A MOST Unhappy Condition it is, that is now Described unto us! May the Describing of it, help our Avoiding of it.

It is threatned, as a very Ʋnhappy Condition, Deut. XXVIII. 66. Thy Life shall hang in doubt before thee, and thou shalt fear day and night, & thou shalt have no Assurance of thy Life. And yet in this very Ʋnhappy Condition, what Multitudes are Languishing! Alas, 'Tis but here & there as it were One of a City, Two of a Tribe, that is not Languishing in it. Yea, The Li [...]e which hangs in doubt before the Children of men, and whereof they have no Assurance, is not meerly that Life in this World, which a man would give all that he has, [Page 2] to have it Assured. But the thing which they are in the Dark about, is, Whether that Favour of GOD in another World, which is Better than Life, shall not be denied unto them; And whether they shall not after Death pass into those Torments in another World, whereof the most Intolera­ble Things here are but a Metaphor. They are Walking on, but in such a woful Darkness that they know not whither they are going. They do indeed know, That the Grave is a place, whither they are going. But it is only their Bodies that are going thither. Their Souls which are the Immortal part of them; Do they know whither these are going? Every one may say, I know, that GOD will bring me to Death. But where are they; how few, how few are they, that Know, what the Glorious GOD will do with them after Death? Yea, They Know, that when their Dust returns to the Earth as it was, their Spirits will Return to GOD who is the Father of Spirits. But know they how the Glorious GOD will then dis­pose of their Spirits, and what Receptacles whether Good or Bad, He will order for them? On all accounts Hidden Receptacles! I make an awful Appeal unto my dear Neighbours in this Great Assembly, for whom, O Lord, Thou seest my Agony; My Friends I Appeal to you; If the Angel of Death were this day to [Page 3] Execute his Instructions upon you, do you know what your Future State would be, whether a Blessed State or a Wretched State? If it should be your Portion like Ananias & Sapphira, to fall down Dead in the Assembly, do you know, that you shall not have a porti­on with Ananias and Sapphira after Death, as­sign'd unto you? The Days of the Dead are called, The Days of Darkness. But alas, while we yet Enjoy the Light of the Living, we are generally still in Darkness, and much in the Dark about that GRAND PO [...]NT what our Many Days will be, whether Good or Bad after we are Dead. Let it not be thought Un­charitable or too censorious, when I say unto you; I Doubt, I Doubt, there are not many among you, that can cheerfully Entertain the Messengers of Death, & can with more Pleasure than Horror, hear the Roaring of the Lion, and say, My Friend, Thou art Welcome to me. I know, that my Redeemer Lives, and thou art come to fetch me into the Paradise, where I shall see His Face with Joy Ʋnspeakable and Full of Glory! At Least, I Fear, I Fear, there are many of you, who, if the Arrest of Death were laid upon them, the Terror of Death alone would be E­nough to kill them; and they would chatter like a Crane or a Swallow, and mourn like a Dove going to be pull'd out of their nest; & cry out, Oh! I am in the Dark, I am in the Dark; and for [Page 4] ought I Know, I am going down to Eternal Dark­ness. When I behold, the amazing Uncertain­ty about the GRAND POINT wherein our dear People allow themselves to continue Unresolved, and how Commonly and Easily People continue all their Days, Uncertain, & altogether in the Dark, what shall become of them in an awful ETERNITY before them; I am Afflicted, I am Distressed, I am Astonish­ed. It is a CASE that calls for the most A­wakening Expostulations.

And as a Foundation for them, I take the Solemn Words of our SAVIOUR, which are now before us. Words, wherein our SAVI­OUR Laments the Ʋnhappy condition of them, who walk in Darkness, & know not whither they are going. Words, which give this DOC­TRINE unto us, ‘Very Unhappy, Very Unhappy, is the condition of them, who walk so much in the Dark, that they know not whither they we going; but are very much in the Dark, what shall become of them at the Last.’

There is a Double, But, Oh! what a Dread­ful Darkness, in which the poor Children of Men, are frequently found Walking and Know not where it Leads them, or how it will Ter­minate.

