tification. IGNORANCE was comforted with the Conceit of having a good Heart, full of good Motions; and a good Life full of juft and good Actions: no bitter complaining of corrupt Nature; no Doubts and Fears of falling fhort at last; but a vain Confidence, which fupported him through Death, and accompanied him even to the Gate of Heaven. He refolutely refuses to admit a Sufpicion of his State, till the Flames of Hell fcatter his Delufion.

We fee, in this Character, a compleat Delineation of all that Religion which has not CHRIST for its Foundation: the various Subterfuges of a felf-righteous and deceived Heart, and the Obstinacy with which it cleaves to its own Way. Our Author has been particularly attentive to the Drawing of this Character, and introduces it three Times, that we may fee and contemplate it, in its Progress and its End.

What awful Confternation will feize the Souls of fuch unhappy Ones, when they find their Mistake. We cannot conceive of any Thing more dreadful than to pass through Life in the Belief of being happy hereafter; and to die in Expectation of entering upon that Happiness: to go and cry Lord, Lord,

open

open to us: we have eat and drank in thy Prefence, and thou haft taught in our Streets; and after all this, to be repulfed with, I never knew you, depart from me. To meet with Hell when Heaven was expected, must make Hell double torment. Alas, SYNTYCHE, what Numbers are there under this Delufion! LORD, deliver us from Ignorance and Self-Conceit !

As our Author has been full in delineating this Character, fo he has been very plain; and used little or nothing of Metaphor: we will, therefore, dismiss IGNORANCE, at least for the prefent, and attend to another Character, but tending to the fame awful End, namely the Door in the Side of the Hill this was an awful Sight, and made our PILGRIMS tremble; it was a Man bound with seven ftrong Cords, and led away by feven Devils.

He also was One who fet out for the Kingdom of GOD, and had proceeded a great Way: not like IGNORANCE, on the Foundation of Pride, and Self-Righteousnefs; but on the Plan of the Gospel: had walked in the right Way of the LORD; and proved, at laft, "a wanton Profeffor, and damnable Apoftate." Perhaps it may

be

be profitable, SYNTYCHE, if we look over the Progrefs of fuch a Profeffor

Their Beginning is often fuch as promifes great Things in the Chriftian Life: deep Conviction of Sin, and holy Mourning for it warm Zeal, and even precife Tenderness of Confcience: much apparent Love to the Doctrines of the Gofpel, and Growth in the Knowledge of them, attended with Gifts of Utterance. From fuch fair Beginnings, who could expect fo foul an End, as to be poffeffed of feven Devils? Yet fo it has happened, more than once, in the Knowledge of thy Friend.

Do you ask where the Deviation from the right Way begins? I anfwer, in Pride and Prefumption: fo lovely and promifing an Appearance attracts Refpect and Efteem, which begets Pride: a tolerable good Opinion of themselves, fupported by the Efteem of others, leads on to carnal Security and Prefumption: a light and trifling Spirit takes Place, and Tenderness of Conscience dies away. Unguarded, and expofed to Temptation; the Enemy of Souls allures them to a wanton Behaviour and Conduct, and that, often too, under the Notion of Liberty, and Freedom from LEGALITY.

JESUS

JESUS fays, When the unclean Spirit is gone out of a Man, he waiketh up and down Jeeking Reft, and findeth none; and be faith, I will return to my House from whence I came: and when be returneth, be findeth it empty, Swept, and garnished: then goeth he and taketh to himself, feven other Spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there, and the last End of that Man is worse than the Beginning..

Solomon fays, His own Iniquities fhall take the Wicked himself, and he shall be bolden with the Cords of his Sins. The fecond Poffeffion of Sin and Satan is more violent and ftrong than the firft. Such unhappy Ones become feven-fold more the Slaves of Corruption, than they were be fore they affumed a Profeffion, of Religion, and their Apoftacy is generally marked with indelible Reproach,

The Condemnation of such is terrible. indeed for if after they have escaped the Pollutions of the World, through the Knowledge of the LORD and SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST, they are again entangled therein, and overcome; the latter End is worse with them than the Beginning: for it had been better for them not to have known the Way

of

of Righteoufnefs, than after they have known it, to turn from, the holy Commandment delivered unto them.

I know not, my Friend, in all the World, a Sight fo fhocking and Heart-wounding, as to fee a Profeffor, once lovely and ufeful in the Ways of Gon, debased by Satan, and led captive by him at his Will: a Slave to Lufts and Corruptions, which would have fhocked him in his firft carnal State: fuch a Sight is truly awful, and if we have been in Habits of religious Intimacy with them, it is peculiarly diftreffing: This TURNAWAY, at Sight of the PILGRIMS, held down his Head like a Thief that is found: for those wretched Apoftates, know not how to bear the Presence of those, who are what they once thought themfelves to be. How then will they be able to face him whom they have crucified afresh, and put to open

Shame.

Let fuch awful Example teach us to be fober, to be vigilant, because our Adversary the Devil, goeth about as a roaring Lion, feeking whom he may devour. May he who is able to keep us from falling, prefent us faultless before the Prefence of his Glory with exceeding Foy !