r 150 Mans per dirion is of blinf Lr-NeN) Re.zr. 7. Why men ruin them- reins. ,ear. 8. Why men. rukn thcm- (dyes. The Sincere Convert. word fig,nifies ) even when deftruaion was near, they groped for the door. Men cannot but fin,though theyperifh for fin hence they remain fecure. Seventhly, defpair of Gods mercy ; hence, like Cain , men are Runnagates from the face ofGod ; men think they'fball never find mer- cy when all is doue ; hence they grow defpa- rately finfull ; like thofe Italian Senators ,t hat defpairingof their lives, when upon fubmiffi- oh they had been promifed their lives, yet be- ing confcious of their villany made a curious banquet, and at the end ofit every man drank up his glafs of poyfon, and killed himfelf : fo men feeling fuch horrible hard hearts and being privy to fuch notorious fins, they caft a- way lives, and Heaven, and foul for loft, and fo perifh wofully,becaufe they live defparate- ly, and fo fecurely. Eighthly, becaufe men nourifh a blind, falle flattering hope of Gods mercy : hence many knowing and fufpetling that all is naught with them, yet having come hope they may be in a goodefrate,&qod may love them;hence they lie down fecurely;and reft in their flattering hope. Hence obferve, thofe people that feldom come to a Conclufion, to a point, that either they are in theRate of grace, or out of it, that ne- ver come to be affeded, but remain fecure in their condition, they commonly grow to this defparateconclufion ; That they hope Godwill be mercifal unto them; if not, they cannot help it: like theman that had on hisTarget the piéture ofGod and the Devil; under the firft he
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