of all peace, ferenity and joy. Then alfo, all temporal enjoyments, the objects of your love and defire, and the only things you have now to allay your raging thirft for happiness, will be for ever torn from you, and leave you to famish in a difmal void; and then you will pine away with eager, impatient, infatiable defires, which will gnaw your hearts, and prey upon your fpirits like hungry vultures. Suppofe you were now ftript naked of every enjoyment, and nothing left you but bare being, with your ufual capacity of enjoyment; fuppofe you were deprived of the light of the fun, the products of the earth, the comforts of fociety, and every imaginable bleffing, and doomed to wander, forlorn and hungry, in fome difmal defert, how confummately miferable would this privation alone render you! But this will be the doom of the ungodly, as soon as death breaks their connections with this world. They must leave all their enjoyments behind them, and yet carry their eager defires, their infatiable avarice of happiness, along with them; and these will make them capacious veffels of pain; for a capacity of enjoyment not satisfied is a dreadful capacity of pofitive mifery. Thus, you fee your deftruction comes upon you according to the course of nature; and you will die eternally, though the hand of the executioner should never touch you, as the unavoidable refult of your prefent temper, the deadly disease under which you labour.

And hence you may fee, by the way, that it is no act of cruelty or injuftice in the Supreme Judge, to fhut you up in the prifon of hell; for what elfe thould he do with you, when you are fit for no other place? Is it cruel to exclude the fick from entertainments, or perfons infected with the plague from the fociety of the found and healthy? Is it cruel to confine madmen in bedlam, or criminals in prifon? Certainly no. Therefore God & his throne will be guiltlefs for ever.

And now, my dear brethren, have any of you been convinced that this is really your cafe? That your

temper

temper and conduct is fuch as at once renders and proves you utterly unfit for heaven, and, as it were, naturalizes and seasons you for the infernal regions? Alas! this is a fhocking and alarming difcovery indeed: but, blessed be God, you have made it in time: you have made it while in the land of hope, and in a ftate of trial; and therefore there is reafon to hope, that, if you now take the alarm, and earnestly use the means of grace, your condition, bad as it is, may be happily altered; and you, who are now fit for nothing but deftruction, may yet be made meet for the inheritance of the faints in light. It is because there is fome reason for this hope, that I have honeftly expofed these alarming and unpopular things to your view. You must know them fooner or later: and if you should not know them until you fall into deftruction, alas! it will be then too late. Believe me, my brethren, these things do not proceed from a morofe malevolent heart, nor are they intended to drive you into defpair. I speak to you with melting pity and affectionate benevolence; and inftead of driving you into defpair, my design is to fave you from it for ever, and bring you to have a good hope through grace. And as the evidence of what I have offered is fo plain to common fenfe, do not pretend you cannot underftand me, and do not know what I would aim at. I am only inculcating upon you this felf-evident truth, that unless you are prepared for heaven, you shall not be admitted; and that, if you are fit for nothing but deftruction, you must be destroyed. Can any mathematical demonftration be more plain than this? And are any of you fo void of fenfe, reafon and faith, as not to underftand and believe it.

I now prefume, that fuch of you as have made this discovery with regard to yourselves, are also convinced, that you cannot poffibly escape destruction, unless your prefent temper be changed, and quite a new frame of spirit given you.

And

And who, do you think, can work this happy change in your hearts! If you are fo vain and ignorant as to flatter yourselves that you can effect it in your own ftrength, make the trial, and you will foon be undeceived. It is God alone that can work in you both to will and to do. My text tells you, it is He that prepares the veffels of mercy for glory: It is his Holy Spirit alone that is equal to the arduous work.

But in what way is this influence to be expected? Is it in a course of impenitent finning? of prefumption and fecurity? of floth and negligence? No; to expect it in that way, is to tempt the Lord your God. But fuch of you as would efcape the damnation of hell; fuch of you as have any defire to be for ever happy, hear me,feriously hear me, and I will tell you, in a few plain words, what you must do, if you would expect the aids of divine grace to prepare you for glory.

