them to tread upon the high places of the earth, that when the archers shoot at them, and do grievously wound them, yet their bow doth abide in its strength.

There is this mean likewise, by which a Christian would mortify his predominant lusts, and it is this, that he should be much in entertaining the grace of tenderness; Joseph-like to cry out, when temptation doth assail him, Shall I do this, and sin against God? I am persuaded, that sin not resisted in its motions, doth procure hardness and likewise, we may say, that sin resisted in its beginnings, doth bring forth the grace of tenderness in a most effectual and eminent way.

And there is this mean, likewise, which is requisite that a Christian be much in the apprehension of death, judgment, and eternity: these three much meditated upon, would make us afraid to sin. I think a Christian never walketh as he ought, till he walk so, as if each moment next to that wherein he liveth, he had the expectation of appearing before the judgment-seat of Christ. O! but it would be a sad dispensation to many, to have this day a summons, without continuation of days, to appear before the dreadful and terrible tribunal of Jesus Christ, when the books shall be opened wherein your wanderings are written, and the books of your conscience shall be opened, that shall say Amen to every thing that is recorded within the volume of these books: this is clear from Acts xvii. 30, 31, He hath commanded all men every where to repent; and the argument enforcing it is, Because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world by that man Jesus Christ. As likewise, it is clear in Eccles. xi. 9, where Solomon presseth, by way of holy irony, (for so the scope is) Young men to take their pleasures in the morning of their time, because for all these things God will bring them into judgment. And we wish that the Memento which did always walk with a holy man, might walk with you, and sound in your ears, Awake, and come to judgment; that it may be that which may regulate your walk. I shall not say much, but beware to entertain lusts, lest judgment overtake you, the stones of the wall of this house shall bear witness against you in the day of the Lord, that ye have been invited to flee from the wrath to come, and have refused the precious offers of a crucified Saviour. We would obtest and beseech you, that if there be a heaven, if there be a God, if there be an eternity, which are most certain and infallible; if there be a hell, and eternal separation from the presence of the Lord, and if you have precious and immortal souls, that ye would tender your own salvation, and speak much of Peter's divinity; Pity yourselves, for ye are destroying yourselves through the want of knowledge; and if we may say it, hell is enlarging itself wide, for the receiving of many of the inhabitants of this place, and of many that live in this generation, who are destitute and void of the grace of the living God.

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Now that which, secondly, we shall speak to, shall be this, what are the evidences and tokens of this, when lust hath dominion over one? And we shall shortly point out the evidences of lust, when it hath dominion. And we conceive, this, first, may evidence it,

When one wins to such a length, as to commit sin with delight and with greediness; when it is a pleasure to one to go after the heart of his detestable things, then hath sin dominion over him; as it is clear, sin hath dominion over those made mention of, 2 Pet. ii. 13, They that count it pleasure to riot in the day time, and are sporting themselves with their own deceivings; such fools as Solomon speaketh of, Making a mock of sin. And likewise, it is clear of those made mention of, Eph. iv. 19, They commit iniquity with greediness. And as the prophet speaketh in another place, Their hearts are mad upon idols.

There is this, secondly, which may evidence it, and it is this, when one sinneth with his predominant lust without conviction, or if he be convinced, his convictions do suddenly evanish; like those made mention of, Jer. vi. 15, Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. They had won to such a length in impiety, that not only they would not blush, but they could not do it. And the same is made mention of, Jer. viii. 12. It is clear likewise from Jer. iii. 3, Thou hadst a whore's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed. And from Prov. xxx. 20, where the adulturous woman saith, That she hath done no wickedness. When you are brought to such a length of impiety, then know, that you have yielded yourselves servants unto unrighteousness for a time.

There is this, thirdly, which may evidence it, and it is this, when one can commit iniquity upon small temptations, yea, upon none at all: this did prove that that sin of adultery had some dominion over David, when he did commit it upon so small or no temptation; for this is brought in to aggravate it, 2 Sam. xii. 8, I gave thee thy master's wives into thy bosom and it is most empatically aggrevated, ver. 2, 3, one poor man should have had one ewe lamb, and yet he had so many, and that yet he should pursue after that. And most clearly from Isa. v. 18, Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as with a cart rope: the meaning of these words we conceive to be this, that they did most violently without any allurement or enticement, pursue after the heart of their detestable things. Certainly, those may suspect themselves, who upon the first presentation of an idol, presently bow down their heads and worship it.

