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in the Soul of every Christian, Remember thy latter End, and thou shalt not fin.

We must therefore live in the World without being guilty of its Corruptions and Abominations. As Fish preserves its Sweetness in the midst of the Salt Waves of the Sea; and as Sheep never learn to bark nor bite, tho' Dogs be always with them: Likewife tho' our Conversation be in the World amongst the prophane and vicious Men of this Age, we must not imitate their filthy Words, their Oaths, nor their Blafphemies; and less Reason have we to follow their wicked and abominable Deeds; we must converse among them as Lot in the City of Sodom, as Joseph in Egypt, as Daniel in Babylon. Blessed and holy is he who hath part in the first Refurrection, the second Death shall have no Power upon him.

When Jacob by God's Command went to Bethel, he charg'd his Wives, his Children, and all that were with him, Put away the strange Gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your Garments, and let us arise, and go up to Bethel, Gen. xxxiii. And I will make there an Altar unto God, who answered me in the Day of my Distress, and was with me in the way which I went. Then they deliver'd into Jacob's Hands all the strange Gods that were in their Possession, and hid them under an Oak in Shechem. Thus before you go to the truc Bethel, to the Dwelling where you shall eat your fill of the Bread of the Kingdom of Heaven, before you offer unto God the Sacrifice of your Souls, you must, if you be true Christians, renounce Sin, and all wicked Lufts, which have been formerly your Idols. I would advise you to bury them deep in this base Earth. But you had better do as God commands you from Heaven, Trample under Foot all these abominable Vices, and all these worldly Lusts, that are to you as so many falfe Godsthat you worship, Ezek. ii. Put away from before me those Idols of Jealousie that provoke me to Jealousie, and fanctifie the Temple of my Holiness. Cleanse your Hands, ye Sinners, and fanctifie your selves ye double minded. Put off the

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old Man with all his Deeds, and put on the new Man created according to the Image of God, in Righteoufness and true Holiness, and then you shall be admitted to the holy Temple of my Glory, to offer unto me amongst the innumerable Companies of Saints, the acceptable Perfumes of Praises and Thanksgivings, Jam. iv. Eph. iv.

This is a Duty so just and necessary, that natural Reason it self, not enlightned by Grace, acknowledges it to be so; nay, the most wretched Varlets are constrain'd to give Glory to God, and to condemn themselves; they confess that they are indebted to the divine Majesty, but the Payment of this Debt they put off from Day to Day; and whenever you come to them, they are ready to require a Delay; they acknowledge their Faults, the Heinousness of their Crimes, and the Neceffity of Repentance; but they are always putting off Repentance and Reformation of Life. As when a Sluggard is newly awaked out of his Sleep, he defires yet a little Sleep, a little Slumber, a little folding of the Hands to fleep, Prov. xxiv. Thus whenever Death appears, the Voluptuous are yet requesting to enjoy their carnal Delights. When the Lord's Meffengers are calling upon us to repair the Breaches that the Devil hath made in our Souls, we could willingly answer as the Jews did to the Prophet, that The Time is not come that the Lord's House shall be built, Hag. i. The young Man in his Youth and Strength is apt to say, that 'tis not yet time to busie himself about Wifdom and Reformation, and that when he comes to be old, he will then repent of the Sins of his Youth. And the old Man endeavours to put off his Repentance until the Hour of his Departure. He expects then to make a general Confeffion of all his Crimes, to fatisfy all his Neighbours, and to restore what he possesseth unjustly. In short, all Men generally flatter themselves in their evil Courses, and most are so extravagant, as to be perfuaded, that when they have lived in Sin and Iniquity all their Life, mispent God's Bleffings, abused

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his Mercies, a Tear, or a Sigh at the time of our Death: will make afufficient Amends for all; and that he will be fully fatisfied, if we say then as the prodigal Child, My Father, I have finned against Heaven, and against thee: Or as the good Thief, Lord, remember me, Luke xxiii. 42.

I have much to say against so great a Mistake, so dangerous and prophane a Perfuafion. First, what Reason have we to believe that God will accept our Repentance, when we cannot endure to accept of his Graces and Redemption; that he will hear our Sighs, and grant our Prayers, when we will by no means give ear to his Voice, nor obey the Commands that he sends us of repenting

Wretched Man! dost thou stay to glorify God till the Moment when thy Breath shall fail thee? Is it just that thou shouldest then begin to serve him, when thou shalt be able to serve and please thy Flesh no longer, nor fatisfie thy foolish Lufts?

