104 The Worlds Lofs, and the It with Elifha,My Father,my Fatber,the Chariotsof Ifrael,$tc, IfaBrother ora Sifter were taken away, I doubt not but there are thole that would follow with thevoce of Lamentation, Alas myBrother, alas my Sifer, woe is mefor my Brother yonatbon. Wehave tears for Brethren. Further,if it were but a child that were loft,a manwould beCure to find tears for him, and filth along time afrer, and would fay with David r Ob Abfalom,mysox,my Son,would God i bad diedfor thee my. Son. All conditions that live find tears inmens eyes, and confideration of their departure, only thegodiy and the righteous max findeth none. Here is their ftupidity. Can there be a greater ftupidity, than tomake amán die twice ? As theydie the death of their bodies, fo to make them fuller a death in our memories a As they perifla to the world,fo toperifh alfo in our thoughts and medita- tions. We oweGod fomuch,we owepiety fo much,we owe thememorial of many fo much, we owe our felves fo much, as to take it into confideratian. And yet no man confidereth. This is the fault which we may examine our felvesof. For if we nowmake re- 1e &ionofall this upon our [elves, we muff find a conformity with our times. There is never a wordof thisScripture, but it is truenow. I will now take the parts inl order. Firft, we cannot deny that evil is to come upon thisplace. - Nay, it werewell if it were to come; it is tome already : k:hathovertaken us. If, we load theearth with the evil of tin,, it is impoffable that God fhould forbear long. Theevil of fin thatfurchargeth the earth mull beunloaded again, by this burthen, by the burthenofpunifhment : Oneburthen muff jullleoutanother. Evils there have been impencfane, that we have feen. Evils there arenow prefent that we begin to roan under: Andno man can tell where thatevil willflay. There isevilprefent,and evils to come, becaufe our evilsare fill multiply ing : The beginningsof forrows, and fuflerirsgs,and fears ; God grant ¡z may flay. But our fiateand condition is like them in this, that theyare yet impendant. We ieeche Heavens growblack, judgments are a ripening. When ye fee the sky red, when ye fee the sky black, judgment is begin- ning, notonly beginning tobud, but it beginnethto fpread and inlarge isfell, Thus far there is á correfpondency ; there is evil that we have caufe to fear and fufpe&, yet further to come on this place. Secondly, there is a conformity with the other too, in our negligence. The world fendeth forth men now void ofnatural Kreélion. It was never fo before. For ifbe- fore they negle& others,yet they werecareful of themfelves. But mennow defperate= lyncglc& their ownfalvations, There is no refpe& to, God, no pinyof others, no not of thewfely:s. . I do not wonder that men heretofore confidered not, when they loved their lives better thantheir fins, becaufe they had fome fenfible tafleof that that Was temporal, when they loved their lives better than Heaven. But nowmen love not their lives bell, but theirfins better; for though their livesbe in danger, yet their tins are kept. it is anadmirable thing to confider,how every way we are given to plenty,toriot, to fecuricy, notwithflanding God cometh veer, andbringeth his judgment even to the door, and makes it fwell. He forbeareth a long time, to try us with mercies, end then he takes a leyere courts. Where (hall men fee the faceof ars alteration? O tr lives arethe fame, our delights the fame, our vanities and follies the fame ; we keep the fame fns Hill, as ifwe were bent to provokeGod further, to fee what he will do. That is anevident fign we confider not for whatpurport God fendeth hisplagues, we confider notwhat he Both, when he takes awayothers for our example ; none lay it co heart,and take it into confadetation, it fwimmeth not in hisbrain. We begin to tremble,and we think our felves well,if we providea Country.houfe ; but Godhath befet us in theCountrey,and in theCity. There will be no flight but to Repentance, there istheCity. of Refuge ; and there is no way to repent but by eonfaderation : There swift betook to heart before there can be amendment, and tilltherebe amend. ment,therewill be no removing of judgment. It isplain then that weare conforma- ble in that part of theTeat, Asad
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