brightest ornaments of a bridegroom, going "from his chambers of the east: so it is in "the œconomy of the divine mercy; when "God makes our faces black, and the winds "blow so loud till the cordage cracks, and "our gay fortunes split, and our houses are "dressed with cypress and yew, and the "mourners go about the streets, this is nothing "but the pompa misericordia, this is the fu"neral of our sins, dressed indeed with "emblems of mourning, and proclaimed with "sad accents of death; but the sight is re

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freshing, as the beauties of the field which "God had blessed, and the sounds are "healthful, as the noise of a physician."

"O take heed," says this great Christian orator,“take heed of despising this good"ness; for this is one of God's latest acts to "save us; he hath no way left beyond this, "but to punish us with a lasting judgment " and a poignant affliction. In the tomb of "Terentia certain lamps burned under ground "many ages together; but as soon as ever "they were brought into the air, and saw a bigger light, they went out, never to be

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Serm. 13. p. 296.

*

*re-enkindled. So long as we are in the "retirements of sorrow, of want, of fear, of "sickness, or of any sad accident, we are "burning and shining lamps;" but when "God comes with his avox, with his forbear"ance, and lifts us up from the gates of "death, and carries us abroad into the open "air, that we converse with prosperity and "temptation, we go out in darkness, and "we cannot be preserved in heat and light, "but by still dwelling in the regions of "sorrow." P

We come next to two sermons "on the "Growth in Grace;" which arise out of the consideration of the second epistle of St. Peter, chapter the third, and eighteenth verse. When Christianity, like the day"spring from the East,' with a new light did "not only enlighten the world, but amazed "the minds of men, and entertained their "curiosities, and seized upon their warmer " and more pregnant affections; it was no "wonder that whole nations were converted "at a sermon, multitudes were instantly pro❝fessed, and their understandings followed

P See the first part of the Discourse on the Mercy of the Divine Judgments, p. 292.

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"their affections, and their wills followed "their understandings, and they weren con"vinced by miracle, and overcome by grace, "and passionate with zeal, and wisely go"verned by their guides, and ravished with "the sanctity of the doctrine, and the ho"liness of their examples." Thus does he introduce the subject, and having contrasted the primitive purity with the depravity of more modern times, he proceeds to point out the remedy in the text. First, he lays down what the state of grace is into which every one of us must be entered, that we may advance in it. Secondly, the proper parts, acts, and offices of this progress: and thirdly, the signs, consequences, and proper significations, by which, if we cannot perceive the progression, yet afterwards we may find that we are advanced, and so judge of the state of our duty, and of our final condition of being saved.

"A man cannot, after a state of sin, be in"stantly a saint; the work of heaven is not "done in a flash of lightning, or a dash of "affectionate rain, or a few tears of a relent

ing pity: God and his church have appoint"ed holy intervals, and have taken portions

"of our time for religion, that we may be "called off from the world, and remember "the end of our creation, and do honour to "God, and think of heaven with hearty

purposes and peremptory designs to get "thither."" "Remember that God sent you "into the world for religion: we are but to

pass through our pleasant fields or our hard "labours, but to lodge a little while in our "fair palaces or our meaner cottages, but to "bait in the way at our full tables or with our 66 spare diet: but then only man does his proper employments, when he prays, and does

charity, and mortifies his unruly appetites, "and restrains his violent passions, and be"comes like to God, and imitates his Holy "Son, and writes after the copies of apostles "and saints.""" "It was observed by a "Spanish confessor, who was also a famous

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preacher, that in persons not very religious, "the confessions which they made upon their "death-bed were the coldest, the most imper"fect, and with less contrition than all that "he had observed them to make in many "years before. For, so the canes of Egypt, "when they newly arise from their bed of

-9) Serm. 14. p. 363. Serm. 14. p. 204.

"

"mud and slime of Nilus, start up into an "equal and continual length, and are in"terrupted but with few knots, and are strong "and beauteous, with great distances and in"tervals: but when they are grown to their

full length, they lessen into the point of a « pyramis, and multiply their knots and joints, "interrupting the fineness and smoothness of "its body. So are the steps and declensions "of him that does not grow in grace: at first, "when he springs up from his impurity by the "waters of baptism and repentance, he grows "straight and strong, and suffers but few in"terruptions of piety, and his constant courses "of religion are but rarely intermitted, till "they ascend up to a full age, or towards the "ends of their life; then they are weak, and "their devotions often intermitted, and their "breaches are frequent, and they seek ex"cuses, and labour for dispensations, and love "God and religion less and less, till their old "age, instead of a crown of their virtue and

perseverance, ends in levity and unprofit "able courses. Light and useless are the tufted "feathers upon the cane, every wind can play "with it and abuse it, but no man can make "it useful. When, therefore, our piety in"terrupts its greater and more solemn ex