There is this likewise, which may evidence it, and it is this, when one, notwithstanding the convictions of the omnicience of God that doth behold them, will commit such an iniquity; no doubt, then sin is brought unto a most damnable and most atrocious heighth : then sin hath dominion over Er, Gen. xxxviii. 7, He did evil in the sight of the Lord: the meaning of which word we conceive to be this, that he did the evil notwithstanding he was convinced of the omniscience and all-seeing eye of God. And it is recorded of Ahab, 1 Kings xxi. 20, He sold himself to work evil in the sight of the Lord; when notwithstanding he knew that he had seven eyes that run to and fro through the earth, yet he did act these abominations.

And there is this, lastly, which doth evidence it-when men do sin with much deliberation and advice; they are not over-haled by

their temptations and lusts, and they sit down in counsel, to consult how such a thing may be effectuated: then had iniquity dominion over those that are made mention of, Micah ii. 1, Woe to them that devise iniquity upon their beds; that sit down deliberately in the silent seasons of the night, to contrive the mischievous plots of their hearts. And we would only say to such, read the third and fourth verses of that chapter, where God saith, in a sweet and just opposition, in regard of their devising of iniquity, Behold (saith he) I will devise against this people. God will deliberately and with much indignation, punish those that sin deliberately; and this is clear from Jer. xviii. 12.

Now we shall shut up our discourse at this time, only we would speak a little unto this, why God doth sometimes think fit to expose his own unto some dominion of their lusts! It was a notable and most true saying of a heathen, “As many vices, as many masters;" for every lust is a master, and we may say, every lust hath a servant, and some have ten thousand waiting on. And we conceive, when a Christian beginneth to establish his own righteousness, then he is in hazard to be given up for a time unto the dominion of his sin; this is clear, Ezek. xxxiii. 13, If he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity. And there may be this reason of it, that he may know to distinguish betwixt the yoke of Christ, and the yoke and bondage of sin, as is pointed at, Deut. xxviii. 47, 48. And we conceive, this may be a reason of it, because God intendeth to magnify the glory of his unsearchable grace, by delivering men from the door of the pit, when this song shall be sung, This my son was dead, and is alive, was lost, and is found: this is the song of restoring grace, after grace hath once prevented the Christian.

Now we desire you seriously to intend this precious work of mortification; the most part of us are idol Christians, we have hands, and we do nothing; we have eyes, and we see not; and we have feet, and we walk not: and certainly that practice and maxim of Machiavel is much practised amongst us. He thought it was advantageous to have the profession of religion, and of virtue, but he thought it dangerous to have the reality of religion. There are many that desire to be clothed with the coat of Christ, that never desired conformity with Christ in the inward man. And we think, if Christ were to come down from heaven, he might preach this to many of us, Betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss? There are many that I am sure have a lower spirit than Judas, that would sell Christ at a lower rate than thirty pieces of silver. O!eternity, eternity, What shall you do in the day of desolation, when your visitation shall come from afar? where shall you flee for help? and where shall you leave your glory? I shall shut up all that I have to say, with this, The wrath of that living but contemptible stone that was cut out of the mountains, shall be more intolerable than the weight of mountains and hills; therefore the reprobates rather choose to be under the weight of hills and mountains, than to be under the weight of that living corner-stone, but so much despised. Will you not embrace him? May not angels laugh at your folly, and have you in holy derision? The triumph is above, and it is not long before

his own shall cry out, It is finished. And no doubt, if we were much in the exercise of faith, we should easily accomplish this warfare we may call faith, Eliezer, of whom it is reported, That he did so pursue his enemies, that the people returned to gather up the spoils. Love, prayer, and joy, will eternally sit down and reap the sweet fruits of the victory of faith. Now to him that can make you overcome, through the blood of the Lamb, and the word of your testimony, we desire to give praise.

SERMON VII.

GAL. v. 24.—And they that are Christ's, have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts.

