Luke vii. 28, 29. (3.) In as much as they are driven away, loaded with the guilt of all their sins; this is the winding-sheet, that shall lie down with them in the dust, Job xx. 11. Their works follow them into the other world; they go away with the yoke of their transgressions wreathed about their necks. Guilt is a bad companion in life; but how terrible will it be in death! It lies now, perhaps, like cold brimstone on their benumbed consciences; but

when death opens the way for sparks of divine vengeance, like fire, to fall upon it, it will make dreadful flames in the conscience, in which the soul will be, as it were, wrapt up for ever. Lastly, The wicked are driven away in their wickedness, in so far as they die under the absolute power of their wickedness. While there is hope, there is some restraint on the worst of men; and these moral endowments. which God gives to a number of men, for the benefit of mankind in this life, are so many allays and restraints upon the impetuous wickedness of human nature. But all hope being cut off, and these gifts withdrawn, the wickedness of the wicked will then arrive at its perfection. As the seeds of grace, sown in the hearts of the elect, come to their full maturity at death; so, wicked and hellish dispositions, in the reprobate, come then to their highest pitch. Their prayers to God will then be turned to horrible curses; and their praise to hideous blasphemies, Mat. xxii. 13. There shall be weeping, and gnashing of teeth. This gives a dismal, but genuine view, of the state of the wicked, in another world.

II. I shall discover the hopelessness of the state of unrenewed men, at death. It appears to be very hopeless, if we consider these four things:

First, Death cuts off all their hopes and prospects of peace and pleasure in this life, Luke xii. 19, 20. "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provid ed?" They look for great matters in this world; they hope to increase their wealth, to see their families prosper, and to live at ease; but death comes like a stormy wind, and shakes off all their fond hopes, like green fruit from off a tree: "When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast

the fury of his wrath upon him," Job xx. 23. He may begin a web of contrivances, for advancing his worldly interest; but, before he gets it wrought out, death comes, and cuts it out: "His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish," Psalm

cxlvi. 4.

Secondly, When death comes, they have no solid grounds to hope for eternal happiness: "For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?" Job xxvii. 3. Whatever hopes they fondly entertain, they are not founded on God's word, which is the only sure ground of hope: If they knew their own case, they would see themselves only happy in a dream. And, indeed, what hope can they have? The law is plain against them, and condemns them. The curses of it (these cords of death) are about them already. The Saviour, whom they slighted, is now their Judge; and their Judge is their enemy. How then can they hope? They have bolted the door of mercy against themselves, by their unbelief. They have despised the remedy; and, therefore, must die without mercy. They have no saving interest in Jesus Christ, the only channel of conveyance, in which mercy flows; and, therefore, they can never taste of it. The sword of justice guards the door of mercy, so as none can enter in, but the members of the mystical body of Christ, over whose heads is a covert of atoning blood, the Mediator's blood. These, indeed, may pass without harm, for justice has nothing to require of them. But others cannot pass, since they are not in Christ; death comes to them with the sting in it, the sting of unpardoned guilt. It is armed against them with all the force the sanction of a holy law can give it, 1 Cor. xv. 56. "The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law." When that law was given on Sinai, the whole mount quaked greatly, Exod. xix. 18. When the Redeemer was making satisfaction for the elect's breaking of it, the earth did quake, and the rocks rent, Matth. xxvii. 51. What possible ground of hope, then, is there to the wicked man, when death comes upon him, armed with the force of this law? How can he escape that fire, which burned unto the midst of heaven? Deut. iv. 11. How shall he be able to stand in that smoke, that. ascended as the smoke of a furnace? Exod. xix. 18. How

will he endure the terrible thunders and lightnings, ver 16. and dwell in the darkness, clouds, and thick darkness & Deut. iv. 11. All these resemblances, heaped together, do but faintly represent the fearful tempest of wrath and indignation, which shall pursue the wicked to the lowest hell; and for ever abide on them, who are driven to darkness at death.

Thirdly, Death roots up their delusive hopes of eternal happiness; then it is, their covenant with death, and agreement with hell, is broken. They are awakened out of their golden dreams, and at length lift up their eyes, Job viii. 14. "Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web." They trust all shall be well with them after death; but this their trust is but a web woven out of their own bowels, with a great deal of art and industry. They wrap themselves up in this their hope, as the spider wraps herself in her web. But it is but a weak and slender, defence; for however it may withstand the threatenings of the word of God, death, that besom of destruction, will' sweep them and it both away, so as there shall not be the least shred of it left them; but he, who this moment will not let his hope go, shall next moment be utterly hopeless. Death overturns the house built on the sand; it leaves no man under the power of delusion.

