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fare, by ferving thee faithfully, and doing good in my generation. Or if thou haft determined to remove me bence, fo cleanfe and purify my heart, that I may neither be ashamed to have lived, nor afraid to die; and may leave this world in a full affurance of thy favour, and may be for ever happy with thee in thy heavenly kingdom, thro' Jefus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Timoth. I hope God will hear your devout addreffes to him, and will grant you a happy diffolution in his due time; but whether by means of this prefent ficknefs, I will not pretend to guess, tho' I wish for my own and others fake that he may not. (e) Epaphroditus was fick, nigh unto death: yet fays St. Paul, God bad mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me alfo, left I should have forrow upon forrow. And it is to be hoped, that God may be pleased to restore you too, to the comfort of your friends, and the great benefit of your relations and dependents.

Anchithanes. His will be done. I defire intirely to refign myself to his difpofal whether for life or death, trufting, thro' the merits of my bleffed Redeemer, that either of them fhall be for my good, according as he fhall, in his infinite wisdom, decree. And if death be to feize me, as I know not but it may, whether it fhall be a painful, or an eafy, a lingering, or a speedy death, I chearfully fubmit to his determination. His will is the beft and wifeft will; and for this reason I defire it always may be mine too.

Theoph. Happy you that have brought yourself to fuch a holy frame and temper of mind? And may the Almighty vouchsafe to beftow his choiceft bleffings upon you; temporal and fpiritual bleffings, if it shall feem pleafing to him in this world; but however he difpofe of you here, everlasting bleffings in that which is to come! And now, Timotheus, let you and I learn from this noble example before us, to obferve and lay seriously to heart the bleffedness of having (e) Phil. ii. 26, 27.

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taken care in time to provide for eternity. There is no delight and fatisfaction upon a fick bed, comparable to that of being able to fay with king Hezekiah, (f) I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now bows I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy fight; or with St. Paul, (g) I have fought a good fight, 1 have finished my course, I have kept the faith: benceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which God the righteous Judge will give me at that day, and not to me only, but to all that love his appearing. It is a fingular happiness to reflect upon a life paft, and fee that it has been fpent to God's glory, and the main defign of our coming into this world; and that' the good man has nothing more to do, when he finds' his end drawing on, but to take an eafy leave of his wonted enjoyments and friends, in order to a welcome tranflation into an heavenly Paradife, where fhall be no more fighing, or forrows, or grief, or fear, or pain, or fickness, or death, but all fhall be moft' charmingly transporting, without the leaft mixture of any alloy, and this to all eternity.

Timoth. The different ends of the righteous and the wicked, in this refpect, are a powerful motive to timely repentance, tho' we were to carry our prospect no farther. But when hereto are added the infinitely glorious rewards promifed to the one, and the intolerable and everlafting tortures and agonies that are threatened to the other, he must be befide himself that can be content to live in fuch a manner, as that, without a miracle of mercy, he must be irrecoverably miferable for evermore.

Anchith. It is very strange, (b) that people can allow themselves in a state of fuch apparent danger, and of fuch dreadful confequence! And yet nothing

(F) 2 Kings xx. 3.

(g) 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8.
(b) Non eft, crede mihi, fapientis dicere, Vivam.
Sera nimis vita eft craftina: vive hodie.

Martial, lib. 1. epig. 16.

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is more common, the hope of a future repentance being perhaps the moft fuccefsful of all the ftratagems, the grand enemy of mankind has ever yet invented, in order to their deftruction. Moft men are defirous to enjoy their vices here, and Heaven hereafter. And having no other way to reconcile these two forts of defires, but by a late repentance, the bait takes readily with them, and they fwallow it without considering what a terrible rifque they run by it, and how intolerable a mifchief it will be, if they fhould either have no time for fuch a repentance, or, having time, fhould be any way either incapacitated for, or diverted from, heartily fetting about it, or, when they have endeavoured it, fhould find a fhort imperfect repentance, after fo long a courfe of fin, not available to the end they defigned by it.

