dote or cure---No friends or relatives can procure one moment's respited-Nor shall any want of preparation in us avail for the lengthening out of our appointed time--If God has said, "This night shall thy soul be required of thee," even though we retired to our bed in perfect health, we should never behold the morning light."]

II. When the period fixed for our existence here shall arrive, there will be an end of all present things

[All our earthly connexions will be dissolved--All our plans and purposes will be brokenh―――All our opportunities of spiritual improvement will for ever cease1———] III. When the appointed moment shall come, our eternal state will be irrevocably fixed

They are extremely useful as God's instruments to effect his will: but they cannot in any instance counteract it. The monarch as well as the beggar must obey the summons of his God.

They may cry till their throats are dry, their eyes are bloated, and their very hearts break with sorrow; but death, that relentless messenger, will be deaf to their intreaties; and inflict the stroke on the devoted victim.

e We may be living securely and without thought; or be intending soon to reform our lives; or be professors of religion in a backslidden state, and hoping for a season of revival; but no regard will be paid to our unfitness for death: yea rather, that very circumstance may be God's reason for removing us without a moment's warning. Matt. xxiv. 48-51. 1 Thess. v. 2, 3. f Luke xii. 20.

We shall no more rejoice in the wife of our youth, or fondle in our arms our infant offspring, or enjoy the friend that is as our own soul: every social tie will be cut asunder, and every gratification of sense be taken from us.

If we were forming vast and comprehensive plans for our own, personal benefit, or the good of the state, and had almost brought them to maturity; if we were just on the eve of renouncing our earthly and carnal lusts in order to turn more fully unto God; if we were in the very act of determining to read our bible, to attend or dinances, and to devote ourselves to God; all would be frustrated the very instant that our time was come. Ps. cxlvi. 4.

All things are ready for us now: the Holy Spirit is ready to teach us, Christ to cleanse us, and the Father to accept us: ministers are ready to lead us, angels to welcome us, the oxen and fatlings to feast us, and all the promises to own us as their lawful heir. But, as soon as the last sand of our glass is fallen, all will be passed and gone. There will be no more ordinances to instruct; or promises to encourage, or pastors to guide, or drawings of God's Spirit to incline us: the fountain of Christ's blood will be fore ver closed; the bowels of divine mercy will yearn over us no more; nor will the angels any more tender us their friendly services. The day once ended, we can work no more for ever.

[There will be no change whatever in the gravek They who die without an interest in Christ will be for ever miserable-They who have improved their time for the great ends and purposes of life, will be for ever happy in the presence of their Godm.

REFLECTIONS

1. This very day or night may be our last

[Yes; if the term of our continuance on earth be now to expire, we cannot resist the divine will; we must go: but whither? Can it be to the regions of the damned? O how shall we dwell with everlasting burnings?" Is there reason to hope that we should go to heaven? then welcome sickness! welcome death! But let us not rest one moment while this awful matter is in suspense.]

2. Our last day must come soon at all events.

[What if we live fifty or sixty years? the time will soon be gone, as a weaver's shuttle passing through the loom; and then the thread of life will be cut. They who are now advanced in years, look back upon their past life as a dream. So will it appear to us also, when it is spent. Let us then work while it is day; and before the night comes, in which no man can work.P]

3. The present moment is of infinite importance to us all

[It is all that we can call our own: and on this eternity depends. Let us therefore live as those who live for eternity.a If ever we should be with Christ in Paradise, shall we regret that we took so much pains to get thither? If, on the contrary, we should ever lift up our eyes in hell, shall we not bewail the supineness that brought us thither? Let us then

k Eccl. ix. 10. Whatever our real character was in death, such it will remain, Rev. xxii. 11. just as Babel remained, from the instant that God confounded the languages of the builders.

I There was an impassable gulf fixed between the rich man and Lazarus: nor was there so much as the smallest mitigation of pain allowed to him that was in hell. Luke xvi. 26. Rev. xiv. 10, 14. As on Noah's entrance into the ark the door was shut; so there will remain no possibility of admission into heaven, if once we die without an interest in Christ.

They shall be as pillars in the temple of their God, and shall go no more out. Rev. iii. 12. and iv. 8. and vii. 15.

n Isaiah xxxiii. 14.

P John ix. 4.

。 Job vii. 6.

4.1 Cor. vii. 29-31.

awake from our slumbers; and labour, that, at whatever time our Lord may come, he may find us watching*.]

Much of the foregoing matter would serve to illustrate ANOTHER TEXT, Jer. xxviii. 16. This year thou shalt die. It might be treated thus: 1. What prospect there is that the text will be fulfilled in us (Many will die this year-No one has any security that he himself shall not be among the number-We all feel in ourselves the seeds of death-Many who in all respects were as likely to live as we, are dead already-There is a year coming wherein every one of us must die-) 2. What effect that prospect should have upon us (It should make us, dead to the world serious in self-examination -Diligent in working out our salvation.)

