entering into. Here is the trial of our faith, and the proof of religion, by the real fruits and effects of it, in: the peace and comfort which it gives to a good man, when he is leaving this world; fo that when he walks through the valley of death, he fears no ill, and his hopes are then moft lively and vigorous, when he is ready to give up the ghoft: the voice of nature, and of every man's reafon and confcience, as well as fcripture, fays to the righteous, it shall be well with him, for he shall eat. the fruit of his doings: but wo unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him. Which brings me to the II. Thing, namely, That impiety and wickednefs is a real foundation of guilt and fear, of horror and despair, in the day of adverfity and affliction, and efpecially in the approaches of death," And how can it be otherwife, when all inward fupport and comfort fail him, and all forts of evil and calamity, inward and outward, affault him, and break in upon him at once? When the principles of infidelity fail him, and what he had made out fo fpecioufly to himself, vanifheth into nothing, as a dream when one awakens, and as a vifion in the night? For when any great calamity befals this man, God, who was not before in all his thoughts, then begins to appear terrible to him, and he cannot banish the thoughts and fear of him out of his mind. But how uncomfortable is this to be convinced there is a God when a man hath most need of him, and can leaft hope for his favour and pity? But especially at the approach of death, what a fad preparation for that is an impious and wicked life? how does his confcience then fly in his face, and how bitter is the remembrance of those fins which he committed with fo much pleasure and greedinefs? What a terror is the Almighty, to him, and the apprehenfion of that vengeance that threatens him, and that eternal mifery. which is ready to fwallow him up and in the midst of all this anguish and horror, which naturally fpring from an evil confcience, and the guilt of a wicked life, he is deftitute of all comfort and hope; he hath denied the God that is above, and now he dares not look up to. him; his whole life hath been a continued affront to the divine Majefty, and an infolent defiance of his justice; and what hopes can he now reafonably have of his mer cy? Of the God that formed him he hath been unmindful, and hath used him with all the defpite he could and therefore he hath all the reafon in the world to conclude, that he that made him will not fave him, and he that formed him will have no mercy on him. And this is the natural confequence of impiety and wickedness; it fills the foul of a dying finner with trouble and anguish, with guilt and defpair, when he is leaving the world, and puts him into the most dismal condition that can be imagined on this fide hell, and very like to it, without comfort, and without hope. I proceed to the Third and laft thing I propofed, viz. that if this be true, it is a demonftration on the fide of religion, and doth fully juftify and acquit the wisdom of it, and that upon these three accounts: I. Because the principles of religion, and the practice of them in a virtuous life, when they come to the laft and utmost trial, do hold out, and are a firm and unthaken foundation of peace and comfort to us. II. That they minifter comfort to us in the most needful and defirable time. III. That when men are commonly more ferious, and Tober, and impartial, and when their declarations and words are thought to be of greatest weight and credit, they give this teftimony to religion and virtue, and a gainft impiety and vice I. That the principles of religion, and the practice of them in a virtu us life, when they come to the laft and utmost trial, dó hold out, and are a firm and unshaken foundation of peace and comfort to good men, at that time. The belief of a God, and of his providence and care of good men, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently feek him; the perfuafion of our own immortality, and of the eternal recompenee of another world; that Jefus Chrift came into the world to fave finners, and to purchase eternal life and happiness for those who, by patient continuance in well-doing, feck for glory, and honour, and immortality: I fay, the belief of thefe things is commonly moft ftrong and vigorous in thề minds of good men, when they come to die; and they have then a more clear apprehenfion and firm perfuafion of the truth and reality of these things, than ever they had in any time of their lives, and find more comfort from them, more peace and joy in the belief of them. And this is the great time of trial, when death prefents itself to us, and the terrors of it compass us about, whether upon occafion of perfecution or fickness. These are the rains, and ftorms, and winds, which will try upon what foundation our peace and comfort is built; and nothing but the principles of religion, fincerely believed and practifed, will make us firm and impreg nable against these affaults. So our Saviour affures us, Mat. vii. 24, 25. Whofoever heareth thefe fayings of mine, and doth them; that is, believes and practifeth my doctrine, I will liken him to a wife man, which built his house upon a rock; and the rain defcended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And on the