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 course of health and quiet of mind, an innocent relish of many true pleasures, and the ferenities which virtue raises in him, with the good-will and friendship which it procures him from others; fo when he dies, if thefe things prove mistakes, he does not outlive his error, nor fhall it afterwards raise trouble or difquiet in him, if he then ceafes to be; but, if these things be true, he shall be infinitely happy in that ftate, where his prefent fmall fervices fhall be fo 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 least painful idea they can have of it is, that it is an extinction and ceafing to be, but they are not sure even of that; fome fecret whispers within make them, whether they will or not, tremble at the apprehenfions of another state; neither their tinfel wit, nor fuperficial learning, nor their impotent affaults upon the weak fide, as they think, of religion, nor the boldest notions of impiety, will hold them up then. Of all which I now present fo lively an inftance, as perhaps hiftory can scarce parallel.

Here were parts fo exalted by nature, and improved

proved by study, and yet fo corrupted and debafed 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 strength of that weak caufe, and at first despised, but afterwards abhorred it. He felt the mischiefs, and saw the madness, of it; and therefore, though he lived to the fcandal of many, he died as much to the edification of all thofe who faw him; and, because they were but a small 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 fome time or other violently 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 fhort 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 affistances 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 deftroy 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 some sharp reflections on their past life, fo as to be refolved to forfake their ill courfes, will not take the least encouragement to themselves in that defperate and unreasonable resolution 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 last, and from thence prefume, that they alfo 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 thofe who have dealt fo difingenuously with God and their own fouls, 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 disease that may so disorder their understandings that they fhall 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 affisting; and there is no reason for those, who have neglected thefe affiftances all their lives, to expect them in so extraordinary a manner at their death. Nor can one, especially in a fickness that is quick and critical, be able to do those things that are often indifpenfably neceffary to make his repentance complete; and even in a longer disease, in which there are larger opportunities for these things. Yet there is great reason 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 desperate iffue that is poffible.

But they that will still go on in their fins, and be fo partial to them as to use all endeavours to ftrengthen themselves in their evil courfe, even by thefe 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 curfe," He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he that is filthy, let him be filthy ftill. But, if our Gofpel 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."

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