to be such yourselves, than to be the greatest of the ungodly.

2. If you love the world best, and set your affections most on things below, and mind most earthly things; nay, if you seek not first God's kingdom, and the righteousness thereof; and if your hearts be not in heaven, and your affections set on the things that are above; and you prefer not your hopes of life eternal before all the pleasures and prosperity of this world, it is a certain sign that you are but worldly and ungodly men'.

3. If your estimation, belief and hopes, of everlasting life through Christ, be not such, as will prevail with you to deny yourselves, and forsake father, and mother, and the nearest friends; and house, and land, and life, and all that you have, for Christ, and for these hopes of a happiness hereafter, you are no true Christians, nor in a state of saving grace.

4. If you have not been converted, regenerated, and sanctified by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, making you spiritual, and causing you to mind the things of the Spirit above the things of the flesh. If this Spirit be not in you, and you walk not after it, but after the flesh; making provision for the flesh, to satisfy its desires, and preferring the pleasing of the flesh, before the pleasing of God, it is certain that you are in a state of death d.

5. If you have any known sin which you do not hate, and had not rather leave it than keep it, and do not pray, and strive, and watch against it, as far as you know and observe it; but rather excuse it, plead for it, desire it, and are loath to part with it, so that your will is habitually more for it than against it, it is a sign of an impenitent, unrenewed heart.

a See Gal. iv. 29. Acts xxvi. 11. 1 Tim. i. 13. 1 Pet. iv. 2-5. Psal. xv. 4. 1 John iii. 8-15. John xiii. 35. Psal, lxxxiv, 10.

b See this in Matt. vi. 19-21. 33. Phil. iii. 18-20. Col. iii. 1-4. Psal. lxxiii. 25. 1 John ii. 15-17. James i. 27. Luke xii. 20, 21. xvi. 25.

See Luke xiv. 26. 33. Matt. x. 37-39. xiii. 21, 22.

4 See Matt. xviii. 3. John iii. 3. 5, 6. Heb. xii. 14. Rom. viii. 1.5-13. xiii. 13, xii. 20, 21. Heb. xi. 25, 26. 2 Cor. iv. 16—18, v.7.

14. Luke xvi. 19. 25. Rom. viii. 17, 18.

* 1 John iii. 3, 4.6-10. 24. Luke xiii. 3. 5. Matt, v. 19, 20.

VOL. II.

Gal. v. 16. 19-25. Rom. vii. 22. 24. viii. 13.

2 Tim. ii. 19. Psal. v. 5. Luke xiii. 27.

D

6. If you loye not the Word, as it is a light discovering your sin and duty, but only as it is a general truth, or as it reproveth others: if you love not the most searching preaching, and would not know how bad you are, and come not to the light, that your deeds may be manifest, it is a sign that you are not children of the light, but of the darknessf

7. If the laws of your Creator and Redeemer be not of greatest power and authority with you, and the will and word of God cannot do more with you, than the word or will of any man; and the threatenings and promises of God be not more prevalent with you, than the threats or promises of any men, it is a sign that you take not God for your God, but in heart are atheists and ungodly men".

8. If you have not, in a deliberate covenant or resolution, devoted and given up yourselves to God as your Father and felicity, to Jesus Christ as your only Saviour, and your Lord and King, and to the Holy Ghost as your Sanctifier, to be made holy by him, desiring that your heart and life should be perfectly conformed to the will of God, and that you might know him, and love him, and enjoy him more; you are void of godliness and true Christianity: for this is the very covenant which you make in baptism, which you call your christening".

I have now plainly shewed you, and fully proved, from the Word of God, by what infallible signs an ungodly man may know that he is ungodly, if he will. May you not know whether it be thus with you, if you are willing to know? May you not know, if you will, whether your desire and design of life, be more for this world, or that to come? and whether heaven or earth be preferred and sought first? and whether your fleshly prosperity and pleasure, or your souls be principally cared for and regarded? May you not know, if you will, whether you love or loathe the serious worshippers of God? and whether you had rather be delivered from

f John iii. 19-21.

8 Luke xix. 27. Matt. vii. 21-23. 26. Dan. iii. 16-18. vi. 5. 10. Jer. xvii. 5, 6. Luke xii. 4. Acts v. 29. Psal. xiv. 1, &c.

h Matt. xxviii. 19, 20. 2 Cor. viii. 5. 1 Cor. vi. 17. John i. 10-12. Gal, iv. 6. Rom. viii. 14, 15.

Atque haud scio, an pietate adversus Deos sublata, fides etiam, et societas humani generis, et una excellentissima virtus, justitia, tollatur. Cic. Nat. D. i. 4.

35

your sins or keep them? and whether your wills be more against them, or for them? and whether you love a holy life or not? and whether you had rather be perfect in holiness and obedience to God, or be excused from it, and please the flesh? and whether you had rather be such a one as Paul, or as Cæsar? a persecuted saint in poverty and contempt, or a persecuting conqueror or king? May you not know, if you will, whether you love a searching ministry, that telleth you of the worst, and would not deceive you? May you not know, whether you are resolvedly devoted and given up to God, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, as your Father and felicity, your Saviour and your Sanctifier; and whether the scope, design and business of your lives is more for God, or for the flesh, for heaven or earth; and which it is that bears the sway, and which it is that comes behind, and hath but the leavings of the other, or only so much as it can spare? Certainly these are things so near you, and so remarkable in your hearts, that you may come to the knowledge of them if you will. But if you will not, who can help it?

