which is profitable to all things, would seem to you the great gain; 1 Tim. iv. 8. vi. 6.

Object. But may not a man go to law to recover his own, or to right his own reputation, if he be slandered?'

Answ. Distinguish carefully in all your wrongs, between God's interest in them and your own. Your own you must forgive, but God's you cannot. If he have intrusted you with talents for his service, and any would fraudulently or violently deprive you of them, you must look after them as your Master's stock. If a wound in you name or state disable you from doing God service, you must use all lawful means to heal it, that you may be in a capacity of serving him again; and if your children, or others, have remotely a right in what you are defrauded of, you may look after their right. And you must not remit the crime, as oft as you remit the injury; for that God hath imposed penalty upon; and the rule is good, that the punishment of the notoriously vicious is a due to the commonwealth, because of the necessity of it to its good. In a word therefore, if you would do these things, you might yourselves resolve when it is lawful to go to law, or seek your right, and when not. 1. If you can well distinguish between God's interest and your own. 2. And be sure you forgive all your own injuries. 3. And that you watch your hearts narrowly, lest they pretend God's cause, and intend your own. 4. And be able by the consideration of circumstances, to discern in probability, whether God's interest will be more promoted by going to law, or passing it by.

But alas, how rare a course is this! Of all the suits that are before you at this assize, I fear there are few that are commenced unfeignedly for the interest of God. If the Lord himself should ask both plaintiff and defendant, Do you follow this suit for me, or for yourselves? What answer think you they must make, if they speak the truth? But of this anon.

Having thus given in my general charge against the carnal worldling, and some evidence of his guilt; I shall now give you the quality and aggravations of your crime in several articles, as followeth :

1. You are guilty of idolatry, which is high treason against the God of heaven. That which hath your highest estimation, and dearest affection, and chiefest service, is

your god. But this the world hath; therefore it is your god. That which hath the most of your hearts is your god. But it is the world that hath most of your hearts. You know that the main drift of your life is for the world. And that which hath the main bent of your life, hath your heart. If reason be no evidence, you cannot refuse Scripture: "Mortify therefore your members upon earth," (Col. iii. 5.) ; and one is, "Covetousness, which is idolatry. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetousness man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God;" Eph. v. 5. The case is plain in Scripture and in the effects. The world hath that love that God should have, that care, and trust, and service which belongs to God; and therefore it is your god. I do therefore here on the behalf of God, indite every worldly, carnal sinner of you at the bar of your own conscience, as a traitor against the Lord that made you, and against the Son of God that did redeem you! And what greater sin can man be guilty of? (besides the blaspheming of the Holy Ghost.) He that would have another god, would have the Lord to be ungodded, and to lose his sovereign power and goodness! And is such a man fit to live in his sight? Why wretched traitor! if he be not thy God, thou canst not expect to live by him, or be sustained, preserved, and provided for by him. Thou canst not live an hour without him! and yet wilt thou cast him off? Wouldst thou pluck up thy own foundation? and cut off the bough on which thou standest? Would thou fire the house thou dwellest in? and sink the ship that keepeth thyself and all that thou hast from sinking! Relations are mutual. If he shall be no God to thee, be it known to thee, thou shalt be none of his people! If he shall be no Father to thee, thou shalt be none of his child. And, wretched soul, what wilt thou do without him? It is he that keeps thy soul in, thy body while thou art serving his enemy. Thou wouldst be in hell within this hour if his mercy did not keep thee out. And is this thy requital of him? He hath but one trinity of enemies, the flesh, the world, and the devil; and wilt thou turn to these, and forsake him by whom thou livest? Why, I tell thee, the Lord must be thy God, or thou must have no God indeed. The world is like the heathen's idols; that hath eyes, but cannot see thy wants; ears, but cannot hear thy

