petuity, only he imagined to himself (as he thought reasonably) that since he had at last obtained that, which he had aimed at, and which had cost him so many years travail, it were fit for him now to enjoy the fruit, which he had so dearly bought. And in a joyful contemplation of this his happiness, he enters into dialogue with his soul; "Soul, (saith he) now take thy rest;" no more shalt thou be vexed, and even consumed with the painful and violent thirst after 'riches, thou hast that laid up for thee, which shall abundantly satisfy all thy desires. All my business hereafter, shall be to find out ways how to repay unto my soul all those pleasures, which heretofore I have denied unto myself: I have store sufficient for many years expenses safely laid up in my barns. Yet for all this man's thus pleasing himself with assured promises of many years' happiness; if you will but vouchsafe to inquire after him the very next day after he spoke thus, his garners, it is likely, you may yet find standing, thronged and oppressed with the abundance of corn; but for his soul (for whose sake all this ado had been kept) the Lord knows what became of that; it was hurried away, no man can tell whither.

9. Now the thing that it becomes me to desire at your hands from the consideration of these two examples, is this: not to require of you to believe that you must once fail, (for that I suppose were needless) nor yet to dissuade you from allowing to yourselves a reasonable use of, and moderate lawful pleasures from, that abundance of blessings wherewith God hath enriched you beyond all other men; but to beseech you, that this meditation, that certainly you must fail, may be no un

welcome thought to you; that when the time shall come, that you must leave these riches and pleasures, which God has given you here to enjoy, it may not come upon you as an unexpected misfortune, as a thing you were afraid of, and would willingly be content to avoid.

10. I confess, this were a meditation sufficient to discourage and quite dishearten a man, that were resolved to take up his rest in the pleasures and preferments of this world, that were content to sit down satisfied with such a slight happiness, as this life is able to afford him: for one, who would make riches his strong city, a place of refuge and security, a fortress whereto he would have recourse in all his extremities, and from whence he would expect safety in all dangers and troubles which may assail him: for what were that, but to withdraw him from his strong holds, and leave him unfortified and exposed to any injury and misfortune? How could I be more injurious to such a man, than to vex and affright him with such sad melancholic thoughts as these, that the time will come, when that strong castle of his, his riches, shall be undermined and demolished, when he shall be left naked and defenceless? At which time, if it were possible for him to retain his riches, which before he made his bulwark and place of security, yet he will find them but paper walls, unable to stand the weakest battery?

11. But I hope better things of you, beloved Christians, even things which accompany salvation: and, indeed, why should I not? Who can forbid me to hope so? for, alas! I know you not. I have no reason to assure myself of the contrary. And then I should be most inexcusably uncharitable,

if I should not even rejoice in this my hope. I see God hath plentifully showered down upon you, almost overwhelmed you, with all the blessings of this life. He has moreover given you peaceable times to enjoy them (blessed be his holy name for it, and a thousand blessings be returned into the bosom of his anointed, for his most pious, Christian-like care to confirm this peace, and to preserve it from interruption!) God, I say, has given you leisure and opportunity to enjoy and improve these your riches for your everlasting happiness: a comfort, which he has denied almost to all other nations; nothing abroad but wars, and rumours of wars; no joy nor comfort, but only in the effusion of precious Christian blood; nothing but sacking of towns, and invasions of countries, God only knows upon how just pretensions! But, which is above all other blessings (indeed, without which all the rest will prove very curses) God has given you an abundant plentiful use of his blessed word and sacraments every week, several times, (till now) a worthy and able clergy to put you in mind, how great an account you are to make to Almighty God of these his blessings, and what extraordinary interest is expected at your hands.

12. Let me not, therefore, I beseech you, be your enemy, if I prove troublesome to any slumbering lethargic spirit; if I put him in mind, that the time will come, when sleep shall for ever depart from his eyes, and that if his slumber last till a trumpet awake him, darkness he may find, most palpable, Egyptian darkness, but not darkness commodious to call on and procure sleep, not very convenient to take one's rest in. Forgive, I

beseech you, my importunity, if I earnestly desire you frequently to represent to your minds a time of failing, and presently after that a severe, inexorable Judge, requiring a strict, exact account of your behaviour in your stewardship: if I beseech you, from the consideration of the foolish virgins, not to put far from you the coming of the bridegroom; not to frame in yourselves reasons and probabilities, why he is not likely to come yet a good while (for he himself has told you, he will come as a thief in the night, and therefore when you are thus secure and slumbering, yourselves create a night, a fit season for him to come unawares upon you); for, if you be unprovided of oil in your lamps, of good works, which may shine before men, and the door be once shut, talk not of any new devised faith, and I know not what assurance; there is no possibility of ever having it opened, but you shall be forced to remain exposed to all dangers, to all manner of misfortunes, not one shall be found to befriend you, and to receive you into everlasting habitations.

13. And, I pray you consider, that if the apprehension of these things conceived, not as present, but as to be expected, it may be many years hence, be so distasteful and ominous to flesh and blood, who will be able to abide the time, when it shall, indeed, overtake him? If now in these days of leisure and forbearance, (a season which God out of his glorious mercy hath allowed us on purpose to spend in such thoughts as these, in projecting against the evil day) the meditation thereof bring such anguish and torment along with it; what terrible, insupportable effects will it work in us, when we shall find ourselves surprised

by it, and caught as in a snare! If a man can no sooner hear such things related, or but seriously think upon them, though in the height of his jollity, but straight, as if some ill news had been told him, as if he had heard some sad tragical story of his own misfortunes, he will presently recoil from his mirth, pleasure will become troublesome and distasteful to him; O with what anguish and vexation of spirit, with what agony of soul shall they be entertained, when they come in earnest!

14. Observe, therefore, I beseech you, that our Saviour does not bid you, when you fail, make to yourselves friends; no, alas! that is not the time to make friends in: then is the season when you are to expect comfort and assistance from those friends, which you have gained before, in the time, when you were furnished with such good things, as were likely to oblige men unto you. What title then can be found out equal to express the folly and madness of such people, who, as if God had created them on purpose for the pleasures and vanities of this world, make that the whole business of their lives; and, as if the care of their souls' everlasting disposal were but an employment of an hour's dispatch, will not vouchsafe so fruitlessly to cast away any part of the time, when their souls are vigorous and healthful, about such a trifling design; but destine their last few hours, when they are unable for any business else, to settle for themselves an estate of eternity.

15. But because I have not the leisure now to prosecute this argument as fully as it may deserve, give me leave, I pray you, in brief, to present to your view, a man brought to such an extremity as this; one fastened and chained unto the bed of