and made himself of no reputation for you, that you might render your felves contemptible in the fight of the Almighty; and died for you, to give life to your fins and follies? How abfurd, how impertinent, how contradictory is this belief? How! God, and encourage fin? Holiness it self, and find out a way to promote iniquity? Can there be any thing, in nature, more filly or ridiculous? This is abufing the Crofs of Chrift, not trusting to it; and you that make it an occafion of fin, take heed, it do not prove a ftumbling block unto you, and in ftead of crucifying fin in you, do not harden you in it. It is a thing not unusual with God, to punish sin with fin; and if men will be filthy, in despite of all endeavours to purifie them from their filthiness, to doom them to continue filthy ftill, and to make that their judgment, which at first was onely their tranfgreffion; Because there is no Truth, nor Mercy, nor Knowledge of God in the Land; but stealing, and committing Adultery, therefore your Daughters fhall com-. mit Whoredom, and your Spouses shall com.. mit Adultery, faith God, Hof. 4. 1, 2, 13. i. e. I will utterly withdraw my Grace, and my Holy Spirit from you, whence it must neceffarily come to pass, that you will fink deeper and deeper in your fins, till you fink into the nethermoft Hell; and that which was your delight, fhall prove your burthen, and your joy fhall be your plague; and when afterwards you. hall fee, what you have brought your selves to,

and

and would fain ftep back, you shall not be able, but die in your fins. A Judgment enough to make a Mans hair stand on end, and yet it is but reasonable, efpecially in this point, of making light of the death of Christ Jesus ; fo great a love, and written in fuch legible characters too, flighted and abused, and made a help to fin, improved into licentiousness, may justly be fuppofed to draw down that Judgment we read of, Isa. 6. 9, 10. Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and See ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and fout their eyes left they fee with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and underftond with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

But what is worse than all this, the death of the Son of God, which thus, inftead of mortifying, makes fin reign in your mortal bodies, will be the greatest witness against you in the last day. The fione fhall cry out of the woll, and the beam out of the timber shall answer against the oppreffor, faith the Prophet, Hab. 2. 11. And then fure, blood hath a louder voice, Heb. 12. 24. and the blood of a crucified Saviour, will be one day the greatest evidence against you. This, like Oyl, will encrease your flames, and prove the Brimftone; that fhall make the fire blaze the more. That Jefus, whose Crofs thou despisest now, will be thy accufer then ; and woe to that man, that hath the Judge himself for his enemy. That dreadful fpectacle, the Crucifixion

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Crucifixion of the Lord of life, which cannot engage thy Soul to confider the indignation, abhorrency, and hatred, God bears to fin, will be the great Argument then, that shall cover thy face with everlafting confufion. As lovely, as charming, as amiable as this Mercy looks now, it will look as difmal then, and that which is now thy Anchor, will be thy terror then, and thou wilt run away from Mercy as much then, as thou doeft from Gods thunder now, for thou wilt not be able to look upon this Mercy without blushing, and to think, how thou haft undervalued it, will make thee ready to hide thy felf from its brightness. Every beam will dart horrour into thy Soul, and every ray will be an arrow in thy heart. When thou fhalt fee in that day, the Spirits of Men made perfect, the Men in white, who have wash'd their robes,and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; when thou shalt reflect on their happiness, a happiness, which thou might'st have had as well as they, (if that blood could have perfwaded thee to cleanfe thy felf from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit) how will thine eyes flow with tears, to think what ftrong delufions thou haft lay'n under, in thinking, that this blood was onely fpilt, that thou mightest wallow more freely in the mire. The Lamb which was flain from the foundation of the World, and came to take away thy fins, as well as thy Neighbours, onely thou would'ft not be clean; that Lamb, I fay, as harmlefs as its looks

are

are now, will then change his afpect; and thou, that now thinkest a Lamb can be nothing but kind, wilt then find, by woful experience, that there is fuch a thing, as the indignation, and wrath of the Lamb.

CHAP. V.

Of the various mischiefs arising from neglect of Confideration. The want of it prov'd to be the Cause of most fins. Some Inftances are given in Atheism, Unbelief, Swearing, Pride, Carelefsness in God's Service, Luke-warmness, Covetousness, &c.

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Rom what hath been faid, we may fafely

draw this Conclufion, That want of Confideration is the unbappy Spring, from which most of the miferies and calamities of Mankind flow. There may be inferiour and fubordinate causes, as the barrenness of a Field may proceed from the Thorns which overspread it, from the ftones which ly fcatter'd upon it, from want of dunging, from the rushes that grow in it, &c. but the principal caufe, is the Sluggard's Idleness, and Laziness; fo here, the Miseries of Mankind may owe their exiftence -to various accidents, and occurrences, but the Mafter-cause is want of Confideration. Indeed God, Ifa. 5. 12, 13. makes this the great reafon

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reafon, Why his people were gone into Captivity, why their honourable Men were famifh'd, and their multitude dried up with thirst; why Hell had enlarged her felf, and open'd her mouth without meaSure, and their glory, and their Multitude, and their pomp defcended into it. It's the want of it, which, in all Ages, hath procur'd God's judgments, which by Confideration, might have been stopt and prevented. Had Adam improv'd his folitarinefs in the Garden of Eden, into ferious Confideration of the nature of the Precept his Master gave him, and reflected on the wifdom of the Supreme Law-giver, that made it, on the immenfe bounty, his great Benefactor had crown'd him withal, on the abominable ingratitude he would make himself guilty of, by breaking fo reasonable an Injunction. Had he but recollected himself (when tempted to eat of the dangerous fruit, under a pretence that it would open his eyes, and make him wife as God) and thought, that the Creator of Heaven and Earth knew beft, what degree of wisdom and knowledge became a creature of his quality and condition; and he that was all love, and beauty, and kindness, would not have interdicted him that fruit, if the food might have any way advanc'd his happiness, and that therefore there must be some cheat in the Temptation: That the Angels which were lately thrown down from their glory, could not but envy the felicity, he enjoyed, and for that reafon would appear in all manner of fshapes, and

try