vantages it affords How is my Soul bound up with my Corn, and Wine, and Oil? How do I fancy that all my happiness is gone, when these outward Comforts are gone! Did ever Sin grieve me a quarter fo much as a Temporal Lofs? Did offending a Gracious God ever coft me the Tenth Part of the Tears I fhed, for being deprived of a little fhining Clay? How hearty is my Joy under the Bleffings of God's left hand? How little am I affected with the Bleffings of his right, How far greater fatisfaction doth my thriving in the World give me, than my thriving in Grace and in the Knowledge of the Lord Jefus Chrift? How loth am I to honour God with my Subftance? How unwilling, how grudgingly, do I part with any thing confiderable for Charitable Ufes? I find fault with this Sin in another, and fhall not I reprehend it in my felf? I complain of my Neighbour for being hard-hearted,and unkind to People in distress? And is that a Virtue in me, which is Vice in another? Dionyfius the Tyrant wondred at his Son; that with all the Gold and Silver he had in his House, he had made no Man his Friend; And may not I juftly wonder at my felf, who, as long as I have lived, have not made my self Friend of the Mammon of unrighteousness,that at my Death, I may be received into everlasting Habitations? How loth am I to part with any of this World's Goods for God's Service? How happy do I count my felf, when Religion doth coft me nothing? How loth am I to be at the least charges for Heaven? How doth it grieve me, when I spend any thing upon Religion? How

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do I dote upon these fublunary Vanities? How far greater Pains do I take to be rich, than to be happy for ever! How can I defpenfe with a Sin for Profits fake! How little of my Defires and Breathings hath God, and a bleeding Saviour! How dull am I under the most lively Descriptions of the Joys of Heaven! How dull under the ftupendious offers of Grace and Mercy! How dead under the joyful meffage of Pardon! How dull, when tempted by all the ravishing Arguments of God's Love, to love him above all! What means my unwillingness to take God for my greatest Portion? What means that Quicknefs, Sagacity, and Wisdom, when my Riches, Plenty, or worldly Profperity is concerned,and that ftrange Dumpishnefs, when God courts, and befeeches my Soul to lay hold on Eternal Life? Are not these evident Signs, that the World draws and attracts my Heart most powerfully? God fees, my Heart is not upright with him? he fees, I am afraid to take up with him alone; he fees, how Covetousness hath poffeffed my Soul; and can I cherish this Root of all Evil in my Breast, and not tremble at the danger my Soul is in? Am I by the Apostles verdict, an Idolater, and do I make light of fo great ■ Guilt? If no Idolater, must expect a Crown of Glory, Alas! what can I look for, but Eternal Darkness? Could Ariftippus throw his Gold into the Sea, and fay, It's better I should drown thee, than that thou fhould'ft undo me; And fhall I be a Slave to my Wealth? When I read that it's easier for a Camel to enter thorow the Eye of a Needle, than for a rich Man who fets X 2

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his Heart on his Riches, to enter into Heaven; Am not I frighted with the Expreffion? I find how this Sin deprives me of a Holy Communion with God, and fhall I lose my greateft comfort and fupport and fatisfaction for it? How doth the Gold become dim! How is the most fine Gold changed through this peftilential Breath! The Life and Senfe I once had of Spiritual Objects, decays and dwindles away in me, and an infipidnefs in Holy things fucceeds; my relish of them Perishes, and they become to me as a curious dish to a Perfon of a corrupted Stomach; I naufeate the very Dainties of my Heavenly Father: This Sin is enough to damp and kill all the good feed God fows in me ; if any Man love the World, the love of the Father is not in him, and can Í be contented without the love of God? If God be not my Friend, What doth the friendship of the whole World fignifie, when my Soul muft leave this Tabernacle,and appear before God's Bar? O God, I shall have fo many Witnesses against me, that I fhall not know what to fay, or whither to betake my felf for refuge; the poor will accuse me, because I have not opened my hand and heart to them; my own Confcience will accufe me, because I have not been a good Steward of the means God gave me; the Minifters of God will accufe me, because whatever was laid out upon my Pride and Luft, was thought too little; and the least kindness I fhewed to those that wait at God's Altar, too much: the Devils will accufe me, bccuse having a Soul fo great, fo noble, fo precious, I did employ it chiefly in fcraping a

little dross and dung together; nay, the Lord Fefus will accufe me, because his Example of Contentedness, and Heavenly-mindedness, would not allure me into Imitation; God will accufe me. because having furnished me with all the Motives and Encouragements imaginable, to mind Heaven more than Earth; I preferred this Earth before all the Joys of Heaven; and how fhall I bear up under all this weight?

Would the poor deluding Worldling but let fuch Thoughts fink into his Heart, what a damp would it strike on his ftrong Defires after the World; and how would it make his immoderate Love to these fublunary Riches, break into Longings after a nobler Inheritance? But neglecting this, he, Serpent-like, feeds on duft, and prepares for anxiety, difcontent, and vexation of fpirit and for a miserable death: Like a Hog lies rooting in the Earth, and buries his Soul in a Chest of Money; defpifes all Admonitions to Charity and, like the Smith's Dog, can hear the hammering and beating of his Mafter, and endure the Sparks flying about his Ears without being stirr'd or concerned at it.

Hypocrifie is a Sin, which the painted Chriftian does not eafily part withal, yet would he reflect, like a Perfon that hates to few Pillows under his own Elbows: Can I read Chrift's dif courses against the Pharifees and not ask my own Heart, Whether the Pharifees Temper be an emblem of my Complexion? Can I remember. that odious Name in the Gofpel, and not reflect on the Plagues that are threatned them? And

do I know these Plagues, and do they dart no fear, no terror into my Soul? I am loth to believe I am fo bad a Man; but what if God, and the Great Day, fhould find me fo? Have I no Selfend in my Religious Duty? What is it put me many times upon doing good, applause from Men, or the Love of God? Do not I pretend God's Glory fometimes, when I aim at nothing but mine own? Do not I draw nigh to God with my Lips, when in my Heart and Conversation Ideny him? Do not I, by pretending to please God, neglect my Duty to my Neighbour? And while I am hot for Devotion, hate my Brother in my Heart? I am loth to neglect my Prayer, but am I as loth to neglect relieving fuch a Believer that groans in Prison, or Poverty? Am not I more fevere in preffing the leffer Concerns of Religion, than I am in urging the greater? Do not I commend that in a rich or great Man,which I can reprehrnd in my inferiors, or meaner Perfons? Do not I require those Duties of other Men, which my felf am loth to practife? Do not I applaud my felf for my own Sanctuary, while I defpife others, whom I fancy not fo holy as I am? Am not I more curious to know other Mens Conditions, than mine own? Am not I more zealous in publick, than I am in private? Am not I Religious for filthy Lucre's fake? Do not I make a gain of Godliness, and use Religion as a Cloak to cover my fecret Sins? Do not I make Devotion a Scaffold to erect my own Credit and Profit by? What is Hypocrifie, if this be not? Thô I can hide it from the fight of Men, can I conceal it from him,

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