my friends, that your souls do not live too much on any of the satisfactions of this life, that your affections be not set upon them in too high a degree, that you make them not your idols and your chief good, lest you be left helpless and miserable under everlasting disappointment, for they cannot follow you into the world of souls; they are the things of time, and they have no place in eternity. Read what caution the apostle Paul gives us in our converse with the dearest comforts of life; 1 Cor. vii. 29. The time is short; and let those who have the largest affluence of temporal blessings, who have the nearest and kindest relatives, and the most endeared friendships be mortified to them, and be in some sense" as though they had them not," for ye cannot possess them long. St. Peter joins in the same sort of advice, 1 Pet. iv. 7. "The end of all things is at hand, therefore be ye sober," be ye moderate in every enjoyment on earth, and prepare to part with them all when the angel pronounces that "Time shall be no longer:" his sentence puts an effectual period to every joy in this life, and to every hope that is not eternal.

Thus we have taken a brief survey of what are the solemn and awful thoughts relating to such mortal creatures in general, which are contained in this voice or sentence of the angel, that time shall be no longer.

In the second place, let us proceed further, and inquire a little what are those terrors which will attend sinners, impenitent sinners, at the end of time.

1. A Dreadful account must be given of all this lost and wasted time. When the Judge shall ascend his throne in the air, and all the sons and daughters of Adam are brought before him, the grand inquiry will be, What have you done with all the time of life in yonder world? You spent

thirty or forty years there, or perhaps seventy or eighty, and I gave you this time with a thousand opportunities and means of grace and salvation; what have you done with them all? How many sabbaths did I afford you? How many sermons have ye heard? How many seasons did I give you for prayer, and retirement, and converse with God and your own souls? Did you improve time well? Did you pray? Did you converse with your souls and with God? Or did you suffer time to slide away in a thousand impertinences, and neglect the one thing necessary?'

2. A fruitless and bitter mourning for the waste and abuse of time will be another consequence of your folly. Whatsoever satisfaction you may take now in passing time away merrily and without thinking, it must not pass away so for ever. If the approaches of death do not awaken you, yet judg ment will do it. Your consciences will be worried with terrible reflections on your foolish conduct.

O could we but hear the complaints of the souls in hell, what multitudes of them would be found groaning out this dismal note, How hath my time been lost in vanity, and my soul is now lost for ever in distress! How might I have shone among the saints in heaven, had I wisely improved the time which was given me on earth, given me on purpose to prepare for death and heaven! Then they will for ever curse themselves, and call themselves eternal fools, for hearkening to the temptations of flesh and sense, which wasted their time, and deprived them of eternal treasures.

3. Another of the terrors which will seize upon impenitent sinners at the end of time will be endless despair of the recovery of lost time, and of those blessings whose hope is for ever lost with it, There are blessings offered to sinful miserable men in time which will never be offered in eternity, nor

put within their reach for ever. The gospel hath no calls, no invitations, no encouragements, no promises for the dead, who have lost and wasteu their time, and are perished without hope. The region of sorrows, whither the judge shall drive impenitent sinners, is a dark and desolate place, where light and hope can never come; but fruitless repentance with horrors and agonies of soul, and doleful despair, reign through that world without one gleam of light or hope, or one moment of intermission. Then will despairing sinners gnaw their tongues for anguish of heart, and curse themselves with long execrations, and curse their fellow-sinners who assisted them to waste their time, and to ruin their souls.

4. The last terror I shall mention which will attend Sinners at the end of time is, an eternal suffering of all the painful and dismal consequences of lost and wasted time. Not one smile from the face of God for ever, not one glimpse of love or mercy in his countenance, not one word of grace from Jesus Christ, who was once the chief messenger of the grace of God, not one favourable regard from all the holy saints and angels; but the fire and brimstone burn without end, and the smoke of this their torment will ascend for ever and ever before the throne of God and the Lamb.

Who knows how keen and bitter will be the agonies of an awakened conscience, and the vengeance of a provoked God in that world of misery? How will you cry out, O what a wretch have I been to renounce all the advices of a compassionate father, when he would have persuaded me to improve. the time of youth and health! Alas, I turned a deaf ear to his advice, and now time is lost, and my hopes of mercy for ever perished. How have I treated with ridicule, among my vain companions, the compassionate and pious counsels of my aged parents who laboured for my salvation! How have

I scored the tender admonitions of a mother, and wasted that time in sinning and sensuality which should have been spent in prayer and devotion! And God turns a deaf ear to my cries now, and is regardless of all my groanings. This sort of anguish of spirit with loud and cutting complaints would destroy life itself, and these inward terrors would sting their souls to death if there could be any such thing as dying there. Such sighs and sobs and bitter agonies would break their hearts and dissolve their being, if the heart could break, or the being could be dissolved: but immortality is their dreadful portion, immortality of sorrows to punish their wicked and wilful abuse of time and that waste of the means of grace they were guilty of in their mortal state.

I proceed in the last place to consider what reflections may be made on this discourse, or what are some of the profitable lessons to be learnt from it.

Refl. 1. We may learn with great evidence the inestimable worth and value of time, and particularly to those who are not prepared for eternity. Every hour you live is an hour longer given you to prepare for dying, and to save a soul. If you were but apprised of the worth of your own souls, you would better know the worth of days and hours, and of every passing moment, for they are given to secure your immortal interest, and save a soul from everlasting misery. And you would be zealous and importunate in the prayer of Moses, the man of God, upon a meditation of the shortness of life. Ps.

xc. 12.

"So teach us to number our days, as to apply our hearts to wisdom." i. e. so teach us to consider how few and uncertain our days are, that we may be truly wise in preparing for the end of them.

It is a matter of vast importance to be ever ready

for the end of time, ready to hear this awful sentence confirmed with the oath of the glorious angel, that "Time shall be no longer." The terrors or the comforts of a dying bed depend upon it: the solemn and decisive voice of judgment depends upon it: the joys and sorrows of a long eternity depend upon it: go now, careless sinners, and in the view of such things as these, go and trifle away time as you have done before; time, that invaluable treasure: go and venture the loss of your souls, and the hopes of heaven and your eternal happiness, in wasting away the remnant hours or moments of life: but remember the awful voice of the angel is hastening toward you, and the sound is just breaking in upon you, that "Time shall be no longer."

Refl. 2. A due sense of time hastening to its period will furnish us with perpetual new occasions of holy meditation.

Do I observe the declining day and the setting sun sinking into darkness? so declines the day of life, the hours of labour, and the season of grace: O may I finish my appointed work with honour ere the light is fled! may I improve the shining hours of grace ere the shadows of the evening overtake me, and my time of working is no more!

Do I see the moon gliding along through midnight, and fulfilling her stages in the dusky sky? This planet also is measuring out my life, and bringing the number of my months to their end. May I be prepared to take leave of the sun and moon, and bid adieu to these visible heavens, and all the twinkling glories of them! These are all but the measurers of my time, and hasten me on towards eternity.

Am I walking in a garden and stand still to observe the slow motion of the shadow upon a dial there? It passes over the hour lines with an imperceptible progress, yet it will touch the last line of day-light shortly: so my hours and my moments move onward