IV.

have heard of a Hecatomb, or a hundred Ox-SERM. en facrificed at once, as a Thank-offering to the Gods. For as fuch Discoveries entitled Men to be denominated thenceforward copo.* or wife; fo they readily acknowledged the Gift that rendered them fo, to proceed from the Fountain of Wisdom above. And thus far it will become us Chriftians to imitate even Heathens themselves: Only-what they imputed to fuch a Number of imaginary Deities, we muft afcribe to that ONE TRUE GOD, in whom all the Powers of Heaven concur; to that Father of Lights, from whom alone all gracious Influences, every good Gift, and every perfect Gift (as well of Nature as Grace) cometh down from above, James i. 17. Infomuch that what St. Paul

afferts with relation to Abilities in the Work of the Ministry, will equally hold good in every lawful Calling of Life. We are not fufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourfelves; but our Sufficiency is of God, 2 Cor. iii. 5. It is to him that every Master of his Profeffion owes his Skill. "It is he (faith an ancient Father of the Church †) "that gives the Mufician his Ear, the Sing

* See Patrick on Exod. xxviii. 3. and xxxv. 10. + Clem. Alex. Strom. I. p. 281. Parif. 1629.

er

SERM. er his Voice, and the Statuary his Hand:

IV.

"It is he that finishes the Poet's Numbers, "the Orator's Expreffions, the Logician's "Confequences, and the Philofopher's Spe"culations." Every excellent Endowment, whether of Body or Mind, the Hand or the Head, the Fingers or the Brain, are owing to the Bleffings of that GOD, who first made and fashioned them all. And he that created all Mankind of one Clay, has Power, and not only Power, but Will, of the fame Lump to make one Veffel unto Honour, and another unto Dishonour, Rom. ix. 21. The fame that made us, the Apostle reminds us, made us to differ, 1 Cor. iv. 7. And as not in our Being, fo neither in our Well-being have we any Thing that we don't receive. But to that divine creating Hand, to which we are indebted for being Men, we are indebted for the particular Diftinction we bear amongst Mankind. And he that in the infinite Scale of Beings placed us in a Rank above the Brutes; it is he that leads us every Step we advance and foar towards Angels and Gods. But it is Time I should proceed to the

II. SECOND Head of my Difcourfe, under which I am to fhew, that the several different

IV.

different Occupations, Employments, and SER M. Trades, of Ufe in Life, are Ways which GOD appoints to Men, to render them helpful and beneficial to one another, and ferviceable to himself. That Bezaleel and Aboliab, and the other Workmen in my Text, ferved GOD in the Bufinefs in which they were engaged, I have no Occafion to prove in Form to any one that knows for what Ufe the Tabernacle and the holy Garments were made. Not that I fuppofe that every Man who profeffes any Art or Trade, is engaged fo immediately in the Service of GoD as these were, who were fet to work by his own Direction and Call, and to a Work too that was to tend towards the promoting the Honour and Worship of himfelf:-I don't, I fay, imagine this. Nor indeed do I defire to confi der this Inftance, as an Inftance of Men, whom GOD, as it were, hired and fet apart to himself:-But my Meaning is, to confider them with respect to the Ufe and Service they were of to the reft of the People; and then to infer their Service to GOD, from the Benefit that accrued by their Labours to Men.

For the decent Performance of the Worfhip of GOD, GOD himself requires a Tabernacle, and facred Veftments for the Priefts.

SERM. All could not have Time, or if Time, not

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Skill (even fuppofing there could have been Artifts without Inspiration) to enter upon and go about the Work. And those that had Skill for the performing of one Part, were perhaps as unknowing as the most ignorant of them all, in what was required to be done in another. The making the Ephod, the Breaft-plate and Mitre, the Urim and Thummim, and the broidered Coat, was very likely a Work beyond the Reach of many, who yet might excel, fome in the Curtains, and others in the Coverings, and others again in the Altars, or Tables, or Veffels, or Lavers, or Fabrick of the Tabernacle: A nicer Hand might, again, be required in those that worked in Gold and Silver, than in those that were set to work in Brass. And they that cut and fet the Jewels or precious Stones, might have proved but very useless Men, had they been employed in the carving of Timber. But as every one was affigned to the particular Work, his Genius or Ability, either natural or infufed, recommended him to; the whole Work came out of their Hands finished and compleat; each Artificer helped to forward the Business of the others; and all together perfected a Building, in which

IV.

which themselves and the whole People SER M. found their Account, had the Advantage of worshipping GOD in a Way that he himself prefcribed And GoD, befides the peculiar Service paid in his House, was pleased and honoured with the Service of Men to one another.

And juft fo is it in the common and ordinary Affairs of Life :-Every Profeffion, eve→ ry Art, and every Calling, that any Ways tends to the Service of Man, by that Tendenсу itself becomes the Service of GOD. The Lawyer and the Phyfician (let their Patient and their Client have no Caufe to complain) will be owned, I don't doubt, for the Servants of GOD, as well as the Divine. Though by the Way, fuppofing the Divine to prostitute his Call, I fhall also fuppofe him to have fo much the greater Share in the Vengeance of GOD, as the Injury done to the Souls of Men exceeds any Harm to their Health or Eftates. But I have not Time now to expatiate and enlarge.-I must keep to my Text, or at leaft to my Heads: And that I am upon leads me at prefent not to have any Suppofitions at all how far Divines may prove deficient; but how far Men who are not Divines may come up to them. And VOL. I

here