217 / 674
'SrRM. XLI.J
THE DEATH
OF SINNERS
IMPROVED.
s7
blessed
to
gracious purposes, for the conversion
and sal-
vation of
others.
3.
The death
of
the wicked
gives the children
of
God
glorious
matter
for praise
to his
distinguishing grace.
When
they
see
or hear
of
a
hardened and impenitent
sinner,
cut
off
in his
guilt and
obstinacy,
and
in the
pur-
suit of
his lusts,
the holy
soul cries
out with thankfulness
and
zeal,
"
Glory
be
to
that
grace
which
has made
the
difference
betwixt
him
and
me
!"
And
this
is
still more
remarkable,
when
a sinner dies
with
all the
terrors of God upon
him,
when
the
sting
of
death enters into
his
heart,
and sharpens
all
bis
last ago-
nies, when
conscience
is
awakened with
all
its
horrors,
and
the soul
is
plunging
with its eyes
open into a gulph
of
everlasting
misery.
O
how sensibly
does this
affect
the
heart
of
a
true
christian
1
He
stands and wonders,
and adores
that
rich
mercy
that
has
snatched
him as
a
brand out
of
the burning.
"
What am
I," says
he,
by
nature
more
than another,
that God
should have
called
me
by his
grace,
and
given me
repentance
unto
life,
while this
poor
wretch
continued obstinate and impeni-
tent?
Weewere
both
sons
of
Adam the sinner,
alienated
from
the
life
of
God, and enemies to
all
that
is
holy
:
We
were
both favoured
with the means
of
grace, and
sat
under
the ministrations
of
the same
gosp
-1.
Who,
or
what
am
I
better
than my neighbour,
that God
should
powerfully incline
my
heart
to
accept the
offered
salva-
tion
!
That
he
should have
prepared
me as
a
vessel
of
mercy,
to
be
filled
with glory, while my old
companion
has
now
made himself a complete
vessel
of
wrath,
and
fitted himself for
swift
destruction
;
Rom.
ix.
22, 23.
By
nature
I
was
a
child
of
wrath, as
well as he,
a rebel,
and
a,
vile
transgressor,
without God, without Christ,
and without hope
:
And
why was
not
I
seized. by
divine
justice,
in
those days
of
my
rebellion,
and
made
a
sacri-
fice to
the indignation
of God
?
What
merit
was
there
in
me,
that
I
should
be
spared,
while my
companion suf-
fered under
speedy vengeance?
Let
the freedom
and
riches
of
grace be
adored for
ever
:
It
was
rich and so-
vereign grace
that
spared
me.
And now,
through the
abounding
mercy
of
God,
I
hope
I
have
fled
to
lay
hold
.
on the
refuge set before me
;
my
heart
is,
in some mea-
sure,
Aanctified,
my
nature
renewed,
and
my
sins
par
-
o3