eternal life is so mean a thing, as to prefer this pre* fent life before it? Remember, man, that the suffer. ⚫ing of this prefent life is incomparable to the glory that shall be revealed. If thou fuffereft with Chrift, ⚫ thou shalt alforeign with him. Thou canst not an fwer for what thou haft already done: nevertheless • the gate of mercy is not quite fhut: O heap not fin upon fin, left thou repentest when it will be too late. Now was Spira in a wilderness of doubt, not knowing wither to go, nor what to do; at laft he went and afked counsel of his friends about it; and they, with out any confideration, perfuaded him, that by nomeans he should bring himself and them into any danger, but that he fhould go to the legate, and perform what he had promised.

Then in the morning he defperately gets up, and enters the congregation, where, mafs being finished, he recites the abjuration, word for word as it was written. This done, he was immediately fined thirty pieces of gold, and then restored to his goods, wife and children; but no footer was he departed, than he heard a direful voice, faying unto him, Thou wick-⚫ed wretch! thou haft denied me! thou haft brokenthy vow! hence apoftate! bear with thee thy fentence of eternal damnation.'

Immediately Spira, trembling and quaking, fell into a fwoon. Help was at hand for the body, but ne. ver could he find any eafe in his mind, but was continually tormented with the fenfe of God's wrath, and was captivated under the avenging hand of God.

Then his friends began to repent, too late, of their rafh counsel. When he related to thofe that came to fee him, all the paffages that had happened, it made · them all to weep and tremble, As foon as the fen⚫tence of Chrift was paffed against me, I knew that I/ was utterly undone !' He felt a continued torment of his mind, and a continual butchery of his confcience; then he professed, the damned which are in hell

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endure

endure not the like mifery "I feel, faith he, that God more and more hardens me: I am one of thofe reprobates that God would not have to be faved!" And fo continuing in this fate for fix weeks and more, he then at laft ended this miferable life in a dreadful condition!

I affure you, this is the dreadfulleft example that I ever read in my whole life: the Lord grant that none of us all may come to this.

6. And lastly, Confider what a happy condition you are yet in; that you may enjoy your golden feafon of grace; that God has not yet done calling; that his Spirit has not yet done striving; that his patience has not yet done waiting.

O how lovingly did the Spirit call upon Francis Spira the fecond time, after he had fet his hand-writing to the legate, and told him that yet the gate of mercy was not quite fhut. O heap not fin upon fin, left thou repenteft when it will be too late. What! was not the = gate of mercy quite shut what a comfortable word was that! As far as he had gone in renouncing his profeffion, and denying of Chrift, yet it was not too late, yet there was mercy in ftore for him; and it he had but then obeyed the Spirit, and not gone any farther, but repented of what he had already done, O what a happy man he had been for ever!

O friends! confider what a happy condition you are in, that you are yet on this fide hell; that yet you enjoy the feafons and means of grace, as long as you have run on in your finful courte of life, as long as you have been a wearying God's patience, as often as you have grieved his Spirit; yet there is hope, yet the gate of aercy is not quite fhut. O what happy creatures you may yet be, if you will but now obey the call of God, and return, yet there is mercy in fore for you; but you know not how foon you accepted time may be at an end it may be God maj

wart up.

on you but one fabbath more, and according as yo

fpend that one fabbath, fo it will fare with you for ever; and if you obey, and turn, though it be the last call of God's Spirit, you fhall be accepted, pardoned, and faved. Oh! what a comfortable thing is this, that yet there is hope, that yet we may be happy, if we will ourselves. The damned in hell would give millions of worlds, if they had them, that it were with them as it is now with us.

V. And lastly, I fhall conclude with a few words of exhortation: I fhall exhort you, in the words of the apoftle, Redeeming the time because the days are evil. Is it fo, that at last, Time shall be no longer? Then let me exhort you now wifely to redeem your time, your accepted time, before it be gone; O let the time paft fuf fice, wherein we have wrought the will of the Gentiles, Pet. iv. 3.

