DISCOURSE VIII. 175 are, have been recovered by the word of his gospel, and the influences of his Spirit, to a new nature and life of holiness ? . How many are there, who from children of wrath, have become the sons and daughters of the most high God, heirs of this bles- sedness, and prepared for the enjoyment of it ? O take heed that you resist not his grace, nor rebel against the kind and sa- cred motions of the blessed Spirit within you, when his very office and business is to change your sinful natures, and to pre- pare you for the regions of eternal holiness and peace. 4. Think yet further, what advantages you have had from the weekly ministrations of the word of grace, from reading the book of God in your own language, and from the pious educa- tion many of you have enjoyed in the families from whence you sprung. Think what awakening hints you have received by the inward conviction of your own consciences, and by the christian friends you may have conversed with: Have you not been told plainly enough by the voice of conscience, thatt you are now utterly unprepared for heaven ? Have not public and private admonitions given you sufficient warning of the danger of your pre- sent state? And after all this will you proceed in your sinful course, till you arrive at the very gates of hell and destruction, till you have prepared yourselves, and made your souls ripe for the ven- geance of God, and are plunged into it by death without remedy or relief. 5. Consider how dreadful will your state be, if death meet you in all your guilt and defilements, unwashed, unpardoned, and unsanctified, without any garment of righteousness, without any robe of salvation. What a terrible sentence is that which death will pronounce upon every such sinner the moment that he strikes their heart ? Hear it and tremble, O miserable creature ! Hear the formidable and eternal sentence, Let him that is unholy be unholy still; Rev. xxii. 11. Let him that is unprepared for heaven go down to the regions of death and hell, for which his iniquities have best prepared him. 6. Think with yourselves, if you have any thing of import- ance to do in this world, or have any momentous scene of life to pass through, how diligent are you in preparation for it? If you are but to visit the court of a prince, or go to make your ad- dresses to any great man of honour and power, or to be admit- ted into any numerous society of a superior character, how dili- gently do you endeavour to furnish yourselves with such know- ledge of the common ceremonies of life, and such ornaments about your body, as may render you acceptable amongst those whom }ou are going to converse with ? And does not an en- trance into the court of heaven, into the presence of a God of holiness, and into the society of pure and blessed spirits, require some solicitude and care about those ornaments and qualifications
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