Oh! That young men would begin to be good betimes, that so they may have the greater harvest of joy when they come to be old. It is sad to be sowing your seed, when you should be reaping your harvest; it is best to gather the summer of youth against the winter of old age.

VI. Because an eternity of felicity and glory, hangs upon those few moments that are allotted to them. It was a good question the young man proposed, What shall I do to inherit eternal life? I know I shall be eternally happy, or eternally miserable, eternally blest, or eternally curst, eternally saved, or eternally damned.

O what shall I do to inherit eternal life? my cares, my fears, my troubles are all about eternity, no time can reach eternity, no age can extend to eternity, no tongue can express eternity. Eternity is that (unum perpetuum hodie) one perpetual day, which shall never have end.

What shall I do, what shall I not do, that I may be happy to all eternity? I am now young and in the flower of my days; but who knows what a day may bring forth? The greatest weight hangs upon the smallest wires, and eternity depends upon those few hours I am to breathe in the world; O what cause have I therefore to be good to know God, to believe, to repent, to get my peace made, and my pardon sealed, to get my nature changed, my conscience purged, and my interest in Christ cleared, before eternity overtakes me, before my glass be out, my sun set, my race run, lest the dark, the dark night of eternity should overtake me, and I made miserable for ever.

I have read of one Myrogne, who, when great

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gifts were sent unto him, he sent them all back again, saying, I only desire this one thing at your master's hand, to pray for me, that I may be saved for eternity. O that all young men and women, who make earth their heaven, pleasure their paradise, that eat of the fat, and drink the sweet, that clothe themselves richly, and crown their heads with rose buds, that they would seriously consider of eternity, so to hear as for eternity, and pray as for eternity, and live as for eternity, and provide as for eternity! that they may say with that famous painter Zeuxes (Eternitati pingo) I paint for eternity: we do all for eternity, we believe for eternity, we repent for eternity, we obey for eternity. O that you would not make those things eternal for punishment, that cannot be eternal for use. Ah, young men and women, Christ calls, and the blood of Jesus Christ calls, and the spirit of Christ in the gospel calls, and the rage of Satan Galls, and your sad state and condition calls, and the happiness and blessedness of glorified saints call; these all call aloud upon you to make sure a glorious eternity, before you sail out into the dreadful ocean. All your eternal good depends up. on the short and uncertain moments of your lives; and if the thread of your lives should be cut before a. happy eternity is made sure, woe to you that ever you was born; do not say, O young man, that thou art young, and hereafter will be time enough to provide for eternity; for eternity may be at the door ready to carry thee away for ever. Every day's experience speaks out eternity to be as near the young man's back, as it is before the old man's face. O grasp to-day the diadem of a blessed eterni.

ty, lest thou art cut off before the morning comes'! Though there is but one way to come into this world, yet there is a thousand ways to be sent out of this world: well, young men and women, remember this, as the motions of the soul are quick, so are the motions of divine justice quick also; and if you will not hear the voice of God to-day, if you will not provide for eternity to-day, God may swear to-morrow that you shall never enter into his rest; it is a very sad and dangerous thing to trifle and dally with God, his word, his offers, our own souls, and eternity: therefore let all young people labour to be good betimes, and not to let him that is goodness itself, alone till he hath made them good, till he hath given them those hopes of eternity, that will both make them good and keep them good, that will make them happy and keep them happy, and that for ever; if all this will not do, then know, that ere long those fears of eternity of misery, that beget that monster, Despair, which like Medusa's head, astonisheth with its very aspect, and strangles hope, which is the breath of the soul, will certainly overtake you; as it is said, Dum, spiro, spero, so it may be inverted, Dum, spero, spiro; other miseries may wound the spirit, but despair kills it dead; my prayers shall be, That none of you may ever experience this sad truth, but that you may all be good in good earnest, which will yield you two heavens, a heaven on earth, and a heaven after death.

VII. Because they do not begin to live, till they begin to be really good. Till they begin to be good, they are dead God-wards, and Christ-wards, and heaven-wards, and holiness-wards ; till a maa

begins to be really good, he is really dead, Phil. ii. 1. And that 1. In respect of working, his works are called dead works, Heb. ix. 13. The most glittering services of unregenerate persons, are but dead works, because they proceed not from a principle of life, and they lead to death, Rom. vi. 21. and leave a sentence of death upon the soul, till it be washed off by the blood of the Lamb. 2. He is dead in respect of honour, he is dead to all privileges, he is not fit to inherit mercy; who will set the crown of mercy upon a dead man ? The crown of life is only for living christians, Rev. ii. 10. The young prodigal was dead, till he began to be good, till he began to remember his Father's house, and to resolve to return home: My son was dead, but is alive; and the widow that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.

When Josaphat asked Balaam, how old he was! he answered five-and-forty years old; to whom Josaphat replied, Thou seemest to be seventy; True, saith he, if you reckon since I was born; but I count not those years which were spent in vanity. Ah, sirs! You never begin to live till you begin to be good in good earnest. There is the life of vegetation, and that is the life of plants; 2. There is the life of sense, and that is the life of beasts ; 3. There is the life of reason, and that is the life of man; 4. There is the life of grace, and that is the Jife of saints; and this life you do not begin to live, till you begin to be good. If a living dog is better than a dead lion, as the wise man speaks, and if a flie hath life, which the heavens have not, as the philosopher saith; what a sad, a dead, a poor nothing, is that person that is a stranger to the life

of grace and goodness, that is dead even whilst he is alive. Most men will bleed, sweat, vomit, purge, part with an estate, yea with a limb, yea limbs, yea and many a better thing, (viz. the honour of God and a good conscience) to preserve their natural lives as he cries out, Give me any deformity, any torment, any misery, so you spare my life; and yet how few, how very few are to be found, who make it their business to attain to a life of goodness, or to begin to be good betimes, or to be dead to the world, and alive to God, rather than to be dead to God, and alive to the world? this is for a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation, that natural life is so highly prized, and spiritual life so little regarded.

VIII. Because the promise of finding God, of enjoying God, is made over to an early seeking of God. Prov. viii. 17. I love them that love me, and they that seek me early, shall find me. Or as the Hebrew hath it, They that seek me in the morning, shall find me. By the benefit of the morning light we come to find the things we seek. Shahar signifies to seek inquisitively, to seek diligently, to seek timely in the morning. As the Israelites went early in the morning, to seek for manna; and as students rise early in the morning, and sit close to it to get knowledge; so saith wisdom, They that seek me in the spring and morning. of their youth shall find me.

Now to seek the Lord early, is to seek the Lord firstly. God hath in himself all the good of angels, of men and universal nature; he hath all glories, all dignities, all riches, all treasures, all pleasures, all comforts, all delights, all joys, all