ty challenging your care, of which if ye continue careless, death will bring you into a furprising plunge.

3. You quite mistake your measures for your own intereft, taking a burden on yourself, that might be borne without you, Pfal.lv. 22. Your true way would be to come out from among the world lying in wickedness, to Jefus Chrift, and leave it to him to care for you, which would not be in vain, 1 Pet. v. 7. "Cafting all your care upon him, for he careth for you."

Fifthly, Ill company and their influence hinders many. It was Paul's advantage, that when God called him, he conferred not with flesh and blood, Gal. i. 16. For the world lying in wickedness, will never be content that any of their own should leave them; therefore the call is, Pfal. xlv. 10. "Forget thine own people, and thy father's houfe." Satan has his agents in the world, that will be at all pains to entangle them among them that would be away. And they do it,

1. By their example cafting off the fear of God, indulging themselves in finful liberty, and fo cast a ftumbling block before others, Mat. xviii. 7. And,

2. By their influence other wife, advifing, enticing, and encouraging them to fin, Prov. i. 10. Acting Satan's part.

To remove this hindrance, confider,

1. You have God's call to come away; and it will be a forry excuse for your disobedience, that others by their example and influence hindered you, A&s iv. 19. "Whether it be right in the fight of God, to hearken unto them more than unto God, judge ye." You ought, at the call of your Maker, to come away over the belly of all the bad company that befet you.

2. Open your eyes and fee their danger as well as your own. Believe, that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodlinefs, and unrighte oufnefs of men, Rom. i. 18. and you will be obliged to make away, as the Ifraelites from the tents of Dathan and Abiram.

ence.

3. It will be no comfort to you in the end, to be ruined together with ill company, and by their influTheir fin is great, but they will leave you to answer for yourselves, and bear your own punishment, Prov. ix. 12. And the fociety of companions in fin, in hell, will be bitter, as appears from Luke xvi. 27, 28. "I pray thee, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house; for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, left they also come into this place of torment."

Laftly, Delays are a great hindrance: Prov. vi. 9, 10, 11. "How long wilt thou fleep, O fluggard? when wilt thou arife out of thy fleep? Yet a little fleep, a little flumber, a little folding of the hands to fleep. So fhall thy poverty come as one that travaileth, and thy want as an armed man." Men deceive themselves with oif puts, and the prospect of much time before them. To remove this obftruction, confider,

1. The longer you delay, it will be the harder to get away from among them. Sin gathers ftrength by delay of repentance; as the waters, the farther they are from the head, the greater do they grow. The heart becomes harder, the mind blinder, the will more perverse, the affections more carnal.

2. Your time is uncertain; you know not if ever you will fee the term- day to which you put off. How many are there that drop into eternity ere ever they are aware? The prefent time only is yours.

3. Suppose you should see the time you put off to, God may withhold Luke xiv. 24. from you, grace For I fay unto you, that none of these men which were bidden, shall taste of my supper. Take the alarm therefore in time, and ftrike in with the opportunity ye now have, Ifa. lv. 6. "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.

Laftly, It is a base spirit that puts you on to delay; it bewrays the predominant love of fin, and fhews ye have no regard to God for himself; otherwise he would

would not hesitate one moment to obey his call. Wherefore we beseech you to confider the matter, and delay no longer; let a regard to the authority of God, and a view of his matchlefs excellencies in Chrift; let a fenfe of gratitude for the divine patience, and the love ye bear to your own fouls ; let every confideration, whether from the terrors of God's everlasting wrath, or the comforts of his everlafting love, unite to move you speedily to come out from among the world lying in wickednefs, to the Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Head of the fociety feparated from the world. So coming, ye shall find welcome-I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye fhall be my fons and daughters, faith the Lord Almighty.

And now to conclude, Ye have had the picture of the world lying in wickedness drawn before you, and the call to come away out from among them. It is like these may appear as idle tales to fome, and they may be as one that mocked, Gen. xix. 14. But if ye come not away out from among them, ye will perish among them, and the more fearfully that ye have been fo folemnly warned.

THE

CONSIDERED;

AND

A VIEW OF THE REALITY, PARTS, INHABITANTS, PASSAGE INTO, AND STATE OF MEN IN THE WORLD TO COME.

Several Sermons preached at Etterick, in 1729.

MARK X. 30.

He fball receive an hundredfold now in this time, boufes, and brethren, and fifters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with perfecutions; and in the world to come, eternal life.

YE have heard much of this prefent evil world, and

been called to come away out from among them. I come now to tell you, that there is another world beyond it, into which we must all go; a view of which may be of ufe to ftir us up to come out from among the world lying in wickedness, and to make us more indifferent about the fmiles and frowns of this world.

The text is a part of an encouragement to faints under worldly loffes. The remote occafion of it was, a view of a man ruined with worldly profperity, whofe wealth in the world was the neckbreak of his foul; and fuch examples are never rare, ver. 17-22. (1.) He was a young man, Matth. xix. 20. and a ruler, Luke xviii. 18. Worldly wealth and honour are great fnares to people, efpecially to the young, who are raw and of little experience in the vanity of the world. (2.) He was neverthelefs in fome concern for another world, ver. 17. "Good Mafter, what fhall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" For all the temptations hanging about him, he confidered that there was a life after this, and that he could not carry

his wealth and honour with him thither. Hence though he took Chrift but for a good man, he was very respectful to him, he caft himself into his company, he kneeled to him as one defirous to have his bleffing; he proposes a weighty question to him about another world. It is a pity that any thing in this. world should put that out of one's head and heart.

(3.) But he was a conceited man, unhumbled, unacquainted with his own weakness, and thought he could do well enough, if he knew what. Self conceit mars many good motions, and spoils them all. Our Lord for his humiliation, fets before him, (1.) The holiness of God, ver. 18. "And Jefus faid unto him, Why calleft thou me good? there is none good but one, that is God.". A view of the goodness and holiness of God is fit to humble finners, and let them into a view of their own badnefs and unholiness, Ifa. vi. 5. (2.) The holy law, ver. 19. Thou knoweft the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not fteal, Do not bear falfe witness, De fraud not, Honour thy father and mother. The law in its holy commandments is a looking glass wherein to see our defilement and finfulness. He pitches on those of the second table, for in thefe lies the trial of the fincerity of profeffors of religion. He begins with the command forbidding the lufts of the flesh, then pride, paffion, and revenge, covetoufnefs, &c. For the law in these things fpeaks to all alike, young and old, great and fmall.

The youth hereupon gives an account of himself, ver. 20. Master, all these have I observed from my youth; in which, though he, discovers his ignorance of the fpirituality of the law, and his felf. juftifying temper; yet withal he fhews, that, notwithstanding of his circumftances in the world, he had been kept from the grofs pollutions of it. He had been no rambl ing youth, but kept within the bounds of decency. It feems, though he had not grace, he had education.