be [z] Cato Munatio scripsit se vereri ne nimia amicitia causam altquando daret odio Huc proverbium Persicum Homines invisere indecorum non est modò toties non fiat ut dicant Sat est Et Arabes dicunt Visita raro angebis amcrem Et Martialis Nulli te facias nimis sodalem Quantò meltor ergo est Dei quà m hominum amicitia Deo tanto sumus gratiores quanto saepius ad eum accedimus Syn. Crit. in loc weary of thee and so hate thee But alas how few among us are to be found who make their Visits to these better Purposes to help and assist counsel and comfort sick Persons to exercise Charity to the Souls and Bodies of poor Neighbours to minister suitable and seasonable Relief to such as are in real and great Want and Need to further the Edification and promote the Salvation of all about them to labour and endeavour to bring some off from their Errours or Sins to mind one another of their latter End in a serious and savoury Manner to talk of the Kingdom and the Way to the Kingdom and to help one another Heaven-ward to add to one another's spiritual Knowledg to encrease and stir up one another's Graces to comfort and warm and strengthen one another's Hearts to affect one another with the Remembrance of God's Ordinances and with the Consideration of his Providences to their Persons Families Relations more particularly r to the Land of our Nativity and the People of God and Church of Christ more generally To bring one another to a due Sense of the Divine Mercies and to a dread of the Divine Judgments to pray with one another and to quicken one another to a Reformation of their Hearts and Lives and a well ordering of themselves and Families and the Redemption of their Time in these evil Daies and to a speedy and sound Preparation of themselves to suffer for the Gospel and for the Purity of the Reformed Religion if God shall please to call them to it That Prodigy of early youthful Piety and spiritual divine Proficiency [a] In his Life written by his Brother Jam. Janew p. 72 73. Mr. John Janeway Fellow of King's Colledg in Cambridg once in Company sate down silent took out his Pen and Ink and wrote down in Short-hand the Discourses that passed for some Time together among those that pretended to more than common Understanding in the Things of God and after a while he took his Paper and read it to them and asked them Whether that Talk was such as they would be willing God should record Is not this a brave rational divine Discourse says he Where 's our Love to God and Souls all this while Where 's our Sense of the Preciousness of Time and of the Greatness of our Account Did Saints in former Times use their Tongues to no better Purpose Would Enoch David or Paul have talked thus Is this the sweetest Communion of Saints upon Earth How shall we do to spend Eternity in the Praises of God if we cannot find some good Matter for an Hour's Discourse This he did to convince and shame them out of their barren Discourse and empty Converse and foolish fruitless Communication and to quicken and provoke them to a more profitable Improvement of their Society A seventh Sort of Persons reproved They also are justly blame-worthy who cast away their Time in excessive immoderate worldly Cares for superfluous Things Who as the [a] Magno temporit impendio quaeruntur supervacua multi transcunt vitam dum vitae instrumenta conquirunt Seneca ep 45. Philosopher describes them do wholly pass their Life in seeking and procuring the Instruments of Life and are [b] Seneca de brevitate vitae cap. 20. Facile est occupationes evadere si occupationum pretia contempseris Mercedem miseriarum amant ipsas exccrantur Idem ep 22. Rebus non me trado sed commodo nec consector perdendi temporis causas Idem ep 62. sooner weary of living than of labouring whose desire lasts longer than their Ability and Power to labour for this World who reckon Old Age grievous only on this Account that it laies them aside and hinders their lively and vigorous Pursuit of the Things of the World Who complain sometimes of the Trouble of Businesses of the Weight of great and full Employments but cannot find in their Hearts to leave them because though they hate the Miseries of their Labours yet they love the Gain and Profit the Price and Reward of them Who bestow a great Deal of Pains about that they never intend to use who toil and sweat tire and weary out themselves to heap up much thick Clay to treasure up Silver and Gold to * Isa 5.8 joyn House to House and lay Field to Field all which they must shortly exchange for a Turf in the Church-yard Who anxiously labour to raise and gather to clear and secure an Estate which they must every Man of them †Eccles 2.18 19. leave unto the Man that shall be after them and none knows whether he shall be a Wise Man or a Fool and take no pains in the mean Time to try and confirm their Title to Heaven Who are so solicitous about plowing their Grounds that they cannot ‖ Jer. 4.3 Hos 10.12 break up the Fallow-Ground of their own Hearts who are so busy in making up their Accounts with Men that they mind not the making even their Accounts with God So over-careful to improve their temporal that they neglect the Improvement of their spiritual Estates Who are * Luke 10.40 41 42. like Martha so cumbred and troubled