ed) which may make them more subject to Scruples, Doubts and Fears, than other Men. Yet fuch Men may be in as a fafe Condition, and have as good Real Grounds of Hope as other Good Men have, though they do not Dye fo chearfully, nor encounter Death with fo much Courage and Confidence. There

may not be wanting fincere Faith and Truft in God, and yet an humble Diffidence may fometimes prevail. And I doubt not but there are Many, very Many, that ferve God humbly all their Days with Fear and Trembling, and at laft Depart out of this Life without any Ravishing Tranfports, nay far from Fulness of Glory and Peace; and yet when the Time of Harveft fhall come, what they have Sown in Tears, they shall Reap in Joy. They may now go on their Way weeping, Pf. cxxvi. yet if they bear forth Good Seed, they shall doubtless come again with Joy, and bring their Sheaves with them.

But to proceed:

A Good Confcience does therefore give a Man Courage and Comfort in himself, because it gives him a Good Hope towards God, and Truft and Confidence in him. So the

Apostle argues, 1 John iii. 21. If our Heart condemn us not, then have we Confidence towards God. We then believe that we are in God's Favour, and have an Interest in Him; We can then fly to him in our Troubles, and make our Requests known unto him ;

E 4

for

Pf. xxxiii.

for the Eye of the Lord is upon them 17, 18. that fear him, and put their Truft in his Mercy; to deliver their Soul from Death. Therefore if we do truly fear him, and have faithfully ferv'd him, this Confidence we may have in him, that he will do what is Best for us, whether it be for Life or for Death: Either he will deliver us from Death, or else will stand by us, to ftrengthen and comfort us under the Stroke of it. What Seneca fays of Philofophy will hold true of Religion, "That the Soul in Trouble may at any time

by the Help of it, steal out of the Body, " and take a Flight to Heaven for Comfort " and Refreshment." But those only muft look for Help from Thence, that have an Intereft There. And Oh! what an Unspeakable Blessing it is, when all Earthly Comforts fail, to be able to look up with Confidence to him that dwelleth in the Heavens ! Behold (fays the Pfalmift,) there was no Man that would know me; Refuge failed me, and no Man cared for my Soul: Then I cryed unto thee, O Lord, and faid, Thou art my Refuge, Pfal. cxlii. And thus good Hezekiah, when he was told of his Death by the Prophet Ifaiah, immediately betakes himfelf to God, and with full Truft in his Mercy, pours out his Soul before him. RememIf.xxxviii. ber now, O Lord, I befeech thee, how I have walked before thee in Truth, and with a perfect Heart, and have done that which is

Good

Good in thy Sight. And God heard his Prayer, and added to his Days fifteen Years." So Shadrach, Mefheck and Abednego, tho' Dan. iii. they were in the Hands of the Great Nebuchadnezzar, the Mighty King of Babylon, yet they were nothing daunted at his Rage and Fury, nor at all terrify'd with his Burning Fiery Furnace; for they trufted in God that he would deliver them: If it be fo (fay they) our God whom we ferve is able to deliver us from the Burning Fiery Furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine Hands, O King. Accordingly he did deliver them in a very miraculous Manner.

But without a Miracle, fuch a full Truft and Confidence in God will take away the Bitterness and Horror of Death, and render any Death Easy and Welcome, and make a Man chearfully refign up his Life to God that gave it. Or if Nature Doubts or Fears, or is ready to shrink back and give way, Faith comes in to its Affistance, and the Chriftian relieves the Man. Thus St. Jerome tells us of Old Hilarion, how he called upon his Soul on his Death-bed, quickening and encouraging it to Depart*: "Get thee forth, "What art thou afraid of? Go forth, my

* Egredere, quid times? Egredere, Anima Mea, quid dubitas? Septuaginta prope Annis fervifti Chrifto, & Mortem times? In bac verba exhalavit Spiritum. St. Hieron in vitâ Hilarionis.

Soul,

"Soul, nothing Doubting. It is almost seventy Years that thou haft ferved Chrift, "and art thou yet afraid to Dye? With "which Words he breathed forth his Soul. III.

IIIdly, The Third and Laft Difference that I obferved betwixt the Death of the Wicked, and the Death of the Righteous, lies in the Different Apprehenfions they have of Death, with regard to their Future State that is to follow upon it.

So long as the World goes roundly on with us, and we can fit Quiet and Undifturb'd in the midst of its Enjoyments, we are generally well contented to wrap ourfelves up in them, and not much trouble. ourfelves with anxious Forecasts against the Futurities of another State. Or if the Thoughts of a Judgment to Come will fometimes thrust themselves upon us, we foon grow weary of fuch Thoughts, and are ready to throw them offIt is far enough from us as Tet-We have Time enough to think of That hereafter. And fo we adjourn fuch Thoughts, as Felix did St. Paul, difcourfing on the fame Melancholick Subject, to a more convenient Seafon.

Whether the Time of Death, a Time of Pain, and Trouble, and Perplexity of Mind, be a more Convenient Seafon to think of the Future Judgment, and the Life to come, there is great Reason to queftion; but it is

most

most certain that it is a Time when we cannot choose but think of them. We can no longer be thoughtless of another Life, nor indifferent in the Concerns of it, when we find we must take our Leaves of This: And then appears this third moft eminent Difference betwixt the Death of the Wicked, and the Death of the Righteous: For all the Three Confiderations propos'd hang together in natural Connection and Dependance one upon the Other; and therefore when a Man can have no Satisfaction in looking Backwards, nor any Comfort in his Prefent Condition, knowing that Death is not only a Diffolution, but alfo a Confignment to another State, and that his Portion in the World to come will be according to his Actions in This, he has but a Difmal Prospect before him.

And This alone is enough to account for all the Agonies of the Dying Sinner. For how can it be otherwise, but that Horror and Anguish must at that Time feize the Guilty Soul, when knowing what his Life has been Here, he knows what he is to expect Hereafter. It must needs make a Man's Heart ake, and his Soul like Wax melt in his Body, Pfal. xxii. and all his Joints tremble, to find himself Dy. 14. ing, and yet think that if he does Dye, he is loft and Miserable to all Eternity. This begins to kindle a Sort of Hell already in his Bosom.

Though