Christian. O it is a spending day to him! When he has gathered in the crop of one duty, he is not to sit down satisfied therewith, or say as that rich worldling did, "Soul, take thine ease, thou hast goods laid up for many years;" but must to plow again, and count it well if the vintage reach to the seed-time, Lev. xxvi. 5. I mean, if the strength, influence, and comfort of one duty, hold out to another duty; and that it may be so, and there be no room left for idleness, God has appointed ejaculatory prayer, to fill up the intervals, betwixt stated and more solemn duties. These are to keep in the fire which kin. dled the morning sacrifice, to kindle the evening sacrifice. When oan the Christian sit down and say, "Now all my work is ended; I have nothing to do without doors, or within ?"

5. There is a time when the labor of husbandmen is ended; old age and weakness takes them off from all employment. They can look only upon their laborers, but cannot do a stroke of work themselves. They can tell you what they did in their younger years, but "Now," say they, "we must leave it to younger people; we cannot be young always." But the Christian is never superannuated as to the work of religion; yea, the longer he lives, the more his Master expects from him. When he is full of days, God expects he should be full of fruits, They shall bring forth fruit in old age, they shall be fat and flourishing," Psal. xcii. 14.

Reflections.-1. How hard have I labored for the meat that perisheth! prevented the dawning of the day, and labored as in the very fire! And yet is the Christian's work harder than mine? Surely then I never yet understood the work of Christianity. Alas, my sleepy prayers, and formal duties, even all that ever I performed in my life, never cost me the pains, that one hour at plow has done. I have either wholly neglected, or, at best, so lazily performed, religious duties, that I may truly say, I offer to God what costs me nothing. Wo is me, poor wretch! How is the judgment of Korah spiritually executed upon me! The earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up his body; but it has opened her mouth and swallowed up my heart, my time, and all my affections. How far am I from the kingdom of God!

2. And how little better is my case, who have indeed professed religion, but never made it my business! Will an empty, though splendid, profession save me? How many brave ships have perished in the storms, notwithstanding their fine names, the Prosperous, the Success, the Happy Return! A fine name could not protect them from the rocks; nor will it save me from hell. I have done by religion, as I should have done by the world; prayed, as if I prayed not; and heard, as if I heard not. I have given to God but the shadow of duty, and can never expect from him a real reward.

3. How unlike a Christian dost thou also, O my soul, go about thy work! though upright in the main, yet how little zeal and activity dost thou express in thy duties! Awake love and zeal. Seest thou not the toil and pains men take for the world? How do they prevent the dawning of the day; and labor as in the very fire till night! and all this for a trifle! Should not every drop of sweat which I see trickle from their brows, fetch, as it were, a drop of blood from my heart, who am thus convinced and reproved of shameful laziness, by their indefatigable diligence? Do they pant after the dust of the earth? And shall not I pant after God? Ah, my soul, it was not wont to be so with thee in the days of my first profession. Should I have had no more communion with God in duties then, it would have broken my heart: I should have been weary of my life. Is this a time for one to stand idle, who stands at the door of eternity? What, now slack-handed, when so near to thy everlasting rest? Or hast thou found the work of God so unpleasant to thee? or the trade of godliness so unprofitable? Or knowest thou not, that millions, now in hell, perished for want of serious diligence in religion? Or dost thou forget that thy Master's eye is always upon thee, whilst thou art loitering? Or would the damned live at this rate as I do, if their day of grace might be recalled? For shame, my soul, for shame! Rouse up thyself, and fall to thy work, with a diligence answerable to the weight thereof; for it is no vain work, it is thy life.

CHAPTER II.

On the Thriftiness of the Husbandman.

Observation.-INDUSTRY is the way to thrive and grow rich in the world. The earth must be manured, or its increase is in vain expected. "The diligent soul shall be made fat." Solomon has two proverbs concerning thriftiness and increase in the world. In Prov. x. 4, he says, "The hand of the diligent maketh rich." And in ver. 22. he says, "The blessing of the Lord maketh rich." These are not contradictory, but confirmatory of each other; one speaks of the principal, the other of the instrumental, cause. Diligence without God's blessing will not do it; and that blessing cannot be expected without diligence. Husbandmen therefore ply their business with unwearied pains; they even lodge in the midst of their labors, as that good man Boaz did, Ruth ii. 3. They are parsimo nious of their time, but prodigal of their strength, because they find this to be the thriving way.

