past as God did on his at the six days end and to bewail your Sins therein that you may have time to consider what Mercies you have to acknowledg and what Blessings to beg on the Day following that you may solemnly renounce all your Sins and wholly dismiss all your worldly Business and the thoughts thereof till the Sabbath be past Let not the Guilt nor the Love of any one Sin enter with you into the holy Ground but wash you Hands in Innocence and so compass the Altar of God And tho upon that holy Day you may be innocently chearful and rejoyce in the Blessings of God yet you should not only abstain from any vile Thoughts or Words but even from vain and fruitless ones Isa 58. 13. Thou shalt call the Sabbath a Delight the Holy of the Lord Honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own Wayes nor finding thine own Pleasure nor speaking thine own Words Yea your Hearts must rise against all unfit Discourse and with a Christian Dexterity endeavour to carry the Stream of such Discourse another way Be not ashamed to speak of God and Heaven since ungodly Men have the Impudence to speak of Wickedness See that ye rise early and work hard that day in your heavenly Trade that so you may be able all night to give as clear an account of what you have gotten as you can on other days Let no worldly Business be contrived or mention'd or done that Day which might have been done before or may be done after without plain Prejudice It was the Men of Tyre that sold their Wares on the Sabbath whom Nehemiah represt Neh. 13. 16 20 21. and command your Families from stragling or foolish Sports that day beware how you give them Liberty that Day because you can best spare them to see their Friends or to be out of your sight for that Day and that Way multitudes of them are undone but let them spend that Day in God's House and in your own Examine them of the state of their Souls of their Proficience that Day and scriously catechize the younger sort in the Principle of Religion O let not your Childrens Souls be neglected while you pamper and deck their Bodies but show them the evil of Sin and the beauty of Holiness convince them of their woful State by Nature and mind them of the Vow which they are under in their Baptism let them see you in the Pangs of Travel for them till Christ be form'd in them you have time for this upon this Day and you are bound in Equity and Piety to recover them out of that Condition into which you have brought them put good Books into their Hands and talk with them about Regeneration and explain the Catechism to them that being well grounded in the Principles of Religion they may rationally imbrace the Practice of it And then for your Servants both Apprentices and others Do you think it is sufficient that they do your Work faithfully Have not they most precious Souls and have not you the charge of them can you find in your Hearts to suffer them to live and for ought you know die in a State of Ignorance and Unregeneracy Where are your Bowels of Compassion Alas you should have the same care of their Souls as you have of your own Children You allow to your Beasts Food and Lodging for their Work and will you treat Christians no otherwise on this day you have time if you have but Hearts to call them to you and to enquire into their Spiritual Condition and never to give them rest until you have with God's help cur'd their Ignorance and Vices or find them incurable Lose not therefore a minute of that precious Time make it as long a day as any of the rest and when it is done long for another Sabbath And heartily bless the Lord that he hath given you such a merciful Release from the Labours of your Body and the Cares of your Mind and withal blest you with a market-Market-day for your Souls I say bless him and let the Voice of Praise and singing Psalms be heard in the Righteous Man's Dwellings A joyful Sabbath is the Suburbs of Heaven 7. This Religion will oblige the Tradesman to the practice of constant Watchfulness Which is a continual care to please God in your Thoughts Words and Actions and that you offend him not in any of them And herein lies much of the Essence and Life of Practical Religion as preventive Physick is much better than curing and Obedience better than Sacrifice For they that have such sinful Hearts within them and such a wicked World and malicious Devil without them had need to watch as well as pray against Temptation Above all keeping keep the Heart Prov. 4. 23. quench the first Sparks of Sin there O quench them quickly and know that as Light only excludes Darkness so it is impossible to keep out bad Thoughts without the Prevalence of good ones Watch over your Words and consider what and how and why you speak and indeavour not only to speak what is lawful but what is useful remember that Words are like Arrows when once out you know not where they may light especially be careful of them before your Children And for your Actions take a wise Man's Counsel Prov. 4. 