close and fecret Averfion to all Religion. There will not be wanting Hobbifts and Herodians, Machivillians, Craftsmen, and innumerable others, who will aflault thy Religion confifting in Zeal and Charity; fome as Folly, others as a Scandal and Offence; fome as Enemy to Cæfar, and others as Enemy to Trade. For an humble, modeft, and a frugal Religion, will not fail of being Traduced, as menacing the Trade as much as the Sin of a Nation, and as impairing the Revenues, while it prunes the Luxury of a State. Reformation, though it difturb a vicious World, as the Angel did Bethesda's Water, only to work Cures, yet fhall it never escape the Rallery and Reflections, the fmail and great Shot of the Loose and Immoral; and whatever Measure it take, whether it revive old Conftitutions, or recommend new, fhall ever be branded as Defign and Hypocrifie, by all fuch as thrive and grow fat by Tranfgreffing the Laws of God and Man. Nay more yet, there will not be wanting advocates of Vice, or Enemies to Vertue, in thy own Train and Family who will dehort thee from all expenfive and hazardous Sacrifices, and indeavour to divert thee, as St. Peter would

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would have done our Saviour, from the Paths which lead to Tryals or Sufferings, to Gethsemane or Golgotha. Finally to compleat the Politicks of Hell, thou flalt find the World divided into Factions, Religious and Civil, who will stamp Vice on the most glorious Actions, and Honour and Vertue on Extravagancies and Debaucheries, who will perfecute the Truth of God as Herefie and Novelty, and stickle for the Tenets, i. e. the Interests of their Parties, as for the Fundamentals of Faith, or Precepts of the Decalogue. And after all, God himself fometimes will withdraw, and feem to abandon and give thee up to the Will of wicked Men, fo that thou fhalt be ready to cry out with his belo ved Son, My God, My God, why hast thou forfaken me? Here is the Tryal, here is the Patience of the Saints. These and many more are the Difficulties thou art to conquer, if thou wilt fo run as to obtain; and therefore prepare thy felf by Mortification and Difcipline, and fortifie thy Soul by the wifeft Advice, and the most powerful Incouragements, for thou fhalt have need of all.

This minds me of my Second General Direction, for the Discharge of this Duty,

Duty, confifting of Three Rules. I begin with the firft, that is, to lay afide every weight, every corrupt Affection, which like a weight would clog and retard us in our Race.

This Advice contains feveral important Truths, as Firft, That whatever the Disorder or Depravation of Nature be, which we derive from our first Parents, our Destruction is from our selves; and those Reluctancies and Averfions for Righteousness, to which we owe our Ruine, are rather contracted, than Original. 'Tis true, there is a Law in the Body which wars against the Law of the Mind; but then it is as true, that there is a Law in the Mind, which wars against the Law of the Body. The Language of the Body is indeed more foft and infinuating, but that of the Mind more authoritative and awfull. The Body, like Efau, is the First-born; for as Job obferves, Man is born like a wild-Affes Colt; but the Mind, like Jacob, comes into the World with a better Title by Divine defignation, and a Capacity which foon defeats it of its ufurped Poffeffion of the Birth-right. The Objects finally of the Body are present and fenfible; yet to the Soul, the Glory

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and Eternity of its Objects make amends for their distance and futurity, and Faith Supplies the place of Vifion; for Faith is the Subftance of things hoped for, the Evidence of things not feen, Hebr. II. I. So that 'tis evident, the Scale of Victory is not turned on the fide of the Body against the Mind, till false Principles have fupplanted the Authority of the one, and Indulgence and ill Cuftoms increased and fortified the Propenfions of the other to worldly and fenfible things. I have remarkt this, that none of us may go about to remove the Guilt of our Ruin from our selves on our firft Parents, or God, that none may think we have sufficiently discharged our Duty by accufing our Nature, or excused our Vices by Arraigning our Frailty. This calls to mind a

Second Truth contained in this Rule, namely, That no Sin is invincible, that none is so deeply rooted in us, either by Nature or Custom, but it may be extirpated. This is an Affertion you will cafily admit, if you confider by what glorious Inftruments the Conversion of Man is wrought, the Spirit of God, and the Word of God, i. e. the Wisdom and the Power of God. Or if you confider the Description of it in Holy Scripture, it

is called the Divine Nature, the New Creature, the Image of God, the Life of Faith, a being transformed from Glory to Glory, the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God, and fuch like. What degrees of Perfection all this may import, I enquire not; 'tis plain it can imply nothing less than a Purification from all Fithiness of Flesh and Spirit, and a thorough Sanctification of Spirit, Soul and Body. Nor is this a matter of meer Speculation; the Converts of the first Times were living Demonstrations of this Truth; and their daily Actions were nothing else but the glorious Effects of an intire Victory, not over the Weakest only, but most Obstinate of their Sins. All this inculcates this one plain Leffon, That no Man must think to shelter his Negligence and Lukewarmness, or any Darling Luft, under the pretence of an infuperable Infirmity; or that by owning himself to be but Man, he is excused from being a Christi an. The truth is, if Christianity did confist in a Quarrel, only with our Sins, not a Conqueft of them, it would be nothing else but a Circulation of Sins and Follies; for Regret and Remorse, I which doth only disturb, not reform, may be reckoned amongst the Infirmities

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