to the first plaim, and firft verfe, and there they will fee how far otherwife they ought to carry it.

(3.) I would further put the queftion to you, What converfe do ye delight in? Some, it may be, like well. enough the company of perfons that are religious; but it is not for their religious converfe, but because they are affable, difcreet, learned, judicious, or have fome other fuch qualifications as these. If any of you fay ye love the company of religious perfons, is it for the religion of. their converfe? I fear few can fay it is; and therefore few can fay they are clean in this matter. I fhall not undertake to difcourfe of all the fins of converfe; it would be almoft endless. Only I would, with refpect to your converfe, defire you every night to put a question or two to your own hearts, and thereby you will difcover much fin. [1.] Say, Tell me now, O my foul, what have I been doing in company? Have I bridled my tongue? Have I kept it from vain, idle, and fruit lefs difcourfe, this day, in company with others? James i. 26. "If any man among you feem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, that man's religion is vain ;" and confequently all he doth is fin. [2.] Have I endeavoured to be edifying in my difcourfe? Eph. iv. 29. "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the ufe of edifying, that it may minifter grace to the hearers.' [3.] Have I fpoken evil of no body? Tit. iii. 2. Put them in mind to speak evil of no man; for we ourfelves were fometimes foolish, difobedient," &c. 1 Pet. ii. 1. "Wherefore, laying afide all malice, and all guile, and hypocrifies, and envies, and all evil-fpeakings, as new-born babes, defire the fincere milk of the word, that they may grow thereby." One that would obferve the ordinary converse of moft part of people, would be ready to think, that either they never read or heard thefe laws, or that they never obferv, ed what they heard. Look to yourfelves here, and ob ferve your own ways, and O what fin will appear in them! Thefe three queftions will difcover almost innumerable fins every day; and if one day have fo many, what will many days have? Nay, how many fins in fome months, or years, will you be guilty of? But,

(4.) If we proceed to confider you as you are related to others,

others, we will be fure to make further difcoveries of fin in your carriage. All of you fland fome one or more ways related to others: ye are either masters or fervants, parents or children, husbands or wives now, every one of thefe relations have peculiar duties belonging to them, and lay those who contract fuch relations under peculiar obligations to walk according to the rules prefcribed them of God; and therefore we may and do fir, in walking contrary to thefe divine prescriptions. We shall not attempt to mention the particular fius you may be guilty of in your feveral relations; this were a work that would almoft be endlefs therefore we fhall only pitch upon fome generals, which may difcover to your confciences that ye fin in all of them. [1] I fay most of you do fin in contracting thefe relations. How few masters dare fay, that in the choice. of their fervants they went to God for counfel? And how few mafters can say, that ever they acknowledged Ced in the choice of their fervants. Nay, it may be, when we have been anxioufly defirous to have good fervants, even then we have not been at the pains to confult God; not minding that gracious direâion that is given by the Spirit of , Phil. iv. 6. "Be careful for nothing; but in: every ing by prayer and fupplication, with thanksgiving, your requests be made known unto God." Nay, is it not to be feared, that, in the choice of husbands and wives, few do inquire the mind of God? Now, I am fure, if ye deal impartially with your own hearts, ye will find, that here ye bave finned, and have not acknowledged God in your ways. [2.] Do ye feek direction of God, how to carry in your relations? I fear the confciences of many of you can tell, that ye never are at pains to inquire in reference to the duties called for at your hands. Moft are quickfighted enough in obferving the advantages or difadvantages that redound to their temporal concerns by thefe relations, but have never a ferious thought of the duties called for at their hand; and therefore herein ye may all in more or less, find yourfelves guilty. [3.] Do ye make it your aim to promote the spiritual advantage of your relations? Servants, do ye pray for your masters? Mafters, do ye pray for your fervants, that they may be aequainted with God's ways? If not, furely ye fin; for prayers are to be made for all, but in a fpecial manner for thofe

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thofe in whom we have fo peculiar a concernment. Nay, we fear, which is yet more fad, that there are not a few bufbands and wives, parents and children, who pray not for one another. How fad is it to think, that there should in thefe relations, be fo much care for the outward man, and so little for the inward? The parent will toil himself night and day before the child want bread, and it may be, fo will the child do for the parent; and yet, it may be, never one of them spent an hour in wrestling with God about one another's eternal salvation. Are there no confciences here this day accufing any of fins in this matter? Sure I am, there are here who have ground fufficient for accufation.

