only fail thofe who truft in them, but they vanish and difappear like dreams and mere illufions of the imagination, when a man awakes out of fleep; and the man, that was borne up by them before with fo much confidence, can now feel no substance and reality in them; he cannot now be an atheist if he would; but God, and the other world, begin to be as great realities to him, as if they were prefent to his bodily eye. And now the principles of infidelity are fo far from miniftring any comfort and good hopes to him, that they fill him with horror, and anguish, and defpair; and are fo far from quieting his mind, that there is nothing but ftorm and tempeft there. The wicked is driven away in his wickedness; but the righteous hath hope in his death. The wicked, that is, the finner, the hardened and impenitent finner, is driven away which may either fignify the fudden and violent end many times of bad men; they are carried away, as it were, by a tempeft, anfwerable to that expreffion, Prov. x. 25. As the whirlwind passeth, so the wicked is no more ; or elfe the word may fignify, to be caft down and dejected; and then it imports that trouble and defpondency of mind, that anguish and defpair, which arifeth from the guilt of a wicked life. Is driven away in his wickednefs; the word in the original is, in his evil, which may either refer to the evil of fin, or of affliction and calamity, and it will come much to one in which fenfe we take it. According to the first fenfe of the word evil, the meaning will be, that the finner, when he comes to die, is in great trouble and defpondency of mind, because of his wicked life; hath no comfort, no good hopes concerning his future ftate, according to that other faying of Solomon, Prov. xi. 23. The expectation of the wicked is wrath. If we take the word evil in the latter fenfe, for the evil of affliction and calamity, then the meaning is, that bad men, when they fall into any great evil and calamity, more efpecially upon the approach of death, (for that, as the laft and greateft of evils, is probably intended, as appears by the oppofition in the next words, the righteous bath hope in his death;) I fay, that bad men, when they fall into any great evil or calamity, efpecially upon the approach of death, are full of trouble and dif quiet, by reafon of their guilt, and deftitute of all comfort and hope in that needful time. And this is most as greeable to the oppofite part of this proverb or fentence, but the righteous hath hope in his death; that is, the good man, when any evil and calamity overtakes him, though it be the most terrible of all, death itfelf, is full of peace, and comfort, and good hopes; when there is nothing but ftorms without, all is calm within, he hath fomething which still fupports him and bears him up. So that Solomon, in this fentence or proverb, seems to defign to recommend religion and virtue to us, from the confideration of the different ends of good and bad men, fo obvious to common obfervation, and, generally fpeaking, and for the moft part, which (as I have often obferved) is all the truth that is to be expected in moral and proverbial speeches; that for the most part, the end of good men is full of peace and comfort, and good hopes of their future condition; but the end of bad men quite contrary, full of anguifh and trouble, of horror and defpair, without peace or comfort, or hope of any good to befal them afterwards. The righteous man hath great peace and ferenity in his mind at that time; is not only contented, but glad to die; does not only fubmit and yield to it, but defires it as much better. And fo fome read the words, the righteous defires or hopes to die; but the wicked man and the finner dreads the thoughts and approaches of death, quits life with great reluctancy, clings to it, and hangs upon it as long as he can, and is not without great violence parted from it. The good man goes out of the world willingly and contentedly; but the wicked is driven away, not without great force and constraint, with much reluctancy, and in great trouble and perplexity of mind, what will become of him for ever. You fee the meaning of the words, that they contain a great truth, and very well worthy of our most attentive regard and confideration; becaufe, if this be generally and for the moft part true, which Solomon here afferts, then this is a mighty teftimony on the behalf of piety and virtue, and plainly thews, that the principles of religion and virtue are proof against all affaults to which human nature is liable and that the principles of infi ·R 3 delity delity and vice do fhrink and give back when it comes to the trial. And this, to any wife and confiderate man, is as good as a demonftration, that the religious man is in the right, and proceeds upon principles of found and true wisdom, and hath chofen the better part : but that the infidel and the wicked man is in the wrong, and under a fatal mistake, which he feldom difcerns, till it be too late to rectify it. Now in the handling of this argument, I fhall do thefe three things; First, I fhall fhew, that this obfervation of Solomon, concerning the different end of good and bad men, and the final iffue and event of a virtuous and vicious courfe of life, is generally true, and that the exceptions on either fide to the contrary are but few, and not of force to infringe the truth of the obfervation. Secondly, I fhall confider whence this difference proceeds, and I fhall endeavour to fhew that it is founded in the true nature and reason of things. And, Thirdly, That if this be true, it is a demonftration on the fide of