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not content us, at a time when we shall so want it, as to have nothing else to comfort us? How can we carry a severer condemnation against ourselves, than to believe, that at the hour of death we shall want the virtues of the saints, and wish, that we had been amongst the first servants of God, and yet take no methods of arriving at the height of piety, whilst we are alive?

Though this is an absurdity, that we can easily pass over at present, whilst the health of our bodies, the passions of our minds, the noise, and hurry, and pleasures, and business of the world, lead us on with eyes, that see not, and ears, that hear not; yet at death, it will set itself before us in a dreadful magnitude, it will haunt us like a dismal ghost, and our conscience will never let us take our eyes from it.

We see, in worldly matters, what a torment self-condemnation is; and how hardly a man is able to forgive himself, when he has brought himself into any calamity or disgrace, purely by his own folly. The affliction is made doubly tormenting; because he is forced to charge it all upon himself, as his own act and deed, against the nature and reason of things, and contrary to the advice of all his friends..

By this we may in some degree guess,

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how terrible the pain of that self-condemnation will be, when a man shall find himself in the miseries of death, under the severity of a selfcondemning conscience, charging all his dis tress upon his own folly and madness, against the sense and reason of his own mind, against all the doctrines and precepts of religion and contrary to all the instructions, calls, and warnings, both of God and man.

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We can please God in no state, nor employment of life, but by devoting it to his glory.

HAVING, in the first chapter, stated the general nature of devotion, we shall now descend to some particulars, and show, how we are to devote our labour and employment, our time and fortunes unto God.

As a good christian should consider every place as holy, because God is there, so he should look upon every part of his life as a matter of holiness, because it is to be offered unto God.

The profession of a clergyman is a holy pro

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fession; because it is a ministration in holy things, an attendance at the altar. But worldly business is to be made holy unto the Lord, by being done as a service to him, and in conformity to his divine will.

T For as all men and all things in the world as truly belong unto God, as any places, things, or persons, that are devoted to divine service; so. all things are to be used, and all persons are to act, in their several states and employments, for the glory of God.

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Men of worldly business therefore must not look upon themselves at liberty to live to themselves, to sacrifice to their own humours and temper; because their employment is of a worldly nature. But they must consider, that as the world and all worldly professions as truly belong to God, as persons and things, that are devoted to the altar; so it is as much the duty of men in worldly business to live wholly unto God, as it is the duty of those, who are devoted to divine service.

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As the whole world is God's, so the whole world is to act for God. As all men have the same relation to God, as all men have all their powers and faculties from God; so all men are

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obliged to act for God with all their powers and faculties.

As all things are God's, so all things are to be used and regarded as the things of God. For men to abuse things on earth, and live to themselves, is the same rebellion against God, as for angels to abuse things in heaven; because God is just the same Lord of all on earth, as he is the Lord of all in heaven.

Things may, and must differ in their use; but yet they are all to be used according to the will of God.

Men may and must differ in their employments; yet they must all act for the same ends, as dutiful servants of God, in the right and pious performance of their several callings.

Clergymen must live wholly unto God in one particular way; that is, in the exercise of holy offices, in the ministration of prayers and sacraments, and a zealous distribution of spirit, ual goods,

But men of other employments are, in their particular ways, as much obliged to act as the servants of God, and live wholly, unto him in their several callings.

This is the only difference between clergymen and people of other callings.

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When it can be shown, that men might be ban Covetous sensual, ' sensual, worldly minded, or

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proud in the exercise of their worldly business, hen it will be allowable for clergymen to indulge the same tempers in their sacred profes↓ For though these tempers are most odio Jus and most criminal in clergy men, who, beSides their Baptismál vow, have a second time devoted themselves to God, to be his servants, not in the common offices of human life, but in the spiritual service of the most holy and sacred things; and who are, therefore, to keep them selves as separate and different from the com mon life of other men, as a church, or an altar, is to be kept separate from houses and tables of common use. Yet, as all christians' are, by their baptism, devoted to God, and made professors of holiness, so are they all, in their several callings, to live as holy and heavenly persons, doing every thing in their common life only in such a manner, as it may be received by God, as a service done to him. For things spiritual and temporal, sacred and common, must, like men and angels, like heaven and earth, all con spire in the glory of God.

To make our labour or employment an acceptable service unto God, we must carry it

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