courteous, free and affable; whereas the con trary makes them fearful and timorous, fneaking and dejected, and oftentimes fills them with Confufron.

Indeed there are fome bold prefumptuous Sinners, that have fet Integrity and Uprightnefs, Religion and Virtue at open Defiance, and reign and act triumphantly, as if they had entirely fubdued them, together with the Apprehenfion of a future Reckoning. Thefe, in the Height and Heat of the Purfuit of their Lufts and Paffions, may indeed, for the Time, have little Senfe or Apprehenfion of their prefent Danger; but should Afflictions and Troubles come upon them, and especially Death threaten to overtake them, how will they ftand it then? Will not the Terrors of Confcience awaken them out of their former Security? Will they not then dread the Confequences of their former imaginary Conquefts? Will not Fear and Anguifh come fpeedily upon them? Will not their Countenances then change Colour, and a fearful Trembling feize them? Now must the Minifter (though before contemn'd and flighted) be fent for to administer all poffible Comfort to the feeming Penitent. But what has brought it to this? Now must conquer'd Virtue be courted by the Conqueror to accept of his Submiffion : Conqueror, did I fay? No, no, thou only didf imagine thy felf fo; for tho' Religion and

Virtue

Virtue may have fuffer'd themselves for a Time to be trampled upon, yet whenever they please to affume their Strength and Au- › thority, they have many Affiftants ready that can curb the Infolence of all their Enemies, and if they cannot in time reclaim them, yet can punish the Rebellions of their moft infulting Defperadoes: Nay, even the boldeft Sinners of 'em all, upon Surprize, are ready to flee when none pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion; and tho' Calamities, Loffes, and Croffes fhall attend the Righteous, and they may be for the present fomewhat dejected through natural Infirmity and Frailty, yet the Serenity of their Minds and inward Peace of their Confciences will ftill fubfift and fupport them under all the Storms that happen from without: A Refignation to God's Will will rid 'em of all unreasonable Fears, and perfuade them to believe that all things fhall end well, if not to their prefent, yet to their future Advantage: Influenced by this comfortable Perfuafion, they will chearfully and patiently. wait the Event, preferring evermore future fpiritual good things, before all present and temporal, and regarding temporal Evils as only tranfitory, and of which they fhall foon fee an End.

These may truly be compar'd to the wife Virgins, who were ready at the Call of the Bridegroom; as the Wicked, who have their C 2 Oil

Oil to feek at the fame Call, may be to the foolish Virgins, who, notwithstanding their Knocking and Importunity, were yet shut out, because too late; for this Door being once shut upon them, admits no opening for ever. When once they shall be thus excluded from all manner of Place, Light, or Ease, thus banish'd into the doleful Regions of outer Darkness (after the Resurrection of the Body) then will all the Terrors of Body and Mind feize them, with perpetual Reflections upon their past Follies, for not embracing Mercy when it was offer'd, in not regarding Futurity and its precious Treafures, till they could no longer enjoy their Senfualities: And Religion and Virtue, the best Refuge and Security, the only Means of escaping eternal Punishment, can now be of no Service: The Enjoyment of the heavenly State, which now they wish for, and had heard fo much of, cannot be expected; for not being calculated to their Senfualities, and the Company of that Place being no ways agreeable to their wicked Difpofitions, it would be impoffible for them to relish 'em; and were they then to be entertain'd in Heaven, the Enjoyments of that happy State would be fo contrary and difagreeable to their contracted vicious Habits, that they could not bear them: So that could they be admitted, it would be no proper Place for them; their own Senfualities and vicious

Habits

Habits having render'd them abfolutely unfit for Abode there.

Wherefore let all wicked Men now confider, that those who are not fitted for Heaven, by a timely Preparation and a Difpofition habituated to Virtue, will have no Entertainment there; the Door will be fhut upon them, and they will be excluded that Place of Comfort, Eafe and Reft, and shut out into outer Darkness, agreeable to their Works of Darkness; and as their Works here would not bear the Light, fo their Eyes cannot there behold it.

Oh! that you would therefore confider these things in time, and turn to the Lord while he may be found, and change your Inclinations and Tempers, before they become incapable of having fuch a Change wrought in them; for the longer you continue in Sin, the harder it will be to change and repent, and if delay'd may be impoffible.

I

SECT. IV.

Of the Creation and Deluge.

Come now to confider fomething in relation to the Creation of our Globe the Earth, with the State of the Antediluvians,

C 3

and

and enquire into the Reasons of their Destruction by the Deluge, and to give my Opinion of those natural Causes that concurr'd to fulfil the Divine Appointment therein; and from thence I fhall make fome useful Inferences.

I have before proved that all things created must receive their Beings from a neceffary, felf-existent, and eternal Being: I fhall now endeavour to fhew the Wisdom and Goodness of this eternal Being in the Creation of our Globe (which Wisdom and Goodness is undoubtedly agreeable in every Part of his Creations). Now it appears by his reveal'd Account hereof by his Servant Mofes, That in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, that is, the Substance or Matter of them; which Substance remain'd in a confus'd chaotical Condition, without Order or Form; and how long it had remain'd fo e're God gave it the Laws of Gravitation and Attraction, whereby eve

ry of its Parts did take their Places according to their fpecifick Gravities, we find not mention'd; but that it continued fo for fome time, appears from the enfuing Words, And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep: From which Mr. Whifton, in his Theory of the Earth, probably imagin'd this Globe, before its Formation into a Planet, had been a Comet. But be this as it will, 'tis certain a

Comet