Every hour of the day is with him an hour of business, and though he eats and drinks very heartily, yet every meal seems to be in a hurry, and he would say grace if he had time. Talidus ends every day at the tavern, but has not leisure to be there till near nine o'clock. He is always forced to drink a good hearty glass to drive thoughts of business out of his head and make his spirits drowsy enough for sleep. He does business all the time that he is rising, and has settled several matters before he can get to his counting room. His prayers are a short ejaculation or two, which he never misses in stormy, confestuous weather, because he has always something or other at sea. Colodus will tell you with great pleasure. that he has been in this hurry for so many years, and that it must have killed him long ago, but that it has been a rule with him to get out of the town every Saturday and make the Sunday a day of quiet and good refreshment in the country. He is now so rich that he would leave off his business and amuse his old age with building and furnishing a fine house in the country, but that he is afraid he should grow melancholy if he was to quit his business. He will tell you with great gravity that it is a dangerous thing for a man that has been used to get money ever to leave it off. If thoughts of religion happen at any time to steal into his head, he contends himself with thinking that he never was a friend to heretics and infidels, that he has always been civil to the minister of his parish and very often given something to the Cherokee schools. Now this way of life is at such a distance from all the doctrine and discipline of Christianity that no one can live in it through ignorance or frailty. Callidus can no more imagine that he is born again of the Spirit that he is in Christ a new creature that he lives here as a stranger and a pilgrim setting his affections on things above and laying up treasures in heaven he can no more imagine this than he can think that he has been all his life an apostle working miracles and preaching the gospel it must also be owned that the generality of trading people especially in great towns are too much like Callidus You see them all the week buried in business unable to think of anything else and then spending the Sunday in idleness and refreshment in wandering into the country in such visits and jovial meetings as make it often the worst day of the week. Now they do not live thus because they cannot support themselves with less care and application to business. But they live thus because they want to grow rich in their trades and to maintain their families in some such figure and degree of finery as a reasonable Christian life has no occasion for. Take away but this temper, and then people of all trades will find themselves at leisure to live every day like Christians, to be careful of every duty of the gospel, to live in a visible course of religion, and be everyday strict observers both of private and public prayer. Now the only way to do this is for people to consider their trade as something that they are obliged to devote to the glory of God, something that they are to do only in such a manner as that they make it a duty to Him. Nothing can be right in business that is not under these rules. The apostle commands servants to be obedient to their masters in singleness of heart as unto Christ, not with eye service as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart, with good will doing service, as unto the Lord, and not to men. This passage sufficiently shows that all Christians are to live wholly unto God in every state and condition, doing the work of their common calling in such a manner, and for such ends, as to make it a part of their devotion or service to God. For certainly, if poor slaves are not to comply with their business as men-pleasers, if they are to look wholly unto God in all their actions, and serve in singleness of heart as unto the Lord. Surely, men of other employments and conditions must be as much obliged to go through their goodness with the same singleness of heart, not as pleasing the vanity of their own minds, not as gratifying their own selfish worldly passions, but as the servants of God in all that they have to do. For surely no one will say that a slave is to devote his life of state unto God, and make the will of God the sole rule and end of his service, but that a tradesman need not act with the same spirit of devotion in his business. For this is as absurd as to make it necessary for one man to be more just or faithful than another. It is therefore absolutely certain that no Christian is to enter any farther into business, nor for any other ends, than such as he can in singleness of heart offer unto God as a reasonable service. For the Son of God has redeemed us for this only end, that we should, by a life of reason and piety, live to the glory of God. This is the only rule and measure for every order and state of life. Without this rule, the most lawful employment becomes a sinful state of life. Take away this from the life of a clergyman and his holy profession serves only to expose him to a greater damnation. Take away this from tradesmen, and shops are but so many houses of greediness and filthy lucre. Take away this from gentlemen, and the course of their life becomes a course of sensuality, pride, and