and therefore it is not to be approved. But such expressions of grief and sorrow are only to be used, as nature and the custom of the country direct us unto, in other cases of distress and sadness.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE USE WHICH WICKED MEN OUGHT TO MAKE OF THIS DOCTRINE.

Y what hath been briefly said in this argu

BY

ment, all wicked men, who have highly provoked God by their lewd way of living, may see (if they please to open their eyes) into what a woful condition they have brought themselves; being unworthy to eat, or drink, to lift up their eyes unto heaven, to enjoy the light of the sun, or any of the least of those common blessings which God bestows upon all creatures; as sincere penitents have been constrained to acknowledge, by their deep humiliations, dejections and abasement of themselves, even to the earth before His offended Majesty.

So evil and bitter a thing it is to depart from God, and to cast His holy laws behind

our backs (with neglect, if not contempt) in the opinion of all those, who have been awakened to a lively sense of Him, and of the duty which is owing to Him. And whensoever they that now make a mock at sin, shall become so serious as to reflect upon their ways, and consider solemnly how they have opposed God, and set themselves against His authority, it will strike them with the like consternation and amazement: and they will not think fit, so much as to look up unto Him whom they have so insolently affronted, without tears in their eyes, and with a most sad and sorrowful countenance.

Nay, the most dejected looks are best becoming great offenders; and the most doleful lamentations ought to come out of their mouths; if silence, confusion, astonishment, laying their hands on their mouths, or putting their mouths in the dust, be not much more beseeming, when they remember, that they deserve to be thrust down into utter darkness, there to bewail their mad contempt of God in extreme horror and anguish of spirit,

And this is but the first step neither, to the recovery of God's favour; unto which they should be glad upon any terms to be restored: and have just reason to look upon it as a bad sign, if they expect to recover it, upon easier conditions than these. They have too slight thoughts of their mis-doings, who look upon this injunction as too harsh and severe: "Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord."2 For if men's hearts be rightly affected, they will not only readily accord to this; but think they are very kindly used, if they be after all received to mercy.

Nay, every honest heart will judge it reasonable that his sorrowful humiliations should bear some proportion to the offences, of which he stands guilty. The more he hath provoked God's displeasure, the more he will be displeased at himself: his afflictions will be the heavier; his sorrow the deeper and sad

2 James iv. 9.

der; his loathing of himself the more vehement, as a very abominable creature; and consequently he will lay himself the lower, and be the more abased, when he comes to sue for pardon.

There is nothing stranger than the carelessness of men about their souls, in this regard; as St. Chrysostom excellently discourses, in the beginning of his comments upon the Epistle to the Corinthians. "You shall see many," saith he, "bathe themselves in tears, and refuse to be comforted, for a great many days, (his phrase is a thousand days) because they have lost some dear friend, a child, or some other relation, whom God hath taken out of the world. But though they lose their precious souls every day, they scarce ever lay it to heart, but slightly pass it over with a few sighs, at the best. Nay, where shall we find the man, that is so much as sorry for what he hath done? who is there that groans, that smites his breast, that is full of solitude and care, and fear, lest he be undone ? Ουδένα ἔγωγ ̓ οἶμαι. I think there is