mirth, and honour: but you fhall reap in corruption, lamentation and woe. Gal. 6. 7,8. For woe to you that now laugh, for you shall mourn and weep: Woe to you that are rich (and have no better, but want the everlasting riches), for you have received your conSelation: Woe to you that are full, (and yet are empty of Chrift and grace) for you shall hunger, Luke 6. 24, 25. Thefe are the words of Chrift himself; and therefore true if Chrift be

true..

Yea more then this, let me have leave to tell you, (for why should I not tell you of your greatest folly, and that which is neceffary for you to know?) As long as you neglect the One thing neceffary, you are acting the part of the most deadly enemies against your felves. No enemy that you have in all the world, could do that against you, as you do against your selves. You abhorr the Devil; and I blame you not; for his malice and enmity deserveth it: But you do much worse againft your felves then the Devil himself could ever do. To tempt you to fin is not fo much as to Confent to it and commit it. He can but entice yon, and not conftrain you: It is you that are the neglecters of your Maker and Redeemer, and the wilful rejecters of your own fe-licity Satan doth bad enough against you by temptation, but you do worfe by yielding and finning; much worse then all the Devils in hell could do against you. For God hath not given all of them so much power over you, as he hath given you over your felves.

Lord, what a distracted cafe is the ungodly world in! They hate any man elfe that they do but imagine is their enemy! Though he do but diminish their worldly wealth or honour, they cannot forgive him: If a man give one of them a box on the ear, he cannot bear it: And as for the Devil, who is the common enemy, they fpit at his name, and (think they) blefs themselves from him: And yet thefe fame men do fpend all their care, and time, and labour, in doing more against themfelves, then all their enemies could do in earth or hell and are worse then Devils to themselves; and yet they never fall out with themselves for it, bnt can forgive themselves as eafily as if they did themselves no

barm..

This is true, too true Sirs, as harfh as it feemeth to your cars; And if it difplease you to hear of it, bethink your felves what iais to do it; and how God and all wife men muft judge of you!

than

that have no more mercy on your felves: Certainly it is much worse to do it, then to tell you what you do. God tells men of their fin, and God doth nothing but what is good, but it is themfelves only that commit it: I befeech you do but understand what you are doing, as long as the One thing neceffury is neglected by

you.

4. Confider alfo, that whatsoever eife you have been doing in the world, if you have not done the One thing needful, you have unman'd your felves, and lived below your Reason, andin plain English, you have lived as befides your wits.

I give you no harder language then God himself hath frequently given you in his Word, and then you will fhortly give your felves, if you repent not; yea and fooner if you do repent. If you have (in this) the ufe of your Reason, you must needs know what you have your Reafon for : And I beseech you tell me for what you have it, if not to serve and please your Maker, and prepare for your everlasting state? Is it only that you may know how to plow and fow, and follow your trades and pleasure in the world, and fatisfie your flesh a little while, and then die as the beafts that perifh? None of you, I fuppofe, will fay fo, that calls himself a Chriftian: If God had made you for no higher things then beafts, he would have given you no higher faculties and endowments. As they be not made to enjoy God, fo they have no knowledge of him he fendeth not his Word to them, and calleth them not to learn the knowledge of his will: But you know, or may know, that there is a God, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently feek him; and are capable of Loving him intending him, and ferving him, and therefore of enjoying him : Beafts are not ruled by the hopes and fears of a life after this: For their nature and end do not require it. But men must be thus ruled, or else there can be no fufficient ruling of them, in an. ordinary way: Which fhews that the Nature of man is capable of the things which are the matter of their hopes and

fears.

Verily Sirs, I think, as to any good that cometh by it, there is very little difference between having Reason, and having none, if we had nothing to do with it, but cunningly to lay up our food, and make provifion for this corruptible flesh, and had not another life to mind. It were no fuch great difference, in my opinion, as it commonly goes for, whether we were men or dogs

if it were only for the matters of this tranfitory life. For though I may not deny but yet man were the nobler creature, yet alas the difference would be but graduall and small, as an Ape or Dog excells a Swine And as to his Happiness, it is doubtful whether Man would not have the worst of it. For as brutes have not mans knowledge, fo they have not his toil and trouble of mind, his care, and fear, and griefs, and disappointments: Nor have they fo terrible fore-thoughts of death through all their lives, as man must have, much lefs fuch fears of what would follow after death.

