tion and pleasure, and should excite your gratitude to GOD for his goodness, in blessing your labours. If you perceive things to be at a stand, you will be quickened to greater frugality and industry before it is too late. And if you are declining in your estate, it will oblige you to search for the cause of your decay, to examine what excess or imprudence you are chargeable with, and rectify your conduct for the future; and especially to inquire whether any criminal conduct towards GOD, the neglect of his day, or worship; uncharitableness to the poor, or injustice to others; does not provoke the divine providence to blast your gains, and render your labours abortive. "For if ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings; yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart, &c." Mal. ii. 1. Hag. i. 4. 10. 2 Cor. ix. 6. Ezek. xxii. 13. Inspect therefore your conduct both to GoD and man; inspect the state of your own affairs; for it is better to survey your own accounts, than that commissioners should do it for you; and give me leave to add this advice, that if you find your condition so

low, as not to be more than sufficient to satisfy your creditors, prudence and justice require you to stop in time; hereby your reputation will be preserved as an honest man, and you will find even your creditors ready to assist your future attempts.

7th. Prudence is to be exercised in governing those passions to which our callings most expose us. The passions of the mind are natural to us, and inseparable from us; but the government of them, and subduing their excesses, is the business of wisdom and virtue. To be a servant to them is a misery below a slave; this bondage the Tradesman is in danger of from various causes. Sometimes disa content is ready to seize him because the wind does not favour his merchandise, or the weather his manufacture. He is subject to envy, from the superior prosperity and success of others, whom he observes

to have more custom or credit than himself. The passion of fear, which was implanted in our natures to prevent_evils, and not to increase them, is apt to fluctuate his mind and sink his spirits; and it is the triumph of prudence to extinguish the excesses of it. When we have done our duty, and acted according to the best of our judgements, we should no longer tor

ment ourselves about the event of things, but leave ourselves and all our concerns to the wise and good providence of GOD. But foolish hopes are often more fatal to the present and eternal concerns of men, than groundless fears; these, thoug huncomfortable, quicken the spirits to vigour and activity, to prevent the evils apprehended; the others leave us in a fatal security and presumption. How many Tradesmen are ruined by their vain hopes! . Some enriching scheme, like the ignis fatuus, glitters at a distance, and leads them through manifold difficulties in the pursuit, but when it is approached, vanishes into air; others have great expectations from the death of rich friends, or some precarious contingency, in the imagination of which they neglect their proper business, live above their present estates, and like the dog in the fable, quit their présent possessions to catch at shadows.

Yea,

many times such is the infatuation, though they feel themselves sinking, they buoy up their spirits with these foolish hopes, until they can neither avoid their fall, nor recover from it.

Another passion too common to the Tradesman is rash anger; to this he is more or less exposed according to his na

tural temper, and employment; and wisdom and prudence must be exercised to suppress it. Though customers may be provoking; servants and workmen, idle and unfaithful; relatives clamorous and peevish; yet religious wisdom and prudence will so far influence the Tradesman that is possessed of it, that they shall not greatly disturb the peace of his mind, nor disorder the management of his affairs; or render him rude and insolent to his customers; for this is a certain maxim, that the more we are governed by wisdom, the less we shall be inflamed by passion.

8th. This discretion is to be employed in a prudent consideration of the contingencies of our callings. These are ex-, ceeding various, and fall under the observation of every Tradesman in his way. If there was in every trade a certain and constant method, and chain of events, a small degree of sagacity would serve; but with many callings it is otherwise, which makes it necessary for us to use our reason, observation and experience to direct us when to extend or contract our sails, and what course to steer; always remembering to regulate our conduct by the rules of justice and charity to others; and not to exercise our penetration and judgment to preju

dice and ensnare the less knowing and considerate. On the other hand, what is out of our power should be out of our care; we should consider that present duty is ours, but future events are GOD's. Whatever disappointments we meet with in our callings, let us patiently and cheerfully submit to his wisdom and government, and still continue to trust in his goodness, to be constant in our duty, and diligent in our employments, hoping that our losses will soon be made up to us, either by the peace and enjoyment of our own minds, or by the blessings of divine providence, or both.

9th. This prudence is especially to be exercised in avoiding those methods by which others have been ruined. Every sinking Tradesman is a lesson of instruction to us, and it is far better to learn wisdom from the fatal experience of others, than our own. Let us cast our eyes abroad, and discern the rocks which they have dashed upon, and the quicksands in which they have been swallowed up, and let our prudence be employed in shunning them. To instance in a few:

Company keeping. I am speaking of it now, not in a religious, but prudential view; in this light, how often has excess