A61398:374
The trades-man's calling being a discourse concerning the nature, necessity, choice, &c. of a…
The trades-man's calling being a discourse concerning the nature, necessity, choice, &c. of a calling in general : and directions for the right managing of the tradesman's calling in particular / by Richard Steele ...
London: printed by J.D. for Samuel Sprint, 1684
Title page typeset from the transcription.
THE Tradesman's Calling. › Chapter 5 › Section 6: Of Religiousness in a Trade.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. The Tradesman's Religion lies in the due Exercise of Faith: Without this you can no way please God in your Calling. If you have not a Ground, and an Heart to believe, that your Calling is pleasing to God, every step you take in it, is guilty. Hereby you believe that there is a Divine Providence, which governs all Men, and all their Actions; which will quiet you in all Events whatsoever. When others fret and fume under their Losses, or swell and stroke themselves in their Success; this will discern the Hand of God both in giving and taking away, and so quiet and fix the Soul aright: Thou wilt keep him in perfect Peace whose Heart is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee: Isa. 26. 3. Hereby you will be able to live upon God's Promises for outward Supplies, and will be encouraged to use the means to obtain them; yea, when the Providence of God seems to contradict his Promises, when all things seem to conspire against you, by Faith you will see a Bow in the Cloud, God's Promise and Covenant to do you good by all: 2 Sam. 23. 5. Although my House be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things and sure: for this is all my Salvation, and all my Desire, although he make it not to grow: Whereas if ye only depend upon Second Causes, you shall see what ⟨p. 200⟩you may expect: Jer. 17. 5. Cursed is the Man that trusteth in Man, and maketh Flesh his Arm, and whose Heart departeth from the Lord: When a Man works and cares so as if he had no need of God, he shall be like the Heath in the Desert, and shall not see when good cometh, as it follows there. He that trusts in Man, makes him God; he that distrusts God, makes him Man.
2. The Tradesman's Religion lies in the due Exercise of Faith: Without this you can no way please God in your Calling. If you have not a Ground, and an Heart to believe, that your Calling is pleasing to God, every step you take in it, is guilty. Hereby you believe that there is a Divine Providence, which governs all Men, and all their Actions; which will quiet you in all Events whatsoever. When others fret and fume under their Losses, or swell and stroke themselves in their Success; this will discern the Hand of God both in giving and taking away, and so quiet and fix the Soul aright: Thou wilt keep him in perfect Peace whose Heart is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee: