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the lame, the fick, and raise the dead; and feen him after all this made the fcorn of finners, buffeted, fpit upon, when they had crowned him with thorns, and arrayed him gorgeously in scorn; and then nailed between malefactors on a Crofs, and pierced, and die a shameful death, and this for fuch as you and I. Suppofe you had feen the Sun darkned without any ecclipfe, the Vail of the Temple rent, the Earth tremble, the Angels terrifying the Keepers, and Chrift rife again! Suppofe you had been among the Difciples when he appeared in the midft of them, and with Thomas, had put your fingers into ..his wounded fide: and had feen him walking on the waters, and at laft feen him afcending up to Heaven. Suppose you had feen when the Holy Ghoft came down on the Difciples in the fimilitude of cloven tongues, and had heard them speak in the various languages of the Nations, and feen the variety of Miracles, by which they convinced the unbelieving world: What perfons would you have been? what lives would you have led, if you had been eye-witneffes of all thefe things? And do you not profefs to believe all this? and that thefe things are as certain truths, as if you had feen them? why then doth not your belief affe&t you, or command you more? why doth it not do what fight would do, in fome good meafure, if it were but a lively faving faith indeed that fervet h inftead of fenfe? Yea I must tell you, Faith muft do more with you, in this cafe, than the fight of Chrift alone, could do, or the fight of his Miracles did on moft. For many that faw him, and faw his works,& heard his Word, yet perished in their unbelief.

3. Suppofe you faw the everlasting Glory which Chrift hath purchased and prepared for his Saints: That you had been once with Paul, rapt up into the third Heavens, and feen the things that are unutterable: would you not after that have rather lived like Paul, and undergone his fufferings and contempt, than to have lived like the brain-fick brutish world? If you had feen what Stephen faw before his death, Aus 7. 55, 56. the Glory of God, and Chrift ftanding at bi right hand; If you had feen the thousands and millions of holy glorious fpirits, that are continually attending the Majefty of the Lord; If you had feen the glorified fpirits of the juft, that were once in Ach, defpifed by the blind ungodly world, while they waited

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waited on God in faith, and holinels, and hope, for that bleffed Crown which now they were: If you had felt one moment of their joyes; if you had feen them thine as the Sun in glory, and made like unto the Angels of God; if you had heard them fing the long of the Lamb, and, the joyful Hallelujahs, and praife to their eternal King: what would you be, and what would you refolve on after fuch a fight as this? If the rich man Luke 16. had seen Lazırm in Abrahams bɔləm in the midst of his bravery, and honour, and feafting, and other fenfual delights, as afterwards he faw it when he was tormented in the flames of Hell, do you think fuch a fight would not have cooled his mirth and jolity, and helpt him to understand the nature and value of His earthly felicity; `and have proved a more effectual argument than a despised Preachers words? at leaft to have brought him to a freer excrcife of his Reafon, in a fober confideration of his fate and waies? Had you feen one hour what Abraham, David, Paul, and all the Saints now fee, while fin and fleth doth keep us here in the dark, what work do you think your felves it would make upon your hearts and lives?

4. Suppofe you faw the face of Death, and that you were now lying under the power of fome mortal fickness, Phyficians having forfaken you, and faid, There is no hope: Your friends weeping over you, and preparing your winding sheet and coffin, digging your graves, and cafting up the skulls, and bones, and earth, that muft again be caft in to be your covering and company: Suppofe you faw a Meffenger from God to tell you that you muft die to merrow; or heard but what one of your predeceffors heard, Luke 12. 20. Thou fool, this night fhall thy foul be required of thee: then whofe fhall these things be that thou haft provided?] How would fuch a Meffage work with you? would it leave you as you are? If you heard a voice from God this night in your chamber in the dark, telling you, that this is the last night that you shall live on earth, and before to morrow your fouls must be in another world, and come before the dreadful God: what would be the effect of fuch a Meffage? And do you not verily believe that all this will very thortly be? Nay, do you not know without believing, that you muft die, and leave your worldly glory?

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and that all your pleafures and contents on earth, will be as if they had never been, (and much worfe!) O wonderful! that a change fo fure, fo great, fo near, fhould no more aff. you, and no more be fore-thought on, and no more prepared for! and that you be not awakened by fo full and certain a fore-knowledge, to be in good sadness for eternal life, as you fem to be when death is at hand!

