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and children, meat and melody, fignify no more than the drawing off a filk stocking to cure the paroxyfms of the gout.

All that can be done for their relief, is by feafonable, judicious, and tender applications of fpiritual remedies: And what can be done, ought to be done for them. What heart can heara voice like that of Job, "Have pity upon me, have pity upon me,

O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me;" and not melt into compaffion over them? Is there a word of wisdom in thy heart, let thy tongue apply it to the relief of thy diftreffed brother: Whilft his heart meditates terror, let thine meditate his fuccour. It is not impoffible but thou, who lendest a friendly hand to another, mayest, e'er long, need one thyself; and he that hath ever felt the terrors of the Almighty upon his foul, hath motive enough to draw forth the bowels of his pity to another in the like cafe.

Alas for poor diftreffed fouls, who have either none about them that understand, and are able and willing to speak a word in season to their weary fouls, or too many about them to exaspe-. rate their forrows, and perfecute them whom God hath fmitten. You that have both ability and opportunity for it, are under the ftrongest engagements in the world to endeavour their relief with all faithfulness, ferioufnefs, compaffion, and conftancy. Did Chrift shed his blood for the faving of fouls, and wilt not thou spend thy breath for them? Shall any man that hath found mercy from God, fhew none to his brother? God forbid. A foul in hell is out of your reach; but thefe that are in the suburbs of hell are not: The candle of intenfe forrow is put to the thread of their miferable life; and fhould they be fuffered to drop into hell, whilst you ftand by as unconcerned spectators of fuch a tragedy, you will have little peace. Your unmercifulness to their fouls will be a wound to your own.

Infer. 7. Be hence informed of the evil that is in fin, be convinced of the evil that is in it, by the eternal mifery that fol loweth it.

If hell be out of measure dreadful, then fin must be out of measure finful: The torments of hell do not exceed the demerit of fin, though they exceed the understandings of men to conceive them. God will lay upon no man more than is right. Sin is the founder of hell; all the miferies and torments there, are but the treafures of wrath which finners, in all ages, have been treasuring up; and how dreadful foever it be, it is but the 'Arrus, the recompenfe which is meet, Rom. vi. 23. "The wages of fin is death."

We have flight thoughts of fin; Fools make a mock of fin :

But if the Lord by the convictions of mens confciences did but lead them thro' the chambers of death, and give them a fight of the wrath to come; could we but see the piles that are made in hell (as the prophet calls them, Ifa. xxx. 53.) to maintain the flames of vengeance to eternity; could we but understand in what dialect the damned speak of fin, who see the treatures of wrath broken up to avenge it, furely it would alter our apprehenfions of fin, and strike cold to the very hearts of finners.

Cannot the extremity and eternity of hell-torments exceed the evil that is in fin? What words then can express the evil of it? Hell flames have the nature of a punishment, but not of an

atonement.

Oh think on this, you that look upon fin as the veriest trifle, that will fm-for the value of a penny, that look upon all the humiliations, broken-hearted confeffions, and bitter moans of the faints under fin, as frenzy, or melancholy, flighting them as a company of half-witted hypochondriac perfons! Thou that never hadst one fick night, or fad day in all thy life upon the account of fin, let me tell thee, that breast of thine must be the feat of forrow; that frothy airy fpirit of thine must be acquainted with emphatical fobs and groans. God grant it may be on this fide hell, by effectual repentance; else it must be there, in the extremity and eternity of forrows,

Tafer. 8. What enemies are they to the fouls of men, who are Satan's inftruments, to draw them into fin, or who fuffer fin to lie upon them!

When there were but two perfons in the world, one drew the other into fin; and among the millions of men and women now in the world, where are there two to be found that have in oo cafe been fnares to draw fome into fin? Some tempt defignedly, taking the devil's work out of his hands; others virtually and confequentially, by examples, which have a compelling power to draw others with them into fin. The first fort are among the worst of finners, Prov. i. 16. the latter are among the best of faints; fee Gal. ii. 14. whofe converfation is fo much in heaven, that nothing falls out in the course thereof, which may not farther fome or other in their way to hell?

Among wicked men, there are five forts eminently acceffory to the guilt and ruin of other men's fouls. (1.) Loose profef fors, whofe lives give their lips the lie; whofe conversations make their profeffions blufh. (2.) Scandalous apoftates, whose fall is more prejudicial than their profeffion was ever beneficial to others. (3.) Cruel perfecutors, who make the lives, liberVOL. III. Eee

ties, and eftates of men the occafion of the ruin of their confciences. (4) Ignorant and unfaithful ministers, who strengthen the hands of the wicked, that they should not return from their wickedness. (5.) Wicked relations, who quench and damp every hopeful beginning of conviction and affection in their friends. Of all, which I fhall diftinctly speak in the next difcourfe, to which, therefore, I remit it at present.

And many there are who suffer fin to lie upon others, without a wife and seasonable reproof to recover them.

Oh what cruelty to fouls is here! The day is coming when they will curfe the time that ever they knew you: 'Tis poffible you may repent, but then, it may be, thofe, whofe fouls you have helped to ruin, are gone, and quite out of your reach. The Lord make you fenfible what you have done in feafor, left your repentance come too late for yourselves, and them

alfo.

Infer. 9. How poor a comfort is it to him that carries all his fins out of this world with him, to leave much earthly treasure (especially if gotten by fin) behind him?

