give, were it at your difpofal, the whole world to purchase it.

Confider then, my friend and fellow christian, confider what a rifque you run by your delays; think, what mifery and danger, what confufion and despair it is now in your power to prevent, by living like a man that remembers he must die. And therefore to spend every hour, that when your last draws on, you may receive it with joy and hope, inftead of fear and astonishment. Learn now to die daily, to die to fin and the world, that you may then begin to live with Chrift. Learn now to defpife all here below, that you may then be difengaged, and at perfect liberty to leave all and follow Chrift. Subdue your body now by mortification and felf-denial, and you fhall then have great boldness in the day of tribulation.

Does any expectation of long life encourage you to defer putting this good advice in execution fpeedily? Nay, but reflect, fond man, how uncertainly you can promise yourself one poor fingle day. How many inftances have you before your eyes, or fresh in your remembrance, of perfons miferably deluded and difappointed in this hope, and hurried out of the body without any warning at all? How often have you been furprized with the news of this friend being run thro', another drowned in croffing the water, a third breaking his neck by a fall, a fourth fallen down dead at table, or choaked with his meat, a fifth feized with an appoplexy at play, a fixth burnt in his bed, a feventh murthered, an eighth killed by thieves, a ninth ftruck with lightning, or blasting, or peftilence, a tenth swallowed

up

up in an earthquake. Such vast variety of deaths furround us, and so fleeting a fhadow is the life of

a man.

And if any of these happens to be your cafe, who fhall help, who can fave you when the precious opportunity is fled and loft? Be doing then betime; for, tho' you cannot fo much as guess at the hour and manner of your own death, yet fafe you are, or may be, if you will provide against it. Ufe time then while you have it; make hafte to be rich toward God, and let religion and your own falvation be your chief, your only concern. Make yourself friends while you may, who when you fail may receive you into everlasting habitations, Luke xvi. 9.

Behave yourself as a stranger and pilgrim upon earth, and do not immoderately set your thoughts on things which do not belong to you. For fojourners are not proprietors, and therefore fuch should not keep their affections upon things, which they are leaving very shortly. Raife your foul to God and let it dwell there, not where you have no continuing city, Heb. xiii. 14. Look up to that which is fo: fend your prayers, and tears, and earnest defires before you thither; that when God calls, you may readily follow in person, and make a happy exchange of this miferable world for a better.

CHA P. XXIV.

Of the last judgment, and the eternal punishment of ungodly men.

WHat Hatfoever thou takest in hand, remember the end, and thou shalt never do amifs, fays the wife font of Sirach, Ecclus. vii. 36. And certainly this would

prove a most useful direction, if we by the end understand that laft great account, which will one day be required of all our actions. For how powerful, how happy a restraint should we live under, did we but seriously reflect, and conftantly ask ourfelves, how we shall dare to ftand before that ftrict and righteous judge, to whom all hearts are open, all defires known, and from whom no fecrets are bid? One who cannot, like other judges, be diverted from the steddy courfe of juftice; blinded by bribes and prefents, or foftned by fubtle extenuations, or impofed upon by feigned excufes, and ftudied evafions; but who weighs all perfons and caufes by the eternal ftandard of equity and truth. Ah, wretched guilty creature! ah, stupid, unthinking finner ! that trembleft at the frown of a man like thy felf, and does not fear that bar, where nothing can turn to thy prejudice, but open and notorious faults! How wilt thou appear at this tribunal, or what plea canft thou urge in bar of fentence, to him who needs no evidence, but is himself privy to thy moft concealed impieties? Doft thou know this, and yet go on unconcerned how thou shalt efcape the terrors of that dreadful day? Without thy own care, escape thou canft not for this judgment is univerfal; all mankind must ftand upon their deliverance; every one must bear his own burden; and every one's burden is more than enough for himself; fo that no man will be in a condition of affifting another. To expect any advantage, any atonement then, is most fenflefs. Thou only canft prevent thy own deftru&tion, and this life is only time of preventing it. Thy holy labours now will turn to good account; thy pious mournings move compaffion, thy prayers

and

and groans enter the ears of God, and melt him into mercy. The meek and patient man will then be confidered for his conftant fuffering and invincible charity. The grief he now conceives for wrongs, is more for the wickedness and guilt of the perfon who does them, than for any inconvenience brought upon himself; and this difpofition will mitigate his own offence; he heartily forgives, and prays that God would forgive his enemies; and this entitles him to the forgiveness of his own trefpaffes. He is more eafily provoked to pity, than to anger; and shall be dealt with accordingly, by a God long-fuffering, flow to wrath, and fparing when men deserve punishment. He often treats his body with severity and violence, and continues the rigorous difcipline, till the flesh be effectually fubdued by the fpirit; and therefore good amends fhall be made him for these voluntary fufferings, and the neglected pleasures of fenfe will be liberally recompenced by the abundance of heavenly and intellectual joys. But then, 'tis plain, thefe good qualities which minister an entrance into that blifs, must be attained as foon as we can poffibly. This prefent ftate of mortality is the only fcene of action and improvement; and fince this scene fo fuddenly may change, we are not safe in the delay of one moment. This is in truth our cafe. But we are loth to understand it; and fo inordinately fond of fenfual delights, that we even take a pleafure in impofing upon ourselves; and by the most fatal of all madneffes, indulge our appetites at the expence, and extreme hazard of our fouls.

And what is the effect of this, but heaping up more fewel for everlasting flames to feed upon? For our fins and lufts kindle and blow up thofe fires;

K 2

and

and the more heinous and impetuous these are, the fiercer and more furious thofe will be fure to burn, For, as the torments of ungodly wretches shall there be exquifite for their degree, fo fhall they for their kind and quality be fuited and proportioned to the fins of each particular perfon; and fo contrived, as to be most fenfibly afflicting and painful to the refpective tempers and complexions of men, the habits they have contracted, and the appetites they have indulged. The lazy and stupid fhall be awakened and rouzed into fenfe, by fharp fcourges, and burning ftings. The glutton and drunkard gnawed with infatiable hunger, and parched with unquenchable thirft. The nice and delicate, who propofed no happiness here to themselves, but luxury and pleafure, fhall then be tormented with what will be much worse than the noisome vapours of flaming pitch, and stinking fulphur. The envious and difcontented shall howl perpetually like mad dogs. The proud and vain-glorious fhall be confounded with Thame and contempt. The covetous shall pine away with extreme penury and want; and no one vice fhall escape a torture, exactly fitted to make its indulger the most miserable that it is poffible for him to be. In a word, one fingle hour in those difmal pains and horrors fhall be more infupportable, than whole ages of that uneafinefs, which wicked men here have fo irreconcilable an averfion to fubmit to, for mortifying their vanities, and amending their lives.

For (which is of all others the laft and dreadfulleft aggravation) thofe miferies and tortures will have no end, no refreshment, no intermiffion. But the arpeft afflictions we endure in this life, will quickly have a period: they have their interval of ease and

comfort;