varnish, and were not resolved to wash away these curious Colours with Rivers of flaming Brimftone! How often haft thou bid me call my greater Enormities, Innocent Mirth, and made me look on them as Men do on Objects through the wrong end of a Perspective-Glafs, as if God were altogether fuch an one as my self, and would therefore be contented to call my Favourite Vices, Peccadillo's, because my self was loth to call them by another Name/How often haft thou flattered me with deceitfull Riches, if I would but give my self that liberty my irreligious neighbours ufe! How often haft thou tempted me with the famous Examples of profperous Men, that have been strangers to Serioufnefs and Heavenly mindedness! How haft thou difparaged Piety to me, as a fneaking Qualification, and represented Sin as the Royal way to Credit and Reputation! Away with thefe Fables, I'll be trapanned and foothed no more; cokes Children with fuch Bawbles, I know too much to be ravished with thefe borrowed Glories. God hath spoken once, twice have I heard it, nay a thousand times have I heard it, That he that overcomes, fhall not be hurt by the fecond Death; which is, that everlasting separation of the Soul from the Great and Glorious Prefence of God: And what overcoming can he mean, but

con

queft of fuch treacherous Suggestions? if I overcome thee, I do my work. If I master thee, I am made for ever. If I fubdue thee, my greatest Impediment is removed. If I can but hate thy Flatteries, behold, God will be my Rock and my Salvation, and my Defence, and I fhall not be

moved. How often haft thou promised me long Life, and Eafe, and Plenty, if I would stream out my Golden Years in Vanity, and brutish Delights, as if my Youth had been too good for God; and God, when he woo'd me to Obedience, came but to torment me, as the evil Spirit faid in the Gospel, before my time, as if I were the great Difpofer of my time, and could command my Age to flourish at Fourfcore! How haft thou bid me delay my Repentance and Seriousness, and given me hopes that I fhould find a convenient time hereafter, when I could keep Sin and the World no longer! As if Repentance were in my own hands, and I could command it to attend me at my pleasure, and as if it were a Work to be dispatched with a figh or groan! How haft thou tempted me to fin, under a pretence that none should fee it; or, if the Sin could not be kept fecret, none should know that I had a hand in it; as if God did not fee by night, as well as by day, and a private corner could keep out Omnipotence or as if God fate like an idle Pilot in Heaven, without regarding how the great fhip of this world is governed! How haft thou under the colour of a Single Sin, involved me into a neceffity of adding another, and been reftlefs till I have added more to support the reft! And how treache rously haft thou bid me walk in the counsel of the Ungodly, when it was but to engage me to ftand in the way of Sinners, and then to make me fit down in the Seat of the Scornfull! How haft thou prompted me to palliate mine Offences, and to lay them at other Mens doors? Lo! This

I have found, that God at firft did make me upright, but thou haft taught me to feek out many inventions, tricks how to be undone, ways how to make my felf worse than the Beasts that perish. Go, cozener, tell thy Stories to Men that will not hear the Truth? I will hear what the Lord will fay to me. O God! I need no accufer, no witness, no fpy to betray me. I confefs my felf Guilty, I pafs Sentence upon my felf. My conscience condemns me, my Judge fits in my Soul, my Eyes, my Hands, my Feet, the Theatre, the Ale-Houfe, the Tavern; they give in Evidence against me. My Actions fill me with fhame, the very Clothes I wear contribute to my confufion. Deceitfull Heart! how haft thou bid me truft to broken Reeds, and lean on props which were rotten and decayed! I have feen enough of thy falfhood and inconftancy, I'll be held no longer, I'll ftay no longer in Sodom. These flowery Meadows, this enamell'd Grafs, fhall make me lie down no more; I fee there is Death in the Pot, and the Great Day will be upon me for all the feeming delay, before this poor befotted World

is aware.

I come, Lord, I'll stand out against thy Calls no longer; I do hear thy voice, and I'll harden my heart no more. It is the voice of my Beloved that knocks, I will arife and let him in. Awake up, my Glory, awake; I have flumber'd long enough. Get up, my fleepy Affections, the Lord is at hand. My Heart is hot within me the Fire of God burns within me. O my God wilt thou spread open thy Arms to a wretch, that

hath

hath been filled with Unrighteousness and Deceit; and having known the Judgment of God, that they who commit fuch things are worthy of death, hath not only done the fame, but hath had pleasure in them that do them! Is there yet Mercy in ftore for fuch a Rebel? Will God be yet intreated? Then, I chearfully renounce the Devil, and all his works. O God, to whom Vengeance belongs, fhew thy felf. Arife, Lord! let all thine Enemies be scatter'd, even my Sins; as fmoak is driven away, fo drive them away; as wax melteth before the fire, even fo let my Sins perifh at the prefence of God. I know the World will laugh at me for this Resolution, but I'll give them leave to mock; if I can but get into yonder Blessed and Everlasting Manfions, laugh on ye Mad-men, I have a God will honour me. If there be a future Judgment, and Men fhall be rewarded according to their Works, and God will be fo fevere against ftubborn Sinners, as he hath threatned, (and indeed he cannot be God without it; to be God, and not true to his Word, implies a contradiction) then sure I am, the rich, the voluptuous, the carnal Men of this World, that make fuch provision for the Flesh, to fulfil the Lufts thereof, must certainly be in a more miferable condition than I. Methinks I fee how they tremble before the Throne. They thought it below them here on Earth, to make Religion their bufinefs, methinks I fee how afhamed they are of their Folly, how the wretches blush to fee, that God hath chofen the foolish things of the World to confound the wife. Methinks I hear them cry out to E

Rocks

Rocks and Mountains, Fall on us, and hide us from the Face of him that fits on the Throne, and from the Wrath of the Lamb. O how their Thoughts at that time will be all changed, and all their Triumphs be turned into Funerals? Methinks I fee how Herod is confounded to see the Humble Baptift advanced above the Kings and Princes of this World, even that Baptift whom he valued not half fo much as he did a Strumpet, whom for Sport's fake, he could Behead, and deprive of Life, to fave his Reputation among Flatterers, and Sycophants! Methinks I fee, how the bloody Nero ftarts, to fee Paul the Prisoner deck'd with Robes of Eternal Light; that Paul, who fell a Sacrifice to his Pleasure, and whom he would have difdained to fet with the Dogs of his Flock! I quake at the difmal fight! My thoughts are filled with horror! I'll be wife before it be too late, I'll not hazard my Soul as moft Men do; O how I blame my self for ferving Sin and the World thus long! Had God fnatched me away in that dismal fervice, how dreadful would my Wages have been? Blessed be God, who hath been thus patient with me; I'll trespass no longer upon his long-fuffering. Come, ye Ministers of the Gospel, tell me what I must do to be Saved; lead me, direct me, I'll follow, and neither Men nor Devils fhall draw me away. Teach me to fing the Songs of Zion. Inftruct me how to prefer Jerufalem above my chief Joy. Shew me the Path of Life, leave not my Soul in Hell. Pull it out of the Fire; I have made a folemn choice of God for my portion. Let me know, how I must love him: I'll obey your Coun.

fel,