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 it must 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 wellspent 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, " I have glorified thee on earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do: and now, O Father, glorify me with thyselff." Or as Paul, "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 gives." And, " For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, we have had our conversation in the world." It is a great comfort in sickness to be able to say with Hezekiah, "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." O! 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 2 Tim. iv. 6-8. h 2 Cor. i. 12. i Isa. xxxviii. 3.

1 John xvii. 4, 5.

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. tv. Consider on the contrary how sad the review of illspent 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 dost 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 playhouse, gaminghouse, an alehouse, in thy fleshly jollity and pleasure? Or in 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 loath 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. O! 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! O! 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, "Remember how short my time is!" And as 66 Hagar sat down and wept when her water was spent'," 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

* Psalm lxxxix. 47.

1 Gen. xxi. 15, 16.

must be undone for ever!' O 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! O 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, 'O 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 misspent 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. 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. 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? O 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 for

Matt. xii. 36.

given. If you do repent, you will not sure go on to do the same. Who will believe that he 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 misspent, 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 vilify also 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 irrecoverable 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 recal 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