religion, and does fully juftify the wisdom of it First, I fhall endeavour to fhew, that this obfervation of Solomon, concerning the different end of good and bad men, and the final iffue and event of a virtuous and vicious courfe of life, is generally found true, and that the exceptions on either fide to the contrary are but few in comparison, and by no means of fufficient force to infringe the general truth of this obfervation ; I fay, that this obfervation of the wife man is generally, and for the moft part true, which (as I mentioned be fore) is all the truth that is to be expected in moral and proverbial fentences. And for this I appeal to the common and daily experience of mankind, whether we do hot generally fee religious and good men to have great eafe and comfort, and fometimes great joy and tranf port in their minds, from the reflection upon an inno. C and ufeful, and holy and virtuous courfe of life. David was fo confident of this, that he appeals to com obfervation and experience for the truth of it, Pfal. xxxvii. 37. Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace. Or as mon this text is rendered in our old tranflation, keep innocency, take heed to the thing that is rights for that fhall bring a man peace at the laft. And he gives the reafon of this, ver. 39. because God ftands by them to fupport them in this needful time, with the comfortable hopes of his falvation; the falvation of the righteous is of the Lord, he is their help in the time of trouble. As they have fincerely endeavoured to ferve God, fo they have great hopes and confidence of his mercy and goodness to them, that he will ftand by them, and fupport them in their greatest diftrefs, and guide and conduct them to happiness at the laft; and in this confidence they can fay with David, Pfal. xvi. 8, 9, 11. I have fet the Lord always before me because he is at my right-hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth : my fefb alfo fhall reft in hope. For thou wilt fhew me the path of life; in thy prefence is fulness of joy, at thy right-hand there are pleasures for evermore. And Pfal. xxxi. 5. Into thy hand I commit my spirit, O Lord God of truth. And Pfal. xlviii. 14. This God is our God for ever and ever, be will be our guide even unto death. And again, Pfal lxxiñ 23, 24, 25, 26. Nevertheless, I am continually with thee': thou haft holden me by my right-hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counfel, and afterward receive me to glory Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I defire befides thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. Thus a good man, not only in the contemplation of death, and upon the approach of it, but even under the very pangs of it, is apt to comfort himself in the divine mercy and goodnefs, and to rejoice in the hopes of the glory of God. But the wicked, on the contrary, when death makes its approach towards them, the guilt of their wicked lives flies in their faces, and difturbs their minds, and fills them with horror and amazement, with a fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation to confume them. The expectation of the wicked is wrath, faith Solomon, Prov. xi. 23. What is the hope of the hy pocrite, that is, of the wicked man, when God fhall take away his foul? Job xxvii. 8. In their life-time they they neglected God and religion, and perhaps denied him, or faid unto him with thofe in the xxi. chap. ver. 14. Depart from us, for we defire not the knowledge of thy ways; and when they come to die, they find that God is departed from them. They have not the confidence to look up to him, or to expect any mercy or favour from him, being conscious to themselves, that they have deni ed the God which is above, or at least neglected and despised him; and now the terrors of the Almighty take hold of them, and his arrows stick faft in them, and wound their confciences, that they cannot pluck them out, or get rid of them; their spirits are ready to fink within them, and the principles of infidelity, which they once relied upon, now fail them, and inftead of miniftring any comfort and confidence to them, they pierce them to the heart, and are the greatest ground of their trouble and despair. So that here is a very visible and remarkable difference between good and bad men when they come to die. Good men have commonly a great calm and ferenity in their minds, are full of good hopes of the mercy and favour of God to them, and of the fenfe of his loving-kindness, which is better than life itself; and are willing to leave this world, in the comfortable expectation and affurance of a better condition after death; and not only willing, but many times heartily glad, that they are going out of this vale of tears, out of this fink of fin and forrows, that they are quitting thefe drooping manfions, and exchanging thefe earthly tabernacles, for a building of God, a houfe not made with hands, eternal in the heavens : whereas the wicked is full of trouble and anguish, and his mind in greater pain and diforder than his body; all ftorm and tempeft, like the troubled fea, when it cannot reft: there is no peace, faith my God, to the wicked. And how can there be peace, when his whoredoms nd adulteries, his repeated acts of drunkennefs and intemperance, his profane oaths and blafphemies, have been. fo many? When he is conscious to himself what a life he hath led, and is thoroughly awakened to a juft fenfe of the evil of his doings? And when death makes up to him, how does he dread the fight and thoughts of it, and how does he hanker after life, as if all his happiness depended upon it, and |