our own Hearts, and the Subtilty of our Enemies, and the Strength of the Temptations with which we are continually affaulted, without the Affiftance and Influence of the Holy Spirit of Chrift. Now the only Method we can take for the alluring that Divine Spirit down into our Hearts, is, as our Lord Jefus hath told us, humble, and ferious, and fervent Prayer. God will no more deny that good Spirit to all who thus ask it, than a Father will deny Bread to his hungry Children, when they cry for it. If ever therefore we mean to proceed happily in what we have undertaken, and to bring our Refolutions to Effect, let this fink down into our Hearts. We must be no Strangers at the Throne of Grace. We must apply there every Day as conftantly as we do every Day eat, drink, and fleep. We muft no more live a Day without praying, than we do without taking our Food and Nourishment. And when we are before God in this holy Exercife, whether it be in the Church, or in our Closets, or in any other Place, O let us then and there pour out our Souls to him with all Humility, acknowledging our own Vilenefs, and representing to him our various Wants and Neceffities, and begging a Supply of them from his infinite Bounty, with as much Earneftnefs and Concernednefs, as an hungry Beggar begs Alms at our Doors. Let us tell him

how

;

how extremely fenfible we are of our great Infirmities and Eafinefs of Nature. We dare not truft our own Hearts; we find we have no Strength of ourselves to do any good Action, much lefs to accomplish fo great a Work as we have undertaken and therefore that we caft ourselves entirely upon him. It is his Work that we are engaged in; and therefore we cannot doubt he will carry us through it. We have no Expectancy from ourselves, or any other Creature, but depend upon him alone, and his Aids from above. It is he, who of his great Merey hath put thefe good Purposes and Refolutions into our Hearts; and bleffed be his Name that he hath done fo: And now we defire nothing fo much in the World, as that we may for ever continue in them. For Chrift Jefus fake therefore we beseech him, that he would not forfake us, that he would not withdraw his Grace from us, and leave us to ourselves; but that he would continue and improve it, that he would carry on and perfect that good Work he hath been pleafed already to begin

in us.

Oh! my Brethren, fuch Breathings of our Souls after God as thefe, are never fent up in vain. They pierce the Heavens, and are returned with fuch gentle Showers of Grace and Influence from above, as will not fail both to refresh our languishing Souls, and to enable us to bear fuch good

Fruits

Fruits (if we be not wanting in our Endeavours) as fhall anfwer all our own Defigns, and be acceptable to the great Hufbandman, who hath fown the good Seed in our Hearts.

3. But laftly, I have but one Thing more to add to what I have faid about this Bufinefs of Refolutions, and I have done.--You have, it may be, oftentimes before this, made many folemn Refolutions and Vows to forfake your Sins, particularly fuch as you have found to be the growing prevailing Hindrances of Goodness in you, and to enter into a ftricter Way of Living: But you have found that these Resolutions have hitherto been ineffectual, and that notwithstanding them, you are still but the fame Perfons that you were before.

That which I have to fay in this Matter is this: That this ought not to difcourage you from trying again. If your good Refolutions have not been hitherto fuccefsful, it is fit, nay it is neceffary, that you fhould refolve fo long, till they be fo. Once more therefore, in God's Name, enter upon the Work; only ufe more Care, and Diligence, and Confideration in the framing your Refolutions, and fet your felves more ferioufly to the performing of them, and, my Life for yours, they will, with the Grace of God, profper in your Hands.

But this is not all I meant to fay under this Head. As none, who have formerly refolved

4

refolved to serve God, and have failed in their Undertakings, ought to be difcourag'd from making new Refolutions to serve him So none, who are now entring into Engagements of that kind, fhould be difcouraged from going on with the Work they have engaged in, tho' they now and then, thro' the Violence of Temptation, or the Strength of their Corruptions, do act against what they have refolved. The not attending to this, is oftentimes the Caufe that most excellent Beginnings in Virtue come to nothing, After we have once or twice broken our Purposes, we are apt either to think that all our Obligations to them are cancelled, or we think it in vain to pursue them any further; and fo we break loofe into all the Extravagancies that our ungoverned Appetites and Inclinations can prompt us to. But this is the worft Reasoning in the World. If we would act like Men of Senfe, when our Refolutions are too weak to bridle our Appetites, and keep us within Bounds, we fhould rather endeavour to ftrengthen them, than to caft them quite off. If ever therefore you mean to be fo virtuous, fo good as you refolve to be, fo to ferve God as you purpose now to do, it will concern you particularly not to be too much discouraged or caft down, if you fhould now and then fly out into Actions, that you have refolyed againft; but rather to take

that

3

that Occafion of renewing your Vows and Refolutions, and walking more carefully for the future. By this Means you will not only not fuffer by your Sins and Frailties, but turn them to your great Advantage.

I beseech you remember this, and I conclude with it; That the greatest Hurt or Mischief that any particular Act of Sin can do us, lies not in the Guilt that is contracted by it, but in the Tendency it has to unhinge our Vows and Purposes, and to make us fall back into a Life of Carelefsnefs, and Senfuality, and Irreligion. If we can but refcue ourselves from these ill Confequences of it, and proceed notwithstanding in our Course of an holy and virtuous Life, the Sin will never be remembred against us in the Day of Judgment; but we fhall for all that, if we perfevere in our Endeavours, find an Admittance into the everlasting Kingdom.

SER