Though a Man were grown Sick of Life, as fome Men feem to be when they are disappointed of their Defires, or baffled in their great Designs, or fo opprefs'd with Melancholy, or so loaded with Sickness, Pains and Infirmities, that Life is become a Burden to them; yet even fo, he would be loth to change upon Uncertainties, to go he knew not to What, nor Whither. But when Wicked Men are convinc'd, that the other World is a State of Rewards and Panishments, and their Confcience tells them what Their Portion will certainly be in it, they have Reafon to fhrink and tremble at the Thought; And accordingly we fee what Horror and Perplexity it puts them into at the Time of Death. They have hitherto gone on stupidly and inconfiderately in a Customary Train of Sins, and never seriously thought of their Danger till now that they are upon the Confines of the Grave: And what a Confternation must they then be in, to find themselves, (as it were upon the first rouzing from Sleep) on the Brink of a Precipice! For now upon the Approach of Death the Scales fall off from their Eyes, and they fee that there is but a Step betwixt them and a Vaft Eternity. How inexpreffible then must their Amazement be, when they are going to be drag'd to the Great Tribunal, to be try'd by that Judge whom they have wilfully provoked and offended all their Life long, and their

own

own Conscience ready to be the Accufer?

But then again for a Man to confider, that he has by his own wilful Obftinacy brought all his Mifery upon himself, This cuts to the Heart afrefh; it adds Aggravation to his Guilt, and gives more Edge to his Torment. So one Terror after another dart themselves fo thick into his wounded Soul, that the Man is overwhelmed with Astonishment, and fuch Apprehenfions of his approaching Woe, that he can do nothing but vainly Wish, that he had never seen the Light, or had been carried from the Womb to the Grave.

This is the fad End of the notorious defperate Sinner, that has fo hardned himself in Sin, that either he cannot Repent, or else has little Hopes to atone for fo much Guilt by fuch a Late Repentance.

But, God be thanked, the Generality of the World are not at this desperate Pitch. Most Men do preserve some kind of Sense of Religion; and Confcience keeps them under fome Awe and Reftraint: Moft Men have their serious Fits to think of Death and Judgment, and of the Account they must one Day give But if they have only had ferious Thoughts, and fometimes taken up good Purposes, but have not kept to them; If they have only Meant Well, but Liv'd Ill, and have gone on to indulge themselves in Unlawful Liberties, fuch Men alfo, upon the Ap

proach

proach of Death, are under great Disturbance : They have nothing to ground any good Hope or Comfort upon; Or if they have any Hopes, they have much greater Fears, as knowing a great deal by themselves to terrify and difhearten them; and therefore are full of Doubts, and direful Apprehensions and Forebodings of the Doom that is hanging over their Heads: As faith the excellent forementioned Author of the Book of Wisdom, Chap. iii. Horrible is the End of the Unrighteous Generation; They have no Hope, neither Comfort in the Day of Tryal. And a Wifer than he has told us, that the Wicked Prov.xiv. is driven away in his Wickedness,

32.

Ibid.

he is overtaken in his Wickedness, and hurried away in it as in a Storm, in Defpondency and Confufion.

But the Righteous (faith he) hath Hope in his Death: He hath a double Hope, a Hope to be delivered from the Evils and Miseries of this Life, and the Hope of a glorious Immortality after Death.

Good Men may indeed often have a great Share of the Vexations, and Troubles, and Miseries of this World, whilft Ill Men live in Luxury and Plenty: In this Cafe the One is fenfible that He fhall change much for the Better, the Other much for the Worse. They that will take out all their Portion of Pleafure and Happiness here, have it beforehand, and must expect none Hereafter.

Son, remember

member (fays Abraham to Dives) that Thou Luke xvi. in thy Life-time receivedft Thy Good Things, 25. and likewife Lazarus Evil Things; but Now He is Comforted, and Thou art Tormented.

II.

But Good and Pious Chriftians may not only be under many Troubles in this Life, but may also fometimes be under Apprehenfions and Doubts concerning their Final State. But God has promised that he will not leave them Comfortless in the End, but will visit them with his Salvation, and bring Pf. cxii.4. their Soul out of Trouble- -Unto the Godly Pfal. xcvii. there arifeth up Light in the Darkness Light is fown for the Righteous, and Gladnefs for the Upright in Heart It is sown for a Time of Need; for fuch a Time as This: Or to use the Prophet's Words for a Day of Darkness and of Gloominess, Joel ii. for a Day of Clouds and of thick Darkness; fuch Days may the Weak and Feeble-minded many times have, Days of Gloominess and of thick Darkness; and then the Light of God's Countenance Thining in upon them, any Beam of Heavenly Comfort, breaking in upon them from Above, comes like the Morning Spread. ing upon the Mountains; which breaketh forth, and fhineth more and more unto the perfect Day.

For when a Man has long laboured under the Infirmities of a Mortal Nature, and all the Frailties of a Sinful State, and fees that

now the Time is come that he is to be delivered from this Body of Sin and Death, and to be tranflated to thofe Blissful Regions above, where he shall no more be exercifed with Doubts nor Fears, nor disciplin'd with Afflictions; Where there shall be no more Decay, nor Weakness, nor Want, nor Trouble, nor Sin, nor Sorrow, nor Pain, nor Death; I fay, When a Man's Faith grows strong as his Bodily Strength decays, and can administer fuch Comfort to him as This, it comes into the Soul like a refreshing Gleam of Light, a Foretafte of Heavenly Joy, that makes him defpife the Pain and Anguish, and all the Natural Terrors of Death.

Thus when St. Paul had gone through a Thousand Labours and Perils at Home and Abroad, by Sea and Land, in Weariness and Painfulness, in Hunger and Thirst, in Cold and Nakedness, in Prifons frequent, in Deaths oft, and had all the while been combating with the Powers of Darkness allo; perceiving that he was now at the End of his Warfare, ready to be received into the Joy of his Lord, he looks not upon his approaching Death, (though it was to be a Violent not a Natural Death,) yet he looks not upon it as an Evil to be dreaded and fhun'd, but welcomes it with Joy; Rejoicing greatly that his Work here was finished, and 2 Tim. iv. the Time of his Departure was at Hand, both as it was to put an End to all his La

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