SERM.
VII.

And were this Frame to continue, what an excellent Christian would he be ! How great an Alteration fhould we foon fee in the Man! What Seriousness and Sobriety, instead of Sloth and Senfuality!- But, alas! he is presently another Man. He goes into Company and the World, and his Heart receives it's old Tincture. His Thoughts and Sentiments are quite altered. His Temper as vain, as light, as earthly as ever. He thinks he may and ought to love the World, and indulge his Paffions and his Pleasures. And herein he does nothing but what he fees almost every Body elfe do. He looks upon those Ministers and Authors who fpeak and write fo freely of the Vanity of these Things as too precise and stiff by far; and fancies it is only the Effect of Spleen and Envy, of a narrow Spirit, or an Ignorance of the World. "That it is talking in our own Way; and " he will bear with us because we know no "better. But Men of Genius, Wit, and "Spirit, talk and think in a different Strain." And therefore he concludes, that his former Thoughts of the Matter were only the Effects of a gloomy Imagination, or a melancholy turn of Mind.And thus does he

think about the most important Things as SERM. differently from himself, as if he had actually VII. two Understandings.

2. The double minded Man moreover acts as if he had two Wills. For Inftance, with regard to any particular Duty; sometimes he finds himself readily enough inclined to it, at other Times he is moft averfe and reluctant; and can scarce, with all the Command he hath over himself, perfuade his Heart to fet about it. At one time he goes to it with Delight, at another time he can hardly drag his backward Mind, even to the dulleft Performance of it.

So with respect to any particular Sin; at one time he can venture upon it without Scruple, at another time his Confcience startles and hesitates. Now his Will is fet towards his Duty, now towards his Lufts. Now he minds Carnal, and now Spiritual Things. And thus he becomes a perpetual Contradic tion to himself.

Nay, with refpect to the fame Action, or the fame Object, his Will is often drawn two contrary, Ways at the fame time.

3. The double minded Man will find the fame Diversity and Contrariety in the other

VOL. II.

M

lead

VII.

SERM. leading Power of his Soul, the Affections. Which are spiritual or carnal, ferious or senfual, heavenly or worldly, juft as the two contrary Principles of Flesh and Spirit prevail in him; which alternately fway the Mind; and of which alternate Sway this Variableness of Temper, I am now treating of, is the certain Effect.

How devoutly and heavenly are our Affections fometimes when we get nearest to God, and are carried in our Contemplations to eternal and invisible Things! After that we are ready to imagine, that nothing mortal could ever move us. But we foon come down to Earth again; when our Hearts presently begin to hover over the World, and cling, and clafp, and center to it again as closely as if it were indeed our Reft, and we regretted a fhort Abfence from it.

Thus have we taken a brief View of the double minded Man. An unhappy Character; but none more common. Such an unfteady, wavering, inconftant, vague and variable Temper we obferve and fmile at in Children, who difcover it in the lowest Things; but we neither fee nor pity it in

our.

ourselves, who difcover it more in the high- SERM. eft Concerns. But let us now,

II. Confider briefly the Effect of this unhappy Temper mentioned in the text.

This Variableness of Temper, the Apostle James faith, is always attended with an Inftability of Conduct. A double minded Man is unftable in all his Ways. That is, in all those Instances in which his Heart is fo divided, his Behaviour must be incoherent and various. His Conduct is as unsteady as his Temper. But as I have confined this to Things of Religion, I fhall confider that, which is the Effect of it, under the fame Reftriction.

Now this Inftability of a double minded Man's Conduct, (though it be evident enough of itself, as the Effect of his Temper, yet) it may not be amifs briefly to reprefent under three different Views.

1. He is inconftant in his Purposes and Purfuits. This is a natural Effect of that divided Mind we are speaking of. So it was with the revolting Jews in the Prophet's Time. Their Heart is divided (faith GOD,) i.e. between me and Baal; therefore shall

VII.

SERM. they be found faulty; and are as an empty VII. Vine, Hof. x. 2. Were the Heart once fixed to a Point, it would foon know what to purpose and profecute; but having no steady certain Views, it muft of Confequence be undetermined. What it defires at one time, it despises at another; foon flies from what it before pursued; and again pursues what it lately so industriously avoided.

Thus a double minded Man spends his whole Life, as it were, in doing and undoing; in finning and repenting; till his last Summons comes, and then indeed he is determined. Death, or the near and certain Profpect of it, fixes his Views intirely for GOD and Heaven; but it is under the Amazement and Horror of this Reflection, that he hath but a few Hours to do that in, which ought to have been the Business of his Life; but which he could never before fully find in his Heart to make fo.

able and changing the Heart

However vari

may be in Life, it will be fixed in Death. But then it may be too late.

2. Another Effect of fuch a divided Heart is, that it can seldom in good earnest fall in with the Dictates of Confcience in the plainest Inftances