our sins, and strive to do virtuous actions; let us look upon ourselves as guilty offenders, and let us stand in perpetual fear of the Judge; still reprehending himself, and saying, Ah me! wretch that I am, how shall I appear before the tribunal of God? How shall I be able to give an account of all my actions? If thou shalt always have these thoughts, thou mayest obtain salvation; and be assured, he that seriously thinks upon death, will never have the boldness to sin.

Another cause of the terribleness of death is, the innumerable multitude of our sins, and their monstrous deformity, shall then be laid open: this is signified by the prophet Daniel, where he says, that the throne of the tribunal of God was of flaming fire; whose nature is not only to burn, but to enlighten; and, therefore, in that Divine judgment shall not only be executed the rigour of his justice, but the ugliness, likewise, of human nature shall be discovered: the Judge himself shall not only appear severe, but our sins shall all be discovered and laid open to us; and the sight of them shall make us tremble with fear and astonishment, especially when we shall perceive them to be manifest unto him, who is both judge and party. Our sins now seem unto us but light and trivial, and we see not half of them; but, in our leaving of this life, we shall find them heavy and insupportable.

How shall we remain amazed, when we shall see a number of our actions to be sins, which we never thought to be such! And which is more, we shall find that to be a fault, which we thought to be a laudable work: for many actions, which, in the eyes of men, seem virtuous, will then be found vices in the sight of God; then shall be brought to light the works which we have done, and those which we have left undone; the evil of that action which we have committed, and the good of that which we have omitted: neither is there account to be taken only of the evils which we do, but of the good also, which we do not well; all will be strictly searched, and narrowly looked into, and must pass by many eyes.

The devil, as our accuser, shall frame the process of our whole life, and shall accuse us of all he knows; and if any thing shall escape his knowledge, it shall not, therefore, be concealed; for our own conscience shall cry out and accuse us of it; and lest our conscience might flatter us, or be ignorant of some faults, our guardian-angel shall then be fiscal

and accuser, calling for Divine justice against us, and shall discover what our own souls are ignorant of. And if the devil, our conscience, and guardian-angel, shall fail in any thing, as not knowing all, the Judge himself, who is both party and witness, and whose Divine knowledge penetrates into the bottom of our wills, shall there declare many things for vices, which were here esteemed for virtues. O strange way of judgment, where none denies, and all accuse, even the offender accuses himself; and where all are witnesses, even the judge and party! O dreadful judgment, where there is no advocate, and four accusers, the devil, thy conscience, thy guardian-angel, and thy very Judge, who will accuse thee of many things, which thou thoughtest to have alleged for thy defence: then all shall be laid open, and confusion shall cover the sinner with the multitude of his offences. How shall he blush to see himself in the presence of the King of heaven, in so foul and squalid garments!

If a man, when he is to speak with some great prince, desire to be decently and well clad, how will he be out of countenance to appear before him dirty, and half naked? How shall then a sinner be ashamed to see himself before the Lord of all, naked of good works, bedirted and defiled with abominable and horrid crimes?

Besides the multitude of sins whereof the whole life shall be full, the heinousness of them shall be also laid open before him, and he shall tremble at the sight of that, which he now thinks but a trivial fault; for then he shall clearly see the ugliness of sin, the dissonancy of it unto reason, the deformity it causes in the soul, the injury it doth to the Lord of the world, his ingratitude to Christ his Redeemer, the prejudice it brings unto himself; hell, into which he falls, and eternal glory, which he loses; the least of these were sufficient to cover his heart with sadness and grief, but all together, what amazement and confusion will they cause, especially when he shall perceive that sins produce an ugliness in the soul, beyond all the corporal deformities which can be imagined. Let us, therefore, avoid them now, for all are to come to light, and we must account for all, even to the last farthing: neither is this account to be made in gross only, for the greatest and most apparent sins, but even for the least and smallest in human tribunals, the judge takes no notice of

small matters, but in the courts of Divine judicature nothing passes; the least things are as diligently looked into as the greater. There is also, in the end of life, another cause of much terror unto sinners, which is the lively knowlege which they shall have of the Divine benefits received, and the charge which shall be laid against them for their great ingratitude and abuse of them: in that instant, sinners are not only to stand in fear of their own bad works, but of the grace and benefits of God Almighty conferred upon them.

Another confusion shall cover them, when they shall see what God hath done to oblige and assist them toward their salvation; and what they, to the contrary, have done, to draw upon them their own damnation: they shall tremble to see what God did for their good, and that he did so much as he could do no more, all which hath been misemployed and abused by themselves.

