curfed in the city, curfed in the field, curfed in thy basket and thy ftore, curfed in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy ground," Deut. xxviii. 15. Nay, every bit of bread thou eateft, the curfe of God goes down with it. All your bleflings turn into curfes, and your mercies into judgments; "your table is a fnare to you, the word is the favour of death," and the facraments are feals of condemnation to you. The beft actions you perform are but an abomination to God; they bring the more guilt upon your head, and treasure up the more wrath against you. Better you had perished in infancy than continue to live in a Chriftless ftate; for, the longer you live, ftill the more miferable you are: For every day, every night, every hour you live, you heat the furnace hotter by your new actions, which are all fins, even the very best of them. O is this a ftate to be continued in? Camft thou ly down content, edly to fleep another night in this condition? God for bid that thou live and die in this ftate; for, if thou doft, thou wilt rife in the fame condition at the last day. Nay, your ftate then will be more dreadful than ever, for then thou wilt fee above thee the judge frown ing, beneath thee hell gaping, within thee confcience gnawing, without thee the world burning; on the right hand your fins accufing, on the left hand the devils terrifying, the good angels keeping thee out of hea ven, and the evil angels pulling thee down to hell. O poor Chriftlefs foul, continue to think on this fubject till your heart begin to melt, your eyes to weep, and your tongue to cry, "O what fhall I do to be faved? O that I knew where to find Chrift: O to be found in him! I would give ten thousand worlds to be fure of this, it will be terrible if death or a tribunal find me before ! be found in him." Is it not worth your while to fpend fome time upon this foul concerning fubject? Hath not. God given you reafon for this very end, and will you not exercife it? can you think to be faved otherwife? Do you expect that God will carry you to heaven like a ftone, or fave you without or againft thy will. Doth the world and your bodies deferve to be remembred the whole day, or whole week or year throughout? and and doth not God and your foul deferve to be thought on one day in the week, or one hour of the day? Say not that you have no fpare time for this work for, if you will fpare none of your own time for it, I beseech you to fpend God's time well this way. Is it not better to fpend fome part of the Sabbath in thinking upon your fouls ftate, than in thinking upon the world? Spiritual things, alas! trouble you little on weekdays, and why fhould worldly things intrude upon God's day? 2. Think upon your happinefs, if you be in a state of grace, and in Chrift; you are delivered from fin's guilt, from fatan's fetters, from the law's curfes, from death's fting, and hell's terror. Thou haft now peace with God; juftice itfelf is thy friend; all thy enjoyments are fweetned by Chrifl's love; all your afflictions fanctified by his blood. God himself is your God, your Father, your Friend, your Portion; yea, all things are yours IV. Death is a proper fubject to be meditated upon on the Sabbath day; for, in the xcii. Pfalm, wherein the exercifes of the Sabbath are defcribed, God calls and teaches us to confider our latter end. First, the end of the workers of iniquity, who, though they spring up as grafs, and flourish for a feafon, fhall yet in the end be destroyed for ever, ver. 7. 9. And again, the, latter end of the godly, whofe horn, though it be abafed to the duft for a while, yet in the end, fhall be exalted. It is one principal work of minifters this day, to be proclaimers of mortality, and remembrancers of death, according to Ifa. xl. 6. 7. 8. So then it is our duty every Sabbath to have ferious thoughts of death. Think with yourselves, What if this be the laft Sabbath that ever I will fee on earth? I may be called to die, before I be called to hear another offer of Chrift. Have I fitten the gofpel fummons this Sabbath, to come and embrace Chrift, or to furrender my heart to him? What if I get a fummons by death to come and appear before him before the next Sabbath? this I cannot fit. Death is a bold messenger, he cannot be deforced; when he comes and takes a man by the throat, the the proudeft, flouteft, and frongest in the world, muft 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? 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? "Owhat 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-ftrings are breaking, and all turning dim and dark abcut 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 Chriflefs Ginners do in that hour, when there is but one fingle step 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 shall 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 flinging, 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 cut of Chrift, 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?" 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 the the next dart may hit thee: And what if thou be un prepared, and hell follow the pale horse? Think upon the fottish stupidity of many, who though they ftand tottering day and night upon the brink both of the grave and hell, yet can spend 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. Foolish 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 ftill 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 too. Think what a fearful surprise 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 feek, and they know not where. O it is fad to be turned out of the clay tabernacle, and to be put to knock, and cry, "Lodging, lodging for God's fake;" and yet get no other anfwer 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 feek when the enemy is at the gates; our oil to buy, when the market is ended, and the bridegroom come." Think alfo upon the happinefs 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 be gins his joy. It is an outlet to misery, and an inlet to happinefs; 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 fin; 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 bespingled with light, where they fhall figh no more, and, which is infinitely better, where they fhall fin no more for ever. They thall 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 spend a whole eternity in praises, doxologies, hofannas, and hallelujahs to God and the Lamb. Think on the blessed change, O believer, that death will make in thy circumftances ere long. It will tranfport thee from a cottage to a palace, from a wilderness to Canaan, from a ftormy fea to a fafe fhore, from a vile dunghill to a glorious city, a city whose 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 Jefus 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 somewhat dark, the paffage is fafe, and the end is light; the day is fhort betwixt thee and home, 'tis but wink and fee God. Lafly, Think often how holily and fpiritually you will with you had fpent 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 wish, O that I had spent more of my time, and especially 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 spent the Sabbath religioufly 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 falling. 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 step more, and I fhall be all in heaven." And must not the latter end |