172 NOW OR NEVER. peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes." And that these warnings may not be the less regarded, because you have so often heard them; when often hearing increaseth your obligation, and diminisheth not the truth, or your danger. 3. And as there is no retltrn to earth, so is there no doing this work hereafter. Heaven and hell are for other work. The harvest doth presuppose the seed- . time, and the labour of the husbandman. It is now that you must sow, and hereafter that you must reap. It is now that you must work, and then that you must receive your wages. Is this believed and considered by the sleepy world? Alas! sirs, do you live a1l men that must live here no more? Do you work as men that must work no more, and pray as men that must pray no more, when once the time ofwork is ended? ·What thinkest thou! will God command the s.un to stand still while thou rebellest or forgettest thy work and him! Dost thou expect he .should pervert the course of nature, and continue the spring and seedtime till thou hast a mind to sow? Will he renew thy age, and make thee young again, and call back the hours that thou hast prodigally wasted on thy lusts and idleness? Canst thou look for this at the hand of God, when nature and Scripture assure thee of the contrary? If not, why hast thou not yet done with thy beloved sins? Why hast thou not yet begun to live? Why sittest thou still while thy soul is unrenewed , and all thy preparation fi>r death and judgment is yet to make? How fain would Satan find thee thus at death? How fain woulu he have leave to blow out thy candle, before thou hast entered into the way of life? Dost thou look to have preachers sent after thee, to bring thee the · mercy which thy contempt here left behind? Wilt thou hear and be eonverted in the grave and hell? or wilt thou be...gaved without holiness? that is, in despite of God that hath resolved it shall not be. 0 ye sons of sleep, of' death, of darkness,
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