about many Things that they are ready to forget the one only Thing which is absolutely necessary the happy Choice of that good Part or Portion which would be a Thing very acceptable to God and the Advantage of which would continue to themselves to all Eternity Who are so taken up with worldly Dealings that they have little or none of their Conversation in Heaven Who say in their Hearts what Duke de Alva once replied to the King who asked him whether he had seen the Ecclipse of the Sun that he had so much Business to do upon Earth that he had no Time to look up to Heaven Who are more studious and industrious to get a good earthly Bargain than to obtain a Crown of Righteousness a Crown of Life and Glory and to make sure of an heavenly and everlasting Kingdom Who have their Hearts as full of the World as their Hands and are so covetous and greedy of it that they will lose their Time and let go God and a god Conscience for it Who suffer their worldly Employments too often and easily to steal away their set and stated Times for Reading Prayer Confession Thanks-giving Meditation Self-Examination to rob their Duties of their allotted Hours or to borrow of their Duties their appointed Seasons without ever making any
Payment of them The learned and judicious Bp. Sanderson in a Sermon [c] Bp. Sanderson on 1 Cor. 7.14 p. 214 215. preached to the People gives them this wholesome good Instruction not to ingulf themselves so wholly into the Businesses of their particular Callings as to abridg themselves of convenient Opportunities for the Exercise of those religious Duties which they are bound to perform by virtue of their general Calling This says he is a point of Duty Men being commanded in their Callings to abide with God A point of Wisdom also it being a means to procure a Blessing upon their Labours from his Hands who never faileth to serve them that never fail to serve him And a Point of Justice too as due by way of Restitution of which he gives this both ingenious and solid Proof We make bold with God's Day says he and dispense with some of that Time which he hath sanctified unto his Service for our own Necessities It is equal we should allow him at least as much of ours as we borrow of his though it be for our Necessities or lawful Comforts But if we rob him of some of his Time as too often we do employing it in our own Businesses without the Warrant of a just Necessity we are to know that it is Theft yea Theft in the highest Degree Sacriledg and that therefore we are bound at least as far as petty Theeves were in the Law to a * Exod. 22.1 2 Sam. 12.6 fourfold Restitution But how very many so overload and overburthen themselves and their Families with ordinary worldly Businesses that either they quite neglect their Duties or put God off with slight and short and hasty Duties and neither afford themselves sufficient Time nor allow their Servants convenient Opportunities of remembring their God and minding their Souls Necessities These have no leisure to consider that the Soul is more worth than the Body and Heaven more valuable than the Earth and therefore that the Things that necessarily conduce to the saving of the Soul and securing of Heaven must not wholly be neglected for any bodily Concernments or worldly Interests whatsoever We must first seek the Kingdom of God and chiefly lay up a Treasure in Heaven and therefore we must not suffer worldly Cares to take up an undue Proportion of our Time We must not engage in so many Businesses nor so eagerly pursue and follow any as that our ordinary worldly Affairs should hinder our selves or our Families from the Performance of ordinary religious Exercises [d] Toward the end of his Life before his Remains It is reported of the famous Mr. George Herbert sometime Orator of the University of Cambridg that when he came to have a Family he was eminent and exemplary for his spiritual Love and Care of his Servants by his own Practice teaching Masters this Duty to allow their Servants daily Time wherein to pray privately and to enjoyn them to do it holding this for true generally That publick Prayer alone to such Persons is no Prayer at all Our Love and Care even of our Servants spiritual Welfare ought to be greater than our Love and Care of the Things of this World As many so deeply plunge themselves into unnecessary Businesses that they have no Leisure for religious Performances So some so mainly mind earthly Things that they make Religion subservient to their worldly Employment take up a specious Profession of Religion and fair Form of Godliness chiefly to invite and draw Customers to their Shops and that they may deal falsely and [e] Totius injustitia nulla capitalior est quà m eorum qui tum cùm maxime fallent id tamen agunt ut viri boni esse videantur Cicero l. 1. de Offic. unjustly without Question or Suspicion and gain unreasonably and unconscionably by a dissembled Sanctity and sictitious Piety The last Sort of Persons reproved And lastly Some Persons are to be reproved for mis-spending their Time in their Duties You may think this strange that Time should be thrown away in Duties But I would have you to understand it may for you may lose your Time in Duties these two waies 1. By performing them unseasonably 2. By doing