in the heart drive the swine of this world into the fea of perdition; nay, turn the foul itself into a very fea, that cannot reft: Ifa. Ivii. 20. "The wicked are like the troubled fea, when it cannot reft, whose waters caft up mire and dirt.' They lahour like madmen for fatisfaction to them, and no calm, no reft, till the foul come to Christ.

1. They labour hard in the lufts of profit: 1 John, ii. 16. "For all that is in the world, the luft of the flesh, the luft of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." The profits of the world are the cifterns they fqueeze for fatisfaction; they bewitch the hearts of them that have them, and of them that want them; they fly after them with that pains and labour the ravenous bird doth after its prey : Prov. xxiii. 5. "Wilt thou fet thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches take to themselves wings, they fly away, as an eagle towards heaven." The ftrength of men's defires, and the cream of their affections, are spent on them; their happinefs depends upon its fmiles, their mifery upon its frowns; if gone, their god is gone. Hence is that verified, Hab. ii. 13. "They labour in the very fire, and weary themselves for very vanity," like a poor fool running to catch a fhadow. They have hard labour in lawful profits, how to get them, and how to keep them, but hardest of all, how to squeeze fatisfaction out of them; there they labour in the very fire; they labour alfo in unlawful profits. The foul is an empty thing; lufts are ill to guide; confcience muft make a stretch now and then, for the fatisfaction of lufts; and the man will leap over the hedge, though the ferpent will bite him: 1 Tim. vi. 9. 10. "But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a fnare, and into many foolish and hurtful lufts, which drown

men

men in deftruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil." Hence the carnal man, I may fay, never gets up his back, but on his belly doth he go, and labours, as if he were a flave condemned to the mines, to dig in the bowels of the earth; like the blind moles, his conftant labour is in the earth, and he never opens his eyes till he is dying. He has his lade of thick clay upon his back, Hab. ii. 6. as the fruit of his labouring in the fire. There is thus a labouring and heavy-laden party. Others take the world in their hand as a staff, nay, tread on it as the dirt, and they get it as a burden on their back, while guilt, many times contracted in the getting of it, whether by oppreffion, cheatery, or neglecting of the foul for it, is like a fore back under the load, that makes them ready in defpair to throw it away, but they know not how to subsist without it.

2. They labour in lufts of pleasure; they go about as the bee, extracting the fweet out of the creatures for their own fatisfaction; this and the former ufually go together. Profits and pleasures are the world's two great baits, at which all natural men are conftantly leaping, till they are caught by the hook, and flung out into the fire of wrath Prov. ix. 17. 18. Stolen waters are fweet, and bread eaten in fecret is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell." Pleasure is a neceffary ingredient in happiness, and man cannot but feek it; hence God propofeth it to men in himself, who is the fountain of all sweetness : Pfal. xvi. 11. “Thou wilt fhew me the path of life, in thy prefence there is fuinefs of joy, at thy right-hand there are pleasures for evermore." But blind man makes the creature-fweetness his idol, and puts it in the room of God; for "they

are

are lovers of pleasures, (in this sense), more than lovers of God," 2 Tim. iii. 4: It is no fault to feek our profit; for, Heb. xi. 26. "We are to have respect unto the récompence of the reward." Nor to feek what may be fweet to the foul; for we may with our fouls to be "fatisfied with marrow and fatnefs," Pfal. Ixiii. 5. But the natural man'smifery and fin both is, he forfakes God, and faftens on the breasts of the creatures for these things.

Now, there are two breafts' of the creatures at which men may be fucking.

(1.) The breast of lawful comforts. Natural men fall on these, instead of the breasts of God's confolations, and labour, though in vain, to fqueeze happiness and fatisfaction out of them, and that with the greatest eagerness. They are lawful in themselves, but they often prefs fo hard, that they draw out blood inftead of milk from them; and are like men working at a flinty rock, to bring out water, instead of which they get fire flashing in their face, as in that cafe, Judges, ix. 15. when "fire came out of the bramble to devour the cedars of Lebanon."-There is,

(2.) The breast of unlawful comforts, Prov. ix. 17. "Stolen waters are fweet." Many feek their fatisfaction in thofe things which they ought not so much as to defire, and fill themselves with what God forbids them fo much as to taste. O! the mifery of Chriftlefs finners, to whom both lawful and unlawful comforts are effectual fares for ruin. Like mad beafts, if they abide within the hedge, they tear up all to the red earth, which doth not yet fatisfy. But they moft ufually break over all hedges; and they do so, because the creature never fully anfwer the craving defires and hungry appetite, and yet, after all, they will not come to Chrift, that they may have rest.

can`

Thofe

Thefe breafts of the creatures have many springs, divers lufts and pleasures, Titus, iii. 3. and these are served; men must labour in them as a fervant at his master's work. I fhall reduce them to thefe two heads, mentioned Eph. ii. 3. the defires of the flesh and of the mind.

t, They labour for fatisfaction and happiness in the pleasures of the flefh. And,-1. In fenfuality. This was the door man first went to, after he had left God. And fince the world was turned up fide down by that means, the foul has lain downmoft, and the flesh uppermoft, so that they are all fenfual, as Jude fays, ver. 19. that have not the Spirit; and the foul is made drudge of the body. The belly is a god, and the pleasures of the flesh are fqueezed, for fatisfaction; all the fenfes are fet a-working for it, and yet can never do enough: Ecclef. vi. 7. "All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled." Many arts and trades are found out to bring this to perfection, though all in vain, and there is no end of these things, which are of no ufe but to please the flesh, which, like the grave, never fays it has enough.-2. Ease, floth, and quiet, which is a negative kind of fenfuality: Luke, xii. 19. "The rich man faid, Thou haft goods laid up for many years, foul, take thine eafe." All to please the flefh. This cofts hard labour many times to the foul, many a throw confcience gets for the fake of this idol, what by neglect of duties, what by going over the belly of light to fhun what is grieving to the flesh, as if men's happinefs confifted in the quiet enjoyment of themselves.-They labour for fatisfaction,

2dly, In the defires of the mind, and pleasures thereof. Thefe, if they terminated on right objects, and were fought in a right manner, itwould be well, for our true happiness confifts in the fouls enjoyment

of

of God; but in the natural man all is in confusion. And, I. There is much labour in feeking happinefs in the pleasures of the judgement. This is the fnare of thinking graceless men; this was among the first doors men went to when they turned from God: Gen. iii. 5. " Ye fhall be as gods, knowing good and evil." And there is hard labour without a figure, for the punishment of that: Ecclef. i. "And I 13. hea to feek and gave my search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven; this fore travail God hath given to the fons of men to be exercifed therewith". And what comes it to at length? to no reft; for, ver. 18. " In much wifdom there is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth forrow." Here is fulfilled, Ecclef. x. 15. The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city." Whereas, would they go to Chrift, they would be in a fair way to get what they are feeking; for, John xvii. 3. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the true God, and Jefus Chrift, whom thou haft fent." whom are hid, all the knowledge," Col ii. 3. pleasures of the fancy. of the eye ? all the abundance of the riches for which men labour fo much? Ecclef. v. II. "When goods increase, they are increased that eat them; and what good is there to the owner thereof, faving the beholding of them with their eyes? all they can think or fay is, These are mine.” What is honour, credit, and the like, but a tickling of our fancy, with the fancies of others about us, adding nothing to real worth? And how bufy is the foul oftentimes in that, Eccles. yi. 9. "Better is the fight of the eyes, than the wandering of the

"In treasures of wifdom and There is labour,-2. In What else are all the lufts

defire,