There are three things in thy state, sadly opposed to the former state last described.
1. The state you were born in, was. bad.
2. The state you are now in, is worse.
3. The state you shall shortly be in, if you thus continue, will be unspeakably the worst of all.
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1. The state you were born in was a sad state ; you were born in sin, Psal. li. 5. and under wrath, Eph. ii. 3. The womb of nature cast you forth into this world, defiled and condemned creatures.
£ The state you are in now is much worse than that you were born in ; for what have you been doing ever since you were born, but treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath ? Rom. ii. o. For every sand of time which runs out of the glass of God's patience to- wards you, a drop of wrath hath been running into the vials of his indignation against you. Oh ! what a treasure of sin and wrath then, is laid up in so many years as you have lived in sin ! Every sin committed, every mercy abused, every call of God neglected and slighted, adds still more and more to this treasure.
3. It will be much worse shortly than it is now, except pre- venting, renewing grace step in betwixt you and that wrath, into which you are hastening so fast. It is sad to be under the sentence of condemnation, but unspeakably worse to be under the execution of that sentence. To be a christless man is lamentable, but to be a hopeless man is more lamentable. For though you be now without Christ, yet whilst the breath of life is in your nostrils, you are not absolutely without hope. But when once that breath is gone, all the world cannot save or help you. Your last breath and your last hope expire together. Though you be under God's damning sen- tence, yet that sentence, through the riches of forbearance, is not executed ; but as soon as you die, all that wrath which hanged over your heads so many years, in the black clouds of God\s threatenings, will pour down in a furious storm upon you, which will never break up whilst God is God. O ! think, and think again, and let your thoughts think close to this sad and solemn subject, there is but a breath betwixt you and hell.
Inf. 4. Doth God maintain your life by breath f Let not that breath destroy your life, which God gave to preserve it.
No man can live without breath ; and yet some might live longer than they do, if their breath were better employed. " Some " men's throats have been cut by their own tongues," as the * Arabian proverb intimates. Life and death (saith Solomon) are in the power of the tongue. Critics observe, that a word and a plague grow upon the same root in the Hebrew tongue. It is cer- tain, that some men's breath hath been baneful poison both to themselves and others. It was a word that cut off the life of Ado- nijah, 1 Kings ii. 23. and thousands since his day have died upon the point of the same weapon. It is therefore wholesome advice that is given us, Psal. xxxiv. 12. "What man is he that desireth
* Cave, neftriat lingua tua cottum tvvm. Seal. Arab. Prov. Ce&t. i.
o5Q A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAX.
" life, and loveth many days, that lie may see good ; keep thy " tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile."
And the more evil the times are, the stricter guard we should keep upon our lips. " It is an evil time, the prudent will keep silence," Amos v. 13. When wicked men watch to make a man an offender fir a word, as it is, Isa. xxix. 20, 21. it behoves us to be upon our watch, that we offend not with our lips. It is good to keep, what is not safe to trust. David was a deaf and dumb man, when in the company of wicked men, Psal. xxxviii. 13. he thought silence to be his prudence. It is better they should call you fools, than find you so.
Inf. 5. Employ not that breath to the dishonour of God, which was first given, and is still graciously maintained by him fir your comfort and good.
It were better you had never breathed at all, than to spend your breath in profane oaths, or foolish and idle chat, whereby at once, you wound the name of God, draw guilt upon your own souls, and help on the ruin of others. That is a startling text, Matt. xii. 36*. " But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, " they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment.r>
To give an account, is here, by a metaleps-is of the antecedent for the consequent, put for punishment in hell-fire, without an inter- vening change of heart, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus.
And there is more evil in this abuse of our breath, than we can easily discern, especially upon two accounts; (1.) Because it is a sin most frequently committed, and seldom repented of. The in- tercourse betwixt the heart and tongue is quick, and the sense of the evil as easily and quickly passeth away. (2.) Because the poi- sonous and malignant influence thereof abides and continues long after : our words may do mischief to others, not only a long time after they are spoken, but a long time after the tongue that spake them is turned to dust. How many years may a foolish or filthy word, a profane scoff, an atheistical expression, stick in the minds of them that heard them, after the speaker's death. A word spoken is physically transient, and passed away with the breath that deliver- ed it ; but morally, it is permanent : For as to its moral efficacy, no more is required, but its objective existence in the minds and thoughts of them that once heard it : And, upon that very ground, Suarez argues for a general judgment, after men at death have passed their particular judgment ; because (saith he) long after that, abundance of good and evil will be done in this world by the dead, in the persons of others that over-live them. For look, as it was said of Abel, that being dead, he yet speaketh ; so it may be said of Julian, Porphyry, and multitudes of scoffing Atheists, that being dead, they yet speak. Oh, therefore, get a sanctiti-
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ed heart to season your breath, that it may minister grace to the hearers.
Inf. 6. Let your breath promote the spiritual life of others, as well as maintain the natural life in yourselves.