a grave is not now so horrid a spectacle to a believing eye; e but as our Lord was nearest his resurrection and glory when he was in the grave, even so are we : and he that hath promised to make our bed in sickness, will make the dust as a bed of roses. Death shall not dissolve the union betwixt him and us, nor turn away his affections from us; but in the morning of eternity he will send his angels, yea, come himself, and roll away the stone, and unseal our grave, and reach us his hand, and deliver us alive to our Father. Why, then, doth the approach of death so cast thee down, O my soul; and why art thou thus disquieted within me? The grave is not hell: if it were, yet there is thy Lord present; and thence should his merit and mercy fetch thee out. Thy sickness is not unto death, though I die, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby. Say not, then, he lifted me up to cast me down, and hath raised me high that my fall may be the lower; but he casts me down that he may lift me up, and layeth me low that I may rise the higher. A hundred experiences have sealed this truth unto thee, that the greatest dejections are intended but for advantages to thy greatest dignity, and the Redeemer's glory.

Sect. III. The third part of this Prologue to the Saint's Rest, is the public and solemn process at their judgment, where they shall first, themselves, be acquitted and justified; and then, with Christ, judge the world. Public I may well call it, for all the world must there appear: young and old, of all estates and nations, that ever were from the creation to that day, must here come and receive their doom. The judgment shall be set, and the books opened, and the book of life produced; "and the dead shall be judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works, and whosoever is not found written in the book of life, is cast into the lake of fire." (Rom. ii. 16, and xiv. 10; Rev. xx. 12—15.) O, terrible! O, joyful day! Terrible to those that have let their lamps go out, and have not watched, but forgot the coming of their Lord: joyful to the saints, whose waiting and hope was to see this day. Then shall the world behold the goodness and severity of the Lord on them who perish, severity; but to his chosen, goodness: when every one must give account of his stewardship,

e Mors et vita duello conflixêre mirandò: rex mortuus, regnat vivus. In hoc duello mors et vita in arenam descenderunt: sed tandem vicit vita, et gloriose exiit, de sepulchro, de morte ipsa triumphans. Irrideamus ergo mortem et cum apostolo dicamus, ubi mors victoria tua?-Stella in Luc. xxiv. p. 378. tom. ii. Psal. xlii.; John xi. 4; Psal. cii. 10.

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and every talent of time, health, wit, mercies, afflictions, means, warnings, must be reckoned for; (Matt. xxiv., and xxv. 5-7 ; Rom. i. 22;) when the sins of youth, and those which they had forgotten, and their secret sins, shall all be laid open before angels and men; when they shall see all their friends, wealth, old delights, all their confidence and false hopes of heaven, to forsake them; when they shall see the Lord Jesus Christ, whom they neglected, whose word they disobeyed, whose ministers they abused, whose servants they hated, now sitting to judge them; when their own consciences shall cry out against them, and call to their remembrance all their misdoings. Remember at such a time, such or such a sin; at such a time Christ sued hard for thy conversion; the minister pressed it home to thy heart, thou wast touched to the quick with the word; thou didst purpose and promise returning, and yet thou cast off all. When a hundred sermons, sabbaths, mercies, shall each step up and say, I am witness against the prisoner ; Lord, I was abused, and I was neglected; O, which way will the wretched sinner look! O, who can conceive the terrible thoughts of his heart! Now the world cannot help him; his old companions cannot help him; the saints neither can nor will; only the Lord Jesus can: but, oh! there is the soul-killing misery, he will not; nay, without violating the truth of his word, he cannot; though otherwise, in regard of his absolute power, he might. The time was, sinner, when Christ would, and you would not; and now, oh! fain would you, and he will not. Then he followed thee, in vain, with entreaties; O, poor sinner, what doest thou; will thou sell thy soul and Saviour for a lust look to me, and be saved; return, why wilt thou die? But thy ear and heart were shut up against all. Why, now thou shalt cry, Lord, Lord, open to us; and he shall say, "Depart, I know you not, ye workers of iniquity." (Matt. vii. 22, 23.) Now, mercy, mercy, Lord; O, but it was mercy you so long set light by, and now your day of mercy is over. What then remains, but to cry out to the mountains, Fall upon us; and the hills, O cover us from the presence of him that sits upon the throne! But all in vain; for thou hast the Lord of mountains and hills for thine enemy, whose voice they will obey, and not thine. Sinner, make not light of this; for, as thou livest, ex

f Quæ tunc erit fidei gloria? quæ pœna perfidiæ, cum judicii dies venerit. Quæ lætitia credentium? quæ mœstitia perfidorum? noluisse istic prius credere et ut credant jam redire non posse ?—Cyp. ad Demetrian, sect. xxi, p. 330.