26. Ponder the Path of thy Feet and let all thy Ways be established And especially watch against the Temptations of your particular Calling for every Trade hath some particular Snare as every Constitution hath some particular Sin and it is the Wisdom of a Man to keep constant Watch against it But the Temptations that are most common to all Trades are either Debnuchery on the one hand or Worldliness on the other Your greatest Temptation to the former besides what is common to you with other Men is the obliging of your Customers or Chapmen when to get or keep them you will break with God distemper your Body Head Hear tand all Now how can you expect that Gain to be blessed which is procur'd by Sin No no if you deal with wise Men it is the Punctualness of your Word the Goodness and Cheapness of your Commodity that will oblige them sufficiently and sooner or later I am sure this will do the business but if you deal with Fools whom Wine and Drink do chiefly oblige they 'l disappoint you at last and leave you in the lurch And on the other hand Take heed of Worldliness beware of the love of Money or of loving the World for its own sake For the love of Money is the root of all Evil 1 Tim. 6. 10. It is not the greatness of an Estate but the nearness of it to a Man's Heart which ruines him The Water under the Ship makes it swim Water within it makes it sink They that buy should be as if they possessed not 1 Cor. 7. 30. for the time is short And worldly Wealth will not stay long nor satisfy the Soul while it
the Tradesman's the Well-being of Man's Life The Substance and first Principles of our Food and Rayment are conveyed to us by the Care and Labour of the Husbandman the Tradesman moulds and fits them for our immediate Use and Service 4. Some again are imployed for Man's Delight and Convenience as Musick and divers other Arts wherein also several Trades have some Concern 5. Some Callings there are again which are conversant about the Defence of Mens Bodies and Estates such as Souldiers and all those Imployments that relate to Military Affairs And lastly some are imployed for the Publick Peace and Safety of Mankind as Princes and Magistrates of all kinds and degrees whose Calling also is of God for there is no Power but of God the Powers that be are ordained of God Rom. 13. 1. And here let us make a stand and behold 1. The Folly of Man in reference to what hath been said 1. Of those that mind neither their Spiritual nor Temporal Callings As for their general Christian Calling they were born and bred in it it is true and so do profess it and if they had received their Birth and Education under Paganism or Mahumetanism they had yielded up themselves to those Religions For as they have never searched into the Foundations and Reasons of Christianity so they never study nor set themselves to the Practice of the great Duties of it but their whole business is to please their Appetite and to promote their Interest in this World and do wholly neglect the World to come A lively Faith sound Repentance constant Holiness Self-denial and undissembled Love to God and Man they are Strangers unto and some of them for Temperance Justice Patience Friendship might go to School to Heathens and have only to support them a Form of Godliness but in the mean while they deny the Power thereof And the same Persons are equally mindful of any Temporal Calling that is they no way promote the Good of Mankind they have Parts but improve no Science with them have Strength and Health but use no Art or Faculty Talents but hide them in a Napkin O how will these give account to the Judg of Quick and Dead Do ye think that he will never reckon with you because he delays his coming Or that he will be put off with the Story of your Extraction or Education You have Abilities to ridicule Religion and to do Mischief you have Strength enough to drink to hunt to whore ye are only wise to do Evil but to do Good ye have no Knowledg Wo to you if ye reform not ye have a long Arrear and he that is gracious and merciful and slow to Anger yet by no means will clear the Guilty And therefore bethink your selves grant your selves but Leisure to consider what ye have done for God what for Mankind and what for your own Souls and upon a serious Reflection you will find that ye have been all this while asleep in a pleasant foolish Dream and that it is high time to awake to Action and Imployment who knows but that you may receive your Penny tho you come into the Vineyard at the eleventh Hour 2. Their Folly is here taxed that neglect either of their Callings Perhaps they are very diligent in Reading and Hearing in Prayer and Fasting and do run from one Sermon to another all the Week long but do nothing in any Particular Calling they serve God but serve not their Generation by the Will of God as David did Acts 13. 36. and as they ought to do But these People live as if they were all Soul and no Body or as if they were born only for themselves and for no body else And if some of their Ancestors had taken no more care of them than they do for Posterity they must have fasted out of necessity instead of fasting out of choice Against such as these holy Augustin wrote a whole Book of old who are but a sort of Secular Monks and Nuns that forget the old Canon 2 Thess 3. 