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When you go from one Bufinefs, or one Company to another, confider how you discharg'd yourselves in it, that you may beg pardon for what was amifs; and having your Confciences clear, may attend what you are going about with the more Ease, Application, and Chearfulness.

If your Employment admits Converfation, and your Circumftances allow it, why may you not ferve both Worlds at once? While you are working, let your Servants or Children read to you, or repeat what they have learnt from the Scripture and Catechifm, or from Books of Morality: Or if this does not fuit with your Profeffion, there are few but may mix profitable Difcourses and pious Thoughts with their Labours.

Exact no more Work of any than their Strength and Health enable them to perform; and take not from them all their Time, who owe a Portion of it to Heaven as well as yourselves. You ought rather to inftru&t and encourage them in their Devotion, than to interrupt or obftruct it: You may alfo make yourself accountable for their Sin, of which your Avarice was the occafion.

If you work for others, do it with as much Diligence and Integrity as if it was for yourselves; remembring that Divine Law, to do in all things with your Neighbour, Friend, or Enemy, as you would be done by. Be exactly faithful in Word and Deed to all, and kind and charitable, according to your Neighbour's Wants, and your own Ability.

In fine, let those who flatter themselves that they are not fo much accountable for mif-fpent Time, as those that are oblig'd to use it for the Neceffities of Life, hear what God faid to Adam their Father: and then, if they can, prove by what other fuperior Law they are exempted from that fame Doom.

Because thou haft hearkened unto the Voice of thy Wife, and haft eaten of the Tree of which I commanded thee, Saying, Thou shalt not eat of it; curfed is the Ground for

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thy fake; in forrow shalt thou eat of it all the Days of thy Life. Thorns and Thiftles fhall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat of the Herb of the Field. In the Sweat of thy Face fhalt thou eat Bread, 'till thou return unto the Ground.

Labour is partly a Command and partly a Punishment: It was at firft the Effect of Sin; 'tis now the Preferver of Innocence. There will be no Labour in Heaven; but then there will be no Temptation. This Life is a State of Trial and Action, of mutual Dependence and Improvement. By Work is the Body fupported, and the Mind instructed: God can inform the one and preserve the other, without our Co-operation; but he has not been pleas'd to give us any Promise so to do: On the contrary he tells us, In the Sweat of our Face shall we eat our Bread. And the Highest are fubject to his Command, as well as the Loweft; and no more exempted from Labour, than from Travel in their bringing forth. Both were the Punishment of our firft Parents Difobedience; and it is the greatest Prefumption, to think of altering or not complying with this fundamental Law of the Creator. A contemplative Life is the Felicity of separated Spirits; and that eternal Reft which they enjoy in Heaven, the Reward of those that fight the good Fight upon Earth. The common Enemy of our Souls will always be tempting us to Idleness; he has us then at the greatest Advantage: 'Tis for this Reafon he flatters our Imagination with the Charms of Eafe, and the Delights of Solitude. When our Thoughts are wandering, as the Soul will be always in motion, 'tis then he furprises us, and mafters them. None but our Saviour could have refifted him in the Wilderness; and the Example of his being fo long tempted there, is given us to fhew us, that we are not of ourselves a Match for the Prince of the Power of the Air; and that 'tis only the Prerogative of God to be Independent. If we call in the Help of Labour and Devotion, he will find us too well prepared for his Attacks, and will wait for a mose

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loofe unguarded Hour. There is no Work despicable because it is mean; if it is honeft and neceffary 'tis honourable. I am render'd important to the Creation, by ferving to its Neceffities. It has been mention'd, that Princeffes in old Times did not difdain the Distaff and Needle. The Golden Age is painted as a Paftoral one, when the Kings of the Earth tilled the Ground, and the Princes kept Sheep. The Mother of Chrift had a Carpenter to her Husband; and Turtle-Doves and Pigeons were all the Sacrifice fhe had to offer at the Nativity of our Redeemer. What is deferving Contempt which is the Gift of Providence? Whatever my Employment is, let me do it as chearfully and as perfectly as I can, for God's fake, and in a spirit of Obedience; that I may be of the Number of thofe, to whom it fhall be pronounc'd, Well done ye good and faithful Servants, &c.

