4. It was this _general intention_ that made the _primitive Christians_ such eminent instances of piety. And if you will here stop, and ask yourself, why you are not as pious as the primitive Christians were, your own heart will tell you, it is neither through _ignorance_ or _inability_, but purely because you never _thoroughly intended_ it. You observe the same _Sunday-worship_ that they did; and you are _strict_ in it, because it is your full intention to be so. And when you as fully intend to be like them in their _common_ life; when you intend to please God in _all your actions_, you will find it as possible, as to be strictly exact in the service of the church. And when you have this _intention to please God in all your actions, as the happiest and best thing in the world_, you will find in you as great an aversion to any thing that is _vain_ and _impertinent_ in common life, whether of business or pleasure, as you now have to any thing that is _prophane_. You will be as fearful of living in any foolish way, either of spending your time, or your _fortune_, as you are now fearful of neglecting the public worship. 5. Now, who that wants this general _intention_, can be reckoned a Christian? And yet if it was among Christians, it would change the whole face of the world; exemplary holiness, would be as common and visible, as _buying_ and _selling_, or any trade in life. *Let a _clergyman_ but be thus _pious_, and he will _converse_ as if he had been brought up by an _apostle_. He will no more think and talk of _noble preferment_, than of _noble eating_, or a glorious _chariot_. He will no more complain of the _frowns_ of the _world_, or a _small cure_, or the want of a _patron_, than he will complain of a _laced coat_ or a _running horse_. Let him but _intend to please God in all his actions, as the happiest and best thing in the world_, and then he will know, that there is nothing _noble_ in a clergyman, but burning zeal for the salvation of souls; nor any thing poor in his profession, but _idleness_ and a _worldly spirit_. Again, let a _tradesman_ but have this _intention_, and it will make him a saint in his _shop_; his every day business will be a course of wise and reasonable actions, made holy to God, by being done in obedience to his will and pleasure. He will _buy_ and _sell_, and _labour_ and travel, because by so doing he can do some good to himself and others; but then, as nothing can please God but what is wise, and reasonable, and holy; so he will neither buy nor sell, nor labour in any _manner_, but such as is _wise_, and _reasonable_, and _holy_. He will therefore consider, not what arts, or methods, will make him richer and greater than his brethren, or remove him from a _shop_ to a life of _state_ and _pleasure_; but he will consider what arts, what methods, can make worldly business most acceptable to God, and make a life of trade a life of holiness, devotion, and piety. This will be the temper and