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thou haft much goods laid up for many years; take thine eafe, eat, drink, and be merry. Thus he vainly promised himself a long enjoyment of what he was fo pleasingly poffefs'd of. But I have already obferv'd to you his unhappy and speedy disappointment. His project for many years was hardly fram'd, when, behold! a moft difagreeable meffage is fent him, enough to ftrike him dumb, and fill his mind with the utmost confufion. (s) Thou fool, this night fhall thy foul be required of thee; then whofe fhall those things be which thou haft provided? They fhall have another owner; and poffibly one whom thou didst by no means defign them for. (t) So is he, fays our Saviour, that layeth up to himself treafure upon earth, and is not rich towards God. And fo it is ordinarily with him that promifes a late repentance, and will not be induced to fet about it in the mean time. Such too ufually experiment, to their coft, the uncertainty of their fruitlefs expectation; being one way or other, before they are aware of it, deprived of the feafon they had groundlesly promised themselves to repent in. To the fame purpose alfo fpeaks St. James, taxing fome in his days, with contriving business for a much longer time, than they had any reafon to depend upon. (u) Go to now, fays the Apoftle, ye that fay, To-day, or to-morrow, we will go into fuch a city, and continue there a year, and buy and fell, and get gain; whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanifheth away. Our life is fo fhort and uncertain, (w) that nothing is more common, than for men to be cut off in the midft of their days, and fo have all their thoughts perish, all their likelieft projects, (z) James iv. 13, 14:

(4) Luke xii. 20. (t) Ibid. ver. 21.
(w) Quid fit futurum cras, fuge quærere.
Quem fors dierum cunque dabit, lucro
Appone-

Horat. Od. 9.

Moriendum enim certè eft, & id incertum, an eo ipfo die.

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and beft-laid defigns mifcarry, and all their hopes defeated. When once (z) their breath goeth forth, and how foon that may be God alone knows, they turn again to their duft, and all their expectations, their contrivances and imaginations, vanish into air. And these two confiderations, that he who purposes to repent hereafter, may poffibly never live to fee the time he proposes to do it in; or if he do, the fame impediment that obftructs his repentance now, will in all probability not be leffened, but increased, and fo more like to obftruct it ftill; thefe confiderations, I fay, were an abundant caution to a wife man, to undertake it out of hand, whilft he is fit for it, and has time to do it in, and good reason to believe, that by God's grace he may perform it in fuch a manner as to be accepted by Almighty God; and fo it may prove a repentance to falvation, and that is never to be repented of.

Timoth. Thefe are weighty confiderations, and deferve to be well attended to, by all that know they have immortal fouls to fave, and which must be infinitely either happy or miferable in the other ftate, according to the provifion they fhall have made for themselves, by the discharge or neglect of their duty here.

Theoph. They are fo; as weighty as can be. And yet there are others not inferior to them, and which deferve a serious regard, as well as they.

Timoth. These are enough, highly to condemn the behaviour of fuch who act in contradiction to them, at the hazard of their eternal welfare. But fince you have others yet in referve, be pleafed to let us hear them, tho' I should have thought these fufficient of themselves.

Theoph. The two chief are thefe: first, that he who repents at his latter end, lofes the comfort of his repentance, and departs hence at great uncertainties, His repentance may poffibly be fuch as would hold (x) Pfal. cxlvi. 4.

out

out at all times, and under all trials; but this is more than he can affure himself of. He knows he refolves well; but fo have many who are now in Hell, bewailing their folly and difobedience, in endless and remediless torments. Their refolutions were made, when their fpirits were low, the temptations to their fins were weak, and when the profpect of a near eternity was before them, to awaken their minds, and put them upon reflecting what was like to become of them for ever, if they fhould die in their fins. Hence they fully refolved to lead a new life, if it should pleafe God to prolong their days; and that they would never fuffer themselves to gratify their unreasonable lufts and paffions any more, but would always keep in mind the great account they must one day give up before our Lord's tribunal, and would make fuch diligent preparation for it, as that death may never feem terrible to them any more. Yet when it had pleased God to try them, and they found themselves again in health and vigour, their vices affaulting them with the fame infinuations as formerly, and death and hell appearing again at fome diftance from them; the deceitfulness of fin has prevailed against them, their good purposes have flagged, their vows and promises have been forgotten, their allurements have appeared with their ufual force, their finful companions have entic'd them, their own wicked hearts have betrayed them, their grand enemy the devil has taken care to strengthen and enflame all their evil motions and inclinations, and they have shamefully and perfidiously relaps'd into their former abominations, and have again indulged themselves in all they had fo formally renounced, (y) returning with the dog to his vomit; and with the fow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire. Or perhaps, (z) the unclean spirit that went out of the man, returning, and finding his habitation empty, fwept, and garnished, may have taken to bim feven other fpirits more wicked than himself; and these all entering in, ani (z) Matth. xii. 43, 44, 45: E 4

