338 A SERMON OF REPENTANCE. And lest these generals seem insufficient for us to confess on such a day as this, and lest yet your memories should need more help, is it not my duty to remind you of some particulars? which yet I shall not do by of accusation, but of .inquiry. Far be it fromme to judge so hardly of you, that when you come hither to lament your sins, you cannot with patience endure to be told of them. I. Inquire, then, whether there be none amengyou that live h sensual, careless life, clothed with the best, and faring deliciously everyday l In rioting and drunkenness, chambering and wanton- ness, strife and envying, not putting on Christ, nor walking in the Spirit, but makingprovision for the flesh, to satisfy the lusts there- of; Rom. xiii. 13, 14.. Is there none among you that spend your precious time in vanities, that is allowed you to prepare for life eternal? That have time to waste in compliments, and fruitless talk, and visits ; in gaming,, , unnecessary recreations; in ex- cessive feasting and entertainments, while God is neglected, and your souls forgotten, and you can never find an hour in a day to make ready for the life which you must live forever? Is there none among you that would take the man for a Puritan, or 'fanatic, that should employ but half so much time for his soul, and in the services of the Lord, as you do in unnecessary sportsand pleasures, and pampering your flesh? Gentlemen, if there be any 'such among you, as you love your souls, remember your misdoings, and bewail these abominations before,the Lord,in this day ofyour professed humiliation. 2.' Inquire whether there be none among you, that, being strangers to the new birth, and to the inward workings of the Spirit of Christ upon the soul, do also distaste a holy life, and make it the matter of your reproach, and pacify your accusing consciences with a religion made up of mere words, and heartless outside, and so much obedience as your fleshly pleasures will ad- mit, accounting those that go beyond you, especially if they differ from you in your modes and circumstances, to be but a company of proud, Pharisaical, self-conceited hypocrites, and those whom you desire to suppress. If there be one such person here, I would entreat him to remember that it is the solemn asseveration of our Judge, that, " except a man be converted, and be born again, of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdomof heaven ;" (John iii: 3 -5 ; Matt. xviii. 3 ;) that " if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his ;." (Rom. viii. 9.) that " if any man be inChrist, be is a new creature ; old things are passed away, and all things are become new ; " (2 Cor. v. 17.) that "without holiness none shall see God ; (Heb. xii. 14.) that " the wisdom that is from above is first pure, and then peaceable;" (Jam. iii.
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