"towards God*;" then fhall we have con fidence to look his terrors fteadily in the face, and to join, without fear, in the strongest denunciations against fin that the church can prescribe to us, But if our hearts condemn us, if they reproach us with habitually indulging irregular defires of wealth, of pleasure, or of power, with neglecting or infulting our Maker, and trampling under foot his most facred laws, no wonder that our lips tremble, and our fouls fink within us, while we repeat his awful judgments against fuch offences, The true way, then, to remove all obftacles to a proper intercourse between God and us at this time, and at all times, is to pluck up from our hearts thofe evil habits, and criminal paffions, that bar up our access to the throne of grace. The chief impediments to this intercourse are vice, pleasure, and business. The two first of these I have confidered in fome former difcourfes from this place †. The laft will be the fubject of what I have now to offer to your confideration,

*1 John iii. 21.

+ See the Sermon on the Love of Pleafure in the first volume, and Sermon xiii. in this.

With this view I have chosen the history of the two fifters Martha and Mary; a history with which you are all fo perfectly well acquainted, that it is needless to recite the particulars of it. Martha, we know, was fo overwhelmed with family cares and embarraffments, fo immoderately anxious to provide an entertainment worthy of her illuftrious gueft, fo cumbered, as our verfion very energetically expreffes it, with much ferving, that, like many others engaged in the bustle of active life, the con-. ceived the bufinefs fhe was employed in to be the most important of all human concerns.. She fancied that every thing elfe ought to give way to it, and that her fifter Mary was most miferably wasting her time by fitting at the feet of Jefus, and liftening to his heavenly converfation. How aftonifhed, then, and mor¬ tified must she be, when, on calling out for her fifter to help her, the received from our Lord that well-known reproof, mingled, however, with the most affectionate and falutary advice to her, and to all those that happen to entertain fimilar fentiments, and to be in fimilar circumftances, with herself. "Martha, "Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many

Z 4

many things, but one thing is needful; and Mary hath chofen that good part, which "fhall not be taken away from her."

The one thing needful, then, we fee, is an carneft defire of spiritual inftruction and fpiritual improvement, or, in other words, a serious and conftant regard to our everlasting welfare.

But how few are there, in comparison, who uniformly act on these principles; and what multitudes, on the contrary, are there who are fo completely entangled in the various occupations of a bufy and a tumultuous life, that they are, like Martha, much more difpofed to cry out for help in their worldly employments, than to take away any part of their attention from them to beftow on the concerns of another life.

That the pursuits thefe people are engaged in may be both important and neceffary, I mean not to controvert or deny; but the queftion, then, is, which is most important and most neceffary, the bufinefs of this life, or the bufinefs of the next. If our temporal and fpiritual interefts happen to interfere, we are not, I think, any where commanded to give

the

the preference to our worldly concerns. It may be faid, perhaps, that it would be very ridiculous to fit ftill, and leave our temporal affairs to Providence, expecting that God fhould feed and clothe us, as he feeds the fowls of the air, and clothes the lilies of the field. But it would, I am fure, be more ridi- · culous, and much more dangerous, to leave our spiritual welfare to God, that we might, in the mean while, carry on our worldly business without interruption. We have abundantly more reason to hope, that life may be fupported without inceffant toil and drudgery, than that we should arrive at Heaven without setting one foot forwards ourselves in the way that leads to it. We are told by Christ himfelf, that if we seek firft the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, all those things (that are really neceffary) fhall be added unto us. But we are no where told, that if we feek firft the things of this world, the kingdom of God, and all its immortal glories, fhall be thrown into our hands, without any efforts on our part to obtain them. Eternal life, and endless felicity, are not things of such very small confequence,

* Matth. vi. 33.

as

as to be given us gratuitoufly over and above what we can acquire in this world, by bestowing our whole attention upon it.

Let it be remembered, too, when we are comparing this life and the next, that in purfuit of our present interefts, be our industry ever fo great, we may chance to fail of fuccefs. The moft indefatigable worldling that ever lived, may, after all his drudgery, be difappointed of his aim; may, by a thousand accidents not in his power to forefee, or prevent, be deprived of the fruits of his labours, or rendered incapable of enjoying them. And when he has loft this world, he has loft every thing. He has no fhare or inheritance in the next. He has taken no pains concerning it, and can therefore expect nothing from it. He can draw from it no fupport or confolation under the lofs he has fuftained. Whereas the truly devout and religious man has no reafon to be in any pain about his temporal affairs. If they fucceed, it is very well; it is fo much clear gains: he has only given them a fecond place in his thoughts; he has loft nothing for the fake of them; his condition, in this life, is fo much the better; his profpects

hereafter