man's soul; Christ prayed for souls, he sweat for souls, he wept for souls, he bled for souls, he hung on the cross for souls, he trode the wine press of the Father's wrath for souls, he died for souls, he rose again from death for souls, he ascended for souls, he intercedes for souls, and all the glorious preparations he hath been making in heaven these sixteen hundred years, is for souls.

Ah! Young men, do not play the courtier with your precious souls; the courtier doth all things late; he rises late, dines late, sups late, goes to bed late, repents late.

Ah, sirs! the good of your souls is before all, above all other things in the world, to be first regarded and provided for, and that partly because it is the best and more noble part of man, and partly because therein mostly and properly is the image of God stampt, and partly because it is the first converted, and partly because it shall be the first and most glorified.

Ah! Young men, if they be worse than infidels, that make no provision for their families, what monsters are they that make no provision for their own souls? this will be bitterness in the end.

Cesar Borgia being sick to death, lamenting, said, When I lived, I provided for every thing but death; now I must die, and am unprovided to die. This was a dart at his heart, and it will at last be a dagger at yours, who feast your bodies, but starve your souls; who make liberal provisions for your ignoble parts, but no provision for your more noble part.

If they deserve a hanging, who feast their slaves, and starve their wives, that make provision for their H

enemies, but none for their friends; how will you escape hanging in hell, who make provision for every thing, yea, for your very lusts, but make no provision for your immortal souls? We hate the Turk for selling christians for slaves, and what shall we think then of those who sell themselves, their precious souls, for toys and trifles that cannot profit, who practically say, what once a profane nobleman of Naples verbally said, viz. That he had two souls in his body, one for God and another for whosoever will buy it.

Ah! young men, do not pawn your souls, do not sell your souls, do not exchange away your souls, do not trifle and fool away your precious souls, they are jewels, more worth than a thousand worlds, yea, than heaven and earth; if they are safe, all is safe, but if they are lost, all is lost, God lost, and Christ lost, and the society of glorious angels and blessed saints lost, and heaven lost and that for ever. Granctensis tells of a woman that was so affected with souls miscarrying, that she besought God to stop up the passage into hell with her soul and body, that none might have entrance.

Ah that all young persons were so affected with the worth and excellency of their souls, and so alarmed with the hazard and danger of losing their souls, as that they may in the spring and morning of their days inquire after the Lord, and seek him, and serve him with all their might, that so their precious and immortal souls may be safe and happy for ever; but if all this will not do, then in the last place,

X. Consider, young men, That God will at last bring you to a reckoning; he will at last bring you

to judgment, Eccl. 1. 19. "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thine heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know then, that for all these things, God will bring thee into judgment." In these words you have two things, 1. An ironical concession, he bids him rejoice; he yields him what he would have by irony, by way of mockage and bitter scoff. Now thou art young and strong, lively and lusty, and thy bones are full of marrow; thou art resolved to be proud and scornful, to indulge the flesh and to follow thy delights and pleasures; well, take thy course if thou darest, or if thou hast a mind to it, if thy heart be so set upon it, Rejoice in thy youth. The 2d, is a commination, or a sad and severe premonition: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee unto judgment; will bring thee: these words import two things, 1. The unwillingness of youth to come to judgment. 2. The unavoidableness that youth must come to judgment; but how soon you shall be brought to judgment is only known to God.

St. Augustin confesses in one of his books, that as long as his conscience was gnawed with the guilt of some useful lust he was once insnared with, the very hearing of a day of judgment was even a hell to him. History tells us of a young man, who being for some capital offence condemned to die, grew grey in one night's space, and was therefore pitied and spared.

Ah, young men, that the serious thoughts of this great day, may put you upon breaking off the sins of your youth; and the dedicating of your.

selves to the knowledge, love, and service of the Lord, in the spring and flower of your days. Ah, young men, consider the errors of your lives, the wickedness of your hearts, the sinfulness of your ways, and that strict account that ere long you must be brought to, before the judge of all the world. The heathens themselves had some kind of dread and expectation of such a day, and therefore when St. Paul spake of judgment to come, Felix trembled though a heathen.'

The bringing into judgment is a thing which is known by reason, and is clear by the light of nature; wherefore in Austria, one of the nobles dying, who had lived 93 years, and had spent all his life in pleasures and delights, never being troubled with any infirmity, and' this being told to Frederick the emperor; from whence saith he, we may conclude the soul's immortality; for if there be a God that ruleth this world, as divines and philosophers do teach, and that he is just, no one denieth; surely there are other places to which souls after death do go, and do receive for their deeds, either reward or punishment, for here we see that neither rewards are given to the good, nor punishment to the evil.

Ah, young men, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, and the terror of this day, oh that you would be persuaded to flee from the wrath to come, to cast away the idols of your souls, to repent and be converted in the primrose of your youth, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord, Acts iii. 19. or else woe, woe to you that ever you were born.

I have read a story of one, who being risen from the dead, and being asked in what condition he was, he made answer, no man doth believe, no man doth believe, &c. And being further asked what he meant by that repetition, he answered, no man doth believe how exactly God examineth, how strictly God judgeth, how severely he punisheth. Oh that the ways of most young persons did not declare to all the world that they do not, that they will not believe the dread and terror of that day, that will admit of no plea, nor place for apology or appeal: the highest and last tribunal can never be appealed from, or repealed.

Now if for all that hath been said, you are resolved to spend the flower of your days, and the prime of your strength in the service of sin and the world, then know, that no tongue can express, no heart can conceive, that trouble of mind, that terror of soul, that horror of conscience, that fear and amazement, that weeping and wailing, that crying and roaring, that sighing and groaning, that cursing and banning, that stamping and tearing, that wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth, that certainly shall attend you, when God shall bring you into judgment for all your looseness and lightness, for all your wickedness and wantonness, for all your profaneness and baseness, for all your neglect of God, your grieving the Comforter, your trampling under foot the blood of a Saviour, for your despising the means, for your prizing earth above heaven, and the pleasures of this world above the pleasures that be at God's right hand. Oh how will you wish in that day, when your sins shall be charged on you, when conscience shall be gnawing