the time fhall be on the ftage. There will be gene-
rations after us, as there have been before us; and
the work will be devolved on the next generation
for their time; with whom we, being gone off the
stage, will have no more access to join, than those
already dead have to join with us.
And then they
will go, and another rife up in their stead, and get
the work put into their hands, none of the former
to meddle with it: and fo on to the end. The rea-
fons are,

ift, There is no returning to this world when once gone. Death is a flitting for good and all, never to come back, Job vii. 9. 10. Job was fenfible of this, Chap. x. 21. when he said,-1.go whence I fhall not return, even to the land of darknefs, and the (hadow of death. We must praise him before we lie down in the grave, or never; for there is no rifing out of it to that work, Pfal. Ixxxviii. 10. We cannot come back, and God will not bring us back.

2dly, The state and business of the two worlds are, by an unalterable purpose, made quite different. Here men are in a state of trial; there in a fettled ftate for ever, according to their management in the trial Here is the place of working at the command and for the honour of the Master there is the place of the reward of their works. If the fun'fhould come back over from west to eaft, and fo make night day too, the ordinance of heaven would be quite altered; fo no body expects it. As little is the accefs of any but the living, to praise God in the world, to be expected or looked for.

3dly, This world is under a peculiar mark of divine indignation, as defiled by fin, Gen. iii. 17.;

and

and fhould have been deftroyed when it was first defiled, had not the Mediator interpofed to keep up the tottering fabric for fome time for the elect's fake, I. xlix. 8. So men are hasted through it, as through a defiled place, and have an opportunity of praifing God by the way. And therefore it cannot be expected, that ever that opportunity shall be repeated.

Laftly, When the dead fhall live again, this world fhall be deftroyed, and be no more. As long as we fhall lie in our graves, incapable to praife, this world will last: but when we shall live again at the refurrection, it fhall be confumed by the general conflagration, and be no more. So there is no access to praise God in the world, but for thofe that now live, and those that shall live, to the end: Rev. xx. 12.-The dead were judged out of thofe things which were written in the books, according to their works. Chap. xxi. 1. And I faw a new heaven, and a new earth: for the first heaven and the firft earth were paffed away; and there was no more fea. In the new heavens and earth, no doubt God will be praised, 2 Pet. iii. 13. but he will have no more praises here off the hand of any, when once they are gone off the ftage, which will fall down under the last generation to be on it.

USE 1. of Information. Hence learn,

1. That the bufinefs of life is to honour God in the world. And if that be fo, many have been many years in it, that have never yet fallen to their business, nay nor once seriously laid to heart what their bufinefs is. O hear the great Master faying to you, Matth. xx. 6. Why ftand ye here

Q 3

all

all the day idle? and fee how ye will answer that queftion. Ye are bufy doing nothing, worse than nothing but what have ye done, are you doing, will ye d, for God? Ye are living; but what praife, what honour comes to God by your li ving? What more honour comes to God by your living, than ye would do him if ye were in the grave? I beleech you confider this, as ye will anfwer it to God, who hath faid, Mal. i. 6. A fon honoureth his father, and a fervant his master : if then I be a father, where is mine honour ? and if I be a mafter, where is my fear?

Object. 1. Some I fear will think, though not fay, that they have other business to fill their heads and hands with, how to get a throughbearing in the world for them and theirs. Anf. Ah, is another world not worth your confideration? Or can ye think that ever ye fhall enjoy God in that world, who are not careful to honour him here? Confider what the Lord fays, 1 Sam. ii. 30.-Them that honour me, I will honour; and they that defpife me, fhall be lightly efteemed. To spend all the time you live in wreftling with this world for a through bearing, and after ye are dead to wrestle with the wrath of God for ever, is a sad tryst; better ye had never been born. Be concerned to honour God while ye live; and God will fee to your provifion while ye live, and make you happy after.

Object. 2. But I have no access to do any thing for the honour of God, in respect of my circumstances in the world: worldly bufinefs is by Providence laid to my hand for the business of my life.

Anf. 1. It is a common mistake in point of practice,

practice, that there are any who have no accefs to honour God in the world. Though some are placed in higher and more extensive spheres of activity for God, yet there is no ftation fo low in the world, but it is a fphere wherein people may honour God, if they have a heart for it. This you may fee verified in the parable of the talents, Matth. xxv. 14. 15. The kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own fervants, and delivered unto them his goods: and unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to every man according to his fever al ability, and ftraightway took his journey. If one is in life, though never fo low, according to the text, he may honour God. If one is a magiftrate, or a church-officer, he has accefs to honour God among those over whom he is fet. Though he be neither, if he is a perfon of weight and confideration in the place where he lives; as far as that weight goes, fo far goes the sphere of his activity for God, which he is to fill up by honouring of God. If he is a mafter of a family, there is a sphere of activity for God he is put in. If he is a fingle member of a family, he has a fphere of activity among other fingle members of it. To this purpofe faks the Apostle, 1 Cor. vii. 24. Brethren, let every man wherein he is called, therein abide with God.

2. It is the honouring of God in our feveral ftations that is the true honouring of him, 1 Cor. vii. 24. just now cited. That we cannot do for the honour of God what does not belong to our station, is so far from being our fin, that it would be a difhonouring of him to attempt it. The moon is useful to the world, though it fhines not

by day; the stars too, though they shine not fo bright as the moon. The hands are useful to the body, though one does not walk on them; the feet, though one does not fee with them, &c. Are you a child of a family? your business of life as fuch is to be an obedient, dutiful, pliable child: are you a fervant? yours is to be a faithful, honeft, dutiful fervant. Whatever relation you ftand in, ye are to honour God by a confcientious practice of the duties of your relation.

3. Whatever bufinefs God has laid to your hand, follow it as duty from God laid upon you; fo ye will live to his honour. Hence is that exhortation of the Apostle, Col. iii. 17. Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jefus, giving thanks to God and the Father. by him. And verf. 23. Whatfoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord. Set about your business as commanded you of God, acting in it as under the eye of God, and looking to his word as your rule, and to the merit of Chrift for God's acceptance of it. Whatever trials and fufferings the. Lord lays on you, bear them patiently, because it is his will; and bear them for the fake of Chrift that bare greater for us; and look for the acceptance of your bearing them through Chrift. So fhall the honouring of God be the business of your. life whatever your circumftances are, high or low.

2. The business of honouring God in the world, formerly in the hands of the former generation, is now devolved on you. See what ye will do with it. To this purpose prophefies the Pfalmift David, Pfal. cxlv. 4. One generation' fhall praife thy works to another, and shall declare thy migh

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