Religion & morality > Human nature in its four-fold state ... in several practical discourses

4.01 Caution againfi State IVY
not (land ftill, until the. Sluggard awake, and enter
on his Journey: And when once Ms gone down,
he needs not cxped: the Night to be turn’d into
Day for bis Sake: He muft lodge thro’ the
long Night of Eternity, where his Time left him..
(2.) There’s no returning to this Lite, to amend •
what is amifs : It is a State oi Probation and Trial,
which terminates at Death, and therefore we can¬
not return to it again : It is but once we thus live,'
and once we die. Death carries the wicked Man
to bis own Place, A fts i. 25. This Life is our work¬
ing Day: Death clofeth our Day and our Work
together. We may readily imagine the Wicked
might have Tome Hope in their Death; If after
Death has opened their Eyes, they could return to
Life, and have but the Trial of one Sabbath, one
Oder of Chrift, one Day, or but one Hour more,
to make up their Peace with God : But Man lietb
down, and rifeth not till the Heavens he,no more;
they Jlsall not awake,, nor he raifed out of their Sleep,
Job xiv. 12. Lajlly, In the other World, Men
have no Accefs to get their ruined State and Con¬
dition rctrived, if they never fo fain would. For
there is no Work, nor Device, nor Knowledge, nor
iVifdom. in the Grave whither thou goefi, Ecclef. ix.
10. Now a Man may flee from the Wrath to come ;
now may he get into a Refuge: But when once
Death has done its Work, the Door is fhut; there
are no more Oflers of Mercy, no more Pardons:
Where the Tree is fallen, there it mufl: ly.
Let what has been faid be carefully pondered,
and that it may be of life, let me exhort you,
Firji, To take heed that ye entertain no Hopes
of Heaven, but what are built on a lolid Founda¬
tion : Tremble to think what fair Hopes of Hap-