many fouls. Men will be reckoning their time by years, (like that rich man, Luke xii. 19, 20) when it may be, there are not many hours of it to run. But reckon as you will, laying your time to the measuring reed of eternity, you wIH fee your age is as nothing. What a fmall and inconfiderable point is fixty, eighty, or a hundred years, in respect of eternity? Compared with eternity, there is a greater difproportion, than between a hair's breadth and the cir cumference of the whole earth. Why do we fleep then in fuel a fhort day, while we are in hazard of lofing reft through the long night of eternity 2dly, Apply it to your endeavours for falvation, and they will be found very fcanty. When men are preffed to diligence in their falvation-work, they are ready to fay, "To what purpofe is this wafte?" Alas if it were to be judged by our diligence, what is it that we have in view; as to the most part of us, no man could thereby conjecture, that we have eternity in view. If we duly confidered eternity, we could not but conclude, that, to leave no means appointed of God urieffayed, till we get ur falvation fecured; to refufe reft or comfort in any thing, till we are theltered under the wings of the Mediator; to purfue pur great interest with the utmost vigour, to cut off luits dear as right heads and right eyes, to fet our faces refolutely against all difficulties, and fight our way through all the oppofition made by the devil, the world, and the flesh; are, all of them together, little enough for eternity. USE II. Here is a balance of the fanctuary, by which one may understand the lightness of what is falfly thought weighty; and the weight of fome things, by many reckoned to be very light.

FIRST, Some things feem very weighty, which weighed in this balance, will be found very light. (1.) Weigh the "world, and all that is in it, the luft of the flesh, the luft of the eyes, and the pride of life," and the whole will be found light in the balance of eternity. Weigh herein all worldly profits, gains and advantages; and you will quickly fee, that a thousand worlds Vill not quit the cost of the eternity of woe. For what is a man profited, "if he fhall gain the whole world, and lofe his own foul?" Matth xvi. 26. Weigh the pleafares of fin, which are but for a feafon, with the fire that is everlafting, and you must account yourfelves fools and madmen, to run the hazard of the one for the other. (2.) Weigh your afflictions in this balance, and you will find the heavieft of them very light, in refpect of the weight of eternal anguish. Impatience under affliction, especially when worldly troubles do fo imbitter mens fpirits, that they cannot relish the glad tidings of the gofpel, fpeaks great regardlefsnefs of eternity. As a fmall and inconfiderable lofs will be very little at heart with him, who fees bimfelf in hazard of loling his whole eftate: fo troubles in the world will appear but light to him, who has a lively view of eternity. Such a one will ftoop, and take up his cross, whatever it be, thinking it enough to escape eternal wrath. (3.) Weigh the moft difficult and uneafy duties of religion here, and you will no more reckon the yoke of Chrift unfupportable. Repentance and bitter mourning for fin on earth, are very light in comparison of eternal weeping, wadding, and guafhing of teeth in hell. To wrestle with God in prayer, weeping and making fupplication for the bleffing in time, is far cafier than to ly under the curfe through all eternity. Mortification of the mat beloved luft is a light thing, in comparison with the fecond death in hell. LASTLY, Weigh your convictions in this balance. O! how heavy do thefe ly upon many, till they get them fhaken off! They are not difpofed to fall in with them, but ftrive to get clear of them, as of a mighty burden. But the worm of an ill confcience, will neither die nor fleep in hell, though one may now lull it afleep for

a time. And certainly it is eafier to entertain the sharpeft convictions in this life, fo as they may lead one to Chrift, than to have them fixed for ever in the confcience, while in hell one is totally and finally separated from him.

SECONDLY, But on the other band, (1.) Weigh fin in this balance; and, though now it seems but a light thing to you, ye will find it a weight fufficient to turn up an eternal weight of wrath upon you. Even idle words, vain thoughts, and unprofitable actions, weighed in this ballance, and confidered as following the finner into eternity, will each of them be heavier than the fand of the fea: time idly spent will make a weary eternity. Now is your feed-time; thoughts, words and actions are the feed fown; eternity is the harveft: though the feed now lies under the clod, unregarded by most. men, even the leaft grain fhall spring up at length; and the fruit will be ac cording to the feed, Gal. vi. 8. "For he that foweth to his flesh, fhall of the "feh reap corruption, (i. & destruction ;) but be that foweth to the Spirit, "fhall of the Spirit reap life everlafting." (2.) Weigh in this balance your time, and opportunities of grace and falvation, and you will find them very weighty. Precious time and feafons of grace, fabbaths, communions, prayers, fermons, and the like, are by many now a-days made light of: but the day is coming, when one of thefe will be reckoned more valuable than a thoufand worlds, by thofe who now have the least value for them. When they are gone for ever, and the lofs cannot be retrieved; thefe will fee the worth of them, who will not now fee it.

