III.

is a Contradiction in Terms: Or fhall I call SERMON you rational Creatures? neither will that Name fit you with more Propriety, unless it may be deemed rational to live in a total Neglect of your only true Intereft, without making any Provifion for the well-being of your immortal Souls, which, for what you know, may this Night be required of you.

J

Every Part even of inanimate Nature may ferve to reproach the Inactivity of the flothful Perfon; the Planets and heavenly Bodies are in Motion to finish their deftined Courfe; the Elements are at work carrying on the Designs of the Almighty in the Wonders of his Providence; and the Vegetable World no lefs difplays his Wisdom, Power, and Goodness; nay the whole Creation travelleth in Pain till it be delivered from that Bondage of Vanity, Disorder, and Corruption into which the Curfe of Sin hath caft it for there fhall be a Redemption in Nature as well as in the Souls of all just Men, even at that time when there shall be new Heavens and a new Earth.

Say, now, ye Sons and Daughters of Sloth! how will ye appear when you are judged? and what Anfwer will you make to your Lord, when He calleth upon you to give

an

III.

SERMON an Account of your Stewardship? The Hea vens and the Earth declare the Glory of God and fhew forth his Praife; every Meteor and every Creature, Snow and Vapour, Wind and Storm fulfil his Word and Will, whilft you, whom He hath endowed with fuch exalted Faculties and Powers, do Him no Service, and bring Him no Praise.

The Perfons here fpoken to are not fo charged with Slothfulness as if they fat ftill and did nothing; this is not the Meaning of the Charge, for you may be as active and industrious in your temporal Affairs, as bufy in your Shops or Farms, or as intent upon the Management and Improvement of your Eftates, and more fo, than the best of your Neighbours, rifing up early, late taking Reft, and eating the Bread of Carefulness; you may thrive and profper in the World, provide Things honeft in the Sight of Men both for yourselves and Families, enjoy the good Things of this Life with Decency and Reputation, and leave the reft of your Substance for your Babes; and in all these things your Maxims and worldly Prudence will meet with Applaufe, and Pofterity will praise both your Sayings and your Doings, and will go and do likewife: But for all this you

may

III.

may be as flothful, in the Sepfe of theText, SERMOS as Solomon's Sluggard, who will not plow by Reason of the Cold: for it is Spiritual Sloth that is here spoken of, which is by far the moft fatal kind of it, even that by which the Soul is left deftitute of all Spiritual Cultivation and Nourishment, unprovided with every saving Grace, and confequently void of its true Intereft in Chrift; If Diligence be wanting here, it is but loft Labour in every other Inftance," For what will it profit a

A

Man if he gain the whole World and lose "his own Soul?" That which is of the Earth is earthy; if we fow to the Flesh we fhall of the Flesh reap only Corruption; if our Motives and Labours are of a temporal Nature, the Reward and Fruit of them muft be fo too, and perish with Time, for what a Man foweth that only fhall he reap; but if we fow to the Spirit, we shall of the Spirit reap Life everlafting: If we are led by the Love of God to chufe and feek the things of God, to be renewed in the Spirit of our Mind, to be conformed to the Image of his Son, and to glorify Him on Earth; then, as our Work is fpiritual, fo will our Wages be alfo ; and when the Shadows of earthly things are paffed away as a Dream, and the

SERMON Subftance of things hoped for is come, we

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fhall rife to fubftantial Blifs and immortal Glory.

And now let me perfuade you, O ye Children of Sloth, and would to God that I could perfuade you! to confider in this your day the thingswhich belong unto your Peace, to confider wherefore you were sent into the World, what you are, and whither you are going: Open your Eyes, if but for à moment, and behold your Danger, for you are as one walking blindfold on the Brink of a Precipice, where one falfe Step will tumble you headlong into Destruction; or, like unto him that fleepeth on the Top of a Maft, whom the next irregular Motion of the staggering Ship will tofs into the great Deep, from whence there is no emerging. O for the Voice of an Angel to call out to you in more than the Loudnefs of Thunder; " A "wake thou that fleepest and arise from the "Dead, that Chrift may give thee Light!"

But, Secondly, There are others who take fome Thought about Soul-concerns, and are at fome Pains for Salvation in outward things, and yet on account of their Slackness in the Spiritual Life, may find a Reproof in the Charge of the Text; and it is to be fear

ed

ed that

SERMON

every one of us, more or less, comes III.

in for a Share in the fame. Let us inftance in a Character not very uncommon in the World, and fuch as meets with high Commendation from it, and yet fo defective in the Effentials of true Christianity, that we must pronounce it far fhort of the Gofpel Standard.

Come then, fuch a one as I am here fpeaking of, and let us reason together: Thou fayeft that thou art a Christian, and in Evidence of it, frequenteft the Church and Sacrament; thou profaneft not the Lord's Day, nor his Holy Name on any other Day; thou art neither a Drunkard, Whoremonger, nor Extortioner, thou art true and juft in all thy Dealings, haft Morning and Evening Prayer in thy Family, fometimes readeft a good Book, and occafionally givest something to the Poor.Thus far thou doft well, and more than Thoufands; and for none of these things fhalt thou be reproved: But if this be the whole of thy Religion, thou haft got to the end of thy Line before thou haft half learned the Chriftian Catechifm: Thy Religion, O Man, is chiefly negative, or, if thou haft taken in some of the outward Duties, thou