we fhould no more enjoy Heaven than a blind Man enjoys the light of the Sun, whofe Organs are fpoil'd and vitiated, and who wants the ule of thofe Senfes and Faculties by which he fhould perceive it. So that if a Sinner fhould be fent to Heaven with all his unrepented Sins, unmortified Lufts and vitious Inclinations, and without that love of God and Goodness which is to fit him for it, he would be not only like him which came to the Marriage-Feaft without a Wedding-garment, who must be turned out of that company he was fo unfit for, but like one that had the greatest Dainties fet before him, but that was fick, and had no ftomach, and fo could not taste or relish any of them. Till the Mind is brought to love God, and delight in him, and in all the actions of Vértue and exercifes of Religion, it cannot be Happy in Heaven; but that would rather be unagreeable and an averfion to it, than an Happinefs. Till a Sinner therefore be brought off from his Sins by Repentance, and restored to a Vertuous, and Holy, and good Mind, he cannot enjoy Heaven or Happiness, nor be freed from Sin and Mifery, nor can a Holy and Wife God be reconciled to him, or forgive him.

Upon all these accounts we fee his Repent ance is abfolutely neceffary to entitle him to Pardon and Salvation, and without this he must certainly and unavoidably perish. Now,

8. This abfolute neceffity of it is a strong and powerful Argument to perfwade us to it. Whilft Men have any hopes of escaping with

their Sins, this with the Pleasures and Temptations of them will encourage them to perfit in them, and to enjoy their Luits and their Liberties which they have made very hard and uneafie to deny themfelves, but when they find they must either do this, or elfe neceffarily perish for ever; this, if any thing, will prevail upon Men who believe and confider the dreadful horror of Everlafting Damnation. Now the abfolute neceffity of Repentance is as plain by the Gospel, 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 must lose our Lives without it, this will make us choofe and endure it, 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 shall submit 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 throws away his richest Lading, and discharges himfelf of his weighty treafure, he will lofe that rather than his Life; and if he be not Mad, he will for the fame reason, 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 Gospel 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 should do it felf; but this is a neceffity of Reason, of Choice, of Thought, of Deliberation, that requires our Minds to think of it and confider it, or elfe it will not work upon us; and therefore 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 fhut 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 heed lefs and inconfiderate.

Sad is the ftate 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. Whilst they continue fuch, there is no more hopes of Mercy for them than for the Damned themfelves. 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 Darknefs, nor confined to this state by an Irreversible Judgment, but they are fettered to their Sins, and to their State 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 seriously bethink himfelf what a fad State and Condition he is in, what a Doom hangs over his head, and how near his steps take hold of Death, how he walks upon the brink of Hell and Damnation, and the least fatal Accident, or fudden Death, does irrécoverably throw him in without Redemption, which fhould make his Heart tremble, and his Blood chill, and his Hair ftand an end, if he confidered it as he ought. Let him therefore refolve to fnatch himself out of the fire, and speedily recover himself from the jaws of Death; Repentance alone can do this, and this he fhould fet about immediately, and be perfwaded to it by thofe powerful Motives and Arguments which the Gofpel and Chriftianity proposes, and which I have from thence offered to him.

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 elfe can free us from the Fears and Terrors of it.

SECT. VI.

Exhortation to Repentance as a Preparation for Death, or in order to make us ready to Dye.

T

HE laft Motive then I fhall propose to Repentance is this, that nothing else can prepare and make us ready and fit to Dye, and therefore nothing elfe can take off the Fear and Terror of Death, to which in all reason we muft otherwise be exposed, and fo all our life time fubject to bondage, as the Scripture Ipeaks. Dye we know we muft in a little while, and there is none fo foolishly Sceptical as to deny or disbelieve this, and to hope to escape the Grave where he has feen all his Fore-fathers laid before him, and which is the common Lot or Fate of every Mortal. There is nothing therefore more concerns us while we Live, than to be always ready and prepared to Dye; this fhould be our great Work and Bufinefs, if we confidered the true end of Living, or understood the mighty confequence of Dying, as Religion reprefents them both to us; and he that is not fo foolish as to think he fhall never Dye, fhould above all things take care fo to Live that he may be always ready to Dye; and of the two, 'tis a greater

Folly