SERM.it. These People may be told, that to put them in V. fuch a State, as our Saviour recommends to Martha,

more things than one are needful. The former must be taught that Care and Diligence, which is necessary to be employed in their worldly Bufinefs; and the Latter muft part with that immoderate Affection, which they bear to their worldly Riches and Poffeffions, before they can arrive at that low Degree of Virtue, of which the Person, we now speak of, was poffeft. When once they have done this, they have gained a great Point, but still they must be told, there is one Thing needful; a Thing, that is of infinite more Weight and Moment, than all that they can do befides. And that is the Part which Mary chose. Mary has chofen that good Part, which shall not be taken away from her.

And now we enter upon another kind of Character; the Character of One, who, by all that is faid of her, appears to have had but very small Regard to the things we have been now confidering. Mary was a Woman of a quite different Spirit, the feems to have had but very little of this World, but a great deal of the next about her. For which Reason, her Example, with our Saviour's Approbation, exprest in thefe Words, which make a Part of my Text, has been urged by fome, as a Pattern of that reclufe and monaftick State of Life, which is practised in the Church of Rome. But this is a Miftake. For if it be supposed, that this holy Perfon was actually engaged in fuch a State of Life as this, it is enough to anfwer, that fuch a State of Life had never at that Time been profeft by any, and that certainly fhe could not belong to any Order, which was not at that Time in being. If it be only meant, that her Frame of Mind was fitted to fuch a State of Life,

and

and that therefore it is probable, if there had been SERM any Order, any Inftitution, or Society of this Kind, in which she might have been admitted, she would have used the Opportunity, and devoted herself to it; the Answer is, first, This is more than we know ; fecondly, If we did know it, it cannot be inferred from any thing that is faid in the Text before us, that our Saviour would have liked her Choice; for he certainly speaks of a very different Thing; a Thing which was confiftent with the most active Life, and which therefore he recommends as the only thing wanting to one, that was engaged in a Life of Care and Trouble; not expecting her to retire and leave the World, but to live piously and devoutly in it. It may likewise be obferved, that the Example of Mary, which our Saviour recommends to her Sifter's Notice, as worthy to be copied by her, is the Example of one, who lived as much in the World, as her more active and bufy Sifter; tho' one of them, on this great and extraordinary Occafion, had left the other to do every thing by herself. If this had not been fo, there had been no room for the Complaint, which is made by one Sister of the other ; why should Martha think it hard to be forfaken by her Sifter, if it was no more than her conftant Cuftom fo to do? if she was wholly given up to a Life of Piety and Devotion, and had quitted all worldly Bufinefs? The Preference therefore, which is here given to Mary, cannot properly be understood as any Ground or Foundation for preferring fuch a State of Privacy and Retirement, to an active and bufy Life; fince our Saviour, it is plain in the Words before us, had no Defign to discourse of either. His Opinion of that Matter may be gathered from his Practice, from which it appears, that he preferred the latter, D 3

tho'

V.

SERM.tho' he sometimes used the former; he retired fometimes from the Multitude that was about him, from the Company of his Difciples, and the great Work of Teaching, that he might have Leifure for a little while to lift up his Thoughts to the Place from whence he came. But his Time, for the most part, was employed in Publick; the chief Business of his Life was to go about, and do Good. And furely to be shut up, and fequeftred from the World, to fhun all Opportunities of doing Good to others, can never be the way to follow his Example: It can never, to be fure, be the one thing needful, which our Saviour here labours to recommend. What then may we suppose to be the Meaning of these Words? What was it, that Mary was commended for having chofen, and Martha is reproved for wanting? I answer in one Word, it was Piety. It was a Senfe of Religion, a true Spirit of Devotion, a Defire to recommend herfelf to the Favour of God, and to be graciously accepted by him. This was a Thing, which by one of the Sifters in the great Hurry of her worldly Bufinefs was forgot, but remembred by the other, who was never better pleased, than with fuch an Opportunity, as was now offered to her, to improve in Virtue, and be inftructed in her Duty from the Mouth of fo Divine a Teacher. This was what moved her to steal a little Time from a Business, in which doubtlefs fhe might well have been employed, thinking perhaps that her more careful Sifter might at that Time have made a fhift without her; or perhaps defigning to divide her Time in fuch a Manner between her Sifter and her Guest, as not to be quite useless and unprofitable to the One, nor lofe the Benefit the expected from the Other: But whatever were her Thoughts, for what Reason foever fhe held

herself

V.

herfelf excufed from attending upon her Sifter, herSERM. Intention was fo good, her Piety fo great, her Defire to be inftructed was so much to be commended, that our Saviour, who knew her Heart, took Occafion to propofe her as a Pattern to her Sifter; one Thing you want, and your Sifter has it, and therefore to her Example I refer you.

Thus have we seen, what the one Thing is, which our Saviour found Martha wanted. It is a Spirit of Devotion, a true Sense of Religion, which many Men want, who, notwithstanding that, are esteemed very upright Men: and fo they may be between Man and Man: They may be just in their Dealings, they may be temperate and fober, they may give no Offence, they may be diligent in their Business; and yet in the Sight of God they may be far from being upright, for want of this one Thing needful. It has been faid, that the best Actions that were ever done by any Heathens, deserve no better Name, than that of fplendid Sins. What fhall we fay then of the feemingly good Actions of thofe Chriftians, who are deftitute of that Chriftian Principle, from which every Christian Virtue proceeds? We will not call them Sins, for that may be thought hard: but furely they are unavailing Virtues. And is it not great Pity, that good Actions should be loft, for want of a good Principle to recommend them? and that after we have taker. Pains to live foberly and righteoufly, we fhould lose our Reward, and be deceived at last, for want of living godly too? Yet how many Men are there, who have outwardly no Fault, and inwardly no Senfe of Virtue! who are very regular and orderly in the Discharge of all Duties, except that which they owe to God! That, which is not only the most neceffary of all Duties, but that alfo without which

D 4

the

V.

SERM. the Performance of all Duties, is no better than For. mality and Pretence? For if we do not love God, and study to please him, we have in Truth no Religion in us: if our Righteousness proceeds from any worldly Motive, if we propofe any other Reward but that which he has promised, and allow'd us to pursue, it is not Righteousness, it is Falfhood and Hypocrify; it wants the great Requifite, the one thing neceffary to make it, acceptable and well pleafing to God. Yet thofe, who are ufually called moral Men; those who do their Duty to themselves and others, upon a Principle of Convenience, a Principle of Intereft, a Principle of Decency, or any other Principle but that, which, as I faid, is the true genuine Christian Principle, have a very hard Work to do. They labour as much, and take as much Pains, as, if it were employ'd in a better Manner, would certainly recommend them to the Favour of God, and entitle them to everlasting Life. Nay indeed they take more; for it is a much harder Task to perform such Actions without the Love of God, than it would be to perform them with it. Nay harder, than it would be to obtain the Love of God, and to furnish their Minds with fuch a Spirit of Religion, as would render their whole Duty easy. That therefore all those, who are poffeft of this Virtue, may be the more inclined to keep it, to fix it in their Hearts, and to exert it in their Lives, and by all means to cherish and promote it, I shall briefly propose one Motive to recommend it, fuggefted in the laft Words of my Text. Mary hath chofen that good Part, that shall not be taken away from her. That it is a good Part, you have heard; to which I fhall now add, that it fhall not be taken from us.