cept a thorough change and coming in to Christ prevent it, which God grant, thou shalt shortly, to thy inconceivable horror, see that day. O, wretch, will thy cups then be wine or gall; will they be sweet or bitter; will it comfort thee to think of thy merry days, and how pleasantly thy time slipped away; will it do thee good to think how rich thou wast, and how honourable thou wast; or will it not rather wound thy very soul to remember thy folly, and make thee, with anguish of heart, and rage against thyself, to cry out, O wretch, where was mine understanding! Didst thou make so light of that sin that now makes thee tremble: how couldst thou hear so lightly of the redeeming blood of the Son of God; how couldst thou quench so many motions of his Spirit, and stifle so many quickening thoughts as were cast into thy soul? What took up all that life's time which thou hadst given thee to make sure work against this day; what took up all thy heart, thy love, and delight, which should have been laid out on the Lord Jesus? Hadst thou room in thy heart for the world, thy friend, thy flesh, thy lusts, and none for Christ? O, wretch, whom hadst thou to love, but him; what hadst thou to do, but to seek him, and cleave to him, and enjoy him! Oh! wast thou not told of this dreadful day a thousand times, till the commonness of that doctrine made thee weary; how couldst thou slight such warnings, and rage against the minister, and say he preached damnation: had it not been better to have heard and prevented it, than now to endure it? O, now, for one offer of Christ, for one sermon, for one day of grace more; but too late; alas! too late. Poor, careless sinner, I did not think here to have said so much to thee; for my business is to refresh the saints; but if these lines do fall into thy hands, and thou vouchsafe the reading of them, I here charge thee, before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing, and his kingdom; (2 Tim. iv. 1 ;) that thou make haste and get alone, and set thyself sadly to ponder on these things: ask thy heart, Is this true, or is it not; is there such a day, and must I see it? O, what do I then; why trifle I; is it not time, full time, that I had made sure of Christ and comfort long ago; should I sit still another day, who have lost so many; had I not rather be found

8 Nec ignoro plerosque conscientia meritorum nihil se esse post mortem magis optare quam credere. malunt enim extingui penitus, quam ad supplicia reparari. Quorum error augetur in seculo et libertate remissa, et Dei patientia maxima: cujus quanto judicium tardum, tanto magis justum est.Minut. Fælix. Octav. p. 396.

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one of the holy, faithful, watchful Christians, than a worldling, a good fellow, or a man of honour: why should I not, then, choose it now; will it be best then, and is it not best now? O, think of these things! A few sad hours spent in serious fore-thoughts is a cheap prevention; it is worth this, or it is worth nothing. Friend, I profess to thee, from the word of the Lord, that of all thy sweet sins, there will then be nothing left, but the sting in thy conscience, which will never out through all eternity; except the blood of Christ, believed in, and valued above all the world, do now, in this day of grace, get it out. Thy sin is like a beautiful harlot: while she is young and fresh, she hath many followers; but when old and withered, every one would shut their hands of her: she is only their shame; none would know her. So will it be with thee: now thou wilt venture on it, whatever it cost thee; but then, when men's rebellious ways are charged on their souls to death, O that thou couldst rid thy hands of it; O that thou couldst say, Lord, it was not I. Then, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, naked, imprisoned: how fain would they put it off. Then sin will be sin indeed, and grace will be grace indeed; then, say the foolish virgins, Give us of your oil, for our lamps are out. O, for some of your faith and holiness, which we were wont to mock at; but what is the answer, "Go buy for yourselves; we have little enough; would we had rather much more." Then they will be glad of any thing like grace; and if they can but produce any external familiarity with Christ, or common gifts, how glad are they! Lord, we have eat and drunk in thy presence, prophesied in thy name, cast out devils, done many wonderful works; we have been baptised, heard sermons, professed Christianity: but, alas! this will not serve the turn. He will profess to them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. O, dead-hearted sinner, is all this nothing to thee! As sure as Christ is true, this is true; take it in his own words: "When the Son of Man shall come in his glory and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and

h Hear a heathen: "Sic certe vivendum est, tanquam in conspectu vivamus. Sic cogitandum tanquam aliquis in pectus intimum inspicere possit, et potest. Quid enim prodest ab homine aliquid esse secretum? Nihil Deo clausum interest animis nostris, et cogitationibus mediis intervenit.-Senec. Epist. ad Luc. 83. p. 711. tom. ii. Which words Zuinglius repeating, calls him "virum sanctissimum."-Tom. oper. ii. p. 118. Declar. de Pec.

he shall set the sheep on the right hand, and the goats on the left." (Matt. xxv. 31.) And so on, as you may read in the text. But why tremblest thou, O humble, gracious soul? Cannot the enemies and slighters of Christ be foretold their doom, but thou must quake: do I make sad the soul that God would not have sad? (Ezek. xiii. 22.) Doth not thy Lord know his own sheep, "who have heard his voice, and followed him?" (John x. 27.) He that would not lose the family of one Noah in a common deluge, when him only he had found faithful in all the earth; (Gen. vii. 1-3, and xix. 22;) he that would not overlook one Lot in Sodom; nay, that could do nothing till he went forth will he forget thee at that day? "Thy Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment to be punished;" (2 Pet. ii. 9 ;) he knoweth how to make the same day the greatest for terror to his foes, and yet the greatest for joy to his people. He ever intended it for the great distinguishing and separating day; wherein both love and fury should be manifested to the highest. (Matt. xiii.) O, then, "Let the heavens rejoice, the sea, the earth, the floods, the hills; for the Lord cometh to judge the earth with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity." (Psal. xcvi. 11-13.) But, especially, "Let Sion hear, and be glad, and her children rejoice;" (Psal. xcviii. 7-9 ;) for, "when God ariseth to judgment, it is to save the meek of the earth." (Psal. xcvii. 8.) They have judged and condemned themselves many a day in heart-breaking confessions, and therefore shall not be judged to condemnation by the Lord;" for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (1 Cor. xi. 31.) And, "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect?" (Rom viii. 1, 33.) Shall the law? Why, "Whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law; but we are not under the law, but under grace: for the law of the Spirit of life, which is in Christ Jesus, hath made us free from the law of sin and death." (Rom. iii. 19, v. 1, vi. 14, and viii. 2.) Or shall conscience? Why, we were, long ago, "justified by faith, and so have peace with God, and have our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience; and the Spirit bearing witness with our spirits, that we are the children of God." (Heb. x. 22.) "It is God that justifieth; who shall condemn?" (Rom. viii. 16.) If our Judge condemn us not, who shall? He that said to the adulterous woman, "Hath no man condemned thee?