battle oftener, we have more opportunities of victory. Every
temptation resisted, is an enemy subdued; and _he that ruleth his
own spirit, is better than he that taketh a city_.

_Will._ I don't quite understand you, master.

_Stock._ I will try to explain myself. There is no passion more
called out by the transactions of trade than covetousness. Now, 'tis
impossible to withstand such a master sin as that, without carrying
a good deal of the spirit of religion into one's trade.

_Will._ Well, I own I don't yet see how I am to be religious when
I'm hard at work, or busy settling an account. I can't do two things
at once; 'tis as if I were to pretend to make a shoe and cut out a
boot at the same moment.

_Stock._ I tell you both must subsist together. Nay, the one must be
the motive to the other. God commands us to be industrious, and if
we love him, the desire of pleasing him should be the main spring of
our industry.

_Will._ I don't see how I can always be thinking about pleasing God.

_Stock._ Suppose, now, a man had a wife and children whom he loved,
and wished to serve; would he not be often thinking about them while
he was at work? and though he would not be _always_ thinking nor
always talking about them, yet would not the very love he bore them
be a constant spur to his industry? He would always be pursuing the
same course from the same motive, though his words and even his
thoughts must often be taken up in the common transactions of life.

_Will._ I say first one, then the other; now for labor, now for
religion.

_Stock._ I will show that both must go together. I will suppose
you were going to buy so many skins of our currier--that is quite a
worldly transaction--you can't see what a spirit of religion has to
do with buying a few calves' skins. Now, I tell you it has a great
deal to do with it. Covetousness, a desire to make a good bargain,
may rise up in your heart. Selfishness, a spirit of monopoly, a
wish to get all, in order to distress others; these are evil
desires, and must be subdued. Some opportunity of unfair gain
offers, in which there may be much sin, and yet little scandal.
Here a Christian will stop short; he will recollect, _That he who
maketh haste to be rich shall hardly be innocent_. Perhaps the sin
may be on the side of your dealer--_he_ may want to overreach
_you_--this is provoking--you are tempted to violent anger, perhaps
to swear; here is a fresh demand on you for a spirit of p