antedate Rottennefs and Corruption, what an Offering is This! This foul polluted Inftrument of Sin, to bring before a God of fuch Infinite Spotlefs Purity, who cannot endure to behold the leaft Iniquity! And when Others in defiance of an After-Reckoning, will proftitute their Confcience day by day, Some to their Ambition and Others to their Intereft, Some to one Vice and Some to another, but Some even to their Humour and Jollity; I fay, When Men's Eternal Interefts are at Stake, and they can fo far fhake off the Confideration of them, as to make them give place to a Little Wild Mirth, or any Wanton Folly, it is to be Fear'd they have almoft ftifled, if not quite worn off all Apprehenfions of a Refurrection and Judgement Day. It would be hard to reconcile it to Reason, how 'twere poffible for Men to be fo far bereft of Sence, to fuch a degree of Stupidity, and Madness, as thus to dally with Heaven in a Cafe of fuch Infinite Concernment. When they come to State their Accounts, and give us the Summ of all the Pleasures they have ever known in Sin, is there any thing There to be found to ballance with Damna. tion? Unless the Remembrance of Paft Follies can yield fuch grateful Reflecti

ons,

ons, as can be able to fupport the Spirits under Dying Agonies and Endless Torments.

But if we come to a Comparative Confideration of Our Obligations, and of those gracious Advantages that God has vouchfaf'd us beyond former Ages, in the full Discovery of his Will to us, (the Only Sure Guide we have to the Performance of it,) This will inhance our Folly, and add weight to our Condemnation. If we know and beleive that we fhall Rife again, either to Happinefs or Damnation, and can find in our Hearts to Live fo little under the awe of fuch Principles, the very Heathens will rise up in Judgement against us and will Condemn us. For if both Jews and Gentiles, whofe Understandings were left in the Dark, or at beft but in a glimmering and Uncertain Light, as to the Resurrection and Future State, (the beft Countercharms we have against the Charms of Sensual Pleasures,) did yet think themselves obliged to the practice of Vertue and Honefty, according to the Measures of their Knowledge; the Question will then return upon us with redoubled Obligation and Atronger force of Emphafis What manner of perfons ought W E to be! We, who have the Oracles of Truth to inftruct

ftruct and guide us; the Holy Spirit of God to Affift and Strengthen us; All the Promises of the Gospel to encourage us, and all the Terrors of the Lord to awe and reftrain us; We, that Beleive the Refurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting; What manner of perfons ought We to be, in all Holy Converfation and Godlinefs! looking for, and hafting to, the Coming of the Day of Christ, that when He who is our Life ball appear, we also may come forth to the Refurrection of Life, and may appear with Him in Glory. To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all Honour and Glory and Praise for ever and ever.

SER

SERMON X.

257

ACTS XXIV. 25.

And as he reafoned of Righteousness, and Temperance, and Judgement to come; Felix trembled, and anfwered, Go thy way for this time; When I have a Convenient Seafon I will call for thee.

ST

T. Paul had been under a long
Confeffion for the Gospel of Chrift:
and was no fooner come up to

Ferufalem, but, (according as the Holy Aas xx.
Ghoft had witneffed in every City thro' out 23.
his Journey, that Bonds and Afflictions
Should abide him there,) the Jews which
were of Afia knowing how he had preach-
ed against the Neceffity of Circumcifion
and the Law, amongst the Gentile-Con-
S
verts,

verts, raised fuch a Tumult against him, as a Subverter of the Law of Mofes, that he was in Danger of being pulled in pieces by them, as we are told Chap. xxiii. And they had afterwards more than forty of them bound themselves under a Curfe to Affaffinate him, if he had not been rescued by the Chief-Captain, and sent to Cæfarea to Felix the Governour; who after he had heard him defend himself against his Accufers, though he found no Cause to Condemn him, yet neither would he Acquit him, but ftill kept v. 26: him under Reftraint, in hopes that money fhould have been given him of Paul, that he might loofe him from his Bonds. But he being upon that expectation ftill kept under Confinement, it happened during his Imprisonment, that Drufilla, V. 24. the Governour's Wife (which was a Jewefs,) having the Curiofity to hear him difcourfe concerning the Faith in Christ, St. Paul was for that End brought before them. But it proved not to be, as they had defigned it, a Matter of Diverfion; For he chofe fuch Subjects to discourse upon, Righteousness, and Temperance, and a Judgement to come, and laid them fo home to them, that That Word which is Quick and Powerful, and Sharp as a two edged Sword, pierc'd to the very Soul,and made Felix Tremble.

Drufilla