'SrRM. XLI.J THE DEATH OF SINNERS IMPROVED. s7 blessed to gracious purposes, for the conversion and sal- vation of others. 3. The death of the wicked gives the children of God glorious matter for praise to his distinguishing grace. When they see or hear of a hardened and impenitent sinner, cut off in his guilt and obstinacy, and in the pur- suit of his lusts, the holy soul cries out with thankfulness and zeal, " Glory be to that grace which has made the difference betwixt him and me !" And this is still more remarkable, when a sinner dies with all the terrors of God upon him, when the sting of death enters into his heart, and sharpens all bis last ago- nies, when conscience is awakened with all its horrors, and the soul is plunging with its eyes open into a gulph of everlasting misery. O how sensibly does this affect the heart of a true christian 1 He stands and wonders, and adores that rich mercy that has snatched him as a brand out of the burning. " What am I," says he, by nature more than another, that God should have called me by his grace, and given me repentance unto life, while this poor wretch continued obstinate and impeni- tent? Weewere both sons of Adam the sinner, alienated from the life of God, and enemies to all that is holy : We were both favouredwith the means of grace, and sat under the ministrations of the same gosp-1. Who, or what am I better than my neighbour, that God should powerfully incline my heart to accept the offered salva- tion ! That he should have prepared me as a vessel of mercy, to be filled with glory, while my old companion has now made himself a complete vessel of wrath, and fitted himself for swift destruction ; Rom. ix. 22, 23. By nature I was a child of wrath, as well as he, a rebel, and a, vile transgressor, without God, without Christ, and without hope : And why was not I seized. by divine justice, in those days of my rebellion, and made a sacri- fice to the indignation of God ? What merit was there in me, that I should be spared, while mycompanion suf- fered under speedy vengeance? Let the freedom and riches of grace be adored for ever : It was rich and so- vereign grace that spared me. And now, through the abounding mercy of God, I hope I have fled to lay hold . on the refuge set before me ; my heart is, in some mea- sure, Aanctified, my nature renewed, and my sins par- o3
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