10. That if any let them be who or what they will will not work being capable of it they should not eat On the other hand there are a far greater number that are very diligent in their worldly Imployments that rise early sit up late and eat the Bread of Care Labour and Sorrow but apparently neglect the Welfare of their Souls and the Care of the World to come No labouring to get Knowledg Faith or Holiness no reading or hearing of God's Word or Prayer but only such as is meerly superficial and customary busy at the Exchange at Noon but sleepy in their Prayers at Night exhausting all their Strength and Spirits in their Shops and quite heartless in their Closets and Families that live as if they were all Body and no Soul or as if after this short Life there were not a far longer to come yea the very Sabbath that Sacred Day of Rest which should be a Delight is a Grief to them and in their Hearts they cry When will it be over that we may to our worldly Business again yea in that very Day tho the Law doth bind their Hands from Labour yet their Souls are filled with Cares and Contrivances about temporal things But why do ye separate those Callings which God hath joined what Blessing can you expect upon an Estate that is gain'd without Godliness or What will it profit you to gain the whole World and lose your own Souls You might work hard and pray hard also you may gain enough of both Worlds if you would mind each in its place whereas if you neglect the main God may justly as he hath frequently rent away the Earthly and lock'd up the Heavenly Riches from those who value not a grain of Grace above a world of Gold Trust him therefore who never deceived you saying Seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all other things shall be added to you Mat. 6. 31. 3. Their Folly is manifest who respect not the Author of their Callings to wit Almighty God That seek not his Advice that mind not his Blessing It is most certain that all Persons and Things are governed by the Providence of God that there is nothing so great nor any thing so small which is not directed thereby Now if this be really believed surely it concerns all Men in their weighty Affairs to have recourse to Him to consult his Will and to crave his Blessing else we neglect him we make nothing of him and he may very justly neglect us and be unconcern'd about our Welfare Learn of Abraham's Servant Gen. 24. when he went about his Master's Son's Affair how earnestly he craves the Direction of God in that matter and how well he sped thereafter Learn of Jacob Gen. 28. when he set forth into the World how he prays and vows and how the Lord blest him exceedingly And that Apostle who forbids distracting Care in any matter commands that in
as the Dogs of Egypt do the Water of Nilus with great caution lest the Crocodiles devour them But I have spoken somewhat about these before Lastly This Diligence will restrain all unseasonable Devotion Far be it from me to discourage the Exercises of Piety This Climate is grown cold enough in them But there is a preposterous Zeal in some Tradesmen and Women especially which draws them to neglect one Calling to further another But the diligent Man considers that God in his great Wisdom appointed the six days for Work and a seventh for Rest And tho upon extraordinary occasions we may and ought to devote some of this time to sacred purposes as in case of Solemn Fasts and Feasts and tho an industrious Tradesman may redeem by his Diligence some other hours as for the Refreshment of his Body so for the inriching his Soul by reading hearing and prayer yet it is no way justifiable to neglect a Man's necessary Affairs upon pretence of religious Worship to lâ—t necessary Work be undone at home just Debts unpaid abroad the Family languish for want of Providence the Shop languish for want of his Presence while he runs from one opportunity to another till hiâ— Estate be weakned and his Credit sâ—nk Doubtless there is a measure to be observed in those things and usually a Man is bound to pray and hear no more than will consist 1. With his Ability of Body for if the Bucket be once broken it will carry no Water 2. With hiâ— lawful Calling for therein God is trulâ— served 3. With time to meditate on what he hears for one Duty must never exclude another he that doth nothing but hear will grow deaf with hearing and those holy Exercises are but means the end is still nobler which is to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World And so much for the Particulars wherein this Diligence is exemplified Thirdly The Inducements which are proper to dispose the Tradesman to this Diligence are these 1. It is matter of Duty Those places mention'd in Prov. 27. 23. and Eccles 9. 10. put it out of doubt Yea the Holy Ghost doth link it together with the holiest Actions Not slothful in Business fervent in Spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12. 11. Ye are as truly bound to be diligent in your Business as to be servent in Prayer and it 's intimated there that you serve the Lord in both and consequently it is a real Sin both to be bewailed and amended to be negligent in your Callings as to be lukewarm in your Prayers And in the Fourth Commandment God doth as well command Diligence in your Work on the six days as Seriousness on the Sabbath and propounds his own Example to the same purpose For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth And tho he ceas'd creating yet he is working still Joh. 5. 17. My Father worketh hitherto and I work His Eyes are continually running to and fro thorowout the whole Earth to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose Heart is perfect towards him 2 Chron. 16. 9. So that here 's the Command and Example of God himself for Diligence 2. It is matter of Safety An honest Industry is an excellent Preservative both from Sin and Danger Most Men's Temptations overtake them when they be out of their Imployment or negligent in it When good David had been sleeping in the afternoon and walking too idly afterward 2 Sam 11. 