wantonness. Take away this rule from our tables, and all falls into gluttony and drunkenness. Take away this measure from our dress and habits, and all is turned into such paint and glitter and ridiculous ornaments as are a real shame to the wearer. Take away this from the use of our fortunes and you will find people staring in nothing but charity. Take away this from our diversions and you will find no sports too silly nor any entertainment too vain and corrupt to be the pleasure of Christians. If therefore we desire to live unto God it is necessary to bring our whole life under this law to make His glory the sole rule and measure of our acting in every employment of life. For there is no other true devotion but this of living devoted to God in the common business of our lives. So that men must not content themselves with the lawfulness of their employment, but must consider whether they use them, as they are to use everything as strangers and pilgrims, that are baptized into the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that are to follow him in a wise heavenly course of life in the mortification of all worldly desires and in purifying and preparing their souls for the blessed enjoyment of God. For to be vain or proud or covetous or ambitious in the common course of our business is as contrary to these holy tempers of Christianity as cheating and dishonesty. If a glutton was to say in excuse of his gluttony, that he only eat such things as it is lawful to eat, he would make of good an excuse for himself, as the greedy, covetous, ambitious tradesman that should say he only deals in lawful business. For as a Christian is not only required to be honest, but to be of a Christian spirit, and make his life an exercise of humility, repentance, and heavenly affection, so all tempers that are contrary to these are as contrary to Christianity as cheating is contrary to honesty. So that the matter plainly comes to this. All irregular tempers in trade and business are but like irregular tempers in eating and drinking. Proud views and vain desires in our worldly employment are as truly vices and corruptions as hypocrisy in prayer or vanity in alms. And there can be no reason given why vanity in our alms should make us odious to God, but what will prove any other kind of pride to be equally odious. He that labors and toils in a calling, that he may make a figure in the world and draw the eyes of people upon the splendor of his condition, is as far from the pious humility of a Christian as he that gives alms that he may be seen of men. For the reason why pride and vanity in our prayers and alms renders them an unacceptable service to God is not because there is anything particular in prayers and alms that cannot allow of pride, but because pride is in no respect nor in anything made for man. It destroys the piety of our prayers and alms. because it destroys the piety of everything that it touches and renders every action that it governs incapable of being offered unto God so that if we could so divide ourselves as to be humble in some respects and proud in others such humility would be of no service to us because God requires us as truly to be humble in all our actions and designs as to be true and honest in all our actions and designs And as a man is not honest and true because he is so to a great many people or upon several occasions, but because truth and honesty is the measure of all his dealings with everybody, so the case is the same in humility or any other temper. It must be the general ruling habit of our minds and extend itself to all our actions and designs before it can be imputed to us. We indeed sometimes talk as if a man might be humble in some things and proud in others, Humble in his dress, but proud of his learning. Humble in his person, but proud in his views and designs. But though this may pass in common discourse, where few things are said according to strict truth, it cannot be allowed when we examine into the nature of our actions. It is very possible for a man that lives by cheating to be very punctual in paying for what he buys. But then everyone is assured that he does not do so out of any principle of true honesty. In like manner it is very possible for a man that is proud of his estate, ambitious in his views or vain of his learning, to disregard his dress and person in such a manner as a truly humble man would do. But to suppose that he does so out of a true principle of religious humility is full as absurd as to suppose that a cheat pays for what he buys out of a principle of religious honesty. As therefore all kinds of dishonesty destroy our pretenses to an honest principle of mind, so all kinds of pride destroy our pretenses to a humble spirit. No one wonders that those prayers and alms which proceed from pride and ostentation are odious to God, but yet it is as easy to show that pride is as pardonable there as anywhere else. If we could suppose that God rejects pride in our prayers and alms, but bears with pride in our dress, are persons or a state, it would be the same thing as to suppose that God condemns falsehood in some actions, but allows it in others. For pride in one thing differs from pride in another thing, as the robbing of one man differs from the robbing of another. Again, if pride and ostentation is so odious that it destroys the merit and worth of the most