(5.) We hall follow you into your clofets, and there a little inquire what ye do. [1.] Whether take ye most time in the morning for adorning your fouls, or for adorning your bodies? I fear the foul gets the least part of your time; nay, it may be, fome of you will go abroad to your employments, and never bow a knee to God. Sure here is fin enough to fink you lower than the grave. [2] If you do pray in fecret, what leads you to it? Is it confcience of duty? Is it cuftom, or fome fuch principle as this? I fear few can fay, that when they go to prayer, they do it from a fincere refpect to their duty; and therefore, I fear, but few can juftify themselves as to their design in the duty. [3] When you do pray, is it a burden to you? Are ye foon weary of ir, and glad when it is over and by hand, as it were? I fear most of your confciences cau tell, that it is indeed fo, that ye fay of the fervice of God, what a burden is it to you? [4] Once more, I would ask you, what good get you by your prayers? Can ye ever fay, that you were heard? Can you ever fay, ye received grace for enabling you to the confcientious difcharge of any duty? Most part, I fear, can fay no more of their prayers, but that they prayed, or rather have faid words without any fenfe, either of the advantage of doing fo, or of the need they ftand in of the things they afk of God in prayer: doth not 'confcience tell, that it is fo with many of you?

(5.) And lastly, I would come a little nearer for the difcovery of your finfulness, I have a question or two to put to you, in reference to your thoughts. And, [1.] I ask you, What thoughts are most numerous? Whether spend ye most thoughts about your fouls, or about your bodies?

about

about God, or about the world? about other things that contribute nothing to your hat piness, or about that which tends to the eternal fecurity of your fouls? Here, if you look in, you will find crowds of fins. [2.] What thoughts take ye most delight in ? If these be carnal and earthly, then fuch is your mind; and "to be carnally minded is death," Rom. viii. 6. [3.] What thoughts do je allow yourselves in? and to what fort of lem do ye give way? If these be not fuch as make for the glory of God, then here ye are found guilty before God.

Now, we have done with you of a middle age. In what we have faid for your conviction, we have rather mentioned fuch things as are unquestionably finful, than endeavoured to restrict ourselves to thofe fins that are peculiarly incident to your age. This we have willingly fhunned, because it would have obliged us to spend almost as many fermons as there are different ways of life to which perfons of this age do betake themselves. Before I proceed to the third fort of perfons, I fhall put a few questions to you. (1.) Though ye had been guilty of no more fils, fave thefe which we charged not long ago upon children, would not thele have been fufficient to have ruined you? (2.) What will your cafe be then, who have finned over and above all thefe which we have now laid to your charge, and referred to your own confciencs for proof of what we have faid? (3.) When generals make you guilty of fo many fis, what will particulars do? When ye are found guilty of fo many finful ways in your thoughts or words; what will be your cafe, when you are brought to particulars; for example, if ye fin, by fpeaking idly, or evil of others what will it amount -to when every particular idle word fhall be charged upon you? (4.) If every fin deferves the wrath of God, what will be the cafe of those who shall step into eternity laden : with all these innumerable evils? How many hells will their one hell have in it?

Think, and think feriously, upon these things, and I be lieve ye will find it hard to rest satisfied, till ye understand how fuch vaft debts may be difcharged, and how ye shall anfwer when reproved for fo many and fo great offences. Think on these things, I fay, and dwell upon the thoughts of them, till ye be made to fee your own mifery, and then the news of a Saivour will be welcome.

I thall

I fhall now proceed, in the third place, to speak to you who are old men. Ye whofe faces fpeak your age, and tell that ye are quickly to be gone, we are now particularly to addrefs ourselves to you, and to make good our charge of fin against yon, from incontestable evidences and proofs. Give ear therefore, old men and old women; though you be posting off the stage, and it may be, are within a few removes of eternity, yet ye have not perhaps duly confidered your own state and condition: we must tell you, in God's name, ye have finned, and come fhort of his glory. And, for proof of this,

1. We need go no further than your very faces. What has confumed your youthful beauty? What has turned that fmoothnefs, which in the days of your youth was, it may be, your own delight, and that of others, into thefe many wrinkles which now every one fees, and ye may feel? Has not fin, or God upon the account of fin, done it? "Thou haft filled me with wrinkles," fays Job," which is a wit ness against me, and my leannefs rifing up in me, beareth witnefs to my face," Job xvi. 8. If ye be not finners, tell me, I pray, whence are the unfteady hands, the dim eyes, the mouldered teeth, that palenefs of the vifage, that approach-. es near to the colour of that mould into which a little hence ye are to be turned? Are not all these things proofs of your guilt, and witneffes against you?

2. Have ye not paffed through childhood and youth? and have not ye the fins done in these ages to account for? What, how many, and how grievous they are, ye may in fome measure understand from what has been difcourfed on this head fome days paft. Now fure, if your consciences have been awake all the while, you might understand your concernment in these things, and how deeply guilty ye are, though ye had no more to account for but thefe. It is accounted by the Spirit of God, to be one of the great miseries of the wicked, that they fhall lie down in their graves with their bones full of the fins of their youth,: "His bones are full of the fins of his youth, which fhall lie down with him in the duft," Job. xx. 11. Thefe, though there were no more, will rot your bones, gnaw your hearts, and make you lose the repofe which many times ye propose to yourfelves in the grave.

3. Ye have had much time, and have, no doubt, loft much ›