516 VE R S E 7. .."-, The Su enngs We fhould learneoften to meditate on this point, to finde our felves reduced unto thefe (traits and impoffibi- fides, that we cannot fee which way to turne,or tohelpe, our Rives, for that iNhe onely way to draw us unto Chrifl.Every man naturally loves tobc in the Ell place beholding to hirofelfe ; in any extremity, if his owne wits, pude, proje&S, or encievours will ficipe himour, hee lookes no further; but when all his owne fuccours have forlakenhim, then hee feekes abroad.' It is much more true in the matter of falvation ; no man ever did begin at Chrifl, but went unto him upon meere necefli- tie, when he had experience oldie emptinefieof all hiS other fuccours and dependencies, we all by nature are offended at him,and will not have him to ieigne over us, till thereunto we be forcedby the evidence ofthat infi- nite and nor eventablemilery, under which without, him we mull fluke for ever. This is of all other the molt urging argument unto men at firfl to confider,that there is a torrent of curies, a tea ofdeath,a raigne ofcondem- nation, a hell of finne within, and'a hell of torments without betweene them and theirfalvation ; and there is nodropof that lea, no fcrnple of that curie, no title of that Law, which Irma not all be either fulfilled or enduied. Suppofe that God{Mould fummon thy guilty conk to a fudden apparance before his tribunall ofJu_ 'lice; and fbould- there begin to dealewith theeeven at thy mothers wombe : Alas, thou vvouldefl be utterly gone there; even there a feed ofevill doers, the fpawne of viperous and ferpentine parents, a curfed childe, a childe of wrath, an exaa image ofthe old Adam, and of the blond of Satan. But then here isafter this pro. ducal a catalogue, and hiflory of finnes of forty, fif- rie, orthrecfcore yeeres long. And in them every inor- dinatemotionofthe will, every fudden flirting, and k- eret working of inward fail, every idle word,everyun- deant afpeti, every impertinencic and irregularity of life, -1/1:110i=1.115MtaGgai
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