And here it will be neceffary to confider who are not ;- and then, to confider who they are that are really fo.

1. Those who think themfelves good enough, and are pleafed that they are not fo bad as others, these are not weary or heavy laden...

No, thefe Pharifees are not thus troubled; they laugh and jeft at thofe who talk of feeling their fins, and think there is no occafion to make fo much ado about religion: it is to be righteous over-much, and the means to deftroy yourselves, They think if they do but mean well, and say their prayers, as they call them, it is fufficient: though they may say a prayer, yea, thoufands of prayers, and all the while be only offering up the facrifice of fools. They may call Gop, Father, every day, when it is only mocking of GOD, and offering up falfe fire unto him; and it would be juft for him to ferve them, as he did Nahab and Abihu, deftroy them, cut them off from the face of the earth but he is waiting to be gracious, and willing to try a little longer, whether you will bring forth any thing more than the leaves of an outward profeffion, which is not all that the LORD requires; no, he wants the heart; and unless you honour him with that, he does not regard your mouths, when the other is far from him. You may fay over your prayers all your lives, and yet you may never pray over one therefore, while you flatter yourfelves you are good enough, and that you are in a state of falvation, you are only deceiving your own souls, and hastening on your own deftruction. Come unto him, not aş being good enough, but as vile finners, as poor, and blind, and naked, and miferable, and then JESUS will have compaffion.

O ye Pharifees, what fruits do ye bring forth? Why, you are moral, polite creatures; you do your endeavours, you do what you can, and fo JESUS is to make up the reft. You efteem yourselves fine, rational, and polite beings, and think it is too unfashionable to pray; it is not polite enough: perhaps you have read fome prayers, but knew not how to pray from your hearts; no, by no means: that was being righte ous over-much indeed.

But when once you are fenfible of your being loft, damned creatures, and see hell gaping ready to receive you; if Gon was but to cut the thread of life, O then, then you would cry

carneftly

earnestly unto the LORD to receive you, to open the door of mercy unto you; your tones would then be changed, you would no more flatter yourfelves with your abilities and good wishes : no, you would see how unable you were, how incapable to fave yourselves; that there is no fitness, no free will in you: no fitnefs, but for eternal damnation, no free will but that of doing evil; and that when you would do good, evil is prefent with you, and the thing that ye would not, that do ye. He knows the fecret intent of every heart; and this is a pleasure to you, my dear brethren, who come on purpose to meet with him, though it be in a field. And, however fome may esteem me a mountebank, and an enthufiaft, one that is only going to make you methodically mad; they may breathe out their invectives against me, yet CHRIST knows all; he takes notice of it, and I fhall leave it to him to plead my caufe, for he is a gracious Mafter: I have already found him fo, and am fure he will continue fo. Vengeance is his, and he will repay it. Let them revile me; let them caft me out of their fynagogues, and have my name in reproach, I fhall not answer them by reviling again, or in fpeaking evil against them: no, that is not the Spirit of CHRIST, but meeknefs, patience, long-fuffering, kindnefs, &c...

Ye pharifees, who are going about to establish your own righteousness; you, who are too polite to follow the LORD JESUS CHRIST in fincerity and truth; you, who are all for a little fhew, a little outfide work; who lead moral, civil, decent lives, CHRIST will not know you at the great day, but will fay unto you, O ye Pharifees, was there any place for me in your love? Alas! you are full of anger and malice, and felf-will; yet you pretended to love and ferve me, and to be my people but, however, I despise you; I, who am GOD, and knoweth the fecret of all hearts; I, who am truth itself, the faithful and true witnefs, fay unto you, " Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, into that place of torment, prepared for the devil and his angels." Good GOD! and muft these difcreet polite creatures, who never did any one harm, but led fuch civil, decent lives, muft they fuffer the vengeance of eternal fire? Cannot their righteous fouls be faved? Where then must the finner and the ungodly appear? Where wilt thou, O fabbath-breaker, appear, thou, who canft take thy

pleasure, thy recreation, on the LORD's-day, who refufeft to hear the word of Gop, who wilt not come to church to be inftructed in the ways of the LORD? Where will you, O ye adulterers, fornicators, and fuch-like of this generation appear? Whoremongers and adulterers GOD will judge, and them he will condemn. Then you will not call these tricks of youth no, but you will call on the rocks and the mountains to fall on you, to hide you from the fury and anger of the LORD. Where wilt thou, O man, appear, that takes pleasure in making a mock of fin, who defpifeft all reproof, who throws about thy jefts as a madman does fire, and asks whether thou art not in fport? Where wilt thou, O man, appear, that makes it thy bufinefs to preach against the children of the Moft High; thou, who art inventing methods in order to stop the progreís of the gospel, and ufing thy utmost power to quash the preaching thereof; who art raifing of evil reports against the difciples of CHRIST, and efteemeft them madmen, fools, fchifmatics, and a parcel of rabble? Thou, O man, with all thy letter-learning, wilt furely fee the judg ment-feat of CHRIST, though, perhaps, forely against your will; to be caft by him into eternal fire, a place prepared for the devil and his angels. There is a burning tophet kindled by the fury of an avenging GOD, which will never, never be quenched. The devil longs to embrace you in his hellish arms, whenever the fentence is paft, where you must for ever bear the weight of your fin: there is no redemption then; the day of grace is paft; the door of hope is fhut; mercy will be no more offered, but you must be shut out from GOD for ever, O who can dwell with everlasting burnings!