them formally 1. You lose Time in Duty if you perform it unseasonably And that may be done these two Waies 1. When one Duty thrusts and justles out another and so the Duty is mistimed As if a Man do spend that Time in his Closet and in religious Devotion which God does require him to employ in his Shop and in following his Vocation So again if you reade and pray privatly at home when you should attend on the publick Ordinance Or reade in your Bible or Prayer-Book at Church when you should hearken to the Sermon there Or if you do nothing but reade when you should meditate sometimes and confer sometimes Or if you give way to such good Thoughts as in Prayer or hearing the Word at any Time come into your Mind but are impertinent and irrelative to the Matter in hand Such Thoughts though they be materially good yet are formally evil though good in themselves yet are sinful to thee at such unfit and inconvenient Times and will at least taint and fly-blow thy necessary present Duty To do any Duty whatever when you should rather do another is to mis-spend Time about such a Duty which is to you unseasonable 2. When Duty is perform'd at such a Time when we are most unfit for it then it is unseasonable and Time is lost in it As when we go to Prayer when we are fitter to go to sleep and kneel upon the Cushion when we are fitter to lay our Head upon the Pillow and hold up our Hands then when we are scarce able to hold open our Eyes and speak to God then when we hardly hear our selves speak When Luther during his retirement in the Castle at Coburga for his Safety enjoyed more leisure than ordinary one Vitus Theodorus who then lived with him informed Melancthon concerning him that he spent in Prayer every Day [f] Nullus abit dits quin ut minimum tres horas edsque fludiis aptissimas in orationem ponat Melch. Adam in vit Luther p. 138 142. three Hours at least and those that were fittest and properest for his Studies And it is commendable in some Masters of Families that as often as they can do it with any convenience they perform Evening-Prayer in their Families before Bed-Time yea before Supper-Time when they are not clogg'd with Meat nor heavy with Sleep but are every way freest and fittest for Duty Will you set your selves and your House-hold to do God's Work when you are wholly unfit to do your own You lose Time in Duty by performing it unseasonably That 's the first 2. You lose Time in Duty if you perform Duty no otherwise than formally customarily slightly and superficially If you handle holy Things without any Feeling If you do the Duty for the Matter
Men there is no greater Pleasure in the World than a generous holy Contempt and rational religious Disdain of excessive sensual Pleasures A Life of Recreation is an absurd and ridiculous Thing to make that our constant Business which should only fit us for Business For a Man to make mere Recreations his main Actions and grand Employments is full as foolish and unreasonable as if he should make all his Diet of Physick or Sauces and his whole Garment of nothing but Fringes As we must not begin with Recreation in the first Place so when we take it we must not hold and continue it [t] Sunt exercitationes faciles breves quae corpus sine morae laxent tempori parcant cujus raecipua ratio habenda 1st Quicquid facies cito redi à corpore ad animum illum dicbus ac noctibus exerce Dandum aliquod intervallum antrno it a tamen ut non resolvatur sed remittartur Sen. op 15. too long It may seem a severe Rule but well deserves our very serious Consideration that the [u] In his serm of Red. of Time p. 20 21. Worthy Mr. Whately has given us to direct us in this Particular 'T is not lawful for man says he in an ordinary Course to spend more Time in any Recreation than he has or shall that very Day spend and employ in some Godly and chiefly private religious Exercise The Reason he gives is this We must * Mat. 6.33 first seek the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness first in respect of Time and first in respect of Affection primarily and principally Now he that does so can never use to bellow more Time in any Recreation whatsoever than in those Things which do directly make for the obtaining of eternal Life and that Righteousness which will certainly bring one thereunto And surely this is a most equal Thing that the most needful Duty should have the most Time bestowed upon it How very faulty then are many that spend whole Daies and Nights at Cards and Dice and in idle Pas-times who never allotted one Hour of any one Day to be spent in secret in that main Work and principal Employment for which all their Life-time was allowed them Take need of giving too much of your Time to any Recreations You may quickly lose not only your Time but your Hearts too in immoderate Recreations and may thereby so hugely unfit and indispose your selves for Duty that you may find it an hard Task and difficult Work to bring back your Hearts to their usual Temper and wonted Frame again As School-Boys after a Breaking up or Time of any extraordinary Play have much ado to settle and fall hard and close to their Books again Some good men have been so tender that they have blamed themselves for the Use of those Recreations which are apt to consume