395 / 674
DISC.
III.]
SURPRIZE
IN
DEATH.
375
of
death
in
his
hand,
and
who calls
them away from
the
land
of
the
living,
even to
Jesus,
the
compassionate Me-
diator, but
they can scarce
persuade
themselves to
ex-
pect
any
thing from
him, because-
they have
turned a
deaf
ear
so
long to the
invitations of
lus gospel,
and
so
long affronted
his
divine compassion. They look be-
hind
them,
and, with
painful
agonies,
are
frighted
at
the
mountains
of their former
guilt ready
to
overwhelm
them: They
look forward
and
see
the
pit of
hell
opening
upon
them
with all its
torments;
long
darkness without a
glimpse
of
light, and
eternal
despair
with no
glimmerings
of
hope.
Or
if;
now and
then amidst
their horrors,
they would
try
to form some
faint
hope
of
mercy,
how
are their
spirits perplexed
with
prevailing and
distracting
fears,
with keen
and cutting
reflections
?
"
Oh
that
I
had im-
proved
my
former seasons for reading, for praying, for
meditating
on
divine
things! But
I
cannot
read,
I
can
hardly meditate,
and scarce know
how to
pray? Will
the-ear of
God
ever
hearken
to
the cries and groans
of
a
rebel,
that
has
so
long resisted
his
grace
?
Are there
any
pardons
to
be
had
for
a
criminal, who
never
left
his
sins
till vengeance
was
in
view
?
Will the blood
of Christ
be ever
applied to
wash
a soul,
that
has wallowed
in-
his
defilements,
till
death
roused
him
out
of
them
?
Will
the
meanest favour
of
heaven
be
indulged
to
a
wretch,
who has grown bold
in
sin,
in
opposition
to
so
loud and
repeated
warnings?
I
am
awake, indeed,
but
I can
see
nothing
round
me
but distresses and discouragements,
and
my
soul
'sinks
within
me,
and
my
heart
dies at the
thoughts
of appearing
before
God."
It
is
a
wise
and
just
observation among christians,
though it
is
a
very common one,
that
the
scriptures
give
us
one
instance
of
a
penitent
saved
in
his
dying
hour,
and that
is,.
"the
thief
upon the
cross,"
Luke
xxiii.
43,
that
so
none might
utterly despair; but there
is
but one
such
instance
given,,
that
none might
presume.
The
work
of repentance
is
too
difficult,
and
too important-
a
thing,
to
be
left to the
languors
of
a dying bed,
and the
tumults
and
flutterings
of
thought,
which-
attend-
such
a
late
conviction.
There
can
be hardly any effectual
proofs
given,
of
the
sincerity
of
such
repentings
:
'And
I
am verily
persuaded, there are
few
of
them
sincere; for
B4