Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

turn us from darkness to light, by taking of the things of Christ, and showing them unto us. He hath affured us of his willingnefs to affift and to guide us.. "If any man "lack wifdom, let him afk it of God, who "giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth

[ocr errors]

not, and it shall be given him." If men therefore are fluggards, and loiter in their work, they can neither pretend ignorance of their duty, nor the want of a guide to direct them in it.

eyes

Can

Again, the ant "hath no overfeer:" but man acts under the immediate inspection of him, "whose eyes are as a flame of 'fire.The of the Lord are in every place, "beholding the evil and the good.". any hide himself in fecret " places that I "fhall not fee him: do not I fill heaven "and earth, faith the Lord?” "Yea, the "darkness hideth not from thee, O Lord, "but the night fhineth as the day." Befides, God hath placed an overfeer in our own breasts, which acts within us as his deputy; for the voice of confcience is the voice of God. This bofom-witnefs marks our fteps, reminds us of our duty, condemns

K 3

demns us when we do wrong, and never fails to render those unhappy, whom it fails to keep faithful to their duty. For confcience at firft fpeaks forcibly to every human being; and many a hard struggle doth it coft even the worst of men, before this awful monitor can be filenced. Thus we have not only a guide to point out the way to us, but an overseer to attend us in every ftep; and therefore, if we either loiter or turn afide, we must be without excufe: "Our own hearts condemn us, and God is greater than our hearts, and knoweth all things."

Once more, the ant "hath no ruler" or judge, to call her to account for her conduct. But every one of us must give an account of himself to God. "God hath "appointed a day in which he will judge "the world in righteousness, by that Man "whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath "given affurance unto all men, in that he " raised him from the dead." " We "must all appear before the judgementfeat of Chrift, that every one may receive the things done in the body, ac"cording

[ocr errors]

cording to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." And it deferves our notice, that the fluggard is particularly pointed out in Scripture as one of those who fhall certainly be condemned in that decifive day. This is clearly intimated to us in the parable of the talents. The unprofitable fervant, who is condemned to utter darkness, is not accufed of having fquandered his talent, or of having applied it to wicked purpofes: on the contrary, he had preserved it entire, and returned it unimpaired to his master: his crime was, that he had not improved it. He was a wicked fervant, because he had not been active for the intereft of his Lord: he was in fhort the fluggard here addreffed by the wife man and his doom was juft. For it is only to those who, by a patient continuance in well-doing, feek for glory, ho"nour, and immortality, that God will "render eternal life, in the day when he

66

fhall judge the fecrets of men by Jefus "Chrift."

Thus, then, the ant, which without a guide, overfeer, or judge, labours with fuch diligence,

[ocr errors]

diligence, fagacity, and forefight for the prefervation of a life which must foon come to a final period; inftructs, reproves, and condemns those who, having all the advantages which are denied to her, are yet remifs and negligent in the great business affigned them: on which depend not their present interests only, but the interests and the life of their immortal fpirits-of their fpirits, which fhall furvive the diffolution of their bodies, and fhall last through eternal ages.

These observations may be fufficient both to illustrate the meaning, and to fhow the propriety of Solomon's advice. Let me now, as the improvement of the fubject, prefs you to reduce to practice the leffons which I have been confidering. And for this end, I would represent to you,

ift, That the fluggard fins against the very nature which God hath given him. For what are all the high powers and faculties with which we are endowed, but fo many tokens that we were formed for active fervice? The nature of things has evidently

[ocr errors]

in this refpect the force of a law; fince it is impoffible to conceive, that powers and capacities were given us, which were not meant to be exerted and improved. Even in the ftate of innocence man had his task affigned him, whilft the inferior animals were left to roam at large, without being accountable for their conduct. And as our natures are formed for action, fo our inclination evidently prompts us to it. This is plain from the various methods by which those who will not labour endeavour to relieve themselves from the oppreffive load of idleness. Their time itself is a mifery: and there is nothing fo impertinent to which they will not fly, that they may be free of it. The burdens of the most laborious slaves are light, when compared with the burden which the fluggard carries about with him in an enfeebled body, and a vacant discontented mind.

2dly, The fluggard fins against the manifeft defign of Providence, God hath indeed made a liberal provifion for the fupply of all our returning wants. But he hath done this in a way that requires in

dustry

« AnteriorContinuar »