about thee? Upon this one point depends thy making or marring to all eternity.

But I shall more particularly shew the necessity of conversion in five things; for without this,

I. Thy being is in vain. Is it not pity thou shouldst be good for nothing, an unprofitable burden on the earth, a wart or wen in the body of the universe? Thus thou art, whilst unconverted; for thou canst not answer the end of thy being. Is it not for the divine pleasure thou art and wert created? Rev. iv. 11. Did he not make thee for himself? Prov. xvi. 4. Art thou a man, and hast thou reason? Why then bethink thyself why and whence thy being is. Behold God's workmanship in thy body, and ask thyself, To what end did God rear this fabric? Consider the noble faculties of thy heaven-born soul: to what end did God bestow these excellencies ? To no other than that thou shouldst please thyself, and gratify thy senses? Did God send men, like the swallow, into the world, only to gather a few sticks and dirt, and build their nests, and breed up their young, and then away? The very heathens could see farther than this.Art thou so fearfully and wonderfully made, Ps. cxxxix. 14, and dost thou not yet think with thyself, surely it was for some noble and raised end?

O man! set thy reason a little in the chair. Is it not pity such a goodly fabric should be raised in vain? Verily, thou art in vain, except thou art for God: better thou hadst no being, than not to be for him. Wouldst thou

serve thy end? thou must repent and be converted; without this, thou art to no purpose; yea, to bad purpose.

First, To no purpose. Man unconverted, is like a choice instrument that hath every string broke, or out of tune; the Spirit of the living God must repair and turn it by the grace of regeneration, and sweetly move it by the power of actuating grace, or else thy prayers will be but howlings, and all thy services will make no music in the ears of the most Holy, Eph. ii. 10, Phil. ii. 13, Hosea vii. 14, Isa. i. 15. All thy powers and faculties are so corrupt in thy natural state, that except thou be purged from dead works, thou canst not serve the living God, Heb. ix. 14, Tit. i. 15.

An unsanctified man cannot work the work of God. (1.) He hath no skill in it. He is altogether as unskilful in the work, as in the word of righteousness, Heb. v. 13. There are great mysteries, as well in the practices, as principles of godliness; now the unregenerate knows not the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, Matt. xiii. 11, 1 Tim. iii. 16. You may as well expect him that never learned the alphabet, to read; or look for goodly music of the lute, from one that never set his hand to an instrument, as that a natural man should do the Lord any pleasing service he must first be taught of God, John vi. 45, taught to pray, Luke xi. 1, taught to profit, Isaiah xlviii. 17, taught to go, Hos. xi. 3, or else he will be utterly at a loss. (2.) He hath no strength for it. How weak is his heart? Ezek. xvi. 30, he is presently tired. The

sabbath, what a weariness is it, Mal.. i. 18. He is without strength, Rom. v. 6, yea, stark dead in sin, Eph. ii. 5. (3) He hath no mind to it. He desires not the knowledge of God's ways, Job xxi. 14. He doth not know them, and he doth not care to know them, Ps. lxxxii. 5, he knows not, neither will he understand. (4.) He hath neither due instruments nor materials for it. A man may as well hew the marble without tools, or limn without colours or instrument, or build without materials, as perform any acceptable service without the graces of the Spirit, which are both the materials and instruments in the work. Almsgiving is not a service of God, but of vain. glory, unless dealt forth by the hand of divine love. What is the prayer of the lips, without grace in the heart, but the carcass without the life? What are all our confessions, unless they be exercises of godly sorrow, and unfeigned repentance? What our petitions, unless animated all along with holy desires, and faith in divine attributes and promises? What our praises and thanksgivings, unless from the love of God, and a holy gratitude, and sense of God's mercies in the heart? So that a man may as well expect the trees should speak, or look for logic from the brutes, or motion from the dead, as for any service, holy and acceptable to God, from the unconverted. When the tree is evil, how can the fruit be good? Matt. vii. 18.

Secondly, To bad purpose. The uncon verted soul is a very cage of unclean birds, Rev. xviii. 2, a sepulchre full of corruption

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and rottenness, Matt. xxiii. 27, a loathsome carcass, full of crawling worms, and sending forth a hellish and most noisome savour in the nostrils of God, Ps. xiv. 3. O dreadful case ! dost thou not yet see a change to be needful? Would it not have grieved one to have seen the golden consecrated vessels of God's temple turned into quaffing bowls of drunkenness, and polluted with the idols' service? Dan. v, 2, 3. Was it such an abomination to the Jews, when Antiochus set up the picture of a swine at the entrance of the temple? How much more abominable then would it have been, to have had the very temple itself turned into a stable or a sty, and to have the Holy of Holies served like the house of Baal, to have the image of God taken down, and be turned into a draught-house? 2 Kings x. 27. This is the very case of the unregenerate; all thy members are turned into instruments of unrighteousness, Rom. vi. 19, servants of satan; and thy inmost powers into receptacles of uncleanness, Eph. ii. 2, Tit. i. 15. You may see the goodly guests within, by what comes out: For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies, &c. This black guard discovers what a hell there is within.

O abuse insufferable! to see a heaven-born soul abased to the filthiest drudgery; to see the glory of God's creation, the chief of the ways of God, the lord of the universe, a lapping with the prodigal at the trough, or lick ing up with greediness the most loathsome

vomit! Was it such a lamentation to see those that did feed delicately, to sit desolate in the streets; and the precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, to be esteemed as earthen pitchers; and those that were clothed in scarlet to embrace dunghills? Lam. iv. 2. 5.— And is it not much more fearful to see the only thing that hath immortality in this lower world, and carries the stamp of God, to become as a vessel wherein there is no pleasure? Jer. xxii. 28, (which is but a modest expression of the vessel men put to the most sordid use.) O indignity intolerable! better thou wert dashed in a thousand pieces, than continue to be abused to so filthy a service.

II. Not only man, but the whole visible creation is in vain without this. Beloved, God hath made all the visible creatures in heaven and earth for the service of man, and man only is the spokesman for all the rest. Man is in the universe like the tongue in the body, which speaks for all the members. The other creatures cannot praise their Maker, but by dumb signs and hints to man, that he should speak for them. Man is (as it were) the high priest of God's creation, to offer the sacrifice of praise for all his fellow-creatures, Ps. cxlvii. and cxlviii. and el. The Lord God expecteth a tribute of praise from all his works, Ps. ciii. 22. Now all the rest do bring in their tribute to man, and pay it in by his hand.So then, if man be false and faithless, and selfish, God is wronged of all, and shall have no active glory from his works.