reasonable actions, surely it must be equally odious in those actions which are only founded in the weakness and infirmity of our nature. As thus, alms are commanded by God as excellent in themselves as true instances of a divine temper. But clothes are only allowed to cover our shame. Surely therefore it must at least be as odious a degree of pride to be in vain in our clothes as to be vain in our alms. Again, we are commanded to pray without ceasing as a means of rendering our souls more exalted and divine. but we are forbidden to lay up treasures upon earth. And can we think that it is not as bad to be vain of those treasures which we are forbidden to lay up, as to be vain of those prayers which we are commanded to make? Women are required to have their heads covered and to adorn themselves with shamefacedness. If therefore they are vain in those things which are expressly forbidden, if they patch and paint that part which can only be adorned by shamefacedness, surely they have as much to repent of for such a pride as they have whose pride is the motive to their prayers and charity this must be granted unless we say that it is more pardonable to glory in our shame than to glory in our virtue all these instances are only to show us the great necessity of such a regular and uniform piety as extends itself to all the actions of our common life that we must eat and drink and dress and discourse according to the sobriety of the Christian spirit, engage in no employment but such as we can truly devote unto God, nor pursue them any further than so far as conduces to the reasonable ends of a wholly devout life, that we must be honest, not only on particular occasions and in such instances as are applauded in the world, easy to be performed and free from danger or loss, but from such a living principle of justice as makes us love truth and integrity in all its instances follow it through all dangers and against all opposition as knowing that the more we pay for any truth the better is our bargain and that then our integrity becomes a pearl when we have parted with all to keep it that we must be humble not only in such instances as are expected in the world or suitable to our tempers or confined to particular occasions But in such a humility of spirit as renders us meek and lowly in the whole course of our lives, as shows itself in our dress, our person, our conversation, our enjoyment of the world, the tranquility of our minds, patience under injuries, permission to superiors, and condescensions to those that are below us and in all the outward actions of our lives, that we must devote not only times and places to prayer, but be everywhere in the spirit of devotion, with hearts always set towards heaven, looking up to God in all our actions, and doing everything as His servants, living in the world as in the holy temple of God, and always worshipping Him, though not with our lips, yet with the thankfulness of our hearts, the holiness of our actions, and the pious and charitable use of all His gifts, that we must not only send up petitions and thoughts now and then to heaven, but must go through all our worldly business with the heavenly spirit as members of Christ's mystical body. That with new hearts and new minds we may turn an earthly life into a preparation for a life of greatness and glory in the kingdom of heaven. Now the only way to arrive at this piety of spirit is to bring all your actions to the same rule as your devotions and alms. You very well know what it is that makes the piety of your alms or devotions. Now the same rules, the same regard to God must render everything else that you do a fit and acceptable service unto God. Enough I hope has been said to show you the necessity of thus introducing religion into all the actions of your common life and of living and acting with the same regard to God in all that you do as in your prayers and alms. Eating is one of the lowest actions of our lives it is common to us with mere animals. Yet we see that the piety of all ages of the world has turned this ordinary action of an animal life into a piety to God by making every meal to begin and end with devotion. We see yet some remains of this custom in most Christian families. Some in such little formality as shows you that people used to call upon God at the beginning and end of their meals. But indeed it is now generally performed as to look more like a mockery upon devotion than any solemn application of the mind unto God. In one house you may perhaps see the head of the family just pulling off his hat, in another half getting up from his seat. Another shall, it may be, proceed so far as to make as if he said something. But however, these little attempts are the remains of some devotion that was formerly used at such times, and are proofs that religion has formerly belonged to this part of common life. But to such a path are we now come, that though the custom is yet preserved, yet we can hardly bear with him that seems to perform it with any degree of seriousness, and look upon it as a sign of a fanatical temper, if a man has not done as soon as he begins. I would not be thought to plead for the necessity of long prayers at these times, but thus much I think may be said, that if prayer is proper at these times, we ought to oblige ourselves to use such a form of words as should show that we solemnly