Disc. 1.1 TFtE END Or .TINE. ns5 Have a care then that you do not make any of there your chief hope, for they are but the things of time, they are' all short and dying enjoyments. Under the various calamities of this life we find a va- riety of sensible reliefs, and our thoughts and souls are called away from their sorrows, by present business, or diverted bypresent pleasure; but all these avocations and amusementswill forsake us. at Once, when we drop this mortal tabernacle ; we must enter alone into the world of spirits, and live without them there. Whatsoever agonies or terrors, or huge distresses we may meet with in that unknown region, we shall have none of these sensible enjoyments, to soften and allay them, no drop of sweetness to mix with that bitter cup, no scenesof gaiety and merriment to relieve the gloomof that utter darkness, or to sooth the anguish of that eter- nal heart-ach. O take ,heed, my friends, that your souls do not live, too much on any of the satisfactions of this life, that your affections be not set upon them in too high a degree, that you make themnot your idols and your chief good, lest you be left helpless and miserable under .everlasting disappointment, for they cannot follow you to the world of souls; they are the things of time, and they have no place in eternity.. Read what caution the apostle Paul gives us, in our converse with the dearest comforts of life; i Goy. vii. (2g. " The time is short ; and let those who have the largest affluences of temporal bles- sings, who have the nearest and kindest relatives, and the most endeared friendships, he mortified to them, and be, in some sense, as though they had them not, for ye,cannot possess, them long." St. Peter`' joins,in the same sort of advice ; 1 Pet. iv. 7. "The end of all things is at hand, therefore be ye sober," be ye moderate in every enjoyment on, earth, and prepare to part with them all, when the angel pronounces, that time shall be no longer : Ali is Sentence puts an effectual period to everyjoy in thislife, and to every hope that is hot eternal. Thus we have taken a brief survey, what are the solemn and awful thoughts, relating to such mortal creatures in general, which are contained in this voice or sentence of the angel, that time shall be no longer. In the Second place, let us proceed further and enquire .a
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