How to redeem the time

Jeremy Taylor’s Holy Living and Holy Dying is a classic of Anglican spirituality.  Taylor was a seventeenth-century divine (1613-67) who managed to flourish and indeed thrive under both Anglo-Catholic Archbishop William Laud and Puritan Oliver Cromwell.  Known for the beauty of his prose style and the depth of his spiritual theology, here are some of his prescriptions for using time toward a holy life.

1. In the morning upon awaking, think first about God.  Do the same as your last thought before you close your eyes at night.  Begin and end the day with devotions.

2. When working at your daily calling (occupation), be diligent.  Do not “lightly or without reason” neglect it during those times given for its pursuit.

3. The resting days of Sabbaths and Christian feasts should not be days of idleness, but given to “works of religion and charity.”

4. Avoid the company of drunkards and busybodies who talk to little purpose.

5. In the midst of the works of your calling, often retire to God in short prayers and calling out to God.

6. He that is appointed to minister in holy things must not suffer secular affairs and sordid arts to eat up great portions of his employment: a clergyman must not keep a tavern, nor a judge be an innkeeper.

7. If you are learned, you know how not to waste time: bring a book along to “improve the day” while you are forced to pause with nothing to do.

8. Avoid all “delicacy and niceness” in clothing, that is, spending too much care for your clothes.

9. Avoid curiosity in things that don’t concern you.

10.  Let not your recreations be lavish spenders of your time, but choose those which are healthy, short, transient, and recreational.

11. Set apart some part of the day for morning and evening devotions; let “nothing but a violent, sudden, and impatient necessity” keep you from them.  Sir Thomas More told the king, who called for More when More was at his public prayers, that he would come as soon as he finished performing his service to the King of Kings.

12. Set aside some “solemn time every year” to quit all worldly business and attend wholly to fasting and prayer, confession, self-examination, and meditation.