earnest and more wholly busied in living much to God, having lived so long contrary to him in living to the flesh; The past may suffice. There is a rhetorical figure in this expression, meaning much more than the words express. It is enough, O too much, to have lived so long so miserable a life!

Now, says the Christian, O corrupt lusts and deluding world, look for no more; I have served you too long. The rest, whatsoever it is, must be to my Lord, to live to him by whom I live; and ashamed and grieved. I am, I was so long in beginning, so much past, it may be the most of my short race past, before I took notice of God, or looked towards him, O how have I lost, and worse than lost, all my past days! Now had I the advantages and abilities of many men and were I to live many ages, all should be to live to my God and honor him. And what strength I have and what time I shall have, through his grace, shall be wholly his. And when any Christian hath thus resolved, his intended life being so imperfect and the time so short, the poorness of the offer would break his heart, were there not an eternity before him, wherein he shall live to his God and in him without .blemish and without end.

And should not our diligence in this so worthy a design be so much the greater, the later we begin to pursue it? They tell us of Cæsar, that when he passed into Spain, meeting there with Alexander's statue, it occasioned him to weep, considering that he was up so much more early, having performed so many conquests in those years, wherein he thought he himself had done nothing, and was yet but beginning. Truly it will be a sad thought to a really renewed mind, to look back on the flower of youth and strength as lost in vanity; if not in gross profaneness, yet in self-serving and self-pleasing, and in ignorance and neglect of God. And perceiving their few years so far spent ere they set out, they will account days precious, and make the more haste, and desire, with holy David, enlarged hearts to run the way of God's commandments. They will study to live much in a little time; and, having lived all the past time to no purpose, will be sensible they have none now to spare upon the lusts and ways of

the flesh, and vain societies and visits. Yea, they will be redeeming all they can even from their necessary affairs, for that which is more necessary than all other necessities, that one thing needful, to learn the will of our God and live to it; this is our business, our high calling, the main and most excellent of all our employ

ments.

Not that we are to cast off our particular callings or omit due diligence in them; for that will prove a snare, and involve a person in things more opposite to godliness. But certainly, this living to God requires a fit measuring of thy own ability for affairs, and, as far as thou canst choose, fitting thy load to thy shoulders, not surcharging thyself with it. An excessive burden of business,' either by the greatness or the multitude of it, will not fail to entangle thee and depress thy mind, and will hold it so down, that thou wilt not find it possible to walk upright and look upwards, with that freedom and frequency' that becomes heirs of heaven.-The measure of thy affairs being adapted, look to thy affection in them, that it be regulated too. Thy heart may be engaged in thy little business as much, if thou watch it not, as in many and great affairs. A man may drown in a little brook or pool, as well as in a great river, if he be down and plunge himself into it, and put his head under water. Some care thou must have, that thou mayest not care. Those things that are thorns indeed, thou must make a hedge of them, to keep out those temptations that accompany sloth, and extreme want that waits on it; but let them be the hedge: suffer them not to grow within the garden. If riches increase, set not thy heart on them, nor set them in thy heart. That place is due to another, is made to be the garden of thy beloved Lord, made for the best plants and flowers, and there they ought to grow, the love of God, and faith, and meekness, and the other fragrant graces of the Spirit. And know, that this is no common nor easy matter, to keep the heart disengaged in the midst of affairs, that still it be reserved for him whose right it is. Not only labor to keep thy mind spiritual in itself, but by it put a spiritual stamp even upon thy temporal employments; and so thou shalt live to God, not

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only without prejudice of thy calling, but even in it, and shalt converse with him in thy shop, or in the field, or in thy journey, doing all in obedience to him, and offering all and thyself withal, as a sacrifice to him; thou still with him, and he still with thee, in all. This is to live to the will of God indeed, to follow his direction and intend his glory in all. Thus the wife in the very oversight of her house, and the husband in his affairs abroad, may be living to God, raising their low employments to a high quality this way-Lord, even this mean work I do for thee, complying with thy will, who hast put me in this station, and given me this task. Thy will be done. Lord, I offer up even this work to thee. cept of me, and of my desire to obey thee in all. And as in their work, so in their refreshments and rest Christians do all for him. Whether ye eat or drink, says the apostle, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God; doing all for this reason, because it is his will, and for this end, that he may have glory; bending the use of all our strength and all his mercies that way; setting this mark on all our designs and ways, This for the glory of my God, and, This further for his glory, and so from one thing to another throughout our whole life. This is the art of keeping the heart spiritual in all affairs, yea, of spiritualizing the affairs themselves in their use, that in themselves are earthly. This is the elixir that turns lower metal into gold, the mean actions of this life into obedience and holy offerings unto God.