It is a poor confolation to be praised where thou art not, and tormented where thou art ; to purchase a life of pleasure to others on earth, at the price of thy own everlasting mifery in hell. All the confolation, fenfual, voluptuous, and oppreffing worldlings have, is but this, that they were coached to hell in pomp and state, and have left the fame chariot to bring their graceless children after them, in the fame equipage, to the place of torments. There be five confiderations provoking pity to them that are thus past into a miserable eternity, and caution to all that are following after, in the fame path.

First, That fatal mistake in the practical understanding and judgment of men deferves a compaffionate lamentation, as the caule and reafon of their eternal mifcarriage and ruin. They looked upon trifles as things of greatest neceffity, and the most neceffary things as mere trifles; putting the greatest weight and value upon that which little concerned them, and none at all upon their greatest concernment in the whole world, Luke

xii. 21.

Secondly, The perpetual diverfions that the trifles of this world gave them from the main ufe and end of their time. O what a hurry and thick fucceffion of earthly business and encumbrances filled up their days! So that they could find no

Quid prodeft effe, quod effe non prodeft: Tertull....

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time to go alone, and think of the awful and weighty concern-
ments of the world to come, James v. 5.

Thirdly, The total wafte and expence of the only feafon of
falvation, about thefe vanishing, impertinent trifles, which is
never more to be recovered, Ecclef. ix. 10.

Fourthly, That thefe deluding fhadows, the pleasures of a moment, is all they had in exchange for their fouls, a goodly price it was valued at, Mat. xvi. 26.

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Fifthly, That by such a life they have not only ruined their own fouls, but put their pofterity, by their education of them in the fame courfe of life, into the fame path of destruction, in which they went to hell before them. Pfal. xlix. 13. “ Their "posterity approve their faying."

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Infer. 10. How rational and commendable is the courage and refolution of those Chriftians, who chufe to bear all the fufferings in this world from the hands of men, rather than to defile and wound their confciences with fin, and thereby expofe their fouls to the wrath of God for ever!

That which men now call pride, humour, fancy, and stubbornnefs, will, one day, appear to be their great wisdom, and the excellency of their fpirits. It is the tenderness of their confciences, not the pride and ftoutnefs of their stomachs, which makes them inflexible to fin; they know the terrors of a wounded confcience, and had rather endure any other trouble from the hands of men, than fall by known fin, into the hands of an angry God. Try them in other matters, wherein the glory of God, and the peace or purity of their confciences are not concerned, and fee if you can charge them with ftubbornness and fingularity. It was the excellency of the fpirits of the primitive Chriftians, that they durft tell the emperor, to his face, when he threatned them with torments; "Pardon us, O emperor, "thou threatneft us with a prifon, but God with hell *." Do we call that ingenuity and good nature, which makes the mind foft and tractable to temptations, and will rather venture upon guilt than be efteemed fingular?

+ Salvian tells us of fome in his time, who were compel"led to be evil, left they should be accounted vile." And was that their excellency? May I not fitly apply the words of Salvian here: O in what honour and repute is Chrift among Chriftians, when religion fhall make them bafe and ignoble! He Eee 2

Ignofce imperator, tu carcerem minaris, Deus gehennam.
Mali effe coguntur, ne viles habeantur.

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that understands what the punishment of fin will be in hell, fhould endure all things rather than yield to fin on earth. Indeed, if you that threaten, and tempt others to violate their confciences, could bear the wrath of God for them in hell, it were fomewhat; but we know there is no fuffering by a proxy there, they tremble at the word of God, and have felt the bur den of guilt, and dare not yield to fin, tho' they yield their eftates and bodies to prevent it.

Infer. 11. How patiently should we bear the afflictions of this life, by which fin is prevented and purged?

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The difcipline of our fpirits belongs to God the Father of Spirits; he corrects us here, that we may not be punished hereafter, 1 Cor. xi. 32. “ We are chastened of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world." It is better for us to groan under afflictions on earth, than to roar under reveng ing wrath in hell. Parents who are wife, as well as tender, had rather hear their children fob and cry under the rod, than stand with halters about their necks on the ladder, bewailing the deftructive indulgence of their parents.

Your chastisements, when fanétified, are preventive of all the mifery opened before. It is therefore as unreasonable to murmur against God, because you smart under his rod, as it would be to accufe your dearest friend of cruelty, because he strained your arm to fnatch you from the fall of a houfe, or wall, which he faw ready to crush and overwhelm you in its ruins.

If we had lefs affliction, we should have more guilt. We fee how apt we are to break over the hedge, and go aftray from God, with all the clogs of afflictions defigned for our restraint; what thould we do if we had no clog at all; It is better for you to be whipped to heaven with all the rods of affliction, than coached to hell with all the pleasures of the world.

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Chriftian, thy God fees, if thou do not, that all these trou bles are few enough to fave thee from fin and hell. Thy corruptions require all thefe, and all little enough." If need be, ye are in heavinefs," 1 Pet. i. 6. If there be need for it, thy dearest comforts on earth fhall die, that thy foul may live; but if thy mortification to them render thy removal needlefs, thou and they fhall live together. 'Tis better to be preserved in brine, than rot in honey. Sanctified afflictions, working under the efficacy of the blood of Chrift, are the fafest way to our fouls.

Infer. 12. How doleful a change doth the death of wicked men make upon them! from palaces on earth, to the prison of

hell.

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