The price that time must be redeemed with, is, 1. Above all, by our utmost diligence: that we be still doing, and put forth all our strength, and run as for our lives; and whatever our hand shall find to do, that we do it with our might, remembering that there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither we go, Eccl. ix. 10. Our sluggish ease is an easy price to be parted with for precious time. To redeem it, is not to call back time past; nor to stop time in its hasty passage; nor to procure a long life on earth: but to save it, as it passeth, from being devoured and lost, by sluggishness and sin. 2. Time must be redeemed from the hands, and by the loss of sinful pleasures, sports, and revellings, and all that is of itself or by accident unlawful; from wantonness, and licentiousness, and vanity. Both these are set together, Rom. xiii. 11-14, "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." 3. Time must be redeemed from things indifferent and lawful at another time, when things necessary do require it. He that should save men's lives, or quench a fire in his house, or provide for his family, or do his master's work, will not be excused if he neglect it, by saying, that he was about an indifferent or a lawful business. Natural rest and sleep must be parted with for time, when necessary things require it. Paul preached till midnight being to depart on the morrow, Acts xx. 7. The lamenting church calling out for prayer saith, "Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord," Lam. ii. 19. Cleanthes' lamp must be used by such, whose sun-light must be otherwise employed. 4. Time must be redeemed from worldly business and commodity, when matters of greater weight and commodity do require it. Trades, and plough, and profit must stand by, when God calls us (by necessity or otherwise) to greater things. Martha should not so much as trouble herself in providing meat for Christ and his followers to eat, when Christ is offering her food for her soul, and she should with Mary have been hearing at his feet, Luke x. 42. Worldlings are thus called by him, Isa. lv. 1-3, "Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." 5. Time must be redeemed from smaller duties, which in their season must be done, as being no duties, when they hinder greater duty which should then take place. It is a duty in its time and place to show respect to neighbours and superiors, and to those about us, and to look to our family affairs; but not when we should be at prayer, to God, or when a minister should be preaching, or at his necessary studies. Private prayer and meditation, and visiting the sick, are duties; but not when we should be at church, or about any greater duty which they hinder.
_Tit._ 1. _The Directions contemplative for redeeming Time._