[Page 5]I. There is the Darkness of a False Religion, which makes a very Unhappy Condition for Mul­titudes in the World; Multitudes who walk in Darkness, & Know not whither they are going. Man is, Animal Religiosum, a creature naturally disposed unto Religion; He must lay aside his Nature, if he be not of some Religion. But man has by his Fall from GOD, so Enfeebled, yea, so Corrupted & Poisoned his mind that his Understanding being darkened, a False Religion is now most agreeable unto him. Having also resigned himself up unto the Dominion of those Evil Spirits, which are by the wrath of GOD now become the Rulers of the Darkness of this World, these conspire as much as may be by their Devices to hold him in the chains of a False Religion. Tis now come to pass; Darkness covers the Earth, and Gross Darkness the People. The most of Mankind are by the Unsearchable Judgments of GOD, now so a­bandoned, that they are in the Ʋnhappy Con­dition of the Jews, who sought unto Egypt for the Succours which were to be found from GOD alone; Jer. XIII. 16. Your Feet Stumble on the Dark Mountains, & when ye look for light, it is turned into the Shadow of Death, and made a Gross Darkness The only True Religion, in which alone Man can Return unto GOD, it is but a little part of Mankind, that is Enlight­ned with it. Our Gospel is hid from the most [Page 6] of Men; & so they are still Walking in Dark­ness. They are always in the Dark▪ what to do that GOD may be Pleased with them; in the Dark, about the Methods of paying un­to GOD an Acceptable Service. They do not know the Way of peace, nor know the Way to the City of GOD. In the Greatness of their Folly they Wander from the Way of Ʋnderstanding. They are as much in the Dark, whether what they do be at all pleasing to GOD: in the Dark, what will be the Issue of all their Service. They have on Reasonable Expectations of a Joyful Harvest, for their Devotions. All is cloudy with them; all Dubious They have no clear Knowlege of those things which to know is Life Eternal; And by the Look of it, they are Destroyed; How Lamentably, How Deplorably! As they Live, so they Dy, All in the Dark. In this Unhappy Condition, alas, the most of Men are perishing.

But then, O ye Inhabitants of a Goshen, How Thankfully ought you to adore the So­vereign Grace of GOD, in granting you the Light of His Gospel, when so much of the World, is yet Lying in Egyptian Darkness! My Friends; Let our Thankful Souls, wisely Improve the Light with which we are favour­ed: & so Walk in the Light, that no False Re­ligion may ever Darken us, We Enjoy the Oracles of GOD, in His Written Word; Oracles [Page 7] of so Sublime and so Sacred a character, that they carry an Incontestible Evidence with them, of their being, of a Divine Original. In these Oracles we have a Light for our Feet, a Lamp for our Pathes. We are safe, and we shall do well, if we Take heed unto this word, as unto a Light Shining in a Dark place. It will infallibly give Light unto them that sit in Dark­ness, and guide their Feet in the Way of peace. But then in these Oracles we have a CHRIST Revealed unto us: A CHRIST who is the Light of the World; A CHRIST who is the Sun of Righteousness. Oh! Let us be under His Conduct; and by His Light we shall Walk thro' Darkness. Now we Walk in the Light, & we Know whither we are going, we take Right steps, and we Know that we have Eternal Life. My Friends, that you may not walk in Dark­ness and see no Light, the Counsel to you, is This; Fear the Lord, as His word has taught you, Obey the Voice of your SAVIOUR, who has appeared as the Servant of GOD. Then may you Trust in the Lord, and Stay upon your GOD that you shall not be deceived.

Christian, Steer thy course by the Holy Scriptures, which are Able to make thee wise unto Salvation, & let thine Eyes be continually unto thy SAVIOUR; Then mayest thou certainly Know whither thou art going. Now, Know for certain, Thou art Going in the Way of Life. [Page 8] Know for certain, Thou art Going to the In­heritance of the Saints in Light. Go on▪ and go Singing the Songs of thy Holy Pilgrimage; Go on, and let me bear thee Company.