5. Suppose you faw the great and dreadful day of Judgement, as it is defcribed by Chrift himself in Matth. 25. [When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all his holy Angels with him, and fall fit upon his glorious Throne, and all Nations Shall be gathered before him, and he shall feparate them one from another, as a Shepherd div dath bù sheep from the goats, and sha'l fet the sheep on his right hand, and the goats on his left.] v. 31, 32, 33. and fhall fentence the righteous to eternal life, andibe reft into everlasting punishment. If you did now behold the glory and terrour of that great appearance, how the Saints will be magnified, and rejoyce, and be juftified against all the accufations of Satan, and calumnies of wicked men; and how the ungodly then would fain deny the words and deeds that now they glory in; and what horrour and confufion will then overwhelm thofe wretched fouls, that now out-face the Meffengers of the Lord? Had you feen them trembling before the Lord, that now are braving it out in the pride and arro gancy of their hearts: Had you heard how then they will change their tune, and with they had never known their fins: and wish they had lived in greater holiness than thofe whom they derided for it: What would you fay, and do, and be, after fuch an amazing fight as this? Would you fport it out in fin as you have done? Would you take no better care for your falvation? If you had feen thofe fayings out of the holy Ghost fulfilled. Jude 14, 15.2 Thef. 1. 7, 8, 9. [When the Lord Jes.. fus fhall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jefus Chrift; who shall be punished with everlasting deftruction from the prefence of the Lord, and from the glory of bis power. What mind do you think you fhould be of? What courfe, would you take, if you had but feen this dreadful day? Could you go on to think, and

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speak, and live as fenfually, ftupidly and negligently as now you do? 2 Pet.3. 10, 11,12. [The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall paß away with a great noife, and the elements shall melt with fervent beat the earth alfo, and the works that are therein all be burnt up: Is it possible foundly to believe fuch a day, fo fure, fo near, and no more regard it, nor make ready for it, than the carelefs and ungodly do?

6. Suppose at that day you bad beard the Devil accufing you of all the fins that you have committed; and set them out in the moft odious aggravations, and call for juftice against you to your Judge: If you heard him pleading all thofe fins against you that now he daily tempts you to commit,and now maketh you believe are harmless, or small inconfiderable things: If you heard him faying, At fuch a time this finner refufed grace, negle&ed Chrift, despised Heaven, and preferred Earth: at fuch a time he derided godliness, and made a mock of the holy Word and Counfels of the Lord: at such a time he prophaned the name of God, he coveted his neighbours wealth; he cherished thoughts of envy or of luft; he was drunk, or gluttonous, or committed fornication, and he was never thorowly converted by renewing grace, and therefore he is an heir of Hell, and belongs to me: I ruled him, and I must have him.] What would you think of a life of fin, if once you had heard fuch accufations as these? How would you deal by the next temptation, if you had heard what use the tempter will hereafter make of all your fins?

7. What if you had feen the damned in their mifery, and beard them cry out of the folly of their impenitent careless lives; and wishing as Dives, Luke 16. that their friends on earth might have one fent from the dead, to warn them that they come not to that place of torment (I speak to men that say they are believers) what would you do upon fuch a fight? If you had beard them there torment themfelves in the remembrance of the time they loft, the mercy they neglected, the grace refifted, and with it were all to do again, and that they might once more be tried with another life. If you faw how the world is altered with those, that once were as proud and confident as others, what do you think fuch a fight would do with you?

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And why then doth the believing of it do no more, when the thing is certain?

8. Once more; fuppofe that in your temptations you fam the tempter appearing to you, and pleading with you as he doth by his inward fuggeftions, or by the mouths of his inftruments. If you faw him, and heard him hiffing you on to fin, perfwading you to gluttony, drunkenness, or ur cleannefs? If the Devil appeared to you, and led you to the place of luft, and offered you the harlot,or the cup of excefs, and urged you to fwear, or curfe, or rail, or fcorn at a holy life; would not the fight of the Angler mar his game, and cool your courage, and (poil your fport, and turn your fomachs? would you be drunk, ar filthy, if you faw him ftand by you? Think on it the next time you are tempted. Stout men have been apaled by fuch a fight. And do you not believe that it's be indeed that tempteth you? As fure as if your eyes beheld h m,it's he that prompteth men to jeer at god inefs; and puts your wanton ribbald fpeeches, and oaths, and curfes into your thouths: He is the Tutor of the enemics of grace,that teacheth them doè delirare, ingeniofè infanire, ingeniously to quarrel with the way of life,and learnedly to confute the arguments that would have faved them, and fubtilly to difpute themfelves our of the hands of mercy, and gallantly to fcorn to ftoop to Chrift, till there be no remedy; and with plaufible eloquence to commend the plague and fickness of their fouls; and irrefragably maintain it, that the way to Hell will lead to Heaven; and to justifie the fins that will condemn them; and honourably and triumphantly to overcome their friends, and to ferve the Devil in mood and figure, and valiantly to caft themselves into Hell, in defpite of all the laws and reproots of God or man that would have hindered them. It being mott certain that this is the Devils work, and you durft not do it if he moved you to it with open face, how dare you do it when faith would affure you, that it's as verily be, as if you faw him?

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More diftin&tly, anfwer thefe following Questions, upon foregoing fuppofitions..

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Queft. 1. If you faw but what you fay you do believe, would you not be convinced that the most pleasant gainful fin, is worfe

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