"Depart, ye cursed." You may as well think of reconciling light and darkness, or persuade a man to live on the food of beasts, or the stomach to welcome deadly poison, as to think that Christ will receive an ungodly, earthly, guilty soul.

Deceive not yourselves, sinners. If God could have entertained the ungodly, and heaven could hold unholy souls, answer me, then, these two or three questions.

Quest. 1. What need Christ, then, to have shed his blood, or become a sacrifice for sin? If he could have received the ungodly, he might have done it upon cheaper rates. This feigneth him to have died to no purpose, but to bring the unsanctified to heaven, that might have been as well entertained there without his sufferings.

Quest. 2. To what use doth Christ send the Holy Ghost to sanctify his elect, or send his word and ministers to promote it, if they may come to heaven unsanctified?

Quest. 3. If the ungodly go to heaven, what use is hell for? There is no hell, if this be true. But you will quickly find that to be too good news to the ungodly to be true,

2. In Luke xvi., Christ teacheth us our duty by the parable of the steward, that asketh himself beforehand, what he shall do when he must be no longer steward, and contriveth it so that others may receive him when he is cast off; and he applieth it to us that must now so provide, that when we fail we may be received into the everlasting habitations. This is the work that we have all to mind. We always knew that this world would fail us, O, how uncertain is your tenure of the dwellings that you now possess. Are you provided, certainly provided whither to go, and who shall receive you when your stewardship is ended, and you must needs go hence? O think of these considerations that should move you presently to provide,

1. Your cottages of earth are ready to drop down, and it is a stormy time, there are many sicknesses abroad. One blast may quickly lay them in the dust, and then the flesh that had so much care, and was thought worthy to be preferred before the soul, must be laid and left to rot in darkness, to avoid the annoyance of the living; and when you may justly look every hour when you are turned out of these dwellings that you are in, is it not time to be provided of some other?

2. Consider, if Christ should not receive thy spirit how unspeakably deplorable thy case will be. I think there is no man in all this assembly so mad, that would take all the world now

to have his soul refused then by Christ, that would professedly make and subscribe such a bargain; and yet, alas, how many are they that will be hired for a smaller price, even for the pleasure of a sin, to do that which Christ himself hath told them will cause him to refuse them? O sirs, for aught you know, before to-morrow, or within this week, you may be put to know these things by trial, and your souls may be refused or received; and wo to you that ever you were men, if Christ receive you not.

Consider, 1. If Christ receive thee not, thou hast no friend left, then, to receive thee. Thy house, and land, and riches, and reputation, are all left behind; none of them will go with thee; or, if they did, they could afford thee no relief. Thy bosom friends, thy powerful defenders, are all left behind; or, if they go before thee, or with thee, they can do nothing there, that could do so much for thee here. No minister so holy, no friend so kind, no patron so powerful, that can give thee any entertainment, if Christ refuse to entertain thee. Look to the right hand or the left, there will be none to help thee, or care Then thou wilt find that one Christ had been a better friend than all the great ones upon earth.

for thy forsaken soul.

2. If Christ, then, receive not thy departed soul, the devils will receive it. I am loth to speak so terrible a word, but that it must be spoken, if you will be awaked to prevent it. He that deceived thee will then plead conquest, and claim thee as his due, that he may torment thee. And if the devil say, 'This soul is mine,' and Christ do not rescue and justify thee, but say so too, no heart is able to conceive the horror that will then overwhelm thee. Doth not the reading of the sentence make thee tremble," Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels?" (Matt. xxv. 41.) This is that dreadful delivering up to Satan, when the soul is excommunicated from the city of God. Oh, therefore, if thou be yet unreconciled to God, agree with him quickly, while thou art here in the way, lest he deliver thee to this terrible jailor and executioner, and thou be cast into the prison of the bottomless pit: "Verily, I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing." (Matt. v. 25, 26.)

3. The greatness of the change will increase the amazement and misery of thy spirit, if Christ receive it not. To leave a world that thou wast acquainted with; a world that pleased thee, and entertained thee; a world where thou hadst long thy

business and delight, and where, wretched man, thou hadst made thy chief provision, and laid up thy treasure, this will be a sad part of the change. To enter into a world where thou art a stranger, and much worse, and see the company and the things that before thou never sawest, and to find things go there so contrary to thy expectation; to be turned, with Dives, from thy sumptuous dwelling, attendance, and fare, into a place of easeless torment, this will be a sadder part of thy change. Here the rich would have received thee, the poor would have served and flattered thee, thy friends would have comforted thee, thy playfellows would have been merry with thee. But there, alas! how the case is altered: all these have done; the table is withdrawn, the game is ended, the mirth is ceased, and now succeedeth, "Son, remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and thou art tormented." (Luke xvi. 25.) Oh, dreadful change to those that made the world their home, and little dreamed, or did but dream, of such a day. Never to see this world again, unless by such reviews as will torment them: never to have sport or pleasure more; and for these to have such company, such thoughts, such work and usage, as God hath told us is in hell.

