be very uneafie to them, and they must never think of it, if they can help it. The beft way is to accuftom our minds to the thoughts of Judgment while we are innocent, before we begin to be afraid to think of Judgment, and that will preserve our Innocence, and then the thoughts of Judgment will never interrupt our Pleasures.

But if we caft off the thoughts of Judgment in Youth, which is the fureft Guard and Prefervative we have, we fhall by degrees caft off the belief of it too: When we lay afide the thoughts of Judgment, to take the greater. Liberties, to walk in the ways of our hearts, and in the fight of our eyes, we contract fuch. Guilt as makes us afraid of Judgment, and very willing to believe that we fhall never be judged; and then we may easily find fome little Argument or other to perfwade us that there is no Judgment; that either there is no God, or that he takes no notice of Humane Actions.

The thoughts of Judgment are never uneafie and troublesome, till Men have scared and terrified their Confciences with Guilt; and therefore the certain way never to have the thoughts of Judgment troublesome, is to begin betimes to make it familiar to us; and if we do fo, the thoughts of it will not prove melancholy, and then we fhall have no reafon to lay them afide.

And it is a great mistake to imagine, that there is no need to think of Judgment but when it is near; that we may fecurely lay afide the thoughts of it, when it is at a distance; for neither its being near, nor its being at a distance

is any reafon either to think or not to think of Judgment; but the true reafon is, to govern our Lives under the fenfe of a Future Account, and that is a good reafon, equally good, whether Judgment be nigh at hand or a great way off: For if we must give an account of what we do at seventeen or twenty Years old, and of what we do at fifty of fixty, there is the fame reafon to think of Judgment, and to govern our Lives under the fenfe of it when we are but twenty, as when we are threefcore Years old.

2. Young Men have great and conftant occafion for the thoughts of Judgment; and that is a good reason why they should think frequently and seriously of it.

What but this can reduce that giddy Age within bounds, and make them live by Rule? But if they would confider, that they must be judged by Rule, by the Laws of the Everlasting Gofpel, this would do it: This would convince them that they are not their own Masters, that they are not at liberty to live as they lift, and to purfue every wild and roaving Fancy; they may indeed do this, if they pleafe, but they fhall be judged for it, if they do.

What but this can cool the Heats of Youth, and conquer all the Charms of Flesh and Senfe? But know, faith the Wife Man, that for all thefe things God will call thee to judgment. And a Man who is afraid of Judgment, who is afraid of Lakes of Fire and Brimftone, who has the terrible prospect of eternal Miseries before him, will have no great Appetite to the choiceft Senfualities: He will freeze in the Embraces of the

most

moft beloved Mistress, and will tremble in the midst of his Cups, as Belshazzar did, when he faw the Hand-writing upon the Wall: For who can bear the thoughts of being miferable for ever? Who with thefe thoughts about him can relifh fuch fatal Pleafures? Pleasures, which will coft him his Soul? Short and dying and vanishing Pleasures, which will end in eternal Pain? Who would not be contented to endure the pain of denying an Appetite, of subduing a domineering Paffion, of plucking out a right Eye, and cutting off a right Hand, rather than to be miferable for ever? And when it is fo impoffible for Young Men to refift these flattering Temptations without a prefent and awful fenfe of Judgment, can any thing more concern them than frequently to repeat these Thoughts, and to poffefs their Imaginations with the lafting Impreffions and Images of it; that it may be always at hand, and ready for ufe?

But this is neceffary for all Men, as well as those who are young; whoever takes care of his Soul, ought to keep his Eye upon a Future Judgment; I grant it is fo, but there are some peculiar Advantages, which Young Men will reap by this, if they begin this Practice betimes :

ift. For this will preferve their Innocence and Vertue, and prevent the Terrors and Agonies of a late Repentance: All the Kindness the Thoughts of Judgment can do to Old Sinners, is to put a ftop to them, and to bring them to Repentance: And this is a very great

kindness, if it makes them true Penitents, bes cause it will fave their Souls. And this is that which moft Sinners defire, to enjoy the Pleafures of Sin as long as they can, and to repent before they die: And thus they think they adjuft all Interefts, gratifie the Flesh, and fave their Souls at laft.

But if these Men ever prove true Penitents, they become very fenfible of their mistake: They wish then when it is too late, that they had remembred their Creator in the days of their youth; that they had preferved themselves from the Pollutions of Flefh and Senfe; they feel by fad Experience, what an evil and a bitter thing it is to fin against God: How amazing the fhame, how fharp the forrow of Repentance is: It is a very melancholy and difconfolate Work, when Men draw near their end, to look back upon a vicious and profligate Life, to have their whole Lives to unlive again; to abhor themselves for what they have done, and to look forward with trembling into the other World: For fuch late Penitents generally carry the marks of their Repentance in fhame and forrow to the Grave with them.

All this Young Men may prevent, if they will but think of Judgment in their Youth, and govern their Lives under a fenfe of it This will make them remember their Creator in the days of their youth, and confecrate their tender Age to his Service: It will preserve them from Youthful Lufts, from all enormous Crimes, and give them the humble Affurance and Confidence of dutiful Children in their Addreffes to God: When they draw near a conclusion of

their Lives, they review their past Victories over the World and the Flesh with the secureft Triumphs: The little Follies, and Indiscretions and Miscarriages which the best Men are fubject to, will keep them humble, and teach them to trust only in the Merits and Interceffion of Chrift; but when they have made it the whole business of their Lives to please God, though with the common Weakneffes and Infirmities of Humane Nature, they feel great Peace of mind and affurance of the Love of God; and the nearer their Work is to an end, the more fecurely they triumph.

What a happy state shall we think this, when Death and Judgment are in view! to feel fo fweet a Calm in our Breasts! to have fo joyful a Profpect before us! and who would not think of Judgment when he is young, that the hope and expectation of it may be the Comfort and Support of Age; that then he may review his past Life, not to undo what he has done, but to taste the Pleasures, and to reap the Rewards of it in present Peace of Mind, and great Hopes.

2dly. There is another Advantage which Young Men may make of the early thoughts of Judgment, which old Sinners have loft, and can never retrieve by all their Repentance, viz. To make great Advances and Attainments in Piety and Vertue, which will greatly augment their Reward. Men who fin on till Old Age, though they prove true Penitents at laft, can never recover this; for their time is past, and their youthful Strength and Vigour spent, and the Scene of Action over; they can never re

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