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

In short, you will have occasion to buy or sell every day, there's Work for your Veracity and Equity: And the acting of these Graces is so necessary; that you are but dead Christians without it; and so pleasing to God, that every such Act both strengthens the Habit, and opens the charitable Hand of God to give you more: And without these you will be but the World's drudge here, and that's sad, and the Devil's hereafter, and that's worse. A pious Tradesman may act Grace, as much as the greatest Rabbi. Famous is the Story of a Primitive Saint in Egypt, Who having for many Years retired himself from the World, and chiefly employed himself in the Acts of Mortification and Devotion; and being thereupon tempted to think himself among the holiest Men on Earth, and longed to know who should sit next him in Heaven, was warned to inquire for a Man in Alexandria who was holier than himself; and who should that be but, when he had found him, but a poor Cobbler, that worked hard most of the day, but was so circumspect in his ⟨p. 215⟩Life, so just in his Dealings, so thankful with his Wife for his mean fare, and then so truly devout in the Worship of God, that the poor Hermite returned crest-fallen to his Cell, and found that the honest Tradesman was like to sit above him in Heaven. So that the Exercise of Grace should be no uncouth Business to a Christian Tradesman.

In short, you will have occasion to buy or sell every day, there's Work for your Veracity and Equity: And the acting of these Graces is so necessary; that you are but dead Christians without it; and so pleasing to God, that every such Act both strengthens the Habit, and opens the charitable Hand of God to give you more: And without these you will be but the World's drudg here, and that's sad, and the Devil's hereafter, and that's worse. A pious Tradesman may act Grace, as much as the greatest Rabbi. Famous is the Story of a Primitive Saint in Egypt, Who having for many Years retired himself from the World, and chiefly imployed himself in the Acts of Mortification and Devotion; and being thereupon tempted to think himself among the holiest Men on Earth, and long'd to know who should sit next him in Heaven, was warned to inquire for a Man in Alexandria who was holier than himself; and who should that be but, when he had found him, but a poor Cobler, that work'd hard most of the day, but was so circumspect in his ⟨p. 215⟩