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There is a fpirit in man, and the infpiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. The faculty is in man, but the wisdom, and knowledge, that enlightens it, from God; as the dial fhews the hour of the day, when the fun-beams fall upon it. If, therefore, God be fought unto, in the use of luch helps, and means, as you have, even the weakest, and dullest foul, hath a capacity of being made wife unto falvation. Pfal. xix. 7. The teftimony of the Lord is fure, making wife the * fimple."

Augustine tells us of a man fo weak, and fimple, that he was commonly reputed a fool, in all the neighbourhood; and yet faith, I believe the grace, and fear of God, was in him: For when he heard any swear, or take the name of God in vain, he would throw ftones at them, and fhew his indignation againft fin, by all the figns he could make.

2. You that are fo grofly ignorant in the matter of your falvation, are many of you very knowing, prudent, and fubtil perfons, in the affairs of the world. Luke xvi. 8. "The chil

dren of this world are wifer, in their generation, than the children of light." Had thofe parts which you have, been improv. ed, and heightened, by study, and obfervation about fpirituals, as they have been about earthly things; you had never been fo ignorant, or dead-hearted, as you are: You might have been as well versed in your bibles, as you are in the almanacs you yearly buy, and study. You might have understood the proper seasons of falvation, as well as of hufbandry. The great and neceffary points on which your falvation depends, are not fo many, or fo abftruse, and intricate, but your plain, and inartificial heads might have understood them, and that with lefs pains than yout have been at for your bodies: What though you cannot com. prehend the fubtilities of schoolmen, you may apprehend the ef fentials of Christianity. If you cannot ftrictly, and fcholaftically define faith; what hinders, if your hearts were fet upon Chrift, and falvation, but you may feel it? Which is more than many learned men do, that can define, and difpute about it. You cannot put an argument in mood, and figure; no matter, if you can, by comparing your bibles, and hearts together, draw fav ingly, and experimentally, this conclufion; I am in Christ, and my fins are pardoned. You cannot determine whether faith goes before repentance, or repentance before faith; but for all that, you might feel both the one, and the other, upon your own fouls, which is infinitely better. 'Tis not, therefore, your incapacity, but negligence, and worldlinefs, that is your ruin.

3. How many are there, of your own rank, order, and e

ducation, all whofe external advantages, and helps you have, and all your incumbrances, and difcouragements they had, who yet have attained to an excellent degree of faving knowledge, and heavenly wisdom? How often have I heard fuch spiritual, favoury, experimental truths, in conference, and prayer from plain ruftics, such spiritual reasonings about the great concerns of falvation, fuch judicious, and fatisfying refolutions of cafes depending upon the fenfible, and experimental part of religion, as have humbled, convinced, and fhamed me, and made me fay furgunt indocti, &c. these are the men that will take heaven from the proud, and fcornful ingeniofi of the world; not many wife, not many learned, and acute. Many knowing, and learned heads, are in hell, and many illiterate, and weak ones gone to heaven; and others in the way thither, who never had better education, ftronger parts, or more leisure than yourselves: So that you are without excufe.

To conclude, Would you heartily feek it of God, and would the Spirit (which he hath promised to give them that afk him) become your teacher, how foon would the light of the faving knowledge of God, in the face of Chrift thine into your hearts! No matter how ignorant, dull, and weak the fcholar be, if God opce become the teacher. You are not able to purchase, or want time to read many books; but if once you were fanctified perfons, the anointing you would receive from the Father, would teach you all things, 1 John ii. 27. your own hearts would ferve you for a commentary upon great part of the bible; it would make you of a quick understanding, in the fear of the Lord: One drop of your knowledge would be more worth than all learned arts and fciences in the world to you. And is God fo far from you, and his illuminating Spirit at fuch a distance, that there is no hope for you to find him? Is there never a private corner, about your houses, or barns, or in the fields, where you can turn afide, if it be but a quarter of an hour at a time, to pour out your fouls to God, and beg the Spirit of him? Miferable wretch! Is thy whole life fuch a cumber, and clutter of cares, and puzzles about the world, that thou haft no leifure to mind God, foul, or eternity? O doleful ftate! the Lord in much mercy pity, and awaken thee. Wilt thou not once ftrive, and ftruggle to fave thy foul? What, perish, as it were, by confent! How great then is that blindness!

The third way to bell difcovered.

III. A vaft multitude of precious fouls are loft for ever, by following the examples, and being carried away with the course

of this world: 'Tis indeed a poor excufe, a filly argument, That the multitude do as we do; yet, as Junius rightly obferves, men's confciences take fanctuary here, and they think. themselves fafe in it: For thus they reafon, If I do as the generality do, I sball speed no worse than they speed; and certainly God is more merciful than to fuffer the greatest part of mankind to perifb. They refolve to follow the beaten road †, let it lead whither it will.

