righteous and the wicked: and ye will see the same thing in that other text, Mal. iii. 18, "Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked." Wherefore, if ye be not righteous ye are wicked. If ye have not an imputed righteousness, and also an implanted righteousness, or holiness; if ye be yet in your natural state, unregenerated, not united to Christ by faith, howsoever moral and blameless in the eyes of men, your conversation may be, ye are the wicked who shall be driven away in their wickedness, if death find you in that state. Now,

FIRST, AS to the meaning of this phrase, "driven away;" there are three things in it: the wicked shall be taken away suddenly, violently, and irresistibly.

First, Unrenewed man shall be taken away suddenly at death. Not that all wicked men die suddenly; nor that they are all wicked, who die so, God forbid! But, (1.) Death commonly comes upon them unexpected, and so surpriseth them; as the deluge came surprisingly on the old world, though they were forewarned of it long before it came; and as travail cometh on a woman with child, with surprising suddenness; although looked for and expected, 1 Thess. v. 3. Death seizeth them as a creditor doth his debtor, to hale him to prison, Psal. Iv. 15, and that when they are not aware. Death comes in as a thief, at the window, and finds them full of busy thoughts about this life, which that very day perish. (2.) Death always seizeth them unprepared for it: the old house falls down about their ears, before they have another provided. When death casts them to the door, they have not where to lay their heads, unless it be on a bed of fire and brimstone. The soul and body are, as it were, hugging one another in mutual embraces: when death comes like a whirlwind, and separates them. (3.) Death hurries them away in a moment to destruction, and makes a most dismal change: the man, for the most part, never knows where he is, till "in hell he lift up his eyes,' Luke xvi. 23. The floods of wrath suddenly overwhelm his soul; and ere he is aware, he is plunged in the bottomless pit. Secondly, The unrenewed man is taken away out of the world violently. Driving is a violent action: "he is chased out of the world," Job xviii. 18. Fain would he stay, if he could; but death drags him away like a malefactor to the execution. He sought no other portion, than the profits and pleasures of this world; he hath no other; he really desires no other; how can he then go away out of it, if he were not driven?

Quest. But may not a wicked man be willing to die? Ans. He may indeed be willing to die: but (observe) it is only in

one of three cases. (1.) In a fit of passion, by reason of some trouble that he is impatient to be rid of. Thus many persons, when their passion have got the better of their reason, and when on that account they are most unfit to die, will be ready to cry, O to be gone! but should their desire be granted, and death come at their call, they would quickly show they were not in earnest; and that if they go, they must be driven away against their wills. (2.) When they are brim-full of despair, they may be willing to die. Thus Saul murdered himself: and Spira wished to be in hell, that he might know the uttermost of what he believed he was to suffer. In this manner men may seek after death, while it flies from them. But fearful is the violence these do undergo, whom the terrors of God do thus drive. (3.) When they are dreaming of happiness after death. Foolish virgins, under the power of delusion, as to their state, may be willing to die, having no fear of lying down in sorrow. How many are there, who can give no scripture-ground for their hope, who yet have no bands in their death! Many are driven to darkness sleeping; they go off like lambs, who would roar like lions, did they but know what place they are going to! though the chariot, in which they are, drive furiously to the depths of hell, yet they fear not, because they are fast asleep.

Lastly, The unregenerate man is taken away irresistibly. He must go, though sore against his will. Death will take no refusal, nor admit of any delay; though the man have not lived half his days, according to his own computation. If he will not bow, it will break him. If he will not come forth, it will pull the house down about his ears; for there he must not stay. Although the physician help, friends groan, the wife and the children cry, and the man himself use his utmost efforts to retain the spirit, his soul is required of him; yield he must, and go where he shall never more see light.

SECONDLY, Let us consider, whence they are driven, and whither. When the wicked die, (1.) They are driven out of this world, where they sinned, into the other world, where they must be judged and receive their particular sentences, Heb. ix. 27, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." They shall no more return to their beloved earth. Though their hearts are wedded to their earthly enjoyments, they must leave them: they can carry nothing hence. How sorrowful must their departure be, when they have nothing in view, so good as that which they leave behind them! (2.) They are driven out of the society of the saints on earth, into the society of the damned in hell, Luke xvi. 22, "The rich man also died and was buried," ver. 23, "And in hell he lift

from

up his eyes." What a multitude of the devils goat's do now take place among Christ's sheep! but at death they shall be "led forth with the workers of iniquity," Psal. cxxv. 5. There is a mixed multitude in this world, but no mixture in the other; each party is there set by themselves. Though hypocrites grow here as tares among the wheat, death will root them up; and they shall be bound in bundles for the fire. (3.) They are driven out of time into eternity. While time lasts with them, there is hope; but when time goes, all hope goes with it. Precious time in now lavishly spent: it lies so heavy upon the hands of many, that they think themselves obliged to take several ways to drive away time. But beware of being at a loss what to do in life: improve time for eternity, whilst you have it; for ere long death will drive it you, and you from it, so as ye shall never meet again. (4.) They are driven out of their specious pretences to piety. Death strips them of the splendid robes of a fair profession, with which some of them were adorned; and turns them off the stage, in the rags of a wicked heart and life. The word hypocrite properly signifies a stage-player, who appears to be what indeed he is not. This world is the stage on which these children of the devil personate the children of God. Their show of religion is the player's coat, under which one must look, who will judge of them aright. Now death turns them out of their coat, and then they appear in their native dress: it unveils them, and takes off their mask. There are none in the other world, who pretend to be better than they really are. Depraved nature acts in the regions of horror, unallayed, and undisguised. Lastly, They are driven away from all means of grace; and are set beyond the line, quite out of all prospect of mercy. There is no more an opportunity to buy oil for the lamp; it is gone out at death, and can never be lighted again. There may be offers of mercy and peace made after they are gone; but they are to others, not to them; there are no such offers in the place to which they are driven: these offers are only made in that place, from which they are driven away.

