398 / 674
g!S
3t7RPR7ZE IN
DEATH.
rDISC.
ttt.
cause they are
for
ever
averse to the holiness
of God,
and
themselves for
ever
unholy.
It
is
only
in
the
present
state
of
trial, and
Under
the
present
proposals
-of
grace,
that
sleeping sinners can
be
awakened
into the spiritual
-and divine
life.
The
voice
of
the
Son
of
God,
that
breaks
the
monuments
of
brass,
and
makes
tombs
of
hardest
marble
yield to
his call,
shall never break one
heart
of
stone, which
is
gone down to
death
in
its
native
and
sinful hardiness
:
That
almighty
voice,
that
must
awaken the nations
of
the dead, and command
their bo-
dies
up
from the grave, shall never awaken
one dead
soul, when they
are past
the limits
of
this life.
The
compassionate
calls
of
a
Saviour,
and
the
offers
of
mercy
are then
come to
their utmost
period
:
And
if
we
refuse
to
hear
the call
of
mercy to the
moment
of
death,
we
shall
then
be
terribly constrained
to feel
the
loss
of
it,
but
never able to obtain the
blessing.
Obstinate
sleepers
shall
be
awakened
to
see
God,
but
only
as
Balaam
was
:
" I stall
see
him,
but not nigh,"
Numb.
xxiv.
17.
The
saints, in this
life,
have
God
hear
them
in all
their
trials, as
a Father and
a
friend,
to
uphold,
to comfort,.
to sanctify, though they see
him
but
darkly through a
glass,
and behold
but little of
his
power or glory: The
sinner, awaking
in hell,
shall
per-
haps
have
a
clearer
and
more
acute perception
of
what
God
is,
than
any
Saint
on
earth:
But
he shall behold
him as an enemy,
and not a friend:
If
he beholds him
in
the glory
of
his
grace,
it
is
at
a dreadful and insup-
portable
distance
;
there
is
no
grace
for
him
:
He
sees
him in
his
holiness,
but
he
cannot
love
him,
he has no
meltings
of
true penitence
for
his
former
rebellions
against God,
his
heart
is
hardened
into
everlasting
en-
mity,
and
shall never
taste
of
his
love.
Hence
arise
all
the foul and gnawing passions
of
envy, malignity,
and
long despair, which
are
the very
image
of
Satan,
and
change mankind into
devils. 'These
impenitent
sons
and
daughters
of
men'shall
grow
into
the more
complete like-
ness
of
those
wicked
spirits,
and
under
the impressions
of
their
guilt and damnation,
they shall
rival those
apostate
and
cursed
creatures,
in the
obstinate hatred
of
God, and
all
that
is
holy.
IV. Hence
it
will follow,
in
the last
place,
that
the
sinner,
who is
fast asleep,
ih his
sins,
at
the
hour
of