SECTION V. 315 Eonspicuons, it is because men take up with the mere name of a Christian, and rest there contented, but neither seek nor desire the power, and spirit, and life, of this divine religion in their hearts or their conversation. But letus pass on from the scenes of life to a dying bed, and meditate the infinite advantages attending that important -hour, which are derived from christianity and the gospel. Behold a heathen, whose course of life hath been made up of folly and guilt, now lying down in the dust, groaning and expiring, as abrute groans and expires, stupid and thoughtless of immor- tality. See another perhaps deceiving himself with vain dreams and fables of a sensual and luxurious paradise in some invisible regions : Think of these wretched creatures, laden with the guilt of all their past sins, entering into an unknown eternity, without Christ, without God, and without any just and solid hope. Or come to the bed -side ofa modern infidel, in his last mo- ments, who in his days of health, apostatized from the- faith of Christ, and renounced and derided the gospel : Perhaps you will find him like a hardened sinner, obstinately deaf to all thoughts of God and religion, to all the monitions of his friends, and the remonstrancesof his own conscience, unable to bear the reflections of his mind, and therefore subduing them all, resolved to plunge himself headlong into the abyss of futurity, and take an immense leap from one world to the other in the dark. Ano- ther of the same tribe, perhaps, with some difficulty has per- suaded himself, that his sins have not been many nor great, be- canse he has neither been guilty of theft, murder, or adultery; and therefore with much ado he supports his spirits by a philoso- phic courage, and a laboured hope, that the infinite mercy of God will forgive his follies, though he has abandoned all the _revelations of mercy, and. the promises of pardoning grace. Behold a third, whose awakened conscience cries too loud for him not to,hear it, and scourges his soul with cutting reproaches for his past crimes, while he lies on the edge of life, within the view of the judgment-seat of God: Now the little cavils against the bible, that passed for arguments in his gay and healthy hours, appear to have no force in them : Those impious jests which he threw out wantonly against the gospel, afford him not the least glimpse of merriment, but pierce his heart with inward and -sharp remorse : All his feeble and false pretences to sincerity, which once gave him a little thin shelter, now vanish, norwill make so much as the shadow of a screen from the dreadful presages of approaching vengeance : He groans, he dies, under the kneenest anguish of despair, and leaves behind him a terrible yearning to succeeding apostates. But let us leave these dark scenes of infidelity and terror,
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=