the End of all things with us did it Determine and Annihilate our Beings it would be so far from becoming affrightful to the Wicked and Impenitent that they would rather gladly Welcome it as the Rescuer of them from what they most seared a Penal Retribution for all their heinous Provocations in this Life but the Consideration that the first Death is only an Inlet unto a Beginning of the Second which is never to have an End Oh how must this prove doubly affrighting to the Person unprepared for the Temporal and therefore obnoxious to the Eternal Death both reluctant Nature and Guilt causing him to Dread it The acute Dolours of an expiring Sinner's Body make him Wish to Dye but then the more torturing Terrors of his awaken'd Conscience urge him to retract those Wishes and to fear nothing more than a Dissolution which will bring him to Judgment and Eternal Condemnation and thus the Dyeing Impenitent is rackt and tortured between contrary Desires and Choices the Guilty Agonies of his Mind pain him more than all the Convulsive Severities of his Disease so that they Anticipate his Hell on Earth and give him to feel some of its Torments before he goes hence to Experience them in in the Gross But with the Righteous Godly Person it is not so Death indeed to him may look at first somewhat affrightful it being an abhorrence to Nature a forcible Separation of Soul and Body those Dear Companions but then being prepared for Death he living in a continual pious Expectation of it Faith Animating and Confirming Faith strips in his sight that King of Terrors of all his Dâ—smaying Gastliness shews him with his Sting the Guilt of Sin totally pull'd out by the satisfactory Sufferings of our Saviour bids the Good Man walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death and fear no Evil Gives him a Delightsome Prospect beyond the Grave Admonishes him to look forward to that Immortal Life and Joy and Glory set before him and in fine Represents to him a blessed Reunion of Soul and Body at the General Resurrection never to part never to be separated again Death to such a one is as a Welcome Night of Repose after the hard Labour and Toil of the Day They Rest from their Labours says the Scripture 'T is as the Enjoyment of the Promised Land after a forty Years wearysome Wandring in the Wilderness nay 't is infinitely more 't is the Introduction into an Heavenly Canaan and Oh how Transporting must it be to have Shot the periâ—lous Gulph of Death and to be safely Landed on the Eternal Shoar To look back with Pleasure on the Wrecks and Dangers we have happily escaped and to find our selves all on a suddain surrounded with New unexperienc'd unheard of and before unconceivable Enravishments Oh who would not Gladly Dye to become Possessor of such an Inheritance who would not gladly Live in perpetual Mortification here to be made Partaker of such Infinite Delights in a Future State Oh Our Life which we falsly so call deserves not so Good a Name Our Life on Earth is but a Death compared with the Eternal Life and Blessedness Above They only Live who being freed from the Fetters of the Body from the corruptible Principles of Mortality are out of a Capacity of Dying any more and enjoy the utmost Delights with a full Assurance of ever enjoying them But here in the midst of Life we are in Death not only â—â—â—ble thereunto but in an Actual Tendency towards it We draw in Vital Aire only to breath it out again and sleep the liveliest Image of Death is the best Repairer of our Life by reason of which frequent Repairs our Life seems no other than a successive Living and Dying Nay our very Health the height thereof what is it but the next step to a Declination into Sickness many times an immediate Cause and Occasion thereof for when the Blood runs highest thence often proceeds a Feavour and too Great a Quantity of Spirits may prove fatal as well as the want of them Just as an House may fall opprest with too much bulk and weight as well as through Weakness and Slightness of Building Ah then that Men who live in continual Hazard of Dying should yet demean themselves with such careless Security as if they were ever to Live Ah that upon this moment for ought we know may Depend our happy Eternity and yet we squander away whole Days and Years in Vanity O when shall we become wise and consider profitably our Latter End When shall we so number our perishing days as to apply our hearts unto Godly Wisdom Time passes on though we mind it not improve not its passing Time passes on and brings us every instant the nearer to Eternity O how ought we to take care that it bring us to an Eternity of Blessedness That the end of our Days prove to us the end of our Hopes even the Salvation of our Souls Alass what Vanity of Vanities what