that will cure you all, that will cure infalli bly; follow but these few directions, and if you do not then win heaven, I will be content to lose it.

Hear then, O sinner! and as ever thou wouldst be converted and saved, embrace this following counsel.

Direct. I. Set it down with thyself, as an undoubted truth, that it is impossible for thee ever to get to heaven in this thy unconverted state. Can any other but Christ save thee? And he tells thee, he will never do it, except thou be regenerated, and converted, Matth. xviii. 3. John iii. 8. doth he not keep the keys of heaven, and canst thou get in with. out his leave; as thou must, if ever thou comest thither in thy natural condition, without a sound and thorough renovation?

Direct. II. Labour to get a thorough sight, and lively sense and feeling of thy sins. Till men are weary and heavy laden, and pricked at the heart, and stark sick of sin, they will not come unto Christ, in his way, for ease and cure ; nor to purposé enquire, What shall we do? Matth. xi. 28. Acts. ii. 37 Matth. ix. 12. They must set themselves down for dead men, before they will come unto Christ, that they may have life, John v. 40. Labour therefore to set all thy sins in order before thee; never be afraid to look upon them, but let thy spirit make diligent search, Psal. lxxvii. 6. enquire into thine heart, and into thy life; enter into a thorough examination of thyself and of all thy ways, Psal. exix. 59. that thou mayest make a full dis

covery and call in the help of God's Spirit, in the sense of thine own inability hereunto, for it is proper work to convince of sin, John xvi. 8. spread all before the face of thy conscience, till thine heart and eyes be set abroach. Leave not striving with God, and thine own soul, till it cry out under the sense of thy sins, as the enlightened jailor,__What must I do to be saved? Acts xvi. 30. To this purpose;

Meditate of the numerousness of thy sins. David's heart failed when he thought of this, and considered that he had more sins than hairs, Psal. xl. 12. This made him cry out upon the multitude of God's tender mercies, Psal. li. 1. The loathsome carcass doth not more hatefully swarm with crawling worms, than an unsanctified soul with filthy lusts; they fill the head, the heart, the eyes and mouth of him. Look backward: where was ever the place, what was ever the time, in which thou didst not sin? Look inward : what part or power canst thou find in soul or body, but it is poisoned with sin? What du ty dost thou ever perform, into which poison is not shed? Oh, how great is the sum of thy debts, who hast been all thy life long running upon the books, and never didst, nor canst pay off one penny! Look over the sin of thy nature, and all its cursed brood, the sins of thy life: call to mind thy omissions, commissions, the sins of thy thoughts, of thy words, of thine actions, the sins of thy youth, the sins of thy years, &c. Be not like a desperate bankrupt, that is afraid to look over

his books. Read the records of conscience carefully. These books must be opened sooner or later, Rev. xx. 12.

Meditate npon the aggravations of thy sins, as they are the grand enemies against the God of thy life, against the life of thy soul. In a word, they are the public enemies of all mankind. How do David, Ezra, Daniel, and the good Levites, aggravate their sins, from the consideration of their injuriousness to God, their opposition to his good and righteous laws, the mercies, the warnings that they were committed against, Neh. ix. Dan. ix. Ezra ix. O the work that sin hath made in the world. This is the enemy that hath brought in death, that hath robbed and en slaved man, that blacked the devil, that hath digged hell, Rom. v. 12. 2 Peter ii. 4 John viii. 84. This is the enemy that hath turned the creation upside down, and sown dissen tion between man and the creatures, between man and man; yea, between man and himself, setting the sensitive part against the rational, the will against the judgment, lust against conscience; yea, worst of all, between God and man, making the lapsed sinner both hate. ful to God, and the hater of him, Zech. xi. 8. O man! how canst thou make so light of sin? This is the traitor that sucked the blood of the Son of God, that sold him, that mocked him, that scourged him, that spit in his face, that digged his hands, that pierced liis side, that pressed his soul, that mangled his body, that never left, till he had bound him, condemned him, nailed him, crucified

him, and put him to open shame, Isai. liii 4, 5, 6. This is that deadly poison, so powerful of operation, as that one drop of it shed. upon the root of mankind, hath corrupted, spoiled, and poisoned, and undone his whole race at once, Rom. v. 18, 19. This is the common butcher, the bloody executioner, that hath killed the prophets, burnt the martyrs, murdered all the apostles, all the patriarchs, all the kings and potentates, that hath destroyed cities, swallowed empires, butchered and devoured whole nations. Whatever was the weapon that 'twas done by, sin was it that did execution, Rom. vi. 23. Dost thou yet think it but a small thing? If Adam and all his children could be digged out of their graves, and their bodies piled up to heaven, and an inquest were made, what matchless murderer were guilty of all this blood; it would be all found in the skirts of sin. Study the nature of sin, till thy heart be brought to fear and loathe it. And meditate on the ag gravations of thy particular sin, how thou hast sinned against all God's warnings, against thine own prayers, against mercies, against corrections, against clearest light, a. gainst freest love, against thine own resolutions, against promises, vows, covenants of better obedience, &c. Charge thine heart home with these things, till it blush for shame, and be brought out of all good opinion of itself. Ezra ix. 6.

Meditate upon the desert of sin. It crieth up to heaven, it calls for vengeance, Gen. xviii. 21. its due wages is death and damna

tion it pulls the curse of God upon the soul and body, Gal. iii. 10. Deut. xxviii. The least sinful word or thought lays thee under the infinite wrath of God Almighty, Rom. ii. 8, 9.

Matth. xii. 36. Oh, what a load of wrath, what a weight of curses, what treasure of vengeance have all the millions of thy sins then deserved? Rom. ii. 5. John iii. 36. Oh, judge thyself, that the Lord may not judge thee, 1 Cor. xi. 31.

Meditate upon the deformity and defilement of sin. Tis as black as hell, the very image and likeness of the devil drawn upon the soul, 1 John iii. 8, 10. It would more affright thee to see thyself in the hateful deformity of thy nature, than to see the devil. There is no mire so unclean, no vomit so loathsome, no carcass or carrion so offensive, no plague or leprosy so noisome as sin, in which thou art all enrolled, and covered with its odious filth, whereby thou_art_rendred more displeasing to the pure and holy nature of the glorious God, than the most filthy object, composed of whatever is hateful to all thy senses, can be to thee, Job xv. 15, 16. Couldst thou take up a toad into thy bosom? Couldst thou cherish it, and take delight in it? Why, thou art as contrary to the pure and perfect holiness of the divine nature, and as loathsome as that is to thee, Matth. iii. 33. till thou art purified by the blood of Jesus, and the power of renewing grace.

Above all other sins, fix the eye of consid eration on these two. (1.) The sin of thy nature. "Tis to little purpose to lop the branch