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THE
RIGHT
IMPROVEMENT
OF
LIFE.'
[SEAM. XXXIX.
All
the
elect
of God
are born into
this world sinful and
miserable,
by
their
relation
to
the first Adam,
therefore
St.
Paul
seems
to include
himself,
as
well
as
the heathen
infidels, when
he
speaks
of
the iniquity
of their
nature,
and
the guilt
of
their
state.
Eph.
ii.
3.
"
We
all
had
our
conversation in times
past
in
the lusts
of our
flesh,
fulfilling
the
desires
of
the
flesh
and the
mind,
and
were
by
nature
the children
of
wrath
even
as
others."
Now
this
life
is
the time
given to seek deliverance-
from
the
wrath
to come,
to
fly
to
the hope
that
is
set before
us,;
f'
now
is
the
accepted
time, now
is
the day
of
salva-
tion,"
2
Cor.
vi.
2.
Now
while
we
are
in
our state
of
trial, before the gates
of
the grave have closed
upon
us,
and
before the gates
of
hell
have been
opened
to
receive
us.
We are
all,
by
nature, strangers
to
God,
enemies in
our
minds
by
wicked works,
and
under sentence
of
con-
demnation
:
Remember, O sinners, this
is
the
time
to
get acquaintance
with
God,
to
return
to
his
service,
and
obtaïn
his
special favour.
We are
defiled and
guilty
-
creatures
:
This
is
the
hour
of
cleansing
while
the
foun-
tain
of
the blood
of
Christ
stands open,
to wash
us
from
sin
and
uncleanness.
We
are,
by
nature, utterly unfit
for heaven, and
all the works
and
the
joys
of
it,
because
of
the
vicious
inclinations
that
govern
us.
This
is
the
day
of
repentance
as well
as
pardon
:
This
is
the day
given
us
to
insure
those blessed mansions on
high,
and
to obtain preparing,
graces.
This temporal
life
is
the
only season, wherein
the,
sentence
of our condemnation
can
be
reversed, and wherein
we
may
obtain eternal for-
giveness,
and
a
right
to life
everlasting.
The
blood and
righteousness
of
the Son
of
God, are
not
proposed nor
offered to
guilty
creatures
in
the other
world:
Now
is
the
time
to
acquire a meetness
for
the inheritance
in
light,
through the sanctifying
influences
of
the
blessed
Spirit.
After death there
is
nothing
of
this kind to
be
done:
""
There
is
no work,
nor
device, no knowledge,
nor
wis-
dom,'
no
faith or repentance
to
be
exercised,
no such
duty
to be
performed
among the dead,
no
opportunity
to rectify the mistakes
of
life
:
There
is
no
grace
to be
oltained
for sinners
"
in
the grave, whither
we
are
all
travelling," Eccles:
ix.
10.
What
is
left undone
at
that
4