meer Nothings at the hour of Death will all things here below appear unto us which Now look so charming and take off our minds and endeavours from providing for our happy Departures How then will all our pursuits all our possessions of Honour of Riches and Pleasure appear as a Dream as a vanishing Shadow so that we shall at that time account the wisdom of this world folly and madness shall wish wish Earnestly that with all our other Gettings we had Gotten more Religious Understanding had layd up larger Comfortable Treasures of a good Conscience had been as industrious for the Concerns of another Immortal Life as for those of this vain Transitory one Let us therefore take Advice of Death in time of health Death is a faithful Counsellor and will not Deceive will not flatter us and seeing 't is necessary for us to Dye one time or other and as necessary unto Dying well that we often meditate upon Death let us make it the frequent Subject of our thoughts and in such manner view things Now as they will certainly appear to us at our near approach towards Death O may we not live in such a state wherein we would be unwilling to be Surpriz'd by Death unwilling to be call'd to Dye before we have lived to any good purpose but may we through the Spirit mortifie the Deeds of the Body that we may be made Alive unto God What we would wish were done when Dying let us do that Good and vertuous work at present and what wish were undone then let us shun that wicked performance now or if performed undoe it by Repentance before our latter End overtakes us So shall we be Ready for Dying so shall the Day of our Deaths appear better to us than the day of our births we coming into the world crying as born to Labour and Sorrow but going out of it Rejoycing as assured to find Rest and Ease and Enravishment of Soul Amen blessed Saviour Thou Resurrection and the
Life Amen Amen The Prayer O Holy Jesu thou Lord of Life and Glory who by thy Death hast overcome Death and open'd unto us the Gate of Everlasting Life at the hour of Death and in the Day of Judgment Good Lord Deliver us Grant that the End of our life on Earth may be the Beginning to us of a blessed Eternity in Heaven that the Second Death the never-ceasing one may have no Dominion over us but that when we discontinue Living with men we may dwell with thee our God and Converse with all the blessed Society Above Grant Heavenly Father that when we come to lye on a Death-bed we may be able to look backward with Comfort and Consolation on a well spent Life and forward with a bright prospect of Glory and Immortality beyond the Grave that when we are nigh unto Death and our bodyly strength Languishing our faith and hope may Revive and become vigorous and we may then feel the joyous Approaches of that Salvation which we before had wrought out with fear and trembling We know O Lord that 't is appointed for all men once to Dye and that no one can rescue his life from the pit of Destruction and yet do we live as if we had made an Agreement with Hell and had an unforfeitable Lease of our lives O give us to Dye unto sin Now that we may sleep in Christ at our Departure and be Awaken'd be Rais'd to life again in the Restitution of all things Afford us some Refreshing beams of the Light of thy Reconciled Countenance when passing through the dark valley of the Shadow of Death grant that we may then fear no evil but may have the Testimony of a Good Conscience which may be a supporting Cordial to our weak and fainting Spirits Grant that we may not live in such an unprepar'd state of Soul as that we should be afraid to Dye and Appear before thy Judgment seat but cause us so to Demean our selves as that the Sting and Terrour of Death Sin may be taken away before Death it self lays hold on us that when it comes we may welcome it with Smiles and Gladness may lift up our heads with Joy at our hastening Dissolution as knowing that then the time of our Redemption draweth near Be Thou present with us at the hour of Death O blessed Jesu who sufferedst Death for us upon the Cross by the vertue of that thy precious Death Sweeten we beseech thee the bitterness of ours When our Eyes shall be Darkned in the Agonies of Death kindle in our hearts the Light of saving Faith when our Speech shall fail and leave us O do thou speak Inwardly unto us by the Comforts of thy Spirit and grant that we may speak mentaily unto Thee by Devoul Sighs and Groans which cannot be utter'd when we are nigh unto the End of our Days may we be nigh the end of our Hopes even the Salvation of out Souls O give us in our last Exiremities Joy in believing Hope in our Latter End humble Resignation of our Spirits into thy hands an holy Contempt of this Earth an Enflamed Love of Heaven Longing desires to be with