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fore hold the eyes of conscience open, amplify thy misery as much as possible, do not flee the fight of ic for fear it should fill thee with terror. The sense of thy misery is but as it were the suppuration of the wound, which is necessary to the cure. Better fear the torments that abide thee now, than feel them hereafter.

Direct. IV. " Settle it upon thy heart, that “ thou art under everlasting inability ever to reco

ver thyself.” Never think thy praying, read! ing, hearing, confefling, amending, will work the

cure; these must be attended to, but thou art undone if thou restest in them. Rom. X. 3,

Thou art a loft man if thou hopeft to escape drowning on any other plank but Jesus Christ, Aets iv. 12.Thou must unlearn thyself, and renounce thy own wisdom, thy own righteousness, thy own strength, and throw thyself wholly upon Christ, as a man that swims casts himself upon the water, or else thou canst not escape. While men trust in themselves, and establish their own righteousness, and have confidence in the flesh, they will not come savingly to Christ, Luke xviii. 9. Phil. iii. 3.Thou must know thy gain to be but loss and dung, thy strength but weaknefs, thy righteousness rags and rottenness, before there will be an effectual closure between Christ and thee, Phil. iii. 7, 8, 9. 2 Cor. iii. 5. Ifa. lxiv. 6. Can the lifeless carcase sake of its grave-clothes and loose the bands of death? Then mayest thou recover thyself, who art dead in trespasses and fins, and under an impossibility of serving thy Maker acceptably in this condition, Rom. viii. 8. Heb. xi. 6. Therefore when thou goeft to pray or medidate, or to do any

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of the duties to which thou art here directed, go out of thyself, and call in the help of the Spirit, as despairing to do any thing pleasing to God in thy own ftrength; yet neglect not thy duty, but lie af the pool, and wait in the way of the Spirit.While the Eunuch was reading, then the Holy Ghost did send Philip to him, Aits viii. 28, 29. ; when the disciples were praying, chap. iv. 31.;

3 when Cornelius and his friends were hearing, chap. x. 44.; then the Holy Ghost fell upon them and filled them all. Strive to give up thyself to Chrift; strive to pray, strive to meditate, ftrive ạn hundred and an hundred times, strive to do it as well as thou canst ; and while thou art endeavouring in the way of thy duty, the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and help thee to do, what of thyself thou art utterly unable to perform,

Prov. i. 23.

Direct. V. “ Forthwith renouce all thy sins."? If thou yield thyself to the practice of all thy fin, thou art undone, Rom. vi. 19. In vain doit thou hope for life of Christ, except thou depart from iniquity, 2 Tim. ii. 19. Forsake thy fins, or elle thou canst not find mercy, Prov. xxviii. 13. Thou canit 'not be married to Chrift, except thou be divorced from fin; give up that traitor, or you can have no peace in heaven ; cast the head of

l Sheba over the wall; keep not Delilah in the lap: Thou must part with thy fins or with thy soul ; if thou spare even one fin God will not spare thee. Never make excuses, thy fins must die, or thou must die for them, Pjat. Ixviii. 21. If thou allow of ene sin, though but a little, a secret one, though thou mayest plead neceffity,

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and have an hundred thifts and excuses for it, the life of thy soul must go for the life of that fin, Ezek. xviii. 21.; and will it not be dearly bought?

O finner ! hear and consider : If thou wilt part with thy sins, God will give thee hïs Christ. Is not this a fair exchange ? I testify unto thee this day, that if thou perish, it is not because there was not a Saviour provided, nor life tendered, but because thou prefered ft (with the Jews) the murderer before the Saviour, fin before Christ, and « lovedft darkness rather than light,” John iii. 19. Search thy heart, therefore with candles, as the Jews did their houses for leaven before the passover ; labour to find out thy sins; enter into thy closet, and consider, What evil have I lived in? What duty have I neglected towards God ! What fin have I lived in against my brother?And now strike the darts through the heart of thy fin, as Joab did through Abfalom's, 2 Sam. xvii. 14. Never fand looking upon thy fin, nor rolling the sweet morsel under thy tongue, Job xx. 12.; but spit it out as poison, with fear and deteftation, Alas! what will thy sins do for thee, that thou houldst stick at parting with them! They will flatter thee, but they will undo thee, and cut thy throat while they smile upon thee, and poifon thee while they please thee, and arm the justice and wrath of the infinite God against thee. They will open hell for thee, and pile up fuel to burn thee : Behold the gibbet that they have prepared for thee: O serve them like Haman, and execute them as they would have done thee ; away with

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them, crucify them, and let Christ only be Lord over thee.

Direct. VI. “ Make a solemn choice of God for " thy portion and blessędness ;" Deut. xxvi. 17. With all possible devotion and veneration avouch the Lord for thy God; fet the world, with all its glory, and paint, and gallantry, with all its pleasures and promotions, on the one hand; and set God, with all his excellencies and perfections, on the other, and see that thou do deliberately make thy choice, Folh. xxiv. 15. Take up thy rest in God, John vi. 68.; fit thee down under his Khadow, Cant. ii. 3.; let his promises and perfections turn the scale against all the world : Settle it upon thy heart that the Lord is an all-sufficient portion ; that thou canst not be miserable whilft thou hart God to live upon : Take him for thy shield and exceeding great reward. God alone is more than all the world, content thyself with him ; Let others carry the preferments and glory of the world, place thou thy happiness in his favour, and in the light of his countenance, Pfal. iv. 6.7.

Poor finner ! thou art fallen off from God, and haft provoked his power and wrath against thee; yet know, that of his abundant grace he doth offer to be thy God in Chrift, 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18. What say'st thou, man? Wilt thou have the Lord for thy God? Why, take this counsel, and thou shalt have him; come to him by his Christ, John'xvi. 6.; renounce the idols of thy own pleasures, gain, and reputation, 1 Thef. i. 9.; let these be pulled out of their throne, and set God's interest uppermost in chy heart. Take him as God, to be chief in thy affections, estimations, intentions, for he will not

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endure to have any fet above him, Rom, i. 24. Pfal. lxxiii. 25.

Direct. VII. 16 Accept of the Lord Jesus in all “ his offices, with all his inconveniences, as thine," Upon these terms Christ may be had, Sinner, thou haft undone thyself, and art plunged into a state of most deplorable misery, out of which thou art unable to get; but Jesus Christ is able and ready to help thee, and freely tenders himself to thee, Heb. vii. 25. John iii.

Be thy fins ever so many, ever so great, or of ever so long continuance, yet thou Thalt be most certainly pardoned and saved, if thou dost not wretchedly neglect the offer that, in the name of God, is here made to thee. The Lord Jesus calleth to thee to look to him and be saved, Isa. xlv. 22. to “come unto him, and he will in no wise cast thee out,” John vi. 37.; yea, he is a suitor to thee, and beseeches thee to be reoonciled, 2 Cor. v. 26.; he crieth in the streets, he knocketh at the door, he wooeth thee to accept of him, and live with him, Prov. i. 20. Rev. iii. 20. If thoa diest, it is because thou wouldft not come to him for life, John V. 40. Now

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accept of an offered Christ, and thou art made for ever; now give up thy consent to him, and the match is made ; all the world cannot hina der it. Do not stand off because of thy unworthiness, man; I tell thee, nothing in the world can undo thee but thy unwillingness. Speak, man, art thou desirous of the match ? Wilt thou have Chrift in all his relations to be thine ; thy King, thy Priest, thy Prophet ? Wilt thou have him with all his inconveniencies? Take not Chrift hand over-head, bet sit down firft and count the coit. Wilt thou

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