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vain: But yet, weak as you suppose these Fears to be, we must be much weaker than we are, before we can get rid of them; that is, we must lofe our Reason and Understanding, before we can forget that there is a God who will judge the World in Righteoufness. These are natural Thoughts, the plain Result of that Reason which is born with us; and, be they true or be they false, they have a real Effect upon our present Happiness: And if they are true, as I trust we shall all one Day be convinced that they are, they will add Eternity to the Misery of the Wicked.

We meet fometimes with fuch hardened Sinners as are Proof for many Years against all Confiderations of this Sort; but their Hardness is no Security to them against the Mifery of these natural Reflections: Vice will foon impair their Strength, and bring down the Pride of their Hearts; at least, Time will bring them within Sight of the Grave; and when Weaknefs and Infirmities lay hold on them, or Death draws near to execute his Commiffion, they awake as one out of a Dream, and their long-filenced Fears begin to fpeak with double Terror.

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And what a Condition is a Man in when there is nothing past that he can reflect on without Self-Condemnation, nothing to come that he can contemplate without Horror and Distraction of Mind? Inquire of him in this Condition, what profit there is in the Pleafures of Vice? Ask him, whether the Fears of Futurity are all idle Dreams? And as you like his Answer follow his Example.

It is a vain Attempt to describe the Misery of a Sinner, who lies expiring with all his Senfes about him: The Imagination cannot furnish Ideas ftrong enough to paint out this Scene of Woe; and the Experience of it may we never know!

There is in all Men a natural Averfion to Death: The best are not free from it: But this is an Evil that has its Remedy. Thought and Reflection will furnifh us with many Arguments to balance against this Fear: A Truft in God, and a comfortable Expectation of an happy Futurity, will enable us to perform the last Act with Applause, and to give up ourselves with Courage and with Joy into the Hands of our Redeemer. By thefe Supports the righteous Man, after a Life of folid Comfort, may find Comfort too in his Death, and

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and wait with Patience and Tranquillity for that Summons which he trufts and believes will call him to perpetual Joys.

Could we but rightly balance this Difference between the Wicked and the Righteous in their latest Hours, it would fufficiently determine which has made the happier Choice: But take the whole together; confider the wicked Man in his Life and in his Death, how he lives defpifed by himself, and contemned by the World, without thinking of God, or thinking of him with Dread, and at laft expires under the utmost Torments and Agonies of Mind, and we fhall feel great Reason to join in the Petition of the Text, Let me die the Death of the Righteous, and let my last End be like his.

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DISCOURSE

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N expounding this and fuchlike Paffages of Scripture, and in applying them to themselves, Men are apt to commit two great Mistakes; which, though

they are of a very different Kind, in their Confequences are equally fatal and pernicious. On one hand, they think they can. never fufficiently enlarge the Promise of the Text, or build too great Expectations upon the Affurances of Peace that are given to them; eafily fuffering themselves to be perfuaded, that under the general Name of Peace is to be comprehended whatever the World calls Good: And because the Peace

which they most affect, and which most ftrongly poffeffes their Imaginations, is that which the World fuppofes to be placed in Power and Affluence, in an easy Fortune, and an healthy Body, they fondly conclude, that the Promife of Peace infers the Promife of these good Things, which they esteem as the genuine and neceffary Effects of Peace. On the other Hand, to ftrengthen and fecure their Title to these Things which they fo paffionately admire, they confider the Condition to which the Promife of Peace is annexed in quite a different View. Here all their Force is employed to limit and restrain, and to expound away the Rigour of this Article, and to fhew upon how eafy Terms, upon how fmall a Portion of Righteousness and Obedience, a Man may be numbered with those who love the Law of God, and to whom the Affurances of Peace are given. Under this Head they make very reasonable Allowances to themselves upon account of the great Perfection of the Law, which renders it extremely hard to practise; upon account of their own Weakness and Infirmities, through which they can hardly avoid often mistaking, and often offending against the Law, and upon account of the Mercy

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