Thee with our Saviour christ with Angels and Glorified Saints which is much better than being here Amen Amen for thy Mercies sake Meditation XVII On the Last Judgment MEthinks I view the Judge of the whole Earth Terrible and yet Gracious coming in the Clouds of Heaven with all his Glorious Retinue of holy Angels methinks I hear the Arowzing Call of the last Trumpet see the innumerable Dead take the Alarm Awake Move and Rise at its all-powerful Summons I behold methinks the Righteous Rising first with Smiles and Exultation in their Faces as knowing that their Redemption that the Reward of all their Pious Labours draweth near I behold also the ungodly Rising Last and yet even then most unwillingly shaking and trembling for fear of their approaching Tryal and Condemnation Heaven above Threatning them Hell beneath Gaping wide for their Reception I bâ—hold too the Court-Book of an Universal Registry open'd each Mans Indictment and Accusation publickly Read his own Conscience the while bearing Witness and either Accusing or Excusing him in that fearful Judgment I hear methinks the Decisive Sentence 〈◊〉 ronourced of either Eternal Happyness or Misery of either come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepar'd for you before the foundations of the World or else of Depart from me ye Accursed into Everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Oh the different Effects these different Sentences have on the Persons they are directed unto The Righteous receive their Sentence with Joy and Acclamations with transporting Thanks and Hallelujahs with an humble Admiration that the Recompence of their finite Defective Services should be a far more Exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory The ungodly Reprobates entertain their Doom with hideous Howlings and Lamentations with heart-piorcing Sorrows and Affrightments with fruitless desires to return again into their Graves or to be perfectly destroyed and Annihilated Come ye blessed O Delightsome sound O wellcome hearing wellcome especially from the moâ—â—â— of our Judge Come There is no need sure of a pressing Invitation to accept of so much Bliss and Happyness behold they Run they draw near upon the first Intimation of it they fly with haste into the possession of their Eternal Inheritance They now please themselves in the Remembrance of their former Godly Sorrows Mortifications and Self-denyals which through the Mercy 's of God and Merits of their Saviour have procured them such an exceeding Great Rejoycing All their former Tears dry up at the sight of their Glorious Redemption and they would not for a World but they had Denyed themselves in the Life past that now in the Resurrection of the Just they may be own'd and Approved of by their Advocate and Acquitter Depart ye Cursed blessed Lord whither should they depart Can they Goe any where where thou art not present who sillest all things tho' they descend into the Deep and remain in the uttermost parts of the Sea yet Thou art there though they make the Darkness of Hell their hiding-place yet thou art there also thine Omniscient Eye shall even there find them out and thine Almighty Arm shall punish them Depart from Me A Dâ—parture from thy Beatifick presence O God must needs render the Departed Accursed for Thou art all that 's Good the Loss therefore of Thee is an Universal Loss Thou art the Center and Rest of the Soul and therefore to be separated from Thee must be the most unquiet and miserable Condition imaginable A Departure from the Joyous Light of thy Countenance O blessed Jesu who only hast the words of Eternal Life can certainly be no other than Eternal Death One would have thought indeed that to be Deprived of Thy Sight might have been punishment enough without the Damneds Entrance in Hell-flames and tortures but that besides the mental Anguish for their
thereby drive out of us all inordinate love for meaner Objects and Gratifications Amen Blessed Lord Amen Meditation II. On the Redemption of Time THere is no Talent committed to our Trust more precious than Time it being a season for the making provision for an Happy Eternity and yet no Trust is there more abused more profusely squander'd away We take Time by the Fore-lock in all our Temporal Concerns laying hold on the first opportunity of well-managing them but in Spirituals we defer and delay and move so heavily about the good husbanding of Time as if the wheels of our Chariots of our Executive Powers our Wills and Affections were taken off and Time was rather to be shunn'd and avoided than diligently pursued But is This running the Race of Christian Obedience set before us Is This giving all diligence to make our Calling and Election Sure Is This Redeeming the Time because the days are Evil Time