of his Saviour, fecured him his Love, to whom belong the Ifues of Life and Death, whom then should be fear? He refigns his Soul into the Hands of a moft gracious and inoft merciful Redeemer Of whom then Should he be afraid?. -Should this (as the Diffolute would fain believe) prove the End of his Being as well as Life, he can only be fwallowed up in the common Gulph of Darkness and Oblivion. But if it prove the Beginning of another State, (which that it will is as fure as the God of Truth can make it) the fame Evidence then, that affures him of it, muft affure him likewife of his own endless Happiness and Glory in it.

Whilft, alas! the unrighteous Man can have no fuch Profpect. His Guilt must fill his distracted Soul with ftrong Apprehenfions, Doubts, and Uncertainties; and all around him, if he has any thinking Intervals, muft be Amazement and Confufion. The most pleafing Scene he can entertain himself with is the lamentable Expectation and Hope of falling at once into Nothing; and if this weak Reed cannot fupport him, then is nothing lefs to be expected by him, than the Horrors of Divine Vengeance, and eternal Burnings. And as he cannot be certain but that this may be the Confequence; how awakening muft be the Terrors, how fhocking the Distractions of his doubting and unfettled Mind? Poffibly, fays he, the Soul

F 2

may

1

may die with the Body; and then he obtains the mighty Happiness of perifhing like his Beaft. But if not, if his Expectations fhould fail him here, which he cannot but grant may likewife poffibly happen; then how fruitlefs are the Pleasures in which he gloried! How helplefs the Gold in which he trufted! Then, how immeasurable are the Torments that await him, and how much happier had it been for him if he had never been born? Though in the Jollity of his Heart he may have faid merrily, that there is no God; and though in the Bitterness of his Spirit he may wish heartily that there may be none; yet as, at beft, he can only wish, but not prove, that there is none; inexpreffible furely must be the Agonies of that departing Soul, that has nothing to fupport her but Uncertainty. For the Truths of Christianity are fo rational and fo divine, and the Evidence of them is fo ftrong and fo convincing, that they cannot but reflect a ftrong, though terrible Light upon him; cannot but, in fpite of himself, make him dread the Certainty and Completion of them. - Though his Vices may have obfcured their Luftre, and his Pleasures have made him deaf in the Time of Health to Impreffions from them; yet no fooner fhall these have left him, and the Approach of Death have wiped off these Scales from his Eyes, but he must tremble to see his Danger of dwelling with everlasting Burnings;

muft,

muft, one would imagine, fhrink, if it were poffible, into his defired Nothing, thus nearÎy to behold how fearful a Thing it is to fall into the Hands of the Living God. For to be affured, that even be that formed him will fhew him no Favour, and that even be that made bim will have no Mercy on him, is to be funk into the lowest Abyfs of Horror and Defpair; the Agonies of which no Tongue can attempt to defcribe, without faultring and Hefitation, no Mind conceive or reflect on without Fear and Trembling. And may therefore the Father of Mercies, and the God of all Comfort, fo teach us to number our Days, while thefe Terrors are at a Distance from us, that we effectually, through his Grace, may apply our Hearts to that Wisdom which can alone, through the Atonement of his beloved Son, effectually protect us against them.

And for our Encouragement thereto, let us turn our Eyes a little from fo deplorable a Spectacle, to the Confideration of him who has nothing less to fear than the Anger of his God, nothing more to fuffer, than Death or Annihilation. — If the good Chriftian had no Hopes of future Exiftence, and knew not but both Soul and Body might be destroyed at his Death, yet he is fure, that this is the worst that can happen to him; and that, if on the one Hand, no future Happiness is to be attained; fo neither, on the other, is any future Mifery to be undergone by him.

If his God in whom he trusted be yet able to deliver him, he is fure to receive Glory and Honour from him; and if not, yet at worst he knows all that can happen to him; which is, that Death by a few short and transitory Pains, fhall for ever remove from him, the Miferies and Difappointments of Mortality. -So that, he can have no Reafon but to acquiefce, and think his Diffolution a Bleffing, fince whatever happens he must be a Gainer by it, either by having his Sorrows fucceeded by Glory, or at least by having them at an End and ceafe for ever.- Which makes this fecond remarkable Difference between his Death and that of the Ungodly, that, whilst the Reprobate, in the midst of inexpreffible Torments, is hurried away in Agonies he knows not whither, the faithful Christian, with Quietness, Patience, and Refignation, falls afleep. Not that this Reft is the only Particular in which his Death resembles Sleep more than the other, there is yet a greater to be added to it, which is the Affurances he has that he shall rise again.-Which will be fhewn in speaking to the

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III. Third Instance given of his Happiness at the Hour of Death; which is, that he is raised, by the Consciousness of having endeavoured to discharge his Duty, to an earnest Expectation and Hope of enjoying, through the Merits of his Redeemer, that future and eter

nal

nal Glory, which was by the Heathens thought a reasonable, and is by the Gospel made a certain Reward of Faith, Piety, and Virtue.

And how great an Happiness this must be, the wicked Man himself, if he ever seriously thinks at all, muft in fome Measure be fenfible; fince it is not to be conceived but he must have, fome Time or other, felt thofe inward Emotions of Joy and Pleasure, which difinterested Reflections on Eternity naturally raise in the Mind; though perhaps his Vices will not fuffer him to acknowledge it.Reflections on Immortality are fo fatisfactory and delightful, and the Defires of it are so natural and congenial to the Soul, that all his Artifices will not be able to remove, though they may suppress them; nor will ever any Thing be able entirely to eradicate them, without deftroying the Soul itself with them. - The Force of these Defires is ever difplaying itself, not in the Good only, but even in the worst of Men; who, because they can reasonably hope for no more, please themselves with the low Expectation of living in Fame at least; are at indefatigable Pains and immenfe Expences, to tranfmit the bare Memorial of themselves to future Generations; and fome of whom, when other Means have failed, have thought it better to be remember'd with Difgrace, than not be remember'd at all; have endeavoured to purchase to themselves perpetual Reproach, by fome monstrous Acts