g!S 3t7RPR7ZE IN DEATH. rDISC. ttt. cause they are for ever averse to the holiness of God, and themselves for ever unholy. It is only in the present state of trial, and Under the present proposals -of grace, that sleeping sinners can be awakened into the spiritual -and divine life. The voice of the Son of God, that breaks the monuments of brass, and makes tombs of hardest marble yield to his call, shall never break one heart of stone, which is gone down to death in its native and sinful hardiness : That almighty voice, that must awaken the nations of the dead, and command their bo- dies up from the grave, shall never awaken one dead soul, when they are past the limits of this life. The compassionate calls of a Saviour, and the offers of mercy are then come to their utmost period : And if we refuse to hear the call of mercy to the moment of death, we shall then be terribly constrained to feel the loss of it, but never able to obtain the blessing. Obstinate sleepers shall be awakened to see God, but only as Balaam was : " I stall see him, but not nigh," Numb. xxiv. 17. The saints, in this life, have God hear them in all their trials, as a Father and a friend, to uphold, to comfort,. to sanctify, though they see him but darkly through a glass, and behold but little of his power or glory: The sinner, awaking in hell, shall per- haps have a clearer and more acute perception of what God is, than any Saint on earth: But he shall behold him as an enemy, and not a friend: If he beholds him in the glory of his grace, it is at a dreadful and insup- portable distance ; there is no grace for him : He sees him in his holiness, but he cannot love him, he has no meltings of true penitence for his former rebellions against God, his heart is hardened into everlasting en- mity, and shall never taste of his love. Hence arise all the foul and gnawing passions of envy, malignity, and long despair, which are the very image of Satan, and change mankind into devils. 'These impenitent sons and daughters ofmen'shall grow into the more complete like- ness of those wicked spirits, and under the impressions of their guilt and damnation, they shall rival those apostate and cursed creatures, in the obstinate hatred of God, and all that is holy. IV. Hence it will follow, in the last place, that the sinner, who is fast asleep, ih his sins, at the hour of
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