in the Mediator, to be communicated to those that are his, and therefore embracing a full Chrift for all, as held forth in the everlasting covenant; and then venturing on duties, watching against temptations, and taking up the crofs, upon the faith and credit of the promises of the covenant, trufting that they shall be made out to him; which truft may be weaker or stronger, but according to the ftrength of it, fo is the income of ftrength to the foul. In this way the weak go from ftrength to ftrength. Thus fhall you be helped to go through the most difficult duties, acceptably, though not perfectly, to stand against the strongest temptations, to mortify the most powerful lufts, and to bear the heaviest croffes. This has made Chriftians attain to an eminent pitch of holiness, and made confeffors and martyrs, joyfully to embrace a prison, banishment, a gibbet, a fire, and the moft cruel torments enemies could invent. The more you are emptied of yourselves, placing your confidence in the Lord, the more will you be strengthened with might in the inner man; and when you shall be perfectly unfelfed, if we may fo exprefs ourselves, fo that there fhall be no more of it to marr the communication betwixt Chrift and you, then you fhall be perfectly holy, and set above the reach of all evil; but because we are not perfectly divefted of felfconfidence in this world, therefore we do not here arrive at perfect ftrength. But all the faints, however, will give their teftimony, that when they are weak, then they are strong. Amen. THE THE INTERESTING INQUIRY.* SERMON XVL MAT. xx. 6. Why ftand ye here all the day idle? IN N the begining of this chapter, Christ spake a parable concerning the kingdom of heaven, the fcope of which is to fhew, that those who, by conceit of themselves and their actings for God, do place themselves among the firft and chief favourites of heaven, fhall be rejected of God, and treated as the laft; they fhall receive the last of Heaven's favours; while they who, through a feeling sense of unworthiness, dare not make fuch' advances, fhall be brought forward from among the laft, where they placed themselves, and advanced to the first rank, where they shall be placed of God, who gives heaven as a gift to them that do not plead for it as a debt. This is plain from the occafion and conclufion of this parable: The vineyard Delivered, Faft day, August 19. 1713. vineyard is the church; the householder is Chrift, whofe vineyard it is; his going out at several hours is the call of the gospel at feveral times, coming to fome fooner, to others later; the marketplace is wherever the gospel comes. Our text is a pithy expoftulation with those that are standing there idle, even at the eleventh hour, within an hour of fun-fet; according to that, "Are there not twelve hours in the day?" They are idle, in fo far as they are not taken up about their work for eternity. Our text, you fee, is a close application; the nature of this day's work requires it; and I hope you will not think we misapply it, if we apply it to you. Every word in it has its particular weight. The following inquiries are fuggested from it. I. WHY are ye idle? What reafon can ye give for your being idle? II. Why are ye idle, more than fome others? IV. Why here idle? V. Why idle in the day? VI. Why idle all the day? WE fhall attend to thefe inquiries in their order. I. Why are ye idle? If ye deny the charge, there are two things at least, which must be yielded to by most, if not all of us. 1. Ye have been very bufy doing nothing; but it is better, they fay, to be idle than doing nothing. What is it that most of us are busy about, but nothing? Prov. xxiii. 5. " Wilt thou fet thine eyes upon that which is not, for riches certainly make themselves wings, they fly away as an eagle towards heaven;" that which is nothing for our fouls, nothing for a bleffed eternity. Indeed man VOL. I. X is is a laborious creature; the life of the greatest fluggard is a continued fucceffion of actions; the foul of man is like a watch that goes as faft when it goes wrong, as when it goes right. But, alas! laborious idleness and folemn trifling in the vanities of this world, is but a pitiful way of spending a man's life, which is but a fhort time of trial, in order to an unalterable state. 2. Ye have been very bufy doing worse than nothing; like thefe, 2 Theff. iii. II. « For we hear that there are fome which walk among you diforderly, working not at all, but are bufy bodies." Alas! moft of our lives are ill parted betwixt two; one is spent in weaving the spider's web, the other in hatching the cockatrice eggs, Ifa. lix. 5.; either spent in nothing, or worse than nothing; either fitting still or making more progress hell-ward; either letting the feparation-wall stand as before, or building it higher and stronger. But there is one thing that cannot be yielded, at least to the most part of this generation; and that is, that they are bufy in their great work. No; no; idleness in this refpect is the epidemical difeafe of the day, under which both profeffors and profane are pining away. For your conviction in this, confider, I. What else means the lean fouls among us? Solomon tells us, Prov. xix. 15. "An idle foul fhall fuffer hunger," and Prov. xiii. 4. "The foul of the fluggard defireth, and hath nothing; but the foul of the diligent fhall be made fat." We may take up that lamentation, Ifa. xxiv. 16. "But I faid, My leannefs, my leannefs." Alas! for the many rickety children of the church this day, with their big heads, and lean flender bodies, who are puffed up with their knowledge, but are yet to learn the elements of practical godlinefs and experimental religion. Confider, 2. The little defire there is among us after the heavenly reft: Job tells us, chap. vii. 2. " A fervant earnestly defireth the fhadow, and an hireling looketh for the reward of his work ;" fo, if we were not idle, we would be more defirous of that rest that remains for the people of God. But I fear, if I would fpeak agreeable to their confciences, they would say, that the Turks paradife would fit their defires better than the heavenly reft. It was the language of a profane Cardinal, I would quit my part of paradise for prefent enjoyment; fo no doubt many would quit their part of heaven on lower terms, for they only defire heaven, because they love not to go to hell. They care not for the heavenly reft, because they trouble not themselves with the work meet for heaven.Confider, 3. The little appetite after our fpiritual food. The labouring man's work makes him find his ftomach, and the. Chriftian labour would make men prize the table covered to them in ordinances. The ordinances are greatly flighted this day, it is lamentable to think how little they are regarded. It is only in the Lord's hand to cure it, by filling folks hands with heart-work about their fouls cafe. It is this that would readily make them eager of help. Laftly, What elfe means the rank poverty, and rotten rags, which is all the portion of many fouls? Rev. iii. 17. " And knoweft not, that thou art wretched, and miferable, and poor, and blind, and naked." How many are there, who are the genuine offspring of the ferpent! on their belly do they go, and luft is their meat: they feed on nothing but the hufks of created comforts, wherewith the devil feeds his herds; as for communion X 2 with |
