VII.

of their Errors and Mifcarriage, and discharge SER M. that Truft with which you have been invefted by GoD and the Church. Not that Godfathers and Godmothers only are thus concerned: But all, who have any Children or Servants under their Care, are to see that they do not, for Want of proper Inftructions and Exhortations, neglect and forego a Ministration so useful, and fo highly needful, as you fee this is, to make them full and perfect Chriftians.

And this as to your Children, your Sons and your Daughters, your own Flesh and Blood, I fhall fuppofe you will readily enough undertake; at least if you defire them to be as happy in the next World, as you wish them in this. But let me remind you, there are others who deferve and want your Care, your Servants I mean, who want and deferve it fo much the more, as it is through an Attention and Application to your Affairs, that they are careless of their own. For it is a melancholy View, though too, apparent a one not to be obferved, that too many Servants have but little Devotion, except what they pay to those they attend on. How ignorant the greatest Number of them are of the Duty and Service they owe to Gop, the Manner of their Beha

6

VII.

SER M. viour, during their Attendance in the Houfe of God, too frequently fhews. From thence one would judge, (what it is to be feared is often the Cafe,) that they think the Duties and Offices of Religion are things they are not concerned in; and that they come to Church, And

not as the Servants of GOD but of Church,

that the Time they fpend in it, they think not allowed them for the Benefit and Improvement of their own Souls, but rather, like their Attendance at other publick Meetings, for the Credit of their Mafters. I do not fpeak this of Servants univerfally: I observe, and hope, and promise myself much better things from fome here present. But that what I fay is too true of many of them, you know too well. But though this Negligence and Carelesness in Religion chiefly affects fuch Servants themselves; yet let not their Masters and Miftreffes imagine, that they are free from a Share in the Guilt, except they ufe all proper Means to inftruct them better.

And the best Way to make your Servants obfervant of the Duty they owe yourselves, is to make them firft the Servants of GOD. Let me therefore exhort you to lay hold of the Opportunity that is now offering, to bring them, if you can, to the Acknowledgment

and

VII.

and Profeffion of that Religion into which they SER M. have been baptized; to vow in their own Names, and to take on their Perfons, the Practice and serious Obfervance of it for the future; and that the Holiness of their Lives may always prove, that this Grace shall not have been bestowed upon them in vain; but that GOD is in them of a Truth. And And may he grant to all his Servants Grace to withstand the Temptations of the World, the Flesh, and the Devil, and with pure Hearts and Minds to follow him the only true GOD, through Jefus Christ our Lord. Amen.

SERMON

SERM.

VIII.

SERMON VIII.

The Parable of the Sower.

101

LUKE viii. 5,6,7, 8.

(10) A Sower went out to fow his Seed; and as be fowed, fome fell by the Way-fide, and it was trodden down, and the Fowls of the Air devoured it.

And Some fell upon a Rock, and as soon as it
was fprung up, it withered away, because
it lacked Moisture.

And fome fell among Thorns, and the Thorns
Sprang up with it and choked it.

And others fell on good Ground, and sprang
up, and bare Fruit an hundred Fold.

IN

N order to make the best Improvement of the Words, let us first examine into the Senfe and Occasion of them.

Now the Occafion of them our Lord's own Expofition fhews was to fet before us a very melancholy Relation of the great Unfuccefffulness and Unfruitfulness which attended his

Preach

VIII.

Preaching amongst the Jews: Not but he SER M. had Hearers enough, and in Abundance: For we are told, that juft before he delivered this Parable, Much People were gathered together, and were come to him out of every City; and preffed upon him in fuch Multitudes to hear the Gospel, that to get out of the Throng, he was forced to remove into a little Ship that lay waiting upon the Lake of Gennefareth, close to the Shore, and from thence to preach to them, whilst they stood crowding on the Land to hear him. Compare ver. 4. with Matt. xiii. 2. and Mark iv. 1. Hearers therefore and Followers our Lord had abundantly: And yet, as it appears from the whole Course of his Preaching, the Numbers were, in Comparison, but very few, by whom he was heard with any Succefs. That the little Progrefs therefore which the Gospel made in the Hearts of his Hearers, might not be imputed to the Gofpel itself, or to him that preached it; he utters this Parable of a Sower and his Seed reminding them that, though the Seed may be good, and the Sower ever fo diligent and careful, it may yet come to pass that, for want of due Preparation in the Ground,, three Parts in four of the Seed may be loft. That

one