, Exhortation. 389 that fhuffeth up the\vind at her pleafure.' What con– dition is your foul in? The ejnblem pf it is the fiug– gard's vineyard, ' All gro'Vn over with thorns, nettles ,covering the face thereof, and the fione-wall thereof broken down,' Prov. xxiv. 30,3 I. _ Can you· really perfuade yourfelves that you are ' going forth by the, footfieps of the flock~, That the faints now in glory took the finfulliberty of thinking, fpeaking, and aCl:– ing that you do ? Tohat their foul's Hate ~nd cafe coil: them.ai few'ferious thoughts as yours hath cofi you ? Do you think to fiumble on a fa ving interefi in Chrifr, a pardon, a heaven ? no, you will not find it fo. Up, then, and be doing: fet apart fome time for confi.der– ing of, and doing fomething eff~Cl:u,ally in, your foul's ' cafe; that you may go to the ground of the matt~r, and get it recrify'd. Secondly, 'Tis a proper means for the recovery of backfiiders, th_at they may ' remember whence they are fallen, and repent, and do the firil works,' 'Rev. ii. 5· There are not a few, who fometime a day bloom~ ed fair, in hopeful beginnings of religion, who are ' now withered. Their hones are dried, and thei·e's no fap of that .kind in them no~: and py their fin– ning againfi light, they have provoked God to depart from them, fo as there is no fap in ordinances, nor in providences, to them, neither ; hut thefe are all, as it were, blafied to them, and they are left in the unhap· py cafe ofthe vineyard, Ifa. v, 6. ' I will alfo com– mand the clouds, that they rain,no rain upon it.' And fame are not only withered~ but are become noifome in their' life and converfation ; they have. not only loft any life of religion they fometimes feem' d to have ; but their lufis are become rampant in them, as given up to vile affections, de~ling the very outward man. ' It has happened unto rhem according to the true ,proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit again ; and the fow that was wafhed, to her wallowing in the mire,' 2 Pet. ij, 22. ' \ Bb4 0
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