayers, be injurious to God, and an implicite accusation of his Pro­vidence, as if it had not furnish'd us means to perform the Duty it enjoyns? What name shall we find for those false pretexts and fond excuses [Page 30]which you make, for whom that Precept seems to be more particularly calculated, sine inter­missione orate, pray without ceasing? If a sick Man complain of want of health, or a poor Man of want of Necessaries, he becomes an object of Compassion, and it would be the high­est Barbarity to revile him for what is not in his power to avoid. But if a Man in perfect Health should complain of a Distemper, or one sitting at a good Table, should cry he is almost famish'd, risum teneatis amici? Nobody would refrain from laughter: and yet it is incompara­bly more absurd for any one to complain he has not Time to pray, which he ought to be do­ing while he is complaining. But for those who have nothing else to do, or at the most, only incident and casual avocations, it is a subject of Tears, and a folly to which one would think Men of good sense, of all people in the World should be the least subject. You have not time to Pray; but you have time to be Drunk; You have not time to Pray; but you have time to spend in idle discourse, in scandalous and uncharitable Reflections, in chambering and wantonness. You have not time to Pray, but how many hours do you wast in Gaming, when the loss of your Mony, is the least expence; and what you gain, cannot redeem, is not the price of a moment of [Page 31]the Time you lose? O Heavens! how glad will ye be one day of half an hour, out of so many thousands which dance over your heads unregarded! what would not a Damn'd soul give for those scraps of Time, which you cast away as superfluous?

But certainly, the man of business has not Time to be devout: yet he has Time, but it seems not to that end; or if to that end, yet Affairs of a greater importance intervene and challenge it to themselves. If it be so, the Man of business is, by necessity, the most Irreligious person in the world: For if you prefer any thing to your Prayers, it is an evident sign you judge it of grea­ter importance, which is a Spiritual Idolatry, postponing the Creator to the Creature. But if you acknowledg those things you prefer to your Prayers, to be of an Inferior order, you are high­ly unjust. No wonder then if at those few bro­ken moments, and ends of Time, which are the Refuse of your pleasure, or what you miscal, your business, when you vouchsafe to come be­fore the Divine Majesty with defil'd Hands, and a Mind painted all over with the imagery of of Creatures, and a Heart totally immersed in sensual, if not criminal, affections; no wonder I say, if your Prayers are not heard, which drop from you with as ill a Grace, as Alms from the [Page 32]Miser, which are huddled over with as much precipitation, as if you were making an escape from God Almighty, which are accompanied with so many indignities, that you bid fair with Jacob for a Curse rather than a Blessing, and fall upon your Knees, not to obtain pardon, but to receive sentence, or rather to increase your Judg­ment, such as the Royal Prophet wishes the counterfeit Repentant, Oratio ejus fiat in pec­catum; your very Prayer becomes an additional sin.

I know some will be apt to think, surely this Man mistakes his Auditory, and fancies himself preaching in a Cloyster, or reading Ascetick Lectures to People wholly estrang'd and secluded from the World. But they may spare that thought: I know the place I fill, I know and re­vere my August and noble Audience; I am sen­sible I am speaking, as in the most Awful, so to the most discerning, ingenious, letter'd, and judicious Assembly of the World. I speak to a Court, to Men of Business, and whose Time is much taken up with weighty imployments: I speak to the Flower of both Sexes; I speak to Ladies, Souldiers, Philosophers and Divines; but that is not all, I speak to Christians; and if any appear not in that Quality, I speak not to them: But all who own that Character, must at [Page 33]the same time render to my Doctrin. I do not perswade you to relinquish, but to sanctify your state; and certainly Piety, which is profitable to all things, is more than ordinarily necessary to them, who are surrounded with more than or­dinary dangers, which renders Prayer more re­quisite in a Court than in a Convent; Because, as St. Bernard observes, Temptations there, are more serpentine and wily, more rife and allur­ing, the Pavement more slippery where one stands, the Bruise greater when one falls, and the Rise more difficult when one is down. The same I affirm respectivly of every state which admits of many distractions, and very much engages and takes up the mind; as those Distem­pers need the frequenter Antidotes which re­cur the oftnest, and lye heaviest at the heart; which renders this Verity clear and beyond dis­pute, That a Monk in his Cell is not half so criminal in omitting the solemn obligations of his Order, as a Courtier who dispenses with himself in the constant observance of Piety, how plausible and specious soever his pretences may be. Tell me not of the contrary Judgment of the World, which is all plac'd in iniquity; no Man chuses his enemy to be his Judg. We are not to bend our Rule to the Practice or opini­ons of Men, but we reduce them to the Rule, [Page 34]and by that pronounce of their Rectitude or Ob­liquity; ad Legem magis et Prophetas: We de­cide not matters of Right by matters of Fact, but the contrary; we judg of the Lawfulness of the Action by comparing it with the Law.

To conclude. The Time is pretious; there­fore we are commanded to be watchful how every moment of it goes away, vigilate ita (que) omni tempore: It is short; and what follows, says the Apostle, but that those who use this world, be as if they us'd it not? that is, even they who have most to do in the World, are to be so intent up­on the managing their Time, that the World should rather steal from them, than their Time. It is the only thing we can call our own, therefore let us preserve it; Fili, conserva tempus: but it is swift, therefore let us work while we have it, dum habemus operemur; but it is evil, therefore let us sanctify it, operemur bonum; but much of it is already wasted, therefore let us redeem it, before our Glass be out: Revel. 10. for he that has sworn by him who lives for ever, that Time shall be no more, hath warn'd us, that fatal Period is very neer: Tempus prope est; Revel. 1. This life is the time of Labor, and the service of God the chief business of Man, from which no one is exempted, and they the least, as I have shewn, who think they have the best Plea. It is in the power but of a few to [Page 35]consecrate themselves entirly to the service of God, but to admit Temporal affairs in their Or­der, and range them in a secondary place, is the Duty of every one. It is impossible to de­bar our selves all Recreations and Pastimes, but very possible, and even necessary, to chuse those which are innocent: The Heathen Philosopher will not allow you others than such as are com­mendable and beneficial: No one for his recrea­tion is to descend from good Actions to bad: no one to spend his Time has leave to mispend it. Let us sum up all that has been said, in the wise Mans advice directed to every state and condition, Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, Eccl. 9.10. do it with thy might, (Instanter, with diligence and speed) for their is no work nor device, nor knowledg, nor wisdom in the Grave, whither thou art hastning: Quo tu prope­ras. Dulg. And to which I beseech God of his infinite mer­cy to prepare Us all by a speedy Repentance for having mispent so much of our time, and an earnest endeavour to Redeem it, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Ghost; Amen.