4. If Christ receive thee not, the burden of thy sins will overwhelm thee, and conscience will have no relief. Sin will not then appear in so harmless a shape as now: it will then seem a more odious or frightful thing. O, to remember these days of folly, of careless, sluggish, obstinate folly, of sottish negligence, and contempt of grace, will be a more tormenting thing than you will now believe. If such sermons and discourses as foretel it are troublesome to thee, what then will that sad experience be?

5. The wrath of an offended God will overwhelm thee. This will be thy hell. He that was so merciful in the time of mercy, will be most terrible and implacable when that time is past, and make men know that Christ and mercy are not neglected, refused, and abused at so cheap a rate, as they would needs imagine in the time of their deliration.

6. It will overwhelm the soul if Christ receive it not, to see that thou art entering upon eternity, even into a state of everlasting wo. Then thou wilt think, 'O whither am I going? What must I endure? and how long, how long? When shall my miseries have an end? and when shall I come back? and

how shall I ever be delivered?' O now what thoughts wilt thou have of the wonderful design of God in man's redemption ! Now thou wilt better understand what a Saviour was worth, and how he should have been believed in, and how his gospel and his saving grace should have been entertained.

O that the Lord would now open your hearts to entertain it, that you may not then value it to your vexation, that would not value it now to your relief! Poor sinner, for the Lord's sake, and for thy soul's sake, I beg now of thee, as if it were on my knees, that thou wouldest cast away thy sinful cares and pleasures, and open thy heart, and now receive thy Saviour and his saving grace, as ever thou wouldest have him then receive thy trembling, departed soul! Turn to him now, that he may not turn thee from him then. Forsake him not for a flattering world, a little transitory, vain delight, as ever thou wouldest not then have thy departed soul forsaken by him! O delay not, man, but now, even now receive him, that thou mayest avoid so terrible a danger, and put so great a question presently out of doubt, and be able comfortably to say, 'I have received Christ, and he will receive me; if I die this night he will receive me,' then thou mayest sleep quietly, and live merrily, without any disparagement to thy reason. O yield to this request, sinner, of one that desireth thy salvation. If thou wert now departing, and I would not pray earnestly to Christ to receive thy soul, thou wouldest think I were uncharitable. Alas! it will be one of these days; and it is thee that I must entreat, and thyself must be prevailed with, or there is no hope. Christ sendeth me to thyself, and saith, that he is willing to receive thee, if now thou wilt receive him, and be sanctified and ruled by him. The matter stops at thy own regardless, wilful heart. What sayest thou? Wilt thou receive Christ now, or not? Wilt thou be a new creature, and live to God, by the principle of his Spirit, and the rule of his word, to please him here, that thou mayest live with him for ever? Wilt thou take up this resolution, and make this covenant with God this day? O give me a word of comfort, and say, thou art resolved, and wilt deliver up thyself to Christ. That which is my comfort now on thy behalf, will be ten thousand-fold more thy comfort then, when thou partakest of the benefit. And if thou grieve us now, by denying thy soul to Christ, it will be at last ten thousand-fold more thy grief. Refuse not our requests, and Christ's request now, as ever thou wouldest not have him refuse thee then, and thy requests. It is

men's turning away now from Christ that will cause Christ then to turn from them. "The turning away of the simple slayeth them, and they then eat but the fruit of their own way, and are filled with their own devices." (Prov. i. 31, 32.) "See then that' ye now refuse not him that speaketh: for there is no escaping if you turn away from him that speaketh from heaven." (Heb. xii. 25.)

What would you say yourselves to the man that would not be dissuaded from setting his house on fire, and then would pray and cry importunately to God that he would keep it from being burnt? Or of the man that will not be dissuaded from taking poison, and then when it gripeth him will cry to God to save his life? Or of the man that will go to sea in a leaking, broken vessel, yea, himself will make those breaches in it that shall let the water in, and when it is sinking will cry to God to save him from being drowned? And will you do this about so great a matter as the everlasting state of your immortal souls? Will you now be worldlings, and sensualists, and ungodly, and undo yourselves, and then cry, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," at the last? What! receive an unholy spirit? Will you not knock till the door is shut? When he telleth you, that "it is not every one that will cry Lord, Lord, that shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doth the will of his Father which is in heaven.' (Matt. vii. 21.)

Lastly, consider with what unspeakable joy it will fill thy soul to be then received by the Lord. O what a joyful word will it be, when thou shalt hear, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you." If thou wilt not have this to be thy case, thou shalt see those received to the increase of thy grief whom thou refusedst here to imitate: "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and those that from east, west, north, and south, shall sit there with them, and thou thrust out." (Luke xiii. 27-29.)

I have been long in this part of my application, having to do with souls that sure ready to depart, and are in so sad an unprepared state, as fas not to be thought on but with great compassion; I am next to come to that part of the application which I chiefly intendevid to those that are the heirs of life.

2. O you that it are members of Jesus Christ, receive this cordial which may corroborate your hearts against all inordinate fears of death. Lidet it come when it will, you may boldly recom