fhall be charged upon you? (4.) If every fin deferves the wrath of God, what will be the cafe of these who shall step into eternity, laden with all these innumerable evils? How many hells will their one hell have in it?

Think, and think seriously, upon these things, and I believe ye will find it hard to rest satisfied, till ye understand how fuch vast debts may be difcharged, and how ye fhall anfwer when reproved for fo many, and fo great offences. Think on thefe things, I fay, and dwell upon the thoughts of them, till ye be made to fee your own mifery, and then the news of a faviour will be welcome.

I fhall now proceed, in the third place, to speak to you who are old men. Ye whofe faces speak your age, and tell that ye are quickly to be gone; we are now particularly to addrefs ourselves to you, and to make good our charge of fin against you, from inconteftable evidences and proofs. Give ear therefore, old men and old women; tho' you be posting off the stage, and, it may be, are within a few removes of eternity, yet ye have not perhaps duly confidered your own ftate and condition: we must tell you in God's name, ye have finned and come fhort of his glory. And for proof of this,

1. We need go no further than your very faces. What has confumed your youthful beauty? What has turned that fmoothnefs which in the days of your youth was, it may be, your own delight, and that of others, into thefe many wrinkles which now every one fees, and ye may feel? has not fin, or God, upon the account of fin, done it? Thou haft filled me with wrinkles, fays Job, which is a witness against me, and my leanness rifing up in me, beareth witness to my face, Job

xvi. 8. If ye be not finners, tell me, I pray, whence are the unfteady hands, the dim eyes, the mouldred teeth, that palenefs of the vifage, that approaches near to the colour of that mould into which a little hence ye are to be turned? Are not all these things proofs of your guilt, and witnesses against you?

2. Have not ye past through childhood and youth? and have not ye the fins done in these ages to account for? What, how many, and how grievous they are, ye may in fome measure underftand, from what has been difcourfed on this head fome days paft. Now, fure if your confciences have been awake all the while, you might understand your concernment in these things, and how deeply guilty ye are, though ye had no more to account for but these. It is accounted, by the fpirit of God, to be one of the great miseries of the wicked, that they fhall ly down in their graves with their bones full of the fins of their youth. His bones are full of the fins of his youth, which shall ly down with him in the duft, Job XX. 11. Thefe, though there were no more, will rat your bones, gnaw your hearts, and make you lofe the repose which many times ye propose to yourselves in the grave.

3. Ye have had much time, and have, no doubt, loft much time. Many precious hours and days and years are spent and gone, and nothing, or nothing to purpofe, done in them. And for evincing this, I thall put a few questions to you about the improvement of your time. (1.) What have ye done for God in it? The great business ye came into the world for, the great defign of your creation, was the advancement of the glory of God. The Lord hath made all things for himself,

and

and even the wicked for the day of evil, Prov. xvi. 4. Now are there not old men, and old women here, who have lived all their days, and dare not fay that to this very day they ever had a serious thought of advancing the glory of God? To fuch we fay, Ye have hitherto done nothing but finned; your whole life has been nothing but one continued tract of fin. As many thoughts, as many words, as many actions, fo many fins. (2.) What have ye done for the church of God? Every one is obliged to do fomething or other for the church, Pfalm. cxxii. 6, 7. Pray for the peace of Jerufalem; they shall profper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and profperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions fakes I will now fay, Peace be within thee: because of the houfe of the Lord our God, I will feek thy good. Now, are there not old men and old women here, who never fhed one tear for the church of God, who never were concerned for its welfare? I fear there are not a few here, even old people, who have feen many changes, but never had any concern for the church of God. If their private worldly concerns went well with them, it was all a matter to them what became of religion; let it fink or swim, it was all one to them. Such are grievous finners before the Lord. (3.) What have ye done for your fouls? The Lord has given every one of us a great work to do. We have our falvation to work out with fear and trembling. He has given us a day to do it in; and that day is to be followed with an evening wherein none can work. Now, what of this work is by hand? Your day is almoft fpent: is it not the twilight with many of you already? I fear, I fear, there are here old men, over whom the fhadows of the

everlasting evening are just ready to be stretched forth, who have their work yet to begin. O fad and mournful condition! A great work to begin! a work that hath coft many waking nights, and fore toil and labour for many years; and this ye have to begin now, when your day is almost gone, when your. Sun is fetting, is as it were going in over the hill, and ready immediately to dump down, and leave you in eternal night! This cafe were enough even to rend a heart of ftone, and to force tears from a rock, if duly confidered. O what fin, what folly, what mifery is there here!

4. You have seen many providences, both fuch as were of a more public nature, and concerned the state of the church of God in general, and fuch as concerned yourselves more particularly. Now here I again enquire, (1.) What obfervations have ye made? The providences of God deferve to have a peculiar remark put upon them. Remember that thou magnify his works which men behold, Job xxxvi. 24. is a command of God that extends to all: and it is a grievous fin, for which we find a profeffing people heavily threatened, that they did not regard the Lord's doings. Wo unto them that rife up early in the morning, that they may follow ftrong drink, that continue until night till wine inflame them: and the harp and the viol, the tabret and the pipe, and wine are in their feafts; but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither confider the operation of his hands, Isa. v. 11, 12. Now, are there not many providences loft, and therefore as many fins? (2.) What experiences have ye got? Many providences afford many experiences: and they who have managed them to advantage, have reaped notable advantages by them, for their confirmation in the ways

of

of God: and if ye have not done fo, ye have as many fins as ye have loft experiences. (3.) Where have they left you? nearer or further off from God than they found you? Every providence, mercy or judgment that has not brought you nearer to God, has carried you further from him; and confequently therein ye have finned. O what multitudes of fins are here!

5. As you are guilty by committing fins of your own, fo you have contracted much guilt by feeing other men fin, when ye have not been suitably exercised therewith. That we fhould be exercised with other mens fins, the fcripture makes mention exprefly. Now, that I may let you fee' how many ways ye have finned here, I pofe you upon it. (1.) You have feen many fins committed; what teftimonies have you given against them? Every one that fees God difhonoured, fhould give a teftimony for him, either by reproving fin, according to the direction of the apostle, Eph. v. 11. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them; or by withdrawing from the fociety of fuch, according to the command of the Spirit of God, who bids us Ga from the prefence of a foolish man, when we per ceive not in him the lips of knowlege, Prov. xiv. 7. For fometimes any other reproof, than by withdrawing may be improper; for the wife man forbids us to reprove a fcorner left he bate us, Prov. ix. 8. or if this cannot be got done, without the neglect of moral duties, there is yet ano ther way we may give a teftimony against fin, and that is, by a circumfpect walk, evidencing a regard to God, a belief of his threatenings, and the advantage of religion. Thus Noah reproved or condemned the old world, Heb, xi, 7. Now