tice at all of them, or indeed fo much as that there is a Lord over them, that all they have they had from him, or are at all oblig'd unto him for any thing. They feldom, it may be, if ever think that they do amifs, or can be made fenfible that any thing is Evil which they do, and take a Pleasure in doing. No, till Wicked Men be detected, and an Accufation brought in against them, and they be apprehended, and begin to fear that Punishment is not far off, they know not how to be ferious, or to think in earneft of their Condition.

This is a thing that's too obvious, Inftruction, Advice, Intreaty, good Counsel or Reproof fignifie nothing to the thriving Sinner; no Threatenings will move him, fo long as the Evil threatened feems at a distance. No fuch things as these make any Impression on him, as long as he hath any thing to wake, and fuffereth no more by it, but the Loss of what is wafted. Such an one tafis the sweetness of the Honey, and eats greedily of it, and fears not the fting fo long as he neither feels nor fees it. His Confcience is laid asleep by the deceitfulness of fin, and you cannot awake it, cry as loud as you will to him. Nothing will awake it, but Thunder, till he find him in prefent Danger of perifhing, he confidereth not that there is any danger of it. The Trangreffion of the Wicked faith within my Heart that there is no fear of God before his Eyes; For he flattereth himself in his own Eyes, untill bis Iniquity be found to be hateful. Pfal. 36. 1. 2.

Let us therefore take heed how we give our felves over to a pleasant Life; for the Pleasures of Sin are fo powerful, as to make us forget our felves

to

to be rational Creatures. All the Difcourfe they will fuffer us to have within our felves is that of our Lufts, reafon is allow'd to fay nothing at all; nor can the Man be heard to fpeak, for the noife of the Swine both within us, and without us. Nothing but fome prefent fear, or pain, or ficknefs, will filence our Brutifh Affections, and give us Leave to talk with, and hearken to our felves. How many of us are fad Examples of this Dominion that Sin hath got over us by the help of vain Pleafures? Such a Dominion, that we grow in a little time the verieft Slaves in the World to it, going tamely to perform all it's vileft Drudgeries, and not daring fo much as whifper a little against it to our felves in fecret; our Thoughts are no longer our own. Only when we think we hear God's laft Call, when we think the Stewardships going, when fickness hath faften'd us to our Beds, and Death seems to stand at the Bed fide, and we have no hope of living any longer, then we begin to confider, when we are in fuch a fear and Distraction, that we know not where to begin to confider, nor what to think on. This is a very lamentable Condition, that we bring our felves into by the wafte of our Master's Goods; we waste our Estates in feeding our Lufts, till Want pinch us as it did theProdigal after he had spent all with riotous Living, and would have been glad to be fed with the Swine he was fet to wait upon, might he but have been allow'd his Belliful of fuch courfe Fare, and then our Lufts thus fed waste our inward Goods, our Bodily Health and Strength bringing us toDeath's Door, and our mental Goods, our Understanding and Freedom of choice, and we can neither confider, X 3

nor refelve on any thing that is good for us. Only fome fevere Affliction, which difableth us at prefent to relifh the Pleasures of Sin, fets our Minds a little at Liberty to think; and truly if it please God by his fevereft Rod to awake us, and to bring us fo effectually to our felves, that we return unto him by a true Repentance, to chastise us feverely, is the greatest kindness can be done

us.

But all that we hear of this Man's use that he made of his Master's taking the Stewardship from him, comes but to this, He faid within himself. He confider'd of fomething, and grew fomewhat thoughtful. But we hear nothing of what he faid to his Mafter, or to any of his Fellow Servants, and yet something in all Reason one would expect to have heard faid to them. An humble Confeffion of his Fault to his Master whom he had chiefly finned against, and then a more publick Confeflion to the Family of the Offence and Scandal he had given unto all therein. Something of this nature would have become him very well. But all that was said by him was within himself.

Wicked Men even after they are detected, and they find themselves in danger, are very hardly brought to acknowledge their guilt, or to make an humble, free, full and ingenuous Confeffion of their Sin, together with the aggravations of it. either to God or Man. An Oath is readier to deny the Fault withal, and it may be an Imprecation to fecond it; or at leaft an Excufe or Pretence to leffen and extenuate it, is ufually more ready than fuch a Confeilion.

How hard a thing is it to humble our proud Hearts before God? We are afham'd to own

Our

Our felves to be fo vile and abominable, as in truth we are. We muft, in fo doing, acknowledge that we have been not only wicked, but foolish; that we have not only wrong'd God, but undone our felves. But if ever we hope for mercy, let us lay afide our Pride. And whatever it thail please God to take from us, or lay upon usa Chafifement for the wafte we have made of his Goods, let us most humbly acknowledge, that he doth juftly, and that our Sins have deferv'd far worfe than yet we have fuffer'd. He that covereth his Sins fhall not profper; but he that confeffeth and forfaketh them, shall have mercy. Prov. 28. 13. Confefs your Faults one to another. Jam. 5. 16.

We fhould all take the fame courfe that the penitent prodigal did, go and fall down before God, faying every one of us, Father, I have finned against Heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy Son. Luk. 15. Let us firft confefs to God, and in the next place where our Fault is publick and fcandalous, and Offence is given to the Church, let our Confeffion be as publick as our Sin; that fo we may do all we can to restore thofe, whom we by our Example may, have led into Sin; and remove the Occafion that we have given the Adverfaries to speak Evil of the Religion which we profefs. But this is a Leffon, which how neceffary foever, is very hard to be learn'd by most of us. We are not asham'd to fin, but we are afham'd to do Penance for our Sins, that is, we are afham'd to let our Neighbours know that we are penitent, for they knew already that we have finned, and 'tis because they know it, that they ought alfo to be fatisfied of our Repentance for it; but this we are unwilling

X 4

they

they fhould be, that is, we are not truly penitent, we are not humbled enough to confefs our Faults, tho' all the World know them.

2. The fecond thing here to be taken Notice of, is, the perplexity and trouble of Mind which this evil Man fell into, fo foon as he awak'd, and began to confider his Condition. He found that he had run on fo rafhly and giddily, muddled with the pleasures of a voluptuous Life, that he had outrun his Wits, he had bewildred himself, and got into fuch a Mafe,that which way now he should turn himself he knew not, but cried out, What shall I do? This, indeed, is the natural confequent of Inconfideration. He that will not be at the trouble to confider well what he is a doing, or whither the way wherein he walks will bring him in the end, but go on like one in a Dream, following the vain imaginations of his own Head, whilst reafon, which fhould guide him, is a-fleep, is too, for the most part, like fuch an one that walks in his Sleep, in a strange Confufion whenever he awakes. He finds himfelf on the brink of a Precipice, or in fome very dangerous Place, and the very Apprehenfion of his danger doth fo Confound him, that it proves fometimes fatal. Wicked Men following inconfiderately their various Lufts and Appetites, find, when they come to themselves, and make use of their Reason, that they have been all this while going towards Hell, and now are come fo near it, that they have fome cause to fear 'tis too late to think of returning towards Heaven. They have fo long difufed the narrow way that leads thither, that they know not how to find it, or walk in it.

And