Imatges de pàgina
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ence our conduct, and give us a true notion of the baseness and infignificancy of temporal enjoyments, and of the real value of thofe that are eternal: and when once we are convinced of the vanity of those, and of the folidity of thefe; of the reward that follows virtue, and the punishment that treads on the heels of vice; we fhall take more care of our fouls, than of our bodies, and pursue more eagerly thofe pleasures we expect, than those we at present are fo fond of.

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But then we must be flow to speak; that is, we muft retire from the hurry of the world; from converfations either dangerous or useless; and give fome time to confideration, thought and meditation. For without this, the word of God makes no impreffion; it finks not into our fouls: but, to use our Saviour's expreffion, The foals of the air gather up the feed: fo that it brings forth no fruit. For this reafon, the prophet Ifaiah (feeing his exhortations to repentance had no effect upon the Jews) conjured them to enter into their clofets, to withdraw from the converfation of men, to confider the innumerable benefits God had bestowed on them, and the fad returns of ingratitude they had made their Benefactor. Come my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and but thy doors about thee, Ifaiah, xxvi. 20.

Oh that we could perfuade our felves to retire some moments every day from noife and tumult, and to spend some serious thoughts upon those truths God has revealed, and commnands us to believe and practise! that our fouls are immortal; and muft either groan eternally under torments beyond expreffion, or enjoy pleasures above comprehenfion: that he has mark'd out, in his law, what we must do to avoid thofe ; what, to deferve thefe: that one of these extremes must be our lot; and both cannot. Were we truly perfuaded, I fay, of thefe

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truths, and did we carry them in our memory, we should scarce ever be tempted to forfake our duty upon the bare views of intereft or pleafure.

Give me, O Lord, the grace to know thy will, and thy affiftance to fulfil it. Let me place all my delight, with the royal prophet, in meditating upon thy law, and all my care in complying with it. On this depends my whole happiness; and therefore it shall be my only employment, in time to prepare my felf for a happy eternity.

GOSPEL of St. John, Chap. xvi. Verse

5. But now I go my way to him that fent me, and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou?

6. But because I have faid these things unto you, forrow bath filled your heart.

7. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will fend him unto you.

8. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of fin, and of righteousness, and of judg

ment :

9. Of fin, because they believe not on me;

10. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye fee me no more;

11. Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

12. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

13. Howbeit, when be the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall bear, that fall be fpeak, and he will show you things to

come.

14. He fhall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

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The MORAL REFLECTION.

UR bleffed Saviour checked the apoftles, because they took not the pains to ask him where he was going. None of you asketh me, whither goest thou? I have often repeated, that I muft leave you, and this world; and yet you enquire not where I intend to go: altho' it highly concerns you to know; because you are obliged to follow me, and to walk on in the fame way I have marked out, if you intend to live eternally with me. It is ftrange, the apoftles fhould forget so obvious a question; but yet it is more aftonishing, that we fhould be fo forgetful, or fo indolent as not often to put the fame queftion to ourfelves. Whither goeft thou? And fo, for want of reflection, we find ourfelves on a precipice, before we dream of a danger. We poft on without confideration, and fall into a misfortune without retrieve.

Let me therefore put you in mind whither you are going, dear Chriftians; and at the fame time defire you to carry the thought continually in your memory. You poft to the grave, and once muft leave all thofe amufements, that at prefent take up your thoughts, and captivate your hearts. Neither wealth nor poverty, neither nobility nor peafantry, vice nor virtue, can exempt you from the penalty of this law, almost as ancient as mankind. We are made of earth, and must return to our first original matter. Yet, tho' our bodies die, our fouls remain; and will be, eternally, either happy above, or miserable below, without change, without alteration. If the tree fall towards the South, or towards the North, fas the wife man, in the

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place where the tree lieth, there it shall be, Eccl. xi. 3. Our mifery and happiness depending upon the ftate death fhall find us in, all our care and folicitude must tend to prepare us for this laft moment, on which fo much, nay our All, depends. It is therefore our intereft, as well as duty, to carry always about us the thoughts of this fatal hour; for nothing will fit us more efficacioufly for a happy removal, than a continual reflection we muft remove. The great St. Paul affures us, in all his apoftolical labours, he carried death in his thoughts, as well as in his body: I die daily and this meditation difengaged him from all earthly objects, and encouraged him to lay up treafure in heaven. If we imitate St. Paul, we fhall find the fame effects, and probably take the fame refolution.

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For what is the reafon we are fo taken up with the cares of this world, even to the forfeiture of confcience, and honour; but that we feldom reflect, we must leave it? And why are fo many furprized unprovided, but because they dread to dash their criminal pleasures with the remembrance of their mortality?

But in fpite of negligence, dear Chriftian, you muft fall into duft: beauty muft fet in corruption; ftrength must end in weakness; wealth and grandeur, in poverty and infignificancy. You will carry nothing into the next world, but your vices, or your virtues: Thofe for punishment; thefe for reward. This is a fundamental point of our religion. We all believe it; yet the greatest part, even of Chriftians, live, as if it were a fable invented to fright fome, and to please others. And why? Because no body thinks of this terrible moment no body confiders in cold blood, the confequence of a happy death; no body the dismal confequences

confequences of a bad one: queftion, Whither goeft thou?

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Know then, when once you take leave of time, you fall into an eternity, either of joy or misery: that, when once you are entered, there is no return, no more time for you. If you expire in grace, you are happy for ever; if in fin, for ever loft. This moment therefore decides, whether we fhall live eternally with the faints, or eternally die with the reprobate. Is it not then of the highest concern to make fome preparations: for a moment of fuch importance? For a moment that fteals upon us unforeseen; and often is not diftant from us an hour, when we fancy it is removed many years.

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Did we perfuade ourselves, the raifing of a great fortune depended on the managing of fuch a moment well, and our life upon the managing of it ill; fhould we not night and day carry this critical point about us, and exert all our care to turn it to advantage? Who would be fo foolish as to engage himself in trifles of no concern, or industrioufly to endeavour to forget this moment, on which fo great a good, and fo great an evil, depends? Yet what is the gain of a fortune compared to heaven? The lofs of life compared to hell? Yet which of these must be our lot, is the decifion of one moment. This pronounces the fatal fentence, which God will never reverfe: it is without appeal; immutable, eternal. Yet we fear to remember it, and use artifice to forget it. And this is the reafon fo many are furprized on the fudden, and, what is worse, unprepared.

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Would our forgetfulness of death make death forget us, we might excufe our negligence: but alas! fhe has us always in her eye, and feems to take pleasure to steal upon us unforeseen: and

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