expensive inclinations, while it brings in nothing for the supply of necessary wants. Idle people are generally vicious: they are idle because they are vicious; and vice always did cost more than virtue to maintain it. Instead of having any thing to lay by, idleness expects to receive that from the labours of others, which it does not deserve from any body. The idle man is to society, what a useless limb is to the body, which must be carried or dragged along by the rest; and if he is not troublesome to-day, he will be soon: for he that has neither house nor land, nor any useful employment, must be maintained either by beggary or by working in the dark, when other men are asleep: therefore, such people ought to be strictly watched; and every society has a right against them on a principle of self-defence; for he who does them no good, will very soon do them some mischief. In a neighbouring nation, celebrated for few virtues besides those of frugality and industry, they endure no idleness amongst them; so you see no beggars about their streets, and very seldom hear of any executions for felony. If any poor man turns idle, and admonition does him no good, they take the following method to make him work: they confine

him in a large cistern, into which the water runs so fast, that unless he pumps it out with all his might for several hours, it will prevail over him and drown him. Our schools of labour are called houses of correction; but the place where this discipline is exercised, is called the bettering house: and if the first trial does not make a man better, they give him a second; and so on, till he is brought to reason with himself: then he discovers, that it will be less trouble to earn his living by moderate labour, than to do such hard work and get nothing by it. This, however, is a way of teaching men as we teach brutes, by compulsion. How much better is it to hearken and learn as children do, and be bettered by the instructions of wisdom! Go, then, to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise: which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

But now, thirdly, I am to remind you, that he who would lay any thing by for charity, must be temperate. No man will ever be able to do much good to others, who does not lay some restraint upon himself. Intemperance is hurtful to the rich; but it is ruinous to the poor: and alas! we have too

many examples of it in all places; of men who spend all they have upon themselves, and sometimes more than they have, and live more like swine than Christians. If there should be any such here present, may God give them grace to understand rightly the miserable bondage into which they have been betrayed by ungoverned appetites; while, instead of fancied indulgence, they find nothing but real misery; the ingredients of which are the three great evils of human life, sickness, guilt, and poverty. If we were to follow some people of the lower class of life, to observe how they live, particularly those who are employed in handicraft trades, in the great metropolis of this kingdom; we should see them working hard for a few days, then taking their wages, and giving themselves up for as many days more to idleness and intemperance in a public-house. There they meet with others as idle as themselves; who are come upon the same errand, to waste their time and their money. They sit till all is spent, and, perhaps, till their senses are gone together with their money; but if not so bad as that, their consciences are wounded, and their peace of mind is destroyed; so that they have not one moment of rational enjoyment,

ment. In the mean time, if we were to see the unhappy wife of one of these free-livers, we should find her at home, with her poor, ragged, helpless children about her, hungering and thirsting for the fruit of their father's labour; with which, he is all the while abusing himself in other company. When all is gone, and he has time to think a little, the distress of his family stares him in the face; he is entertained with bitter accusations, which he has brought upon himself; and the cruelty and robbery he has been guilty of prey upon his spirits. Instead of laying by for the day of necessity, he is treasuring up for himself misery in this world, and wrath against the day of vengeance, in another.

You will not expect such to follow the advice of the Apostle: no; they that lay by, with the design recommended in the text, are another sort of persons. How different from the picture I have just set before you, is the man, who returns home in sobriety to his family, there to be received as the protector and friend of all that belong to him; congratulated by his wife, embraced by his children, and entertained after the toils of the day, with their pretty innocent conversation. He sleeps in peace, and returns again to his

work, with his wits about him; and when his contribution becomes due, he hath it in readiness, and bestows it with chearfulness. When the day of sickness comes, as it must come some time, the distress of his family is greatly alleviated; and if his health is not suddenly restored (though it is the sooner likely to be so, from the benefit to which he is intitled) his wants are fewer, and his mind is more at ease, than it could possibly be, if he had been obliged to apply in the usual way for relief from the public.

You therefore see, my Brethren, how necessary prudence, industry, and temperance are to those who undertake to lay by for the future wants of themselves and their companions. But now I must warn you, though I have recommended these virtues, not to trust in them, or in yourselves. Your trust must be in God; because your prosperity is from him only; you are directed to lay by as God hath prospered you. Therefore, the object of your present meeting, if you make a right use of it, leads you daily to a pious depend ence upon God for his blessing: and this, as I observed above, will keep you honest in your dealings. If you take the matter in this light, and are persuaded you have succeeded

better,