the will of God that your beloved country should fall; though you should not be taken away beforehand from the evil to come (c); you fhall enter into peace; you fhall be found of the Lord in peace at the Great Day.

(c) Ifaiah, Ivii. 1, 2.

SER.

SERMON XVI.

ON QUIET DILIGENCE in our PROPERT CONCERNS

C.

THESS. IV. II.

Study to be quiet, and to do your own business.

To finful creatures idleness is a continual

fnare. The man who is unemployed is prepared for wickedness, Temptations find him at leisure to liften to their voice, ready to gaze upon their fpecioufnefs, prompt to start forward at their fignal. Not being occupied in working for his heavenly Master, he is easily drawn into the service of the Devil. It is therefore among the inftances of the provident mercy of God, that He has appointed, to every one of us an active ftation in His household that to every one of us He fays day by day; Son, go, work today in My vineyard (a): that after having entrufted each of us with talents capable of

being administered to His glory, He has added this charge, Occupy, till I come (b).

Study to be quiet, and to do your own business. By this injunction the Apostle calls our attention to the command of God, 'that we should be not flothful in business, that we should be diligent in the discharge of the occupations resting upon us; and at the fame time brings before us a circumstance which, on many occafions, betrays men into neglect of their proper business, and on many becomes the more prevalent in confequence of that neglect; namely, the very culpable practice of busying ourfelves in the concerns of others. These two connected branches of duty, diligence in our proper concerns, and forbearance from intermeddling in affairs which do not belong to us, will neceffarily be confidered together while we examine the inftruction conveyed in the text.

TO

I. In the first place, what does the direction, here delivered to us from the Holy Ghost by the mouth of St. Paul, require? One thing which it requires is, that we be quiet. In the language of Scripture, quietnefs defcribes one of the most attractive ornaments (c) of the Chriftian character, a (b) Luke, xix. 13. xa dia? (c) 1 Pet. iii. 4

temper

temper of mind meek, gentle, humble, in the fight of God of great price; a temper the oppofite to a restless spirit of curiofity, to a bustling love of interference, to a propensity to thruft ourfelves forward through vanity or pride into the tranfactions of our rac quaintance, to a habit of commenting and fitting in judgement on the proceedings of the neighbourhood. Is it without reafon that we are admonished against these fins? Recollect how abundantly they prevail. An inquifitive defire of oprying into secrets, a wish to raise ourselves into confequence by becoming mafters of the affairs of others va prefumptuous eagerness to display our capacity for management, our addrefs, our dif bernment; thefe and other unchriftian in clinations are continually tempting us into tranfgreffion of the Divine command, to be quiet. Of fome perfons it is not too much to affirm, that a very large proportion of their time is occupied in tranfgreffing that command. To the tranfgreffion of it they owe the ordinary fubjects of their converfa tion, and devote much of their activity. From the tranfgreffion of it they feek enter tainment to themselves, and the power of furnishing entertainment in fociety. And

there is not one of us who is not in fome measure guilty of the fame offence.

Another duty, to the performance of which the Apoftle calls us is, to do our own

. Numbers neglect their own 'concerns through idleness. They pass their years in floth. They flumber and dream through life. The day is to them scarcely more a feafon of working than the night. They will not roufe their faculties, either of the body or of the mind, to exertion.!!They are foldiers who fleep on their poft, fervants who hide their talent in a napkin. Others, who are by no means of a lazy difpofition, are often very inattentive to their proper business. They employ themselves intpurfuits which have no relation to it; arat leaft, which poffefs only a very flight con nection with it. In thefel purfuits they will be very eager and induftrious. But they are toiling in the chace of an object, which to them is unattainable or ufelefs. Their eager nefs exhausts itself in working a mine, the ore of which is in their hands unproductive. Their industry is wafted in cultivating ia field, from which they are not defigned to reap a harvest. Others apprehend that a much smaller fhares of attention than is effential

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