sometimes it is so indeed, but frequently it is otherwise; foolish virgins may, and often do hope to the last breath. But the wicked man has no solid hope; and as for the delusive hopes he entertains himself with, death will root them up, and he shall be for ever irretrievably miserable. Secondly, As to the death of a righteous man; he hath hope in his death. This is ushered in with a but, importing a removal of these dreadful circumstances, with which the wicked man is attended, who is driven away in his wickedness; but the godly are not so. (1.) In the manner of their passing out of the world. The righteous is not driven away as chaff before the wind, but led away as a bride to the marriage-chamber, carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom, Luke xvi. 22. (2.) Not so as to their state, when passing out of this life.

Not so,

The righteous man dies, (1.) Not in a sinful, but in a holy state. He goes not away in his sin, but out of it. In his life he was putting off the old man, changing his prison-garments; and now the remaining rags of them are removed, and he is adorned with robes of glory. (2.) Not in a hopeless, but a hopeful state. He hath hope in his death; he has the grace of hope, and the well-founded expectation of better things, than ever he had in this world; and though the stream of his hope at death may run shallow; yet he has still as much of it, as makes him venture his eternal interests upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

DOCTRINE I.

The Wicked dying, are driven away in their Wickedness, and in a hopeless State.

In speaking to this doctrine, (1.) I shall shew how, and in what sense, the wicked are driven away in their wickedness, at death. And, lastly, Apply the whole.

I. How, and in what sense, the wicked are driven away in their wickedness. I shall briefly inquire, (1.) What is meant by their being driven away. (2.) Whence they shall be driven, and whither. (3.) In what respects they may be said to be driven away in their wickedness. But, before I proceed, let me advertise you, that you are mistaken if you think, that no persons are to be called wicked,

but they who are avowedly vicious and profane; as if the devil could dwell in none but those whose name is Legion. In scripture-account, all who are not righteous, in the manner hereafter explained, are reckoned wicked. And, therefore, the text divides the whole world into two sorts, the 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 men shall be taken away suddenly, at death. Not that all wicked men die suddenly; not 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 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 in patient to be rid of. Thus many persons, when their passion has 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 shew 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 man

ner 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 has 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 damn. ed in hell, Luke xvi. 22, 23. The rich man also died, and was buried. And in hell he lift up his eyes. What a multitude of the devil's goats do now take place among Christ's sheep! But at death they shall be led forth with the workers of iniquity, Psalm 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; 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 is 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 from 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

and

Children of God. Their shew 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.

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 to 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.