The blessedness of the righteous discoursed from Psal. 17, 15 /The blessednesse of the righteous discoursed from Psal. 17, 15 /

3. Is it reasonable to be secure in such a state of uncertainty! Debate this matter a little while, with thy self. Is it thy reason, or thy sloth that makes thee sit still; and forbear to look into thy Spiritual affairs? Is it any rational ⟨p. 256⟩consideration, or not rather the mere indisposition of a Soul, afraid to know its own state, that suspends thee from inquiring? what hast thou to say that looks like a reason? Is it that it will disturb thy thoughts, interrupt thy pleasures, fill thee with anxious cares and fears, which thou art as loath to admit, as burning coals into thy bosom? Is it that thou canst not endure to look upon so dreadful an object, as the appearing danger, or possibility of thy being miserable to eternity? And art thou therefore resolved to shut thine eyes, and cry peace, peace? This is to avoid a present inconvenience by an eternal mischief (a gross overstraining of the Paradox! for avoiding the present fear of Hell, to run into it; as if because a man cannot bear the thoughts of dying, he should presently cut his own throat. Vain man! canst thou not bear the thoughts of eternal misery, how wilt thou bear the thing? And how long-lived dost thou think that peace shall be that thou purchasest upon so dear, and hard terms? canst thou promise thy self an hour? mayest thou not lose thy purchase, and price together the next moment? canst thou defer thy misery by forgetting it? or will thy judgment linger, and thy damnation slumber, while thou securely lingerest, and slumberest? canst thou wink Hell into nothing; and put it out of being, by putting it out of thy thoughts? Alas man! open thy eyes, when thou wilt, thou shalt find thou h•st n•t bettered thy case by having kept them ••st closed. The bitterness of death is not yet ⟨p. 257⟩past. The horrid image is still before thee. This is not a fancied evil, which a man may dream himself into, and (eadem operâ) with as little difficulty, dream himself out of it again: no, thy case is miserable and dangerous when thou composest thy self to sleep; if thou awakest, thou wilt find it still the same; only thou didst not apprehend it before, for then thou wouldest not have slept. As the Drunkard that kills a man, and after falls asleep in his drunken fit; he awakes and understands his wretched case. Would his sleeping on, till the Officers arrest had awak't him, have mended the matter with him?