satisfaction, and now fly from thee, and dissolve into smoke in thy sight! Ah! my poor soul, enter now into the same sentiments which thou shalt certainly have at the hour of thy death: thus, and only thus, thou shalt be out of danger of being deceived by this deceitful world.
2. Consider, what will then be thy thoughts with regard to thy sins; when the curtain will begin to be withdrawn, with which thy busy self-love has industriously hidden or disguised the deformity and malice of thy crimes: and they shall be set before thy eyes in their true light: when so many things which thou wast willing to persuade thyself were but small faults, or none at all, will present themselves before thee in other kind of colours, as great and hideous offences: when that false conscience, which thou hast framed to thyself, and under the cover of which thou hast passed over many things in thy confessions, as light and inconsiderable, which thou wast ashamed to declare, or unwilling to forsake, shall no longer be able to maintain itself at the approach of death. Ah! what anguish, what confusion, what dreadful temptations of despair must such a sight as this give to the dying sinner? Learn thou, my soul, to take better measures now in time, and thus to prevent so great a misery.
3. Consider, and take a nigher view of the lamentable state of a sinner at the hour of his death: when all things seem to conspire against him, and whichever way he looks for any ease or comfort, he can find none. Before his eyes he sees a whole army of sins mustered up; a viper's brood of his own offspring, which stick close to him, and, assailing him with their united forces, make him already begin to feel the gripes of that never-dying worm of conscience, which shall be the eternal torment of the damned. Oh! how gladly would he shake off this troublesome company: but all in vain; they