And therefore I may boldly fay, that you have thrown away your wits, and laid by your Reafon as to the principal ufe of it, if you have forgot, or have not chiefly fought the One thing neceffa ry. Where were your wits when a lump of flesh was preferred before immortal fouls ? and when the trouble and dung of a tranfitory world, was more efteemed then God and endless Glory? Where were your wits when you might have had Chrift, and Life in him, and his pardoning, healing, fanctifying grace, and you had no mind of him, and were not fenfible of your neceffity, and paft him by with as much neglect, as if you could have been faved without him? When you might long ago have. made fure of Heaven; and now you are even ready to drop into Hell, and ftay but for a Feaver, or Confumption, or fome other difeafe to cut the thred, and turn the key, unless a speedy found converfion fhall yet prevent it. What have you done in all your life-time, that should make a wife man judge you Reasonable? Is that your Reason to be penny wife and pound foolish; to be wife to do evil, and to have no knowledge to do good? ferem. 4.22. To run up and down for I know not what, and to leave that undone that you were created and redeemed for? Can you think that it is Reasonable to make fuch ado for the air of dying mens applause, and to be well thought of, or to live like Gentlemen, or to the contentment of a fleshly mind, when you know that you are just ready to pafs out of this world into an endless life of Joy or Torment, (yea certainly of torment, if you thus hold on)? Where all thefe things will afford you no relief or benefit; but the memory of your courfe will be the fuell of your mifery: Can that man be wife that damns his foul? Can he deserve the name of a fober man, that will fell his falvation for fo fhort, fo fmall, fo filthy a pleasure as fin affordeth? Is he worthy the name F

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Or reputation of a wife man, that hath not wit enough to fcape eternal fire? nor wit enough to forbear laying hands upon himfelf,and doing all this againft his own foul? What think you,is not the cafe here plain enough?

Be not offended if I fpeak yet plainlyer to you; for in a cafe fo lamentable, how can we be too plain or ferious? Suppose you knew a Prince or Lord, that had an itch upon him, which the Phyficion offereth speedily and eafily to cure; but he hath fo much pleasure in fcratching, that he doth not only refufe the cure, left it deprive him of his delight, but he will give his Kingdom or Lordship to one that will fcratch him but a little while, though he be fure to live a beggar after it all his dayes. I put it to your felves, What name you would give this man, or what efteem you would have of him: Do you think that any ungodly worldly perfon is wiser than this man? Alas their cafe is fo much worse, that there is no comparison: They are more foolish then your hearts can now conceive, or then I am able fully to exprefs. You have now the itch of Pride and Left; and your throats must be pleased in your meats, and drinks; and you itch after riches, and honour, and recreations; and Chrift telleth you by his Word, that these are but your fick de fires, and that the pleasing of them tends to kill you; and be offereth you for nothing, a fafe, and certain, and speedy cure: But you refuse it, and will not hearken to him: You must be fcratcht whatever it coft you: You must have your riches, and honour, and fleshly pleasure, as the felicity which you cannot part with, though it cost you your falvation. Though God be neglected, and his favour loft, and your fouls be loft, and the One thing needful caft afide, you must have your carnal imaginations gratified: And is this your wifdom? The Lord bless us from fuch a kind of wisdom.

Yet this is not the worst: I will fhew you one ftrain more of the distraction of the ungodly world. If these men do but fee one perfon of an hundred that are more diligent for Heaven then earth, to fall into Melancholy, or diftrefs of foul; or fuppofe it were into fome lofs of reafon; they prefently cry out against Religion, and frictness, and precifenefs, and making fo much ado to be faved; and say it is the way to make men mad: Hence comes the proverb of the Papifts Spiritus Calvinianus eft fpiritus » melancholicus]; and of the prophane among our felves, that [ A Puritane is a Proteftant frightned out of his wits]: They

dare.

dare not ftudy the Scripture fo much, nor meddle with fuch high matters as their falvation, nor be fo godly, nor meditate on the world to come, left it fhould drive them out of their wits. O miferable men! As if it were poffible for you to be more dangeroufly mad, then you are already! (Unless by growing unto greater wickedness!) Do you lay out your wit, and ftrength, and time, in feeding a corruptible body for the grave, and spend your lives in running after your own fhaddows, while your everlasting life is forgotten or neglected! Do you fell your Saviour with fadas for a little money, and change your part in God and Glory, for the brutish pleasures of fin for a feason ? And are you afraid of altering this courfe of life, and turning to God, left it should make you mad? Lord, what a befotting thing is fin ! What a cunning cheater is the Devil! What a deluded diftracted fort of people are the ungodly? Will you run from God, from Chrift, from Grace, from mercy, from Scripture, from the godly, and from Heaven it felf for fear of being mad? Why what greater madness can you fear then this? What worse is humane nature capable of? Unless it be the addition of a further measure of the fame, and unless it be to hold on in that way, and perfecute the contrary with fuch like aggravations of your madness, I know not of any worse that you should fear. Will you run to Hell to prove your felves to be in your wits? Again I fay, the Lord bless us from fuch a kind of wit. Nay Hell it felf hath no fuch distractedness as yours: The difference between the One thing needful, and your many things,is there better, though too late understood! Is Loving God the way to be mad ? and loving the world and fleshly pleasures the way to be wife? Is converting with God in humble prayer, and believing his love, and loving him, and delighting in him, and speaking of his name and word, and works unto his praife, and hoping to live with him for ever, I fay, is this (which is the work of a Believer) a liker courfe to make men mad, then ferving the Devil, and drudging in the world, and living under the curfe of God, and in continual danger of damnation? What men are they, that dare entertain fuch horrid and unreasonable fuggefti

ons ?

I confess we are not unacquainted with the fadness and melancholy that fome perfons have contracted by Religious employments; and perhaps one of a thousand may lofe their wits: But I

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