lies so dead a Commodity on many Peoples hands that they are glad to get rid of it at any rate whatsoever The next vain pleasure and divertisement the next as vain and impertinent Idle-Companion the next fruitless silly or corrupting Spectacle shall ease them of their spare hours as they call 'em of their leisure and wearisome seasons But ah that any time should be accounted spare and vacant when so much as our Eternal Salvation depends upon it and we know not whether we shall Live till the next Moment Ah that what is the dying Man's Want should be the well Person 's Burthen While Living Time is thought by us too Long and Tedious we are hard put to it to spend many of its Hours while Dying 't is accounted too short and Transient which now is likely to be the truest Judgment that of the living or dying man For certain that of the Latter For at the near approaches of Death all false disguises which the Lusts of the Flesh the Lusts of the Eye or the Pride of Life had put on things are pull'd off and then all things appear in their proper Colours and Genuine Native Dress When Death Stares us in the face when Time is nigh at an End with us then we shall know the true value of Time then to our cost and trouble have far different Sentiments concerning it than what we have Now then oh that Time could be Recall'd that Time mis-spent could be lived over-again and be better improved how diligent and industrious would we be in its improvement But alass these Good Wishes come then too late to be converted into Good Practices Death will not be put off Time will not be Recall'd and the Man dies despairingly Disconsolate if not everlastingly Miserable not for that he had no means of Grace no opportunities of Salvation but because he made not that Good Use of them as he both might and ought to have done Time passes away swiftly though we idle and loiter the Minutes the precious Minutes fly while we are speaking we are Now a Moment nearer Eternity than we were the former one but are we in a nearer preparation for it Is there a nearer Tendency in us to an Heavenly Temper the nigher we come to the Heavenly State Or rather grow we not more Earthly Affection'd the nigher we draw to our bed of Earth the Grave Alass the Loss of Time is one of the Greatest Losses in the World and yet how Light a matter do we make of it This Life so short so uncertain every Moment of it so valuable and yet that we should live as if it were never to have an End or as if we had nothing of Concern to do in it How Astonishing is this what an Instance of Folly and Inconsiderateness Blessed God! That a Pearl of so Great price as an indulged space of Repentance as an happy opportunity of Salvation should be cast before Swine before brutish sensual Worldlings should be put into the Custody of those who value it not who know not how to use and improve it The Days the Months the years of our Lives are violently born away by the impetuous Torrent of Time many many Days of our Years are past and Gone as to our ever living them over again but though past yet are they not wholly lost and perish'd They are Registred in God's Faithful Book of Remembrance they are there preserved they are there charged upon us for a demand of their Good Use and Husbandry an Account an Account of them will one day be required at our Hands And it will be but a lamentable Account indeed when all we have to offer for the expence of our Life past will be so much Time spent Idly and in doing of nothing to any Good purpose so much spent to a very Bad one in Riot and Excess in Chambering and Wantonness so much in unnecessary Habitual Sports and Divertisements so much spent in the Devil's Service and so little in God Almighty's Ah will such an Account think ye pass our Great Auditor's Examination Will such an Account procure our Discharge and Acquitment What a strange perverse folly is it in us to complain our Life is short and yet to render it far shorter by letting much of it lye Fallow and unimproved To complain our day time here is quickly spent and our Night of Death is near at hand and yet to invent Arts to lavish this short Remainder of Life and then to lament its being so soon past away and we are Gone But if we would lengthen time let us leave off complaints and fall to the work of improving it let us beside the ordinary Returns of Publick Religious Worship at set appointed Seasons be frequent and fervent in our private Domestick Devotions let us allow to Religion and the exercises of Vertue some of those Great shares of Time which we call spare Hours which we trifle away in vanities and impertinencies in pleasures and recreations in fruitless Visits and Complements which we spend viciously in Luxury Riot and Intemperance or which we suffer to lye waste