II. But this is not the Darkness, which my Neighbours are in much Danger of. You have all the Demonstrations which a Reason­able Mind can ask for, That you are not un­der the Dark Delusions of a False Religion. You are delivered from that Unhappy condition, by a JESUS in His BIBLE Evidently set forth before your Eyes. Tis another Darkness which makes an Ʋnhappy condition for us, who have the True Religion illuminating of us. Tis the Darkness, of our own Uncertainty about our own Condition, in that Future State unto which all of us are hastening; The Darkness where­in we walk, Not knowing whither we are going: Our Not knowing whether our Future State will be in the Glorious Rest which our SAVIOUR will give to those that come unto Him, or whether our Future State will be in the Fiery Furnace which the Things that offend, and they which do Iniquity, shall be cast into. Our present State is a State of Probation. And according to our Behaviour, in the Time of our Trial here, we shall when this Time is come, and it quickly comes unto an End, we shall be Judg­ed unto a Future State which will be either a State of inexpressible Bliss or a State of unut­terable [Page 9] We, that will never have an End. Now This is the Ʋnhappy condition of the most among us: We so poorly Behave our selves, in the Time of our Trial, that we know not what State we are going into; Whether it will be a Blissful State, or whether it will be a Woful State, wherein we are even to all Eternity, to have our Lodging assign'd unto us. We are not in the Dark about the Event of Godliness or of Wickedness, in the Future State. We Know very well, That the Godly are going to a State, wherein they shall find Fulness of Joy & Pleasures forevermore. We Know very well, That the Wicked are going to a State, wherein they shall find a Strange Punishment reserved for the workers of Iniquity. But the Darkness wherein we are Walking, is, that we know not our own share in the matter; For the most part, we know not, whether it be the portion of the Godly, or whether it be the portion of the Wicked, that we are going unto. Tis no wonder, that a pagan Emperor, when he felt himself a dying, should cry out, [Animu­la—quae nunc abibis in Loca!] O my poor Soul, Whither, whither, art thou now a going. But that we, who are in the Christian Profession, should any of us, Walk in such Darkness, that if we were to Dy this Day, we must cry out, Oh! My poor Soul, I don't know whither it is go­ing! O Unhappy Condition! A famous Apostle [Page 10] of Irreligion and Impiety in our Nation, when he felt himself a Dying, tis reported that he used those words, I am going to take a great Leap in the Dark. But now, for them that have done Many things required in Christiani­ty still to Walk in such darkness, that if their Death were now to come upon them, it must be, A Great Leap in the Dark! O Ʋnhappy Con­dition!

There are Two Things that shall now be Enquired, & briefly Answered, about it.

We will Enquire, First; Whence it comes to pass, that so many are in the Ʋnhappy Condition; to be in the Dark, how it shall fare with them in the Future State! Now,

First The Earth with its Bars, is about them forever. The Enchantments & Amusements of This World keep the most of us from that Religion in Earnest, which alone will settle Good Terms with Heaven for us. Tis nothing but Religion in Earnest, & a Seeking the Fa­vour of GOD with our whole Heart, that will assure us of our being in His Favour. Would we be assur'd of our Entring in at the Straight Gate? Our SAVIOUR has insisted on this Direction; Luck▪ XIII. 24 Strive, and be in Agony for it. Now, This World so Bewitches us, and the Business of This World so Engages us; that we afford no room for this Agony. Our Agony is upon, What shall I Eat or Drink, [Page 11] & wherewithal shall I be Cloathed? This Extin­tinguishes the due Agony upon, What shall I do to be Saved? The Ancient complaint may be renewed in every Generation, There is none who Stirs up himself to take hold on GOD. What hinders? Tis This World; The Affairs, and the Hurries, of This World, Engross our Spirits, & weaken our concern about Another World We are so Swallowed up in the cares to make sure of This World, that we foolishly forget, shamefully neglect, the Needful En­deavours to make sure of a part in a Better World▪ We are always Grinding for This World; and let Satan alone to keep always filling the Hopper for us. Hence tis, that we have truly No Heart, & then falsely pretend that we have No Time, to Stir up our selves, that we may lay Hold on Eternal Life.

