in no wife depending on the Favour or Applause of Mortals, but on the Favour and Approbation of God, by whose just and decifive Judgment I muft ftand or fall; for God feeth not as Man feeth, Man judging by the outward Appearance only; but the Lord looketh at the Heart. And tho' we are told, The Heart is deceitful above all Things; and the Prophet queries, Who can know it? The Almighty is pleafed to declare, in these Words, I the Lord, fearch the Heart, and try the Reins; and behold he that formeth the Mountains,and createth the Spirit, he declareth unto Man what bis Thoughts are: Even be that maketh the Morn ing Darkness, and treadeth upon the high Places of the Earth, the Lord, the God of Hoft is his Name, Amos iv. 13.

Further; I have thought, you may poffibly. imagine, that in Pride and Arrogancy of Heart I am come to see how you fare,with regard to your eternal Salvation: But give me Leave to affure you,

my

Vifit proceeds from no fuch evil Motive; neither have I any further Views than the Peace and Satisfaction that flows from, a Consciousness of having done my Duty, in coming to proclaim the glad Tidings of Peace and Salvation among you," to all who will accept of it on God's Terms, viz. Repentance, and Amendment of Life.

I have no particular Perfon in View, nor Defign to offend any One living; and if at any time I fhould exprefs myself a little warmly, my Zeal is aim'd against Sin, and the Irregularity of Peoples Lives in general; your Temporal, as well as Eternal Intereft, I wish as well to, as I do to my own. I do not undertake to addrefs you in pompous B Words,

Words, nor, were it in my Power, to please your Ear with fine Periods. The Laws of Method I know little of, therefore I don't attempt any Rule of that Sort ; neither do I presume to offer any Thing new on the Subject of Religion; but if one Line of my own fhort Experience in the Things of God, may have the leaft Tendency to excite fome to the practical Part of Christianity, or to mend the Heart of any One, I have my Reward; my honeft Aim, as far as my weak Endeavour will allow, being the Promotion of God's Honour, and the Welfare of my Neighbour; and, to borrow the Words of one of our Worthies, I have no Plot or Defign, but an ardent Wish for the Salvation of your Souls: And, if I may be allowed to use the Words of the great Apoftle Paul, I will further affure you, I covet no Perfon's Silver, Gold or Apparel: On the contrary, having feen and lamented the divers and hurtful Lufts I was obnoxious to, when I was in Poffeffion of a plentiful Estate, and that they that are rich fall into many Temptations; my Business is, to warn and caution you that are rich, against the Mifapplication of your Wealth. Riches attain'd lawfully, without Covetoufnefs, and too anxious a Defire and Pursuit (which may obftruct our Godly Attainments) I grant, are one of the Bleffings of Heaven, if rightly and properly applied; as they put us in a Capacity of providing a neceffary Subfiftence for our Families, and doing Acts of Justice and Mercy to our Neighbour: But then we must remember, we are only Stewards of this, as well as every other Gift of God; and that we are as culpable in his Sight, and as accountable to his Justice,

Justice, for the Waste and Abuse of Wealth, as for the ill Ufe of any other of his Favours and Mercies.

Some plead for Extravagance, Vanity, and Luxury, in the abfurd Terms of an old Proverb, that those who win Gold, have a Right to wear it, and that they may apply their own Money to what Purpose they please: Not confidering, that all temporal Bleffings are only lent us, and that we can't properly call any Thing our own. And if we will but look about us, we fhall fee this Affertion greatly proved, by obferving the many Viciffitudes in this one Article of Wealth. Riches, metaphorically speaking, take to themselves Wings, and fly away from one to another, and that we are as often fnatched from them, as they from us; a fignificant Inftance of which we have in our Saviour's Parable of the rich Man, who, having laid up much Goods for many Years, fottifhly adddreffes his Soul in thefe Words, Soul, take thine Eafe, eat, drink, and be merry, Luke xii. 19. Thus being in this ftupid Condition, blinded by the God of this World, he never once reflects on the Poflibility of being deprived of his Idols by any Means whatsoever.

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But now obferve the Equity and Justice of the Almighty in his Judgments, which he often inflicts on those who adore the Gift, but despise and neglect the Giver; who receive of his Bounty, but fail to acknowledge it; who eat and drink, and rife up to play: By one Stroke of his Juftice he breaks the Inchantment this Man had been held in by Satan; difcovers the Uncertainty of temporal Goods and Enjoyments, and the Vanity

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or

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or Folly of trufting and placing our Happiness in them; and, by the Word of his Power, he commands this poor, deluded Mortal, to refign, not only his Wealth, but his very Soul to him that gave it; faying to him in these Terms, Thou Fool, this Night shall thy Soul be required of thee; then whofe fhall thefe Things be which thou haft provided? Melancholly Situation indeed! and far worse than if his Goods had been taken from him. This Man, as far as we may be allowed to judge by his Folly in this Inftance, must be in a very unfit State and Condition for Heaven, where it does not appear he had been careful to lay up any Treasure; For where the Treasure is, there will the Heart be alfo. And in our Lord's Obfervations on this unhappy Perfon's Condition, he fubjoins, So (or in fuch a Cafe) is he that layeth up Treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God.

And tho' I, as well as others, had received a Proportion or Talent of Grace in my Heart, for the great Purposes before named, yet I was not careful to improve it; and while I continued in neglect of my Duty, fo long his Grace proved ineffectual, and in vain: But the Gifts and Callings of God are without Repentance, Rom. ii. 29. for tho' many may neglect to answer his Call, or improve his Gifts, nevertheless the Almighty repents not that he hath difpenfed and bestow'd them; but gracioufly condefcends, by his frequent Vifitations, either immediately, or inftrumentally, by Mercies, or by Judgments, to awaken, perfwade, excite, or allure us to our Duty; and tho' in Time paft we believed not God, who in Effect we are faid to deny, when

we

we worship him not as God; yet he repents not that he hath called us, but repeats his Call to the Careless and Negligent; of which Number I was, when the Almighty, whofe Compaffion fails not, return'd to vifit my Soul.

In this, the happiest Season of my Life, when the Time was come, wherein, thro' Mercy I obtained Mercy; and in which the Most High vouchfafed to favour me, by opening my Eyes, and discovering to me the Things that belonged to the everlasting Peace and Happiness of my Soul. And at the fame Time the Lord was pleased to display his excellent Glory, and to give me a Sight of the Beauty of Holiness; and then I could fay, I have heretofore only heard of Thee. by the Hearing of the outward Ear: But now mine Eye faw his Glory. This amazing tho' lovely Appearance of God to my Soul, caufed me many a time to bow down before the Majefty of Heaven, and, indeed, to abhor myself in Duft and Ashes, and frequently to mourn over him whom I had many times pierced and griev'd in his holy Spirit, by my Vanities and Folly, in giving his Giory to Idols, and the Praife that was his Due, to the Imagination of my own Heart.

This was the first Day's Work of the new Creation in my Soul; the Almighty, by the Word of his Power, had commanded the Darknefs to be divided from the Light, and, by this happy Medium, I continued to make new, and, to me, unufual Difcoveries; I faw that I had been an Alien from the Common-wealth of Spiritual Ifrael, and a Stranger to the Covenant of Promife, having no Hope in Chrift, as I had lived without

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