38 Of TEMPTATION, &c. t. If you neglect it, it being the only means prefcribed by our Saviour, youwill certainly enter into temptation, and as certainly fall into fin : flatter not your felves ; fomeof you are old difciples, have a great abhorrencyof fin.; you think it impoflible youIhould ever be feduced fo, and fo : but, Let him (who ever he be) that ftanderh rakeHeed left befalle it is not any grace received, it is not any experience obtained, it is not any refolution improved, that will preferve you from any evil, uniefs you. 'land uponyour watch : What I fay toyou, fays Chrift, ¡fay to all:, Watch. Perhaps you may have had fome good fuccefs for a time, in your catelefs frame : but awake, admire God's tendernefs and patience, or evil lies at the door. If you will not perform this duty, whoever youare, oneway orother, in one thing or other, fpiritual or carnal wickednefs, you will be tempted, youwill be defiled, and what will be the end there- of? Remember Peter. 2. Confider that you are always under the eyeof Chrift, the great captain of our fal- vatimr, who bathenjoyned usto watch thus, and pray that we enter not intotemptation. What thinkyou arethe thoughts, and what the heart of Chrift, when he fees a tempta- tionhafiening towards us,a form rifing about us,andweare faftalleep? Doth itnot grieve him, to fee us expofe our felves to to danger, after he bath given us warning upon warning? Whileft hewas in the days of his fiefh, he confidered his temptationwhileft it was yet coming, andarmed himfelfagainft it : The prince of this world comerh, fayshe, but hash noparr inme. And Ihall we be negligent under his eye ? Do but think thatthou feefl him comingto thee, as he did to Peter, when hewas afleep inthe Garden, with the fame reproof What! canft thounot watch one hour.? Would it not be a grief to thee to be fo reproved, or to hear him thundringagainft thy negle£t from heaven, as againfi thechurch ofSardir, Revel. iii. a ? 3. Confider that if thou negleft this duty, and fo fall into temptation, .which af- furedly thou wilt do, that when thou art intangled, God may withal bring tome heavy afffi£tion orjudgment upon thee, which by reafon ofthy intanglement, thou lhaltnotbe able to look on any othecsvife, than as an evidenceof his anger and hatred : and then what wilt thou dowith thy temptation and aflli£tion together ? All thy bones will be broken, and thypeace and firergth will be gone ina moment. This may teem but as a noife of words for the prefent, but if ever at be thy condition, thou wilt find it tobe full of woe and bitternefs: Oh! then let us, ¡hive tokeep our fpirits unintangled, avoid- ing all appearanceofevil, and all ways leading thereunto: efpee:allyall ways, bufinelfes, focieties, and imployments, that we havealready found diffaadvantageous to us. OF
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