appeal to God for such graces and blessings as are then proper to the occasion. Otherwise, the mock ceremony, instead of blessing our food, does but accustom us to trifle with devotion and give us a habit of being unaffected with our prayers. If every head of the family was, at the return of every meal, to oblige himself to make a solemn adoration of God in such a decent manner as becomes a devout mind, it would be very likely to teach him that swearing, sensuality, gluttony, and loose discourse were very improper at those meals, which were to begin and end with devotion. And if in these days of general corruption this part of devotion is fallen into a mock ceremony, it must be imputed to this cause that sensuality and intemperance have got too great a power over us to suffer us to add any devotion to our meals. But thus must be said, that when we are as pious as Jews and heathens of all ages have been, we shall think it proper to pray at the beginning and end of our meals. I have appealed to this pious custom of all ages of the world as a proof of the reasonableness of the doctrine of this and the foregoing chapters, that is, as a proof that religion is to be the rule and measure of all the actions of ordinary life. For surely, if we are not to eat, but under such rules of devotion, it must plainly appear that whatever else we do must, in its proper way, be done with the same regard to the glory of God, and agreeably to the principles of a devout and pious mind. Chapter 5, page 49 Persons that are free from the necessity of labor and employment are to consider themselves as devoted to God in a higher degree. Great part of the world are free from the necessities of labor and employment and have their time and fortunes in their own disposal. But as no one is to live in his employment according to his own humor or for such ends as please his own fancy, but is to do all his business in such a manner as to make it a service unto God, So those who have no particular employment are so far from being left at greater liberty to live to themselves, to pursue their own humors and spend their time and fortunes as they please, that they are under greater obligations of living wholly unto God and all their actions. The feeding of their state lays them under a greater necessity of always choosing and doing the best things. They are those of whom which much will be required, because much is given unto them. A slave can only live unto God in one particular way, that is, by religious patience and submission in his state of slavery. But all ways of holy living, all instances, and all kinds of virtue lie open to those who are masters of themselves, their time, and their fortune. It is as much the duty, therefore, of such persons to make a wise use of their liberty to devote themselves to all kinds of virtue, to aspire after everything that is holy and pious, to endeavor to be eminent in all good works, and to please God in the highest and most perfect manner. It is as much their duty to be thus wise in the conduct of themselves, and thus extensive in their endeavors after holiness, as it is the duty of a slave to be resigned unto God in the state of slavery. You are no laborer or tradesman. You are neither merchant nor soldier. Consider yourself therefore as placed in a state in some degree like that of good angels who are sent into the world as ministering spirits for the general good of mankind, to assist, protect, and minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. For the more you are free from the common necessities of men, the more you are to imitate the higher perfections of angels. Had you, Serena, been obliged by the necessities of life to wash clothes for your maintenance or to wait upon some mistress that demanded all your labor. It would then be your duty to serve and glorify God by such humility, obedience, and faithfulness as might adorn that state of life. It would then be recommended to your care to improve that one talent to its greatest height. That when the time came that mankind were to be rewarded for their labors by the great judge of quick and dead. You might be received with a well done, good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. But as God has given you five talents, as he has placed you above the necessities of life, as he has left you in the hands of yourself in the happy liberty of choosing the most exalted ways of virtue, as he has enriched you with many gifts of fortune and left you nothing to do but to make the best use of variety of blessings to make the most of a short life, to study your own perfection, the honor of God, and the good of your neighbor. So it is now your duty to imitate the greatest servants of God, to inquire how the most eminent saints have lived, to study all the arts and methods of perfection, and to set no bounds to your love and gratitude to the bountiful author of so many blessings. It is now your duty to turn your five talents into five more. and to consider how your time and leisure and health and fortune may be made so many happy means of purifying your own soul, improving your fellow creatures in the ways of virtue, and of carrying you at last to the greatest heights of eternal glory. As you have no mistress to serve, so let your own soul be the object of your daily care and attendance. Be sorry for its impurities, its spots and