Beloved friends, you have waked enough and too much of your time in the pleasures of the flefb, and in the works of the devil. O be perfuaded, for the Lord's fake, and for your foul's fake, to fpend the fhort remainder of your time in the service of God, in working out your own falvation: whatever ye are about, and wherefoever ye are, whither alone, or in company, yet ftill be redeeming of your time: when you are alone, then let your time be redeemed by felfexamination, by ejaculation and prayers, by meditations and contemplations, and when you are among company, though it be about the works of your cal ling, O then, be careful to improve your time well; inftru&t them you fee are ignorant, reprove them that are finful: fpead your time, when you be together, in difcourfing to one another of the end why you were born, of your miserable eftate by nature, of the fufferings of Chrift for your fins, of the fhortness of your time, and of your future estate in another world. Let thefe and fuch like difcourfes fill up your time. O labour with all your might to win the fouls of one another, and to help one another in the way to heaven daily,

subilft it is called to day: O what a happy work you would perform, if by your seasonable difcourfe you fhould convert a foul to God,

To conclude: Be exhorted to spend the small remainder of your time in praying, repenting of your fins, and working out your falvation; and then at last, when time fhall cease and be no longer, you shall be received into an eternity of joy and felicity, there to live and reign for ever.

Confider what hath been faid, and the Lord give you underflanding.

The End of the Fourth SERMON.

A Confeffion and Prayer for a penitent Sinner, en this Subject or Difcourfe.

Moft gracious, and glorious, and eternal Lord God; who art the Alpha and Omega, the begin. ning and the end; the first and the laft; thou art God from everlasting, and thy years fhall have no end; thou art righteous in all thy works; thou art of purer eyes than to behold the leaft fin with an allowance; fo that as foon as the angels had finned, thou didst im mediately caft them down out of heaven, and referveft them under chains of darkness, unto the dreadful coming of the great day, without affording thera the leaft opportunity of feeking peace and reconciliation with thee: but thou hast spared me from one fabbath to another, and ftill waiteft for my repentance: yet neither mercies nor judgments could work any good effects upon me. I made many fair promises to lead a new life, if it should please thee to reflore me once more to my former health; and then thou in thy mercy didt try me as it were with another life: but then, mifer

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able wretch that I am, I returned to my old course of life, foon fogetting the promife which I made in my ficknefs. Yea all the day long thou haft ftretched out thy hand unto me. But, oh, miferable wretch that I am, I have continued in my rebellion against thee, quenching and grieving thy holy Spirit, which would have fealed me unto the day of redemption, wearying thy patience, and abufing thy mercy and goodness, and turning thy grace into wantonnefs. O Lord, what a wonder is this, that such a wretch as I am not in hell; that ftill thou fparest me, and expectest my repentance; that there is hope, that the gate of mercy is not quite fhut against me: fure, if thou hadft took any delight in my damnation, thou couldft never have borne fo much at my hands as thou hast done; thou wouldst not have fuffered me to abufe thy mercy and goodness as thou haft done: But feeing, O Lord, thou haft fpared me fo long, and ftill continued to me the feafon and means of grace, O Lord, I will never more spend my time as I have done, in following the pleafures of the flesh, and grieving the holy Spirit: and do purpose, and refolve, through thy grace affifting me, to refign myfelf to thy holy and heavenly will, and to fpend the remainder of my time in obedience to thy holy law and commandments; and to this end, O Lord, I humbly beseech thee to grant me the affistance of thy holy Spirit, for of myself I can do nothing; and let this thy Spirit mollify my hard and obdurate heart, that I may with hearty forrow bewail my loft and mif- fpent time, and that I may double my diligence for the time to come. O Lord, though I have long continued in my rebellion against thee, yet Lord, I beseech thee, caft me not off now at length, a miferable finner, who returns unto thee with an humble penitent heart; take not away from me thy holy Spirit, though it hath long and often been grieved by me: Say not, that now it is too late. Lord, fhut not upon me the gate of mercy, let not my foul perish, for whom Chrift died;

and