Thus the Ephefians, in their unregenerate ftate, "walked ac "cording to the course of this world," Eph. ii. 2. and the “Corinthians were carried away unto dumb idols, even as they "were led," 1 Cor. xii. 2. just as a drop of water is carried, and moved according to the courfe, and current of the tide: For look as every drop of water, in the fea, is of one and the famé common nature, fo are all carual, and unfanctified persons; and as these waters being collected into one vast body in the ocean, unite their ftrength, and make a strong current, this way, or that; fo doth the whole collective body of the unregenerateworld, all the particular drops move as the tide moveth. Hence, they are faid "to have received the fpirit of this world," 1 Cor. ii. 12. one common spirit, or principle, acts, and rules them all; and therefore they must needs be carried away in the fame course. And there are two fpecial confiderations that feem to determine them by a kind of neceffity, to do as the multitude do; the one is, that they find it the cafiest and most commodious way to the flesh, here they meet with quietaefs, and fafety hereby they are exempt from reproaches, loffes, perfecutions, and diftreffes, for confcience fake: Rest is fweet, and here, only, they think to find it. The other is, the prejudice of fingularity, and manifold tribulations, they fee that little handful, that walk counter to the course of the world, involved in; this ftartles them from their company, and fixes them where they are. Against fuch fenfible arguments, it is to no more purpose to oppofe fpiritual confiderations, motives drawn from the fafety of the foul, or importance of eternity, than it is for a man to turn the tide, or courfe of a river, with his weak breath.

Add to this, That as one finner confirms, and fixes another, wedging in each other, as men in a crowd ‡, who must

What a poor and mean defence have they who think themselves fafe from the example of their fuperiors Jud. Paral. b. 2.

+ The example of the multitude is a very poor argument. Seneca. No man errs to his own hurt only, but fpreads madness among his neighbours. Seneca.

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move as it moves; fo they make it their business to render all that differ from them, odious and ridiculous: So the apostle notes their practice and Satan's policy in it, 1 Pet. iv. 4. wherein they think it ftrange, that ye run not with them into the fame excefs of riot, fpeaking evil of you, Corta; they gaze ftrangely at them. And that is not all; they not only gaze at them as a ftrange generation, making them figns, and wonders in Ifrael, as the prophet fpeaks; but they defame, revile, and speak evil of them, reprefenting them as a pack of hypocrites, as turbulent, factious, feditious perfons, the very pefts of the times, and places they live in; and all this, not for doing any evil against them, but only for not doing evil with them, because they run not with them into the fame excess of riot. Thus the world smiles upon its own, and derides those that are afraid to follow them to hell, by which it sweeps away the multitude with it in the fame course.

The third way to hell fout up.

But O! if the Spirit of God would please to fet on, and follow home the following confiderations to your hearts, you would certainly refolve to take a perfecuted path to heaven, though few accompany you therein, rather than fwim like dead fishes, with the ftream, into the dead fea of eternal mifery.

1. Though you go with the confent, and current of the world, yet you go against the exprefs law and prohibition of God: He hath laid his command upon you, not to be conformed to the "world," Rom, xii. 2. "That you live not the rest of your "time to the lufts of men, but to the will of God," 1 Pet. iv.

2.

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"That you follow not a multitude to do evil," Exod. xxiii. "That you go not in the way of evil men," Prov. iv. 14. "That you have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of "darkness." All thefe, and many more, are commands flowing from the highest fovereign authority, obliging your confciences to obedience under the greatest penalties; by them your fiate must be caft to all eternity in the day of judgment: You may make a pish of the precept, but fee if you can do fo of the penalty.

2. Other men, in all ages of the world, that were as much concerned in the world as you, and valued their lives, liberties, and estates, as well as you, have yet got out of the croud, difengaged themselves from the way of the multitude, and taken a more folitary, and suffering path, out of a due regard to the fafety of their fouls: And why fhould not you love them as well, and care for them as much, as ever any that went before you did? Noah walked with God all alone, when all flesh had

corrupted their ways; Elijah was zealous for the Lord, when he knew of none to ftand by him, but thought he had been left alone; Job was upright with God, in the land of Uz; Lot stood by himfelf, a godly non conformift, in a vile, debauched Sodom; David was a wonder to many; fo was Jeremiah, and those few with him, for figns, and wonders in Ifrael: I demand of your confciences, what difcouragements have you, that these men had not? Or what encouragements had they, that you have not? Why should not the falvation of your fouls be as precious in your eyes, as theirs was in theirs? Shall you be impoverished, and perfecuted, if you embrace the way of holinefs? So were they. Shall you be reproached, fcorned, and reviled? So were they. All your difcouragements were theirs, and all their motives, and encouragements are yours.

3. Is not the way which you have chofen marked out by Chrift, as the way to destruction? And that which you dare not chufe, and embrace, as the way to life? See the marks he has given you of both, in that one text, Mat. vii. 13, 14. "En"ter ye in at the ftrait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad "is the way that leadeth to deftruction, and many there be "which go in thereat; because ftrait is the gate, and narrow "is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that "find it." And where now is your encouragement, and hope that God will be more merciful, than to damn fo great a part of the world? If you will do as the Many do, dream not of speeding as well as that little flock, feparated by fanctification from the multitude, shall speed. You have your choice, to be damned with many, or faved with few; to take the broad, smooth beaten road to hell, or the difficult, fuffering, felf denying path to heaven. O then make a feafonable neceffary ftand, and pause a while; confider your ways, and turn your feet to God's testimonies: 'Tis a great, and special part of your falvation, to fave yourfelves from this untoward generation.

The fourth way of lofing the foul opened.

IV. Multitudes of fouls are daily loft, by rooted habits, and long-continued custom in fin. When men have been long fettled in an evil way, they are difficultly reclaimed: Phyficians find it hard to cure a cachexy, or ill habit of body; but it is far more difficult to cure an ill custom, and habit in fin. Jer. xiii. 23. "Can the leopard change his fpots, or the Ethiopian his skin? "Then may ye alfo do good, that are accustomed to do evil." The fpots of a leopard, and the hue of an Ethiopian, are not by way of external, accidental adhesion; if fo, washing would fetch VOL. III. Lil

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