cries; hands, but cannot help thee in thy distress. All thy riches, dignities, and pleasures are silly things to make a god of. They may have the room of God in thy heart; and in that sense be thy god; but indeed they are no more God than a mawkin is a man; nor more able to help and save thee. Wouldst thou then have a God or no God? If thou wouldst have no God, thou wouldst have no helper, no governor, no preserver, nor no happiness. And dost thou think that thou art sufficient for thyself? What! canst thou live a day without God? Canst thou save thyself from danger without him? Canst thou relieve or shift for thyself at death without him? Darest thou tell him so to his face, and stand to it? But if thou wouldst have a god, what god wouldst thou have? Wouldst not thou have a god that can preserve, and help, and save thee? The world cannot do it, man! I shall tell thee more of this anon, that the world cannot do it. If thou trust to it, it will deceive thee. But if thou say then, The Lord shall be thy God," away then with all thy idols. God will have no partner, much less a superior, that is exalted above himself in thy soul. As Joshua said to the Israelites, so I say to you, "Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the world (which hath been your god), and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord;" Josh. xxiv. 14. And if you say as they, "God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods," I answer you as he, "Away then with the world, and all other idols" or else, "ye cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy and a jealous God, and will not forgive such transgressions and sins; but if ye will forsake the Lord and serve the world, he will turn against you and consume you;" ver. 19, 20. God will not stoop to be an underling in your hearts. He should have all, and will at last have all or none. But in the mean time he will have the best or none. I do witness here to every soul of you in his name, that if he have not the sovereignty, and be not nearer and dearer to your hearts than all the honours, and riches, and pleasures of the world, he is not, he will not be, he cannot be your God. And if he be not thy God, thou wilt be godless, as thou art ungodly;

thou wilt be without his help, as he was without thy heart.

Well, this is the first article of my charge against every one of you that hath not crucified the world, you are idolators and traitors against the God of heaven. And he that would have no God, deserves to be no man, and worse; and shall either by repentance wish with groans that he had never been a worldling and a neglecter of God, or else in hell with groans shall wish that he had never been a man. As the first commandment is the fundamental law, and informeth all the obligations of the particular precepts following; so idolatry which is against that commandment, is the fundamental crime, and is the life of all the rest. that would overthrow the godhead, would overthrow all the world.

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2. The next article of my charge is this: You are guilty of most perfidious covenant-breaking with God. Did you not in your baptism, solemnly by your parents, renounce the world, the flesh, and the devil, and promise to fight against them to the end of your life under the banner of Christ? And have you performed that vow? No; you have turned treacherously to the enemy that you renounced, and fought for the world and the flesh, against the word and the Spirit of Christ. And if you renounce your baptismal covenant, you renounce in effect the benefits of that covenant. And if God deal with you as perfidious covenantbreakers, thank yourselves.

3. Moreover, you are guilty of debasing your human nature, and so of wronging God that made it, and is the Owner of it. God made you not as brutes, that are capable of no higher things than to eat, and drink, and play, and die, and there is an end of them. But he made you capable of an everlasting life of glory with himself. And as he suiteth all his works to their uses and ends, so did he suit the nature of man to his immortal state. As we were made by God, we were fitted and disposed to everlasting things. And you have turned your hearts to the vanities of the world, and set your mind on them as your happiness, as if you had no greater things to mind. Objects do either ennoble or debase the faculties according as they are. That is the vilest creature which is made for the vilest uses and ends,

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employs himself in such. And that is the most excellent creature which is exercised about the most excellent object. God made you for no less than his everlasting praises, before his face, among his angels; and you have so far debased your own nature, as to root like swine, in earth and dung, and to live like brutes that have not an immortal state to mind. How will you answer this dishonour done to the workmanship of God? that you should blot out his image, and employ your souls against his laws, and live as moles and worms in the earth. He put you on earth but as travellers towards heaven; and you have taken up your home in the way, and forgotten your end and restingplace.

4. The next part of your guilt is, that you have perverted the use of all the creatures, and turned the works and mercies of God against himself. He gave them all to you, to lead you to himself, and to furnish you for his service. He made this world to be a glass in which you might see the Maker, and a book in which you might read his name and will. And will you overlook him, and forget the end and use of all? What shame and pity is it that men should live in the world, and not know the use of it! That they should see such a beauteous frame, and not understand its principal signification! That they should daily converse with so many creatures, which all proclaim the name of God, and with one accord declare his praise, and yet that this language should be so little understood! Like an illiterate man in a library, that seeth many thousand books, and knows not a word that is in any of them. Or like an ignorant man in an apothecary's shop, that seeth the drugs, but knoweth not what they are good for, nor how to use any of them, if he had the greatest need. The poorest courage, and smallest pittance of these earthly things might be a greater blessing to you, if you could understand their use and meaning, than all the world be to him that understands it not. Your possessions in themselves, if you have not God in them, are but the very corpse or carcase of a blessing! The life of them is wanting! And without the life they will but trouble you. For you have the burden without the use. Your horse will carry you, while he hath life and health; but take away his life once, and you must carry him if you will have him any further. Verily, it is no wiser