_Direct._ XV. Remember still that sin and Satan will lose no time; and therefore it concerneth you to lose none. "The devil your adversary goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour," 1 Pet. v. 8. "Be sober" therefore and "vigilant to resist him," ver. 7, 9. If he be busy, and you be idle, if he be at work in spreading his nets, and laying his snares for you, and you be at play and do not mind him, it is easy to foretell you what will be the issue. If your enemies be fighting, while you sit still or sleep, it is easy to prognosticate who will have the victory. The weeds of corruption are continually growing; sin, like a constant spring, is still running; the world is still enticing; and the flesh is still inclining to its prohibited delights. None of these enemies will make a truce or a cessation with you, to sit as long as you sit still. So far are they from forbearing you, while you are idle, or gratifying the flesh, that even this is the fruit and evidence of their industry and success. Lose no time then, and admit of no interruptions of your work, till you can persuade your enemies to do the like.
_Direct._ XVI. Consider what a senseless contradiction it is of you, to over-love your lives, and yet to cast away your time. What is your time but the duration of your lives? You are loth to die, and loth your time should be at an end; and yet you can as prodigally cast it away, as if you were weary of it, or longed to be rid of it. Is it only the last hours that you are loth to lose? Are not the middle parts as precious, and to be spared and improved? Or is it only to have time, and not to use it, that you desire? No means are good for any thing, but to further the attainment of the end: it is not good to you, if it do you no good. To have food or raiment without any use of them, is as bad as not to have them. If you saw a man tremble with fear lest his purse be taken from him, and yet take out his money himself, and cast it away, or give it all for a straw or feather, what would you think of that man's wit? And do not you do the like and worse, when you are afraid lest death should end your time, and yet you yourselves will idle it away, and play it away, and give it for a little worldly pelf? But I know how it is with you: it is for the present pleasure of the flesh, and for the sweetness of life itself, that you value life, and are so loth to die, and not for any higher ends: but this is to be brutish, and to unman yourselves, and simply to vilify your lives, while you idolize them. Such mad contradictions sin infers. You make your life your ultimate end, and desire to live but for life itself, or the pleasures of life, and so you make it instead of God and heaven, which should be intended as your proper end: and yet while you refer it not to these higher ends, and use it but for the present pleasure, you vilify yourselves and it, as if man did differ from a dog or other brute, but in some poor degree of present pleasure.
_Direct._ XVII. Consider that in your loss of time, you lose all the mercies of that time. For time is pregnant with great, invaluable mercies. It is the cabinet that containeth the jewels. If you throw away the purse, you throw away the money that is in it. O what might you get in those precious hours which you cast away! How much better a treasure than money might you win! How much sweeter a pleasure than all your games and sports might you enjoy! You might be soliciting God for life eternal. You might be using and increasing grace. You might be viewing by faith the blessed place and company in which you may abide for ever. All this, and more, you are losing while you are losing time. You choose as a pleasure that heavy curse, Lev. xxvi. 20, "Your strength shall be spent in vain." Why do you not also take it for a pleasure, to cast away your gold or health? I tell you, a very little time is worth a great deal of gold and silver. You cast away a more precious commodity.