SERM.
VII.

25.

Our Life in this World is meerly a State of Probation, in which we are to prepare our felves for the Rewards of the Life to come, which will be greater or lefs, in Proportion to our Behaviour here.

This is well reprefented by our bleffed Saviour in that Parable in St. Matthew, of a Man, who being to travel into a far Country, called all his Servants, and delivered to them feveral Talents, to fome more, and to others lefs, with a Charge to make a faithful Improvement of them in his Abfence. Upon his Return they are all called to an Account, and rewarded according to their Merits or Demerits, fome are received into the Joy their Lord, but the unprofitable Servant, is caft into outer Darkness.

The true Skill therefore of living in this Wold, confifts in ufing the good Things of this Life in fuch Manner as to render them most fubfervient to our obtaining the better Things of the next. In this refpect a good Chriftian is like a wife Merchant, who travels into remote Countries in order to enrich himself; his Business is not to spend his Gains upon the Spot, but he lives frugally abroad, and trades with his Profits as they come in, in order to encrease his Stock, and by Degrees makes Remittances into his own Coun

try,

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try, where he propofes at length to fit down S BR M. at eafe, and enjoy the Fruits of his Labour; this was his only View in going abroad, and therefore he always keeps it in fight. Juft fuch is the Conduct of every good Chriftian; his main Bufinefs in this World is to negotiate his great Concerns and Interefts in the next. He accounts himself to be no more than a Stranger and a Pilgrim upon earth, and as Heaven is his Home, he carries on a happy Commerce, expecting to receive the Returns and Fruits of it there.

If he has worldly Riches, he will give Food to the Hungry, Cloaths to the Naked, Medicines to the Sick, and release innocent Debtors from Confinement; he will fend Relief to unhappy Families who are reduced by Misfortunes, and are ashamed to beg; his Munificence will find out obscure Merit, and encourage those who by their Knowledge and Arts have promoted the Good of Mankind. He may be inclined to thefe Things by a natural Compaffion and Beneficence of Temper, but this does not hinder his further Views and Designs, for he knows that Charity is highly pleafing to God, and has heard that he who hath Pity Prov.19.174 upon the Poor lendeth unto the Lord, and that which he hath given, will be pay him again.

VII.

SER M. For which Reason he accounts it the very best Husbandry, to be charitable, and out Matt. 6. 20. of his earthly Eftate, to lay up Treasures in Heaven. This is a Secret which no wicked Man could ever find out. He imagines that all is loft to him, that he does not fpend upon his Lufts, little dreaming that there is a Way of reaping the Benefit of his Estate in another World; and therefore he makes the most of it, as he foolishly imagines, in gratifying his Appetites, or else hoards it up more foolishly without any Enjoyment, for his Heirs to spend; but in either Cafe, tho' he had Thousands by the Year, he dies a very Beggar, for he leaves all behind him, and has fent nothing before him. The fame Forefight has every good Christian in the Use of worldly Power and Honour. He employs the Authority and Influence of his fuperior Station in protecting the Innocent and Virtuous; in countenancing good Men, and in fuppreffing and discouraging Vice and vicious Men; in refcuing the Oppreffed, and curbing Oppreffors; in lifting up the Humble and Modeft, and humbling the Proud and Infolent. He is a Terror to evil Doers, and a Praise to them that do well. He is a

common

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common Refuge to the Poor, a Patron of SER M. Learning and Arts, an Affertor of Liberty and Property, a juft Magistrate, a true Patriot or Lover of his Country more than of his own private Intereft. Above all, he will employ his Authority and Credit for promoting the Honour of God, and the Advancement of Religion among Men. He confiders not Power and Honour as meer Decorations to fet off the Idol of his own Person, and attract the Worship of his Inferiors, but as Talents committed to him in Truft; and therefore his chief Care is to improve them, that he may be always ready to make up his final Account.

And he makes even the Pleasures of Senfe, which prove the Ruin of others, minifter to the Good of his Soul. His natural Appetites may be importunate like theirs, but this gives him an Opportunity of approving his Virtue by reftraining them within the Bounds of Temperance. Every Taste of God's good Creatures excites his Gratitude. and Thanksgiving to his Benefactor, and is made a fresh Motive to Love and Obedience. How different is this from the voluptuous Man, who, like brute Beasts that graze with their Heads prone to the Earth,

P 3

never

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SER M. never lifts up his Eyes towards Heaven, but receives the Bounty of God with a thoughtlefs and thankless Heart?

But his Temperance teaches him one Leffon that turns gready to his Profit; for as he obferves on the one Hand that his Appetites are not to be reftrained and governed without fome Degree of Pain and Self-denial, and on the other, that a voluptuous Life is only a Repetition of the fame Pleasures, over and over again, by which Means they grow flat and lifelefs; and withal, that the Exceffes of to-day are always dearly paid for to-morrow, he concludes upon the whole, that tho' the Balance, even in Point of Pleasure, is in this Life greatly on the Side of Virtue, yet there is fomething still wanting to fatisfy his Defires, and that compleat Happiness is not of the Growth of this lower World; and this inftructs him to look higher, and choose his Portion out of the Things that are not feen, which are liable to no fuch Allays and Defects.

Thus does every good Chriftian use this World, fo as not to abuse it by making it the Sum of his Happiness. Riches, Honours, and Pleasures which their ultimate End by all

are pursued as others, are in