Theoph. All delays of this kind are of a dangerous nature, and feldom fail to end in the utter ruin of the delayer. For it is great odds, (i) that he who is unwilling to repent to-day, will be as unwilling to-morrow, or whenfoever he hopes to fet about it. The fame causes of delay will ftill remain; and he will find the fame obftacles in his way hereafter, that he does at prefent. And a love of his fins, and whatever prevents his repenting now, will not be leffened, but increased and ftrengthened, by a longer continuance in a wicked courfe of life. For cuftom, we all know, has a strange influence, and becomes a kind of fecond nature, and breeds almost an invincible inclination to whatever we have long addicted ourselves to, whether in natural actions, or moral. And in truth, the longer any one defers his repentance, the less likely he is ever to undertake it with fuccefs, because those habits which he is neceffarily to divest himself of, before he can have performed it, do every day take deeper and deeper root, and fo are more difficultly

(i) Sed propera; nec te venturas differ in horas:
Qui non eft hodie, cras minus aptus erit.
Ovid. de Remed. Amoris, lib. 1.
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plucked up. Sin is like a bodily fickness, which is oftentimes render'd incurable, by having gain'd too great a head, before a courfe was attempted for its cure. And hence it neceffarily follows, that the longer it is continu'd in, the more powerful it must be; and fo must require a greater ftrength, and firmer purpofes and refolutions, in order to a conqueft over it. And yet, alas! he that has deferred his repentance to the laft, if he shall then in good earnest fet about it, will not only find himself under the power of a more inveterate habit, and a ftronger bias, on the wrong fide, but, which is far more confiderable, he has alfo lefs ground to expect the affiftance of God's Holy Spirit, without which he will never be able to perform any thing that is good. For tho' it is certain, that Almighty God delights not (k) in the death of a finner, but rather that he turn from his way and live; though (1) he would have all men come to him, and be faved; and (m) is long-fuffering to us-ward, not willing that any fhould perish, but that all fhould come to repentance; he has faid no lefs on the other hand, that his (n) Spirit fhall not always ftrive with man, and has threaten'd that as to him that bath fhall be given, that is, to him that ufeth aright the grace and affiftance of the Holy Spirit, fhall be given a greater measure of the fame grace and affiftance, (o) and he fhall have more abundance; fo on the contrary, whosoever bath not, that is, makes not a right ufe of it, from him fhall be taken away, even that be bath. As much as to fay, God of his great goodness will give the Holy Spirit to them that afk it, and study to make a good improvement of what measure of it he beftows upon them, but will withdraw it from fuch as abuse his kindness, either not ufing his grace at all, or to a wrong purpose. And when a finner has provok'd God thus to leave him to himself, he fadly deceives his own foul, if he imagine himself likely to effect (k) Ezek. xxxiii. 11. (2) 1 Tim. ii. 4. (m) 2 Pet. iii. 9. (z) Gen. vi. 3. (6) Matth. xiii. 12.

little time, what he thought a harder tafk than ould find in his heart to enter upon, when his gth was greater, his time more, his finful habits o fettled and confirmed, and his affiftance greater he can now hope for. So that there is very littie reason to expect fuch an one fhould ever repent truly at the laft, if he have time for it. He that is affrighted at the lefs burdenfome tafk, will hardly venture upon the greater to any purpofe. And if he could not be induced to amend when his fins were much fewer, and his abilities for conquering them much greater, he can fcarce hope to do it as he ought, when his vices have taken deeper root, and his fpirits are exhausted, and his help is gone. This I fay (p) upon fuppofition of his having time allow'd him for this great and neceffary work. But if it happen on the contrary, as it very often does, that he has no time for it, how deplorable muft his cafe then be! He is undone beyond recovery; and nothing remains for him, but a fearful expectation of wrath, and fiery indignation from Almighty God. And yet every one knows this is a common cafe, and which frequently befals fuch as put off their repentance" till hereafter. (9) Death feizes them, as it did the rich man, whom we cannot too often think of, whofe foul was demanded of him at a time, when he thought of nothing lefs, than he did, according to a fcandalous proverb too well known amongst ourselves, of his dying day. (r) His ground, fays our Saviour, brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself, faying, What fball I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And be faid, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will fay to my foul, Soul,

(β) Μίμνησο ἐκ απόσει ταῦτα ἀναβάλη, καὶ ὁποσάκις προθεσμίας λαβὼν παρὰ τῶν θεῶν, ὁ χᾷ αὐταῖς. Antonin. εἰς ἑαυτ. 1. 2. n. 1.

(9) Emendationi tuæ indulgentiam promifit Deus, fed tuæ dilationi dicm craftinum non promifit. Drexel. Horolog. p. 51.

(r) Luke xii. 16, 17, 18, 19.

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