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fame game, and complain not of fatiety; why thould we who profeffe our felves fpiritual fo foon naufeate at the iteration of good counfels. Perhaps if we would feek Athens in our City, we fhould not lofe our labour; There is an itch of the ear, which St. Paul forefaw would. prove the disease of the latter times, that now is groan epidemical s an itch after newes, even in Gods chair, new Doctrines, new dreffes and furely it must needs be confeffed, that of latter years there was much fault in this kind; too many Pulpits were full of curious affectation of new quirks of wit, new crochets of conceit, strange mixtures of opinions: In fo much as the old and plain formes were grown ftale,and defpicable;let me tell you I ftill feared this itch would end in a fmart. Certainly there cannot be a more certain argument of a decayed and fickly ftomack, then the loathing of wholfome and folid food, and longing after fine quelque choices of new and artificial compofition; For us away with this vain affectation in the matters of God; furely if ought under Heaven go down better with us then the favoury viands of Chrift, and him crucified, of faith and repentance, and those plainly dreffed, without all the lards and fauces of humane devices, (to fay no worse) our foules are fick,and we feel it not. Oh ye foolish Ifraelites with whom too much frequence made the food of Angels contemptible. If Onions and Garlick had grown as rifely in the Wilderneffe, and Manna had rained down no where but in Egypt,how would ye have hated those rude and ftrong Salades, and have run mad for those celeftial delicates; The taft of Manna was as of wafers made with Hony, Exod. 16. 31. ncw what can be sweeter then hony? Yet fayes the Wife man, the Full difpifeth an bony comb; I doubt there are too many thus full; full of the World, full of wicked nature, of finful corruptions; and then no marvell if they defpife this food of Angels; but for us my brethren, Oh let us not be weary of our happiness, let not thefe dainties of Heaven lofe their worth for their ttore; every Day let us go forth of our tents and gather; and while we are nourished, let us not be cloyed with good; elfe, God knowes a remedy, he knowes how to make the Word precious to us, precious in the want, because it was 'not precious to us in the Valuation. He that hath told us, how precious Peace is by the fence of a wofull War, can foon fhow us, how precious his word was by a fpiritual famine; which God for his mercies faké avert from us...

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I might here have done with the frequence, but let me add this one confideration more, that often inculcation of warning, neceffarily implies a danger: There is much danger in a contagious converfation; evill is of a spreading nature: fin as leaven, yea old leaven, fowres the whole lumpe where it lyes; yea it is a very plague that infects the Air round about it; If (as the entrances of fin are bafhfull) it begin with one Angell, it infects legions, let it begin with one Woman, it infects all the mafs of Mankind; One perfon infects a Family one Family a whole Street, one Street a whole City, one City a whole Country, one Country a whole World; yea it runs like powder in a train, and flies out fuddainly on all fides: Look about you, and fee, whether you need any other witneffes then your own eyes; Do ye not fee daily, how drunkennefs doth in this participate of the nature of that liquor which causeth it, that it is not eafily contained within it's own bounds; The vice as well as the humour is diffufive of it felf; how rarely have you ever feen a folitadrunkard ; no the very title which is mil-given to this fin, is good Fellowship; Mark if oaths where leud men are met, do not flie about like fquibs on a wheel,whereof one gives fire to another, and all do as it were counter-thunder to Heaven: on bold fwearer makes many, and the land mournes with the number. Look at the very Ifraeliti Stewes; They affemble by troupes into the harlots houses, Fer. 5.7. And for herefies and erroneous opinions in religion the Apoftle tell us it is a Gangrene 2 Tim. 2. 17. whofe taint is both fuddain and deadly Let it be but in the finger, if the joynt be not cut off, or there be not an inftant prevention, the whole arme is taken, and ftraight the heart; It is a pregnant comparison of the Father, that the infection of herefie is like the biting of a mad dogg; you know the dog, when he is taken with this furious diftemper, affects to bite every living thing in his way; and what ever he bites, he infects, and whomsoever he infects (without a prefent remedy) he kills, not without a fpice of his own diftemper; I would we had not too lamentable experience of this mischief every day; wherein we fee one tainted with Popery, another with Socinianifm, another with Antinomianifm, another with Familifm, and all these run a madding after their own fancies, and affect nothing so much, as to draw others into the fociety of their errors and damnation.

Take heed to your felves for. Gods fake, ye that stand fureft in the

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confidence of your fetled judgment, grounded knowledg, honest morality; the peftilent influences of wicked fociety are not more mortall, then infenfible; In vain fhall ye plead the goodness of your heart,if ye be careless of the wickedness of your heels, and elbowes; St. Paul thought it a fentence worthy to borrow from an Heathen Poet, and to feoffe it in the Canon; cvill converfation corrupts good manners: As therefore Mofes faid in the cafe of Korab, and his company, fo let me fay in the cafe of others wickedneffe, whether it be in matter of judgment, or practise, Depart I pray you from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, left ye be confumed in all their fins. Num.16.26. It is worth your obferving, that in that great rebellion,and dreadfull judgment the fons of Corah dyed not, 2 Chron.26.11.They had furely a dear interest in their Father, yet their natural intereft in a Father, could not feoffe them in their Fathers fin; though they lov'd him in nature, yet they would not cleave to him in his rebellion; they forfook both his fin, and his tents, and therefore are exempted from his judgment; If we love our felves let us follow them in hunning any participation with the dearest of funners, that we may also escape the partnership of their vengeance. This for the frequence, the paffion followes, I tell you weeping.

