10~ 4 Book.V. Looking unto 1tfus. Cbap.I .Se".6 and underfttmding conferred wpon"you, hut nrhat good haa the Churdo or Common.weallh hJ it i' the like wiHbe fay to others according to the talents beflowed oa them, you exctllea iu flrmgth, heauf], lrl'ealthof bodJ, length of dayn; and no\\> tell me, ' and puhlifb it to ,ttl! the world, how were thefe improved? I beleeve mmy :1 fad anfwer will be given to Chrift of thefe things, riches mif-fpc:nt, and health mif-fpent, and wifedome, policy, learning gifts and parts mif-fpent;O confider it ! if th~ f aCl:our after ma'ny yenrs fpent in forrain Countries, at lal'l: returns home without his reckonings , who will not blame hlrn for his negligence? but when his Mafier calls biro to account, and he finds nothing but a bill of expences, this in courting. that in feafiing : who laughs not at fo fond a reckoning ? Thus many pa!fe the time of their life as a time of minh, then when they return to their Lord again, -behold all their ac- ,counts are !ins, their profits vanities. 3• I 01all adde one thing more; not onely o{ gifts tern~ poral, but of all bldfings (piritual,though bunendred1 and of, fered,mufi all give an accounr. Oh the fad accounts that mtny a foul will make of thefe things ! methinksi hear fome·wick- · · ed wretch confeliing thus to Chrifi , True Lord, 1 lived at fuch a .time when the fun of the G~JPel fhone bright in my fau; ami in fuch a place where all wasGo{he11;llived underfuch aminiftery,whoJet hefore me life and death; m11ny and man] a por:~erful, 1md fe4rching SermQn have 1heard; any one paffage >whereof(;[ I had no(\\>ickedly 11nd wilfull] for(akfn my own mcrCJ) might have hun unto me the beg.nning of the new birth' ana everlafting hiijJe. s~metimu in the ufeofthe means I felt ftirrings or{frong workings inm1 heart, and then I was .fut1y purpofed to have bern another man, to have cleAved to Chrift, ana to have for(ook_ the world ; I \tas almoft refolved to have been Wholly for God, I WIIJ almoft p(r(Waded tfJ he a real (hriftian; oh lVhlit thoughts \\'ere in my · heart, when fuch a faithful M•nijf fr preffed rhe truth home! mtthink.! every Sermon l heard then,is now a. preaching again; me thir;kf I hear f/il(the voyce of the Minifta , me think} I fee ftill his u~trJdr&pping down his cheelzs; oh howfrefois the reproof, admonition,exhortation offuch, ~~~d{tlch a Preacher now in my mind? oh how earne/111 did ht intrMt me! with What love and tender compt7jfion did he,befeech me ! how did his bon•e/r yearn over me! how
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