Heads, O ye Gates! and be ye lifted up ye everlafting Doors. I'll enter; I'll force my way through all the Impediments of this flattering World. What should hinder me? Shall Tribulation, or Diftrefs, or Perfecution, or Famine, or Nakedness, or Peril, or Sword? Thefe can but kill the Body, but I have an Immortal Soul to fave! If I fecure that, I fecure all; and I will fecure it whatever it coft me. I will not act contrary to my own Perfwafions any more: I am perfwaded that all my worldly Glories will have a period, and that they contribute nothing to my real Happiness. 'Tis a practical fervent Love of God that must make me hap. py: This is it must intitle me to God's everlafting Mercies: This I believe, this I am confident of; according to this Faith, I'll act. God holds out a Crown to me, and shall I be dull and lazy under that glorious Profpect? I fee the Royal Diadem afar off; leap out O my Soul to reach it, it's worth labouring, it's worth wrestling, its worth fweating and toiling for Day and Night. See, fee how to get Bread, the poor Miner digs in a poor and lonely Vault, while the Works over his Head threaten him with falling in every Hour, and crushing him to Death And fhall I fear dangers, in ftriving to be abundantly fatisfied for ever with the fatnefs of God's House? I fee a City which hath Foundations, whofe builder and maker is God: I behold afar off a House made without Hands, eternal in the Heavens. Farewel Temptations, farewel corrupt deceitful Heart, I'll believe thy falfe Suggestions no longer, I have a furer

word

word of Prophecy to lay hold of. How often haft thou taught me to cover my Sins with plaufible names, that I might not be forced to leave them? What, will the Almighty be blinded with foft Titles? Is he afleep like Baal, or gone a Journey? Or doth he forget? Or is he to be cajolled into approbation of fuch Doings? What doft thou make of him? Doft thou think him to be fome Heathen Deity, that hath Eyes, and fees not? Ears, and hears not? A Heart, and understands not? Canft thou draw a Curtain before the Eyes of infinite Wifdom? Will he, whofe Understanding cannot by fearching be found out,be thus deluded? Is he a Child which thou canst play withal? Doft thou call him God, and forget that he pries into all thy Designs, and Purpofes, and Intentions? Falfe, foolish Heart! Art thou not ashamed of this Sophiftry? Wilt thou make me believe that White is Black, and Black White, and bereave me of my Senses? I remember thy Cheats; I have not forgot how thou haft foothed me in a Tempest of a roaring Confcience; How haft thou darkned mine Eyes? What Fumes, what Mifts haft thou caft before me, that I might not fee the true nature of finful Actions? How haft thou prompted me to call my Pride Decency, my Covetoufnels Frugality, my Drunkennefs Good-Fellowship; my Revenge, Vindication of my Honour; my Uncleannels and Lafcivioufnefs, Impoffibility of refifting the Dictates of Nature? my flandering of others, faying but what I hear? As if God did not fee my infide, as well as outfide: Or could be deceived with Shadow and Varnish,

and

and were not refolved to wash away these curious Colours with Rivers of Flaming Brimftone! How often haft thou bid me call my greater Enormities, innocent Mirth, and made me look on them as Men do on Objects through the wrong end of a Perspective Glafs, as if God were altogether fuch a one as my self, and would therefore be contented to call my Favourite Vices, Peccadillo's, because my self was loth to call them by another Name! How often haft thou flatter'd me with deceitful Riches, if I would but give my felf that liberty my irreligious Neighbours ufe! How often haft thou tempted me with the famous Examples of profperous Men, that have been strangers to Serioufnefs and Heavenly-mindedness! How haft thou difparaged Piety to me, as a sneaking Qualification, and reprefented Sin as the Royal way to Credit and Reputation! Away with thefe Fables, I'll be trapann'd and foothed no more; cokes Children with fuch Bawbles, I know too much to be ravifh'd with these borrowed Glories. God hath spoken once, twice have I heard it, nay a thousand times have I heard it, That he that overcomes, shall not be hurt by the fecond Death; which is, that everlasting feparation of the Soul from the Great and Glorious Prefence of God: And what overcoming can he mean, but conquest of fuch treacherous Suggestions? If I overcome thee, I do my work. If I mafter thee, I am made for ever. If I fubdue thee, my greatest Impediment is removed. If I can but hate thy Flatteries, behold, God will be my Rock, and my Salvation, and my Defence, and

I fhall not be moved. How often haft thou promised me long Life, and Eafe, and Plenty, if I would ftream out my Golden Years in Vanity, and brutish Delights, as if my Youth had been too good for God; and God, when he woo'd me to Obedience, came but to torment me, as the evil Spirit faid in the Gospel, before my time, as if I were the great Disposer of my time, and could command my Age to flourish at Fourfcore! How haft thou bid me delay my Repentance and Seriousness, and given me hopes that I fhould find a convenient time hereafter, when I could keep Sin and the World no longer! As if Repentance were in my own Hands, and I could command it to attend me at my pleasure, and as if it were a Work to be dispatch'd with a figh or groan! How haft thou tempted me to Sin, under a pretence that none fhould fee it; or,if the Sin could not be kept fecret,none should know that I had a hand in it; as if God did not fee by night as well as by day, and a private corner could keep out Omnipotence: Or, as if God fate like an idle Pilot in Heaven, without regarding how the great Ship of this World is govern'd! How halt thou, under the colour of a fingle Sin, involved me into a neceffity of adding another, and been reftlefs till I have added more to fupport the rest! And how treacherously haft thou bid me walk in the Counsel of the Ungodly, when it was but to engage me to ftand in the way of Sinners, and then to make me fit down in the Seat of the Scornful! How haft thou prompted me to palliate mine Offences, and to lay them at other Men's Doors?

Lo!

Lo! thus I have found, that God at first did make me upright, but thou haft taught me to feek out many Inventions, Tricks how to be undone, ways how to make my felf worse than the Beafts that perish. Go, Cozener, tell thy Stories to Men that will not hear the Truth: I will hear what the Lord will fay to me. O God, I need no Accufer, no Witnefs, no Spy to betray me. I confefs my felf guilty, I pafs Sentence upon my felf. My Confcience condemns me, my Judge fits in my Soul, my Eyes, my Hands, my Feet, the Theatre, the Ale-house, the Tavern, they give in Evidence against me. My Actions fill me with Shame, the very Clothes I wear contribute to my Confufion. Deceitful Heart! how haft thou bid me trust to broken Reeds, and lean on Props which were rotten and decayed! I have feen enough of thy falfhood and inconftancy, I'll be held no longer, I'll stay no longer in Sodom. Thefe flowery Meadows, this enamell'd Grass shall make me lie down no more; I fee there is Death in the Pot, and the Great Day will be upon me for all the feeming delay, before this poor befotted World is

aware.

I come, Lord, I'll ftand out against thy Calls no longer; I do hear thy Voice, and I'll harden my Heart no more. It is the Voice of my Beloved that knocks, I will arife and let him in. Awake up, my Glory, awake; I have flumber'd long enough. Get up, my fleepy Affections, the Lord is at hand. My Heart is hot within me, the Fire of God burns within me. Omy God, wilt thou spread open thy Arms to a wretch that

hath