lived until now; much more than on the food thou eatest, or the air thou breathest in. And art thou so unnatural as to be ungodly, and deny him thy love, and care, and service, that hath made thee? and to call a holy, heavenly life, a needless toil? "Do you thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is he not thy Father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?" Deut. xxxii. 6. If an unholy man be an honest man, that is so unnatural as to cross the end of his creation, and deny his service to the Lord that made him; then he is honest that spits in his father's face, and despiseth his mother that brought him forth.

4. Do you think that he is an honest man that is unthankful? It is agreed on by all the world, that unthankfulness is a principal point of dishonesty. He is no honest man that will abuse or despise those by whom he liveth, or that have engaged him by kindness. If you were so used yourselves by one whose life or estates you had preserved, would you not say, What an unworthy wretch is this? have I deserved this usage at his hand?' Why all the unthankfulness against men in the world, is not to be compared to thy unthankfulness against God. What are the benefits which man hath given thee in comparison of his? Did ever man do any thing for thee that is comparable to thy creation, and redemption, and offering thee salvation from everlasting misery, and a room with angels in everlasting glory; besides every hour's mercy that ever thou hadst here in this world? And is that an honest man that will requite this God with profaneness and ungodliness, and return him sin for all his mercies, and refuse to live a holy life? Doth thy flesh deserve all thy care and labour, and is this God unworthy of it, and dost thou call his service a needless work? If ingratitude can make a man dishonest, thou art then a dishonest man. But it is the business of the godly to give themselves to him that made them, and to exercise their thankfulness in their capacities, for these greatest mercies.

5. Do you think that a cruel, unmerciful man, or a loving and merciful man is the more honest? Surely I shall here have all your voices. He that hateth those that hurt him not, and would kill them, and set their houses on fire, and carrieth malice in his face and speech, will be called an honest man but by few. And he that is loving, and studieth to do good to all about him, will be counted honest. Why

try the ungodly and the saints by this; no more malicious men in the world than the ungodly. They have an enmity even to the God that made them (Col. i. 21.), and to the Christ that bought them (Luke xix. 27.), and to the word of God that offereth them salvation, and would lead them to eternal life, and hate the knowledge of the way of life; Prov. i. 22. They are enemies to the servants of the Lord, and hate the upright that desire their salvation, and would but draw them from their sins; Prov. xxix. 10. ix. 8. They curse those that bless them, and persecute those that pray for them; Matt. v. 44. The first wicked man that was born into the world, did" kill his brother, because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous; 1 John iii. 12.

But this is not their greatest cruelty: they are enemies to their own salvation. They will run into hell in despite of Christ and all the preachers in the world. For there is but one way thither, the way of ungodliness, and that way they will go. Yea, that is not all, but bloody wretches, they would have all the country do as they do, and be damned with them. They are angry with a man if he will not live an ungodly life, and tipple, and swear, and do as they. They revile him if he will not give over his diligent serving of the Lord, which is all one as to fall out with men because They will not forfeit heaven, and run from God, and damn their souls, and all for nothing! When they might more mercifully scorn us because we will not give over eating, or that we will not cut our own throats. And are these cruel persons honest men? Is that merciless wretch an honest man, that is not content to cast away his own everlasting happiness for nothing upon his fond conceits, but must needs have others do so too? that is not content to wrong the Lord, but would have others wrong him also? The devil is honest if these be honest.

But for the godly, it is their desire, their care, their work to save themselves, and further the salvation of all others. O how they long to hear of the conversion of towns and countries! and how glad are they when they hear it! Not for any worldly commodity to themselves, but because they rejoice at the good of others. And what would they not do to promote it, which they could do?

6. Do you think that a perfidious, unfaithful man, or a faithful man that will not be hired to break his word, is the

honester man? Sure this is no hard question neither. A knight of the post, that will say and unsay, swear and forswear, and will betray his dearest friend for a groat, is taken by few for an honest man, in comparison of him that will rather die than lie and be unfaithful. Why nothing is more plain, than that all of you that are ungodly, are treacherous to the Lord himself. You are perfidious covenant-breakers: you owe him yourselves wholly on the grounds that I before expressed; and yet you are unfaithful to him: you have all from him, and you serve his enemy with it. You call him your God, and will not love, nor honour, nor serve him as your God; Mal. i. 6. You bound yourselves to him in your baptism, and many a time since, by a solemn vow or covenant; but you live in the treacherous breach of it continually. You covenanted to take the Lord for your God; and yet you will not seek him, nor be ruled by him. You covenanted to take Jesus for your Saviour; and yet will not be saved by him from your sins; Matt. i. 21. You covenanted to take the Holy Ghost for your Sanctifier, to purify your hearts and lives; and yet you resist his holy motions, and hate his sanctifying word and work, and some of you will mock at sanctification and the Spirit. And can the soul of man be guilty of greater unfaithfulness or treachery? You covenanted to forsake the flesh, the world, and the devil; and now you serve them more than Christ, and think your time is better bestowed for them, than in the service of the Lord! And is this your covenant-keeping? No traitors, no perjured wretches in the world are dishonest men, if these be not dishonest.

