ly and unavoidably perifh. Now, 8. This abfolute neceffity of it is a ftrong and powerful Argument to perfwade us to it. Whilft Men have any hopes of efcaping with their Sins, this with the pleasures and temptations of them will encourage them to perfift in them, and to enjoy their Lufts and their Liberties which they have made very hard and uneafie to deny themselves, but when they find they muft either do this, or elfe neceffarily perish for ever; this, if any thing, will prevail upón Men who believe and confider the dreadful horrour of Everlasting Damnation. Now the abfolute neceffity of Repentance is as plain by the Gofpel, as the power and validity of it. We are as much affured that without it we fhall be damned, as we fhall be faved with it. Now this above all commends a Medicine to us, that it will cure us if we ufe it, but that we fhall dye if we do not; however bitter and unpalatable it may be, however it may diforder us while it is working upon us, and however painful the operation may be, yet if we mult lofe our Lives without it, this will make us choofe and endure it,

and

and go through with it. Though we muft cut off a Right-hand, yet if the Gangrene will kill us if we do not, we fhall fubmit to it. Though it be very painful to part with our Lufts and our beloved Sins, yet fince we must be damned if we do not, this will bring us to it. If a Man muft fink unless he throwes away his richeft lading, and difcharges himfelf of his weighty treasure, he will lose that rather than his Life; and if he be not mad, he will for the fame reafon, caft away his Sins rather than his Soul. No Man difputes this when he is brought into fuch a neceffity, fuch a ftrait and exigency as to be thus tryed. Now Chrift has by the Gofpel put this neceffity upon us, either Repent and leave your Sins, or perifh with them. There is no avoiding this, no poffibility to prevent it any way, and therefore when there is but one thing to be done, and fuch a neceffity for doing it, one would think it fhould do it felf; but this is a neceffity of Reafon, of Choice, of Thought, of Deliberation, that requires our Minds to think of it and confider it, or else it will not work upon us; and there

fore

fore we can throw off the force and power of it by not thinking, or not confidering of it; but if we did as we ought, duly confider of it, it would have an irresistible force and power upon us, and no Man could hinder the effect of it; but he that will hut his eyes and not fee a precipice may fall down it, and the greatest neceffity of avoiding any danger is took off by not heeding, or not being fenfible of it, though it be never the lefs great in it felf for all that, and the neceffity would work upon any but those who are heedlefs and inconfiderate.

Sad is the state and condition of those under the Gospel, who live in a state of Sin and Impenitence, or in the habit of any unrepented Sin, they are under as abfolute a sentence of condemnation, as if the great Judge had pronounced it upon them, and bid them, Go ye curfed. Whilft they continue fuch, there is no more hopes of Mercy for them than for the damned themselves. Their ftate indeed is not as unalterable as the others is, and this is the only difference, for they are otherwife as much Children of Wrath as they : They are not bound in chains of dark

nefs,

nefs, nor confined to this ftate by an irreversible Judgment, but they are fettered to their Sins, and to their ftate by their own choice, and till they break those bonds, and get free from them, they can never come out of that fad condition; which should make every impenitent Sinner tremble, and feriously bethink himself what a sad ftate and condition he is in, what a doom hangs over his head, and how near his fteps take hold of Death, how he walks upon the brink of Hell and Damnation, and the leaft fatal accident, or fudden death, does irrecoverably throw him in without Redemption, which fhould make his Heart tremble, and his Blood chill, and his Hair stand an end, if he confidered it as he ought. Let him therefore refolve to fnatch himself out of the fire, and fpeedily recover himself from the jaws of Death; Repentance alone can do this, and this he should fet about immediately, and be perfwaded to it by thofe powerful Motives and Arguments which the Gofpel and Christianity propofes, and which I have from thence offered to him.

I fhall

I fhall fubjoyn to these another Motive or Exhortation to Repentance, which I cannot call fo properly Evangelical and peculiar to the Gofpel, but what arifes from both Nature and Reason, and fome Gofpel Confiderations mixt together, and complicated with thofe, and that is the Confideration of Death, and our being made ready and prepared for it by Repentance, and therefore that nothing else can free us from the fears and terrors of it.

Exhortation to Repentance as a Prepration for Death, or in order to make us ready to dye.

THE

'HE laft Motive then I fhall propofe to Repentance is this, that nothing else can prepare and make us ready and fit to dye, and therefore nothing else can take off the fear and terror of Death, to which in all reafon we muft otherwise be expofed, and fo all our life time fubject to bondage, as the Scripture fpeaks. Dye we know we must in a little while, and there L