without any Employment at all 'T is a vast work a man may do if he never permits himself to be Idle 't is a huge progress he may make in Vertue if he never stops in the way through Carelesness or never goes out of his way by wilful and presumptuous sinning Strive to improve all your Time strive to suffer none of it to pass unaccountable and this will be to Redeem it this will be to compensate for its shortness for its uncertainty and Irrevocableness We cannot begin too soon to live well and yet do we demur about it Had we set upon the work of Religion much earlier we should have had none to spare all would have been little enough whereby to have evidenced the sincerity of our Faith and Hope and Trust of our Love to God and his Commandments whereby to have secured an Interest in his Favour and Acceptance and in his free Gift Eternal Life For Heaven cannot
all probability renders his Distemper desperate and incurable To delay Amendment and continue in Sin with intent of quitting it hereafter is to wound our Consciences with the stings and remorses of Guilt on purpose of healing them again some time hence 'T is to refuse to do what is in our power and to defer the doing it till it may be out of our power 't is to make our future work of Repentance much greater more grievous and difficult than it would be at present and yet to hope to set about it more Advantagiously in time to come 'T is to increase our Task to lessen both our Will and Ability to perform it with and yet to think to perform it better under these Disadvantages To defer Conversion is to persist becoming vain in our Imaginations erroneous in our Elections corrupt in our Performances that afterwards we may become Wise and retract with Bitterness of Self-condemning thoughts our former vain Judgments wrong Choices evil Practices that we may upon change of Mind Will and Affections call our selves fools a thousand times for our former wicked goings astray and may be ashamed of may abhor and grieve for our past Impieties as much as ever heretofore we loved and delighted in them all these Absurdities and Foilies Delay of Repentance implies 'T is a refusing to become well and safe and happy at present and a referring our spiritual Welfare our everlasting safety and happiness to the hazardous uncertainties of Futurity But do we act thus imprudently in other Affairs of far lesser moment No certainly when Sick we delay not the use of means for our Recovery when Maim'd or Wounded we apply our selves immediately to a Cure but when sick with Sin nigh unto death Eternal when wounded in Mind by the Rebukes of Guilt contracted and maimed in all the Faculties of our Souls by the disorders of Impiety so that from the Crown of the head to the sole of the feet there is no whole part in us yet here we hug our Distemper seem unwilling to be cured at present and defer the healing remedy Repentance till some further season but ah that we should be so wise and provident in Temporals and so careless and inconsiderate in Spirituals Ah that we should be so much concern'd for the Body and so little for the Soul Oh that men should judge it too early to become instantly secure of endless Salvation when they are not secure of living till to morrow till the next moment Vain inadvertent Wretches That they should be daily a dying hourly subject to Death and yet promise themselves some years hence the making sure of Eternal Life Certainly they know not what it means of what value and importance it is that they thus stupidly neglect it Ah can they think God will lengthen out that Life which is a design'd Course of Audacious Defiance and wicked Rebellion against him Ah can they think he will so unweariedly wait to be Gracious unto them Alas they consider not what Bonds and Fetters an Evil Custom puts upon the Soul how frequent Acts of doing wickedly improve into a confirm'd habit and an habit of Impiety becomes a second Nature almost unrelinquishable and yet do they imagine they shall be freer to break loose from Sin after a long-continued Bondage thereunto That their Chains of Iniquity will be the easier shaken off after they are Rivited by Custom and Inveteracy of wicked Practice Can we make too much haste to be Saved To get out of a state liable to Eternal Death and Condemnation into a state of Divine Grace and Favour Are our Minds Wills and Affections likely to be softer more melting and impressible with the sorrows of Repentance after they are Harden'd through the Deceitfulness of continued sinning Will God's Grace the more abound towards us the more we abound in Transgressing against him What Surety hast thou impenitent Delayer but thy day of Grace may be ended before the day of thy Life But that not Believing and Repenting at present hereafter may