not, but we must further know, that if we have not admitted it, we have taken pains to exclude it.

I fhall addrefs the first Part of my Exhortation to those who may be under thefe Circumstances.

Experience fhews us that Men may become induftrious to filence their Reafon and extinguish Reflection, and that, in Particulars by themselves acknowledged to be of the utmost Importance; infomuch that they shall be inraged at others for preffing these ungrateful Truths upon them; nay, and be diffatisfied with themselves, when they are by their own Minds, in a kind of involuntary way, fuggefted to them. How unnatural must the State of fuch Men be in their highest Enjoyments! Their best Powers must be difallowed, all ferious Reflection fufpended, and the Scene of their Happiness be laid in Darknefs and Thoughtlefnefs: In fuch

man

manner must the House of such Men be fwept and garnished, swept of all that is worthy and perfective of our Natures, and garnished with Darkness and the Deeds of it, a fashionable and elegant Furniture!

Be it allowed that bodily Pleasures may for a Season amufe fuch Men, that especially during a State of Health and Plenty they may fupport fome kind and degree of Happiness; yet we all know, that Health and Plenty are uncertain things; Diseases will invade us, and our Pleasures themselves will produce Pain; we know that they have in themselves a Tendency to deftroy the very Health and Plenty which are their Source and Foundation; and at laft Death must approach us, and place us upon the Verge of both Worlds, and in fpite of us, exhibit to us the clofing of the present Scene, and the opening of that which will be Eternal, and force us

to

to look back upon our departing Pleafures, and forward upon our approaching Suffering, with the utmoft Anguish and Confufion.

very

Further, be it allowed that we do not at prefent certainly know the State of departed Souls, what their Condition will be, either before or after they are re-united to a Body of a very different Nature from what we now inhabit. Allowing this, I say, yet it is clear to us (indeed nothing is more fo) that He who came down from Heaven to teach Men heavenly Things, that is, the very State of departed Souls, He who is appointed to be the Judge of Quick and Dead, has actually represented their Condition under Characters of the most extreme Oppofition. These are faid to be carried by Angels into Abraham's Bolom, to enter into the Joy of their Lord, to go into Life eternal, to inherit the Kingdom prepared for them

before

before the Foundation of the World, to be crown'd with Glory, Honour, and Immortality; The other to be caft into Hell, into eternal Torments with the Devil and his Angels, where the Worm dieth not, and the Fire is not quenched. Whilst these praise God and fay, Glory and Honour, and Praife be unto our God for ever and ever; 0 the other call out upon the Rocks to

fall on them and hide them from the Face of him that fitteth on the Throne, and from the Wrath of the Lamb. Our own Reafon will confirm to us the Truth of thefe Revelations, there must be a time when Virtue fhall be rewarded and Vice punished; and the ftrong Light the Scriptures reprefent thefe things in, has in it the greatest moral Efficacy poffible, and must move the Hopes and Fears of every Man, that is not very induftrious to fhut his Eyes and harden his Heart against it.

The

The monstrous Folly of thofe Men who make it their Business to exclude all Hope and Fear of their future Condition, must abundantly appear; that they are treasuring up Wrath against the Day of Wrath, and take more Pains to be eternally miserable, than others do to be eternally happy.

There are another fort of Men, who run into the contrary Extreme; who do indeed frequently and with great Satisfaction entertain themselves with the Hopes of future Happiness, but at the fame time they use not the Means which are abfolutely necessary to obtain it; and fo their Hope is merely Prefumption, and their final Condition no better than theirs who exclude all Care and Concern about it. Our Lord represents the Wicked as hoping and vindicating themselves, even after their final Sentence is past upon them; they say unto him, When faw we thee an hungred or a-thirft, or

naked,