488 A SOUL nÀEpARLb FOÀ HEAVEM. CDÌSC. vlTt. reading the bookof God in your own language, and' from the pious education many of you have enjoyed in the fa- milies from whence you sprung. Think what awakening hints you have received, by the inward conviction of your own consciences, and by the christian friends you may have conversed with : Have you not been told plainly enough by the voice of conscience, that you are now utterly unprepared for heaven ? Have not public and private admonitions given you sufficient warningof the danger of your present state ? And after all this will you proceed in your sinful course, till you arrive at the very gates of hell and destruction, till you have prepared yourselves, and made your souls ripe for the vengeance of God, and are plunged into it by death without remedy or relief. 5. Consider how dreadful will your state be, if death meet you in all your guilt and defilements, unwashed, unpardoned, and unsanctified, without any garment of righteousness, without any robe of salvation. What a terrible sentence is that which death will pronounce upon every such sinner the moment that he strikes his heart ? Hear it and tremble, O miserable creature ! Hear the formidable and eternal sentence, " Let him that is un- holy be unholy still," Rev. xxii. 11. Let him that is un- prepared for heaven go down to the regions of death and hell, for which his iniquities have best prepared him. 6. Think with yourselves, if you have any thing of importance to do in this world, or have any momentous scene of life to pass through, how diligent are you in preparation for it? If you are but to visit the court of a prince, or go to make your addresses to any great man of honour and power, or to be admitted into any numerous society ofa superior character, how diligently do you endeavour to furnish yourselves with such know- ledge of the common ceremonies of life, And such orna- ments about your body, as may render you acceptable amongst those whom you are going to converse with? And does not an entrance into the court of heaven, into the presence of a God of holiness, and into the society of pure and blessed spirits, require some solicitude and care about those ornaments and qualifications which are necessary for so solemn and glorious an appearance? If you are designing in this life to commence any trade or
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