and devour to eat and swallow up too much Time And the Remembrance of Time mis-spent in immoderate Recreations has been no small Trouble nor light Burthen to the considering Minds and sensible Spirits of some very holy and eminent Christians I find in Mr. Fox his Acts and Monuments that John Huss a famous Reformer and worthy Martyr in his last Letter wrote in his Imprisonment to one Mr. Martin has these Words You know how before my Priesthood which grieveth me now I have delighted to play often-times at Chess and have neglected my Time and unhappily provoked both my self and others to Anger many Times by that Play wherefore besides other my innumerable Faults for this also I desire you to invocate the Mercy of the Lord that he will pardon me If the Recreation you use be lawful seasonable moderate then you are certainly well employed and never trouble and torment your selves with the Thoughts that you might be better employed for as one says truly if we were alwaies bound to do that which is best we could never tell whether we pleased God or no but should be engag'd and involv'd in needless Jealousies perpetual Fears and endless Doubts And here moreover without making it a distinct Head of Discourse I think among vain Recreations I may well reckon idle and needless fruitless and unprofitable Visits Man indeed is a sociable Creature made and fitted for Converse And the Comfort and Pleasure of humane Life does much consist in the desirable Enjoyment of the Familiarity and Society of prudent discreet Christian Friends And great Advantages are to be given and gotten by wise and good Discourses And due Respects and civil Kindnesses are to be paied to Friends and Neighbours and all Occasions and Oportunities to be taken and chosen of doing any considerable good Offices to them either in respect of their Souls or Bodies or Estates But as [w] Nemo se sibi vendicat c. de brev vit c. 2 Seneca complains we vainly spend and wear one our selves one upon another This Man waits upon one that Man upon another but no Man gives diligent and due Attendance upon himself and I fear there are too many to be met with whose [x] Nemiuem ex omnibus difficilius domi quâmse convenit Ex hoc malo depender illud teterrimum vitium anscultatio publicorum secretorumque inquisitio multarum verum scientia qua nec tutò narrantur nec tutò audiuutur Sen. de tranquil animi c. 12. Feet abide not in their own House as the * Prov. 7.11 wise Man speaks that wander about from House to House being Tatlers and Busie-bodies speaking Things which they ought not which is the Character the †1 Tim. 5.13 Apostle gives of them who go from Place to Place to spread any flying Report or Rumor to carry any uncertain and unconcerning News and if they may be so happy to tell the first Story of some little Accidents and petty Circumstances of Things who run here and there out of a gossiping tatling Temper or a pragmatical prying Humour and a greedy Desire to make Observations of the Affairs and Concerns of other Folks Families Or to shew their own Dresses and Tires and to see the new Fashions of others Or to drink or game and play away several Hours of the Day There are too many that are weary of their Time and weary of themselves and hate the Work and Employment they are called to in their Families and the Exercises of Devotion that should be used in their private Closets and gad abroad for a Diversion from Duty for the Prevention of melancholick Self-reflection and for avoiding or drowning the disquicting Clamours and troublesome Noises of their own guilty and stirring Consciences These weary and tire out their Neighbours that they may not be a Burthen at home to themselves never remembring or not considering that sober Advice and solid Counsel of the * Prov. 25.17 wise Man [y] Docet vitandam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non amici consuetudinem Withdraw thy Foot from thy Neighbour's House lest he
short Race who though thou maiest sometimes start aside or stumble in the Way yet will not deny thee thy Reward nor lessen thy Crown but if thou doest thy best will reward thy Sincerity largely and liberally and will abundantly recompense the very meanest faithful Performance the giving but a Cup of cold Water in the Name of a Disciple It will excite thee to give thanks to God who hath begotten thee again to a lively Hope and made thee very rich in Hope It will enable thee to live comfortably and walk cheerfully as an Heir of the Promises an Heir of the Grace of Life of eternal Life or Glory which will be bestowed by the free Grace and Favour of God To rejoice with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory as one whose Name is written in Heaven and that hast a Mansion prepared by Christ in Heaven for thee To rejoice and be exceeding glad to consider that great is thy Reward in Heaven To rejoice in the first Fruits of the Spirit in the earnest of the Spirit which is the earnest of thy Inheritance given by God as a Pledg or first part of Payment of that Inheritance which he hath destin'd to thee To sit down and express and vent thy Thoughts in the feeling affectionate words of the fore-cited sweet Singer [t] Herb. Poem The Glance If thy first glance so powerful be A Mirth but open'd and