(y) 2 Pet. ii. 22.

dwelling

dwelling there, his last eftate may have become far worse than the firft. Nothing is eafier than to defign and promife an amendment, when a man is under a violent fear and danger, which has taken fuch poffeffion of his mind, that he is not at liberty to confider the difficulty of performing the amendment he thus haftily promifes. His thoughts are all employed about the neceffity he is in, of endeavouring by all means poffible, to avoid the difmal pit, that opens its infatiable mouth to receive him. And this prevents his duly attending to the means that are needful to this great end, and the inconveniencies and trouble that may probably be met with in the ufe of them. Sa that all his good refolutions being made only when in fuch a fright, and when his eyes were fo fixed upon the want he had of them, that he could not allow himself to make a due inquiry into the feveral conflicts whereto they might expofe him, no wonder if they hold out no longer, when his circumftances are quite altered, and his wonted habits prefs him, and his ufual temptations return upon him, with a far greater ftrength than he had imagined. This is fuch a terrible ditappointment to him, that he knows not how to bear up against it, but faints and falters, and falls away, in hope of another repentance when in the like unhappy ftate. Inftances of thefe relapfes have been fo notorious, that the death-bed penitent will never be able to affure himself, he thall not be liable to the fame hazard, if it pleafe God to make the experiment. And therefore, not knowing whether all his forrow for his fins, and his purpoles and promifes of a new obedience, for the future, are fuch as will ftand the teft, and upon trial will bring forth fruits meet for repentance, he muft needs be in great perplexity, and full of doubts and fears, left after all he has been able to do in this weak condition, towards the fecuring his eternal falvation, he fhould however miscarry, and come short of the glory of God, and have his portion at laft allotted him amongst the

veffels

veffels of wrath, that are fitted for deftruction. These apprehenfions muft inevitably fit heavy upon the foul of one that is fo late affected with a fight and fenfe of his fins, and the dreadful tortures due to them, and who moreover knows not whether all his forrow, and humiliation, and repentance, be fuch, as would cer⚫ tainly produce a reformation in him, if time were allowed for it. And yet neither is this the worft of his cafe, though bad enough in all reafon. For,

Secondly, Did he know his repentance to be fuch, as upon trial would anfwer his expectation, of producing in him quite different affections and actions, from what he had before indulged himself in, he is not so very fure, that it will be available to falvation, unless it actually do fo. (a) When the wicked man turns away from his wickedness which he hath committed, and doth that which is lawful and right, we know affuredly be fhall fave his foul alive. But I have never met with a like promise to him that has lived wickedly all his life, and only laments and condemns his folly, and promises an amendment, when he comes to die. God may, and I charitably hope he will, extend his pity to fuch as are truly convinced, though at the laft gafp, of the evil of their doings, and unfeignedly refolve upon a reformation, fo far as he fhall enable them for it. But I am not now fpeaking of what God may do, but what he has told us he will do, and what we may certainly depend upon. And, to speak my mind freely and plainly, I do not know of any certainty of falvation promifed, in Scripture, to fuch whose righteousness confifts only in a fruitless refolution, that could never be reduced to practice. It is unquestionable, that no man, in his health, has any warrant to pass a judgment upon himself, by what he may be, or intends to be hereafter, but by what he has been, and is at prefent. And I could never find, that God has prefcribed one fort of laws for thofe in health, and another of a very different fort, for (a) Ezek. xviii. 27.

fuch

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