merciful King? And will not this prevail with thee, to throw thy felf down at his Feet, and kiss his Scepter, and confider thy imprudence, in deviating fo long from the end of thy Creation and Redemption, and make thee contented to part with all the ftrong holds of iniquity within thee, and with all imaginations, that exalt themselves against the obedience of Christ Jesus?

O do not tell me, that thou wilt most certainly bethink thy felf fome time hereafter, When ficknefs, and approaching death fhall take thee off from thy worldly bufineffes; Vain foolish Man! How doft thou know thou shalt live till to Morrow? For, What is thy life? even a vapour that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. How many thousands are cut off, as they are going up the Hill, in the Noon of their days, before half their race be run; and what Patent haft thou from Heaven, that it fhall not be thus with thee? God laughs at that Repentance, which Men begin, when they can keep Sin and the World no longer; he fees it is forced, and squeezed, and weak, and feeble; and will God accept of thy Devotion, when thou hast exhausted the Cream and Marrow of thy bones in the Devil's fervice? How, Sinner Confider thy ways upon thy Death-bed? Mad Man! Doft thou know what Confideration means? The Soul must be in its full strength, that confiders the finfulness, and fad confequences of her life. Doft not thou fee, how in fickness the Soul fympathizes with the Body? How the Mind languishes with the Flesh? How weak, how feeble the Thoughts are upon a Death

bed?

bed? How the Mind is employed with thinking of the pain, and anguish, and uneafiness of the Body? How Men's weakness scarce gives them leave to repeat the Lord's Prayer intire, without interruption? How fetling their Eflates, and difpofing of their worldly Affairs, and Sorrow, and Vexation, that they have not managed their fecular Concerns with greater Prudence, takes up their Cogitations? And how tranfitory and fuperficial Men's Thoughts of Sin, and of another World are, except they have gotten a habit of Heavenly-mindedness, by a long and conftant practice of Holiness, in the time of their Health and Liberty before? And doth Salvation deferve no more, but a few flight, and skin-deep reflexions, when thou lieft a dying? Canft thou have fuch low Thoughts of everlasting Glory, as to let Confideration of it come behind all the fatisfactions of the flesh? Canft thou entertain fuch pitiful sneaking Conceits, concerning that mighty Heaven, God, out of his fingular and unparallell'd Mercy, hath condefcended to promife to his Saints, as to delay thy Contem plations, and thy taking a view of it, till thy Heart-ftrings break, and thy Throat begins to rattle, and the Houfe is falling? Go ye curfed into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels. Alas! when Men are dying, the time of working is paft, that's the Night wherein no Man can work; that's the time indeed to reap the comfort of our former confcientious Practices, but not the time to work out our Salvation in; that's the time of rejoycing,

because

because our Redemption draws nigh, not the time of fetting out from the Gates of Hell that's the time to finish our course with Joy, not the time to begin a Holy Life. Alas! the ftrength and vigour which must be used in a Heavenly Conversation, is then gone, and Men are juft upon the point of reckoning with God; their Accounts must then be ready, not to make up: So that if thou art not ready now, to take the Spiritual concerns into ferious Confideration, thy heart will be hardned every day more and more, and the longer thou liveft, the lefs mind thou wilt have to set about it; and if thou doeft not think it worth thy trouble, to fpare now and then an hour from thy Worldly bufineffes, to mend this one thing neceffary, thou doeft as good as tell God, that thou wilt have none of his Heaven, and judgeft thy felf unworthy of Eternal Life.

O Sinner, the prefent, time is the day of Salvation, this is the acceptable time, now strike, and thy fins will fall; now ftrive and the Crown will be thine; now fall to work, and promise thy felf Eternal reft: Thou canft call no time thine own, but the present,that's only in thine hands; make use of that, and fave thy felf from this untoward Generation. Extricate thy felf from the delufions of the flesh, take courage, and be gone; ftay not in Sodom, now accept of Mercy, now lay up thy Treasure, and fecure thy right to the Tree of Life; now remember thy Creator, and God will remember thee when he makes up his Jewels, and spare thee, as a Man would fpare his own Son that ferves him.

Hear

Hear then this, Men, Fathers, and Brethren! the God of your Fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Ifaac, and the God of Jacob hath fent us to you, to tell you, that this Supper is ready, and the doors are open, and the Guests are come, and yet there is room, and that you may fill the room which is left, is the meffage we come to acquaint you withal from him who delights not in the death of a finner, but would have him turn and live. Hear this, ye Great Ones, ye Nobles, ye Mighty Men, and confider your ways: Confider whether that voluptuous life you lead, is like that life which that Saviour, in whom you pretend to believe, doth prefcribe in his Gofpel? Confider whether you are not obliged to practife all thofe Virtues and Duties that the meaner fort perform? And whether in framing to your felves a new way to Heaven, a way different from what the Word of God doth represent, you are like to be happy in thofe Caftles of Air you build, and like to arrive to that Glory which you wish for, and hope to be received into? Confider what your pride and fenfuality will at last conclude in? And whether you will dare to brave it at the great Tribunal, as now you do on Earth, where you have no body to control you? Ye that are Magiftrates, whom Providence hath placed over others to execute Justice, and to Thew a good example, Confider your ways Confider how heavy your connivance at the most notorious fins, fins that offer to pluck even God out of his Throne, will lie upon your Confciences one day! Confider what hurt you

do,

do, how many Souls you ruine, by your debau ched and luxurious lives! Confider whether you can fatisfie God as easily as you can do Man, and whether that injuftice, that oppreffion, that covetousness, that lewdnefs you make nothing of now, are not fins weighty enough to bear you down into the burning Lake? Ye learned Men, whether Ministers or others, who fee and know more than the Vulgar do, Confider your ways. Confider whether that great knowledge you have, will not procure you double ftripes, if you improve it not into a higher degree of seriousness, than common people ufe; Confider what a ridiculous thing you make Religion, if, being perfwaded and convinced of the rationality of it, you do not express the power of it in your converfations. Confider whether building Heaven with your Voices, and Hell with your Behaviour and Deportment, will not bring down upon you the feverest Plagues that are written in the Book of God! Ye that are Hearers of the Word, and frequent the Temple of the Lord, to be taught his Statutes, and his Ordinances, Confider your ways, Confider whether so many entreatings, warnings, reproofs, and admonitions, in feafon and out of feafon, which you take no notice of, will not be brought in one day, as evidences to juftifie your everlasting condemnation? Confider how God is like to refent your barrennefs and unfruitfulness under the richest means of Grace, under the droppings of his fatnefs! Confider how justly God may punish your not digesting and applying his Commands and Precepts to your