breasts, Confider your ways. Confider what en-
flaving your Souls to vicious affections will come
to, and whether they will not thrive better, be-
ing irradiated with Heavenly light, than warm-
ed by Hellish Lufts; and whether it will not
be more for your credit to advance them to
their primitive luftre and beauty, than lose them
by fin and vanity. Sirs,
Sirs, you stand upon the
brink of a bottomlefs pit; who but a man,
whose brains are crack'd, would not look about
himself? the least push or thrust fends you thi
ther; Who would not take fome pains to get
into an Harbour? The Ship is ready to be caft
away, the Masts are split, it's leaking on every
fide; Who would not lay hold of a Plank to
fave himself from drowning? If you know not
what to do with that power of Confideration
God hath given you, marvel not if God takes
it away; and fince you will not bethink your
felves how to be freed from fin and mifery, pro-
tests in his anger, that you shall not be able to
make use of that power any more, in order to
obtain Eternal Life; fince you will not take up
that Sword of the Spirit, to cut the cords of Sin
and Difobedience, no wonder if God blunts
and dulls the edge of it, that it shall be of no
use to you, when you would employ it. O
Christians, there is no jefting with a merciful
God; where the greateft mercy is fcorn'd and
rejected, What can ye expect but the severest
judgments? Be wife therefore before the black
Decree be irreversibly fign'd and feal'd against

you;

1

you; you'll bless the hour and the day which bears the Date of your entire and fincere agree ment to God's Will in this particular; and when you shall find, by bleffed experience, that this ferious confideration of your ways is the gate to Paradife, you'll admire the Bounty, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, that moved your hearts to embrace the motion, and you will not be able to forbear breaking out into finging the Song of Mofes, and the Song of the Lamb, Blef fing, Honour, and Glory be unto him that fits upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.

CHAP

CHAP. VIII.

Of Retirement and Prayer, the two great Helps to Confideration. Retirement proved to be necef Sary to make Confideration of our Spiritual state more quick and lively. Prayer calls in the affiftance of God's Spirit, and renders the Work effectual. A Form of Prayer to be used upon this occafion.

I ding

Will Charitably fuppofe, that the preceding Exhortation may have made fome impreffion upon my Reader, and made him, in fome measure, willing to think more of his Soul, and of the danger it is in, and of his Eternal ftate, than formerly he used to do; and therefore to fhew him how this Confideration must be managed, that it may in truth conquer and fubdue his inordinate affections, and make them fubject to the best of Mafters, I fhall lay down fome neceffary helps to Confideration, and these are, to mention no more, Retirement and Prayer:

: L. Retirement. Though I readily grant, (and do commend it too) that Men,as they are walking with others, or travelling, or going abroad about their neceffary occafion, or standing in their Shops, or other Rooms, where Company Ff

goes

goes in and out, may think, that the course they have taken hitherto is not fafe, and therefore it's high time to change and alter it: yet feeing thofe thoughts are too much diverted by fenfual objects, and apt to go no farther than the mind or understanding, and reach no deeper than fpeculation; it muft neceffarily follow, that Retirement is requifite, to make it reach the affections, and to fpread it as far as the life and conversation.

By Retirement, I do not mean abfconding, or hiding ones felf in a Corner in the Countrey, or in a Wilderness, but retiring in our own Houses. Let the place we live in be never fo populous, to be fure we have Chambers to be private in; and as the rich may make their best Room a Defart for this work, fo the poor

est

may convert any Corner in their Houses into a place for this Exercise; it's not the neatnefs of a Closet that cleanses the Soul from filthiness, nor the curiofity and convenience of a Withdrawing-room, that fits the heart for him that made it; but as Chrift made sometimes a Mountain, sometimes a Ship, fometimes a Cross his Pulpit; fo a Man may make a Meadow, ' a Field, a Wood, a Garret, any Corner in his House, a place fit to retire in, to confi der seriously how the cafe ftands between God and his own Soul. I know what Men do commonly object, the very fame thing they object against Confideration it. felf and whereof we have fufficiently fpoke in the

fecond

fecond impediment, viz. That they have a great deal of bufinefs, and they can spare no time for this retirement. Bufinefs, no doubt, must be done, but there is a time for every thing, and a season for every purpose under Heaven, and then fure there must be a time for this Spiritual retirement too, if there be not, we are obliged to find time for it; he that cannot, or rather will not, had as good fay, he hath no time to be faved, and he that cannot fometimes neglect the concerns of his Body, or Eftate, for the concerns of his better part, derides Salvation, and does not believe, that there is such a thing, or if there be, that it is of so much value, as the dirt and dung he grovels in. It's true, Manaffes retirement was forced, much against his will, yet ftill it was privacy that contributed much to his amendment, for while he was encompafs'd with his Courtiers and Flatterers, and his fawning Crew, he thought Religion a thing below him, and a New Creature but a canting term; but being alone, none but God and his calamity about him, having nothing to take off his thoughts, from reflecting on his Apoftafie, behold, how Confideration melts him, his Confcience, fets upon him, makes him afhamed of his unfaithfulness to his God, makes the Tears ftand in his Eyes, and fo great is his change, that he who had exceeded all the Nations Found about him in Idolatry, and lewdness, immediately takes away all the ftrange Gods, and Ff 2

the