2. then did he fall into that Temptation that cost him so dear You know the standing Pool corrupts the un-employed Harness rusts but he that is in the way of his Vocation is most out of the way of Temptation So it is also in case of Danger if any Mischief hover over a Man it is likeliest to seize upon him while he is negligent in his Vocation When Ishbasheth was lying on his Bed at noon Baanah and Rechab smote him under the fifth Rib 2 Sam. 4. 5. In all likelihood it had fared better with these two Princes if they had been studying and doing the Duty of Magistrates instead of reposing themselves upon their Beds Let the Tradesman learn from others harms to prevent his own up and be doing and the Lord is engaged to be with you 3. In respect of Benefit God doth usually bless the diligent Man with Plenty The Hand of the diligent maketh rich Prov. 10. 4. For the thoughts of the diligent tend only to Plenteousness Prov. 21. 5. Now a plentiful Estate is desirable provided it be for right ends If Riches and Honour be good for you Diligence is the means to compass them Prov. 22. 29. Seest thou a Man diligent in his Business he shall stand before Kings he shall not stand before mean Men That is he is sit for the highest Offices he may aim at them he is likeliest to obtain them We see Princes chuse out industrious Men for their Service 1 Kings 11. 28. And Solomon seeing the young Man viz. Jeroboam that he was industrious or as the Margin from the Hebr. that he did work or take pains he made him Ruler over all the Charge of the House of Joseph and you know how great he grew If Princes see Men to be only wise they suspect they will be too conceited if high-spirited too turbulent if honest and conscientious too difficult if popular dangerous but if diligent they are fit to be imployed Now tho the ordinary Tradesman never expects any great Office or Preferment yet certainly his Industry puts him into the road of all the Preferment whereof he is capable Isa 23. 8. Whose Merchants are Princes whose Traffiquers are the Honourable of the Earth 4. In respect of Comfort There is a certain secret satisfaction of Mind that always attends an honest Diligence The Sleep of a laboring Man is sweet whether he eat little or much Eccles 5. 12. He hath been doing the duty of his Calling and that comforts him I appeal to your own Consciences and to every Man's Experience whether you find not more inward Peace and Comfort at night after you have been diligently imployed in your Calling than when you have trifled therein And any cross which befalls you is better born when it finds you in your Imployment than when out of it And if by the wise Providence of God you do not by your Industry obtain abundance yet you have this comfort of having done your Duty which is the chiefest ground of all just Satisfaction Fourthly The fourth thing then upon this Head is to make some useful Improvement hereof which is By Reproof By Counsel 1. This detects and reproves the baseness and sinfulness of Idleness and Sloth whether it be in point of Care or of Labour The holy Ghost by the hand of the Wise-Man doth frequently lash this sort of Men. Prov. 26. 13 14 15 16. The slothful man saith There is a Lion in the way a Lion in the streets he fancies danger and difficulties where there are none Then
Flesh-pleasing to Covetousness to Atheism What Fuel do their Estates lay up for these Sins And then the greatness of their Account and the imminent danger they are in of missing Heaven at last makes their Condition to require your Compassion rather than your Emulation Therefore Be not thou afraid when one is made rich when the Glory of his House is increased For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away his Glory shall not descend after him Psal 49. 16. He that rejoyces in anothers Prosperity makes it his own he that envies at it robs himself of what he has to no purpose 3. The Tradesman ought to watch against Covetousness as a Sin most repugnant to Contentedness as is plain in the Scripture before mentioned Heb. 13. 5. By Covetousness I mean here An unsatiable desire of Riches when a Man will be rich or else thinks he cannot be happy And this restless Desire when it is kindled in the Tradesman's Heart perpetually torments him and he hath no content in what he hath for the longing he hath for more This makes him grudg himself Conveniencies scant his Family of Necessaries forget the Poor and neglect his precious Soul to get Money grasps after the Shadow and loses the Substance Now what a madness is this Do Riches make a Man more wise more holy more chearful more happy any way but only that when they are rightly got they more inable a Man to do good And do you in very deed desire them for this end why do you not then do some good with those you have I take God to witness to my Conscience said good Mr. Tindal in the Book of Martyrs I desire of God to my self no more in this World than That without which I cannot keep his Laws I know you aim at Satisfaction Every Man's mind would have Satisfaction but that will never be got by increasing your Estate but only by abating your desires You may as well content your selves with a moderate as with a vast Estate As Cyneas told Pyrrhus when he was boasting how he would conquer Rome and then Italy and then Sicily and then Carthage to whom Cyneas And what will ye do then O then says he we 'l feast and be merry Why so says he you may do now every whit as well without all this Pain and Danger So that Comfort and Satisfaction which you promise to your selves after all your desired abundance you may every whit as well receive at present And why then should you pinch your Bodies neglect your Souls trouble your own House and only inherit the Wind For what hath Man of all his Labour and of the Vexation of his Heart wherein he hath laboured under the Sun For all his Days are Sorrows and his Travel Grief yea his Heart taketh not rest in the Night This is also Vanity Eccles 2. 