CCCLXIII. THE COMMON NESS AND FOLLY OF

ATHEISM.

Ps. xiv. 1. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.

MEN, who judge only by the outward appearance, are apt to entertain a good opinion of themselves: but God who looketh at the heart, describes the whole race of mankind as immersed in an unfathomable abyss of wickedness-In confirmation of this melancholy truth we need look no further than to the declaration in the textIt may be thought indeed that the text is spoken only in reference to a few professed infidels: but the words immediately following shew that it relates to many, yea to all mankind; "all being gone aside, and none doing good, no not one"-Above all, St. Paul, expressly upon the subject of human depravity, appeals to this very passage as decisively establishing that doctrine-In considering the words before us we shall shew

I. The atheistical thoughts and desires of the heart

God interprets the thoughts and desires of the heart as though they were expressed in words; and he attests its real language to be like that in the text-It may be understood

1. As an assertion

[The name here used for God is not Jehovah, which relates to his essence, but Elohim, which characterizes him as the

a Jer. xvii. 9.

b Rom. iii. 10—12.

moral governor of the world-The words therefore must be understood, not as declaring that there is no God, but that there is no God who interferes in human affairs-It is true there are not many, who will deliberately affirm this in plain terms; but, alas! how many are there, whose actions manifest this to be the inward thought of their hearts! If we look around us, we shall see the great mass of mankind living as if there were no superior being to whom they owed obedience, or to whom they were accountable for their conduct-They enquire constantly whether such or such a line of conduct will tend to their comfort, their honour, or their interest; but how rarely do they examine whether it will please God! How will men gratify in secret, or at least harbour in their bosoms, those lusts, which they could not endure to have exposed to the eye of a fellow-creature, while yet they feel no concern at all about the presence of their God!-The language of their hearts is, "The Lord seeth us not, he hath forsaken the earth:c" "How doth God know? can he judge through the dark cloud? Thick clouds are a covering to him that he seeth not; and he walketh in the circuit of the heaven," ignorant and indifferent about the affairs of men-And as we thus refuse to acknowledge God ourselves, so we do not choose that any others should acknowledge him-Is any one of our companions awed by the fear of God? how ready are we to laugh at his scruples; to propose to him the customs and maxims of the world as more worthy of his regard than the mind and will of God; and to encourage him in the hope, that such compliances shall never be noticed in the day of judgment!-And what is this but to use the very language which God imputes to us, "The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil?"e-] 2. As a wish

[The words "There is" are not in the original, and may therefore be omitted: the text will then stand thus; The fool hath said in his heart, No God! that is, I wish there were none-And how common a wish is this!-When men are fully convinced in their minds that God notices every transaction of their lives, and records it in the book of his remembrance, they are still unwilling to give up their lusts, and determined to continue in sin at all events-But are they easy in such a state? No: they shrink back at the prospect of death and judgment, and wish that they could elude the summons that will be given them in the last day-Gladly would they sleep an eternal sleep, and barter their immortality for an exemption from appearing at the tribunal of God-What satisfaction would they feel if they could be certified on unquestionable grounds, that God did not notice their actions, or

that, notwithstanding he be the Governor and Judge of all, he hath decreed to bestow on them the favour of annihilation!-Instantly they would exclaim, Now I may dismiss my fears: now I may take my fill of pleasure; and "drink iniquity like water," without any dread of future consequencesWe may appeal to the consciences of all, whether such have not been frequently the thoughts of their hearts, or, at least, whether their dread of death and judgment do not justly admit of this construction?-]

Such being the thoughts and desires of the heart, we proceed to shew

II. The folly of entertaining them

This will appear in a striking point of view, if we consider

1. The thing wished for is absolutely impossible

[God can no more cease to inspect the ways of men with a view to a final retribution, than he can cease to exist-As his superintending care is necessary for the perservation of the universe, so the continual exercise of his moral government is necessary for the vindication of his own honour-How absurd then is it to indulge a wish, when it is not possible for that wish ever to be gratified, and when the indulging of it makes us act as though it would be gratified!-How much better were it to say at once, There is a God, and I must fear him; there is a judgment, and I must prepare for it!-]

2. If the wish could be obtained, it would be an unspeakable injury to all in this world

[Men are led even by the faintest hopes of impunity, to live in sin; and how much more would they yield themselves up to its dominion, if they could once be sure that God would never call them into judgment for it!-This, as it respects individuals, would greatly embitter this present lifeThe gratification of their lusts would indeed afford them a transient pleasure: but who that considers how soon such enjoyments cloy; who that knows how many evils they bring in their train; who that has seen the effects of unbridled passions, of pride, envy, wrath, malice, of lewdness, covetousness, or any other inordinate affection; who that has the least knowledge of these things can doubt, but that sin and misery are indissolubly connected, and that, in proportion as we give the rein to appetite, we undermine our own happiness? And what would be the consequence to the community at large?-Men even now "bite and devour one another" like wild beasts, the very instant that God withdraws his restraint from them!-It is he alone, who overruled the pur