4

6

ཙ ཝཱ

on with the same spirit and temper, that is requir ed in the giving of giving of alms, or any work of piety. For if whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, we must do all to the glory of God;' if we are to use this world as if we used it not ; if we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God;', if we are to live by faith, and not by sight,' and to have our conversation in heaven; then it is necessary, that the common way of our life in every state, be mady to glorify God by such tempers, as make our prayers and adorations acceptable to him. For if we are worldly or earthly minded in our employments, if they are carried on with vain desires, and covetous tempers, only to satisfy ourselves, we can no more be said to live to the glory of God, than gluttons and drunkards can be said to eat and drink to the glory of God.

Calidus has traded above thirty years in the greatest town in the country. He has been so many years constantly increasing his trade and his fortune. Every hour of the day is with him an hour of business; and though he eats and drinks very heartily, yet every meal seems to be in a hurry, and he would say grace, if he had time. Calidus ends every day at the tavern; but has not

leisure to be there, till near nine o'clock, He is all amat bring bang di daw no alway's forced to drink a good hearty glass, tq

drive thoughts of business out of his head, and make his spirits drowsy enough for sleep. He does business all the time, that he is rising, and has settled several matters, before he can get to his compting house. His prayers are a short ejaculation or two, which he never misses in stormy, tempestuous weather; because he has the always some thing or other at sea.

RIDIANTZEKO DUother at sea, Calidus will tell you with great pleasure, that he has been in this hurry for so many years, and that it must have killed him long ago, but, it has been a rule with him to get out of the town every Satur

19906 ZOUBICDE DIE 2940 THE

day, and make the Sunday a day of quiet and Profft Off good refreshment in the country,

dr of vil He is now so rich, that he would leave off his business, and amuse his old age with building and furnishing a fine house in the country 3, but he is afraid, he should grow melancholy, if he were to quit his business. He will tell you with great gravity, that it is a dangerous thing for a man, that has been used to get money, ever to leave it off. If thoughts of religion happen at any time to steal into his head, Calidus contents himself with thinking, that he never was - a friend to hereticks and infidels; that he has Joe,

always been civil to the minister of his parish, and very often given something to charitable purposes.

This way of life is at such a distance from all the doctrine and discipline of christianity, that no one can live in it through ignorance or frailty. Calidus can no more imagine, that he is born of the spirit ;' that he is in Christ a new creature ;' that he lives here as a stranger and pilgrim, setting his affections upon things above, and laying up treasures in heaven,' than he can think, that he has been all his life an apostle, working miracles, and preaching the gospel.

It must also be owned, that many trading people especially in great towns, are too much like Calidus. You see them all the week buried in business, unable to think of any thing else; and then spending the Sunday in idle. ness and refreshment, in wandering into the country, in such visits and jovial meetings, as make it often the worst day of the week.

They do not live thus, because they cannot support themselves with less care and application to business; but they live thus, because they want to grow rich in their trades, and to maintain their families in some such fi

37

gure and degree of finery, as a reasonable christian life has no occasion for. Take away

but this temper, and people of all trades will find themselves at leisure to live every day like christians, to be careful of every duty of the gospel, to live in a visible course of religion, and be every day strict observers both of publick and private prayer.

The only way to do this is for people to consider their trade as somehing, which they are obliged to devote to the glory of God, something, which they are to do in such a manner olny that they make it a duty to him. Nothing can be right in business, which is not under these rules. The apostle commands servants 'to be obedient to their masters in singleness of heart, as unto Christ; not with eye-service, as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service as unto the Lord, and not unto men.'

This passage sufficiently shows, that all christians are to live wholly unto God in every state and condition, doing the work of their common calling in such a manner, and for such ends, as to make it a part of their devotion or service

D

to God. For certainly if poor slaves are not to comply with their business, as men-pleasers, if they are to look wholly unto God in all their actions, and serve in singleness of heart, as unto the Lord; surely men of other employments and conditions must be as much obliged to go through their business with the same singleness of heart; not as pleasing the vanity of their own minds, not as gratifying their own selfish, worldly passions, but as the servants of God in all that they have to do. For surely no one will say, that a slave is to devote his state of life unto God, and make the will of God the sole rule and end of his service, but that a tradesman need not act with the same spirit of devotion in his business. This is as absurd, as to make it necessary one man to be more just or faithful than another.

for

It is therefore absolutely certain, that no christian is to enter any further into business, nor for any other ends, than such, as he can in singleness of heart offer unto God, as a reasonable service. For the son of God has redeemed us for this only end, that we should by a life of reason and piety live to the glory of God. This is the only rule and measure for every order and state of life. Without this rule, the most lawful employment becomes a siti state ...