imperfections, and study all the holy arts of restoring it to its natural and primitive purity. Delight in its service and beg of God to adorn it with every grace and perfection. Nourish it with good works and give it peace and solitude. Get its strength in prayer. Make it wise with reading. Enlighten it by meditation. Make it tender with love. Sweeten it with humility. Humble it with penance. Enliven it with songs and hymns. and comfort it with frequent reflections upon future glory. Keep it in the presence of God, and teach it to imitate those guardian angels which, though they attend on human affairs and the lowest of mankind, yet always behold the face of our Father which is in heaven. This, Serena, is your profession. For as sure as God is one God, so sure it is that he has but one command to all mankind, whether they be bond or free, rich or poor, and that is to act up to the excellency of that nature which he has given them, to live by reason, to walk in the light of religion, to use everything as wisdom directs, to glorify God in all his gifts, and dedicate every condition of life to his service. This is the one common command of God to all mankind. If you have an employment, you are to be thus reasonable and pious and holy in the exercise of it, If you have time and a fortune in your own power, you are obliged to be thus reasonable and holy and pious in the use of all your time and all your fortune. The right religious use of everything and every talent is the indispensable duty of every being that is capable of knowing right and wrong. For the reason why we are to do anything as unto God, and with regard to our duty and relation to Him, is the same reason why we are to do everything as unto God, and with regard to our duty and relation to Him. That which is a reason for our being wise and holy in the discharge of all our business, is the same reason for our being wise and holy in the use of all our money. As we have always the same natures, and are everywhere the servants of the same God, as every place is equally full of His presence, and everything is equally His gift, so we must always act according to the reason of our nature. We must do everything as the servants of God. We must live in every place as in His presence. We must use everything as that ought to be used which belongs to God. Either good piety and wisdom and devotion is to go through every way of life and to extend to the use of everything or it is to go through no part of life if we might forget ourselves or forget God if we might disregard our reason and live by humor and fancy in anything or at any time or in any place it would be as lawful to do the same in everything at every time and every place if therefore some people fancy That they must be brave and solemn at church, but may be silly and frantic at home. That they must live by some rule on the Sunday, but may spend other days by chance. That they must have some times of prayer, but may waste the rest of their time as they please. That they must give some money in charity, but may squander away the rest as they have a mind. Such people have not enough considered the nature of religion, or the true reasons of piety. For he that upon principles of reason can tell why it is good to be wise and heavenly minded at church can tell that it is always desirable to have the same tempers in all other places. He that truly knows why he should spend any time well knows that it is never allowable to throw any time away. He that rightly understands the reasonableness and excellency of charity We'll know that it can never be excusable to waste any of our money in pride and folly or in any needless expense. For every argument that shows the wisdom and excellency of charity proves the wisdom of spending all our fortune well. Every argument that proves the wisdom and reasonableness of having times of prayer shows the wisdom and reasonableness of losing none of our time. if anyone could show that we need not always act in the divine presence that we need not consider and use everything as the gift of God that we need not always live by reason and make religion a rule of all our actions the same arguments would show that we need never act as in the presence of God nor make religion and reason the measure of any of our actions if therefore we are to live unto God at any time or in any place We are to live unto Him at all times and in all places. If we are to use anything as the gift of God, we are to use everything as His gift. If we are to do anything by strict rules of reason and piety, we are to do everything in the same manner. Because reason and wisdom and piety are as much the best things at all times and in all places as they are the best things at any time or in any place. If it is our glory and happiness to have a rational nature that is endued with wisdom and reason that is capable of imitating the divine nature then it must be our glory and happiness to improve our reason and wisdom to act up to the excellency of our rational nature and to imitate God in all our actions to the utmost of our power. They therefore who confine religion to times and places and some little rules of retirement who think that it is being too strict and rigid to introduce religion into common life and make it give laws to all their actions and ways of living. They who think thus, not only mistake, but they