ver endeavoured to effect here. These can do you no Service: But if they could, yet, when once gone, you will be forgotten much fooner than you are willing to believe. And why should you reft upon Their Care, when you cannot be prevailed with for your Own? Can it be fuppofed, They fhould be more concerned for your Salvation, than You, whofe proper Intereft it is? Allowing then, that these could do you good, yet even thus, 'tis better you should do your own Bufinefs; better, in regard of the Perfon, and better in regard of the Time: For now is the Seafon of Acceptance, now is the Day of Salvation. And therefore this Moment is the fitteft for your Purpose: The fooner you change, the better: Live then while you may; and begin from the prefent Minute to live fo, that you may live for ever. For if you fuffer the happy Opportunity to flip through your Hands, you will wifh for it afterwards, when it is too late; and you may perhaps be reduced to fuch Circumstances, that One Day, One Hour, for making your Peace with God may not be obtained; no, not when you would gladly give, were it at your Difpofal, the whole World to purchase it.

Confider then, my Friend and Fellow-Chriftian, 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 muft die. And therefore fo spend every Hour, that when your laft draws on, you may receive it with Joy and Hope, instead of Fear and Aftonifhment. Learn now to Die daily, to Die to Sin and the World, that you may then begin to Live with Christ. 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 Self-denial, and you fhall then have great Boldnefs in the Day of Tribulation.

Does

Does any Confidence of long Life encourage you to defer putting this good Advice in Execution fpeedily? Nay, but reflect, fond Man, how little you can promife your felf 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 Appoplex at Play, a Sixth burnt in his Bed, a Seventh murthered, an Eighth killed by Thieves, a Ninth ftruck with Lightning, or Blafting, or Pestilence, a Tenth fwallow'd up in an Earthquake. Such vaft Variety of Deaths furround us, and fo fleeting a Shadow 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 betimes; 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 againft it. Ufe Time then while you have it; make hafte to be rich toward God, and let Religion and your own Salvation be your Chief, your Only Concern. Make your felf

Friends while you may, who when you fail Luke xvi. 9. may receive you into everlasting babitations.

i

Behave your felf as a Stranger and Pilgrim upon Earth, and entangle not your Thoughts in Matter's which do not belong to you. For Sojourners are not Proprietors, and therefore fuch fhould keep their Minds loofe and free, and not fettle their Affections upon things, which they are leaving very shortly: Raife your Soul to God, and let it not Heb. xiii. 14. dwell there, where you have no continuing

City. Look up to that which is fo, and fend your Prayers, and Tears, and earnest Defires before you thither, that when God calls, you may readily follow in Perfon, 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.

W

Hatfoever thou takeft in hand, remember the End, and thou shalt never do amifs, fays the Wife

Son of Sirach. And certainly this would Ecclus.vii.36. prove a most useful Direction, if we by the End understand that last great Account, which will one Day be required of all our Actions. For how powerful, how happy a Reftraint fhould we live under, did we but ferioufly reflect, and conftantly ask our felves, how we fhall dare to ftand before that strict and righteous Judge, to whom all Hearts are open, all Defires known, and from whom no Secrets are bid? One, who cannot, like other Judges, be diverted from the fteddy 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 Standard of Equity and Truth. Ah, wretched Guilty Creature! Ah, ftupid Unthinking Sinner! that trembleft at the Frown of a Man like thy felf, and canft 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 Sentence, to Him who needs no Evidence, but is himself privy to thy moft concealed Impieties? Doft

thou

thou know this, and yet go on unconcerned how thou fhalt escape the Terrors of that dreadful Day? Without thy own Care, efcape thou canst not: For this Judgment is univerfal; All Mankind must stand 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 moft fenflefs. Thou only canft prevent thy own Destruction, and this Life is the only Time of preventing it. Thy holy Labours now will turn to good Account; thy pious Mournings move Compaffion, thy Prayers and Groans enter the Ears of God, and melt him into Mercy. The Meek and Patient Man will then be confidered for his Conftant Suffering 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 fhall be dealt with accordingly, by a God long-fuffering, flow to Wrath, and sparing when Men deferve Punishment. He often treats his Body with Severity and Violence, and continues the rigorous Discipline, till the Flefh be effectually fubdued by the Spirit; and therefore good amends fhall be made him for these voluntary Sufferings, and the neglected Pleasures of Sense will be liberally recompenced by the abundance of Heavenly and Intellectual Joys. But then, 'tis plain, thefe good Qualities which minifter an Entrance into that Bliss, must be attained as foon as we can poffibly. This prefent State of Mortality is the only Scene of Action and Improvement; and fince this Scene fo fuddenly may change, we are

not

not fafe in the delay of one Moment. This is in truth our Cafe. But we are loth to understand it ; and fo inordinately fond of Senfual Delights, that we even take a Pleasure in impofing upon our felves; and by the most fatal of all Infatuations, cherish and gratify our Bodies, at the Expence, and extreme Hazard of our Souls.

And what is the Effect of this, but heaping up more Fewel for everlasting Flames to feed upon? For our Sins and Lufts kindle and blow up thofe Fires; and the more heinous and impetuous these are, the fiercer and more furiously thofe will be fure to burn. For, as the Torments of ungodly Wretches fhall there be exquifite for their Degree, fo fhall they for their Kind and Quality be fuited and proportioned to the Sins of each particular Perfon; and fo contrived, as to be moft fenfibly afflicting and painful to the refpeЄtive 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 Senfe, by fharp Scourges, and burning Stings. 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 ftrangled with the noifom Vapours of flaming Pitch, and ftinking Sulphur. The Envious and Difcontented fhall howl perpetually like mad Dogs. The Proud and Vain-glorious fhall be confounded with Shame and Contempt. The Covetous fhall pine away with extreme Penury and Want; and no one Vice shall 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