and other Duties, recommended. 273 power hath given us all things which per- S E R M tain unto life and godlinefs ; for us to be ob- XI. ftinately unattentive, like the adder that flop-1/4-'1'j peth her ear and will not hearken to the voice of the charmer, charming ever fo wifely, as the Pfalmift expreffeth the obduracy of fin - ners, Pfal. lviiii to treat all the offers God hath made us with .negleEt, and the means he hath appointed for our reformation, with- out fo much as repairing to the courts of his wifdom, or ufing any of the methods pre - fcribed for our inftruftion and amendment; this furely is great ingratitude, a heinous con- tempt of God's authority, an affront to his love, and it inuft be inexcufable folly fo to negle ± our own true intereft. Yet how many are there who íhew a wretched in- difference to the means of their fanEtifica- tion and falvation, choofing to fpend their time in amufement, or wholly about the affairs of the prefent life, while the folemn invitations of wifdom, the feat fhe hath prepared for their entertainment, as Solomon reprefenteth the provifion which divine grace hath made for the fouls of men, in the ixth chapter of this book, while, I fay, thefe invitations are contemned as if they were mere trifles ? But fuppofing men fo far fen- fible of the refpeft due to a divine revela- VOL. III, T tion, a;s
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