A SERMON Preached before the King and Queen, Upon Ephes. 5.16. Redeeming the Time, because the days are evil.  
By the Reverend Father Philip Ellis Monk of the H. Order of St. Benedict, and of the English Congr. Chaplain and Preacher in Ordinary to their Majesties.  
Published by His Majesty's Command.  
LONDON, Printed by Henry Hills, Printer to the King's most Excellent Majesty, for His Household and Chapel, 1687.   
Ephes. 5.16. Redimentes tempus, quoniam dies mali sunt. 
Redeeming the Time, because the days are evil.  
IF this great Apostle (Sacred Majesty,) command all who were to succeed him in the Apostolical Office, and in the care of Souls, to Preach the Word in season & out of season; certainly, this which I have chosen, or rather which is recommended this day by the Church to your particular consideration, and is delivered by Him as a Compendium of Morality, is ever in Season, and ever in the Crisis: The management of our Time, being like the Dictates of our Conscience, in no circumstance to be neglected, being in the number of those Precepts which admit of no dispensation.  
For Time being in a continual Flux and Motion, every particle of it which is not improved is lost; but, blessed be God, not lost beyond Redemption, for what is impossible to Nature is possible to Grace; what all the industry of Man cannot retrieve, nor the Wealth of both the Indies recover, the poorest and weakest Christian is taught how to Redeem: Redeem the Time.  
Should a Merchant see that Vessel sink before his Eyes which was laden with all his Hopes, and almost all his Wealth, where he had treasured up the labours of his past life, the comforts of his present, and the unknown joys of his future happiness; yet admist his Agonies should hear one promising to repair his loss with the small remainder of his Fortune; how greedily would he embrace the offer, and hearken to the expedient? Should an Eminent Lawyer whisper a young Spendthrift in the ear, that he will put him into a method how to redeem a mortgaged and imbesled Estate, and this without any cost or charges, and even any advantage to himself; Would not he look upon this Man as his better Genius, not only as the most charitable, but also the most friendly Person in the World, and follow his counsel in despite of all their reasonings and dissuasives, who encourage his profuseness, and lend a helping hand to his ruin? Should the Captive be taught how to recover his Liberty, the Conquered his Honour, the Stigmatised and Scandalous his Reputation, or the Malefactor how to gain his Judge, and compound for the greatest Crimes with the smallest Punishment; I presume much Rhetoric would not be necessary to win their attention. Now this is what I come to offer you, and what the Apostle exhorts you to: But methinks, Exhortation should be needless where Self-interest pleads so strong; and I should have nothing to do, but to show you the practical Part, were all Men agreed in the Thesis. But most People know not the true price of Time, know not how to spend it when they have it, or how to go about to redeem it when it is misspent.  
Wherefore, the true value of Time; the great abuse of it, and the most excellent manner of redeeming it; I beg leave, may be the Subject of the two following Parts of my Discourse, after we have implored the Divine Assistance, by the Intercession of the Virgin Mother, Ave Maria.  

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 misspending and not redeeming our Time, which denominate the days evil: misspending, relates to the present, and to 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, (though 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, aught to be consecrated to the exercise of Virtue; that the contrary practice, besides its proper and specific wickedness, is guilty of Injustice and Robbery. In fine, That in the day of Judgement 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 declared by our Blessed Lord, Mat. 25. where every Article of the Indictment is Negative, You did not feed me, you did not  me, you did not visit me, and the rest. But here is not alleged 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 judged, and carry their Sentence in 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 Indictment should be prepared, setting forth the Omission of good Works, and convicting them of mispending their Time, which, as appears from our Saviour's 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 considered by Man, as the true value of Time? I know the Divine, the Philosopher, the Lawyer, the Tradesman, and even the Libertine unanimously agree that Time is the most precious 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 Tradesman 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 merely Heathenish; to value it for a Temporal advantage, is merely 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 subtilise upon the nature of Time, or Metaphysically inquire 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 assigned us by Providence, to work out our Salvation in it. This Term is diversified 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 Man's whole Time, his whole Course; as the Moon and other Planets complete 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 astrange Folly, and little less than Impiety, which is so common in every body's 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 Sith, had lived 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 styles 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 precious, what Frenzy has seized 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 reason to be greater than the estimation of what we only own to Time; and who squanders it away, though 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 valued 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 enhance the value, and show 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 unwieldy Old Age, only the middle part of our Lives, which hardly make up a fourth, we think worth 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 labour. 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 consumed 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 wantoness away the select and more precious 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 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 informed against, and prosecuted as far as the Crime will bear, even to death, for a Garment or a small Sum of Money; 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 indulged 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 expense 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 persuaded to stay with us. If we manage our Time to so much advantage, what pity it is we are confined 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 snatched away on a sudden, 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 Expense? I dare not tell you St. Bernard's opinion of your Proceed, That all the time you have not God before your eyes, is to be reckoned 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 misspent; if employed only upon things indifrent, it is to be accounted for, if upon things criminal, it is to be satisfied for, if it be not redeemed; and even those Actions which pass for the most innocent, when not directed to the right end, become defective, and in some measure criminal; nay, even things necessary, when they exceed the limits of necessity, are put to the account of misspending. 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 yourselves, want of Reflection in a riper Age will not do it; for how can Not-Reflecting excuse us, when Ignorance itself shall be reputed a Crime, and he that does 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 itself, and therefore to be abandoned: 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 sanctified by virtuous Practices; and if you supersede that Sanctification, you render that Criminal, which of itself 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 virtuous and meritorious, or by neglecting this easy 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 style 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 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 presupposed, as well to the appretiation and esteem of the thing, as to the redeeming of it. If you are satisfied in the value of it, you cannot but be grieved to the very heart, that you have parted with it so easily, passed 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 rectify 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 revealed 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 that great Master never learned 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 easy and obvious, and in every Man's 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 caused 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 Misspent Life, with Tears and penitential Works, Est anteactae vitae peccata, flendo, & poenitendo redimere.  