be too Late He that Believeth and Repenteth not says our Saviour is condemned Already The Irreversible Sentence may be Pronounc'd on thee here though Executed in another World Repent Hereafter Why dost thou consider what Hereafter means It imports the utmost Hazard and Uncertainty In reckoning on Futurity thou reckonest on a thing out of thine own Power and only in God Almighty's Disposal for the Grace of Repentance as all other Graces is the Divine Gift and He who has promised pardon to the Penitent has no where told us we can be penitent when we Please On the contrary God has inform'd us that 't is his Spirit which works in us both to Will and to do of his Own Good pleasure and canst thou think he will work it though never so long Resisted in the endeavour That his Divine Patience will never be tired the Treasures of his Long-suffering be never exhausted The Holy Scripture indeed tells us God waits to be Gracious but how Long he waits we are not acquainted on the contrary it is written My Spirit shall not Always strive with manâ— To Day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts Seek the Lord while he may be found call upon hiâ— while he is near What can be thâ— meaning of these places of Sacreâ— Writ but that if we neglect thiâ— present Accepted time hereafteâ— may be an unacceptable one buâ— that if we hear not Now God's Voice calling us to Repentance he may hereafter refuse to hear our Voice calling to him for Grace Mercy and Acceptance But that if we neglect the instant Season of seeking the Lord while he may be found and calling upon him while he is near there may and will come a time when he will not be found a season when he will be afar off with his Divine help and Assistance and when as holy David says in the great water-floods in the time of our bitterest Distress and Calamity we shall not come nigh him Read Proverbs the First the 28 and 29 verses God despises that Death bed Repentance when men leave sin meerly because sin must leave them because they can keep that and the World no longer when being by constraint a going hence they desire to go unto God rather than into the place of Torments prepared for the Devil and his Angels But no imposing upon Omnisciency The searcher of Hearts sees that such a forsaking of sin is forced imperfect flowing from no right Principle and therefore he values it not Ah there is a time when God leaves sinners to themselves when they will not by any means be perswaded to leave their sins There is a certain measure of God's Grace and of man's Impieties after which the Holy Spirit withdraws himself and will not any longer be entreated And how knowest thou persevering Impenitent but that if thou neglectest Grace and the season thereof Now the measure of thy sins may hereafter be compleated and both
thy allowance of Grace and the opportunity of making use of it may be over with thee Which God grant that it may not be Amen Amen The Prayer MOST Merciful Father Patitient and Long-suffering who waitest to be Gracious and yet whose Spirit will not always strive with obstinate impenitent sinners dost Thou O Lord call unto us Behold Now is the Accepted Time behold Now is the Day of Salvation and do we cry to morrow is soon enough some Days or Years hence will be as Acceptable a time as this present one Ah Mad-men that we are Ah foolish Self-deceiving Creatures who should know best the Day of our Salvation Thou our God the Author of it or We Who should know best how Long thy Spirit will strive with us How Long Thou wilt wait to be Gracious O cause us to Day while 't is call'd to Day to hear thy voice and not harden our hearts against thy Invitations to Repentance Convince us blessed Lord in order to a present amendment that 't is some degree of hardening our hearts not to hearken to thy Voice this Day That every continuance in sin is one Advance more towards final Impenitence a rendering our future Conversion the more Grievous and Difficult and our Confirmation in wickedness the Greater and nearer to irretrievable And in a sense of all this make us we beseech thee to Retire out of the ways of Iniquity immediately For would we be willing to be surprized by Death Judgment and Eternal Torments in an Impenitent State Would we be willing to be summon'd before thy Judgment-seat to give an Account of our Stewardship before our Accompts are duely Stated and made up If we would not O cause us then to give all Diligence at present to make our Calling and Election Sure to work the Religious work for which we were sent into this World while 't is Day before the Night of Death cometh wherein 't is impossible to work out our Salvation Is there Lord any one of us but would willingly Repent and turn unto Thee sometime before he Dyes because otherwise