fare; what will it avail us that we have been rich and great in this world?

The fashion of this world passeth away, and all the glory and splendour of it will, in a little time, have an end. How great then is the folly of that man, and how deplorable will his condition be, who, instead of seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness in the first place, has consumed his days in seeking after the honours and riches of this world, and has worn himself out in the pursuit of those things which are of no value in the sight of God? wretched stupidity! what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Matt. xvi. 26. Time bears no proportion to eternity. The most exquisite pleasures of this life, which at best are but of a short continuance, can never compensate for the loss of that happiness, which God has prepared for them that love him. How miserably then will that man be deceived, who places all his hopes and happiness in the poor and empty satisfactions of a sensual life; who looks no farther than the

present time, and lives as if he cared not what became of him hereafter, provided he may but enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season!

But some, perhaps, may ask, where is the man so abandoned to folly and madness, as to be content, for the sake of a present short lived happiness, to be miserable for ever hereafter? I wish indeed, there were none such: but, alas! there are too many that make this sad choice. Not that any one chooses evil for the sake of evil, or prefers misery before happiness (for a desire of happiness is inseparable from our nature); but in the Scripture account of things, he is said to choose destruction who walks in the broad way that leads to it. For God has been pleased to set before us Life and Death, Blessing and Cursing: (Deut. xxx. 19.) rewards on the one hand, to encourage our obedience; and punishments on the other, to deter us from sin. As the inan therefore, who obeys the commandments of God, chooses life; so he that deliberately transgresses them chooses death: that death which God has threatened to the

sinner, even death eternal. For the wages of sin is death, and he that chooses the one (let his pretences be what they may) must be said to choose the other; because he knows (at least it is his own fault if he does not know) that God will render to every man according to his deeds: to them, who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory and honour and immortality; eternal life but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness; indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doth evil. Rom. ii. 6-9.

See, then what wretched folly the sinner is guilty of, (how wise soever he may think himself, and how much soever he may despise the sober part of mankind), when he first enters upon a life of wickedness! for he is then evidencing to all the world, that, Life and Death being set before him, he has determined his choice to the latter: -A choice so absurd and unaccountable, that, did not experience convince us it is often made, we could hardly

think it possible for a rational creature to be so blind. O blessed God! hast thou set before us happiness and misery ; joys unspeakable and full of glory on the one hand, and torments endless and intolerable on the other! hast thou given us the light of reason to guide us, and superadded that of thy Holy Spirt to illuminate and instruct us; hast thou implanted in our nature a dread of, and aversion for, pain and misery, and an insatiable and never-ceasing thirst after happiness; and is it possible for us, after all this, to be so blind and senseless, such enemies to our own souls, and so regardless of their eternal welfare, as to prefer the dark ways of sin and misery before those blessed paths that lead to the bright regions of bliss and glory!—Alas! such wretched fools are too many among us, who, notwistanding all that thou hast done for us, will not hearken, nor be advised, but run headlong into the ways of sin and destruction.

This indeed is a melancholy consideration and what shall we say to awaken men out of this fatal lethargy,

and to inspire them with a just sense of their danger? what! but entreat them to consider, that, unless they repent, they will certainly perish! For the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men :-and though God winked at the time of ignorance; yet now he commandeth all men every where to repent; because he hath appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. Acts xvii. 30, 31. In that awful day, sinners will in vain call to the mountains and rocks to fall on them, and to hide them from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.-For, when the great day of his wrath is come, who shall then be able to stand?-Rev. vi. 16, 17. Who, indeed, shall be able to stand before the face of an incensed God, and hear him pronounce that dreadful sentence, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels ?-Ah!