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pent, and Eve, and himself, all joined; first to make him a fool, and to deceive him, and then to make him miferable. But he first cozened himfelf, giving up bimfelf to believe a lie; and being defirous to listen to the whispers of a tempting fpirit, he finned before he fell; that is, he had within him a falfe understanding, and a depraved will; and these were the parents of his disobedience, and this was the parent of his infelicity, and a great occafion of ours. And then it was, that he entered, for himself and his pofterity, into the condition of an ignorant, credúlous, eafy, wilful, paffionate, and impotent perfon; apt to be abused, and fo loving to have it fo, that if no body else will abuse him, he will be sure to abuse himfelf; by ignorance and evil principles being open to an enemy, and by wilfulness and fenfuality doing to himself the most unpardonable injuries in the world. So that the condition of man, in the rudeneffes and first lines of its visage, feems very miferable and deformed.

For man is helpless and vain; of a condition fo expofed to calamity, that a morfel

fel of bread is able to kill him; any trooper out of the Egyptian army, a fly can do it, when it goes on God's errand; the moft contemptible accident can destroy him, the smallest chance affright him, every future contingency, when but confidered as poffible, can amaze him; and he is incompaffed with powerful and malicious enemies, fubtle and implacable: What fhall this helpless man do? fhall he trust in God? Him he hath offended, and he fears him as an enemy; and God knows, if we look only on ourselves, and on our own demerits, we have too much reafon fo to do.

Shall he rely upon princes? alas, kings themselves rely upon their fubjects; they fight with their fwords, levy forces with their money, confult with their counfels, hear with their ears, and are strong only in their union; and, many times, they use all these things against them: but, however, they can do nothing without them while they live; and yet, if ever they can die, they are not to be trufted to. Now kings and princes die fo evidently and notoriously, that it was used for a prover in holy

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holy fcripture, Ye fhall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.

Who then shall we truft in? In our friend? Alas, he may help us in one thing, and need us in ten. He may pull us out of the ditch, and his foot may flip, and he fall into it himself. He gives us counsel in temporal things, and himself is to feek in fpiritual. He counfels us to abftain from a duel, and himfelf destroyeth his own foul. Like a perfon void of understanding, he is willing enough to preferve our intereft, and is very careless of his own; for he doth highly disdain to betray or be falfe to us, and, in the mean time, is not his own friend, and is falfe to God. And then, his friendship may be useful to us in fome circumftances of fortune, but no fecurity to our condition. He may lay us by, juftly or unjustly. He may grow weary of doing benefits; or his fortunes may change. Our need may be longer than his kindneffes, or fuch wherein he can give us no affiftance. And indeed, generally it is fo, in all the instances of men. We seek life of a physician that dies; and go to him for health, who can

not cure his own diftemper. And fo we become vain in our imaginations, abused in our hopes, reftlefs in our paflions, impatient in our calamity, unfupported in our need, expofed to enemies, wandering and wild, without counsel, and without remedy.

At laft, after the infatuating and deceiving all our confidences without, we have nothing left us but to return home, and dwell within ourselves. For we have a fufficient ftock of felf-love, which will make us confident of our own affections, and perfuade us that we may truft ourfelves most surely. For what we want in skill, we shall make up in diligence; and our industry shall fupply the want of other circumftances. And no man understands our own cafe fo well as we do ourselves; and no man will judge fo faithfully as we shall do for ourselves; for we are most concerned not to abuse ourselves; and if we do, we fhall be the lofers, and therefore may best rely upon ourselves. Alas! and God help us! we fhall find it to be no fuch matter. For we neither love ourfelves well, nor understand our own cafe.

We are partial in our own questions, deceived in our sentences, careless of our interests, and the most false, perfidious creatures to ourselves in the whole world. Even the heart of a man, a man's own heart, is deceitful above all things, and defperately wicked: who can know it? :

And there is no greater argument of the deceitfulness of our heart than this, that no man can know it all. It cheats us in the very number of its deceits. But yet we can reduce it all to two heads. We fay concerning a falfe man, Truft him not, for he will deceive you; and we say concerning a weak and broken staff, Lean not upon it, for that will alfo deceive you. The man deceives because he is falfe, and the ftaff because it is weak; and the heart, because it › is both. So that it is deceitful above all things; that is, failing and difabled to fupport us in many things; but in other things where it can, it is falfe and desperately wicked. The first fort of deceitfulness is its calamity; and the fecond is its iniquity, and that is the worfe calamity of the two.

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