USE III. and LAST, Be warned and ftirred up to flee from the wrath to come. Mind eternity, and closely ply the work of your falvation. What are you doing, while you are not fo doing? Is heaven a fable, or hell a mère scarecrow? Muft we live eternally, and will we be at no more pains to escape everlafting mifery? Will faint wishes take the kingdom of heaven by force? And will fuch drowly endeavours, as most men fatisfy themselves with, be accounted flying from the wrath to come? Ye who have already fled to Christ, up, and be doing: ye have begun the work; go on, loiter not, but "work out your falvation with fear and trembling," Philip. ü. 12. Fear him "which is able to destroy both body and foul in hell," Matth. x. 28. Remember, ye are not yet afcended into heaven: ye are but in your middle ftate: The everlasting arms have drawn you out of the gulf of wrath ye were plunged into, in your natural state; they are ftill underneath you, that ye can never fall down into it again: nevertheless, ye have not yet got up to the top of the rock; the deep below you is frightful; look at it, and haften your alcent. Ye who are yet in your natural ftate, lift up your eyes, and take a view of the eternal state. Arife, ye profane perfons, ye ignorant ones, ye formal hypocrites, ftrangers to the power of godliness, flee from the wrath to come. Let not the young adventure to delay a moment longer, nor the old put off this work any more. "To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden

not your hearts;" left he fwear in his wrath, that ye fhall never enter into his rest. It is no time to linger in a state of fin, as in Sodom, when fire and brimstone are coming down on it from the Lord. Take warning in time: they who are in hell, are not troubled with fuch warnings; but are inraged

inft themselves for that they flighted the warning, when they had it. Confider, I pray you, (1.) How uneafy it is to ly one whole night on a foft bed, in perfect health, when one very fain would have fleep, but cannot get it; fleep being departed from him. How often will one in that case wish for reft! How full of toffings to and fro! But ab! how dreadful muft it then be to ly in forrow, wrapt up in fcorching flames through long eternity, in

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that place where they have no reft day nor night! (2.) How terrible would it be to live under violent pains of the cholic or gravel, for forty or fixty years together, without any intermiffion! Yet that is but a very small thing in comparison of eternal feparation from God, the worm that never dieth, and the fire that is never quenched. (3.) Eternity is an awful thought; O long, long, endless eternity! But will not every molnent, in eternity of woe, feem a month, and every hour a year, in that moft wretched and defperate condition? Hence ever and ever, as it were a double eternity. The fick man in the night, toffing to and fro on his bed, fays, it will never be day; complains that his pain ever continues, never, never abates. Are thefe petty time-eternities, which men form to themfelves, in their own imaginations, fo very grievous? Alas! then how grievous, w utterly unfupportable must real eternity of woe, and all manner of miferies be! LASTLY, There will be space enough there, to reflect on all the ills one's heart and life, which one cannot get time to think of now; and to fee that all that was faid of the impenitent finner's hazard, was true and that the half was not told. There will be space enough in eternity to think on delayed repentance, to rue one's follies, when it is too late; and in a state paft remedy, to fpeak forth their fruitlefs withes: "O that I had never been born! That the womb had been my grave, and I had never feen the fun! O that I had taken warning in "time, and fled from his wrath, while the door of mercy was standing open. to me! O that I had never heard the gofpel, that I had lived in fome cor ner of the world, where a Saviour and the great falvation were not once "named!" But all in vain. What is done cannot be undone; the opportu. nity is loft, and can never be retrieved time is gone, and cannot be recalled. Wherefore improve time, while you have it, and do not wilfully ruin yourfelves, by stopping your ear to the golpel-call.

And now if ye would be faved from the wrath to come, and never go in to this place of torment, take no rest in your natural flate; believe the finfulness and mifery of it, and labour to get it out quickly, fleeing unto Jefus Chrift by faith. Sin in you is the feed of hell: and, if the guilt and reigning power of it be not removed in time, they will bring you to the fecond death in eternity. There is no way to get them removed, but by receiving of Christ, as he is offered in the gospel, for juftification and fanctification: and he is now offered to you with all his falvation, Rev. xxii. 12. 17. “And behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work fhall be. And the Spirit and the bride fay, Come. And let him that heareth, fay, Come. And let him that is a thrift, Come. And who "foever will, let him take the water of life freely." Jefus Chrift is the Mediator of peace, and the Fountain of holiness: he it is who "delivereth us "from the wrath to come." There is no condemnation to them which are in Chrift Jefus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit," Rom. viii. 1. And the terrors of hell, as well as the joys of heaven, are fet before you, to stirr you up to a cordial receiving of him with all his falvation; and to determine you unto the way of faith and holiness, in which alone you can efcape the everlasting fire. May the Lord himfelf make them effectual to

that end.

Thus far of Man's ETERNAL STATE; the which, because it is eternal, admits no fucceeding one for ever.

E IN I S.