NORTHERN MEMOIRS. 289 



its the hope of glory. Why then do Christians 

 violate their faith ? Does it become us to en- 

 slave it by lust ? A proud faith is as great a 

 contradiction, as an humble devil. The glorious 

 hope we have of Paradise, incites and invites 

 believers to the duty of repentance ; and re- 

 pentance leads on to a humble submission, to 

 cruciate our selves and this temporal state, that 

 naturally resigns upon every assault of death ; 

 for all complicated elements melt into obscu- 

 rity. 



Shall the clay rebel against the potter that 

 moulds it ? Shall man resist his maker that made 

 him ? Shall the vice of the times vote against 

 Heaven? and impiety provoke us to mutiny 

 against the Deity ? Must we learn no language 

 but oaths and imprecations ? and denounce no 

 dialect but the rhetorick of hell ? Can no bounds 

 be put to luxurious ambition ? nor any limit to 

 the impudent impostor ? who has not consider- 

 ed the body sometimes diseased, and how death 

 stands ready to blot out the character of life ? 

 so that if ill symptoms but happen to invade 

 us, the grave immediately stands gaping to de- 

 vour us. Nor can our limbs any sooner be touch- 

 ed with the cold and icie finger of death, but 

 our vital fires begin all to extinguish ; and the 

 glorious shining sparks of life look languid and 

 dim ; and so by degrees lose their sparkling lus* 



T 



