thing, and declare the contrary. So far is it from this, that if a finner entertains ferious thoughts of returning to God, and do but once move towards him, how ready is he to receive him! This is in a very lively manner defcribed to us in the parable of the prodigal fon, who, when he was returning home, and was yet a great way off, what hafte doth his father make to meet him? He Jaw him, and had compaffion, and ran. And if there be no impediment on God's part, why fhould there be any on ours? One would think, all the doubt and difficulty fhould be on the other fide, whether God would be pleafed to fhew mercy to fuch great offenders as we have been but the bufinefs doth not stick there. And will

we be miferable by our own choice, when the grace of God hath put it into our power to be happy? I have done with the first thing, the course which David here took for the reforming of his life: I thought on my ways.. I proceed to the

Second, The fuccefs of this courfe. It produced ac tual and speedy reformation: I turned my feet unto thy teftimonies: I made hafte, and delayed not to keep thy come mandments. And if we confider the matter thoroughly, and have but patience to reafon out the cafe with our felves, and to bring our thoughts and deliberations to fome iffue, the conclufion must naturally be, the quitting of that evil and dangerous courfe in which we have lived. For fin and confideration cannot long dwell together. Did but men confider what fin is, they would have for many unanswerable objections against it, fuch ftrong fears and jealoufies of the miferable iffue and event of a wicked life, that they would not dare to continue any longerin it.

I do not fay, that this change is perfectly made at once. A ftate of fin and holiness are not like two ways that are just parted by a line, fo as a man may step out of the one full into the other; but they are like two ways. that lead to two very diftant places, and confequently are at a good distance from one another; and the fartherany man hath travelled in the one, the farther he is from the other: 10 that it requires time and pains to pafs from the one to the other. It fometimes fo happens, that fome perfons are by a mighty conviction and refolution, and by a very extraordinary and overpowering degree of

U. 3

God's

God's grace, almoft perfectly reclaimed from their fins at once, and all of a fudden tranflated out of the kingdom of darkness, into the kingdom of his dear Son. And thus it was with many of the first converts to Christianity; as their prejudices againft the Chriftian religion were strong and violent, fo the Holy Spirit of God was pleafed to work mightily in them that believed. But, in the ufual and fettled methods of God's grace, evil habits are mastered and fubdued by degrees, and with a great deal of conflict; and many times, after they are routed, they rally, and make head again; and it is a great while be fore the contrary habits of grace and virtue are grown up to any confiderable degree of ftrength and maturity, and before a man come to that confirmed ftate of goodnefs, that he may be faid to have conquered and morti-fied his lufts. But yet this ought not to difcourage us. For fo foon as we have ferioufly begun this change, we are in a good way; and all our endeavours will have the acceptance of good beginnings, and God will be ready to help us and if we purfue our advantages, we shall every day gain ground, and the work will grow eafier upon our hands and we who moved at firft with fo much flownefs and difficulty, fhall after a while be enabled to run the ways of God's commandments with plea fure and delight.

I have done with the two things I propounded to speak to from thefe words; the courfe here prefcribed, and the fuccefs of it. And now, to perfuade men to take this courfe, I fhall offer two or three arguments.

1. That confideration is the proper act of reasonable. creatures. This argument God himself ufes to bring men to a confideration of their evil ways, If. xlvi. 8. Remember, and fhew yourselves men bring it again to mind, Oye tranfgreffors. To confider our ways, and to call our fins to remembrance, is to fhew ourselves men, It is the great fault and infelicity of a great many, that they generally live without thinking, and are acted by their prefent inclinations and appetites, without any confideration of the future confequences of things, and without fear of any thing, but of a prefent and fenfible danger; like brute creatures, who fear no evils but what are in view, and juft ready to fall upon them; whereas to a prudent and confiderate man, a good or evil in reverfion

reverfion is capable of as true an estimation, proportionably to the greatnefs and distance of it, as if it were really prefent. And what do we think God has given us our reafon and understandings for, but to foresee evils at a diflance, and to prevent them; to provide for our future fecurity and happiness; to look up to God our maker, who hath taught us more than the beafts of the earth, and made us wifer than the fowls of heaven; but to confider what we do, and what we ought to do, and what makes most for our future and lafting interest, and what against it? What can a beaft do worse, than to act without any confideration and defign, than to purfue his prefent inclination without any apprehenfion of true danger? The most dull and ftupid of all the brute creatures can hardly exercise less reason than this comes to. So that, for a man not to confider his ways, is, to the very best intents and purposes, to be without underStanding, and like the beafts that perish.

