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that we may not now be troubled with the thoughts of them. To be daring and confident, to be careless and live at random, to do what now pleaseth us beft, and take all the Liberty we can get, is a very fure way not to mifs of Hell art its Torments. Let us therefore take heed of going the way that's fmootheft and easiest, moft abounding with the pleafures and delights of the World; the high Way of the vain Gentleman, and the broad Path wherein we fee the Multitade, daily going in great crowds. Let us be fure to walk in the narrow way with the few and defpiled, keep close to the Commandments of God, and not wander as our own Lufts and fond Affections lead us.

Again, feeing that immediately after Death we fhall either be with the Rich Man in Hell, or with poor Lazarus in Abraham's Bofome in Tormentor in joy: Let us make all the baft we can to repent, and to live well, because we know not how foon we must die. If we die this night, and be not prepared by an unfeigned Repentance, and a Holy Life for Heaven; we fhall be fure this night alfo to be in Hell and in Torments. If this were well thought on as it deferves, we would be fure to do all that we can to make up our accounts, and to fet all ftraight betwixt God and us before we go to Bed. We would not venture to lie down to Sleep with one Sin unrepented of, leaft we fhould awake in torments. O, how comfortably goeth that Man to take his reft, who lives always in the fear of God all the day long, Prov.--And hath the Teftimony of a good Confcience that in all Godly fimplicity he hath bad bis conversation in the WorldSuch an one can comfort himself in, this, that tho' he fhould never awake again O G

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fee the light of this Life; yet he is fure that he fhall find himself in Abraham's Bofom, and in the fweetest Society of the Blessed, in joys which shall never end. Let us well confider this now in the time of our Health, in the days of our Youth, and our profperity, in the affluence of our Worldly Wealth, in the height of our pleasures and joys, our recreations, Sports and merry meetings: What a great change may there be with us on a fudden, e're we can be aware of it? How quickly may we drop down dead, whatever we are a doing? And in what a confternation will our Souls be, if not prepared for Heaven, when they fee the the Devils coming to fnatch them away from all their delights at once, and hurrying them in hafte to Hell, ftriving which fhall out do the other in exercising their Malice and Cruelty in tormenting them?

O! What ado make we most of us to get into the way of the many, and to put our felves into the fashion of the most! No way but the broad way of deftruction is pleasant to us; what a ftir make we in ftriving who fhall go fastest in it? How do we justle and moleft one another to get foremost, as if every one were afraid of nothing more, than of coming baft to Hell? We feem to be of nothing more Ambitious, than of getting a place as near this Rich Gentleman, as we can in Hell, by following his fathion as much as we can on Earth. What a buftle do we make about these Mortal, and every day dying Bodies of ours, deftroying their Health often with an excessive care to keep them in Health, and even killing them out of hand, to keep then from dying? The fhort time of our living here is moft of it fpent by many of us, in nothing elfe, but either in providing for

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bur Bodies, or elfe in entertaining and careffing them with the Provifion we have made. Fain would we keep them always out of the grave. And when we fee that there is no hope of doing that, but the old Houfe will drop down at laft, after we have done all that is in our power, and a great deal more than it deferves, or is fit to be done, to uphold, dawb and furnish it; what care. and coft is ufually beftow'd upon it, even when 'tis faln? And what ado is there to have it honoura bly laid up to rott? In the mean while, how little care take we to preferve our Souls in good Health, or to keep them from going down to Hell when we die? Little do we think, whilft We are very bufy in making too much of our Bodies; that we are even thereby fitting our Souls for torments. Little do we confider, that whilft we are fo very follicitous how to keep our Bodies in Health, we thereby not only kill them, but our Souls too? Do wein earneft ever think, that whilft we are fo much concerned to provide by our laft Will and Teftament, to have our dead Bodies waited on by people in Black; as tho' the World had loft fomething in lofing us, that's worth the Mourning for; the black Divels, not without our own invitation of them, by a voluptuous and vain Life, are ready waiting for our Souls, as foon as they are out of their Bodies; that whilft this Honour is done to our Bodies, they may carry our Souls to be tormented in Flames. Fools that we are! Our dead Bodies will not be at all fenfible what Mourners follow it to the Church, what Lies are for a piece or two of our Gold, told of us to our Friends there, but our Souls will be fadly fenfible of the torments they fhall endure that While in Hell. What a folly is it to be careful that we have that refpect paid us, whereof we cannot have any

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Senfe at all; and to take no care at all to prevent thofe torments which all that while, yea, and for ever after, we must most fadly feel?

The Rich Man when he dy'd went to Hell, and was there tormented, and then it follows, that be lift up his Eyes, and faw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his Bofome. This is it that we are next to confider.

He lift up his Eyes and faw; fo fpeaketh our Saviour of the Rich Man in Hell. But how can' this be? What Eyes could the Soul of the Rich Man in Hell have to lift up? His Bodily Eyes had loft all fight, if not before, yet fo foon as he was dead; and now they lay clofed up in the Grave. His Soul only was in Hell, and carried nothing of its Body along with it thither. It had a power of Commanding the Eyes, and other parts of the Body, whilft it dwelt in the Body, but now being out of it, hath nothing to do with them, in what Sense then is the Rich Man said to have lift np bis Eyes.

In Answer to this, we must confider, that as the Holy Ghoft in Scripture often fpeaketh of God after the manner of Men, fo our Saviour fpeaks here of the Dead after the manner of the Living, or of the Soul feparate after the manner of Sout dwelling in a Body; as tho' it were fill in the Body, and us'd it as before. In our prefent ftate of Mortality, we are capable of understanding very little of the Nature of Spirits, or of the manner, how they act and work; and therefore Expreffions are borrow'd from material Things, and applied to Spirits in a figurative way of speaking, to help us in our Understanding, as far as we are now capable of it. Thus, God's Eyes in Scripture

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fignifie his Knowledge; and his feeing is his knowing, and in like manner do the Spirits or Souls of Men, when departed out of their Bodies fee, that is, they know. They fee nor with Bodily Eyes as formerly, but with intellectual or mental only; they perceive, difcern, and clearly know; and this is all that's meant by the Rich Man's lifting up of his Eyes, and feeing. He knew and confidered the condition wherein both Abraham and Lazarus were, and how much better it was than his own. How happy they both were, whilft he was in Torments. And, to be fure, this was no pleafing fight to him. There was nothing that he faw, which added not to his Torment. It well deferves our Confideration.

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1. He lift up his Eyes to fee. Abraham and Lazarus were now above, and he below them, he muft look up, to get a fight of them. what a tormenting fight muft this needs be to the proud Rich Man. This humbling fight makes his own Pride his Tormenter. Wicked Men carry their Vices along with them when they go out of this World, and these will make it Hell to them wherever they go, and torment them worse than the Devils can do, they need nothing else to make them eternally miferable, unless they can fly from themselves they must be fo. Seeing they never were converted, and changed in their affetions whilft they lived, but carried all their worldly, carnal and ambitious Inclinations of Mind along with them out of this World, and these in another World meet with nothing that's fuitable, but all things contrary to them, they muft even in this alone find Hell enough,were there nothing elfe to torment them. To hunger and thirst al ways after that which is not to be had, is vexati

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