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1. HAVE a very great care, that you relapse not into any known and wilful Sins, of which 'tis prefum'd you have repented; and efpecially beware of fuch as you have been moft apt and inclined to commit. People are fubject to different Vices; either by means of their dif ferent Conftitutions, or by means of their different Ages, or by means of their dif ferent Opinions, and fometimes too, by means of their different Callings. For tho thofe Callings may be Innocent in them. felves, nay commendable in refpect of their ufe for the publick Good; yet by means of Mens' own corrupt Difpofitions, they are accidentally apt to betray them to various forts of Wickedness; fome to Luxury, fome to Wantonnels, fome to Pride, and most to Frauds and Injustice; a bitter root of Covetoufnefs fpreading generally through all Secular Vocations, though it always hurts the Soil, and many times is the Bane of the Proprietor, however it be thought a thrifty Vice. Here then, every one must carefully observe which are his own niquities, the Sins that do fo easily befet him; and accordingly muft ftand upon the strictest Watch, to guard himself from all dangers of relapfing, efpecially from fuch dangers as he is moft ready to fall into upon

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upon any occafion. For as the Devil is always most busie about Men when they have been doing their Souls good, to lay his old Snares in their way, and, if they fail, to minifter to them fresh and new Temptations; fo is their yielding to those Temptations, of very mischievous and deadly confequence.

I. IT is an Act of the highest Perfideoufnefs, to be falfe to thofe Sacred Ob ligations which we have now taken upon us after the most Solemn manner, in the prefence of God and his Holy Angels, and over that broken Body of Chrift which was given in Sacrifice as well to expiate as to deftroy the works of the Devil. Therefore (faith the Preacher) When thou vowest a Vow unto God, defer not to pay it, for he hath no pleasure in Fools; pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou fhouldeft not vow, than that thou fhouldeft vow, and not pay. Ecclef. 5.4, 5.1

2. IT is an Act of inexcufable Hardinefs and Prefumption, to return to those Impieties which have already coft us fo dear. Who but a true Penitent can be fenfible what the Terrours of God are, when he awakens a fleepy Confcience? What that Shame is, which tinctures the Forehead at the fecret remembrance of ones Guilt? What those Dolours are

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which corrode the Heart, like Vipers which gnaw the Womb that bears them? What thofe throws and Agonies are, which the Soul endures when it comes to be ruffled by the hand of God? And how violent the Pangs and Convulfions of a new Birth are, when fo many inveterate Habits come to be torn up out of ones Breaft by the Roots? Repentance is a most painful thing, if it be Genuine and Hearty, when a poor Wretch is a recovering out of that miferable State, wherein a long courfe and trade of Wickednefs hath plunged him; and I think 'tis Oecumenius that hath somewhere obferved, that 'tis no eafe matter to fall back again into fucha courfe of Life, as bath once put one to fo much expence of Shame, Sorrow, and Vexation. The fenfe and experience of fmart, is naturally apt to make Men very fearful of being wounded any more So that when they relapfe into a wicked State with so much Facility, it is a certain Sign, that either their smart was not pungent and acute enough, or else that they are of very hardy and defperate Spirits, that can break through all the Pricks and Twinges of Confcience to rush upon the Pikes again.

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3. IT is the ready way to lofe all the Profit of Repentance, though it were never so chargeable and coftly. Therefore is Apoftacy compared to the most odious and filthy Spectacle; to a Dog's licking up bis Vomit, and to the wallowing Pa gain of a Sow in the mire, 2 Pet. 2. 22. Nor can it be, but fuch Creatures must needs appear abominable in the fight of God, because his Love and Hatred ftill go along with the Reafons of them; which are never grounded upon any partiality towards Mens Perfons, but upon a juft view of their Qualifications and Tempers; fo that as thefe vary from better to worfe, and from Purity turn to Corruption, fo they become instead of Objects of Gods Love, the Objects of his Hatred, which always runs out in a direct course against all Impiety, and fill follows it at the heels: and hence is the terrible Menace in the Prophet Ezekiel, When the Righteous Man turneth away from his Righteoufnefs, and committeth Iniquity, and doth according to all the Abo minations that the Wicked Man doth, fhall be live? All his Righteousness that he hath done fhall not be mentioned in his Tref pafs that he hath Trefpaffed, and in bis Sin that he hath finned, in them shall be die, Ezek. 18. 24. This is not only one

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of God's immutable Decrees, but moreover the natural Refult of Relapfes, from the common method and courfe of Things; especially when a Man's Relapfes are frequent, habitual, and lafting.

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34 FOR that which is further confiderable, is, That the Recovery of fuch Men is very difficult and uncertain. St. · Peter, fpeaking of fome miferable Converts, who, though they had been cleanfed from their Heathen Sins, upon their Embracing of Chriftianity, fell back again into that wretched State out of which they had been delivered, faith, That fince after they had escaped the Pollutions of the World through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift, they were again intangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning; and that it had been better for them not to bave known the way of. Righteousness, than after they had known it, to have turned afide from the holy Commandment delivered unto them, 2 Pet. 2. 20, 21. I confess, he fpeaks there of their Apoftacy from Chrift's Religion to thofe abominable Impurities which they had cuftomarily practis'd while they were yet Pagans; which was Wickedness in the highest degree, far beyond any Vice, I hope, that hath been acted by any who have been at the Lord's Q4 Table.

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