a

hath been the fenfible experience and free confeffion of all ages; then it belongs to us of thefe kingdoms to reflect upon ourselves, and take a true view of our actions; fince divine vengeance, for aught we fee, is ftill at the door. And, for the Lord's fake, let us have a care in the doing of it, fince "God will not "be mocked;" and that our miscarriage in fuch an inquiry will be, as only our own infelicity, fo of infinite moment to us. I must needs be plain and earneft here; for if we miscarry in the fearch, we shall certainly miscarry in the cure. Sin gives the deadlieft of all wounds to mankind; but, with grief 1 fay it, for it is true, there is no wound fo flightly healed. We rather feek our ease, than our fecurity; like those fools, that love the pleasanteft, not the fafeft potions. It is ill at all times to flatter a man's felf; but it is most dangerous about repentance. Something men would keep, fomething men would hide; and yet they have to do with that "fearcher of hearts," from whom it is impoffible they fhould hide any thing, This folly increafes our account, endangers our cure, and makes our condition defperate, if not irrecover able.

C

d

O England, my native country! Come to judgment! Bring thy deeds to the true light; fee whether they are "wrought in God or no." Put not off thyfelf with hay, ftraw, and ftubble; for they will burn, and the fire is at the door, that will consume them. He is coming, whose reward is with him, and will give every one according to his works." Let us therefore examine ourselves, try ourselves, prove our ownfelves, whether Chrift be in us or not; if his fpirit, his nature, his meeknefs, his patience, his great felf-denial, dwell in us: if not, we are reprobates; yet under the reproofs of the Almighty, the charge and guilt of fin; and his witnefs in our own confciences fends up evidence to heaven against us every day :

↑ Gal. vi. 5, 6, 7. b Jer. xvii. 10. • John iii. 21. • Rev. xxii. e 12. 2 Cor. xiii. 5.

this I justly fear and take to be our cafe. Let us therefore strictly look into our converfations, and with an impartial eye take a juft view of thofe fins, that moft feverely cry to the great judge against us. And they appear to me to be of two forts; the one relating more particularly to the state, and the other to the church, if I may without offence use that distinction; for my witnefs is with God, I intend not provocation to any, but the edification of all.

Thofe impieties that relate more particularly to the ftate to correct, are DRUNKENNESS; WHOREDOMS and FORNICATION; LUXURY or EXCESS, in APPAREL, in FURNITURE, and in LIVING; PROFUSE GAMING; and finally, ОATHS, BLASPHEMY and PROFANESS: these fwarm in our streets, these are a fcandal to our profeffion, and cry aloud to heaven, and provoke divine wrath against us.

SECT. II.

Of the fin of drunkenness.

Runkenness, or excess in drinking, is not only a violation of God's law, but of our own natures: it doth, of all other fins, rob us of our reason, deface the impreffions of virtue, and extinguish the remembrance of God's mercies and our own duty: it fits men for that which they would abhor, if fober. The incest, murder, robberies, fires, and other villanies, that have been done in drunken fits, make drunkenness a common enemy to human fociety. It renders men unfit for truft or bufinefs; it tells fecrets, betrays friendship, difpofes men to be trepanned and cheated: finally, it fpoils health, weakens human race, and, above all, provokes the juft God to anger, who cried thus of old against those that were guilty of it; "Wo to the "drunkards of Ephraim! the drunkards of Ephraim

VOL. IV.

Ifa. xxviii. 1, 2, 3. Amos vi. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
B

"fhall

"fhall be trodden under feet: they have erred through

wine, and through ftrong drink are out of the way; "the priest and the prophet have erred through "ftrong drink, they err in vifion, they ftumble in judgments" Again, "Wo unto them that are "mighty to drink wine, and men of ftrength to min"gle ftrong drink. Wo unto them that rife up early "in the morning, that they may follow ftrong drink; "that continue unto night, till wine inflame them: "and the harp, and the viol, the tabret and the pipe, "and wine are in their feafts; but they regard not the "work of the Lord, neither confider the operations of his hands. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, "and opened her mouth without measure, and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he "that rejoices, fhall defcend into it."

