rifk is that, foreboding a fearful wakening! If ye love your own fouls, ftrive against this fluggish difpofition.

3. A falfe notion of the eafinefs of the way to heaven., Many in their thoughts of their getting to hea ven, the neceflity of their being in the faith, regeneration, univerfal and illimited obedience to God in the way of duty, and fparing no known fin, never comes in their head: only they believe God is a merciful God; and when the time comes, they mufl ap ply for his mercy. Hence our Lord exhorts, Luke xiii. 25. Strive to enter in at the ftrait gate: for many, I fay unto you, will feek to enter in, and fhall not be

able.

4. A fecret fear that all is wrong. This frights them from felf-examination; and they chufe rather to patch up their prefent cafe the best way they can, than fairly to open the wound, that it may be healed. What is this but to chufe to die of the disease, rather than to lay it open for cure? But the eyes most closely fhut now will be opened in the other world, as the rich man's were, Luke xvi. 23. Be not difcouraged with fears, but be willing to know the worst as well as the best of your cafe; for that is your fafeft course.

5. A general hopefulness as to one's ftate, got by fome paffing reflections on fome good thing they ima gine they have, without examining to the bottom. This men come at eafily, as it were in paffing: and being eafy in this courfe, they never fet themselves to go to the ground of the caufe, like the church of Laodicea, Rev. iii. 17. forecited. This is a very dangerous ftate, and proves the ruin of many.

6. Lafly, Satan has a mighty influence to the hinderance of it, both in faints and finners. In the former he mars the comfort of the clear view of their Aate in the latter he keeps them from waking out of their natural fecurity, and fo holds them back from Chrift. And I know no duty he fets himself more againt. For being an accomplished mafter in hellith Gibtilty, he well knows, that if finners were at due

pains in examining themselves, and difcovered the damnable ftate they were in by nature, they would haften an escape to the gofpel-city of refuge; and therefore he lulls them in a fleep of profound fecurity, that they may not feel their mifery, and the worfe than Egyptian bondage they are in to fin and Satan. Awake then, ye that fleep, that Chrift may give you light.

I fhall now prefs the exhortation by fome motives; and O that the Lord may carry it home with power on your hearts, as your eternal welfare is deeply concerned therein !

Mot. 1. God has given thee a faculty of examining thyfelf. He has fet up a twofold candle for thee, one within thee, confcience, Prov. xx. 27. forecited, and another without thee, the written word, Pfal. cxix. 105. And will ye venture to walk on in darkness as to your ftate, while ye have thefe lights to let you into it? Sirs, if ye will not bring in that light and ufe it for this purpofe, a light will be let in whether ye will or not, that will fet the matter in due light, either in mercy, as in the cafe of the prodigal, Luke xv. 17. or in wrath, as in that of the rich man, chap. xvi. 23.

Mot. 2. To be bound up from this duty ftill, is next door to a defperate cafe, If. xliv. 20. above quoted. While a perfon is inquiring about his ftate, there is fome hope: but while men are unconcerned about it, whether good or bad, that is like the cafe of men fleeping to death in their bleeding wounds. Publicans and harlots entered into the kingdom of heaven before felf-righteous Pharifees, because the former were more ready by far to admit the conviction of the badness of their ftate, than the former, who were blinded with delufive ideas of their own righteouf nefs.

Mot. 3. It is certain ye were once not in the faith, Lot in a gracious ftate, as the Ephefians were, Eph. 3. 12. Now dare ye pawn your eternal falvation

ii.

on it, that ye are now in the faith, in a state of grace? No; but ye hope the beft, and are eafy. But one would think, that in all reason, according to the weight of the matter, one fhould labour for a proportional certainty. And to leave a matter of the utmost importance at an uncertainty, and make a leap in the dark into the other world, is a moft miferable affair, and argues the greatest inftability. Surely then this requires a moft folemn and deliberate trial; and if ye were wife for yourselves, ye would bring it to a point.

