barous too, that she should kill her husband, and murder her Saviour: titles fhe seems fo fond of, and that have been fo profitable to her; and that he would recommend herself by, though without all juftice. But her children are reduced fo entirely under the dominion of darkness, by means of their continued difobedience to the manifeftation of the divine light in their fouls, that they forget what man once was, or they fhould now be; and know not true and pure Christianity when they meet it; yet pride themfelves to profefs it. Their measures are fo carnal and falfe about falvation, they call good evil, and evil good; they make a devil a Chriftian, and a faint a devil. So that though the unrighteous latitude of their lives be matter of lamentation, as to themfelves it is of deftruction; yet that common apprehenfion, that they may be children of God while in a ftate of difobedience to his holy commandments; and difciples of Jesus, though they revolt from his crofs, and members of his true church, which is without fpot or wrinkle, notwithstanding their lives are full of fpots and wrinkles; is, of all other deceptions upon themselves, the moft pernicious to their eternal condition. For they are at peace in fin, and under a fecurity in their tranfgreffion. Their vain hope filences their convictions, and overlays all tender motions to repentance; fo that their mistake about their duty to God, is as mischievous as their rebellion against him.

Thus they walk on precipices, and flatter themselves, till the grave fwallows them u

and the judgment of the great God breaks their lethargy, and undeceives their poor wretched fouls with the anguish of the wicked, as the reward of their work.

S. VIII. This has been, is, and will be the doom of all worldly Chriftians: an end fo dreadful, that if there were nothing of duty to God, or obligation to men, being a man, and one acquainted with the terrors of the Lord in the way and work of my own falvation, compaffion alone were fufficient to excite me to this diffuafive against the world's fuperftitions and lufts, and to invite the profeffors of Chriftianity to the knowledge and obedience of the daily cross of Chrift, as the alone way, left by him, and appointed us to bleffedness; that they, who now do but ufurp the name, may have the thing; and by the power of the crofs, to which they are now dead, instead of being dead to the world by it, may be made partakers of the refurrection that is in Christ Jefus, unto newness of life. For they that are truly in Chrift, that is, redeemed by and interested in him, are new creatures. They have received a new will; fuch as does the will of God, not their own. They pray in truth, and do not mock God, when they fay, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. They have new affections; fuch as are fet on things above," and make Chrift their eternal treasure. New faith; fuch as overcomes the fnares and temptations of the world's fpirit in themselves, or 9 Col. iii, 1, 2, 31 John v. 4, 5.

p Gal, vi. 15,

S

t

as it appears through others: and laftly, new works; not of a fuperftitious contrivance, or of human invention, but the pure fruits of the Spirit of Chrift working in them, as love, joy, peace, meeknefs, long-fuffering, temperance, brotherly-kindness, faith, patience, gentleness, and goodness, against which there is no law; and they that have not this Spirit of Christ, and walk not in it, the apostle Paul has told us, are none of his; but the wrath of God, and condemnation of the law, will lie upon them. For if there is no condemnation to them that are in Chrift, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, which is Paul's doctrine; they that walk not according to that Holy Spirit, by his doctrine, are not in Christ: that is, have no interest in him, nor just claim to falvation by him: and confequently there is condemnation to fuch.

§. IX. And the truth is, the religion of the wicked is a lie: There is no peace, faith the prophet, to the wicked." Indeed there can be none; they are reproved in their own confciences, and condemned in their own hearts, in all their difobedience. Go where they will, rebukes go with them, and oftentimes terrors too for it is an offended God that pricks them, and who, by his light, fets their fins in order before them. Sometimes they strive to appease him by their corporeal framed devotion and worship, but in vain; for true worfhipping of God, is doing his will, which they Rom. viii. 9. "Ifaiah xlviii. 22.

• Gal. v. 22, 23.

tranfgrefs. The rest is a falfe compliment, like him that faid, He would go, and did not.* Sometimes they fly to fports and company, to drown the reprover's voice, and blunt his arrows, to chafe away troubled thoughts, and fecure themselves out of the reach of the difquieter of their pleasures: but the Almighty, first or laft, is fure to overtake them. There is no flying his final juftice, for those that reject the terms of his mercy. Impenitent rebels to his law may then call to the mountains, and run to the caves of the earth for protection, but in vain. His all-fearching eye will penetrate their thickest coverings, and strike up a light in that obfcurity, which fhall terrify their guilty fouls; and which they fhall never be able to extinguish. Indeed their accufer is with them, they can no more be rid of him, than of themselves; he is in the midst of them, and will stick close to them. That spirit which bears witnefs with the fpirits of the juft, will bear witness against theirs. Nay, their own hearts will abundantly come in against them; and, if our hearts condemn us, faith the apostle John, God is greater, and knows all things; that is, there is no efcaping the judgments of God, whofe power is infinite, if a man is not able to escape the condemnation of himself. It is at that day, proud and luxurious Christians fhall learn, that God is no respecter of persons ; that all fects and names fhall be swallowed up in these two kinds, fheep and goats, juft and

unjust and the very righteous must have a trial for it which made that holy man cry out, If the righteous fcarcely be faved, where fhall the ungodly and the finner appear? If their thoughts, words, and works muft ftand the teft, and come under fcrutiny before the impartial Judge of heaven and earth, how then should the ungodly be exempted? No, we are told by him that cannot lie, many fhall then even cry, Lord, Lord; fet forth their profeffion, and recount the works that they have done in his name, to make him propitious, and yet be rejected with this direful sentence, Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity; I know you not. As if he had faid; Get you gone, you evil doers; though you have profeffed me, I will not know you; your vain and evil lives have made you unfit for my holy kingdom: get you hence, and go to the gods whom you have served; your beloved lufts which you have worshipped, and the evil world that you have fo much coveted and adored: let them fave you now, if they can, from the wrath to come upon you, which is the wages of the deeds you have done. Here is the end of their work that build upon the fand, the breath of the Judge will blow it down; and woful will the fall thereof be. O, it is now, that the righteous have the better of the wicked! which made an apoftate cry in old time, Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my laft end be like unto his." For the sentence is changed, and the Judge miles: he cafts the eye of love upon his own

I Pet, iv, 18. • Matt. vii. 23. Numb. xxiii. 10.