452 :DIILECTIUNS AND PEILSi7ASIONS are gadding abroad ire the world, and straggling after `every trifle, and going away from God ; but if ever God save you, he will overtake your hearts and fetch them home, and show them that they have somewhat else to think,on. if commands will not serve, he will send out his tlireatenings, and terrors shall come upon you, and pursue your soul as the wind.(n) If you are taken up with the cares of the world, he will show you that you have somewhat else-to care for, and drown those cares in greater cares. If you have such giddy, unsettled, vagrant minds, that you - cannot call in your thoughts to God, nor hold them with him ; he will lay those clogs and bolts upon them at first, that shall restrain them from their idle vagaries ; and then he will set upon them such bias as shall better order them, and fix them for the time to come. Men do not chose to go to heaven, and never think of it; and to escape the plague of sin, and the curse of the law, and the wrath of God, and the rage of Satan, and never think of it. And Dow, before I dismiss this direction, I have a question, and a request, to make to thee; whoever thou art, that readest these lines. My question is this : Hast thou ever soberly considered of thy ways, and laid these greatest matters to heart, or hast thou not? Rost thou ever use to retire into thyself, and spend any time in this needful work ? If thou dost not, my request to thee is, that now at last thou wouldst do it without delay. Shall the Lord that made thee, that bought thee, that preserveth thee, request this of thee ; that thou wouldst sometimes betake thyself into some secret place, and set thyself purposely to this work of consideration, and follow it earnestly, and close with thy heart, till thou hast made something of it, and brought it to a resolution ? Wilt thou then spend a little time, in reasoning the case with thyself, and calling thy heart to a strict account, and ask thyself, Vhat is it tIht I, was made for? And what business was I sent into the world about? And how have I dis- (n) Job xxxiii. 15.
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