bids him go Jonas 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 are asleep, or mad, it were the more excusable to be so senseless: but to do thus awake, and in your wits! O 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 madmen 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 betime, and about thy business, and turn by thy games, and thy diverting company, and disappoint thy idle visiters, 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 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 them the other lace or ribbon? 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 forerunner of heaven and hell, though one of them is even at the door, will not do as much for 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 look but on this one unreasonable sin of time-wasting, it would help me to understand the meaning of Luke, 'Eiç tavrov i0wv, that the prodigal is said 'to come to himself;' and that conversion is the bringing a man to his wits.

Direct. 11. 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, and what 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 shew thee by the light of truth what is there! could I but let in one convincing beam from heaven, which might fully shew 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 remaining 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 or 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? O what a thing it is 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! O! 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 misspent 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 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. 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? 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. II. Remember how gainful the redeeming of time is, and how exceeding comfortable in the review?' e Heb. iii. 13. x. 25. Ephes. iv. 29.