13. *All men therefore, as men, have one and the same important business, to act up to the excellency of their rational nature, and to make _reason_ and _order_ the law of all their designs and actions. All Christians, as Christians, have one and the same calling, to live according to the excellency of the Christian spirit, and to make the sublime precepts of the gospel the rule and measure of all their tempers in common life. The one thing needful to one, is the one thing needful to all.
*The _merchant_ is no longer to hoard up treasures upon earth; the _soldier_ is no longer to fight for glory; the great _scholar_ is no longer to pride himself in the depths of science; but they must all, with one spirit, _count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus_.
*The _fine lady_, must teach her eyes to weep, and be cloathed with humility. The _polite gentleman_ must exchange the gay thoughts of wit and fancy, for a _broken and a contrite heart_. The man of _quality_ must so far renounce the dignity of his birth, as to think himself miserable till he is _born again_. _Servants_ must consider their service as done unto God. _Masters_ must consider their servants as their brethren in Christ, that are to be treated as their fellow-members of the mystical body of Christ.
14. *_Young ladies_ must either devote themselves to piety, prayer, self-denial, and all good works in a _Virgin state_ of life, or else marry to be holy, sober, and prudent in the care of a family; bringing up their children in piety, humility, and devotion, and abounding in all other good works, to the utmost of their capacity. They have no choice of any thing else; but must devote themselves to God in one of these states. They may chuse a married, or a single life; but it is not left to their choice, whether they will make either state, a state of holiness, humility, and all other duties of ♦the Christian life. It is no more left in their power, because they have fortunes, or are born of rich parents, to divide themselves betwixt God and the world, or take such pleasures as their fortune will afford them, than to be sometimes chaste and modest, and sometimes not.
♦ ‘he’ replaced with ‘the’
*They are not to consider how much religion may secure them a _fair character_, or how they may add devotion to an _impertinent_, _vain_, and _giddy_ life; but must look into the _spirit_ and _temper_ of their prayers, into the _nature_ and _end_ of ♦Christianity; and then they will find, that whether married or unmarried, they have but one business upon their hands; to be wise, and pious, and holy; not in little modes and forms of worship, but in the whole turn of their minds, in the whole form of their behaviour, and in the daily course of their common life.
♦ ‘Christianiiy’ replaced with ‘Christianity’
15. *_Young gentlemen_ must consider what our blessed Saviour said to the young gentleman in the gospel; he bid _him sell all he had, and give to the poor_. Now, though this text does not oblige _all_ people to sell _all_; yet it certainly obliges all kinds of people to _employ all_ their estates in such wise and reasonable ways, as may shew, all they have is devoted to God; and that no part of it is kept from the poor, to be spent in needless, vain, and foolish expences.
*If therefore _young gentlemen_ propose to themselves a life of pleasure and indulgence; if they spend their estates in high living, in luxury and intemperance, in state and equipage, in pleasures and diversions, in sports and gaming, and such like wanton gratifications of their foolish passions, they have as much reason to look upon themselves to be _angels_, as to be disciples of Christ.
*Let them be assured, that it is the one only business of a _Christian gentleman_, to distinguish himself by good works, to be eminent in the most sublime virtues of the gospel, to bear with the ignorance and weakness of the vulgar, to be a friend and patron to all that dwell about him, to live in the utmost heights of wisdom and holiness, and shew through the whole course of his life a true religious greatness of mind. They must aspire after such a gentility, as they might have learnt from seeing the blessed Jesus, and shew no other spirit of a gentleman, but such as they might have got by living with the holy apostles. They must learn to love God with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their strength, and their neighbour as themselves; and then they have all the greatness and distinction that they can have here, and are fit for eternal happiness in heaven.
16. Thus, in all orders and conditions, either of men or women, this is the one holiness, which is to be the _common_ life of all Christians.