Yet, you will bear me witness, I do not wrong the prefent humour of too many in this nation, and those not of the lowest quality, in faying, that it is too often the beginning and top of their friendship: it is their common diverfion and entertainment. I might fafely fay, the poor of England could be maintained by their excefs. O hath the God of heaven given men plenty for fuch ends? Or will this kind of improvement of their worldly talent give them peace in the day of judgment? But that people fhould do this without fhame, nay, glory in it too, is greatly to be lamented; for it is not only palate or appetite, but an unnatural vanity of conqueft, excites not a few; as if it were matter of triumph to drown a man's reason, and to degrade him to the beaft.

Let us hear, upon the whole matter, the fentence pronounced against them by the wife man."

"Who

hath woe? who hath forrow, who hath contentions? "who hath babbling? who hath wounds without caufe who hath rednefs of eyes? They that tarry "long at the wine, they that go to feek mixed wine. "Look not thou upon the wine, when it is red, when

* Prov. xxiii. 29, 30, 31, 32, 33.

"it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright; at the laft it biteth like a ferpent, and stingeth "like an adder. Thine eyes fhall behold ftrange "women, and thine heart fhall utter preverfe things.'

Here is much of the mifchiefs of drunkennefs in a little, and of the excess and wantonness of the drunkard. But, alas! did ever any age come near ours, when the very tafting of the feveral forts of wine (that are liberally drank of at many tables) is enough to diftemper a temperate head? But that fuch exceffes fhould be endured by Chriftian governments, while the backs of the poor are almost naked, and their bellies miferably pinched with hunger, is almoft as great a fhame to our pretences to policy, as thofe (1 fear) we unwarrantably make to religion. O! that we were fit to receive that heavenly exhortation of the apostle, "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excefs; but be "filled with the fpirit," (which, God knows, is mocked at! he goes on) "speaking to yourselves," (not in lampoons nor obfcene fongs, that excite luft, but)" in pfalms, and hymns, and fpiritual fongs, " finging and making melody in your heart to the "Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto "God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jefus Chrift."

T

SECT. III.

Of the fin of whoredom and fornication.

HE next crying fin is that of whoredom and fornication. From one of the cleanest people under heaven, I fear, we are become one of the most unchafte, at leaft in and about London. The French have fufficiently revenged themselves upon us, by the loofe manners they have brought amongst us, of which this makes a great part. But I muft needs fay, to their credit, but our reproach, they keep their wits in their debaucheries; whilft we, by over-doing them,

in the imitation of them, lose both. What is become of the ancient education of the kingdom? Our integrity, gravity and manhood, which gave our men so great reputation in the world? Is it not turned into fwearing and drinking, fiddling and dancing, fine clothes, a duel and a wench? Their profanefs muft pafs for wit, and their bafe crafts be called

policy.

But where is that retired breeding, which made our women as famous for their virtue, as they were always held for their beauty? Alas! there hath been a fort of industry used to fubdue their native modefty, as if it were ill breeding to have it; and arts practifed to make them hardy against their own blufhes, and mafter their fhy and bafhful difpofition (fo peculiar to chastity) into an unconverted confidence: as if to be infenfible of ill were their perfection, and to be tame at all things a virtue. Strange! that fobriety fhould be turned into levity! and lust called love! and wantonnefs, good-bumour! to introduce which, nothing has been fo pernicious as the use of plays and romances amongst us, where the warm and uneven paffions of our youth, eafily transported beyond the government of their reafon, have been moved and excited to try that in earnest, which they have heard or seen in jest.

But which way foever this ungodly latitude came in, certain it is, that what forty years ago was not fit to be named in converfation. is now practifed without any fcruple. Marriage, which is God's ordinance, and as lovely to chafte minds as lawful, is now grown a dull thing, old and clownish, kept up only for iffue, and that because the law will have it fo; a fort of formality, not yet thought fit to be abrogated: fo that what was once ordained of God for many other helps and comforts, and permitted by the holy apoftle to prevent luft, "(better marry than burn)" is by the extravagant growth of vice turned to quite the contrary. For fome men, and (which is worfe) fome women too, have faid, They could love their wives and husbands, <if they were not their wives and husbands;" though

that