Lastly, Death makes their state absolutely and for ever hopeless. Matters cannot be retrieved and amended after death. For, (1.) Time once gone can never be re cailed. If cries or tears, price or pains, could bring time back again the wicked man might have hope in his death. But tears of blood will not prevail; nor will his roaring for millions of ages cause it to return. The sun will not Stand still, until the sluggard awake and enter on his journey; and when once it is gone down, he needs not expect the night to be turned into day for his sake; he must lodge through the long night of eternity, where his time left him. (2.) There is no returning to this life, to amend what is amiss: It is a state of probation and trial, which terminates at death; and, therefore, we cannot return to it again: It is but once we thus live, and once we die. Death carries the wicked man to his own place, Acts i. 25. Thus life is our working-day; and death closeth our day and our work together. We may readily

imagine the wicked might have some hope in their death; if, after death has opened their eyes, they could return to life, and have but the trial of one Sabbath, one offer of Christ, one day, or but one hour more, to make up their peace with God: “ But, man lieth down, and riseth not till the heavens be no more; they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep," Job xiv. 12. Lastly, In the other world, men have no access to get their ruined state and condition retrieved, if they never so fain would "For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest," Eccles. ix. 10. Now, a man may flee from the wrath to come; now, he may get into a refuge; but when once death has done its work, the door is shut; there are no more offers of mercy, no more pardons; where the tree is fallen, there it must lie.

Let what has been said be carefully pondered: And that it may be of use, let me exhort you,

First, To take heed that ye entertain no hopes of heaven, but what are built on a solid foundation. Tremble to think what fair hopes of happiness death sweeps away, like cobwebs! How the hopes of many are cut off, when they seem to themselves to be on the very threshold of heaven! How, in the moment they expect to be carried by angels into Abraham's bosom, into the regions of bliss and peace, they are carried by devils, into the society of the damned in hell; into the place of torment, and regions of horror! I beseech you to beware, (1.) Of a hope built up, where the ground was never cleared. The wise builder digged deep, Luke vi. 48. Were your hopes of heaven never shaken; but ye have had good hopes all your days? Alas for it! you may see the mystery of your case explained, Luke xi. 21. "When a strong man, armed, keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace." But if they have been shaken, take heed lest there have only some branches been made in the old building, which you have got repaired again, by ways and means of your ownI assure you, your hope (howsoever fair a building it is) is not to trust to; unless your old hopes have been razed, and you have built on a foundation quite new. (2.) Beware of that hope, which looks brisk in the dark; but Fooseth all its lustre, when it is set in the light of God's

word; when it is examined and tried by the touchstone of divine revelation, John iii. 20, 21. "For every one that doth evil, hateth the light; neither cometh to the light, least his deeds should be reproved. But he that doth the truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." That hope, which cannot abide scripture-trial, but sinks, when searched into by sacred truth, is a delusion, and not a true hope; for God's word is always a friend to the graces of God's Spirit, and an enemy to delusion. (3.) Beware of that hope, which stands without being supported by Scripture-evidences. Alas! many are big with hopes, who cannot give, because they really have not, any scripture-grounds for them. Thou hopest, that all shall be well with thee, after death; but what word of God is it, on which thou hast been caused to hope? Psalm cxix. 49. What scripture-evidence hast thou, to prove that thy hope is not the hope of the hypocrite? What hast thou, after impartial self-examination, as in the sight of God, found in thyself, which the word of God determines to be a sure evidence of his right to eternal life, who is possessed of it? Numbers of men are ruined with such hopes, as stand unsupported by scripture evidence. Men are fond and tena cious of these hopes; but death will throw them down, and leave the self-deceiver hopeless. Lastly, Beware of that hope of heaven, which doth not prepare and dispose you for heaven, which never makes your soul more holy, 1 John iii. 3. "Every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself, even as he is pure." The hope of the most part of men is rather a hope to be free of pain and forment in another life, than a hope of true happiness, the nature whereof is not understood and discerned; and, therefore, it stakes down in sloth and indolence, and does not excite to mortification and a heavenly life. So far are they from hoping aright for heaven, that they must own, if they speak their genuine sentiments, removing out of this world into any other place whatsoever, is rather their fear than their hope. The glory of the heavenly city does not at all draw their hearts upwards towards it; nor do they lift up their heads with joy, in the prospect of arriving at it. If they had the true hope of the marriageday, they would, as the bride, the Lamb's wife, be making