allow ourselves in any ways of life that neither are nor can be offered to God, is the same irreligion as to neglect our prayers, or use them in such a manner, as makes them an offering unworthy of God.

The short of the matter is this, either reason and religion prescribe rules and ends to all the ordinary actions of our life, or they do not: If they do, then it is as necessary to govern all our actions by those rules, as it is necessary to worship God. For if religion teaches us any thing concerning eating and drinking, or spending our time and money, if it teaches us how we are to use and contemn the world; if it tells us what tempers we are to have in common life, how we are to be disposed towards all people, how we are to behave towards the sick, the poor, the old and destitute; if it tells us whom we are to treat with a particular love, whom we are to regard with a particular esteem: if it tells us how we are to treat our enemies, and how we are to mortify and deny ourselves, he may be very weak, that can think these parts of religion are not to be observed with as much exactness, as any doctrine that relates to prayers.

It is very observable, that there is not one command in all the gospel for public worship; and perhaps it is a duty that is least insisted upon in scripture of any other. The frequent attendance at it is never so much as mentioned in all the New Testament. Whereas that religion or devotion, which is to govern the ordinary actions of our life, is to be found in almost every verse of scripture. Our blessed Saviour and his apostles are wholly taken up in doctrines that relate to common life. They call us to renounce the world, and differ in every temper and way of life, from the spirit and way of the world. Το renounce all its goods, to fear none of its evils, to reject its joys, and have no value for its happiness. To be as new born babes, that are born into a new state of things, to live as pilgrims in spiritual watching, in holy fear, and heavenly aspiring after another life. To take up our daily cross, to deny ourselves, to profess the blessedness of mourning, to seek the blessedness of poverty of spirit. To forsake the pride and vanity of riches, to take no thought for the morrow, to live in the profoundest state of humility, to rejoice in worldly sufferings. To reject

the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; to bear injuries, to forgive and bless our enemies, and to love mankind as God loveth them. To give up our whole hearts and affections to God, and strive to enter through the straight gate into a life of eternal glory.

This is the common devotion which our blessed Saviour taught, in order to make it the common life of all Christians. Is it not therefore exceeding strange, that people should place so much piety in the attendance of public worship, concerning which there is not one precept of our Lord's to be found, and yet neglect these common duties of our ordinary life, which are commanded in every page of the gospel? I call these duties the devotion of our common life, because if they are to be practised, they must be inade parts of our common life, they can have no place any where else.

If contempt of the world, and heavenly affection, is a necessary temper of Christians, it is necessary that this temper appear in the whole course of their lives, in their manner of using the world, because it can have no place where else.

any

If self-denial be a condition of salvation, all that would be saved must make it a part of their ordinary life. If humility be a Christian duty, then the common life of a Christian is to be a constant course of humility in all its kinds. If poverty of spirit be necessary, it must be the spirit and temper of every day of our lives. If we are to relieve the naked, the sick, and the prisoner, it must be the common charity of our lives, as far as we can render ourselves able to perform it. If we are to love our enemies, we must make our common life a visible exercise and demonstration of that love. If content and thankfulness, if the patient bearing of evil be duties to God, they are the duties of every day, and in every circumstance of our life. If we are to be wise and holy as the new-born sons of God, we can no otherwise be so, but by renouncing every thing that is foolish and vain in every part of our common life. If we are to be in Christ new creatures, we must shew that we are so, by having new ways of living in the world, If we are to follow

Christ, it must be in our common way of spending every day.

Thus it is in all the virtues and holy tempers of Christianity, they are not ours, unless they be the virtues and tempers of our ordinary life. So that Christianity is so far from leaving us to live in the common ways of life, conforming to the folly of customs, and gratifying the passions and tempers which the spirit of the world delights in, it is so far from indulging us in any of these things, that all its virtues which it makes necessary to salvation, are only so many ways of living above, and contrary to the world in all the common actions of our life. If our common life is not a common course of humility, self-denial, renunciation of the world, poverty of spirit, and heavenly affection, we do not live the lives of Christians.

