DISC. III.] SURPRIZE IN DEATH. 375 of death in his hand, and who calls them away from the land of the living, even to Jesus, the compassionate Me- diator, but they can scarce persuade themselves to ex- pect any thing from him, because- they have turned a deaf ear so long to the invitations of lus gospel, and so long affronted his divine compassion. They look be- hind them, and, with painful agonies, are frighted at the mountains of their former guilt ready to overwhelm them: They look forward and see the pit of hell opening upon themwith all its torments; longdarkness without a glimpse of light, and eternal despair with no glimmerings of hope. Or if; now and then amidst their horrors, they would try to form some faint hope of mercy, how are their spirits perplexed with prevailing and distracting fears, with keen and cutting reflections ? " Oh that I had im- proved my former seasons for reading, for praying, for meditating on divine things! But I cannot read, I can hardly meditate, and scarce know how to pray? Will the-ear of God ever hearken to the cries and groans of a rebel, that has so long resisted his grace ? Are there any pardons to be had for a criminal, who never left his sins till vengeance was in view ? Will the blood of Christ be ever applied to wash a soul, that has wallowed in- his defilements, till death roused him out of them ? Will the meanest favour of heaven be indulged to a wretch, who has grown bold in sin, in opposition to so loud and repeated warnings? I am awake, indeed, but I can see nothing round me but distresses and discouragements, and my soul 'sinks within me, and my heart dies at the thoughts of appearing before God." It is a wise and just observation among christians, though it is a very common one, that the scriptures give us one instance of a penitent saved in his dying hour, and that is,. "the thief upon the cross," Luke xxiii. 43, that so none might utterly despair; but there is but one such instance given,, that none might presume. The work of repentance is too difficult, and too important- a thing, to be left to the languors of a dying bed, and the tumults and flutterings of thought, which- attend- such a late conviction. There can be hardly any effectual proofs given, of the sincerity of such repentings : 'And I am verily persuaded, there are few of them sincere; for B4
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