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the proudest, foutest, and strongeft in the world, must go, whether willing or unwilling, all is one.. There are many in the world, at the church, in health this Sabbath, who will be on a death-bed, or in eternity, the next; and, why may not I be one of them a

Think ferioufly upon your latter end: Think what will be your cafe in a parting hour, where you will take up your lodging, whether in Abraham's bofom, or in the devil's arms? what will be my thoughts, when I am taking my laft look of hufband, wife, children, and relations? What will be my cordial, when the world fails, when friends are weeping about my bed, when my fenfes are lofing their office, my heart and eye-firings are breaking, and all turning dim and dark about me?O, what if my fleepy confcience awake then, and my old buried fins revive and fall on me, to tear me in pieces?" O what will Chriftless finners do in that hour, when there is but one fingle ftep betwixt their departing fouls and the ftate of devils?O.it is fearful to die in your fins, as it is threatened, John viii. 24. If ye believe not that I am he, ye fhall die in your fins." O better die in a dungeon, among toads and ferpents, than die in your fins; for thefe are ferpents that never leave ftinging, and will faften fo upon thee, as never to part with thee again; they will go to the grave with thee as thy companions, to a tribunal with thee as thy accufers, and to hell with thee as thy tormentors. O it is terrible to die out of Christ, and without fight of an interest in him; to make a leap in the dark over a bottomlefs gulf, not knowing where your feet may light; or to launch into the great ocean of eternity, without fight of a landing place for your foul. O how will the poor foul fhrink back into the body in fuch a cafe, when it begins to awaken out of its dream, and look out into another world, faying, "How fhall I venture forth, where I fee nothing but darkness and horror, or a flaming fword ready to meet me ?".

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Think upon the continual hazard you are in of death; its arrows are flying thick about you, and many are falling flain on every hand of you; and God knows but

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the next dart may hit thee: And what if thou be unprepared, and hell follow the pale horse ?

Think upon the fottish ftupidity of many, who though they stand tottering day and night upon the brink both of the grave and hell, yet can fpend whole weeks, yea months, without a ferious thought of eternity: Yea, in the house of mourning, and in the fight of the dead, they can think, talk, jeft and laugh, and never have one grave thought or word about their latter end. Foolih finners are rightly compared to a company of blind. men dancing about the mouth of a very deep pit, which they do not perceive, nor hear the groans of thofe who fall to the bottom of it: Now and then one drops in, but still the rest continue the dance. This day a fwearer dies, and tumbles into hell; the next a drunkard, the next a whoremonger: But ftill their companions in fin go on in their mad career, till they drop in toom sy

Think what a fearful furprise death is to many carelefs finners; it lights upon them like a falcon out of the air; they muft flit, and they were not thinking on it; they have their lodging to seek, and they know not where. O it is fad to be turned out of the clay tabernacle, and to be put to knock, and ery, "Lodging, lodg ing for God's fake;" and yet get no other answer but a frown, or, " Depart from me, I know you not!" What cause have we to pray, "Lord, Let us not have our work to do, when our day is done; our weapons to seek when the enemy is at the gates, our oil to buy, when the market is ended, and the bridegroom come," 31 Think alfo upon the happiness of a dying believer, who can go forth half way and meet death, and bid it welcome, as a friend. Death ends his forrow, and begins his joy. It is an outlet to mifery, and an inlet to happiness; it frees him of his greatest grievance in the world, that is fin. As fin was the womb that brought forth death, fo death is the tomb that buries fm; thus God in his wifdom, caufes the daughter to destroy the mother; and hence it is, that death is put in the believer's inventory of goods, 1 Cor. iii. 22. "Death is theirs." It is their Father's fervant fent to carry them home to their Father's houfe; a palace all befpangled

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with light, where they fhall figh no more, and, which is infinitely better, where they shall fin no more for ever. They fhall be troubled no more with an ill heart, nor a tempting devil; they fhall complain no more of darkness, and diftance from God; but fhall fpend a whole eternity in praifes, doxologies, hofannas, and hallelujahs to God and the Lamb. Think on the blefsed change, O believer, that death will make in thy cir cumstances ere long. It will transport thee from a cottage to a palace, from a wilderness to Canaan, from a flormy fea to a safe fhore, from a vile dunghill to a glorious city, a city whofe walls and foundations are of precious ftones, its ftreets of gold, and its gates of pearl; whofe light is the Lamb, and whofe temple is God. Haft thou not cause then to love the Lord Jesus Christ, who has provided this city for thee, and found out a way to it; who by his death has unftinged death, and by his blood has paved a way through its dark valley for thee to walk in, and fear no ill? O believer, fear not though the trance be fomewhat dark, the paffage is fafe, and the end is light; the day is fhort betwixt thee and home, 'tis but wink and see God.