mistake the whole nature of religion. For surely they mistake the whole nature of religion who can think any part of their life is made more easy for being free from it. They may well be said to mistake the whole nature of wisdom who do not think it desirable to be always wise. He has not learned the nature of piety, who thinks it too much to be pious in all his actions. He does not sufficiently understand what reason is, who does not earnestly desire to live in everything according to it. If we had a religion that consisted in absurd superstitions, that had no regard to the perfection of our nature, people might well be glad to have some part of their life excused from it. But as the religion of the gospel is only the refinement and exaltation of our best faculties, as it only requires a life of the highest reason, as it only requires us to use this world as in reason it ought to be used, to live in such tempers as are the glory of intelligent beings, to walk in such wisdom as exalts our nature, and to practice such piety as will raise us to God, Who can think it grievous to live always in the spirit of such a religion, to have every part of his life full of it, but he that would think it much more grievous to be as the angels of God in heaven. Father, as God is wanting the same being, always acting like himself, and suitably to his own nature, so it is the duty of every being that he has created to live according to the nature that he has given it, and always to act like itself. It is therefore an immutable law of God that all rational beings should act reasonably in all their actions, not at this time, or in that place, or upon this occasion, or in the use of some particular thing, but at all times, in all places, on all occasions, and in the use of all things. This is a law that is as unchangeable as God, and can no more cease to be than God can cease to be a God of wisdom and order. When, therefore, any being that is endued with reason does any unreasonable thing at any time, or in any place, or in the use of any thing, it sins against the great law of its nature, abuses itself, and sins against God, the author of that nature. They therefore who plead for indulgences and vanities, for any foolish fashions and customs, humors of the world, for the misuse of our time or money, plead for a rebellion against our nature, for a rebellion against God, who has given us reason for no other end than to make it the rule and measure of all our ways of life. When therefore you are guilty of any folly or extravagance, or indulge any vain temper, Do not consider it as a small matter, because it may seem so as compared to some other sins. But consider it as it is acting contrary to your nature, and then you will see that there is nothing small that is unreasonable, because all unreasonable ways are contrary to the nature of all rational beings, whether men or angels, neither of which can be any longer agreeable to God than so far as they act according to the reason and excellence of their nature. The infirmities of human life make such food and raiment necessary for us as angels do not want. But then it is no more allowable for us to turn these necessities into follies and indulge ourselves in the luxury of food or the vanities of dress than it is allowable for angels to act below the dignity of their proper state. For a reasonable life and a wise use of our proper condition is as much the duty of all men as it is the duty of all angels and intelligent beings. These are not speculative flights or imaginary notions, but are plain and undeniable laws that are founded in the nature of rational beings who as such are obliged to live by reason and glorify God by a continual right use of their several talents and faculties. So that though men are not angels, Yet they may know for what ends, and by what rules, men are to live and act, by considering the state and perfection of angels. Our blessed Savior has plainly turned our thoughts this way, by making this petition a constant part of all our prayers. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. A plain proof that the obedience of man is to imitate the obedience of angels and that rational beings on earth are to live unto God as rational beings in heaven live unto Him. When therefore you would represent to your mind how Christians ought to live unto God and in what degrees of wisdom and holiness they ought to use the things of this life You must not look at the world but you must look up to God and the society of angels and think what wisdom and holiness is fit to prepare you for such a state of glory. You must look to all the highest precepts of the gospel. You must examine yourself by the spirit of Christ. You must think how the wisest men in the world have lived. You must think how departed souls would live if they were again to act the short part of human life. You must think what degrees of wisdom and holiness you will wish for when you are leaving the world. Now this is not overstraining the matter or proposing to ourselves any needless perfection. It is but barely complying with the Apostle's advice where he says, Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. for no one can come near the doctrine of this passage but he that proposes to himself to do everything in this life as the servant of God to live by reason in everything that he does and