Qó TrIR WORLD TO DOME. the "time of offered mercy shall be no longer, the time of par- don and grace and reconciliation shall be no more :" The sound of this mercy reaches not to the regions of the dead; those who die before they are reconciled, they die under the load of all their sins and must perish for ever, without the least hope or glimpse of reconciling or forgiving grace. II [. At the term of this mortal life, " the time of prayer and repentance and 'service for God or man in this world shall be no longer." Eccles. ix. 10. There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou guest, whither we are all hastening. Let every sinful creature there- fore ask himself, " Have I never yet begun to pray? Never begun to call upon the mercy of the God that made me ? Never begun to repent of all my crimes and follies? Nor begun in good earnest to do service for God, or to honour him amongst men ?" Dreadful thought indeed ! When, it may be the next hour the may be put out of all capacity and opportunity to do it for ever! As soon as ever an impenitent sinner has the veil of death drawn over him, all his opportunities of this kind are for ever cut off: He that has never repented, never prayed, never honoured his God, shall never be able to pray or repent, or do any thing for God or his honour through all the ages of his future immortality : Nor is there any promise made to repenting or returning sinners in the other world, whither we are hastening. As the tree falls when it is cut down, so it lies, and it must for ever lie; pointing to the north or the south, to hell or heaven ; Eccles. xi. 3. And indeed there is no true prayer, no sincere repentance can he exercised after this life; for the soul that has wasted away all its time given for repentance and prayer, ih at the mo- ment of death left under everlasting hardness of heart ; and whatsoever enmity against God and godliness was found in the heart in this world, is increased in the world to come, when all manner of softening means and mercies are ever at an end. This leads me to the next thought. IV. "How wretched soever our state is at death, the day of hope is ended, and it returns no more." Be our circumstances never so bad, yet we are not completely wretched while the time of hope remains. We are all by nature miserable by reason of sin, but it is only despair can perfect our misery. Therefore fallen angels are sealed up under misery because there is no door of hope opened for them. But in this life there is hope for the worst of sinful men : There is the word of grace and hope calling them in the gospel ; there is the voice of divine mercy sounding in the sanctuary, and blessed arc they that hear the joyful sound; Ps. lxxxix. 15. But if we turn the deaf ear to the voice ofGod and his Son, and to all the tender and compassionate
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