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SURPIUZE
IN DEATH.
rDISC.
III*
thinking
which
of
us
may receive the
next
summons
to
leave
all
behind
us,
and stand before
God
!
but
each
presumes,
"
it
will
not
be
sent to
me."
We
trifle with
God, and
things eternal,
or utterly forget
them, while
our hands
and
our
hearts
are thus
deeply engaged
in
the
pursuit of
our earthly
delights
:
All
our
powers
of
thought
and action
are
intensely
busied
amongst
the
dreams of
this
life,
while
we
are asleep
to
God, because
we vainly
imagine
he
will
not
call
us
yet.
Remark
II.
"
Whatsoever puts
us in.
mind
of
dying,
should
be
improved to awaken
us
from
our spiritual
sleep." Sudden
deaths
near
us
should
have this effect
:
our
young companions and acquaintance, snatched
away
from among
us,
in
an unexpected hour, should become
our monitors
in
death, and teach
us
this divine
and
need-
ful
lesson
:
The
surprizing
loss
of our
friends, who lay
near
our
hearts, should
put
us
in
mind
of
our
own
depar-
ture, and
powerfully
awaken us
from
our dangerous
slumbers. Sinners when they
feel no
sorrows, they
think
of
no
death
;
but
"
when
the
judgments of God are
in
the earth,
his
Spirit can awaken the inhabitants
of the
world to learn
righteousness; Is:
xxvi.
9.
"
At
such
seasons
it
is
time for the
sinners
in
Zion.
to be
afraid, and
fearfulness
to
surprize the
hypocrites;
Is.
xxxiii.
14,
Even
the
children
of God
have sometimes need
of
pain-
ful warning- pieces to awaken them from
their
careless,
their
slothful and
their secure frame
And
as
for those
souls,
who
are indeed
awake to righteousness, and
lively
in the
practice
of
all
religion
and
virtue, such sudden and
awful strokes
of
providence have a happy tendency
to
wean them from creatures, and keep them awake
to
God,
that,
when
their Lord
comes,
he may
find
them
watching,
and pronounce upon
them everlasting
blessedness:
Remark
III.
" No
person can
be
exempted from
this
duty of
watchfulness,
till he
is
lord
of
his own
life,
and
can
appoint
the time of
his
own
dying."
Then,
indeed,
you
might
have some
colour for your carnal
indulgences,
some
pretence for
sleeping,
if
you were sovereign of
death, and the
grave,
and had
the
keys
in
your
own
hand.
And
truly such as
venture
to
sleep
in
sin,
do, in
effect;
say,
"
We
are
lords
of
our
own life :"
They
act, and
manage,
as
if
their
times were in
their
own hands, and
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