If Sorrow than 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 acknowledgement of the Debt compound with our Adversary in the way? Will a present diligence, in performing what is otherwise our Duty, atone for so much negligence in managing the Talon deposited in our hands? And is the Price thought too dear with us? Or do we stand with our Hands in our Pockets, demurring upon the Bargain? Does 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, though at the 9th, though 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 unmoved 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; though your Day be far spent, there is still Time enough to inquire 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 untied by such powerful Countercharms as these. Custom, (which is but standing Error,) has prepossessed our Minds, stupefied and immersed in Flesh and Blood; that to do nothing is easy, 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 labour, sets it at too high a price, at which no wise Man would buy it, if it be not to be purchased 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 condemned to labour? 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 itself, 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 Administering 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 mentioned before, The sacred Humanity of Christ came not to be served, 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 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 Volume, 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 Neighbour, than if they were quite disabled; even in that respect we count ourselves happy: For take away from the Lady, the Gentleman, the Courtier, etc. the power and convenience of doing nothing, and being not in the labours of Men, the subtlest Logician can scarce explain in what formality, their Happiness, i. e. the advantage of their Condition consists? Their privilege 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 Pedigree 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 labour; Labour 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 enforces this Doctrine, 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 spirit, 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 considered 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 employed 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 severed 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 Show or to a Riot, to circumvent their Neighbour, or to oppress the Innocent; or coursing about the Streets, merely to show their Equipage or themselves: When he should find those silent and recollected People at the Theatre, whom he thought at a Sermon; That Lady at her Glass, and in a profound contemplation of herself, 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 Murder, I mean, censuring their Neighbour's 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 satisfied, 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 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 Honour, 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 extinguished.  
But if amidst this Man's 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 Honour, 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 hearty sorry for all their sins, though they appear to be actually inflaming the reckoning; that they are executing their Penances, and putting their morning Resolutions in practice, though they seem to be at the Gaming-house, the Theatre or Tavern; would not he turn upon me as one of the number of mad Men, or an impudent Cheat, endeavouring to impose upon his Senses, and obtrude the grossest 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 Judgement, O House of Israel! If God should once again send the Prophet Jeremy to search every Street, and inquire 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 grieved; Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to hear correction; They have made their faces harder than a Rock, they have refused 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 Judgements 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 raised them above the Level, and purged their Heads from that Grossness and Phlegm which stupifies the rest; for they cannot but know the way of the Lord, and the judgement of their God: Sed hi simul confregerunt 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 sweeting 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 Judgement places them in the State of corrupted and abandoned Nature, endowed only with a liberty to Sin, or rather in the State of Damnation, a Nonnecessity 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 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 labours 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 Honours! 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 Neighbour 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, etc. As much as he has exalted himself; and been 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 encumbrances, in which the labouring, that is, the far greater part of the World is involved. If the labourer, who moils all day to procure a small refreshment for his craving Appetite, or to support a Family, be not excused 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 passed 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 body's mouth, That they have not Time to say their Prayers, be injurious to God, and an implicit accusation of his Providence, as if it had not furnished us means to perform the Duty it enjoins? What name shall we find for those false pretexts and fond excuses 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 famished, 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 waste in Gaming, when the loss of your Money, is the least expense; and what you gain, cannot redeem, is not the price of a moment of 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 Damned 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 acknowledge 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 miscall, your business, when you vouchsafe to come before the Divine Majesty with defiled 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 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 Judgement, 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 Cloister, or reading Ascetic Lectures to People wholly estranged 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, lettered, and judicious Assembly of the World. I speak to a Court, to Men of Business, and whose Time is much taken up with weighty employments: I speak to the Flower of both Sexes; I speak to Ladies, Soldiers, 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 the same time render to my Doctrine. I do not persuade 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 respectiuly 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 oftenest, and lie 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 Judgement of the World, which is all placed in iniquity; no Man chooses 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, 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 judge of the Lawfulness of the Action by comparing it with the Law.  
To conclude. The Time is precious; therefore we are commanded to be watchful how every moment of it goes away, vigilate itaque omni tempore: It is short; and what follows, says the Apostle, but that those who use this world, be as if they used 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 warned us, that fatal Period is very near: Tempus prope est; 
Revel. 1.  This life is the time of Labour, and the service of God the chief business of Man, from which no one is exempted, and they the least, as I have shown, who think they have the best Plea. It is in the power but of a few to 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 ourselves all Recreations and Pastimes, but very possible, and even necessary, to choose 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: not one to spend his Time has leave to misspend it. Let us sum up all that has been said, in the wise Man's 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 knowledge, nor wisdom in the Grave, whither thou art hastening: 
Quo tu properas. Dulg.  And to which I beseech God of his infinite mercy to prepare Us all by a speedy Repentance for having misspent 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.   
FINIS.