22 23. Wisdom hath said He that loveth Silver shall not be satisfied with Silver nor he that loveth abundance with Increase And that when Goods increase they are increased that eat them and what good is there to the Owners thereof saving the beholding of them with their Eyes Eccles 5. 10 11. Watch therefore carefully against this Temptation if Riches decrease break not thy Heart for them if Riches increase set not thy Heart upon them Chearfully make use of what you enjoy bridle your Desires after the World detest the motion of getting any thing indirectly trust in God to supply you who gives us all things liberally to injoy and still remember that sincere Charity is the best method to obtain and intail an Estate upon you and yours 4. Another opposite to the Tradesman's Contentedness and which he must watch against is Despondency and Dejection of Mind And this commonly seizes upon him when Trading is dead He has Goods in his Shop but no Customers waits diligently and watches for some Imployment but no Money comes Another has been at some Cost and much Pains in his Handicraft to prepare his Wares but knows not how or when to vend them and Provision must be had Rents must be paid and the Pond that is always running out and hath no Spring within will at length be dry And hereupon the Tradesman's Heart sinks he sees that neither his Care nor Industry avail him things grow worse and worse and he is not so concern'd for present Affairs as he is sollicitous for the future what will become of him and of his Family Against this Temptation you must vigorously arm your selves by acting Faith upon the Promises of God who hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13. 5. That tho the Lions do lack and suffer hunger yet they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing Psal 34. 10. So that if an affluence of outward things be good for you ye shall not want it You are to know that God hath all Men and Things in his Hands and orders them with perfect Wisdom and Goodness That he sometimes permits his dearest Children to come to Straits to try their Faith Hope and Patience and their Dependance on him whereof the Grashopper is an Emblem who is represented sucking Dew and singing I content me with this and hope for better You must know your Happiness consists in the Favour and Grace of God So that although the Figtree shall not blossom neither shall Fruit be in the Vine yet you may and ought to rejoyce in the Lord and joy in the God of your Salvation Withal you should consider That this Dejection is the ready way to let in Mclancholy and also Despaire which are miserable Companions and which will make you a burden to your selves and to all your Friends Rouze up therefore your fainting Spirits Attend still upon your Calling make your Complaint to God spread all your Case before him If you knew what God can do you would bear up They that know his Name will put their trust in him for he has never for saken them that seek him Psal 9. 10. Therefore wait on the Lord be of good Courage and he shall strengthen they Heart wait I say on the Lord. 5. Another Temptation that is opposite to this Contentedness you must avoid and that is Invading other Callings Contentment may well consist with your utmost Diligence in your own Calling but for a Man either to gripe if possible at all the Custom in his own Calling or to accumulate two or three Callings meerly to increase his Riches argues that Man to be far from true Sobriety and Contentedness with his own In some cases indeed it may be lawful for one Person to follow two or three Trades But then 1. A just necessity must compel you to it not a greediness of the World but a just desire to have a Livelihood which the one in some Cases and Places will not afford And 2. They must not be inconsistent if the one do hinder the other or both together distract and hinder you from other
Law and yet offend or stumble in one point he is guilty of all If the Fear and Love of God did induce you to other good Duties they would also oblige you to this and you would no more plead Inability Bashfulness or Business but seriously set about it Till then you live in danger of that Fury which is prepar'd for the Heathen and for the Families that call not upon his Name Jer. 10. 25. Better were it for you to break through these petty Obstacles and either with a Book or without it render to God a Morning and Evening Sacrifice with your Families For tho you may perhaps read and pray alone yet 't is great odds some others who are under your charge have no time or mind to it and so live without Prayer and without God in the World And then why will you that pray with them only at night thereby curtail half the Homage and Rent that is due to God Doth not the same Scripture that commands the Evening Sacrifice require the Morning Sacrifice also Exod. 29. 38 39. Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the Altar two Lambs of the first Year day by day continually The one Lamb thou shalt offer in the Morning and the other Lamb thou shalt offer at Even And have not you as much cause to bless the Lord together for your Sleep and Safety in the Night as for your Mercies in the Day Nay have you not greater need to beg divine Assistance Protection and Grace when you go out into the World than when you only go to bed Think of it and answer these things in your Consciences if you can And then how unfit are you and the rest of your Houshold for any lively and earnest Prayers at unseasonably late hours Do not you come to them at such times rather as to an unwellcome Task than as to a gracious Priviledg and accordingly they are performed one sleeping in one corner and another in another God hath no Honour you no Edification by them which should be great Ends of all Religious Duties And the other grand Omission of the Tradesman is of the Lord's-Supper Some of them can live to thirty forty fifty Years of Age I speak what I know without ever once approaching the Lord's Table And yet that blessed Saviour of ours in his last Will and Testament and dying Commands are usually observed commanded the frequent use thereof to all that expect benefit by his Death If Do this in remembrance of me be not a plain Command nothing is plain in the Scripture How can ye satisfy your Consciences in such a palpable Disobedience Besides you lose unspeakable Comfort and Strength which is conveyed into the Soul of the true Beliver therein Say not you are not worthy but labour to be worthy and let your godly Minister be judg in the case certainly that Unworthiness which keeps you from the Sacrament will also keep you out of Heaven and where are you then Plead not that you are unprepared for that is your Sin which you should not sleep in another Night How long I pray will you be preparing No no the plain truth is you are loth to be at the trouble of Self-Examination loth to be disturbed in a sinful and slothful course loth to settle to the Practice of serious Piety loth to forgo the Sin you wot of and here it sticks but Sirs these are the Suggestions of your Enemy He commonly tells Men it is too soon till at length it be too late If you could make a Covenant with Death and escape the Judgment that follows it were another matter But Sin must be repented Grace must be obtain'd Heaven must be ensur'd and how shall these things be unless you buckle to it unless you use the means whereof this is one I do therefore earnestly advise and perswade you to take a speedy course to come and come worthily to the Lord's Table Read such good Books as may direct you apply your selves to some faithful Minister who will gladly assist you and above all beseech the Lord to help you to pardon your great Neglect to cloath you with necessary Graces and to welcome you afterward with a Blessing 2. Let all Tradesmen be hence exhorted to introduce Piety into their Callings I beseech you to abide with God in your Callings You cannot be truly rich you cannot be safe you cannot be happy without it It is a poor House that hath no Fire in it it is a poor Shop that hath no Goods in it but tho you have Fire and Meat enough in the House and Goods sufficient in your Shop yet it is a miserable a cursed House and Shop that have no Religion in them You may I grant get Estates dispose your Children live deliciously c. Go on and prosper but you will die like Fools and these very Estates as you have been often told will help to sink your Posterity in the spending that have ruin'd your Souls in the getting of them Remember your Profession remember your Baptismal Vow remember Eternity and be wise for your own Souls If you abide with God in your Calling he will abide with you and then you shall be happy here and happy for ever Happy are the People that are in such a case yea happy is that People whose God is the Lord Then will your Callings be better for you and you will not be worse for your Callings Say not again it is impossible to be religious in your Calling for tho it be more difficult to walk with God in some Callings yet it is possible to do it in any In the Apostles times they that were Servants yea Slaves to very Heathens are required to abide with God even in that Calling There is no lawful Calling under Heaven but there have been holy Men in it and if you be not so it is the fault of the Person and not of the Calling To this end be restless until you have a sense of Religion in your Hearts Embrace Christ there yield up your Souls to him take his Yoke upon you Accept of him in all his Offices and resign your Souls to him with all its Faculties and then you are past the strait Gate It is said Mat. 22. 5. They made light of it and went their ways one to his Farm another to his Merchandize Miserable is that Merchandize that keeps Men from Jesus Christ If you are too busy to go to Heaven your Money will perish with you But if laying aside every weight and the Sin that doth so easily beset you you immediately set upon the Work of Repentance and Holiness you will have Fruit unto Holiness and the end Everlasting Life Prov. 4. 7. Get Wisdom get Vnderstanding You are all for getting here 's Gain without hazard a great Bargain without Money And now what say you What Answer shall I return to him that sent me As the Levite said of old Consider of it and take Advice and