Met. 4. There are many falfe pretenders to religion, from off whofe faces Chrift will draw the mask. Hence he fays. Matth. vii. 22. 23. Many will fay to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophefied in thy name? and in thy name have caft out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profefs unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Luke xiii. 25. 26. 27. When once the Mafter of the house is rifen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, Saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall anfwer and fay unto you, I know you not, whence you are: then fhall ye begin to fay, We have eaten and drunk in thy prefence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he fhall fay, I tell you, I know you not whence you are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. Many have Jacob's voice, but Efau's hands; like Judas, they kiss Chrift, and betray him. Such pretenders were the Laodiceans, when they fancied they were rich, and increased with goods, and food in need of nothing, Rev. iii. 17. Men may go a great length, in legal humili ation with Ahab, in repentance with Pharaoh, in reformation with Herod, in zeal for religion with Jehu, and in ftrictnefs of life as to the outward man with Paul before his converfion; and yet be ftrangers to the life of religion and godlinefs. And fhould not thefe inftances alarm all who profefs Chrift, to bring the matter to a trial whether they are in the faith or

not? as a mistake here is of the most dangerous confequence.

Mot. 5. This would be a matter of the greateft utitility, if followed through, both to believers and unbelievers. To the former it brings the comfort of their faith, clears up their gracious ftate, and gives them fo many evidences for heaven as they have proofs of their faith. To the other it may be the beginning of good; it will give them the knowledge of their disease, which is the first ftep to the cure; and if once they be thoroughly convinced of their finful and damnable eftate, they may be induced to leave no ftone unturned till they be refcued therefrom by application by faith to the blood and Spirit of Jefus Chrift, who faves from fin, and delivers from the wrath that is to come.

Mot. 6. Try now your ftate, for God will try one and all of you, and no wrong judgement will pass before him. O to what purpofe fhould we fhift a trial, which we know we will certainly undergo, from an infallible hand? We cannot by any fleight or artifice cast a blind before his eyes, Gal. vi. 7. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man foweth, that fhall be alfo reap. All things are naked, and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do, Heb. iv. 13. Not the leaft thing in or about us can efcape his allpiercing eye; for he fays, I will fearch Jerufalem with candles, and punish the men that are fettled on their lees, Zeph. i. 12. God has trying times for lands, and for particular perfons, wherein he fets them. And fuch a trying time we have juft now. O let us regard the operation of his hands, left he proceed againft us by terrible things in righteoufnefs. However, fhould we pafs untried in this world, we will moft certainly be tried in the other, and there will be no altering of the decifion then made. Should we not then be ftirred up to try ourfelves now, and fee how matters ftand betwixt God and us, that we may not be condemned in the great day of decifion and judgement?

Mot. laft. It is the expreís command of God, that ye fhould try yourfelves, whether ye be in the faith or not. God has not only warned you to try this impor. tant point, both by his word and providence, but has exprefsly interpofed his authority, binding it as an indifpenfable duty upon you to try yourfelves, as ye will anfwer it on your higheft peril. I fay then, Try yourselves as to this weighty affair, left ye be found to be fighters against God, to fpurn at his yoke, and to throw his cords from off you. Try yourselves then, I fay, whether ye be in the faith or not, as ye would regard the authority of the great Lord of heaven and earth, and would not fall into the hands of the living God, from which there is no deliverance.

The Danger of unworthy Communicating *. I CORINTHIANS Xi. 29:

For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not difcerning the Lord's body.

I'

T is a feasonable advice which Solomon gives, Prov. xxiii. 1. When thou fittest to eat with a ru ler, confider diligently what is before thee. We expect the great Ruler of heaven and earth is to cover a table for us in this place; but at it fome may get their viaticum for heaven, others theirs for hell. The Jews

Though this difcourfe was not delivered in the course of this work, but many years before, when the author was minifter at Simprin, it was judged adviteable to infert it here, as a proper addition to, and a further illuftration of the preceding difcourfes on the Lord's fupper. And as unworthy communicating is in itself a great fin, and one of the epidemical evils of the prefent time, a difcourfe on fuch a fubject must be deemed extremely feafonable in the prefent juncture; and the reader will do well to perufe it with that ferioufnefs and attention the matter of it requires.