Secondly. People generally go to Settle Good Terms with Heaven, on the Terms of the old Covenant. The Invitation of the Gospel, is, O chief of Sinners, come Immediately unto thy SAVIOƲR. Let thy Heart with His Help consent unto it, That thy SAVIOƲR should make thee Righteous and Holy. Ʋpon this con­sent then take up a comfortable perswasion, that thy SAVIOƲR will surely do thee Good. People thro' the Pride of a carnal Mind have an Aver­sion for this Way of GOD. They will go on, it may be all their Days, doing some Duties, [Page 12] which they know themselves bound unto. Yea, They will take Pains in the Duties. But what are their Aims in all the Pains? They Aim at making themselves a Righteousness; or at least, they Aim at those Attainments, which may Qualify them for, & Recommend them to, a kind Reception with their SAVI­OUR. They durst not come to their SA­VIOUR, or be well perswaded of His Receiving them, until they have gone thro' a course of Duties, and led such Regular Lives as may be­speak a kind Reception with their SAVIOUR for them. This Preposterous Proceeding has too much of the Old Covenant in it: And yet even some that have the Fear of GOD really in their Hearts, may have the Spirit of the Old Covenant working too much in them Now of this Old Covenant we shall still find, what we read; Gal. IV. 24. It genders unto Bondage. It begets nothing but a Fear of Death, and of Wrath, which will hold us in Bendage all our Days. Tis nothing but the Covenant of Grace, wisely Understood, & Embraced, & Applied, that will speak Peace unto us. People don't come off Entirely from the Covenant of Works into the Covenant of Grace. And they can do no other than Walk in Darkness, while they have the Covenant of Works in any operation upon them.

Thirdly. Many are Patient & Easy, while [Page 13] they do not Settle Good Terms with Heaven, under a Slothful pretence of waiting till GOD shall please to give some Assurance of His Love unto them. Tis true, we shall not know our selves to be the Children of GOD, until that Priviledge be granted us; Rom. VIII. 16. The Spirit beareth witness with our Spirit, that we are the Children of GOD. But then, How is this Witness to be waited for? Surely, not with the meet Desire of the Sluggard, refusing to Labour for it: Not with a Soul that can be Quiet without it; Not counting it enough with a faint, mean, melancholy Tone to say, Ay, It is a good Thing, if one could Attain to it. It is well for them that can Attain to it. I must wait until it please GOD that I shall Attain to it! And is this all that you have to say, ye Slug­gard? It must be waited for! But, How waited for? Syrs, It must be Groaned for; It must be Wrestled for, it must be Earnestly Laboured for. The GOD who waits to be Gracious, will be waited for. But in our waiting on Him, to Satisfy us with some Glimpse of His Law unto us, our Importunity must be Vehe­ment, be Violent, be Unpacifiable. The cry must be, O Satisfy us Early with thy Mercy! Yea, the cry must be, Hear me Speedily, O Lord, my Spirit faileth: Hide not thy Face from me. About a matter of some weight, it was of old said, The Man will not be at Rest until he [Page 14] has finished the Thing. A matter infinitely more weighty, is that of getting into this Peace of GOD: And it should be said of him that is waiting on GOD for it; The man will not be at Rest until the Thing is finished. Few, Few, are such Importunate waiters. Many▪ content themselves with a Liftless, Lazy, Drowsy waiting. And they Speed accor­dingly.

Fourthly. Even they that are truely Turn­ed from Darkness to Light and from the power of Satan unto GOD, may be liable to this Ʋnhap­py Condition: But Frequently, yea, Common­ly their Darkness is a Chastisement from GOD upon them. GOD is herein for their Mis­carriages Chastising of them Indeed, there may be sometimes a Display of Sovereignty in it. The Glorious GOD may hide his Face from them who are the Dearly Beloved of His Soul: and then how Great the Darkness! The Best man Living in the World, may be left unto such Darkness, as to conclude, GOD counteth me for His Enemy! But yet for the most part, the Children of GOD may Thank Themselves for it, when they are in the Dark about it, whether GOD will own them for His Children. For the Iniquity of their Covetous­ness, I hide My self, and am wroth with them, says the GOD, who will not let them know that He has Loved them. We are advised [Page 15] Eph. IV. 30. Grieve not the Holy Spirit, whereby ye are Sealed unto the Day of Redemption. We are Sealed by the Holy Spirit of GOD, when we are filled by Him, with an Hopeful, Joy­ful, Sanctifying Assurance, That our GOD has Loved us with an Everlasting Love, & that He will give us to see a Day of Redemption from all that is a Trouble unto us. But we Blot our Evidences for Heaven, by our Manifold Irregularities. By not Maintaining a Watch­ful, Fruitful, Humble Walk with GOD, We Grieve the Holy Spirit of GOD By our In­dulging our selves in carnal Passions, and by too Eagerly Minding of Earthly Things, We Grieve the Holy Spirit of GOD. By our Inor­dinate fondness for Creatures and Lightly E­steeming the Rock of our Salvation, We Grieve the Holy Spirit of GOD. The Grieved Spirit, who should be our Comforter now departs from us. And, Wo to them, when I depart from them, saith the Lord. His withdraw makes a Dark Time with us. Desertions which Leave an Hor­ror of Darkness upon us, these are some of the Punishments which the Grieved Spirit inflicts on His own, when He will Visit their Iniquity with Stripes, tho' He do not utterly take away His Loving kindness from them. The Holy One offended at His faulty Children, Says up­on it, I will punish them, with such Darkness upon them, that they shall not be able to Read their Names [Page 16] written in the Book of Life; not be able to See, that I have any purposes of Mercy for them. So does the Ʋnhappy Condition come upon us.

