he whofe eternal pastime it will be to torment men, can really be folicitous of their eafe that he would chufe out for them the pleasantest paths; were it not that he knows they lead to the cham:bers of death? when Chrift whofe fole business it was to fave mens fouls, has prescrib'd us a course =which fhall affuredly conduct us unto happiness, what can it be but phrenfie to refort to Abaddon, the destroyer for an eafier method, or expect more gentleness and compaffion from the roaring Lion than from the Lamb of God.

NAY indeed this is not only to attribute tơ him more tenderness, but fidelity too: to believe him in oppofition to all the exprefs affirmations of God; and when he who is truth its felf has told us, that except we repent we shall all perish, Luk. 13. 5. and that without boliness no man shall fee the Lord, Heb. 12. 14. to disbelieve this only upon his bare credit, who was a lyar from the beginning: This indeed is a prodigious compofition of blafphemy and folly: a ftrange contumely to God, but fatal treachery to our felves: For alas Satan entertains us all this while but with a trick of Leger de main, and as fuglers make as believe we have cut the fring, which yet prefently after they fhew us whole: fo he perfwades us he has thus fever'd the Condition from the Promifes, when to our grief it will finally appear their union was inviolable. 'Tis not all our vain confidence that can reverse the immutable divine Law, we may, 'tis true, delude our felves, keep up our fpirits high; in a secure jollity eat,

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and drink, and rise up to play, and fo not only loyter, but revel out our day, till the night overtake us wherein no man can work, but we fhall never be able to propagate the deceit, where only it could avail us, to perfwade God to pay the hire to those that have been no labourers, or give the prize to any who have not run to obtain it. Let every man therefore in a just tenderness to his own Soul, ftrictly examine his hopes, try not how high they towre, but how deep they are founded; whether on the fand or on the rock; the flattering delufions of Satan, and the dreams of his own Phancy, or on the Promifes of God: for though all pretend to build on the latter, yet God knows, a multitude of foolish Architects there are, which mistake their ground, take that for affurance that is not: and this truly is a thing deserves to be foberly confider'd, they that moft greedily catch at the Promifes, do often embrace a cloud inftead of the Deity which they fo eagerly grafp, and thereby think to enjoy. But faithful obedience, and not infolent hopes, commend us unto God. The Gofpel indeed defcribes to us great and ineftimable felicities, but he that can think this gives him Title to them, may as well pretend to the whole World, because he has the Map of it in his house: for though it mentions them to all, yet it promises them to none but the obedient. And thofe Ifraelites which fled from the fight of Goliah, I Sam. 17.25. might as reafonably challenge the reward propos'd to the victor, as men can pretend

to

to enter into life without keeping the Commandments: this then is the one Criterion, by which a man may judge of his hopes; if they be but proportionable to his obedience, they are then regular, and fuch as will not make him afham'd, but prove incentives and engagements to every good work. Let him obey as much as he can, and then he need not deny himself the comfort of hoping as much as he can too. But if his hopes exceed this measure, and fquare themselves only by his wishes; if he look for Heaven, not because he is qualified for it, but because he wants or covets it; this is rather to dream than hope, and such whimfies will as foon inveft the begger in wealth, the defam'd in honour, the fick in health, or any man in any thing he has but a mind to, as compafs Heaven for the bold Fiduciary.

IT is indeed like thofe Lunacies wherein mens fancies adopt them Heirs to thofe Kingdoms, they know nothing more of, than the names: and fure the Analogy holds as well in the cure as the difeafe; let thefe Patients awhile be kept dark, taken from the dazling contemplations of their imaginary priviledges, to the fad reflection on their fins: and as God expoftulates with Ifrael, Ezek. 33. 26. Ye ftand upon the fword, ye work abomination, and ye defile every man his neighbours wife, and shall ye poffeß the land? So let them recite to themselves the Catalogues of their impie ties, and then ask their own hearts, whether these be the qualifications of those that shall reft in Gods holy hill? Whether these marks of the

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Beaft can ever rank them among the followers of the Lamb? And let thefe Confiderations be prest home, reiterated fo often, till by repeated strokes they have made good the other part of the method, made their Souls bleed, and by that Spi- ritual Phlebotomy, temper'd their swelling veins, allayed the over-fanguinefs of their conftitution: and then there remains but one thing more to complete the courfe, and that is bringing them into the Work-boufe, fetting them really to work out their salvation with fear and trembling, which they had fo near played away by confidence and prefumption: And when they have done thus,they have verified their hopes, and then may fafely reaffume them: They are return'd again with advantage to their firft point, and are that in soberneẞ and reality, which they then were only in fiction and imagination.

AND now would God men would once be content to be thus difabus'd, that they would not be fo in love with deceit, as in the Prophets phrafe, fer. 8. 5. to hold it faft: that they would not chufe Chymara's and phantaftick Images before real and fubftantial Felicities: and prefer that hope which will be fure to ship-wrack them, before that which will be an Anchor of the Soul, fure and ftedfast, Heb. 6. 19. and if this fo reasonable a propofal may be embrac't; if the World should,as the Spaniard faid, but rife wife one morning, what deal of dead merchandize would Satan have upon his hands: Many of those they call the comfortable Doctrines would want vent, which are

now

now the ftaple commodity of his Kingdom. What those are, 'tis no part of my defign to examine, it will be every mans particular concern to do it for himself; which he may do by this one teft; whether they more animate men to hope well, than to live well? Whether they bring Alexanders fword to cut afunder the Gordian knot, to fever between the promise and the condition? Or the fword of the Spirit to fubdue all to the obedience of Chrift? If the former, we may expect the fruits of fuch will be all that licentioufnefs which St. Paul defcribes, as the works of the flesh, Gal. 5. 19. it being not to be imagin'd, that the precepts of the Gofpel, which they divide from the promises only, that they might fall off, fhall then be voluntarily taken up in meer good nature and heroick Generofity; that those who are fo induftrious to avoid the neceffity of Chriftian praEtice, will make it their free-will-offering. If there fhould happen to be fome few of fo ingenuous a gratitude; yet'tis certain, that is not our common mould; few men will be better than they think their intereft bids them be, and therefore fuch principles are dangerous Seminaries of Libertinifm: and 'tis mens very important concernment not to admit them. Let not then their cheerful afpect recommend them to our embraces; men may be kill'd with too much Cordial; that which feems to refresh the Spirits may enflame the Blood, and though cold poifons have gotten the fame of being the most malignant, yet there are hot that are as infallibly mortiferous. Let it be