4. You will shortly be summoned to give an account, Luke xvi. 2. You have received so much from me, such riches, honours, parts, sufficiencies, such invitations to draw you home to me, what will you answer ? Nay ; there is not only a little time between you and judg- ment, but a little time between you and execution ; nothing but the slender thread of a frail life, which is soon fretted asunder. And will you, can you sleep in sin so near eternity, and laugh and dance over the brink of hell ? You cannot soon enough flee from wrath to come.
5. Consider what poor deluded wretches, who are in that everlasting estate, would give, if they might be trusted with a little time again, that they might provide for eternity. How happy would they think themselves if God would but try them once more! If careless creatures would but anticipate the thoughts of another world, how soon would they discern their mistake ! How miserably will you bewail your- selves when you have lost eternity for poor temporal trifles ! AVIiat comfort will it be to you that you have been merry here, lived in pomp and ease, when you must endure the wrath of God for evermore, and wish for any allay of your torments ? Luke xvi. 24, ' Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.' It is better to believe than try ; provide against it, than try.
6. If you be Christians indeed, you have not the spirit of this world. Christianity, as it is acted by us, is but the exercise of faith, hope, and love. Now, the eternal fruition of God is the matter that all these graces are conversant about. Faith believeth that there is an eternal being, and that our happiness lietli in the fruition of him, Heb. xi. 6. Love is that which levelleth and directeth all our actions to this blessed end, that we may see God and enjoy him as our portion and felicity : Ps. Ixxiii. 25, ' Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and there is none
VeR. 89.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 399
upon earth I desire beside thee.' Our desires are after him, our delights in him ; it is our work to please him, our happiness to enjoy him. The truth of his eternal being is the object of our faith ; so the apprehen- sion of hira as our chief good and felicity is the object of our love, so as he is capable of being enjoyed ; and our participated eternity is the object of our faith : this is the end of all our desires and labours, and the expectation of this fortifieth us against all the difficulties of our pilgrimage, and so directeth us what to mind, be, and do : 2 Cor. v. 9, ' Therefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of the Lord.'
Directions what we shall do.
Dived. 1. Meditate often and seriously of eternity. There is a great deal of profit gotten by tliis meditation ; nothing doth more promote the great ends of the gospel than this meditation.
1. For Christ. Nothing makes Christ precious but serious thoughts of eternity, he being the only means to deliver us from wrath to come, Avhich is the great evil of the other state, and procure for us the eter- nal enjoyment of God, which is the good of that estate : Ps. Ixxxiv. 11, ' He is a sun and a shield, and no good thing will he withhold from them that live ujjriglitly.' You can make a shift without Christ in this world, you are by ordinary means well provided against the evils of this life, and well fortified with the good things thereof ; but iu death, Christ will be to thee gain and advantage.
2. It would promote the great change. What will make a proud man humble, a vain man serious, a covetous worldling heavenly, a wicked man a good man ? Let him think of eternity, where only the humble, the heavenly, are favoured and accepted, 2 Cor. iii. 11.
3. What would check temptations, either from the pleasures, riches, or honours of the world ? These are not eternal riches, nor eternal pleasures, nor eternal honours ; transitory things are not our business, nor our scope, Heb. xi. 2.5.
4. What would quicken diligence, and put life into our endeavours but the meditation of eternity ? Everything should be laboured for that hath an everlastingness in it ; the travail of your souls should be laid out upon those things : Isa. Iv. 2, ' Wherefore do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfies not ? ' So John vi. 27, ' Labour not for the meat that perisheth, but that which endureth to life everlasting.' Surely serious diligence is necessary. Shall I trifle away that time which I am to improve for eternity ?
Direct. 2. Let the enjoyment of an eternal God be your end and scope : 2 Cor. iv. 18, ' While we look not to things which are seen, but to things that are not seen ; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.' When you have set etc:-nal things before you, then make your choice. On the one side there are eternal joys, on the other eternal torments. Now vain pleasures lead to the one, solid godliness to the other. By the neglect of God you run the hazard of a miserable eternity. By the choice of God for your Lord and portion, you get an interest in a blessed eternity : only let me warn you —