374 SIIRPRIZR IN DEA-TH. [DISC. III nently applied to the season when he shall send his 'mes- senger of death to fetch us hence: Watch ye; there- fore, lest, coming suddenly, hefindyou sleeping. When I had occasion to treat on a subject near a -kin to this,* I shewed, that there was a distinction to be made between the dead sleep of a sinner, and slumber of an unwatchful christian. Those who never had the work of religion begun in their hearts or lives, are sleep- ing the sleep of death; whereas some, who are made alive by the grace of Christ, yet may indulge sinful drow- siness, and grow careless and secure, slothful and inac- tive. " The wise virgins, as well as the foolish, were slumbering and sleeping," Mat. xxv. 5. The mischiefs and sorrows, which attend each of these when Christ shall summon them to judgment, or shall call them away from earth, bynatural death, are great and formidable, though they are not equally dangerous: Let us consider each of them in succession, in order to rouse dead sin- ners from their lethargy, and to keep drowsy christians awake. First, let us survey the sad consequences; which at- tend those that are asleep in sin, and spiritually dead, when the hour of natural death approaches: They are such as these : I. fC If they happen to be awakened on the borders of the grave, into what a horrible confusion and distress of soul are they plunged ?" What keen anguish of con- science, for their past iniquities, seizes upon them? What bitter remorse and self-reproaches, for the seasons of grace which they have wasted, for the proposals of mercywhich they have abused and rejected, and for the divine salvation, which seems now to be lost for ever, and put almost beyond the reach of possibility and hope. They feel the messenger of death laying his cold hands upon them, and they shudder and tremble with the ex- pectation of approaching misery. They look up to heaven, and they see a God ofholiness there, as a con- suming fire, ready to devour them as stubble fit for the flame : They look to the Son of God, who hath the keys * In,a funeral sermon for Mrs. Sarah Abney, on Luke xii. 37. " Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when he coinçth, shall find watch. ing."
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