And were we acquainted with the way of intermixing holy thoughts in our ordinary ways, it would keep the heart in a sweet temper all the day long, and have an excellent influence on all our ordinary actions and holy performances, at those times when we apply ourselves solemnly to them. Our hearts would be near them, not so far off to seek and call in, as usually they are through the neglect of this. This were to walk with God indeed, to go all the day long as in our Father's hand; whereas without this, our praying morning and evening looks but as a formal visit, not delighting in that constant converse which yet is our happiness and honor, and makes all estates sweet. This would refresh us in the hardest labor;

as they that carry the spices from Arabia are refreshed with the smell of them in their journey, and some observe, that it keeps their strength and frees them from fainting.

If then you would indeed live to God be not satisfied without a constant regard to him; and whosoever hath attained most of it, study it yet more, to set the Lord always before you, as David professeth, and then shall you have the comfort that he adds, He shall be still at your right hand, that you shall not be moved.

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And you that are yet to begin this, think what his patience is, that after you have slighted so many calls, you may yet begin to seek him and live to him. And then consider, if you still despise all this goodness, how may be otherwise; you may be past the reach of this call and may not begin, but be cut off for ever from the hopes of it. O how sad an estate! and the more sad by the remembrance of these slighted offers and invitations! Will you then yet return? You that would share in Christ, let go those lusts to which you have hitherto lived and embrace him, and in him there is spirit and life for you. He shall enable you to live this heavenly life to the will of God, his God and your God, his Father and your Father. O delay no longer this happy change! How soon may that puff of breath that is in thy nostrils, who hearest this, be extinguished! And art thou willing to die in thy sins, rather than that they should die before thee? Thinkest thou it a pain to live to the will of God? Surely it will be more pain to lie under his eternal wrath. O thou knowest not how sweet they find it who have tried it! Thinkest thou, I will try it hereafter? Who can make thee sure either of that hereafter or of that will? If hereafter, why not now presently, without further debate? Hast thou not served sin long enough? May not the time passed in that service suffice? yea, is it not too much? Wouldest thou only live unto God as little as may be, and think the dregs of thy life good enough for him? What ingratitude and gross folly is this! Yea, though thou wert sure of coming unto him and being accepted, yet if thou knewest him in any measure, thou wouldst not think it a privilege to defer it, but willingly choose

to be free from the world and thy lusts, to be immediately his, and wouldest, with David, make haste, and not delay to keep his righteous judgments. All the time thou livest without him, what a filthy wretched life is it, if that can be called life that is without him! To live to sin is to live still in a dungeon; but to live to the will of God, is to walk in liberty and light, to walk by light unto light, by the beginnings of it to the fulness of it, which is in his presence.

Ver. 4. Wherein they think it strange, that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you;

5. Who shall give account to Him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.

GRACE, until it reach its home and end in glory, is still in conflict; there is a restless party within and without, yea, the whole world against it. It is a stranger here, and is accounted and used as such. They think it strange, that ye run not with them, and they speak eril of you: these wondering thoughts they vent in reproaching words.

In these two verses we have these three things-I. the Christian's opposite course to that of the world; II. the world's opposite thoughts and speeches of this course; III. the supreme and final judgment of both.

I. The opposite course, in that they run to excess of riot or luxury. Though all natural men are not, in the gros sest kind, guilty of this, yet they are all of them in some way truly riotous or luxurious, lavishing away themselves and their days upon the poor perishing delights of sin, each according to his own palate and humour. As all persons that are riotous in the common sense of it, gluttons or drunkards, do not love the same kind of meats or drink, but have several appetites, yet they agree in the nature of the sin; so the notion enlarged after the same manner to the different custom of corrupt nature, takes in all the ways of sin some are continually drunk with pleasures aud carnal enjoyments, others with the cares of this life, which our Saviour reckons with surfeiting and