_CHRISTIANITY requires a renouncing of the world, and all worldly tempers._
I. The Christian religion being to raise a new, spiritual, and, as yet, invisible world, and to place man among thrones, principalities and spiritual beings, is at entire enmity with this present corrupt state of flesh and blood.
It ranks the world, with the flesh and the devil, as an equal enemy to those glorious ends which it proposes.
Accordingly the gospel lays its foundation, in utterly renouncing those false goods and enjoyments, which feed the vanity and corruption of our nature, fill our hearts with foolish and wicked passions, and keep us separate from God, the only happiness of all spirits.
II. For not only the vices, the wickedness, and vanity of this world, but even its most lawful concerns, if unduly pursued, make men unable to enter into the true state of Christianity.
He who is busied in an _honest_ calling, may, on that account, be finally rejected of God.
*For it is no more pardonable to be less affected to the things of God, for the sake of any worldly business, than for the indulgence of our pride, or any other sinful passion: every business of life being equally trifling, when compared with the one thing needful.
III. Men of serious business indeed generally censure those, who trifle away their time in vain and impertinent pleasures.
But they don’t consider that their own employments also are as vain as vanity itself: they don’t consider that any business or employment, if it has got hold of the heart, renders men as vain and odious in the sight of God, as any sensual gratification.
They may call it an _honest care_, a _wise industry_, or by any other plausible name. But it is a wisdom which can no more recommend itself to the eyes of God than the wisdom of an _epicure_.
*For it shews as wrong a turn of mind, and as great a contempt of the true good, to neglect any degrees of piety for the sake of business, as for any the most trifling pleasures of life.
IV. *The wisdom of this world indeed gives an importance and air of greatness to several ways of life, and ridicules others as vain and contemptible, which differ only in their kind of vanity. But the wisdom from above condemns all labour as equally fruitless, which hinders our labouring after everlasting life. For what can it signify whether a man forgets God in his _farm_, or in a _shop_, or at a _gaming table_? The world is full as important in its _pleasures_ as in its _cares_; there is no more wisdom in the one than in the other. And the man who, by the _cares_ and _business_ of the world is made less affected to the things of God, is no wiser than he who takes his delight in running _foxes_ and _hares_ out of breath.
For there is no wisdom in any thing but religion. Nor is any way of life less vain than another, but as it is made serviceable to piety, and conspires with the designs of religion, to raise mankind to a participation and enjoyment of the divine nature.
V. Let those who are not at all ashamed to be devoted to the cares and business of the world, consider those states of life, which they own to be vain and foolish, and contrary to religion.
Some people have no other _care_, than how to give their _palate_ fresh pleasure, and enlarge the happiness of _tasting_.
Others live to no other purpose, than to breed _dogs_, and attend the sports of the field.
Men of sober business, who seem to act the grave part of life, generally condemn these ways of life.
But why are they to be condemned? Produce but the true reason why any of these are vain and sinful, and the same reason will conclude against every way of life which is not wholly devoted to God.
VI. Let the man who is deep in worldly business, but shew the vanity and shame of a life devoted to _pleasures_, and the same reasons will shew the vanity and shame of a life filled with worldly _cares_. So that whosoever can condemn sensuality, ambition, or any way of life upon the principles of reason and religion, carries his own condemnation within his own breast, unless his life be entirely devoted to God.
VII. It is granted that some cares are made necessary by the necessities of nature. And the same also may be observed of some pleasures, as the pleasures of eating, drinking and rest. But if reason and religion do not limit these _pleasures_ by the necessities of nature, we fall from rational creatures into drones, sots, gluttons, and epicures.
*In like manner our _care_ after some worldly things is necessary. But if this care is not bounded by the just wants of nature, if it wanders into unnecessary pursuits, and fills the mind with false desires and cravings; if it wants to add an imaginary splendour to the plain demands of nature, it is vain and irregular; it is the care of an _epicure_, a longing for _sauces_ and _ragous_, and corrupts the soul like any other sensual indulgence.