IV.

SER M. tural Endowments he has given you, should incite you to pay him Honour again, by diftinguishing your felves in your spiritual as well as natural Life; fo the Place that, under him, first laid the Foundation of

your Abilities and Worth, calls on you to grace and adorn it again by Integrity of Life; fince otherwife you will be but as whited Sepulchres, which indeed (as our Saviour obferves) appear beautiful outwards, but are within full of dead Mens Bones, and of all Uncleanness, Mat. xxiii. 27,

But the fecond Head we have had Occafion to confider, not only reminds you to acknowledge your Gifts, to be thankful to the Giver, and to make fuitable Returns and Acknowledgments for them; but it also inftructs you to make the best Use of them, not to trifle with, undervalue, or neglect them, but to apply them to the nobleft Ends and Effects they are capable of producing. Though this indeed is nothing more than what your general Character as Men, as well as the fpecial Diftinction you bear as Men of Parts,

demands of you all.

For as no Man is born for himself alone; fo no Man fhould live entirely to himself. But as every one helps to fill the World, and is himself one more whom

the

IV.

the World is to provide for, and confequently SER M. one who adds to the Bufinefs the World has to do; fo muft he take his Quota or Share in the general Toil, and do what he can for the World again. And if this require more Labour and Care than our Nature (could it have its own Choice) would defire; it will become us, inftead of repining at the Pains, to reflect on the Caufe why it cofts us fo dear. We know very well how it came to pafs, that Man, though feated in a Paradife at first, was yet banifhed from thence, to till the Ground in Sorrow and Sweat: And though the Hufbandman feems principally concerned in the Curfe, yet in Reality is it dilated to all. For if the Hufbandman fweat to provide Mankind with the various Productions and Fruits of the Earth; they muft alfo sweat in their Turns to render thofe Productions, in very various and different Ways, useful both to themfelves and him. If the Hufbandman labour to plow and fow; if, when the Time and Season for it comes, he mows, and reaps, and gathers into his Barn, and threshes, and winnows, and cleanses his Corn, and then brings it to different Markets and Fairs, and all to fupply Mankind with Provifions for their Bread and their Drink; how many Hands and how many Trades does it afterwards reL 4 quire,

IV.

SER M. quire, before either he or they can enjoy the Fruits of their feveral Labours and Toils in the Loaf and the Cup? If again it is the Farmer's Care and Vigilance in tending his Flocks and his Herds, to which we owe the Meat and the Flesh, which, by the second Charter of GOD to Man, Gen. ix. 3. is indulged to nourish and fupport our Strength; many Arts, and many Hands (more perhaps than we are aware of at first) must contribute and help to fit and make them ready for our Tables. And, laftly, if the fame Flocks which fupply us with Food, fupply us alfo, by the Hufbandman's Care, with Wooll for our Clothes; yet how many muft fweat in different Ways, what various and different Trades must be employed, one after another, and how many laborious and toilfome Hours muft each of them fpend, before a fingle Fleece can decently be put on our Backs? So closely are the many Arts and Trades in Life, which feem, at first Sight, to be no ways concerned in the Curfe paffed upon the Ground, and those who are set to till it, interwoven with that of the Hufbandman, who we are apt to imagine only feels it. And let it not be objected, that there are many Occupations and Employments in Life, on which

but

but little Exercise and Labour of the Body is fpent; fince thefe require the much more wearisom Fatigue of the Brain, and perplex the Mind with anxious Cares, which are none of the eafieft of the Briars and Thorns which Men are doomed to.

As to those idle and useless Wretches who live as if the World was created to be wholly fubfervient to them; and who like Drones, fuck and enjoy the Sweets of the Hive, with out bringing any thing into it again; with these I hope I have nothing to do: I would willingly believe there are none fuch of us: - Elfe, if there were-The leaft and the tenderest Thing I could fay, would be to warn them to take Heed in Time, that they don't, by declining the Share that belongs to them in the Curse of this World, plunge themselves deeper into the Curfe of the next.

SERM.

But I am striking out new Matter before I was aware, when your Patience, I know, tells me it is Time that I should only apply, and that in few Words, what I have offered by Way of Doctrine before. And the Doctrine of my second Head will remind you, not only to shake Hands with Indolence and Sloth, which I have now fhewed, you must

do

IV.

SER M. do, if you would behave your felves like Men;'

IV.

but also to apply your felves to fuch particular Employments as your feveral Stations, Qualifications, and Abilities render you most apt to forward and promote. I can fcarce imagine, that I have any Occafion to explain what I fay, by adding, that I mean Employments truly innocent and useful; because the very Head whence this Inference flows, has fhewn that the Profeffions and Callings of Men are Ways by which they are to express their good Offices one to another, and all of them their Service and Duty to God. And I need not, fure, tell you, that thofe Employments are far from anfwering this Design, which either have a natural Tendency in themselves, or else are abused by thofe that follow them, to ferve the Corruptions and Debaucheries of Men, and to cherish and foment their Vices and Lufts. Trades have the Names of Callings given them, because they are supposed to be Employments to which Men are called by GoD: But if fuch Employments as these are Callings, they must be Callings of the Devil, whofe Pimps and Panders fuch Men muft be, who, not content with being his Prostitutes, act and trade as his Procurers too.

But