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thirft: the Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord, and his jealoufy, fhall fmoke against that man, and all the curfes that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord fhall blot out his name from under heaven. Whatever right and power God hath referved to himself, about the execution of his threatenings, he hath plainly declared, that, of all others, thofe who encourage themselves in a finful courfe, from the hopes of God's mercy, notwithstanding his threatenings, fhall find no favour and mercy at his hand: whatever he may remit of his threatenings to others, he will certainly not ipare thofe who believe fo largely concerning the mercy of God, not with a mind to submit to the terms of it, but to prefume fo much the more upon it.

4. God hath not been wanting to hew fome remarkable inftances of his feverity towards finners in this world. As he is pleafed fometimes to give good men fome fore-taftes of heaven, and earncfts of their future happiness; fo likewife, by fome prefent stroke, to let finners feel what they are to expect hereafter; fome parks of hell do now and then fall upon the confciences of finners. That fear which is fometimes kindled in mens confciences in this life, that horrible anguish, and thofe unspeakable terrors which fome finners have had experience of in this world, may ferve to forewarn us of the wrath which is to come, and to convince us of the reality of thofe expreffions of the torments of hell, by the worm that dies not, and the fire that is not quenched. That miraculous deluge, which fwallowed up the old world; that hell which was rained down from heaven in thofe terrible fhowers of fire and brimstone, to confume Sodom and Gomorrah; the earth opening her mouth upon Corah and his feditious company, to let them down, as it were, quick into hell: thefe, and many other remarkable judgments of God, in feveral ages, upon particular perfons, and upon cities and nations, may fatisfy us, in fome measure, of the feverity of God against fin, and be, as it were, pledges to affure finners of the infupportable mifery and torments of the

next life.

5. The argument is much stronger the other way, that because the punishment of finners is delayed fo

long,

long, therefore it will be much heavier and feverer when it comes; that the wrath of God is growing all this while, and as we fill up the measures of our fins, he fills the vials of his wrath: Rom. ii. 5. And according to thy hard and impenitent heart, treafureft up to thyfelf wrath against the day of wrath, and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. God now keeps in his difpleafure; but all the while we go on in an impenitent courfe, the wrath of God is continually increafing, and will at last be manifefted by the righteous judgment of God upon finners. God now exercifeth and difplayeth his milder attributes, his goodness, and mercy, and patience: but thefe will not always hold out; there is a dreadful day a-coming, wherein, as the Apostle speaks, God will fhew his wrath, and make his power known, after he hath endured with much long-fuffering the veffels of wrath fitted for deftruction. All this long time of God's patience and forbearance his wrath is kindled, and he is whetting his glittering fword, and making sharp his arrows; and this long preparation doth portend a much more dreadful execution: fo that we fhould reason thus from the long-fuffering of God; God bears with us, and fpares us at prefent, and keeps in his anger; therefore, if we go on to provoke him, time will come when he will not fpare, but his anger will flame forth, and his jealoufy fmske against us. This is but reasonable to expect, that they who in this world forfake their own mercies, the mercy of God in the next fhould forfake

them.

IV. Another false conclusion, which men draw from the delay of punishment, is, that because it is delayed, therefore it is not fo certain; the finner efcapes for the prefent; and though he have fome misgivings and fearful apprehenfions of the future, yet he hopes his fears may be greater than his danger.

It is true, indeed, we are not fo certain of the mifery of wicked men in another world, as if it were prefent, and we lay groaning under the weight of it: fuch a certainty as this, would not only leave no place for doubting, but even for that which we properly and ftrictly call faith; for faith is the evidence of things not feen: but fure we have other faculties befides fenfe to

judge

judge of things by; we may be fufficiently certain of many things which are neither prefent nor fenfible, of many things paft and future, upon good ground and teftimony: we are fure that we were born, and yet we have no remembrance of it; we are certain that we shall die, though we never had the experience of it. Things may be certain in their caufes, as well as in their prefent existence, if the caufes be certain. The truth of God, who hath declared these things to us, is an abundant ground of affurance to us, though they be at a great diitance: the certainty of things is not fhaken by our wavering belief concerning them.

