378 / 674
SSS
THE WATCHFUL
CHRISTIAN DYING
IN PEACE.
1DI$C.
IT.
our
lives in
that
very
posture
of
body in which
we
are
then found,
should
we
not
be
awake,
and keep our
-
selves
ii
the most
natural and
easy
gestures
all
that
day,
lest
we be
seized
at
once, and fixed in some
distorted,
painful,
and uneasy
situation
all
our months and years
to
come
!
Or,
if
we were to
be
bound
down
to one sin-
gle
thought or
passion all the
remnant of our
life,
in
Which
we
were
found
in any
uncertain
minute
in
this
hour, should
we
not
watch
with
utmost
care,, and
guard
against every unpleasing
thought,
and
every
fretful and
vexing passion, lest
it
should
be
fixed
upon
us
till
we
die?
Now
this
is
the case
at death
:
The
almighty voice
of
God
then pronounces,
"
He
that
is
unclean and
unholy,
must for ever
be
unholy
and
unclean; but
he
that
is
righteous,'
let
him
be
righteous
still,
and
he
that
is
holy,
shall
be
for ever
holy," Rev. xxii.
11.
I
will
not pre-
cisely
determine,
that
this
is
the
sense
of that
text,
yet
since the
apostle speaks there concerning the
coming
of
Christ,
it
may
be
very applicable to the
present
case.
Now
how
dreadful
soever this
thought
is
to
a
guilty
sinful
creature, it
is
no
terror
to a wakeful
christian:
He
is
ready
to have
these words pronounced from heaven,
for they
will
establish
him
in
eternal
holiness
and eternal
peace':
He hath endeavoured
to
secure to himself an in-
terest
in
the
love
of God
through the faith and
love
of
Jésus
the blessed
Mediator,
and
at death
he
is
fixed
for
ever
in
their
love.
He hath
loved
God
in
time,
and
in
this
visible world,
and there
is
nothing
in all
the unseen
worlds,
nothing
thriigh
all
the
ages
of eternity,
"shall
ever
separate
him from the love
of God
in
Christ Jesus."
The moment
of
death bath
fixed him
for ever
a
holy and
beloved
soul,
beyond the power
of creatures
to
change
his temper, or his state.
This
is
the blessedness
of
the
watchful christian.
Consideration
III.
Death
sets
us,
in a
more immediate
and
sensible
manner,
in
the presence
of
God,
a
glorious
'a:nd
holy
God,
"God
the
Judge of all;"
and
blessed
is
the watchful christian,
for
he
is
willing to
stand
before
this
God,
to
be
brought into
his
presence: This
is
what
he
bath
longed
and prayed
for,
to
be
for ever
with
God.
It
is
the
blessedness
that
he
bath sought
with incessant labours
and
tears, with
holy
diligence
and
daily devotion, and