Perfection to confift in the Performance of thofe Duties that ordinarily occurred to them. He gives them fuch Directions only, as related to a faithful Difcharge of their Duty in their feveral Stations and Callings.

Thefe Rules fhould make us confider the Nature of our Employments, whether we can with Affurance, and a good Confcience, offer them up to God; and whether we have that Regard to the Manner of performing them, as that they may be able to bear the Teft of a future Judgment; for when once we are laid in the Grave, no Faults are to be rectified: As the Tree falls, fo it lies; as Death receives us, fo Judgment will find us. Let us therefore choofe fuch Callings as we fhall approve of in a dying Hour, and profecute them with fuch Diligence and Industry, with fuch Justice and Equity, that they may ftand fair in the Accounts of Eternity. Let us pray, and perform all the Offices of Devotion with Fervency and Conftancy. Let us converfe with others courteoufly and charitably, and by our Difcourfe edify to the utmost of our Capacity. Let the Refreshments of Life be always attended with Temperance, and our Diverfions with Innocency and Moderation: And let us remember in our vacant Minutes, to fend up devout Afpirations towards our heavenly Country; which ought always to be kept in View, fince our fafe D 4 Arrival

Arrival there is the great Concernment of Life.

I fhall conclude this Chapter, by offering two Rules, whereby you may be enabled to perform the ordinary Actions of your Life which occur every Day, after the best and moft perfect Manner.

The first I thall give you in this Matter, is tokeep a lively Senfe of God's Omniprefence upon your Minds; always to remember, that he fees all your Ways, and is privy to all your Thoughts, and that nothing is hid from his all-feeing Eye. The Philofopher could propofe to us, as a Means of Virtue, to imagine fome Perfon of great Merit, and for whom we have a profor Refpect, always before us; and to accuftom ourselves to speak and act in fuch a Manner, as that we might procure his Approbation. If fuch an imaginary Scheme was capable of producing any good Effect, what Influence muft the Prefence of an infinite, wife, and holy God have upon us? which is a real Truth, clear from the Notion we have of the Divine Nature, and the plain Declarations of Scripture.

Now this Regard to the Omniprefence of God, which I recommend to you, does not imply the actual Application of our Minds to God, as prefent before us; but only fo to order all our Actions, both as to the Nature and Manner of performing them, that they

may

may be acceptable in his Sight, and that we take Care to do nothing that may displease Him; being affured, that no Privacy fecures any Thing from his Knowledge, and that no Retirement excludes Him from us. Thus praying always, and praying without ceafing, is by fome underftood, to confift in governing all our Actions by the Rule of our Duty, keeping our Minds always in a fit Difpofition to pray. And when the Sun and Moon, the Light and Stars are called upon to praise the Lord, it is by obferving their regular Courfe,, and conftantly performing thofe Offices that were laid upon them in the Beginning of the Creation. In like Manner, whoever dif charges well the Duties of his Station, and exactly performs the Obligations of his Profeffion, may be faid to pray eontinually, and. praise the Lord.

The fecond Rule I fhall give you is, Fre-quently to call to Mind the Certainty of Death,, and the Uncertainty of that Time we have to continue in this World. We often hear of fome Body or other that is taken off by fadden Death; and that which befals one Man to Day, may befal thee To-morrow. God has! in great Mercy to us, made the Hour of our Death uncertain, that we might not be tempted to abufe our Time, but might be always upon our Guard, and ready prepared whenever he fhould fummon us out of Life:! It is one of the great Artifices of the: Devil,!

to conceal from us this Truth, and to divert our Thoughts from it, and to infinuate, that there is Time enough before us to grow better, and amend our Lives; a great Point being gained, when he prevails upon us to defer our Repentance; for though God has promised to pardon those that fincerely turn to him, yet he has not laid himself under any Obligation of lengthening out our Days till To-morrow.

There is no Method more certain to know whether we walk upright before God, than to confider whether we are in fuch a Condition as to be ready to die, whenever God thinks fit: And the best Way to clear this Matter, is to reflect whether in our prefent Circumftances, and in the conftant Courfe of our daily Actions, Death would not surprise us. Now if we find any Thing that would trouble us upon its Approach, let us quit it immediately, and do that now, which upon fuch an Occafion we fhould with, to have done. How exactly juft would the Tradefman be in buying and felling, if he thought it would be the laft Bargain he should make? How innocently and profitably would the Gentleman converfe, if he thought the prefent Company the laft he should keep? How would the Divine pray and preach; and adminifter the holy Sacrament, if he were then to take his Leave for ever of the Defk, the Palpit, and the Altar? And how would

every one of them embrace an Opportunity of doing Good, if they were fure it would never be offered to them again? If once we governed all our Actions by this Rule, Death could never furprise us; but we might die with as great Security to our eternal State, inour Shops, and at our Diverfions, as in the Church, or at the Altar..