Application. As nature opens her treasures to none but the diligent, so neither does grace. He that will be a rich, must be a painful, Christian; and whosoever will closely ply the trade of godliness, shall comfortably and quickly find, "that in keeping God's commands there is great reward." God is a "bountiful rewarder of such as diligently seek him." They must not indeed work for wages, nor yet will God suffer their work to go unrewarded; yea, it sufficiently rewards itself, 1 Tim. vi. 6. And its reward is twofold-present, and in part-future, and in full; Mark x. 29, 30; now in this time a hundredfold, even from suffering, which seems the most unprofitable part of the work, and in the world to come life everlasting. If you ask what present advantage Christians have by their diligence? I answer, as much and more than the husbandman has from all his toils and labors. Let us compare the particulars, and see what the husbandman gets that the Christian gets not also. Compare your gains, and you will quickly see the difference.

1. You get credit and reputation by your diligence; it

is a commendation and honor to you to be active and stirring men: but how much more honor does God put upon his laborious servants? It is the highest honor of a creature to be active and useful for its God. Saints are called "vessels of honor," as they are fitted for the Master's use. Wherein consists the honor of angels but in this, that they are ministering spirits, serviceable creatures? And all the apostles gloried in the title of servants. The lowest office in which a man can serve God, even that of Nethinim, or door-keepers, which was the lowest order or rank of officers in the house of God, is yet preferred by David before the service of the greatest prince on earth. It is no small honor to be active for God.

2. You have this benefit by your labor, that thereby you avoid loose and evil company, which would draw you into mischief. By diligence for God, the Christian also is secured from temptation, "God is with them while they are with him," 2 Chron. xv. 2. Communion with God in the way of duty is a great preservative against temptations. The schoolmen put the question, how the angels and glorified saints become impeccant? and resolve it thus that they are secured from sin by the beatifical vision; and sure I am that the visions of God, not only in glory, but now also in duty, are marvellous defences against sin; and they who are most active for God, have the fullest and clearest visions of God, John xiv. 21.

3. You have this benefit by your labor, that it tends much to the health of your bodies. The Christian has this benefit by his labor, that it tends to a healthful state of soul. "The way of the Lord is strength to the upright," Prov. x. 29. As those that follow their daily labors in the field, have much more health than citizens that live idly, or scholars that live a sedentary life, so the active Christian enjoys more spiritual health, and is troubled with fewer complaints, than others.

4. By diligence in your civil employments, you preserve your estates, and are kept from running behind-hand in the world. And by activity and diligence for God, souls are kept from backsliding, and running back in their graces and comforts. Remissness and intermission in our duties are the first steps and degrees, by which a soul declines and wastes as to its spiritual estate.

5. Your pains and diligence in the fields, make your bed sweet to you at night. "Rest is sweet to a laboring man, whether he eat little or much." But the diligent life of a Christian makes the clods of the valley, his grave, sweet unto him. Think, Christian, how sweet it will be for thee when thou comest to die, to say then as thy Redeemer did, when near his death, "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do; and now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self."

6. Your industry fills your purses; you get estates by your diligence and labor; but what are your gains to the gains of Christians? They can get in an hour that which they will not part with for all the gold and silver on earth.

So that compare these laborers, as to all their advantages, and you will see, that there is no trade like that which the diligent Christian drives.

Reflections.-1. Blush then, O my soul, at the consideration of thy laziness and sloth, which is attended with so many spiritual wants. And can I wonder at my spiritual poverty, when I refuse the painful way of duty, in which the precious fruits of godliness are only to be found? If the fruits lie upon the surface of duty, or could be had with wishes, I should not want them; but to dig deep and take pains I cannot. My desires, like those of the slothful man, kill me, because my hands refuse to labor, Prov. xxi. 25. If every duty were to be rewarded presently with gold, should I not have been more assiduous in them, than I have been? And yet I know that a heart full of the grace and comfort of the Holy Ghost, is better than a house full of gold and silver. O what a composition of stupidity and sloth am I! I have been for some short way to comfort, when constant experience teaches, that the further way about, by painful duty, is the nearer way to it. What pains do husbandmen take! What peril do seamen run for a little gain! O sluggish heart, wilt thou do nothing for eternal treasures?

2. If there be such great reward attending diligence in duty, then why art thou so apt, O my soul, to cast off duty, because thou findest not present comfort in it? How quickly am I discouraged, if I presently find not what I expect in duty! Whereas the well is deep, and much pains