First, When he understands the pec\iliar duty of his place and relation. ' The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way,' Prov. xiv. 8. His way, that is, the way which he in particular is to walk. It will not profit a man to know .the way to York, if going to London; yet how prone are we to study another's way and work than our own ! The servant what his master's duty is, not what his is to his master. The people what the minister in his place should do, rather than what is incumbent on themselves to such as are over them in the Lord. It is not knowing another's duty, no, nor censuring the negligence of another, but doing our own that will bring us safely and comfortably to our journey's end; and how can we do it except we know it ? Solomon in no one thing gave a greater proof of his wisdom, than in asking of God wisdom to enable him for the duty of his place.
Secondly, When knowing the duty of our place, we conscientiously attend to it and lay out ourselves for God therein. What Paid charged Timothy in his place, that every Christian nuist do in his ; he must meditate on these things, and give himself wholly to the discharge of his dutj' as a Christian in such a place and calling, en foiifois ist/ii, 1 Tim. iv. 15, 'be in them,' let thy heart be on thy work, and thou wholly taken up about it. The very power of godliness lies in this. Religion, if not made practicable in our several places and callings, becomes ridicidous, and vanisheth into an empty notion that is next to nothing. Yet many there are that have nothing to prove themselves Christians, but a naked profession, of whom we may say as they do of the cinnamon-tree, that the bark is more worth than all they have besides. Such the apostle speaks of, Tit. i. 16 : 'They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate.' What good works the apostle means, will appear by the next words, chap. ii. 1, where in opposition to these he presseth those duties which Christians in their parti- cular places and relations (as becometh holiness) ought to perform. A good Christian, and a disobedient wife ; a godly man, and an unfaithful servant, or undutiful child ; is a contradiction that can never be reconciled. He that walks not uprightly in his house, is but a hypocrite at church. He that is not a Christian in his shop, is not in his closet a Christian, though upon his knees in prayer. Wound religion in one part, and it is felt in every part. If it declines one way, it cannot thrive in any other. All that miscarry in religion, do not the same way miscarry. As it is in the regard of our natural life, some, it is observed, die upwards, some downwards. In one, the extreme parts ; his feet are first dead, and so creeps up the legs, and so at last takes hold on the vitals; in another his superior parts are first invaded. Thus is profession, some, their declining appears first in a negligence of duties about their particular callings, and duties they owe by tlieir place and relation to man, who all this while seem very forward and zealous in the duties of worship to God, much in hearing, praying, and such like; others falter first in these, and at the same time seem very strict in the other ; both destructive alike to the soul, they both meet in the ruin of the power of godliness. He stands orderly that makes conscience of the whole duty that lies on him in his place to God or man.
Thirdly, To stand orderly, it is requisite that we keep the bounds of our place and calling. Tlie Israelites were commanded ' to pitch every man by his own standard,' Num. ii. 2. The Septuagint translates it, /cafa tafjma, according to order. God allows no stragglers from their station in his army of saints. 'As the Lord hath called every man, so let him walk,' 1 Cor. vii. 17. Our walk must be in that path which our call beats out. We are therefore commanded every one 'to do his own business,' 1 Thess. iv. 1 1. That which is the commander'.s business in an army, is not the private soldier's ; the magis- trate's, not the subject's; the minister's, not the people's. That which is justice in the ruler, is murder in another. They are our own things, that come within the compass of our general or particular calling; out of these, we are out of our diocese. O what a quiet world we should have, if everything and
g(jQ STAND THEREFORE.