This great God who had commanded, during the Shadows and Types of Moses's Law, that the Children of Ifrael should offer unto him their First-born, and the First-fruits of their Inheritances, will he take it well now in this admirable Sun-fhine of the Gospel, that thou should'st offer to the Devil, and to the World, the First-fruits of thy Youth, the Strength of thy Years, and that thou should'st reserve for him only the Dregs and Corruption of a decaying old Age?

'Tis to mock God and Man to dream of living well when our Life is far spent and gone. To lift up our Eyes and Thoughts to Heaven when the Earth fails us under our Feet. To restore other Mens Goods, when we can keep them no longer. To renounce all Defires of Revenge, when we have no Power of Acting. To abstain from the foul Lusts of the Flesh, when we are able to continue in them no longer. To abhor Theft, Ufury, Rapine, and Extortion, when a Coffin is a preparing to receive us, and Death looks us in the Face. Such Persons cannot be faid to leave Sin, but rather Sin

leaves them; as the Ravens leave the Tree that falls down with Age, or that is struck with the Thunder.

By our unreasonable Delays, Evil and Sin grow older, and the Cure becomes every Day more difficult. For the more thou shalt be hardned in thy Corrup tion, and confirmed in thy Sins, the harder it will be for thee to break and melt thy corrupted Heart. The deeper Luft shall have caft its Roots in thy Soul, the more Labour thou shalt find in plucking them out. In short, he that gives too much Liberty to his unlawful Affections, makes his Vices, by Custom, become natural, and cannot be converted without a great Miracle.

Man's most important and difficult Affair in the World, is his Converfion to God. Therefore 'tis a great folly to put it off to such a time, as we shall be in the feebleft and weakest Condition; to a time when we shall have most Business to do, and most Trouble. Doubtless he orders not his Affairs well, who puts off his praying to God, and his Thoughts of Heaven, until he comes to be stretched on his Death-bed. For then we know not to whom we are first to answer. An Account of our worldly Concerns is then required from us; we are then to make our last Will and Testament, we call for a Scrivener, and are inwardly vex'd to behold him; the Vifits of Friends trouble us, and their abfence doth much displease us: Pain seizes upon us; Defluxions are ready to choak us; Fevers burn us and disturb our Minds; Physicians oppress us with noisome Remedies; the Noise is a Trouble to us, and Silence is suspected; our Parents and Friends torment us with their officious Dealings; our Children, and our greatest Darlings melt our Hearts, and their Tears force us to weep. But the worst is, the Devils are then most busie and active. These Hellish Fiends, like devouring Ravens, fly about us, endeavouring to fright us. In short, 'tis then the Prince of the Powers of the Air stirs up against us furious Storms and Tempefts, to cause us to perish in the very Haven. In the midst of so many Disturbances, and of so many powerful Waves, 'tis a difficult task to pofsess our Souls in Peace, to think upon our Confciences, to hear God speaking to us to prepare for Death as we ought, and to keep our selves from finking, and from being fwallowed up with its Apprehenfions and Frights.

Old Age hath Infirmities enough, we need not de file it with youthful Sins and Lufts. For many times it causeth more Wounds in our Souls, than there are Wrinkles upon our Skin. When the Body decays and grows weak, the Lufts of the Flesh become stronger, and oft-times when it whitens the Face, it spots the Conscience. In a word, the Bones of old Age are weak enough and sufficiently full of Pain, that we need not over-burden them with the Sins committed in the Flower and Strength of our Age.

Moreover, we know not when, nor how Death will affault us, nor what avour we are to expect from it. Who knows but that it intends not to give us the liberty of speaking to our Friends, nor of thinking upon our Souls? For it sends not always a warning to us, as to the good King Hezekiah, Set thine House in order, for thou shall die, 2 Kings xx. For as we have alrea-dy taken notice, it surpriseth us in every Age, in every Time and Place, and in the midst of all manner of Em ployments. Old Eli fell down backward and brake his Neck, when he heard the unhappy News of taking of the Ark, and the Death of his Sons. Job's Children dreamed of nothing but of folacing and delighting themselves in their Feasts and Jollity when the Houte where they were, fell down and buried them in its Ruins. But befides these unhappy Accidents, how many are there whose Mouth Death closeth on a sudden, without fuffering them to speak a word? How many are there in the World, who are thought to be in perfect Health, and yet fuddenly fall into an Apoplexy and into other quick Diseases, so that they are to be found fooner dead than thought to be fick.

Befides

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