O dreadful thought to think of! That God should build such a world as this, and lay out such infinite power, and wisdom, and goodness thereupon, and all in vain: and man should be guilty, at last, of robbing and spoiling him of the glory of all. Oh, think of this! while thou art unconverted, all the offices of the creatures to thee are in vain: thy meat nourishes thee in vain, the sun holds forth his light to thee in vain, the stars that serve thee in their courses, by their most powerful, tho' hidden influence, Judges v. 20, Hos. ii. 21, 22, do it in vain; thy clothes warm thee in vain; thy beast carries thee in vain in a word, the unwearied labour, and continual travel of the whole creation (as to thee) is in vain. The service of all the creatures that drudge for thee, and yield forth their strength unto thee (that therewith thou shouldst serve their Maker) is all but lost labour. Hence the whole creation groaneth under the abuse of this unsanctified world, Rom. viii. 22, that pervert them to the service of their lusts, quite contrary to the very end of their being.

III. Without this, thy religion is in vain, James i. 26. All thy religious performances will be but lost; for they can neither please God, Rom. viii. 8, nor save thy soul, i Cor. xiii. 2, 3, which are the very ends of religion. Be thy services never so specious, yet God hath no pleasure in them, Isa. 1. 14, Mal. i. 10. Is not that man's case dreadful, whose sacrifices are as murder, and whose prayers are a breath of abomination? Isa. Ixvi. 3, Prov. xxviii. 9. Many, under conviction,

think they will set upon mending, and that a few prayers and alms will save all again; but alas, sirs! while your hearts remain unsanctified, your duties will not pass. How punctual was Jehu? and yet all was rejected, because his heart was not upright, 2 Kings x. with Hos. i. 4. How blameless was Paul? and yet being unconverted, all was but loss, Phil. iii. 6, 7. Men think they do much in attending God's service, and are ready to twit him with it, Isa. lviii. 3, Matt. vii. 22, and set him down so much their debtor, when (as their persons being unsanctified) their duties cannot be accepted.

O soul! do not think, when thy sins pursue thee, a little praying and reforming thy course will pacify God: thou must begin with thine heart; if that be not renewed, thou canst no more please God, than one that having unspeakably offended thee, should bring thee his vomit in a dish to pacify thee; or, having fallen into the mire, should think, with his loathed embraces, to reconcile thee.

It is a great misery to labour in the fire.The poets could not invent a worse hell for Sisyphus, than to be getting the barrel still up the hill, and then that it should presently fall down again, and renew his labour. God threatens it, as the greatest of temporal judgments, that they should build, and not inhabit, plant, and not gather, and their labours should be eat up by strangers, Deut. xxviii. 30, 38. 39, 40. Is it so great a misery to lose our common labours, to sow in vain, and build in vain? how much more to lose our pains in religion, to

pray and hear, and fast in vain? This is an undoing and eternal loss. Be not deceived; if thou goest on in thy sinful state, though thou shouldst spread forth thine hands, God will hide his eye; though thou make many prayers, he will not hear, Isa. i. 15. If a man without skill set about our work, and mar it in the doing, though he take much pains, we give him but small thanks. God will be worshipped after the due order, 1 Chron. xv.. 43. If a servant do our work, but quite contrary to our order, he shall have rather stripes than praise. God's work must be done according to God's mind, or he will not be pleased; and this cannot be, except it be done with a holy heart, 2 Chrom xxv. 2.

IV. Without this, thy hopes are in vain, Job viii. 12, 13. The Lord hath rejected thy confidences, Jer. ii. 37.

First, Thy hopes of comfort here are in vain. 'Tis not only necessary to the safety, but comfort of your condition, that you be converted. Without this, you shall not know peace, Isa.. lix. 8. Without the fear of God, you cannot have the comforts of the Holy Ghost, Acts ix. 31. God speaks peace only to his people, and to his saints, Ps. lxxxv. 8. If you have a false peace, continuing in your sins, 'tis not of God's speaking, and then you may guess the author. Sin is a real sickness, Isa. i.: 5, yea, the worst of sickness; 'tis a leprosy in the head, Lev. xiii. 44, the plague in the heart, 1 Kings viii. 31. "Tis brokenness in the bones, Ps. li. 8, it pierceth, it woundeth, it racketh, it tormenteth, 1 Tim. i. 10. Á

man may as well expect ease, when his disesses are in their strength, or his bones out of joint, as true comfort, while in his sins.

O wretched man, that eanst have no ease in this case, but what comes from the deadliness of the disease! You shall have the poor sick man, saying in his lightness, he is well, when you see death in his face he will needs up and about his business, when the very next step is like to be into the grave. The unsanctified often see nothing amiss; they think themselves whole, and ery not out for the physician; but this shews the danger of their

case.

Sin doth naturally breed distempers and disturbances in the soul. What a continual tempest and commotion is there in a discontented mind? What an eating evil is inordinate care? What is passion, but a very fever in the mind? What is lust, but a fire in the bones? What is pride, but a deadly tympany? or covetousness, but an insatiable and insufferable thirst? or malice and envy, but venom in the very heart? Spiritual sloth is but a scurvy in the mind, and carnal security a mortal lethargy. And how can that soul have true comfort, that is under so many diseases ? But converting grace cures, and so eases the mind, and prepares the soul for a settled, standing, immortal peace: Great peace have they that love thy commandments, and nothing -shall offend them, Ps. cxix. 165. They are the ways of wisdom that afford pleasure and peace, Prov. iii. 17. David had infinitely more pleasure in the word, than in all the de

light of his court, Ps. cxix. 103, 127. The conscience cannot be truly pacified, till soundly purified, Heb. x. 22. Cursed is that peace that is maintained in a way of sin, Deut. xxix. 19, 20. Two sorts of peace are more to be dreaded, than all the troubles in the world; peace with sin, and peace in sin.

2

Secondly, Thy hopes of salvation hereaf ter are in vain; yea, worse than in vain; they are most injurious to God, most pernicious to thyself: There is death, desperation, blasphemy in the bowels of this hope. (1.) There is death in it. Thy confidence shall be rooted out of thy tabernacles, (God will up with it root and branch) it shall bring thee to the king of terrors, Job xviii. 14. Though thou mayest lean upon this house, it will not stand, Job viii. 15, but will prove like a ruinous building, which when a man trusts to, it falls down about his ears. (2.) There is desperation in it. Where is the hope of the hypocrite, when God takes away his soul? Job xxvii. 8. Then there is an end forever of his hope. Indeed, the hope of the righteous hath an end; but then 'tis not a destructive but a perfective end; his hope ends in fruition, others in frustration, Prov. x. 28. The godly must say at death, It is finished, but the wicked, It is perished; and in too sad earnest bemoan himself, (as Job in a mistake) Where now is my hope? He hath destroyed me, I am gone, and my hope is removed like a tree, Job xix. 10. The righteous hath hope in his death, Prov. xiv. 32, when nature is dying, his hopes are living; when his body is languishing, his

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