the certainty of this, the uncertainty of the time when,-the immortality of the foul,-the doubtful and momentous iffues of eternity,-the terrors of damnation, and the glorious things which are spoken of the city of GOD, are meditations fo obvious, and fo naturally check and block up a man's way,-are fo very interefting, and, above all, fo unavoidable, that it is aftonishing how it was poffible, at any time, for mortal man to have his head full of any thing elfe? And yet, was the fame perfon to take a view of the ftate of the world, -how flight an obfervation would convince him, that the wonder lay, in fact, on the other fide;—and that, as wifely as we all discourse, and philofophife de contemptu mundi & fugâ fæculi-yet, for one who really acts in the world-confiftent with his own reflections upon it, -that there are multitudes who feem to take aim at nothing higher ;—and, as empty a thing as it is,-are fo dazzled with, as to think it meet to build tabernacles of reft upon it,and fay,

It is good to be here.—Whether, as an able inquirer into this paradox gueffes,whether it is, that men do not heartily believe fuch a thing as a future state of happiness and mifery,-or if they do, -that they do not actually and ferioufly confider it, but fuffer it to lie dormant and unactive within them, and fo are as little affected with it, as if, in truth, they believed it not;-or whether they look upon it through that end of the perspective which reprefents as afar off,-and fo are more forcibly drawn by the nearer, though the leffer, loadftone;-whether these, or whatever other caufe may be affigned for it, the obfervation is inconteftible, that the bulk of mankind, in paffing through this vale of mifery,-ufe it not as a well to refresh and allay,-but fully to quench and fatisfy their thirst;-minding or (as the Apostle fays) relishing earthly things, making them the end and fum-total of their defires and wishes,

-and, in one word,-loving this world-juft as they are commanded to

love GOD;—that is,—with all their heart, with all their foul,-with all their mind this is not the and ftrength.-But this is ftrangest part of this paradox.-A man fhall not only lean and rest upon the world with his whole ftrefs,-but, in many inftances, fhall live notoriously bad and vicious;-when he is reproved, he fhall feem convinced ;-when he is obferved, -he fhall be ashamed;-he will do when he pursues his fin,it in the dark;-and when he has done it, fhall even be diffatisfied with himfelf:-yet ftill, this fhall produce no alteration in his conduct.-Tell him he fhall one day die ;die; or bring the event ftill nearer,-and fhew, that, according to the course of nature, he cannot poffibly live many years, he will figh, perhaps,—and tell you he is convinced of that as much as reafon and experience can make him:-proceed and urge to him,-that after death comes judgment, and that he will certainly there be dealt with by a juft GOD according to his actions ;-he will thank

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GOD he is no deift,-and tell you, with the fame grave face, he is thoroughly convinced of that too;-and as he believes,-no doubt, he trembles too:and yet after all, with all this conviction upon his mind, you will fee him still persevere in the fame course,—and commit his fin with as certain an event and resolution, as if he knew no argument against it.-Thefe notices of things, however terrible and true, pafs through his understanding as an eagle through the air, that leaves no path behind.

So that, upon the whole, instead of abounding with occafions to fet us feriously on thinking,-the world might dispense with many more calls of this kind; and were they feven times as many as they are,-confidering what infufficient use we make of those we have, all, I fear, would be little enough to bring these things to our remembrance as often, and engage us to lay them to our hearts with that affectionate concern, which the weight and interest of them

requires at our hands.-Sooner or later, the most inconfiderate of us all fhal! find, with Solomon,-that to do this effectually, is the whole of man.

And I cannot conclude this difcourfe upon his words better than with a short and earnest exhortation, that the folemnity of this feafon,-and the meditations to which it is devoted, may lead you up to the true knowledge and practice of the fame point, of fearing GOD and keeping his commandments,-and convince you, as it did him, of the indifpenfable neceffity of making that the bufinefs of a man's life, which is the chief end of his being,-the eternal happiness and falvation of his foul.

Which may GOD grant, for the fake of Jefus Chrift. Amen.