to make the wisdom and holiness of the gospel the rule and measure of his desiring and using every gift of God chapter 6 page 55 containing the great obligations and the great advantages of making a wise and religious use of our estates and fortunes. As the holiness of Christianity consecrates all states and employments of life unto God, as it requires us to aspire after a universal obedience, doing and using everything as the servants of God, so are we more specially obliged to observe this religious exactness in the use of our estates and fortunes The reason of this would appear very plain if we were only to consider that our estate is as much the gift of God as our eyes or our hands and is no more to be buried or thrown away at pleasure than we are to put out our eyes or throw away our limbs as we please. But besides this consideration there are several other great and important reasons why we should be religiously exact in the use of our estates. Because the manner of using our money or spending our estate enters so far into the business of everyday and makes so great a part of our common life that our common life must be much of the same nature as our common way of spending our estate. If reason and religion govern us in this, then reason and religion have got great hold of us. But if humor, pride, and fancy are the measures of our spending our estate, then humor, pride, and fancy will have the direction of the greatest part of our life. Secondly, another great reason for devoting all our estate to right uses is this, because it is capable of being used to the most excellent purposes and is so great a means of doing good. If we waste it, we do not waste a trifle that signifies little, but we waste that which might be made as eyes to the blind, as a husband to the widow, as a father to the orphan. We waste that which not only enables us to minister worldly comforts to those that are in distress, but that which might purchase for ourselves everlasting treasures in heaven. So that if we part with our money in foolish ways, We part with a great power of comforting our fellow creatures and of making ourselves forever blessed. If there be nothing so glorious as doing good, if there is nothing that makes us so like to God, then nothing can be so glorious in the use of our money as to make it all in works of love and goodness, making ourselves friends and fathers and benefactors to all our fellow creatures imitating the divine love and turning all our power into acts of generosity, care and kindness to such as are in need of it. If a man had eyes and hands and feet that he could give to those that wanted them, if he should either lock them up in a chest or please himself with some needless or ridiculous use of them instead of giving them to his brethren that were blind and lame, should we not justly reckon him an inhuman wretch If he should rather choose to amuse himself with furnishing his house with those things, than to entitle himself to an eternal reward by giving them to those that wanted eyes and hands, might we not justly reckon him mad? Now money has very much the nature of eyes and feet. If we either lock it up in chests, or waste it in needless and ridiculous expenses upon ourselves, while the poor and the distressed want it for their necessary uses, If we consume it in the ridiculous ornaments of apparel while others are starving in nakedness, we are not far from the cruelty of him that chooses rather to adorn his house with the hands and eyes than to give them to those that want them. If we choose to indulge ourselves in such expensive enjoyments as have no real use in them, such as satisfy no real want, rather than to entitle ourselves to an eternal reward by disposing of our money well, We are guilty of his madness that rather chooses to lock up eyes and hands than to make himself forever blessed by giving them to those that want them. For after we have satisfied our own sober and reasonable wants, all the rest of our money is but like spare eyes or hands. It is something that we cannot keep to ourselves without being foolish in the use of it. Something that can only be used well by giving it to those that want it. Thirdly, if we waste our money we are not only guilty of wasting a talent which God has given us we are not only guilty of making that useless which is so powerful a means of doing good but we do ourselves thus further harm that we turn this useful talent into a powerful means of corrupting ourselves because so far as it is spent wrong so far it is spent in support of some wrong temper in gratifying some vain and unreasonable desires in conforming to those passions and pride of the world, which, as Christians and reasonable men, we are obliged to renounce. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog, Thank you. by phone at 780-450-3730, by fax at 780-468-1096, or by mail at 4710-37A Edmonton, that's E-D-M-O-N-T-O-N, Alberta, abbreviated capital A, capital B, Canada, T6L3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Kelvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart. From his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since He condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying His word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words, then, are very important, when he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.