. jjS' 0/apr~viJentta/ ralt . ftrip ye and make 1e-bare, and gird fack~loth .UPO'ti your loins.' Certainly the voice of' God unto fuch is, ~ Thus faith the Lord~, c.onfider yoar ways,' HaR. r. 5· Want 0f cori(ld'er:ttion n~ins many. They deal with their fouls, as fome fo01Hh m~n dOt with,their efiates;rdnningo'nwithoutcenfideration, ~illthey have . ~un .themfelves a-grourrd. .But thefe who ad-venture fo to take a trme for finning, have need take atfo a fet time for mourning : for '~is not to be e1,{,peB:ed, that . :accounts which' have been long rqnning on,· can b~ · cleared a·pd adjufted wi~h a glance of one's eye. 0 · carelefs fmner, confider how matters~ ft.a·nd betwixt God and you :- are you in any tolerable cafe for the other world, f~r death and eternity ? Are net matters gone quite te wrack, with your foul:?' Are you not. pining away in your iniquity ? Is. not the fiate and cond~ti'on 0f your fouls, like that of. the~ jluggard's vineyard:, rhat was all gro·u:m;over with thorns, anrl . n,ettles had coverea the face thereof, and the flone– wall was broken·down? Prov. xxiv. 3·1. Ofet about perfonal fafiing and h'l!lmiliation. dtd·inary pains will not ferve to reeover the long·negleete4 gard~n: it muft be trench'd, digged deep·. A little may help the cafe, that's timely feeri to: hut aU this will be little enough for thine, which bath ,lain' fo long ne-– gleCted. S.econdly, When one is, under convicrions, enfet... tainJng fotne· thoughts to reform. On fueh an occa– fion' was ·that faH kept, Neh. ix. t, 2. :rnd ha~l very good offers, ver. 3'8. dtaF'• Xi4 1, 28, 29. This me– thod is, in fuch- a· cafe, a propet means to bring men to a point in the matte·r, and to fix thdr refolutio~,· ·o.therwife ready to prove abortive. Some have con– vicrions, which, at ti·mes, coming and ·paffing away, like a flitch in one's fide, fet them now and then to their prayers ; but never prevail to bring them to a: f€ttled courfe of reformation of Hfe : their difeafe-is· tgfl) inve~erate/ t~ be fo eafily carried off. But weJie · they
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