But now it is the care of godly men to keep the covenants they have made with God. All that which you reproach them for as too much preciseness, is but the performance of their baptismal vow. And if you be against the keeping our covenants with God, should you not be against the making them? Are you not ashamed to be so forward to engage your children to God in baptism, and when you have done, would have them be ungodly, and break the vow they make? Will you by your profession of Christianity, and coming to the Lord's table, renew your covenants with Christ yourselves, and yet make no conscience to break them, and plead against the keeping of them? We promise holiness, and the serving of God, and forsaking the world,

at every sacrament, and whenever we promise but to be Christians. And are you for the making of these promises, and yet for the breaking of them, and revilers of those that endeavour but to keep them? O fearful impudency! Is this your honesty? And would you have us all as faithless and dishonest, even with God? This was the perfidiousness of the Jews; Ezek. xvi. 8. "I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, and thou becamest mine." We are married in baptism to Christ; and is adultery with the world, and forsaking our husband, no dishonesty? Why then what is?

7. Moreover, do you think that a murderer is an honest man? I know you will say, no. Why nothing more sure than that ungodly men are murderers of themselves, and as I said, would undo others. They "hate their own souls," saith God, Prov. xxix. 24. They destroy themselves; Hos. xiii. 9. There is but one way to hell, and that they will take, and that when they are plainly told of it. Not a man in hell, but brought himself thither. And O how many do their mocks, and persuasions, and evil examples keep out of heaven, and bring to the same misery! And are these honest?

8. Do you take them to be honest men that are common cheaters or deceivers, and that in matters of greatest value? I think you do not. Why such are the ungodly. They deceive and are deceived; 2 Tim. iii. 13. They deceive themselves, by "thinking themselves something, when they are nothing;" Gal. vi. 3. They make themselves believe that they have honesty and saving grace when they have none; and that they are in a state of safety and in the favour of God, when they are near to everlasting misery, and in God's displeasure. And thus they will think, though their souls are at the stake, and the mistake be the greatest hindrance of their conversion; and though God have plainly told them in his word, whom he will save, and whom he will not. Yea, against all the plain discoveries in the Scripture, and all the marks of death upon themselves, and the open ungodliness of their lives, and all the warnings of their teachers, they will needs believe that their state is safe, and that they may be saved without conversion. What wilful self-deceivers are these! Their hearts are "deceitful above all things," and they know them not; Jer. xxii. 9. And thus they are

hardened by the deceitfulness of their own sin; Heb. iii. 13. Sin first deceiveth them, and so killeth them; Rom. vii. 11. If they were not foolish and deceived, they would not serve their lusts and pleasures; 2 Tim. iii. 3. These miserable men did never yet learn that lesson, which one would think they should willingly learn, "Let no man deceive himself;" 1 Cor. iii. 18. They will needs think that they are Christians, and have so much religion as will save them, when God expressly telleth the curser, swearer, railer, scorner, and all that live in wilful sin, that " If any man seem to be religious, and bridle not his tongue, (and so for other wilful sins,) but deceiveth his own heart, that man's religion is vain ;" James i. 26.

reason.

And as they deceive themselves, so they are the common cheaters of the world. They tell them as smooth a tale as if all were fair and right, when they are pleading against God, reasoning men out of their faith and reason. When Eve had sinned, she tempted Adam. The drunkard will tempt others to be his companions; and so will the fornicators and voluptuous sensualists. The ungodly will persuade those about him to be ungodly; and when he hath not a word of solid reason to speak against the holy diligence of the saints, a jeer or scorn shall serve to deceive instead of And if he dare not stand to what he saith to the face of a minister, or any but the ignorant that cannot gainsay him, he will take his time, and speak when none are present that can contradict him. O how many thousands are now in misery that were cheated thither by the scorns and cavils of ungodly men! And how many thousands have lost all hopes of heaven by their deceits! Could you but ask many thousands that are now in misery, How came you to choose so unhappy a way?' they would tell you, 'We were deceived by the words of wicked men! The cavils and scorns of ignorant sinners have cheated us of our salvation.' The very calling a diligent servant of Christ by the name of a Puritan or Precisian, hath kept many a thousand, even in England, from the fear and diligent serving of the Lord. And surely this is a silly argument. And are these honest men that are the factors of satan the great deceiver, in cheating themselves and others into hell?

But the godly deal plainly with themselves and others. They are willing to know the truth of their condition, and