betwixt felf-love and the love of God, we shall be miferable both here and hereafter;-and that, how far foever we come fhort of this fingleness of mind, fo far we shall come short of that peace and happiness we strive for.

For this is God's gracious defign in difappointing us fo conftantly, whenever we look for happiness any where but in him, and in the knowledge of his ways; that finding nothing but uneafinefs in every thing else, we may at laft think fit to feek for peace where it may be found, namely, in the way of God's commandments.

And having once furrendered our hearts and affections, and all that belongs to us, into the hands of God, we fhall then find by experience, that this only can give us peace of mind and conscience in the midst of a diftracted world; this only can moderate all our eager defires after things uncertain and perishable; this only can make us content under the disappointments and croffes, which by the providence of God we fo often meet with; and lastly, this, and this only, can make the thoughts of death tolerable to flesh and blood. In fhort, this is to follow the advice of our bleffed Lord, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteoufnefs; to the obfervance of which he has promifed all other bleffings, the bleffings of this life, and of that which is to come.

The

The double-minded man, as his character is, fo is his condition, oppofite to this we have just mentioned. He dares not for his life have no religion; and yet he cannot find in his heart to give up himfelf entirely to God's fervice. He confeffes that it is reafonable, and his intereft, to take care of his foul; and yet the pleasures or the business of life will not fuffer him to do it in good earnest. he prays to God, it is out of custom, and not for grace to make him better. He confults his own inclinations in every thing he does; and while he does fo, he knows that he fhall never get out of this fnare.

If

One need not defcribe the unhappiness of fuch a state of life, which makes a man always difpleafed and weary with himself; afraid of danger, and yet not refolved to take the way to escape it; ftriving to avoid the fight of himself, because of the confufion and diforder he finds in his own breaft; one while purpofing to break through all things that oppofe his converfion, and presently diverted by new temptations; wondering at his own inconftancy; lamenting his condition, wishing it were otherwife; refolving to take up for good and all, and foon forgetting his good purposes.

I appeal to your experience, whether this is not the cafe of very many, who notwithstanding hope that all will be well with them

at the last.

But

But I am afraid they have not well confidered the extreme danger of such a state. Let us but represent to ourselves a mind faintly refolved to live as becomes the gospel, and ftrongly inclined to the defires of the body, a man who has made a thousand refolutions of reforming, and yet has kept none of them, or but very imperfectly.

Let us fuppofe, (what is really true) that the longer he has gone on in this uncertain way, the greater difficulty he will still find to do what he purpofeth: let us further fuppofe, (and it is what generally happens) that he will thus go on refolving and doing nothing in good carneit, till death furprize him, unprepared for fo great a change. And can I defcribe, or you imagine, a cafe more defperate or lamentable? And yet (fuch is our blindness) this is too often the cafe of those who will not believe they are in danger, only because they fully refolve not to die in that condition; and yet they do die in that condition, becaufe they do not apprehend the danger of living in it.

And indeed the danger is greater for this very reafon, that it is not feared. Great and crying fins, like great and bloody wounds, make people uneafy, until they have taken fome care about them. And yet, after all, a ftate of indifference, a general neglect of duty and religion, like a gangrene that is fcarce perceived, is as hard to be cured, and makes a

man

man as incapable of falvation, as the most fcandalous vices.

Now this being really the cafe of an infinite number of people, who, because they are not fcandaloufly lewd or profane; because they are fometimes awakened with a sense of their fins, and lament their infirmities; because they often wish they were better, and faintly purpofe to overcome the floth that hinders their fincere converfion; they do therefore hope there is no great danger. When, God knows, there are none fo far from falvation, as those that are fallen into a way of repenting, and returning to their fins again.

I wish it were in my power to reprefent unto you, and to myself, the infinite guilt and danger of fuch a state, in which (while a man continues in it) he abuses the goodness of God, makes a mock of the means of grace, does despite to the Holy Spirit, and is in the greatest hazard of being abandoned of God. For the great aggravation of this fin is, that a man cannot plead either ignorance or inability. If he did not know religion to be neceffary, he would not do what he does; and if it be neceffary, why does he do fo little? And if the Spirit of God has enabled a man to do any thing that is good, it fhould convince him, that if he is not able to do every thing that is required of him, it is because he does not, in good earneft, pray to God to make him both willing and able.

The

7

He must know very little of himself and of religion, who is not fenfible of this struggle; and he muft ftill have a lefs value for his own happiness, who does not desire, at least, to bring his mind to a greater certainty, and to refolve one way or other, either that the care of his foul ought to be his great concern, or that he may follow the defires of his heart, and the ways of the world, without any great hazard.

A very little confideration, one would think, might convince any man, that if religion (as we all feem to believe) be neceffary to obtain the favour of God, and to efcape that punishment which our fins have deserved, why then fo much must be neceffary as may enable us to obtain those ends. And yet, as easy as it is to fee this, people will not be perfuaded, but that a great deal lefs religion and concern for their fouls will ferve their turn, than God hath exprefsly required; and are but too apt (with thofe mentioned in the book of Deuteronomy) to bless themselves in their hearts, faying, We shall have peace, though we walk in the imaginations of our hearts. Notwithstanding the dreadful curfe there pronounced against all that fhall thus flatter themfelves.

I know not, therefore, whether one can do a greater fervice to the fouls of men, than to endeavour to fet this matter in a true light. That fuch as have any true concern for themChap. xxix. 19. felves,