dreadful fentence pronounced against the guilty you must share-Depart from me, ye curfed, into everlafing fire. O dreadtul doom! what a tremendous day to finners! and to fee the righteous acquitted, and before your eyes afcend in triumph and splendor into the manfions of glory, to live the happy favourites of God and Chrift for never-ending ages; while you are driven forward to the infernal prifon, and fhut up in the habitations of eternal darkness and torments-the very thought of it, (if you will think seriously of it) is enough to curdle the blood, and wither in a moment every unlawful joy that fin can produce in bloom and glory. The defpair, the fighs, the groans, the doleful fhrieks, when the wicked are driven off to the regions of blackness and darkness for ever, are inexpreffible. Think then. Think in time, my fellow mortal and profit by the blood of a Saviour. Study his gospel. Hear his minifters. Regard the alarms of confcience, and fubmit to the influence of the holy Spirit.

And if you are not that monster of iniquity I once was, before I obtained the divine mercy, by a timely and fevere repentance, yet, as in heaven, fo in hell, there are many manfions, and if you do not work out your falvation according to the terms of the gofpel, and make every law of Chrift the rules of your behaviour- -if you do not

act

A reflexion

on the

bones of

JohnOrton.

act continually as related to God, to each
other, and to another world, and feek first
the kingdom of God, and the righteoufness
thereof, you will utterly difqualify yourself
for the rewards and happiness of heaven,
tho' your conduct may be far from meriting

the most dreadful inflictions in another world.
The gains of unrighteousness, or medling with
any forbidden fruit, is a violation of the laws
of God that must ruin you for ever; tho'
the punishment for fo doing cannot be equal
to the torments prepared for the tyrant and
oppreffor, the murderer, the adulterer, the
drunkard, and offenders in the highest
crimes. We must cease to do evil, and learn
to do well, in order to be faved. Not ac-
cording to promifes and prayers at last, not
according to legacies to be paid to the poor
when we are dead, fhall we be judged; but,
as we have rectified the judgment and the
will, made virtue the governor of the heart,
and in all things fought God's glory, not our
own. This do, and you will live.
John Orton:

May 1, 1701.

51. This extraordinary paper furprized me very greatly, and when from reading it, I turned my eyes to the bones of John Orton, I could not help breaking out in the following reflection

And

is this the once lively, gallant, drinking

Jack

Jack Orton, who thought for forty years that he was made for no higher end than to gratify every appetite, and pass away time in a continual circle of vanity and pleasure! Poor Skeleton, what a miferable fpectacle art thou! Not the leaft remain of activity and joy, of that sprightliness and levity of mind, that jocund humour and frolic, which rendered thee the delight of the wild focieties of thy youthful time: Grim, ftiff, and horrid, is the appearance now: vain mirth and luxury, licentious plays and sports, can have no connection with these dry bones.

O Death, what a change doft thou make! The bulk of mankind are averfe to ferious thought, and hearken to the paffions more than to the dictates of reafon and religion: To kill time, and banish reflection, they indulge in a round of diffipations, and revel in the freedom of vicious exceffes: Their attention is engroffed by fpectacle and entertainments, and fixed to follies and trifles: giddy and unthinking, loose and voluptuous, they spend their precious hours in the gay fcenes of diverfions, pomp and luxury; and as if the grave and a judgment to come, were a romance of former times, or things from which they are fecured, never think of these important and momentous fubjects: with minds bewitched by exorbitant pleafure, and faculties enervated and broken by

idle mirth and vanity, they pafs their every day away without any of that confideration which becomes reasonable beings, and creatures defigned for a state of immortality: but at last, you appear, and in a moment turn delight and admiration, into averfion and horror: ftrength, wealth, and charms, you inftantly reduce to weakness, poverty, and deformity, in the firft place; and then, to a skeleton, like the bones before me.

Nor is this the worst of the great revolution. When death approaches, the amusements of sense immediately fail, and past transactions, in every circumftance of aggravation, crowd into the mind: conscience reproaches loudly, the heart condemns, and the fick tremble at the apprehenfions of a vengeance they laughed at in the days of diverfion, and the midnight hours of the ball: as they come near the black valley, they see the realities of a future ftate; and agonies convulse their fouls: terrors till then unknown enter their breasts; and, in anxieties that are incapable of being uttered, and expectations the most torturing, on a review of life, they pass from the plains of time into the ocean of eternity. Here lies the frame, like the dry bones before me; but, the foul is gone to the feffions of righteoufnefs; and perhaps, the dreadful fentence of the divine juftice is pronounced on it. This is a tremendous

affair,

affair, that calls for timely and serious confideration. Eternity! Eternal mifery! They that have done evil, to come forth unto the refurrection of damnation!

I will take thy advice then, thou glorious penitent, John Orton; and fince it is in my power to come forth unto the refurrection of life, and obtain immortality, honour, and glory, with the righteous, in the kingdom of their father, I will open the reforming gofpel night and morning, and by its heavenly directions regulate my conduct. I am determined to make a wife and ferious preparation for death and judgment. To the best of my power, I will provide for that day, when the prayers and charities of the righteous will be brought forth as their memorials before the tribunal of Jefus Chrift.

This this is the thing to be minded. The brightest scenes of worldly profperity, and grandeur, are contemptible, when they do not accord with virtue and piety. Death, in a few years, blends the prince and the meaneft fubject, the conqueror and the flave, the statesman, the warrior, and the most infignificant, in one promiscuous ruin; and the fchemes, the competitions, and the interefts, which have engaged the chief attention of the world, are brought to nothing, and appear, too often, ridiculous: but righteousness is unchangeably glorious,

X 2