Befides, the very light of nature, and the common reafon of mankind, hath always made a contrary inference from the long-fuffering of God, and the delay of prefent punishment. Though men are apt to think, that becaufe judgment is deferred, therefore it is not certain; yet the very light of nature hath taught men to reafon otherwife; that becaufe God is fo patient to finners in this life, therefore there will a time come when they fhall be punished; that because this life is a time of trial and forbearance, therefore there fhall be another itate after this life, which fhall be a feafon of recompence. And by this argument chiefly it was that the wifeft of the Heathen fatisfied themselves concerning another state after this life, and anfwered the troublefome objection against the providence of God, from the unequal adminiftration of things in this world, fo vifible in the afflictions and fufferings of good men, and the profperity of the wicked, viz. that there would be another ftate that would adjuft all these matters, and fet them freight, when good and bad men fhould receive the full recompence of their deeds. The

V. And laft falfe conclufion which men draw from the long-fuffering of God, and the delay of punishment, is this; that it is, however, probably, at some distance, and therefore they may fin yet a while longer, and all this danger may be prevented time enough, by a future repentance in our old age, or at the hour of death; and they are confirmed very much in this hope, because they fee men much worse than themfelves, great criminals and malefactors, upon two or three days warning, to

per

perform this work of repentance very fubftantially, and to die with great comfort and affurance of their falvation. This is the most common delufion of all the rest, and hath been, I am afraid, the ruin of more fouls than all the other which I have mentioned; they may have fain their thousands, but this its ten thousands.

For anfwer to this, be pleased ferioufly to lay to heart thefe following confiderations, most of which I fhall fpeak but briefly to; because I have, upon other occafions, fpoken largely to them.

1. If there be a future judgment, then it is certain, at how great a diftance foever it may be. That which fhall be a thoufand years hence, will certainly be, and it is but very fmall comfort and encouragement, confidering the vaft difproportion between time and eternity, to think, that after twenty or forty years fhall be past and gone, then must I enter upon eternal mifery; then will thofe intolerable torments begin, which shall never have an end.

2. But it is not certain that it is at fuch a distance: when we put from us the evil day, it is, many times, nearer to us than we are aware; and when we think the judgment of God is at a great diftance, the Judge may be near, even at the door. Our times are not in our own hands, but we are perfectly at the difpofal of another, who, when he pleafeth, can put a period to them, and caufe our breath to ceafe from our noftrils, and we shall not be: there is no man hath power over the spirit, to retain the fpirit; neither hath he power in the day of death, faith the wife man, a little before the text. Thou dreameft, perhaps, of many years continuance in this world, and, perhaps, in the height of this vain imagination, the decree is fealed, and the commandment come forth to fummon thee out of this world, and thou art just dropping into that mifery, which thou fanciest to be at fuch a diftance: whilft thou art vainly promifing thy felf the eafe of many years, God may fay to thee, Thou fool, this night fhall thy foul be required of thee; and then where are all thy hopes?

3. Suppofing the evil day were at a confiderable diftance, yet men run an infinite hazard in venturing all the hopes of their falvation upon a future repentance;

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for

for what knowest thou, O man! but thou mayst be furprized by a fudden ftroke, which may give thee no warning, leave thee no fpace of repentance? A violent difeafe may feize upon thee, which may disorder thy understanding, and fo weaken all thy faculties, as to render thee unfit for all reasonable operations: at the beft, how unfit are we for the moft ferious work of our lives, when we are hardly fit to do any thing? Old age is a very unfeasonable time for repentance, when we are full of weakness and infirmity, and our minds are crooked and bowed down by vice, as our bodies are by age, and as hard to be recovered to their firft ftreightness; much more is it an improper time for this work, when fickness and old age meet together. There are two things, in which men, in other things wife enough, do ufually mifcarry; in putting off the making of their wills, and their repentance, till it be too late. Men had need then be of found understanding, and perfect memory, when they fet about matters of fo great confequence in respect of their temporal and eternal concernments; efpecially when men have the happiness of all. eternity to take care of, and provide for, they had need have their understandings about them, and all the advantages of leifure and confideration, to make a fober reflection upon their past lives, and make up their accounts with God, and to fet all things right between him and them; and it is well if, after all, a repentance wilfully deferred fo long, fo fhort and imperfect, fo confufed and huddled up, will at last be accepted as a tolerable atonement for the crimes and mifcarriages of a long life.

4. Suppofe thou wert fure to repent before thou leaveft the world, and to do this work throughly, which no man can promise to himself, that deliberately delays it; yet this can be no reasonable encouragement to go on in an evil course, because we do but hereby aggravate our own trouble, and treasure up much more forrow and affliction to ourselves againft the day of repentance, and confequently fin on, in hopes of being hereafter fo much the more troubled and grieved for what we have done; as if a man fhould go on to break the laws, in hopes of a more fevere and exemplary punishment: fure this

can