What a sottish cavil is it then of those ignorant men, that ask us, when we tell them of these things, Whether ever we were in heaven ?—or ever saw the book of life?-and how we can tell who shall be saved, and who shall be damned? If it were about a May-game this jesting were more seasonable; but to talk thus distractedly about the matters of salvation and damnation, and to make such a jest of the damning of souls, is a kind of foolery that hath no excuse. What though we never were in heaven? and never saw the book of life? dost thou think I never saw the Scriptures? Why, wretched sinner, dost thou not know, that Christ came down from heaven, to tell us who they be that shall come thither, and who they be that shall be shut out? And did he not know what he said? Is God the Governor of the world, and hath he not a law by which he governeth them? and can I not tell by the law, who they be that the Judge will condemn or save? What else is the law made for, but to be the rule of life, and the rule of judgment? Read Psal. i. and xv. Matt. v. vii. and xxv., and all the texts which I even now cited, and see in them whether God hath not told you who they be that shall be saved, and who they be that shall be condemned? Nay, see whether this be not the very business of the Word of God?

And do you think that he hath written in vain? But some men have loved ignorance and ungodliness so long, till the Spirit of grace hath cast them off, and left them to the sottishness of their carnal minds, so that "they have eyes and see not, and ears and hear not, and hearts and understand not." But those that are willing and diligent to know their sin and duty, in order to their recovery, God will not let them search in vain, nor hide the remedy from their eyes.

Direct. 1x. When you have found yourselves in a state of sin and death, understand and consider what a state that is.' It may be you will think it a tolerable condition, and linger in it, as if you were safe; or delay your repentance, as if it were a matter of no great haste; unless you open your eyes, and look round about you, and see in how slippery a place you stand. Let me name some instances of the misery of an unregenerate, graceless state, and then judge of it as the Word of God directs you.

1. As long as you are unconverted, you must needs be loathsome and abominable to God. His holy nature is unreconcileable to sin, and would be unreconcileable to sinners, if it were not that he can cleanse and purify them. Did you know what sin is, and know God's holiness, you would understand this much better. Your own averseness to God, and your dislike of the holiness of his laws and servants, might tell you what thoughts he hath of you. "He hateth all the workers of iniquity1." Indeed he taketh you for his enemies, and as such he will handle you, if you be not converted. I know many persons that are most deeply guilty, especially men of honour and esteem in the world, would scorn to have this title given to themselves; but verily God is not fearful of offending them, nor so tender of their defiled

* Mira Ciceronis fictio in Lib. 1. de Univers. Atque ille, qui recte et honeste curriculum vivendi a natura datum confecerit, ad illud astrum, quo cum aptus fuerit, revertetur. Qui autem immoderate et intemperate vixerit, eum secundus ortus in figuram muliebrem transferet. Et si ne tum quidem finem vitiorum faciet: gravius etiam jactabitur, et in suis moribus simillimas figuras pecudum, et ferarum transferetur : neque malorum terminum prius adspiciet, quam illam sequi cœperit conversionem, quam habebat in se ipse, ejusdem et unius, simul innatam. Quod tum eveniet, cam lla, quæ ex igne, aëre, atque terra, turbulenta, et rationis expertia insederiant, denique iratione depulerit, et ad primam, ut optimam affectionem animi pervenerit. Op. vol. vii. p. 941.

1 Psal..v. 5.

honour, as they are of their own, or as they expect the preacher should be. If those be the king's enemies that re-. fuse his government and set up another, then those are the enemies of God, and of the Redeemer, and of the Holy Ghost, that set up the base concupiscence of their flesh, and. the honour and prosperity of this world, and the will of man, and refuse the government of God their Creator and Redeemer, and refuse the sanctifying teachings and operations. of the Holy Ghost. Read Luke xix. 27.

Some think it strange that any men should be called "haters of God ;" and I believe you will find it hard to meet. with that man that will confess it by himself, till converting grace or hell constrain him. And indeed if God himself had not charged men with that sin, and called them by that name, we should scarce have found belief or patience when we had endeavoured to convince the world of it. Entreat but the worst of men to repent of hating God, and try how they will take it. Yet they may read that name in Scripture". Did not the Jews hate Christ, think you, when they murdered him? and when they hated all his followers for his sake"? And doth not Christ say," that they shall be hated for his sake," not only of the Jews, but also of "all nations, and all men"." Even by the "world"." And this was a hating" both Christ and his Father." But you will say, It is not possible that any man can hate God. I answer, how then came the devils to hate him? Yea, every ungodly man hateth God: indeed no man hateth him as good, or as merciful to them; but they hate him as holy and just, as one that will not let him have the pleasure of sin, without damning them: as one engaged in justice to cast them into hell, if they die without conversion: and as one that hath made so pure and precise a law to govern them, and convinceth them of sin, and calls them to that repentance and holiness which they hate. Why did the world hate Christ himself? He tells you, "The world cannot hate you, but me it hateth, because I testify against it, that the works thereof are evil"." "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil"."

Rom. i. 30. Psal. lxxxi. 15. Luke xix. 14. " Matt. x. 22. Mark xiii. 13. • Matt. xxiv. 9. x. 22. P John xvii. 14. xv. 17-19, &c. John vii. 7.

John xv. 23, 24.

⚫ John iii. 19.