a God, a judgment, and a life to come, and, if fo, then he that believes these things, and lives according to them, as he enjoys a long courfe of health and quiet of mind, an innocent relish of many true pleafures, and the ferenities which virtue raifes in him, with the good-will and friendship which it procures him from others; fo when he dies, if these things prove mistakes, he does not outlive his error, nor fhall it afterwards raife trouble or difquiet in him, if he then ceases to be; but, if these things be true, he fhall be infinitely happy in that ftate, where his prefent small fervices fhall be so exceffively rewarded. The libertines, on the other fide, as they know they must die, fo the thoughts of death must be always melancholy to them; they can have no pleasant view of that which yet they know cannot be very far from them; the leaft painful idea they can have of it is, that it is an extin&ion and ceafing to be, but they are not fure even of that; fome fecret whifpers within make them, whether they will or not, tremble at the apprehenfions of another ftate; neither their tinfel wit, nor fuperficial learning, nor their impotent affaults upon the weak fide, as they think, of religion, nor the boldeft notions of impiety, will hold them up then. Of all which I now prefent fo lively an instance, as perhaps history can fcarce parallel.

Here were parts fo exalted by nature, and im

proved

proved by study, and yet fo corrupted and debased by irreligion and vice, that he, who was made to be one of the glories of his age, was become a proverb, and, if his repentance had not interpofed, would have been one of the greatest reproaches of it. He knew well the small ftrength of that weak caufe, and at first defpifed, but afterwards abhorred it. He felt the mischiefs, and saw the madness, of it; and there-fore, though he lived to the fcandal of many, he died as much to the edification of all those who faw him; and, because they were but a fmall number, he defired that he might even when dead yet speak. He was willing nothing fhould be concealed that might caft reproach on himself and on fin, and offer up glory to God and religion. So that, though he lived a heinous finner, yet he died a most exemplary penitent.

It would be a vain and ridiculous inference for any, from hence to draw arguments about the abftrufe fecrets of predeftination, and to conclude, that, if they are of the number of the elect, they may live as they will, and that Divine Grace will at some time or other viclently constrain them, and irrefiftibly work upon them. But as St Paul was called to that eminent fervice, for which he was appointed, in fo ftupendous a manner as is no warrant for others to expect fuch a vocation, fo, if upon fome fignal occafions fuch converfions fall out, which,

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which, how far they are thort of miracles, I fhall not determine, it is not only a vain, but a pernicious imagination, for any to go on in their ill ways upon a fond conceit and expectation that the like will befal them: for, whatsoever God's extraordinary dealings with fome may be, we are fure his common way of working is, by offering these things to our rational faculties, which, by the affiftances of his grace, if we improve them all we can, fhall be certainly effectual for our reformation; and, if we neglect or abuse these, we put ourselves beyond the common methods of God's mercy, and have no reafon to expect that wonders fhould be wrought for our conviction; which, though they fometimes happen, that they may give an effectual alarm for the awaking of others, yet it would destroy the whole defign of religion, if men fhould depend upon, or look for, fuch an extraordinary and forcible operation of God's grace.

And I hope, that those, who have had fome sharp reflections on their paft life, fo as to be refolved to forfake their ill courfes, will not take the leaft encouragement to themselves in that defperate and unreasonable refolution of putting off their repentance till they can fin no longer, from the hopes I have expreffed of this lord's obtaining mercy at the laft, and from thence prefume, that they also fhall be received when they turn to God on their death-beds:

for,

for, what mercy foever God may fhew to fuch as really were never inwardly touched before that time, yet there is no reafon to think, that those who have dealt fo difingenuously with God and their own souls, as defignedly to put off their turning to him upon fuch confiderations, fhould then be accepted with him. They may die fuddenly, or by a difeafe that may fo disorder their understandings that they shall not be in any capacity of reflecting on their past lives. The inward converfion of our minds is not fo in our power that it can be effected without divine grace affifting; and there is no reason for those, who have neglected thefe affiftances all their lives, to expect them in fo extraordinary a manner at their death. Nor can one, especially in a ficknefs that is quick and critical, be able to do thofe things that are often indifpenfably neceffary to make his repentance complete; and even in a longer difeafe, in which there are larger opportunities for these things. Yet there great reafon to doubt of a repentance, begun and kept up merely by terror, and not from any ingenuous principle. In which, though I will not take on me to limit the mercies of God, which are boundless, yet this must be confeffed, that to delay repentance with fuch a defign, is to put the greatest concernment we have upon the most dangerous and defperate iffue that is poffible.

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But they that will still go on in their fins, and be fo partial to them as to use all endeavours to strengthen themselves in their evil courfe, even by these very things which the providence of God fets before them for the cafting down of these strong holds of fin; what is to be faid to fuch? It is to be feared, that if they obftinately perfift, they will by degrees come within that curse, "He that is unjuft, let him be unjust still: and he that is filthy, let him be filthy fill. But, if our Gospel is hid, it is hid to them that are loft, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, left the light of the glorious Gospel of Chrift, who is the image of God, fhould fhine unto them."

A SERMON