.. .!. .... For we wrefile. 167 =010"0... may not be fcared with fuch hideous apparitions of wrath) or by pacifying confcience with fome promife of repentance for the future, orby forbearing fome fin for the prefent,which it can heft (pare, thereby to gain the reputationof fomething like a refor- mation ; Or if all this will not do, then (prompted by the fu. ry of its lull) the Will proclaims open war againft confcience, finning in the face of it, like fome wilde horfe, (impatient of the fpur which pricks him,and bridle that curbs him) gets the bit between his teeth, and runs with full (peed, till at laft he eafeth himfelfof his Rider; and then wherehe fees fatteft pafture, no hedge or ditch can withhold him, till in the end you finde him, ftarving in fome pound for his trefpaffe : Thus many fin at fuch rate, that confcience can no longer hold the reines, nor fit the faddle. but is thrown down and laid for dead ; and then the wretches range where their lufts can have the fulleft meal, till at lift they pay for their ftollen pleafures molt dearly, when confcience comes to it felf, purfues them, and takes them more furely by the throat thenever, never to let them go till it brings them before Gods Tribunal. Thirdly, others wreftle with fin, but they do not hate it, and therefore they are favourable to it, and feek not the life of fin as their deadly enemy ; theft wreftle in jeft,and not in earnefl ; the wounds they give fin one day, are healed by the next. Let men, refolve never foftrongly againft fin, yet it will creep again into ,their favour, till the love of fin be quenched in the heart, and this fire will never die of it felf, the love of Chrift must quench the love offin, as Ierome excellently, Vora itmor extinguit aliam. This heavenly fire will indeed put out that flame of hell, which he illuftrates by Ahafbnerim his carriage to Velfhti his Queen, who in the firft Chapter makes a decree in all hafte, that fhe comes no more before him ; but when his paffion is a littledown, chap. 2. v. J. he begins to relent towards her, which his Conned perceiving, prefently feek out for a beautiful Virgin, on whom the King might place his love, and take into his royal bed,which done, we hear no more ofVafhti, then and not till thenwill the foules decree Rand againft fin, when the foule bath taken Chrift into his bofome.
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