, think, and plod, and hurry, and labor, bereaving their souls of good, whose pretence, should you caution them against overdoing the matter, amounts only to this, viz. They are providing for their families, and by their present assiduity striving to get the sooner through this fatiguing way of life? However plausible this excuse may appear upon the first hearing, yet if we weigh it in our thoughts, and remember that no employment of life is justifiable, which hinders the principal design of life, unfits us for dying, and entering triumphantly into Heaven; it will be judged weak and trifling.

I may show you without difficulty, that while we conduct ourselves thus, we must be unavoidably entangled; our spiritual affairs suffering in propor tion to our over-concern for temporal things. For,

1. We must of necessity, by such a respect for this world, often break in upon the time which we owe to better things. There needs no laboured proof of this remark, the truth of which is attested by experience. Granting that such a care for my family as to temporals, does not wholly divert the care I should take of their souls, that mine is not a prayerless house, notwithstanding this crowd of business (and would to God that this might be safely allowed as to all professing families) there is much more than this, which is my daily duty as a Christian. For instance, serious self-reflection, going into mine own heart, comparing what I have been and done the day that is past, with that perfect rule, to which both heart and actions should

be conformed: conversing with Heaven in private; our native soil, our Father's house. There are many things which may not be properly communicated to a family, that must not be forgotten when God and the soul are together. These are not left to our courtesy, to be done or forborne at our pleasure they are duties which we owe,, and God expects. Now, as far as this eager prosecution of the world, and embarking thus extravagantly in its affairs, rob us of the time which such services as these do require; so far are we hereby rendered less ready for our Lord's coming. The laying aside such a weight, the avoiding such an incumbrance, must in course be referred to, in the watchfulness here recommended. Christ himself explains it thus, when he sets it in opposition to such an overchargedness with the cares of this life, as renders it but too possible for that day to come upon us unawares. And I take the apostle Paul to have had the same sense of things, when he makes watchfulness and sobriety to be terms of the same import.. As does also the apostle Peter. Compare 1 Thes. -v. 6. with 1 Pet. iv. 7. The sobriety of which they both speak, intimates Moderation and Temperance in our regards for these present perishing things.

2. As such a concern for this world should be avoided upon the account of the encroachments it makes on the time which we owe to better things, it should also as it indisposes the mind for entertainments that are spiritual and divine. Thus does

it further unfit us for Christ's coming.

We must not only see that duty is done, but make conscience of the manner of doing it, if we would thrive in grace and comfort. An action that is materially

good, may be circumstantially evil. If it do not spring from a right principle, if it is not regular in its aims, and directed to the proper end (and these things fall under the divine cognizance) the service may be condemned of God, which meets with the universal applause of men. It is not enough that I confess the sins of the day, if I experience not the workings of gospel repentance; that I acknowledge the personal and relative blessings conferred, if my heart is unaffected with the bounty of Heaven; that I talk of my grave, if I die not to this world, as I am dying out of it; or the glories of Heaven, if I feel not the powers of the world to come. Now, admitting that the man, whose life is such a continued hurry, does reserve some of his time for God; with how great disadvantage does he sequester to the affairs of religion, whose mind is stuffed with the remembrance of the past day's business, and the projects to be executed the next? It is to be feared, that his heart is removed far from him, while he is honoring him with his lips; and of all such God says, that in vain do they worship him. Is that man in a fit posture to die, who is out of frame to pray? and can any thing excuse thy being out of tune, Christian, to the one thing needful? thy being indisposed for what is, and should be the main concern of life? When Christ.

recommends to you a watching for his coming, he must certainly caution you against these incumbrances, which so directly unfit you for it.

ture.

(2.) By their unlawful love of lawful things, have good men been in danger of unreadiness for Christ's coming. They may have learned to abridge their desires, to pity the restless ambition, or insatiable avarice, too visible in other men's conduct, and the same time be themselves in bondage to the creaWhile they have seen no happiness in the part which the worldling acts in life, they have felt a pleasure which has been excessive in the review of their own circumstances; and a man may be an idolater, who professes very little of the world. As this has been explained in the apostolical writings, we find that the charge of idolatry.may be brought against us, whenever the little we enjoy has too large a place in our hearts, or our hopes of happiness from it are beyond what we ought to encourage from broken and empty cisterns. This is the love to the world, and the things of the world which the Scriptures condemn; and if it were not that we are prone to such extravagance in our regards for these things, and that such a misplacing of our affections drew along with it a variety of inconveniences, we should not be warned against the very same thing so frequently as we are, especially in the New Testament. We need help from heaven to love what God allows us to love, within the proper limits by which he has bounded our respect to all sublunary good. Not to transgress

the measure which is lawful, or appropriate to ourselves what should be sacred to God alone.

We should beware of this, as we would guard against what will contribute to our unreadiness for our Lord's coming. This will do it,

near.

1. By obstructing the exercise of our faith. When this is our governing principle, it scatters the mists which intercept our views of heaven; representing eternal things not as real only, but It brings within our sight death as well as immortality, as the Jordan through which we are to pass, to the "land flowing with milk and honey." it at once keeps alive the thought of dying, and divests it of its terror; aye, out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong, sweetness. Thus it is a preservative against sin, and provokes to universal duty, making our lives a constant, practical, entertaining intimacy with the grave. Now, must not such be ready for Christ's coming, who thus pass the time of their sojourning here in his fear?

Setting our affections on things below, shows that we are but little influenced by that faith, which is evidence (yos, the demonstration) of invisible objects; and as far as it prevails, will hinder the actings and exercise of that grace in the soul. The loading ourselves with thick clay, must unfit us for mounting as with eagles' wings towards heaven. If answerable to our unacquaintedness with death, is our want of actual preparation for dying, and an undue regard for lawful things thus indisposes the mind, by putting it from under the influence of