have no Title to the Benefits of Chrift's Paffion, and are dead while you live; who have your Understandings darken'd, your inward and outward Man polluted, and your Garments spotted by the Flefh.

Confideration would let you fee, That your Joy and Mirth is but flight and fuperficial, so far from being folid, that oftentimes in your very Laughter your Heart is forrowful; and as fair as you carry things outwardly, your Confciences cannot but fright you with an approaching storm fometimes; and as merry as you seem to be, you now and then feel Terrors, which make you flee when no Man purfues you. This would let you fee, how short your Mirth and Pleasures are, and how they perish in the very Enjoyment, and are no better than Butterflies; which when you have with great labour and industry got into your hands, their curious Colours decay with a touch, and you can boast of nothing but a fqualid Worm. This would fhew you, that your Jollities are much like Attalia's Nuptials, whofe Wedding day proved his Funeral; and like Philip the Macedonian's Triumphs, which in a Moment are turned into Sadnefs by the daring Paufanias: This would fhew you how weak a thing it is with Lyfimachus, for a Cup of cold Water to lose a Kingdom, and to hazard an Eternity of Joy for Mirth, which at the best is but as a Morning Cloud, and as the early Dew which foon paffes

away.

Confideration would let you fee, That your Mirth is worse than Sadness and Sorrow, because it proceeds from a ftupified Soul, and from a

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hard heart; from a Soul whose nobler Sparks are oppreffed with Soot and Ashes, and which hath loft its delicate Palate, its refin'd Taste, and is made fo infenfible of the purer tranfports of Joy, that it hankers after nothing but Earth, and fuch droffy, muddy Divertisments, as men of Reason and Contemplation would fcorn, as much as they do the Extravagancies of an impotent Enemy; and that it is rather a Man's felicity to be a ftranger to your Mirth, than unhappiness, because your Mirth is fo vain, your Delight fo frothy, and your Joy ufually hath fuch a fearful end; an end much like that of Belshazzar, who made a Feast to his Lords, drank Wine before them; and to make the Debauch compleat, and to make the Blood of the Grapes drink with greater brisknefs, call'd for the Golden Veffels which his Father had taken out of the Temple of Jerufalem, as if it encreased the pleasure of Drink to prophane those Veffels by Drunkenness which were confecrated to God, and Wine out of a Bowl of the Sanctuary gave greater Life to the Spirit, and revived the Heart more than a common Cup.But while their Hearts danc'd and leap'd for joy, an unknown Hand from Heaven writes the fatal Doom, the Characters of Ruin, and the Lines of Death upon the Wall,and on a fudden, The King's Countenance changes, and his Thoughts trouble him, fo that the joints of his Loins were loosened, and his Knees fmote one against another, Dan.

5. 6.

Confideration would let you fee, That your Joy doth not deferve the name of Joy, and that your Mirth is nothing but Wantonnefs, and how

much

much below a great Spirit fuch Pleasures are; how unworthy of a Man created after God's Image and Similitude; how empty they leave our Souls; and how like the Sea, when ebbing in muddy places, they leave nothing but stink, and filth, and naftiness behind them.

Confideration would let you fee, That none can rejoice fo heartily as those who make God their Portion, and set the Lord always before their Eyes. For, in this cafe they may be confident, that not only God, but all his Creatures are their Friends; and that the Red Sea which drowns the Egyptians, fhall be their Wall and Bulwark; and the Cloud that's Darkness to the Sinner, shall be Fire to them; and that tho' God is neither Bread, nor Water, nor Light, nor Clothing, nor Habitation, confider'd by the Rule of Sense, yet he will be all this to them; even Bread to feed them, Water to refresh them, Light to revive them, Clothing to warm them, and an Habitation to defend them from Wind and Tempeft. This would fhew you, That Light is fown for the Righteous, and gladness for the Upright in Heart, Pfal. 97. 11. And that no Perfons in the World have greater reafon to rejoice than they, whose great Care and Study is, Firft to feek the Kingdom of God, and his Righteoufnefs, as being Perfons who are acquainted with a lively Faith, and know by bleffed Experience what that Hope means, whereby Men purifie themselves, even as God is pure; and what it is to be ftrengthened with all Might unto all Patience, and Long-fuffering, and what the constraining Love of God implies,

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and what it is to be married to him who is altogether lovely, and what it is to have union and communion with him.

Confideration would fhew you, That Peace of Confcience, and Honour with God, and the Spirit's making Interceffion for us with Groans unutterable, and Pardon of Sins, Privileges which attend a serious Preparation for a better World, are a continual Feaft, and confequently afford Matter for greater Joy than all the Rarities and Curiofities of this prefent Life. This would let you fee, That that one Bleffing, Pardon of Sin, which a ferious Man enjoys, is a Mercy which he may justly Rejoice and Triumph in, more than the greatest Monarch of this World in his boundless Empire; And that neither Alexander's Victories, nor Auguftus Cæfar his Tranquility, nor Darius his Plenty, can equal that Rejoicing, or deferves to be compared with it. This would lead your Thoughts to take a view of the prefent Condition of the unhappy Spirits in Hell, to whom Pardon of Sin would be a greater comfort and refreshment, than all the Pleasures of this World diftilled into Quinteffence: fhould a Proclamation be made in that difmal Vault, by fome Angel fent from Heaven, that all Prisoners are freed from their Guilt by the new and living way, even by the Blood of Jefus, and that God hath condefcended at last, and is prevailed withal to forgive their Iniquities, what Leaping, what Dancing, what Joy, what Gladnefs, what exultation of Spirit, what ferenity of Face, what a chearful Air would appear in every corner of that loathfom Prifon! How would one Wretch

Wretch jog the other,and bid him break out into Praises and Celebrations of hisMaker for fo great a favour! How like Heaven would Hell look on a fudden; and all their Howlings, which Grief and Anguish did draw from them, change into acclamations of Gladnefs! How would their Hearts fwell and dilate themselves, and tranfport them into an ecftafie of Joy! How fordid, how mean, how pitiful, how inconfiderable, would all their former fenfual Delights feem to this Pleasure or Satisfaction!

Confideration would let you fee, That whatever Men that are become vain in their Imaginations may prate, there is no Pleasure, no Felicity, like that which flows from walking in the ways of God; and that Sin hath trouble and vexation for its individual Companion; that Pride, and Envy, and Ambition, and Luft, and Revenge, whilst they promise ease to the Sinner's Mind, do but torment it more; That Goodness is the beft Security; that the Joy of the whole Earth, is Mount Sion; that in this Garden are the fweeteft Roses, the most odoriferous Flowers, the moft fragrant Plants; Rofes which have no Prickles underneath, like your carnal Delights; Flowers which wither not away, like that frothy Mirth which the laughter of Fools affords; Plants which feed and nourish and heal, and poison not, like thofe airy Satisfactions which flow from making provifion for the Flefh. This would reprefent to your Minds the Examples of Millions of Saints, who are able from their own experience to affirm, that the ways of Seriousness are truly ways of Pleasantness, and that all her paths

are