We will Enquire, Secondly; What is the Unhappiness of this Condition; For People to be in the Dark, whether their Future State, must be in a Glad, or in a Sad Eternity.

Now,

First; A Darkness on our Minds, whether we are in Good Terms with Heaven, or no, it must needs bring a Weakness on our Essays to Love GOD, & Live unto Him. It was a lust Remark; Neh VIII 10. The Joy of the Lord is your Strength. The Joy of a Soul Reconcil­ed unto GOD, and knowing, yea, feeling it self Bound up in the Bundle of Life, Oh! how it would Strengthen us to Walk with our GOD, Yea, How would it Enlarge our Hearts to Run in the Ways commanded of GOD! This Joy would be the Life of our hand, in doing the Works of GOD which our Hand finds to do, & would cause us to Sing in the Ways of the Lord. When we Hear our GOD saying to us, Be comforted, Thy Sins are Forgiven thee! Nothing will have such a Tendency to render all Sins Bitter and Hateful unto us. GOD Speaking Peace to us, this more than any thing will keep us from Returning to Folly any more. When tis testified unto us, That GOD has made us Heirs of the Kingdom which He has [Page 17] promised for them that Love Him, there will soon be Testimonies, How Holily, and Righteously, and Unblameably, we shall behave our selves. Did we know that we are Bound for Heaven, and that we have all the Spiritual Bles­sings of the Heavenly places reserved for us, what Heavenly Tempers would be thereby pro­duced in us! How should we have our Conver­sation in Heaven while we are on the Earth: & Soar, & Fly, & Mount up as with the wings of Eagles thither! All the Delights of Earth, & all the Troubles of Earth, how Mortified, how Indifferent, should we be unto them all? But now, while you Walk in Darkness, O ye Feeble Folk, How is it possible for you to Walk with GOD, and be Stately in your Goings? While you cannot Rejoice, how Weak, how Dull, how Low, will be all your Actions in Working of Righteousness? How poorly will the Love of GOD be flaming in you, while, for ought you know, you have the Wrath of GOD Lying on you! Will you Love GOD, while you have a Suspicion, That He is your Adversary, and that your King has of old Ordained a Tophet for you! How Sorrily will you Live to GOD, while you are Jealous, that you have never yet passed from Death to Life; Jealous, that after all the Sparks you have kindled you must Ly down in Sorrow: It will be found, That a Great occasion of it, why there is to be seen so little [Page 18] of Godliness in the power of it among us, & we are mostly such Feeble, Meagre, Minor Chris­tians, tis this; People are too willing to Walk in Darkness, and can go on from year to year without Knowing whither they are going. Tho' there is also a Reciprocation of it; Because there is no more Godliness in the Power of it, Therefore tis that we have so much Darkness upon us. Ah! Frozen Souls, in what an Un­happy Condition are you?

