world themselves use. Thou, Christian, art of a more noble spirit than these. And as we have a finer stone to sharpen a razor with than we use for a butcher's knife, so, certainly, a more spiritual argument would become thee better, to make thee keen and sharp against sin, than what prevails with the worst of men sometimes to forbear acting their wickedness. Go thou, Christian, to thy hope, and while the slavish sinner scares and terrifies himself from his lust with fire and brimstone, do thou shame thyself out of all acquaintance with it from the great and glorious things thou lookest for in heaven. Is it a sin of sensual pleasure that assaults thy castle ? Say, then, to thy soul. Shall I play the beast on earth, that hope to be such a glorious creature in heaven ? Shall that head be found now in a Delilah's lap, that ere long I hope will be laid in Abraham's bosom ? Can I now yield to deffle that body with lust and vomit, which is the garment my soul hopes to wear in heaven? O, no. Avaunt, Satan ! I will have nothing to do with thee, or anything that will make me unmeet for that blessed place and holy state I wait for.
Section III. — Let thy hope of heaven moderate thy affections to earth. 'Be sober, and hope,' saith the apostle, 1 Pet. i. 13. You that look for so much in another world, may be very well content with a little in this. Nothing more unbecomes a heavenly hope than an earthly heart. You would think it an unseeming thing to see some rich man, that hath a vast estate, among the poor gleaners in harvest time, as busy to pick up the ears of corn that are left in the field, as the most miserable beggar in the company. Oh, how all the world would cry shame of such a sordid man ! Well, Christian, be not angry if I tell thee that thou dost a more shameful thing by far, if thou, who pre- tendest to hope for heaven, be as eager in the pursuit of this world's trash as the poor carnal wretch is who expects no portion but what God hath left him to pick up in the field of this world. Certainly, thy hope is either false, or at best very little. The higher the summer sun mounts above the horizon, the more force it bears to clear and heat the air with his beams ; and if thy hope of salvation were advanced to any ordinary height in thy soul, it would scatter these inordinate desires after this world, with which now thou art choked up, and put thee into a greater heat of affection after heaven. Augustine, relating what sweet discourse passed once between his mother and himself concerning the joys of heaven, breaks forth into this apostrophe, ' Lord, thouknowest how vile and contemptible this sorry world was in our eye in that day, when our hearts were warmed with some sweet discourse of that blessed place.' And I doubt not but every graciovis person finds the same : the nearer to heaven he gets in his hopes, the farther he goes from earth in his desires. When he stands upon these battlements of heaven, he can look down upon this dunghill world as a little dust-heap, next to nothing. It is Scultetus's observation, That though there are many blemishes by which the eminent saints and servants of God recorded in Scripture are set forth as instances of human frailty, yet not one godly man in all the Sci-ipture is to be found whose story is blotted with the charge of covetousness. If that holds true, which I am not able to disprove, we may wonder how it comes about, that it should, now-a-days, be called the professors' sin, and become a common charge, laid by the profane upon those that pretend to heaven more than themselves. Oh, woe to those wretched men, who, by their scandalous practices of this kind, put the coal into wicked men's hands, with which they now black the names of all the godly, as if to be covetous were a necessary consequence of profession !
Section IV. — Let thy hope of heaven conquer thy fear of death. Why shouldst thou be afraid to die, who hopest to live by dying? Is the apprentice afraid of the day when his time will be out? — he that runs a race, of coming too soon to his goal ? — the pilot troubled when he sees his harbour ? — or the betrothed virgin grieved when the wedding-day approaches? Death is all this to thee ! Thy indenture expires, and thy jubilee is come ; thy race is run, and the crown won, and is sure to drop on thy head when thy soul goes out of thy body. Thy voyage, how troublesome soever it was in its sailing, is now happily finished, and death doth but this friendly ofiice for thee, to uncover and open the ark of thy body, that it may safely land thy soul on the shore of eternity at thy heavenly Father's door, yea, in his sweet embraces, never to be put to sea more. In a word, thy husband is come for thee, and knocks with
AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION. 543