ftands, is apt to be pleafed with little things, and difpleafed with little things alfo. A little outward Refpect or Civility from any Perfon, let him otherwife be a bad Man, has the Power to gain our Friendship, or at least to buy off our Difpleasure against him, provided he hath done us no Harm. And, on the other fide, a little thing, if it thwart our Interefts and Inclinations, has the Power to difoblige us, and to make us angry with the Man that doth it, tho' otherwife he be a worthy honest Man. Now finding this to be our own Temper, we are apt to think that God Almighty must be of the fame, and accordingly we most commonly reprefent him to our felves as one who is pleafed with little things, and difpleafed with little things alfo. And from hence do proceed thefe two different Effects; that one fort of Men, who are of a timorous melancholy Temper, are always fancying that God is angry with them for every the leaft thing that seems to them to be irregular. And, on the other fide, another fort of Men who are of a more fanguine Complexion, are apt to be→ lieve that any fort of Deference or outward Respect they pay to God's Commands, or the Commands of the Church for God's Sake, tho' it be but in fmall Inftances, that this will atone for all other Sins whatsoever. But now both these fort of Perfons are mightily mistaken; for God is not so easily difplea

displeased with every fmall Fault, especially when he fees that Fault proceeds from the Infirmity of our Nature, which we cannot. help; nor is he at all to be bribed or brought into a good liking of us, by any outward Service, tho' it be never fo much of his own Appointment, unless the whole Man be entirely devoted to him: Unless there be a thorough Conformity of a Man's Mind, and Will, and Actions, to thofe eternal and unchangeable Laws of Holinefs and Virtue, which he hath prescribed us to walk by. For theeffectual curing therefore of all Superftition in our Minds, (for I must confefs I have no other Notion of Superftition, but that it is a fancying that God is pleafed with little things, and difpleased with little things likewife:) I fay, for the removing this wicked Principle out of our Minds, let us always take care to reprefent God to our felves as a Being the most perfectly and immutably holy, and pure, and good, that is poffible to be conceived. Let us frame fuch Ideas of him, as to believe that nothing in the Earth is fo contradictory to his bleffed Nature, as Folly and Sin; and that he never acts arbitrarily, but always loves and hates, rewards and punishes, according as the Object he has to deal with hath a Suitablenefs and Agreement with his holy Nature, or a Difagreeableness and Contrariety to it. And therefore certainly whatever is wicked or impure can never be acceptable to him, no outward V.OL. VI. Advan

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Advantages of Dress, no Cringes, no Compliments can render it lovely in his Eyes. On the other fide, true and fubftantial Virtue and Goodness in the Mind, tho' attended with never fo many Weakneffes and Failings, will for ever be his Delight, and will for ever be rewarded by him. And consequently it is in vain to hope the gaining of his Favour by any thing in the World that comes fhert of true Goodness, and they who have true Goodness, fhall never need to fear the lofing of his Favour, tho' other wife their Performances be attended with many Imperfections.

To give one Inftance more of our judging of God's Ways by our own Ways, and then I leave this Head. We are apt in our Tempers to have different Notions and Apprehenfions of Things past and present, and from hence we are often led to believe that God will have fo likewife; and this is another Ground of Miftake about the Conditions of our Salvation. To explain my felf: When we have newly done a thing that our Conscience declares against as a great Sin, we are ftruck with a pungent Senfe of the Wickedness of the Action, and we accufe our felves moft heinously for it, and are fufficiently fenfible what we deferve at God's Hands for having thus notoriously broken his facred Laws. But now this very Fact that was thus horrid in its Appearance, when it was first done, yet after fome time,

either all our firft Impreffions concerning it are worn away, and the thing is quite forgot; or, if it be remember'd, yet looking upon it as done long ago, we are not much. concerned about it: And we are apt to believe that God hath fuch Apprehenfions of the thing as we have. The stinging tormenting Remembrance of the Fact is gone from us, and fo we too readily incline to believe that a very flight Remembrance of it remains with God likewife. Now by this means it is no difficult matter for a Man who hath not much ufed himself to Infpection, to bring a vaft Number of Sins, and thofe aggravated with all odious Circumftances, into a very little Account: The greatest Part of them fhall perhaps flip his Memory, and of those that he remembers, the heinous aggravating Circumftances are perhaps forgot. But if he should remember any thing of them, yet he cannot now look upon the Sins with a quarter of that Horror that he found in himself when he newly committed them, by which means here is a vaft great Sum which a Man has to account for before God, dwindled in a manner into a Trifle. And fure God is of the fame Mind too; and fince a little Repentance will ferve to fatisfy a Man, why should it not fatisfy God alfo? But now here is our Miftake: Though we be fhallow Creatures, and eafily lose our Impreflions of things, and eafily forget our past Actions,

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Actions, yet God falls not under thefe Imputations of Weakness. All things are prefent to him alike at all times: And he has the fame Sense of Mens Actions, and the fame Refentments against them (if they were bad) an hundred Years after they were done, that he had the very Moment they were done. They are neither forgotten, nor the Malignity of them leffened in his Account by any Tract of Time. The way therefore to keep our felves from being impofed upon by fuch Fancies, is this: Let us imagine that all the Sins of our Life (I fpeak not of the little daily Sins which every Man commits, but all thofe Sins) which we looked upon as heinous, and upon which our Confcience flew in our Faces when we had been guilty of them I fay, let us imagine all these Sins, together with all their aggravating Circumftances, and all the fevere and bitter Reflections we at that time made thereupon; imagine, I fay, all these to be at once present to our Minds, and to affect us in the fame Proportion all together as every one of them did fingly, viz. that all the Grief, and Anguish, and tormenting Reflections we felt in our felves upon account of any one of them fhould not now be loft, but bear a Part of that grievous Load they would lay upon us when we took them all together. What fort of Thoughts now fhould we in that Cafe have of our felves? Sure I am, the very best of us would not have much Comfort,

but