But then, Secondly; My Brethren, while you have a Darkness, on your Minds, whether you are in Good Terms with Heaven, or no. How can you Dy? Nay How can you Live? which way can you keep off Anguish from your Minds, which if a Spirit of Slumber had not Poison'd you, would be indeed, Intolerable? One that seems at a Loss, whether GOD would be Favourable to him, or not cast him off fore­ver, cried out, Psal. LXXVII. 24. My Soul refu­ses to be comforted; Thou holdest mine Eyes waking: I am so Troubled that I cannot Speak. Indeed, If you could say, I know that my Redeemer Lives, and I know that He is indeed mine, & has Loved me, and has died for me; How comfort­ably might you Pass the Time of your Sojourn­ing here in the Fear of GOD, but without the least Fear of any Evil! Yea, Look where you will, all objects would conspire to Speak unto you, as the Lord unto the Angel in the Visi­on, [Page 19] with good words, & with comfortable words. The Great GOD says to you, I am thy GOD; Thy Father, and thy Saviour, & thy Leader; & I will bring thee to Inherit all things. The An­gels in the Multitude of the Heavenly Host, say to you, We are thy Guardian All Creatures offer themselves unto you saying, We are thy Servants. The most Afflictive Things that be­fall you, say unto you, GOD hath Meant us and Sent us for thy Good. But how can you bear to Walk in such a Darkness, as This; That for ought you Know, you are among the Abhorred of the Lord; among the Enslaved of the Devil; and some of those who are going down to that Burning Lake, from whence the Smoak of their Torment ascends for Ever & Ever? Methinks, you should have a Soul refusing to be comforted with any thing here. Methinks, your Eyes may be held Waking, with the Flames that are before them. This you do Know, That it is Appointed for men once to Dy. Death has a commission to Seise upon you; and E­very day that passes, you don't Know, but that This Day he may bring the Bowstring, & the Sentence may be Executed. But at the same time, there is another Thing which you do not know: Whether your Death will not be a Trap-door, that must let you down to Hell, and so you sink down into the Horrible Pit: This is what you do not Know. If you should [Page 20] This Day have the Summons of Death served upon you, would not the Groans as of a deadly Wounded Man be heard from you? Oh! I know not what will become of me! I know not what world I am going to! I know not whether I am going up to the Rest which remains for the People of GOD, or going down into the Devouring Fire, & the Everlasting Burnings! And how can you bear to Live in Circumstances, that are so full to Dangers and perils infinitely to be trembled at? O Ʋnhappy Condition! That Man thought himself in an Ʋnhappy Condition who sat at a full Table, but had a Sword with the point thereof directed unto him, hanging by a slender Thread over his Head, the break­ing whereof, and his Dying by it every mo­ment was to be looked for. Soul in Darkness, Every Time of thy sitting down at the Table, thou mayst have this Terror upon thee, For ought I know, while my meat is in my mouth, the Wrath of GOD may come upon me, and hurry me away to Endless gnashing of Teeth. Wherever thou art, & whatever thou dost, a Destruction from GOD impending over thee, may be a Terror unto thee. Every Morning thy Ter­ror may be, For ought I know, Hell may open its mouth for me before the Evening. Every Even­ing thy Terror may be, For ought I know, I must have my Bed in Hell before the Morning. Every time one in this Darkness mounts an [Page 21] Horse, he may be terrified with such a Re­flection as This; For ought I know, This Beast may throw me down into the place of Dragons! O Ʋnhappy Condition! One would not wonder, at it, if a person in such Darkness, were a, Magor Missabib a Terror unto himself, & un­to all about him Tis a wonder that such an one can Enjoy himself, in any thing, and that his continual Terror, of what his Death may bring him to, do not Spoil & Pall every Comfort of his Life: that he can have any Comfort of his Life! They who Dy in their Sins, must go into a very Ʋnhappy Condition. To be Banished from the Blessedness of the Holy City, and feel an Almighty GOD, as a Con­suming Fire, torturing the Soul with Immedi­ate and Everlasting Impressions from His Vengeance upon it; This cannot but be a very Ʋnhappy Condition. And surely then, they who do not know any other; but that they are yet in their Sins, & shall Dy in them; These are therefore and so far in a very Ʋn­happy Condition too To be in such a Dark­ness, that O man, Thou knowest not whether thou art not one of those, for whom is Reser­ved Blackness of Darkness forever! If this be not an Ʋnhappy Condition, what can be so? When Darkness came upon Egypt, We read, GOD cast the Fierceness of His Anger in Trouble upon them, and sent Evil Angels among them. [Page 22] Art thou not in a worse than Egyptian Dark­ness? But, Oh! the Trouble; when for ought thou knowest, thou art in the Hands of the Evil Angels; a Prey to those Terrible ones!

