NOr will the Meleteticks (or way, and kind of Meditation) I would perswade, keep Men alone from such gross and notorious Idleness, that they may be ask’d the Question, propos’d by the Housholder in the Gospel, (Matth. 20. 6) Why sit ye here all the Day idle? But this way of Thinking, may in part keep Men from the loss of such smaller parcels of Time, as though a meer Morallist would not perhaps censure the neglect of them in others, yet a Devout person would condemn it in himself: For betwixt the more stated Employments, and important Occurrences of humane Life, there usually happen to be interpos’d certain Intervals of Time, which, though they are wont to be neglected, as being singly, or within the Compass of one day inconsiderable, yet in a Man’s whole Life, they may amount to no contemptible Portion of it. Now these uncertain Parentheses, (if I may so call them) or Interludes, that happen to come between the more solemn Passages (whether Businesses, or Recreations) of humane Life, are wont to be lost by most Men, for want of a Value for them, and ev’n by good Men, for want of Skill to preserve them: For though they do not properly despise them, yet they neglect, or lose them, for want of knowing how to rescue them, or what to do with them. But as though grains of Sand and Ashes be a part, but of a despicable smallness, and very easie, and liable to be scatter’d, and blown away; yet the skilful Artificer, by a vehement Fire, brings Numbers of these to afford him that noble substance, Glass, by whose help we may both see our selves, and our Blemishes, lively represented, (as in Looking-glasses) and discern Celestial objects, (as with Telescopes) and with the Sun-beams, kindle dispos’d Materials, (as with Burning-glasses) So when these little Fragments, or Parcels of Time, which, if not carefully look’d to, would be dissipated, and lost, come to be manag’d by a skilful Contemplator, and to be improv’d by the Celestial fire of Devotion, they may be so order’d, as to afford us both Looking-glasses, to dress our Souls by, and Perspectives to discover Heavenly wonders, and Incentives to inflame our hearts with Charity and Zeal; And since Gold-smiths and Refiners are wont all the year long carefully to save the very sweepings of their Shops, because they may contain in them some Filings, or Dust of those richer Metals, Gold and Silver; I see not why a Christian may not be as careful, not to lose the Fragments and lesser Intervals of a thing incomparably more precious than any Metal, Time; especially, when the Improvement of them, by our Meleteticks, may not onely redeem so many Portions of our Life, but turn them to pious Uses, and particularly to the great Advantage of Devotion.
And indeed, the Affairs and Customs of the World, the Imployments of our particular Callings, the allowable Recreations, that Health, or Weariness requires, and the Multitude of unfore-seen, and scarce evitable Avocations, that are wont to share our Time among them, leave us so little of it, to imploy in the set and solemn Exercises of Devotion, and make those so unfrequent, that our Hearts are in great Danger, of being, by the Business, and Pleasures, and Hurry of the World, if not perverted from Aspiring to, at least too long diverted from Enjoying, Communion with God, and kept too much Strangers to Him, if in the long Intervals of our more solemn Exercises of Devotion, we be not careful to lay hold on the short, and transient Opportunities of Cherishing, and reviving, that Grace in us, and do not by the Rises given us by the Things that occur, take occasion to make frequent, though but short Flights Heaven-wards, in extemporary Reflections, serious Soliloquies, piercing Ejaculations, and other mental, either Exercises, or Expressions of Devotion, by which means, we may make those very objects, and occasions, that would Discourage, or at least Distract, our Minds, elevate and animate them: As Jonathan made those very things, whereby his Enemies, the Philistims, sought to intrap, or destroy him, Incouragements to fight with them, and Omens of his Victory over them. And as scarce any Time is so short, but that things so Agile, and asspiring as the Flames of a Devout Soul, may take a flight to Heaven, (as Nehemiah could find time to dart up a successful Prayer to the Throne of Grace, whilst he stood waiting behind the King of Persia’s Chair) so by these extemporary Reflections, as well as by other mental Acts of Piety duely made, a Devout Soul may not onely rescue these precious Fragments of Time, but procure Eternity with them.
← The Discourse, Section 1, Chapter 2 · Contents · The Discourse, Section 2, Chapter 1 →