our Saviour fhews in the Parable of the Talents which the Mafter of the House distributed amongft his Servants, to fome he gave one, to fome five, to others ten, that every one might employ his Proportion to his Mafter's ufe, neither fquandering it away, nor yet laying it up in a Napkin. It is God that is the grand Mafter and Poffeffor of the World, who parcels it out amongst his Creatures, as himfelf fees good; but wherefoever he entrusteth any thing, he expects the improvement of it for himfelf. And fo, I fuppofe, doth every one of us from fuch Servants as we keep; we expect that what we put into their Hands, be laid out, not for themselves, but for us, and that they spend their Time in our fervice, not their own: And if they do otherwife, none of us but will fay, they do not ferve us, but themselves. How then can we expect that God fhould look upon us, as ferving him, when we do not do fo much for him, as we expect from our own Servants, though our Fellow-Creatures? Or how can we think that we serve him as we ought, unless we ferve him as much as we can? Or that God fhould look upon us as his Servants, unless we employ and improve whatsoever we

have, not for our own Pleafure, Profit or Applaufe, but for his Honour and Glory, from whom we did receive it? Let us remember our Saviour's Words, Mat. 5. 16. Let your Light fo fhine be So fore men, that they may fee your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.

2. Hence the ferving of God con fifteth alfo in the performing of fincere and univerfal Obedience to all his Laws and Commands, which is but the natural confequent of the former: For if our whole Man, both Soul and Body, and whatsoever we have, or are, ought to be devoted to his Glory; it muft needs follow, that whatsoever we do, fhould be conformable to his Precepts; which alfo is no more than eve ry one of us expects from our Servants: For those whom we have covenanted with to be our Servants, and whom we keep upon that very account that they may ferve us, we all expect that they fhould obferve all our Commands, and do whatsoever in Juftice, and by our Covenants, we can enjoyn them. But how much more more then muft we ourselves be obliged to obey all the Laws and Precepts of him that made us, whofe Creatures we are,

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and whofe Servants, by confequence, we ought to be.

I fay, all his Laws and Precepts; for we must not think to pick and chufe, to do fome things, and leave other things undone: For we should take it ill if our Servants should ferve us fo; if when we fend them upon feveral Bufineffes, they fhould mind only one of them, and neglect all the other, we fhould queftionless look upon them as very idle and careless Servants: But let us confider and bethink ourselves, whether we have not ferved our Master, the Eternal God, as bad as our Servants have, or can ferve us. He hath given us feveral Laws to observe, and hath fet us feveral Works to do, and we, perhaps, can make a shift to do fomething that is required of us; but never think of the other, and perhaps, the principal things too that he expects from us.

Juft as if when Mofes had broke the two Tables of Stone, whereon the Ten Commandments were written, one Man fhould have come and fnatched away one piece, a fecond ran away with another piece, and a third with another, till at length ten feveral Perfons had gotten ten feveral Pieces, where

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in the Ten Commandments were feverally written; and when they had done fo, every one of them fhould have ftriven to keep the Law that was written in his own Piece, never minding what was written in the others. Do you think that fuch Perfons as these are, could be reputed the Servants of God, and to obferve his Laws, when they minded only one particular Branch or Piece of them. The Cafe is our own; we hearing of feveral Laws and Commands which the moft high God hath fet us, get fome one of them by the end, and run away with that, as if we were not concerned in any of the reft. But let us ftill remember, that the fame Finger that wrote one of the Commands, wrote all the other too. And therefore he that doth not obferve all, as well as one, cannot properly be faid to observe any at all. Neither indeed doth he serve God in any thing: For though he may do fomething that God requires, yet it is plain, that he doth not therefore do it, becaufe God requires it; for if he did fo, he would do all things elfe too that God requires. And therefore fuch a Perfon doth not ferve God at all in what he doth

doth; no, he ferves himself rather than God, in that he doth it not in obedience to God, but with refpect unto himself; as to get himself a Name and Credit amongst Men, or perhaps to fatisfy his troublefome Confcience, which would not let him be at quiet unless he did it.

But now one that would ferve God indeed, hath respect to all his Commandments, Pfal. 119. 6. And walks in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord blameless, as Zacharias and Elizabeth are faid to have done, Luke 1. 6. And thus, Whofoever would ferve the Lord in any thing, must serve him in all things that he requireth. And this is that which David means in this Advice to his Son, faying, Know thou the God of thy Fathers and ferve him; that is, obferve and do whatfoever he enjoyns, and that too, with a perfect Heart and a willing Mind.

And fo I come to the Second thing to be confider'd here; that is, The manner how we ought to ferve God, even with a perfect heart and with a willing Mind.

First, With a perfect Heart: That is, With Integrity and Sincerity of Heart, not from any By-ends, or fini

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