Thirdly. Certainly, A Distracted Condition, is a very Unhappy Condition. We all pitty them, who have the powers of Reason broken or [...]ozed in them. We pray, GOD pitty them! Now the People, who are not Sollici­tous to Settle Good Terms with Heaven, but can go on contentedly without knowing whither they are going; These People act as if there were a Distraction upon them; they act as if the powers of Reason were no Longer Exercised with them. Tis a Madness that keeps them in their Darkness It is a Sorrowful Account that is given concerning the Children of Men: Eccl. IX. 3. Madness is in their Heart while they Live, & after that they go to the Dead. But the Madness appears not in any thing more than in this, That they Walk in Dark­ness, and know not how they shall fare when they are gone to the Dead; and how they shall after Death be disposed of. My Neighbours, let me Reason with you before the Lord. While you can bear to be in the Dark, about the GRAND POINT, whether you have Ever­lasting Life, or, have the Wrath of GOD abiding on you: I must convince you, That you are Mad: you have laid aside the common use [Page 23] of Reason; There is a most pitiable Madness upon you. And if you will not be convinced of it, it only shows, that it is a more con­firmed, a more Desperate Madness that En­rages you. Hear Two Demonstrations of it.

First; You don't Act so Madly about the concerns of This World, no not about the Least concerns in the World; as to leave them with an Ʋncertainty upon them. It was complain­ed of; Luk. XVI. 8. The children of This World, are wiser in their Generation, than the Children of Light. My Complaint is, That in the Af­fairs of This World, you deal not so Foolishly, as you do in those▪ wherein you should Ap­prove your selves the Children of Light; and not always Walk in Darkness. For the Enjoy­ments of This World, you are lothe to be left at an Ʋncertainty. But it seems, you can leave all the Enjoyments of the Heavenly World at the Greatest Uncertainty! When there is any Thing of This World, which you propose the least Advantage by the Know­ledge of, you put it out of Doubt, as far and as fast as ever you can. And, what? Not put it out of Doubt, that you are Born of GOD, & are Turned to Him? When you look for any Thing in This World, you are willing to un­derstand what you have to Trust to. And what? For what you are to look for at the Hands of GOD for ever, be careless about Learning [Page 24] what you have trust to! A little Interest in This World; you secure a Title to it. And what? Secure no Title to the Pleasant Land that is Promised unto the Righteous, the only Land of the Living? Let your Title to This, always ly at an Uncertainty! O Foolish people, and Ʋnwise! Is GOD, and CHRIST, and a Soul, thus to be dealt withal?

Secondly. May we not say? Tis your own Fault, &, Oh! Tis utterly a Fault, if the Eterni­ty that is before you, be left still at an Uncer­tainty. It was urged; 2 Cor. XIII. 5. Know ye not your own selves; Except ye be Disapproved [or, Blame-worthy] ones? Verily, If you do not know your own selves, Know what you Are, and what you Do, and whither you Go, tis a Blameable Thing in you; and the Blame of it Lies upon Your selves. The Unregenerate and Impaenitent, These may know, that they are such, and know what will be the Doom of them that go on still in their Trespasses. The Spots, open them are so Black and so Plain, that they must Marvellously Deceive them­selves, if they do not Perceive, this, That they are not the Children of GOD. But then, O You that Follow after Righteousness; The GOD of all Grace, is Ready to Discover unto You Himself, & His will, and what You are, and how He purposes to deal with You. The Father of Lights will bring You out of Your [Page 25] Darkness, if You will with a due Ardour seek unto Him. Look Inward, and Look Upward, as you ought to do, & GOD your SAVIOUR will show you whereabouts you are. You say, GOD has not yet brought you out of your Ʋncertainty, whither you are Listed a­mong the Heirs of Salvation or no, But, O Wanderers in the Dark: Have you ever been in such a Distress about it, as to set apart a Day, or but an half of a Day, on purpose, to go thro' a process of conversion to GOD; And have you ever from the Depths cried unto the Lord, Lord, I cannot bear, I cannot bear, to ly in the Dark. I cannot rise off my Knees, till thou shine upon me! I will say, but this one thing unto you. What would you do in order to your Eternal Welfare, if you were informed, that your Life is come unto a Period, and that you have but one week longer to Live? Such Things you can do, if you will. Tis Nonsence to say, you can't! Well; But let such things be done, & your Uncertainty about Your Eternal Welfare would soon be over with you. You would give no Sleep to your Eyes, nor Slumber to your Eye lids, till it be over with you. How can you then Excuse the Folly of Leaving un­done such things as these! Oh! In a most Unhappy Condition are you!

It is time for us to bring in the Corollaries, wherein these Admonitions are to terminate [Page 26] And wake some Vse of our Melancholy Pro­positions. It shall be done, with several Asser­tions which now must be received as MAX­IMS, and whereof I am to affirm unto you, These are Things that cannot be spoken against.