2. This is the end of God's patience and long-fuffering towards us, to bring us to confideration. The great defign of God's goodness, is to lead men to repentance. He winks at the fins of men, that they may repent. He bears long with us, and delays the punishment of our fins, and doth not execute judgement fpeedily; because he is loath to furprise men into deftruction; because he would give them the liberty of fecond thoughts, time to reflect upon themselves, and to confider what they have done, and to reason themselves into repentance. Confider this, all ye that forget God, left his patience turn into fury, and he tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver you.

3. Confideration is that which we must all come to one time or other. Time will come when we fhall confider, and cannot help it; when we shall not be able to divert our thoughts from those things which we are now fo loath to think upon. Our confciences will take their opportunity to bring our ways to remembrance, when fome great calamity or affliction is upon us. Thus it was with the prodigal when he was brought to the very laft extremity, and was ready to perish with hunger, then he came to himself. When we come to die, then we fhall think of our ways with trouble and vexation enough; and how glad would we then be, that we had

time

time to confider them? And perhaps, while we are. wifhing for more time, eternity will fwallow us up. To be fure, in the other world, a great part of the misery of wicked men will confift in furious reflexions upon themselves, and the evil actions of their lives. It is faid of the rich voluptuous man in the parable, that in bell he lift up his eyes, being in torment; as if he had never confidered and bethought himself till that time. But, alas! it will then be too late to confider; for then confideration will do us no good; it will ferve to no other purpose, but to aggravate our mifery, and to multiply our ftings, and to give new life and rage to those vultures which will perpetually prey upon our hearts. But how much a wifer courfe would it be, to confider thefe things in time, in order to our eternal peace and comfort; to think of them while we may redrefs them, and avoid the dismal confequences of them; than when our cafe is defperate, and past remedy?

And now what can I say more to perfuade every one of us to a confideration of our own ways? We are generally apt to bufy ourselves in obferving the errors and mifcarriages of our neighbours, and are forward to mark and cenfure the faults and follies of other men; but how few defcend into themfelves, and turn their eyes inward, and say, What have I done? It is an excellent faying of Antoninus the great Emperor and philoso pher : "No man was ever unhappy for not prying in65 to the actions and conditions of other men ; but that "man is neceffarily unhappy who doth not observe "himself, and confider the state of his own foul."

This is our proper work; and now is a proper season for it, when we pretend to God and men to fet apart a folemn time for the examination of ourselves, and for a ferious review of our lives in order to humiliation and repentance, to the reforming and amendment of what is amifs. And though we would venture to dissemble with men, yet let us not diffemble with God also: For fhall not be that pondereth the heart confider it ? and he that keepeth the foul, fhall not be know it? and shall not: he render to every man according to his ways?

I know it is a very unpleasant work which I am now putting you upon, and therefore no wonder that men

are

are generally fo backward to it; because it will of ne ceffity give fome prefent difturbance to their minds. They whofe lives have been very vitious, are fo odious a fight, fo horrid a fpectacle to themfelves, that they cannot endure to reflect upon their own ways; of all things in the world they hate confideration, and are ready to fay to it, as the evil spirit did in the gospel to our Saviour, What have I to do with thee? art thou come to torment me before the time? But let not this affright us from it for whatever trouble it may cause at prefent, it is the only way to prevent the anguish and the torments of eternity.

Let me

The things which I have offered to your confideration, are of huge moment and importance. They do not concern your bodies and estates, but that which is more truly yourselves, your immortal fouls, the dearest and moft durable part of yourselves; and they do not concern us for a little while, but for ever. therefore bespeak your most serious regard to them in the words of Mofes to the people of Ifrael, after he had fet the law of God before them, together with the bleffings promifed to obedience, and the terrible curfe threatened to the tranfgreffion of it, Deut. xxxii. 46. 47. Set your hearts to the words which I teftify to you this day: for it is not a vain thing; because it is your life. Your life, your eternal life and happiness depends upon it.

And befides a tender regard to yourfelves and your own interests, which methinks every man out of a natural defire of being happy, and dread of being mife rable, fhould be forward enough to confider, be pleafed likewife to lay to heart the influence of your example upon others. I fpeak now to a great many perfons, the eminence of whofe rank and quality renders their examples fo powerful, as to be able almoft to give autho rity either to virtue or vice. People take their fashions from you, as to the habits of their minds, as well as their bodies. So that upon you chiefly depends the ruin or reformation of manners, our hopes or despair of a better world. What way foever you go, you are followed by troops. If you run any finful or dangerous courfe, you cannot perish alone in your iniquity; but thousands will fall by your fide, and ten thousands at your right band. And, on the contrary, it is very much in your power