110 FALLING S ORT OF LEAVEN. have been laid out infinitely better, to allure sinners to the love of God, to adorn the truths of ourholy profession, and give credit to the gospel of Christ, even in the eyes of the witty and profane? 1 pity the man of lively imagination without sanctifying grace. What a lovely wilderness ofblooming weeds ! fair indeed in various colours, but useless and unsavoury, and it must be burnt up with unquenchable fire. You are the persons whose happy talentsgive a relish to the common comforts of life ; you diffuse joy and pleasure through all the company, and enliven the dullesthours ; your presence is coveted by all men, and you are beloved of all : But how dismal is your state, if you neglect holiness and are notbeloved of God ! Can you imagine that your gay fancy will brighten the gloom of hell ? or give airs to your- selves or ,your companions, in those hideous regions of sorrow ? It is a most melancholy reflection to consider, that persons of your accomplishments should increase the number of the damned ; and there is no sport or amusement admitted there, to divert the an- guish of the tortured mind, or to relieve that heavy and everlast- ing heart-ache. Ipity the man of strong reason and great sagacityof judg- ment, that hath traced nature in her most secret recesses ; that has soundedthe depths of the sea, and measured the heavens buI has spent no time in searching the deep things of God, and lets the mysteries of religion lie unregarded as obscure and useless things. He has never sounded the depth of his own misery and guilt, ashe is a son of Adam : Nor is he acquainted with the way of climbing to heaven by the cross of the Son of God. Reason is a faculty of supreme excellence among the gifts of nature, and it is dreadful to think that it should ever be engaged in opposition to divine grace. How great and . wretched are the men of reason, who strain the nerves of their semi to overturn the doctrineof Christ ! who labour with ail their intellectual powers to shake the foundations of the gospel, to di- minish the authority of the scriptures, and to unsettle the hope of feeble christians ! Thereare others who employ the best powers of the soul in pursuing the interests of this life ; they are wise in contriving to gratify their appetites, to fill their coffers, and to heap up to themselves wealthand honours ; and wise to secure all these to their posterity after death : Theycalltheir landsby their own names, and perpetuate their memory to the latest generation, butmake no provision for their own souls : they arewise to set in order their houses in the day of their health, and all things prepared for their dying hour, besides the concerns of their own eternity; these are delayed from day to day, and left at the utmost hazard ;
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=