And why weepest thou, O bleffed Apoftle? What is it that could wring tears from thofe eyes? Even the fame that fetch't them from thy Saviour more then once: The fame that fetcht them from his Type David, from the powerfull prophet Elifba, 2 Kings 8. 11. Ina word from all eyes that ever fo much as pretended to holineffe, Grief for fin, and compaffion of finners. Let others celebrate St. Peters rears; I am for St. Pauls; both were precious, but thefe yet more ; Those were the tears of penitence, thefe of charity; thofe of a finner, thefe of an Apoftle; thofe for his own fins, thefe for other mens: How well doth it become him who could be content to be Anathema for his brethren of the circumcifion, to melt into tears for their spirituall uncircumcifion; Oh bleffed tears, the juice of a charitable forrow, of an holy zeal, a gracious compaffion: Let no man fay, that tears argue weakneffe; even the firmest marble weeps in a refolution of Air; He that fhrinks not at the Bear, Lion, Goliah, Saul, ten thousand of the people that should befet him round about, yet can say, Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep

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not thy law, Pf. 119. 136. what speak I of this, when the omnipotention of God weeps over Jerufalem, and makes his tears the preface of his blood; Nay rather thefe tears argue ftrength of piety, and Heavenly affections; To weep for fear is childish, that is unbeseeming a man; and to weep for anger is womanifh and weak; to weep for mere grief is humane; for fin, Chriftian; but for true zeal and compaffion is Saint-like and divine; every one of thefe drops is a pearl. Behold the precious liquor which is referved as the dearest relique of Heaven in the bettles of the Almighty; every dram whereof is valued at an eternall weight of glory; even a cup of cold water fhall once be rewarded; and behold every drop of this warme water is more worth, then many cups of cold; weep thus awhile, and laugh for ever; fowe thus in tears, and be fure to reap in joy: But wo is me, what fhall I fay to thofe men that make themselves merry with nothing fo much as fin; their own, or o thers, whether their act, or their memory. I remember of old the fool that made the all fport in the play was called the Vice; and furely it is no otherwife ftill; vice is it, that makes the mirth in this common theater of the world were it not for quaffing, ribaldry, dalliance, fcurrile profanenefs, thefe men would be dull, and (as we fay) dead on the neft: These things are the joy of their life, yea these are all the life of their joy. Oh God that Chriftians and Divells fhould meet in the fame confort; that we fhould laugh at that, for which our Saviour wept, and bled; that we fhould fmile at that upon earth, whereat God frowns in Hea-ven, and make that our delight, wherewith the holy fpirit of God is grieved.. Wo be to them that thus laugh, for they thall weep, and wail, and gnafh.

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St. Paul weeps to tell of mens fins ; tears do well in the pulpit: as it is in the buckets of fome pumps, that water must first be powred down into them, ere they can fetch up water in abundance, so muft our tears be let down to fetch up more from our hearers; the chair of God can never be better fitted then with a weeping Auditory;; I remember holy Auguftine speaking of his own Sermons, faith, that when he faw the people did fhow contentment and delight in their countenances, and feemed to give applaufes to his preaching, he was not fatisfied with his own pains, but when he faw them break: forth into tears, then he rejoyced, as thinking his labours had forted:

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to their due effect. I have heard fome preachers that have affected a pleafantnefs of difcourfe in their Sermons,and never think they have done well, but when they fee their hearers fmile at their expreffions; But here, I have faid of laughter, thou art mad, and of mirth what doeft thou? Surely jiggs at a Funeral, and laughter at a Sermon, are things prodigiously unfeafonable: It will be long (my beloved) ere a merry preacher fhall bring you to Heaven; True repentance (which is our only way thither) is a fad and serious matter; It is through the valley of Bachah, that we muft pafs to the mount of God; the man with the writers inkhorne in Ezekiel, marks none in the forehead but mourners; Oh then mourne for the abominations of Jerufalem, ye that love the peace of it, and would be loath to fee the ruine and defolation of it,and your own in it, weep with them that weep, yea weep with them that fhould weep, as our Apostle doth here. That which is faid of the Ifraelites, that they drew water in Mizpeh, and powred it out before the Lord, 1 Sam. 7. 6. is by fome interpreters taken of the plentiful water of their tears; which is fo much the more likely, because it is joyned with fafting and publick humiliation : Oh that we could put our eyes to this use in thefe fad times into which we are faln, how foon would the heavens clear up, and bless us with the comfort of our long wifhed for peace: wordly and carnal men, as they have hard hearts, fo they have dry eyes: dry, as a Pumiceftone,uncapable of tears:but the tender hearts of Gods children are ever lightly attended with weeping-eyes; neither can they want tears, whilft even other men abound with fins;though themfelves were free. And if good men (pend their tears upon wicked wretches, how much more ought thofe wicked ones to beftow tears upon themfelves; it is their danger and Mifery that Gods children are affected withall, whilft themselves are infenfible of both; Wo is me, could their eyes be but opened that they might fee their own wofull condition, they could not love themselves fo ill, as not to bewail it; could they fee the frownes of an angry God bent upon them, could they fee the flames of Hell ready to receive them, they could not but diffolve into tears of blood; Oh pitty your own fouls, at laft, ye obdured finners; be ye feelingly apprehenfive of your fearfull danger, the eminent danger of an eternal damnation; and weep day and night before that God whom ye have provoked; wash away your fins with the freams of penitence; The fire of hell can have no power where it

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