and the Concernments of his Soul, is a thing not only unneceffary, but unreasonable; because the Conditions of Men are fo infinitely various, both as to their outward and their inward Circumftances; fome Men can allow more Time from their neceffary Bufinefs and Occafions than others can; and fome likewife ftand in need of more Retirements, and fet Devotions and Meditations, than others do: However, one Day in a Week God Almighty has bound us all up to, by confecrating it to his immediate Service; and he that makes no Confcience of obferving that Day religiously, it is certain he hath no Senfe of Religion at all, but is either a perfect Worldling or Epicure.

But one Day in a Week spent in devout Exercises, will hardly, I fear, be fufficient to fecure, much less to advance, our Spirtual Concernments. We every Day think fit to give Food and Refreshment to our Bodies: Why is it not as fit we should every Day be as kind to our Souls, by giving them the Repafts of Prayer, and other holy Exercises? Whoever doth not take that Course, will, I dare fay, advance but little in 'Holiness and Virtue. Nay, if we mean to thrive in Spirituals, fo far must we be from letting our Bufinefs hinder or ftifle our daily Devotions, that we must live fo above it, and have our Thoughts fo loose from it, as to be at Leifure feveral times in a Day to raise up our Minds unto God; and to think of the great Work

we

we have undertaken, and to implore the Divine Grace to carry us on in it, to thank him for his continued Mercies to us, and to reinforce our Purposes and Refolutions of ferving him all the Days of our Life.

O that we would all thus have cur Converfation in Heaven, thus maintain Communion with God, while we are a doing the Work of this World!

But however, if we cannot or will not raise ourselves to this Pitch of Devotion, yet as we love cur Souls, no Bufinefs, no worldly Care, must hinder us from fetting apart every Day fome Portion of our Morning and Evening for religious Ufes; and not only doing fo ourselves, but allowing all our Servants the fame Liberty, and calling upon them to make use of it: But I leave this.

In the fecond Place, our Care is then alfo immoderate and unlawful, whenever it puts us upon the Use of unlawful or fufpected Means for the gaining our Ends: Let our Designs be what they will, never so innocent, never fo laudable, nay, never so neceffary to our Well-being, or even Being in this World, yet if for the accomplishing of them we can find in our Hearts to train a Point of Confcience, or to engage in any Practice that we have Reason to believe is against the Laws of God; this is an undeniable Argu-ment that we love the World better than God; are more the Servants of Mammon, than we are of our Lord Jefus. For if we

will

will be bis Difciples, we must not do the leaft Evil, that Good may come of it: If we do, our Damnation is juft, as St. Paul hath told us.

They therefore, that, in their Converfation or Dealing with others, can cheat, or over-reach, or defraud, nay, can deliberately tell a ferious Lye, or make use of the leaft indirect Art or Trick for the ferving their own Ends; fuch Men have their Affections too much fet upon the Things of this World, to be ever able to approve themselves fincere Difciples of Jefus Chrift: And of the fame Strain are those that practife any fuperftitious Art, for the bringing about their worldly Purposes, as for Inftance, applying to Wife Men, as they call them, for the refolving hidden Questions, making ufe of Charms, or other Magical Tricks, for the Recovery of ftolen Goods, or the Cure of Diseases, or the like. These Things are perfectly unlawful to Chriftians, as being a departing from the ordinary Methods of Providence (wherein alone we are to feek for Help under our Neceffities) to Ways of the Devil's finding out.

The Sum of this Point is this: So long as we profecute our Defigns in honeft and regular Ways, our Care is laudable; but to make ufe of the leaft indirect Means for the bringing them about (nay, tho' it were for the faving our own Lives), is an Argument of immoderate worldly Care, and we ought not to do it.

VOL. IV.

C

But,

But, Thirdly, our Cares for this World are not only immoderate, when they put us upon the Practice of fuch Courses, as are apparently unlawful for the bringing about our Designs, but also in this other Inftance, when our Hearts are fo fet on the Business we are upon, as that we lose all Sense of what is fit and decent with refpect to ourfelves, or others; when, for the bringing about our worldly Ends, we matter not how we defraud either our Bodies, or our Credit, or our Families, or our Neighbours, of what is their Due; tho' perhaps nobody can fay, that, by any one of these fingle Inftances, we do any thing that is directly unlawful or forbidden; or, if it is, at least it is not commonly thought fo.

To explain myself a little: To our Bodies we are unjuft, when we drudge and toil, and take more Pains, in our worldly Concerns, than our Strength or our Health will bear, or when, out of Covetousness, we deny ourselves the neceffary Refreshments and Supports of Life.

And fo likewife we are unjust to our Credit, when we do not live like ourselves; that is, fuitably to that Degree and Quality we are in, or to that Eftate and Fortune that God hath bleffed us with; but, out of a fcraping penurious Humour, live meanly and fordidly.

The fame thing makes us alfo defraud our Family of their Due; namely, when we do

not

not make neceffary Provifion for them, fuch as befits our Condition, or when, to fave Charges, we do not give our Children that Education which their Birth, and our Eftates, intitle them to.

Laftly, Our Neighbour hath alfo a Due from us, which our Worldly-mindedness doth too often hinder us from paying, but which yet GOD will feverely require from us: As for Inftance, when it makes us churlish, or unkind, or inhofpitable, to those about us; when it shuts up our Hearts, and our Hands, against the Poor, and those others that have need of our Charity.

All these are Inftances of inordinate Care; and in whom foever we meet with them, we may too truly fay of that Man, that he is too much addicted to this World, his Heart is viciously set upon it.

And thus much let it fuffice to have spoken of immoderate Care for worldly Things, together with the ufual Expreffions and Instances of it, which is the first thing here forbidden: But this is not all.

In the Second Place, as our Care for worldly Things ought not to be immoderate, fo neither ought it to be folicitous: That is another and indeed the main Thing that we are cautioned against, both in this Text, and in fome other Paffages of the Scripture, that speak of Care in an ill Senfe. They mean fuch a Care as is accompanied with Fear and Anxiety, attended with Doubts C 2

and