DISC. III.] SURPRIZE IN DEATH. 381 is possible we may have a right to the inheritance of heaven; having had somesight of it by faith, as revealed in the gospel, having, in the main, chosen it for our portion, and set our feet in the path Of holiness that leads to it; but we have so often wandered out of the way, that in this awful and solemn hour, we shall be in doubt, whether we shall be received at the gates, and enter. into the city. Such unwatchful christians have not kept the eternal glories of heaven in their constant and active pursuit, they have not lived upon them as their portion and.in- heritance, they have been too much strangers to the in- visible world of happiness, and they know not how to venture through death into it. They have built indeed, upon the solid foundation, Christ Jesus and the gospel, but they have mingled so much hay and stubble with the superstructure, that when they depart hence, or when they appear before Christ in judgment, they shall,suffèr great loss, by the burning of their works, yet themselves may be saved, so as by fire, 1 Cor. iii. 10-15. They may pass, as it were, by the flame of hell, and have something like the scorching terrors of it in death, though the abounding and forgiving grace of the gospel may convey them safe to heaven : They escape as a man that is awakened with the sudden alarms of fire, who suffers the loss of his substance, and a great part of the fruit of his labours, and just saves his own life. They plunge into eternity, and make a sort of terribleescape from hell: 2. " Theycan never expect any peculiar favours from heaven at the hour of death, no special visitations of the comforting Spirit, nor that the love of God, and the joy of his presence, should attend them through the dark valley." It is not to such unwatchful or sleepy christians, that God is wont to vouchsafe his choicest consolations They fall under terrible fears, 'about the pardon of their sins, when they stand in most need of the sight of their pardon ; and Christ, as the ruler of his church, sees it fit they should be thus punished for their negligence.- They lay hold of the promises of mercy with a trembling hand, and cannot claim them by a vigorous faith, be- cause they have not been wont to live upon them, nor do they see those holy characters in their own hearts
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=