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or, as when servants rode on horseback, and masters walked like servants on the ground, Eccles. x. 7.

2. Consider the soul as it is in this state of corruption; nothing can now content it, but that which can cure it. The soul is full of sin, which is the most painful sickness; hence the prophet compares wicked men to the raging waves of the sea, that is never at rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt, Isa. lvii. 1. What will you do to comfort him that is heart-sick? Bring him the choicest delicates, he cannot relish them; compass him about with merry company and music, it is tedious and troublesome to him; bring him to a better chamber, lay him on an easier bed: all will not satisfy him. But bring the physician to him, then he conceives hopes; let the physician cure him of his distemper, and then he will eat coarser meat, with a better stomach, and sleep on a harder bed, in a worse chamber, with a more cheerful and contented heart.

Just so it is with a guilty conscience, though he is not always sensible of it. What comfort can his friends give him, when God is his enemy? What delight can he take in his stately buildings, or frequent visits, who may expect, even this night, to have his soul required of him, and be made a companion with devils? Luke xii. 20. What is a golden chain about a leprous person, or the richest apparel upon a dead carcass? Or, what comfort will a costly banquet yield to a condemned malefactor, who is just going to execution? Surely no more than Adam found, when he had sinned in the garden, Gen. iii. 10, or than Haman had, when Ahasuerus frowned on him in the banquet, Esth. vii. 6 - 8. On the other side, let a man be at peace with God, and, in a sweet communion, enjoy the influence of heavenly graces and comforts