fill. Thus, Occidit miferos crambe repetita, Yet what Remedy under the Sun! 16. The founder Judgment, the ftronger Underftanding you have, the fooner are you fated with the World: And the more deeply convinced, all that cometh is Vanity; Foolish, Infipid, Naufeous. You fee the Foibles of Men in fo much clearer a Light, and have the keener Senfe of the Emptinefs of Life. Here you are, a poor, unfatisfied Inhabitant, of an unquiet World; turning your weary Eyes on this Side and on that Side; seeking Reft, but finding none. You feem to be out of your Place: Neither the Perfons nor Things that furround you are fuch as you want. You have a confused Idea of fomething better than all this ; but you know not where to find it. You are always gafping for Something which you cannot attain, no, not if you range to the uttermoft Parts of the Earth. But this is not all. You are not only negatively unhappy, as finding nothing whereon to stay the Weight of your Soul; but pofitively fo, because you are Unholy You are miferable, because you are vicious. Are you not vicious? Are you then full of Gratitude to Him, who giveth you Life and Breath, and all Things? Not fo; you rather fpurn his Gifts, and murmur at him that gave them. How often has your Heart faid, God did not use you well? How often have you queftion'd either his Wifdom or Goodnefs? Was this well done? What Kind of Gratitude is this? It is the best you are Mafter of. Then take Knowledge of yourfelf. Black Ingratitude is rooted in your inmoft Frame. You can no more love God than you can fee him; or than you can be Happy without that Love. Can Neither (how much foever you may pique yourfelf upon it) are you a Lover of Mankind. Love and Malice confift? Benevolence and Envy? O do not put out your own Eyes. And are not these horrid Tempers in you? Do not you envy one Man, and bear Malice or Ill-will to another? I know you call these Difpofitions by fofter Names; but Names change not the Nature of Things. You are pained that one fhould enjoy what you cannot enjoy yourfelf. Call this what you pleafe, it is rank Envy. You are grieved, that a fecond enjoys even what you have yourfelf; you rejoice in feeing a third unhappy. Do not flatter yourself; this is Malice, venomous Malice, and nothing elfe. And how could you ever think of being happy, with Malice and Envy in your Heart? Juft as well might you expect to be at Ease, while you held burning Coals in your Pofom. 17. I intreat you to reflect, whether there are not other Inhabitants in your Breaft, which leave no Room for Happinefs there. May you not difcover, thro' a thousand Difguifes, Pride? Too high an Opinion of yourfelf? Vanity, Thirft of Praife, even (who would believe it?) of the Applaufe of Knaves and Fools? Unevenness or Sournefs of Temper? Proneness to Anger or Revenge? Peevishness, Fretfulness, or pining Difcontent? Nay, perhaps even Covetoufnefs.-And did you ever think, Happiness could dwell with thefe Awake out of that fenfelefs Dream. Think not of reconciling things incompatible. All these Tempers are effential Mifery. So long as any of thefe are harboured in your Breaft, you must be a Stranger to Inward Peace. What avails it you, if there be no other Hell? Whenever these Fiends are let loofe upon you, you will be constrain'd to own, "Hell is where'er I am: Myfelf am Hell! And can the Supreme Being love thofe Tempers, which you yourself abhor in all but yourself? If not,. they imply Guilt as well as Mifery. Doubtless they do. Only inquire of your own Heart. How often in the mid Career of your Vice have you felt a fecret Reproof, which you knew not how to bear, and therefore ftifled as foon as poffible? I 18. And 18. And did not even this point at an Hereafter? a future State of Existence? The more reasonable among you have no Doubt of this; you do not imagine the whole Man dies together: Altho' you hardly fuppose the Soul, once difengaged, will dwell again in an House of Clay. But how will your Soul fubfift without it? How are you qualified for a feparate State? Suppose this Earthly Covering, this Vehicle of Organiz'd Matter, whereby you hold Commerce with the Material World, were now to drop off! Now, what will you do in the Regions of Immortality? You cannot eat or drink there. You cannot indulge either the Defire of the Flesh, the Defire of the Eye, or the Pride of Life. You love only worldly things; and they are gone, fled as Smoke, driven away for ever. Here is no Poffibility