trust a man's self in the final condition and last security of a man's soul, a man being no good judge in his own case. And when a duty is so useful in all cases, so necessary in some, and encouraged by promises evangelical, by Scripture precedents, by the example of both Testaments, and prescribed by injunctions apostolical, and by the canon of all churches, and the example of all ages, and taught us even by the proportions of duty, and the analogy to the power ministerial, and the very necessities of every man; he that for stubbornness, or sinful shamefacedness, or prejudice, or any other criminal weakness, shall decline to do it in the days of his danger, when the vanities of the world are worn off, and all affections to sin are wearied, and the sin itself is pungent and grievous, and that we are certain we shall not escape shame for them hereafter, unless we be ashamed of them here, and use all the proper instruments of their pardon; this man, I say, is very near death, but very far off from the kingdom of heaven.

2. The spiritual man will find in the conduct of this duty many cases and varieties of accidents, which will alter his course and forms of proceedings. Most men are of a rude indifferency, apt to excuse themselves, ignorant of their condition, abused by evil principles, content with a general and indefinite confession; and if you provoke them to it by the foregoing considerations, lest their spirits should be a little uneasy, or not secured in their own opinions, will be apt to say, "They are sinners, as every man hath his infirmity, and he as well as any man: but, God be thanked, they bear no ill will to any man, or are no adulterers, or no rebels, or they have fought on the right side; and God be merciful to them, for they are sinners." But you shall hardly open their breasts farther and to inquire beyond this, would be to do the office of an accuser.

3. But, which is yet worse, there are very many persons, who have been used to an habitual course of a constant intemperance, or dissolution in any other instance, that the crime is made natural and necessary, and the conscience hath digested all the trouble, and the man thinks himself in a good estate, and never reckons any sins, but those which are the egression and passings beyond his ordinary and daily drunkenness. This happens in the cases of drunkenness, and intemperate eating, and idleness, and uncharitableness, and in lying and vain jestings, and particularly in

such evils, which the laws do not punish, and public customs do not shame, but which are countenanced by potent sinners, or evil customs, or good nature, and mistaken civilities.

Instruments by way of Consideration, to awaken a careless Person, and a stupid Conscience.

In these and the like cases, the spiritual man must awaken the lethargy, and prick the conscience, by representing to him, 1. That Christianity is a holy and a strict religion. 2. That many are called, but few are chosen. That the number of them, that are to be saved, are but very few in respect of those, that are to descend into sorrow and everlasting darkness. That we have covenanted with God in baptism to live a holy life. That the measures of holiness in Christian religion are not to be taken by the evil proportions of the multitude, and common fame of looser and less severe persons; because the multitude, is that which does not enter into heaven, but the few, the elect, the holy servants of Jesus. That every habitual sin does amount to a very great guilt in the whole, though it be but in a small instance. That if the righteous scarcely be saved, then there will be no place for the unrighteous and the sinner to appear in, but places of horror and amazement. That confidence hath destroyed many souls, and many have had a sad portion, who have reckoned themselves in the calender of saints. That the promises of heaven are so great, that it is not reasonable to think that every man, and every life, and an easy religion, shall possess such infinite glories. That although heaven is a gift, yet there is a great severity and strict exacting of the conditions on our part to receive that gift. That some persons who have lived strictly for forty years together, yet have miscarried by some one crime at last, or some secret hypocrisy, or a latent pride, or a creeping ambition, or a fantastic spirit; and therefore much less can they hope to receive so great portions of felicities, when their life hath been a continual declination from those severities which might have created confidence of pardon and acceptation, through the mercies of God and the merits of Jesus. That every good man ought to be suspicious of himself, and in his judgment concerning his own condition, to fear the worst, that he may provide for the better.