However you may think of hell, indeed it is not a painted fire; it is not an imagination to keep people in awe: then, then you will feel the power of the almighty arm. If you will not lay hold on his golden fceptre, he will break you with his iron rod. O ye Pharifees, who are now fo good, sa much better than others, how will ye ftand before CHRIST, when dreft in his glory as judge? You Arians, may now defpife his divinity; then you fhall have a proof of it; he will fhew, that he has all power, and that he was no fubordinate GOD; he will fhew you that he has all power in heaven

and

and earth; that he was King of kings, and Lord of lords; that he was the mighty GOD, the everlafting Father; and this power that he has, he will exercife in preferving you to no other end, but to punish you for ever. Thus you, who please yourselves with being good enough now, who are not weary and heavy laden with a fenfe of your fins here, will be weary and heavy laden with a fenfe of your punishment here

after..

2. Thofe, my brethren, are not weary and heavy laden with a sense of their fins, who can delight themselves in the polite entertainments of the age, and follow the finful diverfions of life.

Now they can go to balls and affemblies, play-houses and horse-racing; they have no thought of their fins; they know not what it is to weep for fin, or humble themselves under the mighty hand of GOD; they can laugh away their forrows, and fing away their cares, and drive away these melancholy thoughts; they are too polite to entertain any fad thoughts; the talk of death and judgment is irksome to them, because it damps their mirth; they could not endure to think of their fin and danger; they could not go to a play, and think of hell; they could not go quietly to a masquerade, and think of their danger; they could not go to a ball or an affembly in peace, if they thought of their fins.

And fo it is proved, even to a demonftration, that these are not weary and heavy laden: for if they are not thoughtful about their fins, they will never be weary and heavy laden of them. But at the day of judgment all will be over: they fhall lofe all their carnal mirth, all their pleasure, all their delight will be gone for ever.

They will fay then of their laughter, it is mad; and of mirth, What doft thou? Their merry conceits, and witty jests against the poor despised people of God, are then over. Their mirth was but as the crackling of thorns under a pot; it made a great blaze and unfeemly noife for a while, but it was presently gone, and will return no more.

They think now, that if they were to faft or to pray, and meditate and mourn, they should be righteous over much, and destroy themselves; their lives would be a continual trouble, and it would make them run mad. Alas, my brethren, what mifery muft that life be, where there is no more pleafant days,

no

no more balls or plays, no cards or dice, thofe wafters of precious time, no horfe-racing and cock-fighting, from whence no good ever came, unlefs abufing God Almighty's creatures, and putting them to that ufe which he never defigned them, can be called fo. How miferable will your life be, when all your joys are over, when your pleasures are all past, and no more mirth or paftime? Do you think there is one merry heart in hell? one pleafing countenance? or jefting, fcoffing, fwearing tongue? A fermon now is irkfome: the offer of falvation, by the blood of JESUS CHRIST, is now termed enthufiafm; but then you would give thousands of worlds, if in your power, for one tender of mercy, for one offer of grace, which now you fo much defpife.

Now, you are not weary of your diverfions, nor are you heavy laden with the fins, with which they are accompanied; but then you will be weary of your punishment, and the aggravation which attends it. Your cards and dice, your hawks and hounds, and bowls, and your pleasant sports, will then be over. What mirth will you have in remembering. your fports and diverfions? I would not have you mistake me, and fay, I am only preaching death and damnation to you; I am only fhewing you what will be the confequence of continuing in these finful pleasures; and if the devil does not hurry you away with half a fermon, I fhall fhew you how to avoid thefe dangers, which I now preach up as the effect of fin unrepented of. I mention this, left you should be hurried away by the devil: but be not offended, if I point out unto you more of the terrors which will attend your following thefe polite and fashionable entertainments of the present age, and of not being weary and heavy laden with a sense of your fins.

They who delight in drinking wine to excefs, and who are drunkards, what bitter draughts will they have instead of wine and ale? The heat of luft will be then alfo abated; they will no more fing the fong of the drunkard; no more fpend their time in courting their mistreffes, in lafcivious difcourse, in amorous fongs, in wanton dalliances, in brutish defilements: no, thefe are all over; and it will but prick each other to the heart to look one another in the face. Then they will wifh, that instead of finning together, they had prayed