seal'd up again What wonders shall we feel when we shall see Thy full-eyed Love When thou shalt look us out of pain And one Aspect of thine spend in Delight More than a thousand Suns disburse in Light In Heaven above If thou shalt use to think much of Heaven thou wilt rejoice in that Sight which thou gettest of God and Christ here as a real Pledg of a clearer Vision and nearer Fruition of God and Christ hereafter Thou wilt rejoice in that Communion which thou holdest with the Saints in the Church here as an earnest and assurance of thy Fellowship with them in the heavenly Glory hereafter Thou wilt delight in that measure of spiritual Knowledg and those Beginnings of eternal Life thou attainest here as Tokens and Pledges of a perfection of Knowledg a perfection of Life eternal to be received and enjoyed hereafter Thy thankful cheerful Life will answer the Reward the Riches the Crown the Kingdom which God hath plainly promis'd thee and given a sure Earnest and certain Pledg of to thee The last of the four last Things proposed as the subject Matter of Meditation in order to the right Redemption of Time Let [a] Reade Mr. Bolton of Hell in his 4 last things And Mr. Richard Adams's serm of Hell in the M. E. at St. G. Hell and its Torments be the Subject of thy solemn and frequent Meditation which will be of great Use and Advantage to thee for preventing the mis-spending and promoting the right redeeming of thy Time Hope of Heaven and Fear of Hell are the great Engines apt to turn about our Wills and the forcible Spring of all our Actions and nothing so strongly affects as Fear And we have need enough in this present State to get every Affection wrought upon and to use all possible Motives with our selves for the furthering and promoting the Salvation of our Souls And therefore surely she was overhasty and acted rashly that ran about the City with a Brand of Fire in one Hand and a Bottle of Water in the other and said her business was to set Heaven on fire with the one and to quench Hell-slames with the other that there might be neither of them left only pure Love to move and incite her Piety The devout St. Bernard puts us upon a wiser and better Course [b] Descendamus in insernum viventes ne defcendamus moriâ—ntes Let us go into Hell by Meditation while we live saies he that we may not go into Hell when we die Seriously consider that if thou shouldst prove a final impenitent Sinner when thy Soul shall quit the Tabernacle of thy Body it shall pass immediatly into a State of Misery and dwell in the Region of Devils and of evil discontented Spirits and that thou shalt be raised at the last Day to the * Ioh. 5.29 Resurrection of Damnation to †Dan. 12.2 Shame and everlasting Contempt be raised as a Malefactor is fetched out of Prison to appear in Judgment first and then to be had to the Place of Execution be raised though thou wouldst [c] Malunt extingui penitus quà m ad supplicia reparari Minucius Fel. p. 84. rather chuse to be annihilated than to be restored and raised again to Punishment That then thou shalt be ranked among the Goats on the * Mat. 25.41 left Hand and sentenced to * Mat. 25.41 depart That then thou shalt be excluded and banish'd from the Face and Favour the comfortable †2 Thess 1.9 Presence and blessed Enjoyment of God and Christ in Glory That thou shalt suffer the Loss of all thy outward and earthly Enjoyments have impetuous Desires after terrene and sensual Things still remaining and yet want the Objects which should suit and satisfy please and gratify those Desires But that thy greatest Punishment shall consist in the Loss of God and Christ and of all real substantial Good by the Loss of God and Christ the chiefest Good Consider further That thou shalt be forc'd to depart from Christ into Hell-fire not a purging but plaguing not a purifying but tormenting Fire That it will be no small Pain that will arise from an acute Feeling and lively Sense of the unutterable Losses and unrecoverable Damages thou shalt then sustain by reason of thy Sin from a quick and terrible Apprehension that thou art bereaved of God forsaken of Christ and utterly deprived of all the glorious Good that was so fairly offer'd to thee and from the sad Consideration that they whom thou didst despise and vilify and trample on here on Earth and account the very Off-scouring of the World are at last possess'd and made Partakers of that blissful State which thou findest thy self deprived of As it heightned and aggravated Dives's Misery to behold Lazarus in Abraham's Bosom But well consider That this will not be all but that there shall be a real Presence of all Evil as well as a privation of all Good That as all the Members of thy Body and Powers of thy Soul have been Weapons of Unrighteousness so thou shalt be punished in all the Parts of thy Body and Faculties of thy Soul which then shall be made more capable of Torment and shall suffer-Pain without any Diversion or Intermission Mitigation or Relaxation at all finding * Rev. 14.11 no Rest day nor night That then thou shalt be fill'd with Horrour of Conscience troubled and vexed to think and consider that all the Torments thou indurest are sent in Vengeance and inflicted by Divine Justice by way of Punishment for thy wilful Faults and