Lafly, Think often how holily and fpiritually you will with you had spent this day, when you come to a death-bed, and death and eternity begin to ftare you clofely in the face. You will then begin to wifh, O that I had spent more of my time, and efpecially of the Lord's day, in meditation and prayer! O if God would try me again, how ferious and diligent would I be ! Confider, on the other hand, what a pleasant death-bed the righteous will have, who have fpent the Sabbath religiously! what fatisfaction they will have in the review thereof and what comfort in the profpect of an everlasting Sabbath above, to which they are haftening! They will be rejoicing when others about them are weeping; they will be fmiling when their eye ftrings are breaking, and inward ftrength failing. They will be longing to be with Chrift, which is beft of all. It was a choice faying of one near death, " My head is in heaven, my heart is in heaven, it is but one ftep more, and I fhall be all in heaven." And must not the latter

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end of fuch be peaceable and pleasant? Many doubtJels with Balaam, would wifh to die their death, however ill they like their life; many, like that young man, who faid to his loofe companion (after they had vifited holy Ambrofe on his death-bed, and faw how cheerfully he was triumphing over approaching death) " O that I might live with thee, and die with Ambrofe!" But it is vain to think to dine with fatan and lufts in this world, and hereafter to fup with Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven;" for whatsoever a man foweth, that fhall be alfo reap," Gal. vi. 7.

V. Another fubject of meditation on the Sabbath-day, is the faints everlafting reft and employment in heaven. You are called this day to have frequent thoughts of it, fince the Sabbath is an emblem thereof, and ferves to keep us in mind of it. Take care then, O believer, to spend every Sabbath in the view of heaven, and live every Sabbath as it were to be your laft, and behave this day as one that believes you may be in heaven before the next Lord's day, celebrating an eternal Sab bath.

Let your worship this day below, put you in mind of that more perfect worship above, where you fhall fee him whom you worthip, and enjoy immediate commu nion with him. O the difference betwixt that worship there, and ours here, is great! There is no weatinefs there in beholding God, no wanderings nor excurfions of the heart from God, no inclinations there to droufinefs or fleep in worship, no dull or low conceptions of God, no deadnefs of heart or frame; their harps are never out of tune, their hearts are always up, and fit for the high praises of God. There is no note lower there than "Glory to God in the higheft" every faint. fings his hallelujahs on the higheft key, and all of them join harmonioufly in the work of praifing God with one heart and foul. Are Are congregational affemblies of faints fo pleasant on earth, efpecially when they jointly and melodiously fing God's praife? O what will it be then, when they all meet above in that great" general affembly of the church of the first born," together with the "innumerable company of angels," and there with VOL. IV:

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one heart and voice fing God's praises? How ravishing will it be, to hear that eternal mufic of the bridechamber, that fweet melody of the church triumphant, where there is no jarring ftring, no difpleafing found, no difcord between heart and tongue, no willows there. to hang their harps upon, no bad news to be heard, no fad fight to be seen, no evil to be felt or feared to all eternity. Poor difcouraged believers, are ye now troubled with ill hearts and vain thoughts? Are ye plagued with wandering and wearying hearts in duty? These complaints ere long fhall be taken out of your mouths; read Eph. v. 27. the church above "hath neither spot nor wrinkle." Once the glorified faints faces were as black and wrinkled as yours, but now they have none : Once their hearts were as bad as yours, but now they are as fixed" pillars in the temple of God, they go no more out,"

Take a view this day, by faith, of the glorious company above, behold Chrift upon his white throne, Paul with his crown of righteousness, and all the faithful ones in Abraham's bofom: How gloriously do they fhine in the kingdom of their Father! The fun is a very glorious creature, but it would be useless there, it would not be feen for the brightness of the Lamb; nay, every faint fhall be as glorious as that fun. Who can tell the happiness of the inhabitants of that place, where every head wears a royal crown, every hand a palm of victory, every eye overflows with joy, and every tongue with fongs of praife? O believer, think with yourself, what a difference there is betwixt your state and theirs!

Oh, I am fighing, they are finging; I am finning, they are ferving God; I am groaning out my complaints, they are trumpeting forth God's praife; I am in darknefs, and cannot fee God; they dwell in light, and fee him face to face. O my Lord, muft I ftay behind, when they are going? Muft I ly groaning and fighing here, while they are triumphing above, and dividing the fpoil My Lord is gone and left the earth, and entered into his glory; my brethren and friends are gone to their blessed rest, and must I wander in the wildernefs, abfent from home, far diftant from my Father

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