then it is that men too often fet their affection on riches, esteeming them the chief good; and the more they grasp after this golden hook, the more they are attached to them, till at length, with the fool in the gospel, they address their fouls, Soul, thou haft much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease; eat, drink, and be merry, Luke xii. 19. But, ah! ere ever they are aware, their fond hopes of pleasure are blasted; the many years they dreamed of are come to an end, and God faith to every fuch fool, This night thy foul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? Luke xii. 20. For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own foul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his foul? Matt. xvi. 26.

There are another class of men who gape at, and swallow down this hook greedily: these are misers who like the horfe-leech which hath two daughters, crying, Give, give; are never fatisfied with riches. Nor do they appear to do them any more good, or fill their defires one whit better than the

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blood or nutriment which that reptile con tinually fucks, fills or fatisfies it.

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Such an infatiable thirst for riches, which fatisfieth not, but only increaseth more thirst is truly deplorable, and these men of all others are most to be pitied, whose infatiable thirst for riches continually tortures their fouls in this world, and destroys them in the next. "There is one alone, and "there is not a second; yea, he hath nei"ther child nor brother: yet is there no " end of all his labour, neither is his eye fa" tisfied with riches, neither faith he, For "whom do I labour and bereave my foul " of good? This is also vanity; yea, it is a "fore travail," faith the wife man. And "there is a fore evil which I have seen un"der the fun, namely, riches kept for the "owners thereof to their hurt." And "there is an evil which I have feen under "the fun, and it is common among men: " a man to whom God hath given riches, " wealth and honour, so that he wanteth " nothing for his foul of all that he defireth; "yet God giveth him not power to eat "thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is

" vanity, and it is an evil disease," Eccl. iv. 8. v. 13. vi. 1, 2.

While I am meditating, this angler has changed his hook, put on a bait, and funk it with lead in the deep waters, giving the finny tribe an opportunity to swallow it in secret, without being obliged to come in view. Thus Satan often fisheth with the fleshly bait of uncleanness, in the stagnated pool of corrupt nature; holding it out as most delightful, and a thousand times more fatisfactory to the flesh than its deluded prostitutes have ever been able to find.

Yet sensual men lust after it, and greedily swallow it in the secret intrigues of carnality, and so for a momentary pleasure risk an eternity of misery and woe; at which incomparable folly the devil himself cannot fail to be struck, and for which he will upbraid them in hell through all eternity. Though now he tempt them to commit that fin which he himself was never capable of; whereby many are destroyed whose deeds never come to the light to be reproved; and even few of those whose

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deeds are made manifest, are ever recovered from this snare of the devil, we have reason to fear, if we confult the wisdom of Solomon, who faith, and not of himself, but by inspiration, when speaking of the strange woman, "none that go unto her return a"gain; neither, take they hold of the paths " of life," Prov. ii. 19.

As the angler often makes use of one kind of fish for baits to deceive and ensnare another; so doth the devil in respect to men and women. Did he not make use of that lewd adulteress mentioned in the Proverbs, as a bait to infnare the young man void of understanding? Hear the pafsage, and may every young man take warning by the finful intrigue: "For at the "window of my house I looked through

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my casement, and beheld, among the "simple ones, I difcerned among the "youths, a young man void of understand" ing, paffing through the street near her "corner, and he went the way to her house " in the twilight, in the evening, in the " black and dark night: and behold there "met him a woman with the attire of an "harlot, and fubtle of heart. (She is loud and "stubborn, her feet abide not in her house : *" Now is she without, now in the streets, *" and lieth in wait at every corner). So " she caught him and kissed him, and with

an impudent face faid unto him, I have "peace offerings with me; this day I have " paid my vows. Therefore came I forth " to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, " and I have found thee. I have decked my " bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved " works, with fine linen of Egypt. I have per" fumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cin"namon. Come, let us take our fill of love " until the morning, let us folace ourselves " with loves. For the good man is not at " home, he is gone a long journey, he hath "taken a bag of money with him, and will

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come home at the day appointed. With " her much fair speech she caused him to " yield, with the flattering of her lips the "" forced him. He goeth after her straight"way, as an ox goeth to the flaughter, or " as a fool to the correction of the stocks : " till a dart strike through his liver, as a " bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not " that it is for his life," Prov. vii. 6---23.

The fin of uncleanness is the bane of fo

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