Secondly Consider how dangerous a thing it is to live an idle vain and unuseful life God hath promised Men his protection only when they are in the way of their Calling when they employ themselves in that state of life wherein by his Providence he hath settled them in the World So the Psalmist instructs us Psal 91.11 He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways that is in all honest and lawful undertakings and in all actions that belong to your Calling So that if you are idle and give up your selves to a lazy and useless manner of living in the World doing nothing that 's profitable to your selves or others you put your selves out of God's protection and thereby you give the Devil advantage over you and you lay your selves open to all his Temptations When was it that David fell into those two foul Sins of Adultery and Murther Was it not when he yielded for a short time to ease and liv'd idly at home And if so excellent and holy a Person was so soon corrupted by Ease and Idleness have you not great Reason to avoid this Vice which is deservedly called The Mother of all Evils and the Step-Dame of all Virtues Thirdly Consider that the end of this idle and useless life is very sad Cast the unprofitable Servent into utter darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth Math. 25.30 Not only shall wicked Servants be cast into utter darkness but also unprofitable Servants who hide their Talents in a Napkin that is who do not employ to any good purpose those Gifts which God bestows upon them who stand idle all the day long in the Vineyard 8. Time to be redeemed in sacred performances by doing them in the best manner Eighthly Redeem time in your sacred and religious Duties and Performances by endeavouring to do them in the best and perfectest manner you can When you read and pray and meditate and examine your selves and hear the word of God preached and sing his praises and partake of the Holy Sacrament and perform other acts of Religion and Piety in a lifeless dull unconcerned and formal manner you lose your time and therefore when by due reflection upon your ways you find that you do so endeavour afterwards to redeem it by greater watchfulness and seriousness otherwise you may go on a great while in a course of Devotion to very little purpose if you do not stir up your selves to do the best that 's in your power to do by God's help Thus when you find that you have read the Word of God in a careless and negligent manner without considering whose Word it is and for what end it is written and without those dispositions of mind that are necessary you must afterwards endeavour to redeem the time by being more careful to read that Sacred Book with greater Reverence and Seriousness and with greater Pleasure and Delight Pray to God more heartily for the direction and assistance of his Holy Spirit Meditate more attentively on what you read and lay it up in your hearts that it may be always in a readiness for your use as the rule of your lives If you find that you have lost your time in Prayer by not making your Addresses to God with a deep humility and reverence with unfeigned Faith and fervent Love and with great earnestness sincerity and importunity endeavour afterwards to pray with all possible humility and reverence with greater faith and confidence and with a mighty earnestness and fervency of Spirit Study to have your Souls possessed with a deeper sense of your wants and necessities that you may beg supplies of all needful things from him who can help you to the utmost Be more sensible of the greatness of your sins and of the many hainous aggravations that attend them that you may make humble confession of them with true sorrow and contrition Consider the danger to which your Hypocrisie or Formality and Lukewarmness in Religious Duties do expose you that you may with great integrity and uprightness of Soul make your Addresses to the Searcher of Hearts and Tryer of the Reins who takes pleasure in the hearty and chearful services of those who draw near unto him Be possessed with more lively impressions of the Divine Power and Greatness of the Justice Holiness Goodness Mercy and Faithfulness of God that the sense thereof may make you adore him and call upon him in such a manner as is suitable to so Glorious a Majesty If you find that the time you have set apart for Self-Examination has been lost by a negligent performance of this Duty by your not being in good earnest when you pretended to call your selves to an account Endeavour to redeem the time by searching your hearts and enquiring into your ways with greater care and exactness Examine and try your selves as in the sight of God as Men that are in good earnest to save their Souls from Everlasting Condemnation Deal impartially with your selves do not extenuate your own faults but aggravate them by all just and fit considerations Endeavour to be deeply touch'd with hearty Contrition and real Grief and Sorrow for them let your Repentance in all regards be more sincere and unfeigned and your purposes and Resolutions more strong and steady If you find that you have reflected on God's Mercies and Favours to you without that grateful sense which you ought to have had thereof and without making suitable returns so far as you were able by his Grace for his great and undeserved goodness endeavour afterwards to employ your thoughts on so delightful a subject as is the Divine Love and Goodness with greater pleasure and with a more lively sense thereof than you have been wont Let the consideration of the love and goodness of God powerfully move you and prevail with you to do somewhat which may testifie the reality of your gratitude somewhat that may be of real benefit to the Souls or Bodies of others If you find that you have been very formal and careless in performing what relates to the publick Worship endeavour to redeem the time by being more sincere and devout For Example if you have heard the Word of God read and preached in a trifling and unconcerned manner without those dispositions of mind which were requisite in a Christian Hearer and in an humble Disciple of Jesus Christ if you have attended on such occasions more out of compliance with Custom and the Example of others than out of Conscience and from Principles of true Religion and Devotion Consider that this is to lose time and under an appearance of Religion to remain without any thing of it in reality You must therefore afterwards endeavour to hear the Word of God in another manner to wit as the Law and Rule of your Lives as that which is given you of God to make you wise and good and to fit you for everlasting Happiness and Glory you must as new born
