When Children (provided they are able) are loth to relieve their Parents,loth to adminifter unto them Neceffaries; if in want, unwilling to obey thole wholfom Counfels which their Parents, guided and encouraged by the Word of God, impart to them; unwilling to imitate them in their Seriousness and Heavenly-mindedness; are apt to obey their Parents more than God, and apt to do Evil because their Parents bid them, tho' God enjoins the contrary; when upon their Parents finding fault with them, they are moved to expose their Infirmities to the contempt of others; and to call any thing unreasonable they bid them do, because it agrees not with their prefent Intereft; when they find in themselves an Inclination to mourn more for displeasing their Parents than offending a gracious God; and to be more pleafed with the Smiles of thofe which have the Government of them, than with the Light of God's Countenance.

When Servants are moved to backbite and revile their Masters according to the flesh, find an unwillingness on their Spirits to honour the froward as well as the gentle; are apt to be unfaithful to them, to embezel their Goods, and to wrong them in things they have committed to their Charge; when thoughts of revealing the Secrets of the Family, meerly to fport themfelves, arise in their Minds; when they find Inclinations to be induftrious in their Matters Prefence, careless and lazy in their Abfence; to put them off with Eye-fervice as Men-pleafers, to murmur against the lawful Injunctions, to answer

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again

again if rebuk'd for their Faults, and to confpire against them by way of Revenge.

What are all these Motions and Inclinations, but Temptations of the great Deftroyer of Mens Souls? These are fome of the Gins and Stratagems, whereby he doth infenfibly ruine the greateft Part of Mankind: because they look like our own Thoughts, therefore we suspect no Enemy, and because he mingles his Suggestions with our own Imaginations, and gives them the fame Shape, we know nothing to the contrary but that they are friendly Motions; but notwithstanding all this, they are Meffengers that come out of the Camp of the Philistines, from the Leaguer of Hell; and we may confidently affirm, That whatever Thought, Reafon, Argument, Suggeftion, Propofition, Imagination, would difcourage us from a clofe adherence unto God, from a fervent Love to our gracious Redeemer, from earnest Breathings and Pantings after him, from relying on him, and obeying him; and encourage us to any thing that's difpleafing to God, or contrary to Chriff's Rules and Injunctions, or preju dicial to the Honour of God, or to the welfare of our Neighbour, or to a good Confcience; whether the Suggestion be immediately, like Lightning, shot, and darted into the Mind, or conveyed mediately by our corrupted Hearts, or by the World, or by the Adverfary, or by Profperity, or by good Report, or by evil Report; they are Temptations of the Enemy, which, how plaufible foever, defign nothing but our decay in Goodnefs, and in the Favour of God, and the lofs of our fpiritual Comfort and Refreshment. Confideration

fideration examines the end of all these Motions, and finding out the Mischief they drive at, difcovering the Tempest they aim at, it cannot but give great Satisfaction to a rational Man that would not be a Stranger to himself.

Indeed none are more fenfible of the Pleasure of this Confideration, than those whom God's Spirit hath raised from the Death of Sin, and who have escaped the Pollutions of the World thro' Luft. These reflect with more than ordinary delight on the Snares from which they have in a great measure been delivered. And tho' they are ftill fubject to Temptation, yet that which very much contents them,is, that they are not ignorant of Satan's Devices. To fee all his Workings under ground, to fee the steps he goes by, and while he thinks we are blind, and do not mind to arm themselves against them, increases the SatisfaЯtion. Fancy you fee Faux in the Cellar laying his Faggots in order, digging a Hole in the Ground, and laying a Train of Gunpowder, while the Wretch fufpects no Man takes notice of him. The undiscovered Spectator knows he can crush his Designs in a moment, and therefore with Pity and Pleasure beholds the Industry of the Caitif. They see the windings and turnings of the Enemy, and can laugh at the miferable Shifts he uses to deceive them. They fee his Goings and his Ways,and can trace the Foe in all his Stratagems. They fee his Juggles, and how he teazes the Sinner Day and Night.

Look, O my Soul! look upon yonder Sinner, that hath renounced his Follies, and yet goes drooping under the burthen of his Sins. Doft not

thou

thou fee the Enemy behind him? The Foe can make him prefume no longer, and therefore he feeks to drive him to Defpair; and he that before told the Wretch of Gardens and Walks and Pleafures, now fhews him nothing but Hell, and a burning Lake. He that before represented God to him as a mighty Sardanapalus, one that doth not mind fuch little things as Sins, now fets out God arrayed in a Habit of Vengeance, and as one who doth but watch for an Opportunity to condemn him. He that before gave him Words fofter than Oil, now discovers to him drawn Swords; and he that before flatter'd him with Beds of Rofes, and Couches of Ivory, and few'd Pillows under his Elbows, now gives him a Prospect of nothing but Racks and Tortures; and that which before feemed only a harmless Butterfly, now turns into an ugly Toad. He that before made the Burning lighter than Straw and Stubble, now makes his little Finger heavier than his Loins; and affured him that what seemed but a Cloud before, is all Hill and Mountain now. He that before talked of nothing but Mercy-feats, now changes his Note, and knows of no other Remedies but Tribunals of Judgment. He that before made the filly Wretch believe that God had no Voice but that of Mercy, no Scepter but that of Love, makes God all Thunder and Lightning now.

Judas believes him,and is loft; Mary Magdalen fees the Imposture, and escapes; she refts upon Chrift's Word, and is convinced that there is no Sin that's capable of true Repentance, but is capable of Pardon too; and that Chrift is fo far

from

from cafting those away that come to him with an humble and contrite Spirit, that the greatest Ease and Refreshment is their Portion. She fees that the poor in Spirit have a right to the Kingdom of Heaven, and that thofe that mourn fhall never be deftitute of Comfort. She is fenfible how happy that Person is that feels his Heart bleeding and melting upon the account of his former Sins, and can make his Bed to fwim with Tears. She is fenfible the Holy Ghoft moves upon thefe Waters, and that fuch a Person is indeed baptized with Water and the Holy Ghoft.

This the beholds, and beholds with pleasure. Confideration gives her a Profpect of the Devil's Subtilty,and her Eyes gufh out with Tears of Joy. And certainly if it be a greater pleasure to fee, than to grope in the dark; a greater pleasure to know the Precipices I am hurried into, than to have them hid from mine Eyes; a greater pleasure to see the brink of Destruction I do stand upon, than to be ignorant of it; Confideration must be a Pleafure,for this fhews me the steepRock,Temptation; this Ignis fatuus would have led me to the Ditch this falie Light would have flatter'd me into,the fatal Sea this falfe Star would have feduced me into. This must neceffarily fill me with gladnefs, for it gives me a Profpect of the Whirl-pool where the Devil thought to have split my Veffel; the Sands againft which I was to have stranded the Earthquake that should have made me fink into the Ground; and of the terrible Tempeft that should have carried me away.

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How have I seen a Traveller rejoice,when waking in the morning,he had feen the Water or the