only knows when that fentence is to be put in execution: till then, he has allowed us time to prepare for an everlasting state that must follow; a state of endless mifery, if we fhall have spent our time ill; and a state of unfpeakable happiness, if we fhall have done the work in its feafon which God hath appointed us.

We should do well therefore to confider, that the time of our life, which is already past, and was not employed in doing our duty, is for ever loft to us; which must needs be an aftonishing thought to all fuch as have spent the greatest part of their life in fin and vanity, without confidering why God fent them into the world, or what will be expected from them when they come to account for the time they have lived.

He that has spent his youth in folly and doing nothing, has no more youth to spend in virtue; and he that has never thought of the concerns of his foul, till a few days before he comes to die, has but a few days in which to provide for eternity. Now, this is a confideration which should make Christians very serious indeed.

If a man in his worldly affairs has made an ill bargain, time, and advice, and future care, may fet all strait again, and the lofs may be made up. If a man has spent a good estate he has this comfort however, that he fhall not always live to be reproved for his bad husbandry.

But

But what amends can be made, what arguments can be made use of, to comfort a person who has lived an unthoughtful, uselefs, finful life; and is juft going to give an account of his talents, and the ufe he has made of them?

Christians would do well to lay these things to heart, and not to trust the endless welfare of their fouls to fuch uncertainties as are the number of our days, which God only knows, and who may be provoked to shorten them when men make fo ill use of them.

In fhort; we are no fooner out of the hands of our Maker, but we are upon our way to the grave; we do, as St. Paul speaks, we die daily. Some part of our time, fome of our friends, fome our comforts, are every day going, till at last we follow them ourselves. I must not say, and then there's an end of us; fo far from that, that then begins our happiness or misery;-for,

IIIdly. Our eternal happiness or misery will depend upon our having spent this life well or ill; this being the fentence of life and death: They that have done good, fhall go into life everlafting; and they that have done evil, into everlafting fire.

A confideration fo ferious and affecting, to fuch as lay any thing to heart, that one should need fay no more on this head, if the corrupt heart of man, as we find by fad experience, did not render this very confideration of little

ufe,

ufe, by inventing ways to delude themselves, without fcripture and without reason.

I fhall not now infift upon the delufion of those who take no care how they spend their time, depending upon the prayers of those they leave behind them, as if God had given them any warrant in his word to do fo; or as if thofe they leave behind them would be more concerned for their fouls than they themselves were, when they were alive. Neither fhall I do any more than take notice of the delufion of fuch as depend upon the goodness of God, without confidering, that God is just as well as good; and having exprefsly declared, that he will judge men according to the works done in the body, whether they have been good or evil; he will most certainly do fo, though foolish men fhould fancy that he will not be fevere with them, notwithstanding their provocations.

He has fhewed the world that he can be fevere, when finners go on to provoke him, by destroying not only particular perfons, but families, cities, countries, and the whole world, for their wickedness.

But that which I would more particularly infift upon is, the delufion of depending upon a death-bed repentance; when men defer that, which fhould be the work of their whole life, to the very laft moments of it, to the evening, when no man can work. A delufion fo common, that one cannot be too earnest

with Christians to beware of it, left it happen to them as it did unto Efau,' who found no place for repentance, though he fought it carefully with tears.

Chriftians therefore fhould be very often put in mind, that the terms of falvation are already fixed, which are, that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. That when men repent, they should turn to God, and bring forth fruits meet for repentance. A very dreadful confideration to fuch as have put off their amendment till it be too late to be done!

To which if we add fuch confiderations as thefe:-That the condition of fuch as defer their repentance grows every day more and more defperate. That the judgment of the unfruitful tree, cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground, may be paffed upon a finner when he least thinks of it. That the merciful invitation, Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, fuppofes, that there is a time when he will not be found of them that feek him; that be who being often reproved, yet hardeneth his neck, fhall fuddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. That the ftate of finners may be so provoking, that though Noah, Daniel, and Job, fhould intercede for them, yet God will not hearken to their prayers.

Whoever confiders these things, and that God has made our time fhort, and our death uncertain, on purpose that we may begin be

Heb. xii. 17. • Ifaiah iv. 6.

times

times to confider of our latter end, and be always prepared for our Lord's coming; that death is ever at hand, and the confequence of a furprize moft dreadful. A Chriftian cannot think of these things with any degree of seriousness, but he must fee a neceffity either of being prepared for death whenever God fhall call him, or of being undone for ever-which cannot be thought on without aftonishment.

Well then; what a wife man when he comes to die would wish that he had done, that he ought to do forthwith; fince in the midst of life we are in death; fince the day wears away apace, and fince eternity depends upon our making use of our time.

I will therefore tell you, what every man in his fenfes will wifh he had done when the night comes; that is, when he comes to die: he will with, for instance,

ift. That he had made a just and christian fettlement of his temporal concerns, that he might not be distracted with the cares of this world, when all his thoughts and hopes fhould be upon another.

2dly. That he had made his peace with God by a timely repentance.

3dly. That he had faithfully done his duty in the ftate of life in which the providence of God had placed him.

4thly. That he had, in fome good measure, weaned his affections from things temporal,

and