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with God, and fenfe of his love, they know no more of them than if they had immortal fouls for no other end than to keep their bodies from rotting. They go up and down in the rage of their profanity and lufts, like fo many ghofts in their grave-cloaths, bufy in nothing but dead works.

I inquire, then, why are ye idle?

1. Is it because ye have nothing to do? Truly, ye have very much.

(1.) Ye have your falvation-work upon your hand Phil. ii. 12. " Work out your falvation with fear and trembling." Many have never begun that work yet; many that have seemed to have begun, are at a stand with it now. Ye were born children of wrath, under the curfe of the first covenant; what are ye doing to get free from the wrath to come? There is a burden of guilt lying on you, what are ye doing to get it off? Divers living lufts hanging about you, what are you doing to mortify them? Is there any time to be idle, while that work is not wrought out? Salvation-work is weighty work, for damnation-work is very terrible; ye have that to undo that ye have been doing. Thou haft been weaving thy life into one web of fin, and ye have it to open out again into felf-examination, repentance, and bitter mourning.

(2.) Ye have your generation-work to attend upon: Acts, xiii. 36. « For David, after he had ferved his own generation, by the will of God fell afleep." God made thee, and fuftains thee; fome of you he has fet in higher, others in lower ftations; what have have ye done for God, what fervice to your generation? The fun, moon, and ftars are useful in their feveral places; plants, yea, and beafts, are all ufeful. For what use art thou

in the world? for Him who fet thee there, and to those he has fet thee among? Affure thyfelf, God will call thee to answer that question. I fear most of us have that work to begin yet.

2. Do ye think ye will get fleeping to heaven, and that your short-winded wishes for mercy will fecure you from the wrath of God? Prov. xiii. 4. "The foul of the fluggard defireth, and has nothing." No; ye muft "fo run that ye may obtain." Take the kingdom by force; ftrive, wrestle, else ye are ruined; deceive not yourselves, as if ye would just make a flip of it, out of Delilah's lap into Abraham's bofom. Thou wilt find it a leap out of that bed of floth into a bed of fire and brimstone, where ye will lie down in eternal forrow, if you do not seasonably bound to your feet, and put hand to your great work.

3. Do you think the devil is as idle about your fouls as you are? No; though ye cannot creep out of your bed of floth, the devil is going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour; tho' ye will be at no tolerable pains to fecure your falvation, he will fpare no pains to fecure your damnation. Sleep ye, or wake yẹ, Satan is at your right hand; and if ye be not rowing against the ftream, he will carry you down the ftream, till he have you in the ocean of God's wrath, where ye will never fee the shore.- The fecond inquiry is,

II. WHY are ye idle, while others are gone to work in the Lord's vineyard? Why do ye fit ftill, while others are fleeing from the wrath to come? Why are ye fleeping, while others are wrestling with God, as for their bare life? Why are ye dreffing, eating, and drinking, while others, mo

X 3

ved

ved with fear, are preparing an ark against the day of wrath on thefe lands, and on the world.

curfed."

1. Is it becaule the work in the vineyard is too coarfe for your fine fingers? John, vii. 48. "Have any of the rulers or the Pharifees believed on him? but this people that knoweth not the law is acIt is lamentable to think how religion is almoft grown out of fashion among the fashionable people of this degenerate age; and fhocking to fee with what contempt fome look on ferioufnefs about foul-matters, refolving that these filly people, as they call them, fhall for them enjoy their folly alone. Certainly thefe men would never have taken their name from one crucified between two thieves, if it had not been the religion of their country. But thefe that are wife in heart think very differently, and glory in the cross of Chrift.

2. Is it because ye have another thing to do? Many in our day are of Pharaoh's opinion indeed, that religion is only for them that have no other' shing ado. Ye are idle; but for them, they have their families and farms, &c. to look after. But, man, haft thou not an immortal foul to look after, as well as others? They faid of Herod, It is better to be his fwine than his fon. I am fure, many a man's foul may fay to him, Well is your beafts, in comparifon of me; for one thought that is fpent on my cafe, there is ten on theirs.

3. Are not ye by nature under the wrath and curfe of God, as well as others? Yes; Eph. ii. 3. "And were by nature the children of wrath, even as others; and therefore let me fay to you as the penitent thief to his fellow, Luke, xxiii. 40. “ Doft thou not fear God, feeing thou art in the fame condemnation ?" Better go to heaven with a few, through all the labours of the Chriftian life, than

to

to flide away. to hell, at your own cafe, with the multitude; better weep now, than weep eternally, for it will be no comfort to go to hell with

company.

4. Will ye be content to fee the labourers fet with Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, and yourfelves, with the fellow-loiterers, fhut out? you must either fet to their work now, or you will fee your doom at length, digeft it as you will.-I now inquire,

III. WHY stand ye IDLE? Have ye put on a whore's forehead, and refuse to be afhamed? It would fet you better to hide your head, as afhamed in that ye take up room in the world to no good purpofe, living in a fhameful neglect of your own fouls, and the great end of your creation, which was not to fleep away a lifetime on the earth, nor to stand like a barren tree in God's vineyard, drawing away the fap from others, but to glorify God by acting to and for him.

1. Why then stand ye idle in the fight of men? Have ye a mind to tell the world, that go to God's vineyard who will, ye have no mind to ftir? embrace God and his fervice who will, ye will have nothing to do with him, nor it neither? Are you afraid you want witneffes to ftand against you before the tribunal of God, to teftify how little you valued the working the works of God? The groans of thofe that warned you to your work, that were grieved at your licentious lives, will witness against you; nay, the ftones and timber will cry out of the walls within which you live against you, and witness how little God was in all your thoughts, how little ye ever wrestled with God about your foul's cafe, and how the prayer, when ye made it, has died in your mouths.

2. Why ftand ye idle in the fight of the all-feeing God, who fet you down in this world to work your great work? There are many that seem to be diligent workers, but God knows them to be mere idlers; what they work is before men, but their vineyard in the inclosure of their breafts is all overgrown with weeds, and they are at no pains to pluck them up. Have ye bid a defiance to the great Mafter, whofe eyes are upon you in fecret, as well as in public, that fees your heart, as well as your outward converfation? Be fure, he will call you to account. The inquiry, next, is,

IV. WHY ftand ye here idle, even in the market-place, where the great Mafter has been often calling whom he found here, and you among others, to go and work in his vineyard? and you.... had not been standing here idle, if you had been willing to work.

1. Why ftand ye here idle, in a land of gospellight? Ifa. xxvi. 10. "In the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majefty of the Lord ?" If you will ferve the devil and÷ your lufts, why do ye not go to the dark places of the earth, and work your works of darkness there ? but why muft they be brought forth in the face of the fun? why here, in this covenanted land, a land under the facred bond of folemn covenant to the work of holiness, and the means of holiness; a bond which neither the breaking nor burning of them could loose; and they had never met with that treatment, had not men been as great enemies to piety as to Prefbytery. But I dare fay, there is no land where men must buy their ease at a dearer rate than in Scotland.

2. Why here, where the Lord is in a special

manner

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