and with hell they are at an agreement ; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto them ; and now, like dehtors, they have feed the sergeant, they walk abroad boldly, and fear no arrest. But God tells them, as fast as they bind he will loose : ' Your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand.' And how should it, if God will not set his seal to it? There is a divine law for this evil day, which came in force upon Adam's first sin, that laid the fatal knife to the thi-oat of mankind, which hath opened a sluice to let out his heart-blood ever since. God, to prevent all escape, hath sown the seeds of death in ovu- very con- stitution and nature, so that we can as soon run fi'om oin-selves as from deatli. We need no feller to come with a hand of violence and hew us down ; there is in the tree a worm which gi-ows out of its own substance, that will destroy it ; so in us, those infirmities of nature that will In-ing us down to the dust. Our death was bred when our life was first conceived ; . and as a breeding woman cannot hinder the hour of her travail, that follows in nature upon the other, so neither can man hinder the bringing forth of death, with which his life is big. All the pains and aches man feels in his life are but so nuiiiy singu/tus inonenfis naturcc, groans of dying nature ; they tell him his dissolution is at hand. Art thou a prince, sitting in all thy state and pomp, death dare enter thy palace, and come through all thy guards, to deliver the fatal message it hath from God to thee; yea, run its dagger to thy heart. Wert thou compassed with a college of doctors, consulting thy health, art and natiu-e both must deliver thee up when that comes. Even when thy strength is finnest, and thou eatest thy bread with a merry heart, that very food which nourishes thy life gives thee withal an earnest of thy death, as it leaves those dregs in thee which will in time procure the same. Oh, how unavoidable must tliis evil day of death be, when that very staff' knocks us down to the grave at last, which our life leans on, and is pre- served by! God owes a debt both to the first Adam and second : to the first he owes the wages of his sin ; to the second the reward of his sufferings. The place for full payment of both is the other world ; so that except death comes to convey man thithei-, the wicked, who are the posterity of the first Adam, will miss that full pay for their sins which tlie threatenings makes due debt, and engageth God to perform : the godly, also, who are the seed of Christ, these should not receive the whole purchase of his blood, which he would never have shed but upon credit of that promise of eternal life which God gave him for them befoi-e the world began. This is the reason why God hath made this day so sure ; in it he dischargeth both bonds.
The third branch of the point follows, That it behoves every one to prepare and effectually to provide for this evil day, which so unavoidably impends over us : and that upon a twofold account; First, in ])ointof duty ; Secondly, in pointof wisdom. First, In point of duty. First, It is upon our allegiance to the great God that we provide and arm oin-selves against this day. Suppose a subject were trusted with one of his prince's castles, and this man should hear that a puissant enemy was coming to lay siege to this castle, yet takes no care to lay in arms and provisions for his defence, and so it is lost; how could such a one be cleared of treason? Doth he not basely betray the place, and with it his prince's honour, into his enemies' hand? Our souls are this castle^ which we are every one to keep for God. We have certain intelligence that Satan hath a design upon them, and the time when he intends to come with all his powers of darkness, to be that evil day. Now, as we should be found true to our trust, we are obliged to stand upon our defence, and store ourselves with what may enable us to make a vigorous resistance.
Secondly, We are obliged to provide for that day, as a suitable return for, and improvement of the opportunities and means which God aflPords us for this very end. We caiinot, without shameful ingratitude to God, make waste of those helps God gives us in order to this great work. Every one would cry out upon him that should basely spend that money upon riot in prison, which was sent Inm to procin-e his deliverance out of prison : and do we not blush to bestow those talents upon our lusts and Satan, which God graciously indidgeth to deliver us from them, and his rage in a dying hour? What have we Bibles for, ministers and preaching for, if we mean not to furnish ourselves by them with armour for the evil day? In a word, what is the intent of God in lengthening
IN THE EVIL DxVY. 177