CLXV. 66 66 SER M. braidings of our own confciences, fo often as we call them to remembrance, and reflect seriously upon them; though for the gratifying an importunate inclination, and an impetuous appetite, all the inconveniencies of them might be born withal; yet methinks the very thought of the end and iffue of a wicked life, that "the end of these things is death," that "indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish," far greater than we can now describe, or imagine, "fhall be to every foul of man that doth evil," should over-rule us. Though the violence of an irregular luft and defire are able to bear down all other arguments, yet methinks the eternal interest of our precious and immortal fouls should still lye near our hearts and affect us very fenfibly. Methinks the confideration of another world, and of all eternity, and of that difmal fate which attends impenitent finners after this life, and the dreadful hazard of being miferable for ever, fhould be more than enough to difhearten any man from a wicked life, and to bring him to a better mind and course. And if the plain representations of these things do not prevail with men to this purpose, it is a fign that either they do not believe these things, or elfe that they do not confider them; one of these two muft be the reason why any man, notwithstanding these terrible threatnings of God's word, does venture to continue in an evil course. It is vehemently to be fufpected, that men do not really believe these things, that they are not fully perfuaded that there is another ftate after this life, in which the righteous GOD" will render to every "man according to his deeds:" and therefore fo much wickednefs as we fee in the lives of men, fo much infidelity may reafonably be fufpected to lye lurking lurking in their hearts. They may indeed feeming- SERM. ly profess to believe these things: but he that would CLXV. know what a man inwardly and firmly believes, fhould attend rather to his actions, than to his verbal profeffions: For if any man lives fo, as no man that believes the principles of the chriftian religion in reafon can live, there is too much reafon to queftion whether that man doth believe his religion; he may say he does, but there is a far greater evidence in the cafe than words; the actions of the man are by far the most credible declarations of the inward fenfe and perfuafion of his mind. Did men firmly and heartily believe that there is a GOD that governs the world, and regards the actions of men, and that he hath appointed a day "in which he will judge the world in righteoufnefs," and that all mankind fhall appear before him in that day, and every action that they have done in their whole lives fhall be brought upon the ftage, and pass a strict examination and cenfure, and that thofe who have made confcience of their duty to GoD and men, and have lived foberly, righteously, and "godly in this prefent world," fhall be unspeakably and eternally happy in the next; but thofe who have lived leud and licentious lives, and perfifted in an impenitent courfe, fhall be extremely and everlastingly miferable, without pity, and without comfort, and without remedy, and without hope of ever being otherwife; I fay, if men were fully and firmly perfuaded of these things, it is not credible, it is hardly poffible that they should live fuch profane and impious, fuch carelefs and diffolute lives, as we daily fee a great part of mankind do. That man that can be awed from his duty, or tempted to fin by any of the pleafures or terrors of VOL. IX. L this CLXV. SERM. this world, that for the present enjoyment of his lufts can be contented to venture his foul, what greater evidence than this can there be, that this man does not believe the threatnings of the gofpel, and how "fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the "living GOD?" That man that can be willing to undergo an hard service for several years, that he may be in a way to get an estate, and be rich in this world; and yet will not be perfuaded to restrain himself of his liberty, or to deny his pleasure, or to check his appetite or luft, for the greatest reward that God can promife, or the feverest punishment that he can threaten; can any man reasonably think, that this man is perfuaded of any fuch happiness or mifery after this life, as is plainly revealed in the gospel, that "verily "there is a reward for the righteous, and verily there is a God that judgeth the earth?" For what can he that believes not one fyllable of the bible, do worse than this comes to? A ftrong and vigorous faith even in temporal cafes, is a powerful principle of action, especially if it be backed and enforced with arguments of fear. He that believes the reality of a thing, and that it is good for him, and that it may be attained, and that if he do attain it, it will make him very happy, and that without it he fhall be extremely miferable; fuch a belief and perfuafion will put a man upon difficult things, and make him to put forth a vigorous endeavour, and to ufe a mighty industry for the obtaining of that, concerning which he is thus perfuaded. And the faith of the gospel ought to be fo much the more powerful, by how much the objects of hope and fear, which it prefents to us, are greater and more confiderable. Did men fully believe the hap-piness pinefs of heaven, and the torments of hell, and were SERM they as verily perfuaded of the truth of them, as if CLXV. they were before their eyes, how infignificant would all the terrors and temptations of fenfe be to draw them into fin, and feduce them from their duty? But although it feems very ftrange, and almost incredible, that men fhould believe thefe things, and yet live wicked and impious lives; yet because I have no mind, and God knows there's no need to increase the number of infidels in this age, I fhall chufe rather to impute a great deal of the wickedness that is in the world, to the inconfideratenefs of men, than to their unbelief. I will grant that they do in fome fort believe these things, or at least that they do not disbelieve them; and then the great caufe of mens ruin must be, that they do not attend to the confequence of this belief, and how men ought to live that are thus perfuaded. Men ftifle their reafon, and fuffer themselves to be hurried away by fenfe, into the embraces of fenfual objects and things prefent, but do not confider what the end of these things will be, and what is like to become of them hereafter; for it is not to be imagined, but that man who fhall calmly confider with himself what fin is, the fhortness of its pleasure, and the eternity of its punishment, fhould feriously refolve upon a better courfe of life. And why do we not confider thefe things, which are of fo infinite concernment to us? What have we our reafon for, but to reflect upon ourselves, and to mind what we do, and wifely to compare things together, and upon the whole matter to judge what makes moft for our true and lafting intereft? to confider our whole felves, our fouls as well as our bodies; and our whole duration not only in this world, but in the other, not only with regard to time, but CLXV. SER M. to eternity? to look before us to the laft iffue and event of our actions, and to the farthest consequence of them, and to reckon upon what will be hereafter, as well as what is prefent; and if we fufpect or hope or fear, especially if we have good reafon to believe a future ftate after death, in which we fhall be happy or miferable to all eternity, according as we manage and behave ourselves in this world, to refolve to make it our greatest defign and concernment while we are in this world, fo to live and demean ourselves, that we may be of the number of those that shall be accounted worthy to escape that mifery, and to obtain that happiness, which will laft and continue for ever. And if men would but apply their minds seriously to the confideration of these things, they could not act fo imprudently as they do; they would not live fo by chance and without defign, taking the pleasure that comes next, and avoiding the prefent evils which prefs upon them, without any regard to those that are future, and at a distance, though they be infinitely greater and more confiderable: If men could have the patience to debate and argue these matters with themselves, they could not live fo prepofterously as they do, preferring their bodies before their fouls, and the world before GOD, and the things which are temporal before the things that are eternal. Did men verily and in good earnest believe but half of that to be true, which hath now been declared to you, concerning the miferable ftate of impenitent finners in another world, (and I am very fure, that the one half of that which is true concerning that ftate hath not been told you) I fay, did we in any meafure believe what hath been fo imperfectly reprefented, "what manner of perfons should we all be, |