1 51. What possible ground of hope then is there to the wicked man, when death comes upon him armed with the force of this law? How can he escape that fire, which " burnt into the midst of heaven ?" Deat. iv. 11. How shall he be able to stand in that smoke, that "ascended as the smoke of a furnace ?" Exod. xix. 18. How will he endure the terrible "thunders and lightnings," ver. 18. and dwell in "the darkness, clouds and thick darkness?" Deut. iv. 11. All these resemblances heaped together do but faintly represent the fearful tempest of wrath and indignation, which shall pursue the wicked to the lowest hell; and for ever abide on them, who are driven to darkness at death. Thirdly, Death roots up their delusive hopes of eternal happiness; then it is their covenant with death and agreement with hell, is broken. They are awakened out of their golden dreams, and at length lift up their eyes; Job viii. 14. "Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web." They trust all shall be well with them after death. But thus their trust is but a web woven out of their own bowels, with a great deal of art and industry. They wrap themselves up in their hope, as the spider wraps herself in her web. But it is a weak and slender defence; for however it may withstand the threatenings of the word of God, death, that besom of destruction, will sweep them and it both away, so as there shall not be the least shred of it left them? but he, who this moment will not let his hope go, shall next moment be utterly hopeless. Death overturns the house built on the sand; it leaves no man under the power of delusion. Lastly, Death makes their state absolutely and for ever hopeless. Matters cannot be retrieved and amended after death. For (1.) Time once gone can never be recalled. If cries or tears, price or pains, could bring time back again; the wicked man may have hope in his death. But tears of blood will not prevail ; nor will his roaring for millions of ages cause it to return. The sun will not stand still, until the sluggard awake, and enter on his journey; and when once it is gone down, he needs not expect the night to be turned into day for his sake: he must lodge through the long night of eternity, where his time left him. (2.) There is no returning to this life, to amend what is amiss; it is a state of probation and trial, which terminates at death, and therefore we cannot return to it again; it is but once we thus live, and once we die. Death carries the wicked man to his own place, Acts i. 25. This life is our working day; death closeth our day and our work together. We may readily imagine the wicked might have some hope in their death; if, after death has opened their eyes, they could return to life, and have but the trial of one sabbath, one offer of Christ, one day, or but one hour more to make up their peace with God: but "man lieth down, and riseth not till the heavens be no more; they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep," Job xiv. 12. Lastly, In the other world, men have no access to get their ruined state and condition retrieved, if they never so fain would. "For there is no work nor device, no knowledge nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest," Eccl. ix. 10. Now a man may flee from the wrath to come: now may he get into a refuge; but when once death has done its work, the door is shut; there are no more offers of mercy, no more pardons; where the tree is fallen, there it must lie. Let what has been said be carefully pondered, and. that it may be of use, let me exhort you. First. To take heed that ye entertain no hopes of heaven, but what are built on a solid foundation; tremble to think what fair hopes of happiness death sweeps away like cobwebs; how the hopes of many are cut off, when they seem to themselves, to be at the very threshold of heaven; how, in the moment they expected to be carried by angels into Abraham's bosom, into the regions of bliss and peace, they are carried by devils into the society of the damned in hell, into the place of tor ment, and regions of horror. I beseech you, beware, (1.) of a hope built up, where the ground was never cleared. The wise builder digged deep, Luke vi. 48. Were your hopes of heaven never shaken; but have you had good hopes all your days? Alas for it; you may see the mystery of your case explained, Luke vi. 21. "When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace." But if they have been shaken, take heed lest there have only some breaches been made in the old building, which you have got repaired again by ways and means of your own. I assure you, your hope (howsoever fair a building it is) is not to trust to; unless your old hopes have been razed, and you have built on a foundation quite new. (2.) Beware of that hope, which looks brisk in the dark, but looseth all its lustre when it is set in the light of God's word, when it is examined and tried by the touchstone of divine revelation, John iii. 20. " For every one that doth evil hateth the light; neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should he reproved, ver. 21. but he that doth the truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God." That hope which cannot abide scripture-trial, but sinks when searched into by sacred truth, is a delusion, and not a true hope: for God's word is always a friend to the graces of God's Spirit, and enemy to delusion. (3.) Beware of that hope, which stands without being supported by scripture-evidences. Alas! many are big with hope, who cannot give, because they really have not any scripture-grounds for them. Thou hopest that all shall be well with thee after death: but what word of God is it, on which thou hast "been caused to hope," Psal. cxix. 49. What scripture-evidence hast thou to prove that thy hope is not the hope of the hypocrite? What hast thou after impartial self-examination as in the sight of God found in thyself, which the word of God determines to be a sure evidence of his right to eternal life, who is possessed of it? Numbers of men are ruined with such hopes as stand unsupported by scripture-evidence. Men are fond and tenacious of these hopes; but death will throw them down, and leave the self-deceiver hopeless. Lastly, Beware of that hope of heaven, which doth not prepare and dispose you for heaven, which never makes your soul inore holy, 1 John iii. 3. " Every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as he is pure." The hope |