der the outward garb and profeffion of religion, which kind of hypocrify is certainly the highest folly imaginable, it having the greatest woes in the gofpel denounced against it. AND how many egregious follies are every day committed in the popifh religion, where men fin againft heaven, and then go to Rome for a pardon; offend Chrift, and then ask forgiveness of the Pope; commit their fins, then go and confefs them; confefs them, then go and commit them again; believe the confecrated wafer to be the very body and blood of Chrift, and yet eat it all up at a mouthful, bones and all ; give a penny to the poor, and think to purchase heaven by it, as if heaven was worth no more than a penny, or a penny worth as much as heaven; they fay their prayers, but never pray at all, not knowing what themfelves fay; they will fay an ave maria to the bleffed virgin, and then think they honour God; bow to an image, and then conclude they have worshipped him whom no image can reprefent; abstain from flefh, and furfeit upon fifh, and this they call fasting; call any one a heretick, whom they pleafe, perfecute him to death, and then think they have done God good fervice; and a thoufand fuch ridiculous follies are wrought among them; which plainly argues them to be fanaticks defparately overgrown with frenzy and diftraction. BUT we need not have gone fo far to have found found fo much folly in matters of religion; we have too much of it, I fear, among ourfelves : For how many have we among us, who being convinced of the neceffity of repentance, will repent indeed, but it fhall be of fome fins only, not of all whereas one fin unrepented of, will destroy us as well as a thousand, and therefore it is a foolish thing to think fuch a repentance will ftand us in any ftead. Others we have among us, who think they ought to repent, and therefore intend to do it hereafter; but ftill put it off, and adjourn it from day to day. Thou canft not repent now; but thou wilt repent tomorrow, or next day, or next week, or one of thefe days; when thou canft get time and leisure. But how well may I fay to thee, as it was faid to the rich man in the gofpel, Thou fool, this night may thy foul be taken from thee. Thou doft not know but before to-morrow morning thou mayeft be in another world. and there thou wilt repent indeed; but it will do thee no good. Thou wert fuch a fool, as not to act thy repentance when thou fhouldft, and God will be fo wife as not to accept it when thou doft. BUT time would fail me fhould I reckon up the feveral follies that finful men are guilty of, every one of their actions being nothing else. And therefore, I fhall inftance only in one more great folly and vanity, which I have obferved to be very common among men, there being but very few free from it; and that is, that fin is not accounted accounted folly by us,; and howfoever finful men are, they still conceit themselves to be wife. And I fear there are too many fuch among us at this time, who are not wife enough to think themselves fools: And therefore, altho I have fhewn them what a folly it is to fin, you cannot yet believe your fins to be your follies; but affure your felves, that altho it be a great foily to fin, it is a far greater not to think fin to be a folly Yea certainly, it is the greatest folly in the world, not to think fin the greatest folly in the world; which, the premises confider'd, none but fools either will or can deny. And there : fore to conclude. MEN and brethren, I have endeavoured to prove and fhew this day, that every finner is a fool, and every fin a folly. I know there are many understanding men among you who have heard what hath been faid upon this fubject; fome, I hope, who are wife towards God, understanding the things that appertain to their everlafting peace: And fuch I am fure cannot but acknowledge the truth of what they have heard. Others I fear, may be wife enough for the world, understanding how to manage their trades to the beft advantage, and how to make a good bargain as well as the best. And fuch can hardly be perfuaded that they are fools in any thing, becaufe they think themfelves to be wife in fome things: To fuch my humble ad vice vice is, that you would seriously weigh what you have heard, and not fuffer your felves to be fooled into a vain conceit of your own wisdom; for affure your felves, there is not the moft ignorant perfon in the congregation that fears God, but is far wiler than the wifeft of you that do not; for fuch a one's little knowledge is true Wildom, your great cunning is your real folly: And therefore, if you would manifeft yourselves for the future to be wife and prudent perfons indeed, lay afide your former follies, and devote yourfelves wholly to the fear and fervice of Almighty God; for till you do fo, you have not attained to the very firft degree of wifdom: For the fear of the Lord is the beginning, &c. SERMON SERMON The FOURTH. Repentance the end of Chrift's coming into the World. LUKE V. 32. I came not to call the Righteous, but finners to Repentance. T HE eternal Son of God having from the beginning of the world undertaken to: redeem fallen man, and reftore him to his firft eftate, with the price of his own blood; he was pleafed for that purpofe, when the fulnets of time appointed by the Father was come, to take upon him the nature of man, by uniting it to his own divine perfon; fo that whatsoever he fhould fuffer in that nature, being suffered by a divine perfon, might be of infinite value and merit, and fo a fufficient price for the redemption of mankind. And being accordingly here upon earth, found in fashion as a man, before he actually laid down the faid price by dying in our ftead, he was moft graciously pleased to spend fome |