LASTLY, In what respect may they be said to be driven away in their wickedness? Ans. (1.) In respect of their being driven away in their sinful unconverted state. Having lived enemies to God, they die in a state of enmity to him: for none are brought into the eternal state of consummate happiness but by the way of the state of grace, or begun recovery, in this life. The child that is dead in the womb, is born dead, and is cast out of the womb into the grave: so he who is dead,

while he liveth, or is spiritually dead, is cast forth of the womb of time in the same state of death, into the pit of utter misery. O miserable death, to die in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity! it had been incomparably better for such as die thus, that they had never been born. (2.) In regard they die sinning, acting wickedly against God, in contradiction to the divine law: for they can do nothing but sin while they live. So death takes them in the very act of sinning; violently draws them from the embraces of their lusts, and drives them away from the tribunal to receive their sentence. It is a remarkable expression, Job. xxxvi. 14, "They die in youth:" the marginal reading is, "Their soul dieth in youth." Their lusts being lively, their desires vigorous, and expectations big, as is common in youth: and their life is among the unclean: or, and the company (or herd) of them dieth among the Sodomites: i. e. is taken away in the heat of their sin and wickedness, as the Sodomites were, Gen. xix. Luke vii. 28, 29. (3.) In as much as they are driven away, loaded with the guilt of all their sins: this is the winding sheet "that shall lie down with them in the dust," Job. xx. 11. Their works follow them into the other world: they go away with the yoke of their transgressions wreathed about their necks. Guilt is a bad companion in life, but how terrible will it be in death! It lies now, perhaps, like cold brimstone on their benumbed consciences; but, when death opens the way for sparks of divine vengeance, like fire, to fall upon it, it will make dreadful flames in the conscience, in which the soul will be as it were wrapped for ever. Lastly, The wicked are driven away in their wickedness, in so far as they die under the absolute power of their wickedness. While there is hope, there is some restraint on the worst of men: and these moral endowments, which God gives to a number of men, for the benefit of mankind in this life, are so many allays and restraints upon the impetuous wickedness of human nature. But all hope being cut off, and these gifts withdrawn, the wickedness of the wicked will then arrive at its perfection. As the seeds of grace sown in the hearts of the elect come to their full maturity at death: so wicked and hellish dispositions in the reprobate come to their highest pitch. Their prayers to God, will then be turned to horrible curses; and their praises to hideous blasphemies, Matth. xxii. 13, "There shall be weeping, and gnashing of teeth." This gives a dismal, but genuine, view of the state of the wicked in another world.

II. I shall discover the hopelessness of the state of unre

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newed men at death.

It appears to be very hopeless, if we

consider these four things:

First, Death cuts off all their hopes and prospects of peace and pleasure in this life. Luke xii. 19, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. Ver. 20, But God said unto him, "Thou fool this night thy soul shall be required of thee, then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?" They look for great matters in this world; they hope to increase their wealth, to see their families prosper, and to live at ease; but death comes like a stormy wind and shakes off all their fond hopes, like green fruit from off a tree. "When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him," Job xx. 23. He may begin a web of contrivances, for advancing his worldly interest; but before he gets it wrought out, death comes, and cuts it out. "His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth: in that very day his thoughts perish," Psal. cxlvi. 4.

Secondly, When death comes, they have no solid ground to hope for eternal happiness; "For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his Soul ?" Job xxvii. 8. Whatever hopes they fondly entertain, they are not founded on God's word, which is the only sure ground of hope: if they knew their own case, they would see themselves only happy in a dream. And indeed what hope can they have? The law is plain against them, and condemns them. The curses of it (these cords of death) are about them already. The Saviour whom they slighted, is now their Judge; and their Judge is their enemy. How then can they hope? They have bolted the door of mercy against themselves, by their unbelief. They have despised the remedy, and therefore must die without mercy. They have no saving interest in Jesus Christ, the only channel of conveyance, in which mercy flows: and therefore they can never taste of it. The sword of justice guards the door of mercy, so as none can enter in, but the members of the mystical body of Christ, over whose heads is a covert of atoning blood, the Mediator's blood. These indeed may pass without harm, for justice has nothing to require of them: but others cannot pass, since they are not in Christ: Death comes to them with the sting in it, the sting of unpardoned guilt. It is armed against them with all the force the sanction of a holy law can give, 1 Cor. xv. 56,'" The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law." When that law was given on Sinai, "the whole mount quaked greatly," Exod. xix. 18. When the Redeemer was