he knows he cannot be saved but who of us can be sure he shall Repent before Death that delays the work till to morrow For who can tell what a Day may bring forth Cause us therefore Gracious God to live every day as if it were to be our last for that we know not but it may be such Cause us to live so at present as we shall wish we had done when we come to Dye O grant we may not Dye with any Guilt upon our Consciences or any known sin unrepented of Grant that we may not put far from us the Evil Day and thereby flatter our selves into a state of impenitence and endless Destruction but give us Grace to use well the means of Grace and improve the opportunities of Salvation while they are mercifully afforded us lest we provoke thee our God to swear in thy wrath that such obstinate sinners shall never enter into thy Rest Let holy Father the uncertainty of the time of our Saviour's coming to Judgment either to the universal one or that of each particular person soon after his Death make every one of us live in a continual Readiness and Preparation for it that we may not have our Oyl of Grace to seek our Lamp of an holy Conversation to Trim and Replenish when we should enter in with the Bridegroom of our Souls Christ Jesus into his Marriage-Feast But grant that at what Season soever our Lord comes to call us to an Account of the Talents committed to our trust he may behold all our Debts to his Divine Justice ready Cancell'd by our Repentance through the Merits of his Blood and finding us perseveringly employ'd in Good Works he may say unto us Well done Good and Faithful Servants Enter ye into your Master's Joy Amen blessed Jesu Amen Meditation IV. On the Malignity and Evil Nature of Sin O Sin how common art thou and yet how little understood How Common and therefore how little Dreaded and Abhorr'd Did men consider and understand thee more they would sure Love and Practice thee Less Alass they consider not thy direct opposition to God's Soveraign Authority Rectitude of Will and purity of Divine Essence thy contrariety to the Laws of Nature of Reason and of Grace How thou art a Violation of God's Revealed Will and Pleasure in the Sacred Scriptures Writings which contain nothing but precepts Holy Just and Good and which consequently 't is our greatest Interest and Advantage as well as Bounden-Duty to observe and our greatest Disadvantage as well as Disobedience to break and violate They consider not Sin how opposite thou art to their own Personal Welfare and Happiness Temporal Spiritual and Eternal how Degrading and Defiling to their Souls and Consciences what an Ignominy and Reproach to our Understandings what a Violence and Affront to our Reasons what a perversion and wrong-byass of our Wills and Affections what a cause of Regret and Disquietude of Mind to those who voluntarily Commit thee how offensive to God how injurious to Man how prejudicial to the Common Order Peace and Prosperity of the Universe What an ungrateful Return thou art to the Divine Goodness Patience and Forbearance how thou art an offering despite to the Spirit of Holiness a Grieving a Quenching a total Driving it away from us a Crucifying afresh the blessed Son of God a Treading him under foot and accounting the Blood of the New-Covenant an unholy thing a Rejection of all the Merciful Terms and offers of Gospel-Reconciliation a rendering the means and instruments of begetting Grace in us ineffectual a choosing Death Eternal Death rather than Life Eternal Life a wilful Treasuring up of Wrath against the day of Wrath and Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of a provok'd offended Deity All this and much more the Commission of known voluntary Sin implies and can we be so irrational so Vile and Dis-ingenuous so even like Beasts before God as to continue practicing vicious Impurity with Greediness after having thus weigh'd and consider'd how Evil how bitter and Lothsom a thing it is Oh is there no knowledge no understanding in the Workers of Impiety is there no Shame no Fear no Regard in them to their Everlasting Salvation that they drink down Iniquity like Water and Rush into the occasions of their own Ruin into the performance of all Wickedness as the War-Horse rusheth into the Battle fearlessly and inconsiderately Ah Vice how stupifying a thing art thou What a polluter first of our Souls and Consciences and after long Custom of sinning what a layer of them Asleep what an hardener of our hearts through thy continued and dayly advancing deceitfulness Thou Wickedness art pleasurable indeed in the Act but alass how transient the Act how vain and inconsiderable the pleasure whereas the after-Memory of thee is tormenting and much more exquisite much more Durable a Pain than thy vicious Enjoyment was a Delight