ILt CHRISTIAN DILIGENCE, [SERM. VIM; abound in knowledge and wisdom, or he shall grow rich in grace and the fruits of righteousness ; but the slothful wretch shall be poor indeed. In vain doth he sit with folded hands, and wish for the blessings of nature or grace, of time or eternity : - The idle hand shall be empty still, he shall desire in vain, and shall never possess. Diligence is the appointed theme of my discourse, the diligence of man or a christian. I shall endeavour, first to describe it in all the several parts of it, and then take a short survey of the blessings temporal and spiritual which attend it; and by the way, I shall give some occa- sional hints of the crime and punishment of the contrary vices. First, Let ús enquire what are the several things which are implied in true diligence, whether it relate to the things of this life, or the life to come. 1. " Diligence includes the employment of everypart of our time in proper business ; and thus it stands, in opposition both to sauntering and doing nothing at all, to trifling, or doing what is to no purpose, and to mis- timing the businesses which are to be done." Every person in the world has some proper business to do daily, for God, for themselves, or for the good of their fellow-creatures. Mankind, even in the golden age of innocence, was not made for idleness. Adam was put into thé garden of Eden, " to dress .and keep it ;" Gen. ii. 8, 15. and it is our duty wisely to enquire what is our proper work, and to employ ourselves in it. But how many idle creatures are there in the world that act quite contrary to this rule ? 1. How many do we find who saunter their lives away, and let their days, and months, and years rurt to waste in doing nothing,at all, as though they were brought into the world to eat, drink and sleep, to gaze away life, and then to lie down in death ? O wretched abuse of these precious blessings, life and time ! " I must work, saith our Lord, while it is day, I must do the particular work, for which my Father sent me hither; the night is coming when no man can work ;" John ix. 4. Let us all be imitators of our blessed Jesus. The business of the rich is to render their.wealth useful to the good of the world, and to the interests of religion: The business of the poor is to. labour to obtain their daily bread, and not be bur-
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