It was a divine sentence of that master of experiences, That love covereth a multitude of sins: we may say, that precious and infinite love that Christ hath had to sinners, hath covered a multitude of sins : though this is a lamentaion, and shall be for a lamentation, that the most part of us have not come that length of religion which the publicans and sinners did attain to, which is, To love those that love them. Doth not Christ, in his engraving of his love to sinners in letters of blood, call for this at our hand, that we should devote ourselves wholly to him? But we confess, such is that desperate enmity and deceitfulness of the hearts of all flesh, that if all who have been partakers of the divine nature, or shall be partakers of it, had but one heart to conduct them to heaven, they would misguide it in the way; it being the matchless and incommunicable prerogative of the Captain of our salvation, to guide many sons and daughters to glory. I think, if there were a description to be given of the most part of us, we must give that which is in Prov. vi. 13, He speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers. And the great lesson that we would teach with our feet, and preach with our hands, would be iniquity, formality, and distance from God. And I would have you, who are expectants of heaven, and have some small hope of being eternally with him, to be much in this precious work of mortification. There are some so habituated to sin, (if God do not prevent them) the last act they shall commit in this stage of the world, shall be an act of iniquity, and they shall breathe out their last, in departing from that invisible Majesty. There are some, that though they live seventy years, shall not have this to say, of one day of all their life, that they have devoted and given it to God. Mortification is a mystery to our knowledge, but much more a mystery to our practice: it is a wonder that many of us are not dis tracted, and that much of Cain's divinity doth not possess us, That whosoever shall find us by the way, shall kill us. However, unto those who make any conscience of this duty, we would say these two things: 1st, Ye may yield unto the premises and assertions of mis

belief, which it draws from the dominion of your sin over you, but deny the conclusions of misbelief: this was the practice of David, Psalm lxv. 3, there is the assertion of misbelief in the first words, Iniquities prevail against me; but he denies that conclusion which we draw from it, that we are reprobates; but faith doth sweetly subjoin, As for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away. This is bad logic, to deny the conclusion, but precious divinity. And 2dly, We would say this to you, that ye may, with a great deal of liberty, make use of the dominion of your iniquity, as an argument to plead with God for pardon, according to that famous prayer of David, Psalm xxv. 11, For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great. And we would say likewise, that God maketh use of the iniquities of the children of men, as an argument to provoke himself unto mercy, and even those iniquities, which before he had made use of as an argument of justice. It is strange to parallel and compare these two places, Gen. vi. 5, with Gen. viii. 21, where the reason that God giveth of the destruction of the world, is this, Because that every imagination of the thoughts of the heart of man is only evil continually and yet, chap. viii. 21, giveth this as a ground, why he would curse the world no more for man's sake, Because, saith he, the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.

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Now we told you at the last occasion we spoke on these words, when we were speaking upon the second thing of mortification (which was the extent of it), that a Christian should not only mortify original sin, which is here called the flesh, but likewise he should mortify his predominant idols, which are here called the affections, and of these two we have spoken. There is this likewise in the extent of mortification, that a Christian should mortify the first motions and tentations unto sin, which are here called lusts. And for clearing what we shall speak unto this; we conceive that the first motions of sin do comprehend these two: 1st, That a Christian should study to mortify the first tentations he meets with unto acting or embracing any particular lust. And 2dly, That a Christian should study to avoid all appearance of evil, by which he may be brought to the actings of that sin. We shall not stand long to prove, that it is the duty of a Christian to do the first; it is clear, not only from James iv. 7, where we are commanded to resist the devil, which comprehendeth even the resisting of the first motions of sin as likewise from 1 Pet. v. 9, Whom resist steadfast in the faith; but likewise, it is clear from the practice of David, when misbelief began to stir, who put faith in exercise, What time (saith he) I am afraid, I will trust in thee. And it is clear

from the practice of Paul, 2 Cor. xii. 7, 8, where there was a messenger of Satan given to buffet him, and he went and besought the Lord thrice. Neither shall we stand to prove, that it is the duty of a Christian to flee the appearances of evil. It is clear from Deut. xii. 30, where it is said, Thou shalt not enquire how the nations serve their gods. Ye may suppose there was no iniquity in this inquiry, yet because it was the appearance of evil, God doth forbid it as likewise from Deut. xxv. 13, 14, Thou shalt not