260 TO THE RIGHT- HON. SERJEANT GLYN. power, abilities and opportunities of serving him, see that you pre- fer his interest before your own, or any man's on earth. If you go not thither, as sent by him, with a firm resolution to serve him first, you were better sit at home. Forget not that he bath laid claim to you, and to all that you have, and all that you can do. I am bold, with all possible earnestness, to entreat you, yea, as Christ's minister, to require you, in his name, to study and remem- ber his business and interest, and see that it have the chief place in all your consultations. Watch against the encroachments of your own carnal interests ; consult not with flesh and blood, nor give it the hearing when it shall offer you its advice. How sub- filly will it insinuate ! How importunately will it urge you I How certainly will it mar all, if you do not constantly and resolvedly watch ! O, how hard,'but how happy is it to conquer this carnal self! Remember, still, that you are not your own ; that you have an unseen Master that must be pleased, whoever be displeased, and an unseen kingdom to be obtained, and an invisible soul that must be saved, though all the world, be lost. Fix your eyes still on him that made and redeemed you, and upon the ultimate end of your Christian race, and do nothing;willfully, unworthy such a master, and such an end. Often renew your self-resignation, and devote yourself to him ; sit close at his work, and be sure that it be hiss both in the matter and in your intent. If conscience should at any time ask, °Whose work are you now doing?' or a man should pluck you by the sleeve, and say, ' Sir, whose cause are you now pleading?' see that you have the answer of a Christian at . hand: delay not God's work till you have done your own, or any one's else. You will best secure the commonwealth, and your on interest, by looking first to his. By neglecting this, and being carnally wise, we have wheeled about so long in the wilderness, and lost those advantages against the powers of darkness, which we know not whether we shall ever recover again. It is the great astonishment of sober men, and not the least reproach that ever was cast on our holy profession, to think with what a zeal for the work of Christ men seemed to be animated in the beginning of our disagreements, and how deeply they did engage themselves to him in solemn vows, protestations, and covenants, and what ad- vantages carnal self hash since got, and turned the stream another way ! So that the same men have since been the instruments of our calamity, in breaking in pieces and dishonoring the churches of Christ, yea, and gone so near to the taking down, as much as in them lay; the whole ministry that stand approved in the land. O, do not, by trifling, give advantage to the tempter to destroy your work and you together! Take warning by the sad experi- ences of what is past; bestir you speedily and vigorously for Christ, ,r
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