any Hint or Occurrence that starts up before them; Heedlefs and Indifferent which Way it is they fteer their Courfe, as any ChanceImpulse or Occafion leads them; never uniting their Thoughts or Defigns to any one Good or Rational End of Life.

This is a Life Unworthy of a Man, much more of a Chriftian. The very Heathens * have derided and condemn'd it. By fuch a Life Men become Useless in the World; they neither do Good to Others, nor to themselves; but lay themselves Open to all Sorts of Temptations. And when they have run the Rounds of Madness and Folly, and have followed their own Hearts-Lufts all the Day-long, they have yet no true Satisfaction, in themselves from it; much less will they have any at the End of their Days.

*The Satyrift jufty compares it to Childrens-Play, following Birds and Butterflies..

Eftne aliquid quo tendis, & in quod dirigis Arcum?
An paffim fequeris Corvos teftâque lutoque,

Securus quo Pes ferat, atque extempore Vivis?
Perfius Sat. 3.

And the Wife Heathen Emperor Marcus Antoninus, amongst other Wife Counfels gives this, "Never fuffer thyfelf (fays he) to be carried away by any Outward Accidents, but "when thou haft learnt what is Good and Right, fix there,

and fuffer not thyself to wander from it. For there are "fome (fays he) that play the Fool, and trifle away their Lives, which therefore become flat and infignificant [ σε Εχοντες σκοπόν, ἐφ ̓ ὃν πᾶσαν ὁρμὴν καὶ φαντασίαν ἀπευθύνεσιν] "for want of fome certain Scope, wherein to Unite, and "whereunto to Bend and Direct all their Endeavours and Thoughts.

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Lib. 2.

If this be (as they call it) Following Nature, it is only Brutal Senfual Nature, not Nature under any Conduct of Reason or Religion; Both of which would teach them to look a little before them, and have fome Regard to the Future. But fuch Men look only to the Prefent, to make their Beft of what falls in their Way: So they go on, to Eat and Drink and Play, and Talk and Laugh and Sleep away their Lives; and then first begin to open their Eyes, and Seriously bethink themfelves, when they find Death is upon them.

These are the Men of Wit and Pleasure : And the Life they give themselves up to, might perhaps be allowable, if all were to End in Death; If we were prefently to be as if we had never been; Our Spirit vanish inWild. ii. to the Soft Air, and our Life pafs away like the Trace of a Cloud: But if this Life be only to Try and Fit us for another, (to which Death will confign us,) certainly the Order and Method, and Regularity of Life, is a Thing that does very much concern us. For if Men are to Dye in Earneft, they must not think to Live in Jeft. If they are to be brought to a Future Tryal for all their Actions in this Present Life, it must needs Concern them to Live Here, as Men that muft be Judg'd Hereafter: It will concern them to Take an Account of their Actions, fince they muft Give an Account of them; and to confider, whatever they are Doing, how it

Then may

will Stand in the Judgment. they Dye with fome Comfort, and be able to give up their Account to God with Joy. Heb. xiii. 2dly, In order to keep thyfelf in a State of 17. Preparation for Death, Keep a lively Senfe of God's Omnifcience and Omniprefence always fresh in thy Mind, and Live under the Sense of it. Confider that He is about thy P. cxxxix. Path, and about thy Bed, (that is, that he is with thee Night and Day,) and pyeth out all thy Ways. There is not a Word in thy Tongue, nor a Thought in thy Heart, but He knoweth it altogether.

And This is a Guard in the Dangerous Place. Shame and Modefty, or Fear of Punishment or Scandal, are Reftraints from Open and Publick Wickedness; but in Private Contrivances of Mischief, and in Secret Sins and Works of Darkness, thou haft no other Check upon thee, but the Senfe of God's Prefence and Inspection over thee. Therefore Confider it Well, and Remember wherever thou art, and whatever thou art doing, that the Eyes of the Lord are upon thee; for we are told by the Sacred Writers, who were guided by his Holy Spirit, that the Eyes of the Lord are in every Place. Neither is there any Creature that is not Heb.iv.12. Manifeft in his Sight; but all things are Naked and Open unto the Eyes of Him, with whom we have to Do. And He is of Hab. i. 13. purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity.

H

Prov.xv.3.

ofHab.

What

What does it avail then, to flatter thyfelf with Thoughts of Privacy and Concealment? If thou lyeft Open to the Eye of him who is to be thy Judge, it is more to thy Condemnation, than if the Eyes of all the World were upon thee. And thou mayest more cafily Conceal thyself from the Eyes of the whole World, than from God and thy own Confcience: And it were better for thee that thou hadst all the World against thee, than They, when they fhall come to be, the One thy Judge, and the Other thy Accufer. Neither canft thou ever exclude them, either by Distance or Darkness *. Conscience is the Sure Companion of thy Bosom, and will be privy to all thy Retirements and all thy Secrets: And the Eyes of the Lord are Pf. cxxxix. every where; with whom there is no Darknefs; but the Night is as Clear as the Day; The Darkness and Light to him are Both Job xxxiv. alike. His Eyes are upon the Ways of Men, and he feeth all their Goings: There is no Darkness where the Workers of Iniquity may hide themselves.-Yet would the Workers of Iniquity very fain cheat themfelves with the Thoughts and Hopes of it.The Whoremonger (fays the Son of Sirach,) fayeth in his Heart, Who feeth me? I am compaffed about with Darkness; No Body

II.

21.

Quid prodeft non habere Confcium, habenti Confcientiam?

feeth

Seeth me, what need Ito Fear? Such a Man (faith he) only feareth the Eyes of Men, and knoweth not that the Eyes of the Lord are ten thousand Times brighter than the Sun, beholding all the Ways of Men, and confidering the most fecret Parts, Ecclus xxiii. 17, 18, 19 Ver.

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[Ὅταν κλέισητε τας θύρας, και σκότος ἔνδον TOMOαTE, &C.] "When thou fhalt have fhut Arrian ποιήσατε, "thy Doors, and made all Dark within, yet Difs. Lib. " beware (fays the Wife Heathen) that' "thou never think thyself to be Alone: "For is not God always Prefent? And is

I.

not thy Conscience always Present to "thee?"-Therefore let the Senfe of God's Inspection and Prefence with thee always Rule in thy Heart, and then it will not fail to govern thee in thy Life. Or in the Words of the Prophet David, Set God always before thee (conceive of him as al- Pf. xvi. 9. ways Prefent with thee,) and thou shalt not greatly Fall.

It were fufficient to carry it fair to the Eye of the World, if the World were to be the Final Judges of our Actions: But fince we are finally to be Judg'd at God's Tribunal, and whatever we now do is all under his All-Seeing Eye, we must Live as under his Eye, if we expect any Peace or Comfort, when Death fhall come to Summon us to his Judgment-Seat.