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LIkewife alfo as it was in the Days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they fold, they planted, they builded. Luke xvii. 28.

To fee the Lives of the Generality of Mankind, would one not be apt to imagine, that they were made only to establish themselves upon Earth, to eat, and drink, and to perform the Bufinefs of the natural or civil Life, and that the World to come, did not at all relate to them: They will open their Eyes at the Time of Death, but GOD grant it may not be to as little Purpose as Men opened theirs in the Days of Noah and of Lot. These two dreadful Hiftories are read with the fame Indifference with which the Roman Hiftory is read and yet they are Types and Prophecies of the miferable End of the Sinners who read them, if not prevented by a timely Repentance towards GOD, and Faith in our LORD JESUS CHRIST.

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The empty Pageant rolls along,
The giddy unexperienc'd Throng,
Purfue it with enchanted Eyes:

It paffeth in swift March away,
Still more and more its Charms decay,

Till the laft gaudy Colour dies.

BUT

T the fame Day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained Fire and Brimftone from Heaven, and destroyed them all. Luke xvii. 29.

What can these Words and this Figure mean, but only that the greateft Part of Mankind are surprised by Death, while fome are thinking only of their Pleasures, others of their Fortunes? Let us learn of Lot to depife and forfake every Thing, if there be Occafion, rather than continue expofed to the Wrath of God. Let us lofe no Time in deliberating; the Danger is always great and imminent, when a Man is not sure of one Moment, and Eternity lies at Stake. One Moment's Delay had expofed Lot to inevitable Deftruction by the Fire and Brimftone of Sodom; we have infinitely more to fear.

To the Haven of thy Breaft,

O Son of Man, I fly ;
Be my Refuge and my Reft,

For Oh! the Storm is nigh;
Save me from the furious Blaft,
A Covert from the Tempeft be;
Hide me, Jesus, till o'erpaft

The Storm of Sin I fee.

Welcome as the Water-Spring,

To a dry, barren Place,
O defcend on me and bring

Thy sweet refreshing Grace :
O'er a parch'd and weary Land,

As a great Rock extends its Shade,
Hide me, Saviour, with thine Hand,
And skreen my naked Head.

EVEN thus fhall it be in the Day when the Son of Man is

revealed. Luke. xvii. 30.

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A fudden and univerfal Deluge, and a Rain of Fire and Brimftone, are only Types and Shadows of the lalt Desolation. Even thus fhall it be in the Day, &c. are not Words spoken at Random: No, they are Words of Faith, which affure us, that the World shall be surprised, that the Wrath of God fhall pour down upon Sinners like Rain, and fwallow them up like a Deluge, and that a very small Number fhall efcape his Juftice A falfe Notion which Men frame to themselves of a Mercy, without Rule or Meafure, incourages the greatest Part of the World in the Neglect of their Salvation. Let us judge of the divine Juftice by these two Examples, fince it is to this End that our bleffed Lord propofed them to us.

In the Time of my Diftrefs

Thou haft my Succour been,
In my utter Helplessness,

Restraining me from Sin;
O how fwiftly didst thou move
To fave me in the trying Hour!
Still protect me with thy Love,
And shield me with thy Power.

First and last, in me perform

The Work thou hast begun,
Be my Shelter from the Storm,
My Shadow from the Sun;
Sprinkle ftill the Mercy-Seat,

And bring thy Father's Anger down,
Skreen me, JESU, from the Heat
And Terror of his Frown.

IN that Day, he which fhall be upon the House-top, and his Stuff in the Houfe, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the Field let him likewise not return back. Luke xvii. 31.

Let us leave that to perish, which muft perish: Let us fave our immortal Part. There is nothing among all the good Things of the World, which deferves we should hazard our Lives for it, much lefs our Souls. Life is fhort,-Death is at the Gate,—the Hour is uncertain: and, at that Hour, whatever we love and value in the World will be taken away from us; what Folly is it then to fet our Affections upon any Thing here below!

Let us not be follicitous to change that State and Condition wherein God hath thought fit to place us; but let us therein, with Patience, wait for that State which will never change.

In Hope believing against Hope,
Jefus! my Lord and God I claim,
Jefus! my Strength, fhall lift me up,
Salvation is in Jefu's Name :

.

To me he foon shall bring it nigh,

My Soul shall then outftrip the Wind, On Wings of Love mount up on high, And leave the World and Sin behind.

REMEMBER Lot's Wife. Luke xvii. 32.

When we have once quitted the World we must not think any more of it, nor return to our former Inclinations, when God has weaned us from them. A Man is sometimes fo great an Enemy to his own Good, that he regrets the Lofs of wicked Company, and of thofe Opportunities of ruining himself, from which he has been delivered through the Mercy of God. This is a Piece of Ingratitude which He cannot bear, and which He punishes very feverely. We muft, even with Joy, relinquish our Friends and Relations, our Wealth and temporal Advantages, and raze them out of our Memory, whenever they become Obstacles to our Salvation. We love them with a criminal Fondness, when we leave them with Grief and Anxiety.

Engrave her Doom upon my Heart,
That I may never wish to part,
(So apt to tempt my loving God,
To ftop and linger on the Road)
E

That I may never more draw back,
Saviour, into thy Bofom take, [mine
And make, this dear-bought Soul of
A Monument of Grace divine,

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