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Certainly a mind, thus at odds with itself, cannot but be very troublesome to the man that has it, unless, together with the power of keeping his refolutions, he has loft alfo that of reflecting afterwards on the breach of them. For whenever he looks back upon his actions, guilt and folly will appear written, as it were, upon the front of them: He must needs pronounce himself light and inconfiftent, infincere, and void of that true fear of God, which dwells only with fimplicity and a fingle heart. In fine; fo many difagreeable and mortifying thoughts will offer themselves to him, as cannot but leave a wound behind them. And a spirit thus wounded (with guilt and folly too) who can bear? In truth, as to cafe of mind, it be longs oftentimes to the completely wicked, more than to those who are by halves fo. For the first may have hardened and stupified his confcience fo far, till it lets him alone, and gives him no further notice of the dangeroufnels of the ftate he is in. But he who fins and and repents, and then fins again in an endless circle, is fure to hear of his own follies, and be fenfible of his own miferies. His good fits are like the short intervals of madnefs, which ferve only to let the madman into a knowledge of his own difeafe; whereas it would be much more to his fatisfaction and content, if he were mad always.

Good God! When a man find himself breaking through all the ftrongest bonds that thould hold him; through his moft deliberate refolutions, made in time of great danger and adverfity, or upon his folemn approach to the table of the Lord, but forgotten again in the presence of any new

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temptation, what horrors muft the fenfe of this create in him? What hatred and contempt of himself? What defpair almoft of ever arriving as that strength and firmnefs of mind, which is re quifite to carry him evenly on through the paths of virtue? Surely he " is like the troubled fea, that cannot réft, whose waters calt up mire and dirt. There is no peace, faith my God, to" fuch a" wicked" one as this. Ifa. lvii. 20, 21.

But further, fuch a temper, fo distracted be tween contrary inclinations and practices, is in the

3d Place, mifchievous to a man in point of intereft, as well as cafe. For it renders him unfir for all the affairs and bufinefs of life; incapable of forming advantageous defigns with confidence, or of profecuting them with effect." A double→ minded man (faith St James ch. i. 8.) is unstable in all his ways." He that is fo in point of religion (the greatest and most important concern of life, the one thing neceffary) will probably be fo in every thing befide; and then what kind of undertaking is fuch an one qualified for? To what calling can he betake himfelf with any probability of fuccefs, who wants the very firft elements of thriving, industry, conftancy and perfeverance? Alas the doubts and mifgivings of his heart concerning his own internal ftate are fuch, as take away from him the tafte of all outward com forts at prefent, and hinder him from an effec tual purfuit of them. It must be a mind easy and at reft, that can apply itself thoroughly towards making thofe advantages of the things of this life, which are innocent and lawful. And fuch an

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one is not his, whofe ways (as the wife man fpeaks) *are double before the Lord." Befides, this unequalnefs in acting, thefer heats and thefe colds in religion when once they appear, (and how can they chufe but appear fome time or other?) will draw upon a man the fufpicion of hypocrify and diffimulation. He, who in the eye of the world is fometimes good, and fometimes bad, as it happens. will be fure to have the measure of himself taken from the worft fide of him; and the other parts of his character efteemed only as pure artifice and feigning. His credit will be blafted, and his good name taken away; that engine, by which he is to profit himself and o thers, and to do all the good he is like to do in the world. Intimacies and friendships are the great comforts and fupports of life, and of these fuch aman will be always thought incapable. What ground can his levity give any one to buid their confidence upon? What encouragement is there to venture an acquaintance with the rafh and unftable? What reafon to expect a mutual confent and agreement of thoughts and affections, from a mind fo little at unity in itself!?

4. But these are flight inconveniences, in comprrison of what follows; that fuch a wavering uncertain temper of mind is utterly inconfiftent with the terms of falvation, and the hopes of eternal happiness. For 'tis not an holiness taken up by fits and starts, that can carry a man to heaven. It must be a conftant regular principle, influencing us throughout, that must do that. "If ye continue in my word (fays our Saviour, John viii. 31.) then are ye my difciples indeed.” An

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uninterrupted courfe of virtue and goodness, and nothing lefs, can juftify us before God, and intitle us to our reward. And the reafon is, becaufe nothing lefs can prove our fincerity to God, which is the great and fundamental rule, by which we are to be tried. And a vein of this must run through all our thoughts and actions, to make them acceptable before God. "My fon, give me thy heart," fays God; that is, come to me with a fincere and unfeigned defign of ferving me; furrender up to me all thy inclinations and affections without referve; and give me poffeffion of thy foul, without any rival or competitor. Which how can he be faid to do, that admits contrary interefts perpetually to struggle within him, and in his heartieft repentances is not without fome profpect of finning again? Holy David, therefore makes infincerity the cha racter and mark of these kind of men ; "Their heart was not right with God," fays he, "neither were they stedfast in his covenant." Pf. lxxviii. 37. The one follows upon the other; if fo be that they are not stedfaft, neither can their hearts be right with God.

Let not a man, therefore, flatter himself that things are well with him, because he is not ab folutely "given over to work wickedness,” but though he fometimes feems to be "dead in trefpaffes and fins," Eph. ii. 1. yet he foon rifes again by repentance; for afluredly this (which is at the bottom nothing but an art. of getting to heaven, and yet enjoying his lufts all the while) will not ferve his turn. There is no promife in fcripture that belongs to the unftable and wavering man; VOL. IV. Ꮓ

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the terms of the covenant are univerfal purity; or at least univerfal fincerity: And under thefe, can no man be faved. And as the ftate of a man is thus, with refpect to another world, very dangerous and bad already, fo it is likely to grow worfe and worse still without remedy. For every new return to fin, every single desertion of virtue, does naturally unqualify a man more and more for a found repentance, and weakens all the motives that lead to it. Sin does by this means grow familiar to us; and lofes its frightfulness. By our fuffering its continual approaches, it begins to appear to us in a more harmlefs fhape: We find fewer horrors about us at the thought of it, fewer defires of avoiding it.

Befides, by these viciflitudes of finning and relapfing, our resolution at laft is quite broken; and we fit down every time with lefs hopes of the mercy and forgivefs of God, and of his grace and affistance.

Much more might be faid, to fet out the great danger of fuch a state and the inconfiftency of it with the terms of falvation, if this were not too plain a point to need any further proof; and therefore I chufe rather, in what remains, to go on, as I propofed, from these feveral confi derations,

Secondly, To perfuade the man that is thus bewildered, to retrieve himself by ferious confideration, as foon as poffible; and to fix a fure principle of virtue in his mind, that may guide and

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