The Almoft-Chriflian Difcovered, ing, without ftrivir.g, or confliCting, Or pcrfo~ming one Duty or refiftino one Sin a.s you do~ if yo1! ~re refolved for _Heaven, w_hy do you not. do more, ail your praymg, hcanng, ftrtVlng, and wrefthng they wtll he loft and m vain, if you do not hold on, if you do not continue. Well, wbat a folly is it for you to have gone fo far, and won every ftep of Ground by clear force, who have toiled in the ways of Religion, with fweat and anguifh, and dilquieting to your Soul, and yet at }aft to lofc and ~rufl:ratc all this pains t~rou~h your curfed and wilful fioth and negli~ gencc i to g1vc an away, and faU wtlfully fuort of Grace and Salvation ? Confider Seco~1d l y, Is it not grofs and incxcufeablc folly t<? defift after fa far pro- • grefs, wh~rcas for ought we _know, had we but yroceeded a httle further, we might have obtatned that r-racc whtch we fall Jbort of. And bow know you, but that upon your further cndcav'"'ours, God might have beftowed that Grace you ftrive for God is not wa1~ting in this kind;;_o thofc ~vho improve the Power of nature wh ich' they ha\•c, he gtves the Power of uracewh tch they have not; Yet when Men arrive thus far,and com~ as i~ were to the very Porch of 1-fea'Vm, what thick and dull folly is it, when there ts as tt were but a ftep or two between them and Glory, to break off their Progrefs and fit down Jhort ? What is it more labour to go thofe few fteps more you are to proceed to, than thofe which you have already gone. Vlcre you willing and contented to do all that you have already done for that which is but like Grace, and will you not be perfwadcd to do a litt le more for that which is true Grace? It may be God may convert you by the veiy next Prayer you make, he may convert you by tl1e next Sermon you hear, he may give you tr ue Grace when you next of all oppofe any Temptation, or when you next of all frruu. gle•againft any luft, the 'very next ftep you take in his way may carry you to He~ v~n for onr;ht you know. Now the great probabil ity of this, nay, were it only a bare poffibility, it makes a Man guilty of the greateft folly, who bath gone thus far towards Holinefs to negletl a further progrefs to wards it. Thirdly Confider, what a dangerous and dreadful thing is it, for Men to climb fo high, and yet to have no hold faft to depend upon, no foundation to fupport them· yet thus it is with every elevated carnal Profeifor that falls ~ort of Grace; he i~ like a Man that ftands upon the 01arp top of a Towering Pinacle, where he hath no other hold-fall but a handfu1of Air: But the !landing of a Child of God is firm, his feet are fixed upon arl. immovable Rock, even the Rock of Ages, and God reacheth out his hand from Heaven to fupport him. It is difJmted by fome nice Inquifi":" tors, whether a Man if he were li ft up above the Magnitude and attractive Virtue of the Earth, may not ftand as fafely and walk in the Air as hedoth now upon the Earth. lt is true of a Child of God, when he hath got beyond the reach of earthly Attratlions, he may walk fafcly in that fublimc way which leads to Heaven; but now for wicked Men , that have not got beyond the Malign ity of ·the Ear th; it is exceeding dangerous, their cJrthly Minds and AffeCtions, and their Earthly Converfations, will in the cud bear them down headlong, unlefs they climb frill higher, untill they have got beyond theft: terrcne A ttradions. Now would it not make you tr(JlJblc, to fee a Man born u.p in the Air, as the Poets fdgn of fcarUJ, with w.axen V/ings that are fubjeft to melt and fall off, and betray their char~e to cCrtain ruin and perdition? Thus it is with every one that has e:one far in Chnfi:ianity ; and is it not you that fly only with waxen Wings, I mean the Power of Nature, and the common Works of the Holy Ghoft, which may fall offand leave you in Eternal Rll.in. · And from bence it follows in the fourth place,that thcfc Mountainous Profeffors, who have attained to an high pitch , yet fa \I fhort ofGrace, becaufe they wo:~n~ firm footing to alfurc their ftandiog; they ufually either defperatel y tumble headlong into the Commiflion of fomc fou l grofs Sins, or elfe they grow brain.-fick, and ~turn a fide to the maintain ing of fome prodigious error. This is ufually the 1Jfue of fnch lof~y Profeffors, as we fee a Cloud that hath been fucked up by the S,uo, how "it hovers a whik: in the Air, but anon it is wrapp,d and whirl'd about with every Wind, ac.d fo it is utterly loft and diO!plted, or d_fc it falls down again to the E:trth in Storms1 and is turned only into mire aud cl!rt ; E\•cn fo fares it with many a Pro~ feJfO!·, he is c!rawn up out of the Earth, and above thc,Pol lutions of the World, by a common inftueucc of the Holy Spirit, and for a while he hangs aud hovers in a lofty Profeffioo, but having no firm Bafis to fu!l:ain J1im, he is either blown up by an emptY' Cloud, and driven away by every VVind of Do(hiuc, and loft amo~gft . vanous
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