Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

and wearest on thy back the wages of the painful soul! Art thou not condemned to rags, to famine, by Him whose law commanded thee to labour? And yet thou pamperest up thy sides with stolen food-and yet thou deckest thy wanton body with unearned ornaments whilst they that spend their daily strength in their commanded callings (whose labour gives them interest in them), want bread to feed, and rags to clothe them! Thou art no young raven, my soul, no lily! Where ability to labour is, there Providence meets action, and crowns it. He that forbids to cark for to-morrow, denies bread to the idleness of to-day. Consider, O my soul, thy own delinquency, and let employment make thee capable of thy God's protection. The bird that sits is a fair mark for the fowler, while they that use the wing escape the danger. Follow thy calling, and Heaven will follow thee

[ocr errors]

with his blessing. What thou hast formerly omitted, present repentance may redeem; and what judgments God hath threatened, early petitions may avert.

His Prayer.

Most great and most glorious God, who for the sin of our first parents hast condemned our frail bodies to the punishment of labour, and hast commanded every one a calling and a trade of life; that hatest idleness as the root of evil, and threatenest poverty to the slothful hand; I, thy poor suppliant, convicted by thy judgments, and conscious of my own transgression, fly from myself to thee; and humbly appeal from the high tribunal of thy justice, and seek for refuge in the sanctuary of thy mercy. Lord, I have led a life displeasing to thee, and have been a scandal to my profession. I have slighted those bless

1

ings which thy goodness hath promised to a conscionable calling, and have swallowed down the bread of idleness. I have impaired the talent thou gavest me, and have lost the opportunity of doing much good. I have filled my heart with idle imaginations, and have laid myself open to the lusts of the flesh. I have abused thy favours in the mispending of my precious time, and have taken no delight in thy Sabbaths. I have doted too much on the pleasures of this world, and like a drone have fed upon the honey of bees. If thou, O God, shouldst be extreme to search my ways with too severe an eye, thou couldst not choose but whet thy indignation, and pour the vials of thy wrath upon me. Look, therefore, not upon my sins, O Lord, but through the merits of my Saviour-who hath made a full satisfaction for all my sins! What through my weakness I have failed to do, the ful

ness of his sufferings hath most exactly done. In him, O God, in whom thou art well pleased, and for his sake, be gracious to my sin. Alter my heart, and make it willing to please thee, that in my life I may adorn my profession. Give me a care and a conscience in my calling, and grant thy blessing to the lawful labours of my hand. Let the fidelity of my vocation improve my talent, that I may enter into my master's joy. Rouse up the dulness and deadness of my heart, and flames of lust within me.

quench those Assist me, O

God, in the redemption of my time, and deliver my soul from the evilness of my days. Let thy providence accompany my moderate endeavours, and let all my employments depend upon thy providence; that, when the labours of this sinful world shall cease, I may feel and enjoy the benefit of a good conscience,

and obtain the rest of a new Jerusalem

in the eternity of glory.

THE PROUD MAN,

His Ostentation.

I'LL make him feel the weight of displeasure, and teach him to repent his saucy boldness. How dare his baseness once presume to breathe so near my person, much more to take my name into his dunghill-mouth? Methinks the lustre of my sparkling eye might have had the power to astonish him into good manners, and sent him back to cast his mind into a fair petition, humbly presented with his trembling hand! But thus to press into my presence, to press so near my face, and then to speak, and

« ElőzőTovább »