You must immediately think feriously of your condition you must labour impartially to know the truth of your cafe: pry into the dreadful fecrets of wickedness in your hearts: review your finful lives: reflect upon the purity and juftice of God and his law, and what you have deferved for a whole life of unnatural rebellion against him: read and hear the word of life with folemnity and attention, and use all proper means to furnish your minds with religious knowlege. It may pain you at firft to confine your minds to fuch objects; but it must be done : and there is no difputing againft neceffity: befides, the pain is medicinal; it will contribute to the recovery of your dying fouls.

Again, You must accuftom yourselves to frequent importunate prayer. If ever you be faved, or prepared for falvation, it will be in answer to prayer: therefore engage in it, perfevere in it, and never give over until you obtain your requeft.

Further, You muft guard againft every thing that tends to divert your minds from this grand concern; as exceffive hurries and cares about earthly things,

vain and vicious company, and every avoidable temptation.

Finally, You must persevere in this course, if you hope to fucceed; and never rest until you feel the difpofitions of heaven wrought in your fouls. A pang of remorfe, a serious fit, a tranfient prayer, will not fuffice, but you must hold on your way to the laft. You may expect difficulties in this new courfe, and you will probably meet with more than you can now forefee or expect. But you must break through all; for your immortal intereft, your all is at ftake.

This is the courfe I would advise you to, if ever you hope to be prepared for glory. Icannot give you any the leaft encouragement in any other way! If any other can fhew you a more eafy, and yet fafe course, and produce fufficient authority for it, you may take it but, for my part, if I teach you what I learn in my bible, I can give you no other directions; nor do I expect to be faved in any easier way myself. And therefore, if you will chuse another, you must be anfwerable for it. Remember I warn you against it and would not be acceffary to it for ten thousand worlds.

Now, if this courfe must be taken, I afk when, do you think, muft it be begun? Will you appoint tomorrow, or next year, or old age, or a fick-bed, for that purpofe? Alas! you may never live to fee that time. Before then you may drop into deftruction, as rotten fruit fall to the ground by their own weight. Therefore now, this prefent fleeting now, is the only time you are fure of; and confequently, this is the only proper time to begin this courfe. Now then, now, while my voice is founding in your ears, form the refolution, and carry it into immediate execution. Bear it home upon your hearts to your houses, and there let it dwell until the great work is done. O! that you did but know its importance and neceffity! then you could not delay it one moment longer. And now, if you have any regard for the God that made you, for the Lord that bought you, or for your

Own

own everlasting happiness, take this courfe immediately. If you have any need of excitements, take the following.

1. Confider your prefent dangerous fituation. You hang over the pit of deftruction by the flender thread of life, held up only by the hand of an angry God, as we hold a spider, or fome poisonous infect, over a fire, ready to throw it in. You are ripe for deftruction, and therefore in danger every day, every hour, every moment of falling into it. You are as fit for deftruction as a murderer for the gallows, or a mortified limb to be cut off. Such polluted veffels of wrath must be thrown out of the way into fome dark corner in hell, that they may no more incumber or difgrace the more honourable apartments of the universe. And is this a fituation in which it becomes you to be merry, and gay, and thoughtless, and eager after the trifles of time? O! does it not become you rather to be on your knees at the throne of grace, and vigoroufly preffing into the kingdom of God?

2. Reflect with how much long-fuffering God has endured you, notwithstanding all your audacious and repeated provocations. One would think one day's finning against fo holy and gracious a God, by a creature fo deeply obliged to him, would make your cafe defperate, and that the evening of fuch a day would be the hour of your execution. But he has patiently borne with you for days, for months, for years, perhaps for scores of years. And all this time he has fol lowed you with his bleflings every moment, and granted you the means of preparation for glory. And yet you have been thoughtlefs, difobedient, ungrateful, rebellious ftill. How juftly then may he inflict punishment upon you! And how induftriously will his goodnefs and feverity, his mercy and juftice, be dif. played in his treatment of you! What could you have defired more, in point of time, opportunity, perfuafives, than you have enjoyed? Will it not then appear evident, that your deftruction is entirely of yourself, VOL. III.

D

and