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That indeed is all the Honour that the idle Gen tleman deserves, and fhould he be ferved as he deferves too, we fhould quickly be rid of him: For, faith the Apostle. 2 Thef 3. 10. If any Man will not work, neither let him eat. Nothing of this is faid to abridge Gentlemen in any Gentile Recreation, which is innocent, or to rob them of any Honour or Refpect due unto the Place and Rank they are fet in, but only to let them understand how they are to deferve their Honour and Wealth, and other advantages; and what ufe they are to make of them, that they may not be the worfe for them.

I cannot dig, faith this wicked Steward, and fo fay many more. But let them well confider what they fay. Is it true, or is it falfe, that they cannot? God, 'tis certain, hath made it every one's Duty, that hath Health and Ability of Body or Mind, to Work and Labour as he hath fitted him, and call'd him to it. If then there be ftrength, there can be no excufing our felves on any Account, unlefs it be want of Opportunity, which I think no Man can want long, the Neceffities of Mankind which call for it, are fo very many. If then fuch Perfons Work not, it must be either pride or floth that hinders them; and which of them foever it be, it is their fin. Some will fay, it may be, that it is Difufe has made it too hard for them. And what is that but to plead their former Idleness in Excufe of their prefent Idlenefs? For why did they not use themselves to it? What Warrant had they to spend any part of their time vainly? Our Difufe of what is our Du◄ ty is our Sin, and if we now be made to fuffer for it, 'tis juft, and we have no caufe at all to complain.

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plain. That which we have made hard through our Negligence, and never ufing our felves to it, is very fit now to be impofed upon us, that the Hardship which we our felves have occafion'd, may be fome Punishment for our Laziness. Who fhould pitty us, if we go groaning under a Load which had not had any heavinefs more than we had Strength for, had not we our felves made it too heavy for us. Was it not our Luxury and Sloth which decay'd our Strength? Have we not weaken'd our felves by intemperance? Have we eat, and drunk, and flept into fuch a groffness both of Body andMind,that we have madeour felves unfit for any Service of God or Man? How many of us devour, at this rate, even all the good things we were once poffefs'd eating up their Strength, and drinking up their Understanding and Memory, and Confcience, fo that they leave themselves nothing either of Soul or Body to work withal. Such Perfons indeed cannot Work, and if they meet with no Charity from others, they deserve as little as they find. If they find any, tho' it may be a Duty in others to afford it them, yet is it fo only becaufe God hath commanded it, not because they have deferved it..

But the vain Man, when he hath by his vanity reduced himself to Poverty, is as much ashamed to beg, as he is unable to dig. To beg, (faith he) I am afhamed. And fo indeed he hath reafon enough to be, confidering how he comes to ftand in need of Begging. But that feems to be leaft of any thing confidered by him, and is not the thing he is afhamed of. Such Men have, by the cuftom of finning, too hard Faces to blufh for any Sin, be it never fo fhameful. It is no fhame

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to beg, or to be relieved by the Charity of others; it is the way of fubfifting, that God alloweth the Poor and Needy, and both by his Command hath he made Provifion for them, and by his Promise he hath encourag'd them to rely upon it. It is indeed, a fhame for him that can Labour, by Begging, to abufe the Charity of good Men, and to rob the truly Needy of his Due; and 'tis alfo a fhame to make one's felf a Beggir, and to be by his fin in a craving, when by doing his Duty, he might have been in a giving Condition. Sloth or Prodigallity, Idlenefs and Wate, will, when things are well examined, be found to have caus'd more Beggery in the World than any thing elfe, and I believe of all the Beggars we have, and they are by much too many, for one who hath been made a Beggar by any other means, we may find three who have made themfelves fo by floth and waftefulness, and the efore ought indeed to be ashamed of their fin, but not of the juft punishment of it; this fhould be born with all humble fubmiffion, and that confeffed, and repented of with much Shame and Grief. But fuch Men as this unjuft Steward have been ufed to a Life, which have taught them to be afhamed of nothing but Living gentilely, that s, waftingly and vainly. And if they fay, they are afhamed to beg, tho' they fay truly, by their b.ing afhamed, we are not to underftand their Mcdefty, but their Pride.

I fhall here only defire we would take notice of the two great Rubs and Stumbling blocks in our Way of Duty, and Living Religioully, and thefe are Difficulty and Shame. We are generally either too Lazy, or too Proud, to do what our Great

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Great Lord and Mafter commands us. 'Tis hardfays one, and I cannot do it. 'Tis mean and difgraceful, fays another, and I am afhamed to. do it. Some Duties call for too much pains, and others for too much Humility, and we are too idle to do thofe, and too proud to stoop to these. And hence it is, that we think we have a fufficient Apology and Excufe for our vainful and finful Course of Life. Every fin paffeth with us for a Sin of Infirmity, and it must be thought above our ftrength to do otherwife, and on that AcCount a very venial Sin, which will eafily be forgiven. When indeed all is no more but a difficulty, and that fuch as we have made to our felves, by giving way fo long to our finful Humors and Lufts, till they have got the Maftery of us, and are grown into confirm'd Habits, and now require more pains to break them off, than we can endure to bestow upon them. Or else our Sins are fashionable, and we do no other thing in pratifing them, than what we fee most Men, who are accounted Perfons of any Note in the World ufually do. And fhould we do otherwife, we fhould be laugh'd at as too precife, and affecting Singularity, or as those who want Breeding, yea, and common Civility; and this we are afhamed of; Pride will not fuffer us to bear fuch a Reproach, tho' it be only for obeying God, rather than Men; and for being more defirous of the Teftimony of a good Confcience, that of a Reputation amongst them, who feek the Praise of Men, more than that which is of God only.

what a wretched thing is Man become, that can do nothing but fin, and is afhamed of every Thing, but that which alone is fhame

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ful, that is, to dishonour God, and ruin himfelf!

We have before faid, that we, every one of us are Stewards to God for every thing we have, and that we shall find, upon Examination of our felves, that we have been great Wilters too of the Goods committed to our care. That we muft give an Account to God of the ufe that we have made of every thing; and we are apt to be too forgetful of this; that God however is not hafty with us, but feveral times gives us warning, that the Time of our Stewardship, draws near an end, and to fee that we have our Accounts ready against that Time come. And now let us fuppofe that the Habitual Sinner, who hath lived loofly, and been wafting all upon his Lufts, which God gave him for better Ufes, hath received his laft Call to make ready his Accounts, that he is now in his laft ficknefs, and that within a few Days he muft die. Suppofe we, I fay, that he is fenfible of this, and confider it; will he not be in greater perplexity and trouble, than the Unjuft Steward is here faid to have been in? Will not his Confcience then awakened by the prefent apprehenfion of Death, fuggeft unto him very melancholy Thoughts? Whether he be able or willing to fpeak out, and difcover his Troubles of Soul to thofe that are about him or no, will he not cry within himfelf---What fhall I do? Whither am I now going? What Course fhall I now take, that I may depart comfortably and fafely out of this World? I fee there's no ftaying for me any longer here, my Lord taketh from me the Stewardship, and I must be turned naked, as I was born, out of this World, And what now can

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