316 SURPIUZE IN DEATH. rDISC. III* thinking which of us may receive the next summons to leave all behind us, and stand before God ! but each presumes, " it will not be sent to me." We trifle with God, and things eternal, or utterly forget them, while our hands and our hearts are thus deeply engaged in the pursuit of our earthly delights : All our powers ofthought and action are intensely busied amongst the dreams of this life, while we are asleep to God, because we vainly imagine he will not call us yet. Remark II. " Whatsoever puts us in. mind of dying, should be improved to awaken us from our spiritual sleep." Sudden deaths near us should have this effect : our young companions and acquaintance, snatched away from among us, in an unexpected hour, should become our monitors in death, and teach us this divine and need- ful lesson : The surprizing loss of our friends, who lay near our hearts, should put us in mind ofour own depar- ture, and powerfully awaken us from our dangerous slumbers. Sinners when they feel no sorrows, they think of no death ; but " when the judgments of God are in the earth, his Spirit can awaken the inhabitants of the world to learn righteousness; Is: xxvi. 9. " At such seasons it is time for the sinners in Zion. to be afraid, and fearfulness to surprize the hypocrites; Is. xxxiii. 14, Even the children of God have sometimes need of pain- ful warning- pieces to awaken them from their careless, their slothful and their secure frame And as for those souls, who are indeed awake to righteousness, and lively in the practice of all religion andvirtue, such sudden and awful strokes of providence have a happy tendency to wean them from creatures, and keep them awake to God, that, when their Lord comes, he may find themwatching, and pronounce upon them everlasting blessedness: Remark III. " No person can be exempted from this duty of watchfulness, till he is lord ofhis own life, and can appoint the time of his own dying." Then, indeed, you might have some colour for your carnal indulgences, some pretence for sleeping, if you were sovereign of death, and the grave, and had the keys in your own hand. And truly such as venture to sleep in sin, do, in effect; say, " We are lords of our own life :" They act, and manage, as if their times were in their own hands, and 3
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