We will consider every one of these benefits by themselves. The first which occurs, is that of the creation and what could God do more, since in this one benefit of thy creation, he gave thee all what thou art, both in soul and body? If, wanting an arm, thou wouldest esteem thyself much obliged, and be very thankful unto him who should bestow one upon thee, which were sound, strong, and useful; why art thou not so to God, who hath given thee arms, heart, soul, body, and all?

Consider what thou wert, before he gave thee a being; nothing and now thou enjoyest, not only a being, but the best being of the elemental world: betwixt being and not being, there is an infinite distance; see, then, what thou owest unto thy Creator; and thou shalt find thy debt to be no less than infinite, since he hath not only given thee a being, but a noble being, and that not by necessity, but out of an infinite love, and by election; making choice of thee amongst an infinity of men possible, whom he might have created. If lots were to be cast among an hundred persons for some honourable charge, how fortunate would he be esteemed, who should draw the lot from so many competitors? Behold, then, thy own happiness, who, from an absolute nothing, hath lighted upon a being amongst an infinity of creatures possible; and whence proceeds this singular favour, but from God? who, out of those numberless millions,

hath picked out thee, he having many others, who, if he had created them, would have served him better than thyself: besides this, he not only created thee by election, and gave thee a noble being; but supernatural happiness being no way due unto thy nature, he created thee for it, and gave thee for thy end the most high and eminent that could be imagined, to wit, the eternal possession of thy Creator.

It being, then, so great a benefit to have created thee, it is yet a greater to have preserved and suffered thee until this instant, without casting thee into a thousand hells for thy sins and offences. From how many, for one only fault committed, hath he withdrawn his preservation, and suffered them to die in that sin for which they are now in hell? and some of them, if they had been pardoned, would have proved more grateful than thou! Behold how many angels, for their first offence, he threw headlong down from heaven, and expected them no longer, and yet still expects thee.

Consider thou owest him for preserving thee, as much as for creating thee; preservation being a continued creation; and more, for preserving thee, although his enemy. In thy creation, although thou didst not deserve a being, yet thou demerited it not; but in thy preservation thou hast deserved the contrary; which is to be forsaken and abandoned.

Consider the benefit thou receivest by the incarnation of the Son of God; by which thou art delivered from sin and hell, and at such a time, when thy miserable condition was desperate of all other remedy; and he hath exalted thee to his grace, and the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven; and this he did with such singular love, even to the annihilating, as it were, himself, that he might exalt thee, taking upon himself thy nature, that he might only confer an honour upon thee, which he would not to the angels. All is great, all is transcendent in this unspeakable goodness; see what God could do more for thee, and see that thou mayest do much more for him, and dost not.

Consider the benefit of our redemption by the death and passion of Christ: what could the Son of God do more for thee, than die and shed his blood for thee, and that not with an ordinary death, but so ignominious, as it seems he could not suffer more? Set before thy eyes Christ crucified upon Mount Calvary; if a man more infamous be imaginable;

executed publicly between two thieves, as a traitor and an heretic, broaching false doctrine, and making himself king, as a traitor unto Cæsar.

Two crimes so infamous, as they not only defame the person who commits them, but stain and infect his stock and lineage. Behold in what poverty he died, if greater can be thought on; to the end thou mayest see, if it were possible he should do more for thee than what he did. Whilst he lived, he had not whereon to repose his head; neither found he one drop of water, to refresh his sacred lips; even the earth refused him, wanting whereon to rest his feet. Behold with what grief and pains he expired; since, from head to foot, he was but one continued wound: his feet and hands were pierced with nails, and his head with thorns.

Who would not be amazed at the goodness and piety of a great emperor, who, having a desire to pardon a notorious traitor, should, rather than abate one jot of his justice, take upon him the habit and shape of that traitor, and suffer - publicly in the market-place, that the offender might be spared? Thus did God, taking upon him the form of a servant, and dying upon the cross, to free condemned man from eternal death.

Consider, then, how dreadful it shall be unto a sinner, when he shall receive a charge, not only of his own being, and his own life, but also of the being and life of God; of the incarnation, passion, life and death, of Christ our Redeemer, who hath so often given himself in the sacrament of his body and blood.

The murderer, who stands charged with the life of a man, although it be of some wicked person, yet fears to be apprehended, and brought to judgment. How is it, then, that he, who is charged with the life of God, tremble not? O how fearful a thing is it, when a vile creature shall enter into judgment with his Creator; and shall be demanded an account of the blood of Christ, whose value is infinite? What account can he give of such a benefit, and of all the rest which he hath received, even from the greatest unto the least?

When Christ shall say unto him: "I, when thou hadst no being, gave thee one; inspired thee with a soul, and placed thee above all things that are upon the earth. I, for