of fenfual Enjoyments; and you have a Relish for nothing else. O what a Separation is this, from all that you hold dear! What a Breach is made, never to be healed! But befide this, you are unholy; full of evil Tempers; for you did not put off thefe with the Body. You did not leave Pride, Revenge, Malice, Envy, Difcontent behind you, when you left the World. And now you are no longer chear'd by the Light of the Sun, nor diverted by the Flux of various Objects : But thofe Dogs of Hell are let loofe to prey upon your Soul, with their whole, unrebated Strength. Nor is there any Hope, that your Spirit will now ever be reftor'd to its original Purity: Not even that poor Hope of a purging Fire, fo elegantly defcribed by the Hea then Poet, fome Ages before the Notion was revived among the Doctrines of the Romish Church. Alia tenduntur inanes Sufpenfæ ad ventos; aliis fub gurgite vafto 19. What & 19. What a great Gulph then is fix'd between you and Happiness, both in this World and that which is to come? Well may you fhudder at the Thought! More especially when you are about to enter on that untried State of Existence. For what a Prospect is this, when you ftand on the Verge of Life, ready to launch out into Eternity? What can you then think? You fee nothing before you. All is dark and dreary. On the very best Suppofition, how well may you address your parting Soul in the Words of dying Adrian ; "Poor, little, pretty, fluttering Thing, To take thy Flight thou know'ft not whither ? Thy pleafing Vein, thy hum'rous Folly And penfive, wavering, melancholy, Thou hop'it, and fear'st thou know'ft not what.' "Thou know'it not what!" Here is the Sting, fuppofe there were no other. To be thou know't not what! Not for a Month, or a Year, but through the countless Ages of Eternity! What a tormenting Uncertainty muft this be? What racking Unwillingness muft it occafion, to exchange even this known Vale of Tears, for the unknown Valley of the Shadow of Death? "And is there no Cure for this?" Indeed there is an effectual Cure; even the Knowledge and Love of GOD. There is a Knowledge of GOD which unveils Eternity, and a Love of GOD, which endears it. That Knowledge makes the great Abyfs vifible; and all Uncertainty vanishes away. That Love makes it amiable to the Soul, fo that Fear has no more Place; But the Moment GOD fays, by the welcome Angel of Death, "Come Thou up hither," She 66 Claps the glad Wing, and Towers away, zc. See, ye not, what Advantage every Way, a Chriftian has over you? Probably the Reafon you faw it not before was, because you knew none but nominal Chriftians; Men who profefs'd to believe more (in their Way of believing) but had no more of the Knowledge or Love of GOD than yourselves. So that with regard to Real, Inward Religion, you ftood upon even Ground. And perhaps in many Branches of Outward Religion, the Advantage was on your Side. May the Lord, the GOD of the Chriftians, either reform these Wretches, or take them away from the Earth! That lay this grand Stumbling-block in the Way of thofe, who defire to know the Will of GOD! O ye who defire to know his Will, regard them not ! If it be poffible, blot them out of your Remembrance. They neither can nor will do you any Good. O fuffer them not to do you Harm. Be not prejudiced againft Chriftianity by thofe, who know nothing at all of it. Nay, they condemn it, all real, fubftantial Christianity; they speak evil of the Thing they know not. They have a kind of cant Word for the whole Religion of the Heart. They call it Enthusiasm. I will briefly lay before you the Ground of the Matter, and appeal to you yourselves for the Reasonablenefs of it. 21. What a miferable Drudgery is the Service of GOD, unless I love the GOD whom I ferve? But I cannot love one whom I know not. How then can I love GOD till I know him? And how is it poffible I fhould know GOD, unless he make himself known unto me By Analogy or Proportion? Very good. But where is that Proportion to be found? What Proportion does a Creature bear to its Creator? What is the Proportion between Finite and Infinite ? I grant, the Existence of the Creatures demonftratively fhews the Exifence of their Creator. The whole Creation fpeaks, that there is a GOD. But that is not the Point in queflion. I know there is a GOD. Thus far is clear. But who will fhew me, what that GOD is. The more I reflect the more convinced I am, that it is not poffible for any or all the Creatures, to take off the |