OF GOD-REDEEMER. 289 him coming in his glory, and the host of heaven attending him with acclamations. In the mean time, your particular doom draws on ; the fashion of all these things passeth away : as those seats will anon be empty when you are departed, so it is but a moment till all your habitations shall change their possessors, and the places ofyour abode, and too great delight, shall know you no more. I must needs speak to you as to transient, itinerant mortals, who must, ere long, be carried onmen's shoulders to the dust, and there be left by those that must shortly followyou; then farewell honors and fleshly delights ; farewell all the accommodations and contents of this world. O that you had sooner bid them farewell t Had you lived to Christ as you did to them, he would not so have turn- ed you off, nor have left your dislodged souls to utter desolation. In a word, as sure as the word of God is true, if you own him not now as your Lord and Sovereign, he will not own you then as his chosen to salvation. And if now you live not to him, you shall not then live with him. "Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit,shall of the Spirit reap everlasting life;" Gal. v. 7, 8. " Consider this, ye that forget God, lest he should tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver you;" Psalm 1. 22. Beloved hearers, believe as you pretend to believe, and then live as you do believe. If you believe that you are not your own, but his that made you, and bought you with a price, and that he will thus try you for your lives and everlasting comforts on this question, whether you have lived tó him, or to yourselves, then live as men that do indeed believe it. Let your religion be visible, as well as audible, and let those that see your lives, and observe the scope of your endeavors, see that you believe it. But if you believe not these things, but are infidels in your hearts, and think you shall feel neither pain nor pleasure when this life is ended, but that man dieth as the beast, then I cannot wonder if you live as you believe. He that thinks he shall die like a dog, Is like enough to live like a dog, even in his filthiness, and in snarling for the bones of worldly vanities, which the children do contemn. Having spoken thus much by way of exhortation, I shall add a few words for your more particular direction, that you may see to what my exhortation doth tend, and it may not be lost. 1. Be sure that you look to the uprightness of your heart, in this great business of devoting yourselves to God; especially see, 1. That you discern, and soundly believe, that excellency in God which is not in the creature, and that perfect felicity in his VOL. H. 37
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