I fhall proceed, therefore, to that part of our time which hath been ill employed: I mean that part of it which hath been spent wickedly.

This is indeed the grand point, about which our queftion chiefly proceeds; and about which we ought therefore to be chiefly folicitous. That part of it which hath been well employed, will take care of itself. The lefs we think of it, the better. Our heavenly Father hath marked it in his book. We have done with it, till that day when our great accounts fhall be fettled.-But the time we have spent wickedly deferves our clofeft attention. Wickednefs is the difcafe of nature: it is conftitutional, and therefore fhould be the more watched. Our bodies and fouls are equally fubject to disease; and if the caufes be not checked which produce thefe difeafes, they will infallibly end in death. We generally, however, do our utmost to ward off the death of the body; while the death of the foul, which is infinitely more dreadful, is little heeded. And yet. remedies for the difeafes of the foul are much more certain in their effect than thofe of the body. Gout, fever, and confumption, often. elude the skill of the phyfician: but, under the phyfician of fouls, you never miscarry, if you take

his

his prefcription. He who can recollect the fins of his paft life, that he may redeem them-that he may buy off the guilt that attends them by repentance-by an amendment of heart and life, and truft in the atonement of a bleffed Redeemer, will blot them out of God's book: like a debt paid, they will appear no more against him. But if he will not take these fteps, we must leave him, till God Almighty, in his mercy, perhaps by fome awakening judgment, may lead him to 'reflection.

I mean not, however, to affirm, that unless the finner remembers every particular bad action of his life, that bad action will appear against him. He may be fincerely defirous of repenting; and yet, if he have been a great finner, he may not be able to recollect many of his fins. In that cafe, if he redeem his wicked life in generalthat is, if he leave off his fins, and change his heart as well as his life, thofe fins, though he cannot remember them, it may be hoped will be blotted out. He hath, however, a much better chance of redeeming his ill-fpent time by calling himfelf frequently to account, and by examining the value of each day as it paffes on,

WE

WE Come now to that part of our time, which hath neither been weil nor ill employed, but has been spent in a manner between both. Now it muft neceffarily be, that while we live in this world-while we have thefe frail bodies to at¬ tend, a great part of our time must be spent in this fort of indifferent manner. We must have time for eating and fleeping, and proper amufement: and, fo far as these are neceffary, fo far we are not accountable. But time, spent in amusement, steals away on the fofteft wings: if it be not narrowly watched, it will foon glide into idle and mispent time. We are to give an account, we read, of our idle words-equally, at leaft, may we suppose, an account must be given of our idle time,

Now we all have, more or fewer, idle time to anfwer for. But fuch of you as labour for your daily bread, if you be industrious in be industrious in your callings, cannot indeed have much idle time upon your hands. The great guilt of spending idle time, belongs chiefly to thofe to whom God hath given the moft time: among them, indeed, we often see a shocking waste of it.

Now, the circumftances of people differ fa much, that no precife rule can be given to direct

all.

all. And, no doubt, a gracious God will be merciful to thofe who mean well in the general employment of their time, though they may often be mistaken, and spend too much of it in an improper way. But there are numbers whofe conduct, in this respect, is fo very far from what it ought to be; running continually from one idle amusement to another their thoughts taken up with nothing elfe--that their confciences muft be very eafy indeed, if they quietly fuffer fuch abuse. When amufements are thus made (as - numbers make them) the great end of life, no doubt fuch a life, though not ftained with open fin, is a very guilty one. It allows room neither for the duties of religion, nor the obligations of fociety, nor the offices of domeftic life: it confumes both time, and the means of doing good with it all gives way to pleafure, and felf-enjoyment and there is little left of the man, but what belongs equally to the brute.

Let fuch vile examples be a warning to all; but to young people especially, who cannot have too ftrict a guard on themselves. It is inconceivable, how foon thefe pleasurable ideas get poffeffion of them-fill up all their thoughtsand, becoming the chief bufinefs and ferious employ

employment of their lives, form them by degrees into into diffipated, ufelefs, and contemptible

characters.

II. I PROCEED now to the fecond head of my difcourfe; which was, to fhew you how neceffary it is to redeem, or to improve, our time, on the confideration, as the apoftle fuggefts, that the days are evil.

We have occafion for all our watchfulness and care in a world, where almost every thing has a tendency to purloin our time.

If we look into ourselves, we find our time too much lifted under the commnand of paffions and appetites, which have a continual tendency to lead us into fin. In what a moment are we inflamed by malice, luft, envy, a love of pleafure, and other bad inclinations! Some wicked paffion will ever, without great care, be leading us aftray. We find even our beft actions, I mean fuch as appear to the world our beft actions, fpring fo often from bad motives, and involved fo often with bad paffions, that we are

afhamed of the time we may have often spent upon them.

If,