employed in the Duties of Religion. The SERM. Time they have wafted in heaping up XVII. Riches, and follicitoufly pursuing Honour or Pleasure, will but add to their Grief and Torment, and increase the Pains they endure. How ufual is it for Men on a Death-bed to cry out, in the Agony of their Souls, Oh, that God would try me once more! Oh, that he would grant me a little more Time, before I go hence, and be no more feen! How diligently would I ferve him for the Future? How much Time would I spend in doing Good, and in the Duties of Religion? I would keep the Church more conftantly, I would be more careful in my private Devotions, I would leave off all my old Vices, and bad Company, and dedicate myself wholly to the Service of God. Nay, would the Lord be pleased to spare me but for one Month, or for one Week, that I might have fome Time to appease my angry Judge, by repenting of my Sins, it would be the greatest Comfort to me imaginable! Oh, what would I give for a Imall Portion of that Time, I formerly made fo little Account of! Now I am ready to drop into Hell, what Good will all my Friends, Riches, or Honour do me? And thus oftentimes the Man leaves the

SERM. World in this deplorable Condition, with
XVII. all his Fears and Terrors about him,

for

want of making a right Ufe of that Time,
which frequently he was at a Lofs how to
pafs away. And this either has, or may
be the Cafe of many here. Sickness and
Death will come, and how lamentable a
Condition fhall we be in, if they should
take us unprovided? Is it not much bet-
ter to provide betimes? Nay, who, that is
in his Wits, would not lay Hold on the
prefent Opportunity, and, by redeeming
the Time, provide against these evil Days.

5. IT will be the greatest Torment in
Hell for Men to reflect upon their Folly,
in neglecting those Opportunities God has
given them to provide for their Souls.
How will it fting them to the Heart to
confider, that they have loft Heaven and
eternal Happiness for the Enjoyment of
the Pleafures of this World, which have
yielded them fo little Satisfaction? How
will it torment them, to see Persons of all
Sorts come from the four Corners of the
Earth, and fit down with Abraham, Ifaac,
and Jacob, when they fhall be sent out,
to keep Company with the Devil and his
Angels? But their greateft Torment will
be to think, that they have been the Causes
of their own Mifery; that they had Time

and

and Opportunity of making themselves SERM. happy, but they wilfully ruined them- XVII. felves, neglected the Calls of God's Holy Spirit, and would not hearken to the Voice of the Charmer, charm he never fo wifely. They chose to spend their Time in any Employment or Diverfion, rather than in the Duties of Religion, and preferred the empty fleeting Enjoyments of this World, before the folid and durable Comfort of a Holy Life.

SUCH Reflections as thefe, will fink them down to the Bottom of Hell, and make their Condition more intolerable than that of the Inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah; for alas! they, poor Souls, never heard the joyful Tidings of the Gospel preached unto them; they lived in the Night of Heathenism and Idolatry, and went on in thofe licentious Courfes which were recommended to them by the Practice of their Forefathers; whereas we enjoy the bleffed Light of the Gofpel, and behold the Day-Star from on High in our Horizon; we are cherished by the propitious Influences of his Grace, and his Word is a Light to our Feet, and a Lanthorn to our Paths. Our Duty is writ in such legible Characters, that he that runs may read it; we have Time and Opportunities, Dd 3

and

SERM. and all the Encouragements and Motives XVII. imaginable to be good and virtuous; and

now, if we flight all thefe Favours, and neglect thefe Overtures of God's Mercy, how great will our Damnation be? It would be much better for us to have a Milftone banged about our Necks, and to be thrown into the Sea.

6. My fixth and laft Reason, why we fhould be careful to redeem Time, is that of my Text, because the Days are evil, i. e. because the Times we live in are fo wicked and debauched, that it will be a very difficult Matter for us to refift the Temptations we shall meet with. The Apostle, in my Text, has Refpect to the Heresy of the licentious Gnostics, which prevailed at that Time in which this Epiftle was wrote; and I could with the Argument was not as ftrong, in Relation to fome of our modern Gnoftics, Men who make it their Business to corrupt Morality, by introducing an impure Cafuiftical Divinity, and hereby extinguishing (as far as in them lies) the very Notions of Good and Evil, and, by mixing Heathenish and idolatrous Rites with the pure Worship of God, offering up ftrange Fire, inftead of an acceptable Sacrifice. Thanks be to God, we are, in a great Measure, freed from these

Locufts,

pro

Locufts, who have thus polluted God's SERM. Sanctuary; but yet we muft expect to XVII. meet with Temptations from fome, who pretend to be of our own Communion, but are indeed of the Synagogue of Satan. We have fome amongst us, who are not fatisfied with entertaining Atheistical Opinions, and living wicked Lives themselves, but, as it is faid of Men infected with the Plague, they make it their Business to pagate the Infection; they do not only do the Work of their Father the Devil, but ufurp his Office alfo, and turn Tempters of their Brethren. It is the Glory of these Men to enfnare the temperate Perfon into a Debauch, to put the modest Man out of Countenance, and to ridicule Sobriety and Religion. We live in the Dregs of Time, in the laft and worft Age of the World, when the Generality of Mankind feem to have caft off all Fear of God, and Senfe of Religion, and to have given themselves up to the Gratification of their swinish Appetites and Defires. And now, which Way can we turn ourfelves, whither can we retreat, to avoid the manifeft Temptations to Vice and Luxury, which continually prefs in upon us? There is no Way wholly to escape from them, whilft we continue in this

Dd4

World,