XIV. Consider again to what a miserable 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 necessity of labouring for your _bread_; you have been politely educated in softness; you have no trade or employment to take up your time; and so are left to be devoured by corrupt passions and pleasures. Whilst poor people are at hard labour; whilst your servants are drudging in the meanest offices of life; you, oppressed with _idleness_ and _indulgence_, are relieving yourself with _foolish_ and _impertinent_ books; feeding and delighting a disordered mind with _romantic_ nonsense, and poetic follies. If this be the effect of riches and fortune, only to expose people to the power of disordered passions, and give them time to corrupt their hearts with madness and folly, well might our Lord say, _Woe unto you that are rich!_
*When you see 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 _miserable wretch_; it raises a mixture of pity and contempt in you; but remember, that every time you see such a person, you see a more reasonable creature than yourself, 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; whilst you, idling in _softness_ and _pleasures_, are unable to bear your time, unless it be stolen away from you by folly and impertinence. Fancy that you saw a _patient Christian_, old, broken and crooked, with carrying burthens all his life; fancy that you saw another Christian lolling in _state_ and _softness_, and making every day a day of _vanity_ and _foolish reading_; which of them do you think is most likely to die in the hands of good _angels_, and be carried into _Abraham_’s bosom?
XV. *But, after all, what a vain imagination is it to think that you have any such thing as _spare time_? Is there any time for which you are not accountable to God? Is there any time which God has so left to your own disposal that you may sacrifice it to the indulgence of vain tempers, and the corruption of your heart? You can no more shew this than you can shew, that all your time is your own. To talk, therefore of _spare time_, is to talk of something that never did nor ever will belong to any Christian. You may have a _spare time_ from this or that labour, or necessity, you may abate or change any _particular exercise_, you may take this or that refreshment; you have all these _spare 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 _spare time_ to refresh yourself: but this is to be governed by the same wisdom, as the time that is spent in cares and labours. For your recreations and pleasures are only lawful as far as they are directed by the same wisdom with your cares and labours. If therefore the providence of God has placed you above the necessity of labouring for your livelihood, you must not think that you have so much _spare time_ to spend, as you please, but that you are certainly called to some _other labour_. Great part of the world is doomed to toil and slavery; they have it not in their power to chuse any other way of life, and their labour is therefore an acceptable service to God, because it is such as their state requires. Happy are 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 hardships, are at liberty to chuse the _best ways_ of life, to study all the arts of _self-improvement_, to practise all the ways of doing good, and to spend your time in all the noblest instances of piety, humility, charity and devotion! Bless God then, not because you have _spare time_, for that you have none, but that you have time to employ in the best ways that you can find; that whilst others are oppressed with burdens, and worn out with slavery, you have time to think upon the greatest and best of things; to enlighten your mind, to correct the disorder of your heart, to study the laws of God, to contemplate the wonders of his providence, to convince yourself of the vanity of the world, and to delight your soul with the great and glorious things which God has prepared for those that love him. This is the happiness of being free from labour and want, not to have _spare time_ to squander away in _vanity_ and _impertinence_, but to have _spare time_ to spend in the study of wisdom, in the exercise of devotion, in the practice of piety, in all the ways and means of doing good and exalting our souls to a state of _Christian perfection_.