That we are commanded to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. That this precept was given with very great reason, considering the thousand thousand ways of miscarrying. That St. Paul himself, and St. Arsenius, and St. Elzearius, and divers other remarkable saints, had, at some times, great apprehensions of the dangers of failing of the mighty price of their high calling. That the stake that is to be secured, is of so great an interest, that all our industry, and all the violences we can suffer in the prosecution of it, are not considerable. That this affair is to be done but once, and then never any more unto eternal ages. That they who profess themselves servants of the institution, and servants of the law and discipline of Jesus, will find that they must judge themselves by the proportions of that law, by which they were to rule themselves. That the laws of society and civility, and the voices of my company, are as ill judges as they are guides ; but we are to stand or fall by his sentence, who will not consider or value the talk of idle men, or the persuasion of wilfully abused consciences, but of him who hath felt our infirmity in all things but sin, and knows where our failings are unavoidable, and where and in what degree, they are excusable; but never will endure, a sin should seize upon any part of our love, and deliberate choice, or careless cohabitation. That if our conscience accuse us not,* yet are we not hereby justified; for God is greater than our consciences. That they who are most innocent, have their consciences most tender and sensible. That scrupulous persons are always most religious; and that to feel nothing, is not a sign of life, but of death. That nothing can be hid from the eyes of the Lord, to whom the day and the night, public and private, words and thoughts, actions and designs, are equally discernible. That a lukewarm person is only secured in his own thoughts, but very unsafe in the event, and despised by God. That we live in an age, in which that which is called and esteemed a holy life, in the days of the apostles and holy primitives would have been esteemed indifferent, sometimes scandalous, and always cold. That what was a truth of God then, is so now; and to what severities they were tied, for the same also we are to be accountable; and heaven is not now an easier purchase than

it was then. That if he will cast up his accounts, even with a superficial eye, let him consider how few good works he hath done; how inconsiderable is the relief which he gave to the poor; how little are the extraordinaries of his religion; and how inactive and lame, how polluted and disordered, how unchosen and unpleasant were the ordinary parts and periods of it: and how many and great sins have stained his course of life and until he enters into a particular scrutiny, let him only revolve in his mind what his general course hath been; and in the way of prudence, let him say whether it was laudable and holy, or only indifferent and excusable; and if he can think it only excusable, and so as to hope for pardon by such suppletories of faith, and arts of persuasion, which he and others used to take in for auxiliaries to their unreasonable confidence ; then he cannot but think it very fit, that he search into his own state, and take a guide, and erect a tribunal, or appear before that which Christ hath erected for him on earth, that he may make his access fairer, when he shall be called before the dreadful tribunal of Christ in the clouds. For if he can be confident upon the stock of an unpraised or a looser life, and should dare to venture upon wild accounts, without order, without abatements, without consideration, without conduct, without fear, without scrutinies, and confessions, and instruments of amends or pardon, he either knows not his danger, or cares not for it, and little understands how great a horror that is, that a man should rest his head for ever upon a cradle of flames, and lie in a bed of sorrows, and never sleep, and never end his groans or the gnashing of his teeth.

This is that, which some spiritual persons call a wakening of the sinner by the terrors of the law; which is a good analogy or tropical expression to represent the threatenings of the gospel, and the dangers of an incurious and a sinning person: but we have nothing else to do with the terrors of the law; for, blessed be God, they concern us not. The terrors of the law were the intermination of curses upon all those, that ever broke any of the least commandments, once, or in any instance: and to it the righteousness of faith is opposed. The terrors of the law admitted no repentance, no pardon, no abatement; and were so severe, that God never inflicted them at all according to the letter, because he admitted all to repent

ance that desired it with a timely prayer, unless in very few cases, as of Achan, or Korah, the gatherer of sticks upon the Sabbath day, or the like: but the state of threatenings in the gospel is very fearful, because the conditions of avoiding them are easy and ready, and they happen to evil persons after many warnings, second thoughts, frequent invitations to pardon and repentance, and after one entire pardon consigned in baptism. And in this sense it is necessary, that such persons, as we now deal withal, should be instructed concerning their danger.

4. When the sick man is either of himself, or by these considerations set forward with purposes of repentance, and confession of his sins, in order to all its holy purposes and effects, then the minister is to assist him in the understanding the number of his sins, that is, the several kinds of them, and the various manners of prevaricating the Divine commandments: for as for the number of the particulars in every kind, he will need less help; and if he did, he can have it no where but in his own conscience, and from the witnesses of his conversation. Let this be done by prudent insinuation, by arts of remembrance, and secret notices, and propounding occasions and instruments of recalling such things to his mind, which either by public fame he is accused of, or by the temptations of his condi tion, it is likely he might have contracted.

5. If the person be truly penitent, and forward to confess all that are set before him or offered to his sight at a half face, then he may be complied withal in all his innocent circumstances, and his conscience made placid and willing, and he be drawn forward by good nature and civility, that his repentance, in all the parts of it, and in every step of its progress and emanation, may be as voluntary and chosen as it can. For by that means if the sick person can be invited to do the work of religion, it enters by the door of his will and choice, and will pass on toward consummation by the instrument of delight.

6. If the sick man be backward and without apprehension of the good-natured and civil way, let the minister take care, that by some way or other the work of God be secured; and if he will not understand, when he is secretly prompted, he must be hallooed to, and asked in plain interrogatives concerning the crime of his life. He must be told of the evil things that are spoken of him in markets