DISCOURSE III. 87 upon their heavenly hopes, and they' cannot be found when they want them, to rest upon in death. They die, therefore, almost like sinners, though they may perhaps have been once converted to holiness, and there may be a root of grace remaining in them ; and the reason is, because they have lived too much as sinners do s They have given too great and criminal an indulgence to the vain and wordly cares, or the trifling amusements of this life ; these have engrossed almost all their thoughts and their time, and therefore, in the day of death, they fall under terrors and painful apprehensions of a doubtful eternity just at hand. If we have not walked closely with God in this world, we may well be afraid to appear before hint in the next. If we have not maintained a constant converse with Jesus our Saviour by holy exercises of faith and hope, it is no wonder if we are not so ready with cheerfulness and joy to resign our departing spirits into his hand. It is possible we may have a right to the inheritance of heaven, having had some sight of it by faith, as revealed in the gospel, having in the main, chosen it for our por- tion, and set our feet in the path of holiness that leads to it ; but we have so often wandered out of the way, that in this awful and solemn hour, we shall be in doubt whether we shall be re- ceived at the gates, and enter into the. city. Such unwatchful christians have not kept the eternal glories of heaven in their constant and active pursuit, they have not lived upon them as their portion and inheritance, they have been too much strangers to the invisible world of happiness, and they know not how to venture through death into it. They have built indeed upon the solid foundation, Christ Jesus and the gos- pel, but they have mingled so much hay and stubble with the superstructure, that when they depart hence, or when they ap- pear before Christ in judgment, they shall suffer great loss, by the burning of their works, yet themselves may be saved, so as by fire; 1 Cor. iii. 10 -15. They may pass, as it were, by the flames of hell, and have something like the scorching terrors of it in death, though the abounding and forgiving grace of the gospel may convey them safe to heaven : They escape as a man that is awakened with the sudden alarms of fire, who suffers the loss of his substance, and a great part of the fruit of his labours and just saves his own life. They plunge into eternity, and make a sort of terrible escape from hell. 2.- " They can never expect any peculiar favours from hea- ven at the hour of death, no special visitations of the comforting Spirit, nor that the love of God, and the joy of his presence, should attend them through the dark valley." It is not to such unwatchful or sleepy christians, that God is wont to vouchsafe his choicest consolations. They fall under terrible fears about the pardon of their sins, when they stand in most need of the sight
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