faith the Author of the Book of Wisdom Chap. xvii. 11. Wickedness condemn'd by her own Witness is very timorous, and being prefs'd with Confcience, always forecasteth terrible Things.

Then Men come to understand at last the Value of Innocence and a Good Conscience. When a Man finds himself finking into the Regions of Darkness, and must go thorough a Melancholy Lonefome Paffage into an Unknown World, and has no Hopes of Reprieve, nothing before his Eyes but Speedy Death, and after That the Judgment, There to be Try'd, and Judg'd, and Sentenc'd Once for all Eternity, Lord! what Comfort there is at fuch a Time in a Good Confcience! A Good Confcience, and a Bleffed Hope, is worth all the World Then; They are that Pearl of inestimable Price, which, if it were to be bought with Money, the Dying Man would be glad to give all that he has in the World for it.

But fome Sins are not only Enormous in themselves, but have been Injurious to Others too; it may be to the Ruin of whole Families. The Remembrance of these, above all Others, muft lye Cold at the Heart, when a Man comes to Dye: It will be but Cold Comfort at his Death to leave full Treasures, when he knows they have been filled with the Gain of Oppreffion, and the Wages of Unrighteousness, and he has the

Tears

Tears of the Widow and the Fatherless bottled up against him. Nor will Honour and Greatness avail or please him Then, when he knows they have been raised upon bad Foundations; upon the Foundations of Sacrilege, Fraud, or Perjury, or Injustice. And All that he has got by them, and plac'd his Happiness in, he must now leave behind him; He will have nothing left to carry with him, but a wounded Confcience to his Grave: That alone fticks close to him, to attend him to the Judgment Seat of Christ.

These indeed are Sins of the firft Magnitude, and of a more than ordinary affrightful Afpect. But All Sins are Frightful and Afflicting, and Difheartning at the Laft, when the Sinner most stands in need of Comfort. As he every Minute Shifts about, and changes Poftures, and throws from Side to Side, to find fome Bodily Reft, fo he finds no less Uneafinefs in his Mind; Like the Unclean Spirit that has all along poffeft him, Seeking Reft and finding None. When God Mat. xii. had given his Law to the Jews, amongst the many Curfes that he denounc'd by the Mouth of Mofes against the Tranfgreffors of it, This stands in the Clofe of all, Deut. xxviii. 65. The Lord fhall give thee a trembling Heart, and failing of Eyes, and forrow of Mind; and thy Life shall hang in doubt before thee, and thou shalt Fear Day and Night, and fhalt have none Affurance of thy

43.

Life. In the Morning thou shalt fay, would God it were Even; and at Even thou shalt fay, would God it were Morning, for the Fear of thine Heart wherewith thou shalt Fear. This methinks is a very lively Description, and looks like a fort of Type or Emblem of the Restleffness of the Sinner's Sick-bed, when he is now come to be as Sick of his Sins as he is of his Diseases, and lies weltring in his Pains, the ominous Prefages of the bitter Pains of eternal Death.

And indeed, When a Man has taken no Care all his Life, what should he do at his Death? Or whither can he think to turn himself for Eafe? Should he fly to the World? But it is the World and its Vanities that have help'd to betray him. Should he feek to his Riches to be his Comforters? They are no Reftoratives to the Sick; They Prov.xi.4.profit not in the Day of Wrath: Or if they have been ill gotten, they then add to the Malady.

But if it is the Expenfive Sort of Vices that he has followed, he has then perhaps another Sort of Reflection to make, fuch as will pierce his Heart thorough with many Sorrows: For it is a fad Confideration for a Dying Man to think, that he has outliv'd his Estate, and been the Ruin of his Fami ly; and must now leave his Affairs embroil'd, his Children undone, his Creditors Prov. x. 7. defrauded, and his Memory to rot amongst Men.

Οι

Or muft he seek for his Comfort from within Himself? From the Soul, or from the Body? But thefe it is that want the Comfort, and in this Condition, Miferable Comforters are they to each other, when Both of them are wounded and ftung with their Guilt, wherein they have been Copartners, and mutual Tempters to one another, and now feel the Old Wounds of their Sins and Follies fresh bleeding within them, for a Testimony againft them: For there are Vices that leave Wounds and Stings in the Body too; and when They have precipitated Nature's Course, and brought them to the Infirmities of Age before their Gray Hairs are upon them, the Pains and Aches that rack and torture their Rotten Bones are fad Remembrancers of their Old Sins,-Their Bones are full of the Sins of their Youth, Jobxx.11. which shall lye down with them in the Duft.

Ör though a Man may have Repented of the Sins of his Youth, and might find some Comfort from his Repentance to his own Soul, yet ftill it will afflict and forely grieve a truly Penitent Heart, to think what must become of his Lewd Companions in Drunkenness and Intemperance; into which perhaps they have been led by His Perfuafion or Example: Or of his Partners and Accomplices in the Sins of the Flesh, to which they were feduc'd by His Arts and Entice

ments,

ments, and may perhaps be already Dead, or may Dye, Impenitent in their Sins, and fo leave him a Share of Their Guilt alfo to anfwer for in the Other World.

And who knows in this Cafe where his Guilt fhall End? For a Man becomes anfwerable not only for the Principal Sin, but for all the Increase, the Growing Product of it. As the Infection of his Wickedness may be propagated, and the Influence of his Evil Example may spread itself, even from Generation to Generation; fo may his Guilt and Punishment (for ought we know) be in Proportion growing and increafing, for many Years or Ages after He is Dead and gone, even to the World's End.

Thus we have seen, that the Sinner looking Backwards, finds Nothing but Trouble and Perplexity of Mind, Nothing but SelfCondemnation and Confufion; as the Wifeman fpeaks, Wifd. iv. 20. When they caft up the Accounts of their Sins, they shall come with Fear, and their own Iniquities fhall convince them to their Face. When they now most want Comfort at the departing Hour, their Sins come flocking about them, and haunt the Death-bed, like so many Furies come to torment them before

their Time.

This is the Cafe of the Man that has spent his Life in the Courses of Wickednefs, which he has never Thought to Re

pent