endure to think seriously of paffing out of this World in an impenitent State. For it is what but a very few can arrive unto, wholly to fhake off, or wear out all fenfe of Good and Evil, of Reward and Punishment. The Fears of another World will ever and anon be stirring and crouding themselves in, and will fret and gall the Sinner forely, and make his Thoughts troublesom to him. An uneafy Bed, a broken Sleep, a fudden Affliction, an Handwriting on the Wall, will fometimes force us, whether we will or no, to fmite upon our Breafts, and reflect fadly upon our past dishonourable Mifdceds, and the fatal Iffue of them; and very often our own Confcience will fly in our Face, notwithstanding all our Arts to divert it, or our Charms to lull it afleep: nor could a wicked Man ever be at quiet in his Mind, but that he is refolved by God's Grace, when time fhall ferve, to do fomething or other he doth not well know what or when, whereby he may obtain Pardon for all the Follies and Miscarriages of his Life paft.

I am very confident I now represent to you the fecret Mind of moft wicked Chriftians, who at any time think seriously, viz. that that which makes them fo hardy and stupidly neglectful of their immortal Concerns, and fo jocund and pleasant whilft they live in plain known Sins, is this, that they promise themfelves, and depend on God's Goodness for time and opportunity of making amends in a lingring Sickness, or in a declining Age. They

are

are now young and healthful, ftrong and luf ty; their Pulfe beats evenly, their Blood moves briskly, their Spirits are active and subtil, and they feel no Symptoms of any approaching Sicknefs. Hereafter therefore they think it will be time enough to look after another Life, when they shall be nigh leaving this, when their Bodies fhall begin to decline, and their Strength to decay, and Death fhall make its Approaches.

Thus there are as it were two Ways propounded to Heaven; one (and that is counted a very dull, tedious and difficult Paffage) by the conftant doing of good, by living righ teously, and godlily, and foberly in this prefent World: The other (which is a fhorter cut, and a much broader way) by repenting at our Death of a wicked Life. And it is not at all hard to guess which way the greatest part of Men will chufe.

And would this do, it were indeed a very fine and fubtil Management of things: for thus we might fwallow the Bait, and never be hurt by the Hook; we might have both the pleasure of being wicked, and the hopes of being faved; we might fpare our felves all the trouble of Religion, and yet not mifs of the Reward of it; we might fpend all our days as we lift, gratify every vain Humour and Appetite, enjoy this World as much as we can, deny our felves nothing that our Lufts and Paf fions crave, live all our life long without God in the World, and yet at laft die in the Lord.

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The great Enemy of Mankind hath not in all his Magazine a more deadly Engine for the Destruction of Souls. Nor is there any thing I know of, that doth so notoriously frustrate and defeat the whole Design of our Saviour's coming into the World, and render our Chriftianity fo useless to us, as this one Prefumption, that the whole of Religion, or all that is neceffary to Salvation, may be perform'd upon a fick or Death-bed. For if it may be done as well at the last, in good truth what need we trouble our felves about it fooner? What need we difquiet our felves in vain about the Exercises of Virtue and Piety, or forgo the fweet Pleasures of this Life, or constantly maintain a painful and ungrateful Conflict with the Inclinations and inordinate Cravings of our Flesh, or renounce our fecular Interefts, or undertake a sharp and troublefom Service; whenas it is but at any time lamenting over our Sins, and trufting to the Performances of Jefus Chrift, and we shall be as fecure of Paradife, as if we had all our days kept a Confcience void of Offence both towards God and towards all Men? and in fo doing, fhall run no other hazard but that of dying fuddenly, which doth not happen to one Man in five hundred.

Eternal Blifs and Happiness is a thing of fo very great and weighty Confideration, of fuch vaft moment to us, that to put off the thoughts thereof, or provifion for it, but one day, (after we are become capable of thinking and

acting like Men) is certainly a very great and unaccountable Indiscretion: but for a Man to give all his days to himself, and to his own pleasure and humour, and to referve for God, for whofe Service he was born, but one, and that the worst and the last; this is furely Madnefs beyond all measure.

The extreme Folly and Danger of fuch Practices I fhall now endeavour to evince, by fhewing briefly these three things.

I. How little all that amounts to, which can be done by a wicked Man in order to the obtaining the Pardon of his Sins on a fick or Death-bed.

II. How far fhort all this comes of what the Holy Scriptures require as the indifpenfable Condition of Salvation.

III. What small Hopes or Encouragement God hath any where given Men to believe, that he will at all abate or remit of those Conditions he hath propounded in the Gospel, or accept of any thing less than a good Life.

I. How little all that amounts to which can be done by a wicked Man on his fick or Deathbed. Now fome at this time can do more, fome lefs, according as God affords them Space and Ability; but ordinarily the whole of a Death-bed Repentance is no more than a few good Words and Wishes, a fuperficial Confef fion of Sin and Wickedness in general, fome broken Prayers and pious Expreffions to the Minister,

Minifter, (who then shall be sure to be fent for in all hafte, however defpifed by the Sinner all his life time before) and perhaps receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, (which he never thought of, nor ever would trouble himself about whilft he was well and in health) together with a Legacy of his illgotten Goods to charitable Ufes: and this in common Efteem is making a good Chriftian End; and fuch a one's Condition, whatever his Life hath been, is thought fair and hopeful.

But I am willing, in the handling of this Subject, to allow to the dying Penitent all the Advantages imaginable, and to confider his Repentance in the best Circumstances; and therefore I fhall not inftance in fuch as are violently fnatch'd and fuddenly hurried out of the World in the midst of their Wickedness, and have hardly time fo much as to beg Mercy at God's hands; nor yet in those who are raken with fuch Diseases as render them unca pable of any wife or rational Thoughts, tho this is a Cafe that often happens in the World: for there is many a Man who intends when he comes to die to repent, that is, to call to mind all his wicked Ways, and to be extremely forrowful for them, and at laft it proves that his Sickness is of that fort as utterly to take away. all his Memory and Understanding; and when he is to look back, and feriously to confider how he has lived, alas! he remembers not one thing good or bad that ever he faid or did. He has pitched upon and fixed a time wherein