future fate, that are fo troublefome and uneasy

to them.

There is not perhaps any one thing in the World that ruins more Souls, than this unhappy Method fo common with moft finners, of still putting off the bufinefs of Religion to a more convenient feafon. They cannot endure the thoughts of another World, and that Judgment which we" must every one of us undergo in it; They tremble at the reflection of it, and delude themfelves with a future profpect of refolving in good earneft to prepare themselves for it; but like Felix in the Text, they put off this work to another Time, without ever fixing when that Time is to come; and it happens to them, as it did to him, that for the most part it never comes at all.

I believe there are but few in the World fo wicked as never to have had their lucid intervals of Piety and Religion; nor occafions both to confider of a Fudgment to come, and how much it would import them to provide for it. On the contrary, I am apt to think the greatest part of Sinners go on in their fins now, with a Confidence and Refolution of repenting fome time or other: But ftill fomething or other interpofes to prevent their doing of it; and Death overtakes them before they are aware; and they go out of this World or ever they have made the leaft provifion for another.

I fhall not need to fay how unreasonable fuch a procrastination is, even upon thofe Principles of Natural Reafon on which I have hitherto proceeded in the managing of this great Argument. For if we have fo much reafon as we have feen, to believe that there is to be a Judgment to come, in

which we must render a strict Account of all our Actions; and every days experience convinces us of the fhortnefs and uncertainty of our prefent Life, and the little dependance we can make upon it for the time to come: If in that Judgment the ftate and condition of finners fhall, without controverfy, be very grievous; and there be no way to promife our felves either any peace of Confcience now, or any hopes of Happiness hereafter, but only by acting in fuch a manner, and putting our felves in fuch a ftate, that we need not be either afhamed to live, or afraid to die: It muft then certainly be most fit and reasonable for all of us to begin prefently to confider and do like Men, and no longer continue in thofe fins which are our torment now, and which, fhould we chance to die ere we have repented of them, will prove our ruin for ever.

And all this the very light of reafon, and the dictates of natural Confcience fpeak to us to call us to repentance, and to convince us of the Danger and Unreasonablness of the leaft delaying of it. And if there fhould chance to be any here present, whofe Wickedness and Infidelity render this difcourfe as feasonable to them now, as St. Paul's once was to Felix, I cannot but hope they may meet with fomewhat in this reafoniog that may have the fame Effect upon them, but with a better Confequence than the Apostle's had upon that wretched Man May ferve not only to awaken their Fears of a Judgment to come, but to ftir them up to an immediate provifion for it.

But it is time now to remember, that I am speaking all this while to a Chriftian Affembly, and therefore to fuch as will admit of yet more lively perfuafiyes of a future Fudgment; and of the Great

and

and Eternal Torments that await the Wicked af ter it.

And I fhall not need to fay how much our Religion has difcovered to us, to make the Sinner tremble at the apprehenfion of that dreadful Inqueft, which the best Christian cannot think of without

amazement.

For indeed, where is the Soul fo well established, fo fecure of its own fincerity, as to be able to endure the Horrors of that day, when the end of all things being come, the World its Self fhall begin to tremble, and fall into its ancient Chaos? When the fun, and moon, and ftars fhall be darkened: the mountains fhall quake, and the powers of Heaven be shaken. When the Earth shall be fet on fire: The Heavens fhall be shrivell'd up as a Scroll, the Elements alfa fhall melt with fervent heat. When the Trumpet shall found, and the Graves be opened, and the Dead arife; and our Confciences begin to fly in our Faces, and reprefent to us the fins we have committed; the means and opportunities of repentance, which we have neglelled; and the Everlafting punishment to which we are now juft ready to be condemn d.

O! the terrors of that time, when being diftracted with all thefe amazements, we fhall begin in vain to cry out to the Mountains to fall upon us, and to the Hills to cover us! When we shall be able no where to fee any hope or comfort remaining to us. If we look up to Heaven, that place which we fhall now never be able to approach; behold there our Fudge with all his Holy Angels about him, pronouncing a bitter fentence of Indignation and Wrath, and Eternal Milery against us. If we caft down our eyes below; nothing is there to be feen, but the wretched Companions of our Mifery

K

Weeping

and

and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. The fire already bursting out, in which we are to perish, and yet to be preferved alive for ever; and the Devils ready to drag us into that place of Tor

ments.

How shall we then Curfe our Sins, that have brought us into this defperate, loft Eftate? And too late begin to confider the Wifdom of those happy Men, who have been perfuaded timely to think of, and to provide for Eternity. We fools counted their lives madness, and their latter end to be without honour. We once laugh'd at their folly, and fmiled to fee them pine away themselves in penitential exercifes, whilft we freely indulged our Eafe and our Debauches. But now they are numbred

Wifd. v. 6.

among the Children of God, and their lot is among the Saints.

And now when all these, and infinitely more terrors than I am able to exprefs, are included in that one thought of the judgment to come; tell me, O wretched finner! Canft thou hear me reafoning this day before thee of these things, and not tremble at the apprehenfion of them? And if the very thoughts of a judgment to come, be thus dreadful to thee now, canft thou yet think thy felf unconcern'd to provide against that time, when thou and I, and all who are here prefent, must prepare to appear before it?

Rather, let this reflection engage every one of us to examine our felves, how we fhall then be able to give up our Accounts: And let us fo judge our felves, that we may not be condemn'd for ever. Let us, whilft we have yet the time, confefs our wickedness, and be forry for our fins. Let us turn from our evil way, and from the violence that is in

our.

our hands, that our iniquity may not be our ruin. Let us fly to our Judge, whilft we are yet in the way, before we go down into the Grave, where there is no Repentance.

And if we thus improve the Terrors of the Lord now, we shall hereafter with great Confidence expect them: And that great day, fo dreadful to the unprepared finner, fhall be to us a day of joy and triumph with all Saints.

Which God of his mercy grant it may be to every one of us, for his dear Son Fefus Chrift his fake: To whom be afcribed, as is moft due, Salvation, and Glory, and Power, and Praife, and Dominion, for ever and ever. Amen.