MEDITATION LVI.

Of the great danger to be infenfible of our danger.

THE

HE knowledge of the difeafe is counted fome hopeful progrefs to the cure. And to fee the dreadful precipice, and the burning fire juft before us; (if we be not more brutish, even than the beafts themfelves,) it will ftartle and ftop us, from throwing ourfelves upon a certain deftruction. Where apparent dangers do threaten mens bodies or eftates; they usually give the alarm, to awaken their care, and engage all their endeavours, for prevention. But O how few have eyes opened, and hearts foftened, to regard the greatest of all perils that put the foul in hazard of everlafting ruin? here, alas, they that are in the most imminent danger, ufe to fhew the leaft concern. "Babylon faid in her heart, I "fit a queen, and am no widow, and fhall fee "no forrow: when her plagues were coming in

one day; death, and mourning and famine; and "fhe was to be utterly burnt with fire," Rev. xviii. 7, 8. "And when the wicked do fpring as the "grafs; it is, that they fhall be deftroyed for "ever," Pfal. xcii. 7. "When they fhall fay, Peace "and fafety; then fudden deftruction comes upon "them, as travail upon a woman with child; and

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they fhall not efcape," 1 Theff. v. 3. The finners felf-flattery, and dozing fecurity, O what does it, but drill them on upon the fad furprife, and fearful end? they are piling up about themfelves, and daubing with untempered mortar, that wall which

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will tumble down upon them and crush them to pieces they will perish, by the very wickedness wherein they do ftrengthen themselves; and even the worldly fuccours, on which they lean for their defence. When they fettle upon their lees; and can find nothing to do for their fouls, but ftand idle, as if they were quite out of business, even before they have ftruck a ftroke: their floth thus rufts, and even eats them up; and when they make lies their refuge, and have no truft but that God's Word fhall not prove true, and that they fhall have peace, though they walk in the imaginations of their hearts: how does their confidence then betray them, till they are forced to feel what they would not be perfuaded to fear? they deride the care of godly men, and fcorn them as a company of cowardly fools, fo to flee from the wrath to come, and work out their falvation with fear and trembling. What does any timorous Noah keep fuch ado, and trouble himself and the world, in building an ark, and preaching righteousness, when they fee no deluge coming, nor any danger abroad? or come what will," their wealth is their strong city," Prov. xviii. 11. "And having much goods "laid up for many years; they cheer up their fouls, to take their eafe, eat, drink and be merry,' Luke xii. 19. They hate to difturb their jollities, with frights of after-claps. They know what they do now enjoy, but they know not what fhall be hereafter, and they will venture it. All the terrors of the Lord fhall not perfuade them, to provide for it no, they have fomewhat else to do, and religion looks like a poor fneak, that comes a-begging to them in their profperity, and to interrupt their felicity; away with it, they have no work for it. It is another main chance, that they have to look after, even to fecure their worldly effects, and to make provifion ftill for the ease of their dear flefh. When

they

they are full, "they deny God; and afk, Who is “the Lord?" Prov. xxx. 9. As if they were never beholden to him, nor afraid of him. And so, running from the rock of their refuge; and thinking to fupport themselves on broken reeds, and to find fhelter in brier bushes; no wonder they are catched, and expofed naked to all the diftrefs and anguifh, that comes like defolation, and a whirlwind, upon them. But being at eafe, and lulled afleep on the world's lap, they will not ftir till judg ment come and overtake them: though wrath is gone out from the Lord against them; and they are told, how by their hardness and impenitent hearts, they treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath; yet all this is to them a contemptible scarecrow, and they will take no warning till the vengeance comes and enters their doors, and feizes their fouls, and has them away to the place of execution.

O my foul, hear and fear: for these are the men (how high and frolic foever at prefent) that the Lord threatens to come and "fearch for with can. "dles, and punish them that are fo fettled on their "lees, that fay in their hearts, The Lord will not "do good or evil; (like a mere idol, that we need not be afraid of;) and to bring upon them that great day, which fhall make them cry bitterly,' Zeph. i. 12, 14, 15. And O how like is it to come as a fnare upon them; that now put it far from them: for he that hardeneth his heart, fhall fall "into mischief," Prov. xxviii. 14. "Wo to hin, "how well foever all now feems to be with him," Amos vi. 1. Wo to them that are at ease in Zion.

How high foever they are puffed up: it is but by him that is pulling them into his condemnation; they are (as it were) imbofomed in the devil's and fo there must be a fearful wakening time. And O how will they be confumed with terrors,

arms;

..

terrors, when the execution of judgment fhall open thofe eyes, which the denunciation could not? and when the wanton beafts, feeding in the pafture, fhall be fetched out for flaughter? though the old man is quiet, as long as he has his will; and when a ftrong man armed keeps his palace, his goods "are in peace," Luke xi. 21. Yet let all look never fo fure with them now, as if they had covenanted with death, and made an agreement with hell: alas, how foon will they find the league to be quite at an end, and all the affurance fhattered to pieces?

My foul, tremble for them, and dread to be like them, and to have thy part with them. O what a killing confideration is it to fee fo many poor senselefs creatures every where, ready to perish, and yet fo blind and dull, and dead, and not at all to regard it! how fhall I find a hearing with such as despise the warning? and who can pluck them out of the open jaws of ruin; when, inftead of fhunning, they are for tempting and daring the danger? O weep over them, and pray for them, to him that is able to bring them to themselves, and to himself: that the Lord may awaken them, and the Spirit of God convince them, and give them such a fight of their fin and danger before their eyes, that they may hafte out of both, and escape for the life of their fouls.

And though fear is faid to have torment; yet here, my foul, fee the reafon of the wife man's aphorifm, "happy is the man that feareth always,' Prov. xxviii. 14. Becaufe that fear is the scout and centinel of the foul, fo to discover the dangers which fhew their hideous faces, as to get far enough out of their reach, and to raise fufficient batteries and forces against their approach: and do thou fo fear the worst, that thou mayeft provide for the beft. So fear him, who has power to kill and caft thee

into hell; that thou mayeft not be flavishly afraid of enduring the hell, when thou art fo tenderly afraid of offending the Lord.

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THE PRAYER.

How light I made of the fins, that coft fo dear as the blood of Jefus Chrift, the Son "of God, to expiate and atone for them! it is "not the least mischief they have done me, to "make me fo infenfible of the mischief, thus

brought upon me. For the easier I can put them "off, fo much heavier is the charge of my guilt; "and the bigger that danger, which threatens my "foul. O Father of mercies! roufe my ftupid "foul, into a ferious remembrance of my ways, "and that affecting fenfe of my fins, which may bring me fo to fee and feel them now; that I may not lie under the weight and condemnation "of them for ever, but through a deep and effec"tual humiliation, may be brought into the pof"feffion of thy great and everlasting falvation. "Amen."

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A

MEDITATION LVII.

Of jefling at wickedness.

MONG the world's vanities, I fhould have numbred the playhouse entertainments. For furely, my foul, the frequenters of the stage do but laugh at the Pfalmift's precife care, not to fit with