contrary, the principles of infidelity and vice, are most apt to frink and give back at fuch a time; nay, for the most part they vanish and disappear, and upon the apprehenfion of death, a new light, as it were, fprings up in their minds, and things appear quite contrary to that scheme which they had formed, and which they had taken fo much pains to maintain and make probable to themselves; and that hypothesis, which they had been fo long a-building, appears now to have no foundation, and falls at once, and all their hopes together with it. And now the infidel believes and trembles, is fenfible of his wicked life, and of the vengeance that hangs over him, and was never in his life half fo well fatisfied of the principles of infidelity, as he is now convinced of the contrary, to his infinite trouble and confufion, that there is a God, and another life after this, and a terrible punishment to the workers of iniquity. And daily experience confirms to us the certainty and truth of this matter, and that there is this dif ference for the most part very visible in the temper and carriage of good and bad men, when they come to die. II. The II. The principles of religion and virtue do miniftef comfort to us in the most needful and defirable times; and on the contrary, the principles of infidelity and vice do not only fail us in this day of diftrefs, bứt givẽ great trouble to us at the most unfeafonable time. And this makes a mighty difference between the condition of these two sorts of perfons; for when would a man defire to be at peace and quiet in his mind, but when his body is reftlefs, and in pain? When would a man wish for strong confolation and hope, that anchor of the foul, fure and ftedfaft, as the Apoftle to the Hebrews calls it, but in that laft and terrible conflict of nature, with the laft of enemies, which is death? And when would a man dread trouble and anguish of mind, but at such a time, when he is hardly able to sustain his bodily pains and infirmities? If it be true of every day of our lives, Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof, much more of the day of death: it is enough furely to have that one enemy to encounter, at which nature fartles, and our beft reafon can hardly furnish us with force enough for the conflict, even when the fting of death is taken away, I mean the guilt of an evil confcience: but when all evils affail a man at once, pains without, and terrors within, a weak body, and a wounded fpirit, an incurable difeafe, and intolerable defpair, death ready to affault us, and hell following it; how anfeasonable is the conjuncture of fo many and fo great evils? Wife men are wont to provide with great care against fuch a time, that they may not be oppreffed with too many troubles at once; and therefore, in the time of their health, they fettle their worldly concernments, and make their wills, that when fick nefs or death comes, they may have no care upon them, nothing to do but to die. This is a time, when all the force of our reafon, and all the comfort and hope that religion can give, will be little enough to give us a quiet and undifturbed paffage out of this world into the other and we shall be very miferable, if the terrors and ftings of a guilty confcience, and the pangs of death, do leize upon us at once. And therefore, a wife man would make it the bufinefs of his whole life, to prevent this S 3 unhappy unhappy concurrence of evils, fo unfupportable to hu man nature; and to render death, which is grievous and terrible enough of itself, as comfortable and eafy as it is poffible. For if there were nothing beyond this life, yet it were worth the while to provide for a quiet death; and if men were fure to be poffeffed of these paffions of hope and fear, of comfort and defpair, which ufually attend good and bad men when they come to die, there is no man, that calculates things wifely, would, for all the pleasures of fin, forfeit the peace and comfort of a righteous foul, going out of the world full of the hopes of a bleffed immortality; and endure the anguish and torment of a guilty confcience, and the amazing terrors of a defpairing and dying finner. This is a condition fo fad and fearful, that a wife man would avoid it upon any terms. III. When men are commonly more ferious, and fober, and impartial, and their declarations and words are thought to be of the greatest weight and credit, they give this teftimony to religion and virtue, and against impiety and vice. It is generally feen, when men come to die, that the manner of their death is. anfwerable to the courfe of their life; that the reflection upon an holy and virtuous life is a great eafe and comfort to mens minds: and, on the contrary, the guilt of a wicked life is apt to fly in their faces, and to disturb their minds, and fill them with horror. And this is a critical time, when the confciences of men are usually awake, and apt to pass an impartial judgment and cenfure upon themselves. for this, the infidel may believe one of his own great authors, I mean Lucretius, who obferves, that when men are in diftrefs, and the apprehenfions of death are upon them, religion doth then fhew its force: Acriùs advertunt animos ad religionem; And "The thoughts of it are then more pungent and power, ful upon their minds." Nam vera voces tum demum pectore ab imo "Mens |