fidelity, profaneness, and all manner of lewdness and debauchery reigns and flourishes in the world, and the judgments of God are so remarkable in it; so dismal a view as this must needs afflict a good soul very much especially when he considers that infinitely worse hereafter will be the consequence of these things than the most exquisite misery here.

The true disciples of the most compassionate Jesus do earnestly, with their good Master, desire the salvation of all men, that none may perish, but come to everlasting life; and therefore cannot but very much lay to heart the deplorable condition of the far greater part of the world; who, instead of embracing and submitting to, blaspheme and deride their only Saviour, and live quite contrary to their true interest, and are continually adding fresh heaps to the measure of their iniquities, and think not of their danger till they irrecoverably fall into it, and in the mean time turn the earth into a kind of hell. He must be of a very stony temper indeed, and far unlike to that of his blessed Redeemer, that can look upon so dismal a prospect as this, and not be moved to much compassion by it, and feelingly deplore and lament it.

But perhaps the face of things may clear up, and look more comfortably among those that profess to be disciples and followers of the holy Jesus; and those countries where the faith of Christ is embraced may be like a paradise, when compared to the rest of the wicked, miserable world of unbelievers. Thus one would think indeed, and thus it should be, and would actually be so, were our holy-religion believed and practised in sincerity. But, alas! how much is it otherwise! so much, that sin and misery seem

rather more to abound among those that call themselves Christians than the rest of mankind.

How much the professors of Christianity are now degenerated from those of the first ages, is but too apparent to any one that reads the story of those times, and compares the present with them. They were acted with a fervent zeal and love of God and their Saviour, and great charity and affection for one another, as servants of the same blessed Master, and happy sharers in the same inestimable benefit, and heirs of the same heavenly inheritance; and their conversation was agreeable to their profession and their hopes; in great purity and simplicity of manners, ardent devotion, exemplary holiness, unblamable performance of all their duty, in their several relations, together with a firm unity among themselves, and undaunted steadiness in the faith, even unto death. But now what a sad alteration is there! how cold is the zeal and the love, how little the devotion, how loose the manners, how weak and unsteadfast the faith, how scandalous the divisions, how little the justice, sincerity, and brotherly love, and how evident the hypocrisy, the ambition, the secular aims and pursuits; and, in one word, the unchristian spirit and behaviour of Christians now!

And how sad have been, and still are, the consequences and effects of this! It was for this that God suffered the great enemy of Christianity, the Turk, to make such vast conquests in the eastern part of Christendom, to the ruin of that once most flourishing part of the church, and the shaking of the whole: which though we are assured it shall not be totally destroyed, our Lord having promised to be with it to the end of the world, and that at length

it shall triumph over all; yet how near God may permit it to be so, and how many particular churches may have their candlesticks removed out of their places, for leaving their first love, degenerating from their primitive holiness and purity, as was threatened to the church of Ephesus, and afterwards sadly executed upon her and her sister churches of Asia; how many particular churches, I say, God may suffer to be ruined for their iniquity and apostasy, he alone can tell; and every such wicked society of pretended Christians have the greatest reason to fear the effects of his heavy displeasure, which they cannot but own they have extremely deserved.

But should God in his great mercy confine the rage of his church's enemies, and protect her from their malice, yet the so disagreeable practice of Christians to their holy profession must needs bring irreparable scandal and dishonour upon it, and mightily hinder its progress in the world, and fill the church with many and great calamities, and spoil its tranquillity, and sadly eclipse its glory; which, to any one that truly loves it, and wishes its prosperity, cannot but be a very melancholy and afflicting consideration, and deserves to be very seriously laid to heart.

I wish I could say that our own church and nation did afford us a more agreeable prospect, and the state of things here were more comfortable, and gave us better hopes. And O that we could find it so, and had reason to change our mourning into joy! But as there is no peace, so there can be no joy to the wicked: and how great and notorious our wickedness is, and how deplorable the consequences of it are among us, is but too well known.

And, indeed, to our shame we must confess it, all sorts of impiety, profaneness, and vice abound among us; and with unparalleled boldness, and daring impudence, are gloried in and justified; and repentance and reformation, and those that urge it, laughed at and ridiculed, and treated with the utmost scorn. Nay, some, and those not a few, nor of the meaner and ruder, but politer sort, pride themselves even in atheism and infidelity; and make it their business publicly to run down and expose the belief of religion and a God, and throw the greatest contempt upon every thing, and every person, that have relation to them; and, as the natural consequence of this, indulge themselves freely in all manner of lewdness and debauchery; and esteem it as an accomplishment, and piece of good breeding, and a great part of the character of a man of quality and wit and spirit, to be very profane and very lewd, some in one way, some in another, and very many in all; and which unmanly as well as unchristian courses they are not ashamed openly to own and defend.

And this makes that true honour and justice, and integrity and generosity, and that noble public spirit for which, in former times, we were so famous in the world, and had such just reason to value ourselves upon, so very rarely to be met with now; and so basely are we degenerated from our worthy ancestors, that those very things which used to be the reproach of other nations, we have very wisely made a collection of, and out of them framed the character of a fine, accomplished gentleman. How sad the consequences of these things are at present, and what an unhappy influence they will have upon

succeeding times, is but too obvious to every one that thinks.

The divisions, schisms, animosities, heart-burnings, distractions, violent halings of different parties, intent only upon particular and private interests, which daily get ground among us, and cannot but much weaken our constitution, and have a fatal tendency, as time, I doubt, will shew: these are the bitter fruits of that want of true religion that is among us; and which we should soon be rid of, were that well fixed in our hearts, and had its due influence upon our lives; but it must never be expected till then. And besides these natural effects of our wickedness, if great judgments and public calamities are permitted by God to continue, or are brought afresh upon us; we have too much reason to say, Righteousness belongeth unto thee, O Lord, but to us confusion of face.

And therefore, with respect to the present state of things in our own church and nation, as well as the prevailing wickedness and great misery of other parts of the world, every good Christian must needs think mourning to be sometimes a very proper employment for him, and, whatever the gay people of the world may think of it, the advice of St. James ought to be regarded now, as well as in the times he gave it: Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness; and for which we have the example of good David, who tells us, more than once, that rivers of waters ran down his eyes, because men kept not God's law; and that he beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not his 8 James iv. 9.