7Trse. il THE END ,OF T.?ME. '347 changed into penitence, and renewed to holiness, till you have some good evidences of your sincere love to God, and unfeigned faith in his Son Jesús. Never be satisfied till you are come to a well- grounded hope through grace, that God is your friend, your reconciled Father, that, when days and months are no more, you may enter into the regionof everlasting light and peace. But I proceed to the last general remark. " Learn the unspeakable happiness of those, whohave improved time well, and who wait for the end of time with christian hope." They are not afraid, or, at least, they need not be afraid, of the sentence, nor the oath of this mighty angel, when he lifts up his hand to heaven, and swears, with'a loud voice, " there.shall be time no 'more." O blessed creatures ! Who have so happily improved the time of life and day ofgrace, as to obtain the resto- ration of the irhage of God, in some degree, on their souls, and to recover the favour of God through the gospel of Christ, for which end time was bestowed upon them They have reviewed their follies with.shame in the land of hope ; theyhave mourned, and repented of sin, ere the season of repentance was past, and are become new creatures, and their lips and their lives declare the divine change. They have made preparation for death, for which purpose life and time were given. Happy souls, indeed, who have so valued time, as not to let it run off in trifles, but have obtained treasures more valu- able than that time, which is gone, even the riches of the covenant of grace, and the hopes of an eternal inherit- ance in glory ! Happy such souls, indeed, when time is no more with them ! Their happiness begins, when the duration of their mortal life is finished. Let us survey this their hap- piness in a few particulars. The time of their darknesses and difficulties is no longer : The time of painful ignorance and error is come to an end : You shall wander no more in mistake and folly you shall behold all things in the light of God, and see him face to face, who is the original beauty, and the eternal truth. You shall see him without veils and sha- dows, without the reflecting glass of his word and ordi- nances, which, at best, gives us. but a faint glimpse of him, either in his nature or wisdom, his power or good-
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=