they went astray in the wilderness out of the way, and found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then he delivered them from their distress, and led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation P, even the glorious and eternal mansions of the heavenly Jerusalem.

Let us therefore walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called; and not as if we were become heathens again, in the vanity of our mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God; and, as past feeling, giving ourselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. For we have not so learned Christ; but let us put off as concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of our mind; and let us put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

We are called unto glory and virtue'; to the former as the reward of the latter; and have exceeding great and precious promises, that by these we might be partakers of a divine nature, having escaped the corruption of the world through lusts. Let us endeavour therefore to excel in virtue now, that we may be crowned with glory in heaven; and as he that hath called us is holy, so let us be holy in all manner of conversation 1.

We are now actually engaged in the service of Christ, and therefore cannot excuse our standing all the day idle, by saying no man hath hired us : r 2 Pet. i. 3.

P Psalm cvii.

s Ver. 4.

" Ephes. iv. 1. ti Pet. i. 15.

baptism is our general call into the vineyard of our Lord, and we have particular calls too, by the good Spirit of God, to move and stir us up to a faithful performance of our duty; it becomes us therefore to labour diligently in it, that at length we may have our reward.

II. For secondly, when God has done so much on his part to make us happy, we must cooperate on ours, and industriously improve those gracious opportunities he hath put into our hands for our eternal good.

We must not think our great Master has sent us into his vineyard only to laze and saunter away our time, to gaze about us, and admire the excellency of the fruit, and commend the labours of others, without doing any thing ourselves; no, he hath hired us to work there, and in our several stations, according to our best ability, to promote the flourishing estate of it still more and more. And upon condition of our so doing, he that is faithful and true hath assured us, that whatever is right we shall receive. He hath not indeed agreed with us for a penny a day, as he did with those whom he hired at first; that is, he hath not given such express promises in the new covenant of temporal rewards as he did in the old; and the reason is, because the duty he hath laid upon us now is more spiritual and excellent, and requires the labour of the mind more than of the body; and therefore a spiritual reward, as it is more valuable, so is more suitable and adequate to it. But we have abundant security of such a reward as that, according to the degree of our industry and diligence; and every leaf almost of the New Testament assures us of a proportionable increase of grace

here, and weight of glory hereafter. However, had we nothing more to depend upon than this general promise of our blessed Lord, Whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive, we need not fear being sent empty away: nay more, we need not doubt of receiving much more than we can possibly pretend to deserve, from him whose goodness and bounty is infinite; unless it is our own fault, and we forfeit the reward by standing all the day idle, and not endeavouring to perform the service. For nothing more certain, even in the Christian religion, though the most gracious and merciful institution that ever was, than this; No labour, no reward. And what St. Paul said relating to bodily idleness, He that will not work, neither let him eat, is perfectly the sense of the gospel with respect to spiritual laziness and negligence; and will be found a sad truth by many when Christ shall come to inquire into what we have done, and give us a recompense according to our works. None but the good and faithful servant shall taste of his Master's joy; and the slothful and unprofitable shall be bound hand and foot, and cast into outer darkness, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth for ever.

There was duty to be performed in the state of innocence; and though it was a service that was perfect freedom, pleasant and delightful, yet it was a service; and the works of it, though not a servile drudgery, yet required thought and application and diligence; and it was no more good for man even then to be idle than to be alone. How much more then are we now obliged to industry, when our work is become (though by our own fault) so much more laborious and difficult, and as indispensably required

of us as ever, in order to our receiving the reward! A hearty endeavour, it is true, (and blessed be God's goodness for it,) will be accepted, instead of a complete performance of the work; for it is not merely the burden that any man bears, and the abundance of work that he can do, that renders him acceptable to the merciful God, and who is infinitely above being in the least advantaged by our utmost services, but the willing readiness and sincerity of mind with which he applies himself to do the best that he can. But then nothing less than that will do; and the want of it will admit of no excuse.

Thus in the parable, those that were hired at the eleventh hour, because they sincerely and diligently performed their duty in it, to the utmost of their power, received as much as those who pleaded that they had borne the burden and heat of the day. They equalled them in an honest industry and diligence, and therefore their reward was equal too.

Not but that he who actually labours more abundantly, and for a longer time than others, and is constantly doing extraordinary service to God and his church, and does it upon an unblamable principle, shall have a suitable recompense; for here is all that can be to recommend a man to God's peculiar favour and extraordinary bounty: but then, because the work receives its value from the hearty diligence and good intention with which it was wrought; when a man is truly sincere in what he does, and his industry great, though his time of labour be short, yet his reward shall not be less than that of those who had longer time and more opportunity, but yet did not make greater improvements in their whole day than he did in an hour or two at last.

Of this we have a pregnant instance in the blessed apostle St. Paul, who was called last of all to that high office, and tells us that he was born out of due time, and so in some sense the least of the apostles"; and yet, because he laboured more abundantly than they all, he was in nothing behind the very chiefest of them, in signs and wonders, and mighty deeds, and abundance of heavenly visions and revelations*, while here on earth, and no doubt has an equal share of glory with them in heaven.

We see then there is no exemption from labouring in our Lord's vineyard, in our several stations, and according to our best ability; and if we hope to receive the rewards of Christianity at last, we must diligently and faithfully perform the duties of it now. And there cannot possibly be greater encouragement than there is for every one sincerely to do his best; because a hearty endeavour, though a man's strength and ability is but small, and it is late before he begins, will yet be very graciously accepted, and rewarded bountifully, even beyond our expectation. For, if there be first a willing mind, (as the apostle says in the case of charity, and which is equally true as to all other duties,) it is accepted according to what a man hath, and not according to what he hath not.

Let no man therefore despair of God's mercy, though it is the eleventh hour, the latter end of his life, before he complies with his Saviour's call to repentance and a holy conversation: for though his refusing so long hath added very much to his guilt, and made his work much more difficult, yet a hearty endeavour, even then, to work the works of right

u

I Cor. xv. 8, 9. x 2 Cor. xii. 11, 12. y 2 Cor. viii. 12.