renders you unfit for all Sacred and serious Performances the mind being thereby filled with the images and reflections of what you said and heard of what you and others did at your Games Your hopes and your fears your joys and your uneasiness your victories and losses your surprises and disappointments your little debates and contentions your indignation and resentments and a great many other things too common at Gaming so distract and fill your mind for a great while afterwards that when you would be serious and employ your selves to better purpose you cannot bring your minds to that fixedness and stayedness that is necessary you remain as it were drunk with your Pastimes and Divertisements your thoughts reel to and fro and cannot settle you have a great desire of returning again to your Recreations that you may gratifie your fancy and may gain more profit or praise and applause That you may not fall under those inconveniencies your best way is to keep out of such Company as makes Gaming their Business And if at any time it be fit for you to indulge your selves a little in Gaming it will not be amiss that you set Bounds to yourselves both as to your time how long to play and as to the quantity of money you intend to play for that you may not either in one or t'other respect exceed those limits which Christian Prudence requires It is very advisable either not at all to play for money which oft-times occasions great strivings and quarrellings or great uneasiness of thought or to play for so very little as may be next to nothing which may not afterwards occasion any uneasie reflections and dissatisfaction of mind And if at any time you be disposed and find it expedient to play for a little more than ordinary still observing the Rules of discretion and Christian Prudence it would not be unfit to make it a condition in your Game that the Winner apply what he gains to some charitable use which you may either then expresly determine or you may resolve to give the money which shall be gained to some discreet and charitable Person who will be sure to bestow it to good purpose As this would afford a great pleasure and joy to those who reap some fruit and benefit by your Recreation and Pastime so it would afford your selves a greater delight and satisfaction than otherwise you could expect by your Divertisements And besides this would prevent covetous desires and other evil passions and dispositions which usually attend those who game only or chiefly for profit and advantage As for those who are apt in gaming to be transported into violent passion and to break out into indecent heats it is necessary for such Persons to give over all such Divertisements as use to cause this excessive fermentation of their Spirits and which put them upon the fret Or if at any time they think good to play at some Game they ought to do it in the presence of those who by their Authority are able to restrain them from every thing that is indecent and extravagant that by degrees they may get the Victory over themselves and may habituate themselves to mildness and gentleness of Spirit and may be preserved from all the sad consequences of unruly passions 5. Time to be redeemed from Visiting Fifthly Redeem time from Visiting Too many throw away their time in making vain and unnecessary Visits employing themselves on these occasions in vain and impertinent chat and foolish talking and jesting which are not convenient in making their Observations and passing their Censures upon the Words and Actions the Modes and Customs of others in slandering and back-biting in sowing vain and false Reports in causing Jealousies and Contentions and doing other such like bad Offices Visiting is either good or bad according as it is managed In some cases it is very fit and necessary to visit your Friends and Neighbours to keep up thereby a friendly and neighbourly Correspondence to offer your help and service to them when there is need of it to sympathize with them when they are in any sort of trouble or distress and to assist them to bear their burdens whether of Body or Mind or outward Estate Sometimes the Laws of Civility and Discretion require that you visit those who have witnessed great Civility and Respect towards you Sometimes the good Offices and generous Favours of some Persons to you require that you should express your grateful sense of their kindness and generosity by all possible instances of affection and esteem and particularly by visiting of them now and then which is a very easie and a small return for those Obligations they have laid upon you You must beware of visiting or frequenting the company of those who are very lewd and wicked by whose conversation you are in great danger of being corrupted whose example is ready to infect you When you see a House marked for the Plague you are careful not to go into it you keep your selves at a good distance from it that you may not run the hazard of infection The Love which you have for life makes you do all you can to preserve it Ought you not then to be as careful to keep out of the company of prophane persons whose Throat is an open Sepulchre whose Mouths are full of Blasphemy and Cursing whose Breath is very infectious whose Words and Actions are full of most deadly Poison whereby your Souls are in danger of being corrupted and destroyed for ever Enter not into the path of the wicked saith Solomon and go not in the way of evil men Avoid it pass not by it turn from it and pass away Prov. 4.14,15 And Chap. 5.8 He adviseth young men to remove their way far from the strange woman and not to come nigh the door of her House As you ought to avoid all sorts of Debauched Company so especially of those who are Mockers of Religion who scoff at all that is called Sacred or looks like serious They who sit in the Seat of the Scornful are mentioned by the Psalmist Psal 1. as the chief of Sinners the highest Rank of them Such Persons are Satan's principal Instruments and Ministers Their scoffs and flouts do unspeakable mischief to Religion A great many who have stood firm against Arguments and Perswasions have proved too weak to hold out against the Impious Raillery and Prophane Jesting of such whose business is to turn the most serious things of Religion into Ridicule You ought to beware of such Wretches as the very pests of Mankind It is true sometimes your necessary Affairs and your Relation wherein you stand to some Persons may make it your Duty to be often in the company of those who are very wicked but then you ought to be First possessed with a great abhorrence of what is evil in them and in no manner to approve their sin and folly Have no Communion with their unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove