(7.) Seventhly, I answer, Thxit God did Tiever appoint or design any man's ordinary, particular calling to thrust private prayer out of door} That it is a great sin for any professor to neglect his parti- cular calling under any religious pretence, is evident enough by these scriptures : Exod, xx. 9, ' Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work ;' 1 Cor. vii. 20, * Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called ;' 2 Thes. iii. 10-12, 'For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you dis- orderly, working not at all, but are busy-bodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread;' 1 Thes. iv. 11, 12, ' And that ye study to be qiuet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you ; that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing ;' Eph. iv. 28, ' But rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth ;' 1 Tim. v. 8, * But if any provide not for his own, and spe- cially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.' Yea, our Lord Jesus Christ was a plain downright
'■ Paradise was man's workhouse as well as his storehouse, Gen. ii. 15. Man should not have lived idly though he had not fallen from his innocency.
208 THE PRIVY KEY OF HEAVEN. [MaT. VI. 6.
carpenter, and was laborious in that particular calling till he entered upon the public ministry, as all the ancients do agree, Mark vi. 3 ; Mat. xiii. 55, 56. And we read also that all the patriarchs had their particular callings. Abel was a keeper of sheep. Gen. iv. 2 ; Noah was a husbandman, Gen. v. 29 ; the sons of Jacob were shepherds and keepers of cattle. Gen. xlvi. 34, &c. ; and all the apostles, before they were called to the work of the ministry, had their particular callings.
By the law of Mahomet, the great Turk himself is bound to exercise some manual trade or occupation.
Solon made a law,^ that the son should not be bound to relieve his father when old, unless he had set himself in his youth to some occupa- tion. And at Athens, every man gave a yearly account to the magis- trate by what trade or course of life he maintained himself, which, if he could not do, he was banished. And it is by all writers condemned as a very great vanity in Dionysius, that would needs be the best poet ; and Caligula, that would needs be the best orator ; and in Nero, that would needs be the best fiddler ; and so became the three worst princes, by minding more other men's business than their own particular calling. But for a man to evade or neglect private prayer under pretence of his particular calling, is agreeable to no scripture, yea, it is contrary to very many scriptures, as is evident by the many arguments formerly cited. Certainly no man's calling is a calling away from God or godliness. It never entered into the heart of God that our particular callings should ever drive out of doors our general calling of Christianity. Look, as our general calling must not eat up our particular calling, so our par- ticular calling must not eat up our general calling. Certainly our particular calling must give place to our general calling. Did not the woman of Samaria leave her water-pot, and run into the city, and say, * Come, see a man that told me all things that ever I did : is not this the Christ ?' John iv. 28, 29. Did not the shepherds leave their flocks in the field, and go to Bethlehem, and declare the good tidings of great joy that they had heard of the angel, viz. ' That there was born that day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which was Christ the Lord'? Luke ii. 8-21. And did not Christ commend Mary for that holy neglect of her particular calling, when she sat at his feet, and heard his word ? Luke X. 38, et seq. And what do all these instances shew, but that our particular callings must give the right hand to the general calling of Christianity ? Certainly the works of our general calling are far more great and glorious, more eminent and excellent, more high and noble, than the works of our particular callings are ; and therefore it is much more tolerable for our general calling to borrow time of our particular calling, than it is for our particular calling to borrow time of our general calling. Certainly those men are very ignorant or very profane, that either think themselves so closely tied up to follow their particular callings six days in the week, as that they must not intermeddle with any religious services, or that think their particular callings to be a gulf or a grave designed by God to swallow up private prayer in. God, who is the Lord of time, hath reserved some part of our time to him- self every day. Though the Jews were commanded to labour six days of the week, yet they were commanded also to offer up morning and 1 Plutarch, in the Life of Solon.
Mat. VI. 6.] the privy key of heaven. 209
evening sacrifice daily, Deut. vi. 6-8 ; Exod. xxix. 38, 39 ; Num. xxviii. 3.
The Jews divided the day into three parts :
The first, to prayer;
The second, for the reading of the law ;
And the 'third, for the works of their lawful callings.
As bad as the Jews were, yet they every day set a part of the day apart for religious exercises. Certainly they are worse than Jews that spend all their time about their particular callings, and shut closet- prayer quite out of doors. Certainly that man's soul is in a very ill case, who is so entangled with the incumbrances of the world, that he can spare no time for private prayer. If God be the Lord of thy mercies, the Lord of thy time, and the Lord of thy soul, how canst thou, with any equity or honour, put off his service under a pretence of much business ? That man is lost, that man is cursed, who can find time for an3rthing, but none to meet with God in his closet. That man is doubt- less upon the brink of ruin, whose worldly business eats up all thoughts of God, of Christ, of heaven, of eternity, of his soul, and of his soul con- cernments. But,