The trades-man's calling being a discourse concerning the nature, necessity, choice, &c. of a…

Plead not your Weariness in your Calling, that you are quite tired before Night, (remember you cannot plead this in the Morning) that you have no Strength nor Spirits left you. For immoderate Labour may be sinful as well as immoderate Meat or Drink. God requires no more, nor accepts, nor will bless such toiling as is inconsistent with the Ability of your Bodies, or the good of your Souls. You should Reason thus with your selves, Have I taken pains all day for a little Money, and shall not I strain my self a little at night for Pardon and Grace? If I have tired my Legs about the Earth, shall I not weary my Knees to get to Heaven? If I have wearied my Arms to get a Living here, shall I not stretch out my Hands to get a Crown hereafter? O if you had but a spark of Zeal, you would answer your selves. Zeal revives the languishing Spirits, infuses new Spirits, makes a Man all Spirit for a time. This in a false Religion will raise up a Man to his Orisons at Midnight, will send him some hundreds of Miles on Pilgrimage, &c. It's true, it works more languidly in a true Religion; Men swim faster down than up the Stream; yet when a Man considers, that the success of his Affairs depends upon God, and that he cannot keep Friendship with him, if he hold not Correspondence; and that most certainly he ⟨p. 203⟩can and will make the Tradesman amends by the Years end, for every minute that he sincerely devotes to his Service: This should bear down all Difficulty, and oblige him to the constant Worship of God.

Plead not your Weariness in your Calling, that you are quite tir'd before Night, (remember you cannot plead this in the Morning) that you have no Strength nor Spirits left you. For immoderate Labour may be sinful as well as immoderate Meat or Drink. God requires no more, nor accepts, nor will bless such toiling as is inconsistent with the Ability of your Bodies, or the good of your Souls. You should Reason thus with your selves, Have I taken pains all day for a little Money, and shall not I strain my self a little at night for Pardon and Grace? If I have tir'd my Legs about the Earth, shall I not weary my Knees to get to Heaven? If I have wearied my Arms to get a Living here, shall I not stretch out my Hands to get a Crown hereafter? O if you had but a spark of Zeal, you would answer your selves. Zeal revives the languishing Spirits, infuses new Spirits, makes a Man all Spirit for a time. This in a false Religion will raise up a Man to his Orisons at Midnight, will send him some hundreds of Miles on Pilgrimage, &c. It's true, it works more languidly in a true Religion; Men swim faster down than up the Stream; yet when a Man considers, that the success of his Affairs depends upon God, and that he cannot keep Friendship with him, if he hold not Correspondence; and that most certainly he