you can fuppofe, that a wife and fober Man may be moft delighted with the Noife and Revellings of Drunkenness, then you may fuppofe, that it is poffible for you to be truly religious, and yet be most pleased with the Folly and Impertinence of corrupt and unedifying Books. You perhaps will say, that you have so much spare Time for reading, that you think you need not employ it all in reading good Books. It may be fo, you may have alfo more Time than you need devote to Acts and Offices of Charity; but will you thence conclude, that you may at thofe Times do Things contrary to Charity, and indulge your self in Spight and Mischief?

IF you have every Day more Time than you can employ in Reading, Meditation, and Prayer; if this Time hangs upon your Hands, and cannot be turned to any Advantage, let me defire you to go to fleep, or pick Straws: For it is much better to do this, than to have recourse to corrupt and impertinent Books. Time loft in Sleep, or picking Straws, is better loft than in fuch Exercises of the Mind. Confider farther, that idle and spare Time, is a dangerous State, and calls for great Care and Watchfulness; to have recourfe then to evil and impertinent Books, is like inviting the Devil because you are alone. If you could A 2 2 read

read ill Books when you were in Haste, or in a Hurry of other Matters, it would do you much less Harm, than to read them, because your Time hangs upon your Hands. So that that Season which you take to be an Excufe for fuch Reading, is a stronger Argument against it; because evil Thoughts and vain Subjects have twice the Effect, and make double Impreffions, when they are admitted at Times of Leifure and Idlenefs. Confider again, to what a miserable. unchristian State you are reduced, when you are forced to have recourse to foolish Books, to get rid of your Time. Your Fortune perhaps has removed you from the Neceffity of labouring for your Bread, you have been politely educated in Softnefs, you have no Trade or Employment to take up your Time, and fo are left to be devoured by corrupt Paffions and Pleasures. Whilft poor People are at hard Labour, whilst your Servants are drudging in the meanest Offices of Life, you oppreffed with Idleness and Indulgence, are relieving your felf with foolish and impertinent Books, feeding and delighting a difordered Mind with romantick Nonfenfe, and poetick Follies. If this be the Effect of Riches and Fortune, only to expose People to the Power of diforder'd Paffions, and give them time to corrupt their Hearts with Madness and Fol

ly,

- I

ly, well might our bleffed Lord fay, Wo unto you that are rich!

WHEN you fee a poor Creature drudging in the meanest Offices of Life, and glad of the dirtiest Work to get his Bread, you are apt to look upon him as a miferable Wretch, it raises a Mixture of Pity and Contempt in you, and you hardly know, whether you pity or difregard him most. But remember, that every time you fee fuch a Perfon, you fee a more reasonable Creature than your felf, and one that is much more nobly employed than you are. » He is acting conformably to the State of human Life, and bearing a hard Part with Patience; he is doing a Work, which, mean as it is, will be looked upon as done unto the Lord; whilft you, idling in Softness and Pleasures, are unable to bear your Time, unless it be ftolen away from you by foolish, corrupt, and unedifying Books.

FANSY that you faw a patient Chriftian, old, broken, and crooked, with carrying Burdens all his Life; fanfy that you faw another Chriftian lolling in State and Softness, and making every Day a Day of Vanity and Impertinence, of foolish Readings, and vain Imaginations; which of them do you think is most likely to die into the Hands of good Angels, and be carried into Abraham's Bofom?

A a 3

BUT

BUT after all, what a vain Imagination it is, to think that you have any fuch thing as Spare Time? Is there any Time for which you are not accountable to God? Is there any Time which God has fo left to your own Difpofal, that you may facrifice it to the Indulgence of vain Tempers, and the Corruption of your Heart? You can no more thew this, than you can fhew that all your Time is your own. To talk therefore of Spare Time, is to talk of fomething that never did nor ever will belong to any Chriftian. You may have a fpare Time from this or that Labour or Neceffity, you may abate, or change any par ticular Exercife, you may leave off this or that Way, you may take this or that Refreshment, you have all thefe fpare Times from particular Actions, but you have no Spare Time that releases you from the Laws of Christianity, or that leaves you at Liberty, not to act by the Principles of Religion and Piety.

You have a fpare Time to recreate and refresh your felf, but this Time is to be governed by the fame Principles of religious Wifdom, as the Time that is spent in Cares and Labours. For your Recre ations and Pleasures are only lawful, fo far as they are directed by fuch Wisdom and Piety, as is to direct your Cares and La

bours.

bours. If therefore the Providence of God has placed you above the Neceffity of labouring for your Livelihood, you must not think that you have fo much fpare Time to fpend, as you please, but that you are as certainly called to fome other Labour, as others are called to labour for their Bread. Great part of the World is doomed to Labour and Slavery, they have it not in their Power to chufe any other Way of Life, and their Labour is therefore an acceptable Service to God, because it is fuch as their State requires. Happy you, therefore, if you knew your Happiness, who have it in your Power to be always doing the best Things, who, free from Labour and Hardfhips, are at Liberty to chufe the best Ways of Life, to study all the Arts of Self-improvement, to practice all the Ways of doing Good, and to fpend your Time in all the noblest Instances of Piety, Humility, Charity, and Devotion! Blefs God therefore, not because you have Spare Time, for that you have none, but that you have fpare Time to employ in the best Ways that you can find, that whilst others are oppreffed with Burdens, and worn out in Slavery, you have Time, and Leifure, and Retirement, to think and meditate upon the greatest and best of Things, to enlighten your Mind, to correct the Disor

A 2 4

ders