But yet though it is thus plain, that this and this alone is Christianity, an uniform, open, and visible practice of all these virtues; yet it is as plain, that there is little or nothing of this to be found, even amongst the better sort of people. You see them often at church, and pleased with fine preachers; but look into their lives, and you see them just the same sort of people as others are, that make no pretences to devotion. The difference that you find betwixt them, is only the difference of their natural tempers. They have the same taste of the world, the same worldly cares, and fears, and joys; they have the same turn of mind, equally vain in their desires. You see the same fondness for state and equipage, the same pride and vanity of dress, the same self-love and indulgence, the same foolish friendships and groundless hatreds, the same levity of mind and trifling spirit, the same fondness of diversions, the same idle dispositions and vain ways of spending their time in visiting and conversation, as the rest of the world, that make no pretences to devotion.

I do not mean this comparison betwixt people seemingly good and professed rakes, but betwixt people of sober lives. Let us take an instance in two modest women: let it be supposed, that one of them is careful of times of devotion, and observes them through a sense of duty, and that the other has no hearty concern about it,

but is at church seldom or often, just as it happens. Now it is a very easy thing to see this difference betwixt these persons. But when you have seen this, can you find any farther difference betwixt them? Can you find that their common life is of a different kind? Are not the tempers, and customs, and manners of the one, of the same kind as of the other? Do they live as if they belonged to different worlds, had different views in their heads, and different rules and measures of all their actions? Have they not the same goods and evils, are they not pleased and displeased in the same manner, and for the same things? Do they not live in the same course of life? Does one seem to be of this world, looking at the things that are temporal, and the other to be of another world, looking wholly at the things that are eternal?— Does the one live in pleasure, delighting herself in show or dress, and the other live in self-denial and mortification, renouncing every thing that looks like vanity either of person, dress, or carriage? Does the one follow public diversions, and trifle away her time in idle visits and corrupt conversation; and does the other study all the arts of improving her time, living in prayer and watching, and such good works as may make all her time turn to her advantage, and be placed to her account at the last day? Is the one careless of expense, and glad to be able to adorn herself with every costly ornament of dress ?and does the other consider her fortune as a talent given her by God, which is to be improved religiously, and no more to be spent in vain and needless ornaments, than it is to be buried in the earth?

Where must you look to find one person of religion differing in this manner, from another that has none ?— And yet, if they do not differ in these things, which are here related, can it with any sense be said, the one is a good Christian and the other not?

Leo has a

Take another instance amongst the men. great deal of good nature, has kept what they call good company, hates every thing that is false and base; is very generous and brave to his friends, but has concerned himself so little with religion, that he hardly knows the difference betwixt a Jew and a Christian.

Eusebius, on the other hand, has had early impressions

of religion, and buys books of devotion. He can talk of all the feasts and fasts of the church, and knows the names of most men that have been eminent for piety.You never hear him swear or make a loose jest; and when he talks of religion, he talks of it, as of a matter of the last concern.

Here you see that one person has religion enough, according to the way of the world, to be reckoned a pious Christian, and the other is so far from all appearance of religion, that he may fairly be reckoned a Heathen; and yet if you look into their common life, if you examine their chief and ruling tempers in the greatest articles. of life, or the greatest doctrines of Christianity, you will find the least difference imaginable.

Consider them with regard to the use of the world, because there is what every body can see.

Now to have right notions and tempers with relation to this world, is as essential to religion, as to have right notions of God. And it is as possible for a man to worship a crocodile, and yet be a pious man, as to have his affections set upon this world, and yet be a good Christian.

But now,

if you consider Leo and Eusebius in this respect, you will find them exactly alike, seeking, using, and enjoying all that can be got in this world, in the same manner and for the same ends. You will find that riches, prosperity, pleasures, indulgences, state, equipage, and honour are just as much the happiness of Eusebius as they are of Leo. And yet if Christianity has not changed a man's mind and temper with relation to these things, what can we say that it has done for him?

For if the doctrines of Christianity were practised, they would make a man as different from other people as to all worldly tempers, sensual pleasures, and the pride of life, as a wise man is different from a natural; "it would be as easy a thing to know a Christian by his outward course of life, as it is now difficult to find any body that lives it. For it is notorious that Christians are now not only like other men in their frailties and infirmities, this might be in some degree excusable; but the complaint is, they are like heathens in all the main and chief articles of their lives, They enjoy the world, and