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likewise to themselves? What Neceffity can you fhew for that?

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Is the Countryman able to give any Reason, why, when he goes from thefe holy Affemblies, where he meets with God and our Saviour, he muft needs fall immediately into a Difcourfe about his Cattle, or his Ground, or the Price of Corn, or any thing of that Nature? Cannot he as well think a while how to get to Heaven, and how to encrease in the Knowledge and Love of God, and to bring himself to a Resolution never to neglect any Part of his Service? And why must others presently divert their Thoughts to their Shops, and to their Trades; or to the News of the Town; or to the Defigns they have laid the next Day for their Pleasures and delightful Entertainments? Is it not fufficient to enjoy them in their proper Seafon, but we must rob God and our Souls, to poffefs our Minds with unneceffary Thoughts about them? Why cannot we as well endeavour to digeft fome wholfome Counsel which hath been given us? Why cannot we spend a little of the Remainder of this Day to fettle a pious Refolution, which we have conceived? Is it fuch a mighty Difficulty to fall upon our Knees, when we come at home, or in the Conclufion of this Day, and befeech God to imprint in our Minds all good Inftructions, and affift us with his Grace to perform our Chriftian Duties, in the Places and Relation in which he hath fet us? Is it fuch a fevere Labour, that we should be weary of it, to meditate how many Ways God hath blessed

us,

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us, how many Mercies of feveral Sorts, he hath bestowed upon us, what Hopes we have by the Gofpel of good Things, that exceed all our Thoughts in everlafting Life? There is no Queftion to be made of it, but you have fuch an Opportunity at this prefent, that if you would improve it well, you would find more Time every Day, to do your Souls Juftice. You would fay, O my Soul, why doft thou forget thy felf? One thing is needful, let us not trouble our felves fo much about thefe unneceffary Things. O let us go to God, and feek his Favour and Bleffing; let us hear what he fays to us in holy Word: Did not the Servants of God heretofore rejoice in this, more than in thousands of Gold and Silver? Let us fhare with them in this Joy, who have greater Treasures of Wifdom and knowledge opened unto us in the Gofpel of the Lord Jefus: Let us not neglect such great Salvation ; for if they escaped not who heard not him that fpake on Earth, much more fhall not we escape, if we turn away from him that fpeaketh from Heaven. Heb. x. 25.

We do not wish you to be idle, when we give you this Advice, for that's not good for your Souls no more than for your Bodies; nor do we bid you to be improvident, to have no Forecast, cr not to make Ufe of an Opportunity for the increafing your Eftates, for this would be to take from Men all Prudence: All that God requires of you is, that you would not fo attend to these earthly Things, as to let flip the Opportunities You have for the good of your Souls; that you

would

would not be fo laborious for the outward Man, as to be idle in working out your Salvation; he that is fo, and thinks himself fufficiently faved from blame, because he hath himself and Family to make provifion for, will find one Day that he might have been contented with lefs Riches, and have minded also the Affairs of his Soul, and had never the lefs of thefe worldly Goods. This if you did believe (and it is a certain Truth) it would make you at prefent more mindful of Heaven; and fave you the Labour hereafter of bewailing unprofitably the Lofs of fuch an ineftimable Happiness. May not even a labouring Man before he go forth to his Work in the Morning adrefs himself to God, and say,

Lord I am thine, thou haft made me, and hitherto maintained me: I have received fuck and fuch Mercies from thee; I am in Health, and have the Use of my Limbs, and am able to work; blessed be thy Name I never wanted Food fince I came into this World; I love thee, O Lord, with all my Heart, I will ever love thee and do thy Will; I am refolv'd to depend upon thee, and put my Truft in thee for ever; I will keep thy Commandments with my whole Heart, and effeem thy pretious Promifes more than all Riches; bless me I beseech thee, and be with me all this Day; preServe me from Murmuring and Envy; and make me more thankful for all thy Bleffings, and bring me by patient Continuance in well doing to eternal Life.

May he not, I fay, pour out his Heart in thefe or the like Defires to God? What Hin

drance

XIV. drance will this be to him? Nay, if he have any Faith, God will the more blefs and profper him. And may he not, if he can read, take a good Book along with him, and when he refts and refreshes himself, read a little, and think of it afterward with himself? Or may he not meditate on the Sermon he hears to day, and pray to God fervently that he may have Grace to praife thofe holy Truths which have been made known to him?

What then may not they do, who have more Riches, and are Mafters of more Time and better Opportunities? Is there any need that they fhould be still coveting and ftretching their Defigns after more abundance? To what Purpose is it that they afpire after fuch and fuch Dignities? May they not fit down and be happy, tho' they never afcend to that Heighth of Honour? Perhaps they fancy that if they had but fuch Additions to their Riches and Greatness as they defire, then they fhould find more Leifure to attend to their Souls, and certainly improve it. Alas! this is a mere Delufion like all the reft ; for they that have gotten up to the very highest Step upon Fortune's Ladder, the great Emperors, I mean, of the World, who had ill Men at their command, did not find their Thoughts advanced nearer Heaven by this Means; after they had cloyed themselves with all the Variety of Delights, which their large Dominions could furnish their Defires withal, ftill they could find no Appetite after diviner Enjoyments, their Thoughts run ftill the fame Way, infomuch

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that when they had furfeited on the greater Pleafures of this World, rather than look higher, they betook themselves for a Cure to the moft contemptible Divertisements, and the meanest Recreations of the Vulgar, nay, of little Children; One of them (as a rare Person of our own Nation, hath expreffed better than I can do) who ftiled himself Lord and God of the whole Earth, could not tell how to pass his Day pleasantly, without fpending two or three Hours in catching Flies and killing them with his Bodkin, a moft worthy Employment for an earthly God: One of his Predeceffors (Nero) could divert himself with no Paftime more agreeable than to run about the Streets all Night, in a Difguife, abufing all he met withal, fometimes beating them, and fometimes being beaten by them; this was one of his imperial nocturnal Pleasures, and his chiefeft in the Day, was to fing and play upon a Fiddle in the Habit of a Minstrel, on a publick Stage, being prouder of the Garlands given to his Divine Voice (as his Flatterers called it) in thofe goodly Prizes, than his Forefathers were of their Triumphs over Nations. Auguftus himself the most fortunate of all Mankind, and a Perfon endowed with many excellent Gifts of Nature, was fo hard put to it for want of Recreations, as to be found playing at Nuts and bounding-Stones with little Boys, whofe Company he took delight in, for their Prating and Wantonnefs.

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