paffions of men; to make vice easy and practicable; to remove the obftacles which lie in men's way to wicked pleasures, is directly to become the fervant of fin: this is a plain cafe.

But then there are fome things which, according as they are used, may administer to innocent pleafure, or to vice and immorality. Wine may make the heart of man glad, or it may destroy and drown his reason, and fink him down to the degree of a brute. And hence a queftion may arife, how far we may lawfully provide things of this kind? And in the cafe already mentioned it may be inquired, whether it be lawful to keep public houses, which are so often abused, and made ill use of? Now, fince the innocence or wickedness of these things lies altogether in the use of them, he that uses them amifs may be to blame, and he that provides them may be innocent. If you buy a fword, and ftab a man, you that do the murder are guilty, but not he that either made or fold the fword. The fame will hold in the present cafe: public houses are neceffary often to tranfact business in, to entertain ftrangers, or to receive men who meet to be innocently cheerful. These are all lawful things, and therefore here is a foundation for a lawful calling. This may indeed be abused; and what may not? By the fame rule you muft fhut up not only public houfes, but most other houfes too; for there are very few things fold, which are not capable of being abused. Befides, fince the thing in its own nature is indifferent, and may be either well or ill used, one man's ufing it ill cannot deprive another man of his right to use it well; and if, notwithstanding the excess

of some, others may use the innocent pleasure, then they may be ferved by others in their innocent pleasure; because what one man may innocently enjoy, another may innocently provide; and confequently to ferve them cannot be a crime.

When things in their own nature evidently tend to corrupt and debauch men's manners, they are capable of no defence. Whatever exposes or renders religion contemptible; whatever ferves to make virtue and piety ridiculous, to make vice glorious, to give luft the dominion over reason, or to heighten the appetite after finful pleasures, is of this kind. These confiderations have carried many wife and good men unto an utter condemnation of the employments of the ftage, as unlawful means of maintenance. And whatever may be faid of the reprefentations of the theatre in general; yet when they tranfgrefs the bounds of decency, and employ their wit and art to make virtue, and fobriety, and chaftity ridiculous; when they treat the facred laws of marriage with contempt, and paint out the villain, who betrays his friend, breaks the laws of hospitality, and brings to ruin unguarded innocence, as an accomplished character, and fit for imitation, there can be no doubt but the employment is extremely wicked. And whenever the ftage is fo employed, every good man, every good Chriftian, muft condemn it. Poets were anciently inftructors of mankind, and teachers of morality; and virtue never went off the stage without applause, nor vice without contempt. Thus heathen poets wrote!

be a lawful calling or profeffion for men to maintain themselves by? That there is room for this inquiry, is evident from the great numbers who live and thrive by it. Those who live upon this art may say in their own excufe, what the unjust steward faid for himself, Dig I cannot, to beg I am afhamed: and I am afraid they are not unlike him in the method they choose to support themselves. Gaming may either be reduced from chance to art, or it may not. If it cannot be reduced to an art, then it cannot be the fubject of an employment to live by; for you will not fay, that a man may be maintained by that, which, according to the very nature of the thing, may as well prove his ruin as his maintenance and therefore if gaming is built purely upon chance, no man can or ought to make it his calling; because it can never answer the end, and bring in a conftant fupply for the conftant wants of life. If gaming may by skill and practice be reduced to an art, then it is a very unjust art, and must be a difhoneft way of getting money: for men venture their money upon a fuppofition that they have an equal chance with you; but if you are mafter of a fkill which can overrule this chance, you deftroy the game by taking away the chance, which is the foundation of it; and you make your advantage purely of the ignorance and folly of others, and live by an art which you dare not own; for were it known, you could not live by it. So that, take it either way, to play upon the fquare cannot, in the nature of the thing, be a maintenance, because it may equally happen

to be your undoing; to play otherwise is a cheat and abuse upon mankind, and cannot be an honeft or fair livelihood.

From what has been difcourfed in general, and upon the particular cafes mentioned, we may collect what is an honeft labour or maintenance : we must follow our honeft callings honeftly. The next thing to be confidered is, what is the measure of this duty; whether we are obliged to labour merely to supply our own wants and neceffities; or whether there be any other duties incumbent on us, which must likewife be answered by our labour and toil? This the Apostle has fettled in the

Fourth and laft place, enjoining us to labour, that we may have to give to him that needeth. So that the end we ought to aim at by our labour and industry is to enable us, not only to fupport ourfelves and our families, but to be contributors likewife to the wants and neceffities of fuch as are not able to work and labour for themselves. Charity has no measure but the wants of others, and our own ability. The Scripture has told us, the poor fhall never fail: there never will want objects of charity, and therefore we can never get beyond this rule of the Apoftle; for the more we can get, the more we ought to give, and therefore must conftantly labour to enable ourselves to answer this end in the beft manner. But there are many things which a poor man ought to provide for, before he can come to exercise charity: the first poor man he is to take care of is himself; his own wants and neceffities must be answered out of his labour. Nor is he obliged only to provide for his prefent wants,

but by industry and frugality to lay up in store, out of what he can spare from his prefent maintenance, to provide against the cafualties and misfortunes of life, which he, with all mankind, is liable to. He may be disabled by fickness, or lameness, or age, and rendered incapable of following his trade or labour; and these being fuch common incidents, he is bound to provide for them. This is evidently a confequence of the Apoftle's rule, that we must work to serve the ends of charity. The firft piece of charity you are bound to is to keep yourself from being a charge and burden upon charity, that there may be the greater maintenance for fuch as are truly neceffitous; and therefore it is a breach of this rule, instead of providing for futurity, to fpend all at prefent, and leave yourself to be a burden upon the common charity, whenever age or fickness disables you: fo that it is a duty owing as well to your poorer brethren as yourself, to keep yourself, by the honest arts of labour and frugality, from preying upon their maintenance, when your ftrength and labour forfake you. And hence it appears, that by the Apoftle's rule you are bound as well to thrift and frugality, as to labour; and therefore fuch as work hard, and spend freely all they get, are highly to be blamed, and may be found at last to have spent out of the poor's ftock; fince by fquandering their own they come at last to a neceffity of living upon charity; by which means others are ftraitened, that they may be fupplied.

Next to yourself you are likewise bound to provide for your family, for your children, and near relations. This is a duty of nature; and the Apo