DISC.
III.I
SURI'RIZE
IN
DEATH:
.177
deed. Sermons would
not
do
it;
the voice
of
the
preacher
was
not
loud enough
;
strokes
of
affliction;
and
smarting providences, would
not
do
it;
perhaps
the
soul might be
roused a little,
but
dropped into
profound
sleep again
:
Sudden or surprizing
deaths near
them,
and
even the pains
of
nature
in
their
own
flesh,
their
own
sicknesses
and
diseases, did
not
awaken them,
nor the
voice
of
the Lord
in
them
all
:
But the parting- stroke,
that
divides'
the soul
and
body,
will
terribly awaken the
soul from the vain delusion,
and
all
its fancied delights
for
ever
vanish.
When
they
are
"
visited
by
the
Lord of
hosts
with this
thunder,
and earthquake,"
as
the
prophet Isaiah
speaks
;
Is.
xxix.
S.
when
this storm
and tempest
of
death
shall
shake the sinner
out
of
his
airy
visions,
"
he
shall
he
as
a
hungry man
that
dreameth
he was
eating,
but
awakes,
and
his soul is
empty; or
as
a thirsty
creature dreaming
that
he
drinks,
but
he
awaketh, and
behold
he
is
faint,"
and
his
soul
is
pained
with
raging
appetite: The sinner
finds,
to
his
own
torment,
how
wretchedly
he has
de-
ceived
himself,
and
fed
upon
vanity: There are
no more
earthly objects to please
his senses,
and
to
gratify
his
in-
clinations;
but
the soul for ever
lies
_upon
a
rack
of car-
nal
desire, and no
proper
object
to satisfy
it.
His taste
is
not
suited to
the pleasures
of
a
world
of
spirits, he
can
find
no
God
there
to
comfort
him
:.
God,
with his
offers
of
grace,
are
gone
for
ever,
and
the world
with
its
joys are for ever vanished,
while
the wretched and ma-
licious creatures, into
whose
company
he
is
hurried,
and
who were
the
tempters
or'
associates
of
his
crimes,
shall
stand
round
him to
become
his
tormentors.
III.
"
Though death
will
awaken
sinful
souls
into
a
sharper
and more
lively sense
of
divine and heavenly
things,
than ever
they had
in
this
world,
yet
they shall
never
be
awakened
to
spiritual
life
and
holiness
:"
And
I
think
I
may add,
that
though they should
be
awakened
to a sight
of
God, and
his
justice, and
his
grace, to
a
sight
of
heaven
and
hell,
more immediate and
perspicu-
ous
than what even the saints themselves usually enjoy
in this
life,
yet
they would
remain
still
under
the bon-
dage
of
their
lusts, still
"
dead
in
trespasses and
sins."
They
shall for
ever continue unbeloved
of
God, and in-
capable of
all
the
happiness
of
the heavenly state, be-