foul gives itself to the Lord, the perfon's will is furrendered a captive to the obedience of faith; and the great business afterwards is, to have it to follow the will of God, as the fhadow does the body. -It is the bufinefs of his affections, which do all center in him: Matth. vi. 21. "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be alfo." The love of God is the comprehenfive duty of the whole law; and where love is fixed on God, there all the other affections will draw after him. The foul will hate evil, will forrow for what difhonours God, will rejoice in what is pleafing to him, and chearfully obey what he commands.Finally, even the body itself is for the Lord and his fervice: I Cor. vi. 13. "Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body." They who have truly given themselves to the Lord, will look on their bodies as for his fervice in life, to act for him, yea, and even in death to fuffer for him, if he call for it. "So now alfo," fays Paul, "Chrift fhall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.” Phil. i. 20.--I obferve,

3. The perfon who makes God's fervice his bufinefs, ferves him in all things; that is, whatever be his bufinefs to which he is called to, he ftrives to act in it as ferving the Lord. This is imported in that phrafe: Pfal. cxvi. 18. “I have fet the Lord always before me." And we are called to it by thefe fcriptures: Prov. iii. 6. « In in thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." Col. iii. 17. " And whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jefus, giving thanks to God and the Father, by him." A person who makes religion his bufinefs, will feafon all his business with it, and thus caft it into a religious mould. He will carry his reli

gion not only to his religious duties, but diffufe a ftrain of it even through his natural and civil bufinefs; and thus carry it with him to the field where he works, and to the market where he trades. Here, again, may occur another

Queftion, How may a perfon serve the Lordin managing, and being employed about his worldly affairs? Anfwer, (1). Act from a fenfe of the command: 1 Cor. vii. 24. " Brethren, let every man wherein he is called, therein abide with God." (2). Depend on him for direction: Prov. iii. 6. (quoted above). (3). Depend on him for fuccefs: Pfal. cxxvii. 1. " Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." (4). Acquiefce in his difpofing of you as may best fuit your fpiritual intereft. (5). Deal with men you were under God's eye. (6). Be moderate in your purfuits, 1 Cor. vii. 29. 30. Lastly, Be fuitably affected with the dispensations of providence, as they fall out to you. I obferve,

as if

4. That the person who makes God's service his bufinefs, fcruples at no piece of fervice which God puts in his hand, but makes confcience of univerfal obedience: Pfal. cxii. 6. " Then fhall I not be afhamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments." God's fervants are not allowed to be chufers; and a true fervant of God will not chufe his work, but applies himself to whatever God carves out for him, even to fulfil all his will, Acts, xiii. 22. Be it doing or fuffering work, his Master's will being made known, he prepares himfelf to do it. The fervant of God will not fcruple at internal service, but apply himself to it, as well as external: Phil. iii. 3." We are the circumcifion, that worship God in fpirit, that rejoice in Christ Jefus, and have no confidence in the flesh." Many

will go about bodily exercife in religion, who are mere ftrangers to heart-work, and the ferving God in their fpirits. But this will never be ac-ceptable, for thefe will always be accounted our mafters who have our heart-fervice.--Such will not stop at painful and hard service. It is the mark of a flothful fervant, to comply only with the eafy pieces of religion: Prov. xx. 4. "The fluggard. will not plough by reason of the cold." God commands thee to pluck out the right-eye luft; if religion be thy bufinefs, ferve him in it. It was painful for Abraham to put the knife to the throat of Ifaac; but it was his business to serve the Lord, therefore, when called, he was ready to obey. Such will not ftop at dangerous fervice, for whofo will come after Chrift, must take up his crofs, and will be contented to follow the Lord, whitherfoever he goeth, Rev. xiv. 4. The Lord has fo ordered it, that the way to heaven has many difficult fteps in it, fo that the fearful cannot walk therein, Rev. xxi. 8. But those who come there have courage for dangers in the way, and will follow him through the fea of this world, in a ftorm as well as in a calm.-Finally, fuch will not stop at coftly fervice. The Lord calls hispeople fometimes in a special manner to this duty :Prov. iii 9. "Honour the Lord with thy fubftance, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase :" Andforafmuch as their all is the Lord's, it will be at his fervice. Sometimes they are called to fuffer in these things, and to take joyfully the fpoiling. of their goods, Heb. x. 34. Sometimes to act for God therewith, as David did, when he bought. the threshing-floor of Araunah, to build an altar unto the Lord upon it, 2 Sam. xxiv. 21. 24.-I. obferve,

5. That the perfon who makes God's fervice

his bufinefs, is conftant and perfevering in the fervice of God: Pfal. cxix. 112. "I have inclined mine heart to perform thy ftatutes, always even unto the end." A true fervant of God is for his fervice at all times, in profperity and in adverfity. They who make God's fervice their bufinefs, will continue with it unto the end; and this is the character of a fervant: John viii. 31. " Then faid Jefus to thofe Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed." It is to fuch only that the reward of grace is promised: Rev. ii. 10." Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." They are constant in two refpects.-They are fo,

(1.) In that they do not give over his work, laying it down and taking it up when they pleafe. They do not ferve him by fits and starts, but labour to go on evenly in their way, Pfal. cxvi. 8. (quoted above). The religion of many is like an ague, in which the patient has his hot and cold fits. Thus they go to and fro, one day for God, another for the devil. Whatever good mood they may be in at a time, they do not abide at it. Their goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. The whole of what they have from heaven, is as flafhes, Pfal. lxxviii. 34. The fpirit of holiness refts not on them; the whole of what heaven has from them, is an over-leap into the holy ground, Job, xxvii. 9. 10. But though there are great changes in the frame of the faint, yet the habitual bent of his heart is ftill towards God. They are conftant in this; for,

(2.) They never change masters again: Heb. X. 39. "But we are not of them that draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the

faving

faving of the foul." They never apoftatife totally, nor finally. Those who do fo will never see heaven: Luke, ix. 62. « And Jefus faid unto him, No man having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Lot's wife was an emblem of apoftates; God turned her into a pillar of falt, for a terror to all apoftates. Those who are the Lord's will not be flattered away from him, by the allurements of the world and the flesh, which is one engine by which Satan makes many caft off God as a master, as did Judas and Demas. And there are many who have been blooming profeffors, who have by these means been led afide, till they cast off religion altogether. Nor will the true fervants of the Lord be deterred from him, by the feverities which they may meet with in the fervice of the Lord, Song, viii. 7. "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it." We read of fome who, when they heard Christ's doctrine, faid, This is a hard faying; who can hear it? John, vi. 66. Ver. 66. "From that time, many of his diciples went back, and walked no more with him." But/ where men have truly given themselves away to the Lord, and make religion their business, their religion will last to the end, whatever methods be ufed to extinguish it in any manner of way. We now come to the

III. GENERAL head, namely, To confirm the doctrine. Confider, there are two things here to be diftinguished, namely, flight touches at the fervice of God, which the devil's fervants may fometimes afford, who are far from God; and the making religion, and the fervice of God, our bufinefs and ordinary employment, which none will do but those who are truly and favingly the Lord's.

When