very little Time feel a mighty Change in our own Minds; and the next News would be, that we should imitate the Prodigal in the fecond Step he made to his Repentance, viz. enter into moft firm Purposes and Refolutions to quit our lewd Courses, and to return to our heavenly Father, from whom we have fo long and fo unaccountably eftranged ourselves.

Now to perfuade all of you, who are concerned, thus to come to yourselves, and thus to enter into ferious Counfels and Confiderations about your own everlasting Interefts, is that which I defign in what I have further to fay at this Time: And in order hereunto, two Things I defire to lay before you.

I. First of all, that it is this Want of thinking and reflecting, and coming to your felves, that hath been the great Occafion of all your paft Sins and Follies.

II. That if you be once prevailed upon to come to yourselves, and ferioufly to apply your Minds to the Confideration of your own fpiritual Affairs, you cannot avoid the being brought to true Repentance. Serious Thinking, if it be practifed and continued, will certainly have at laft the fame Effect upon you that it had upon the Prodigal; it will neceffarily put you upon a hearty Return to your Father.

Of

Of these two Things very briefly, and I have done.

1. It is the Want of thinking and reflecting that is the great Occafion of all the Mifcarriages of our Lives. It is not to be denied, that our Natures are bad enough, and our Propenfity to Sin is very great and lamentable; but yet I am confident, it is not fo much that which hurries us into fo many forts of Follies and Vices, as our Rashness and Inconfideration. We will not give ourselves Liberty to think and reflect upon the Confequences of our Actions before we venture upon them, but blindly rush into them; and hence comes the great Degeneracy of human Kind. We follow our prefent Inclinations, and attend no further than juft to what the Object before us, or the Circumstances we are engaged in, do prompt us to; and thus we are at firft betray'd into Sin: And after we have done a finful Action once, or twice, or thrice, it goes down more glibly and easily afterward, and fo by Degrees it becomes familiar to us, till at laft our Sins grow habitual and cuftomary, and then it is no eafy Matter to conquer them. The Truth is, if it be examined, it will be found, that Want of Confideration is the Fountain of moft of the Mifcarriages of Mankind. What is it that makes any Man an Atheift, or at leaft to call in Question the Being of God and Providence, but merely that he will not give himself

Leave

:

Leave to think; will not be at the Pains, with Coolness and Indifferency, to view the manifeft Effects and Footfteps, which everywhere, and in every Thing, are to be difcovered of an infinite Power, Wisdom, and Goodness? And the fame Thing we fay of all thofe among us, who are Infidels or Scepticks as to the Chriftian Religion. If there be any Man that is fuch, it is not because he wants Evidence for the Truth of the Gospel (for there is enough to convince the moft curious Enquirer upon Earth) but because he will not confider. He runs on in a Road of worldly Bufinefs or Senfuality, and cannot find either Time or Humour to enter into a serious and ftrict Enquiry into Things of this Nature. If a Man would but ufe his Reason fairly, and calmly attend to the Arguments, that are, or may be every Day offered to his Mind for the convincing him of the Being of God, or the Truth of Christ's Religion, he could almost as soon not be a Man, as be an Atheift or an Unbeliever. And thus, as to the particular Immoralities of our Lives, I would ask the moft profligate profane Perfon, whether he thinks it would be poffible for him to live in the Practice of common Oaths and Imprecations, if every time that he had a Temptation to fwear, or damn himself or those about him, he did feriously confider, that it is the dreadful Name of God that he is now going to affront, who ftands by, and

is a Witness of his Blafphemy, and that he is taking the ready Courfe to damn himself in good Earneft by this lewd Abuse of his Tongue.

Again, what is it but mere Sottishness and Inconfideration that makes any Man follow a Trade of Drunkenness and Senfuality? He could hardly turn himself into fuch a Brute, if his Mind was scarce ever fo little attentive to the dismal Confequences that he draws upon himself, both as to his Business, his Health, his Parts, his Eftate, his Pofterity; to all these, as well as his Soul, in following fuch a Course of Life.

In a Word, it is Stupidity and Unthinkingness that undoes us all. We may pretend the Unhappiness of our Education, or the Badness of our Natures, or the Force of Temptations, or the irrefiftible Baits of Pleafure or Gain, or the bewitching Charms of Company; I fay, we may pretend all these Things in Excufe for our careless or vicious Lives: But when all is done, it is our own Rashness and Inconfideration that ought generally to bear the greatest Blame. If we would but fo order our Affairs as to have the Arguments and Motives to Religion feriously and frequently present to our Minds, if we would vouchfafe them a Place in our Hearts, and meditate upon them, and digest them, it is impoffible that a great many of us fhould live as we do. Let but a Man ponder deeply and often upon the Shortness

and

and Uncertainty of his Life, the Madness and the Folly, the Shame and Uneafiness of all forts of Sin; the Joy, the Peace, and the continual Feaft of Innocency and a good Confcience; the ferious Defire that God hath that we fhould all be happy, his continual Goodness expreffed in a Thousand Inftances, which fhould lead us to Repentance; the fevere Account that we must one Day give of all our Actions; the unfpeakably glorious and immortal Life that we may attain to by Holiness and Virtue, and the everlasting Punishment in Hell-fire, with the Devil and his Angels, that does certainly await all lewd, profane, ungodly, impenitent Sinners: I fay, let but a Man seriously and constantly fix his Thoughts upon these Things, and I dare challenge him to be a bad Man, if he can; I dare challenge him to live in Whoredom or Drunkenness, or in any other wicked Courfe, if he can.

2. And this leads me to the other Thing I have to represent about this Business, and with it I conclude, viz. that where-ever ferious Thinking and Reflection is practised and continued, it never fails to produce Reformation in the Man that useth it.

And here I cannot but take Notice of one Thing. It is very obfervable, that when Christianity was first preach'd by our Saviour, it had ftrange vifible Effects upon the Hearts and Lives of Men. In those Days, no fooner had a Man taken upon him the Profeffion