In performing the Duties of Religion and Life, Diligence in both promifes us alike with Succefs; and if my Diligence arifes from a pious Principle to please God, and confidering that every thing I do is done in his Prefence, I fhall not only have the temporal Reward, but the eternal. If we give our Hands to the World, let us keep our Hearts from it. On whatever I am employ'd about, let my Affections be fet on things above. If, like Martha, I am cumbred with many things, I would, with Mary, be ftill mindful of the one thing needful.

A PRAYER for thofe that Labour.

Good and gracious God, let not the Cares of this World deaden the Influences of thy boly Spirit. Let my End in all my Actions be the doing of my Duty, and not worldly Profit only. Let no Disorder of my Affections indifpofe my, Mind for Acts of Devotion, be a Temptation to Sin, or caufe my overlooking Opportunities of glorifying thee, my Creator, or doing good to my Neighbour. Shall I not fing thy Praifes at my Labours, when St. Paul and Silas fang them in Prifon: Thou commandeft the Ifraelites to speak of the Law,

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and the great things thou hadst done for them, when they went out, and when they came in. Let that be my Rule, ob my Lord! and let my Children and Servants be taught the excellent Precepts of the Gospel, to declare thy wonderful Love to Man, in thy only Son Chrift Fefus. I fubmit to thy Providence in the Work I am oblig'd to do for my daily Bread. I look up to thee as the Giver of it, and chearfully make use of the Means of obtaining it. Pardon my want of Knowledge, remove my deadly Ignorance, affift me with thy divine Grace in my humble reading of the Scriptures, and attending the facred Ordinances. Let me not indulge natural Pride, or Sloth, in learning that which is good. Accept, oh Lord! of the Improvements I make of the Talents thou haft intrufted me with. Give me Uprightness of Heart, and forgive my unwilling Miftakes.

A PRAYER for the Rich..

As thou, ob Lord! haft made me able to give, make me willing, I beseech thee. Let me not waste that Time in Vanity and Wickedness, that ought to be employ'd in thy Service. Since thou haft fet my Feet on high, let my Heart be alfo lifted up, not to defpife my Brother, but to glorify thee; and by a higher Profpect, endeavour to guide others in the beautiful Paths of Life and Virtue. Give me the Riches of Grace, and advance me in the School of Wijdom and Knowledge.

The former Reflexions concern chiefly that part of Life which fits us for another World: The following are intended to fit us more for this, by making us agreeable to ourselves and others.

WIT and DELICACY.

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HE Character of Wit is alike affected by both Sexes: If Learning adorns it in Men, Beauty gives it as much grace in Women; and makes it more dangerous to thofe that poffefs it. Ladies of a lively active Spirit are very apt to turn it to Intrigue, which, perhaps, may begin in Frolick only, but too often ends in Shame. An affectation of Wit, where it is not, ferves only to render Folly more ridiculous ; it makes both Men and Women forward in speaking; they fancy they fhew their Wit when they fhew their Ignorance, and expose themselves to be the Jeft of the Company, when they endeavour to be the Admiration. This talkative forward Humour fets fuch as have little Wit on a level with those that have none, and spoils Talents which are capable of Improvement. Give them a Relifh of Delicacy, they will foon be asham'd of that vain Humour, and avoid the Shelves which are fo fatal to Impertinence. Delicacy is of the Virgin Kind, the less it is touch'd the more it is admir'd, and better recommended by Modesty and Silence, than by Airs and turns of Fancy, which feldom do the Bufinefs they are defigned for, and on the contrary, offend inftead of pleafing. A young Lady fhould never fpeak, but for Neceffity, and even then with Diffidence and Deference. She fhould never talk of things above the common reach of her Age and Sex, however fhe may be inform'd of them by the Advantages of her Quality and Education. Let her not be tempted into this Error by a happy Memory, by a quick and pleafant Imagination, by a Fluency of

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